John 21:20 Commentary and Bible Study

Now Christ evidently, if we understand the passage correctly, turned to walk away. Why? Because he was going to disappear from them. It was an appearance of the risen Lord. He is going to walk away and then he will vanish from their sight. Peter involuntarily follows him, at least for some steps, and then looking over his shoulder he notices that John is following also. So he turns to Christ and he utters those words – ‘Lord, and what shall this man do?’ Or literally in the Greek: And what about this man? That is all he said. Is he going to be martyred?I rather think what he means is – are we going to perish together? They were close friends, Peter and John, they are constantly together in the Gospels. They are together in going to the empty tomb, they went together to the High Priest’s house before the crucifixion. Perhaps Peter’s assumption is that they would always work together, maybe he thought all the apostles would work together. Christ seems to say to Peter, ‘What exactly will happen to John and how he will die, is not your concern. Yes, you must have an interest in each other, you must have a concern for each other, you must pray for each other, and from time to time you will get together, but you will work as individuals. You will mostly be in different places. You will be travelling preachers and sufferers. You will be picked off individually for execution, different times, different places.