Last week, as you remember we talked about the call to discipleship. We talked about what a disciple was in Jesus day. We compared a student with a disciple. We even talked about some of the things I believe are necessary to a life of discipleship: community, accountability, outreach, service and care. Being a disciple means not only do we study scripture to know God through Christ, but it means doing the things Christ did so we can become just like Christ. A disciple is one who becomes what the teacher is. The goal of Christian discipleship is Christlikeness, or holiness of heart and life.
This week we are going to conclude our look at discipleship by looking at the cost of discipleship. In economics, they teach that everything has a cost. Did you know there is a cost to sitting in my living room on Saturday afternoon and watching Ohio State football? Even though my TV is paid for, and even if my I didn’t need cable to watch TV, there would be a cost. Watching that game cost me a fishing trip, it cost me a date with my wife, it cost me whatever else I could have done with that time. Everything we do costs us something. So what is the cost of discipleship?
Let’s find out together as we hear from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 4, verses 12-23. Matthew 4.12-23. Hear the word of the Lord.
READ MATTHEW 4.12-23
This passage is really the passage that moves Jesus into public ministry and introduces the key theme of Matthew’s story of Christ. It begins with a transition from John’s ministry to Jesus’. John is imprisoned and Jesus is turned loose. Another Messianic prophecy is fulfilled and Jesus begins preaching the very same message John preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” And away he went.
As he went, he ran across a couple of brothers: Peter and Andrew. They were fishing. They were working. They were learning the family trade. Remember the educational system in Jesus’ day? If they were working, if they were learning the family trade, then they were drop outs – they weren’t the best of the best. Jesus turns to them and says the famous words, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people!” What did Peter and Andrew do? They at once, immediately, I mean right now, dropped their nets and followed. And away they went.
A little farther up the lakeshore, they bumped into the competition. Another boat was fishing. In it were two more brothers – James and John – and their father Zebedee. Remember the educational system in Jesus’ day? If they were working, if they were learning the family trade, then they were drop outs – they weren’t the best of the best. Jesus stops, turns to them, and called them too! They immediately, at once, I mean right now, left the boat and their father behind and followed Jesus. And away they went. To change the world.
Now I want to ask you, what is the cost of discipleship? Let’s start by reviewing the obvious – what we have always been taught. What did being a disciple of Jesus cost these four brothers. It cost them nets and boats, it cost them their father. It cost them their career and it cost them their family. Those are no small potatoes. And just incase giving up career and family isn’t enough, consider what career and family mean. What do they mean to us?
Now lets say you meet a new person. What do you ask them? You most likely ask them their name. Names are important. They tells us who we are. They tell us where you come from. When people meet Antonina, they immediately know something about her. They know her family is Italian. They know something about her. This is especially obvious here, in a small town. Last names, family, means everything. Oh, you’re a Winstell, or you’re a Fiala, or you’re a Dorand, a Wells, a Turner, a Sutherin. Just the other day I was in Lowe’s. The cashier said she was a Mosti. I don’t know her, but I know Mosti is a Toronto name. Names – family – are significant. Names are our identity. For better or for worse, we are our family. The disciples left their father behind. They gave up their family. Discipleship cost them their identity.
Let’s talk a little about fishing, since it is one of my favorite things. Fishing was their career. Jesus came up to Andrew, Peter, James and John with they were at work. Now not only did following Christ cost them their identity, it cost them their career. At first, we might all rejoice because to follow Christ, they walked off the job. But let’s consider for a moment the implications of leaving your job. A job, as you all understand very well is not just a job. A job is a paycheck. A paycheck is a roof over your head, light and heat, food on the table, clothes on you back, school supplies for the kids. A job is health insurance. A job is retirement. We could sum it all up by concluding that a job is security. I think you all probably understand that better than most.
I also think you all understand, probably better than most, what happens when all of a sudden that job is gone. The paycheck is gone. The health insurance is gone. The retirement is gone. Your security is gone. Your way of life is gone. Everything changes when the job is gone. All of life is touched dramatically when there is no reliable paycheck. So what was the cost of discipleship? Identity? Security? Who you are? Your way of life? How others see you? What or who you depend on from day to day? It all changes.
Or maybe even better, it is all transformed. Let’s get back to the fishing. Jesus didn’t just call them away from their fishing job, he transformed their fishing job. He fulfilled, if you will, their fishing job. “Come,” he said, “Follow me. I will make you fishers of men.”
I think, sometimes, that this is where we get a little bit of a wrong idea. We talk about fishing, and we think of the movie, “A River Runs Through It.” We think of quiet afternoons, waist deep in some stream, silently launch a small feather fly into the waiting mouths of beautiful trout. The sun shines bright, the wind gently blows, a small campfire smolders on the shore just waiting to fry the delicious trout.
This picture, this “I’d Rather Be Fishing” type of image completely misses the mark. Perhaps a better picture of fishing, as understood by the disciples would be The Discovery Channel’s, “Most Dangerous Catch.” Anyone seen it? It is set on the Baring Sea between Alaska and Russia, in the wintertime, during crab season. Just a handful of men, alone on a boat, fishing round the clock, battling darkness and weather and icebergs and mammoth waves that would make the noblest of us quiver.
Now fishing is not a leisure time activity for the crews of these boats. It is a way of life. It is quite fulfilling. It is quite rewarding. It is quite challenging and dangerous and always changing. It is hard work, it is frustrating, it is discouraging at times. These fishermen have to be good at what they do if they are going to catch fish. They have to be students of the skies, students of the seas, students of the time of day and time of year, they have to be watch the winds and the currents. Why? They just want to catch fish.
How many fish do you suppose I’d catch if I tied on a rubber worm and never used anything else? Not very many. Why? Fish change. When the wind changes directions, the way a fish acts changes. When the barometric pressure changes, the way a fish acts changes. When the water temperature changes, the way a fish acts changes. When the water level, or the time of day, or the time of year, or the color of the water changes the fish change. And what happens if the fish change but I don’t? I don’t catch fish. I don’t catch fish I starve. I starve, I die.
So let’s recap just a minute. What is the cost of discipleship? A new identity, and new way of life. It is rewarding and fulfilling, but it is hard work. It is willingness to change, it is stormy seas and bitter winds. It has its share of dark nights. Nights so dark, seas so rough, that all seems to be lost. Is your head spinning yet? Are you feeling overwhelmed yet? You feeling like the fog is rolling in and the darkness is settling? You feeling apprehensive? Unsure? Lost? You are not alone.
Let’s backtrack just a little, because this is where the really good news comes in. Matthew really depends on Old Testament prophecies, and on Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecies. Here he quotes Isaiah, “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” Two things strike me. We are all taught that when we become lost, the best thing to do is to sit down and stay put. In the midst of all the cost talk, I feel quite inadequate, quite unsure, quite lost. The fog has rolled upon us, the darkness has settled in our heads are spinning. He have sat down. We have stayed put. The world is changing so fast. People are so different than they used to be. Perhaps you have sensed this change. Becoming overwhelmed by the change and the darkness, we did what we have been taught. We sat down. We stayed put.
But now, in Christ, we have seen a great light. I used to think about this light in terms of light driving out the darkness, but against this backdrop I can’t help but think of the light kind of like a star. My grandfather was a navigator on B-29s and B-52s. He navigated by the starts. It could be pitch black, darkness all around, but if you could make out a handful of stars, you could set a course and get back on the right path despite the darkness around you.
I don’t know how you view this world in which we find ourselves. I don’t know what you think about all this talk of change. The world changing, the church changing to reach out to a changing world. I know these days can be tough. I know change is not a pleasant prospect. I know for many of us ministering in the world is a dark, intimidating, and sometimes scary prospect. I know the cost of discipleship is high, but I also know that there is a great light. And if we will always keep focused on that light – if we will always walk together toward that light – then all the other stuff will fall into place.
Yes the cost of discipleship is high. Yes there will be many dark nights. Yes being a fisher of men is hard work, scary, and means we will have to give up the way of life we knew to adapt to the changing of the fish. But in Christ, God has given us a beacon, a guide, a compass so that even in the darkest of times we can still make our way toward Him. To the glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment