220522 Sermon on John 16:23-33 (Easter 6) May 22, 2022

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Faith is expecting something, hoping in something, relying on something. It is not just the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who is believed in. We have faith in all kinds of things. We have faith in our car, for example, that it will work. We have the expectation that when we go out to the car we will be able to get in it, turn it on, and go where we want. But sometimes our expectations turn out to be wrong. We come outside and see that there’s a flat tire. We turn the key and it doesn’t turn on. It is nice when what we believe in turns out to be reliable. It is painful when what we believe in fails us.

Cars are just one example. The fact is that we believe in so many things. If we were to conduct a poll, I suspect that most people would say that the last several years have not been too nice. Why is that? Is it because COVID has killed so many of our family and friends? I don’t think that’s the true source of our pain. What hurts is that the stuff we used to believe in hasn’t been working. We used to believe in the news. Now there’s this camp’s news and that camp’s news, and the news sources say totally different things. We used to believe that we could get along with each other. But one person believes that this and that is true, while another person believes that those very same things are literally lies or conspiracy theories. It’s like the tower of Babel all over again. We can’t understand someone from a different camp. We don’t want to work together. We are being driven apart. Our faith in the reasonability of one another has been broken.

Other things are failing too. We used to believe that we could afford to buy gas. We used to believe that the grocery stores would always be fully stocked. We used to believe that our elections would always be fair and free. It is painful, and perhaps frightening, when the things that we used to believe were so reliable that you could set your watch by them are going wonky. It is as though the sun, the moon, and the stars are no longer following their normal courses. People are about to be fainting in fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the earth.

Although it is painful to have our faith shattered in the things that we used to believe in, it certainly need not be the worst thing that could ever happen to us. Folks can use this loss of confidence for their eternal good if they quit believing in the things of this world and come to believe in the one true God, but not everybody is going to do that. The break-down of things that we believe in can serve as a wake-up call. It can serve as a call to repentance. But it is certainly possible for people to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

Although it is painful and disheartening and inconvenient and scary to have the things that we believe in break, this is by no means the worst of God’s wrath. The Bible is full of examples of God sending painful, disturbing things even on his own people. These things can serve to turn people away from believing in created things toward the Creator. That is not bad. That is good.

The worst of God’s wrath is when he gives us what we want. What we want is to push the snooze button. What we want is for everything we believe in always to work. But all this other stuff that we believe in is not God. All this other stuff dies and decays and disintegrates. Even we ourselves—it feels good to believe in ourselves—but what is to become of us? We get old. The time we have on this earth grows shorter and shorter. All it takes is one disease or another and we are gone. In the very midst of life snares of death surround us.

Nobody wants to believe that. The faith we have in ourselves and in other created things has to be broken against our will. That is always painful. So it is always tempting to turn away from the harsh reality, to take a narcotic and slip off back to sleep.

But there is another option available to those whom the Lord God reveals himself. Those who are blessed to hear the good news, the Gospel, know the only true God. Not only do they know who the true God is, but they also know the will of this true God. It is God’s will to redeem us poor, mortal sinners by Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead. It is the will of this true God that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. We are redeemed from death and we will live in the new heavens and the new earth, the heavenly Jerusalem, that was described in our second reading. We are to see God. Everything else falters and fails. The one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, will not let down the one who trusts in him. Eternal rest and perpetual light is what is given to the faithful departed.

Knowing the true God, his revealed will, and the end-point that is in store for those who believe in him is important for understanding what Jesus says about prayer in our Gospel reading. If we place our hopes and dreams in earthly things, then we will hear his words one way. If we learn to look for the things of the life to come, then we will start to hear them another way. What we are hoping for matters. Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “Whatever you ask the Father in my Name he will give it to you… Ask and receive that you joy may be complete.”

As soon as we hear that many things can come to mind. Immediately we probably believe that it can’t be true. I’ll prove it. I’ll ask the Father to turn stones to bread, tacking on the magic words, “in Jesus’s Name.” When the stones don’t turn to bread we can all see that this doesn’t work. Immediately we are prone to put the Lord our God to the test.

Interestingly the kinds of things that come to mind when we hear that anything we ask for in Jesus’s Name will be given to us is the kinds of things that we hear about in fairy tales or comic book heroes. We think this is like the genie from the lamp. Rub the lamp, make your request, and voila. Or we might think of superheroes with super-human abilities. We can zap this or that. We can change this or that. It’s easy to think of Jesus’s Name as being magical. Just say, “Abracadabra,” and let your will be done.

But perhaps you remember that Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations in the wilderness to engage in magic. The devil said to Jesus, “You’re hungry. If you are the Son of God command these stones to become bread.” But Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The devil took Jesus to the top of the temple and said, “Throw yourself down, for it is written that he will command the angels to prevent you from striking your foot against a stone.” But Jesus said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

The devil took him to a place where Jesus could see all the kingdoms with all their wealth and power. “Just bow down and worship me and they shall all be yours.” Jesus said, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

When we hear that the Father will give us whatever we should ask in Jesus’s Name we very quickly and easily slip into wanting to perform magic. It’s in our bones. We believe that we know what is good and what is evil. What is good is whatever I desire. What is evil is whatever is against my will. So gimme what I want, and let whatever I don’t want be gone! The way that the devil tempted Adam and Eve was by telling them that God was holding out on them. God didn’t want them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because then they would be like God. If only they would take in hand the magical power offered in the fruit, then their joy would be complete. Then all things would be subject to their will. Ever since then we have been infected with the desire to practice magic.

Ever since then, by nature, we have no desire to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. By nature we have wanted to make a paradise for ourselves by discovering and manipulating the things of this world. We want to believe in the things of this world. We want them all to work for us and to work like clock-work. When we hear Jesus say that whatever we ask in his Name the Father will give us, it is very easy to want to test that out by asking for things that would restore our faith in the broken things of this world. We want to be gods. We want to bend everything to our own will. We want to zip and zap, harnessing the power of prayer, and putting it to work for us.

It is not God’s will, however, that we should replace him as God. It is not God’s will that we should believe in ourselves, or in our spiritual powers, or in our faith, or in the power of our praying. Those are idols. How could God want us to believe in created things—impotent, rusting, and rotting idols—even very spiritual looking idols such my power of praying? We are to believe in him and his good and gracious will.

To pray in Jesus’s Name means that we are praying according to what Jesus has done and accomplished. Jesus did not die and rise and ascend into heaven in order to alienate us from God, in order to make us not believe in him, but to believe in ourselves instead. He did not do what he did to restore our faith in the things and the experiences of this world. Jesus did what he did to show us God’s will, that we should believe that God is for us, that we should believe that there is a place that is prepared for us with many rooms, and that Jesus will come to us to bring us there.

By nature we believe that it would be quite something if, by the power of our prayer, we could, without fail, remove someone’s illness or move a mountain into the sea. There are much greater things than these. Much greater things have already been given to you. It is much greater to be raised together with Jesus. It is much greater that we have been justified so that the Law, which otherwise cries out for justice to be done against us, is silenced. You have Christ’s own righteousness. Paul says of the heaven that is to come that no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him. In Jesus’s Name these greater things are yours.

So we must not let magical thinking deceive us or mislead us into false belief or despair concerning Jesus’s words. Jesus really means it when he says that whatever we ask in Jesus’s Name the Father will give us. We are not thereby turned into gods or superheroes. We have already been made children of God. We have conquered death and every sadness. Neither death nor sadness can forever maintain their grip on us. We have an incredible future in store for us in this life as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and in the life to come when we will be completely holy. Asking God to forgive you for but one sin is of greater and more eternal consequences than possessing the entire earth with all its kingdoms. Although that is so great a thing, you know full well that God hears you and grants your prayer when you pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

It seems to be standard operating procedure for the devil to tempt us with what is lesser so that we give up on what is greater and better. The knowledge he promised to Adam and Eve was much less and turned out to be a lie compared to what they had prior to that. Often the devil tempts us to reach out and grab what has not been given to us. Ill-gotten gains in terms of money or sex are supposed to make our joy complete. The truth is that God has better things laid up for those who live according to his will—even in these areas of life that prove to otherwise be so tempting to us. God will purify and fulfill whatever kernel of good there be in the lusts that harass us, so the devil is lying when he says that obeying him is the only way to be happy. When it comes to prayer we are misled to believe that what is truly great is manipulating the things of this world. What is greater, however, by far, is the eternal rest and perpetual light enjoyed by the faithful departed.

Jesus means what he says. Believe him. Believe in the Father. Do not believe in yourself or your own magical powers. Ask the Father in Jesus’s Name and he will give it to you—the things that are good for you in this life and for the life that is to come.

220508 Sermon on John 10:22-33 (Easter 4) May 8, 2022

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A common temptation for those who have little patience with puzzles is to make pieces fit by jamming them together. The pieces don’t quite match up, but close enough. The goal of finishing is more important than understanding each part of the puzzle for what it is. When the pieces of the puzzle are not understood for what they are, the puzzle will never be completed correctly. (That’s something that’s kind of odd about jamming pieces together—it never ends up working out anyway.)

There are other possible actions with a puzzle. Perhaps some strange person could just take each piece by itself and look at each piece endlessly. The pieces of the puzzle are then understood for what each one is, but the pieces are never put together. Or, (and I can sympathize with  this), a person takes a look at a thousand puzzle pieces and simply walks away from it. “No thank you. I don’t feel like sorting all of that out.”

To say that God’s revelation to us is like a puzzle would be incorrect. Saying such a thing implies many incorrect things. It implies that all I have to do is sort through all the pieces and connect them. It implies that I’m capable of knowing how everything fits together. It implies that all that’s needed is a bunch of sorting, brain-work and logic. However, loosely speaking, there might be some value in comparing what God reveals in his Word to putting together a puzzle.

We could say that a statement or a passage is one piece. The individual passages have something to say. How does each individual passage connect with other passages? I can well imagine folks looking at all the passages and statements of the bible like a 5,000 piece puzzle dumped onto the table and wanting to have nothing to do with it. I can also imagine someone wanting to finish the puzzle very quickly. Hammer in hand they put together pieces that don’t actually fit, but perhaps are close enough, so as to say that they are done. Not many people, it seems, are very interested in looking at the pieces endlessly, not concerned about connecting them together. We are too impatient for that.

If I might say something from my personal experience, I think I’ve done all three things over the course of my life. At times I’ve walked away, not interested. Then I’ve also hammered stuff together, but, just as you would with a real puzzle, I’ve noticed that things might not fit correctly. I’ve had to take apart what I used to think fit together because I’ve looked more closely at the individual passages. I still have to work on having the patience to look at pieces as they are instead of immediately trying to hammer them together. What’s bad about hammering together passages is that you end up having to change what one, or the other, or both say because the desire is to pretend that they fit together.

The reason why I have brought this extended analogy up is because of something that Jesus says in our Gospel reading. He says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

There is quite a bit of familiar stuff in this statement. Jesus’s sheep hear his voice. Jesus gives them eternal life. Even the fact that Jesus is God is quite familiar. What has bothered me for a long time is this part: “No one will snatch them out of my hand… No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

This statement immediately brings to my mind lots of questions. If no one can snatch these sheep away, does that mean that these sheep can never fall away? What if these sheep end up being really bad and doing very bad things? No one can snatch them away?

A related issue also comes up. Jesus obviously is saying that he, the Good Shepherd, is in complete control. The sheep are his. No one can take them away. If he is in complete control, then why aren’t all people saved? Or why are some people saved, but not others? Right here in this very reading Jesus says that these Jews who have gathered around him are not his sheep. Why not? What did they do that they are not Jesus’s sheep? Or why didn’t Jesus make them his sheep?

Here it’s like I’ve taken the cover off the box and dumped all the pieces of the puzzle onto the table. Don’t worry. I’m not going to just leave you with a big jumble of questions. I’ve had a little experience with puzzles of this kind. But let me say this before we begin: Don’t have too high of expectations. Don’t expect that all the pieces are going to come together perfectly. I’ve already noted how God’s revelation is not a big puzzle. We are not going to fit everything together—not because the pieces don’t fit, or because God is holding out on us, but because we are not capable of it.

The Apostle Paul discusses the magnificent kinds of thoughts that I’ve just brought up today with these questions. He discusses these things in Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11. He concludes that discussion by saying, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” We’re not going to see everything at one, as though we were looking at a completed puzzle, as though we were God.

But let’s go back to that jumble of questions. They were brought up by Jesus saying that no one snatches the sheep out of his hand. So does that mean that his sheep can live however they want, sin all the more so that grace may abound? And it is the Shepherd who is in control. So why doesn’t he save everyone? Or why is this one not Jesus’s sheep, while a different one is? Is there something that this one did, or didn’t do, that makes him or her different than another one?

So we’ve got this big pile of questions. How are we going to go about sorting them out? There’s this helpful tip that those who are familiar with putting together puzzles know. The first thing to look for are the corners and the edge pieces of the puzzle. They are easy to identify compared to the others because they have one or more straight sides. There are analogously clear and simple teachings in God’s revelation too. This is why our Catechism is valuable. It teaches us these clear and simple things.

So when it comes to the questions that have to do with how we should act we must go to the Ten Commandments. These commandments give us God’s will for what is right and how we should live our lives. Generally speaking, we are to love God and love our neighbor. Those are the two tables of the Law. And what does God say about all these commandments? He says, “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” What does this mean? God threatens to punish all who break these commandments, therefore we should fear his wrath and not do anything against them. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore we should also love and trust in him and gladly do what he commands.

This corner piece of God’s revelation goes a long way in sorting out our jumble of questions. What about the sheep who want to wander, counting on not being snatched away regardless? God threatens to punish all who break his commandments. Therefore we should fear his wrath. God promises grace and every blessing. So why would we forego that promised grace and blessing? Do we believe that the devil, the prince of this world will bless us better? God’s commandments, and the threats and promises that God attaches to these commandments, explain a lot. These are the things that have to do with us and our behavior and God’s reaction to that.

There is another corner piece we must pick out. It corresponds to the second chief part of the Catechism, the Creed. This has to do with God’s action instead of my actions. God created me and still sustains me. God has redeemed me. God has sanctifies me. What Jesus says in our Gospel reading is all about God’s action, specifically his Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that God has saved us in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The specific aspect of the Gospel that is being addressed by Jesus’s words is its tremendous scope and power. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He knows his sheep. No one is going to take those sheep away from him. Jesus says that God his Father has chosen these sheep and no one can take those sheep away from him because he is God. It is actually the limitless scope and power of God’s gracious action that has prompted the questions I’ve brought up today. A person can wonder, “How does not being able to be snatched away fit in with God’s threats? How does that fit in with my actions for good or for ill?”

These two corner pieces don’t fit together—at least not with our limited thinking. God reveals two things in these two corner pieces emphatically and clearly. We often sum up these two very different revelations with the words “Law” and “Gospel.” God reveals in his Law that he is the righteous judge. He judges people for their actions and rewards them as he sees fit. Whoever does not measure up is his enemy. This revelation is that our actions are the basis for God’s reaction.

The Gospel is another revelation from God that is altogether different. This revelation is all about God’s actions, without any merit or worthiness in me. God sent his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Even where we think our actions might fit in, the little work that we think we have to do, isn’t so. It is not our work that we choose to believe in him. Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” Or think of the actions of a shepherd and his sheep. Is it the sheep who go and get a shepherd for themselves, or is it the shepherd who goes and finds his sheep?

It is with this second teaching, with God’s Gospel, that we must include those rather extreme words in our reading: “No one will snatch my sheep out of my hand. My Father, who has given the sheep to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch the sheep out of my Father’s hand.” This is a clear statement. A very simple person can understand what Jesus is saying. Jesus is the shepherd. No one takes the sheep away from him. No one can take the sheep away. Who cares what questions this might bring to your mind? Jesus obviously has good reason for saying it. The Holy Spirit has good reason for inspiring John to include it in his Gospel. We are to hear and believe what Jesus says. That means that we are to be joyful and confident in Jesus being our shepherd. He is more powerful than our sin or any of our other enemies.

Now when we try to put this piece of revelation together with other pieces of revelation, we are going to have trouble putting everything together. That’s not God’s fault. “Who has known the mind of the Lord or been his counselor?” But we can’t then take a hammer in hand and smash it together with other things and think that we’ve accomplished anything good. It always seems to me that when people are trying to fit what Jesus says in our reading together with other thoughts that it is always the scope and power of Jesus’s grace that ends up getting clipped off. Folks assume that the Gospel can’t be that far-reaching. There has to be something dependent upon us. There has to be some catch.

Where’s the catch in Jesus’s words though? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He searches out the lost sheep. He lays down his life for the sheep. He calls them and gathers them together. No one is going to take the sheep away from him. There’s no catch.

And so you have to leave this piece of the puzzle be. You have to leave this statement as it is and do not modify it—even if you can’t figure out how it fits with everything else. Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd. You are his sheep. You are hearing his voice. His voice says that he has saved you completely. No one can change that because he is God.

220501 Sermon on John 21:1-19 (Easter 3) May 1, 2022

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Our Gospel reading today is most of the last chapter of John’s Gospel. We are picking up today where the Gospel reading from last week left off. Last week we heard how Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening. Then he appeared to Thomas a week later. So the events that we heard about this morning would have had to have happened sometime between this week after Easter and Jesus ascension, which is forty days after Easter. According to last week’s reading the disciples were in Jerusalem. Now they have left Jerusalem. They have gone back to Galilee, to the Sea of Galilee.

You heard Peter say, “I’m going fishing.” This does not seem to be a leisurely fishing expedition. Peter and at least a few other of the apostles fished for a living before Jesus called them to be apostles. The text mentions that they were out fishing all night long. Kids might gladly stay up all night long to catch fish for fun, but these grown-ups probably had other plans. They wanted to sell the fish they caught. Their plans, however, came to nothing. They were empty handed come dawn.

Then their fortunes turned. A fellow was there on the shore in the gray misty morning. He’s about 100 yards away. He asks them if they have any fish. No? “Well, then, throw your nets on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” Lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened. Not only did they find some fish, they caught a whole bunch of them. They had so many fish that they couldn’t lift the net into the boat.

This almost certainly would have brought to these men’s mind another bonanza that happened a few years before this. Perhaps almost like a flashback. A few year before this Peter and his associates still fished for a living. There was another night when they hadn’t caught anything. The next day they were on the shore working on their nets when Jesus showed up with a large crowd of people. In order that Jesus should be heard by them all Jesus got into Peter’s boat and went out from shore a ways. As he spoke from the boat his voice reflected off the water and all the people could hear.

When Jesus was done speaking he told Peter to go out where it was deep and let down his nets for a catch. That didn’t seem like a good idea to Peter, but since Jesus told him to, he agreed. As soon as the nets plopped into the water so many fish came into his nets that they started to strain and pop under the weight. His boat and James’ and John’s boat quickly filled up so that they were starting to sink. Then Peter fell on his knees before Jesus and said, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Jesus said, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.” Then, when they got to shore, they left everything behind and began to follow Jesus. This was the way that Peter was called to be an apostle.

As you can see, something similar happened again on this early morning after Jesus rose from the dead. The seven apostles had caught nothing all night. Then, at Jesus’s word, the net was filled completely.

When Peter and the rest get to shore Jesus already has breakfast prepared for them. There’s already a fire that has been burning so that it is now hot coals. Fish has already been prepared as well as bread. Jesus, though, tells Peter to also take from the fish that he had caught. So Peter goes and hauls in the huge catch of fish that you would think would make the net burst. It is not said whether or how this fish was added to the meal. The next thing that Jesus says is, “Come and have breakfast.”

Then we have something, again, that might cause a flashback: Jesus took bread and gave it to them as well as the fish. This might have brought to the disciples’ minds yet another thing from the past. There were at least two prior occasions when Jesus fed a great multitude with a few loaves of bread and a few fish. I’m referring to the feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000. It seems to me that by this breakfast Jesus is communicating something to these disciples. It’s true: Things had radically changed for them. Their day-to-day activities were different than from before Jesus was crucified. It looks like Peter and the rest were thinking about going back to their old livelihoods. But Jesus is showing them that while they worked hard all night and caught nothing, he has a meal already prepared. Jesus, who can feed multitudes, can also feed them.

Then Jesus asks Peter if he loves him more than these, and by “these,” he presumably is referring to the other disciples. Does Peter love Jesus more than the other disciples? There are several things to point out about this exchange, but let’s begin by noting how this also brings up something from the past—the very recent past, in fact. On the night when Jesus was betrayed a couple things happened.

The thing you can probably easily remember is that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. There was also on that night a discussion among the disciples over which of them was the greatest. When Jesus put his 2 cents in, he threw them altogether in the same pot. He said that they were all going to forsake him as the Scriptures foretold. Peter disagreed with Jesus. He didn’t know about the other disciples, but as for him, he would never forsake Jesus. Even if he had to die he wouldn’t leave Jesus. He loved Jesus more than all the rest of them.

Perhaps you recall Jesus’s response: “Before the rooster crows, you, Peter, will betray me three times.” And so it came to pass. While Jesus was being interrogated and abused in the chief priest’s house Peter was outside by a charcoal fire. He was asked three times whether he was one of Jesus’s disciples. All three times he said he wasn’t. The last time he said it even with cursing and swearing. Then the rooster crowed.

So when Jesus asked Peter at this shore-side breakfast whether he loved him more than the others I have to believe that this painful and embarrassing episode was brought to Peter’s mind. Now there’s no bombast. You can see that Peter is humbled. Peter no longer believed in himself and in the power of his own faith like he did on the night Jesus was betrayed. He had learned by experience how weak he was, how he failed to watch and pray, and how susceptible to temptation he was. Jesus asks three times whether Peter loves him, and there is no bragging on Peter’s part.

Let me say something about the different words that Jesus and Peter use in these questions and responses. Perhaps you noticed how the translation had Jesus say, “Peter, do you love me?” and Peter responded, “Yes, Lord, you know I care for you.” Most translations do not do it this way because this sounds kind of harsh in English. Most translations have Jesus say, “Peter, do you love me?” and Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” In English, when one says, “love,” and the other responds, “Yes, I care for you.” This sounds like a much bigger difference than how it sounds with the Greek.

The advantage, however, of the way our translation did this is that it points out that there are two different words that are being used. Jesus asks if Peter has agape love for him. Peter responds that he has filial love for him. The difference between agape love and filial love is not so huge. They can almost be used interchangeably. But notice how Jesus changes the word he uses.

Jesus asks Peter, “Do you have agape love for me?” Peter says, “Yes, I have filial love for you.” This happens two times. Then, after Peter has said that he has filial love for Jesus two times, Jesus changes his word to the word that Peter has been using: “Do you have filial love for me?” Peter is hurt. He has said he cares for Jesus two times. Then Jesus asks him, “Do you care for me?”

There’s one more part of this exchange that we need to consider. After Jesus asks and Peter responds Jesus follows that up with three very similar sayings. Jesus: “Do you love me?” Peter: “Yes, Lord.” Jesus: “Feed my lambs.” Again, “Do you love me?” “Yes, Lord.” “Be a shepherd for my sheep.” Finally, “Do you care for me?” “You know all things. You know that I care about you.” Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” So if we put all these together Jesus says, “Feed my lambs,” “Be a shepherd for my sheep,” and “Feed my sheep.”

The lambs or sheep that Jesus is referring to is those who would believe the apostles’ testimony about Jesus. The way that these lambs or sheep are fed is with the Word of God. Jesus is telling Peter to care for the Jesus’s sheep by feeding them Jesus’s word.

As you know, this is what Peter would go on to do. Beginning at Pentecost Peter would preach fearlessly and with great boldness that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, even to those who put Jesus to death and had the authority to do the same to Peter too.

So what are we to make of this whole exchange? Let me just say that I do not think I understand everything going on here as well as I’d like. There are other details that we haven’t even gotten into. But I’d like to point out one thing: Note how different this morning has been compared to the night when Jesus was betrayed.

Peter is low here whereas before he was very confident. Peter, it seems, is thinking about going back to his old profession. Jesus encourages him with friendly reminders of Jesus’s faithfulness. When Jesus asks him if he loves him, Peter doesn’t charge ahead with great boldness like he did on the night when Jesus was betrayed. He doesn’t say that even if he needs to die for Jesus that he will always be faithful and true. How could he? Peter has been humbled; his responses are humble. Nevertheless, note where Jesus directs his attention: “Feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep.”

Peter is to go about doing what Jesus has always intended for him to do. Peter will preach and teach Jesus to the salvation of those who will believe. The way that this will be carried out, however, is not how Peter was thinking previously. It will be carried out humbly and with great weakness. On the night Jesus was betrayed Peter felt great. He had never felt more powerful spiritually. He felt that he could take on a whole army single-handedly with his trusty sword. This was a false faith. What ended up happening is that he was afraid of even a little servant girl.

Peter does not feel nearly so good about himself on this early morning sometime after Easter but before Christ’s ascension. It never feels good to anyone to be humbled. But throughout Peter’s faith is being directed to things that will not let him down. Jesus gently encouraged him by bringing to mind Jesus’s faithfulness. Jesus sets him on his way. He will feed the sheep of the Good Shepherd. However, it won’t be with bravado and harshness. One sinner will be telling another sinner where they can have forgiveness, life, and peace—in Jesus.

This will turn out much better than what Peter was thinking previously. The Gospel and the Sacraments are Jesus’s Gospel and Sacraments. It is his ministry. Whenever any Christian starts to rely upon his or her own gifts like Peter did, then he or she is getting ready to fall. The Christian who relies on his or her own gifts isn’t very effective either. Such a one looks out at the world and wonders why everyone else can’t be as spectacular as he or she is. Christians are not in the business of making other people to be just like them. Christians are in the business of urging others to believe in the same Jesus that the one speaking believes in. That is the true and saving message.

One last thing from our reading: Jesus tells Peter that one day what he so feared on the night when Jesus was betrayed is actually going to happen. Peter had been afraid to suffer and die for Jesus. That’s why he denied him. Another opportunity to confess Jesus’s name was going to come, but this time Peter wasn’t going to fail. Peter wasn’t going to deny his Lord. He would be faithful unto death and receive the crown of glory.

We are cut from the same cloth as Peter. We need to learn the same lessons. We also have the same Jesus upon whom we can learn to rely.