John 21:2-18
Easter 5
Last Sunday, I used John 21 at the end of my sermon to make the point that Christ invites all of us to be part of the work he did throughout his earthly ministry. Using Peter to make my point, I said, “Feed Jesus’s sheep not because you need a notch on your spiritual belt or to earn favor with God but because, like Peter, you love the Lord.”
I thought the sermon was pretty good. I left worship proud of myself for weaving Psalm 23, Good Shepherd Sunday, and a call to caring for the physical needs of our neighbors not to earn favor with God but instead because we have experienced God's amazing grace. As I walked home last Sunday and as I ate my usual post-church peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a nagging feeling came over me. I realized that I had shortchanged you by oversimplifying the interaction between Jesus and Peter.
The guilt I felt was not crippling in the sense that I was unable to go about the rest of my day. I was still able to coach first base, hit balls at the driving range, and have dinner with my family. Still, the feeling nagged at me that in shortchanging you, I failed to share the full story of God’s grace.
We all carry feelings of guilt and shame with us throughout our lives. Guilt and shame for things we have done. Guilt and shame for things we have left undone. The feeling of guilt can still linger after hearing the words of forgiveness, “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. That proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.”[i] Even after responding to the words of forgiveness saying, “Glory to God!” we may still feel the effects of shame. The corporate confession covers all of us, but we tell ourselves that our particular sins and shortcomings are too big to be included.
In her book Daring Greatly, author Brené Brown defines shame as “the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging—something we’ve experienced, done, or failed to do makes us unworthy of connection.”
Brown does not “believe shame is helpful or productive. “In fact,” she writes, “shame is much more likely to be the source of destructive, hurtful behavior than the solution or cure.”
Peter might have carried guilt and shame with him after he denied knowing Jesus. After Jesus was arrested and taken into the high priest's court, Peter was approached by a woman while he warmed his hands around a charcoal fire.
“‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’”[ii]
“Sure, I might have heard of Jesus, who hasn’t?! But one of his disciples? Lady, you’ve got the wrong guy.”
Jesus told Peter this would happen. After Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet and told them one of the disciples would betray him, Jesus said to Peter, “Before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.”[iii]
“Peter, before the morning comes after my arrest, you will tell the people you do not know me.”
And Jesus was right—he has a habit of being right. But before we rag on Peter, consider what occurred. Peter was in the middle of an emotional rollercoaster. He had experienced the joy of the Last Supper and the horror of Jesus’s arrest because of Judas’s betrayal and now waited in fear of what might happen next—Jesus’s crucifixion. His own?
Then, in the midst of this rollercoaster, when push came to shove, Peter said, “I do not know that man.”
It seemed as though the light of the resurrection could not overcome the guilt and shame Peter must have felt.
Jesus appeared to the disciples while they were fishing. After the dust of the first Easter had settled, the disciples went back to what they had been doing before they followed Jesus. It’s not that they forgot who Jesus was or what they had heard and seen, but rather, they were getting back into the routine of life. They had to eat. They had to earn a living. While they were far from shore, Jesus told the men to cast their nets on the other side of their boat. Jesus told the disciples, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”[iv] So they cast their nets on the other side of the boat and went from an inability to catch anything to the inability to haul in the catch.
The disciples came to shore, where Jesus had prepared a meal for them. Around a charcoal fire recalling the one in the courtyard where Peter said “No” to being a disciple of Jesus, the one Peter denied fed the seven men a meal that recalled the feeding of the five thousand.
I felt guilty about last Sunday’s sermon because I didn’t give you the whole story. Before Jesus told Peter to “Feed my lambs,” Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” The question is a big one that sets up the rest of the scene.
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”[v]
“Simon son of John, do you love me?”[vi]
“Simon son of John, do you love me?”[vii]
We find that Peter was upset that Jesus would ask this three times. But Jesus’s line of question originated from a place of love, not condemnation. Dr. David Ford, Professor of Divinity Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, wrote, “Mutual love like this is the goal of the Gospel. But the relationship between Jesus and Peter has been broken by Peter's threefold denial of Jesus, despite his confidence that he would be willing to lay down his life. Now Jesus takes the initiative and, without explicitly mentioning the past, gives Peter a fresh start.”[viii]
Not all confrontations are bad. “Peter is being examined on love in love,” writes Dr. Ford.
The threefold pattern Jesus uses outweighs the threefold pattern of Peter’s denials, “signaling forgiveness, rehabilitation, and mutuality.”[ix]
The deliberateness of Jesus’s words to Peter highlights how difficult it is to accept that after we have turned away and failed in our love of God and neighbor, we are still entirely “loved, forgiven, trusted, and welcomed into full mutuality”[x] with Christ.
The light of the resurrection pulls us out of shame and guilt and invites us into a new life in Christ. Jesus did not repeat his line of question to Peter to shame the Rock upon which the Church would be built but rather to be crystal clear that not only has Peter been absolved of his sin but also that shame and guilt are no longer necessary.
In the face of Peter’s public denial, Jesus gives Peter a great responsibility – “Feed my sheep.”[xi] A moment for which many of us would prescribe guilt or shame, Jesus prescribed grace.
The resurrection of Christ is not just a historical event; it is a living reality, the living hope that continues to transform lives today. Through the faithfulness of our resurrected Lord, the burden of shame and guilt has been lifted from our shoulders. No longer do we need to wallow in self-condemnation, for in Christ Jesus, we find forgiveness, restoration, and a fresh start.
When we return to our fishing nets after the Easter celebration, we can hold fast to the truth that our worthiness of love and belonging is not determined by our past mistakes or present imperfections. Instead, it is rooted in the unconditional love of God, demonstrated through Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
The burdens of shame and guilt are lifted, knowing that our gracious Savior truly loves, forgives, and accepts us. And we now live in the light of resurrection hope, let us respond to Christ's call with joy and gratitude, eagerly proclaiming his love to a world in desperate need of redemption.
[i] UMC Hymnal. Page 12.
[ii] John 21:17
[iii] John 13:38
[iv] John 15:5
[v] John 21:15
[vi] John 21:16
[vii] John 21:17
[viii] Ford, John. Page 423
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] John 21:17
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