A Fresh Perspective

One of the more confident claims made by historical Jesus scholars is that Jesus of Nazareth was a healer – he healed people. It is one of the most confident historical claims that can be made about Jesus of Nazareth. But if you asked these same scholars about a particular healing story – whether or not a particular story is historical – they would say maybe or maybe not. The reason they would say that is because they know that the individual healing stories in the Gospels are first and foremost not historical reports, but proclamations of the good news focused on the living Christ and his presence and power in his followers. So they function something like parables, though I’m sure many of them contain memories and echoes of specific healings. In the story or rather stories before us Jesus crosses back into Jewish territory. I say stories rather than story, because we actually have two stories here fused together by Mark in his typical sandwiching style where he starts one story,...

In John 21:1–19, Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Peter is singled out not because Peter is more noteworthy than the others. Peter functions in a kind of representative role. He is the one who tends to talk the most and shout the loudest. The three times that Jesus addresses Peter corresponds to Peter’s three denials (18:17, 25–27). All the disciples betrayed Jesus and fled in fear, but Peter was the most adamant in his claim to loyalty. He had insisted that he would never desert Jesus. It was painful for Peter to have to respond to Jesus three times, each time remembering his betrayals. Jesus holds no grudge; there is no retribution. We need not fear condemnation, but we all, like Peter, must be led through a process whereby we face the pain our betrayals and denials and failures have caused those we have hurt. Without such a process we cannot enter into the new covenant of forgiveness. It’s not that God withholds forgiveness, it’s simply that we will be u...