“Do you love me?” Tevia asks his wife, Goldie in Fiddler on the Roof. He asks this question never having thought of asking it before. Now his daughter has refused the arranged marriage he brokered with the local butcher. She doesn’t love the butcher. She loves Motl and wants to marry HIM! It seems Tevia has never thought about love in his marriage before now! Seems odd to us, but HIS marriage was arranged. That’s his tradition. But now that he has though of it, he wants to know—“Goldie,” he says, “I’m asking you a question: do you love me?”
All of us know that need to be loved. It helps to hear the words now and then, but words themselves are empty if there’s no action behind them. We know we are loved when we are respected and receive the needed support from our loved ones and friends, especially at critical times in our lives. It’s the loving, compassionate and helpful BEHAVIOR that let’s us know we are truly loved. That’s not what Jesus received from his male disciples, if you remember. They fled the scene and hid! Peter denied he even knew him. So when Jesus asks Peter “do you love me?” he has reason to ask!
Last Sunday’s Gospel focused on Jesus’ appearance in the Upper Room and his return the following week to show Thomas his wounds since Thomas was absent the first time. Those appearances demonstrated his love for them. Today’s reading shows Jesus appearing to his disciples in Galilee, which is about 100 miles north of Jerusalem. They have finally returned home. So much has happened since Passover. They are likely still bewildered, unable even yet to take it all in. How are they to pick up the pieces of their lives—or should they pick up the pieces at all? What did Jesus tell them to do when he appeared in the Upper Room? Was that even real?