Daily Devotionals

Music For the Soul

Devotional: February 18th

PETER’S PENITENT LOVE - II

He saith to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Tend My sheep. - John 21:16

THE second question and the second answer are identical with the first. Again Christ craves the higher; again the Apostle, in his steadfast humility, will not go one step beyond what he feels he is sure about, nor pretend to have anything deeper or loftier than he knows he has. And so once more he answers word for word as he has answered before.

And then with the third question and answer, this struggle, if I may call it so, between Christ and Peter comes to an end. Christ accepts Peter’s word, substitutes it in His question for the word which He had previously employed; and so, in one aspect, seems to yield to His Apostle, as if He said, "Well then, if you cannot give me the higher I will take the lower, and be glad to have even that." But, in another aspect the change of the word sharpens the point of the question, and seems to fling a doubt over the genuineness even of the lower kind of affection which Peter was willing to profess. "Are you so sure, then, that even as men love one another, you love Me?" Did the denial look as "if you had any kind of love in your heart to Me "? And the question thus sharpened pierces deeper into the Apostle’s heart, and gives rise to a little dash of impatience at being doubted, which is a better proof of his love than many words would have been. He will no more say "Yes!" But he will leave it to the Master to answer for him, as if he said, "Well, then if you do not believe me, I will say nothing more; but look at me! Thou knowest all things. Here is my heart; take it and probe it! I say nothing; Thou seest that I love Thee." And so the questioning ends.

Now, take these two figures just as they stand before us. Look! There is Jesus Christ, fresh from the Cross, coming to you for a double purpose, to remind you of your unworthiness, your failures, your denials, your forgetfulness of Him; and to beseech you for your love. What a depth of perfect placability and forgiveness there is in that, that He comes to the denier with only these gentle and delicate reminders, with no spoken rebuke, with no uttered word in reference to the past! His questions imply this: "Whatever the past has been, if you can only say in truth that you love Me now, it is all right, and there will never be another word said about your falls! " He does, in effect, what wise fathers and mothers do with their wayward children after some burst of naughtiness. Their question is, "Do you love me, then?" And if the answer to that is swift and real, then no more need be said about the fault. In a very deep sense, though not in the deepest, the love of the penitent effaces the sin. That which truly effaces it is the blood of Jesus Christ, and the love of the penitent comes after and not before forgiveness, which is the Divine act that blots out iniquity, and is the consequence, not its cause, of forgiveness. But when a penitent denier comes back to the Master, and in humble faith in His pardoning mercy clasps His feet and washes them with tears, the believing love is all that Christ asks, ere He reinstates in all the forfeited privileges.