When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? ” “Yes, Lord,” he said to him, “you know that I love you.” “Feed my lambs,” he told him. John 21:15
John Crawford, one of the ministers in our church back in the ‘90s, owned a big Chevy pickup truck, and because he was a man of the cloth and couldn’t rightfully say no to one of his faithful parishioners, he let me borrow it whenever I wanted. How terrific was this!
In 1998, before my daughter Julie was married, she and I remodeled her little house, and I asked John if I could borrow Big Blue. Now, if you’ve ever borrowed a car or truck from one of your friends, you know that this can be a little tricky.
On a scale from one to ten, carelessness to fastidiousness, renting a car from Hertz® is a one. Driving your own car is a seven. But using a car or truck that belongs to one of your friends is a nine. If the owner is your minister, it’s a ten. The last thing you want is for something bad to happen to the reverend’s vehicle while it’s under your care. If you do, you’re sure to wind up in a sermon illustration, preached in front of everyone.
Well, although I didn’t run into anything with John’s truck, I did have to call for a tow truck. The battery—actually both batteries—went completely, stone-cold dead. I felt terrible. I also felt obliged to pay for them—a more financially challenging experience than renting a pickup from our local U-Haul® guy.
Let me ask you a question. Who “owns” your kids? Well, given the above scale, if they were leased to you, you’d probably take care of them a certain way. If you determined that they were yours to do with as you thought best, then you’d take care of them another way. But what if your children belonged to God and were on loan from Him? Then, how would you take care of those kids or stepkids?
The risen Christ was having a heart-to-heart with Simon Peter. This was a difficult encounter because both of them knew that Peter had exchanged his loyalty to the Savior for multiple denials several nights before.
Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. In fact, Jesus didn’t ask Peter once; He asked him the same question three times—an exact match to the number of times Peter had verbally denied his Lord. And when Peter reaffirmed his love for Jesus, he heard the following: “Feed my lambs. . . . Shepherd my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep” (vv. 15–17; emphasis added).
For a moment, put yourself in Peter’s place. You have just heard Jesus Christ ask if you love Him. “Sure,” you answer, “of course I do.” If He asked you three times or thirty times, you’d say the same thing, right? Right.
In response to your affirmation of your love for Him, the Master would probably tell you the same thing He told Peter. “Take care of My children.” If these kids were leased to you, that would be one thing. Even if they were your own personal property, that would be another. But you are borrowing your precious family from the Creator of the universe.
Take even better care of them than I took care of John Crawford’s Big Blue. Your children are on loan to you from your heavenly Father, and you know how well He takes care of His things.