Sermon 24th April 2016

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches. The reading is from John 21: v15-19.

“Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” Peter’s own words, spoken so bravely – and so foolhardily – just hours before Jesus’ arrest surely hung heavily in the air on that morning. Maybe it’s just as well that this encounter took place on a beach then: was there any room big enough to fit that sized elephant in? Mind you, Jesus didn’t ever ‘do’ elephants, as today’s passage illustrates so very clearly: “Simon” – and note the use of that name – “Simon, son of John: do you love me more than these?”, Jesus asked him!

We will, of course, get to the detail of that in detail: in due course. But first, it could do with a fair bit of putting into context. In terms of the immediate context, today’s story tells what happened after Jesus had appeared to his disciples back in Galilee, and performed another miracle. If you missed last week’s instalment, Trevor’s sermon on the first part of this story is available on the parish website. Then, starting to widen the context out a little, Gill’s sermon from the previous week, on another incident, is also there. And the week before that was when we had the first in this series on Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances in John – which is what we’re reaching the end of today.

John records more of these incidents than any of the other gospel writers do; which is yet another way in which he is different to them. John is also well known for his editorial comment. As well as putting his own words in to explain what’s happening and why (such as the one that’s in today’s passage) John chose the stories he used, and their order. Of course Matthew, Mark, and Luke also each wrote their books about Jesus in particular ways, for particular reasons. But John often seems rather more deliberate in what he’s trying to communicate: about Jesus; and specifically, about how Jesus makes eternal life a present reality for his followers. For John, new life with God has already begun in Jesus: he’s therefore trying to explain what that looks like for people.

That fact very much applies in the resurrection stories that John chose to include. As we’ve been hearing since Easter, Jesus appeared to different of his followers; in different ways; at different times; in different circumstances: and for different reasons, it seems. John also made it clear that there were plenty of other such stories that he didn’t put in. But these ones (perhaps with the exception of the first part of this story) all seem to have a common feature. They’re all saying something about the nature of this eternal life becoming a greater present reality for those who met the risen Jesus. That may be a fairly general point; but it’s 1 that’s worth keeping in mind as we examine the detail of Simon’s life-restoring encounter with the risen Jesus; and see how that speaks to us today.

Widening the context still further, then: there is no doubt that John wants his readers to picture the scene that took place beside another fire. We can’t know how long before this that had been; but it was a matter of days rather than weeks. On what we call Maundy Thursday, so the night before he died, Jesus had been arrested and put on trial in the courtyard of the High Priest. Peter (as Simon is most often known after Jesus had re-named him) got himself into the grounds. Give him credit for that: almost everyone else had run for their lives when the guards appeared. “What would I have done that night?” is a good question for each of us to ask ourselves honestly, at least once. Or maybe we might better ask, “What have I done when I have been in a situation a bit like that” – as I suspect many of us likely have been before now.

Whatever our own answers may be, Simon Peter wore what happened in that courtyard that night like a millstone round his neck that threatened to drown him. It’s 1 of the New Testament’s best-known stories: how not once; not twice; but three times – and with ever-greater vehemence – Simon Peter had denied he even knew Jesus. And then the cock had crowed; just as Jesus had said would happen earlier that night; when Simon Peter had declared: “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you”. And then we begin to grasp something of the shame and the disgrace and maybe even the self-hatred that Simon Peter had been living with ever since. And maybe we don’t want to be by this fire now either; with Jesus looking at us; asking us if we love him; after what we have said, or done – or not said, or done.

Now much has been made, by some people, of the exact words that Jesus used in this encounter with Simon Peter. Specifically the Greek has different words here for ‘love’, and ‘sheep’, and ‘feed’ – which is why they’re translated in different ways in English in this passage. Greek was the language that John wrote in; but Jesus wasn’t speaking to Simon Peter in it, of course. To focus on that is, in any case, to miss the main point of what was happening on the beach that morning. This isn’t about different types of love or different jobs that Jesus wanted to give Simon Peter. No: this is, above all, a putting right of what had gone so disastrously wrong; in the presence of some of the people who had heard or seen at least parts of it.

There can be no doubt about what was going on: Jesus deliberately addressed Simon by the name that he used to be called before Jesus had made him Peter. His denials had not been the rock-like behaviour that had made Peter into the de facto leader and spokesman of the disciples. When push had come to shove, Simon had reverted to type; and had relied on himself rather than on Jesus. And they both painfully well knew it. What’s remarkable – to 21^st-Century people, at least – is that Jesus didn’t ask Simon Peter if he was sorry that he’d done it. Jesus didn’t even ask him to promise that he wouldn’t do it again (which is what ‘sorry’ is meant to mean in our house, by the way!) No: Jesus ‘just’ asked Simon if he loved him; though he did so three times, note.

Of course the 3 times is deliberate! 3 times Simon Peter had denied Jesus; so 3 times he was invited to declare his love for Jesus. And each time Simon Peter answered that same question there on the beach, beside that fire, he relied on Jesus rather than on himself: “You know that I love you”. And each time Jesus’ response wasn’t to say, “There, there”; or “Don’t worry”; or any 1^st-Century equivalent of, “I forgive you”. Instead, each time Jesus gave him an unambiguous, quite staggering instruction: “Take care of my sheep”! As I say, the variation in the wording of that really doesn’t make any difference: what matters is that we see what the reality of God’s new life in Jesus was going to look like for a restored Simon Peter.

In his commentary on it Tom Wright describes this as 1 of the most spectacular interchanges in all of literature! That’s a big claim; but it’s about right when we grasp the detail of what it was that Jesus told Simon Peter to do. By way of forgiving him, Jesus gave him not just any job; but a share in his own! John’s gospel is where we read that Jesus said “I am the good shepherd”. And here he is sharing that responsibility – with the man who 3 times had denied even knowing him! Jesus first took Simon Peter back to the place of his deepest failure and greatest pain, and dealt with those. And then he showed Peter – and us – what forgiveness looks like; what this new life that Jesus brings makes possible. Even for people who have done the sorts of things that Peter had, there is a place of responsibility: sharing in Jesus’ work; of showing God’s care.

It perhaps quickly needs saying, for the sake of clarity, that this isn’t about earning forgiveness; because we can’t ever do that! In this exchange with Simon Peter Jesus is clearly showing what is known as grace. It’s because of the joy and relief of being forgiven that Peter willingly accepts this renewed call that Jesus chooses to offer him. Of course it says far more about Jesus than it ever does about Peter – just as it does when something like this happens to us. And nor must we miss the rest of what Jesus said to Simon Peter here. John does the necessary de-coding of that, in one of his typical asides. Jesus told Peter that there would be a cost to his obedience – just as there had been for Jesus himself.

The best way to end today and this series is by taking the context to its widest extent. Jesus’ final words to Peter in this exchange should sound very familiar to anyone who’s ever read the New Testament. Near the start of all 4 gospels there are multiple stories of Jesus saying exactly these words, to numerous people: including to Simon, as he then was. “Follow me” is where the story began; and it’s also where the story ends in John. It has been quite a journey in-between, it must be said for everyone who’s been involved in it. But this has been what it’s all been about, from start to finish: it’s been about following Jesus; as he brings in, and makes real, this eternal life; in all of these very real, practical, dramatic, and ordinary ways.

For Jesus the human being that journey is now almost at an end. But the story is far from over – as we are living proof of, all these century later. John tells us how Jesus ensured that the story will continue; for God’s eternal life in Jesus to go on impacting people in very real, practical, dramatic, and ordinary ways. It might not sound like the most sensible way of doing it: to entrust the work to the leadership of the man who so recently had so let Jesus down. But the evidence suggests that God knew what he was doing; as He still does today; even when it still looks like as daft, impractical, and as unrealistic as it did back then. You see, it’s to people as imperfect and often-failing as us that Jesus says, “Follow me”.

He may, of course, have said that to you many times already. You may have said Yes; and messed up; or No, and messed up! The messing up is the common factor; for all of us: it’s only a matter of the detail and the frequency. So it’s to us that Jesus extends this invitation: to revisit the place of our deepest pain and humiliation and failure. And it’s precisely there that he offers us too his forgiveness: in the shape of a fresh calling to a place in his work. It may very well be costly; and difficult; and make no sense; but it will always be all a working of God’s grace. So, as this series ends, will you hear Jesus asking you the question that he asked Simon Peter: “Do you love me?” Our answer to that is foundational to all else. So, if you do love Jesus – however hesitantly, or uncertainly – then also hear his call to follow him: by sharing in his work; of making real this eternal life that he offers to all people through his death; and respond to it: by following him. Let’s now pray that we will, then …