Love Is a Promise

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, April 24, 2022.  The Bible verses used are John 21:15-25.

So Jesus has been resurrected.  And as we said last week, the disciples were happy about that, but at first, they really did not know what that meant.  Eventually, though, Jesus appears to them, proves who He is, and spends some more time with them.

In our reading for today, Peter gets the chance to talk to Jesus by himself.  And 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 have remembered it, too.  He had to be wondering if Jesus was going to bring it up and what Jesus would have to say about it if He did.  And it seems like Peter would’ve been a little nervous about that.  He knew he had no real defense for what he’d done.  And even though 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?