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.
Jesus says to him, If I will that he abide until I come, what [is that] to thee? Follow thou me.
Peter has just been told how he will die. He turns, sees John, asks what will happen to him, and gets an answer that his fellow disciples at once misread.
The problem started before Peter opened his mouth. It started when he looked away.
An eye off the Master, and onto a fellow disciple, leads to an outburst of curiosity. He turned about. He became taken up with someone other than the One he was called to follow. That was the cause of the mischief then, and it still is. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was probably the best of the apostles in character and in spirit. But anyone or anything that turns the believer's gaze away from his Lord is a hindrance to close following in His steps.
The reply settles whose business John's future is.
First, it stressed one thing for every disciple, Peter or ourselves. Our great business is not with fellow believers 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 today point at someone and say, "What shall this man do?" But plenty say, "Look what this man has done!" Being troubled about somebody else's doings, especially if they are not quite right, is cheap and easy. Being troubled about your own is a costly business.
The command is deliberately singular. It cuts every comparison away.
If we want to follow Jesus, we must keep the eye continually on Him; we must notice His footprints and walk in them. This is to be our one great, all-absorbing business, whatever comes. The devil will tempt us to look here and there, and at this one and that one. He will tempt us to imagine we could do better somewhere else, and to take up and copy the work of some fellow servant. All this is met by those pointed words, "Follow Me."
The sentence hangs on a condition, not a promise. Everything about how long a servant stays rests in one place.
Whatever abides, if it abides, does so in the sovereign "If it is my will" of Christ. We do well to adjust our thoughts fully to that.
That condition also says something about the Lord Himself:
It would also mean this. The Lord's triumph over death is so complete that how long a saint lives on earth is simply a question of His will.
The disciples heard "remain until I come" and concluded John would never die. The correction that follows is careful.
Here we have an instance of how false it is to draw conclusions from Scripture. The point was not to deny the conclusion, but that "Jesus did not say that to him."
Commentators differ on what the Lord did mean. Both readings that follow turn on John's ministry, not on the length of his life.
One reading takes the two men as marking out two lines of testimony.
The nation was to reject the testimony, and Peter's death was to end it. But it would be otherwise with John's. Peter, seeing him also following Jesus, asks the Lord what will happen to him. "If it is my will," says the Saviour, "that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" He did not say, as people supposed, that he would not die. But in fact his ministry makes known the ways of God to the end.
Others read it in terms of the character of what John writes:
John's ministry was to abide until the Lord's coming. Abiding is one of the key words John uses. The focus of his ministry is on what abides. He had spoken of eternal life, and his ministry deals with fellowship with the Father and the Son. These are things that abide, whatever decline there may be in testimony.
The Gospel closes the way it opened — with three words and an invitation.
The grace that drew and kept these two men, Andrew and John, is beautiful. Their conversion was one of heart-affection. They were won, drawn, attracted. Terror did not drive them; self-interest did not push them. The one influence acting on them was grace. "Come and see" fell on their ears with divine and charming power, and from then on they were captives in the chains of love. But the lips that say "Come" also say "Follow."
- Turning — Peter's mistake began with the look, not the question. An eye off the Master and onto a fellow disciple is where the mischief starts.
- Deflecting — watching another servant's path is cheap. Being troubled about your own path is costly, and only that one is your business.
- Willing — how long any servant stays rests on Christ's sovereign "if it is my will." His triumph over death is that complete.
- Guessing — the rumour is not corrected by denying it. It is corrected by pointing out that Jesus never said it — a warning against drawing conclusions from Scripture.
- Abiding — Peter's line of testimony closed in his death. John's ministry runs on to the Lord's coming, holding out what abides: eternal life, and fellowship with the Father and the Son.