GeeDubya's Sermon Site: John 21: 12-17 and Psalm 23

Just before I start, I need to set the stage. Today’s sermon is not set in a general “somewhere”; this one is situated in a particular place. So imagine with me the risen Christ, and some of his disciples, sharing breakfast on the rocky beach near Tabgha, in Galilee. In this place, Jesus had walked and talked with the disciples and now the risen Christ and Simon Peter have some one-on-one time, talking about Peter’s role in the future.

a sermon preached at Osoyoos United Church, April 26, 2026

It is so hard to come back, when you have really messed something up. Not just made a blooper-reel mistake, but made a choice that impacted someone else’s life… or said things that have fractured a relationship… or completely missed something that you really should have responded to, conveying a lack of friendship or caring to someone else.

In today’s gospel reading, Peter is in such a position relative to Jesus. Peter, who had been so bold throughout their time together, had suddenly turned timid in the final week of Jesus’ life. Although I can’t for the life of me imagine what difference it would have made to Jesus’ fate, all four gospels want us to know that three times Peter had the opportunity to proclaim that he was a follower of Jesus; and three times he lied, disowned Jesus, denied any knowledge of the man.

Knowing this failure of nerve, let us hear once more the exchange at the beach of Tabgha between the Risen Christ, and Peter:

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

Is there perhaps a connection, between Peter denying Jesus three times, and Christ repeating this question three times? Bible commentators over the aeons answer a hearty “yes”: three denials need to be countered by three affirmations. Christ forgives Peter, Christ has something big for him to do, yet there is a sense that the wounded relationship between them has not completely healed. Reconciliation is not easy. Recovering from faithless words or actions is not easy. Forgive and forget is a lovely saying, but does not often describe the human condition.

In a blog post, Pastor Steve Oliver points out a simple but noteworthy thing in this scripture: in their early days together it was Jesus who gave the disciple Simon a new name: Peter, which means, “the rock.” Simon Peter was his foundational guy, the rock (Matthew 16:18) upon which the Church would be built. But in this beautiful post-resurrection scene of Christ and his friends sharing breakfast on the beach, Christ does not address him as Peter-the-Rock; he rolls it back, and calls him Simon, Simon-the-fisherman. Maybe it’s just me, but if I were Peter I think that hearing Christ abandon that new name, a name expressing confidence in him, and going back to his old name, his “deadname”, might well have stung more than being asked the same question three times.

There is in this encounter, another word swap. The first two times Jesus asks Peter, “do you love me?” he uses the Aramaic equivalent of the word AGAPE to describe the kind of love he is talking about, and Peter answers with a different word for love, the Aramaic equivalent of PHILEO. As described by Huffington Post contributor Gary Edmonds, agape, the love word Jesus spoke, “is not based on merit of the person loved, but [is] unconditional,…kind and generous. It continues to give even when the other is unkind, unresponsive and unworthy. It only desires good things for the other and is compassionate”. Agape is the selfless love of service, a full-on sacrificial love offered for the benefit of another. The word that Peter uses in reply, however – Philéo – is what we might call brotherly love, or friendship. There’s nothing wrong with phileo, we all need friends, but what Peter is offering is way below what Christ was asking him for.

So after two times of asking if Peter will be self-giving and Peter saying he’ll be fraternal, the third time, Christ relents and uses the same word Peter had been using. It’s as if he realizes that he’s not going to get agape out of Peter, so phileo will do. J.B. Phillips, in his New Testament translation, follows this line of logic, with Jesus twice asking, “do you love me” and Peter answering “yes, I am your friend”; the third time Jesus asks, “are you my friend” and, according to Phillips, Peter is hurt, not because he’s been asked the same question three times, but because Jesus let go of his hope that Peter might be capable of that higher Christian love, agape.

We see here, that even in this foundational relationship, which was such a force during the earthly ministry of Jesus, things can go sour. Sour, but not beyond recovery. Jesus did what Jesus always does – then, and now: he provides a path forward. No, things weren’t like they used to be. Christ didn’t call him Rocky anymore, and when asked to love without reserve, Simon Peter could only muster friendship – but that didn’t end his friendship with Jesus,. And while Peter’s response to Christ may have been underwhelming in the moment, he did become that rock on which the Church was built. This, to me, is what the reconciling love of Jesus looks like: it owns the truth of what has gone before, and in light of that truth, finds a path. Sometimes there is no safe path forward, especially when there has been abuse, but there are so many other times when factors like embarrassment and anger and resentment and ego and fatigue block the gracious actions of the Holy Spirit, and if we can get past those things, we needn’t remain stuck in the same place forever.

This ability to find a pivotal future for Simon Peter, is traditionally known as “the restoration of Peter.” [this stone Church in Galilee is named for it]. Here, Christ establishes with him a fresh start, the kind of fresh start that many of us have relied on repeatedly in our family relationships, the kind of repentance-based hope we turn to as the Church as we do the work of reconciliation with First Nations peoples. Three times Peter denied, three times he failed to grab hold of the invitation by Jesus to love with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, yet Jesus would not take no for an answer.

Consistently, repeatedly, in their time spent together at Galilee, Jesus focused the attention of the disciples on those in their midst who were most vulnerable: those who were held captive by harmful social conventions, by lifelong infirmity, or by unjust financial structures, and Jesus implored his followers to be people of God’s liberating love. Often, Jesus had to repeat himself as the disciples – especially as portrayed in Mark’s gospel – are not the brightest bulbs in the package, but these were the people he had chosen to bring healing and wholeness to those in need.

In this, Jesus aligns himself and his disciples with the long-standing religious tradition of portraying spiritual leaders – and, at times, God – as shepherds who would keep the vulnerable little lambs out of harm’s way. He’s naming a reality in his world and ours, that the forces of inequality intentionally create very precarious conditions in some people’s lives, people whose lives are already shaky. Like sheep who need a shepherd to make sure they don’t tumble down a cliff, or to protect them from wolves, Jesus recognizes that there are particularly vulnerable ones in this world who need to be noticed and loved and attended to. While the 21^st chapter of John was talking only about people, in the industrialized world we live in, I think Christ would include the soil, the water, the atmosphere, endangered plants and creatures, in the list of those at peril because of human greed. And in relationship to these vulnerable ones, Christ says to Simon Peter, “Feed my lambs, Shepherd my sheep, feed my sheep.” Love the vulnerable ones. Guard them, help them find safety, establish justice, don’t completely ruin this planet, remember that every person and, in fact, every living being is beloved in the eyes of the Creator.

When we think back to the social status of a shepherd in the days of Jesus, we may remember just how low a position it was. Some ancient sources suggest that the testimony of a shepherd was not allowable in court, so low was the common opinion of them, and even more than that: in the economy of the day, the value of a sheep was probably higher than the value of a shepherd. So when Christ commands Simon Peter to be a shepherd to the sheep, this is not a high-status proposition; it was a call to service. Just as God, the good shepherd, was said to be present even in the valley of the shadow of death, even when we are surrounded by enemies, so Peter and those following after him in Christ’s name were to put themselves on the line. And no, not just pastors or priests or ministers, though Peter is regarded as the first Pope; this is what Christ expects of all who claim to be disciples, all communities of faith bearing his name, all who have heard in the brave, reconciling words of Jesus the distinctive ring of truth. Christ has a special affinity for all who are imperiled, and those of us who bear his light in the world are called to deep, non-judgmental service: practical, personal, and yes, even political.

As we gather this morning, as disciples of Christ Jesus, we imagine the relationship between Jesus Christ and Simon Peter, and its rhythm from reliability, to doubt, to reconciliation and new possibility; and as we do so, we go deep in our own experience: our places of brokenness, our gratitude for healing, the places where we have work to do. We see in this primary relationship between Jesus and his right-hand man, Peter, that even when we miss the mark there is the opportunity to be restored. At this time when we seek new horizons in the name of Jesus, may all this be so, in the unfolding of your lives, and our life together. Amen.

References cited:

Edmonds, Gary. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/agape-and-phileo-love-we-need-both_b_58a1e5d6e4b0cd37efcfeb23

Jarrett, Ed. https://www.christianity.com/wiki/jesus-christ/what-did-jesus-mean-when-he-said-take-care-of-my-sheep.html

Oliver, Steve. https://holyjoys.org/restoring-the-fallen-peters-restoration-john-211-19/