 |
thisischurch.com
|
 |
Sermon for Easter 3 By The Reverend Dr Sam Cappleman
Transforming love
Its difficult to imagine quite how low Peter and the other disciples
must have been feeling in today’s gospel reading
All that they had understood about Jesus over the last few years seems
to be in shreds, He’s no longer with them and their hopes and dreams
seem in taters. Peter’s been a complete failure when it mattered most
and there’s no way back
Like many others in the same situation they drift back into what they
had been doing before, at least they could get on with that and make a
living – only they can’t catch anything
Imagine Peter thinking (as we all do from time to time) ‘I must be a
complete failure, I can’t even do what I have been doing for years…’
And then some complete stranger shouts at them from the shore to suggest
they cast their nets on the other side of the boat and they catch a haul
they can’t even get into the boat. They’d be thinking, ‘As fishermen how
did we miss that?’, although people from the shore did sometimes help
and guide the boats to catch fish in the lake
And then they realise the stranger is perhaps no stranger at all, but
Jesus, and things start to change. And, this being the gospel of John,
he gives us some clues as to what might be about to happen
First of all there is a fire or brazier that has been lit and the smell
drifting towards the disciples. When was the last time Peter had been by
a brazier? A few days earlier when he had denied knowing Christ. John
points us to the events of Peter’s denial of Christ.
After the disciples had sat down and eaten some fish (this must have
been a breakfast party with somewhat stilted conversation), Jesus takes
Peter to one side for a ‘chat’.
This must have had the feeling of the discipleship equivalent of going
into the headmasters study for Peter. ‘Oh no, what’s he going to say
now, am I about to be punished for what I did a few days ago’. Just when
Peter thought things couldn’t get worse it looks as if they are just
about to…
We get another clue in the exchange that takes place between Jesus and
Peter. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, in the first
instance, more then these although we never quite know what ‘these’
represent. There are some notes in Partnership News this week in the
Meditation about the different words that are used in the original Greek
text for love in this conversation. John is big on the concept of 3 we
remember, 3 days…
The first two times Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him using the word for
love agape, representing a total self giving kind of love. Peter replies
using the weaker work for love, phileo. The last time Jesus meets Peter
where he is and uses the same word for love as Peter is using, phileo.
Why this is interesting is that it’s generally accepted that Jesus spoke
Aramaic and the conversation with Peter would have taken place in
Aramaic. In Aramaic, there aren’t two different words for love, just the
one so whilst the theologians and academics reflect on the different
words it probably more important to try to unsderstand the clue John is
giving us.
It could be that what John is pointing out is that our love for Christ
can never be as strong as His love for us, but it doesn’t matter.
What Christ wants for us is to love Him as best we can, in our own
imperfect way. He will do the rest.
He goes on to show what that means.
It’s often very difficult to trust someone who has failed us or let us
down. We’re very wary about getting our fingers burnt twice.
When Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Jesus’ response isn’t a, ‘Well
that all right then, no harm done, least said soonest mended’ approach
Jesus’ response is to give Peter a new task to do; perhaps the most
important task there was to do in the early church
Again there is another clue by John. Earlier in his gospel as one of the
‘I am’ sayings he has introduced the motif of Jesus being the good
shepherd. Here not only has he reinstated Peter to the discipleship, he
has given him the task of leading the early church. He want Peter to
share is His own task of the good shepherd, and feed His sheep.
But it’s also important to understand that Peter is given this task, not
because Jesus thinks he is well suited to the task, thins he is a great
administrator, preacher or leader.
Jesus gives him the task because he has declared that he loves Him.
If we are to do anything as a follower or servant of Jesus our efforts
should be driven out of love for Him. In this way our Christian service
truly is a reflection and expression of our love for Him. Our actions
need to be built on love for Him.
Jesus, just as He does for all of us, heals the failings and hurts of
the past for Peter and gives him a new job to do
And, just as our actions are a reflection of our love for Jesus, so they
are a sign that we are forgiven by Christ. It works both ways
Often we may feel that our love for Jesus is pretty tepid and lame at
times, look at what happened to Peter. Again there is another clue by
John
In the words that follow the reading John indicate that Peter was to
suffer death as a martyr
Peter may have felt that his love was only phileo love, but when it had
been exposed to the transforming love of Jesus it too was transformed
into that total self giving agape love.
We shouldn’t get tied up with the mere words of John, however elegant
they are. But neither should we forget that we are called by God for a
task and as we respond in love for Him, he takes what we offer, our
love, our gifts, our failures, all the times we have failed Him in the
past, our hurts and loneliness, our pain and sorrow; and transforms it
and uses it as a sign of our forgiveness and of His undying and
unconditional love for the world.