Jesus looked straight at Peter and asked persistently for the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:17, NIV). Under the direct, searching gaze of his Lord, Peter must have known he was being asked whether he loved Jesus more than himself. This time did Peter squirm uncomfortably? Did he love Jesus more than the opinions of others, such as the servant girl in the courtyard? More than his own safety and comfort, as he would now be dangerously identified with Someone Who had been executed as an enemy of Rome? More than his own reputation? More than his memories of sin and failure?
Jesus reached into Peter’s heart and put His finger on Peter’s motivation for service. Peter’s motivation to live for Jesus and to serve Jesus was not to be an attempt to stave off guilt, or to earn forgiveness, or to avoid criticism, or to prove something to someone, or to gain approval or recognition. Peter’s sole motivation in service was to be his love for Jesus, pure and simple.
It was early Sunday morning before dawn. An elite, handpicked Roman guard was watching the tomb in which Jesus of Nazareth had been laid. Knowing their very lives depended upon their vigilance, the eyes of the soldiers never dimmed, their bodies never relaxed as they carried out their assignment to keep any and all away from the tomb. No one was to get in. Certainly no one was to get out!
Suddenly, in the darkness, the ground began to rumble and shake as though a mighty rocket was being launched, and a violent earthquake erupted. Then, before the horror-filled gaze of the guards, against the inky blackness of night, an angel clothed in light as dazzling as new snow under a noonday sun descended from heaven, walked over to the tomb, rolled away the stone, and sat down on it! The guards passed out in terrified unconsciousness because they had seen past the angel and the rolled-away stone into the tomb! And the tomb was empty! JESUS OF NAZARETH HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD! HE’S ALIVE!
Jesus didn’t ask the man beside the pool of Bethesda, “Do you need to get well?” But, “Do you want to get well?” There was no preliminary introduction or social niceties or even casual conversation, just a Stranger asking a question that would seem to have had a very obvious answer. Surely, without question, anyone who was a paralytic would want to be able to walk.
But Jesus knew that it’s easy for physical weakness and mental depression and a lifetime of hopelessness to rob a man of his willingness to do anything about it. It would be less demanding in many ways for the man to be carried about by others. His paralysis absolved him from taking responsibility in life.
Jesus knows one of the greatest barriers to our faith is often our unwillingness to be made whole-our unwillingness to live without excuse for our spiritual smallness and immaturity. And so the question He asked was very relevant then and still is today: “Do you want to get well?”
As children of God, we are the primary recipients of His blessing. Regardless of our past failures or present shortcomings, our relationship with Jesus Christ ensures that “from the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”
When the Mediterranean Sea evaporates or runs low, the Atlantic Ocean rushes in at the Strait of Gibraltar to replenish it and keep it full. When you and I are related to Jesus Christ, our strength and wisdom and peace and joy and love and hope may run out, but His life rushes in to keep us filled to the brim – not because of anything we have or have not done, but just because of Him we are showered with blessings.
Who do you know who says we can each have our own religion as long as we’re sincere? Does that person put a guilt trip on you for what he or she describes as a dogmatic, narrow-minded, intolerant, and exclusive faith? But the Gospel wasn’t our idea, was it? Jesus Himself declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV). We must come to God through Him or we don’t come at all. The Bible says emphatically that “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Just the name Jesus.
And Who is Jesus? He is God Himself made visible to all. Praise God! You and I are not condemned to live in the darkness because He has turned on the Light! Praise God for just giving us Jesus!
