But then the Lord asks, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d\u009d It seems an odd question for Jesus to ask. We can\u2019t help but wonder if some redactor got it wrong. Or perhaps some failure in communication may have taken place; someone must have misheard Jesus\u2019 conversation with Peter. It was probably the person who counted the fish. We are not even sure we can trust John to have gotten it right. The disciples have been with the resurrected Jesus, but they go on fishing? They go back to the ordinary life they had prior to following Jesus? It seems unimaginable.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Jesus is not supposed to ask Peter — or us — to love him. His job is to love us. In spite of our failures to be faithful disciples, in spite of our confusions about what it means to be Christian, in spite of our prideful presumption that we are our own creator, in spite of our sins, Jesus is supposed to love us.<\/p>\n
Is that not the heart of the gospel? — \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.\u201d\u009d This passage from John seems to have gotten off script; we are to be assured of Jesus\u2019 love for us, and not the other way around….<\/p>\n