It's one of my all-time favorite moments in the life of Jesus, breakfast on the beach at sunrise with his friends. But for Peter, it's a hard moment...a moment when he comes face to face with the facts of his failure. Jesus knows Peter has messed up. Peter knows Peter's messed up. Peter's pretty sure that Peter's gonna mess up again and Jesus would probably agree. But Jesus doesn't even mention what Peter did wrong. Jesus doesn't let out with a cockle-doodle-do and say, I told you so Peter. He doesn't even try to work through the steps of what Peter did wrong....
He just asks him, "Do you love me Peter?" Three times, once for each denial. Not because Jesus wanted to remind him of his failure, but I think because, there was nothing more important in that moment than Peter hearing his own words in his own ear affirming, "Yes Jesus I love you." Because there was nothing more important in that moment that Peter saying, "Jesus you have my heart."