Easter 3 (John 21:1-19) Do you love me?

God is love.

God has many attributes. These attributes include all knowledge (omniscience) all power (omnipotence) present everywhere in space and time (omnipresence) and many others.

The Son of God surrendered all of those attributes when he came to earth and became a particular man, Jesus; at a particular place, Bethlehem; at a particular time, the first century. What the Son could not surrender was love.

The Son of God does not have love as an attribute. He is love.

The beloved apostle John wrote: God is love. He who loves is born of God. By this do we know that we are of God- that we love one another.

The confusion most if not all people experience when they hear these words is in the definition of love and the human experience of love.

Even in the first century most people experienced love in terms of sentiment and indulgence. The great gift of the Greek language in the first century is the clear and precise use of specific words to define four levels of love.

During the three years of Jesus’ public ministry most of those who followed Jesus, his disciples, experienced the first level of love. That is the level of sentiment and indulgence. It is love as infatuation. It is a very one dimensional, narrow and short lived form of love that asks the question: what’s in it for me? It also states a demand: make me happy.

When Peter vehemently asserted that he would never betray Jesus and would die for him before he would deny him- Peter was reacting from this first level of love. This is clear from Peter’s reaction when he did indeed betray Jesus and run away as Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Peter, and the others, had been infatuated with the idea that Jesus would form a new world order within the categories of politics and religion. They expected Jesus to reward them with positions of power and dominance. When Jesus did not give them what they wanted they abandoned him.

Only a few hours after the police arrested Jesus, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus. His motive was fear. Fear subverts and destroys the ordinary forms of love- especially that first level from which Peter made his pledge of loyalty and then his adamant denial.

After the resurrection, Jesus spent forty days leading the disciples into a process of healing and maturation. He accomplished this by helping them experience the very essence of infinite and eternal love. He did this by giving them his time and attention. He did this by inviting them into a personal relationship with himself.

When Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? He uses the word for the highest form of love human beings can imagine. The word is agape. It means steadfast holy unconditional universal sacrificial love. It is who God is. It is who Jesus as the Son of God is.

Peter, to his credit, knows he is nowhere near that experience of divine love. He is growing into the next level of love. That level is friendship. It is also sometimes described as brotherly love. That form of love asks the question: what can we accomplish together?

Twice Jesus asks Peter- do you love me with infinite and eternal divine love? Twice Peter replies: I’m your friend. I now experience the second level of love- brotherly love. Let’s talk about what we can accomplish together.

At the third question Jesus accepts Peter for where he is. In the third question Jesus uses the word for friendship. It is a question Peter can understand and answer: yes.

Jesus met Peter where he was. Jesus accepted Peter where he was. And, Jesus revealed to Peter the meaning and purpose of his life. That meaning and purpose is agape. Jesus let Peter know he had much growth and maturation to look forward to. But, for that moment- Peter was indeed growing beyond self-indulgent sentimentality into friendship.

At that level of love, Peter wants to do something. Jesus tells him what he can do: feed my sheep. The command functions within the context of the love Peter can accept and experience. At the level of infatuation alone Peter would have heard the command to provide bread for the poor. And, that is indeed part of the command.

In the next level of love Peter is willing to accept, he also hears the command in a spiritual sense. Feed the lost sheep of the house of Israel with the bread of God’s word. It is the word spoken by Moses and the Prophets as recorded in the Bible. It is the teaching Jesus declared. And, it is the Good News that Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God in human flesh who offers all people everywhere reunification with the Father and transformation in the Holy Spirit.

It is in fact the Great Commission. It is evangelism. And, it is the first step in a long journey for Peter, the apostles, and the Church.

There were two more levels of love for Peter to accept and experience. The third level is loyalty. It is the form of love that states: to hear is to obey. Peter did not experience that level of love until he understood that Jesus is the universal Lord of Life for all people everywhere. At that level, Peter experienced the unconditional love of Jesus for humanity. At that level, Peter took the risk to enter into the wider world of the Roman Empire and share the Good News with all sorts and conditions of people.

The fourth level of love is agape. It is the form of love that prays: Thy will be done. Peter did not experience this level until he chose to return to Rome to comfort the persecuted Christians and in the process experience his own crucifixion. It is at that level that Peter enters into the Real Presence of the divine. In that place nothing is impossible and the soul is so immersed in the love of God that it begins to experience eternal life here and now regardless of the external circumstances of existence.

The lesson for us is to hear the same question and to enter into the same process.

Jesus asks all of us, each of us: do you love me? Do you love me unconditionally? Where are you in your growth and maturation in love?

Be honest as Peter was honest.

Jesus will meet you at whatever level of love you currently experience. He will give you the assignments appropriate to that level of love. And, he will assist you to grow into the next level and the next until you enter into the Real Presence of agape.

When you begin to experience agape you begin to experience eternal life here and now. Eternal life is Jesus Christ.

God is love. Jesus is that love in human flesh. Jesus asked Peter and he asks us: how are you prepared to experience love today?