On hearing of his approaching martyrdom, Peter immediately asks Christ about John the Evangelist. As the future shepherd concerned for the fate of those entrusted to him, the chief Apostle worries about the future of the young disciple. But in these words we can see not only concern and anxiety, but also simple curiosity. Peter wants to look into the future and learn whether Jesus foretells a violent death for all His followers. The Lord answers him rather sharply: “What is that to you?” And He immediately adds: “You follow Me.”

At times we greatly desire the path and heart of our neighbor to be laid open before us, so that the hidden things taking place between that person and God might be revealed to us. And we are not always moved by curiosity; often it is our human concern and sympathy. Yet Christ calls each person to follow Him, expecting complete trust from us. For we can follow Jesus only if we bring to Him those whom we carry in our hearts.

One of the favorite themes of Christian preachers is the story of Peter's threefold denial and the question the risen Jesus repeated three times: "Do you love Me?" Commentators often pay attention to the shades of meaning in the word "love," which in the Greek text is conveyed by two different words, sometimes drawing far-reaching conclusions from the nuances of Greek usage. Yet such nuances could hardly have played so large a role in Jesus' dialogue with Peter: after all, they were certainly not speaking Greek, but most probably Aramaic; and in Aramaic, unlike Greek, such nuances are absent.

But the threefold question and the threefold answer do have their meaning in Jewish tradition: testimony or an oath repeated three times is considered definitively established. Apparently, this custom is connected with features of the national temperament: who knows what may slip off the tongue in the heat of the moment! But if a person repeats something three times, if he answers the same question the same way three times, then the answer is no longer given in the heat of the moment; the one answering really thinks as he says, and his answer can be considered firm and final.

Of course, when answering Jesus, Peter could not fail to understand why the Teacher asked him the same question three times. He, of course, could not fail to remember his threefold denial of Jesus, even if at that moment it had not been fully conscious. And both of them understood perfectly well that this denial had nevertheless not been fully conscious, but involuntary, that it happened in a situation Peter himself did not fully understand, and that it was threefold only outwardly: for all three times Peter, in essence, did not even think about the meaning of the question, but simply brushed off the questioners so they would not keep him from following what was happening to his Teacher. And Jesus evidently wants from him a threefold, almost formal oath of love for Himself. And Peter becomes bitter and pained, like a person who understands that after what happened the Teacher can no longer trust him as before.

And Jesus immediately explains His questions: Peter has ahead of him a new, important, and responsible ministry, which will end in the same way as the earthly ministry of his Teacher ended. The question was not asked for no reason: Peter himself needed the answer. A man whose apostolic ministry began with involuntary apostasy and ended with the martyr's death of a faithful witness.

It is interesting that Peter and John are in some way especially connected through certain Gospel events. In today's passage we see the same straightforward Peter, who does not delay with questions and does not hide his thoughts. It is quite possible that all the disciples had a caring attitude toward John as the youngest. Here that care is shown in a direct question about the future fate of the "younger brother": "Lord, what about this man?" (John 21:21). And here we remember John's own question about who would betray Jesus, since it was asked at Peter's request. See John 13:23-25)…

And what do we hear in response? "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John 21:22). The Lord gives an answer, though perhaps with a slight rebuke to Peter's curiosity. And people immediately try to interpret this answer in order to understand exactly what Jesus meant.

Such is our human problem: "I want to know everything" and understand everything, often regardless of whether it concerns us at all. How often one encounters heightened interest in horoscopes, dream interpretation, and predictions of the future. The same also includes the stubborn desire to interpret every word of the Book of Revelation... But John himself emphasizes that Jesus said nothing more than these few words. And it is not always necessary to tear the thin veil from something whose time has not yet come...