Romans 2:10-16
Matthew 4: 18-23
In some ways, we may envy Peter,
Andrew, James, and John for the clarity of their call. On the day that Jesus Christ called them to
leave everything behind and follow Him, there was no question what He wanted
them to do. The message was clear and
they did as they were told.
Of course, that was only the
beginning of their ministry as disciples and apostles. As we know from reading the rest of the
gospels, these men did not have a clear understanding of who Christ really was
until after His resurrection. Nothing in
their background had prepared them for this unusual kind of Messiah or for the
great sacrifices that following Him would require. But on the day that the Lord called His first
disciples, He did not require perfect understanding. He asked only that they leave behind the life
that they had known and take the first steps in following Him.
That was not a
small thing, of course. Imagine how hard
it would be if Christ made very clear to you that He wanted you to give up the
only occupation you had ever known, leave your family behind, and literally
follow Him as He went around teaching, preaching, and healing the sick. On that particular day, despite the enormity
of this calling and their less than full understanding of it, these men did as
they were told and became “fishers of men” for the Kingdom of God. They were clearly chosen to be Christ’s
disciples, but they certainly did not have it easy in any way for the rest of
their lives.
It is a blessing and a challenge to
have a strong and clear sense of what God wants you to do in life. How many holy people—from the very first
Christians until this very day—die as martyrs or suffer abuse and persecution for
their faithfulness to Christ? To take
even small steps toward a holy life requires struggle, persistence, and a
willingness to endure tension within our own souls and usually with other
people. To lead a righteous life
requires loving God with every ounce of our being and our neighbors as
ourselves. Try to do that seriously and
you will find yourself fighting many battles, especially in your own soul.
St. Paul was a
Jewish convert to Christianity who knew that God had called the Hebrews for a
unique role in the salvation of the world.
The Jews certainly had an
advantage over the Gentiles because of all that God had revealed to them
through Moses and the prophets. But St.
Paul also knew that God shows no partiality.
Hearing the Law without obeying it was of no benefit at all, even as Christ’s
disciples would have gained nothing by ignoring Christ’s call to follow
Him. What matters is actually doing what
God requires of us.
St. Paul knew
that God had not abandoned the Gentiles, for He gave everyone a conscience, a
knowledge of right and wrong engraved in our hearts; that is an important part
of what it means to be a human being in God’s image and likeness. So whether
Jew or Gentile, whether according to the law of Moses or the dictates of
conscience, St. Paul teaches that God holds us all accountable to the truth
that we have received. The question for
every human being, then, is whether we obey the Lord according to what we know
of His purposes for us.
He was under no illusion that the
Jews had perfectly obeyed the Law or that the Gentiles had lived fully in
accordance with conscience. St. Paul taught that all have sinned and fallen
short of the glory of God. No one is in
the position to boast of a privileged status before the Lord or to judge
another, for both Jew and Gentile (namely, all human beings) stand in need of
grace and mercy to the depths of our souls.
Everyone is in need of a Savior Who conquers sin and death and brings us
into the eternal life of God.
That was certainly true our Lord’s
disciples, who failed with some frequency to obey or even understand what
Christ expected of them. They largely
abandoned Him at His arrest and crucifixion, and it was not until He appeared
to them after His resurrection and gave them a measure of the Holy Spirit that
their eyes were truly opened. It was not
until the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they boldly and
effectively became “fishers of men” whose preaching and miracle-working ministry
brought multitudes into the life of Christ.
As a consequence of their
apostolic ministry, they took up their crosses in suffering persecution,
hardships of all kinds, and even death as martyrs. The Lord did not call them to an easy life of
special privilege, but to an extremely demanding one of sacrifice for the sake
of the Kingdom.
At the end of the day, He does the
same with us all. Of course, the details
will be different. We are not fishermen
in first-century Palestine or the very pillars of the Church in the sense that
they were. St. Paul surely did not have
us in mind when he wrote to the Romans about Jews and Gentiles. It is possible
to get so caught up in the particular callings and circumstances of others such
that we miss the larger point. To be perfectly clear, the larger point is that
we are all fully responsible for hearing and responding to God’s calling in our
lives, no matter how imperfectly we understand it or how difficult it is to obey.
In many ways, we
have much less of an excuse than Christ’s first disciples, for we have the
benefit of their example and of so many generations of faithful people who have
gone before us in following Jesus Christ. As Orthodox Christians, we have
received the fullness of God’s revelation in the ongoing life of the Church by
the power of the Holy Spirit. But instead
of patting ourselves on the back and simply taking pride in these great
blessings, we must humbly accept the great responsibility that they give
us. Like the Jews of old, we must
remember that it is no great thing to be a recipient of God’s requirements if
we do not actually do what He requires. Like
the Gentiles mentioned by St. Paul, we must remember that it is no
accomplishment to have a conscience that leads us in the right direction if we
do not actually follow it. And our participation
in the Church will be of no benefit to us if we ourselves do not become living
witnesses of our Savior’s victory over sin and death in our daily lives.
In this season
of the Apostles Fast, we want to become more like those blessed men who left
everything behind in response to the Savior’s call, even though they often fell
short. Their understanding was imperfect
and the same was true of their actions on many occasions. But the Lord did not abandon or reject them,
even when they abandoned Him. He is
merciful and calls us all to accept His mercy when we realize that we have not
been doers of His will and have disregarded His calling. Like the apostles, we
do not yet have perfect faith and obedience; but just like them, we are
responsible to respond to the calling we have received as best we can. To do so will never be easy or without
sacrifice; we will often stumble along the path of discipleship. But if we continue the journey with humble repentance,
we will grow each step of the way in hearing Christ’s calling more clearly and
in gaining the strength to obey Him more fully.
As hard as it is
to believe, Jesus Christ calls each of us with the urgency that He called those
first disciples and apostles. We are
every bit as responsible for obeying Him as they were, indeed even more
responsible because we have the benefit of their example. They had to wait three years for Christ’s
resurrection and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, while we do not. Far more than the Jews of the Old Testament or
the ancient Gentiles, God has opened the eyes of our souls to know what He requires
of us. He has given us a great calling
to share personally in His eternal and holy life. There is no question about that. The only question is how we will respond to the
One Who says to each and every one of us: “Follow Me.”
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