As far as I’m concerned there’s always an elephant
in the room when we have this gospel lesson. What would compel four men in the
midst of earning a living to suddenly pick up and leave? That’s the question
that always accosts me as I read the accounts in each of the gospels of Jesus
calling of the disciples. What do we not know? What is left out? Because what
we do know is that stable people don’t just all of a sudden drop everything
to follow an itinerant preacher. I’m not the only one who speculates, who
wonders why. The historian Will Durant says, "These men were hardly of
the type that one would have chosen to remold the world." William Barclay
comments, "There was little to be gained by attaching themselves to a penniless
Galilean wanderer, who was clearly on the way to a head-on clash with the religious
authorities of the day."
What made the twelve follow Jesus, "this
nondescript, ragtag, dullish, fearful, unlearned gang of throne-climbers and
deserters" as one writer puts it? It has always puzzled people that the
dozen men Jesus summoned to follow in His footsteps all accepted the invitation,
dropping their fishing nets immediately for the four who fished, or abandoning
other occupations, their tax offices or political causes, as in the case of
the rest. Was it "bumbling ineptitude," as charged by one preacher?
Or were they, "impressionable and game to roam," as suggested by another?
Without so much as a goodbye, they forsook their fathers and families to wander
the countryside with an itinerant Rabbi. . It doesn’t happen now and it
didn’t happen in Jesus day—unless, unless there is something that
we’re missing?
To me it makes no sense unless we pair it with the statement that Matthew makes
just prior to the incident with Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Matthew
says, “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven has come near.”
This statement is the beginning of Jesus ministry
of outreach. He’s left his hometown Nazareth. He’s made his home in
the teaming metropolis of Capernaum. Capernaum is a port city, a crossroads
of trade routes a gathering place for not only the Jews of Israel but for gentiles
from many surrounding countries. And it is here that Jesus proclaims, “Repent
for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” That word repentance is a very
tough concept for us. We tend to think that repentance is primarily feeling
sorry about something. If I repent of doing something, I feel sorry about it.
I regret it and I confess and I try to cleanse myself of the guilt from this
thing that I have or have not done.
In the Bible repentance does not have anything to do with how we feel; it has
to do with how we act. We may illustrate this by imagining that a group of us
decide to go to Milwaukee to one of their summer festivals. We all pile in a
car together and head out and about an hour later we begin to get into the metropolitan
area of a city only to realize that it is Chicago that we are driving into,
not Milwaukee. Well, we might repent of going the wrong direction and if we
repent in the sense that people often think of it, we would feel bad about it
and we would feel sorry about it and we'd regret it and we'd feel saddened by
the choice ... and we would end up in Gary. Or we could repent and change our
behavior and head in a different direction, turn around and go back toward Milwaukee.
Jesus called people to change direction, to make a new decision, to make a new
choice, to go a different way.
The disciples, like so many people sensed that
there was something missing in their lives. They were waiting for that thing
that would give meaning and purpose to their existence. They were waiting for
something that they could give them selves to with passion and investment. Clearly
many people are in that same spot today. We tend to call them seekers. Seekers
are people who have an emptiness that they try to fill with more things or more
work, or more pleasure. Seekers may try something for a while and when it doesn’t
fill the emptiness they move on to something else. And to them Jesus says, “repent.”
You’re finding yourself in Chicago when you want to go to Milwaukee. It’s
not enough to feel sad about that, to regret what has gone before. No what’s
needed is to turn around. Open your eyes to the Kingdom of heaven that is at
hand and follow me. The Kingdom of God is mentioned thirty-two times by Luke,
and no less than thirty-seven times by Matthew. This one phrase sums up His
whole ministry and His whole life's work. It was the core of His message. It's
what beguiled the Twelve and many more. It was a message that aroused such hope
that it acted like a magnet to attract people by the thousands to hear Jesus
preach. But it also enchanted the Twelve so totally that they did not merely
listen they followed. They followed eagerly and gladly. Not one ever turned
back until that Friday Jesus went to the cross. Judas betrayed Him for a measly
thirty pieces of silver. The rest, it's true, let fear immobilize their support
that same Friday Jesus died...but they rebounded, never to cower again. They
sped across the globe proclaiming that kingdom and that King, Jesus, the Living
Lord of Easter.
What about you? Is that message Jesus shared two thousand years ago still enchanting
you?
It’s interesting that once these fishermen commit to following Jesus, once they become his disciples, he doesn’t talk to them about repentance again. They are no longer seekers but disciples. From there on in he teaches them the message, he models for them the mission and he shares his very being with them. He didn’t need to challenge them to repentance for Jesus mission had captured their imaginations and excited their hopes. If we can discern from the pages of the four Gospels anything, it is that Jesus was not merely a passive preacher, but an active demonstrator of what He proclaimed, the love of God. He brought light to darkened hearts. He ignited lives dimmed by sin. He touched mangled limbs and made them whole. The blind saw. The deaf heard. The dead were raised. Storms were calmed. Water became wine. As Jesus went throughout Galilee, He did so preaching an important message. He did more. He acted out that message with dramatic results. He cured "every disease and every sickness among the people," says Matthew. Lepers danced with glee; their horrid disease was ended. (Luke 17:12 Jesus made life worthwhile for the sick and the sorrowful, the sinful and the saintly. It was His mission to be compassionate. It was His ministry to right wrong and make miracles happen to the ordinary. He was extraordinary!
Jesus offered more than a promise of things to come, but evidence of God's mercy delivered in the present tense. He did not tell them only of what might be, but demonstrated what might as well be as long as God is welcome in the lives of the faithful. He offered them the ideal in an age of cynicism. Today we highlight global missions. As Jesus began his ministry in Capernaum so we continue the mission around the world. Perhaps you have been watching Nightline this week, as they explore the terrible situation as of last summer in the Congo, a situation made unbelievably worse by the recent volcanoes. In the first days after the eruption, the Lutheran World Federation, Norwegian church Aid and the Protestant council of Rwanda were already working to provide food and clean water, shelter supplies and other assistance to vulnerable people, especially children and the elderly. Our church in the United States reaches out to 80 other churches of the world and 65 Global churches reach out to us in the Companion Synod program.
Amen.