Sermon for 1/25/26

Sermon 1-25-26 Isaiah 9:1-4 Mt. 4:12-23 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

I don't think anyone in this room today has spent their entire life in this town without leaving. Probably a majority have moved here from somewhere else. I was born here, in the Salem hospital. But, I did leave here for five years, back in the seventies.

Most folks don't just wake up one morning and say to themselves, “I think I'll move somewhere else” and throw a dart at a map on the wall. You go to another town for a reason.

Bible scholars think Jesus had a reason to move from His hometown of Nazareth to Capernaum. Three reasons actually. They're covered by the three topics of our Gospel reading today; John the Baptist, Jesus' ministry and His disciples.

At this point in history the Hebrew nation was split into two or maybe three separate parts, the northern kingdom of Galilee and the southern kingdom of Judea with Samaria in the middle. Samaria was kind of like a trashy trailer park that was between the other two. A good, devout, orthodox Jew closed his eyes and held his nose when he had to travel through Samaria to get to or from Galilee and Judea.

Nazareth is at the southern edge of Galilee, a stone's throw from Samaria. It probably only had two or three hundred people at that time. Think of it as Alma. Capernaum, twenty miles as the crow flies north west, was five times as big. On the edge of the Sea of Galilee and a major cross of east/west and north/south trade routes. Think of it as Effingham with its intersection of interstates 57 and 70.

The three Synoptic Gospels all have Jesus waiting for John the Baptist to end his ministry before Jesus begins His. John the Apostle doesn't wait that long in his Gospel. John's Gospel has Jesus beginning His ministry before The Baptist's arrest.

Matthew's book was written to a primarily Jewish audience after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70. He uses numerous Old Testament references to prove that Jesus is the Messiah the Jews have been waiting on for many centuries.

There is a loose quotation by Matthew from our Old Testament reading from today. He might have stretched it just a bit.

“Land of Zebulum, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”

Zebulun and Naphtali were two of Jacob's twelve sons. They were given areas in Galilee to settle with their families. These areas were located in the most fertile parts of the Jewish nation and next to Syria. Consequentially they were also the first areas to be invaded from the bigger and stronger armies from the north and east.

Each time hordes of invaders came out of the rising sun they would carry off, as captives, the smartest and best looking Jewish people. By the time of Jesus the whole of the Galilean population was over 50% mixed Gentiles, the perfect mix of people who would have been open to new thoughts and ideas.

They had been conquered, taken away and resettled more than any other group or area in the region. They were always ready to listen to and accept new ways.

The historian Josephus, who was at one time the governor of Galilee, said the people there were ever ready to follow a leader and begin an insurrection. The preparation of history made Galilee the one place in all of Palestine where a new teacher, with a new message had any real chance of being heard.

The people would have known that John the Baptist had been arrested. He was big news, all over the internet. Then Jesus comes to town. He picks up right where John left off. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”.

And Jesus becomes big news, in a town that craves news.

If you read the Gospel of Matthew as a stand alone book, you might get the idea that as Jesus is walking along the edge of the lake he is meeting Peter, Andrew, James and John for the first time. This might be the case, maybe, maybe not.

All of the Gospels were written to target a specific audience, with a specific type of argument in mind. Matthew and Mark's accounts of this lake shore meeting are very similar. Luke tells it a little different and John has the meeting way down south along the River Jordan where J t B is baptizing.

As Christians we should not worry ourselves with the minute details and dialogues of the first, second or even third and fourth meetings of these men. We don't need to call in an elite team of cold case detectives to uncover the details. We just have to have faith and be thankful to God that the thing occurred.

Jesus hand picked these men, He gave them His personal invitation to follow Him. To learn from Him and to share what they learned with the world. There was Peter, Andrew, James and John. These are the English names that we have here in America today. Those are not their given names in the Aramaic language that they spoke then and there.

Nearly all of the men of that time and place had nicknames. Peter is Greek, it means rock. His true name in Aramaic was Simon, with the Aramaic nickname of Cephas, pronounced “Kefa”. Andrew, James and John are all Greek translations.

They were all fishermen, working with their fathers and their grandfathers and great-grandfathers before them. They had a steady employment, unlike day laborers, they knew in advance what they would be doing from day to day. They were not rich or poor. Just like fishing around here, some days were good, some days not so good.

But, when the Son of God called them they walked away from everything they had. Here was a new teacher with a new message, they jumped at the chance to follow Him.

Jesus' act of calling disciples is a common event in the Middle East. A person with a grievance invites other people to join him in resolving the grievance. We do not know Jesus' grievance, but the disciples certainly did. This explains in part why they dropped everything to follow Him.

For three years, twenty-four seven they followed. They listened while He preached and taught. They watched while He healed and raised the dead. They saw that Jesus was concerned with both body and soul. After that they all moved to another town. And they had a reason, they didn't just throw a dart at a map.

Amen.