Christmas III
John 21: 15-25
(The end of the four Gospels)
After they had had held their meal together, Jesus
said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others
here?
Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon,
son of John, do you love me?
Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to
you.”
Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”
He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are
you my friend?”
Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the
third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things;
therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to
you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished.
But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you
and lead you where you do not wish to go.”
He told him this to indicate the kind of death by
which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow
me.”
But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus
loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the
supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?” When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord,
what of this man, what is his task?”
Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain
until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”
From this day the story spread among the brethren
that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would
not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not
affect your path.”
This is the disciple who here bears witness to
these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is
true. There are also many other things that
Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think
that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written.
Christmas III, Day
December 25, 2012
John 21: 15-25
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| Mili Weber |
Today we celebrate the beginning of the creation of a new
kind of human being. We celebrate the birth of Jesus, who housed within Him the
Christ, the Being of Love.
This reading from the end of all the gospels reminds us of
what happened to that Child; He grew to become a man who gave up the innocence
of His life in order to become the first born, not into earthly life, but to
become the first born from out of the realm of death. The reading is from after
his resurrection. Christ Jesus asks Peter whether he reciprocates Christ’s love
for him. Peter is told three times in three different ways how his love for
Christ is to blossom outward as deeds of love for others.
Every year Christ approaches close to us at this time. We
have the chance to hear, from the One whose very Being is sacrificial Love, how
we can show our love for Him; how our deeds can become a part of the offering
song of the angels; how our deeds can support His work in the world.
Every year, we are given the opportunity to begin again. A
new day has begun. And as He says in His ongoing revelation, ‘I am the star
whose brightness shines in the morning.’ Rev 22:16
As one poet says:
…God needs the longing, … we are …dark with farewell, lost
in births' secret treasure trove,
Around us already…future moons, suns, and stars blaze in a
fiery wreath.[1]
www.thechristiancommunity.org
[1] Nelly Sachs (Translated by
Ruth and Matthew Mead, in A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, ed. by Aliki and Willis Barnstone)
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