162
The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
response of Peter was like the first, free from all extravagant assurance:
“Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” Jesus said unto him, “Feed
my sheep.” Once more the Saviour the trying question: “Simon, son of
Jonas, lovest thou me?” Peter was grieved, for he thought the repetition
of this question indicated that Jesus did not believe his statement. He
knew that his Lord had cause to doubt him, and with an aching heart
he answered, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love
thee.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
Three times had Peter openly denied his Lord, and three times did
Jesus draw from him the assurance of his love and loyalty, by pressing
home that pointed question, like a barbed arrow, to his wounded heart.
[231]
Jesus, before the assembled disciples, brought out the depth of Peter’s
penitence, and showed how thoroughly humbled was the once boasting
disciple. He was now intrusted with the important commission of
caring for the flock of Christ. Though every other qualification might
be unexceptionable, yet without the love of Christ he could not be
a faithful shepherd over the Christian flock. Knowledge, eloquence,
benevolence, gratitude, and zeal are all aids in the good work, but
without an inflowing of the love of Jesus in the heart, the work of the
Christian minister is a failure.
Peter was naturally forward and impulsive, and Satan had taken
advantage of these characteristics to lead him astray. When Jesus had
opened before his disciples the fact that he must go to Jerusalem to
suffer and die at the hands of the chief priests and scribes, Peter had
presumptuously contradicted his Master, saying, “Be it far from thee,
Lord; this shall not be unto thee.” He could not conceive it possible
that the Son of God should be to death. Satan suggested to his mind
that if Jesus was the Son of God he could not die. Just prior to the
fall of Peter, Jesus had said to him, “Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” That
period had now come, and the transformation wrought in Peter was
evident. The close, testing questions of the Lord had not provoked
one forward, self-sufficient reply; and because of his humiliation and
repentance he was better prepared than ever before to fill the office of
shepherd to the flock.
[232]
The lesson which he had received from the chief Shepherd, in the
treatment of his case, was a most important one to Peter, and also to