John 21:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

At the same time Christ entrusts to him care for the brethren, in order to show that from now on he must have boldness, since his denial has been given over to forgetfulness. He does not recall his denial, nor does He reproach him for what took place. He says, rather, “If you love Me, care for the brethren. Show now that fervent love which you always displayed and in which you took comfort. Give for My sheep the soul which you promised to lay down for Me.” When Peter was questioned the first and second time, he called as witness Him who knows the hidden mysteries of the heart. But when he was questioned the third time, he was troubled. He feared lest the same thing should happen again as before. For then also he had spoken confidently, but events refuted him. Therefore he again takes refuge in Christ and says, “You know all things” (v. 17), both the present and the future. Do you see how he was corrected and became more prudent? He no longer insists on his own opinion, nor does he contradict. This is why he was troubled. Perhaps, he thought, I only suppose that I love, but in reality I do not love. So before I thought great things of myself and spoke confidently, but events refuted me. Christ asks him three times and three times gives him the same command, to show how highly He values care for His sheep. He also shows that this above all is the sign of love for Him. When the Lord asked him, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” and he answered, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You,” Christ did not say, “Leave your possessions.” He did not say. “Wear yourself out with fasting and severe ascetic labors, raise the dead, cast out demons.” He mentioned none of these things, nor any other signs and labors. Passing all this by in silence, He says, “If you love Me, feed My sheep.” He said this to show us the greatest sign not only of love for Him, but also of His own love for the sheep. He recognized love for the sheep as the most important proof of love for Himself. It is as though He said, “He who loves My sheep loves Me.” See how much Christ endured for this flock. He became man, taking the form of a servant. He suffered spitting and blows, and at last He did not refuse death, even the most shameful death. He poured out His blood on the Cross. Therefore, if anyone wishes to please Him, let him care for these sheep. Let him seek the common good and care for his brethren. No labor is more precious before God than this.

Likewise, when the detachment of soldiers came with the Jewish servants to take Jesus and lead Him away to the rulers, all the others left Him and fled, as it is written (Mt 26:56). Peter, however, cut off the ear of Malchus with a sword (Jn 18:10).

He thought that he had to defend his Teacher by every means, even though he undertook a deed entirely unfitting for him.

Therefore Christ asks him, who came sooner than the others, whether he loves Him “more than these.” He does this three times. Peter agrees and confesses that he loves Him, calling the Lord Himself as witness to the disposition present within him.

At each confession he hears a distinct and separate command to care for the rational sheep. But I think we must also examine the hidden meaning of the passage being interpreted. This too was not written without purpose.

Rather, some mystical meaning is contained in the cited words of the Gospel. Could one not rightly ask why He questions Simon alone, though the other disciples were present? And what might the words “Feed My lambs” and those like them signify?

We shall answer that divine Peter had already been chosen, together with the other disciples, for the divine apostleship. For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called them Apostles, as it is written (Lk 6:13).

But when the crimes of the Jews were being committed, and the events connected with them were taking place, divine Peter was seized by very great terror and denied the Lord three times. Therefore the Lord heals this sickness and requires three separate confessions.

He sets them, as it were, against the three denials, making correction a counterweight to the falls. A fall by word, and guilt consisting only in speech, had to be loosed in exactly the same way, by words.

Therefore He required him to say whether he loved Him more than the others. Indeed, should not the one who received greater mercy and forgiveness in greater measure also have more love than the others?

Should he not answer his Benefactor with the highest degree of devotion? Flight was common to all the holy disciples, since the inhumanity of the Jews planted unbearable fear in them.

The savagery of the soldiers also threatened a cruel death when they came to seize Jesus. Yet Peter’s transgression occurred in a special way, through his threefold denial.

Thus the one who received a greater forgiveness than the others is asked to say whether he also loves more. For, according to the Savior’s word, he to whom much is forgiven will love much (Lk 7:47).

From this also a pattern is given to the churches, that they should require a threefold confession of Christ from those who have resolved to love Him, when they approach holy baptism.

Through contemplation of the Gospel words being interpreted, teachers are given knowledge that they can please Christ, the Chief Shepherd of all (1 Pet 5:4), in no other way than by caring for the welfare and good estate of the rational sheep.

Such was divine Paul, becoming weak with the weak (1 Cor 9:22). He called those who believed through him, and resolved to be glorified by the brightness of their works, the boast of his apostleship, his joy and crown (Phil 4:1).

For he knew with certainty that this is the manifest fruit of perfect love for Christ. Anyone can be convinced of this by right and proper reasoning.

Indeed, if He died for us, did He not deem the salvation and life of us all worthy of every care? And if those who sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience truly sin against Christ (1 Cor 8:12), then what follows?

Will it not rightly be said that those who guide the minds of those already believing, and of those awaiting this calling, show piety before the Lord Himself? Through every ministry to them, they strive to implant firmness in faith within them.

Thus the threefold denial was abolished through the threefold confession of blessed Peter. In the Lord’s words, “Feed My lambs,” one understands a kind of renewal of the apostleship already given to the Apostle Peter.

It looses the shame of his falls and destroys the faintheartedness that comes from human weakness.

But how could He not believe him, who knew his heart? Therefore Peter answered after this: "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." And Jesus said to him all three times: "Feed My sheep."

Besides this, the Savior's threefold appeal to Peter and Peter's threefold confession before his Lord had another special and beneficial purpose for the Apostle. He to whom the keys of the Kingdom and the authority to bind and loose had been given had himself been bound three times by fear and faintheartedness (Mt 26:69-75). The Lord therefore looses him three times by His appeal and by his confession of strong love.

The feeding of Christ's rational flock is assigned to all the Apostles and their successors. "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock," the Apostle Paul cries to the presbyters of the Church, "in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops, to shepherd the Church of the Lord and God, which He purchased with His own Blood" (Acts 20:28).

And the Apostle Peter says to the elders: "Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, overseeing it not by compulsion, but willingly and according to God; not for unjust gain, but eagerly; not as domineering over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory" (1 Pet 5:2-4).

To such an end came this worshiper who had denied Him. He had been carried away by self-confidence, humbled by denial, cleansed by tears, praised for confession, and crowned by martyrdom. To such an end he came, so that in perfect love he might die in the name of Him with whom, in perverse haste, he had promised to accept death.

Let him, strengthened by His Resurrection, now do what he rashly promised when he was weak. It was fitting that first Christ should die for the salvation of Peter, and afterward Peter for the preaching of Christ. What human rashness had dared was untimely, while truth established this order.

Peter thought he would lay down his life for Christ (cf. Jn 13:37), for his Redeemer, while Christ had come to lay down His life for all His own, among whom Peter was. Behold, this has now been accomplished. Let true strength of heart, by His gift, now be ready to accept death in the name of the Lord. Let false self-confidence no longer make presumptuous claims while we deceive ourselves.

Now there is reason for us not to fear departure from this life, for in the Lord's Resurrection an example of future life has been given to us. Now there is reason, Peter, for you not to fear death. He lives whom you mourned as dead, and whom in fleshly love you strove to keep from dying for us (cf. Mt 16:21-22).

You dared to go before the Leader, and you feared His pursuer. Now that the price has been paid for you, there is reason for you to follow the Redeemer, and to follow Him even to death on the cross. You have heard the words of Him whose truthfulness you have already found. He who already foretold your denial has foretold that you will suffer.

But first the Lord asks what was known to Him, and not once, but a second and a third time: whether Peter loves Him. As many times as He hears from Peter that he loves, so many times He entrusts to Peter the feeding of His sheep. To the threefold denial is joined a threefold confession, so that the tongue may show no less obedience to love than to fear. It is also so that the expected death, as it were, may sound from his mouth no less than the present life.

Let feeding the Lord's flock be the manifestation of love, if denial of the Shepherd was the manifestation of fear. Those who feed Christ's sheep while inwardly wishing them to belong to themselves and not to Christ show that they love themselves. They do this from desire either for glory, authority, or profit, and do not love Christ from an inclination to obedience, service, and the reverence of God.

This voice of Christ, repeated so many times, warns against those concerning whom the Apostle lamented that they seek their own things and not the things of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21). What else do the words "Do you love Me? Feed My sheep" mean, except the following words that He might have spoken?

"If you love Me, do not think of feeding yourself, but feed My sheep, not as your own. Seek in them My glory, not your own; My dominion, not your own; My profit, not your own. Then you will not be found in the company of those who belong to perilous times (cf. 2 Tim 3:1), who love themselves and the other things connected with this root of evil."

For when the Apostle had said, "Men will be lovers of themselves," he then added: "lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, intent on wickedness, impious, without feeling, false, incontinent, implacable, not lovers of the good, traitors, dissolute, blinded, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the form of piety but denying its power" (cf. 2 Tim 3:2-5).

All these vices flow, as from a spring, from that vice which he placed first: self-love. Deservedly was Peter asked: "Do you love Me?" And he answered: "I love You." And it was said to him: "Feed My sheep." A second time and a third time this was said.

By this it was also shown that the words amor and dilectio mean one and the same thing. For the Lord too, in the final instance, does not ask, Diligis me? but Amas me?

In the Latin translation of the Gospel, in Jn 21:15-17, the verbs amo and diligo are used as equivalent terms. Amo expresses sensory and more intimate love, while diligo expresses love containing attachment, respect, and honor. In the first two instances the Lord Jesus Christ asked Peter, Diligis me? and heard in answer, amo te. In the third instance the Lord asked, Amas me? and Peter answered, amo te.

Let us therefore love not ourselves, but Him. In feeding His sheep, let us seek what is His and not what is ours. In some inexplicable way, everyone who loves himself and not God does not love even himself. And everyone who loves God and not himself also loves himself.

For one who cannot have life from himself will certainly die by loving himself. Therefore he does not love himself who loves himself while losing life. But when love is shown to Him from whom life comes, then by not loving himself one loves himself more, because he does not love himself for this reason: he loves Him from whom he has life.

Let those who feed Christ's sheep not be self-loving, so that they may feed them not as their own, but as His. Let them not seek to draw their own profit from them, like lovers of money. Let them not rule over them as the arrogant do. Let them not seek glory from honors received from them, like the proud. Let them not go so far as to beget heresies, like blasphemers.

Let them not depart from the holy fathers, like those disobedient to parents. Let them not repay evil for good to those who wish to correct them because they do not want them to perish, like the ungrateful. Let them not kill either their own souls or those of others, like those intent on wickedness.

Let them not tear apart the maternal womb of the Church, like the impious. Let them not lack compassion for the weak, like those without feeling. Let them not try to defile the glory of the saints, like the false. Let them not give free rein to their lusts, like the incontinent. Let them not persist in disputes, like the implacable.

Let them not refuse to come to aid, like those who are not lovers of the good. Let them not, like traitors, report to those hostile to the pious what they learned as a secret. Let them not harm human modesty by striving for the shameless, like the dissolute. Let them not be ignorant of what they say and what they affirm (cf. 1 Tim 1:7), like the blinded.

Let them not prefer fleshly pleasures to spiritual joys, as do those who love pleasure rather than God. For these and similar vices, whether they are all found in one man or some prevail in some and others in others, all grow from that root, that men are lovers of themselves.

Those who feed Christ's sheep must especially beware of this vice, so that they do not seek their own things, but the things of Jesus Christ. Let them not use for the satisfaction of their own desires their ministry to those for whom the Blood of Christ was poured out.

Love for Him must be kindled to such spiritual flame in the one who feeds His sheep that it overcomes even the natural fear of death. Because of this fear we do not wish to die, even when we wish to live with Christ. For the Apostle also says that he has a desire to depart and live with Christ (cf. Phil 1:23). Yet he groans under the burden and does not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life (cf. 2 Cor 5:4).

He asked not in order to be assured, but to point to Peter and, after His ascent into heaven, to leave him to us as the vicar of His love. Thus you read: “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” “Lord, You know that I love You.” “Feed My lambs” (Jn 21:16). Peter, knowing himself well, bears witness to a feeling that was not momentary, but long since manifest to God. No one else would have dared say this about himself. For this confession of love he was preferred to all, because love is greater than all (1 Cor 13:13). It is also important to consider carefully why, when the Lord asked, “Do you honor Me?” Peter answered, “You know, Lord, that I love You.” It seems to me that honor signifies reverence of soul, while love is the ardor born of burning, both bodily and spiritual. Peter, I think, wished to express that not only his spirit, but also his body, was seized by fiery longing for God. The third time, instead of “Do you honor Me?” the Lord also said, “Do you love Me?” He commanded him to feed, not lambs still needing milk as the first time, nor young sheep as the second, but simply sheep. Ambrose is playing on diminutive names for sheep in certain manuscripts of John’s Gospel. This means that Peter, as one perfect, is appointed shepherd over the perfect.

Nevertheless, many know neither what the Lord’s word cited above means, nor how the Lord commanded Peter to feed His sheep. Yet they boldly, alas, ascend to this rank of dignity, and are not ashamed to shepherd Christ’s flock by their own self-appointment.

Therefore, if it seems good to you, let us consider what this word of the Lord means and what sense is contained in it. When the Lord said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” He indicated nothing other than presidency and care.

This care should be exercised over Christ’s flock through word and teaching. This is confirmed by other words spoken to the same Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith should not fail; and when thou hast returned, strengthen thy brethren” (Lk 22:31-32). What do the words “strengthen thy brethren” mean?

They mean this: by your own example assure them that one must not despair, whatever sin one has fallen into. For what other sin is worse than yours, when you denied Me, the Master of all?

Yet I forgave you as soon as you repented bitterly. Although you had no boldness because of your denial, I called you by name through the angel to come to Me with the other Apostles on the mountain of Galilee.

I did not reproach you with a single word concerning your denial. In this, when you have returned, strengthen your brethren. Feed My sheep.

But know that you will truly feed them not when you transfer them from pasture to pasture, so that they may grow fat bodily, as shepherds of irrational sheep do. Nor will you feed them when you shut them within walls and sheepfold fences.

You will feed them when you teach them to keep all that I have commanded. Later the Lord commanded this especially to all the Apostles, saying: “Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). He added further: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mk 16:16).

“Feed My sheep,” He says. The shepherd of irrational sheep does not care for agriculture, trade, houses, varied and costly foods, glory, or honor. He has no concern for anything else worldly, nor does he desire to enjoy it.

Leaving everything, house, wife, and children, he turns all his care to his flock alone. For its sake he spends nights without sleep and goes with it to distant places.

He has neither shelter nor bed. He endures the heat of the day and the cold of the night, and contends with changes in the air. He watches only the sheep and cares for them in every way.

But for you, shepherd of rational sheep, it is possible to remain under the shelter of a house, to have a bed, bedding, and a table, and at the same time to feed My sheep.

How are you to feed them? By teaching them to have, toward Me, says the Lord, a faith that is bright, pure, and unwavering, and to love Me with all their soul and all their heart.

I loved them in this way, giving Myself over to death for love of them and dying for them. Giving them, instead of pasture, the life-giving food of My commandments, explain to them when they will taste the life-giving power of this food.

They will do so only when they fulfill My commandments in deed. Urge them to eat this food every hour, so that they may always be filled with My good things.

Teach them to know what My good things are, and by what works they are acquired, from these words of Mine: “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure unfailing in heaven” (Lk 12:33).

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44). “See that none of you repays evil for evil to anyone” (1 Thess 5:15).

“Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Lk 6:37). “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mk 11:26; Mt 6:15).

Become poor in money, that you may be rich in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Despise earthly glory, so that you may receive heavenly glory.

He had to recognize himself as deprived of that trust of the Lord without which one cannot be His Apostle, a preacher of His teaching. He had to receive forgiveness. He had to be restored to the apostolic rank, and restored by Christ Himself. This is why Jesus does not address all the Apostles with the question, “Do you love Me?” This is why He does not say to all the Apostles, “Feed My lambs,” but only to Peter. The charge to feed the flock of Christ was given to all the Apostles. This is clear both from Jesus’ earlier words to them and from His last words spoken before the Ascension into heaven. Therefore, if it is now given also to Peter, this is only to show that he has been forgiven and restored in his apostolate.

“By the threefold questioning and confession He heals the threefold denial, and by words He corrects the fall that happened through words” (Theophylact, cf. Chrysostom). The threefold naming of Peter by his former full name, Simon son of Jonah (Jn 1:42), was probably intended to remind him of his natural character. “Do you love Me more than these?” means more than the other apostles. In these words there is an evident reference to Peter’s declaration that, even if all the disciples were made to stumble because of Christ, he, Peter, would never stumble (Mt 26:33). After that declaration the Lord foretold his denial. The Lord does not ask about Peter’s faith, for his faith in Christ was not shaken by the denial. Peter says, and so on. In his answer Peter does not compare his love for the Lord with the love of the other disciples. He humbly recognizes his deep fall in the denial and confesses his love for the Lord without reference to the others’ love. Moreover, instead of the word for love, ἀγαπᾶν, used in the Lord’s question and signifying full and perfect love, he uses another word, φιλεῖν. This signifies personal heartfelt attachment and devotion. That he certainly has such attachment to the Lord, Peter confesses without any hesitation. In this he appeals to the omniscience of the Lord Himself: “You know that I love You.” For such a confession the Lord entrusts him with feeding His spiritual lambs. All the apostles must be shepherds of Christ’s spiritual flock. Yet the word here is addressed only to Peter, because the other apostles had not denied Christ. They did not need restoration to the apostolic rank, as Peter who had denied Him needed it. This the Lord now grants. Here the Lord calls His flock, or the members of His spiritual Kingdom, lambs and not sheep (cf. Jn 10:1 and following). He does so in view of their youth, tenderness, and weakness, as newborns who need especially careful pastoral care. The Church of Christ had only just been born in the world. Her members were like newborn lambs, and they needed especially careful care. When the Lord asks Peter a second time whether he loves Him, He no longer adds the words “more than these.” From Peter’s first answer He sees his deep humility, by which he does not dare compare his love for the Lord with that of the other disciples.