I am not going to spend nearly the time that Peter’s role in the Gospel record deserves. I am too near the end of this long journey, and too anxious to reach that point of completion. But, I cannot allow Peter to depart the tale without spending at least a moment or two of consideration. After all, Peter is in many ways the only Apostle of the original twelve whose story is told to us at all. The others are little more than names. There are legends as to their later efforts on behalf of the kingdom, but nothing of their experience with Jesus.

In Peter, we have much more. In Peter, we have a clear picture of the man, even if it is presented in merest sketches. We see what he was like. We can sense his character, his demeanor. Peter is real. There’s a reason so many of us love the man, because we can see that he’s so much like ourselves. John seems to spiritually advanced for us on occasion. I recall the sense I had of him from his letters, that the things he considered basic to the life of faith struck me as beyond the mere mortal to achieve, as things seen rarely if at all in the life of the church. So, he challenges us. And Paul? Paul’s a genius, and something of a taskmaster to boot. He towers over us. In spite of his protestations that he is but a man like us, we suspect this is not entirely the case. We cannot even dream of matching wits with him. But, Peter? Peter’s a regular Joe like us. He’s an everyman. If we’d been there, we could see ourselves doing the sorts of things Peter did, reacting the way he did, making the same mistakes he did.

This, I would note, makes Peter a biblical hero in the finest of traditions. All of God’s heroes, apart from His Son, make mistakes. They are not giants so perfect we have no hope of matching their deeds. They are not so grand as to have no need for a God Who Saves. It is a gracious and merciful God Who gives us such heroes, for in them we find hope for ourselves. If God could use them, maybe he can use us after all.

So, to Peter. Ask anybody who’s been around the Scriptures for a while about Peter, and they will doubtless be able to describe him to you. Oh, he’s a character, that one! Quick enough to speak his mind, and often enough right, but just as often putting his foot in it. He doesn’t think it through, just says whatever comes to mind. Time enough for regrets later. That sort of a man. Maybe he’s a product of his trade. Fishing out on the sea like that, you have to react to events. Sure, and there’s the slow periods when a man can think big thoughts, but there’s plenty of times when the seas or the fishes or what have you demand all your attention, and demand responses that are more reflex than reasoning.

We’re used to impetuous Peter. He’s the leader, sure, but mostly by dint of his bluster. If anybody’s going to blurt out an answer to some question Jesus poses, you know it’s going to be him. The others may want the lead, but he’s just there by nature, a force of nature himself. But, there is more than bluster and impetuousness to Peter. If there is one other thing we see about him in the pages of the Gospels, it is that he has a particularly trusting nature. Think about the two scenes that bookmark his involvement. We first meet him out fishing, and this stranger, wholly unknown to him, instructs this well-practiced fisherman – hey! Toss your nets over there. Oh, sir. We’ve been fishing all night and caught nothing whatsoever. What makes you think this one more cast is going to change matters? But, since you ask it, I’ll do it.

Why Peter? What moves you to do what you’re pretty sure is going to be futile at the behest of this stranger? And here it is again at the end. Some unrecognized man on the shoreline says, yo! Cast in over on that side. You’re bound to get a haul! What? Some guy on shore can see into the waters better than those who are atop the spot? There’s surely plenty I don’t know about fishing, and particularly fishing as it was done in that region, but nothing about this scene suggests any reason to me why Peter would give this guy the time of day. But, he does! Well, why not? Maybe it’s no more than that in his thoughts. What’s the harm in another cast? Sure, our arms are tired. We’ve been casting and hauling in these nets all night. But, one more isn’t going to break us. But, it seems to me more than that. There is trust. If anybody gives us demonstration of that childlike faith that Christ demands, I think it is Peter.

It’s not just the fishing business, either, although these seem to me the clearest pictures of that part of Peter. It’s there in his confession as well. It’s there in the way he handles Jesus’ rebukes. I think about that scene at their last meal. Peter, whose view of Jesus is of One highly exalted, is put off at the thought of this great man washing his feet. Lord! This is beneath You. By no means do this thing! But, one word from Jesus – unless I do this, you have no part in Me – and Peter’s ready not only for a foot washing, but a full bath. Well, Lord! If this is proper, than bring it on! There’s really no room for question in his mind. Jesus has said it and that settles it. Sure, there’s that moment of devotion after his confession. Lord! Don’t say things like that! Of course that’s never going to happen to You! But, understand, that’s not a lack of trust so much as an excess of devotion. Peter’s view of eternity is clouded and imperfect just like our own. It’s unimaginable to him that God might really find this a good and necessary plan. It’s just not conceivable. Now, does our inability to conceive God’s notion make doubt right and proper? Oh, by no means. But, it does make such an error understandable. I would have fared no better.

It seems to me that we might find much of Peter’s impetuosity is driven by this underlying trust. It is because he has such a fundamental, unshakable trust in Jesus that he is so quick to speak with such depths of faith and devotion. It’s because of his trust in Jesus that he’s willing to take such risks, to jump in without looking, if you will. In all of his story, we find him making mistakes, it is true. And we certainly found his resolve utterly shaken by events of that last day. But, this was all of an accord with the purposes of God. He was shaken. Yes, he fell. His denials, I dare say, continued to hurt him to his dying day. It may well be memory of those things that left him feeling so unworthy to die a death too like his Master’s.

But, those failures were not, in the end, evidence of some lack of faith. They were not the marks of trust destroyed, of a man who has discovered his hero is a mere mortal after all. For one thing, apart from that momentary setback, he would be discovering quite the opposite. His hero was indeed far more than a mere mortal. And yet, his Hero had also lived the life of a mere mortal, and died the death of a mere mortal. He was and is indeed a High Priest familiar with our weaknesses, having experienced them all and having overcome them. There is One we can trust indeed!

As to this final scene, I have touched already on what’s happening here, both as it is generally perceived and as I am coming to see it. This discussion we are witness to is not primarily about forgiveness. I have pointed to this before, and shall do so again. Luke tells us that by the time those two men had returned from Emmaus, Peter had already seen the risen Christ. I was, I confess, a bit excited to find this mentioned in another passage, one which was the focus of Sunday’s sermon. Paul, making the case for Christ, makes note that after His very real and very thorough death, “He appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve” (1Co 15:5). Notice. There is order indicated here. Peter, Cephas, had a private interview before that time Jesus walked into their sealed prayer meeting.

Peter’s situation couldn’t wait. The need for forgiveness was heavy upon him, and Jesus, our tender Physician, wasn’t going to leave that wound to fester. He dealt with it. And, He dealt with it as His own rules of discipline required. He went to Peter personally, privately. They worked out their issues one on one. There was no need to put a repentant Peter through any public shaming for his failure. He was shamed enough already. What he needed was restoring. “When you have returned,” Jesus spoke over him, “strengthen the brothers.” Jesus was, in that first meeting, seeing to the return. Peter could not return until he had confidence. He needed confidence in himself, yes, but not that sort of confidence that had failed him before. He needed confidence in himself that was fully and firmly built upon confidence in the Christ he served, the Christ who is now appointing him to that very office he’d been filling.

That is what we have happening in this conversation. Peter the failure would not have been jumping off the boat to reach Jesus more swiftly. A Peter who was buried by regrets and disillusionment would not be swiftly reaching out to meet the very one he had so wronged and abandoned. No! He already knows he is forgiven. They’ve already worked through that. This Man is no longer a painful reminder of his darkest day. This Man is once more the promise of his brightest future! No wonder he can’t wait to be once more at the side of Jesus! Can I say that if there is so real a love between two people, and that love has been tested to the degree Peter’s love for Christ had been tested, that love only deepens with the test resolved in repentance and forgiveness. To know the forgiveness of one you’ve loved but wronged is to know an even greater love for that one.

This, I think, also explains the hurt Peter feels when Jesus asks him three times, “do you love Me, Peter?” Haven’t we resolved this, Lord? Didn’t we work this out already? Of course I love You. You know that! Listen! I tell you that they have resolved that matter of Peter’s denial, but it’s still fresh. It’s still a wound for Peter. Forgiveness does not mean that we forget what we have done. It does not instantly make everything better like mommy kissing our boo-boo. No. It’s deeper by far, and being deeper, it may take time for us to truly apprehend the depths. Peter’s denial still hurts him. His sense of forgiveness is maybe a bit tentative still. So, to hear, as he would hear it, Jesus bring it up again? Yes, that hurts. Really, Jesus? You still have doubts about me? Surely, Lord, You of all people know everything. You know my heart as well as my failures. You know from so much experience that I love You. You surely know that those moments of denial were not the real me, were not the expressions of my heart. You know, Oh! Tell me You know, that those moments of weakness don’t cancel all else that we’ve been through together!

But, that’s Peter’s pain speaking. Jesus is after something altogether different, I think. Peter, your love for Me is going to require so much, especially now I must go. Peter, it is precisely because I do know your love for Me that I am entrusting this assignment to you. Shepherd My sheep. Don’t play king over them. Shepherd them. Lead them, as I have led you. Be their example and their safeguard. Peter, I’m saying this to you know, before these others, so that there will be no question in their mind, just as there is no question in Mine. I leave you in charge of the care of My sheep. I leave you with My sheep. Peter, this isn’t about any doubts I harbor about your ability. Quite the opposite. As you follow Me, and I know you will be faithful to do just that, even unto death, like you once said to Me, you will indeed prove a shepherd to My sheep. There will be others after you, but I am leaving this initial stage in your hands, and I wanted to be sure these others understand the depths of My trust in you. For they are going to need to trust you as well in the days ahead. Peter, I forgave you before ever you even fell. These others didn’t witness that. They will, however, have witnessed your commissioning. And they will follow you as you follow Me.

Was there a root of pride that needed addressing? No doubt. As much as I people try to convince me there are those who have no pride whatsoever, suffering instead from a self-loathing, I reject the premise. I am inclined to suggest they pride themselves in their self-loathing, although pride may well have cloaked itself sufficiently to fool their own self assessments. No, pride lies at the root of nearly every sin, if not every last one. Pride lies deep in the heart of every man, and is so clever in its disguises that even in our efforts to walk humbly before God, we swiftly become proud of our own progress!

But, the pride Peter may have felt in boasting of how he would stand with Jesus, I must remind you, was not a pride unique to himself. The others were right there with him. Oh, yes, Lord! We won’t abandon You, even if it means we fall by the Roman sword. And every last one of them had failed that very test. But, they only failed it the first time. Jesus gave a makeup test, and so far as we know, every last one of them passed with flying colors. If there was a need to address pride, it was a need they all had, and if that is another aspect Jesus is dealing with here at the end of John’s Gospel, He did so not only for Peter, but for all.