Matthew 4:12-23
Quite a few years ago, I was in the Navy at Great Lakes Training Center outside of Chicago. Every Friday and Saturday, I started wondering what I was going to do for the weekend. There were stories going around the base that this group was coming on base and taking people to play flag football. My friends would tell me that they heard that it was a rouse. If you agreed to go with them this mysterious bus would pick you up and take you to this place. My friends equated it to being brainwashed about church. Early on a Saturday morning I was approached by a man who asked if I wanted to go play flag football. I listened and then he said after the game they have a worship service and that was all there was to it. This man was asking me to follow and come with him.
Today’s Gospel reading is about following. Jesus goes to Capernaum. It is a small village on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. If you have not lived in a port town or fishing town, it is an interesting experience. The smell of dead fish fills the air. There are carcasses that are stinking up the place. The smell of fish permeates everything that is in the town. Then there is that indescribable but memorable smell that I can only call LOW TIDE. It is not the most pleasant of places to be; yet these people are working hard. They are constantly repairing their nets so they can go out and get more fish. Fishing is their main income and how they sustain themselves.
Capernaum is a place that is on the outer fringes. It is just beyond the regions of the Jewish community. The elites of the time would not want to spend any great amount of time in the village; maybe because of the smell or maybe because of the labor. They would rather spend time in places that meet their standards.
Jesus comes to town. He has withdrawn from where he was baptized and he has spent the forty days in the wilderness. Jesus is among those people on the fringes. He is in the land that is not necessarily important to the Romans or to the Jews. He goes to a place that holds no prominence or strategic value. It is a place that is considered to be in darkness. Scripture even writes that he begins to tell the people to REPENT! Jesus begins his ministry at this place that reeks.
Jesus begins to reveal who he is to the people in this smelly, insignificant town. Jesus Begins to reveal himself to the people. He goes down to the boats and comes across Peter & Andrew, James & John. He tells them “Come! Follow me and I will make you fishers of people.” Jesus goes to the people that hold some of the dirtiest jobs and says follow me; He does not look for the elites in the town. Jesus does not seek out the wisest, most nicely dressed, professional looking people. He picks the people with blood on their hands from cleaning fish, cuts on their hands from mending nets and whose every pore may smell like dead fish. Jesus, the son of God, seeks them out and says “follow me.”
And what do they do? They put everything down and follow Jesus. They don’t even ask questions! In fact, scripture writes, “immediately, they put their nets down- two left their father at the boat- and they followed. That is an incredible story of calling and faith. These men who needed these jobs as fishermen to make a living walked away from their only source of income to follow Jesus. Jesus called them and they answered. Why would they do such a thing? Why would they leave all that they had, everything that got them to where they were!
I would suggest to you that they answered because they had an idea of who Jesus was. Jesus was identifying them as important people. Jesus knew that these four men were not defined solely by their occupation but defined as children of God. Jesus made no distinctions of social, political, or economic status because what was most important to Jesus is that the son of God was calling them to follow. They followed and amazing things happened on this journey. They witnessed the love of God and Jesus taught them how to live out being God’s children in this world.
Just as Jesus called them to follow, Jesus calls us to follow also. We have our own concept of Capernaum. Society tries to impress upon us the need to have the latest things that make our lives easier. We hear all over the media how to think, what to think, and to look out for ourselves (ya know #1). We are told to let the other person fail as long as we get what we want. It is the stink and stench that pulls us away from God and each other. It is the stink and stench of brokenness and sin.
And yet God calls us. Jesus Christ calls us to follow him. God tells us that despite all that stink and stench we are loved. We are loved by a God who gave us the gift of Jesus Christ. It is the gift of God’s love and grace through Jesus Christ. We celebrated Jesus baptism a couple of weeks ago and now the Holy Spirit is among us and walking with us and through his baptism and ours, we walk together in the glory of God. Jesus calls us to continually follow wherever he goes, we are called to follow.
I am reminded of a song written by John Denver and it is called "Follow ME." It provides a perspective on Jesus calling us to follow him. It is about us willing to leave those things that the world uses to define us behind and following Jesus.
As wonderful as it may sound, it is also difficult. Following Jesus means that we are also called to follow him all the way to the cross. Just as we witness his life and teachings, we are also called to witness his crucifixion; and we are called to witness his glorious resurrection on that beloved Easter morning.
Following Jesus is an incredible experience that is full of joyous moments as well as struggle. As a person who lived on the sea, I continually found myself in the stench of the broken, worldly things trying to find my own way and although I said no many years ago, I said yes as I continually heard God’s call to follow and it has been an incredible journey. Friends in Christ, we are called to follow Jesus Christ. We are called to be a witness to the Glory God and witness all that Jesus Christ is in our lives and the world.
My prayer for us all is that we keep Peter & Andrew, James & John as our role model to immediately answer Jesus’ call in our lives and follow him: AMEN!
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