Daily Meditation - Friday 9th May 2008 - 7th Week Easter - HONEY, DO YOU LOVE ME?

[BarbaraTherese]

Acts 25:13-21
Psalm 103:1-2, 11-12, 19-20
John 21:15-19

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=5&day=9&year=2008&x=12&y=9

John 21:15-19

You may have heard a wife ask her husband, “Honey, do you love me?”

• She knows the answer, but she hugs him and asks him one more time
• . That’s similar to what Jesus is up to here.

He knows that Peter loves him, but he wants to draw that love out of him.

• Peter needs to know that Jesus still loves him
• —and that he still loves Jesus.
• Only days before, Peter had denied him three times!
• Now, face to face with his master, he says three times, “I love you, Lord.”

And with each answer,

he gets closer to giving his life to Jesus.

• The love of Jesus can do this for us, too.
• Every time we experience it, we want to offer something back. As John reminds us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
• Jesus not only wants his love to dwell in us
• but to flow from us.
• The more we surrender to his love, the more we can love him in return.

And so he asks us the same question:
** “Do you love me?”**

Saying we love Jesus isn’t quite enough, however.

• He has a particular call for each of us,
• a way he wants us to live out that love.
• For Peter, it was a call to leadership.
• Jesus named Peter the “rock,” and gave him the awesome responsibility of shepherding the entire church (Matthew 16:18). But despite his important title, Peter was simply a servant who became willing to do whatever the Lord asked of him
• —even to the point of giving up his life.

• How is Jesus asking you to respond?
• It may be as a parent raising children, or as an employee called to serve co-workers.
• You may be a leader in ministry looking to meet the spiritual needs of God’s people,
• or a lay volunteer trying to reach out to the hurting and broken.

Most likely, you have more than one role

! Whatever your calling, Jesus asks you to feed his sheep. You can do that*** if you keep your heart open to receive his compassion and mercy***. So ask him to help you be a generous giver of his incredible love.

“Jesus, you know that I love you.
Help me to love you even more.
Send me wherever you would have me, and fill me with zeal to serve your people.”

 

[bwhite06517]

Forgive me JESUS for I have sinned!!!

How much I identify with Peter. The English word “impetuous” is (as I understand it) derived from Peter.

Peter was the impetuous one. When Jesus came walking on the water, Peter was the one to jump out of the boat and started walking to Jesus (until his faith failed and he started to sink). When Jesus asked “who do you say that I am”, Peter say “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (and Jesus rewarded him with the name “Peter” at that point … and said ‘upon this rock, I will build my Church’) - and then only a few minutes later Peter says “never Lord” when Jesus said he would go to Jerusalem and die - and Jesus rebukes him.

Peter three times denied Jesus before the crucifiction. “No, I don’t know him”, “no I wasn’t with him” … and then when the rooster crowed, he went out and cried bitterly.

Now Jesus gives Peter a chance for redemption. Three times Jesus asks “Peter, do you love me” - and three times the guilt-ridden Peter says “I love you Jesus”.

I, like Peter, say and do things without thinking (or without thinking enough). Here in kind of a type of Confession, Peter gets to tell Jesus that he loves Him.

Do we deny Jesus - and then need to come back and say “Yes, Lord, I love you”? Jesus does love us ever-so-much!!! He so much wants us to ‘come clean’ and reestablish that relationship with Him!!! When Jesus calls you, RUN to Him - tell Him you are sorry for your sins and tell Him that you DO LOVE HIM!!! And … make regular times for ‘coming clean’ in Confession part of your life!!! :yup:

 

[water]

* . That’s similar to what Jesus is up to here.

He knows that Peter loves him, but he wants to draw that love out of him.

I had never meditated on this; now, it makes sense to me that I should answer to this question “Do you love me” as many times as I have been asked.

Thanks Barb.

PS: I really like the reflection on the Word Among Us. It is easier to understand than the one used in Magnaficiat.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

PS: I really like the reflection on the Word Among Us. It is easier to understand than the one used in Magnaficiat.

Hello again Water …I chose it pretty much because it was quite simple, but not only this it has some really great thoughts to share and not complex thinking either yet profound. Word Among Us does come out as a booklet form that is not at all expensive to subscribe to:
wau.org/
It is well worth a peruse of the site and also obtaining their booklet at small cost.

Blessings…and regards…Barb