Epiphany 3 - Light from the margins

MATTHEW 4: 12-23

The excitement is growing. Matthew can contain himself no longer. After all the times are now well and truly changing. And the world is beginning to look very different. Listen for a moment to those momentous words that he cribs from Isaiah;

“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.”

So rejoice! For here are the birth pangs of hope. Here is the greatest of transformations that can be hoped for.

And at the heart of it all is Jesus of Nazareth. Fresh from baptism and temptation, he is beginning his ministry, a ministry that calls for a change in how we live - a change rooted in his proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven!

But if you are one of those who see hope as coming from the centres of power, prepare yourself for a great surprise. For the light that is banishing darkness is based not in the places of wealth and pomp. On the contrary, the movement in which God brings hope is firmly located among the margins.

I guess that many would expect the Messiah to begin his work at the centre of religious, economic and political power that is Jerusalem. But No! Far from it! He begins his work among the agricultural and fishing community that is Capernaum a few miles away from Nazareth. That he begins in Galilee, which as a result of Assyrian settlement policy was a religious mishmash if ever there was one with about a half of the population being gentiles, is scandal enough. But the effect is compounded by his conscious decision to leave Nazareth not for one of the nearby cities where the power of the elite was maintained, but for the remoteness of life amongst the powerless.

And now Matthew looks back to Isaiah’s prophecy of the peoples of ancient Zebulun in which Nazareth is located and ancient Naphtali in which Capernaum is located, seeing a great light intrude upon their darkness. What a vision! And now says Matthew it is being fulfilled. The first provinces to have been overrun my Assyria some seven centuries earlier as a result of what was seen as the wrath of God, are now the first places to hear the good news of Jesus which is the dawning of hope for humankind. In the places of humiliation the places looked down on by the clever Jerusalem elite, light blazes forth.

And then there are his associates. Whereas most rabbinical students sought out their teachers, Jesus is seen here to take the initiative in choosing those who would be his companions. Later these followers will include political extremists on opposing sides of the divides of the day. But here, we see the first four followers to be called being two sets of fisherman brothers. No big deal, we might say. But people of such limited education as these, people according to one commentary who were part of a trade whose reputation for greed and sharp practice was on a par with money lenders - well they hardly seem to cut the mustard as those who would make any significant impact on their world.

And yet as Jesus rejects the temptation to be a one man show, it is very ordinary run of the mill working men, who are brought into the great enterprise. For the Jesus movement is a movement that will reject every commonly accepted means of acquiring power and influence.

But it will be a movement that will bring greater change than any of the armies that ever marched. Indeed, from its very beginning, the Jesus movement brings change. Armed with a message of the need for individuals and society to repent, to change direction, it comes as a harbinger of change that will leave nothing as it had hitherto been. For at the heart of message of Jesus is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven, which will have a much greater claim to devotion and loyalty than any of the powers that swaggered around at that and any other time, past or present. Now was the pointer to a rule that enabled things to be very different, the rule of values of love which had lain at the heart of the Word becoming flesh. And this would be a Kingdom facilitated not by coercion but by love and grace embodied to perfection in Jesus of Nazareth. And this would be a Kingdom that would bring good news to those who were on the margins. For as Jesus teaches of Divine love for all peoples and as Jesus brings liberation through the healing of all manner of diseases and demonic possessions, people who had hitherto been Nobodies, come to find themselves valued and of worth.

This would include those fishermen. Their trade was not without economic rewards. But in many ways they knew what it was to be controlled by the powerful. Most fishermen were far from self employed entrepreneurs but people who worked for Roman interests who paid them according to the size of their catches. They may well have leased their rights from toll collectors. But now with Jesus, they no longer depend on the oppressive power of Rome. Sure, they will still do some fishing but they have by responding to the call of Jesus moved from dependence on the oppressive power of Rome and its acolytes to a dependence on the liberating grace of Jesus. Now they find themselves engaged as those who “fish for people.”

Now this idea of fishing for people is not without its problems. It sounds dangerously coercive and often we hear talk of looking for the bait that will hook our targets. Well the bait image doesn’t work as these were fishermen who relied on nets rather than bait. Still, we are left with the coercive image even if there is such a thing as being captured or grabbed by love. And perhaps we do well to note that in ancient times fishing could be used as a metaphor for judgement and teaching. I am not sure that we can easily translate this one into today’s world but suffice to say, Jesus is speaking of an involvement in a life changing experience. Our lives and our communities do not have to be stifling and dull. He has come to offer something much greater - a life that is truly with abundance! Never, should we portray following Jesus as something that is grey. Far from it, Jesus invites you and me into a multi coloured life and calls on us to be his instruments in enabling it to be experienced by others and by a wider community.

So Jesus begins a ministry that will be good news for all marginalized people. Lepers will rejoin community life. Sick people will be made well. Sinners will experience forgiveness and wondrous grace. And as Matthew’s Gospel draws to a close, we will learn that we meet Jesus in the hungry, the naked, the stranger and the imprisoned. For here is a good news that does not pour holy water on the structures of domination and injustice. It is instead a good news that will afflict the comfortable just as it comforts the afflicted. And for that reason, power structures will always seek to tame and domesticate the Gospel.

Yes, there is a Great Light shining in the Places of Darkness. But it is a light not just for the marginalized but coming from the places of marginalisation. Soon those followers of Jesus will be taking their hope to the world. But before that, at the tomb from whence Jesus has been raised, women will be told to send the disciples back to marginalized Galilee where they will see Jesus. Why Galilee? Why the place where it all started? Because it is among the marginalized that Jesus is at home. It is in such places that we too can meet with him. For, still today he is amongst the marginalized. Still today he enables those who have sat in darkness, the wonder of the great light that can never be put out.



ALVERDISCOTT METHODIST CHURCH SUNDAY JANUARY 27TH 2007