+in the name of the one who loves the beloved and love itself, amen.
In this period of Easter we muse on what the implications of resurrection are. What does it mean? What I really have come to believe over the years is that Resurrection is actually really about reconciliation. It’s about us doing to God whatever we can possibly do, us hurling all of the insults and anger and pain at God that we have, and God still coming back to us in the form of Jesus and being reconciled with us. Reconciliation has to do with the number of things. Meals, miracles – and I can’t find a third word that begins with an M so the last one is not that: It’s truth to telling.
Have you ever been where the family or the group that’s in the party have fallen out terribly and they’re all just sitting there, going through polite niceties to try and make everything okay. Sometimes happens at Christmas, and in America it happens at Thanksgiving after elections. You all sit together and you try to make nice and pretend like you like each other, but you’re actually fuming under the surface and all of the surface acts of hospitality are just very shallow.
I imagine that’s what it was like with Jesus when he came to the side of the Sea of Galilee, saw his friends fishing and then invited them to come to breakfast. He had seen Peter before on the outer courts of Herod’s palace, and the outer courts of Pilot, the governor’s mansion, where Peter had denied that he knew Jesus, having told people that he would never do that. Peter denied him three times. So there must have been an awkward silence at breakfast as Peter sat there, excited to see Jesus, but knowing that he’d let him down, terribly. Some people say that Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do you love me” three times because Peter had denied him three times. There may be some parallel between those two things. But actually, there’s a little bit more going on here, because Jesus didn’t just say, “Do you love me” three times, he used a couple of different words in Greek. And it doesn’t come out in the English translation. He uses the word agape and he uses the word filio. Agape is the Greek word for unconditional love, overwhelming love. The love that has no bounds. Filo is friendship, the love that exists between friends.
So can I tell you what I think, Jesus said in a slightly different translation Is that okay? Peter has sat there. They’re having their fish. There is tension in the air. And Jesus says, “Simon Peter, do you love me with all your heart unconditionally more than any of these people sitting around you right now?” And Peter says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you with all of my heart. You know it.” Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” Jesus says a second time, because he wasn’t convinced by Peter’s first answer. “Simon Peter, do you love me unconditionally?” Peter says, “Yes, Lord, I love you unconditionally. Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.” The third time Jesus says, “Peter, are you my friend?” Peter’s very upset when on third time Jesus says, “Peter, are you my friend.” And he says to him, “Lord, you know that I love you. You know that I’m your friend.” And Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”
Meals are a great place to reconcile: if you can tell the truth about what’s going on. Jesus manages to elicit from Peter some truth. Peter is full of bluster in his first answer. By the third answer when Jesus says, “Are you my friend? He’s kind of asking, “Have you behaved towards me like a friend would?” The answer’s actually no. And Jesus doesn’t need Simon Peter to give him a comprehensive answer. But I think perhaps he needed Simon Peter to break open. That moment of anger, when Peter says, “You know I love you,” is a moment of breaking open. I feel like Jesus is saying: Simon Peter, we have been together for three years. We know each other really well. I am your friend, you are my friend. I will take whatever you can give me right now, but also, I just need to be honest about the fact that we broke our relationship and I need to tell you this. It doesn’t matter. I still love you, and I still need you, and I want you in my life. And I want you to serve my people. It’s a miracle as significant as a miracle of Resurrection itself. Jesus seeks to repair that relationship by telling the truth, and still offering love. And here’s the thing that I reflect on in the season of Easter: Am I capable of doing that. Thank God for Jesus. Thank God Jesus comes back to us after his death. and says, “Do you love me?” And we answer him with whatever we have in our heart, however fractured it might be. Yes, we’re trying. And he says, that’s good enough for now. Feed my sheep. I need you. Amen.