“Peter, Do You Love Me?”

Sunday, May 04, 2025

“Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”

This was a painful question posed to the Son of Jonah. Not simply because of their three-year, deep, dynamic and devoted relationship but because of the time and place, where and when it occurred.

When Jesus first met Peter, three years earlier, it was at or close to this exact place on the shore of Galilee. Simon was fishing. Three of the four gospels tell us that Jesus met and called Simon Peter when he was fishing. [Matthew 4, Luke 5 and John 1]. And…Luke captures for posterities sake, that at the first calling, Jesus advised Simon and the others to cast their nets one more time. Just trust me, and Peter obeyed.

“⁴ When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.” Luke 5:4-5

Matthew states matters more succinctly, “for they [Andrew and Peter] were fishermen.” It was who they were, what they did and apparently what they loved. Jesus took this love and vocation and said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Combining for the kingdom, Peter’s passion, love and way of life.

John in the last chapter of his gospel, tells us that Jesus meets Peter again. Once more at the same place and under the same circumstances: By the sea and fishing.

There had been two other encounters where Jesus had shown himself to the twelve [the disciples], this was the third. John tells us that between the last and this appearance, Peter told the others, “I am going fishing.” [John 21:2] Peter was going back to what he loved and what he did.

Jesus, meets Peter at the place and under the circumstances of their first encounter, when Peter and the others, “brought their boats to land, they ^[a]forsook all and followed Him.” Luke 5:11.

This third encounter with Peter was deeply symbolic, emotional, and powerful. It had to draw up painful, troubling memories of love, devotion, triumph, passion, glory and of course the most recent, a test of character and loyalty about which Peter bragged but utterly failed. All of these complex emotional experiences were in the confusing context of a resurrected Jesus and what all that meant.

Included in the deeply symbolic mixture was the number three. This was Jesus’ third appearance with the disciples. He asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” This on the heels of the three times Peter had denied him. After Jesus spent three days in the tomb. Peter among the three closest of Jesus’ disciples. The three, Peter, James and John saw at the transfiguration, Moses, Elijah and Jesus. And the three years of Jesus “active” mission proclaiming “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

There is a deep tenderness and lesson for us recorded in this seaside meeting between the Master and his disciple. Jesus knew all of the relationship dynamics between him and this close friend, both past, present and future. Jesus takes all these complex experiences and starts with Peter from the beginning. At the shore, watching Peter do what he loved, who he was [a fisherman] and how he worked, wrestled and struggled with hard days fishing. There would be hard days ahead fishing for men.

Jesus even goes back to the first name he used when calling Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah” three years ago. Jesus knew Peter loved fishing and that way of life in spite of its hardness and days of failure. Jesus remembered how Peter left all to become a “fisher of men”, so he asks, “Do you [still] love me more than these?” The sea, the boats, fishing for fish, fishing for a living, this vocation and calling?

It was a hard question to hear, and Peter heard it three times. The first two times Jesus’ uses ‘agape’ for love [the unconditional, sacrificial love] to which Peter responded, “You know that I “phileo’ you” [like a good friend or brother] After all Peter had just failed his previous and braggadocios claims of unfailing agape love. On the third asking, “Do you love me?” Jesus meets Peter where he’s at in their relationship, “Do you love me [phileo] as a brother and friend?” To this Peter says, “LORD you know I love you [as a friend and brother.] Jesus accepts this love, and he still calls Peter to be that friend and “feed my sheep.”

I find a few lessons and personal applications:

1. Love whether agape [unconditional, unfailing] or phileo [brotherly, friendship] is at the CORE of our relationship with Jesus, the Father and the Spirit
2. Love has definitions and expectations. At a minimum they are TRUSTING and OBEYING
3. Love is more than a feeling, it is MANIFESTED
4. Whatever else [good or bad] that we love in this world, we must love God MORE.

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