(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.

4843. 'To Tamar his daughter-in-law' means a Church representative of spiritual and celestial things, which is called 'a daughter-in-law' from truth. This is clear from the representation of 'Tamar' as a Church representative of spiritual and celestial things, dealt with above in 4831, and from the meaning of 'a daughter-in-law' as the spiritual element of the Church, which is truth. The reason 'a daughter-in-law' has this meaning in the internal sense is that everything connected with a marriage, and all persons who were the offspring of a marriage, represented the kinds of things that belong to the heavenly marriage, see above in 4837, and consequently the kinds of things that belong to good and truth since these are the two partners in the heavenly marriage. This is why in the Word 'husband' means good and 'wife' truth, and also why 'sons and daughters' means the forms of truth and good which are the offspring of these. Consequently, being the wife of a son who has now become a husband, 'a daughter-in-law' means the truth of the Church which has been joined to good, and so on. But the meaning is different in the case of those who belong to the celestial Church from that of those who belong to the spiritual Church; for in the spiritual Church the husband is called 'the men' and means truth, while the wife is called 'the woman' and means good, see above in 4823.

[2] As regards 'a daughter-in-law' in the internal sense of the Word meaning the truth of the Church linked to its good, and consequently in the contrary sense meaning the falsity of the Church linked to its evil, this may also be seen from places in the Word where the expression 'daughter-in-law' is used, as in Hosea,

They offer sacrifice on mountain-tops and burn incense on hills, under oak. and poplar, and hard oak, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. Shall I not punish ¹ your daughters, in that they commit whoredom and your daughters-in-law in that they commit adultery? Hosea 4:13-14.

This refers to the worship of evil and falsity, the worship of evil being meant by 'offering sacrifices on mountain-tops' and the worship of falsity by 'burning incense on hills'. A life of evil is meant by 'daughters committing whoredom', and the teaching of what is false from which a life of evil results is meant by 'daughters-in-law committing adultery'. As regards acts of adultery and whoredom in the Word meaning adulterations of what is good and falsifications of what is true, see 2466, 2727, 3399. 'Daughters-in-law' therefore stands here for affections for falsity.

[3] In Micah,

The great man utters the perversity of his soul. and he twists it out of shape. The best of them is like a brier, the upright like a thorn-bush. The son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are those of his own household. Micah 7:3-4, 6.

This refers to falsity that is the offspring of evil and which exists with the Church in the last times when it has been laid waste, in the proximate sense as it existed with the Jewish Church. 'The daughter rises up against her mother' means that the affection for evil stands opposed to truth, and 'the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law' that the affection for falsity stands opposed to good.

[4] Because the experience of a person undergoing temptations is of a similar nature to this - for in temptations a conflict takes place between evil and truth and between falsity and good, spiritual temptations being nothing else than experiences when the falsity and evil present in a person are laid waste - temptations or spiritual conflicts are described by the Lord in practically the same words,

Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be these of his own household. Matthew 10:34-36, 38.

The words from the Prophet that are similar to these, quoted a little above them, meant the laying waste of the Church. But here the temptations of those who belong to the Church are meant, for, as has been stated, temptations are nothing else than experiences in which falsity and evil are laid waste or taken away. For this reason also temptations as well as vastations are meant and described by deluges and floods of waters, 705, 739, 756, 790. Here also therefore 'daughter against mother' means the affection for evil standing opposed to truth, and 'daughter-in-law against mother-in-law' the affection for falsity standing opposed to good. Now because the evils and falsities present with a person undergoing temptation exist inwardly, or are his own, they are called members of his own household in the words 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household'. The fact that temptations are described in this passage is evident from the Lord's saying that He had not come to bring peace on earth but a sword; for 'a sword' means truth engaged in conflict, and in the contrary sense falsity engaged in conflict, 2799, 4499. (Yet He did come to bring peace, John 14:27; 16:33.) The description of temptations in this passage is also clear from what the Lord goes on to say - 'He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me'.

[5] Similarly in Luke,

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division; for from now on there will be in one house five divided, three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Luke 12:51-53.

From these words too it is evident that 'father', 'mother', 'son', 'daughter', 'daughter-in-law', and 'mother-in-law' mean the kinds of things that originate in the heavenly marriage, namely goods and truths in their own order, and also their opposites; as also in Mark,

Jesus said, There is no one who has forsaken house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields, for the sake of Me and of the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold, now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. Mark 10:29-30.

Anyone unacquainted with the internal sense of the Word will think that 'house', 'brothers', 'sisters', 'father', 'mother', 'wife', 'children', and 'fields' mean house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, and fields. But the meaning here is this: The kinds of things present in a person which are properly his own must be forsaken by him, and instead of these, spiritual and celestial things which are the Lord's must be received by him. This change is effected by means of temptations, which are meant here by 'persecutions'. Anyone can see that if he forsakes his mother he is not going to receive mothers, nor likewise to receive brothers and sisters by forsaking these.

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