THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED

A Sermon by Bill McDonald from John 21:1-25

April 22, 2007

John 21

¹After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ²Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards^£ off.

⁹When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁰Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” ²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” ²²Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!” ²³So the rumor spread in the community that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

²⁴This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. ²⁵But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Did you have any siblings? If you did, which one of you did your mother love the most? One of the popular TV shows of recent years is “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I know it is popular because no matter to what channel you tune or on which night, at any given moment in time you can find a rerun of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Raymond’s brother Robbie is a huge, gentle giant of a man, a police officer, but no matter what he accomplishes, Raymond seems to do something better. When this happens, Robbie locks onto his brother with those big, saggy, sad eyes, the jowls of his cheeks hanging in a flapping frown, and says, “Oh, sure, it’s always about Raymond…everybody loves Raymond...Ma always liked you best!” Sibling rivalry we call it. Your sister gets a BMW; you have to get a Mercedes. Your brother makes the baseball team; you have to letter in football. For some families the Christmas tree has to come with a calculator so the children can make sure that some sibling didn’t get more than they did. We are culturally conditioned for competition, but it seems especially fierce between us and those to whom we are closest.

The Gospel of John, vastly different from its three gospel siblings (Matthew, Mark and Luke) may have a bit of rivalry going on. Fred Craddock suggests that the Gospel of John comes to us from the Johanine circle, a group of early Christians devoted to the disciple John. As such, they believed that the gospel of John represents the truest of all accounts of the life of Jesus. One indicator of this is that the disciple John is never called by his name in this gospel but is always referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Most of us know that the disciple Peter became the most important of the disciples for building up the Christian faith and for the establishment of the Church. The cathedral at the Vatican is called St. Peter’s, not St. John’s. Peter is the foremost of all the disciples. Except that in the Gospel of John, Peter doesn’t even get to sit next to Jesus at the last supper. Since none of the other gospels indicate who sat where at the table, Leonardo da Vinci used John’s description of the supper to place John on Jesus’ right hand with Peter a second seat away. At the last supper when Jesus says that someone will betray him, Peter has to poke John (“the disciple whom Jesus loved”) and tell him to ask Jesus who he means. Three of the gospels say that all the disciples ran away after Jesus was arrested and mention not a single one as having been present at the cross. But in John, who is standing there at the foot of the cross right next to Jesus’ mother? John, of course, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” And Jesus entrusts the care of his mother to John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” When Mary Magdalene tells the disciples that the stone has been rolled away from Jesus’ tomb, Peter and John set out running. Guess which one gets to the tomb first? “Everybody loves John.”

This last chapter of the Gospel of John may have been tacked on by a later writer who had important updates to share. By the time this chapter was written, Peter had already been crucified upside down in Rome, while John had probably died of old age while exiled on the island of Patmos. Some of the first Christians had believed that John would not die before Jesus returned to the earth in glory. Some Christians had glorified the disciple Peter, others John. This little added story ties up the loose ends, glorifies both, and offers us some great advice for our own Christian initiative. Yes, John is still the disciple that Jesus loved, but Jesus takes aside Peter, the denier, the hothead, the second tier disciple and gives him a personal call. Do you love me? Feed my lambs. Do you love me? Tend my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Three promises to correct three denials. This time when Jesus says “Follow me,” he knows that Peter will do it. When in an afterthought the old rivalry springs up and Peter asks, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus answers that that it is none of Peter’s business. Jesus’ call to Peter is uniquely for Peter. Jesus has another call just as unique for John.

One crusty old elder in my first church heard me preach about Christian unity and plead for us Christians to cease our jealousy and squabbling. After worship he grabbed my arm and whispered, “Preacher, you are exactly right. We Christians need to quit fighting each other and get together--so we can fight the Catholics like we are supposed to!” Our calling from Christ here at Crestwood is not to compete with the Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church, not to compete with Southland or Immanuel or Centenary. It is not a contest between the Independents and the Churches of Christ and the Disciples. We are not called to outdo the Presbyterians and the Pentecostals. Our calling is to lean in and listen to Christ as he asks us about our willingness to serve his people. “Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.” And then follow.

The Hyde Park Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, sat across the street from the huge Hyde Park Baptist Church, which was about ten times the size of the Methodists. The Baptist church struggled to find parking for its thousands of members since it sat right in the middle of a residential neighborhood. So, since the Baptists started church earlier than the Methodists, they simply took over the Methodist’s small parking lot. But the Methodist’s found a solution to that problem. During worship they sent deacons into their parking lot who put bumper stickers on every car parked there. The bumper stickers read: “I’m proud to be a Methodist.” We are not competing for space or members or prominence with other churches. We are disciples who listen to Jesus tell us to feed his sheep and then follow him. If we do that, we are completing our task as given to us by our Lord. If we don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how big or famous or prestigious we get. It isn’t about sibling rivalry; it is about faithfulness to Christ’s call.

The same is true of our own individual sense of discipleship. We are not to be jealous of or feel inferior to the church saint or to the one who can quote tons of scripture by memory. One man in my childhood church had so many metal bars to hang below his Sunday School perfect attendance pin that they dangled almost to his knees. I heard people say, “Why should I even try to be regular in Sunday School? I’ll never catch up with Joe.” Well, you don’t go to Sunday School to catch up with Joe! You go to broaden your theological thinking, to deepen your scriptural knowledge, to enlarge your vision of justice and service, to define your mission. We are not to envy the eloquent teacher or the huge financial contributor or the Biblical scholar. They are following their calls from Jesus; we are to listen for our own calls. I have a feeling that when we meet Jesus face to face, he is not going to ask, “Did you do better than she did?” Instead I think he will ask, “Did you do all you could do?” Jesus wants us to respond to him, not to surpass someone else. His call to each of us is individualized, personal, unique, equal.

A mother of seven young children stood beside the casket of her oldest child, wailing inconsolably at the daughter’s tragic death. Screaming so that everyone in the church could hear, she shouted toward her family, “I wish I had never had any children! I wish none of you had ever been born!” The minister rushed to where the children sat and sought to reassure them. “It’s only her grief talking,” he said, “Your mother doesn’t really mean what she’s saying.” But one son replied, “Oh, yes, she does; she means it. But it’s alright, because she would be saying the same thing no matter which one of us had died.” Her pain assured them of the depth of her love for each of them. It is that same kind of fierce love that Jesus has for each of us. For you see, each one of us is the disciple whom Jesus loves.