THE RESURRECTED JESUS FORGIVES PETER

“When [the disciples] got there, they found breakfast waiting for them -- fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. ‘Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,’ Jesus said.”  (John 21:9-10 NLT)

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples on a beach, having made a charcoal fire and cooked their breakfast. Of all of them, Peter must have caught his breath as he smelled the acrid smoke. It surely surrounded him with memories of an awful night not too long before when he had stood shivering as he warmed himself by another charcoal fire (John 18:18) [when he denied Jesus three times]…

Now, on a beach, the resurrected Jesus was cooking breakfast for Peter and the others over a charcoal fire. After the meal, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” Can you imagine how that question, triggered by his recent failure, must have pierced Peter’s soul?... Yet Jesus let Peter know that, in spite of his failure, Peter could be forgiven. What’s more, the resurrected Lord told him that He had special work for Peter to do…

Peter allowed Jesus Christ to forgive him, cleanse him from his sins, and fill him with the Holy Spirit so that he could serve his Lord powerfully. We can do the same.

-- Jill Briscoe, quoted in “His Passion: Christ’s Journey to the Resurrection”

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