Third Sunday of Easter
April 22, 2007
Sermon by Pastor John Maboe
The
Holy Gospel according to
After
he appeared to his followers in
Just
after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that
it was Jesus. Jesus said to them,
“Children, you have no fish, have you?”
They answered him, “No.” He said
to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find
some.” So they cast it, and now they
were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,
“It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard
that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into
the sea. But the other disciples came in
the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land,
only about a hundred yards off.
When
they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and
bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some
of the fish that you have just caught.”
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large
fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was
not torn. Jesus said to them, ”Come and
have breakfast.” Now none of the
disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the
Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and
gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus
appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When
they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do
you love me more than these?” He said to
him, ”Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I
love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my
sheep.” He said to him the third time,
“Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love
me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know
everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your
own belt and to go wherever you wished.
But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death
by which he would glorify God.) After
this he said to him, “Follow me.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
It’s
a very profound moment—Jesus’ third encounter with his disciples after he has
been raised from the dead—and this moment with Peter is of special
significance. Do you think that Peter
was discouraged?
As
the Gospel text begins, they are by the
But
as the story opens, Peter is discouraged.
And I would go further and say that Peter is on the verge of
despair. Peter, you will remember, on
the night when Jesus was taken captive and eventually killed, followed at a
distance and came into the courtyard of the high priest where Jesus was on
trial, and he was questioned by a stranger, “Are you one of those disciples?”
“Are you an associate of this
Jesus?” And, remember, Peter, not
once, not twice, but three times, denied it, saying, “No. I have no association with
that person.” And then Jesus
dies. Remember, too, that Jesus had told
Peter on that very night that he would deny him three times. Peter’s response to Jesus at the time was, “No way, no way will I ever deny you! Not if even everybody else here forsakes you,
I will never forsake you. I would never
do it! I could never do it.” But he did, he did. Three times.
So Peter realizes that now it’s
Jesus standing on the shore from the boat and he, it says, was stripped,
because that’s how fishermen fished, without clothes, and he put his cloak on
and he jumped into the water, because they were only about a hundred yards off,
and he swims to shore. He cannot wait to
get to shore to see Jesus. Jesus, when
they get there, has prepared breakfast on an open fire and serves them
breakfast, and they have this breakfast of bread and fish. And it says to us that this was the third
time that Jesus has appeared. And then
Jesus takes Peter aside to talk to him.
Now, before we go through that, I
want to give us a little Greek lesson, because we can’t understand the story
unless we know what the Greek says. Now,
don’t worry, it’s not hard, and you really already know it.
In the Greek, there are several
words for the English word “love.” In English, we have one word, “love.”
But in the Greek there are several words, and they all have different
shades of meaning. But wherever those
words happen in different places in the New Testament, they are always
translated “love.” We need to know that the two relevant words
for “love” in this passage are “agape” and "philo.” “Agape,” you have probably heard before,
is that kind of love that is unconditioned.
It’s love without condition, without strings, without stipulation,
without limit or condition. And “philo”— you also know it’s not the kind
of dough, it’s not Philo dough—it’s “philo,”
as in
That night when Jesus was together
with his disciples before he died, Jesus said this to his disciples—and you
know this passage from John 15:
“As the Father has agaped me, so I have agaped
you (love without condition). Abide in
my agape. If you keep my commandments, you will abide
in my agape, just as I have kept my
Father’s commandments and abide in his agape. I have said these things to you so that my
joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
“This is my commandment, that you agape one another as I have agaped you. No one has greater agape than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. And you are my friend.”
Okay?
So now listen to how the exchange
between Jesus and Peter goes on the shore.
Jesus asks Peter, “Peter, do you agape
me more than these?” Peter says, “Yes,
Lord, you know that I philo
you.” Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.” Jesus asks the second time, “Peter, do you agape me?” Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I philo you.” A third time Jesus asks Peter, “Peter, do you
philo me?” And Peter says—in grief now, sad because
Jesus has asked him this question—“Lord, you know everything. You know that I philo you.”
It’s a heartbreaking and beautiful
scene between these friends. Peter
cannot bring himself to say, “I agape
you,” because he has learned something about himself. He has become sober, concerning himself,
because of his failure. And Jesus
doesn’t demand more from him.
There is a sadness here, but there
is also a deep grace, as well. And I
have just two thoughts about it that come, I’m sure, nowhere near plumbing the
depths of this exchange. We said earlier
that Peter was near despair. Do you
think that’s fair? I do. Peter was near despair. Think of what happened to the other disciple
who disappointed Jesus so profoundly, Judas.
He committed suicide.
Maybe some of us here are acquainted
with this kind of despair, with this feeling of despair. Martin Luther called despair “the great enemy
of us all.” Despair is the feeling that
one is unforgivable. It’s not a feeling
of condemnation from the outside, but rather from the inside. There is no hope for one’s self. I imagine that all of us here have either
felt that personally or at least know somebody who has. Despair can be deadly.
But now look at Jesus’
response. He says to Peter, “Do you love
me, Peter, without condition, more than the rest of these?” Peter says, “I philo you.” “I love you like
a brother.” Jesus says, “Peter, do you
love me without condition?” Now, notice,
it’s not “more than the rest of these.”
He says, “Jesus, I love you like a brother.” Then he says, “Peter, do you love me like a
brother?” And he says, “Yes, Lord.” And each time Jesus says to him, “Feed my
sheep.” Jesus starts high, and then he
comes down to where Peter is.
Life has a way of teaching us
humility, and the higher we think we are the harder often is our fall. But Jesus is gentle, so very gentle,
as if to say, “Okay. This is who you
really are, and now you know it. Now get
your eyes off yourself and feed my little sheep.” Jesus didn’t demand anything of Peter. He didn’t demand that Peter improve. He didn’t demand that Peter be more
contrite. He didn’t demand that Peter
acknowledge that Jesus was right and Peter was wrong. All he asked for was honesty concerning
himself.
From time to time, God gives us the
grace to realize what failures we are; how weak our love is; the pain we cause
others, both individually and collectively.
To never realize that is to remain in the place of Peter beforehand, the
proud place, the self-assured Peter, but the not yet self-aware Peter, and not
yet useful in the work of compassion.
But to know one’s true condition is a grace, is a
grace, as unhappy as it may make us, because then we see ourselves truly. And then we are also able to see others. Then and only then can we really hear Jesus
when he says, “Feed my little sheep.”
Amen.