Chapter XXIX

"What Shall This Man Do?"

"Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias."—John xxi. 1.

"There were together Simon Peter ... and the sons of Zebedee."—v. 2.

"Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following."—v. 20.

"Peter ... saith to Jesus, Lord, and What shall this man do?"—v. 21.

The twenty-first chapter of John's Gospel is without doubt an addition, written some time after the original Gospel was finished. Why this addition? To answer the question we must recall the things of which the addition tells. They are of special interest in our studies of Peter and John.

In our last chapter we were with John in Jerusalem. From there he carries us to the Sea of Tiberias. He tells us that he and his brother James, and Peter, with four others, "were there together." They were near their childhood home, where they had watched for the Messiah, and where, when He had appeared He called them to leave their fishing employment, and to become fishers of men. They had been saddened by His death, then gladdened by His resurrection. He had told them to meet Him in Galilee. And now they were waiting for His coming. They were within sight of a boat from which perhaps some day they had fished. Peter, ever active and ready to do something, said to his companions, "I go a-fishing." As John had followed him into the tomb, he and the others followed him to the boat saying, "We also come with thee." Let John himself tell what happened. "They went forth and entered into the boat; and that night they took nothing. But when day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach: howbeit the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus therefore saith unto them, Children, have ye aught to eat? They answered Him, No. And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes."

Once more we are to find Peter and John the prominent figures, and see the difference between them, John being the first to understand, and Peter the first to act. When John saw the multitude of fishes he remembered the same thing had happened before at the beginning of Christ's ministry. Looking toward the land, and whispering to Peter, he said, "It is the Lord." "So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his coat about him"—out of reverence for his Master—"and cast himself into the sea," and swam or waded about one hundred yards to the beach. The other disciples followed in the boat, dragging the net with the fishes. John remembered their great size, and the number "an hundred and fifty and three." He says, "When they got out upon the land, they see a fire of coals there." Did it not remind him of another "fire of coals" of which he had already written, kindled in the court of the high-priestly palace where "Peter stood and warmed himself," and near which he denied his Lord three times? If he did not recall that scene immediately, he did very soon.

Jesus invited the disciples to eat of the meal he had prepared. As they did so they were filled with awe and reverence, "knowing that it was the Lord." In the light of the palace fire, "the Lord turned and looked upon Peter"—that only. But in the morning light on the seashore, "when they had broken their fast, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Lovest thou Me?" Three times, with some difference of meaning, gently and solemnly He asked the question as many times as Peter had denied Him. On Peter's first assurance of his love Christ gave him a new commission, "Feed My lambs." This was a humble work,—not so exalted as it is now—a test of Peter's fitness for Apostleship. He was ready to accept it; and thus he showed his fitness for the enlarged commission, "Feed My sheep."

With what intense interest John must have listened to the conversation between his friend and their Lord. Was he not as ready as Peter to say, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee"? In the end John fulfilled the commission, "Feed My lambs," better than either Peter or any of the other Apostles. Of them all he had the most of the child-like spirit. He may fittingly be called the Apostle of Childhood.

Peter was told by the Lord something about his own future,—how in faithful service for his Master he would be persecuted, and "by what manner of death he should glorify God." By this his crucifixion is apparently meant. As John listened, perhaps he wondered what his own future would be. He was ready to share in service with Peter. Was he not also ready to share in his fate, whatever it might be?

"Follow Me," said Jesus to Peter. They seem to have started together away from the group. John felt that he must not be thus separated from his friend and his Lord. Though he had not been invited to join them, he started to do so, as if the command to Peter had been also for himself. "Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned back on His breast at the supper, and said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth Thee?" As Peter at the supper beckoned unto John to ask that question concerning Judas, is it not possible that John now beckoned to Peter to ask Christ concerning himself? However this may be, "Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?" or, as it is interpreted, "Lord—and this man, what?" It is as if he had said, "Will John also die a martyr's death, as you have said I shall die?" It is not strange that he wanted to know the future of his friend. But he did not receive the answer he sought, for "Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?"

These words may mean that John would live to old age and escape martyrdom, which became true. But this was not the meaning which Christians of his day put into them. They had the mistaken idea that Christ, having ascended to Heaven, would soon come again. They also believed that John would live until Christ's second coming. "This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die." John was unwilling to have this mistake concerning Christ's words repeated over and over wherever he was known. So he determined to correct the false report by adding what is the twenty-first chapter of His Gospel, telling just what Christ did say, and the circumstances in which He uttered the words to Peter concerning John. His testimony is this:—"Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me."

Peter became the suffering; John the waiting disciple, "tarrying" a long time, even after his friend was crucified, and all his fellow-Apostles had died, probably by martyrdom.

But after all that John wrote to correct the mistaken report concerning His death, tradition would not let him die. It affirmed that although he was thrown into a caldron of boiling oil at Rome, and though he was compelled to drink hemlock, he was unharmed; and that though he was buried, the earth above his grave heaved with his breathing, as if, still living, he was tarrying until Christ should return.

"What shall this man"—John—"do?" asked Peter. He found partial answer in what they did together for the early Christian Church, until John saw "by what manner of death Peter should glorify God." And then that church found yet fuller answer in John's labors for it while alone he "tarried" long among them.

When John tells us that Peter turned and saw him following, we recall the hour when Andrew and he timidly walked along the Jordan banks, and "Jesus turned and saw them following," and welcomed their approach and encouraged them in familiar conversation. How changed is all now! John does not ask as before, "Where dwellest Thou?" Nor does Jesus bid him "Come and see." He who has become the favored disciple is now better prepared than then to serve his Master, following in the path they had trod together, and having an abiding sense of the blessed though unseen Presence, until his Lord shall bid him, "Come and see" My heavenly abode, and evermore "be with Me where I am," and share at last, without unholy ambition, the glory of My Throne."