Matthew 4:12-25
Some of you have heard me talk about Ayman. He was the Syrian-Muslim owner of a deli we frequented in days gone by.
One day, Ayman told me that his brother-in-law, who was from a Christian background, had died suddenly and at a young age. Ayman told me when the visitation would be. I arranged to be at the funeral home just before the calling hours, allowing me to spend a little time with the family before I went to an evening meeting. I actually met members of both families, Christian and Muslim. After giving my condolences, Ayman offered to walk with me to the door.
We’d walked into another room when he asked if we could talk. “Mark,” he asked, “what do you think happens to someone who dies?”
I explained as respectfully as I could (because God's Word tells us to be respectful to those from other backgrounds when we share the substance of our hope as Christians) that, as a follower of Jesus, I believe that all who turn from sin, or repent, and trust in Jesus, have life with God that never ends.
I said that Jesus makes us part of His eternal kingdom as His Holy Spirit enables us to believe in Him.
I told Him that I believe Jesus is God in the flesh, how Jesus came into our world to die for us and bring eternal life to all who follow Him, and how everyone who follows Jesus is in His hands even after we die.
I tried to point Ayman to Jesus.
As I was leaving, Ayman told me, with warmth, “Mark, I really liked hearing what you said back there.”
What happened to elicit such a reaction in a mostly non-practicing Muslim? This is what happened: Jesus happened.
I had no idea that Ayman was going to ask that question of me.
I hadn’t rehearsed anything.
All I did was pray, as I always do in such circumstances, “Jesus, give me the right words and the right silences.” That’s it.
Jesus once taught His followers how to prepare for persecution: “...when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20) I think that this directive from Jesus also has application to our everyday interactions with others. We need to trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the words we need to speak when others who may not know Jesus ask us about Him. Jesus will give us the Holy Spirit do His life-giving, faith-raising work through us. Through us, people can encounter Jesus.
We see what happens when people encounter Jesus in today’s gospel lesson, Matthew 4:12-25. It shows us ways in which the Word of Jesus, God the Son, can come to us and transform our lives. In our encounter with Jesus today, we hear Him bring the Law, the Gospel, and God’s call to obedience.
Early in our lesson, we’re told that Jesus says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)
We moderns cringe at the word repent. “Don’t guilt me,” we say.
Now, the command to repent is Law, God’s Law. But to repent isn’t necessarily to cover ourselves in ashes or engage in a lot of self-referential blubbering.
The word in the original Greek in which Matthew and all the New Testament writers composed their books is metanoeite. It means change your mind, as in, “I was walking along a path that pleased me, but when God got through to me, showing me how I was destroying myself, I changed my mind and went the other way.”
A few months ago, a man I’ve known for some time wrote to me about a conversation he’d had with a friend. He’d said some rough words to this friend. He told me, “I think that I was right. But what do you think?”
Honestly, I don’t always answer such questions immediately.
I want to be careful about giving “life advice” when I know that I fail and fall in this business of living, let alone living righteously, as anyone else.
I also wait in order to pray over my responses to questions I get.
But I finally did write that man what I think he already suspected, that his rough words maybe were too rough and that even when we speak hard truths, we must do so with the love of Jesus for the other person. After getting my email, the man changed his mind. He repented and apologized to his friend.
My response to him had nothing to do with me. God gave me His Word and His wisdom and the Holy Spirit changed the man's mind. That was all the work of the Word of Jesus speaking through me.
Jesus also says in verse 17, “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
That, friends, is good news, the gospel from God!
This gospel tells us that though we may live in a world of darkness, sin, and death and though we may be sinners, violators of God’s Law who can hardly stand to look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning from guilt and shame, let alone look into the eyes of Jesus, Jesus, the King of kings, has come with God’s grace--His charity--to bring us into His light, under His reign.
He does this not because we deserve His love, but simply because He chooses to love us.
We may find it hard to love the unlovable; but God does love the unlovable, even you and me. And that's something to be celebrated, relished, and enjoyed, something that fills us with thankfulness and praise to God!
When Jesus and His kingdom come to us and His Word of love gives us the faith in Him that makes us His, we are compelled to believe and empowered to believe that absolutely nothing, not even death, can separate us from God or His loving, eternal intentions for us.
As one Lutheran layperson wrote this past week on Twitter, “‘ALL YOUR SIN IS FORGIVEN FOR CHRIST’S SAKE.’ If you believe this, God has given you the gift of faith. There is nothing that you need do. It is already done to you. Now, go live.”
“I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul writes in the New Testament, “because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes...” (Romans 1:16)
It was the power of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, that warmed Ayman’s heart that day in the funeral home.
Later in our lesson, Jesus approaches two sets of brothers who are fishermen: Simon Peter and Andrew, John and James. Jesus tells them to follow Him and they do so, “at once,” “immediately.”
After God’s Word in Jesus convicts us of our sin in the Law that says, “Repent”...after that same Word convinces us of God’s love and good intentions for us in the Gospel, we’re open to doing what might have otherwise been unthinkable to us.
We’re ready to follow Jesus.
We’re ready to go where He takes us.
This doesn’t mean that if you’re a Christian, you should become a pastor or a missionary.
It means following Him wherever we may be--at work, at school, at home, in doctors’ offices, grocery stores, restaurants, gyms, community gatherings, sporting events, social media.
God taking on human flesh, dying for us, and rising for us tells us that the kingdom of heaven isn’t a place in the sky; it’s wherever Jesus’ gospel Word of Law or Gospel comes to us, transforming us from God’s enemies to God’s friends, forever.
As we live daily in repentance and faith, we carry Jesus’ Word with us, creating the possibility that still more people will encounter Jesus as they did in today’s gospel lesson.
This is how darkness and death are defeated in this world.
This is how the kingdom of heaven shows itself even in the imperfection and sadness of this world.
Not with political agendas or social programs, though each has their places.
Darkness and death are defeated only as the Word of Jesus pierces our sin, selfishness, and despair through the Law, the Gospel, and His call to obediently follow.
When we hear and respond to Jesus’ Word to repent, believe, and follow Him, we are changed forever.
And we might, by His presence in and with us, become the instruments by which Jesus forever changes the lives of others too. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
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