“Do you love me?”
These four words carry a lot of weight to them. Especially depending on who asks. Hearing these words from a spouse may bring up different feelings than hearing it from your child. Or maybe it brings up the same feelings from both.
In John 21, as the disciples are finishing up some breakfast a few days after the death of Jesus, Peter is asked this question. Not by a spouse, child, or family member, but by Jesus himself. The resurrected Christ looks at Peter and says, “Do you love me?”
To us, this may seem like a strange question. If you think about it, a few years prior Peter leaves behind his career and livelihood. He was a fisherman, he knew how to cast a net, row a boat, and read the weather. He has a crossroads with Jesus and walks away from the only life he would have known. He spends the next years of his life following, listening, and learning from Jesus. Seeing miracles, watching a few loaves of bread, and some fish, feed thousands. People healed from disease. Seeing religious leaders try time and time again to outsmart and outwit Jesus, and time and time again they fell short.
This would lead him to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the redeemer, the King of the Jews. But just a few nights prior to John 21 Peter is told by Jesus that he will deny Him. He will be confronted about his relationship to Jesus, and Peter will deny ever knowing the man. Not just once, but three times. Three times Peter is adamant that he does not know the man he has spent the last 3 years with.
We may feel like we are too far from God to be saved, but can I tell you this is not true. We are not beyond the reach of God. Your sin has not made it impossible for God to love you. Just as Peter’s lie did not spell the end of his relationship with Jesus. John 21 is an encouragement. Now, Peter and the other disciples were stressed for sure for those three days that Jesus was dead. Imagine the last memory with your best friend being you telling people you didn’t even know him. But that third day, the resurrection, was the greatest day ever.
Now we come back to this morning after breakfast. As far as we know, Peter and Jesus had not talked about his denial. But they are here breaking bread together with other disciples. Mind you they are eating fish that Jesus miraculously provided in the beginning of the chapter. After a night of catching nothing, Jesus drops a “cast it on the right side of the boat” and they haul in 153 fish. Jesus still provides.
Jesus doesn’t ignore what happened a few days prior. Instead, he asks Peter a simple question, “do you love me?” And interestingly he asks three times. Each time Peter says “yes,” and each time Jesus instructs him to feed or tend to His sheep. Jesus still had a plan for Peter. The denial a few days earlier had not negated it, Jesus had told Peter it would happen. No, Jesus still would use Peter to lead and spread the Gospel to the world. That is what Grace does. Jesus shows Peter grace.
This is what we are remembering as we come to the communion table. Jesus willingly died for our sins. He died knowing our sins, while we were still sinners. His body was broken and blood poured out for us. Showing grace and mercy to us.
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” – 1 Corinthians 11:23-26