John 21:15

Ver. 15. “ When therefore they had breakfasted, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou me more than these do? He says to him, Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He says to him, Feed my lambs. ”

As there is a relation, which is perhaps not accidental, between the outward situation in which Peter had been called the first time to the ministry and that which has just been described, there is also a relation between the situation in which he had lost this office by his denial and the fire of coals near which he recovered it.

The title Simon, son of Jona, or, according to the reading of some Alexandrian authorities, Simon, son of John, is not unintentionally opposed to that of Simon Peter, of which the evangelist makes use in this same verse. It reminds Peter of his natural origin, and consequently of the state of sin from which the call of Jesus had drawn him, but into which he had sunk again by his fall. The allusion to the threefold denial of the apostle in the three following questions is not doubtful, whatever Hengstenberg may think. The threefold profession of his love for Jesus is to efface, in some sort, the threefold stain which he has brought upon himself. Jesus Himself is anxious to furnish him the occasion for it. By adding: more than these do, He certainly reminds Peter of the presumptuous superiority which he had attributed to himself when he said, Matthew 26:33; Mark 14:29:

“ Even if all the rest shall be offended in thee, I will not be offended. ” No doubt, John has not mentioned this saying; but his narrative is in constant relation to that of the Synoptics. One cites only as a remembered curiosity the interpretation which makes the word these the object of lovest thou, and which refers it to the fishing implements or to the fish: “Lovest thou me more than thou lovest thine old profession?” Peter, with a humility enjoined by the remembrance of his fall, at first in his answer rejects these last words: more than these; then he substitutes for the term ἀγαπᾶν, to love in the higher and spiritual sense of the word, love with the love of reverence, the term φιλεῖν, to cherish, love in the sense of personal attachment. He thinks that he can without presumption ascribe to himself this latter feeling; and yet he does not do it without expressing a certain distrust of himself and without seeking the guaranty of the testimony of his heart, to which he does not dare to trust any longer, in the infallible knowledge of the hearts of men, which he now attributes to his Master. The question here is not of omniscience in the absolute sense of the word. Comp. John 2:24-25. This appeal softens, as Luthardt says, the too decided character which a simple yes would have had.

Upon this answer, Jesus gives back to him the care of the flock. “He confides those whom He loves to the one who loves Him,” says Luthardt. The expression: the lambs, designates, according to some, a particular class of the members of the Church, the children and beginners; but the whole flock, at the point where things then were, was composed only of those who were beginning and weak. This saying reminds us of that which Jesus had addressed to Peter before his fall: “When thou shalt be restored, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). The lambs are thus the whole flock of the faithful, apostles and simple believers. The term feed, βόσκειν, cause to feed, denotes the care of a flock from the point of view of nourishment. This function, in the spiritual sense, implies an inward sympathy which can only spring from love.