This morning I had the privilege to speak to the youth at the church that I volunteer at. Below is the revised manuscript for this format which I wrote for that opportunity (which is the first time I have actually written and used a manuscript and I did veer from it on more than a few occasions). It was a great practice and I really worked hard on and prayed through for this message and I hope it was a benefit to at least one person. This was my main focus for the week and so I was not able to blog but I want to post this here in lieu of my regular blog. Thank you for reading =)
Always Seeking the Truth,
Dylan
John 21:15-17
As I prepared for today the youth pastor encouraged me to share a bit of my story or a bit about myself. Do you have any idea how broad that is?? There are literally so many things that I
could talk about and only 10% of them are probably worth saying here. However, I took the challenge. The first thing I want to say is this: I’m awkward…
…I am terrible at meetings people
and at starting conversations. I don’t
know how to make small talk. It just
comes out all awkward and just kind of stumbles out of my mouth. Now, I love having deep conversations with
people. If you wanted to talk to me
about theology, or share about a struggle, or just vent about how much life
sucks, then I would be all about it, whether I knew you or not. It’s just how I’m wired. But, please, please, please do not talk to me
about the weather or some other form of small talk. I’m also more than a bit nerdy. I love Doctor Who and have had many conversations about it and “what if”
debates. I am proud to admit that I have
a T.A.R.D.I.S. mug and my own personal sonic screwdriver. I’m also a big superhero nerd and I love
everything about the Marvel Universe.
I also love
theology and studying the Bible. I love
Biblical Greek. I studied a lot of it in
college and I still study it now. I have
even had the privilege to be able to translate whole letters of the New
Testament thanks to the help of the professors at MVNU.
But can I
tell y’all something? Can I just be
honest for a second? I’m just a regular
dude. Sometimes I can be a really
not-nice person. I can have some serious
road rage. I struggle with exaggerating
the truth or not telling the whole truth.
Sometimes, I really do think that I know it all. Sometimes I take advantage of people. I fight with family and friends. I can be really, really selfish.
I say all
of this because I think it can be easy to look at Christianity or at other
Christians and get caught up with this idea that we have to be perfect or at
least be perfect on the outside. I will
be the first one to tell you that I am far, far away from being perfect or good
or whatever word you want to use here.
The youth pastor told me that the youth group had been taking a look at the story where Jesus
asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him.
This is such a great story and one that I find especially
interesting. I want to work through this
short passage in John 21 today, verses 15-17.
Let me
start with a question: have any of you ever felt so much love that you were
just almost in tears? I have. Isn’t it beautiful? Because this is how I feel when I see
pictures or videos of puppies…this is how I feel about some of my best
friends…this is how I feel about my wife…BUT these aren’t all the same kinds of
love! We say love but we mean different
kinds of love. I love tacos and I love
my parents. Let me clarify here that I love my wife WAY more than I love puppies or tacos.
So I
mentioned earlier that I love Greek.
Just like with any two languages, Greek and English have different ways of
expressing similar thoughts, ideas, or words.
In English, there is one word for love but in Greek there are at least
four commonly used words for love. [Please note that rather than use Greek characters or attempt to be scholarly or fancy I am simply going to write the words out in English characters phonetically and use them as if they were regular English words. This should help for them to be easy to read and shouldn't interrupt the flow of the writing/reading] These
words are agape, phile, storge, and eros.
For example, storge means loves for family but eros means romantic or
sexual love. But today we are going to
focus on agape and phile.
But first
let’s give some background for John 21:15-17. .
The
disciples left everything behind when a Rabbi, which means teacher, strides up
to them and tells them, “follow me.”
From that point everything changed.
It was a huge honor for a Jew to be able to study under and learn from a
Rabbi. Such an honor, in fact, that they
followed this Rabbi, whose name was Jesus, for years with no home or promise of
basic necessities from day to day. Then,
they truly started to believe that their teacher, Jesus, was the promised
Messiah, the savior God promised to the Jews.
Then, in a whirlwind of activity, he was taken away from them. He was arrested, beaten, stood on public trial,
was ridiculed in front of crowds of people, forced to carry his own cross to
where he was would die, and was put to death by the most horrible means known
at the time, crucifixion. But then
something amazing happened…he came back!
He came back from death and appeared to the disciples. He came to them twice and then didn’t appear
for quite some time. Peter, one of the
most well-known of the disciples who was the most rowdy and curious, since he
was raised as a fisherman before following Jesus says to the others, “I’m going
fishing.” And they go with him. They spend all night fishing without so much
as a tug on the line. Then, from the
shore they hear a voice calling to them telling them to cast their nets on the
other side of the boat. Many of them
were experienced fishermen who had spent all night fishing and were probably
tired and frustrated but for some reason they decide to try it. And wow did it work! There were so many fish that they couldn’t
haul them all in!
Then the
disciples begin to realize that the voice is the voice of Jesus. Peter, being the downright fool that he is,
is so eager to meet Jesus that he dives into the water right then and swims to
shore to meet Jesus. Eventually, the
others bring the boat in and they begin to cook the biggest, best breakfasts
ever. While they are finishing up their
breakfast Jesus leans over to Peter and whispers, “Hey, Peter. Can I ask you something?”
This is
where we jump in to John 21:15-17.
John 21:15a
– “After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me
more than these?’” By the way, Peter’s
name is Simon and his dad’s name was John.
No secrets here, sorry. But Jesus
is asking Peter here if he agape’s him.
Agape is the word that means love but means, “to love, value, to be
devoted to, to love deeply and truly.”
And how Peter replies is interesting…
John 21:15b
– “’Yes, Lord,’ Peter replied, ‘you know I love you.’ ‘Then feed my lambs.’
Jesus told him.” Peter replies to Jesus
that he phile’s Jesus. This word, phile,
means “to be fond of, to have affection for, and denotes common interests and
friendship.” To grasp an understanding
of phile think of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love! This word is used to express friendship.
Jesus is
asking, “Do you love me deeply and will you remain devoted to me, even more
than these around you?” And Peter responds with, “You know that I love you as a
friend.”
Then, in verse 16, the same pattern
is repeated. John 21:16 – “Jesus
repeated the question, ’Simon son of John, do you love me?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter said, ‘you know I love
you.’ ‘Then take care of my sheep.’
Jesus said.” Jesus is again asking, “Do
you love me deeply,” and Peter says, “You know I love you as a friend.”
Then, we read verse 17 John 21:17 –
“A third time he asked him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question
a third time. He said, ‘Lord, you know
everything. You know that I love
you.’ Jesus said, ‘Then feed my
sheep.’” This last time Jesus switches
words. He says to Peter, “Do you love
me, are you my friend?” And Peter
answers with hurt in his voice, “You know everything. You know that I am your friend.”
The question is why does Jesus ask
these questions? Why does he use agape
twice and phile the last time? And why
does Peter only respond with phile love instead of agape love? Am I the only one with these questions? Are any of you wondering the same
thing?...Well, I think, and I do not pretend to know for sure, but I think that
Peter is simply expressing his humanity.
Jesus is asking in verse 15, “Do you deeply love me and will you remain
devoted to me more than anyone else?”
And Peter desperately wants to say yes.
But he knows that he has struggles and that he is selfish and that not
even a week ago (I am making up the time frame here) he denied that he knew
Jesus or even who he was and so he tells Jesus the truth, “You know that I
cherish and love you,” and I think he is implying something here, “but I am not
perfect in my love for you compared to others.”
So Jesus asks again, “Peter, do you deeply love and will you remain
devoted to me?” And Peter, a little hurt, repeats himself, “You know that I
love and cherish you…but I am not perfect in my love for you.” Finally, Jesus recognizes where Peter is
coming from, looks him in the eye and says, “Peter, do you love me as your
friend? Are you my friend?” Peter, slightly devastated, replies, “You
know everything. You know that I love
and cherish you as my friend.”
Jesus knows where we are at. I know that Jesus knew that Peter was going
to struggle to say that he loved Him with agape love, especially when compared
to others. So Jesus takes others out of
the picture and focuses on Peter but knows that Peter is still crushed by his
faults, failures, and insecurities.
Jesus removes the barriers of perfection, this Christian front we put up, that is caught up with the idea of
agape love, gets on Peter’s level, and asks Peter if he is truly his friend. This is where Peter is hurt so badly. I need to say here that phile love is
powerful. John 5:20a says, “For the
Father loves the Son…” and the word used for love here is phile. God is said to phile love Jesus. Powerful love. This is the love that Peter owns up to, with
pain and hurt in his heart, because despite his struggles and failures he does
phile love Jesus and now Jesus is offering this love in response.
Jesus does not try to build himself
up. He does not want Peter to say how
much he loves him just to make himself feel better. When Jesus is asking if Peter loves him it is
because Jesus is offering this love first.
Scripture tells us that he first loved us. So when Jesus asks about our love it is only
because he has extended this love first.
The love Jesus is offering this third time to Peter is not love that has
been cheapened or lessened. He is
extending love despite the fact that Peter does not deserve it and does not
feel that he deserves it. He is
extending love even though we cannot possibly reciprocate this agape love back
to him. We are Peter. Jesus is offering us agape love but we cannot
give it back. So Jesus, who is God, and
God is love, does not take away but adds more depth to the love that he offers
in order that we might respond. I do not
think that Peter is so hurt because he has been asked three times. He is so hurt and grieved because he is
overwhelmed with the offering of love even though he does not deserve it nor
does he feel that he does deserve it.
How many of us feel that we have
fallen short of God’s love? Unfortunately,
I have to tell you that we all have. Not
a single one of us deserve God’s love.
But His love is offered to us anyway.
It is offered to us with such depth that even though we cannot be
perfect in our love we can love God back.
How many have of us have felt that because of our failures, faults, and
insecurities that we do not deserve to be loved by God?
Peter, one of the original disciples felt
that he could not possibly love Jesus enough and that he did not feel that he
deserved to be loved by Jesus. You are
not alone. Now as we wrap up and
leave. Please go knowing that you are so
deeply and irrevocably loved by a love that cannot be taken away and will
always be offered to you by Jesus. It is
only up to you to accept this love in response.
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