Interestingly, there is a short section in the Gospel of John which talks about the subject of dying. Jesus has prepared a breakfast of fish for his disciples and begins to ask Peter if he loves him more than anything. Peter responds three times that he does. Then, after the third expression of love, Jesus says to Peter, “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out you hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Then John adds, “Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”
What was Jesus telling Peter here? This passage has often been used to indicate that Peter was crucified. And this could be what it means because the word used for “get dressed” means ‘tie up a belt,” which in those days would be a rope. In the days of the Romans, being tied up probably meant you were a prisoner and possibly were going to be crucified. The other expression, “stretch out you hands,” was often used to describe crucifixion. Though we cannot be certain, Jesus may have been informing Peter that he probably would suffer at the end of his life and that this suffering would lead to his death.
But this passage could also simply mean that when a person is younger he is able to do as he pleases and go where he wants to go and take care of himself. But when he gets older and closer to death, others will care for him, dress him and take him places where he does not want to go. The aging process always ends in death and Jesus was telling Peter that he would live to be old, but even in dying in weakness and blindness he was still going to glorify God.
I am sure Jesus had Peter thinking. He probably thought that he was fortunate that he would live to be old. But he also knew that he was going to die in weakness and even through that weakness he was going to be able to glorify God. I wonder if we think about how our death will glorify God. And what would make a God-glorifying death?
I believe what Jesus was looking for from Peter was a life lived in complete service to him. That Peter would be faithful to the very end of his life and that even in the face of sickness, blindness, captivity, suffering or whatever might come his way, he would not complain but simply graciously thank the Lord for his gift of grace. Jesus was looking for Peter to live as Paul would later write in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
I do not know how I will die, though I still hope I do not freeze to death, but I trust that I will be faithfully serving the Lord with every ounce of strength he gives me to the very end. And if that means suffering, then may I glorify Christ in my suffering as well.
