Forgiveness comes with a job
Lambeth News
| 09 Sep 2008
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The final Lambeth Bible study from Oxford theology undergraduate Joanna Cleggs:
In our final Bible Study we looked at Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter, John chapter 21 verses 15-25, in which Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, a reminder of Peter’s thrice-denial in chapter 18. The scene is set by the burning charcoal fire which appears in both chapters, but whereas in the earlier passage (18 v.18) it is used for warmth on a chilled evening that has been further marred by absence and betrayal, in the last chapter it marks a great comeback, the return of the King.
But there is another comeback which really occupies this passage – Peter’s. The painful process Jesus initiates could seem like judgement, like pouring salt in a wound. Why can’t Jesus accept the first response? Did he have to make certain? He’d asked Peter things before, and Peter was there jumping out of boats and making tents for the transfigured Moses and Elijah – going out of his way because he recognised before anyone else that ‘Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.’ And yet he still rejected him.
So in verse 17, ‘Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time,’ he is probably not hurt because of the tiresome repetition. Rather, the third question transports him to another time, not that long ago, but comparably distinct, one that he appears to have forgotten (verse 7).
Do you ever feel complacent about prayer? God knows anyway, what’s the point? God doesn’t need to hear that we love him; Jesus didn’t need to hear that Peter loved him. God is no better off for it.
But do we know that we love, if we don’t say it? Is it possible to love something and not declare it? Isn’t it true that when we love, we want (and need) to talk about it, and as we talk, our love comes alive? (see Romans 10 v. 8-10)
And so we’re back to the beginning, to words.
This is a complete redemption. Jesus’ wonderful means of forgiveness is to vivify Peter. It would not be enough to say, ‘ok I forgive you. Now off you go. Over there, away from my sight’. Thank God that God does not just forgive in an oblique way; he gives us something to do. He says, ‘not only do I forgive what you’ve done, but I give you important things to do because you’re worth it and have something to offer’. He gives us purposes. ‘Follow me’.
As a Good Shepherd, as a servant-hearted leader, Jesus shares his ministry with Peter. That Peter will die a worse death than Jesus is not punishment, but that Jesus tells him what he is to suffer, is a lesson to us today. We’re not selling a lifestyle, Christianity is hard.
I wonder if the most effective evangelism would be to ask people if they want to suffer for a compelling cause that is Truth and Right and Good (in the ‘kalos’ sense)? It is surprising how much people are willing to die for ‘good’ causes. Animal-rights? Amnesty international? War? Here Jesus is telling Peter he will die for this cause. He doesn’t trick him into it, he doesn’t manipulate and he doesn’t sell it as a magnificent lie. This is hard selling.
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