- ‘Anthrakian’ is John’s theological thread that takes us from denial to forgiveness to good works.
Ever feel like you’ve “been here, done that” in various episodes of your life?
Déjà vu is a French phrase meaning “already seen.” In the 19th century, Emile Boirac described the phenomenon wherein a current experience feels unusually familiar, as if it has happened before, in The Future of Psychic Sciences.
Maybe there are times when we seek out déjà vu. After the resurrection of Jesus, Peter says, “I’m going out to fish.” Some of his best moments have probably taken place on that water, including memorable encounters with Jesus. Perhaps Peter wants a little déjà vu – and is trying to find it out on the lake.
And he does! A voice calls from shore, advising him to throw his empty net on the other side of the boat; 153 fish later, he is swimming for shore for a meal with the One who had summoned him: Jesus.
But then comes a déjà vu moment that must have made him blanch. Jesus has set up a charcoal fire experience for the head of His apostolic band. A charcoal fire – anthrakian, in Greek. That word is only used twice in Scripture. The other place? An incident Peter would probably rather forget – the account a few chapters earlier in the Gospel of John, when he denies Jesus three times around a charcoal fire.
With theological precision, it would seem, John adds this note: “This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
With “three” fixed in the reader’s brain, Jesus asks Peter three times: Do you love Me? Three times Peter basically replies, “Yes, of course.” And three times Jesus reminds Peter that love is more than warm feelings and forgiveness and restoration.
It is responsibility: “Feed my lambs…Take care of my sheep…Feed my sheep.” And then Jesus forewarns Peter of the death he will endure for the glory of God. Anthrakian is John’s theological thread that takes us from denial to forgiveness to good works.
Most evangelicals who have grown up under solid preaching, read the right books, or immersed themselves in the Gospels will understand the depth of each of our own denials of Jesus. That denial was so serious, of course, that Jesus bled and died so that we might know God’s wonderful redemption and purpose for our lives: being restored to a love relationship with the Lord that results in faithful and obedient service to the Good Shepherd.
Love and service belong together. And when either is neglected, the result is something far different from the life Jesus intends for us.
Peter didn’t disappoint –
- In Acts 1, he stands and leads.
- In Acts 2, he stands and preaches (and 3,000 respond).
- In Acts 3, he heals a man and then boldly informs the religious powers of Jerusalem that “We must obey God rather than men.”
- In Acts 5, he confronts a couple lying to the Holy Spirit and the Church and then performs signs and wonders.
- In Acts 5, he heals Aeneas and raises Tabitha from the dead.
- In Acts 10-11, he leads Cornelius and his household to Christ.
- In Acts 15, he testifies to the Jerusalem Council and convinces them that circumcision is no longer necessary for the Gentiles. Tradition places him in various places after that – Antioch, Galatia, Asia, and even Babylon. Historians say he was active in the church in Rome and was martyred there, hanging upside down on a Cross.
There must have been a sort of déjà vu involved in each episode of a decades-long obedience to the Lord. These were not the sorts of things Peter began doing, but continued doing, as he had seen Jesus do.
It’s what happens when fire, confrontation, love, and service come together.
