03.04. The Question Peter Would Not Answer.

The Question Peter Would Not Answer.

John 21:15. The character of Simon Peter ever attracts us. His numerous faults, his blundering impetuosity and his impulsive love make him wondrously human, and appeal greatly to men. We feel that he is one of ourselves. That Jesus could turn Simon into Peter, the weak denier of his Name into the strong Rock Apostle is one of the wonders of divine grace, and a most encouraging thing to any disciple who is painfully conscious of his weakness.

Few passages of Scripture are more familiar or more dear than that in which "the disciple whom Jesus loved" tells the story of the rehabilitation of his friend who had in an agony of fears repented of his denial of the Master. It is with one sentence of the story recorded in John 21:1-25 that we now deal. Jesus asked: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?" This question of our Lord is one of the best examples of an ambiguous text. With the Greek text there is precisely the same ambiguity as with the English. So far as grammar is concerned, the meaning might be either "Lovest thou me more than these other disciples love me?" or "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these?"--"these" in this case referring to the boat and nets and the old fisherman’s life generally. We must grant to interpreters the right to stand by either construction, so far as the verse by itself is concerned. There is, of course, no need to suppose that there would be doubt as to the reference when Jesus used the words; here is a case where tone or gesture would make the meaning clear and remove possible ambiguity.

More than you love these? With preachers, much more than with commentators, we find it common to make the question mean, "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these?" The best of such interpreters link up the words with Peter’s sudden abandonment of the boat and fishing gear. They also declare (as does Dr. Marcus Dods) that if Christ had meant "Lovest thou me more than these love me?" then "the second personal would almost necessarily he expressed; but as the words stand, the contrast is not between ’you’ and ’these,’ but between ’me’ and ’these.’ " This cannot be so decisive as it sounds, for the overwhelming majority of commentators accept the view which Dods criticises. Moffatt’s rendering in his New Translation is, "Do you love me more than the others do?" and Weymouth similarly translates the passage.

Sometimes, in order to make a point, speakers support their choice of readings by the suggestion that there was special reason for Christ’s asking Simon if he loved him more than be loved his fishing gear and the old life. Probably many readers of this have literally "suffered" the words of exhorters who say that Simon’s having been on a fishing expedition on the Sea of Galilee is proof that he had gone back to his old life, and that consequently there was need of the question, Will you put me before these things? This manner of speech is wholly unwarranted, and distorts the Scriptures. Every reader should know that the despair and doubt of the disciples at the crucifixion of the Saviour had been removed by his resurrection and two appearances to groups of apostles, and one to Peter individually, prior to the appearance recorded in John 21, which is described as "the third time that Jesus manifested himself to the disciples [i. e., to a group of such], after that he was risen from the dead." The command not to depart from Jerusalem till they were endued with power from on high was given later to the apostles, and was obeyed by them. Moreover, the presence of Simon and the other apostles in Galilee, so far from being evidence that they had lost their faith and gone back to the old life, was proof of their obedience to the word of Christ who had told them to depart into Galilee, he would meet them (Matthew 28:8, Matthew 28:10, Matthew 28:16; Mark 16:17, cf. Matthew 14:28).

Gross ignorance may explain but cannot excuse the attempt to make a point with an audience at the expense of the good name of the apostles. They were in Galilee at Jesus’ command; and there is not, in John 21:1-25 or elsewhere in the Gospels, a hint that they were doing an unworthy thing in going fishing. The thought that this indicated a renunciation of their apostolic work is ludicrous. To show the lengths to which some will go, we quote from a recent writer who refers to Peter and the fishing in the following terms: "After having lived in a state of high pressure for three years, a moral and spiritual listlessness had set in. Life had lost its force: there was no light ahead. Dejected, overwhelmed with the dread re-action from those years of exaltation, Peter gave himself up to black depression. And now from the far past came memories of youthful days. In his ears sounded the lap of the waters on the lake side, the rattle of tackle, and the grind of boat-keels on the pebbly shore. In a moment the call from the past is answered; he must make some response to the inward urge for immediate action. He would make those three years as though they had never been: ’I go a-fishing.’ And the others replied, ’We also go with thee.’ There is something rather wonderful in that manifestation of comradeship in despair." Most of this is sheer imagination, and if we asked for justification there could be no adequate response. It is a gratuitous, if unconscious, libel perpetrated for the purpose of making a sermonic point.

We are far from suggesting that all who read our Lord’s question to mean "Lovest thou me more than thou lovest these?" are guilty of such an offence as the foregoing indicates. Some of them are reputed exegetes and draw excellent lessons from their reading. To many a man to-day, to numbers of Christians who are in danger of allowing too great an encroachment of worldly cares, or too great an absorption in business, and possibly to some readers of this, the appropriate question of our Lord would be: Do you love me more than you love these? There was no more insistent demand made by Christ than that he be given first place. One must not love father or mother more than him. We must hold earthly possessions loosely, be prepared to renounce all, and turn the back on self; else we cannot be his disciples. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." The familiar injunction summarises a great deal of our Master’s teaching and finds the highest exemplification in his own life of consecration. This great demand may be indicated to us in the question, "Lovest thou me more than these?"

More than these love me? The writer, however, has no doubt that the meaning of Christ’s inquiry is, Do you love me more than these other disciples love me? There is one objection to this which some people apparently regard as insuperable. It is alleged that the Lord Jesus could not have instituted a comparison such as suggested. Dr. Marcus Dods, for example, asks, "Would the characteristic tact and delicacy of Jesus have allowed him to put a question involving a comparison of Peter with his fellow-disciples?" If the interpretation, which with the great majority of exegetes we accept, involved the view that it was our Lord who initiated such a comparison, the objection, we think, would be fatal As it is, the words of Dr. Dods and those on his side seem to us singularly to miss the point. It was Peter himself who instituted the comparison. He had vaunted himself above the other disciples, and had declared, "If all shall be offended in thee, I will never be offended."

He had, moreover, dared to contradict the Saviour when he foretold his sad denial, declaring, "Even if I must die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." Yet Peter’s bold confidence and foolish boasting were speedily followed by a three-fold denial of Christ. His sad case forcibly illustrates the lesson of Paul’s text, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." No wonder that the Lord Jesus had said: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you (the word is plural and refers to the group of apostles), that he might sift you as wheat; but I made supplication for thee (the singular shows the special need of him who was most confident of his strength), that thy faith fail not." Our Lord’s inquiry, Lovest thou me more than these love me? would bring all this to Peter’s mind. It is indicative of a changed viewpoint, of a new humility and self-distrust learnt by bitter experience, that Simon did not answer Jesus’ question. He did not say anything about loving Christ more than others; there could now be no vaunting of himself or depreciation of others. But with absolute sincerity Peter could declare, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Thrice over, as if to offset the three denials, is this confession of love elicited. A three-fold charge to "feed my lambs," "tend my, sheep," and "feed my sheep", proved how fully the Saviour forgave him his lapse and restored him to fellowship and service. It was the complete rehabilitation of Simon. He had "turned again" and so was able to keep the exhortation "stablish thy brethren" (Luke 22:32).

Following this new charge, the Lord revealed to Peter that faithfulness to his renewed Call would mean the literal fulfilment of the promise, once given unthinkingly, that he would be willing to die with Christ. "When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." In his last message to his brethren, Peter wrote, "The putting off of my tabernacle cometh swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ signified unto me." Tradition which need not be doubted tells of his being a faithful martyr and sealing his testimony with his blood.