Kind
Story
Interpretive layers
Biblical typology
Teaching pattern
John 21:15-17 read as imagination questioning itself: having found one's shepherd and saviour in one's own imagination, one is asked three times 'lovest thou me?', and to love him is to feed his sheep, one's rambling thoughts, with lovely imaginings of others. Joined to Matthew 25:40-45 ('inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these'): every unlovely thought imagined against another is done to him, walking the Master in the mud, and the least of these turns out at last to be oneself.
Collections
Lectures
Bible wordings
John 21:15-17 | Peter, lovest thou me? Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Then feed my sheep
Matthew 25:45 | When you did not do it unto the least among one of these, you did not do it unto me
Own wordings
Any time you imagine any unlovely thought against another, you walked me in the mud