Jesus makes things right. It’s as simple as that.
Here we have Peter – who on Good Friday denied knowing our Lord three times. And here is Jesus, following His Resurrection, appearing to the disciples on the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, and giving Peter the chance to profess his love for Jesus – three times.
That’s all Jesus wants, is our love. He just wants us. He just wants our time. He just wants us to put Him before all else, and He will come back to us as many times as necessary. He comes to us as many times as necessary – to save us, to offer redemption, to make things right.
For as many times as we deny Him, He comes back to us, asking us to accept Him. Asking us to profess our faith to Him. Asking us to love Him. It’s as simple as that.
Thousands of years of theology and analysis on the meaning of scripture, the purpose of life, and everything else in-between. The purpose is simple. The meaning is simple.
Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.
In other words, Jesus says: “take care of and love those around you. Teach them My ways. Live My ways.
It’s as simple as that. Have faith. Believe. Trust in God. Ask and it shall be granted. Seek and ye shall find. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Own your mistakes. Ask for forgiveness. Forgive others.
Jesus will give us every opportunity to repent for out mistakes. Every opportunity. Do we offer that to others? Because if we do not offer that opportunity to others, then Jesus will not offer that for us.
I love the Gospel for today. It is perhaps my favorite reading in all of Scripture – because I see Jesus – the resurrected Jesus as a man, sitting with His friends over breakfast. In the simplest of ways, He came to them and met them where they were, just as He did in the very beginning.
And now here He was, resurrected from the dead, the true Son of God, just defeated Satan and everything else, and here he is on a beach making His friends breakfast, still being the teacher. Unbelievable, but yet so real. So True.
Jesus continues to feed us and teach us all throughout life. We simply need to stop and listen
And so, when I pray, I envision this Man, this Divine Man, sitting on this shore, listening to me, like a brother. Like a friend over a campfire. And it’s comforting. It’s a complete mystery, yet it is amazingly simple. This is why I love this reading, and why I love my God.
It is why, when I am in the midst of making things wrong – He makes things right.
It’s as simple as that.