Iron & Altar

When you were young, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. - John 21:18

Jesus tells Peter about the cross before it comes. Not as a threat. As preparation - so that when the dying comes, the dying is deliberate. He will stretch out his hands. Someone else will dress him. He will go where he does not want to go. And Jesus says this and then says: follow me. The follow me is spoken into the knowledge of the cross, not in the absence of it.

The threefold question is the restoration of the man who denied three times. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Peter is grieved at the third asking, not because he doubts his own love but because the question reaches the place where the denial happened. Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you. The appeal to the Lord's own omniscience is the most honest thing Peter has ever said. And the commission follows: feed my sheep.

Brother, the question is being asked of you too. Do you love me? Not do you perform correctly, not do you achieve the standard - do you love me? And the commission that follows the love is the feeding: the concrete, costly, ongoing care for the people in your charge. Bring it to [name] as an offering: Lord, let him hear the question and answer it honestly.

When you grow old, you will be led where you do not want to go. Name one place you are currently being led that you did not choose - a circumstance, a limitation, a direction imposed rather than selected. Receive the follow me spoken into it. And answer the question this week: Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.

Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Let that be enough. Let the commission follow the love. And when I am led where I do not want to go, let follow me be what I am following into it. Come, Holy Spirit. Alleluia. Amen.