The Study

Feed My Sheep, Literally

Come and Dine

After the resurrection, several of the apostles went back to fishing on the Sea of Galilee — old habits, a long night, nothing to show for it. Jesus met them on the shore. By the time they got there, He already had a fire going, with fish and bread laid on it.

"Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine." (John 21:12)

He fed them before He asked Peter a single hard question. Only after breakfast does the conversation turn to the famous exchange — three times Jesus asks if Peter loves Him, and three times He answers with the same charge: feed my lambs, feed my sheep (see John 21:15-17). Jesus often taught in parables and figures of speech. This time the figure and the fact line up exactly. He fed people, then told Peter to feed people — in the ordinary sense and the spiritual sense, at the same moment.

His Words Work Both Ways

Jesus says this kind of thing more than once, and almost every time, the literal reading still works. He told fishermen He would make them "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19) and met them in the work they already knew how to do. He said that whoever fed the hungry and welcomed the stranger had done it to Him (see Matthew 25:35-40). Isaiah had said something similar centuries earlier: deal your bread to the hungry, and "then shall thy light break forth as the morning" (Isaiah 58:7-8). In the Book of Mormon, believers at the waters of Mormon covenant to be "willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light" (Mosiah 18:8-9).

None of these verses ask for a sermon. Every one of them asks for something you can hold in your hands: a meal, a ride, a seat next to someone, an actual burden actually carried. Sharing the gospel in natural ways starts here — not with a script, but with doing the literal thing the words describe.

Why We Hold Back

If the literal version is that simple, why don't we do it more often? Usually because we are picturing how we will look, not what the other person needs. We imagine being the "church kid," getting a question wrong, losing the friendship. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf addressed exactly that fear: "the Lord has never required expert, flawless missionary efforts" ("Missionary Work: Sharing What Is in Your Heart," April 2019). President Gordon B. Hinckley put the order plainly, too: the first of three things every new member needs is "a friend" ("Converts and Young Men," April 1997). Not a perfect answer. A friend, before anything else.

There is also a short window for this. The priest and the Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan were religious people who simply had somewhere else to be, and "passed by on the other side" (Luke 10:31-32). Life tends to fill up with exactly that kind of busyness as you get older. Right now you see the same people every day in a way you may never again. That is not a small thing.

One Literal Act

  • Who is someone you already know well enough to do something small and literal for this week?
  • What is one true way you have seen the gospel actually help you — not the textbook answer, the real one?
  • What is actually stopping you from saying that out loud to one person?

Pick one friend and one literal act this week. Bake something and bring it. Carry something. Sit somewhere you don't usually sit. If it comes up naturally, say one true sentence about what the gospel has done for you. Success was never about whether they say yes. Trying to share His light, honestly, is already a success.

From the Church’s manuals

This lesson is one teacher’s preparation. The Church’s manual is the place to start, and it has more than any one class can cover.

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