Post Resurrection Appearances: Three Questions and a Commission for Peter

“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.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved 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. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.’ (This He said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God) And after saying this He said to him, ‘Follow me.’”-John 21:15-19 (ESV).

Peter was with the seven disciples at the Sea of Tiberias (Galilee) to encounter the resurrected Jesus. But following breakfast, the Lord had some important questions to ask Peter. “Do you love me, Peter?” Three times he asked Peter the same question. The first two times He used the Greek verb agapao for love. This is the deepest kind of love, a love that is completely giving and unconditional. The third time, Jesus uses phileo, from which we get our idea for ‘brotherly love.’ In answering, Peter uses phileo. The question asked three times by the Lord no doubt reflects back on Peter’s denial of Jesus three times the night of his arrest. Jesus had predicted that Peter would do so, and the prediction came true. Peter probably had spent much time regretting his cowardly denial in the courtyard of the high priest when Jesus was on trial. When Jesus asked, ‘Peter, do you love me more than these?’ He could have been asking if Peter loved him more than the other disciples loved Jesus, more than Peter loved the other disciples, or more than Peter loved his fishing occupation and all that went with it. After all, Peter had just been fishing all night before Jesus appeared to them at the Sea of Galilee.

Would he go back to his old job? Peter needed restoration and redirection. His life was at a precarious place and he needed to make a serious decision about where his loyalty and his work would lead him. Jesus’ pointed questions to Peter were geared to help him see what he should do.

With Peter’s positive answer, “Lord, you know that I love you,” came the Lord’s commission for Peter. “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” “Follow me.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was assigning to an under-shepherd, Peter, an important ministry: To feed His lambs, tend His sheep, and feed His sheep. And this would be accomplished as Peter truly determined to follow the Lord in all things. He wanted Peter’s love for him to be demonstrated through the work he had to do, practical work like shepherding the flock of the Living Lord. The Lord was not just interested in a profession of love, although that is important; but love must show itself in deeds and in actions. We know from his subsequent work, his powerful sermon on the Day of Pentecost when over 3,000 were saved, from his shepherding of the new converts, and from his two general epistles written to encourage the churches that Peter took to heart Jesus’ commission for him. He writes about being a shepherd of the churches in I Peter 5:2-4: “Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversightk, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; fot for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” Then the Lord told Peter the way would not always be easy. “Stretch forth your hands” was an expression to indicate death by crucifixion. Accounts have been told that Peter himself met death by crucifixion and requested that he be placed upside down on the cross, for he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same position as his Lord. Forgiven, restored, commissioned, loving-the-Lord, Peter gave his life in service to the Lord to the very end.