Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 01/27/2008

Sermon on Matthew 4:12-23, by Samuel Zumwalt

12Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles- 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned." 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

[I am grateful to Prof. Jeffrey Gibbs of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, for textual help.]

FOLLOWING

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Ame

At our weekly "Conversation" on Monday noon, we looked at this preaching text. And one conversant put it as plainly and as simply as it can be asked: "How could these men immediately go with Jesus? How could sons immediately leave their father whom they have known all their lives?"

That's the scary thing about taking this text seriously. Because each of us has to ask the questions: "Who is Jesus?" and "Will I go with Him?" and "If not, why?"

We've all heard about jailhouse conversions, people on death row getting religion. Plenty of people get cynical about that sort of thing. After all, most of us can't identify with a murderer, with someone that has committed a heinous crime.

But that's not the kind of men that Andrew, Simon, James, and John were. They were commercial fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, hard-working guys, men's men.

Matthew has already told us, before the call of these fishermen, that Jesus is the true King who has shown up in human flesh. God's great Light has dawned on a world of darkness. God's great reign has broken into a broken world.

And now we begin to see what that means. The King has authority. His Word has power. He calls, and people respond immediately. They go with Him!

So, again, the troubling part about taking this text seriously is that if people aren't going, there's nothing wrong with Jesus. The one who doesn't respond has the problem!

Who's the Boss?

It's real easy to get caught up in power games. We men tend to do it quite overtly, with very little subtlety. If you women play overt power games, the typical response will be: "She's trying to be a man." So you women are often much more subtle in the ways you play power games, but you can play them just as much for keeps as any man. One of the greatest manipulators I ever saw was a woman who talked a really good talk about power sharing and collaboration. She had all the right buzz words and all the mock sincerity in the world, but she just wanted to be boss so badly.

Power games are about who's the boss, who has the control. Men can get caught up in the alpha male game. Women can get caught up in the queen bee game. How-to books and management coaches are out there to help people learn how to exercise power.

Notice that Jesus didn't come exercising power. He didn't come playing the alpha male or manipulating people with a really savvy style. He didn't have to do that.

God's Son Jesus knew who He was. He was and He still is the King. So what Jesus exercised was authority. He didn't have to prove anything to anyone. He demonstrated His authority, and His Word was authoritative. Jesus called. Someone said He confiscated these people. And His Word took hold of these fishermen's lives, and they went with Jesus. They knew this was the Boss, God Himself, calling!

So to each of us when we get caught up in power games, the Lord Jesus simply says: "Repent," which means "You need a change of position. You're not the Boss." We don't have to wonder what He is talking about. He's the King. His Word has authority and is authoritative. If we're not changing positions, if we're still trying to be king of our lives and of others, then we have the problem. We're resisting God's authoritative call!

Repeating Three Stories

Many of you have heard me talk about a man who sat on synod council with me in another synod of our denomination. We happened both to be voting members at a national church assembly and got to spend a significant amount of time together. He carried a slim-line Bible in his inside coat pocket and frequently was seen reading God's Word. When I asked about his personal practice, he told me that he was reading through the Bible daily and had done this again and again.

When I asked him what he did for a living, he told me that he had changed professions. Formerly he was a beer distributor, a very lucrative business. But after reading through the Bible several times, one day he saw a billboard warning about the dangers of drunk driving. And that was the day he decided to sell his business. He knew that people were responsible for buying the beer, and responsible for drinking too much, and responsible for getting behind the wheel of a car and driving drunk. But he decided he couldn't live with being the man who provided the alcohol in the first place to people who drove drunk and killed and maimed people.

He heard God's authoritative Word. He knew Who the real Boss was. He heard the Lord Jesus calling, and the man left his old life behind!

Many of you also know the story of Millard Fuller, who was once a very successful attorney. But one day he heard the story of the encounter between the rich young lawyer and Jesus, the one where Jesus said: "Sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow me." And that was the day Millard Fuller decided to do just that. He founded Habitat for Humanity.

He heard God's authoritative Word. He knew Who the real Boss was. He heard the Lord Jesus calling, and the man left his old life behind!

Or I could tell you again about my friend the brilliant Lutheran pastor who after multiple miscarriages was thought to be infertile. She went to Russia to adopt one child from a dreadful Soviet-era orphanage, and she came back with three. Then she became pregnant. While pursuing a doctorate in church history, she gave up her pastoral call and joined the American Orthodox Church where pastors are only men. Her husband left her to be the single mother of these four children, and now she labors on with what she believes to be a higher and more difficult calling.

She heard God's authoritative Word. She knew Who the real Boss was. She heard the Lord Jesus calling, and she left her old life behind!

Now...

God showed up on the beach in Galilee while those fishermen were working, doing what they thought they would always be doing for the rest of their lives. And, in one swift and real encounter with the King, the Boss, those men responded to His authority. They did not resist. And their lives were irrevocably changed!

That's the scary part about this text. God in Christ has come calling on you and me today, right where we are. He is every bit as really present here as He was on that beach then. His Word is every bit as authoritative. His call is every bit as personal as it was then, as it was with the beer distributor, as it was with the lawyer, as it was with the pastor who chose motherhood over her career.

I know that the Lord's call is still for each of us to repent - to have a change of heart and a change of mind, indeed to have a change of position, to get out of the phony king business. Because He's the Boss, and we're not!

The Lord Jesus' authority is comprehensive. There is nothing - no thing, no person, no power - that is not subject to His authority. We know that by His death and resurrection, not sin, not death, not the evil one himself can trump the Lord Jesus' authority. For He is King! He is Boss! No sin is too great for Him to forgive. No life is too ruined for Him to change. No lie is too strong for Him to shatter with the Truth.

So...that means that where the Lord Jesus' authority is not recognized and heeded, the darkness is yet clouding eyes and closing ears. The problem is not with Jesus. The problem is with those that insist on remaining in darkness and the shadow of death. It is a willful resistance to God's authority. It is a willful insistence on being boss. And here's the tough part, it may actually look like just staying there where it's familiar, like brothers that could have insisted upon staying with Papa Zebedee, like that rich lawyer that went away sorrowful for he had many possessions he wouldn't give up.

Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling

The Lord Jesus is here today, and He is calling you and me. His Word has authority. He says: "Come with me, and I will change your life."

I can't tell you exactly the shape of your new life. I can't say if you will go to seminary, or become a Stephen Minister, or change jobs, or sell all you have, or give up drinking or some other self-destructive lifestyle, or become a great Bible student, or choose your family over career, or choose God over things that are good but are not God, or if you will finally stop worrying about money!

I'm not the Boss. I'm no good at trying to be God. And neither are you.

The Lord Jesus is here today, and He is calling you and me. His Word has authority. He says: "Come with me, and I will change your life!"

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Samuel Zumwalt
St. Matthew?s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA

E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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