NOTES for Joh 21:15-25
Peter and John. The two who did not run away from Gethsemane that night, as all the others did. It is no accident that Jesus addresses Peter first. Or perhaps only him. In any case, the evangelist says nothing about whether Jesus asked questions of the other disciples at that meeting. But He asked Peter: do you love Me? And He asked him again three times. It was as if He were bringing Peter back there, to the temple courtyard, where he had denied three times that he knew Jesus. Only him. If we stay within what the evangelist says, He asked no one else anything. And that is understandable: what was there to ask those who had run away? They are not lost causes, no. On the contrary, everything still lies ahead for them. They have not even begun their path yet.
But Peter had begun. He took the first step when he followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, at a time when he himself no longer hoped for anything, just like all the others. This is the first step: realizing the self-sufficient value of relationship with Christ. And Jesus evaluates Peter's denial in the temple courtyard from the height of this first step that Peter had taken. For it was precisely then, in that very courtyard, that he began to become His true disciple. And he almost broke. He did not become a traitor. What set things right was that Peter came to himself at once: the rooster's crow sounded like an alarm bell.
But the break was close, very close. And Jesus asks Peter a question: so then, do you love Me more than these? How did you live through that situation in the temple courtyard? Did you break, or did you hold firm? Those deeply personal relationships with Me, dependent on nothing else - what happened to them? Did they remain? Or have you become like all My other disciples, and now you have to start everything from the beginning, as they do? Of course, Jesus Himself sees everything perfectly. "Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You."
He, Jesus, of course knows. But He needs Peter to understand himself too. He needs Peter to say to himself what he has just said to Him. So that it becomes clear: he, Peter, is one step ahead of the others. And if so, then, "feed My sheep." Not because he is higher, but because he has stepped forward. He dared, in his relationship with the Teacher, to do what the others did not dare to do. This is how people become true shepherds and presiders in the Church of Christ. And John? He did not run away then either... "What is that to you? You follow Me." You have your path, and he has his. Walk your own path. Follow Me. Your brother will walk his own. We will all meet in My Kingdom.