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.

Post-Resurrection Appearances: Going Fishing; To Seven Disciples in Galilee

“After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathaniel of Cana of Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as the day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, do you have any fish?’ they answered Him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net on 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 of the quantity of fish…Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead.” –John 21:1-6,12, 14, ESV (Read John 21:1-14).

“After this” possibly refers to the two appearances to the disciples while they were still in Jerusalem and after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a week-long activity connected with the Feast of the Passover. Jesus had instructed the women to tell the disciples to go to Galilee where He would meet them. And here are seven of them, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James and John, and two others whose names are not given. Peter, who had been called from his occupation of professional fisherman to follow and work for Jesus, said, “I'm going fishing!” Much supposition has been given about why Peter decided to go back to fishing again. The old and familiar was probably calling him, something he knew how to do. And like many in the course of life, he probably had bills to pay and support to seek. These with him might have been former fishermen, too. And their work for the Lord seemed not to be shaping up. How could they do what He had commanded them when He was no longer with them in the flesh, and His kingdom was not established? There they were at night with the fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, but catching nothing for their efforts. Had they so soon forgotten that Jesus had said to them, “Without me you can do nothing?” (John 15:5).

Just at daybreak, Jesus was on the shore, but they did not recognize him at first. He asked a simple question: “Do you have any fish?” Why did he address them as ‘children’? Some scholars have seen in this the disciples’ status, like children tossed about, not knowing in which direction to go. Here to experienced fisherman, the Lord of the sea and all that is in it told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Success was immediate. John even tells how many fish were in the net: 153!

Impetuous Peter, recognizing the Lord, plunges into the water to swim toward Him, leaving the others to tow the full net and bring the boat to shore. And then Jesus, who had already made a fire and had fish grilling and bread, invited the seven to breakfast. Imagine breakfast by the Sea of Galilee with Jesus! What a welcome respite after a hard night of work, sleeplessness and no luck with fishing until Jesus came on the scene! Jesus had told the fishermen disciples when He called them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). This rendezvous on the shore of the Sea of Galilee was needed by the disciples for new direction about their work of fishing for the souls of men. The conversation with the seven over breakfast is not recorded in the gospels, except that the Lord singled Peter out for special questions and instructions (which we will examine tomorrow). Here was Jesus with them, at Galilee, as He had promised. We can imagine how these seven men must have remembered, ever after, how the Lord fed them early in the morning, both physically with the bread and fish and spiritually with His presence and redirection. And what lessons for us to learn from the fishermen’s lives. They did not mind hard work. They have courage and faith to “go out into the deep.” If one method does not work to bring in the catch, they are willing to follow Jesus’ direction to “cast the net on the other side.” Thank God for the lessons we learn from this early morning meeting!

Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus: To Disciples with Thomas Present

“Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.’ Eight days later His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”-John 21:24-29 (ESV).

John is the only one of the gospel writers who records the story of what we have termed “Doubting Thomas.” But when we think about it, Thomas was not different from others of the disciples, for when Mary Magdalene and the other women went to tell the disciples they had seen the risen Lord, they, too, doubted until He had appeared to them and they had seen Him with their own eyes. Because of Thomas’s doubt, and having to see for himself that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead, he precipitated from the Lord a blessing on subsequent disciples, even to us who believe today and to those who will believe after us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Thomas needed seeing to believe, he thought. Yet when Jesus offered His nail-scarred hands and his rent side for Thomas to touch, the doubting disciple could only cry out with great reverence and belief: “My Lord and my God!” Scholars say that Thomas’s confession is one of the strongest texts in the gospels—or anywhere in the New Testament—to the diety of Jesus Christ. His statement links back to the beginning of John’s gospel when the beloved disciple writes, “”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth...And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.”(John 1:1-2, 14, 16). There among his friends and fellow disciples, and in the presence of the living Lord, Thomas declared a great faith: “My Lord nad my God!”

We cannot help but wonder why Thomas was not with the ten disciples a week earlier, on the first day of the week—the day of Christ’s resurrection—when He appeared first to the gathered disciples. Was Thomas so despondent he wanted nothing to remind him of the days they traveled about the Judean countryside absorbing all that Jesus said? Were his hopes so crushed that he wanted no reminders of what they hoped for but what seemed terminated by the cruel death on the cross? We can only speculate as to Thomas’s whereabouts or his emotional and spiritual condition. But we do know that solitude feeds self-pity. We need support of friends at times when we are in a deep morass of disappointment or disillusionment. They can often lend the support we need to get us on the right track again. We also should not neglect the gathering of ourselves together for spiritual instruction, worship and fellowship. For whatever reason, Thomas did join the disciples eight days after the resurrection. He was present when Jesus appeared suddenly to the gathered group the second time. The others had kept telling Thomas that they had seen Him alive. And so Didymus, Thomas (both words in Greek mean “twin”) joined the other ten, and perhaps other believers besides the disciples, on the Lord’s Day—the first day of the week—a week after the resurrection. "Shalom! Peace to you!" was Jesus’ greeting to Thomas. Immediately Jesus saw Thomas’s problem—his unbelief. In Hebrews 3:12 we read about such unbelief: “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an eveil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” And we also read in Hebrews what we as Christians are responsible for doing in helping our fellow believers to avoid the pitfalls of disbelief: “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13, ESV). If we are faithful in our witness and true to the doctrines of Scripture, we can help those who are weak and doubtful, and, as was Thomas when he saw the Lord, we can hear them proclaim convincingly the wonderful declaration: “My Lord and my God!”