peace . love . joy

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep."
~ John 21:15-17

I remember once while I was reading this passage with my youths, I stopped and finally, after years and years of reading this same passage, realised what Jesus was saying to Peter.

Thrice Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, thrice Peter answered he did.
But three times, each time, Jesus responses to Peter's declaration of love differently.

Βόσκε τὰ ἀρνία μου \ Feed my lambs
The Greek word for "feed", pronounced boskō, means to pasture; to graze; to feed; to keep, and "lambs" literally mean what it denotes: lambs, or baby sheep, if you like. So altogether, Jesus is asking Peter to look after His little ones, meeting their requirements for life (food, water, shelter, etc.).

What does that mean for us, for us who profess to love Jesus?
It means to satisfy the babies'-in-faith hunger, thirst and basic welfare. We feed them life-sustaining milk, tidbits from the Bible, the crucial nuggets of wisdom and Truth they need to grow, every so often, like a mother breastfeeds her infant. We tenderly place them onto our shoulders and pat them on the backs, following up each session of feeding, making certain they understand all that was taught, answering any questions they might have, like a mother burps her infant. We protect them, watching out for them, young and innocent, from ravenous wolves, like a mother shelters her infant. We are careful not to overfeed them with knowledge, giving them only what they can bite off, like a mother periodically laying her infant down to sleep.

Ποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατά μου \ Tend my sheep
Ποίμαινε (poimainō) differs a little from boskō. It means to tend (as a shepherd does); to feed; to rule; to supervise. Supervise His people.

To supervise means to oversee; to superintend; to have the oversight and direction of. It's like an added-on responsibility of a shepherd: we don't simply pasture the sheep; we herd them! In the olden days, one of the shepherds' jobs was to make sure the sheep reach markets in time for shearing. As overseers of the whole flock, we receive direction from God, the First Shepherd. We know where He wants the flock to go, and move them to specific areas He wants them to be at at specific junctures. We nurture their individual gifts and talents whether they are artisans or managers, whether they are caretakers or techno-wizzes. This is our duty to them, this is our calling from God.

The last command serves like a reminder, like a marriage of the two prior instructions:
Βόσκε τὰ πρόβατά μου \ Feed my sheep

Make certain, as much you can, the flock never hungers, never thirsts. Make certain, as much you can, the flock heads in the right direction and are not led astray. Make certain, as much you can, the flock receives opportunites to grow.

Jesus was not saying the same thing thrice.
He was talking about different things each time he responded to Peter's "You know that I love You". He was spelling out explicitly what He means when He says to watch over His flock: to pasture, to oversee, to nurture.

But they cannot be taken apart for they are intimately intertwined.
They are the 3-part follow-up to the ultimate question.
They are the 3-part bullet-points that spell the Quest the Lord has proposed to us.

This is our Quest with a capital "Q".

Will you raise your swords and hammer your shields?
Will you shout and clang your weapons together?
Will you kneel and receive the Quest?

And will you ride forth,
brave blistering winds of confusion, of much talk and wayward distractions
& scorching deserts dry as bones, of seeming hopelessness,
to fulfil that Quest?

Jesus is asking
"Do you love me?"

What say you?