EPIPHANY
III - A - 17 MATTHEW 4. 12-23
“Now
when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.” Jesus
was born in Bethlehem and spent his toddler years in Egypt. After the Holy
Family returned to Israel, he grew up in Nazareth. Upon hearing that John had
been arrested, Jesus leaves his boyhood home and moves to Capernaum by the sea
in the region of Galilee.
Capernaum
is a cross-roads town on the North/South trade route. It is also a commercial
fishing port. Matthew is the local tax collector. Simon, Andrew, James and John
are local fishermen. The region contains a mixed population of Jews and
Gentiles, cultures and religions. It was very much a cosmopolitan city and not
considered particularly Jewish by the Jews of Judea.
Matthew
tells us that Christ began his ministry here by repeating John the Baptist’s
call to repent. The word in Greek literally means to change one’s mind, or more
generally to turn around. Repentance is a radical change of one’s spirit, mind,
thought, and heart, a complete reorientation of one’s whole life. It wasn’t his
call to repentance, however, that drew people to him, but his power to heal.
The
news of John’s arrest comes to Jesus just as he has ended a 40 day preparation
for his earthly ministry. He had been in the desert where he prayed and fasted
and was tempted by Satan to surrender his humanity in favor of his divinity; an
act that would have derailed his God-given mission altogether. Thankfully for
our sake he refused.
Now
he has come out of the desert much as John Baptist had done, preaching the same
message, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” The whole of Jesus’
ministry is in a sense a sign that in his person and work the reign of God has
drawn near. Matthew sees in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee the
fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Surely
there were those in Galilee who had heard John preach and speak of the one who
would come after him; the Promised One of God. Perhaps even Simon and Andrew,
James and John had heard him and were prepared to accept Christ immediately.
At
best these newly minted disciples were nominally religious, illiterate and
unlearned in terms of their religion, even unworthy by the religious standards
of the day, but after Pentecost would be deemed the wisest of all.
For
now, they left everything and followed alongside Christ as he taught in their
synagogues and proclaimed the good news of the kingdom. They were amazed as
they witnessed Jesus’ power to heal and cure every disease and sickness among
the people.
They
had no idea where their following him would lead, or what the cost of
discipleship would be for each of them. What they knew in their hearts, what
God had revealed to them, was this Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the long
awaited Messiah, the Promised One of God and they wanted to be with him.
As
the prophet Isaiah said, “a great light has shined on them,” and there was no
going back. It was the dawn of a new hope. Their old way of life, their daily
routines, and their old identities were no more.
How
our lives are routine. What we do day in and day out defines us. It locates us,
provides a sense of security, shapes our identity. We are identified by what we
do. Believe me I know. When I step into a crowded elevator at the hospital
wearing a black suit and a clerical collar, there is no doubt in the passengers
mind who I am and what I do.
It
is interesting how power, the power of expectation, weaves its way through
daily routine. We find security through work and play, but we buy into some
authority or other defining our lives. We find that instead of shaping our own
identity, we are being shaped by outside influences, whether it be political,
social, or religious. We get caught in our own nets.
Into
our world Jesus comes. “Follow me,” he announces, calling us by name. Jesus
summons us to leave our “nets” behind. His call demands a response. The four
men he called in today’s gospel did just that, they left their nets behind,
their daily routines and their old way of life.
Jesus’
“follow me” is our invitation to do as the disciples did and drop everything
and go with him. We all received the
same invitation at our baptisms. Jesus walks into our world and calls us out of
it. He invites us to be his disciples. But there is a cost involved.
The
way of Christ, is the way of the cross. The invitation is to share in the work
of Christ, to allow His light to shine forth through us to illumine hearts and
minds; to show forth God’s dominion. In Him we have a new identity and we are
identified by what we say and do. We are a new creation. The old identity no
longer sticks.
The
call to follow Jesus is a continuous call. We won’t always know where it is all
going to lead, and we wouldn’t perhaps be quite so eager if we did. Certainly
Simon and Andrew, James and John had no idea their following Jesus would lead
them to martyrdom. Jesus promised them glory. Their life with Jesus was
anything but routine.
But
that is where Faith comes in. With each step that we take on the path that God
has chosen for us to walk, He, in his mercy will reveal things little by little.
These four men saw neither the glory or the pain that following Jesus would
bring to each of them. They only saw him, and that was enough to cause them to
leave their nets behind.
In
Him all the treasures of glory and pain are hidden, as St. Paul would say. That
is what the gospel is all about. And we who choose to follow Him today, and
leave our “nets” behind can expect that our life with Christ will be anything
but routine.
For
the way of Christ is the way of the cross; “foolishness to those who are
perishing,” St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God.” AMEN+
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