“Irrelevancy”

“Follow me” Jesus says. But why? Why should we follow you? “Follow me” Jesus says. But where? Where are you going?

These are the question I would ask, if I was Peter or Andrew or James or John. It’s what I would want to know before I’d go anywhere. What about you? Wouldn’t you be curious to know why Jesus is the one you should follow? Wouldn’t you want to know where exactly he’s going before you left your old life behind and hit the road with him?

That’s the weird thing about our Gospel this morning. There is no record of Peter or Andrew or James or John asking those questions. Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee and sees two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting their nets into the sea because they were fisherman. This was their vocation, their living.

And he says to them, apparently without preamble or discussion or question and answer time, “Follow me.” He does promise them something, does at least say what it is he plans to do with them if they should leave their nets and follow him. He promises to make them “fishers of men”. Of course it seems to me this opens up a whole other line of questioning: why would you want to catch people? What are we going to do with them once they’ve been caught? Is this a catch and release kind of deal? What does Jesus do with those he hauls in?

But again, there are no questions asked. No answers given. Just the command “Follow me”. And immediately Matthew says, immediately without discussion, questions, or contemplation they left their nets, right where they were at, didn’t even clean them properly and put them away, just dropped everything and upped and walked away at Jesus’ word.

There are miracles in the bible that get everyone’s attention. Healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons. That’s all in our Gospel today too. But there are miracles that are not always seen as miracles, that don’t capture the interest of commentators or preachers or most people sitting in the pews. But these are the miracles, I must confess, that are often most interesting to me. The ones that have not yet had all the wonder drained from them by exegetical analysis and Ph.D. dissertations.

The great miracle to me in this reading is not the healing of the demon-possessed, lunatics, and paralytics (by the way, the Greek doesn’t say that it was “epileptics” Jesus was healing that day, but literally lunatics, people who were “moonstruck”. Now, I know a few lunatics. They are a tough crew. There is medicine for epilepsy. But the cure for lunacy has mostly eluded us so far. Jesus can deal with it though. Easily. That’s good to know. Comforting.)

Anyway, those miracles are not the greatest, to me. The greatest miracle, to me, is that Jesus calls four fisherman, tough guys with a skeptical cast of mind as we will come to see, and with just a word, gets them to drop their fishing gear and follow him without a single question as to why or where or what-for. That is stunning to me.

Because, as I said, I’d have lots of questions before I’d drop my nets, leave my boat and traipse after this guy I barely know. Even if I think he is the Messiah, I’d still want to get a few things straight before I follow. I’m not a good follower. It does not come naturally to me. I’d want to know where we are going, why, and how long it will take exactly to get there. Maybe you can relate too? Hmm?

So this is what I want to know: how does this “Follow me” thing work? How does Jesus get these four guys with just a word? How does he overcome their doubts, their skepticism, their questions as to why and wherefore they goeth? Because if I knew how he did it for them, it might just show how Jesus does that for me, for you…

Clever people who read their bibles regularly will point out at this juncture that it wasn’t the first time they’d met Jesus. Our gospel last week actually tells of their first encounter, Andrew, John, and Peter at least with Jesus. The “follow me” thing happened after John went to prison. But our Gospel last week showed how before this, Andrew and John spent a day with Jesus.

We didn’t learn last week what they did that day they spent with Jesus. We don’t know what they saw or heard. But we do hear that, by the end of the day, Andrew at least was convinced this is the Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So that’s a pretty big hurdle to discipleship that has already been cleared. But still Andrew went back to his boat. So did John. Believing Jesus is the Christ is one thing. Following him yourself, leaving everything behind to follow him, is another thing. And I still wonder how that works?

Jesus didn’t come from anywhere special. Galilee. Land of good for nothing. The people who sat in darkness. That was Galilee. The outer darkness. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Nathanael wondered and rightly so. It wasn’t a promising place. So this carpenter from Nazareth shows up and even if John the Baptist says he’s the Christ and even if you get a good vibe from spending the day with him, wouldn’t you need to see more, learn more, know more before you’d leave everything to follow him? I would think most of us would.

But all Jesus gives them is a word… “Follow me”. Which is enough. More than enough. For these four would follow him, literally to the ends of the earth, and further, all the way to this kingdom of heaven he proclaims for us. They saw incredible things along their journey with Jesus. Demons cast out. Lunatics made well. Storms stilled. The dead raised. But nothing more wonderful than Jesus himself. He was the reason they followed. Something about him.

Which I think answers my question as to how this follow me thing works. It works not by having my questions answered. No, it works by the word of Jesus alone. He speaks and I follow. The word does not provide information. It does not explain Jesus or his kingdom to me. It does not tell me where, why, or how we will get there. The word reveals Jesus as the Christ, as the one for me, and that is enough, more than enough, for me to follow him. And in the following, my questions, my doubts, my need for answers melts away…

And our following him naturally pulls others along with us. It’s contagious. There is something about Jesus that, once He’s got into your head, you just have to go where He goes. Be where he is. I think the word for it is… faith. And faith doesn’t trade in questions and answers, or facts and figures, or road maps, timetables, or guidelines. Faith relies on a person—the one who fills our emptiness and lightens our darkness all by himself.

Which is what Jesus delivers by his word and his sacraments to us, today. The gift of himself, no more and no less. He alone turns believing into following. It is for Jesus’ sake alone that we follow. Not because he answers our questions—but because his gifts make our questions irrelevant. He gives the same gifts to you today as he gave the first four—the gift of himself, his body, his blood, his forgiveness, life, and salvation. It doesn’t always seem like a lot. But it is enough, more than enough, that when he says “follow me” you’ll drop everything else and… go. And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind along the way in Christ Jesus the master. Amen.

Rev. Kevin Martin