3rd Sunday after Epiphany
Matthew 4:12-22
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, 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, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” From that time, Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Fishing for People
This is one of the first stories that I remember learning about Jesus, when I was a little kid in Sunday school. The gospels of Mark and Matthew have the simplest versions of this story: Jesus comes up to some fishermen, tells them that they are going to fish for people now, instead of fishing for fish, and they immediately stop what they’re doing, and they follow him. These two versions leave out what I always thought was the coolest part. In the gospel of Luke, before telling Simon that he is going to fish for people, Jesus tells him to cast his net into the water again, even though Simon had been fishing all day without catching any fish. And Simon casts his net into the water, and he catches so many fish that the net starts to break, and the fishermen from the other boat have to come and help him.
The gospel of John doesn’t have this story at all, but it does have an echo of the story. After his resurrection, Jesus goes to visit Simon Peter and four other disciples, who are once again fishing on the Sea of Galilee, otherwise known as the Sea of Tiberius. And once again, Simon Peter and the other disciples had been fishing all day, but not catching any fish. And from the beach, Jesus calls out to them, telling them to try again, but this time to lower their nets on the other side, the right side, and they catch so many fish that they’re not able to pull the nets in, and this is when Simon Peter realizes that the person who told him to try again was Jesus, his resurrected Lord. And, Simon Peter was so excited, that he jumped into the water, and swam to the shore.
Throughout my life, I’ve simply accepted this phrase “fishers of people,” without really thinking too much about it. Growing up in the United States, with our particular brand of Christianity, carried on the wind and floating on the water, I assumed this was a reference to what many people think of when they hear the word evangelism. That to “catch people” meant converting them to Christianity so that they could declare Jesus Christ as their savior and Lord, so that they could get into heaven. As my theology changed, so did my understanding of this phrase, but at its heart, I still understood it to be about evangelism. It wasn’t until this last Friday, when I was at the capital, listening to indigenous speakers talking about the effects of climate change on their tribes, and listening high school and middle school kids begging the adults in that room to change our ways and do something to save the world that they are inheriting, listening to how scared and desperate they are, that I was really able to understand what Jesus was asking of his disciples. He wasn’t asking them to spread the word about him so that people could just think about him and pray to him and believe in him in the safety of their homes, never putting their faith into action, or if they are, only to spread the word to other people to do more of the same. He was asking them to change the world. He was asking them to start a revolution.
Another way we could say the phrase “fishing for people” could be “bringing people to the truth.” Jesus was telling the disciples to bring people to the truth of what he stood for, not just who he was. This was the start of Jesus’ ministry, and he was getting ready to cause trouble! Remember, this is the Jesus who hung out with the wrong crowd, who healed on the Sabbath, who chased the moneylenders out of the temple. The society that Jesus and his disciples lived in was based on power and dominion and greed. Jesus was calling for a disruption for all of that. Jesus was telling his disciples to speak the truth and to bring people to the truth. They were being sent to fish for people.
There were a lot of truths being spoken at the capital on Friday, truths that a lot of the people in power don’t want us to believe. Climate change is real, and we only have about ten years to get it under control before it’s too late. Climate change isn’t a political issue. It effects everyone, and we all need to work together so that we can save ourselves. Let’s be honest, we talk a lot about saving the world, but the world will be fine. The Earth has experienced at least 6 mass extinction events in its past, and the world kept turning, the world kept revolving around the sun. And, life spread across the planet again each time. The Earth will be fine. It’s us that I’m worried about. It’s the human beings that are at stake. For the last few years, I’ve been hearing about how the next world war is going to be over water. Look at how much strife there is in the world right now because people are fighting over oil, something that is not a necessity for life. How much more devastating will things be when people are fighting for water?
We have a lot of fishing to do in our modern times. We need to bring people to the truth, the truth that you can have all of the money in the world, and it won’t matter if the Earth can no longer support human life. The truth that you can have all of the power and control in the world, but you won’t be able to hold on to it when power and control is what everyone else wants as well. We need to disrupt these ways of thinking. We need to become fishers of people. We need to bring people to the truth.
One indigenous woman spoke about how it doesn’t matter what racial or ethnic background a person comes from; we are all siblings. And, that is something that I feel like I already knew, something that I already believe. But, listening to her speak, I realized that I have to remember that is not something that everyone believes. And, some people work really hard to spread the falsehood that people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not siblings. They spend a lot of time and money to spread the falsehood that people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not siblings. Because it distracts us. It distracts us from the truth and from caring about what really matters. It distracts us from finding out what they’re doing.
Jesus’ words are echoing out across the universe, across time and space, jumping off the pages of the Bible into the eyes and ears of today, “I am going to make you fishers of people.” Peace will not come through power and control over others. Peace will come when salvation and healing are given to everyone. Jesus is inviting us to be a different kind of community, to be the citizens of a different kind of society. We are being called to bear witness to what God has done, what God has always been doing, what God will always do. God has always bent the arc of history to make things better, to heal and to shelter, and to give food and drink. To build community. To spread love and peace and joy. And, even though we keep turning our backs on God, even though we keep saying and doing things that are the opposite of what God wants, God keeps showing up for us. Jesus keeps speaking to us. The Holy Spirit keeps pulling on our heartstrings, “I am going to make you fishers of people.” “I am going to make you fishers of people.” “I am going to make you fishers of people.”
Jesus is calling us to do dangerous and disruptive work. Jesus is calling us to do things that will make other people upset and uncomfortable. Jesus is calling us to speak truth to power, and that means being honest about what is happening to the world itself, and how that affects the most vulnerable people in the world. Jesus is calling us to fish for people, to bring people to the truth.
Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
