By Robert E. Coleman
After they had finished eating, Jesus asks Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" Giving a strong affirmative response, the big fisherman is told: "Feed my lambs" (
21:15).
Not content to leave the issue, however, Jesus asks again, "Simon, son of John, do you truly love me?" Receiving the same answer, Jesus makes a similar application (
21:16). Then, without further comment, He quickly comes back to the decisive question, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" (
21:17).
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Grieved that Jesus would interrogate him about this three times, Peter adamantly affirms: "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Whereupon, after reemphasizing the necessity of feeding his sheep, Jesus tells Peter what love will cost in obedience (
21:18-22).
By focusing on this truth, Jesus brings out the underlying question in Christian service. Though speaking to Peter, His words were uttered in the hearing of the other disciples, and could just as well be directed to everyone who would follow Him. You can hear Him call your name, as He asks, "Bill, Mary, Simon son of John, do you truly love me?"
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Observe that Jesus is the object of love. Not a creed, not a church, not a religion, but Jesus asks, "Do you love me?"
He sets Himself before us as the only way to fully know God. In His meeting with the disciples following the Last Supper, He told them: "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me" (
John 14:6). Not only does He exclude other options of access, but He affirms that God has "granted Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those" who come unto Him (
John 17:2).
How men and women respond to His claims becomes the crucial question in determining human destiny. He is the revelation of God in human personality, who, in the fullness of time, assumed our identity in the flesh. He bore in His body our sorrows and griefs and, finally, accepted the judgment for our sins on the cross, suffering for us, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. Put to death in the flesh, He was raised again by the Holy Spirit, and ever lives to make intercession for His people (
1 Pet. 3:18;
Heb. 7:25).
"Simon, do you love me?"
There is good reason to ask. Not long before, Peter had three times denied his Lord. The memory of that tragic failure was doubtless awakened by the thrice-repeated question, just as the fire must have reminded him of that night in the palace courtyard when he swore that he was no friend of Jesus (
Mark 14:66-72;
Matt. 26:69-75;
Luke 22:54-62;
John 18:25-27).