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18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. ~ John 21:18-25
In our text, we jump back into a conversation between the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Peter. You will remember that in John 13:36, just before Peter announced his determination to die for the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus told him, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward."
Peter couldn’t follow the Lord Jesus to death then, because he thought following meant taking up the sword. Now, he can follow the Lord Jesus because he now knows that following means putting away the sword and dying to self.
In v.18-19, the Lord Jesus is saying to Peter, “In the future, Peter, you’re going to be taken prisoner. You’re going to be bound and hauled off to a place you don’t want to go. Then, you’re going to stretch out your hands, you are going to be crucified."
Peter is getting the idea that the coming kingdom of God is now ushered in not by the power of the sword but by the power of love. Instead of being a soldier who would take lives for the kingdom, Peter will be a shepherd who will lay down his life for the sheep.
It is clear that John wrote his gospel after the death of Peter, as John records in v.18-19 the way Peter would die. Again, history tells us that Peter was crucified in Rome. At his own request he was crucified upside down because he did not feel he was worthy to die like the Lord Jesus.
According to v.20-21, the Apostle Peter falls into the trap of comparison. It was Theodore Roosevelt who once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Whether it is comparing our accomplishments, status or looks to others, we do poorly to enter the comparison game. When we enter the comparison game, we reject the will of God for our lives for that given moment. No matter the type of comparison, it can cause resentment towards others and ourselves and God; it always deprives us of our joy and adds no value or fulfillment to our lives.
According to v.22-23, the Lord Jesus reminds us that doing God's will for our lives is the focus we should have. The Lord Jesus tells Peter, If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? Then the Lord Jesus says John’s fate is not Peter’s concern. The Lord Jesus knew that if Peter begins comparing his path to that of other disciples, his focus will be off from what the Lord Jesus has called him to do. Jesus again tells Peter, You must follow me.
The Lord Jesus is always refining our love for Him. As in the case of Peter, very often He uses our failures and misunderstandings to accomplish this. So, the Lord Jesus tells us to stop comparing ourselves or lives to others because, in so doing, we are being distracted by what someone else is doing rather than what God is doing and how we fit into what He is doing around us.
John 21:24-25 brings us to the end of our study of John. These closing words were obviously written partly by John and partly by those who were associated with him, probably believers in the town of Ephesus. It is John who writes, "This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true." This was his last word, his own eyewitness account of what the Lord Jesus had said and done.
Subtly, the Apostle John is underscoring what Christianity is really all about: a personal relationship with God. God’s greatest creation is not the flung stars or the gorged canyons, it’s His eternal plan to reach His rebellious children. Behind his pursuit of us is the same brilliance behind the rotating seasons and the orbiting planets. Heaven and earth knows no greater passion than God’s personal passion for us and our relationship with Him.
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