Year A

Matthew 4:12-23

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Light Has Dawned

The Light has dawned! When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received a threatening phone call one late night, he was full of fear. He was faced with the decision of whether to carry on or not in his struggle for justice and freedom. He turned to God in prayer, and through that discipline his path became clearer. He experienced God’s presence and heard an inner voice that calmed his soul and gave him strength to carry on in the fight for justice. The light of God shone on him in order to see the way forward. Psalm 119:105, says that Jesus is a “lamp before my feet and a light for my journey.” God promises to enlighten the way that we travel in life, to guide our feet while we run this race. Those who see this light are those called by the light; the light that works through faith and always demands a response.

In the gospel today, Jesus comes calling his first disciples. The light shines on a new path, and they are asked to abandon the path they are on to follow another, they are called to follow him. In Jesus, they will find the way forward in light. But did they have any idea what they were getting themselves into? How could they. Simon, Andrew, James and John had no idea what was ahead when Jesus called them. When the call came they were going about business as usual: casting nets, pulling them back in, sorting and salting the fish, taking them to market, and maintaining their equipment. This was not an easy profession. The call did not come on a lazy day with pole resting in the crook of their arms; with plenty of refreshments in the cooler. It was hard work.

Their muscles had to ache from throwing and hauling nets. I did some cast net fishing years ago in Florida. The nets are heavy and big; not at all easy to handle. Their hands were most likely cut from the sharp knives and fish spines, and the smell? Yet, fishing was a stable and profitable occupation. They made a good living but it certainly wasn’t glamorous, and from that life Jesus called them. They knew what they were leaving but not what Jesus was calling them to. We know the story. We know what is in store for them. They will see miraculous healings. A paralyzed man walk and a little girl raised from the dead. They will hear intriguing parables and see the feeding of thousands with a few loaves of bread and fish. What would we leave behind to see the power and intensity of the Transfiguration? 

Responding to Jesus’ call opened up for these four men a spiritual adventure they never could have imagined. If they had known everything, would they still have made the decision to follow? Accepting Jesus’ call put them at risk. John the Baptist had been arrested and danger lurks behind every scene. Yet, the way Matthew presents this call, not one of them hesitated for a second. In John’s gospel of the call of the first disciples, of which we heard read last week, we see them take some time to respond to Jesus. They spend time with him and have a chance to think it over. But, the way Matthew presents the call, we aren’t even sure these four men know who Jesus is. Earlier in John’s gospel, John the Baptist announces boldly to them who Jesus is, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” yet the emphasis for Matthew seems to be on how much we don’t know when we respond.

Matthew wants us to know that we really are taking a leap into the dark when we decide to follow Jesus. Because of that, some of us may like John’s gospel a bit better because we receive some assurance of who Jesus is and what he does, and we can take our time to decide. Yet, even with time to decide, when we make our decision to follow Jesus, we don’t know what lies ahead for us either. We walk by faith as those first disciples certainly did. Not only do those four men leave quickly when called with no knowledge of the future but they leave everything behind. We read, Simon and Peter had just cast their net when Jesus said follow me. James and John are mending their nets, preparing for their next trip out. They are all looking to the future.

We don’t know what Simon and Andrew, James and John thought as they left everything. It seemed as if they were compelled to follow and to obey Jesus as if they had been waiting their whole life for this call, but we do know what Matthew thought about Jesus’ mission. Jesus came to bring light to those who sat in darkness, as we heard Isaiah proclaim today. Isaiah was referring to those who had been exiled by the Assyrians. They are the ones to whom God will bring the “Light.” Now, with Jesus, he will bring the light to those in Capernaum and the surrounding area’s and into the whole world as the gospel continues to spread. 

In Jesus, God has reached into our world to bring hope. For Matthew, being part of that ministry is worth letting go immediately of fishing nets and leaving the old life behind. Jesus continues to call disciples. We are called to let go of our nets and follow the one who will guide our paths with light and truth. When we let go of our nets, we carry on the ministry of Jesus. Verse 23, of this passage today describes Jesus’ ministry as teaching, proclaiming, and healing. We teach in Sunday school, in VBS, in Bible Study and in our conversations. We proclaim when we announce our faith to the world by living differently and when we declare our values are not the same as the world’s values; by resisting violence, racism, greed and exploitation. We heal when we take care of one another in times of sickness, grief, or trouble, and we heal when we pray for one another and our world. Christian faith is a way of life.

Its truth is grounded in the truth of Christ; a truth that finds its fulfilment in the cross, a symbol of weakness. Yet, Paul reminds us in his appeal to the church in Corinth, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” To the world it may seem like foolishness to immediately drop our nets and follow a path that brings risk and danger, and we don’t always know what will happen when we respond to God’s call to follow, but we know God is with us in this journey and will work through our ministries for the light has dawned.

The light of God shines on us in order to see the way forward, to guide our feet while we run this race. It is a light that shines in the darkness, even in a cold, dark tomb and this light never stopped shinning, continuing through Easter morning so that others may see and know the light of God’s salvation.  So when God calls us, let us drop our nets and go. Let us go shine the light of God’s kingdom into the darkness of the world.