As for you, follow Me

Sermon for the Festival of St. John

1 John 1:1-10  +  John 21:19-24

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it… And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

That familiar beginning of John’s Gospel teaches us many things about the Child who was born in Bethlehem. That long before He was born of Mary, in fact, outside of time and space, from eternity, from the beginning, He was with God the Father, not as a man, but as an eternal Person who is also God, together with the Father, a Person whom John alone in all of Scripture refers to as “the Word,” or the “Word of Life,” the Word who is begotten of God the Father, the Word in whom is life and who gives life, the Word who came in time and took on human flesh in Mary’s womb, to become the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, one undivided Person with two natures, divine and human. All that we glean from the beginning of John’s Gospel, and that alone would be reason enough to give thanks to God for His Apostle and Evangelist, John.

The ending of John’s Gospel is somewhat less familiar. It tells of one of the last interactions of the apostles with the Word-made-flesh, after He had risen from the dead, shortly before His ascension. In this short account, Peter is the one talking with Jesus. In the verses before our text, Jesus had been having a private conversation with Peter, an important conversation, following Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus in the high priest’s courtyard, which had happened only a matter of weeks before, that terrible moment when Peter was called on to confess Christ—simply to admit that he was a disciple and a friend of Christ—but he shrank back at that moment and refused to bear the cross.

Today’s Gospel wasn’t the first time Jesus had spoken with Peter after that; in fact, we’re told by Paul that Jesus appeared to Peter privately on Easter Sunday before appearing to the rest of the apostles. And Peter was there when Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.” But here at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus took Peter aside and asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Three times, just like Peter had formerly denied Him three times. But this time, Peter confessed his love for Jesus and received three times from Jesus the important command to “Feed My lambs, tend My sheep, feed My sheep.” If you love Me, then take care of My loved ones. Be a shepherd, be a pastor for My precious Christian people.

But connected with that pastoral office was also a personal prophecy, given directly to Peter by Jesus: Truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.

That’s where our Gospel picks up the story. He said this in order to signify by what kind of death he would glorify God. And after he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” In other words, “Peter, you will get another chance to confess Me before men, and you will suffer for it, a death like Mine. But still I call on you, still I invite you, still I command you: Follow Me. Yes, you stopped following Me once. You wouldn’t follow Me to the cross, as you so boldly proclaimed you would. But now I have restored you to My path, to that narrow road that leads to life, to repentance and faith. Now shepherd the flock  that I am entrusting to you and to your fellow apostles and ministers. Follow Me. And don’t turn aside anymore.”

It was at that moment that Peter turned around as they were walking and noticed, walking behind them, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” which is how St. John refers to himself throughout his Gospel. With Jesus’ prophecy of Peter’s eventual crucifixion still ringing in his ears, Peter looks at John, and then turns to Jesus and asks, What about him?

All right, Lord. If I must suffer, so be it. But I don’t want to suffer alone. Misery loves company, after all. What about him? Will he suffer, too, or will You let him off easy? What will be required of him? It doesn’t seem fair if I have to suffer much for Your name and he doesn’t have to suffer at all.

Jesus answered, If I want him to remain until I come, what is it to you? In other words, it’s none of your business. My plans and desires for each one of My followers belong to Me, not to you. I know what they are. That’s what counts. I will do what I see fit for each one. It’s not your place to compare your path with anyone else’s path or even to know anyone else’s path. Your place is to simply follow Me where I lead you. But all that Jesus put to Peter in a question, so that he could mull it over himself. What is it to me what happens to John or to anyone else? What is it to me if another Christian suffers less or more than I do? What does it matter? Will it make me suffer more or less? No. Will I accuse God of being unfair or unjust? I’d better not! Will I grow bitter toward my fellow Christian for having it easier than I? Will I grow bitter toward God? Heaven forbid!

This applies to so much in life! All our society can do today is compare one person’s plight with another. “You have privilege because of your race or because of your gender! You have privilege because you were born with more money than another, or with better parents, or a better home life. We have to create equity, so that, in the end, no one has any advantage over anyone else.” That’s the way of socialism and communism. But it isn’t the way of God.

God determines the role of each one. Even the role of unbelievers, but especially the role of His children. He has His plans and designs for each one, and they will not be the same. Oh, His love is the same and His desire that everyone be saved applies to everyone. But some will have more here on earth, some will have less. Some will suffer more, some less. Some will be called to the glory of martyrdom, some will have to trudge longer through this vale of tears, suffering the slow death of old age and of witnessing the wickedness of the world as it spreads and flourishes.

That was to be John’s fate. He would watch his brother James be the first apostle to be martyred. He would watch the Church grow over the next sixty years, but he would also watch many of his brothers be persecuted, tortured, imprisoned, and killed. He would watch false doctrine begin to creep into the Church. And he himself would be exiled to the island of Patmos in his old age for his preaching about Christ. Is that a better fate than being put to death at a younger age? Who are we to say?

John corrects a little misunderstanding that had crept into the Church, the notion that he wouldn’t die at all but would remain until Christ comes again. But he points out in the Gospel, that’s not what Jesus said. You have to pay attention to Jesus’ words, as they were uttered, in context. He didn’t say, John will remain. He asked the conditional question, If I want him to remain, what it is to you? No, John led a long life, allowing him to pen three Epistles, a Gospel, and the Book of Revelation. But he wouldn’t remain until Christ returns. And even if he did, what is it to you?

You have your own calling to follow Jesus. You get on the path by admitting your sin, by confessing it, as John discussed in today’s Epistle. God simply declares that all have sinned, and that certainly includes you. So don’t make God a liar! You need Baptism and the forgiveness that accompanies it to get on the path. You stay on the path by walking in daily contrition and repentance and faith, by continually confessing your sins. And that water of your one-time Baptism keeps washing and cleansing you every day. You follow Jesus by obeying His commandments, by loving your neighbor according to His commandments, by confessing Him before men. You follow Him by hoping in Him, trusting in Him, and, yes, by enduring the world’s hatred and suffering other earthly woes, wherever Christ leads. And when it gets hard, you just take another step. Then another. Then another. And when you think you can’t take another step following behind Jesus, you pray for His strength, and He will give it. You cling to His Word, and it will hold you up. You run to His Sacrament, and He will feed you. And then you take another step. And when you’re tempted to stop following, to forge your own path, then you remember how terribly that went for Peter, and you resist the temptation, and you stay on the path, and you take another step.

As for you, follow Me, Jesus says. Because no matter how exactly that following plays out in this life, you know the One whom you follow, and you the place where He leads. Yes, He leads to the cross. But He also leads to resurrection and to life. Because He is the Word of life who was with God in the beginning, and who was God, the true Light that gives light to all men. He will light your path as you follow Him, and if you follow Him, you will never walk in darkness. Amen.