3rd Sunday after Epiphany, January 27, 2008 “Series A”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, your Son called people in the midst of their daily routines to be his disciples and to spread the news of your love for the world. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to your Word, and grant us the courage to follow Jesus as his true disciples. Enable us, Lord, to not only learn from Jesus, but to serve him as instruments of your saving grace. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
There appears to be some disparity among the Gospels in regard to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and his calling of his first disciples. But then, as I pointed out on Christmas Eve, there does seem to be a progression of thought that takes place as we read the Gospels from the earliest to the latest. And so, I would like to explore this progression of thought this morning, in regard to our Lord’s call of his first disciples.
Mark and Matthew, in their Gospels, tell the same story. According to these two Gospels, Jesus is baptized by John, led into the wilderness to be tempted, and then, following John’s arrest, goes to Galilee to begin his ministry. Mark states it most simply, saying “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Of course, at this point, as you can see by our lesson for this morning, Matthew adds a little detail about Jesus leaving his hometown of Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum, in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that is recorded in our first lesson. Matthew makes a point in his Gospel to show that many of Jesus’ actions were a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. But still, there is nothing mentioned about Jesus preaching any sermons, or attracting any large following. He is simply at the very beginning of his ministry.
Rather, according to Mark and Matthew, the first thing that Jesus does is to call his first disciples. And what an amazing story they tell. Jesus is walking along the shore, when he sees two fishermen, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew casting their net into the sea. Jesus calls to them and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately, we are told, they left their net, their boat, their occupation, and followed Jesus down the shore.
Not too further on, Jesus sees James and John, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus calls out to the two boys, most likely with the same invitation that he issued to Peter and Andrew, and immediately, they also drop everything, including leaving their father, to follow Jesus. The way Mark and Matthew describe the calling of first disciples, leaves me with the conclusion that the fishing must have been poor for a long time, or that they were just aching to for some new experience. Other than this, their story just doesn’t make sense.
Then we come to Luke’s Gospel, and his penchant to fill in the details. Luke tells us that following Jesus’ baptism, temptation, and the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus also returns to Galilee to begin his ministry. First, Jesus returns to Nazareth, where he preaches in the synagogue, and is rejected by his hometown, forcing him to flee to Capernaum, where he again preaches in a synagogue.
This time, he also heals a man with an unclean spirit, who had proclaimed him to be the Holy One of God. There, the people marveled, not only that he preached with authority, but that he could heal by the authority of his word. And the people began to spread the word about Jesus throughout the region. This was followed by several other healings, including that of Simon’s mother-in-law.
Finally, Luke tells us, Jesus was walking along the shore when a large crowd gathered to hear him preach. He saw two boats anchored there, as the fishermen were washing their nets. He got into the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore, from which Jesus preached.
When he had dismissed the crowds, he told Simon and his friends to go out a ways and let down their nets. Even though they had fished all night without catching a thing, they did as Jesus directed, and caught so many fish the boats began to sink. It was following this event, according to Luke, that Jesus invited Simon Peter, James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners, to become his first disciples, and they left everything to follow Jesus. Clearly, of the three Synoptic Gospels, which follow the same format in their account of the life of Christ, Luke’s Gospel is more understandable. These men were in awe of Jesus, for they had seen and experienced unique authority, even though they may not have yet understood that he was the Christ, the Son of God.
And then we come to John’s Gospel, which itself is unique, since it doesn’t follow the pattern of the other Gospels. John was not so much concerned about providing us was a chronological account of the life of Jesus, as he was helping us understand that in Jesus, we behold the Word of God incarnate.
In fact, John specifically states the purpose for his writing his Gospel near the end, in these words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
John was a theologian, who wrote his Gospel to help us understand that all that took place in the life of Jesus the Christ, was according to God’s plan for our redemption. As a result, he pictured John the Baptist, not only as one who was sent by God to call us to prepare for the kingdom of God coming among us through his call to repent, but also to point to and identify Jesus as the Christ.
This, according to John’s Gospel, was the true mission of John the Baptist. And when Jesus was revealed to John to be the Christ, he immediately began to point to Jesus and proclaim, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” On two consecutive days, according to John’s Gospel, two of the Baptist’s disciples heard John proclaim that Jesus was the Christ, the Lamb of God, and they began to follow Jesus. One was Andrew, and the other is presumed to be the beloved disciple John.
After these two had spent a day with Jesus, Andrew then went to seek his brother, Simon Peter, and told him that he had found the Messiah, asking him to join them as our Lord’s disciple. Obviously, there is no way that we can rectify the description of the selection of the first disciples in John’s Gospel, with that recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. However, as I have stated, John’s Gospel was not interested in providing us with simply a chronological or historical record of the life of Christ. The purpose of his Gospel was to help us understand that God was at work, even through the Baptist, to bring people to faith in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
Thus, let me offer this summation of this progression of thought as to the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, and his call of his first disciples. In Mark and Matthew’s Gospels, we are left to think that Jesus might have had some magical spell that he cast over those four fishermen, to have them leave everything to follow him. Luke at least gives us a plausible reason as to why these first disciples would leave their trade and follow Jesus as his first disciples, having experienced his divine authority in preaching and in deed, followed Jesus out of amazement or curiosity. But John’s Gospel would have us believe that the call of our Lord’s first disciples was according to God’s own plan for our redemption.
In fact, I believe this to be the message of all four Gospels. Whether it be by some magical trance that Jesus seems to cast over his first disciples in Mark and Matthew’s Gospels, or whether it is because of the first disciples witnessing the divine authority of Jesus as Luke records it, they followed Jesus. Or, we may become disciples of Christ because someone pointed us in that direction. It doesn’t matter. We became our Lord’s disciples.
Some of us might come to faith in Christ as a result of some form of spiritual experience that we encounter. Some of us might come to faith in Christ because we are drawn in by the fact of the authority of Jesus’ teachings and miracles, as recorded in Scripture.
But I believe that most of us come to be disciples of Christ because we are brought to the font to receive the sacrament of Baptism, to be united to the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, because God is at work through our parents, to call a future generation of disciples for our Lord. That is the message of John’s Gospel! The Baptist points his own in the direction of Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and his own disciples, his own children follow the one to whom he points.
It is according to God’s plan that we become disciples of Jesus. And if we set our hearts and minds to following the lead of God’s Spirit, We will not only know the joy of God’s salvation, but the joy of following Jesus, as did the first disciples, to serve our crucified and risen Lord in this day and age. And there is much to do, as our Lord’s disciples, as our nation seems to seek its freedom, not so much in following God’s Word in Christ, but in seeking freedom apart from God.
Nevertheless, it is God who has called us as his disciples, and it is God who will empower us through his grace, if we keep our hearts and minds on the one to whom we have become a disciple, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. May God continue, through his grace, to empower us for the task.
Amen.
