John 21:17

John 21:17. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? In this third question, apparently a repetition of the first and second, one word (‘lovest') is changed: for the word which he had used before, Jesus substitutes that less elevated, more familiar word with which Peter had already twice replied, ‘I love Thee.' It is this that constitutes to the apostle the painful force of the third question. Not only is his own word taken up by Jesus, but that word is one by which he had sought to give utterance to the strength of his affection. And now Jesus says to him, ‘Peter, dost thou really thus love Me as thou sayest? But a little while ago, what was thy denial of thy Friend? Is it otherwise now? I will take thee at thine own word. May I trust thee that, with that love of which thou speakest, thou lovest Me?'

Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou seest that I love thee. Peter's grief is at once intelligible, not simply because he had been three times questioned as to his love, but because the third time his own statement, twice made, had been taken up, and he had been asked to consider well whether it was really true, whether he might not be again misjudging himself. But he was not merely grieved, he was also disciplined; his grief was wholesome. Up to this point there seems to have been some faint trace of self in his replies: at all events he had stood before his Lord as if his Lord were peculiarly reading him: he had not wholly forgotten himself. Now, however, all his past weakness and sin rise to his view: can he who has been so guilty have any special value? Surely not: if he is known, he is known only as one of ‘all things;' with such emptiness of self he will cast himself upon his Lord, and only say, ‘Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou seest that I love Thee.' The victory of grace is complete, and he receives his final charge. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

We have still to say a word or two of the threefold charge which is given in the words, ‘Feed my lambs,' ‘Be shepherd of my sheep,' ‘Feed my sheep.' It is a little doubtful whether we ought to understand by the ‘lambs' the younger members of the Christian community, or the whole flock in its weakest and most elementary stage of Christian growth: the contrast with ‘sheep' leads upon the whole to the former view. The charge to the apostle is ‘Feed ‘these lambs: not less than the older members of the flock do they require the shepherd's most thoughtful as well as his most tender care. After this we have ‘sheep' twice mentioned (for a slight difference of reading found in some ancient manuscripts does not materially affect the meaning), and the only point we have to consider is the difference between ‘Be shepherd of' and ‘Feed.' The structural principles of the Gospel at once tell that there is a climax; and that climax seems to correspond to the gradation exemplified by a pastor as he himself grows in knowledge and experience. At first he is eager to perform all offices for his flock, thinking all equally important; perhaps even most pleased with the rule that has been assigned to him, and in which his own importance most appears. But soon, if he has the spirit of a real shepherd, he learns that to bear rule is comparatively a small thing, and that to ‘feed' the flock of God, to nourish it on pastures ever fresh, and with waters ever living, is at once his most difficult and his noblest task. Peter is now ready to hear what, in tending his Master's flock, he is to do and suffer.