Endings and beginnings

Short homily based upon Matthew 4.12-23

We have this morning a gospel of endings and beginnings. We hear that John the Baptist has been arrested, ending his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus’ arrival. On hearing the new Jesus heads north and begins the most active phase of his ministry, using the same words we’ve heard from John; “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near”. 

From John they we were words of preparation but when said by Jesus they’re words of fulfilment, he is the Kingdom. Matthew loves a bit a fulfilment in his writings, it’s believed he was a Jewish writer, writing for Jewish people. He has lots of references to Hebrew scriptures and we see that this morning as Jesus’ actions mirror Isaiah’s prophecy.

We see new beginnings for other familiar people too in the gospel as Simon-Peter, Andrew, James and John are all called by Jesus to stop casting their nets for fish and begin fishing for people, later Jesus shows us what he means by this as he and his new recruits teach, preach and heal.

It might seem to begin with that Jesus is forming a homogenous group of similar folk, but we see later in the gospel that his central twelve are quite a mixed bunch, both in background and personality. Matthew himself, if we believe the gospel writer and apostle are the same person, was a bit of an outcast due to his profession as a tax-collector but we have to assume he had some degree of education, which our fishermen probably didn’t. 

So why this bunch? Why this odd mix of men? First and foremost they were the ones who said “yes”. Who knows who else Jesus propositioned who never made it into the book because they turned him down? But also I believe that Jesus not only saw who these men were but what they could become, how they could be formed through teaching, preaching and healing and how they themselves could lead and form others.

But this isn’t just the story of them beginning their new life with Jesus, it’s the story of the ending of their old life and that’s not without cost. They’re leaving behind families and jobs, how did Peter’s Mother in Law, whom he lived with, feel about him running out on the family? What about Zebedee? What did his sons’ choice mean for his business?

Rev Rosalind Brown who sometimes writes for the Church Times wrote about her sadness at leaving her family to pursue her calling in the US; "Why can't there be beginnings without endings?"

But this is the cyclical nature of our lives, of our world and indeed our God. It’s death and resurrection. There has to be an ending for the next thing, the greater thing to begin. Sometimes we may be too scared of letting something end so that a new thing can begin, we end up maintaining the status quo at the expense of what could be something amazing, made inert by our fear.

And yet change inevitable, in our lives and in our church, who knows what amazing things may lie ahead for each of us if we have the courage to leave behind the familiar and comfortable to face the new and unknown.