Jesus Cast His Net and Pulled Out Some Ugly Fish

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 22, 2017

Matthew 4:17-20

Jesus Cast His Net and Pulled Out Some Ugly Fish

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Fishing requires patience. For long periods of time you see no results and often go home empty-handed with nothing to show for the day’s work . . . this is also true when you are fishing for fish.

¹⁷From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” ¹⁸As He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, since they were fishermen. ¹⁹He told them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

MATTHEW 4:17-20 NIV 1984

Jesus Himself fished and caught these men as He called these first disciples. And His call to them was to make them also fishers of men. As they would learn, their new calling would require patience.

They would still use nets, but these nets would not be made of rope. Instead they would cast out God’s Word. They would cast out these exact words, repeating the very words of Jesus:

“Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”

This preaching of God’s Word is saying that we are sinners. God says that we are and so we prove our sinfulness daily. Jesus calls you to forgive your enemies and pray mercy upon them. But instead of immediately saying, “Yes, Lord,” we curse them privately in our homes as we listen to the news.

But to us the kingdom of heaven has come near. Through His Word, Jesus is with us. And this real presence that He promises and gives is heaven here on earth. He has come to us in Holy Baptism and washed us clean with water and His promise.

But there are some churches that haven’t seen a baptism in a long time. Is the pastor to blame? The people of the congregation? Probably! We are sinners who are lazy. We always are tempted to ignore Jesus’ call. But perhaps we might remember the work of the apostles. Or even of Our Lord.

Often they would have nothing to show for their efforts. Consider how many souls Jesus had at His crucifixion—what had been hundreds of followers, if not thousands, had dwindled to a handful. The Virgin Mary and the other faithful Marys, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, definitely the thief on the other cross, and perhaps St. John. According to the measurements employed by many in our own circles, Jesus was a failure as a pastor and fisher of men. Then 53 days after Jesus died and 50 days after He rose from the dead, He sent His Holy Spirit and through the sermons of those first Christian preachers, those apostles, over 3,000 souls were baptized into the name of Triune God.

This reminds that preachers are simply to cast out God’s Word: “Repent, the kingdom of heaven has come near!” This means that I am to preach how lazy we are and sinful we are and selfish we are. If we weren't all those wicked things and more, we wouldn’t need to repent, we wouldn’t need to turn away from sin and turn to Jesus. We are, and by the Word of Jesus, He comes near to us and we turn to Him for life.

In the life of Christian and their pastors, there are times for action and rebuke, especially those who are members of our congregation and call themselves believers. If we fail to ever sound a warning, we are unloving and cruel.

But above all, fishers of men must be patient. We cast out Jesus’ promise of life to all who may hear. And sometimes the fish that the Holy Spirit catches up in His nets are ugly. Look at the disciples that Jesus caught. These were ugly men who abandoned Jesus with their doubt and lack of faith and then actually ran away from Him just before He was murdered by evil men.

Our nets caught the same souls. We are not fish that are appealing to the world, but Jesus is delighted to catch us and rejoices to come near to us.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be Served, but to Serve, and to Give His Life as a Ransom for Many. Amen.

Rabbi, Where Are You Staying?

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

January 15, 2017

John 1:38

Rabbi, Where Are You Staying?

In the name

of the Father

and of the ☩ Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

It can be easy to forget that some of Jesus’ disciples were not new to being disciples. Disciple means follower, and Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist before he began following Jesus. And when he switched to Jesus, it was what everyone had been waiting for: Andrew, Jesus, and John himself.

John was sent to point others onto the Messiah, and Jesus was this Messiah. Messiah means Anointed One, the One upon whom oil is poured—or in this astonishing case, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is this Anointed One, as John gladly confessed:

“I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. ³³I would not have known Him, except that the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”

JOHN 1:32-34

And so Andrew began to follow the Messiah, the Jesus who would wash away Andrew’s sinfulness. And Jesus would also become Andrew’s rabbi, his teacher. The relationship of teacher and student is one of questions and answers, and so Jesus and Andrew’s first conversation was just that:

³⁸Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”

³⁹He replied, “Come, and you will see.”

So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour.

JOHN 1:38-39

It seemed so simple. Rabbi, where are You staying? The Greek word here can be staying or remaining or abiding or even enduring. But Andrew just meant where are You staying, where are You eating supper? But these ordinary questions predicted all of Jesus’ teaching to them. He would spend three years teaching Andrew and his brother Peter and the other ten disciples and many more just exactly where He could be found. I imagine a quiet smile on Jesus’ face as He answered Andrew as He looked ahead to their time of learning together.

It would not be all smiles. There were moments when Jesus had to rebuke His disciples for Andrew’s lack of faith, but yet in the end His teaching created in Andrew fear, love, and trust in the true God and His only Son that stayed with Andrew all the days of his life.

Every day, I pray that you like Andrew will ask Jesus, “Teacher, where are You staying?” And through His Scriptures, that is the Holy Bible, He says, “Come, and you will see.”

For even the Son of Man

did not come to be Served,

but to Serve,

and to Give His Life

as a Ransom for Many.

Jesus Washing Away Our Squirming

First Sunday after the Epiphany

Baptism of Our Lord

January 8, 2017

Matthew 3:14

Jesus Washing Away Our Squirming

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

In the story of Jesus’ life there are times when He asks others to do something. When a large crowd of over 5,000 had come to listen to Him preach were getting hungry, He asked one of His disciples, Philip:

“Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”

JOHN 6:5 NIV 1984

Philip’s answers was basically no, Lord, it can’t be done.

But other times His commands are obeyed without objection. When Jesus told a paralytic,

“Get up, take your mat and go home.” [Then the man] got up and went home.

MATTHEW 9:6b-7

Today Jesus asked John to baptize Him. And at first John said no.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”

MATTHEW 3:14

Baptism is washing. But it does more than wash the dirt off of your face and from under your fingernails. This water and the words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” washes away your sin. We were all born with me-first on our hearts. So when Jesus asks us to do anything, we say no. Even when He asks we to do something that is good, we makes excuses.

For example, Jesus tells a husband and wife to be fruitful and multiply. Often the objection among God's own people is, “Well, okay, but not too much fruit and not too much multiplication.” To be clear, this isn’t about a setting of minimum number of kids. Instead the point is how we naturally squirm away from what Jesus says to us. This squirming is our sinful selfishness.

Kids, why do you try to weasel out of chores or homework?

“I didn't make that mess. Reggie did that, not me.”

“Another quiz. We just had a quiz yesterday.”

We squirm, we sin.

John, on the other hand, tried to squirm away because he knew exactly what a wretched sinner he was. It is strange to have a sinner baptize the Only Perfect Man. Yet this was the way Jesus wanted it to be.

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

MATTHEW 3:15

When Jesus assured John that this way was His way, John said yes. And by being baptized, Jesus stepped further into our lives and into our sin, so that He might take our sin and our squirming far away. This is what Jesus did to you when His pastor baptized you. He exchanged our sin for His perfection and He took our sin on Himself. This is how He serves us. And what does He ask us? To trust Him.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be Served, but to Serve, and to Give His Life as a Ransom for Many. Amen.