HOMILY

John 21:15-19

“Do you love me?

June 28, 2009

As the deer longs for the waterbrooks, so longs my soul for you O God!

 

Tonight’s Gospel from John has an exasperated Peter wondering why Jesus keeps asking him “Do you love me?”  John records that this was a third post-resurrection appearance by Jesus to his apostles, at which time they shared bread and fish.  It should be noted that John wrote this narrative about 70 years after Jesus’ death by crucifixion.  In this story, Jesus not only asks Peter “Do you love me?” once, but three times!  What was John trying to accomplish by having Jesus ask Peter three times if he loved him?  Perhaps an answer can be found in Jesus’ response to each of his inquiries. 

 

When Jesus asked Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” (presumably the other disciples), Peter responds “Yes, Lord: you know that I love you.”  Jesus response was “FEED MY LAMBS.”   Jesus then asked a Peter a second time: “Simon son of John, do you love me?”,  Peter responds to him: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus responds to Peter: “TEND MY SHEEP.”   Jesus then asked Peter a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter responds: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Jesus responds: “FEED MY SHEEP.”

 

We may never know why John invited us into this story of Jesus questioning Peter by challenging him if he loves him.   Why does John have Jesus testing Peter three times?  Was it perhaps that Peter had denied Jesus three times when he was on trial, prior to his crucifixion?   We will return to this story in a few minutes, but I want to relate to you an experience that I had on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul that we celebrate today.

 

In 1997, I was on a sabbatical for 7 months from the University of Arizona.  This was the first sabbatical that I had taken in the 27 years that I had been at the University.  The first leg of my journey was to Israel, where I stayed at St. George’s cathedral in East Jerusalem—just a 5-minute walk to the old city of Jerusalem.  I was jet lagged on my first night there, but was awakened by the sound of explosions around midnight.  I thought that Armageddon had begun, and timidly looked outside my window to thankfully see fireworks.  I learned the next day that the fireworks were to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Israel taking control of Jerusalem.  I was heartened to realize that I was not experiencing the end of the world.

 

The next leg of my trip was to Rome to participate in an Anglican Center program.  The Anglican Church has an ecumenical presence in Rome and a center there.  Among the things in which we participated was mass at the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican on the 29th of June, the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul.  The reason that Peter and Paul are both celebrated together is because Peter was apparently crucified on the same day that Paul was beheaded in Rome under Nero’s persecution of Christians.  Legend has it that Peter is buried in the catacombs below the high altar of St. Peter’s in Rome.  As representatives of the Anglican Centre in Rome, we had prime seats off to the side of the altar where Pope John Paul celebrated. Even then, he was very enfeebled, but completed the entire service. 

 

The holy day of St’s Peter and Paul is perhaps the highest saints day in the Roman liturgical calendar, however, Paul takes a back seat to Peter, the “rock” upon which the church is built.  The feast day is the time that the pope invests new archbishops by personally placing a cloth circlet or pallium over their heads, to commission them as new archbishops of the Church.  The first time that this was done was when Marcus was bishop of Rome (398-401) and he bestowed the pallium upon a bishop.  The pallium became a symbol of jurisdiction, and also an ornament of great honor, which indicated the highest dignity in the wearer, and the custom arose for the Supreme Pontiff to confer it upon archbishops.[1]  The simple garment was traditionally made of wool, symbolic of the shepherd and the sheep.  Palliums are stored for a full year in a silver casket below the high altar at the Basilica of St. Peter, above the burial place of Peter; they are then bestowed upon newly appointed archbishops in the line of succession from Peter.   

 

The mass was a festive event at which 29 new archbishops received the symbol of their office, and the service was surprisingly without decorum as people waived flags and took photographs—including me—throughout the service.  I was privileged to be there and participate in this very meaningful service.  And, yes, we all received Communion.

 

Returning to Jesus and Peter, I wonder if Peter really heard what Jesus said to him.  Jesus’ first response to Peter was FEED MY LAMBS.  His second reply was TEND MY SHEEP.  The third response to Peter was FEED MY SHEEP.   It is almost as if Jesus was first of all commanding Peter to care for the children (the lambs), the most vulnerable of humanity.  When Jesus responded a second time that Peter should “tend my sheep”, he was inviting Peter to care for his flock as he was no longer there to do that.  If Jesus’ mission was to have any lasting meaning, it required that someone must assume the responsibility of looking after the sheep.  Finally, Jesus responds a third time to Peter to go one step further—to not only tend his flock, but to feed them, to sustain them, just as a shepherd would do.

 

In Jesus day, shepherds were not held in high esteem by society.  Jesus metaphor of “sheep” and “shepherd” would be to place Peter in a low station in the culture—perhaps even a lower station than a fisherman.  One wonders how or if Peter really heard what Jesus said to him to feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and his final plea to feed his flock. 

 

This reminds me of another experience I had in Cambridge, England a few years back.  I know that I may have told this story before, but perhaps it bears repeating.  Cambridge has a town center, where every day of the week there are vendors selling all kinds of things from baked goods to fruits and vegetables to clothes and even used books (my downfall).  On Sundays, there are a number of food vendors there, and on this particular Sunday, I had decided that I was going to try an ostrich burger from one of the stalls.  After purchasing the burger, I went a short way away to sit down while eating.  Shortly thereafter, I was approached by a disheveled young, man who seemingly had not changed clothes or bathed in quite a while.  He quietly asked me if I would buy him one of those, pointing to the ostrich burger in my hand.  I reached into my pocket and gave him 2 pounds 40 to buy himself a burger.  I was fascinated to watch him go and longingly look at the vendor frying burgers.  Perhaps he thought that he could purchase something cheaper and still have some money left over, so he went on down the row to another stall, and another.  Then he disappeared.  He purchased nothing, did not eat, and probably went off to buy his next fix.

 

I was amazed, but not at all surprised.  But what I realized is that I did not HEAR what he said to me.  He had asked me to “buy him one of those”, and I took the easy way out by giving him the money instead.  He had specifically asked me to buy him something to eat, knowing full well that if he just received money, he would use it for drugs.  I learned a valuable lesson that day that I should tune in and listen more carefully to what others were saying to me.

 

It would appear that Peter DID indeed hear Jesus ask him to tend his sheep.  In the Book of Acts, a narrative that describes the origins of the early church, Peter takes a central role of spreading the Good News from the church in Jerusalem, while Paul did the same in the Mediterranean region.  The rest is history.

Amen


[1] Herbert Norris, Church Vestments: Their Origin and Development, Dover, New York, 2002, pp. 21-37.