G. K. Chesterton wrote somewhere: “If you are to build a perfect
society, start with imperfect people.” He must have gotten
this insight from today’s Gospel passage. The resurrected
Jesus gently but forcefully reminds Peter, on whom he will build
his church, of his threefold denial just a few days earlier. And
yet, after each reminder, he entrusts to Peter the responsibility
of tending Jesus’ own flock.
We wouldn’t have done it that way. Instead, we would have
been more inclined to say: “Peter proved himself unworthy,
give the post to somebody else.” – thinking of the job
as recognition or reward. If we needed to be reminded yet again,
scripture tells us “God’s thoughts are not your thoughts.”
Peter must serve Jesus’ flock from the full, painful awareness
of his own weakness. The strength he will need comes from Jesus,
not from himself. And he must always remember that the flock is
not his. “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep.” There is only
one shepherd – Jesus. More to the point, Peter’s services
will be expressed ultimately in the way he dies for the flock.
Most of us are not members of the clerical establishment, to whom
this passage would seem most pointedly directed. But in a less formal
sense, these words apply to all of us. We all are commissioned to
serve other members of the flock, and we can do so not from our
own strength but from God’s life in us. Recognition of our
incapacity and sinfulness is a necessary first step for us, just
as it was for Peter. But what a blessing it is to be commissioned
despite our failures.