You have probably heard the saying “you never truly understand someone unless you walk a mile in his or her shoes.” As I was thinking about how to approach this sermon this morning, the easiest way I thought I could do this was to have you put yourself into someone’s shoes in today’s Gospel reading. Today, we’re going to put ourselves in Peter’s shoes to really understand what’s going on in today’s text.
Some of you may remember during the Lenten season, we spent one of our midweek services talking a little bit about Peter. He’s one of the more interesting character studies in the Gospels. In fact, I’ve even heard it said that Peter was the “disciple who is the poster child of Attention Deficit Disorder.” He’s brash and bold. Often impulsive. One to act one minute without thinking about the consequences of his actions the next. In Matthew 16, one moment, he’s the disciple who hits one out of the ballpark when Jesus is asking them who they think He is, and Peter responds with his bold confession “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16) Then, in just a few verses later, Jesus is telling the disciples what being the Christ was really all about when He tells them that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (v. 21). Peter is the one who pulls Jesus aside and says “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” (v22), in effect, trying to prevent Jesus from going to the cross and following through with His Messianic office. Jesus had to rebuke Peter by saying “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (v. 23)
Peter’s contradictions come through again during Jesus’ passion. Again, on that Maundy Thursday night, as Jesus is sharing the Passover meal with His disciples, He tells them that He is going to suffer and die, and that the disciples would all fall away from Him before the night was over. Peter was the one who was bold enough to say to Jesus “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” (Luke 22:33) Yet, later on that same evening, Peter denies knowing Jesus not once, not twice, but three times, just as Jesus had predicted would happen. The rooster crows, Jesus looks right at Peter, and Peter runs off into the night. Jesus is lead off to His suffering and death. As for Peter, he’s nowhere to be seen, likely afraid for his life, wondering if he will be the next to be arrested and die.
So, with this kind of a history behind him, what do you think might be going through Peter’s mind by the time we get to today’s Gospel reading in John 21? We’re told in the text that this was the third time that Jesus had appeared to His disciples following the Resurrection. By now, the news that Jesus has risen from the dead is kind of old hat. The first time they saw the resurrected Jesus, they had to have just been completely overjoyed. The One they thought was dead was indeed alive! It was just as He had said would happen several times to them. It really was true. Any other thoughts about Jesus’ being alive again had to have taken a back seat to that. The second time, maybe they were sitting back, watching as Thomas, the one who didn’t believe them the first time when they told him that they saw Jesus, got to see for himself that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead, and maybe even have a little bit of satisfaction, a “see, we told you so” sort of moment. But now, this is the third time. Remember, Peter was the most vocal of the disciples in saying he would never fall away from Jesus that first Maundy Thursday, even if it meant imprisonment or death, but when the rubber met the road later that night, he was the most vocal to deny knowing Jesus. Not only that, but remember, after the third denial was spoken and the rooster crowed, Jesus looked directly at Peter, and Peter remembered what Jesus had said, and Peter ran off into the night.
Jesus is alive again. Peter knows that Jesus knows what he did that night. What would you do if you were in Peter’s shoes, knowing that Jesus knows what you did? Would it be awkward being around Him after the initial joy of Jesus being alive again wore off and become old news? Would you hope that Jesus wouldn’t say anything about the denial stuff, since it seems that everything turned out okay in the end? Would you wonder what your role would be as a disciple, or if Jesus would still count you as a disciple, after what you had done? Would Jesus, now that He’s proven His power over sin, death, and the devil, now be back to extract some vengeance from Peter for denying Him? A lot of unknowns for Peter.
In today’s Gospel reading, after Jesus has Peter and the other disciples bring in a catch of fish, and provides for their daily bread by feeding them breakfast, he turns to Peter and asks him “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” What would you think if you were Peter and Jesus asked you this question? Peter’s answer was “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” to which Peter responds by saying “feed my lambs.” Peter has to be thinking “whew, dodged a bullet this time. Maybe He isn’t going to bring up the denial!” Then, Jesus asks him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Okay, sounds rather odd for Jesus to ask that again, but Peter answers again “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Tend my sheep.” Okay, seemed odd for Jesus to ask that a second time, but maybe He’s going to drop it. Then, Jesus asks Peter a third time if Peter truly loves him. The text tells us that Peter was “grieved because he said to him the third time “do you love me?” Why is Jesus asking him three times if He loves him? To which Peter responds “Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.”
What’s really going on here? Well, it turns out, Jesus really is talking about the denial that took place during His passion.. Remember, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times that Maundy Thursday night. His reply to that question that night was “I don’t know Him.” For each denial, Jesus is giving Peter an opportunity to say what He didn’t say that night. Three denials, three chances for Peter to confess His love for His Lord. Peter finally catches on, that’s why His response to the third question was “You know all things, you know that I love you.” To which Jesus says a third time “Feed my sheep” and at the end of the reading, calls Peter to follow him.
For each time that Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus is not only forgiving Peter for his sin of denying Him, but He’s also restoring Peter to His relationship as a disciple, restoring Peter to service in His kingdom. You see, that suffering, death, and resurrection that Jesus endured was to atone for the sins of the world, including Peter’s sin of denying knowing Jesus three times that night. Because of that Jesus had done for Peter at the cross, Peter is forgiven and restored to his relationship with Jesus as a disciple and would go on to boldly confess Jesus Christ crucified for the sins of the world. On Pentecost, Peter would the one who would boldly proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ to the Jews who were present that day. And indeed, this time, Peter would follow His Lord and confess His name, even when it meant his own death. Jesus even referred to that in today’s text when He says to Peter after restoring him “Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you whre you do not want to go.” (v. 18) Church tradition has it that Peter was crucified in Rome under the emperor Nero around the year 68 A.D., martyred for his faith and confession of Jesus Christ.
Now I’ve asked you today to put yourself in Peter’s shoes. It’s easy for us to look at what Peter did during the passion of our Lord, and say that we would never deny Jesus like Peter did. But the truth is, we’re in Peter’s shoes every day. Because of our sins of thought, word, and deed, we, just like Peter, deny being followers of Jesus Christ. When we are caught in a sin that God says in His Word is sinful, we deny that we are God’s children, because we choose the sin over God. When we’re called to confess our faith, sometimes we don’t speak up boldly, out of fear of offending someone else or because we’re convinced that God can’t use us to work the miracle of faith in someone else’s heart by our sharing His Word with them. Sometimes, when we see someone around town during the week who hasn’t been to church in quite a while, that instead of going up and asking that person what’s keeping them from coming here, we assume someone else will do it or that it won’t do any good, forgetting that each person is a person whom Jesus died for and is a part of the fold that our Lord wants in our midst here at St. Paul(s)/Mt. Zion.
But, just as He did for Peter, our Lord Jesus Christ, because of His life, death, and resurrection, restores us just like He restores Peter. And that’s hard for us sinful human beings to do, isn’t it? When someone sins against us, we might be able to forgive them, but too often, we’re not always able to restore that relationship to what it was before. But that’s not what happens with Jesus when it came to Peter’s sin of denying Him. And that’s not what happens with Jesus when it comes to our sins against Him, either. We come to Him, and confess our sins of thought, word, and deed, and just like Peter, we’re given another chance to confess our love for Him, and to tell others about Him. Every time we come to this church, we’re given another opportunity to be restored by our Lord Jesus Christ as He comes to us through His Word and Sacraments to bring us to faith in Him, or to strengthen our faith in Him. We hear Him warn us of the danger of sin in the preaching of the Law, and we also see how we, like Peter, have denied our Lord because of it. And then, through the preaching of the Gospel, we see how our Lord has gone about the work of forgiving us our sins and restoring us to our right relationship with God. Because of what Jesus has done for us at the cross, there is no sin that is too great that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot cover. We know that no matter what we’ve done, or how many times we’ve denied our Lord in the past through our sins of thought, word, or deed, by what we have done or left undone, that there is forgiveness for us, and the promise of everlasting life and restoration in the kingdom of God.
If you think about it, Peter was perhaps an unlikely disciple of Jesus Christ. He was impulsive. He often spoke before he acted. He denied knowing his Lord three times during His passion. If there was going to be a call committee interviewing candidates for preaching the Pentecost sermon, Peter probably would have been disqualified from consideration. No one would have blamed Jesus for cutting Peter or any of the other disciples loose for that matter after His resurrection after they all fell away from Him during His suffering and death. But instead of removing them, Jesus Christ forgives them, restores them, and calls them into service in His Kingdom, to proclaim His story to the ends of the earth, so that all may be forgiven of their sins, and restored in their relationship with Him and His heavenly Father.
And that is exactly what takes place here in this church, and in our parish. As forgiven and restored children of God, we’re still in Peter’s shoes. Where we’ve sinned against our Lord and acted as if we didn’t know Him, He forgives us and restores us, and calls us into service in His kingdom. As His forgiven, restored people, we are called, just as Peter was called, to “Feed my sheep.” We do that by telling others in our community about what Jesus has done for us. We tell them all of the good things that are happening in our church and in our parish. We do that by forgiving others who have sinned against us, just as Jesus has forgiven us. And we invite those sheep who are not currently in the fold here, or have wandered away from the fold, to come here, and be continually fed and restored by Jesus Christ our Lord. As unlikely of servants of Christ as we are, just like Peter, we are blessed to be forgiven, restored servants of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God! Amen.
