Time to Follow: 3rd Sunday after Epiphany

It was said of Robert E. Lee that he kept his heart safe from the picklocks of biographers. That hasn't stopped them from trying. But when we come to the “biographies” of Jesus, we have an even bigger issue. Jesus' biographers weren't much interested in showing us His heart. They weren't even all that interested in giving their readers a comprehensive chronology of Jesus' life. Getting inside a great person’s mind: knowing exactly where they were at every point in their life: those are what we modern people demand of biographies. But the authors of the four Gospels had no desire to paint a psychological portrait of Jesus, or to create a coherent timeline of his life.

That leaves us with accounts of Jesus' life that look incomplete, and even contradictory. In last week's Gospel reading from John, we heard one account of how Andrew and Peter were called by Jesus to be His disciples. There we were told that Andrew left John the Baptist to “come and see” where Jesus was staying. And after a time of conversation and reflection, Andrew then brought Jesus to Simon Peter. But today Matthew shows no coming and seeing, no conversation and reflection. You could easily get the impression from Matthew’s Gospel that Simon and Andrew had never laid eyes on Jesus until that moment by the sea. In Matthew’s version of Jesus calling the two brothers, there is only the irresistable call of Jesus to “Follow me.”

Are these two accounts actually contradictory? I don't believe so. But the authors of these Gospels were not interested in giving us a consistent timeline of Jesus' life. They were much more concerned with what they considered the significance of Jesus' words and actions. John and Matthew show us two sides of Christian discipleship: reflection and action. There is a time, as Jesus said last Sunday, to “come and see.” And there is a time, as Jesus says this Sunday, to “follow me.”

So at first there was Andrew, who had already left his brother Simon with their fishing boat to follow and be taught by John the Baptist. There had to be a purpose to his life that went beyond a fishing business. He longed for the liberation of his people Israel from the oppression and sin and slavery. He had thought that John the Baptist was the herald, the announcer of that liberation. And so he learned all he could from John about God's loving purpose for himself and his people.

But then he saw and heard his mentor point to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Andrew may not have been sure what that meant. But he and another of John's disciples had the courage to leave the home they had made with their teacher John and ask this new teacher, “Where are you staying?” And when this new teacher invited them to “come and see,” they came, and saw, and heard. And they felt a warmth in their hearts they had never felt before in their lives. In his excitement, Andrew even got his brother Simon to take a break from his fishing and come south from Capernaum to meet this Jesus. Imagine Simon's surprise when this teacher gives him a new name, Peter the “Rock.”

And then suddenly, Jesus leaves them and wanders off into the desert east of the Jordan River. We know from Matthew’s Gospel that after his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was led into the desert, and tempted by God’s enemy, Satan. Jesus wasn’t quite ready to begin his public ministry in earnest. He still needed to get some clarity about God’s purpose for Him. Of course that left Andrew and Peter hanging. Andrew couldn’t just go back to John. But at that point, he couldn’t go forward with Jesus either. What else could those two brothers do but go back to what they knew – fishing.

Jesus then emerges from the desert, and hears of John’s arrest. The Jordan is very close to Jerusalem, to the powers that be. They have already arrested John, and they would likely arrest any prophet that dared to take his place. So what is Jesus to do? He goes north to Capernaum, where for now he can escape the notice of the powerful. And in Capernaum are Andrew and Peter, and John, the other disciple who joined Andrew in leaving John to follow Jesus, and his brother James. Those pairs of brothers, and Jesus himself, have all had time to reflect on God’s purposes for them. The time for decision has come.

“Follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will show you how to fish for people.” Leave your boats, your livelihoods, your families, whatever you hold dearest. And Jesus will give it back to you in ways that you can’t understand now. Are you good at catching fish? Jesus will teach you how to catch people from falling into loneliness and despair. Are you a tailor who is good at helping people look their best on the outside? Jesus will teach you to help them feel their best on the inside. Do you help people process information, in computerized and other forms? Jesus will teach you the most important information of all: how to live in love with all your fellow human beings. Are you a soldier? Jesus will teach you His great cause of restoring all people to unity with God and each other.

There is a time, as Jesus says, to “come and see.” And there is a time, as Jesus says, to “follow me.” There is a time to reflect on who we need to catch. And there is a time to just do it. I wonder how big our catch will be.