Peter, turning round, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned at supper on his breast, and said, Lord, who is it that delivers thee up?
Jesus has just restored Peter and given him one command: follow. The first thing Peter does is look over his shoulder. He sees another disciple already walking behind Jesus. The verse does not give that man's name. It points instead to where he lay at the supper.
Peter turns round. One writer says what that movement really was, and what came out of it:
But Peter "turning about" — that was the opposite of following. … Peter's blunder gave the Lord the opportunity of bringing John to our notice in a special way.
The verse looks back to that supper. One writer explains why this disciple was the one who asked the question, and what the table looked like.
In John 13 the Lord was in the upper room with His twelve disciples, knowing that one of them would betray Him. Peter learned this, and he knew that John was closer to the Lord than he was, so he said to John, "You ask Him!" We must not think of people at meals in those days as sitting on chairs around a table, like us today. They were lying at table. They had long cushions on the ground. They would lie with their heads towards the table and their legs away from it, side by side. So the one who lay in front of the Lord Jesus lay "in his bosom." He could also lean on His breast. So this one was not only sure of the wonderful love of the Lord Jesus; he also wanted His nearness. These two things go together. He was nearest to the heart of his Master. It was not a doctrinal thing that he knew Jesus loved him — he felt it, and he wanted to enjoy being close to the Lord. This nearness to his Lord is the source of his teaching. He learnt, as it were, through the heartbeat of his Master, leaning on His breast.
Three things stand out in how the verse describes him.
Three things marked out the beloved disciple. He was the object of Christ's love, and he knew it. He had confidence in Christ alone. And the way he lay at supper showed that he enjoyed a closeness of communion with the Father which others did not have. There is no simpler motive for following Jesus than this: His love. We know that love. It draws us after Him, wins our confidence, and brings us into communion with the Lord.
The writer of this Gospel could have said many true things about himself. He chose the one that put the Lord's love, not his own, in the foreground.
How like the Spirit it is that a man enjoying such favour should describe himself, not as loving Jesus — though he truly did — but as loved by Him. And he says it as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He holds his own name back here and elsewhere, as a thing of small account. Yet he is plainly described at the close where that was needed, and named where men might deny that he wrote the book, as they have done! It is intimacy with Jesus that gathers secrets, but imparts them for others' good.
Jesus had to tell Peter to follow. The man Peter turned and saw was already doing it. The difference lies in what each man had trusted.
But what of John? "Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them." The man who trusted his own love had broken down. He needed restoring grace and the call, "Follow Me." The man who was resting in the love of the Lord did not. He was already "following."
The same thread runs through the whole Gospel, from the first chapter to this last scene:
He appears at the start of this Gospel, following the Lord without anyone telling him to. In the last sight we have of him, he is still following without anyone telling him to. He followed because he could do no other. The treasure he had found in the Lord's love had made him a disciple. Love drew him; no command drove him, and in that lies true discipleship.
Peter's look turns into a question about the other disciple's future. The Lord's answer sends his eyes back to Himself.
The Lord's answer is puzzling, but it teaches us much — "If it is My will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." It is enough to know our own path; we are not called on to ask about our brother's. "What shall this man do?" is too often on our lips. The Lord's reply has the character of a rebuke. It meant, "Leave your brother alone, Peter, and follow Me. You keep your eye on Me, not on your brother." How good, how healthy, such a word!
- Love — The beloved disciple is the object of Christ's love, and he knows it. The name rests on Christ's love, not on his own.
- Nearness — Knowing the love, he wanted closeness, and lay nearest the heart of his Master at the table.
- Secrets — Closeness to Jesus gathers secrets, and he passed on what he learned there for others' good.
- Following — Peter had trusted his own love, so he needed the command. The man resting in Christ's love was already walking behind Him, drawn and not ordered.
- Focus — Turning round is the opposite of following. The cure for curiosity about another's path is the Lord's own word: "Follow Me."
Peter, seeing him, says to Jesus, Lord, and what [of] this [man]?
The Lord had just told Peter how he would die, and then said, "Follow me." Peter turned round at once, saw John walking behind them, and asked about him — a question that sounds affectionate, yet the Lord met it with a correction.
One writer traces the question to real love, and still finds a fault in it:
It was really loving interest about someone bound to him more closely than his own brother Andrew. The bond was a shared love for Jesus, and Jesus' love for them. That made Peter curious about John, now that the Lord had just revealed his own earthly future. The gracious Lord did gently reprove the prying spirit of His servant. But He also gave him plenty to think about in the riddle He set before him.
Another writer finds the question typical of the man who asked it:
The Lord had only just forgiven his fault and foretold his death. It is hard to imagine Peter asking such a question about someone else at such a moment. But as we read the record we can only say, "That is Peter to the life."
The verse before says Peter "turned." One writer puts the whole trouble down to that one movement:
An eye off the Master, and on a fellow disciple, leads to an outburst of curiosity. Turning round, getting taken up with someone other than the One he was called to follow — that was and still is the cause of the trouble. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was probably the best of the apostles, in character and in spiritual life. But anyone or anything that turns a believer's gaze away from his Lord makes close following in His steps harder.
One writer notes that Peter's mistake takes a different form today — not curiosity, but commentary:
It emphasised one thing. For each disciple — whether Peter or ourselves — our great business is not with our brothers and sisters but with our Lord. What the Lord appointed for John was not Peter's concern. His concern was to follow the Lord himself. Not many people today point to their brother and say, "What about this man?" But plenty say, "Look what this man has done!" To be troubled about somebody else's doings, especially if they are not quite right, is cheap and easy. To be troubled about your own is a costly business.
Not every question about the Lord's will is met this way. One writer sets Peter's words beside Paul's on the Damascus road to show the difference:
Peter asks out of sheer curiosity of heart, and maybe out of concern for his friend, but with no regard for God's glory: "Lord, what about this man?" The reproof meets him: "What is that to you? Follow me." Here is what matters in practice for the disciple: "follow me". All his knowledge and learning should bear on this. When Paul, by contrast, is struck to the ground on his journey to Damascus, what is his first word? "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Here there is no curiosity, and so no reproof.
One writer rules out the idea that the Lord simply promised John a long, quiet old age:
It is easy to see how shallow the idea of Augustine and many since his day is. They say the Lord meant no more than this: that John would live to a long and peaceful old age. Peter, by contrast, was killed by violence in old age, and John's own brother James was killed while still young. Peter was to follow the Lord even in His death, as far as that could be. Not so John. He was to remain, hanging on the will of the Lord until He came.
Another writer ties the Lord's answer to the character of John's ministry:
John does not come under "Follow me," but is to continue until Christ comes, and not be cut off, as it were... You never get the church in John's ministry. It is always the individual. And since Christ Himself is what he clings to, everything vital and essential to souls is still there, even if the church goes to the winds.
Peter's mistake had one good result:
But Peter's blunder gave the Lord the opportunity of bringing John to our notice in a special way. He was following without a command.
- Turning — the trouble starts when the eyes move. Anything that turns your gaze from the Lord makes close following harder, even a fellow disciple as good as John.
- Curiosity — Peter's question came from real love, yet it was still prying, and the Lord corrected it with gentleness.
- Contrast — "What about this man?" earns a rebuke; "Lord, what do You want me to do?" earns an answer.
- Cost — watching someone else's doings is cheap and easy. Watching your own is costly. That is why the Lord says "Follow me" to each one alone.
- Silence — John was already following, and no one had told him to. Peter's question is what brought that to notice.