Being an avid Star Trek fan, I saw Star Trek Into Darkness twice over last weekend. Not to give away too much, but in the middle of the movie, the good captain discovers that he is actually fighting two enemies, and believes that to save his ship and crew, he will need to side with one of the enemies against the other. Spock, as you would imagine, questions the logic of this course of action. This leads to one of the memoral lines of the movie. Kirk says: "I don't know what I am supposed to do, I only know what I can do".
At the end of John's gospel, Peter finds himself in Kirk's shoes. He had an idea of how the kingdom of God should be (now, with Jesus in power, and without Jesus crucified), only to have Jesus say "get behind me, Satan" (Mark 8:27-33). He thought he was the loyalist of the apostles, only to have Jesus tell him that he would deny Him three times (John 13:38) and to have that come true (John 18:25-27). Then, Jesus was crucified, dead, gone, and Peter's view of ther kingdom died with Him. But, then, He rose again and Peter saw this for himself (John 20:2-9). Talk about not knowing what to do next!
This is where John picks up the story in John 21. Peter doesn't know what he's supposed to do, but he knows what he can do, so, he decides to go back to Galilee and go back to fishing (John 21:3). Then, in a plot twist that any Hollywood writer would envy, Jesus re-creates the moment that Peter first chose to follow Him (John 21:5-11, compare to Luke 5:4-7). He then asks Peter to reaffirm his love for Him three times (because he had denied Him three times) and gently puts Peter's feet back on path by reinstating the original mission He had given Peter ("feed My lambs, feed My sheep), and gives him a glimpse of what he would encounter on this mission (which wasn't pleasant). Peter then does what many of us would do, he looks at John and says "what about this guy"? Jesus then defines for Peter and for all of us what He wants from us (John 21:22): "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!"
So often we're looking at what the other guy is doing or not doing for the Lord, instead of what we've been called to do. What about those other denominations? What about all those hypocrites over at my church? What about that tribesman in Africa who's never heard of Jesus? What about the Jews or the Muslims? Jesus's reply to us is "What is that to YOU? YOU follow me!"
It is God's place to correct those who are wrong and to insure that the gospel is heard by everyone, it is our job to follow him. When we don't know what we're supposed to do, that is the one thing we always can do.
