“Simon, son of John do you love me?” Peter said to Jesus, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
John 21:16
A commonly used exaggeration we often deploy in the midst of some discomfort we are enduring is the phrase, “This is killing me.” After the long hike we say “My feet are killing me.” After a hard day at the office, “This job is killing me.” Or at the end of an afternoon spent bending over to tend the garden, “My back is killing me.” When we use it in this way, the phrase is rarely accurate. But in these days of our isolation due to Covid-19 it seems appropriate. We are daily aware of something that is killing us. And it’s hard to get our minds off of it. This novel corona virus is making many of us very sick. It is easy to catch and hard to fight, and our response to it is causing all sorts of collateral damage. So maybe in this case it’s not so much of an exaggeration to say, “This is killing me.”
Yet even so, even if it is true that Covid-19 is killing us, perseverating on this fact is also something that will rob us of life. To survive this scourge and thrive we’ll need to do something more than work to avoid contracting this disease. We’ll need to adjust our perspective and widen our angle to take in a bigger picture. We’ll need to set this disease in a broader context. And I propose a question posed by Barbara Brown Taylor in one of her books to help us do this. She asks her readers the question: “What’s saving your life right now.”
Easter Sunday is a good day to contemplate Taylor’s question to us. On this day when we celebrate the truth that evil will not have the last word, it is good for us to contemplate what is saving our lives rather than what is killing us. On the day when the ugliness of that Roman cross is fading into the background, it is good to look forward in hope and contemplate the life and light that flies in the face of death and darkness. How is Covid-19 failing to get the last word even though it is still raging among us? Truly living is not just about not dying. So what is helping us to live?
At one level the post-resurrection encounter of Jesus and Peter in John 21 is an example of this work of reframing life’s central question. While lounging on the shore of the lake after a big breakfast, Jesus asks Peter to think about what will foster life. He asks the question three times. Each time Peter answers the question in the affirmative. Each time he responds to Jesus, Peter becomes a bit more irritated. But Jesus is calmly persistent and offers the same rejoinder to each of Peter’s answers. “Do you love me, Peter. Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. Then feed my lambs. . . , tend my sheep . . ., feed my sheep.” In essence, Jesus says to Peter: “If you love me, then love as you have been loved. Pass on what you have been given. Reflect the light that has been poured out on you.”
The contradiction to the finality of the Cross that occurs on Easter morning initially brings the disciples up short. In all of the stories of encounters between the resurrected Christ and the disciples, they are rubbing their eyes and pinching themselves wondering if they are just having a dream. Once they figure out he is alive and that they can believe their eyes, there is great joy and relief. The snare of the fowler was broken (Ps 124) and death didn’t have the last word. What they all knew was the exhilaration of being saved from the crushing grip of an oppressive opponent. Yet once the adrenalin secreted by this awareness began to subside, there on the shore of the lake with full stomachs and the comforting presence of Jesus there was space to ask another question. Just beyond the relief of being saved, the question that presented itself was, “Now what?” What does this mean? What does it tell us? What impact will this have on the way we live our lives? Now that we know we’ve been saved from evil, what’s next? What have we been saved for?
Notice that Jesus’ encounter with Peter in John 21 doesn’t answer this question with the command to develop strategy for a worldwide movement or to begin work on a theology that explains it all. Jesus simply calls Peter to continue to do what he had already called him to do. Follow me, Peter. Abide with me. Let me love you. Then go in the strength of that love and love others. Feed my sheep.
Now what? Basically it boils down to a one word answer: Relationship. Love as you have been loved.
Many years later St. Paul effectively said the same thing in his letter to the Colossians:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other;
just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.
And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts
sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
(Colossians 3:12-17)
David Rohrer
4/12/2020
