The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the Third Sunday after the Epiphany — with food for thought about getting in the game. Gnaw away!

Third Sunday after the Epiphany: Matthew 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he went back to Galilee. He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, a lakeside town near the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. In this way, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
The way to the sea on the far side of the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles —
the people who lived in darkness have seen a great light,
on those living in the land of the shadow of death,a light has dawned.”

From that time Jesus began proclaiming the message, “Change your hearts and minds, for the kin-dom of heaven is at hand!”

As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he watched two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew — casting a net into the sea. They fished by trade. And Jesus said to them, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of humankind.” They immediately abandoned their nets and began to follow Jesus.

Jesus walked along further and caught sight of a second pair of brothers — James and John, ben-Zebedee. They too were in their boat, mending their nets with their father. Jesus called them, and immediately they abandoned both boat and father to follow him.

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kin-dom of heaven and healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses among the people.

The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?

We’re back in Matthew and have skipped over Jesus’ temptation in the desert. That story ends with the devil leaving him, but it’s clear that the forces of evil are still making mischief because now we hear that John the Baptist has been arrested. But Jesus’ response is not a full frontal assault but to drop back and teach, proclaim and heal — to bring a new kin-dom into being rather than take on the old one. It is this choice that allows Jesus to give the people a choice — turn from the kingdom they have been following toward the kin-dom he is offering. Once that choice is out there, it is up to each person to respond to it … and the calling of disciples begins. The first group Jesus chooses are fishers, but two different types of fishers. Peter and Andrew are poor fishers, fishing with hand nets. James and John were richer fishers, fishing in a boat. All of them followed Jesus immediately. The choice is clear and the answer must be, too.

A few things to chew on:

*Matthew is written for a Jewish audience and consistently uses Hebrew scripture to claim Jesus being its fulfillment. He can also quote just the beginning of a passage, knowing his audience will know the rest. In this case, the passage from Isaiah continues with the words we know mostly from Handel’s Messiah:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'”

It is kingdom language that Jesus immediately claims saying “Change your hearts and minds, for the kin-dom of heaven is at hand!”

Many who saw Jesus expected him to take on and overthrow the government — to change the world through political and even military action. Many today believe the role of the church is to change the political systems of the world. What does “the kin-dom of heaven” look like today? How do we help bring it about?

*The traditional story structure has a student in search of a teacher, but this story turns that on its head. Here it is the teacher who is seeking the student. We can think of faith like shopping with us as the consumer (we even talk about “church shopping”). That’s not what’s happening here. We are the ones being shopped for! How does it change your sense of faith to reframe it from you choosing Christ to Christ choosing you?

Try This:

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of humankind.” What an odd phrase! And yet somehow Jesus and these words were compelling enough to cause Peter and Andrew to leave everything behind and follow him. “Fishers of humankind” is a combination of Jesus recognizing who they already were and who they could become — in ways that they themselves probably couldn’t even imagine (after all, who had ever heard of “fishers of humankind?”). Following Christ invites us to imagine an amazing future from ourselves. Not one divorced from our past and present — Jesus didn’t go up to the fishermen and say, “Follow me, and I will make you time-traveling goat-herders.” — but one that takes who we are and merges it with all we can be. This week, take five minutes each day and pray with this question: “Jesus, if I follow you, who will I become?”

Getting in the Game

Years ago, at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, we handed out nametags to everyone who came to the Sunday services that said, “Hello, my name is Jesus.” The point was claiming our mission to be Christ in the world.

In this Gospel, Jesus shows us what that looks like:

Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kindom of heaven and healing all kinds of diseases and sicknesses among the people.

Teaching and talking, yes … but also healing “all kinds of diseases and sicknesses among the people.”

That means we have to go where there is sickness … we have to be there and touch it and be about the work of healing it.

In his book Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, Frederick Buechner says “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

That’s where we are called … where we are given the joy of being Jesus.

There is no shortage of deep hunger in the world. There are countless diseases and sicknesses … not just the ones we think about like cancer and tuberculosis … but the diseases of addiction, and poverty, and racism and commercial sexual exploitation of girls and women.

These are places where it is difficult to imagine us being glad — and yet that is the gift of passion. When we enter a place of deep hunger and have the sense that our call is to bring healing, we can’t help but be glad — because we are giving our lives away in joy in a way that brings us joy, too!

The only way to find which of those places of deep hunger we are called to touch — which of those diseases and sickness among the people we are called to be Jesus to — is to get in the game and try it out. Just start going into places of deep hunger, meet the people who live there (maybe it’s a place where you already live … maybe one of the people who are hungry is you!) and see if it clicks. See if your deep gladness emerges.

Jesus didn’t do this waiting for people to come to him. He got out there. He got in the game. He went where the people were and wasn’t shy about talking about the love of God … wasn’t shy about touching people where it hurt.

That’s what we get to do, too. And it never, ever, never happens just by sitting around.

Get in the game!
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Collect for Sunday

Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen