January 23, 2011
Epiphany 3 A
Matthew 4:17-25

Jesus said to the fishermen, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Have you ever been challenged to leave everything behind and follow Jesus? Have you ever thought about doing the same as the disciples? What would it be like to leave family and occupation behind and devote yourself completely to the work of God? For example, to become a professional church worker, or a missionary to Africa or a volunteer worker in a church project somewhere? It could be exciting! It could be a great adventure! It might change the world; it might even change our selves. I think most of us would think that it is a nice idea, or a nice ideal, but practically speaking, "not for me." We have obligations at home. There is family; we have to take care of them. Our job; we have to make money to live. There are promises that we have to keep which keep us at home. We do not know the foreign language. We do not have the proper skills. Some places are very dangerous for Christian missionaries, sometimes they get killed. Everyone can think of excuses not to take off and follow Jesus.

But if you think about it, we make excuses, but we do not really want to follow Jesus that much. Excuses are just a way to make us feel better about not doing what we think we should do. What we really think is that to follow Jesus would mess up our comfortable life. We would have to think about deep spiritual and theological things that confuse us. Maybe we are not completely committed Christians. We have other things in our lives which we think are more important than the work of Christ. Church activities are not our number one priority. We do not want to follow Christ because there are other things we would rather do.

But there is still another problem. Before we follow Jesus we have to take care of something else. Before Jesus called the disciples he started preaching with these words: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Before we can follow Jesus we have to repent. The word repent means to be sorry for our sins, then to receive the forgiveness of our sins, and then, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to change our sinful life. This is the hardest part about following Jesus. First we have to repent. We have to be willing to change our lives, to change the direction of our lives. The Bible Greek word for "repent, metenoia" means to change you mind and therefore to change the direction of your life. It means to make a reversal of the way you were going, to make a 180 degrees turn. So, in stead of following the things of this world, we follow Jesus. To repent means that we follow the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven. If you are not following Jesus, then you are following sin, death, and the devil. But the things of this world, the temptations of the devil, and our stubborn hearts are so strong, that we do not want to follow Jesus. Worse than that, we cannot follow Jesus.

In order that we can take the road to God, Jesus first had to come to the disciples and to us. He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." At his trial, Jesus told Pontius Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Jn.18:36). His throne was on the cross. Here we see the love of God. That love draws us to him. That sacrificial love forgives our sin. It gives us power and courage to repent. That is, it gives us the strength to follow Jesus, because we know that our sin will be forgiven and not held against us. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repent, for salvation is at hand. With that command there is the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the promise and power of our baptism.

"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And where does Jesus lead us? Where did he lead the fishermen? He led them on a journey where they found out what the kingdom of God was like. They listened to his teaching. They saw his miracles. They saw his love. They saw his courage. They saw his suffering and death. And they saw his resurrection. When we follow Jesus, we too have an adventure. It is not all fun. There are trials, tribulations, temptations, troubles and terror. But Jesus is always with us. And because Jesus is with us, or rather, because we are following him, he is showing the path that leads to the kingdom of God. All of those sorrows and sufferings and sighs make us follow Jesus a bit closer, we reach out and take his hand so that we do not get lost.

Peter and the disciples left everything behind and followed Jesus. Some of us may do the same. But the Holy Spirit probably will show you and me a way to follow Jesus that is different than that of the disciples. Perhaps we do not need to leave everything behind, because our mission may well be to proclaim the Gospel to our families, friends, and fellow workers. For that mission, we do not throw away our possessions; rather we use the resources that God has given us. We donft take off and go to a far-away place, we stay at home. Perhaps that is even harder than the job of Peter and the disciples. We follow Jesus in our daily lives.

Amen.

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