John 21:11-15: a reflection

11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of one hundred fifty-three great fish. Even though there were so many, the net wasn’t torn. 12Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast!” None of the disciples dared inquire of him, “Who are you?” knowing that it was the Lord. 13Then Jesus came and took the bread, gave it to them, and the fish likewise. 14This is now the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples after he had risen from the dead. 15So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

After a night of catching nothing, the disciples haul in a full net of fish at Jesus' word, and come ashore to find that Jesus has already made breakfast, a charcoal fire with fish and bread, waiting for them. Come and have breakfast, he says, and serves them himself. Then, to Peter, who had denied him three times, Jesus asks the searching question: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? And when Peter says yes, Jesus gives him a charge: Feed my lambs.

Notice two tender things here. First, that the risen Lord serves his tired disciples breakfast, tending to their bodies, providing for them, meeting them not with rebuke but with a warm meal. And second, the question he presses on Peter, the one who had failed him: not are you sorry, or will you do better, but do you love me? The relationship is restored not through a performance but through love, and that love is then directed outward into service: feed my lambs.

Both speak to us. The Lord who provides breakfast is a Lord who cares for our ordinary needs and meets us with grace, not only rebuke, even after we have failed him. And the question he asks Peter is the question he asks us: do you love me? Everything else flows from that, and true love for him is proved not in words alone but in caring for those he loves, feeding his lambs. Hear his question to you: do you love me? And let your yes become service, tending those he entrusts to you. He provides for you and asks your love; return it, and let it feed his sheep.

Lord Jesus, you met your tired disciples with a breakfast you had made, providing for them with grace rather than rebuke, and you asked Peter, who had failed you, the one question that mattered: do you love me? Ask it of me. Help me answer yes from the heart, and let my love for you become service, feeding your lambs, caring for those you entrust to me. Thank you that you meet me with grace even after I have failed you, that you provide for my ordinary needs, and that you restore me through love rather than performance. I love you; help me show it by tending your sheep.