In various conversations after his resurrection, Jesus’s words offer comfort, provide confirmation, present clarification, and serve as a commissioning, but there is one particular incident uniquely recounted in John 21 in which Jesus essentially both invites and restrains comparisons. These “words of comparison” occur in a conversation that Jesus had with Peter after he appeared to him and six other disciples while they were fishing (and hadn’t caught anything!) and guided them to a miraculous catch of fish. While the words of this conversation were directed to Peter, they continue to speak to us today as Jesus’s disciples.
A Comparison Invited: Jesus’s Love to Our Failures
In this conversation, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him (John 21:15-19). While some people have sought to draw attention to some minor differences in the words used in each question (e.g., different words for love), the fact that John elsewhere seems to use different words as a way to vary style (much like I seek to do when writing a blog post!) makes it seem unlikely that those differences are significant. What is significant is that Jesus asks Peter this question three times. Why three times? How many times did Peter deny Jesus? Three times! Just as Peter had denied him three times, now he affirms his love for him three times.
In a way, Jesus is inviting a comparison here – a comparison between his grace and our sin. We often think our sin is too big for Jesus to overcome or that our sins might be too many for Jesus to forgive, but here we see that Jesus’s love is always bigger than our sin and that his grace is so much greater than our sin. Jesus telling Peter three times to do the work of caring for Jesus’s people (v. 15: “feed my lambs”; v. 16: “shepherd my sheep”; v. 17: “feed my sheep”) also indicates that God’s grace does not just mean that we will be tolerated, but rather that God can use us for His purposes even after our mistakes – and chooses to do so.
Perhaps today you are comparing God’s grace to your sin. Stop! There is no comparison. Just as God forgives Peter, He can and does forgive us when we run to Him in repentance and reaffirm our love for Him.
A Comparison Forbidden: Our Calling to the Calling of Others
Jesus showed Peter that there is no comparison between his sin and Jesus’s grace; Peter then went on to make a comparison by looking at “the disciple Jesus loved” (the Apostle John) and asking Jesus about what will happen to him (21:20-21). In one sense, this is a surprising thing for Peter to do – after being restored by Jesus and invited to this important position of leadership in the early church, Peter stops thinking about the amazing gift he has been given and starts thinking about what happens to John. But in another sense, it is not at all surprising, as we often do the same thing – we hear about God’s grace but then we start to compare ourselves with others. When you read John 20-21, you might even see why Peter would have some interest in comparing himself to the disciple Jesus loved. They were engaged in a footrace to the empty tomb in which Peter came in second (20:4). John seems to have a better understanding of what the empty tomb means (20:5-10) and was the first one to recognize Jesus when they caught the fish (21:7). Thus, there may have been a friendly sort of rivalry at work between the two. Jesus told Peter about the death that awaits him (21:18-19), so Peter might be wondering if John will have a better or worse fate than he.
Jesus’s answer to Peter basically tells him to stop comparing himself to John, as he says, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (20:22 CSB). Rather than wondering about God’s plans for this disciple, Peter should be focused and committed to following Jesus, remembering the very thing that Jesus has already told him in 21:19.
Peter needed to hear this, and we do, too. Are there people you constantly compare yourself to, either making you feel better or worse? Or are there people who you are obsessed with – finding out what happens to them (for good or for ill)? Stop! Instead, focus on following Jesus, the one who has forgiven you of your sins.
A Comparison Needed: Our Devotion to Jesus vs. Our Comfort and Desires
There is another comparison found in this passage, as Jesus asks Peter in 21:15, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” There is no explicit word modifying “these,” so some scholars think Jesus asks Peter if he loves Jesus more than the others do. While possible, I don’t know if that makes the most sense in the passage, especially because Jesus tries to get Peter to stop comparing himself with other disciples. Others think that “these” refers to the fish they have caught (do you love me more than the activity of fishing?) or to the disciples he is with (do you love me more than you love them?); I would lean towards the latter but recognize the ambiguity here.
While the referent of “these” might not be clear, I think the point Jesus makes here is clear, especially when we read on – Jesus tells Peter about the suffering he will face as he follows Jesus (21:18-19). In these words, Jesus urges Peter to consider how his love for Jesus compares to his love for other things. Jesus does not just desire to be one among many things we love, he wants to be in first place. In fact, he needs to be in first place, as placing anything above him is sin and is loving outside of God’s design and purposes for us. Only when we truly love Jesus more than anything else can we walk this path of suffering, and when we love Jesus first, we are opening ourselves up to the potential of a life of suffering.
These words to Peter may also be Jesus’s way of asking you if you truly love him more than something else in this world – your family, career, home, community, or anything else. He may not be calling us to the same sort of physical death that was promised to Peter, but truly putting Jesus first will require you to ultimately lose your life as you live for him and not for yourself. When we remember Jesus’s great love for us and surpassing worth, we realize that whatever this world might have to offer us is no comparison to what we have in Christ.
Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also request to receive weekly emails with our blog posts by filling out the information on the right side.
