When You Find The One--January 25, 2024

When You Find The One--January 25, 2024

"As [Jesus] went a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him." [Mark 1:19-20]

When I read this story, these words many of us heard this past Sunday in worship, I hear the voice of Billy Crystal.  In particular, I hear one of my favorite lines of his from the classic romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally, one that comes from his Big Dramatic Speech at the end of the movie.  Having watched their will-they-won't-they relationship grow from friendship to romance and then seeing it teeter on the brink, you finally see Harry seek Sally out at a New Year's party, and he says he has come to find her and profess his love, not because he's lonely on the holiday, but "because when you find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."  Billy Crystal gets me every time.

And once you hear that, his big, bold romantic gesture of a speech in front of all the other party guests makes perfect sense.  It's not reckless or rash that he risks making a fool out of himself there--it's completely rational within its own kind of logic.  Harry is right: when you find the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to begin as soon as possible.  And as often as that might be true in the realm of romance (although making those relationships work takes more than a grand dramatic gesture, no matter what the movies say), it is certainly true of Jesus and his followers.  When Jesus comes along and invites himself over into your life, you realize that "wherever-Jesus-is" is the place you want to be, and all of a sudden it seems perfectly sensible to drop everything and go after him.

Something like that is the logic behind James and John dropping their nets--and leaving their dad in the boat, too!--and going to follow Jesus.  There is this sense that the thing they have been waiting for--no, make that the One they have been waiting for has stepped into their lives and invited them to be a part of his movement.  And, really not all that unlike Billy Crystal's line in the movie, they realize how they want to spend the rest of their lives... and so they want the rest of their lives to begin as soon as possible.

Now, mind you, it's not that they are under the illusion that following Jesus is some pleasure cruise (they'll flirt with that idea later on, but as of this moment, they have no reason to think that), or that Jesus is offering signing bonuses or golden mansions for the first twelve to join his VIP club.  But I do think they realize that what they have been longing for--like, all of their lives, and for generations before that, too--is stepping right across their path and opening a door to them.  You'll remember from a couple days ago that Jesus' opening message, as Mark gave it to us, was, "The Reign of God has come near!  The time is fulfilled--the wait is over!"  The ears of contemporary church folks might not immediately perk up at that, but if for first-century Jewish folks (like James and John) this was the thing they had been hoping for, yearning for, and aching for over centuries of waiting.  After living under one pagan empire after another, going through exile, enduring rotten kings and seasons of utter devastation, what everyone was waiting for was the hope that maybe, just maybe, none other than God would set things right and bring about a different sort of "kingdom" or reign.  It wouldn't be one more version of the same old dominating and conquering they'd known since the days of Babylon (followed by Persian, Greek, and Roman successors).  And it wouldn't be like all the times before when kings promised they would be faithful, just, merciful, and decent--only to turn out just as bloodthirsty, greedy, and corrupt as the outside world's empires.  The difference, everybody hoped for, was that God would be the One to reign--not as a tyrant, but as a shepherd... and not for conquest, but for liberation.  It was where all those ancient hopes from the prophets came together--lambs and wolves lying down together in peace, weapons being beaten into plowshares, people from all nations being gathered together around God's table where a feast would be spread and death would be destroyed.  And at long last, the bullies of history with their bombast and threats would be silenced and pulled from their thrones, and the lowly would be lifted up.  

If you were an ordinary Jewish Galilean growing up in the first century, all of those hopes would have been poured into the phrase, "the Reign of God." And now, out of nowhere, here comes Jesus of Nazareth, announcing to anyone who will listen that this very thing, the Reign of God, is at last here, and open to any and all takers.  So imagine yourself in James or John's sandals: he comes up to YOU, of all people, who had been minding your own business (literally) working your day job, and he says to YOU, "I choose you to be in on the ground floor of this happening.  I want YOU to be a part of it.  YOU are worthy."  Wouldn't you drop everything to get to share in it?

For a lot of my life, I heard this part about James and John dropping their nets and leaving their dad and thought, "My goodness, this is a test of commitment from Jesus--to see if they are willing to do this very difficult thing of leaving behind their family and jobs to go following this total stranger!"  But the more I think about it, the more I have to imagine dear old dad Zebedee as the one shooing them off to go with Jesus, insisting that this was the moment for which they and their ancestors had been hoping for more generations than they could count! Ol' Zeb surely must have been elated at the idea that God's Reign might at last really be breaking loose among them, and I can only imagine that James and John didn't hear this as a test but as the offer of a lifetime--maybe of ten lifetimes.  They knew: when God's Reign came, it was good news for all people who were stepped on, beaten down, and empty-handed.  So of course they jumped at the chance when Jesus looked their way.  They knew exactly how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives--now they just wanted the rest of their lives to begin as soon as possible.

I wonder if we have lost some sense of just how good Jesus' invitation to us really is, these days.  We find ourselves treating Jesus like one more obligation in a long list of competing interests that all want a slice of our free time, and all too often, we treat following Jesus like it's the least important on the list after soccer practice, book club, career advancement, and aiming for that next promotion.  Maybe we have missed what Jesus is actually calling us into. He's not just offering us a hobby called "church" to occupy a few free hours of our disposable time--he's pulling us into the very Reign of God, the new creation, the restoration of all things.  And you and I don't have to wait until we're dead to get to be a part of it: Jesus says it's right here at hand now.

In that light, what things might have less importance in our lives in comparison to getting to be a part of God's Reign?  How might every day now have new meaning if we see it as a chance to participate in God's Reign, right here and now?  And how might that help us to see every place we walk as holy ground... and every face we meet as belonging to a citizen of God's realm, a member of God's family?

Honestly, that sounds like something you and I could spend a lifetime digging into, and we would never get bored of it or run out of ways to spend our days.  And now that we know how we want to spend the rest of our lives, well, let's get the rest of our lives started as soon as possible...

Lord Jesus, let us spend the rest of our days getting to live in the new creation you are beginning among us... and let it start today.