Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel NarrativeHurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Religion
Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel Narrative
Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Jesus Christ -- Biography
There was a moment's pause, and then Jesus a second time asked Peter:
"Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?"
"Yes, Master," he replied; "you know that I am your friend."
"Then," said Jesus, "be a shepherd to my sheep."
Then, a third time, Jesus asked him:
"Simon, son of Jonas, are you my friend?"
Peter felt hurt that his third question was "Are you my friend?" and not
"Do you love me?" and he answered:
"Master, you know everything! You know that I am your friend!"
"Then feed my sheep," said Jesus; and he went on, "I tell you in truth,
when you were young you put your own girdle around your waist, and went
wherever you chose. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your
hands for someone else to put a girdle around you, and you will be taken
where you do not wish to go."
Then Jesus added, "Follow me."
As Peter on the night of his Master's trial had three times denied that
he knew Jesus or was his disciple, so now Jesus wished him to say three
times before them all that he was his friend. And when he had spoken
this three times, the Lord said to him, as he had said long before by
the Sea of Galilee, "Follow me." Thus Simon Peter was again given his
old place among the disciples of Jesus.
What Jesus said to Peter about stretching out his hands and being
carried where he did not wish to go, was spoken as a prophecy or
foretelling of the manner by which Peter should die for the sake of
Christ. Nearly forty years after that time, when Peter was an old man,
he was put to death at Rome by being crucified as Jesus had been. It is
said that when he was about to be fastened upon the cross, he said to
the soldiers, that one who had denied his Master as he had, was not
worthy of dying in the same manner as Jesus had died; and he begged them
to set up his cross with his head downward toward the ground; and thus
Peter died.
But to go back to that breakfast by the Sea of Galilee, after those
words had been spoken by Jesus to Peter, he looked at John, who was
standing near. Peter and John, though very different in their natures,
loved each other greatly. In the story of Jesus and his disciples, and
in the days that came after, we find that almost always Peter and John
were together. Seeing John, Peter said to Jesus:
"Master, you have told me about myself; now tell what this man shall
do."
But Jesus said to Peter:
"If I choose that he shall wait until I come back to earth, what has
that to do with you? Do you follow me, as I said."
John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, lived a long time after that day.
When all the rest of the twelve disciples of Jesus had died--nearly all
of them were slain by enemies of Christ--John was still living. And from
these words of Jesus many thought that John would not die. But Jesus did
not say that John would not die. He only said that if he chose to let
John live until he, Jesus, came again, it was not Peter's matter, but
the Lord's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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