Sunday Worship 8 February | The Brothers at the Shore

Matthew 4:18-25

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

So this morning we come to the calling of the disciples, but there’s a bit of story we need to fill in first. When we left Jesus last week, he was being attended by angels after forty days of fasting and testing in the wilderness. According to Matthew, “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfil what was said through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living 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 on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’.”

Why did Jesus wait until John had been imprisoned before beginning his own public ministry? John spoke of the one who would come after him, so perhaps Jesus felt it would be clearer that this was him if his ministry began after John’s had ended. Perhaps he wanted to avoid any sense of rivalry between the two of them, when the truth was that they came with the same message. Or perhaps it was less strategic than that, and it was simply that John’s imprisonment was a moment of crisis which spurred Jesus into action. John being arrested must have made clear to Jesus that these were dangerous time for preaching the kingdom, and he had to choose how to respond. He might have chosen to keep his head down, but instead he threw himself headlong into ministry.

As I was reminded once again at the minister’s conference this week, my knowledge of the East Midlands is sketchy at best, so you can probably imagine what my grasp of the geography of the Middle East is like. A little bit of research did however teach me that the area Jesus withdrew to was known as ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ because it had a diverse population, on account of the nations that had remained in the region after the Israelite conquest or settled there following the Assyrian conquest. The suggestion here seems to be that these people were living in darkness because they did not have the light of God, and that this greater need for revelation is why Jesus began and focused his ministry there.

I do think it is significant that Jesus intentionally chose this region, but I also think we have to be careful about the language we use to speak of those who we see as other. The Hebrew scriptures are not always very generous in the way they speak of the nations, and the language of darkness can have negative moral connotations, associated with fear and ignorance and malice, but that is something that Jesus challenged through his own ways of speaking. He spoke of having sheep of another flock, using the same imagery to describe those who already knew him and those who did not. And it is clear that he experienced fear and ignorance and malice from those who thought they walked in the light. Jesus did not go to Galilee of the Gentiles because they were uniquely wicked, but because it was a central tenet of his ministry that his message was for everyone.

And that message was precisely the one that John had been preaching before him: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. For those who had heard of John, this must surely have been an encouragement, that the silencing of his voice had not stopped the coming kingdom. It should be an encouragement for us too, that the kingdom is bigger than any prophet or any leader or any church, that it has come and will come in spite of any moves against it. But whereas John preached in the wilderness and at the river and people came to him, Jesus takes his message on the road, and it is on his travels that he meets his first disciples.

As we reflect on the calling of the first disciples, we are going to take a slightly different approach, a sort of blend of imaginative contemplation and Godly Play. We will begin with a moment of silence to settle ourselves and ask God to open the story up in new ways. You might like to close your eyes so that you can imagine yourself into the story, and we will keep pausing for some moments of wondering.

Our story begins as Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee. It is not really a sea, but a lake so big that if you stand on one shore, you have to strain your eyes to see the other side. It is so beautiful that one historian will describe it as the ambition of nature. The lakeside is always busy, as hundreds of boats set out each day to catch fish for their dinner tables and the markets. I wonder if you can picture it in your mind…

Jesus has walked by the lake many times since moving to Capernaum. There are always people willing to listen to him speak, although he’s not always sure how much attention they are paying or how much they remember of what he says. But he also likes to watch the light dance on the water, and feel the breeze that whips up waves. He enjoys watching the fishermen work too. Words have become the tools of his trade, but he remembers helping his father in his workshop, and sometimes he misses the satisfaction of a day’s physical work. I wonder what it feels like for Jesus to simply be part of the world…

On this day, Jesus stops to watch two men casting a net into the lake. They look so alike that he is certain they must be brothers, and for a moment he longs to be back with his own siblings. He quickly pushes that feeling aside, because he knows he had to leave Nazareth. He knows this is the place he is meant to be, for now at least. I wonder how much he knows or understands of what is to come…

As he watches these brothers cast their nets, a thought begins to take shape. It has been lonely work, and there is only so much he can do on his own. And besides, how can he tell people to love their neighbours when he has no neighbours of his own to love? He cares for all those he meets on the road, with a fierceness that still causes him to catch his breath at times, but it’s not the same as being part of a community. And so he begins to imagine what it would be like to invite these men to join him. I wonder what it is about this moment and these fishermen that sparks this idea…

Before he really knows what is happening, Jesus hears himself say “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” And they do follow him. They look at each other for a moment that seems to Jesus to last an eternity, and then they drop their nets and they come to him, and the three of them set off in the same direction. I wonder what made these men leave everything to follow Jesus…

As they walk along the shore, they see another pair of brothers, this time sat in a boat with their father, preparing their nets in readiness to set out on the lake. Jesus calls to them too, and much to their father’s surprise, they jump out of the boat and splash through the shallows to join the others. I wonder how the families of these men felt as they watched them follow Jesus…

And so a new phase of Jesus’ ministry begins. These men he has chosen become his disciples. That word will come to carry much baggage, but for now it simply means student. They learn from Jesus as they follow in his footsteps and they hear him preach and they watch him heal and they find themselves covered in the dust of his wisdom and goodness. I wonder what it might mean for us to be students of Jesus…

The story keeps going, but for the moment we will leave it, and stay a little longer with our wondering. I wonder what was your favourite part of the story… I wonder what questions the story leaves you with… I wonder what you might like to say to Jesus right now… I wonder what Jesus might like to say to you…