(A commentary on John 21:15-25)

In the first part of this chapter, seven of the Lord's disciples had come home to Galilee. They had gone fishing, seen Jesus on the shore, followed his instructions to fish on the right side of the boat, dragged a net loaded with 153 fish to shore, and... as the second half of the chapter begins, they have just finished breaking their fast with Him. Now they are relaxing.

Jesus says to Peter,"Do you love me?" and Peter, perhaps a little startled at the question, thinking that the answer is obvious, answers "yes", and Jesus responds, "Feed my lambs". Twice more this sequence is repeated, but with some changes. Then, after this unusual conversation, the Lord tells them all a little parable about being young and later being old. Then the Lord tells Peter to follow him, and Peter, apparently jealous, asks what John is supposed to do. The Lord mildly rebukes Peter’s jealousy by saying, "If this man tarry until I come what is that to you?", but then He tells John also to follow him.

Finally, the gospel of John, and indeed the collection of all four gospels, closes with an explanation by John that he is the writer of this gospel.

So now, let’s look more closely at the conversation, the parable, and the outbreak of jealousy.

Only two of the seven disciples, Peter and John, are mentioned in this part of the story. Peter represents faith, or truth, but truth about spiritual things that we really believe are from God. John represents good, or love to the neighbor. The former resides in the understanding part of the mind and the latter in the will part of the mind.

In telling Peter to feed His sheep, the Lord is saying that to follow Him means to preach the truths that all the disciples now know about the Lord, His coming, and about how a life should be led, in order to be a follower of the Lord in a new church. In the conversation the Lord is direct and probing. "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" I think Peter is being asked whether he loves the Lord, Jesus, more than he loves his fellow Galilean friends, though it’s ambiguous, it could mean "do you love me more than these other six do?’ When Peter answers the first time he says "Lord thou knowest that I love thee."

With this first of the three probing questions, the Lord answers "Feed my lambs," while after that the response is "Feed my sheep." Sheep and lambs both represent people who are in a love of doing good, but while sheep means those who love to do good for the sake of the neighbor, lambs mean those who do good for the sake of the Lord. The first is spiritual good, and the second is higher, and is called celestial good. But people who wish to do good at first don’t know what is good; they need to learn that from the Word and be taught. This is why Peter is told to "feed them", which is to say that truth must indicate how good is to be done. In order to do things that are good, the will's wanting to, and the understanding's knowing how to go about it, must be conjoined. For a successful Christian life, or on a larger scale, a Christian church, 'Peter' and 'John' must work in harmony.

Then comes the parable. "When you were young you got yourself ready and did what you wanted on your own. But when you become old, you have to reach out for help and another shall carry you where you don’t want to go."

This doesn’t seem to fit in here, but of course it does, and in two ways. The first way is given in the Biblical text; it is about the Lord’s death, that all the prophecies were leading Him to His crucifixion, as is mentioned. The second way is a lesson for all of us. When we are young, confident, and strong, we feel that we can do what we want and don’t need any help. Temptations to do evil we ourselves can deal with. But when we grow wiser we realize that all our strength comes from the lord, and if we continue to depend only on ourselves, the temptations from the hells will be too strong and we will be led into doing what the hells want for us, not what we want. We must learn at the start to follow the Lord and depend on Him. This he says at the end of the parable, where it seems not to fit until we understand the parable. "And when He had spoken this He saith unto (them), follow Me." That’s what we need to do also.

Peter is happy to do this preaching of the truth and maybe feels that he has been singled out, but he also realizes that John also loves the Lord and is loved in return. So he asks "And what is this man supposed to do?" It seems that the needed harmony is not yet present, and that Peter is jealous of the bond, and probably hopes to be assured that he is number one... but that doesn’t happen. Peter is simply told that it doesn’t matter; he needs to do the job he has been given.

I’m reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25, where Esau is the firstborn and will inherit the birthright and blessing from Isaac, as his due. Jacob by craft devised by his mother deceives Isaac and steals what is Esau’s. Then he runs off to Padan-Aram and stays there with his uncle and becomes rich. It is only on his return journey that he wrestles with the angel and has his name changed to Israel, that he again meets Esau. The change of name means that now that Jacob is rich with truth from the Word, now with the friendly meeting with Esau, also rich, that the two twins can in parable, be merged into one personage, called Israel, meaning the joining of good and truth in the mind.

Esau means something similar to John, they both represent goodness or true charity. Jacob means something similar to Peter, they both represent truth learned from the Word. Any seeming enmity between them as to which is more important can make them both useless, and in a person who is becoming angelic (as everyone should be aiming for), there is no enmity. Truth enables good, and good inspires truth in order to get something done. Although we can think and speak of them separately, they are (perfectly in the Lord and less so in angels) conjoined into a oneness so as to be seen as married. The marriage of the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth is the origin of all creation. Yes, all creation.

This marriage of good and truth, and the need for both to work in our lives, in balance and harmony, is a core New Christian concept.

In the Gospels, there is just one more story that takes place after this one. In it, the rest of the disciples join the seven mentioned here to hear the Lord’s last commands.

826. (Verse 14) And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast. That this signifies the persuasion of those who belong to the church that they are truths, by testifications from the Word conjoined to reasonings from the natural man, is evident from the signification of deceiving, as denoting to persuade to the adoption of falsities. For the persuasion of falsity is seduction; and from the signification of them that dwell on the earth, as denoting those who belong to the church (see above, n. 821); and from the signification of signs, as denoting testifications and the persuasions thence (see above, n. 824) - in this case, testifications drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word; and from the signification of the beast, before which those signs were done, as denoting reasonings from the natural man (concerning which see above, n. 774).

The reason why, in this case, by the signs which were performed by this beast before the other, are signified testifications from the sense of the letter of the Word, conjoined to reasonings from the natural man is, because by the beast which did the signs are signified confirmations from the sense of the letter of the Word; and by the beast before which the signs were done, are signified reasonings from the natural man. In this case, therefore, the conjunction of confirmations from the Word with those reasonings is signified; and when these are conjoined, they become testifications and persuasions. For reasonings from the natural man, in spiritual things, are of no avail before the world, but when the same reasonings are confirmed from the Word they do avail. The reason is, that the Word is Divine, and in the sense of the letter it consists of appearances of truth and of correspondences, in which the genuine truths which lie concealed within cannot be seen except by one who is enlightened. And he who is not enlightened may draw these appearances of truth to the confirmation of falsities as if they were truths; for in the case of one who is not enlightened fallacies rule, and his reasonings are from fallacies. He, however, who is enlightened can see from spiritual and at the same time from natural light (lux); and the natural light which is in him is enlightened by the spiritual. But he who is not enlightened sees merely from natural light, separate from spiritual, and this light, in things spiritual, is not light but thick darkness. This thick darkness, nevertheless, after confirmations of falsity, appears like the light of truth. But it is like the light in the hells, which in the sight of those who are there appears light; but as soon as light from heaven enters, the light there is turned into absolute thick darkness, and their thought grows dull. In the hells, in which those are who have more deeply persuaded themselves of falsities, owing to their being endowed with the faculty of thinking more interiorly than others, they are in the light of phantasy, which is somewhat bright; it is, nevertheless, turned into a darkness still more dusky by the influx of rays of light from heaven. Such light is that of the confirmation of falsity from the sense of the letter of the Word by reasonings from the fallacies of the natural man. Hence it is evident that the light of the confirmation of falsity, even to the destruction of the Divine truth which is in heaven, is infernal light.

[2] Since in the preceding articles we have treated of good works, we will now continue the subject, and show what love to the Lord is. In the third or inmost heaven they are all in love to the Lord from the Lord; and they are such as are in possession of truths written on their life, and not on the memory, as is the case with the angels of the lower heavens. And this is also the reason why those who are in the third heaven never speak about truths, but only listen to others speaking about them, and reply either that it is so, or that in some respects it is so, or that it is not so. For they see, in themselves, whether what they hear are or are not truths; and they see this not from any seeing in the thought, as others do, but from the affection of truth in the understanding. For all truths with them are inscribed on their affections; and these derive their essence from celestial love, which is love to the Lord. Thus truths with them make one with their affections. And because those angels are in love to the Lord from the Lord, their interior life consists of pure affections of good and truth from that love. Hence it is that they do not speak of truths, but do truths, thus good works. For the affections of good and truth which are from that love can exist only in act, and when they exist they are called uses, and are meant by good works. They perceive also, in themselves, the quality of the uses or works from the affection whence they originate; and also the differences of these from the conjunction of several affections. Thus they do all things with interior wisdom. And since they do not think of truths and thence speak of them, but simply do them, and since this comes from their love to the Lord, and thence from the affections alone of which their life consists, it is evident that love to the Lord consists in doing truths from an affection for them, and that their deeds are good works; consequently that to love the Lord is to do. This also is meant by the Lord's words in John:

"He who hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. But he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings" (14:21, 24).

And they are meant by these words in Jeremiah:

"I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. Nor shall they teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them" (31:33, 34).

By the law are meant all things of the Word, thus all the truths and goods of heaven. In the midst of them, signifies in their life; and the heart, upon which the law shall be written, signifies the love. From these things, it is evident how comprehensive is the doctrine of love to the Lord. For it is the doctrine of all the affections pertaining to love; and every affection has truths inscribed on it, according to the quality of its perfection, and produces them in act with infinite variety. And those affections do not come into the understanding under any species of ideas; but they come to the inner sensitive perception, under a species of sweet enjoyment pertaining to the will, which cannot be described in words. Those who imbibe the laws of life from the Word, and live according to them, and who worship the Lord, become angels of the heaven.