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Jesus had just finished telling Peter, albeit in a veiled way, about the death he was to die. During the Passion Peter went where he wanted clothed in a false identity in order to avoid embracing the path of Jesus, which was a way he did not wish to go. But when he was older, Jesus told him, he would take this path at last, and finally follow Jesus even unto death. Jesus told Peter this immediately after he gave him his full restoration and forgiveness. On the one hand Peter must have been gratified to know he would have another chance to do what he had at first failed to do.
When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"
Even at this stage of spiritual maturity and deeper self-knowledge, in the presence of the risen Lord, the thought of giving his life was hard to accept. We can see him grappling with it in this question about John, the beloved disciple The question might be interpreted to ask whether it was only Peter that had to embrace such a difficult path. To Peter others seemed more blessed and shielded from the trials, temptations and sufferings of life. They seemed to be granted a primrose path. Were they simply that much better than he? Was he simply that much worse than the rest to deserve such a fate? There was an implicit protest about fairness hidden within that question.
Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours?
Jesus did not gratify the curiosity of Peter with an answer. John did indeed undergo his own suffering by being present at the crucifixion and would undergo still more during his persecution and exile to the island of Patmos. But Jesus did not attempt to show how every blessing and curious could by tallied and balanced between each individual. The experience of each was so uniquely personal that it could only remain between an individual and Jesus himself. To compare oneself with others was simply not going to be helpful because the deep interiority of others where they related to God was and would remain inaccessible and invisible from the outside.
You follow me.
We are called to walk the path that Jesus calls each of us to walk as individuals and not that of another. We are not forced into a mold into which we do not naturally fit, but rather are invited down a path prepared especially for us. We see others walking paths that we imagine we might prefer and still others whose paths we are grateful are not our own. But we must trust that what has Jesus has prepared for us is better than anything we could ask for ourselves. And that is not less true if what he has prepared for us is the cross. It is after all his own precious cross that he desires to share with us, that he moves heaven and earth within our mind and desires to allow us to share with him. And so let us also cease with comparison to others and get about the business of following Jesus where he is leading each of us individually, Good Shepherd that he is.
There are also many other things that Jesus did,
but if these were to be described individually,
I do not think the whole world would contain the books
that would be written.
We would of course be curious to know what else Jesus did and said that was not contained in the Scriptures. But the point of the Evangelist is that what we needed, what was essential, was conveyed. What conduced only the curiosity was omitted. The point was to be testimony to Jesus, that he demonstrated that he was who he was by the what he did. The basic message was not overly complicated, and the Gospel writers did not complicate it with many extraneous details. The central message was that Jesus was, as Paul called him, "the hope of Israel" in whom the reign of the kingdom of God had begun at last. This was proven when the Father raised him from the dead and by his ascension into glory. Because of the unavoidable centrality of the suffering and death of Jesus we might have preferred additional details to distract us. But Jesus was clear that that following him was the only path to glory. The Gospel writers ensured that reality was central and hard to miss for those who read their books of testimony.
The just will gaze on your face, O Lord.
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