Author: Helen Burnell

“Follow me”    John 21:19

 

 

The cost of love is a surrender of the will

Dear friends,

Last month we reflected on Peter’s restoration and recommissioning after he had denied his Lord. This month, continuing in that passage in John 21, we look at the cost of following Jesus.

To be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ involves surrendering one’s will to his, and what Jesus said next to Peter is quite staggering in its implications. He reminded him that when he was younger he was free to dress himself and go wherever he wanted.  Then he warned him that when he became old someone else would dress him and lead him where he would not want to go. In saying this, Jesus was indicating the kind of death Peter would die, and by which he would glorify God. An early church father tells us that Peter was crucified head downwards, and another wrote: “At Rome Nero was the first who stained with blood this rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another when he is made fast to the cross”.

Then, after that solemn and truthful warning so that Peter could be in no two minds about the cost of discipleship, Jesus said to him, “Follow me!” No longer would that mean physically following Jesus, for he would soon be exalted to the presence of God the Father; but now discipleship would clearly mean to live as Jesus’ lived: by service, by suffering, and, if needs be, by death. So it is that Peter’s impending death can be said to have ‘glorified’ God, for a death met at the end of the road of obedience does surely glorify God.

I have no doubt that, on reaching heaven, I will find that I understood the way of salvation aright.  But I do wonder sometimes if I’ll discover that I got the way of discipleship all wrong.   The joy in the hearts of impoverished believers in the two-thirds world contrasts starkly with the lacklustre, cosy compromise that passes for so much modern western Christianity.  In those parts of the world where it costs comparatively little to be a Christian, we have hardly begun to grasp the radical nature of the gospel.  The gospels have a great deal to say about denying oneself, about taking the narrow road, about following Christ who went the way of being misunderstood, the way of suffering and of death.  Yet I find myself practicing my discipleship so cheaply, and living it out so comfortably.  Have the few years we have on earth come to mean so much to us, that the glories of the heaven that awaits us have almost lost their appeal?

But there are signs that change is afoot.  God forbid that the day will come when evangelistic preaching or counselling will be branded ‘conversion therapy’, or that teachers lose their jobs for encouraging their students to think independently ‘outside the box’ and come to conclusions that are not ‘politically correct’ (according to whose politics?). But our nation, and our children and their children, are in need of fervent prayer. Yet we are not alone, and there is hope for the repentant. Even to the lukewarm church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) this promise was given, and can we not claim it for ourselves? – “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”.

Your brother in Christ,

“Do you truly love me….?”

John 21:15

The test of love is a searching of the heart.

Dear friends,

Soon after his resurrection Jesus this question to Peter, “Do you truly love me more than these?” (John 21:15). Such had been Peter’s proud boast earlier (see Mark 14:29); but now the setting in which he found himself would surely have reminded him of his later denial:

• • a charcoal fire. He had been standing by one when he first denied knowing his Lord, and he is standing by one now as Jesus prepares breakfast on the shore of Galilee.
  • three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him; three times he had dissociated himself from Jesus, just as Jesus had said he would.
  • Jesus had introduced his prediction of Peter’s denial with the words, “I tell you the truth…” and now those same words introduce another prediction following Peter’s confession of love concerning the kind of death he would die, thereby glorifying God.

How thoroughly we see Jesus searching Peter’s heart! It is the same kind of heart-searching of which the psalmist speaks in Psalm 139 where says that God knows him when he sits down or gets up, goes out or lies down, what he is thinking and what he is going to say before he says it.

Jesus’ question to Peter uses a significant word for ‘love’ (‘agapeo’). It is the usual word for love in the New Testament, with a special quality about it. It is used of God’s love for it emanates from the heart and nature of the lover, regardless of the state of the one loved.  It loves no matter what, totally and unreservedly. Jesus asks Peter if he loves him like that.

In Peter’s answer a different word is used, a word that describes love between brothers (‘phileo’). Some scholars argue that there is no distinction to be made between the two words, but I prefer to see Peter’s response as implying that he loves Jesus but is not prepared to be so rash in is claims as he has been in the past.

With the third question, however, Jesus comes down, as it were, to Peter’s level; he now uses Peter’s own word, the somewhat weaker word, phileo.  Understandably, Peter is hurt by this. Is Jesus now questioning even his affection for him?  It could not have been a comfortable experience for Peter, but after his cowardly denial his love had to be subjected to a test. And if we are going to avoid making, or failing to live up to, rash claims of discipleship, then our love also has to undergo such a test.  Peter has learned his lesson. He is no longer relying upon his own estimation of his heart, he surrenders to the fact that Jesus knows him through and through and still has time for him. “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you”. 

With each question and each response there came a commissioning: ‘feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep’. The Lord knows our weaknesses, that we make bold claims that we cannot sustain, that we do our best in this matter of discipleship even if that falls short of what it could be, that our total love is, as often as not, more like fondness.  But he still has a place for us in his service.  He did not dismiss Peter as a failure, he tested then re-commissioned him as a follower.  And he still does that!

The Lord cannot bless the proud, false claims of love and loyalty which will, sooner or later, become apparent for what they are. But he can and will bless the humble acknowledgement of weakness and the humble appeal for grace.

Your brother in Christ,

“…but God intended it for good…”.

Genesis 50:20

 

Dear friends,

There are at least two occasions in the Bible where we find a combination of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  A classic example of this is in Genesis 50 where Joseph’s brothers, conscience-stricken by their earlier cruel treatment of him beg for forgiveness.  They are fearful that Joseph, now in a position of great power, will want to get his revenge on them.  Joseph’s response is a wonderful example of grace and a recognition of God’s sovereign purposes.  “You intended to harm me”, he says, “but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”.

Notice two things here:

1. God is so utterly sovereign that he can take our wrong-doings (or even our wrong-not-doings) and works them into his own intentions.  God is never taken by surprise by our sin. He is not into some sort of spiritual re-cycling whereby he asks himself: “How am I going to make something useful out of this junk?”  It is, rather, as if he takes our sinful actions in his stride.  He is capable of using absolutely anything in his perfect plan.
2. But that does not give us carte blanche to sin!  We are still accountable to God for our sin.  We need to repent of it, even that which he intends to use for good.  Indeed, it is as we repent that we are open to seeing the good that God works through our weakness and failure by his grace that can never fail to amaze us.

We find a supreme example of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in Peter’s words on the day of Pentecost.  Acts 2:23 “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and knowledge (divine sovereignty); and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death (human responsibility)…”   But, as in the case of Joseph, God’s intention was far-reaching: “But God raised him from the dead…”!(v24)!  Yet, those responsible for the death of Christ were not let off the hook, for Peter urges those under conviction of sin (v38) to “Repent and be baptized…so that your sins may be forgiven”.

All this should surely lead us to humble adoration of our wonderful God whose perfection can include our imperfections in his perfect will and plan.  And I think there is a further way in which we can apply this to our daily lives.

Has someone, at some time, hurt or offended you and you still hold a bit of a grudge, even though you have forgiven them or are trying to?  Might it help if, as you pray for them, you make a point of praying for God to bring out of it some particular good to his praise and glory? Or, perhaps someone has cause to hold something against you; you’ve asked and received forgiveness from them, and from the Lord, but still, there is sorrow in your heart over the matter.  Might it help if you asked the Lord to bring good, for his glory, out of even the wrong you may have done?  Or perhaps you are rightly angry about something you’ve heard in the news, or your local community or church.  Then wait on the Lord trusting that, in his gracious sovereignty, he intends it for good.  That would be amazing – but he is an amazing God!

Your brother in Christ,