While it is interesting you make reference to the sacrament of reconciliation, afterAs for who loved Him the most, the text does not say it was Peter. That is imagination, not fact. There is no need to imagine in Peter some exalted quality of person befitting the exalted role which Rome posthumously assigned him. When Peter was being restored by Jesus, he was asked to declare his love for Jesus three times, which corresponded to the three denials. Peter's love failed when tested against his instinct for survival, though John remained faithful. Jesus had to heal him of that very damaging experience. But that in no way demonstrates in Peter a love greater than that found in John or any other particular disciple. They all loved Jesus, and history would show they were all, including Peter, willing at the end to love Him unto death. But no. The Petrine office is a fiction, and well suited to justify Rome's coalescing around the monarchical episcopate centuries later. It has no basis, either in Scripture, or in the first few centuries of the life of the Ecclesia. a manner, but this was no reconciliation between the LORD and Peter, it was a confirmation of Peter's leadership. Messiah had already appeared to Peter twice and breathed the Holy Spirit on him. Messiah confirmed the apostolic mandate to forgive sins as His representatives. I read the scriptures and find this was the third time the risen Messiah appeared to the Apostles. I note the first recorded time was to Mary Magdelene who went straight to Peter first. I note Peter was the only one of the Twelve, that when he heard the LORD, cast himself into the sea so as to reach him straight way while the others took a boat in. Wherefore my sentence is that the LORD Jesus Christ publicly asked him in front of the others and when Peter affirmed he loved Him and He knew that, the LORD confirmed his leadership among the Apostles with a commission to feed His sheep and submit to martyrdom by crucifixion. The apostle to the Gentiles called Peter, and no other Apostle, the Apostle to the Circumcision. Both had a special servant leader role given to them by the LORD Jesus Christ. Both died as martyrs in Rome and their bodies are buried there to this day.
The relevant passages are these:2) Jesus walking on the water:
(BTW, technical note, to avoid any unnecessary discomfort on your part, I have modified my e-Sword automatic quoting style to eliminate versification and just use a passage reference at the end)
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.Observe that in the three synoptic accounts, no distinction is made on who Mary first reports to concerning the resurrection proper. It's just "the disciples." But in John we have two reporting events. At first the women discover the body is missing, and they report this to TWO disciples, Peter being one, and the other being John, often identified indirectly as the "other disciple" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved" in his own book. Peter was a man of action, and did have a leadership role among the disciples, so it is not surprising he should be consulted over the mystery of the missing body. But John was in on that as well.
(Matthew 28:5-9)
And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.
(Mark 16:6-11)
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.
(Luke 24:5-12)
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
(John 20:1-10)
As for the actual appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene, once she sees Him, she obeys His direction and reports this appearance to all the disciples. None is given preference over the others. Also notice that in the Lukan passage, Peter comes from the empty tomb scratching his head, wondering about what happened. But John, in the passage from John, is the one who believes. But here perhaps he only means to say that he believed the body was missing, which, if you think about it, did require a major adjustment in thinking. But that Jesus had risen was still being greeted with skepticism by the disciples as a group, as the synoptic passages all show. So Peter, and John, even after seeing the empty tomb, were among those unwilling to take Mary's eye witness account at face value.
The relevant passage:3) On feeding the sheep
And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?Here we can note a few things. This passage would not be relevant to Peter's later failure, as it happened while Peter was still self-deceived that he would be true to Jesus under all conditions, before his faith had been tested to the limit. In fact, this over-the-top self-confidence is one of those things that in Peter seems to be a strength and a weakness all at once. He has the courage and the God-given insight to affirm in words that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. But in another place Peter affirms he will never desert Jesus, yet he does. On the night of Jesus' betrayal, he chops off someone's ear, perhaps thinking they could fight their way out of this. In another place he has the hubris to tell Jesus to avoid the confrontation in Jerusalem and thus survive. We all know what Jesus thought of that.
(Matthew 14:25-31)
Here, he asks the one walking on the water, whom moments ago he was convinced was a ghost, to confirm his identity as Christ by having Peter come to him on the water. Surely only Jesus could do that. It was sound reasoning, and full of faith. Yet when Jesus grants this petition, and grants Peter the proof he desires, what does Peter do next? Can I say he gets cold feet? Cold, wet feet. He doubts his own test. Jesus gave him what he asked for, but it wasn't enough for Peter. He doubted, and began to sink. As if to make sure the lesson is not lost, after Jesus pulls him up from the water, he rebukes Peter for his lack of faith.
There are some very interesting lessons in this passage. One can be in the very presence of Jesus and still have wrong ideas about oneself. Jesus is giving him a preview of his later failure. It is the same pattern. Peter stakes out a bold claim to faith, puts it to the test, and comes up short. Jesus knows reality can be a much harder place to remain faithful than just thinking ourselves to be faithful. This pulls me back to that famous Johnathan Edwards sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Edwards makes it plain. We all have thoughts about ourselves, what we will do when confronted with eternity, how well prepared we are for it. We all have "a plan." But our plan will come up short on that day when we are tested, except that by God's grace we are under God's plan. None of our plans will save a one of us from falling through the surface and sinking into eternal damnation. Cheery sermon, I know. But so true. Peter doubted. Why? In that moment of test he failed. Can it be he was at some deeper level looking to his own strength to save him, and not to Christ after all? And if so for Peter, who else among us can afford such a costly overconfidence? Peter, who lived with Jesus in person for three years.
So no, I do not think this makes out a case for the spiritual superiority of Peter. Such an analysis runs counter to everything we know about how the grace of God works, and it is not supported by the fully unpacked description of Peter either.
Again, given that Peter did rejoice with the other apostles when Jesus appeared to them as a group, one can speculate that he experienced a renewed sense of fellowship with Him. But the text is not specific about that. We don't know how Peter may have yet been hurting deeply that he betrayed his own brash commitment of loyalty to Jesus. More likely he felt a cascade of conflicting emotions. Yes, I'm speculating. But this is just acknowledging the reality of how people work, and if you've dealt with people long enough, you know these major breaches of trust are never over right away. Peter did love Jesus, deeply. But the last time it was tested, he loved his own skin more. That's a terrible burden, and a true encumbrance on the ministry God had in store for Peter. It's hard to minister to others when you are full of doubt and sorrow of heart over regrets of the past. Peter needed a restoration.Peace,
Furthermore, it would trivialize the gravity of what Peter did to just whitewash it by saying, yes, he was happy to see Jesus alive again. It was necessary for the other disciples, and for us by extension, to see how Jesus was so gentle toward Peter even after his catastrophic failure. It gives all of us hope. Every person called of God to minister the word of God to the flock of God is a feeder of Jesus' sheep. Peter was too. But not to the exclusion of any other servant of God called to that ministry. When Jesus tells Peter to feed His sheep, He is restoring Peter to his principle duty as an apostle. In no way does such a beneficent act serve to exclude others called of God for that same work, or to set Peter above the others. That simply isn't in the text. This is Jesus to Peter, mano a mano, telling him to get back to work. He knows Peter loves Him, and He wants Peter to follow up by feeding Jesus' sheep.
And perhaps most important, He assures Peter he will have another chance to surrender his life on behalf of Jesus. It's hard to think of getting a "second chance" at dying for Christ, but for Peter this was doubtless the best news he could have heard. Not that Peter wanted to die for it's own sake. But that he wanted to pass that ultimate test of love:
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.To retrofit such a passage, a real and tender portrait of Christ healing Peter's heart and restoring his ministry, with the episcopal hubris of 3rd Century Rome, is a fallacy of anachronism, and a great loss to those who would come to the fountain of Scripture to wash their own wounds. There is great spiritual beauty and human reality here. A pity to have it tangled up in pseudo-proofs of denominational superiority.
(John 15:13)