Love, Love and Love: Friendship, Love and Commitment Issues in John 21

So, as many of you might (or might not) know, translating the Greek of the New Testament is a tricky business.

Now a lot of the text is fairly noncontroversial to translate. It’s just not that hard. Unfortunately we run into three major hurdles in translating.

1) Ancient Koine Greek is a very dead language. It has very little to do with modern Greek. We just don’t know what some things mean. The meanings and structure of language tends to wander and change over time. What meant one thing in first century Palestine meant something else a  few centuries earlier.

2) Translator bias can be a big issue. Some words have ambiguous meanings, unclear meanings or multiple meanings. If you aren’t buried in the ongoing scholarship and debate on the different interpretations you have to rely on someone else’s reading. That translator might or might not have an agenda. The classic example of this translation issue is found in Romans 16. Depending on your translation Phoebe is either a deaconess or a servant. Technically the word can mean either (and even more technically they actually mean the same thing.) In this case each individual occurrence is up to the context and the discretion of the interpreter. So why is one a servant in one place and a deacon in another?

3) The final reason, and the one that trips us up the most, is the simple fact that our languages are put together differently. Especially all of the layers behind each word. We have whole volumes of connotation behind words. We have synonyms and homophones and allusions and all sorts of ways of saying more with a word than a single dictionary definition. To get biblical on ya, words like faith, works and law all have automatic meanings to us because of how we’ve heard them used before. Well Greek has these too and they don’t always carry over well. And this brings us to the issue at hand. And it’s all about Love.

One of the great oddities of the English language is that, in contrast to nearly every other language, we only use one word for “Love.” I love these shoes. I love my girlfriend. I love my God. I love my neighbor. I love Cajun BBQ wings from Sports Page. These are not all the same meanings but they are all represented the same way.

By contrast, the Greeks had at least 4 major words for love. Luckily we’re partially bailed out on this because the New Testament really prefers agape (self-sacrificial or divine love) and we rarely see it contrasted against other “Loves.”

And yet that is exactly what we find in John 21. If you’re using just about anything except a Greek New Testament the exchange between Peter and Jesus in John 21:15-19 makes little or no sense.

Peter, do you love me?

Yes.

Peter, do you love me?

Yeah, sure.

Peter, do you love me?

Seriously, I said it three times now. Why aren’t you getting this?

So why is Jesus apparently harassing Peter? Well its all in the Greek. The Johannine author is juxtaposing Agape-Love and Phileo-Love (friend love, friendship).

Peter, do you love me more than you love yourself (Agape-Love)?

Yeah, Jesus you know we’re friends (Friend-Love).

Peter, do you love me more than you love yourself (Agape-Love)?

Yeah, I mean c’mon were buddies and everything (Friend-Love).

*Long Sigh* Peter, are you my friend (Friend-Love)?

Yes! Yes I am (Friend-Love)!

Simon “Hold my cloak I’m jumping in the lake” Peter is having commitment issues. Jesus is asking for the radical commitment. Jesus is asking Peter to drop the nets again, to give up everything, even himself. But Peter isn’t sure. He waffles. He balks. He taps the brakes.

But Jesus already knows where its all heading. Peter will learn the self-sacrificing Love again. He’ll learn it on a long road of preaching and persecutions. He’ll learn it as he faces down governors, soldiers and kings. He’ll learn it on a long road that starts with leading a Pentecost Revolution and ends with a Cross.
So why do we have this strange exchange? If all of this was going to happen anyway why ask? Well, the long and the short of it, is this: If God did all that with “Friend-Love” what could He have done with Agape-Love? What could God have done with Peter if he’d gone all-in? What could He be doing with us?

“Am I John or Peter?” or The Wesley Covenant Prayer and Suffering

The Beheading of John the Baptist - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes

In the Methodist tradition there is a beautiful and deeply troubling prayer called the Wesley Covenant Prayer. A prayer which, for obvious reasons, is frequently discussed here at the Divinity School. It is the double edged sword of God’s providence. It says that, for God’s glory, let what must happen happen. Not my will but yours.

But of course we all know that God’s glory is best served by us becoming rich and successful. By getting published, becoming pastors of huge congregations or starting successful and effective non-profits. By us going on to prestigious PhD programs and getting the best placements in our denominations. God’s glory is always served by our success.

Or at least we think so. We hope so. We might even be so bold as to pray so (I’m looking at you Joel.)  But this is not what our own scriptures teach us. Sometimes God is glorified more in our shame. In our weakness and our failures. For Hosea, God’s glory meant marrying an unfaithful prostitute. For Thomas, God’s glory meant doubt overpowering faith. Sometimes the mistake is not redeemed, sometimes glory comes because a bad thing which happens and stays happened.

In this vein, I would like to point us to two stories within the Lucan narratives of Luke and Acts, the story of John the Baptist (Luke 7:18-24, Matt 14:1-12 for more on his death) and the story of Peter in Acts 12 .  Here we have two very similar cases in Christian history. In each case we have an evangelical preacher who is jailed for their ministry. Even down to imprisonment by brothers within the same royal family.  And they are each imprisoned for a length of time because of their ministry.

But then the stories diverge. Peter is miraculously set free after only a day. A messenger from heaven erupts into his cell in a column of heavenly light and sets him free with a single touch. He is returned to his community and goes on to become one of its founding pillars of theology and practice. His rescue is one of the classic tales of God’s redemptive, freeing power.

But then we look at John. John languishes in prison. We don’t know exactly how long but his disciples had time to go find Jesus and theoretically return to him, which in the ancient world before foursquare and GPS would have been a lengthy trek. Months, in a pit of a prison, agonizing over whether all of his work and suffering were for nothing.

John never gets his miraculous angel. No earthquake. No daring Jack Bauer-esque apostolic prison break mission.

John is beheaded.

God doesn’t redeem John’s situation. Not for him. John is brought into trial and suffering. And he dies there. There is no restoration for John.

And sometimes that’s the point. John lived and died for a dream he never saw realized. He proclaimed and was killed for a kingdom he never entered in his life.

But the Kingdom advances. John dies and the kingdom advances. James dies and the kingdom advances. Paul, Peter, Andrew, Ignatius, Polycarp, Perpetua, Justin, Serapion. They die and the kingdom advances.

Despite all things the kingdom advances. And sometimes the kingdom advances and God is glorified by our failures, by our setting aside and even by our deaths. As painful as it is to contemplate, all of our plans, aspirations and hopes are held in light of this.

But all of this is not to depress. The point is that the kingdom advances. That God’s good advances on the shoulders of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That while God’s purposes advance by promotion and success, by water and by tongues of fire, God’s purposes also advance by unemployment and failure, by shame and by crosses. The redemption of our suffering is not promised tomorrow. It is not promised on this side of resurrection. But it is promised.

The Wesley Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.