How will you die?
John 21:18, 19a
“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 your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”
We need to remember that John was writing this gospel account many years after this actual incident occurred. In fact, by the time John was recording this narrative Peter was already dead. I hadn’t really thought about that until just today.
When John wrote, “Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God” we need to realize that Peter had already been martyred and John was now able to look back on Christ’s statement with a full realization of what Jesus had meant.
What’s interesting is this: at the time Jesus made the statement Peter probably had no idea what Jesus was referring to. When Jesus spoke these words to Peter, Peter’s reaction was probably one of “Huh?” There’s no way Peter would have been able to connect the dots and understand what Jesus was referring to by those cryptic words.
Often Jesus had said things that didn’t make much sense. Peter was used to that. Consider these verses:
Mark 8:21
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
Mark 9:32
But they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it.
Luke 2:50
But they did not understand what He was saying to them.
Luke 9:45
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
Luke 18:34
The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.
John 8:27
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.
John 10:6
Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
So when Jesus made the statements to Peter in John 21:18, 19 there is no way Peter was catching on. In fact, the only way John knew what Jesus was referring to was through either special revelation from the Holy Spirit as John wrote his gospel narrative and because Peter was already dead at the time of the writing. It’s pretty easy to understand what Jesus meant after the fact.
As I thought about all of that I realized this truth: At the time Peter did not know how he would die but Jesus did. The same is true for all of us. I have no idea how I will die. It might be through heart disease. It might be through an automobile accident. It might be through a stroke. It might be through slipping and falling in the bathtub and cracking my head!
But Jesus knows. He knows when and how I will die. He knows the beginning from the end.
I can rest in the assurance that there is a God-ordained time, and place, and method for me and my loved ones to die. And that it’s all in the Lord’s hands.