1-22-23 Sermon & Scripture

John got arrested. 

It had been such a wonderful, intensely powerful time. God was moving. Folks by the thousands had been heading out to a wilderness part of the Jordan River to hear John preach. So many Israelites getting right with God again, repenting, being baptized. At the very site where Joshua led the people of Israel into the promised land the first time, at the very site where the prophet Elijah ascended into heaven, John launched a powerful revival, calling people back to God. 

That’s where it all started, this thing we call the New Testament. It started with John. And many of the names you come to know later also got their start there. Andrew and the Beloved John, probably others as well. And even Jesus was a part of it, not as a leader, but someone who was baptized by John, learning from John, a part of this renewal movement. 

Some people tried to tell John to stay out of politics and criticizing leaders, but John didn’t listen. “Is that something God stays away from?” John would say. Apparently Herod, or actually, rumor has it, Herod’s new wife, who had recently divorced Herod’s brother – she was offended by John. So John got arrested and was now sitting in a jail cell and that seems to be the end of the movement.

If there was ever a time to get angry, it’s now. Herod’s got the guns, but we just might have the numbers. But there was a vacuum of leadership, no organization. The movement had been more spiritual than tactical. But we Galilean boys would sign up, for anything, if given the chance. It’s time for that prophecy to come true, for light to shine on this Galilean land of darkness, where God promises that there will be joy like soldiers dividing plunder, when God will destroy our enemies as on the day of Midian, where just 300 people wiped out entire troops of fierce warriors. Just give me a Bible and a weapon. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? What can man do to me? That’s what we Galilean boys wanted, but for the moment we were just floundering in impotent rage. What do you do when you are floundering in impotent rage? You go fishing. You get a job. You do whatever you can to stay alive, and keep your ears open for any kind of action that may be in the works. Imagination can be very limited in such times.

And then there’s this guy Jesus, who had been a part of John’s ministry and had even been pointed out by John as the person John was getting everyone ready for. But Jesus disappeared for a while. So what do we do now? And then all of the sudden, we hear that Jesus is preaching, like John, that people should repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near. 

That’s what we want. The kingdom of heaven. But we were really just following the headlines and watching Jesus from afar. Where was Jesus going with this thing? Was he serious? Was he willing to fight and die, or was he all talk? Was he being politically savvy and careful so as not to get in trouble? Should we follow him? Can we trust him? It was hard to tell at this point, so let’s just keep fishing.

And as we’re fishing, one day on the beach, Jesus comes along, looks at us in our impotent rage, and says, “Follow me, and you’ll fish for people.” Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger boat.

We know what he means, at least we’re pretty sure we do. It’s time for judgment and vengeance. In the Old Testament, whenever God talks about fishing for people, it’s God spreading a net, casting a hook, to bring in the big bad rulers like a hunter or a fisher would. They are going to be slaughtered. And it’s time for Herod to get what’s coming to him.

Of course, hindsight. Jesus’ call was something we wouldn’t have understood at the time. Yes, it was a call to bring down wickedness. Yes, it was a call to catch people for God, in a certain way. Yes, Jesus was bringing about the kingdom of heaven to overthrow the kingdoms of earth. But the bigger boat Jesus was calling us into was not the glory of judgment and vengeance and revolution.

What I’ve learned over the years is just say ‘yes’ to Jesus without pretending to understand why and what and how, without creating a picture of the future before it happens. Because there’s no way to explain this future and this call to your past self. Just trust Jesus.

Now, some people, also without knowing the future, would see these Galilean boys and say, “These guys want to take on Herod? They’re toast! They’re going to get crucified!” That’s not completely off the mark, either, yet also totally misunderstanding.

Jesus said, “Follow me,” and these guys left the boat and their fathers and followed Jesus. Where did Simon, Andrew, James, and John follow him to? Did James have any inkling that in just a few years, Herod would decapitate him? Did Simon Peter and Andrew know that they would leave this boat, a piece of wood, and end up on another piece of wood, as they were both crucified, both of them also requesting, out of a feeling of unworthiness, to be crucified in a more difficult manner than their Lord? Andrew was crucified on a giant X, with his arms and his legs outstretched, and Peter was crucified upside-down. John would be the one who would live to a ripe old age without being martyred, but he wasn’t let off easy – he was boiled in oil. All four of these people would not just leave their boats, leave their father, but be ostracized by their friends and the authorities of their faith, because of this Jesus guy. 

But they also didn’t know the tasks that awaited them when they left the boat. Peter would go to Rome and be head of the church there. Andrew would go up to Byzantium, which today is Istanbul, and up the Black Sea all the way up the Dnieper River into what is now Ukraine, and that there would be many nations who consider Andrew their patron saint and special protector – including Scotland, Russia, and Greece. John was going to end up taking care of Jesus’ mother Mary after Jesus died, and would take her to Ephesus in modern-day Turkey, one of the largest cities of the ancient world, to head up the thriving church there. And James is most famous among people who can’t even say his name right, including us, because for some reason, we call him James, but his name isn’t anywhere close to that, it’s Yakob, or Jacob. We can say Jacob. I don’t know why we call him James. He would not respond to the name James. But in Spanish it’s even worse. Because in Latin, Saint Jacob is Sanctu Iacobu, the Celtic barbarians living in Galicia ended up saying, Santiago. Jacob, brother of John (or Yochanan) certainly would never think people saying Santiago were talking to him. People he’d never even heard of, but after he died, people brought his remains to Spain as they went to share the gospel as far west as they thought possible, and Spain was ripe for harvest. Even after death, James was a fisher of men. His faithful witness unto death was attractive to these people on the Atlantic coast. 

But these four didn’t know all that. They just followed Jesus, wherever he was going. They left their jobs, they left their families, so irresponsible-seeming. But Jesus was more important than their jobs or their families. They had been wondering and waiting when Jesus was going to find them. They were ready for an adventure.

Wise people might say they were foolish, but Paul reminds us that the wisdom of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it’s the power of God.

Just say yes to Jesus. You don’t know where he’ll take you, but know that the adventure is far bigger than you can imagine. You might have thought you needed a bigger boat, but you’re still thinking too small. Jesus has a bigger boat for you.