John 21:17Meaning & 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.

He wondered whether he might be mistaken in thinking that he loved, when perhaps in deed he did not love. For before he had thought much of himself and his firmness, yet events refuted him. Now he feared the same thing. Therefore he answers with reverence, “Lord, You know all things,” both the present and the future. “You know that now I love You, as it seems to me. But whether my love will remain afterward, You know, and I do not answer for myself.” Jesus says to him, “Feed My sheep.” Someone may perhaps find a distinction between the names “lambs” and “sheep,” and between the words “feed” and “shepherd.” By “lambs” perhaps beginners are meant, and by “sheep” the more perfect. Therefore, whoever loves Christ must care for the lambs and the sheep. He must “feed” the lambs, that is, exercise a simpler oversight over them. He must also “shepherd” the sheep, which indicates higher guidance. Sometimes, however, even the most perfect need tender care, and those appointed over the sheep must feed them. “Shepherd” expresses stricter oversight, while “feed” expresses more tender care. What then shall we render to the Lord, who so loved us that He made care for His sheep the sign of love for Himself?

Likewise, when the band of soldiers came with the Jewish servants to take Jesus and lead Him away to the rulers, all the others forsook Him and fled, as it is written (Mt 26:56). But Peter cut off the ear of Malchus with a sword (Jn 18:10). He thought that he must defend his Teacher by every means, even though he undertook something wholly unfitting for him.

Therefore Christ puts the question to him, since he had come sooner than the others, whether he loves Him more than they do. This was done three times. Peter agrees and confesses that he loves Him, calling the Lord Himself as witness to the disposition within him. At each confession he hears a distinct and separate command to care for the rational sheep.

Yet I think that this too was not written without purpose. It is fitting, of course, to examine the hidden meaning of the passage being interpreted. A certain mystical meaning is contained in the Gospel words cited here.

Indeed, could one not rightly ask why He questions Simon alone, although the other disciples were present? What may the words "Feed My lambs" and similar words indicate?

We answer that the 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 then occurring were taking place, divine Peter was seized with very great terror. He denied the Lord three times. Therefore the Lord heals this sickness and requires three separate confessions. He sets them, as it were, against those three denials, making the correction a counterweight to the falls.

A fall in word, and a guilt consisting only in speech, had to be loosed in precisely the same manner, through words. Therefore He required him to say whether he loved Him more than the others.

Indeed, one who has experienced greater mercy and received forgiveness in greater measure ought to gather in himself more love than the others. He ought to answer his Benefactor with the highest degree of devotion.

Flight was common to all the holy disciples. The inhumanity of the Jews planted unbearable fear in them, and the ferocity of the soldiers threatened cruel death when they came to seize Jesus. Yet Peter's sin occurred in a particular way, through a threefold denial.

Therefore the one who received greater forgiveness than the others is required 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. They require a threefold confession of Christ from those who have resolved to love Him, when they approach holy baptism.

Teachers, by contemplating the Gospel words being interpreted, are given knowledge of this. They cannot please Christ, the Chief Shepherd of all (1 Pet 5:4), except by caring for the well-being and good estate of the rational sheep.

Such was the divine Paul, becoming weak with the weak (1 Cor 9:22). Those who believed through him and resolved to be glorified by the brightness of their deeds he called the praise of his apostleship, his joy, and his crown (Phil 4:1). For he knew with certainty that this is the manifest fruit of perfect love for Christ.

Anyone may be convinced of this by right and proper reasoning. 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 this too may rightly be said. Those who guide the minds of believers, and of those awaiting this calling, act piously before the Lord Himself. Through every service to them, they strive to implant firmness in the faith.

Thus, through the threefold confession of blessed Peter, the threefold denial was abolished. In the Lord's words, "Feed My lambs," there is understood a kind of renewal of the apostleship already given to him. It looses the disgrace of his falls and destroys the faintheartedness that comes from human weakness.

"Simon, son of Jonah," the Lord said to Peter, "do you love Me?" The Apostle answered, "Yes, Lord. You know that I love You." A second time he was asked in the same way, and a second time he gave the same answer. When he was asked a third time, he was grieved, seeing that he seemed not to be believed. But how could He not believe him, Who knew his heart? Therefore Peter then answered, "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 address 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 had been given, with the authority to bind and loose, had himself been bound three times by fear and faintheartedness (Mt 26:69-75). The Lord likewise looses him three times by His own address and by Peter's confession of firm love.

Yet the feeding of Christ's rational flock belongs to all the Apostles and to 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 which is among you, exercising oversight not by compulsion, but willingly, according to God. Do not do it for dishonest gain, but eagerly. Do not lord it over those entrusted to you, but be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory" (1 Pet 5:2-4).

To this end came that 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 this end he came, that in perfect love he might die for the name of Him with Whom, in perverse haste, he had promised to accept death.

Strengthened by His Resurrection, let him now do what he rashly promised when he was weak. For Christ first had to die for Peter's salvation, and then Peter for the preaching of Christ. What human thoughtlessness had dared was untimely, while the truth had established this order. Peter thought to lay down his life for Christ (cf. Jn 13:37), for his Redeemer. Yet Christ had come to lay down His life for all His own, among whom Peter was numbered. Behold, this has already been accomplished.

Now true firmness of heart, by His gift, must be ready to accept death for the name of the Lord. False firmness must no longer show presumption, by which we deceive ourselves. Now we have reason not to fear our departure from this life. In the Lord's Resurrection, the pattern of the future life has been given to us.

Now, Peter, you have reason not to fear death. He lives Whom you mourned as dead, and Whom in fleshly love you tried to keep from dying for us (cf. Mt 16:21-22). You dared to go before the Leader, and you feared His pursuer. Now, when the price has been paid for you, you have reason to follow the Redeemer, even to the death of the cross. You have heard the words of Him Whose truthfulness you have already learned. He Who foretold your denial has foretold that you will suffer.

But first the Lord asks what He already knew, 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 Him, so many times He entrusts His sheep to Peter to feed. A threefold confession is joined to the threefold denial. Thus the tongue would show obedience to love no less than to fear. Thus, as it were, expected death would sound no less in his mouth than present life.

Let feeding the Lord's flock become a sign of love, if denial of the Shepherd was a sign of fear. Those who feed Christ's sheep while wishing in their soul that they should belong to them and not to Christ reveal that they love themselves. They do this from desire either for glory, or power, or gain. They do not love Christ through devotion to obedience, service, and reverence for God.

This voice of Christ, repeated so many times, warns against those of whom the Apostle lamented, saying that they seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:21). For what else do the words, "Do you love Me? Feed My sheep," mean, except what He might have said in this way? "If you love Me, do not think of feeding yourself. Feed My sheep, not as your own. Seek in them My glory, not your own. Seek My dominion, not your own. Seek My gain, not your own. Otherwise you may be found among those who belong to grievous times (cf. 2 Tim 3:1), among those who love themselves, and among the other things joined to that 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, unthankful, intent on wickedness, impious, without affection, false, incontinent, irreconcilable, not loving the good, traitors, reckless, 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 the vice he placed first, self-love.

Rightly was it said to Peter, "Do you love Me?" And he answered, "I love You." Then it was said to him, "Feed My sheep." So it was a second time, and a third. By this it was also shown that amor and dilectio mean the same thing. For in the last instance the Lord 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. Amo expresses a more intimate and affective love. Diligo expresses love that bears 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.

Therefore let us love not ourselves, but Him. In feeding His sheep, let us seek what is His, 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 and thereby loses life.

But when love is shown for Him from Whom life comes, then by not loving himself a man loves himself more. He does not love himself for this reason, that he loves Him from Whom he has life. Let those who feed Christ's sheep not be lovers of themselves. Let them feed them not as their own, but as His.

Let them not seek to draw their own gain from them, like lovers of money. Let them not rule over them, like the arrogant. Let them not seek glory from the honors they receive 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 good with evil, like the unthankful, to those who wish to correct them because they do not want them to perish.

Let them not destroy either their own souls or the souls of others, like those intent on wickedness. Let them not tear apart the motherly womb of the Church, like the impious. Let them not lack compassion for the weak, like those without affection. 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 quarrels, like the irreconcilable. Let them not refuse to come to another's aid, like those who do not love the good.

Let them not, like traitors, report to the enemies of the pious what they have learned as a secret. Let them not harm human modesty by striving after shamelessness, like the reckless. Let them not fail to understand 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 those do who are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

Whether all these and similar vices are found in one man, or some prevail in one and others in another, they all grow from this root, that men become lovers of themselves. This vice must especially be avoided by those who feed Christ's sheep. They must not seek their own, but the things of Jesus Christ. They must not use their ministry to those for whom Christ's Blood was poured out in order to satisfy their own desires.

Love for Christ must burn with such spiritual fire in the one who feeds His sheep that it overcomes even the natural fear of death. Because of that fear, we do not want to die, even when we want 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, not wishing to be unclothed but clothed, 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.

He says, “You know all things,” both the present and the future, as God. “You know that I now love You with all my soul.” Peter says nothing more now, since he cannot know the future. Shortly before, by contradicting, he had been shown to be vainly overconfident in himself. The disciples are called lambs and sheep because of their guilelessness and their readiness to be offered in sacrifice. First they are called lambs, as less perfect, and then sheep, as more perfect. Thus Jesus Christ restores to Peter the right to feed the faithful, since before he had washed away the stain of denial with bitter tears. Now, in place of the threefold denial, he makes a threefold confession. In this way he first corrected by deed, and now by word, the fall that occurred through words. Then Jesus Christ figuratively foretells to Peter the manner of his death, namely that he too will die on a cross. By this He shows that everything He said to Peter was not said because He did not know what He was asking, nor because He did not believe him...

If those under his care should fall into errors, he, as a righteous man, must mercifully chastise and rebuke, according to the Psalmist. He must not soothe their hearts with the oil of impunity. This too is one of the duties of a pious shepherd. Cf. Ps 140:5.

Yet many do not know what this word of the Lord means, nor how the Lord commanded Peter to feed His sheep. Instead, they ascend boldly, alas, to this rank of dignity. They are not ashamed to shepherd the flock of Christ by self-appointment.

Therefore, if it seems blessed 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 presiding and caring for Christ's flock through word and teaching.

This is confirmed by other words spoken to the same Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I prayed for you, that your faith should not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:31-32).

What do the words "strengthen your brethren" mean? They mean this: by your own example, assure them that no one should despair, whatever sin he may fall into.

For what sin is worse than yours, when you denied Me, the Master of all? Yet I forgave you as soon as you bitterly repented. Although you had no boldness because of your denial, I called you by name through the Angel. I called you to come to Me with the other Apostles on the mountain of Galilee, without reproaching you by a single word for your denial.

In this, when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren. Feed My sheep.

But know that you will truly feed them not when you lead them from pasture to pasture, so that they grow fat in body, as shepherds of irrational sheep do. Nor will you feed them by shutting them within walls and sheepfold enclosures.

You will feed them when you teach them to observe all that I have commanded.

The Lord later gave this command separately to all the Apostles, saying, "Go, therefore, and 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 that I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20).

He also added, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mk 16:16).

He says, "Feed My sheep." The shepherd of irrational sheep does not concern himself with farming, trade, houses, varied and costly foods, glory, or honor. He has no business with anything worldly and no desire to make use of 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 journeys with it to distant places. He has neither roof nor bed. He endures the heat of day and the cold of night, and struggles with changes in the weather. He watches the sheep alone and has care for them in every way.

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

How then are you to feed them? By teaching them, says the Lord, to have toward Me a bright, pure, unwavering faith, and to love Me with all their soul and all their heart. For I also loved them, and out of love for them gave Myself over to death and died for them.

Instead of pasture, give them the life-giving food of My commandments. Explain to them that they will taste the life-giving power of this food only when they fulfill My commandments in deed. Urge them to partake of this food at 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, an unfailing treasure in the heavens" (Lk 12:33).

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you" (Mt 5:44).

"See that none of you repays anyone evil for evil" (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, so that you may be rich in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Despise earthly glory, so that you may receive heavenly glory.

By a threefold question and Peter’s confession, He healed the threefold denial.” Chrysostom also says, “At the same time, wishing to show him that he should be of good courage, since the denial had been erased, He grants him primacy before the brethren.” This means primacy of order and honor, such as exists among brethren. It is not primacy of authority and lordship, such as exists between a master and slaves. Elsewhere the same teacher says, “After this grievous fall, for there is no evil equal to denial, He restored him to his former honor and entrusted him with care for the universal Church.” Therefore, to feed Christ’s sheep means to have care for the Catholic Church. But did Jesus Christ not entrust this care to all the Apostles in general? Chrysostom continues, “Since they had care for the whole world, Jesus Christ entrusted His sheep to the worthy Apostles.” He also says of the Apostle Paul that care for the whole world was entrusted to him. This care for the whole world undoubtedly means nothing other than to preach the Gospel in the whole world. It means to teach all men the faith and to baptize in the name of Jesus Christ. This He granted equally to all of them in general when He said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” And again, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mk 16:15; Mt 28:19). The Church of Christ throughout the whole world is like one common flock, whose governance all the Apostles in general received. Therefore they everywhere ordained bishops in cities and villages. Here is the difference between the Apostles and the bishops who followed them. The successors of the Apostles, the hierarchs, were and are bishops of some one part of the world. The Apostles, however, were bishops of the whole world. Thus Peter, Paul, and John, to speak more precisely, were bishops of the Catholic Church. Yet neither Peter, nor Paul, nor John, nor anyone else alone was bishop of the Catholic Church. If, for example, we say that Peter was bishop of the Catholic Church, we speak rightly. For by this the other fellow bishops of the same Catholic Church are not excluded. They are fellow shepherds of one and the same flock, fellow builders of one and the same house. But if we say that Peter was the Catholic Bishop of the Church, this is not right. In this way we present Peter alone as though he were chief shepherd and exclude the others, placing them beneath him. On the contrary, with Chrysostom we confess that “the Apostles were equally cultivators, soldiers, and shepherds.” They were not shepherds of earth, nor of visible battles, nor of irrational animals, but of rational souls and of warfare against demons. Let us add to this the well-known saying of Augustine: “Christ gave the keys and the power to feed not to one, but to the unity.” That is, He gave them not to Peter alone, but also to all the other Apostles together.

Therefore he confesses his love for Him with special force and as if with effort, appealing to His omniscience: “You know all things.” As the third time he denied Christ with oath and imprecation, so the third time he confesses his love for Him with special force. The Lord entrusts to him the feeding of His Church a third time. With this the restoration of the fallen one to the apostolic rank is completed.