By V. Michael Bousquet
April 7, 2005
Gospel: John 21:15-19 (NRSV)
15: 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.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my lambs.' 16:A second time He said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' He said to him, 'Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend my sheep.' 17: He said to him the third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter felt hurt 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. 18: Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.' 19: (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this He said to him, 'Follow me.'
Meditation: "Answering in Full"
I once got into a conversation with someone who asked me if I thought that "The da Vinci Code" was a good book. I replied, "Oh, yes, I think it's very interesting." "Oh, that's nice," was her response. And it stopped me short. I was about to qualify my answer with reasons-literary or otherwise-why I thought it was good book. I was also prepared to address and concede reasons for why it wasn't a good book (like the flagrant factual inaccuracies). In other words, I was prepared to engage in a conversation about "The da Vinci Code;" I thought that she wanted to hear not just whether I thought the book was good (or not), by why I thought the book was good (or not).
Questions are like that sometimes. On the surface they require a very simple answer, but, implicitly, they're asking for much more. And if either the inquirer or the respondent doesn't realize this, as in my case, it can create for an awkward situation.
The questions in today's gospel are like this, too. Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, but Jesus isn't looking for a simple yes or no answer. He's looking for much more. And Peter doesn't seem to get this.
So is that why Jesus asks Peter three times? Because Peter isn't giving the answer Christ wants to hear? Well, to put it simply, yes and no. On the surface, Jesus asks three times because, thematically, that's what he ought to do. If you remember, immediately before the crucifixion, Peter denied Christ three times. Now, after the resurrection in one of the many times that Jesus appeared to his disciples, Christ is giving Peter the opportunity to make amends by affirming Him three times.
But Christ's repetition is not just for the sake of parallel construction in the plotline of the gospels. There is a sense that Jesus asks three times to hammer home the point that the answer to the question "Do you love me" requires much more than a simple "Yes Lord"-a point that Peter doesn't seems to get.
The problem with providing only a yes or no answer-even an emphatic yes or no-is that, too often, these simple words are empty and ingenuous. Affirmations and denials are fluid and mercurial-that is, someone may say something one minute and then take it back the next. Words do not show, they do not prove, the goodness or worthiness of anyone (as we have read time and time again in the Gospel stories). For Christ, only actions matter.
Whether we love Christ, then, does not depend upon what we say but upon what we do-not upon whether we shout from the mountaintops that we love Him, but whether we, indeed, go out into the world to feed His lambs and tend His sheep. We must be real spiritual and emotional strength, energy, and protection for one another. At its root, the command to feed and care for His sheep (that is, to feed and care for one another) is the command to love one another. Whether we love Christ is answered truthfully and fully not by our words, but by our actions (actions which express our love for one another).
In this sense, then, Peter's answers to Christ's questions are not only insufficient, they are not even answers at all. He has not answered yet and will not answer until he has lived the type of life that Christ is calling him to live.
If you were here last week, then you may recall that Rev. Crocker introduced the theme of this term's Chapel Series as Religion and Morality. It goes to say that every religion strives to make its members moral. The question then, is how. How, given a certain religious tradition, can I be moral? We began to answer that question last week by examining Matthew 19, where Christ says that to be good, one must sell everything one has, give the money to the poor, and then follow Christ.
Follow Christ. It is a command repeated in today's Gospel. It is both an answer and a question. If we want to answer yes to the question of whether we love Christ, it is the only answer we may give. And yet, it itself is a question calling us, challenging us, to prove ourselves to be good and loving people.
If Peter is telling the truth in saying that he loves Jesus, then he must follow Jesus-as we all must if we are to truthfully say that we love Him. But to fully answer Jesus, Peter must-as we all must-go out into the world and be a source of love for one another. To affirm Christ is to follow Christ, and to follow Christ is to be Christ for one another.
Do you love Jesus? And are you answering in full?
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