Scripture text: John 1:29-42
It’s one of the most famous stories in the Gospel narrative. Jesus comes by the seashore. Sees the fishermen Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Calls out to them to become “fishers of men” (as the old translations put it.) They drop everything and follow him. We all know the story. We’ve all heard it hundreds of times, and we’ll hear it again next Sunday as our Gospel lesson. It always makes me wonder. Why on Earth would these men just drop everything at the spur of the moment to follow this stranger? It doesn’t make any sense.
The evangelist John’s version of the story doesn’t at first seem to help matters. That’s our Gospel lesson today. He tells a completely different version of how Peter, Andrew, James, and John meet Jesus that on the surface has almost nothing to do with the fishermen at the seashore. What’s going on here?
Well, the evangelist gives us a clue. Earlier in the story we have today, we have the John the Baptist talking to his disciples about Jesus. He says openly about Jesus, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” Ah-ha! We remember that story. That was last week’s Gospel, the baptism of Jesus. But the evangelist John never tells that story in his narrative. He’s rather cleverly presuming you’ve read the other Gospels before you come to his version.
Essentially what John the evangelist is doing here is filling in the blanks. You know Jesus got baptized. You know the spirit came upon him like a dove. Here’s what happened after that. He met these guys named Peter, James, John, and Andrew. They were all introduced by John the Baptist. They hung out together. They got to know each other. They became friends.
Oh, wait a minute. If that’s what happened then now the seashore scene starts to make sense. Jesus isn’t some stranger who shows up out of nowhere. He’s their buddy. He’s their friend. They already know him thanks to John the Baptist’s introduction. They have a relationship with him. Maybe they’ve talked about why Jesus is here and what he plans to do. And now they’re being invited to be a part of it. Wow, sign me up. They drop everything and go. Now it’s no longer this insane moment. It makes sense.
For whatever reason, the authors of the synoptic Gospels chose to leave the story of the calling of the first disciples in its dramatic abbreviated form. It certainly reads dramatically with a sense of urgency and excitement. But there’s a lot more going on than they let on and it’s so easy to miss.
We’re a bit spoiled by stories like that. It makes us think that evangelism is supposed to be super-easy. We say “Jesus” to people and they’ll magically convert on the spot. But that’s not how it works even in the Bible. Last Sunday, we had Cornelius the Roman who became a Christian. That didn’t happen in a vacuum and it wasn’t just Peter that made it happen. Cornelius had been introduced to Judaism and the Old Covenant long before. He knew God, but not Jesus. The relationship was already there. It just needed one more step, a step Peter provided.
Evangelism is work. It takes relationship to really happen.
Let me tell you about Tayvon. Some of you know I run a Dungeons and Dragons game on Sunday afternoons from time to time. When we started this back in November, Tayvon showed up having never played the game, but eager to learn. So we helped him build a character to play in the game and he created this really cool dragon-man warrior with sword and shield and dragon powers to fight evil and rescue the princess and steal all the treasure and all the stuff you do in a D&D game. Tayvon’s got a real creative mind and I’ve been encouraging him to cut loose and have his character do all these cool things to win the game.
How Tayvon envisions himself in-game. Pic by psuede via Pinterest
About a month ago, Tayvon got around to asking me what I do for a living in real life. I told him I was a pastor and his eyes got real big and he said, “Really? That’s so cool!” Now never in the history of anything has anyone, particularly a teenager, ever said of a clergyperson “That’s really cool,” except for this one time. Why? Because Tayvon and I have developed this relationship with one another based on respect, common interest, and encouragement. Are we the bestest of friends ever? No, but he now feels comfortable enough to ask me about Jesus. Granted, he’s a church-going Christian already, but he wants to know more and now he knows another way to do it.
That is evangelism! That’s how it works. That’s how Jesus did it. He took the effort with people. Matthew became a disciple because Jesus showed up for dinner with him. They talked. They learned about each other. Jesus took the effort.
And you! Why are you here? Oh, you might tell me you’ve been a member of this church since you were a baby and that may be completely true. But you’re an adult now. No one compels you to show up here on Sunday morning. You choose to be here. Why? Because you have that relationship with Jesus and with these other people here and that did not happen in a vacuum. Jesus has taken the effort with you. Your neighbors have taken the effort with you. You’ve taken the effort with them. You have relationship with one another and that relationship is what keeps bringing you back.
Jesus is our friend because he makes the effort to be our friend. And you know that because you’ve experienced it. You’ve heard his words in the Scriptures and in preaching. You’ve experienced his presence in the Sacraments. You’ve had encounters with him in prayer. He’s taken the effort to be your friend, just like he did with his disciples here on Earth.
I remember very clearly an encounter I had in seminary with one of my professors. He asked me how I saw my relationship with Jesus and I answered that Jesus was my friend. He scoffed at me and said that was a very juvenile way of looking at things. I disagreed then and I disagree now. Jesus has made that effort to be my friend. He loves me. He’s reached out to me. He’s been there for me. And even in his Scriptures, he says of and to his disciples (later in John’s Gospel no less), “I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” He’s taken the effort with you and with me.
And he calls us to do the same with his children out there in the world. Evangelism doesn’t happen overnight, as much as we might wish it did. But if we reach out in respect, compassion, and genuine love for other people, we will see miracles happen and lives change. We just have to take the effort. Amen.
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