Peter must have felt like such a failure, he’d been out fishing all night and had caught nothing. For you and I that may be disappointing, but Peter is a fisherman! This is his job, this is what he’s good at. Then, there’s a friendly piece of advice from the shore “cast the net on the right side of the boat” (John 21:6).
How are you at taking advice?! We don’t like to admit we need help, but there was something about that voice that meant Peter had to listen. It was a good job that he did, for when they obeyed, they caught more fish than you could poke a stick at! Perhaps Jesus was reminding them of the words He had already spoken “apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus was teaching his future church leaders that they needed to depend on him for everything.
As they land on the beach with their catch, they see the charcoal fire that Jesus had prepared. Would this remind Peter of the charcoal fire he had stood around when he had denied Jesus three times? (John 18:18) Even though Jesus already had fish cooking, he allowed the disciples to bring some of the ones they had caught (with his help!). Isn’t this just like Jesus? He doesn’t need our help, we can do nothing without Him, and yet He allows us to serve Him.
Jesus is also too loving to allow sin to go unconfronted. He knows the destructive nature of sin and he knows that unless it is addressed Peter will carry around the burden of the sin of his denial for his whole life. The burden Peter is carrying is his threefold public denial of Jesus, so as painful as it is Jesus asks Peter if he loves him three times. Jesus confronts so that Peter can know the joy of his sin forgiven.
When Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him “more than these others”, He means more than the other disciples did. Remember Peter’s proud boast—even if they all fall away, I won’t!
Now Jesus asks him, do you really love me more than these?
How will Peter respond? Will he point to all he’s done for Jesus, how he’s left everything to follow Jesus? No, Peter is a broken man, he knows he’s failed Jesus, but he still loves Jesus, all he can do is to appeal to Jesus that He knows, He knows all things, even how Peter is feeling.
How will Jesus respond? Will he wag the finger? Will he say try harder? No! The price has been paid! And Jesus not only forgives, but gives Peter a job. “Feed my sheep.”
Isn’t that amazing? Jesus uses failures! Do you know why that’s good news? Because we’re all failures! The sheep here are God’s people, God’s people who fail him. Until Peter knew he was a failure, he might have said, be strong, try harder, work harder, which would have left people despairing, but now he knows he’s a failure, he can say “Come to the cross” there is forgiveness available. Come, discover what I discovered! I let Jesus down big time, but he loves me so much that he died for me, paid the price in full, drank the cup of God’s wrath for me.
It’s only when Peter has understood this that he can do the job of feeding the sheep. This is important not only for Peter but for all Christians, Jesus cares for His people so much that He wants to make sure we’re fed. He wants us to be fed by shepherds who know they are broken and know what it is to trust Jesus personally. We need to make sure not only that we are feeding on God’s Word personally, but that we are also getting a church where God’s Word is faithfully taught by a faithful under shepherd of Jesus.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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