Carried Where We Do Not Want to Go
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:18
Sometimes we are carried where we do not want to go.
No one wants to lose a child. No one wants to be let go from a job just before retirement. No one wants to discover a spouse is addicted to pornography. No one wants to be forced out of home and country due to war.
No one wants to be carried where they do not want to go.
Just before Jesus speaks these words to Peter in John 21:18, He reinstates him. Peter, Jesus’ headstrong, passionate, self-appointed bodyguard, had ghosted the Lord in the last hours of His life. But on this miraculous morning, Jesus forgives Peter and commissions him to care for the people Jesus loves.
Without reservation, Jesus promptly and fully discloses the cost: nothing less than death.
In mercy, Jesus prepares Peter. Yes, this new stage of life would strip Peter of rights he once took for granted. He would be carried where he did not want to go. But Peter’s death would glorify God.
We aren’t all prepared for the phone call in the middle of the night. The news that stops the blood in our veins and paralyzes us with fear. The curtain that falls over our future in an instant.
But because of Jesus’ mercy, we are prepared for anything that comes.
Behold the contradictory, now and not yet, tension of the kingdom of God. We are not prepared, but we are prepared. We and Peter share the same hope. Hope is a Person, and He has prepared the way for us.
Jesus was not asking Peter to do something He Himself had not done. The Son of Man was carried upon a cross where He did not want to go, yet He yielded His will to His Father’s (see Luke 22:42-44). His death and resurrection glorified God and made salvation possible for all.
On the cross, Jesus disclosed the consummate cost of love: nothing less than death. Now He discloses the unabridged truth to Peter.
Simon, son of John, do you love me?
Repeated three times, the question progressively exposes Peter.
By the third time, his feelings are hurt. Peter’s thinking, like all of ours, was limited. He is still thinking about himself, not quite grasping the enormity, the eternity of Jesus’ question and His commission. But even in this, Hope stands before him. The resurrected Lord, whose thoughts are higher than human thoughts, whose ways are higher than human ways, the One who knows the plans He has for all of us, the One who does exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, is talking to Peter. And He speaks to us today.
Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say unto you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
John 21:17b-19
Physical death makes up a relatively small percentage of the deaths died for God’s glory. We will all indeed die one day, but between today and that day we die a thousand deaths to self if we love Jesus and want to obey His command to love others.
The unabridged cost of love is nothing less than death. Death to ourselves, our plans, our control, our limited ways of thinking. Death to our limited love.
After dropping this bombshell on an astonished Peter, Jesus instructs him what to do about it.
It’s a strange and exquisite truth that we can follow Jesus even when we are carried where we do not want to go. #trust Share on XFollow me.
We can be carried, yet follow.
Are you being carried somewhere you do not want to go today? It’s possible that this very unwanted thing will set you free from your limited loving and expand your capacity to love others beyond your imagination. It’s certain that if you follow Jesus even in this unwanted thing, God will be glorified.
Follow Him even as you’re carried where you do not want to go, dear pilgrim.
Lord, I will trust You when I am carried where I do not want to go. May your will be done, to your great glory. Amen.
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