(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.

481. Neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat, signifies that evil and falsity from lusts shall not come to them. This is evident from the signification of "the sun," as meaning the Lord in relation to Divine love, and with men, spirits, and angels, the good of love to the Lord from the Lord; and as meaning in the contrary sense as here the love of self and evil therefrom out of lusts (of which above, n. 401; and in the work on Heaven and Hell 116-125); also from the signification of "heat," as meaning falsity from that evil, and therefore falsity from lusts; for when man is in heat, that is, when he burns with heat, he craves drink that his heat may be allayed, for he is thirsty; and "to have drink" and "to drink" signifies to imbibe truths, and in the contrary sense, to imbibe falsities, because "water" and "wine," which are for drink, signify truths.

[2] That "heat" signifies falsity from lust or lust for falsity can be seen from the following passages.

In Jeremiah:

Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah; and he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, that sendeth out his roots by the river; he shall not see when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; therefore he shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall he cease from bearing fruit (Jeremiah 17:7, 8).

A man who suffers himself to be led by the Lord is compared to a tree and its growth and fructification, because a "tree" signifies in the Word the knowledge and perception of truth and good, consequently the man in whom these are; "a tree planted by the waters" means a man with whom there are truths from the Lord, "waters" meaning truths; "that sendeth out his roots by the river" signifies the extension of intelligence from the spiritual man into the natural; this is said because a "river" signifies intelligence, and because "roots" are sent forth from the spiritual man into the natural; "he shall not see when heat cometh" signifies not to be affected by the lust of falsity; "but his leaf shall be green" signifies knowledges [scientifica] made alive by truths; "therefore he shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall he cease from bearing fruit" signifies that in a state when there is no truth and no good, there shall be no fear of the loss and deprivation of these, but that even then truths conjoined to good shall be fruitful, "year of drought" signifying a state of loss and deprivation of truth. This is said because with spirits and angels there are alternations of state (respecting which alternations see in the workHeaven and Hell 154-161).

[3] In Isaiah:

For Thou art become a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the inundation, a shadow from the heat; for the blast of the violent ones is as an inundation against a wall, as a drought in a dry place; the tumult of strangers shalt Thou humble, the heat by the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the violent ones shall he repress (Isaiah 25:4, 5).

"The poor and needy" signify those who are in the lack of good from the ignorance of truth, and yet have a desire for these; "inundation" and "heat" have reference to evils and falsities that rise up and flow in from the selfhood [proprium] and also from others who are in evil; "the blast of the violent ones" signifies things contrary to the goods and truths of the church; those are called "violent" who endeavor to destroy goods and truths, and "their blast" signifies eagerness to destroy; "the tumult of strangers shalt thou humble" signifies that the Lord will allay and remove the irruption of falsities from evil, "tumult" signifying irruption, "strangers" the falsities from evil, and "to humble" to allay and remove; "he shall repress the heat by the shadow of a cloud" signifies to defend from the lust of falsity, "heat" meaning the lust of falsity, and "the shadow of a cloud" defense from it, for the shadow of a cloud tempers the heat of the sun, and allays its fervor.

[4] In Jeremiah:

His dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost (Jeremiah 36:30).

This was said of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, after he had burned the scroll written by Jeremiah, which act signifies that the truths of the church will perish by a lust for falsities and a consequent aversion from truths. The kings of Judah represented and thence signified in the Word truths from good, and this king the truth of the church about to perish; "the scroll that he burned" signifies the Word, which is said to be burned when it is falsified and adulterated, and this is done by the lust of falsity from evil; "the dead body" signifies the man of the church without spiritual life, which is had by means of truths from the Word; when this life is extinct, only falsities are desired and truths are avoided, and in consequence man becomes dead, and in the spiritual sense "a dead body." The lust for falsities is signified by "the heat in the day," and aversion from the truths by "the frost in the night;" for when the light of heaven, which in its essence is Divine truth, flows in, those who are in falsities from evil become cold with an intensity corresponding to the warmth of the falsity from evil.

[5] In the same:

When they are heated I will set their banquets and I will make them drunken, that they may triumph, that they may sleep the sleep of an age and not awake (Jeremiah 51:39).

This is said of Babylon, which signifies the profanation of good and truth. "When they are heated" signifies the warmth and lust of falsifying truths and adulterating goods; "to set their banquets, to make drunken, and to triumph," signifies to be insane from falsifications to the last degree, "their banquets" signifying the adulterations of good and truth, "drunkenness and rejoicing" insanities in the highest or last degree; "to sleep the sleep of an age and not to awake" signifies not to have perception of truths to eternity.

[6] In Hosea:

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen; not one among them calleth unto Me (Hosea 7:7).

"To be hot as an oven" signifies their lusting after falsity from the love of it; "they devour judges, and all their kings are fallen" signifies the destruction of all intelligence when the truths that constitute it are lost, "judges" signifying the intelligent, and in an abstract sense the things that belong to intelligence, and "kings" signifying truths; "not one among them calleth unto Me" signifies that no one cares for truths from the Divine.

[7] In Job:

He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards; drought and heat shall seize upon the waters of snow (Job 24:18, 19).

"Not to behold the way of the vineyards" signifies to make the truths of the church of no account; "drought and heat shall seize upon the waters of snow" signifies that the lack of truth, and the consequent lust for falsity will destroy all genuine truths, "the waters of snow" meaning genuine truths.

[8] In Isaiah:

He shall say to the bound, Go forth, to them that are in darkness, Reveal yourselves. They shall feed upon the ways, and in all the bare hills shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger nor thirst neither shall the heat or the sun smite them; for He that hath compassion on them shall guide them, even unto springs of waters shall He lead them (Isaiah 49:9, 10).

What the particulars signify need not be explained, for they are similar to those in Revelation now being explained, where it is said "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sun fall on them nor any heat smite them; for the Lamb shall feed them and shall guide them unto living fountains of waters." In Revelation, in like manner as in the prophet, these things are said of the Lord; "the bound, to whom He shall say, Go forth, and those who are in darkness, to whom He shall say, Reveal yourselves," signify the nations that had lived in good according to their religion, and yet were in falsities from ignorance; these are called "bound" when in temptations; and "darkness" means falsities from ignorance. "The heat shall not smite them" signifies that falsity from lust shall not affect them.

[9] In Revelation:

The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given unto him to scorch men with fire; and men were heated with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God (Revelation 16:8, 9).

These words will be explained hereafter in their proper place. As "the sun" signifies Divine love, so also "heat" signifies an ardent desire for truth, as in Isaiah 18:4; and Zechariah 8:2, where "heat" is attributed to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord. In many passages "anger" and "wrath" are predicated of God, "anger" signifying zeal for good, and "wrath" zeal for truth; for wrath and heat in the original language come from the same word.