To me, Peter is an intriguing study. He was a fisherman, so he knew how to work hard for his family. It also means he was not considered one of the “best and brightest,” as those were picked up and trained under rabbis. He was married (1 Cor. 9:5). His mother-in-law lived with him, at least when she was sick (Mark 1:29-30), so we know he took good care of his family.

What impacts me most about Peter is that his mistakes resonate with me (and that they are written down for me to see and relate to them). He shows extraordinary faith when the disciples think they see a ghost and he challenges that fear saying, “Lord, if it is you, command me to walk on the water” (Matt. 14:28). Then he sinks due to a lack of faith (v. 31). He attacks a mob of soldiers who came to arrest Jesus (Matt. 26:51, and within hours cannot hold his faith in front of a servant girl’s questioning (69-74). He brazenly defies the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 4-5) but is afraid of Jewish Christians (Galatians 2:11-14). He seemed to rise to great challenges, but fail miserably at small ones. So Jesus gives him three very hard questions in John 21 that on the surface seem so simple. But they are not! They have a simple yes or no answer that any of us can comprehend, but what that yes or no means is what makes it difficult.

“Do you have anything to eat?”

Peter’s life before Jesus was fish. One of those early interactions between the two of them (Luke 5:1-11) was when Peter had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. How was he to provide for his family with nothing to take to the market or even to take home to feed them? How was he to stay current on the taxes he had to pay to the temple, not to mention to the Romans?

Enter Jesus, who tells him to go back out to some deeper water and throw the net out one more time. Peter argues, but finally does so “just because you said to.” Then so many fish were caught that they (probably including Andrew here) needed to call out to their partners in the other boat, James and John, to help haul in the catch. It was a miraculous catch of fish, undeniable because of the lack of success Peter and his partners had that whole night as they worked in vain.

Now back to John 21: Peter and several other disciples worked all night and caught nothing, only to be asked by Jesus a question that brings an air of pointlessness and futility to all their hard work. They were out there all night with nothing to show for it.

When Jesus tells them to cast the net again, and they catch a large number of fish, John immediately recognizes what is going on: “It is the Lord!”

Peter jumps into the water, swims the 100 yards back to shore while John and the others bring the catch, and what do they find? Jesus is already there with a fish and some bread roasting over a fire. (Where did he get the fish if they were still bringing their catch to him? hmm….)

So Jesus roasts fish for them to eat, and it is more than enough to satisfy (153 were caught, and surely they would not have tried to eat all, but is IS roasted fish, so…). Jesus then asks the second question.

“Do you love me more than these?”

I mean, roasted fish is great and all, but how could I love them more than I love Him?  Peter says, “Of course I do!” (three times, in fact!).  What makes this question difficult is not finding the answer; it is realizing what the answer means for you. It gives you the responsibility to show your work: “If you love me, feed my sheep.” It is not as simple as a yes/no answer! It is going to involve a lot of work that is unappreciated by some and persecuted by others, and eventually it will cost Peter his life, as Jesus tells Peter that he will die in a way that glorifies God in John 21:19.

Peter responds by looking toward John: “Well, what about him?”

Jesus asks one more tough question!

“What does that have to do with you? Just follow me.”

See, we want to look around at how much our faith will cost us: how people will walk over us due to kindness, make fun of us because of our beliefs, or ridicule us when they do not understand our way. We want so badly to comfort ourselves by saying we aren’t alone, but then something happens that is specific to us. I am diagnosed with an illness, or I lose my job unexpectedly. What about all these other Christians who don’t have it as bad as I do? It is not my business. You see, I did not follow Jesus because he asked me to make sure everything that happens is fair. I followed Jesus because he has the Words of Life and there is no way for me to be saved except through him.

I was not brought into the Kingdom to police its members or enforce my opinions. I was brought into it to learn from Him while I do His work (Matthew 11:29).

That’s a hard lesson for me. Jesus did not indulge Peter’s distraction, and he does not indulge ours today. We might be tempted to look around at how much we seem to be giving up in comparison to others, but that is not the agreement we made with Jesus. I must remember that without him, my work amounts to nothing, and that if I love him I must be willing to do His work and not try to force my own into it. My agreement with him is to follow him.