Matthew 4:12-23

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.

Questions

1) What are your initial thoughts, ideas and emotions when you read this text?

2) What is your experience of borders? Places where cultures and ethnicities mingle?

3) Think about your sense of identity, how do you understand who you are in relation to the wider world? Nationality? Race? Gender? Sexuality? Academic achievement? Languages? Religion? Ability? etc? How do these identities help and hinder your relationships with others?

4) Think of a time when you've made a big decision. How did you make that decision? Where was the balance between considered thought and impulsive trust?

5) How are we spiritually able to prepare for surprises and shocks? Positive and negative?

6) Would if have been ok for Andrew and Simon to say no to Jesus?

Transcript (Extended)

This week’s reading tells us about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.

Jesus spends chapter 3 of Matthew’s gospel in the desert of Judea which is south of Galilee, firstly he’s spending time with John the Baptist, then he goes further into the desert for a time of prayer which becomes a time of temptation.

Then John is arrested.

It seems that after John is arrested those associated with him flee, in Jesus’ case he flees north back to his home area of Galilee.

One curiosity that I’ve never noticed before is that John was ministering in Judea, an area ruled by a Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. However somehow he ends up in the custody of Herod Antipas who ruled Galilee to the north. The gospel doesn’t tell us how and why. Given that John is held by Herod it’s interesting that Jesus moves north as well into Herod’s territory.

Maybe this is why Jesus goes to Capernaum, if you look at a Map of Galilee in the first century, Nazareth is in the south, it’s roughly between the two big towns of the region, Sepphoris and Tiberias. Capernaum is in the north of Galilee on the north shore the lake.

Capernaum is also near the border with gentile territory, roughly speaking on the west side of the lake and the river Jordan it was Jewish territory, and on the east side it was gentile. As we move through the gospel we see that Jesus moves between these Jewish and Gentile area.

Of course borders are porous, people moved around. We’re not talking here about areas which would have been universally Jewish or gentile.

In the quote from Isaiah this diversity is mentioned, “Galilee of the gentiles”, or perhaps it’s better put as “Galilee of the nations”, or “Galilee of the peoples”. Galilee of diversity.

When Jesus calls his first two disciples we see this diversity.

Andrew…… is a Greek name. In the gospel it’s actually Andreas which we anglicise to Andrew. It literally means “pertaining to man” or we might say “manly” or maybe just “man”. Or in our times we might gender neutralise it to “Human”.

And Simon…. Which in Greek is Simeon. Simon is a more complicated name, the gospel is written in Greek. This was a name used by Greek people, it means “Flat-nosed”. But it’s also an older Hebrew name, in Hebrew it’s “Shimon”, which means “Listen” or “Hearing”.

Simon is a name which crosses borders.

Simon and Andrew are brothers. One with a Greek name, the other maybe with a Hebrew name. They live in a border lane, Jews on the edge of gentile lands.

What does it tell us that Jesus chooses these two to call as his first disciples?

The other detail we have about them is that they’re poor. In the next verse when we meet James and John, they have a boat, they are also with their father, given life expectancy at the time we imagine that James and John were probably fairly young, older teenagers.

Simon and Andrew don’t have a boat, we might imagine that they’re casting a net from the shore.

When Jesus calls they drop their net and follow.

What do you make of the immediacy of the story. We’re told that both sets of brothers respond quickly, they stop what they’re doing and follow. It’s metanoia in action.

But what of their responsibilities?

We learn later that Peter has a mother in law, meaning that he must have been married or widowed. Did he have children? We’re never told.

And James and John, they get up and leave their father. What became of him?

There is so much information that we’re left wondering about.

I think there’s an interesting contrast in the gospel. Jesus is presented to us as a very considered and measured figure. He spends 40 days in the desert praying and thinking, struggling with temptation. We have teaching is that well thought out, Jesus’ actions are deliberate.

But in contrast we disciples who are willing to impulsively trust. In a few moments they sense something of Jesus which leads them to drop everything and follow. They make an action of trust, a trust which is based on very little information. They don’t think it all out, they don’t even stop to pray about it, they just act.

In our own lives we need to find a way to navigate these poles of discernment. When do we spend a long time working out what we are to do. And when do we impulsively drop everything and just act.

There’s no right answer, I am sure for all of us both are appropriate to different times in our lives.

For me, I like to imagine that Simon and Andrew had spent hour and hour thinking and praying, and talking to each other, as they sat on the shore casting their nets.

Their decisions of one moment were possible because they had prepared themselves.

On this occasion of reading this gospel text that’s what I take away. A sense of expectant preparation. For each of us times of call will appear as if from nowhere, we can’t predict what they will be, we can’t know when they will come. We can expect that they will surprise us, and at times be completely different from what we had hoped or imagined.

Being ready to welcome these calls is an ongoing task. A task of knowing ourselves better, knowing God better, knowing each other better.