One of the staples growing up was to watch the movie The Wizard of Oz. As you may know, the movie is the story of a girl who’s transported by a tornado to a far away fantasy land that’s in Dorothy’s words not Kansas anymore. As the story unfolds, we journey with Dorothy along the clearly marked, yellow brick road to find the city of Oz. It’s home to a great and powerful wizard. Along the way, Dorothy picks up a few friends who each have their struggles, but Dorothy convinces them that help can be found in the great Wizard of Oz.

Throughout the journey it seems like trouble just comes out of nowhere to find this motley crew of misfits. From a lack of direction to a lack of heart, no brain, and a courage that’s been replaced by fear, this group seems like they’ll never get to their destination. But when they finally do arrive and come face to face with the great Oz, they’re stunned. He isn’t exactly what one might think. As it turns out, Oz is just a man behind a curtain moving levers and pulleys.

Seeing behind the curtain helps us gain perspective and meaning.

This principle is true not just in the movie The Wizard of Oz but also in the bible. There’s a section of the bible that references a conversation between Jesus and one of his disciples, Peter. The exchange is pretty simple until we pull back the curtain. Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Peter says yes. They Jesus gives him a task. Pretty straight forward right?

Well, not so fast! There’s something not right about this. Why would we just take at face value what’s right there? Perhaps we need to do a little digging. Just like Dorothy didn’t take the Wizard’s immediate no for his final answer, we probably shouldn’t just take this exchange the way we read it in our bibles.

Now admittedly, I’m at a slight advantage here because of the training I received in preparation to be a pastor. Having taken eight years learning the Greek language, God has given me the ability to pull back the curtain on this text. So I’d like to show you what’s going on behind this seemingly simple request Do you love me?

If you look at this story in John 21, you’ll see that Jesus asks Peter, “Simon, do you love me more than these?” In order to get a good handle on this we should probably define a word quickly. It’s the word love. Now you all know what the word love means based on the context. You can love pizza but you can also love your spouse, but you know those two are different kinds of love. Well the same thing happens in the Greek language except we have a hard time translating it fully so we tend to use the simple word love instead of unpacking it fully.

In the first two questions, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him in a special, and complete kind of way. It’s kind of like the love Jesus talks about in Matthew 22:37 when he says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with his entire being. That means there’s nothing else that can compete with this love. That’s a pretty steep request! Without this pulling back of the curtain we seem to have missed something significant.

But when Peter replies we see just how much we really missed, because when he answers he uses a different word in reply. He talks of a different kind of love. It’s the love that one has for a friend, co-worker, neighbor. It’s the teammate saying have a great day!  It’s the neighbor asking how are you and not really waiting for an answer.

So Jesus asks Do you love me with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength? And Peter replying with a little more than You’re a really good guy and yep I think you’re cool! See how powerful that is when you pull back the curtain!

Then in the last exchange, Jesus changes the word and lowers the love requirement to Peter’s level by asking do you just like me. Peter is cut to the core. He’s wrecked. No wonder! He’s incapable of loving God the way God commands us to love. And neither are we, if we’re totally honest.

I talk more about this in a recent message at the church I serve, Living Word Galena. But the thrust of this post is simply to show the importance of looking behind what’s visible to see what might be hidden in plain sight. Behind the curtain of a simple passage might be a powerful realization that even when we can’t love God right, he still loves us fully!

Thanks for pulling back the curtain with me today!