John 21:1a
After these things…
Earlier, I mentioned in passing that I consider John 20 the “formal conclusion” to John’s Gospel. I describe it this way because John does two things in particular in this chapter that I think are significant.
First, John offers readers Thomas’ profound confession of Jesus as both Lord and God as the climactic and paradigmatic response to Jesus in a Gospel structured around a number of different – and many that are not exemplary – responses to encounters with Jesus. It’s as if John wants to offer a variety of ways people respond and now concludes with the one he hopes his readers will adopt.
Second, John shares the heart and purpose of his Gospel in the last two verses of chapter 20. John writes – or, really, confesses – in order that we might believe and, through believing, enjoy God’s gift of abundant life. He writes, in other words, to help us know enough about Jesus that we might be encountered by him and be able to confess faith in him as Thomas just has.
Further, chapter 20 ends by saying that the Gospel does not contain all of the signs Jesus performs, which makes it seem a bit awkward to then record another sign in chapter 21.
For all of these reasons, it feels to me like John comes to at least a formal conclusion in chapter 20.
What then, do we make of chapter 21?
My guess is that John is something of an orphan gospel. Or, more likely, that the community for whom John wrote stands at something of a distance from the emerging Christian communities represented by Mark, Matthew, and Luke that, while disparate in geography, are more aligned both in terms of their theology and tradition. As we’ve seen, for instance, John tends to downplay the role of Peter and favor that played by the “disciple Jesus loved” (perhaps the founder of this community).
So perhaps chapter 21 is an attempt to bridge the gap between John’s community and the more traditional Christian communities (although that terms feels a little funny to use given that we’re only 40 or 50 years into the Christian tradition). As we will see, the attention shifts markedly back to Peter, though it does clarify his role and relationship with that of the beloved disciple at the very end.
Or perhaps John didn’t intend the couple of verses at the end of ch. 20 to be the conclusion of the Gospel and later either he or a student came back to take the story a little further and finish it more definitively. The language of this chapter and that of the rest of the Gospel are just distinct enough that I suspect it was a later leader in the community for whom John wrote that added this second conclusion, but we don’t ultimately know.
In any event, however it was written and by whomever, we are fortunate to have this additional material and scene as Jesus prepares his disciples for ministry in a new age, the age of the Church.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for the words and work of John and the other Evangelists to read and for minds to puzzle and play with all that you offer though Scripture. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Post image: “St. John,” by Guido Reni, 1621.
I recently offered a short sermon on Peter’s confession in this chapter. I was puzzled about the chapter, how it seemed to be an appendix to John’s Gospel. However, it adds a new dimension and symmetry to earlier events in John’s account.
Jesus asks Peter three times “Do you love me?” This affords Peter three opportunities to confess his Love for the Christ. And, after all, is this not the primary confession John would have each of us make. Peter’s three confessions correspond to the three denials of Jesus before his Passion.
Likewise, Chapter 21 brings to three the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples: two in the “upper room” and the final by the lakeside. Notice, too, the symbol of the charcoal fire, common to both Peter’s denials and his confessions. The fire was lit by the servants and the police in the former, and by the Lord in the latter. That very fire seems to glow fiercely in Peter with the hurt he feels at having to make his third confession: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Interesting, too, is how Jesus never asks Peter to detail his sins. He simply asks, “Do you love me?” Indeed, this Confessor knows the secrets of our hearts. Love God and love all God has created. Peace, david