Do You Love Me?

-

[Resurrection Station #6 – John 21]

Do you love me?

After the fish breakfast with his disciples, Jesus turns to the impulsive Peter for some one-on-one business. “Do you love me, Peter?” he asks. “Of course! You know it!” Peter replies. “Then take care of my sheep,” the Lord responds. And . . . then they rewind and replay a couple times with some small modifications. Hmmm.

This repetitive exchange between Peter and Jesus is one I’ve pondered deeply. Of course, the teaching most of us have heard, I’m guessing, is that Jesus asks him the same question three times to be reminiscent of the three times Peter denied him. He was forgiving each denial individually. And sure. Maybe that's it.

My perspective on this conversation changed completely when somebody pointed out to me the Greek words being used for love here. The first two times Jesus asks the question, he uses the word agape. This is the deepest kind of love – completely selfless love – the kind of love God has for us. But when Peter responds, he uses the word phileo. Brotherly love – reciprocal love – friendly affection. He’s confessing love but not quite willing to admit to the grand kind of love Jesus is asking for.

Here's the poignant moment for me. The third time Jesus asks, he matches Peter love for love: “Simon, son of John, do you phileo me?” And that, I suspect, is why Peter is saddened at the third question. Not because Jesus didn’t take him at his word the first two times – but because he did, and he’s lowering his expectations. Nevertheless, Peter sticks with his original profession: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I phileo you.”

And you know, Jesus does know all things. He knows the love in Peter’s heart better than Peter himself does. I don’t know what exactly he wanted to communicate to Peter here about his love. But one thing is clear: whatever kind of love it is that Peter has, Jesus wants him to put that love into action by taking care of his sheep.

I wrote a play once about sheep. Sheep are stupid. Sheep are needy. They cannot be left to their own devices – they desperately need shepherding. I’m a sheep. You’re a sheep. All God’s chillen’ are stupid, stupid sheep. Ba-a-ah.

Which seems to call into question the wisdom of Jesus’ request. Wouldn’t this be a case of the blind leading the blind to have one stupid sheep trying to tend another? Possibly . . . if we were arrogant enough to think we were really the ones doing the tending.

My two grown daughters are officially leaving the nest in the next couple months. I’m in the process of guiding them while they find jobs, find places to live, etc. etc. I’m doing a lot of parenting here – that is, a lot of shepherding.

Yet, the other day, my youngest spouted some remarkable wisdom to me. I was sharing a worry I had about a change I perceive coming in a certain area of my life and what I will do if that happens. She listened empathetically, and then proclaimed, “But that’s not a problem for today. ‘Today has enough trouble of its own.’”

Well, dang, girl. That’s exactly right. That’s just what I needed to hear.

My girl is a wise one, but I’m aware that that particular pearl of wisdom was from God more than from her. He used her mouth to get the words to my ears, but the words were from him. And that’s not disparaging her part in this – I mean, good for her for being willing to open her mouth. But I suspect that willingness didn’t come from a conviction or obligation she feels to take care of her stupid, sheeply mother. It comes from the fact that . . .

. . . the fact that she loves me.

Tending my fellow sheep out of my own stupid sheepliness sounds intimidating. I’m not smart enough. I’m not competent enough. I don’t even agape enough. But I don’t need to. My phileo is enough to get things started. The wisdom and patience and agape all come from God anyway.

My task for this week of Eastertide: love Jesus by loving his sheep. It’s all about love, people. Lead with the love, and God takes care of the rest. Help me love your people, Lord, the way you have loved me.

[Did you miss R-Station #5? Read it here.]

[Ready for the next one? Here’s R-Station #7.]

[Wanna start from the top? Here’s #1.]

[“What’s a Resurrection Station?” you ask. Glad you did. Click here.]

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 10, 2024 at 1:48 PM

    Baaaa again! Thank you for your wisdom. ❤️❤️❤️

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This One Person

-
Image
Y’all, God has blessed me with really good people in my life. People who love me, support me, appreciate me, and go out of their way for me. The gifts and kind words and all-day-long singing I received on my birthday last week were small examples of that. Seriously, friends . . . how do I deserve you? So many good people. So, I really shouldn’t give as much attention as I do to the one exception, right? One person. There’s just this one person . They are a constant burr in my saddle these days. They make my life harder – and if this isn’t intentional on their part, or at least passive aggressive, it is most certainly selfish. In almost everything they do, they seem to communicate a lack of respect for me.  It’s only one person. Why do I let this one person affect me so much? We’ve all got our baggage, you know. I’ve shared some of mine before here in this blog. One particular parcel I tote around unseen is an unspoken message I’ve heard in my heart since childhood – particula
Read more

Life is People-y

-
Image
I love my job. Really, I really, really do. But my place of employment has had a few rocky years. Every once in a while, we come to a point where I say to myself, Okay, time for a fresh start. The old issues are over. The people who were discontented have left or are appeased. Now we can move forward and have peace. Bu-u-ut no. There’s always something. I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that even though I love my job, there will always be stressors I’m dealing with. Because as my colleague says, it’s a very people-y job. And people are . . . well, people . People are wounded. Everyone has been damaged by someone and bears the scars. And that damage often bleeds out in our behavior toward others. People are fearful. They are afraid of making mistakes. They are afraid of saying the wrong thing. They are afraid of confrontation. They are afraid of burning bridges. They are afraid of being labeled and unliked. People are selfish. Even when they want to be self-less, they
Read more

Hopeful Reality

-
Image
This past July, I spent a couple crazy weeks working at Crystal Sea Drama Company (which I casually refer to as “my theater” because I've spent so much time there over the past decade). It was the year for our New Play Festival, which I’ve said many times is the best thing we do. CSDC students wrote the plays, CSDC alumni directed the plays, and CSDC campers performed the plays. Last fall, I taught the playwriting class preparing for this big event. There were six girls in the class – more than I’ve ever had for a playwriting class. They were all writers already. Most of them had novels in progress, and some of them had two or three they were working on. But writing a play . . . that’s a different kettle of fish, they learned. And it was a fun few months working with them in that endeavor. I was proud of the work they ended the semester with. Only three of them chose to have their plays performed in the festival, which was fine. But not until we were rehearsing this summer did
Read more

INFECTION

-
Image
Y’all, I’ve had two colds in the past three months. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but for me it can be. If I don’t treat my colds early and effectively, they grow into monsters that do me in for a month or more. That’s what happened in June. I came home from a trip sick. I mean, sick . Sicker than I’ve been for a long time. And that cold progressed into a wicked chest cough that hung around for the rest of the month, even after my doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a heavy-duty cough suppressant (which wasn’t cheap, let me tell you). I mean, people, IT SUCKS. Then the first morning of the second week of school, I woke up with the inkling of soreness in my throat and felt a bit of panic. Thankfully, because I was home this time at that first hint of a symptom, I was able to start taking my Zinc, Selenium, and Vitamin C immediately. That’s my happy little cocktail that seems to kick these little infections out the door if I start it early. The cold came . . . but it was very m
Read more