Peter lived by fishing is the Sea of Tiberias, sometimes called Lake Galilee: in his wildest dreams he would never have imagined that one day he would travel widely. Meeting Jesus – recognizing Him as the Messiah, the Son of God – utterly changed and opened up his life. This man, who would have expected to spend his lifetime in Galilee, a fisherman like his father John probably was, found his vocation to travel widely as an apostle of Jesus, a preacher of the Gospel and the leader in the Church. Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved Him. Three times Peter answered that he did. In Greek, there is more than one word for love. Agapeis self-sacrificing love; philiais friendship. Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him with a self-sacrificing love. Peter replies he loves Him with friendship. Second time was the same… The third time, Jesus lowers His demand. He asks Peter if he loves Him with friendship.
It is the weakness of Peter that appeals to us; the fact that he was honest enough to tell Jesus that he loved Him, but not to extent of sacrificing his life for Him. Very soon Peter did grow to love Jesus in the deepest, self-sacrificing way. It is the humanity of Jesus, His understanding of the frailty of human nature that gives us hope. Far from being angry with Peter, or washing His hands of him for his failure, Jesus simply asked for his love, and was willing to accept the little Peter honestly felt he could offer. Jesus knew that Peter would learn from his denials. His very sin would make him stronger. We may have broken a vow or failed to follow up our good intentions, like Peter did.
Through God’s grace, good can come from failure. Through forgiveness, damaged relationships can be renewed and be even better than they were before, as happened with Peter. Having learned the hard way that it is impossible to live the Christian life in his own strength, his trust and faith in God was deepened. When he was arrested in Nero’s purge of the Church in Rome, like many persecuted Christians since, even in our day, he found that he would in the end choose to die rather than deny the One who loved him.