In Matthew 4, we see how Jesus redefines discipleship in light of power and the greatest threat to all of humanity: the desire for supremacy.
the call to the extraordinary way of love
Epiphany 3A | Matthew 4:12-23
I’m sure there were more than a few people here who heard the names Zebulun and Naphtali and were like “Oh yeah those cities. Totally. Yeah. Of course. Makes total sense.” While nodding in that over-exaggerated way. “Oh yeah, Galilee. Of course!”
And the rest are like “Am I supposed to know these places?” No. Not really.
Because we get the gist of what the author is saying. Jesus couldn’t stay in his hometown, so he went to another one that’s in the same region. Like different cities in the same state.
And the evangelist we call Matthew makes it clear that this somehow fulfills scripture. So for some people, that’s all they need to know. Got it! We’re all on board.
Of course, there’s more. If we want it. And the lectionary pointed right to it by giving us part of Isaiah 9.
Isaiah 9
That scripture reveals the coming of a great transformation that starts in Zebulun and Naphtali. Because of the corruption of those communities.
The lectionary cuts off the best part.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
This is a pretty spicy passage. It names the transformation of the world in a revolutionary way. That the human leaders are not cutting it and have lost their way. So God is changing this whole deal!
And the prophet keeps going, describing how all of Israel needs to be changed. So this transformation isn’t just for these cities, but for all of God’s children.
Matthew connects us to this passage not simply to anchor Jesus in scripture, but to explain who Jesus has come to be: God’s change agent. The anti-king.
The Temptation
To get why all of this matters, we have to back up to the beginning of Matthew 4. This is a passage we’ll talk about in just a few weeks. But right after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit draws Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And what does the devil tempt Jesus with? Earthly power. He offers to make him a king.
Now, the people were waiting for a king. And Matthew has connected Jesus to King David. So why would Jesus becoming a king be a problem? There are two main reasons:
1) It’s not his role in the transformation of the world. Kings rule over a people collected into a nation. The Christ transcends all that.
The second reason is deeper.
2) Kings demand their way. The posture of a king is about supremacy, control, and destroying what isn’t the way they want it to be.
Ultimately, this is what the devil is offering Jesus: supremacy. The power to get his way. What he wants. When he wants it. Everyone else be damned.
This is the same specter we see in white supremacy today: the demand of protecting a power over others; to have what they want, when they want it.
Jesus rejects supremacy because that doesn’t transform the world toward the way of God, or Christ’s Way of Love. It is directly in the way of that. It is the embodiment of the world’s greatest sin: hubris. Thinking our will can be done in place of God’s.
Receiving the Call
After this confrontation with the devil, angels come to him and affirm him. Then he can rejoin the world. And that’s when he hears about John’s arrest. When he hears about the earthly powers that threaten God’s mission, the missio dei with supremacy.
So Jesus goes to other places; to Zebulun and Naphtali. That’s where it will start. His part will start there. The thing God is already doing. The change God is already bringing. His part in that great big revolution is beginning here. To be the very goodness of God the prophet Isaiah promised.
And what does Jesus say, but the same thing John said:
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Has Come Near
We know this phrase well. And it has a regal tone to it. It sounds transcendent and other; like good churchy language, perhaps unsullied by the world.
But we’re not hearing the juice.
Frederick Dale Bruner reminds us that this is the very same phrase Jesus uses at the sight of Judas in the Garden: what we translate as “my betrayer is at hand.”
This phrase we’re translating as “has come near” isn’t merely a descriptive phrase telling us location: as in where is the kingdom located? It is not far away, and approaching.
This phrase has more oomph than that. More urgency. It is marching toward you! Look out!
Jesus is proclaiming a transformation that is already on its way, hurtling toward us. Turn around! Because you have a choice,
1) Get hit by it.
2) Get out of its way.
3) Or prepare to climb aboard.
New Disciples
It should be no surprise then that Jesus doesn’t go the usual route in calling his disciples. He doesn’t talk to the department chairs at ISU to find the most talented students. Or, let’s be honest. He doesn’t go to Harvard or Yale to nab the top of the class from the most powerful and wealthy families in the country. Which we all know is how the world has always worked.
He invites fishermen. Because the kingdom of heaven isn’t a meritocracy. Or an oligarchy. It isn’t about talent or wealth. Nor is it about connections and who you know or even demonstrated ability to work hard. The kin-dom is not about who declare to be the best or the hardest workers–it doesn’t celebrate perseverance and grit.
It’s about everyone having a seat which must be without regard to their ability. Deserving is a game of division; winners and losers. Merit is the antithesis of the kin-dom.
Anyone can be a disciple. And everyone can work toward the kin-dom. Because this is an anti-supremacy. Everyone is included because none has power over. None demands their way, threatens their neighbors with violence, or props up systems that exploit the most vulnerable.
Discipleship
This is the centerpiece of discipleship. It is rejecting the will to supremacy in all of its forms. Forms that include protecting an advantage due to race, gender, ability, wealth, income, status in the community, or education. Or the countless ways we demand accommodation.
We must resist the will to supremacy in all our halls of power, including our church hierarchies, our local government, and our criminal punishment system.
And this is why Jesus tells us that we need to take up our cross and follow him. We are called to reject the supremacy embedded in forcing people to carry crosses! We reject any use of torture and execution: that will to power over as a shortcut to getting our way. But instead, to be willing to reveal God’s transformative grace through our very lives.
Jesus calls those fishermen and then a tax collector and a physician and a whole host of the many who didn’t go to the right school to get the right training to take their rightful place in a powerful, supremacist system.
Calling Us
Jesus called us and said This is happening. Whether you are ready or not. So look out, the kin-dom is coming!
And he shows us every day by calling the strangest people to this messy, decentralized network of weirdos. And we are called to follow Jesus’s Way of Love. A way that stands against the way of our culture.
Because our culture wants the shortcut. It offers us hate and fear and power and will through violence and exploitation. It would have us sell our souls to have what we want: momentary control over our immediate surroundings. And because it’s a shortcut, it’s easy. It seems normal and natural. But what does it cost us? Simply everything.
But the Way of Love invites courage. It relies on hope and commitment to serving each other. It knows the longer way is harder, but it’s also how we see God at work in the world. How we see the grace in one another. And it is how we can actually appreciate the things we love.
We remember that we are all disciples, gathering together as a school of love to learn and celebrate and wrestle with the messiness alongside other weirdos.
This is the longer way, the tougher way, but it is the only way. Everything else is cheating.
This promise, this invitation from Jesus is what got them to drop everything and jump out of that boat. And at some point, he got me to jump out of a boat. And he gets people all over this world to jump out of boats.
To go fishing in a new way. To carry a different kind of burden while learning an ancient and vaguely familiar message. God is up to something right now. And we can join in. As we are because we are all needed for this.
Look, the kin-dom is on the move! Just reach out and hop on!