Simon Son of John, Do You Love Me?

PETER'S GREAT TEST

Jesus Teaches for Forty Days

Jesus has been crucified, yet he lives on! He appears to some of his disciples, such as two men on the road to Emmaus, and ten of his apostles gathered in a secret room in Jerusalem. A week later, he appears to them again, this time including "doubting" Thomas, who falls down at his feet saying, "My Lord and my God!"

At Jesus' direction (Mark 14:28), the apostles go north to Galilee and wait for him there. Simon Peter and six more apostles were together one evening at the side of the Sea of Galilee where Peter and Andrew's well-worn fishing boat was dragged up on the shore and unused.

Then Peter said, "I'm going fishing."

The other apostles said, "We're going with you."

They fished all night, but like many another night caught nothing in their nets. The sun was coming up, so it was time to give up and pull the boat back up out of the water. When they were still a hundred yards from shore, there was a man standing there who called out, "Children, you don't have any fish, do you?"

"No," they answered.

The man said, "Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find some."

Doubtfully, they did so, and they caught more fish than the net could safely hold. By this time they were suspicious, but it was John son of Zebedee who said to Peter, "It's the Lord!"

Peter immediately threw himself into the water to get to Jesus, But the rest of the apostles used the small shore-boat to tow the net full of fish into shore. There Jesus had built a cooking fire and said, "Bring some of the fish you've caught. Come and  have breakfast." 

Simon son of John

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?"

Simon son of John? What happened to the new name Jesus had given him, "Peter." Why is Jesus addressing him by his patronym, the name of his father? It has been three years since Jesus took his walk down that beach , and called out to the four fishermen, "Follow Me!"

Jesus had made  it very clear that their old lives of hauling in fish were over, and they were to lead new lives as "fishers of men." Was Simon Peter thinking of returning to his old life? His father John had helped establish a prosperous wholesale fishing cooperative that fed his family well. When his father no longer fished, Simon took over his father's share in the co-op, partnering with old hand Zebedee and his two sons. Before Jesus came along, that was their destiny, to continue their families' traditions on the Sea of Galilee.

Just to make it sink in, Jesus repeated his question twice more, and emphasizing Simon Peter's new career: "Tend my lambs. Shepherd my sheep. Tend my sheep."

When Simon Peter said, "You know that I love you," he knew that he was re-affirming the commandment of Jesus: "If you love  me, keep my commandments."

Me, Myself, and I

Do you and I do the same thing? Does it sometimes seem easier to go back to our usual ways instead of serving Jesus? I know I have done it. But Jesus is always there, saying, "My child, do you love me?"

Jesus in His Father, 12 Years Old

How can somebody be "in his father?"

Jesus was having a good time in the temple, amazing the rabbi's and teachers with his advanced understanding of the Scriptures. He would ask questions that seemed beyond that which would be expected for a twelve-year-old. And when the learned professors would ask him a question they were even more astonished by his answers.

In the meantime, his parents were on their way back home, blithely unaware that Jesus was not among the caravan on its way to Nazareth. At the end of a full day's journey, his parents began searching for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but he was  nowhere to be found. The next morning, they had to return to Jerusalem to scour the city for him.

They finally found him in the temple, of all places, dazzling teachers and rabbi's. By this time his mother Mary was perturbed, and said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Look, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you!" (Luke 2:48)

Then Jesus replied in a peculiar way. He responded,

"Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father?"

"In my Father?" What does that mean?

Many translators struggled with that, unwilling to leave Jesus' answer as found in the original Greek. They attempted to 'fix' Jesus' answer by adding more words so that it made more sense to them.

Some translators rendered it "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Or worse, others put it "Didn't you know I hade to be about my Father's business?"

(The better translations put these added words in italics to mark them as not present in the original.)

The better course would have been use of the maxim, "Let Scripture define Scripture." It's a short hop to the book of John, where we find Jesus telling us what "in my Father" means, at John14:20.

"In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you"

This bears closer examination. Here is John 14:20-21a, saying "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and show myself to him."

When Jesus is in the will of the Father, he is in his Father. When you and I keep Jesus' commands, we are in Jesus. When we are in Jesus, we are loving him. And we who loves Jesus will love the Father, and Jesus will love and reveal himself to us.

So what went wrong?

Jesus knew where he had to be, but this twelve-year-old jumped the gun. There is a time for everything, and the time for Jesus to begin his ministry had not yet begun. Instead, it was time for Jesus to finish growing up, and gain more wisdom (Luke 2:52).

Jesus vs. His Mom

"Jesus, they've run out of Wine!"

"Woman, what does that have to do with you or with me?

"My Hour Has Not Yet Come."

Mother Mary clearly wants something to be done about the wine supply, and she  has presented the problem to Jesus. But Jesus replies, in effect, "Mother, I'm not in the miracle business right now."

(John 2: 1-11)

A Standoff !

Can Mother Mary command the King of the Universe to make more wine?

Can Jesus disregard, therefore disrespect, a request from his mother?

Mary has the solution to the dilemma. She turns to the servants and says, 

"Do whatever he tells you to do," and apparently leaves the  room.

Well. Obviously, Mary wields some authority around here. She gives a command to the servants, even though it may be unlikely these are her own servants. So this marriage feast may well be a celebration for a family relative. 

But what is Jesus to do now? His choice is between honoring his ministry plan, which is low key for now, and honoring his mother's request. He chose the latter.

Jesus chose to obey the Fifth Commandment of Moses: 

"Honour thy father and thy mother."

And he did it in a low  key manner, so as not to create a big stir at the wedding. But the  servants  knew what had happened, and eventually the word got out. It had a strong effect on the five or six disciples he had gathered by now. And by the time Jesus got to Jerusalem for Passover, Nicodemus already had heard the news. We can guess this because Nicodemus (in Aramaic, Nakdimon) was not only one of the three richest men in Jerusalem, but also the owner of extensive farmland in Galilee. Still, it would be at least a year before Jesus began attracting huge crowds wherever  he went.

And the lesson for you and me?

Honour Your Father and Your Mother.

The humor of the Man from Nazareth

From front to back, the Bible is sprinkled with touches of humor here and there, mostly missed by its readers. Too many commenters dwell on solemnness and seriousness in Bible passages and get left out of the wit and even comedy. 

Here's an example of the humor of Jesus and Nathanael from the Gospel of John:

1:45-46. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph!"

This exchange takes place early in the day, as Jesus prepares to take his new disciples on a vigorous 3-day walk to Cana. It is quite possible that Nathanael was asleep when Philip found him. Nathanael's retort was surprising.

1:46a. Nathanael said to Philip, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" 

Nathanael meant no bad will against Nazareth,which was only a sleepy little village of perhaps 200 residents. His response was lightly satirical, responding to Philip's over-exuberance. Philip had just met Jesus only moments before this.

1:46b. Philip said to him, "Come and see!"

The Gospel reported the same light-hearted response that Jesus had to Andrew and John the day before this (1:39).

1:47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israel indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"

This was certainly a bold statement, but Nathanael was ever the skeptic.

1:48. Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, saying, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

This was certainly an unexpected response from Nathanael's point  of view. It was unlikely that an ordinary human being could know so much from so little information. Nathanael responded with broad satire, even a parody of what Jesus had said.

1:49. Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King  of  Israel!"

Here Nathanael is using outright comedy to portray Jesus' description of him. (As soon as he said it, he might have wished that he could take it back.)

BUT JESUS GOES ALONG WITH NATHANAEL'S JOKE!

1:50. "Jesus answered him, saying, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you [now] believe? You will see greater things  than these."

But this was a teaching  moment ,  and Jesus was not going to let it pass by. 

1:51. And Jesus said to him, "Truly, Truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

The first "you" is singular: Jesus said to Nathanael.

The second "you" is plural: "I say to all of you."

Jesus' audience for this final statement is at least both Nathanael and Philip, and probably Andrew and John as well.

If you missed the humor in this banter and interchange between Jesus and Nathanael, you might conclude, as many serious scholars have, that Nathanael was the first person other than John the Baptist that recognized Jesus as the Son of God.

Matthew 15:27, Mark 7:28

If you missed the banter of Nathanael, you might also have missed the banter of the Syrophoenician women when she responded to Jesus, "Yes, Lord, but even the puppies under the table feed on the children's crumbs which fall from their master's table." Jesus responded positively to this banter also, and granted the woman's request for her child to be healed.

REFERENCES: Here are three books that go into the humor of Jesus more deeply:

The humor of Christ, Elton Trueblood, 1964

The humor of Jesus, Henri Cormier, 1977

The joyful Christ, Cal Samra

John is AWOL! Or is he? (John 1:19-51)

Just when do we first find John, the future teenage apostle?

And why isn't he at home, fishing on the lake with his father and brother?
Did he run away from home?

Taken chronologically, John son of Zebedee first appears in the Bible as an anonymous disciple of John son of Zacharias, popularly known as John the Baptist (John 1:35). He is in the company of Andrew son of Jonas, evidently a close friend. A little background is useful here, to reveal some information we won't be exposed to until we wade farther into the chronological story  of Jesus  and his apostles.

Fathers Zebedee and Jonas are partners in a commercial fishing business at the Sea  of Galilee. They each have two sons. Zebedee's sons are James the elder and John the younger. Jonas's sons are Simon the elder and Andrew the younger.  As the youngest members of this co-op, it is natural that John and Andrew would hang out with one another and become friends. 

Church tradition very solidly identifies John as the youngest apostle, which is even more likely since we find this apostle still writing Bible material near the very end of the First Century. As a simple guess, it is likely that Andrew is also a teenager here, or at least a young adult. As John himself writes the story, he never reveals his personal name, although he does describe his personal relationship with Jesus.

Young John has solid employment prospects in the fishing business, and a very protective mother to keep him on the straight and narrow. But at this juncture he appears to be alone with his best friend Andrew, many miles south of his home in Bethsaida, which is far to the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

What happened? Did he have a fight with his dad or his brother? Did he dislike the fishing business? Was his mother overbearing? Did he have a strong independence streak?

Well, a few verses later we find out that these young men are not actually alone. More on that later, but first we will look at what John as Gospel-writer reveals to us in his story.

JOHN 1:1-5 - THE NATURE OF JESUS THE MESSIAH.

John begins his Gospel many years later with the most explosive theological concept since the creation of the universe: "The Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not comprehended it." No teenager could have written this. The apostle John had lived 40 more years before he was ready to share this news. But this concept is for another blog on another day. 

JOHN 1:6-18 - THE NATURE OF THE BAPTIST AND HIS MESSAGE.

John continues his Gospel with a general description of who John the Baptist is, and what he is preaching. This is a general summary of the Baptist, not an historical "event."

JOHN 1:19-28 - FIRST DAY: THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

The Baptist has been preaching and baptizing long  enough to attract the attention of the Pharisees and the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. They have sent priests and Levites to grill him on who he claims to be and what he is doing and why. His testimony: "I am a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Make  straight the way of the Lord.' I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. He comes after me."

This is an historical event, and young John is an eye-witness to it and describes it. But the Baptist said, "among you stands..." a more important person. Well, maybe the person is standing right there in the crowd, but our intrepid teenager has no idea which man the Baptist is talking about.

JOHN 1:29-34 - SECOND DAY: THE BAPTIST IDENTIFIES THE LAMB OF GOD.

The next day the Baptist sees the man coming and says, "BEHOLD the Lamb of God. This is the man I was talking about. He will baptize in the Holy Spirit. I saw the Spirit descend like a dove and remain on him. This is the Son of God!" 

Teenage John is an eye-witness again and describes the scene. But he takes no other action. Is he too slow on the uptake? Is Andrew not with him? We don't know, But the man continues his passage through the throng and disappears up  the path.

JOHN 1:35-42 - THIRD DAY: THE BAPTIST IDENTIFIES THE LAMB OF GOD AGAIN.

Jesus is walking, passing by without stopping. But both John and Andrew were there to hear the Baptist speak, and they immediately began following the man. The man turned and asked them, "What do you seek?" Together they said, "Teacher, where are you staying?" The man answered, "Come, and you will see."

The two followed him to where he was staying, and evidently talked with Jesus there. Andrew then went to find his brother Simon (who is nearby, evidently), saying, "We have found the Messiah!" Andrew brought Simon to Jesus and Jesus gave him a new name, Peter. ('Peter' is Greek, 'Cephas' is Aramaic.) It was about 4pm, so they stayed with Jesus that night. Was Simon Peter's wife also with them? We don't know, but it is quite possible that even if she were, the Gospel-writer would not have mentioned her. First century customs were all about the men, and the women often got little notice.

And what about John's older brother "Big" James? If he were there, wouldn't John the Gospel-writer have mentioned him? Or, contrary-wise, perhaps there was bad feelings between the brothers? We can't make too much of this, because even though John's Gospel mentions "The Twelve" four times, he only mentions 7 out of the 12 apostles by name, not including his brother. It seems John's Gospel only mentions a name if John has a specific incident attributed to that name. See "Judas (not Iscariot)" for example, at John 14:22. 

JOHN 1:43-51 - FOURTH DAY: TWO MORE DISCIPLES, DEPARTURE FOR CANA.

Jesus "finds Philip," an acquaintance of John, and says "Follow Me." John and Philip both live in Bethsaida. Then Philip "found Nathanael." Nathanael is from Cana, miles to the west of the Sea of Galilee. Philip told Nathanael they had found the man forecast by the prophet, and brought him to Jesus. Jesus and Nathanael have an interesting conversation, which will be the subject of a coming blog post. Then Jesus with his retinue of Andrew, John, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael depart for Cana, where they have been invited to a wedding, where Jesus' mother will be assisting (still another coming blog post).

JOHN 2:1 - THE SIXTH DAY: JESUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARRIVE IN CANA.

Stay tuned: Lots of fascinating human-interest stuff goes on in Cana.