Thursday of Misericordias Domini, 2020

 

John 21:15-25

 

It is a hard, but beautiful story, when Jesus talks to Peter.  Peter had denied his Lord three times, and three times Jesus asks him, “Do you love me?”

 

Peter’s sin of denying Jesus happened before he actually denied him.  It was his pride.  “Peter said to Him, ‘Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!’ And so said all the disciples.”  He led the disciples to promise what they couldn’t promise.  And he claimed his love was greater than all the others.  “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”  “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit goes before a fall.” 

 

The reason Jesus asks, “Do you love me more than these?” is because Peter had based his boast on a love he claimed was greater than the love others had for Jesus.  And now Jesus asks him if he loves him more than the others love him.  Peter ignores the comparison, and just says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Peter had boasted that he loved Jesus more than others loved Him.  That was denying Christ already. 

 

It is only when Jesus finds the straying sheep that the sheep can love.  Peter didn’t know he was straying.  At the very moment he thought he was closest to Jesus, he was already denying him.  And so when we feel love for Jesus, if it ever leads us to place ourselves above others, know that it is not love.  It is not love for Jesus.

 

But now Peter is found, and the words he speaks to us in his first epistle, he learns personally, “You were like sheep gone astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” 

 

Learn to know Jesus as He knows you.  “I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my sheep and am known by My own.  As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.” 

 

The Father knew Jesus when He was poor and weak and lying in a manger, and Jesus knew Him as His loving God and Father.  The Father knew the Son when He was ridiculed and mocked and spat on, and Jesus knew that God loved Him still.  The Father knew the Son when He was the worst sinner, because He carried all sins; when He was crucified and naked and ashamed, and cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” then the Father knew Jesus as His own dear Son, and Jesus knew the Father.

 

Jesus knows you when you are gone straying like a lost sheep.  He knows you when you have been led astray by your own sinful flesh, by the world that flaunts her pride, by the devil who tempts you into believing the wrong thing and doing the evil thing and despairing that God could have mercy on you.  In short, when the Law condemns you as a sinner, and you don’t even know yourself as a Christian because your guilt is too much, and you really have turned to your own way, then the one on whom the Father laid the guilt of us all, then He still knows you. 

 

You see your life and your situation, and you feel pain and sadness and regret, and you wish to be holy and good, but can’t find it in yourself, and you long for your Shepherd, if He would only come to you.  He knows you. He longs for you.  He leaves the 99 in the wilderness to find you.  Why would He do that?  Because more than your love for Him is His love for you.  More than your pain and sorrow is His pain and sorrow that you are not with Him, but He searches for that lost sheep, he finds that lost coin, He calls heaven and earth to Himself to rejoice when He finds you, and He says, “Look, my sheep who was lost is found again!  My son who was dead is alive!”

 

Peter went and wept bitterly after he denied Jesus.  So should we when we deny Him with our sins. When we rely on our own piety and feelings of strength and devotion.  When this leads us to misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice, then let us weep bitterly.  Let us rend our hearts not just in Lent, but every day for our sins.  But let us listen to Jesus question Peter, and find in His question the answer our hearts need. 

 

“Do you love Me?”  The pious answer would seem to be “Not as much as I should!”  But Peter is not lying when He says, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Because Peter trusts in Jesus.  He knows Jesus because Jesus knows Peter.  He knows all things.  Peter confesses his love for Jesus not because his flesh has been purged from all sin – there are a few of sins still recorded later in the Scriptures.  He confesses his love for Jesus because he knows that Jesus knows him, that He still loves him, that He still claims him as his brother, that when He rose from the dead, He appeared to Peter and gave him peace and the forgiveness of sins. 

 

And now he tells him to feed the sheep and the lambs.  He tells him to feed those who go astray like Peter did.  He tells them to forgive them their sins.  How do you love Jesus?  You love His sheep.  You take care of them.  Peter did so by preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments.  But Jesus tells all of us, “Whatever you have done to the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto Me.” 

 

So love the sheep, brothers and sisters.  Jesus knows you, and you know Him.  He knows you as His own dear sheep for whom He laid down His life.  As the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father, so He knows you and you know Him.  He has joined you to a knowledge of mercy and grace that blots out your sins, rescues you from your misery, and places you above the angels to the right hand of God, where all your shame is replaced with glory and all your sadness with joy. 

 

Feed your children, teach them, love them, know them as Jesus’ beloved lambs.  Forgive your brothers and sisters, love them, and know them as Jesus’ dear sheep. Give your work, your money, your talents, your wisdom to the sheep and lambs of Christ’s holy flock – love them, because Jesus knows them, and they know Jesus, and you do too.  He is your Savior whom your follow when you hear His voice, when He tells you that He loves you, and He loves to hear that you love Him.  Even if he leads you to die with Him, He loves you.  He gives you eternal life, and you will never perish, neither shall anyone snatch you out of His hand.  Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!  Amen.