18“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others#
21:18 Some manuscripts read and another one. will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” 19Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told him, “Follow me.”
20Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved—the one who had leaned over to Jesus during supper and asked, “Lord, who will betray you?” 21Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord?”
22Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.” John 21: 18-22
As I sat in church today, listening to the sermon, my pastor touched briefly on this set of verses. His sermon, wasn't on this set of verses, but he read them and made a point on them that hit me square in the face. As Jesus and Peter are having this conversation, we see that Jesus is asking Peter to feed His sheep three times, the same amount of times that Peter denied Jesus that night He died. That is the point that I most often pull from this section of scripture, Jesus forgave Peter, and then Peter went on to be the "cornerstone" of His church. It's a beautiful story of redemption and grace, right? Well, yes it is; but there is more to this story as well. Today, as I sat listening, my pastor pointed to the ENDING of that section of scripture. The part where it appears that Peter is hurt enough by what Christ has said to him, both the fact that he said it three times, and the death that he laid out for Peter; that Peter wants someone else to be uncomfortable as well. He wants someone else to be told that they won't have an easy life, that they too, will die in unpleasant ways. He turns to another disciple and says, hey what about this dude (my paraphrase of course!)? What's HIS life going to look like huh? Jesus has the typical parent answer doesn't he? In verse 22, Jesus says "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow Me." There are a few small differences between a typical parent response and this one, for one Jesus didn't say it JUST to get the child to stop asking Him questions, He said it with a purpose beyond that. Jesus was telling Peter, in his own way, that what he had planned for another person was none of Peter's business. The other disciple's life was between that disciple and God. But Jesus also brought Peter back to the point of the conversation; He said as for YOU, follow me.
As I sat in my seat listening this morning, I was struck by this. You see, I am in direct sells, and that can be a very competitive business to be in. Lately this business has been hard on me. I have felt some things haven't gone the way I wanted, or even unfairly. This week, I've struggled with bitterness about some aspects of things relating to this. I had been praying, and asking for prayer to help me "get over myself" but was just dwelling in it. What my pastor said this morning, about it not being Peter's business; was really God saying that to me. It's none of my business how God is going to chose to bless another person in this business, it is none of my business how successful another person may be in a certain amount of time. The only thing that IS my business is how I conduct myself in this business and how receive MY blessings from Christ.
After all, Jesus ended His comment with as for YOU, follow me. What does that mean? In the case of Peter, that meant he had to deal with a lot of strife and a pretty horrible death; but it also meant that he lead thousands of people to Christ, got to witness the beginnings of Christianity and preformed miracles in the name of Jesus Christ! In my case, it means to listen to where God is leading me, both in my business and in my personal life. It means that I really hand over my feelings of hurt and discouragement and let others have moments of victory and happiness. My life isn't written out for us like Peter's has been, so I don't know exactly what it looks like for me, but I plan to follow Him so that I can find out!
