After His resurrection, Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples for the third time on the shores of Lake Tiberias. John the evangelist (chapter 21) tells us that Peter and six of the disciples were already back home in Galilee, as the angel had instructed them according to Jesus’ command (Matthew 28.7). Peter declares that he is going to fish, and the others join him, but they catch nothing all night.
Early in the morning, Jesus waits for them on the shore. When they are barely two hundred cubits away, Jesus asks them if they have any fish. They respond, “No. Nothing.” Jesus tells them to cast the nets on the right side of the boat, and they catch so many fish that they cannot haul the nets into the boat. John tells Peter, “It’s the Lord!” Peter jumps into the water and swims to Jesus. Jesus has already prepared a fire and is grilling fish, and he invites the disciples to have a bite. After they eat, Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, son of Jona, do you love me more than these?”
What a demanding examination, what a judgment tougher than death! Do you love me more than these? It is the same question Jesus asks us on the shores of our little Tiberias lakes. Especially after our long lives, we meet Him empty-handed, with no results, without even human glory or accomplishments, with a deep pain of failure chaining our soul and knotting our stomach. We are at the altar of God without a pleasing sacrifice.
Jesus shows us the only requirement for following Him. He does not need our gifts. He does not need any human success. He does not need our human plans. He only needs to know whether we love Him. And more than all the rest. Our answer should overflow with humility, like Peter’s, “Lord, you know everything, and you know that I love you!”
That’s when Jesus will tell us, “Follow me!” And we must go wherever He leads us, without bargaining with Him, without setting conditions, without asking, “What do you need from me?” We must lift up our hands and allow others to tie the belt on our loins and take us to places we might not want to go, places where we have to glorify God with the new life that love shall fill us with.
And we shall walk “clothed with the new self, created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4.23). We will be given to the world as true children of our Heavenly Father, a progeny of peace, bearing on our shoulders the power of God, called in His Name Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Sons of the Everlasting Father, Princes of Peace (Isaiah 9.6), and announcers of the Good News.