Chapter 5 - Peter (part 1)

…I remember just being so disappointed in myself, so frustrated at my inability to share openly. I tried again to summon the courage to say what I needed to say, but the words wouldn’t come…

John 21: 1-19

21 Afterwards Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.  It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ‘I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’
‘No,’ they answered.
He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’ When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, ‘It is the Lord,’ he wrapped his outer garment round him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred metres. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’
‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’
16 Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’
He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’
17 The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’
Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and
someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, ‘Follow me!’

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Background:

This is a very familiar story from the end of John’s Gospel, but when we look at it carefully there are quite a few things to examine, that help to give a better understanding of the passage before we start looking at it from Peter’s perspective.

  1. How and why have they moved from Jerusalem to Galilee?  Matthew and Mark record an instruction for the disciples to go from Jerusalem to Galilee (Matt 28:10 and Mark 16:7), whereas Luke’s Gospel has all the action happening in Jerusalem.  However, in Acts, Luke shares that Jesus appeared to the disciples on many occasions over a period of forty days, the final appearance being outside Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12).

    Forty days would have been a long time for the disciples to be hanging around in Jerusalem.  Firstly, they would have been hugely presuming on the hospitality of the people that owned the house with the upper room, or on that of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany.  And secondly, as rumours were undoubtedly growing about the resurrection of Jesus over that period, the authorities would have been on the lookout for them in Jerusalem. 

  2. There is the miraculous catch of fish that echoes what happened near the beginning of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11), when Jesus first calls Peter to follow him.  In the passage from Luke, we have the same sequence; they have been fishing all night and caught nothing; Jesus tells them to throw the net on the other side; they have a catch of fish so large that it almost breaks the net.
    The nets used in Jesus’ time were made of linen and visible to the fish, hence fishing by boats was mainly done at night.  At night the fish could not see the net as easily and so there was a far greater chance of a good catch.  It would have been possible to catch fish in the daytime, but only in small numbers.  The disciples would know that to get a huge day time catch, as they did in John 21 and Luke 5, was just not possible.

  3. Why does Peter jump out of the boat and swim ashore to get to Jesus before the others?  It seems that the boat wasn’t that far from the shore.  Was he just keener to see Jesus, or was something else going on?

  4. The Greek word ἀνθρακιά (anthrakia) that is used to describe the charcoal fire on the beach only occurs in one other place in the Bible, and that is when it is used to describe the charcoal fire in the courtyard of the high priest (John 18:18).  If the miraculous catch is a reminder for Peter of when Jesus called him to follow, the charcoal fire must have been a reminder of when he denied he even knew Jesus.

  5. In verse 13 we again see Jesus taking on the role of a servant, as he serves them with the bread and fish.  But it doesn’t just say that he served them.  John gives some seemingly unnecessary detail in describing how Jesus ‘came and took and gave the bread and also the fish’.  For me this echoes the detail in the text when he took, gave thanks and gave the bread in the feeding of the 5000 (John 6:11) and also how he took, gave thanks, broke and gave the bread at the last supper (Luke 22:19).  All reinforcing a familiar ritual when they ate together with Jesus.

  6. In the second part of the reading Jesus and Peter move away from the group.  It doesn’t explicitly state this in the text, but it is implied in John 21:20, ‘Peter turned and saw that the disciple who Jesus loved was following them.’ So they must have walked away from the group, and John, following, was obviously keen to be part of a conversation that he hadn’t been invited to.

  7. Why is Peter hurt when Jesus asks him for the third time, ‘Do you love me?’  It’s helpful to understand that there are two different words for ‘love’ that are used in verses 15 to 17.  In verses 15 and 16, when Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, the Greek word that is translated as ‘love’ is agapé, whereas in verse 17 John records Jesus as using a different Greek word for love, ‘phileō’.  In all three of his replies Peter never uses the word agapé, he only ever uses the word phileō.  St Paul uses the Greek word agapé to describe the sacrificial, giving love that Jesus has for us (agapé is also the word he uses in that famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13, ‘Love is patient, love is kind…’). In contrast phileō is not as strong a word for love, and would be used to mean a strong affection between friends or companions.

  8. Throughout John’s Gospel he is referred to as ‘Simon Peter’ or ‘Peter’, but in this passage Jesus just calls him by the name he was given by his parents, ‘Simon’.  Jesus gave him the name Peter in John 1:42. The name Peter means ‘rock’, and Jesus makes this clear in Matthew’s Gospel where this renaming happens when Simon/Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus says, ‘And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church.’ (Matt 16:18).  Why then does Jesus just call him Simon in this passage? What impact does that have on Peter?

  9. Finally, Jesus’ words at the end of this passage are simple, but loaded with meaning… ‘Follow me.’  A reminder of the words he says to Peter when he first calls him to be a disciple.  When a Rabbi invited someone to become one of his disciples, he would say, ‘Follow me.’  If a Rabbi invited you to follow him, that meant that he believed you could be like him… that you could teach what he taught, do what he did, and live like he lived.  So, with those 2 simple words Jesus is saying to Peter, ‘I believe in you.’

Before reading on, I suggest you pause and ask God to speak to you through this reflection, read the passage from John’s Gospel again, and then imagine that you have Peter sitting with you, sharing his story, witnessing to what happened on that day.

As before, when you read through the Bible passage and the story:

  1. Take time to notice how you feel about what you are reading.

  2. Are there things in the story that jar, or resonate with you?
    Are there things that surprise you, or that you disagree with?
    Why is that?

  3. If you were Peter, how would it feel to see the charcoal fire on the beach?  How would it feel to hear Jesus say, ‘Follow me.’?

  4. And the end of the story, before moving on to the thoughts and questions for reflection, pause and ask God what he might be wanting you to take from this story.

  5. If you find it helpful, make notes in a journal as you read and pray.

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