Sermon for Sunday 26 January 2014.
Matthew 4: 12-23
How do people become Christians?
It sounds like a simple question, one that should have a simple answer.
While I was at college I heard many different theories about what makes someone a Christian. Some would say that you become a Christian when you get baptised. Others would say that you become a Christian when you accept Christ as your personal Saviour. Again others would say that it is when you make a public declaration that Christ is Lord.
For some people there is a specific moment in their own mind when they became a Christian, an actual tangible moment in time when they discover that they have faith in Christ as the Son of God. For others, the journey has been long and tortuous, and maybe they’re still not entirely sure about what they actually believe. Yet others have been Christians for longer than they can remember, and there doesn’t seem to be a time when they weren’t Christians.
For some people their faith has been an ever constant companion. For others, they found their faith at a moment of crisis when there was no other way to deal with the problems they face. For some, it was the faith of a friend or family member that got them thinking about what they believe. For others, it seemed to be a mysterious force that drew them into a church and into a community of believers; so many different ways in which people discover their faith, or understand their faith.
All of this tells us that the question, ‘How do people become Christians?’ is not so simple after all. The ways in which we can answer that question seem to be as varied and complex as people themselves.
So what makes today’s Gospel reading so interesting is that none of the things we normally think of when someone becomes a disciple of Christ seems to have happened to the first disciples. There is no mention of them being baptised. There is no mention of them declaring their faith in Jesus as Saviour – in fact Matthew doesn’t record them as saying anything at all.
The four disciples that we hear about – Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John – are not looking for spiritual revelation. They are not searching for anything: they are working. They are doing the same things they do every day. There is no crisis that has caused them seek out spiritual truth, neither are they travelling great distances to seek the wisdom of a guru or spiritual teacher. They are getting on with everyday life.
As a teacher Jesus was entirely unusual. Normally Jewish rabbis of the first century AD were sought out by potential disciples, people who were looking to learn from the spiritual wisdom of others. But in the Gospel of Matthew, it is Jesus who is doing the travelling, away from His home in Nazareth in order to seek out those who will become His disciples.
He doesn’t ask them to believe in Him. He doesn’t ask them to accept any religious principles, or to agree to any particular spiritual truth. He doesn’t say, “Do you accept me as your personal saviour?” He doesn’t ask them if they think He is the Son of God.
All He says is “Follow me.” And they do.
I don’t know about you but if a stranger came up to me and told me to follow them, I’d want to know why. I’d want to know where we were going, and what the purpose of the journey is. I may want to know why they picked me.
But the first disciples don’t ask any of these questions. They hear of word of Christ, and they respond to it.
I think the point that Matthew is trying to make, is that we often make the process of becoming a Christian far more complex than it needs to be. All of the things that we normally think of as signs of becoming a Christian – getting baptised, making a public declaration of faith – all of these things are great because they act as signposts on our journeys through life. But the real turning point in anyone’s life, in anyone’s journey of faith, is when Jesus seeks them out, asks them to follow Him, and they respond.
We don’t even have to be looking for answers – we can be getting on with the normal activities of everyday life, but Jesus will seek us out and speak to us in some way or other, and we have the choice to respond.
If we hear Jesus ask us to follow Him, what is our response? Do we want to know why, and where, and how? Or do we set aside the things of everyday life, and follow Him?
Rev’d Phil Morton.