Why did Christ ask Peter three times, 'Lovest thou Me?'
After the Resurrection, the Apostles were being taught in new ways—with Christ using even apparently ordinary activities to reveal divine mysteries.
After the Resurrection, the Apostles were being taught in new ways—with Christ using even apparently ordinary activities to reveal divine mysteries.
Editor’s Notes
For the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, we have chosen not to give Fr Coleridge’s commentary on the Gospel for the day, but rather on the moment when Christ the Lord bestows the primacy on St Peter.
Many believe that Christ made St Peter the Pope when he changed his name and talked about “the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.” In fact, the Church teaches that St Peter’s profession of faith gave rise to a promise of the primacy, which was ultimately bestowed following his threefold profession of charity:
We teach and declare that, according to the gospel evidence, a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter and conferred on him by Christ the lord.
It was to Simon alone, to whom he had already said:
You shall be called Cephas, that the Lord, after his confession, You are the Christ, the son of the living God, spoke these words: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the underworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
And it was to Peter alone that Jesus, after his resurrection, confided the jurisdiction of supreme pastor and ruler of his whole fold, saying:
Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
You can read more about this here:
In this part, Fr Coleridge recounts the events themselves, and in the next he draws out their significance. He tells us…
How the risen Lord revealed deep mysteries in even the simplest actions after His Resurrection.
That Peter’s threefold confession and the miraculous fishing unveil truths about the Church and her shepherds.
Why John’s unique destiny and Peter’s martyrdom show the varied paths of apostolic fidelity.
He shows us that Christ’s risen presence was not only consoling, but full of instruction for the Church to come.
Last Words by the Lake
The Passage of Our Lord to the Father
Chapter XV
St. John xxi. 1-24; Story of the Gospels, § 178, 179.
Burns and Oates, London, 1892
Deep meaning of our Lord’s actions
It is natural to add to this enumeration of the special opportunities laid open to the Apostles at this time that their more habitual intercourse with their risen Lord may be fairly considered as having enabled them ordinarily to enter more fully and deeply into the meaning of His actions, and to see in them, after the Resurrection, Divine principles and significances such as before had been hidden from them.
The actions of which we are about to speak, and have been now speaking, being instances of what we mean. For instance, the part taken by St. Peter in this mysterious fishing in the Lake of Tiberias may have had meanings to the already illuminated minds of the Apostles which they would not have had a few weeks before.
St. John seems to intend us to understand something of this kind by the manner in which he relates the incidents of the marvellous draught of fishes, the number of which he carefully records, adding that with all that number the net was not broken, the action of St. Peter in drawing the net to land, and the rest.
It seems natural now to understand the significant depth of mysterious meaning, which the Apostles must have been taught to look for in every word and action of their Master at this time, though it might be rash to suppose that they had always been accustomed to watch our Lord so carefully and in the same way at other periods. If this be so, it is natural to think that a large part of the instruction concerning the plan and working out of the Church may have been divinely conveyed to them by actions of this sort as well as by actual words.
We may be safe in approaching the scene which now follows in the narrative of St. John in this spirit, believing it to have been a scene of the deepest intelligence, which the Apostles present at it were perfectly able to understand.
The charge to feed the sheep
‘When therefore they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith to Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, Feed My lambs.
‘He saith to Him again, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? He saith to Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, Feed My lambs.
‘He saith to him the third time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved, because He had said to him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He said to him, Feed My sheep.
‘Amen, amen, I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not. And this He said, signifying by what death he should glorify God.
‘And when He had said this, He saith to him, Follow Me. Peter turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on His breast at supper, and said, Lord, who is he that shall betray Thee? Him therefore when Peter had seen, he saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith to him, So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? follow thou Me.
‘This saying therefore went abroad among the brethren that that disciple should not die. And Jesus did not say to him, He should not die, but So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee?
‘This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.’
The question about St John—meaning of ‘till I come’
We can hardly be surprised if the Apostles themselves were naturally excited, as the most firm minds frequently are, in an atmosphere which is more or less full of wonders and anticipations of future events naturally unknown. The unparalleled greatness of what had lately taken place with regard to our Lord was enough to fill them with speculations as to what was to follow, and of course their own dear friends and companions would be their most legitimate subjects of curiosity.
Our Lord partly reproved this, but did not wish their curiosity to be entirely unsatisfied. He had just given St. Peter a hint as to what was in store for him, and He did not refuse to answer the question about St. John, though we may see from the manner in which He answered it that He thought it well to check questions of the kind for the future, as being inconvenient and too large an indulgence of natural curiosity.
There is, unfortunately, some uncertainty about the exact words, as some copies read the answer in different words, as either, ‘So I will,’ or ‘If I will that he remain till I come.’ But the variation is not so important as it seems to be, for even if we understand our Lord to have used the hypothetical form of the answer, we shall be quite ready to take it as an affirmation.
An affirmation may really be conveyed in an interrogation such as that which is contained in the words before us, and it would not be unlikely that it was meant here to be so conveyed, while, on the other hand, it seems unlikely that our Lord would have mentioned the subject which seems to be alluded to in the sentence which He had put hypothetically without a purpose.
We may therefore think that the words before us are to be read as if they meant, ‘Suppose it is My will that he remain as he is until My coming, what is it to thee?’ Most persons to whom such an answer were to be given by our Lord would probably doubt very little that the meaning was that which we say.
There remains a further question, namely, as to the meaning conveyed under our Lord’s language, about remaining till He comes. The best explanation seems to be that which is often given, that the coming of our Lord at the time when our Lord was speaking, probably meant the next great and providential occasion which in the order of Divine providence could be so called in the language of Sacred Scripture.
And as to this there can be no doubt at all that the words must mean the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the polity of the Jews, an event not far distant and removed from the time at which He spoke by about a generation.
Why the Apostles went fishing
The very beginning of this incident must have been enough to suggest to the thoughtful minds of those who witnessed it, that it was not unlikely to lead to some remarkable display of power from our Lord, which might contain some wonderful mysteries.
The motive of the seven Apostles in betaking themselves once more to their old familiar vocation of fishing in the Lake at night may have been a very simple one. They had a fairly large company to provide for, and it is not likely that they were overflowing with worldly resources at a time when the great blow of the Passion had so lately fallen. It was very natural that they should think of passing the night in the manner which was so familiar to them.
They had evidently but recently arrived on the shores of the Lake, and if they had not yet seen our Lord after their return to Galilee, the Lake would be a place where it was natural for them to expect Him. That the fishing turned out at first unsuccessful, would only remind them of former failures of the same kind. The disciples would not be surprised at the failure, but when a strange voice came to them from out of the waning darkness, they may have been arrested by the similarity which began to manifest itself between this and former incidents on the Lake, and perhaps it was not the keen, loving heart of St. John alone that began to beat more quickly with the hope that they might once again find themselves in His company.
They were ready enough to obey the command to cast the net on the right side of the boat. They could remember former occasions on which a command of the kind had been obeyed, and their obedience rewarded by a miracle. It was so now, and the wonderful draught of fishes which their net had enclosed after so long and barren fishing, must have struck them with a sudden awe. St. John recognized our Lord instantaneously, ‘It is the Lord,’ he said to St. Peter.
St. Peter at once leaped into the sea, for, as the Evangelist tells us, they were not at a great distance from the shore. But we need not repeat what has been already told in the words of St. John, only taking occasion now and then to remark on his narrative.
It is clear, as has been said, that the circumstances must have prepared the Apostles for something striking and mysterious. In this fresh manifestation of our Lord, which seems to have been the first which they had seen since their return to Galilee—a beginning of instructions which were fraught with marvellous revelations almost from the very first—it may have been clear that the new teaching was in some measure connected with Peter and his position and history.
He it is who initiated this miraculous fishing, and who takes the lead all through, who finally lands the net with all its contents unbroken at the feet of our Lord. There are commentators who have found a significant meaning in the number of large fishes, one hundred and fifty-three, as well as in other details of the story.
After the meal was finished, it became more plain than before that our Lord had His own purpose of indirect instruction in the whole.
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Last Words by the Lake
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