So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. (John 21:15-17)
The thrice repeated question of the Lord Jesus to Peter inquiring as to whether Peter loved the Lord certainly brings to mind Peter’s threefold denial of Christ at Christ’s trial. Peter certainly understood that point and it grieved him to be reminded of his failure. Peter knew that he had committed himself to follow Christ, and yet as he watches Christ’s life devolve through His arrest and crucifixion, he finds himself uncertain as to what to believe and what he wants to do. Christ is not offering an immediate and crushing victory over Israel’s enemies. Christ is proclaiming a Kingdom not of this world, which doesn’t respect human social boundaries – specifically the division between Jews and Gentiles.
“What kind of king is Jesus? Peter’s precocious confession and later denial focus the issue. Having left Jesus alone in his trial, Peter undergoes his own testing. Peter’s distance from Jesus begins to widen at Jesus’ arrest in the garden (Mark 14:53-54): ‘They took Jesus. . . . Peter followed at a distance.‘ Peter follows ‘at a distance’ from Jesus precisely because he cannot follow closely a Messiah that is arrested, a Messiah who is taken prisoner ‘as though a bandit’ (14:48).
Peter’s denial of the Messiah on trial begins in his dissociation from the Messiah that is ‘handed over,’ seized, arrested, and led away. It is not only Peter’s dissociation from Jesus – none of the twelve, none find themselves able to associate with one arrested as a criminal, an enemy of the people, a rebel against the regime (14:50): ‘All of them deserted him and fled.’ Denial is rooted in disloyalty: what Peter later confesses by word, he first discloses in action. Peter’s desertion shows that it is now clear to him that Jesus as Son of Humanity will suffer and die; hence his distant following of Jesus. This reveals that Peter does not know ‘this man,’ so different from the Messiah Peter expected.” (Willard Swartley, COVENANT OF PEACE, p 114)
Fraternized 