You follow me!

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (Jn. 21:21-22 NIV).

Peter, newly restored, turns his attention to the beloved disciple, and asks Jesus what is to be his fate. Jesus responds by saying, essentially, "mind your own business." Jesus' great conflict with human agents in his incarnation had been the controversy with the Pharisees. Jesus was uncompromisingly negative toward their wrong understanding of the Law, their reliance on external conformity, their arrogance, and their hypocrisy. But he never rebuked them for their piety. Jesus didn't hate the Pharisees, he hated what they had done mis-representing the heart of God. The heart that had demanded justice, righteousness, and love throughout recorded history. He hated that the attention of the religious leaders was on the performance of others and not on their own need, their own obligation, their own call to discipleship.

In this episode we see Peter, who had been gently and lovingly restored to fellowship with Jesus, now turn his attention to others. "What about this man?" Peter's question, we can assume, was pharasaic. It was not out of concern for his own soul, and neither out of concern for the beloved disciple's, but in comparison. "Where do I stand in comparison to him?" How does Jesus answer? "You follow me!"

It is so easy to be a Pharisee. It is so much harder to follow Jesus. But this story demonstrates that we are to approach our brothers and sisters with humility. We are not to compromise our own calling, but we are to be generous and humble in allowing Jesus to call our fellows. We are to allow God to be God, and acknowledge that we are not. We don't know their relationship with the divine, but we know that we are called to love them.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Is. 55:8-9 NIV).