Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 21:1 (Winter 2007)
Article: Two Gardens
Author: Lucy Lincoln

PP 21:1 (Winter 2007) p. 21

Two Gardens

Lucy Lincoln

LUCY LINCOLN (M.Div., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Mass.) is a Bible translator serving among one of the world’s 6,780 language groups.

We have often heard sermons on the story of Peter’s three denials followed by Jesus’ three questions to him.1 Somewhere on a gravelly beach of Galilee, Jesus spoke with Peter: “Do you love Me? . . . Feed My sheep.” Nowhere does Scripture explain to us that the disciple’s three admissions, “Lord, You know that I love You,” allowed Peter to be fully restored to fellowship with Jesus. But the idea fits. We can read the message between the lines. We like it, and we use it as one proof text that God forgives and restores those who love him even after failing him.

But how did we come to this interpretation? Where is the explicit connection between Peter’s three denials and Jesus’ forgiveness? I know of no verse to prove the association. It would be more clear if we could read Jesus saying something like this: “Peter, you failed me three times, and Satan has now sifted you, just as I warned. Here, stand up and look at Me. You said, ‘I don’t know Him,’ three times, right? Now I’m going to ask you something three times. Each time you reply correctly, I’m going to restore you from one of your denials. Ready? One: Do you love me?” No! We are never told the story this way. We are only given the facts found in the gospels: there were previous words about Satan’s sifting the disciples’ faith, and Peter being the first to return to faith and strengthen the others (Luke 22:31-33); then in John we read of the three denials, and then the dialogue on the beach, through which Peter the fisherman becomes Peter the shepherd. That is all. It is only the number three that gives us the clue to make the association between Peter’s denials and Jesus’ reconciliation. Our interpretation is sound, for it fits both by the logic of the exchange and by the echo within the prose. Using the idea of repeated themes being intentional, we will find another interpretation that may prove as fitting and instructive as this first one was with Peter.

Mary of Migdal2 is one of the many women who followed Jesus and sat at his feet, a student of the Rabbi.3 Each of the Gospels describes the scene by the empty tomb and each gives some details the others lack.4 Reading the four gospels is like looking at a mosaic—each book adds to the picture, and, together, we better understand the whole. (See Figure 1 on pages 24-25.) ...