Son of Jonah

In the famous exchange between Jesus and Peter after the resurrection (John 21:15ff), a lot of attention is paid to the question about the word for love that Jesus uses. While that is a worthwhile question, I think we should also spend some time on the fact that Jesus calls Peter “the son of Jonah” three times here (vv.15,16,17). Jonah was noted for refusing God’s commission to preach to Gentiles, and later in the book of Acts, Peter refuses a sheet full of unclean animals (representing Gentiles), and he does so three times. Jonah was eventually constrained to do the right thing, and Jesus ends this exchange here by saying that Peter would be constrained and taken where he did not want to go (v. 18). Like I said, more work is needed.