of their fish to that meal, so should the souls which they had taken for life be their crown and rejoicing in that day, should help and contribute to their gladness then.* When the Evangelist tells us that at this meal "none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord;" this again is difficult; for if they knew, where was even the temptation to make this inquiry? and yet it seems on the surface of the narration that they were tempted to ask such a question, and were only hindered by the solemn fear and awe which was shed on them by his presence. But the right meaning of the words, no doubt, is that none of them dared to show so much of unbelief and uncertainty as would have been involved in the question "Who art thou?" There was shed over them such a mysterious awe, such a sense of the presence of their beloved Master, witnessing for itself in the inmost depths of their spirits, that, unusual and unlike as was his outward appearance to that whereunto their eyes were accustomed, yet none of them durst ask for a clearer evidence that it was he, even though it would have been a satisfaction to them to hear from his own lips that it was indeed himself and no other.† The most interesting conversation which follows hangs too closely upon this miracle to be omitted; in fact, as appears almost universally the case with St. John, the miracle is not recorded so much for its own sake, as for the sake of that which grows out of it. Here, after the Lord has opened the eyes of his apostles to the greatness of their future work, and given to them in type a prophetic glimpse both of their successful labor and their abundant reward, he now declares to them the one condition both of accomplishing this work, and inheriting this reward. Love to Christ, and the unreserved yielding up of self to God-these were the sole conditions, and all which follows is to teach this: so that the two portions of the chapter are intimately connected, and together * Augustine (In Ev. Joh., Tract. 123): Piscis assus, Christus est passus. Ipse est et panis qui de cœlo descendit. Hinc incorporatur Ecclesia ad participandam beatitudinem sempiternam. Ammonius: Τὸ, Δεῦτε ἀριστεύσατε, αἴνιγμα ἔχει ὁ λόγος, ὅτι μετὰ τοὺς πόνους διαδέξεται τοὺς ἁγίους ἀνάπαυσις καὶ τρυφὴ καὶ ἀπόλαυσις. Gregory the Great (Hom. 24 in Evang.) notes how the number who here feast with the Lord are seven, the number of perfection and completion. Augustine (In Ev. Joh., Tract. 123): Si ergo sciebant, quid opus erat ut interrogarent? Si autem non opus erat, quare dictum est, non audebant; quasi opus esset, sed timore aliquo non auderent? Sensus ergo hic est: Tanta erat evidentia veritatis, quâ Jesus illis discipulis apparebat, ut eorum non solùm negare, sed nec dubitare quidem ullus auderet : quoniam si quisquam dubitaret, utique interrogare deberet. Sic ergo dictum est, Nemo audebat eum interrogare, Tu quis es: ac si diceretur, Nemo audebat dubitare quod ipse esset. Cf. Chrysostom's striking words In Joh., Hom. 87. * form a complete whole. When the meal was ended, "Jesus said unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?" with an evident allusion to Peter's boasting speech, "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended," (Matt. xxvi. 33,) as is proved by Peter's answer, wherein appealing to the Lord, the Searcher of hearts, he affirms that indeed he loves him, but does not now cast any slight by comparison on the love of his fellow-disciples. The main object of the Lord in his rejoinder, "Feed my sheep," "Feed my lambs," is not to say, "Show then thy love in act," but rather, "I restore to thee thy apostolic function; this grace is thine, that thou shalt yet be a chief shepherd of my flock." It implies, therefore, the fullest forgiveness of the past, since none but the forgiven could rightly declare the forgiveness of God. The question, "Lovest thou me?" is thrice repeated, that by three solemn affirmations the apostle may efface his three denials of his Lord.§ At last, upon the third repetition of the * Augustine (Serm. 147, c. 2): Non potuit dicere nisi, Amo te: non ausus est dicere, plus his. Noluit iterum esse mendax. Suffecerat ei testimonium perhibere cordi suo non debuit esse judex cordis alieni. The other, doubtless, is the commonest view of the connection of the words. Thus Augustine takes it a hundred times, as Serm. 146, c. 1: Tamquam ei diceret, Amas me? In hoc ostende quia amas me, Pasce oves meas. But the view expressed in the text is that of Cyril, Chrysostom, Euthymius. Thus, too, Calvin: Nunc illi tam libertas docendi quàm auctoritas restituitur, quarum utramque amiserat suâ culpâ. ‡ 'Ayañāv and pıhɛiv are here so interchangeably used, that the Lord on his first and second putting of the question to Peter says, dyamaç μe; on the third, pɩλeis, while Peter every time answers with the latter word, pih oɛ. If there be any significance in the variation, our version has lost it, though the Latin has at least marked it by using for the first, diligo; for the second, amo,-words which Cicero more than once distinguishes, making the last to imply more of affection than the first. But there hardly is such here (see AUGUSTINE, De Civ. Dei, l. 14, c. 7); not that ȧyanav and piλɛiv have not each of them certain meanings, which the other will not admit, or that there are not places where the one could by no means be substituted for the other; yet here they appear indifferently used. (See TITTMAN'S Synonyms, c. 4.) Still more confidently one may affirm the Bóoke and noiμaiver of these verses to be entire synonyms. Augustine (In Ev. Joh., Tract. 123); Redditur negationi trinæ trina confessio; ne minùs amori lingua serviat quàm timori: et plus vocis elicuisse videatur mors imminens, quàm vita præsens. Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 18: Donec trinâ voce amoris solveret trinam vocem negationis. Serm. 285: Odit Deus præsumtores de viribus suis; et tumorem istum in eis, quos diligit, tamquam medicus secat. Secando quidem infert dolorem; sed firmat postea sanitatem. Itaque resurgens Dominus commendat Petro oves suas illi negatori; sed negatori quia præsumtori, postea pastori quia amatori. Nam quare ter interrogat amantem, nisi ut compungat ter negantem? Cf. Enarr. 2a in Ps. xc. 12. So Ammonius: Aid тpiùv tŵv ¿pwrýoɛwv kai katabéoɛwv question, Peter was saddened, as though the Lord doubted his word; and with yet more emphasis than before, appeals to his Saviour in his allknowing and all-searching character, whether it was not true that indeed he loved him: "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.' There does not seem any thing in the distinction which some have made between the two commands," Feed my lambs," and "Feed my sheep," as though the first were the more imperfect Christians, the little children in Christ; the other the more advanced, the grown men. And still more groundless and trifling is the interpretation made in the interests of Rome, as though the "lambs" are the laity, and the "sheep" the clergy; and that here to Peter, and in him to the Roman pontiffs, was given dominion over both. The commission should at least have run, Feed my sheep, Feed my shepherds, if any conclusions of the kind were to be drawn from it, though an infinite deal would even then have remained to be proved. But "Feed my sheep," is not all. This life of labor is to be crowned with a death of painfulness; such is the way, with its narrow and strait gate, which even for a Peter is the only one which will lead to eternal life. The Lord would show him beforehand what great things he must suffer for his sake. For this is often his manner with his elect servants, with an Ezekiel, (iii. 25,) with a Paul, (Acts xxi. 11,) and now with a Peter. "When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." There cannot, I think, be a doubt that there is allusion here to the crucifixion of Peter, since St. John himself declared that Jesus spake thus, " signifying by what death he should glorify God;" ἐξαλείφει τὰς τρεῖς φωνὰς τῆς ἀρνήσεως, καὶ διὰ λόγων ἐπανορθοῖ τὰ ἐν λόγοις γενόμενα πTаioμата. Not otherwise the Church hymn,— Ter confessus ter negatum, * Augustine (Serm. 253, c. 1): Contristatus est Petrus. Quid contristaris, Petre, quia ter respondes amorem? Oblitus est trinum timorem? Sine interroget te Dominus: medicus est qui te interrogat, ad sanitatem pertinet, quod interrogat. Noli tædio affici. Expecta, impleatur numerus dilectionis, ut deleat numerum negationis. Wetstein: Oves istæ quo tempore Petro committebantur, erant adhuc teneri agni, novitii discipuli à Petro ex Judæis et gentibus adducendi. Quando verò etiara oves committit, significat eum ad senectutem victurum, et ecclesiam constitutam et ordinatam visurum esse. See BERNARD, De Consid., 1. 2, c. 8. and no tolerable ground exists for calling in question the tradition of the Church, that such was the manner of the apostle's martyrdom.* Doubtless it is here obscurely intimated; but this is of the very nature of prophecy, and there is quite enough in the description to show that the Lord had this and no other manner of death in his eye. The stretched forth hands are the hands extended upon either side on the transverse bar of the cross. The girding by another is the binding to the cross, for the sufferer was attached to the instrument of punishment not only with nails, but also was bound thereto with cords. It cannot be meant by the bearing "whither thou wouldest not," that there should be any reluctancy on the part of Peter to glorify God by his death, except indeed the reluctancy which there always is in the flesh to suf fering and pain; which yet in his case, as in the Lord's, (compare Matt. xxvi. 39,) should be overruled by the higher willingness to do and to suffer the perfect will of God. In this sense, as it was a violent death, -a death which others chose for him,- -a death from which flesh and blood would naturally shrink, it was "whither he would not ;" though, in a higher sense, as it was the way to a nearer vision of God, it was that at which he had all his life been aiming; and then he was borne whither most he would; and the exulting words of another apostle, at the near approach of his martyrdom, (2 Tim. iv. 6—8,) would have suited his lips just as well.§ * EUSEBIUS, Hist. Eccl., 1. 2, c. 25; l. 3, c. 1. The passages most to the point in showing that this would naturally be one of the images which one, who, without naming, yet wished to indicate crucifixion, would use, are this from Seneca (Consol. ad Marciam, c. 20): Video istic cruces non unius quidem generis; .... alii brachia patibulo explicuerunt; and Tertullian (De Pudic., c. 22): In patibulo jam corpore expanso: who says again with allusion to the stretching out of the hands in prayer; Paratus est ad omne supplicium ipse habitus orantis Christiani. And the following phrase occurs in ARRIAN's Epictetus, 1. 3, c. 26: ἐκτείνας σεαυτὸν, ὡς οἱ ἐσταυρωμένοι. The passage adduced by some from Plautus, Credo ego tibi esse eundum extra portam, Dispessis manibus patibulum quum habebis, is not quite satisfying; since this is most probably an allusion to the marching the criminal along, with his arms attached to the fork upon his neck, before he was himself fastened to the cross; or perhaps not to be followed up by actual execution at all, but only as itself an ignominious punishment. (See BECKER'S Gallus, v. 1, p. 131, and WETSTEIN, in loc.) So TERTULLIAN (Scorp., c. 15): Tunc Petrus ab altero cingitur, cùm cruci astringitur; or perhaps it may be, as Lücke suggests, the girding the sufferer round the middle, who otherwise would be wholly naked on the cross. He quotes from the Evang. Nicod., c. 10: Ἐξέδυσαν οἱ στρατιῶται τὸν Ἰησοῦν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, καὶ περιέζωσαν αὐτὸν λεντίῳ. § Chrysostom (In Joh, Hom. 88): Ὅπου οὐ θέλεις τῆς φύσεως λέγει τὸ συμπαθὲς καὶ Nor may we exclude the symbolical meaning, which we have found in the earlier parts of the chapter, from this part also. The "girding himself" is to be taken as the sign and figure of promptness and an outward activity, (Exod. xii. 11; Luke xii. 35; 1 Pet. i. 13; Ephes. vi. 14;) and, in fact, our Lord is saying to Peter, "When thou wert young, thou actedst for me, thou wentest whither thou wouldest, thou wert free to work for me, and to choose thy field of work; but when thou art old, thou shalt learn another lesson, a higher and a harder; thou shalt suffer for me; thou shalt no more choose thy work, but others shall choose it for thee, and that work shall be the work of passion rather than of action." Such is the history of the Christian life, not in Peter's case only, but this is the very course and order of it in almost all of God's servants; it is begun in action, it is perfected in suffering. In the last, lessons are learned which the first could never teach; graces exercised, which but for this, would not at all, or would only have very weakly, existed. Thus it was, for instance, with a John Baptist. He begins with Jerusalem and all Judea flowing to him to listen to his preaching; he ends with lying long, a seemingly forgotten captive, in the dungeon of Macharus. So was it with a St. Chrysostom. The chief cities of the world wait upon him with reverence and homage while he is young, and he goes whither he would; but when he is old, he is borne whither he would not, up and down, a sick and suffering exile. Thus should it be also with this great apostle. It was only in this manner that whatever of self-will and self-choosing survived in him still, should be broken and abolished, that he should be brought into an entire emptiness of self, a perfect submission to the will of God. And then the Lord, as he has shown him the end, will also show him the way; for "when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." Now these words do more than merely signify, in a general way, "Be thou an imitator of me." Such an explanation would show that we had altogether failed in realizing to ourselves this solemn scene, as it was on this day enacted on the shore of Gennesaret. That scene was quite as much in deed as in word; and here, at the very moment that the Lord spake the words, it would seem that he took some paces along the rough and rocky shore, bidding Peter to do the same; thus setting forth to him in a figure his future life, which should be a following of his divine Master in the rude and rugged way of Christian τῆς σαρκὸς τῆς ἀνάγκην, καὶ ὅτι ἄκουσα ἀποῤῥήνυται τοῦ σώματος ἡ ψυχὴ. Cf. Augustine's beautiful words, Serm. 299, and Serm. 173, c. 2: Quis enim vult mori? Prorsus nemo: et ita nemo ut beato Petro diceretur, Alter te cinget, et feret quo tu non vis |