This is
not the first time that Peter and the boys came home empty-handed after an
all-night fishing trip. The scenario
that changed the direction of Peter’s life back then is replayed with uncanny
similarity. They go from empty to
overflowing at a word of a Stranger standing on the beach and they know this is not
just a coincidence.
It is the Lord!
Indeed,
it is. Jesus makes an early morning breakfast
for the seven exhausted, floundering disciples.
He breaks the bread and hands it to them. Another déjà vu. The memory of
that night sweeps over Peter in wave after crashing wave.
This is My body, broken for
you... for you... for you...
As the breakfast
is wrapped up, and dishes put away, the silence becomes deafening.
They all failed Jesus. They all fled. They all left Him alone in His
darkest hour.
But,
Jesus doesn’t offer reproach. He doesn’t scold them with an embittered I-told-you-so.
He
turns to Peter with a simple question that sinks with laser-sharp precision into that unscalable black hole, catching that rusting nail of regret by its head:
Do you love Me?
Do you love Me?
Do you love Me?
And
Peter reaches in, deep within, beyond words, beyond proclamations, beyond fear
and lies and betrayal, beyond tears, and grief and regret and finds that he does love his
Lord. He loves Him, he loves Him, he loves Him...
But, how
do you look in the eyes of the One you betrayed and say... that you love Him?
Lord, You know all things. You know... that I ... do ... love... You.
And
right there and then, Jesus doesn’t change Peter’s past, because the past, even with the resurrection, can
not be changed. But, with three simple words, three ordinary, common words, He forever re-frames
it. He re-frames it for Peter … and He re-frames it for
me and you.
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