“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, 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 again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, 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 Jonah, 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 all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep.”
– John 21:15-17
Do we love Jesus? If you have professed to be a follower of Jesus Christ, confessing with your mouth that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:18) then the answer should be a resounding, “yes!” One, who claims to be a disciple of Jesus, having confessed Jesus to be the Christ, would, most likely, consider such a question as pointless and maybe even demeaning. How would you respond, though, if Jesus asked you this question, “do you love me?” Well, He does ask us this question.
The circumstances for Jesus asking Peter this question not once, not twice, but three times is apparent to those who know the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus shortly before Jesus’ death on the cross. Peter denied that he knew Jesus just as Jesus said he would do. In fact, you know in the story, Jesus even said that before the rooster would crow twice, that Peter would deny him three times.
Mark, in his gospel account, records the words of Jesus after he observed the feast of Passover with his disciples in the evening before his death. He would speak of how events would unfold that would cause them to be scattered, leaving him alone to suffer the coming indignation of arrest, physical abuse, and then being crucified. Peter, in his usual display of boldness and perhaps even bluster, declared that the others may become scattered abroad, but he would never do such a thing. Such was his love and devotion that he had for Jesus, or so he believed. But Peter failed. His love for Jesus was not the kind of love that Jesus requires of his disciples. Peter, at that moment, loved his life more than he loved Jesus. So, when Jesus, after his resurrection from the grave, asked Peter – “do you love me?” Jesus was drawing attention, not only to Peter’s great failure of denying Him three times, but also, he is stating what true love for him requires. Peter would come to a knowledge of what it means to really love Jesus. As tradition has it, Peter forfeited his own life for the sake of Jesus and His gospel.
Now as you have been reminded of this account of Jesus asking this question of Peter, what if Jesus would ask you this question, “do you love me?” How would you answer Jesus? I could ask you that question and you may say without much contemplation, “yes, I love Jesus.” But there is a vast difference in me asking you this question and Jesus asking you this question. I can be fooled by the answer, but Jesus cannot be fooled as he sees what is in your heart.
This is a great question that should be asked. By great, I am referring in terms of magnitude. Do I really love Jesus? I was in a conversation with a pastor some number of years ago. I recall him asking me about my thoughts concerning as to why the churches in our denomination were so weak and dying. There have been so many church assemblies who have closed their doors in the past fifty years. Why? After considering several possible reasons for why this has occurred, the foundational answer was stated as follows, “a lack of love for Jesus.”
In thinking back on that conversation, what I understood he was saying was that it was not that we do not have a love for Jesus, but rather it is that we do not love Jesus enough. Stated another way, such is the love that we say we have for Jesus would best be described as the same kind of love that Peter had for Jesus when he denied him three times. It was not that Peter did not love Jesus, but that he did not love him enough. The evidence that Peter had this inferior kind of love is to be seen in him weeping the bitter tears upon his remembering that Jesus had foretold he would deny him.
Jesus would have you and I to know that a love for him is not to be this inferior, superficial love but rather a superior and comprehensive love. As God the Son, Jesus taught his disciples that the love they must have for God is a love that is with “ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND” (Matthew 22:37).This description of love is a comprehensive one. It involves our whole being. It is only with this kind of love that we can truly obey the commandments of Jesus. It is only in having this description of a comprehensive love that we can avoid failing as did Peter.
Enough with the negatives of Peter’s failings because of an inferior, superficial love. Consider now the positives of Peter’s surpassing love for Jesus. Jesus said to Peter, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” Peter did this. It was Peter, on the day of Pentecost, who preached to crowds of people in Jerusalem the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did so without fear. Think about what he did on that day. It was only some 50 days, or so, earlier that he, for fear of his own life, denied Jesus three times. Now he is boldly proclaiming the gospel without any fear of what may happen. What an enormous difference in the words, “I don’t know HIM” and "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
Peter, as well as the other apostles, would be beaten, threatened, and put in prison for speaking about Jesus. This did not matter. Why? Why such boldness? The answer is two-fold. Peter, along with the other Apostles, had the ministry of the Holy Spirit leading them. They also had this great love for Jesus.
When you and I have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and leading us, and we have this great love for Jesus, we shall be able to do all that he has commanded us to do. The Acts of the Apostles give testimony to this truth.
Do you love Jesus? A superficial love for Jesus is not enough. We must love Him more than our own life. With such love exhibited by a local congregation of believers, there is nothing that can keep them from bearing much fruit. This was the lesson Peter learned. May it be the lesson we learn!
“O, how He suffer’d on the tree, No love like that before; I know and feel I love Him, yet I want to love Him more. I want to love Him more, I want to love Him more; He did so very much for me, I want to love Him more.” – F. L. Snyder