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“And when He had spoken this, He said to him, 'Follow Me!'
Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved (John) following them. John 21:19,20.
Peter has noticed that John has developed over the years a very intimate relationship with Jesus. John has entered into the experience of what following Jesus is all about better than Peter has done. John was learning to live from his heart John was closest to Jesus at the last supper and was the only one close enough emotionally to Jesus to ask and receive key information about His betrayer. John was still following Jesus closely and now Peter felt for the first time like an emotional insider himself. But he starts to slip into his old habits of thinking by wanting to know the scoop on John. Jesus had just revealed to Peter how he was to die and now Peter asks what is in John's future. After all, John had asked for and received the scoop on Judas, the most respected disciple among them at the time. Now Peter wants to use his close relationship to Jesus to get personal information about other people.
But Jesus immediately clarifies the parameters of this relationship. “You do not have responsibility for knowing information that is personal between someone else and Myself. Nor do you need to know God's plans for their future. Your focus and obsession is to know Me and follow Me passionately with abandon and loyalty. Yes John has been following me and still is. Yes, John and I share things with each other on a very intimate basis. In a very profound way it is like we are married in a way. And like a marriage there are things that are not any one else's business that are shared between the two people.
“Peter, you are learning to have that same relationship with me too. But you are different than John and you must keep your attention of following hard after me and following my directions for yourself. Your relationship to others should be like John the Baptist had. That of a close friend of the Bridegroom.
“When you were younger, more immature, when you were Simon the product of your father John, you were self-centered and independent. You girded yourself, you took care of yourself and were proud that you did not need help from anyone else. You also went wherever you felt like with little thought to those around you. Peter, you have always been very self-sufficient and self-confident. But that was actually your weakness. Now you are starting to understand what real growth is and what it means to mature. You are starting to grasp what I have been trying to teach you and model for you these last few years.
“As you continue to grow in your understanding of reality and the true kingdom of heaven, you will mature to the place where you will be so humble that, like I have just done, you will willingly stretch out your hands and release your rights to yourself and surrender to be led where the old Simon would never wish to go. You will lose your life for My sake, but you will really be finding life as I told you before.
“The way this will come about is very simple and it is really a repeat of what I asked when we first met. Simply follow Me. You have watched me and how I have related to people. I have shown you a radically different face of God than you had ever imagined before. Now, abide in My love and imitate Me. Be filled with My passion and see life from My perspective and you will mature to the place where you will willingly give your very life in the same way as I did.”
