3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
See TEXT below Matthew 4:12-23
The Lectionary Gospel reading for this Sunday brings to us the startling vocational stories of two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew, and James and John.
To begin, we must see that the missional transition is now complete. Herod, for political reasons, has driven John the Baptizer from the scene, and as the text tells us Jesus' ministry now opens in earnest, beginning with his preaching for a national repentance -- "Repent, for the Kingdom of GOD is at hand."
This, of course, has continuity with the Baptizer, but it is also is a step beyond his vision, for again as the text reminds us, it is the moment when the "great light" is beginning to shine in the land, a light meant to overshadow the fermenting call for revenge and violence which the humbled Hebrew nation wished to inflict upon its captors in Rome.
In contrast to revolt, Jesus will soon outline what life under the Kingdom rule would be, but before this he moves to create a social circle into which he could pour his message of "new wine." These were men and women (e.g. Luke 8:1-3) not only supported his message, but believed it to the point of leaving all, following him daily and devoting their resources to his movement.
As has been pointed out by others, these followers did not come to Jesus as a Master asking to be his apprentice. No, the initiative came from the other direction with Jesus inviting them to be part of his Kingdom project. What also seems clear is that Jesus calls these people into an interdependent community where the teachings of the Kingdom can be shared, lived and disseminated to others willing to take on the heavy rule of Kingdom life.
So, when these sets of brothers are confronted with the call to follow Jesus we read they "at once left their nets" and "immediately left their boat and their father and followed him."
As I say, this is startling! Matthew's use of at once and immediately seem exaggerated. How could these men make such a life-altering decisions with such speed and freedom? It seems likely that they knew Jesus already and had been drawn to him and his person (John 1:35-42) Even so, to make this decision with such abandonment seems overpowering to us. How could they do this?
The only answer seems to be the person of Jesus convinced them. Later will come the miracles and the teachings, but now it must have been that in Jesus they found their purpose and meaning. Their emotional ferment and revolutional rumblings gave way to this offer of true life and repentance. Here, in Jesus, they saw the true alternative to violence; here they were confronted with the true way of true humanness in his humanity.
But, isn't this how we became Jesus-follwers as well? Weren’t we somehow challenged by the Spirit of the risen Christ, which opened to us our own lostness? Weren’t we offered an alternative manner of life in the ways of the Christ, each of us seeing in the Christ one who identified with our own brokenness and pain, and end each of us finding in his words and works the path to truth. Isn’t that existential moment of personal conflict within us upon meeting him how we now explain our own biography? "Once I was this, but I met Jesus and now I'm that."
Also of importance here is the truth that this one moment of vocational calling did not end the story for Peter and Andrew or James and John. Daily, these men would have to remember their initial calling and then renew it by decisions they made that day. This is anything but simple. Just look at Peter’s discipleship trajectory. It is one of sputters and lapses and then eventual victories.
This, too, should serve to define our our continuing vocational moments with the Christ. So much so that our positive response to the question Jesus put to us long ago -- Follow thou me? -- still lingers within hearing and still stings, for we actually question it everyday. Will we offer him our lives today? Will we follow the path of self-denial today? Will we live for the common good today? Will we today strive for peace in a world at war with itself?
The calling to follow the Jesus-way is not for the fainthearted. No, the life he offers is rugged and involves difficult everyday decisions. How will I respond to this provocation or that insult? How will I spend this dollar or that fifteen minutes. How will I move beyond the pain in my soul? Will I self-medicate? Will I self-absorb in entertainment? Will I find healing in openness and genuineness?
What I am driving at here is that a one time acceptance of Jesus' call does not make us a disciple. Discipleship is, instead, the very small, subtle commitments that eventually create a life under the rule of the Christ. Remember: "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14)
Matthew 4:12-23
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.
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