As we continue our sermon
series “The After Party”, looking at the things Jesus said and did after his
resurrection but before he went back to heaven, we pick up the story right
where we left it last week. If you
remember, last week we told the story of the disciples going out fishing and
Jesus helping them catch more fish than they ever expected. Then, Jesus had breakfast with them on the
shore.
We’re told this was the third time Jesus had appeared to
the disciples. As we said last week,
they knew Jesus was alive, and they were happy about that, but that was as far
as it went. Today, though, we look at
what happened right after that, when Peter talked to Jesus by himself.
As you heard, Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves
him. It’s commonly thought that the
reason Jesus asked three times is because, when Jesus was arrested, Peter
denied knowing Jesus three times. And
that could be true—I’m not saying that it’s not—but the Bible does not tell us
that. The Bible does not give any
explanation at all for Jesus asking the question three times. It just tells us that he does.
As far as we know, this is the first time since Jesus was
resurrected that Peter got to have a private conversation with Jesus. In the other appearances of Jesus given in
the Bible, there were always other disciples around when Peter saw Jesus. Here, it looks like it’s just the two of
them. Just Peter and Jesus.
I wonder what Peter was feeling at that moment. I mean, again, he’s happy Jesus is alive and
all that. But Peter must have remembered
that he’d denied Jesus. And he knew
Jesus must remembered it, too. He had to
be wondering if Jesus was going to bring it up and what he’d have to say about
it if he did. And it seems like Peter
would’ve been a little nervous about that.
Even though, as we said last week, Peter wanted to be in Jesus’
presence, there had to be a part of him that knew he really did not deserve to
be. I’m sure he was hoping Jesus would
forgive him, but he also knew he had no right to expect that. So it seems like there had to be a part of
Peter that was a little scared about this.
I think that’s something you and I can
relate to. Even though we know we need
to be in God’s presence, and even if we really want to be in God’s presence, there
are times when it’s a little scary for us.
We know the things we’ve done that we should not have done, and we know
the things we have not done that we should’ve done. And we know God knows about them, too. And it makes us nervous. We wonder if God’s going to have something to
say to us about those things. And we
know we don’t really deserve to be in God’s presence, anyway. We hope God will forgive us, but we know we
have no real right to expect that. So
there sometimes is a part of us that’s a little scared to go to God, too.
That’s too bad. We
really don’t need to be scared of God.
And Peter did not need to be scared of Jesus, either. Jesus did not criticize Peter for what he’d
done. He did not even bring it up. After all, Jesus had known Peter was going to
deny knowing him. We’re told in Luke
Twenty-two that Jesus told Peter that Peter was going to deny knowing him. Jesus did not explicitly tell Peter “I
forgive you” because Jesus did not see that there was anything to forgive. Peter had done what Jesus knew Peter was
going to do and Jesus knew why Peter did it.
Things had gone the way they were supposed to go.
So why did Jesus ask Peter three times whether Peter
loved him? Well, again, the Bible does
not say. But think about this. Jesus knew he was not going to be around much
longer. He knew he would soon be going
back to heaven. And Peter was the one
Jesus had chosen to take over after he was gone. Remember in Matthew Eighteen, Jesus tells
Peter, “You are the rock on which I will build my church.” Jesus needs Peter to be ready to step
up. And Jesus needs Peter to know that
he needs to be ready to step up.
I hear this conversation going something like this. Jesus says, “Do you love me?” And Peter just kind of casually says, “Yeah,
sure, you know I love you.” Then Jesus
says, “No, but do you really love me?”
And Peter says, a little more insistently but still kind of casually,
“Yeah, really, I just told you. I love
you.” And then Jesus says, “Yeah, I know
what you said, but do you really love
me?” And finally, it sinks in to Peter
what Jesus is asking him. And so this
time, Peter really opens up his heart.
Peter says, “Yes! Yes, Lord! I really
love you!”
That’s what Jesus needed to hear. And it’s what Peter needed to say. You see, Peter had said he loved Jesus
before. And I don’t think he was
lying. I think Peter believed he loved
Jesus when he said it. But I think it
was at this moment that Peter fully realized what it means when we say we love
Jesus. I think at this moment, the full
impact of loving Jesus, and what it meant for Peter’s life to love Jesus,
actually hit Peter full force.
You see, love, real love, is not just an emotion,
although our emotions are obviously involved.
Love is not even just a decision, although we do need to make the
decision to love every day. But love is
more than that. Love is also a promise.
That’s true in all cases, not just in the case of
Jesus. When we tell someone we love
them, we’re not just saying we love them now, in this moment. We’re also saying we’re going to love them in
the future. Saying “I love you” is
saying that I always will love you, no matter what may happen.
That’s the kind of love God has for us. That’s the kind of love Jesus had for
Peter. And I think that at this moment,
maybe for the first time, Peter realized that this was the kind of love he had
for Jesus. I think that when Peter said,
for the third time, “Lord, you know that I love you”, Peter realized that he
was making the promise to Jesus that he would always love Jesus, no matter
what. And he was also making the promise
that, because of that love, he would do anything Jesus wanted him to do.
And that was what Jesus needed from Peter. Jesus was counting on Peter to carry his work
forward. So I think one of the things
Jesus was doing when he asked Peter “do you love me” three times is saying to
Peter, “Are you ready to take over? Are
you really ready? I need you to be
ready. And the only way you’re going to
be ready is if you really love me. What
I’m asking you to do is not going to be easy.
If you do what I ask you to do, you’re going to go through some really
tough stuff. So I need you to not just
kind of love me. I need you to not just
feel a nice emotion toward me. I need
you to be totally committed to me. I
need you to love me enough that you’ll do whatever it takes to build my church
after I’m gone. I need you to promise me
that you’ll always love me, no matter what, because it’s not going to be easy.”
And I think that’s what Jesus does with us, too. Jesus asks us, “Do you love me?” And we say, “Yeah, sure, Jesus, I love
you. I come to church, fairly
regularly. I pray, sometimes. I read the Bible, once in a while. Sure, Jesus you know I love you.”
But that’s not good enough. So Jesus asks us again. “Do you love me?” And we say, yes, of course. I just told you that. I’m on church committees. I contribute regularly. I’ve even invited people to come to church a
few times. You know all that Jesus. You know I love you.”
And it’s still not good enough. So Jesus asks us one more time. “Do you love me?”
What’s your answer?
What’s my answer?
I don’t mean this to be a criticism of anybody. I know a lot of us do come to church
regularly. We do pray. We do read the Bible. Many of us are on church committees and
contribute regularly. Some of us have
invited people to church. And that’s all
great. It’s wonderful stuff.
But it’s not Jesus’ question. Jesus does not ask “Do you go to church” or
“Do you pray”. Jesus does not ask, “How
often do you read the Bible” or “What committees are you on”. Jesus does not even ask “How much do you
give” or “How many people have you invited to church”. What Jesus asks us is “Do you love me?” He asks that to each of you. And he asks that to me.
Jesus knows that following him is going to be hard
sometimes. He knows that life is going
to throw some tough stuff at us. Jesus
wants us to feel the emotion of love. And
Jesus wants us to make the decision to love.
But most of all, Jesus wants us to make the promise to love. Jesus wants us to not just say, “I love you
now, in this moment.” Jesus wants us to
say we’re going to love Jesus in the future.
Jesus wants us to say, “Jesus, I always will love you, no matter what
may happen. No matter what you may ask
me to do, no matter what happens to me.
Even when it seems like everything is going wrong and nothing makes any
sense, I will always love you, I will do my best to serve you, and I will
always open my heart to you. Jesus, I
really love you.”
It took three tries, but eventually Peter came to realize
that he had that kind of love for Jesus.
Jesus is asking us that question now.
Jesus is asking it of you, and he’s asking it of me. Jesus is saying to each one of us, “Do you
love me?”
So, what’s our answer?
Do we?
No comments:
Post a Comment