The last conversation between Peter and Jesus is rich with possibility for thinking about our journey (Jn 21:9-23). The smell of fire and char-broiled fish would forever remind Peter of the kindness of Christ in overcoming his deepest betrayal (Jn 21:9-14). Peter’s restoration is followed by the call to shepherd the flock out of his brokenness and for the love of God (Jn 21:15-17).
Following this interaction comes a jarring statement about Peter’s future: “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go” (Jn 21:18).
In other words, “brace yourself Peter, exactly what you don’t want is coming your way, the place you least want to go to is where I am taking you.” John helps the readers understand that these words were in reference to the way Peter would glorify God through his death (Jn 21:19). While the death of Peter is in view, there is a broader principle at work here as well.[1] While the veil may never be pulled back for us, it is most certainly true that our journey includes the places we don’t want to go.[2]
As Peter wrestles with the words of Jesus, he looks at John and asks: “Lord what about this man?” (Jn 21:21). The response of Christ is instructive, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” (Jn 21:22).
Two take-aways from the text: 1) There is danger in comparison.[3] Certainly, Peter was considering his own suffering and wondering about John’s lot. Swift reproof follows this line of thinking, “Peter, that’s none of your business and nothing that should even concern you.” The uniqueness of our own journey and that of others must be respected. 2) We are called to follow even when it means going where we do not want to go. Jesus tells Peter to get his eyes off John, to take his concern off the journeys of others and to fall in step behind him. The terrain for Peter and John was different, the issue was whether they would follow Jesus through that pre-ordered path.
Undergirding the call to follow Jesus into the places we least desire is the promise of his leadership in those spaces. The call to take up the cross does not come from one who has never picked one up. His presence before, behind, beside and within is promised throughout the gospel of John and is what enabled Peter to walk the rugged terrain, the path he would have never chosen.
[1]John Calvin, Commentary on John (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 199-200. “In Peter we have a striking mirror of our ordinary condition. Many have an easy and agreeable life before Christ calls them; but as soon as they have made profession of his name, and have been received as his disciples, or, at least, sometime afterwards, they are led to distressing struggles, to a troublesome life, to great dangers, and sometimes to death itself. This condition, though hard, must be patiently endured. Yet the Lord moderates the cross by which he is pleased to try his servants, so that he spares them a little while, until their strength has come to maturity; for he knows well their weakness, and beyond the measure of it he does not press them. Thus, he forbore with Peter, so long as he saw him to be as yet tender and weak. Let us therefore learn to devote ourselves to him to the latest breath, provided that he supply us with strength.
[2]Bruce Milne, The Message of John: The Bible Speaks Today Commentary (Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 231. The principle is that following Jesus is a daily dying and thwarting of the one’s own will. “This principle applies all the way along the path ‘following Jesus.’ The road of discipleship is the road of the cross, as Jesus made clear…The Christian life is in this sense a ‘continual mortification’ (Calvin), in which, daily and in a thousand ways, we die to self-will and do the will of the Lord. ‘Not I, but Christ’ (see Gal. 2:20) is the essence of the Christian walk.”
[3]Calvin, Commentary on John, 202. “We have in Peter an instance of our curiosity, which is not only superfluous, but even hurtful, when we are drawn aside from our duty by looking at others; for it is almost natural to us to examine the way in which other people live, instead of examining our own, and to attempt to find in them idle excuses…out of ten persons it may happen that God shall choose one, that he may try him by heavy calamities or by vast labors, and that he shall permit the other nine to remain at ease, or, at least, shall try them lightly. Besides, God does not treat all in the same manner, but makes trial of everyone as he thinks fit. As there are various kinds of Christian warfare, let every man learn to keep his own station, and let us not make inquiries like busybodies about this or that person, when the heavenly Captain addresses each of us, to whose authority we ought to be so submissive as to forget everything else.”