Lifelines:

“Do you love Me?” That was the question that Jesus asked Peter not once or twice but three times (John 21:15-17). Surely the significance of that was not lost on the old fisherman. After all, he had denied the Lord an equal number of times. It grieved him to be quizzed in such a way, and the memories of that recent night must have lingered in his mind. How could anyone forget such a collapse under pressure?

The Lord was not surprised that Peter had withered when the heat was on. Jesus gave him advanced warning over the apostle’s protests (John 13:36-38). He was certain that he would put his life on the line if it came to that. How often do we think we will stand firm but fail? We have perfectly good intentions and enough self-confidence to truly believe that we can withstand any trial, but we do not. Welcome to Peter’s boat. The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.

It was just about sunrise when the bottom fell out. It had been just a few hours since the gloomy prediction that Peter would not survive the night without disowning his Lord. He did not believe that he would, but he did, and just as he spit out the words a rooster crowed (Luke 22:61). Imagine what flashed through his mind at the sound of a barnyard bird. The raw memories were still fresh when Jesus posed the thrice asked question, “Do you love Me?”

The tears were bitter that Peter wept that morning (Luke 22:62). He had done precisely what he vowed that he would not do. At the exact moment that the third denial came out the Lord looked at him. What was that look like? Angry? Sad? Disappointed? Knowing? Loving? We have no evidence other than the statement, “The Lord turned and looked at Peter.” It stirred the memory of recently spoken words and the damn burst.

Did that look flash through Peter’s mind again when Jesus asked, “Do you love Me?”

There was no lecture after breakfast that morning, no scolding for his failure. The Savior wanted to know just one thing, “Do you love Me?” With rooster crows echoing in his ears, the look of a thrice denied Lord permanently etched in his memory and the stains of bitter tears fresh on his checks; he faced the question, felt the grief and offered the answer, “Yes, yes, yes.” The question begs an answer from each of us.