Do You Love Me?

Have you ever asked this question? Some might quickly reply, “Of course, don’t most people ask that question at some point or another in their lives?” Others might recall asking the question in all serious innocence of someone in their circle as a child. How many of us have that purposefully asked that question of another a an adult? Do we even ask those dearest and nearest to us? Did we ask, if we are married, our partner before marrying? Or after?

Some might say, we don’t need to ask that question in some of these circumstances. We know the answer. Indeed? How so? I think some might answer, “I can see it in [the other.]” Other would say, “They show it in their words and actions.” Exactly - without the proof of what is said and done, how do we know love exists? 

This brings me to the famous account of Jesus’ intimate moments with his follower Peter after Jesus’ resurrection (It is recorded in the last chapter of John’s version of The Gospel).  They were back home, in familiar territory, where they had met three short years earlier. Peter and his companions had once again gone fishing. It was what they did. When they turned shoreward at dawn, having caught nothing all night, they saw a man on the beach. The man asked them if they had caught anything. When he heard the negative answer he told them to cast their net on the right side of the boat.  It might have seemed an odd request but there was something that compelled them to do so. When they did so, they caught so many fish they could not pull the net full into the boat and simply dragged it along. A miracle?

It seems the men thought so, as, they then recognized this was Jesus, having seen him at least twice already since his resurrection, and whom they knew was entirely capable of performing miracles. Of course, they also knew his voice, one they had often obeyed, as they had felt they should now. And look what happened!

When they reached shore and disembarked, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it, and some bread. Perhaps seeing that there was not enough fish to go around, Jesus asked them to bring some of what they had just caught. No miracle this time?

Peter obeys and then Jesus asks them to join him for breakfast. He took the bread and  fish, blessing it in the recognizable way they had become so accustomed to, gave it to them.

After breakfast the men likely got busy taking care of their catch. We don’t know for sure what happened next, but reading what followed, I doubt Jesus would have been so insensitive as to initiate the conversation he did in front of the whole group.

Jesus wanted Peter’s attention. At one level, I suspect Peter was dreading this moment. So far, Jesus had said nothing to him about Peter’s denials while Jesus was on trial and Peter was outside, although Peter probably feared that was coming. At one level he probably just wanted to get it over with too, to clear the air between him and his Master.

Jesus asked Peter, “Simon, do you love me?” Note, Jesus did not call him Peter, ‘the rock,’ He went back to the beginning, to Simon, ‘a reed,’ instead of using the name he had given him when he called him to be his follower. Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know that I like you (according to the original language).” Notice the difference between the question and the answer. Jesus responded with, “Feed my lambs.” 

Jesus asked again, “Simon, do you love me?” Peter gave the same answer. This time, Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” What’s the difference? Perhaps Jesus was thinking after the first answer, ‘If you cannot commit to more than simply liking me after all we’ve been through, maybe you are only qualified to minister to beginners, lambs.’ However, when Peter gives the answer the second time, perhaps Jesus thinks, ‘All right, you’re at least sticking with that answer. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you can also feed my sheep.’ Teach the deeper stuff to adults, the more mature believers.

Jesus asks once more, “Simon, Do you like me?” Notice the difference. Jesus, ever sensitive to where a person is as at, perceives that Simon is not ready to commit to anything more than ‘like.’ So, he’ll go with that. Jesus can use us where we are at, sometimes in spite of ourselves. 

Notice that Peter’s cousin, John, who was nearby, (which we know because right after this exchange Peter turns around and sees John and changes the subject to ask Jesus about him) and wrote this, writes that Peter was upset because Jesus asked him this question three times.  Why would he not be upset? He knew exactly what Jesus was getting at. He knew he had it coming to him. Peter had denied even knowing Jesus three times when Jesus was at his most needy. Now, Jesus was giving him three chances to say something different. He was giving hm three chances to make good.

However, Peter cannot bring himself to say, “I love you.” Was that some ‘macho’ fisherman thing? No, Peter, ever honest, knew that at that moment, knowing what he had done a couple of weeks earlier, could not commit to that higher level of affection, to love.

Jesus knows Peter has a way to go. He also knows Peter is the best he’s got to begin to carry on his mission on earth. He tells him again, “Feed my sheep,” but he goes on to tell Peter that he, Peter, will some day pay a high price for his being willing to keep liking Jesus. Then he gives him a chance to grow, but at the same time makes a request, which, if Peter complies, will give Peter the opportunity to gain what he is yet lacking,”Follow me.” It’s the same call he had given him when he called him from his fishing by the Sea of Galilee three years earlier. Then he had told him he would make him a  ‘fisher of men.’ Now it is a shepherd he is calling Peter to be. We could write another whole essay, nay, a book, on what it means to be a shepherd. Peter had some idea though. He had heard Jesus speak of this, of himself being The Good Shepherd, giving some characteristics of such, and what the relationship of a good shepherd with his sheep entails. 

As we know, once Peter was baptized with the Holy Spirit some two months later, he became an emboldened and powerful shepherd indeed. We can read all about it in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which, in our Bibles, follows the Gospel of John, the last chapter of which gives us this story.

As if there is not enough in this for us to stop here and mull over, there is one more point of utmost significance that needs to be made about this conversation. When things were on the line between Jesus and Peter, Jesus got right to the heart of everything. He asked Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ Not, ‘Okay Peter, you have been with me three years, what do you really know about who I am?’ Peter had answered that one before when he said Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Nor did he ask him, knowing he was soon to leave Peter, at least from an earthly point of view, ‘What do you believe, about me, about what I have taught you? What do you remember that you are to feed my lambs and my sheep with?’ 

God, including Jesus in the flesh, is all about relationships.  That’s why God created us, to be in relationship with God. God is love, and at its best, a relationship is based on love, grows on love, matures in love. Jesus did not ask Peter about all those things we as Christians disagree on, get into squabbles, divide and yes, even kill each other over - the identity of Christ, beliefs, doctrine, matters of ethics and practice etc. No, none of that. Jesus got right to the core. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Put on the clothes of love, which is the bond of perfection, of harmony (his letter to the church at Colossae, chapter 3, verse 14).” Love never divides.    

What did I write at the beginning? We know love from action. There is no love without action. What action(s)? For us, simple, in the words of Jesus himself, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.” And in case you forgot, the Parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear that everyone is our neighbour.

A Rock to Build on or Stumble on - A reflection on Matthew 16:13-23

This is the season of Lent and we are 4 weeks away from Easter. A week ago I took a partial fast and spent time beginning to review Jesus' final journey to his death in Jerusalem. These last events in his life are so momentous that they take up almost half of some of the Gospels.

The way I see it, this journey begins after Jesus has taken his disciples as far north in Palestine as he probably ever did, to the region of Ceasarea-Philippi, and then Mount Hermon, which I believe is Israel's tallest mountain. Commentators note how significant this was because of what happened here in  this area of great Greek influence. There were shrines to the Greek shepherd god Pan in caves in the hillsides here, along with many large Greek buildings in the cities in this area of northern Galilee, including temples King Herod had built and dedicated to the Roman god Roma and the Emperor Augustus. In other words, in some ways, he was moving away from the safety (?) of God-fearing Galilee into heathen “enemy” territory.

It is here that Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man (meaning himself) is?" They give him some answers but then he asks them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter is the one to give the famous answer, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God."

Jesus, knowing his time was coming, doubtless also knew he needed his disciples to know who he was if they were going to be able to carry on his mission. In the Gospel according to Luke, this exchange is placed after comments on King Herod's wondering who Jesus was. In the Gospel according to John it is placed in the context of a number of his followers abandoning him because they could no longer accept everything he was saying. He then asks the 12 disciples if they too will leave and Peter says they have nowhere else to go because they “have come to know and believe that [he has] the words of eternal life and [is] the holy one of God, the Messiah."

Then Jesus, knowing that the majority do not recognize him for whom he is and the potential for misunderstanding if he allows himself to be identified as the Messiah, sternly warns the disciples not to tell others that he is the Messiah.

Only in the gospel according to Matthew is Peter's confession followed by his receiving a blessing from Jesus. He changes his name from Simon to Peter, which in Greek means "rock." He then also says he will build the church on this rock and adds 3 statements about it: 1) the gates of Hades (hell) will not prevail against it, 2) they would be given the keys to the kingdom of heaven and 3) whatever they loose on earth will be loosed in heaven whatever they bind on earth would be bound in heaven. Over time, The Church, especially what would become the Roman Catholic Church after the 4th century, has used this passage to undergird its authority and power. Some link this talk of loosing and binding to forgiveness and church membership and even practices such as banning, sunning and excommunication.

Then Jesus begins to tell his disciples about how he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised again on the 3rd day. Peter, perhaps flush with having come up with such a great answer just before this, and feeling even closer and more loyal to Jesus as a result of what he might have perceived as his new standing in Jesus eyes, rebuked him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." Jesus in turn, says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Whereas Jesus had just called Peter a rock in a positive foundational sense, he now calls him a stumbling block for seeing things through a human lens. Knowing what he was going to go through, Jesus did not need to be tempted by his own followers to the contrary. How difficult it must have been to move from that wonderful mutual acknowledgment of his identity to now being challenged with respect turning aside from future activities that Jesus knew would come about precisely because of who he is, and which actually included the fulfillment of his mission on earth.

Indeed, this has been the weakness of The Church ever since. As a human organization, we naturally strive for self-preservation. This self-centeredness, sometimes overt maintenance of power and control, taking Matthew 16:19 too far is indeed a stumbling block to many, who reject Christianity precisely because the church falls into that trap, the temptation of Satan to usurp power for ourselves. The divine way, as Jesus was about to gloriously demonstrate, is to trust fully in the power of God, be totally obedient to his plan, even if that means giving up everything including our earthly lives. Indeed, this is precisely what Jesus then expands on and clarifies in the subsequent passage (Matthew 16:24-26).

The ultimate understanding of what Jesus is saying in this passage is what too much of Christendom has failed to grasp after the bloom of the first 3 centuries of the church wore off. Instead of the purity, poverty and humility that were seen as virtues then, the church no longer remained the pure bride for Jesus but has too often become the harlot of politics, power and money. As the Dark Ages moved into the Middle Ages and the Period Of (so-called by Eurocentric whites) Discovery, the church abandoned its hope of a place in God's future redeemed earth for its support of imperialism and colonialism which placed the church, not Jesus, as even the many indigenous believers who suffered at the hands of the colonialists will attest, in a bad place in the minds of non-Europeans around the world, including our own First Nations neighbors in Canada.

Indeed, the church has too often focused on the rock as a place, which quickly leads to ideas of edifices, organization and land. This is where the church loses The Way. A rock sitting in a place will definitely be something that can be stumbled over. But Jesus had spoken about the rock as a person, a person who knew who Jesus is. The true Church is the body of persons who knows who Jesus is, a body of persons on The Way. If we know whom we are following our rock-like faith will carry us through. If we stop moving forward, not really following, we again become stumbling blocks. To modify an old proverb, we need to be “the rolling stones that gather no moss.”