(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.

9922. 'In the middle of them round about' means consisting of the more internal features of the factual knowledge of good in every direction. This is clear from the meaning of 'in the middle' as what is more internal, dealt with in 1074, 2940, 2973, 5897, so that 'in the middle' - when it has reference to the hearing and understanding of religious teachings and of worship, which are meant by 'bells' - means from more internal features; from the meaning of 'pomegranates', in the middle of which the bells were, as factual knowledge of good, dealt with above in 9918; and from the meaning of 'round about' as in every direction, as above in 9920. Bells were placed in the middle of the pomegranates because known facts, meant by 'pomegranates', are the recipients, so to speak vessels, that hold truth and good within them, 1469, 1496, 3068, 5373, 5489, 7770; and religious teachings and worship, meant by 'bells', must consist of the good and truth which reside inwardly in known facts as their vessels. If they do not consist of that good and truth, only of known facts, they have no life in them.

[2] But since few can understand the nature of what has just been said - that religious teachings and worship must consist of the good and truth which reside inwardly in known facts, but not of known facts devoid of them - an intelligible explanation, so far as this is possible, will be given. The term 'known facts' or 'factual knowledge' describes all things contained in the external or natural memory; for there is the external memory, consisting of things in the natural world, and there is the internal memory, consisting of things in the spiritual world, see 2469-2494, 2831, 5212, 9394, 9723, 9841. The things which have been inscribed on the internal memory are not called known facts, because they are the things constituting a person's life; instead they are called truths belonging to faith and forms of good belonging to love. These are what must be present inwardly in known facts. For in the human being there is an external, called the external man, and an internal, called the internal man; the internal must be in the external, as the soul is in its body. Accordingly those things which are in the internal man must reside in those which are in the external, for in this way the external has a soul or life within it. Therefore if the internal things, or things of the internal man, are not in the external ones there is no soul in them, nor thus any life. Because the good of love and faith is internal it follows that external things must have that good in them, and so must known facts since known facts, as already stated, are recipients, so to speak vessels, that hold internal things. Consequently religious teachings and worship must consist of those things contained in the recipients or vessels; they do not reside in recipients and vessels that are empty or devoid of such contents. From all this it is evident how to understand the explanation that all aspects of religious teachings and of worship must spring from the more internal features of the factual knowledge of good, which are meant by the declaration that bells of gold should be in the middle of the pomegranates.

[3] In addition it should be recognized that there is factual knowledge of good and factual knowledge of truth, and that truths residing on this level are once again recipient vessels of good; for the truths of faith are vessels for the good of love. For light on this matter, see what has been stated and shown already regarding factual knowledge or known facts,

Known facts are things belonging to the memory in the natural man, 3293, 3309, 3310, 4967, 5212, 5774, 5874, 5886, 5889, 5934.

By means of known facts the internal man is opened, 1495, 1548, 1563, 1895, 1940, 3085, 3086, 5276, 5871, 5874, 5901.

Known facts are a means to make people wise and also a means to make them insane, 4156, 4760, 8628, 8629.

Known facts are vessels for truth, and truths are vessels for good, 1469, 1496, 3068, 3079, 3318, 5489, 5881, 6023, 6071, 6077, 6750, 7770, 8005, 9394, 9724.

Known facts give service to the internal man, 1486, 1616, 2576, 3019, 3020, 3665, 5201, 5213, 6052, 6068, 6084, 9394.

When known facts, which are things belonging to the external memory, become part of life, they pass from the external memory, but remain inscribed on the internal memory, 9394, 9723, 9841.

People guided by truths of faith rooted in the good of charity can be raised above factual knowledge, 6383, 6384; this is called being raised above the level of the senses, 5089, 5094, 6183, 6313, 6315, 9730.

A person carries with him into the next life when he dies the known facts or things belonging to the external memory, but they become dormant then, and in what manner, 2475-2486, 6931.