John 21:20-25 | Food for Thought

Questions

• Immediately after Jesus tells Peter to follow him (21:19), Peter turns his gaze towards someone else who was following them (21:20). And once again, Jesus has to tell Peter to follow him (21:22).

  • What does this say about Peter’s attention span - even with something as important (and physically present!) as Jesus?

  • Is there any kind of commentary that this could make about our attention to Jesus?

  • What does it say about Jesus that he continues - time and time again - to persistently invite his should-be-followers to actually follow him?

• John refers to himself by pointing back to John 13:24-25, when Peter asked John to ask Jesus who the betrayer was.

  • Why would John point back to this particular moment? Is there any significance?

• After Peter was given a hint of his future (21:18-19), Peter sees John and asks about John’s future.

  • Why might Peter be asking about this?

  • Despite rumors saying something entirely different, how does Jesus actually respond to Peter here?

  • What impact or point do you think Jesus is trying to make? What’s he wanting from Peter?

  • If rumors about what Jesus said could spread so easily “among the brothers,” how does this highlight the importance of knowing what Jesus actually said? How should this shape our commitment to the Scriptures?

• John claims that “we know” that his testimony is true.

  • How do “we” - the original audience and us - know this?

• John makes a point of saying that Jesus did a lot more than what’s actually written down.

  • How does this shape your faith? …your perception of Jesus?

  • Do you feel like you’re missing something because of this?

  • Is this actually encouraging to anybody?