Third Sunday of Easter (C)

Readings:

1. Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
   Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13  Resp:  “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.”
2. Revelation 5:11-14
3. John 21:1-19 (longer form) or John 21:1-14 (shorter form)

Reflections on the Gospel Reading

In today’s passage the executors of John the Evangelist’s literary estate rehabilitate Peter for their readers.  Peter did not fare well in John’s passion narrative, especially in comparison to the mysterious other disciple who plays such a prominent role in the latter part of this Gospel.

Recall Jesus’ description of the good shepherd contrasted with the hireling (ch. 10).  The good shepherd enters by the gate.  “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name . . . .” (John 10:2-3)  John J. Pilch observes that in the courtyard of the high priest (ch. 18) the other disciple is portrayed as a good shepherd because “(1) he enters by the door, (2) the gatekeeper (woman) recognizes him, and (3) he leads the sheep in.  Peter is not the shepherd, he is a lowly sheep!” (Pilch 1997, 74)

In fact, Peter is portrayed as a hireling.  Pilch continues:  “He lacks knowledge of the traitor (See John 13,21-26.), and he needs the Beloved Disciple to gain entrance to the high priest’s court. (See John 18.15-16.) In abandoning Jesus he behaves like a hireling rather than a disciple.¹ He denies Jesus, and even after the resurrection, he runs slower than the Beloved Disciple, sees but does not say anything (John 20:4-9).” (Pilch 1997, 74; Brown 1984,91-92)

In Chapter 21, the epilogue to John’s Gospel, the tables are turned.  Now Peter takes center stage, and the disciple whom Jesus loved recedes to the background.  Peter is the one who decides to go fishing, jumps into the sea upon realizing that it is Jesus,² and drags the bursting net onto the shore.  Then, when breakfast is over, he becomes the object of Jesus’ attention.

Just as around the charcoal fire in the courtyard of the high priest Peter denied Jesus three times, here around another charcoal fire he three times professes his love and receives the threefold commission to “Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep.”  Then Jesus predicts that Peter will glorify God by his death just as “the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” (John 10:11)  The risen Lord has transformed Peter from a hireling to a shepherd!  By contrast, the followers of the Beloved Disciple have to admit that their leader did not die a martyr’s death.  (See John 21:20-23.)

Almost twenty centuries later, what can we learn from this story?  One lesson seems to be that there are different styles of authentic leadership in the Church.  John’s Gospel emerged from what Raymond Brown called “The Community of the Beloved Disciple,” probably around Ephesus in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.   Ancient witnesses referred to Mark the Evangelist as the interpreter of Peter who died in Rome.  Each community produced a Gospel.

It appears that after the death of John the Evangelist, his followers added a chapter to his Gospel.  They incorporated an ancient tradition that located the first appearances of the risen Jesus in Galilee rather than in Jerusalem.  Jesus appeared to Peter in conjunction with a miraculous catch of fish and to a group of disciples in the context of a meal.  By adding this chapter they recognized Peter’s leadership and the gospel tradition that emerged from his community as complementary to their own leader and their own gospel tradition.

Although they recognized Peter’s leadership, they did so by drawing on the central teaching of their own tradition that all true leadership is based on love.³ If anything is central to the Gospel according to John, the letters of John, and even the Book of Revelation, it is the teaching about love in imitation of the love Jesus had for his disciples.  By placing the rehabilitation of Peter in the context of a threefold profession of love for Jesus, John’s followers were recognizing that Peter had passed the test for a true leader in the Church.

That message continues to be as relevant today as it was at the end of the first century.  The standard for judging a good shepherd has not changed.  All authentic leadership in the Church must be based on self-sacrificing love.  Each of us who cares enough about the Church to preserve it or change it should remember the lesson that Peter learned.  In order to tend the sheep the true shepherd must love the sheep and be willing to die for them.

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In preparing these reflections, in addition to the biblical texts, I consulted the following works:

Brown 1970 – Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Gospel according to John (xiii-xxi), Volume 29A of the Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY:  Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970), pp. 1066-1100.

Brown 1979 – Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Community of the Beloved Disciple  (New York:  Paulist Press, 1979)

Brown 1984 – Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Churches the Apostles Left Behind (New York:  Paulist  Press, 1984), especially Chapter 6 “The Heritage of the Beloved Disciple in the Fourth Gospel:  A Community of People Personally Attached to Jesus,” pp. 84-101.

Franke 2004 – Chris Franke, “3rd Sunday of Easter,” Sunday by Sunday, Vol. 13, No. 34, April 25, 2004.

Malina & Rohrbaugh 1998 – Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John  (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998), pp. 287-291.

Moloney 1998 – Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.. The Gospel of John.  Sacra Pagina Series Volume 4, A Michael Glazier Book (Collegeville [MN]:  Liturgical Press, 1998), pp. 545-562.

Perkins 1990 – Pheme Perkins, “The Gospel According to John” in Raymond E. Brown, S.S., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J. and Roland E. Murphy, O.Carm., Editors, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary  (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice Hall, 1990), pp. 984-985.

Pilch 1997 – John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, Cycle C.  A Liturgical Press Book (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 1997), pp. 73-75.

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