Episode 1538: Feed My Sheep

Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,538 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Blaine Oelkers: Hello, I'm Blaine Oelkers and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to create the life you really want by creating consistent habits is key.

And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this and the inspired, uh, stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: And the community that we are called to care for. If we don't pay attention to the fact that not everyone has enough to eat, not everyone has a place to lay their head. Not everyone has equity of opportunity. We are called to do this as [00:01:00] Christians. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 21 verses one through 19. I share how feed my sheep is both a literal and metaphoric command. I also share how we are called to find justice in food ministries. Done right. John chapter 21, verses one through 19 says, after these things, Jesus showed himself [00:02:00] again in the disciples by the sea of Tiberius, and he showed himself in this way.

Gathered there together were Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two of his other disciples. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, you have no fish, have you? And they answered him. No. He said to them, cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for, he had taken it off and jumped into the sea, but the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish for they were not [00:03:00] far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.

Now, none of the disciples dared to ask him, who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. When they finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my lambs a second time. He said to him, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And he said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, [00:04:00] tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished, but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.

He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God. After this, he said to him. Follow me now. This story in John is a powerful message of Jesus to Simon Peter and the other disciples a gift that he gave them of a bountiful catch. There's interesting things in here. The fact that they had been fishing all night.

It hadn't caught anything, [00:05:00] and here at the break of dawn when they shouldn't be able to catch anything, Jesus blesses them with a big catch. The fact that Jesus asked Peter three times, do you love me? Reversing the fact that Peter had denied him three times before his death, before he was put up on the cross.

Jesus also is charging Peter with responsibilities including that last one. Feed my sheep. It seems to be emphasizing the importance of Christians taking care of others. And yes, there's a metaphorical kind of message here of feeding them with the word of God and giving them the gospel, and those things are vitally important.

But I also think Jesus was giving a literal message of caring for others, tending, tending to their tangible needs for food, safety, community, and these sorts of things. I think oftentimes as Christians, we [00:06:00] look at feeding people with the word, which again, is vital and important, but we don't recognize the fact that we also need to feed people in a literal sense.

We need to have a sense of justice and belonging to connect all people. This is what stewardship is really about. It's about caring not just for yourself, but caring for your neighbor and your neighbor. Remember is everyone. We're all tied together. Those of us that are human and those that are not even wider than just the humankind, we need to care for the environment and the people around us.

This call to action that Jesus gave back here is still something that we need to do today, and yet we ignore it all too often. We look at the short term gains for things. We look at how we should. Just take care of something immediately. Even sometimes when we are actually caring for other people, [00:07:00] we do it in a way that is a shortsighted way.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think there's anything wrong with churches having a meal or feeding other people, but sometimes we do it in a way that doesn't actually add dignity to those people. That doesn't actually help them. We look at ourselves as coming in as the saviors from outside who know all the answers.

And don't recognize the fact that the people that are there actually have their own ideas about what needs to be done. We don't look at them as a part of the party that's doing the exchange. We look at them as someone just receiving a blessing. And the truth is, when we do that, when we have that selfish attitude.

We probably aren't really serving justice as fully as we can. We probably aren't really looking at the systems and the processes and the wider circle of things that is creating the inequality in the first place, [00:08:00] in the kingdom of God if all people are equal, and if we are to do here on earth as it is in heaven, we should be striving towards justice and equality all of the time.

Yet we don't ask ourselves that question. How can we act with justice to feed those folks around us, both human and non-human? How can we take care of the earth and the community that we are called to care for if we don't pay attention to the fact that not everyone has enough to eat? Not everyone has a place to lay their head.

Not everyone has equity of opportunity. We are called to do this as Christians. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we [00:09:00] challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.