John 21:15-19
There is a question so simple, so direct, and yet so piercing that it has the power to stop a person cold. It is not a question about theology or doctrine. It is not a question about church attendance or religious performance. It is a deeply personal question, the kind that cuts through every layer of pretense and gets straight to the heart of what matters most.
The question is this: Do you love me?
It is the question Jesus asked Peter on a quiet shoreline, standing beside a fire of coals, after everything had already fallen apart. And it is the same question he asks every one of us today.
The Weight of a Second Chance
To understand why this moment matters so much, you have to understand what had happened just days before. Peter had made a bold promise to Jesus — that even if every other disciple abandoned him, Peter never would. He would die before he denied knowing the man he had followed for three years.
Then came the night of Jesus’ arrest. And in the glow of a fire of coals outside the place where Jesus stood on trial, Peter denied him. Not once. Three times. Three times he looked someone in the eye and said he did not know Jesus.
Now, in John 21, the risen Jesus stands on a shoreline cooking fish over — and this detail is not accidental — a fire of coals. The same smell. The same kind of light. The same setting that must have flooded Peter’s memory with shame and regret the moment he stepped close enough to feel the warmth.
And instead of confronting Peter with his failure, Jesus asks him a question. Three times, once for each denial: Do you love me?
This is grace in its most disarming form. Jesus does not lead with accusation. He leads with an invitation.
Love Jesus More Than Everything
The first time Jesus asks the question, he adds something significant. He asks Peter if he loves him “more than these.” It is a question worth sitting with, because scholars have long debated what Jesus was pointing to when he said it.
Was he pointing to the other disciples? Was he pointing to the fishing boats, the nets, the familiar life Peter had returned to after the crucifixion? The honest answer is that it may not matter which one, because the question reaches beyond Peter and lands squarely on each of us: Is there anything in your life you love more than Jesus?
Money. Career. Comfort. Family. Reputation. Hobbies. The list of things that quietly compete for first place in a human heart is long. None of those things are inherently wrong. But Jesus asks us plainly whether he holds the highest place.
Jim Elliot, the young missionary who gave his life to bring the gospel to an unreached tribe in Ecuador, understood this kind of love. He is remembered for these words: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Elliot loved Jesus more than his own safety, more than his own future, more than his life. And that love shaped everything.
Most of us will not be called to that kind of sacrifice. But all of us are called to answer the question honestly. Do you love Jesus more than everything else?
Love Jesus by Serving Others
Each time Peter answered yes, Jesus responded with the same kind of instruction. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.
It is striking that Jesus did not tell Peter to pray more, study more, or attend more gatherings. He told him to serve people. To care for others. To love the ones Jesus loved.
This is not a coincidence. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he named two in the same breath — love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. He could not separate them. Genuine love for Jesus, it turns out, always leaks out into love for the people around you.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, devoted his life to serving people that the rest of society had overlooked. The story is told that near the end of his life, frail and elderly, he was invited to speak one final time. He stood before the audience in silence for what felt like an eternity, then said a single word.
Others.
Then he sat down.
That one word was the summary of a life well lived. And it is the summary of what Jesus was asking Peter to do. If you love me, show it by loving the people I love. Serve others. Help others. Get outside of your own world and into someone else’s.
Love Jesus by Following Him
After Jesus had asked his question three times and Peter had answered three times, Jesus said something both sobering and beautiful. He told Peter that one day his devotion to Jesus would cost him everything — that he would die for his faith. And then, after delivering that news, Jesus said simply: Follow me.
It echoes the very first invitation Jesus ever extended to Peter, back when Peter was still mending nets on a different shore. Follow me.
True discipleship is not a single dramatic decision. It is a lifelong, daily surrender to following Jesus, even when the road is unclear, even when the destination is unknown, even when the path leads somewhere difficult.
Peter had failed. And Jesus had not given up on him. That is the thread running through this entire story. Failure is not the end. John Newton, the former slave trader who became a minister and wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” put it plainly: “I have been a great sinner, but I have a great Savior.”
Whatever you have done, whatever you have failed at, whatever regrets you carry — the question Jesus is asking you is not about your past. It is about right now.
Do you love me?
If the answer is yes, then love him more than anything else. Show that love by serving the people around you. And keep following him, one step at a time, wherever he leads.