Today’s reading is John 21.
Jesus offers restoration to Peter and also a role to him. Then He provides Peter reassurance. But to our ears it doesn’t sound like reassurance at all. In fact, most of us, listening from the side, cannot imagine such a recruitment speech would ever work.
In John 21:18-19, Jesus, having allowed Peter to proclaim his love three times as if cancelling out the three denials and then offering him a job, declares, “By the way, if you do this, in the end you’ll die a cruel, inhumane, awful death…If this sounds good to you, follow Me.”
And Peter does.
What’s up with that?
The key is in the call, “Follow Me.” Recall in John 13:36-38, Jesus told the apostles, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter pushed back against this, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (ESV). In that exchange, Peter claimed he would follow Jesus even to death. Jesus explained Peter couldn’t follow Him at that time. And he couldn’t, because he simply didn’t understand Jesus’s path. Peter had been willing to follow Jesus into glorious battle, but he was not able to follow Jesus to shameful surrender and crucifixion. Despite posturing and crowing in front of the other apostles, when the moment of truth came to follow Jesus to the kind of sacrifice, service, and death Jesus would take, Peter failed. When it came time to drink from Jesus’s cup, Peter poured it out.
How weak Peter now felt. How useless. He had failed. Would he ever keep his word? Could he ever keep his word to Jesus? Being restored to fellowship was itself too much to expect. Then being offered a job was far more than Peter could, no doubt, fathom. But why take the job when he already knew he was a failure? Why take the job when he already knew he couldn’t keep the commitment?
Jesus provides reassurance. “Peter, if you love Me and feed my sheep, I promise you, one day you will keep your commitment to me. You said you would lay down your life for me and I now that right now you feel like a complete and eternal failure. But I’m telling you, one day you will succeed. Now is the time you can follow Me. So follow Me.”
What we tend to see as Jesus telling Peter to count the cost and how awful it is going to be in the end, is actually Jesus telling Peter he will one day succeed in keeping his greatest promise. But only if He follows Jesus. This is not, “Peter, you’re strong enough. You can do it.” This is, “Peter, follow me, I promise you, I’ll get you there.”
I wonder how many times Peter thought back to this conversation? After all, it’s not like this was Peter’s last failure. How many times did he have to pick himself back up from stumbling, dust off his clothes, and remind himself, “Jesus told me I would make it if I just follow Him. Time to keep following Him”?
May I point out it is Peter who says, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10, ESV). In other words, through Peter, Jesus has promised you, if you just keep following Jesus, He will get you there. You won’t make it because you are strong enough. You won’t make it because this time you can do it. Don’t convince yourself to hang in there because this time you’ll measure up. Keep following Jesus because He has promised to take things in hand and get you into His kingdom, if you will just keep turning to and following Him.
Can we help you turn to Him, turn back to Him, or keep following Him? Let us know in the comments section below.
Tomorrow’s reading is John 21.
PODCAST!!!
PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does John 21 prompt or improve your trust in God?
Read the Bible 