Day 49: Follow Me (John 21:18–25)
“Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”
John 21:22 (NASB)
Jesus speaks a prediction over Peter: when he is old, another will dress him and carry him where he does not want to go. John comments: 'He said this to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.' Peter will be crucified — history records it, upside down, in Rome, having served Christ for nearly thirty more years after the resurrection. He will glorify God by the same kind of death as his Lord. Then the two-word commission that opened the Gospel (1:43) closes it: 'Follow me.' The beginning and the end are the same call.
The deaths of the apostles are a remarkable testimony. Peter — crucified upside down in Rome. James — beheaded by Herod (Acts 12:2). Matthew — killed by sword in Ethiopia. James the brother of Jesus — thrown from the Temple and beaten to death. Nathanael — flailed to death in Turkey. Andrew — tied to an X-shaped cross, preaching for two days before death. Thomas — stabbed with a spear in India. Philip — crucified at Hierapolis. Thaddeus — sawed in half near Persia. Simon the Zealot — sawed in half near Persia. Matthias — stoned then beheaded. Paul — tortured and beheaded by Nero. John alone — survived boiling in oil, went to Patmos, wrote Revelation. These were not men who fabricated a resurrection story for social benefit.
The Gospel closes with verse 24 — the Beloved Disciple's testimony — and verse 25: 'Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.' Morris writes that 'it is fitting to bring our study of the Gospel to a close with the reminder of the limitations of our knowledge.' Barclay adds: 'Whatever we know of Christ, we have only grasped a fragment of him.' The Gospel ends where it must — in incompleteness, in wonder, in the recognition that the subject is inexhaustible.
For Reflection
- The apostles died for what they claimed to have seen. What does their willingness to die — not for an idea but for a witnessed fact — do for your confidence in the resurrection?
- The Gospel ends with an acknowledgment that we know only a fragment of Jesus. What is the most significant thing this study has opened up in your understanding of who He is?
- 'Follow me.' It is the first and last thing Jesus says to Peter. What does following Jesus look like for you at this specific moment in your life?
