Jesus and Peter

My favorite moment of today, was probably at the place where Jesus asked Peter 3 times "Do you love me?" I was reading the passage, and Jesus responds to Peter every time with "Then feed my sheep." In the past, that hasn't really struck me as anything more than Jesus teaching Peter a lesson, or something of the sort. However, today a few things struck me about this particular passage. First off, when Jesus first calls Peter, the way He phrases the work Peter has to do is "be a fisher of men". This would be language that would be enticing to Peter, who was by trade a fisherman. So, why would Christ change the language? Several things could explain this. First, maybe Peter has become accustom to the life of a Shepherd in the past 3 years of hanging out with Jesus. Problem. Jesus was a carpenter and not a shepherd by trade. (Side note, carpenter does not just mean wood worker, it means he was a builder and used all kinds of materials, whatever the local stuff was.) So why would Jesus use a shepherd term? The land for shepherding is far from the land of fishing. I think it is two fold.

First, our professor made a good point. While fishing, the main goal is to catch fish and kill them to provide food. The goal of a shepherd is to keep his sheep alive. What Jesus is doing (among other more blatant things) is showing Peter his new role. Peter's main role has gone from being an Evangelist Preacher (getting folks to die to themselves) to a Care Preacher (keeping his congregation alive and well). This doesn't seem to mean that Peter is supposed to stop evangelizing. He in fact continues to do this throughout Acts. It simply means that his main job has changed.

Secondly, this could be a call from Jesus for Peter to prepare himself to leave his comfort zone. Peter had grown up around Galilee and was familiar with fishing. So equating following Christ with fishing helped Peter adjust to his role as a disciple. Not only that, but the area in which Peter was being a "Fisher of Men" was mainly in the North, and in fact was mostly around the lake where He grew up. This lake was mixed cultures of Jewish and Roman. Peter was used to the climate and Jesus was face of the movement called "The Way". But now, Christ was preparing to leave. This means 2 things for Peter. First, he will need to step up to be a leader. Maybe, he needs to reign in his impulsivity a bit. But the greater lesson is that Peter needs to prepare himself to leave the comfort of his own home. He needs to prepare to step out of the things he is used to (Galilee, the sea, the culture, the political climate, family and friends always by his side) and step into territory that is different and uncomfortable (Leadership, jail, Jerusalem, other cities, Rome, and even death). Christ is subtly telling Peter to step out of what is today called the "comfort zone".

Just a thought.