LENT Day 48 – Care

Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

Always about this time of year I get super excited to get out in the yard.  To watch the plants coming up in my garden and to plan the pots I will plant outside.  I love spending time outside in the sunshine after a winter of being inside.  I love getting my hands in the dirt and put the young plants inside.  Each year I have every intention to keep my enthusiasm going from the beginning of May all the way to the middle of September.

For the months of May through July I’m usually on top of watering and pulling of dead leaves and flowers.  However, by August my enthusiasm for caring for those potted plants starts to wane.  I’m not as willing to continue watering, I’m not as quick to remove the dead leaves or flowers.  By the end of August or early September the plants look sad and sick.  They are lacking in attention and have burned out in the constant sunshine.  But by that time it’s too late.  I waited too long.  No amount of love and care will bring the life back into them.

Today is the last chapter of John.  Jesus is going to leave and he wants his disciples to understand the need to believe.  To have faith in him.  But more than that he wants them to care for his children still here on earth.  It is their job to not only continue the ministry of Jesus but to continue to love, care, feed and shepherd his children.  Jesus doesn’t want his children to lack because he has left this earth.  It was time for the disciples to step up.

After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know.  You’ve got to know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

It’s your time to read these words and take them to heart.  It’s your time to step up.  The world needs you.  The world needs you to care for them like you were created to do.  Don’t wait until it’s too late – until everything is too neglected and fried in the sun.  God needs you to be his hands and feet in this broken world.  How will you step up today to care for his sheep?

STUDY – John 21 (Do You Love Me?) – The Message Bible

After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.“

Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know.  You’ve got to know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.  I’m telling you the very truth now:  When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.”  He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.  And then he commanded, “Follow me.”

Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind.  When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”

Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?  You – follow me.”  That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die.  But that is not what Jesus said.  He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?”

This is the same disciple who was eyewitness to all these things and wrote them down.  And we all know that his eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.

There are so many other things Jesus did.  If they were all written down, each of them, one by one, I can’t imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.