Do You Love Me?

John 21:15-25

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. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁰Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” ²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” ²²Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” ²³So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

²⁴This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

In the gospel according to John, after His resurrection, on Easter morning, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. That evening, Jesus appears to the disciples, but Thomas was not there. Then a week later, Jesus appears again to the disciples – this time Thomas is present.

Sometime later seven of the apostles are back in Galilee and they decide to go fishing. They fished all night but caught nothing. At daybreak, although they did not recognize Him, Jesus was waiting for them. Jesus asks them whether they caught any fish, and they answered, “No.” Jesus told them to cast the net to the right side of the boat, and they will find some. They do, and they catch more fish than they can haul in – 153 of them. They realize that it is the Lord and they have breakfast together with the fish they caught and some bread.

After breakfast Jesus invites Peter for a walk to talk privately. Jesus asks if Peter loves Him. Peter answers, “Yes.” Jesus asks again if Peter loves Him, and Peter again answers, “Yes.” Then Jesus asks a third time if Peter loves Him, and it hurts Peter’s feelings. He probably is wondering why Jesus keeps asking the same question over and over. Peter is probably still ashamed about the fact that he had declared that he is willing to die for Jesus, and yet, a few hours later, denied Jesus three times. It made it worse that Jesus knew this all along and had foretold it. Peter was probably also wondering about his role in the new age after the resurrection of Jesus. He used to be the leader of the Twelve, but now he was pretty sure that he no longer qualified.

It just made matters worse that Jesus kept asking Peter whether he loved Jesus. Then Peter realizes that Jesus is giving him a chance to say “I love You” to Jesus the same number of times that he denied Him. Not only that, by Jesus saying, “Feed my lambs” and “Tend my sheep” that Jesus is restoring Peter back to his leadership role.

Then Jesus tells Peter what that love for Jesus will result in – The eventual loss of freedom and crucifixion. Unlike the old Peter, this does not faze him. It must have been a great relief to Peter that now he was sure that the resurrected Jesus indeed is the Messiah, Jesus had forgiven him and restored him again to a leadership role.

Then Peter noticed that John was following them and wanted to know what would become of John. Jesus basically tells Peter that that is none of his concern and that he should focus on being a follower of Jesus.

The gospel according to John ends on a private moment between Jesus and Peter. We can take away from this scene themes of love, repentance and service. Peter’s sin of denying Jesus three times was serious. But Peter had clearly repented of it and Jesus forgave him. Not only did Jesus forgive Peter, He restores Peter to the position of the leader of the apostles.

The experience had changed Peter. History tells us that Peter would not deny Jesus and was crucified for being a follower of Jesus. It is easy enough to say, “I would die for You”, but then renege when danger comes, but Peter overcame his fears and stood with Christ and was martyred for his faith.

It is easy to deny our relationship with Jesus Christ when we are surrounded by people who are critical of Christians. By remaining silent and hiding the fact that we are Christians we are no different than Peter denying Jesus. All of us probably have denied Jesus sometime in our lives. But if we repent, Jesus will forgive us and give us opportunities to identify ourselves as followers of Christ.

Another thing this passage points out to us is our curiosity about what other Christians are doing or not doing. After Peter was told that he would eventually be arrested and crucified for being a follower of Christ, Peter wanted to know what would happen to John. Jesus tells Peter not to be concerned about John but to focus on being a follower of Christ. It is the same with us. Especially when we feel like we are given harder tasks than others, rather than focusing on that, we should just focus on being the best follower we can be.

John 21 has been included amongst the biblical canon, but most scholars believe that the ending John wrote was John 20, and that John 21 was added after the death of Peter and John.

John 20 ends with these words:

³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

As we have come to the end of our journey through this gospel, let us carry on the work of John and let us tell those we meet that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name.

(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during our worship on April 12, 2026.)