Change (Matthew 4:12-23)

Someone once said that the only constant thing in life is change.

If we look at the world around us, we can see a lot that supports that idea. The moon has different phases, seasons change through the year, and plants, animals, and all living things grow, develop and mature. God has built in change to just about every part of his creation. Most of what we experience, from our bodies, feelings or interests, through to fashions, prices, or governments, all change in some way at some time. When we look at what God has created, we can see that change is a natural and normal part of life in this world.

However, sometimes we can find change difficult or uncomfortable. We might want to resist change and hang on to things the way they are because change can lead us into things that are unfamiliar, or it brings uncertainty, or we can feel like our lives are out of control.

In this week’s gospel reading, Matthew 4:12-23, we hear that when Jesus began his earthly ministry, he ‘began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”’ (v17 NIV). This brief sentence summarizes much of what his next three years of ministry was going to be about as the Kingdom of God broke into the world through Jesus and he invited people to be part of this kingdom by repenting and believing the good news.

We might often think that Jesus’ call to ‘Repent’ was directed to sinners who needed to make changes in their lives. The Greek word that is translated as repent literally means ‘a change of mind’, so we can hear Jesus’ message to ‘repent’ as a call to change. However, Jesus wasn’t necessarily talking to people we might consider to be ‘bad’ outside the church. Jesus was also speaking, and continues to speak, to us. Jesus is calling us to change.

Luther explained this in the first of his 95 Theses which he nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. Luther wrote, ‘When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance’ (Luther’s Works, volume 31 page 25). Repentance isn’t just something ‘bad’ people should do once when they see the error of their ways and want to give their lives to Jesus. Jesus calls all of us to repent throughout our lives, and for the way we think about God, ourselves, the people around us, and what our lives are all about to be continually coming back to him.

Immediately after Jesus’ message to repent, Matthew tells us Jesus called the first disciples to follow him (vv18-22). Many biblical scholars see the change Jesus was calling for reflected in the change he invited Simon and Andrew to make. Jesus called them to leave their old ways of living behind and learn a new way of life from him. This is called discipleship. A disciple is a learner, a person who is learning from Jesus. We can think of Jesus’ call to repent or change as inviting us to change the direction of our thinking and living by following him and learning a whole new way of life which embraces and reflects the Kingdom of God.

A lot has been written about discipleship, both how to live as Jesus’ disciples and how we can make disciples of others. We can find a simple but profound summary of discipleship in the way the Message paraphrases Matthew 11:29. Jesus invites people to ‘Learn the unforced rhythms of grace’ from him. For the next three years, Jesus’ disciples learned these ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ from Jesus. They saw the difference God’s grace through Jesus made in the people they met. They encountered the difference God’s grace in Jesus made for themselves as he led them to see God’s infinite love for us in Jesus’ crucifixion and the life-giving power of his resurrection. The disciples experienced God’s grace for them in their relationship with Jesus. These experiences of grace gave them what they needed to fulfil the Great Commission and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). They extended God’s grace in Jesus to people of all nations and helped them to learn Jesus’ ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ in their own lives as they followed him in faith, hope and love.

As we hear Jesus’ message to repent in this week’s Gospel, what if Jesus is calling us to change as well? For decades our churches have struggled with declining worship attendance and membership numbers. We have struggled to pass the good news of Jesus on to younger generations and to our neighbours. Maybe it’s time to repent and change, not because what we have done or are still doing is wrong or sinful, but because it might be true that the most constant thing in the world is change, and maybe we need to change to fulfil Jesus’ call to follow him and make disciples of all nations. It might be time to answer Jesus’ call to leave behind what we’ve been doing in the past and follow him into something new by learning the ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ from him. Maybe the change Jesus calls us to is making discipleship our first and most important priority. Focusing on discipleship begins with us, as we leave behind our old ways of thinking and follow Jesus into what our church could be as a community of people who are learning the ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ from him together.

Change can be hard, so thankfully it’s not entirely up to us. Paul tells us where we can find the power to change when he writes that the message of the cross of Jesus is the power of God for us who believe in 1 Corinthians 1:18. The power to change and become the kind of church God wants us to be rests in the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection for us. Jesus’ first disciples encountered and experienced his grace when they followed him to the cross and the empty tomb. As Jesus reaches out to us through the gospel and extends his grace to us through the message of the cross, the Holy Spirit makes the changes God wants to see in us. God’s ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ flow to us, in us and through us as we follow Jesus to find his sacrificial love for us in his cross and his victory over sin, death and everything that’s wrong in the world in his resurrection. As we experience God’s grace for us in Jesus by following him, he will change us, our relationships and our church.

Change is rarely easy or comfortable. If the disciples had known where Jesus was going to lead them, I wonder if they would have left their old lives behind to follow him. However, by following Jesus and learning his ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ not only did God change their lives, but also the lives of countless people since then. Maybe it’s time for us to repent and change as well, to leave behind our old ways of thinking about church and re-imagine what our faith community could be as people who are committed to learning the ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ by following Jesus in faith, hope and love together.

More to think about or discuss:

• How do you go with change? Do you welcome and embrace it? Or do you prefer to avoid change? Why do you think that’s the case…?
• Who do you usually think Jesus calls to repent: the people outside or inside the church? If to repent means to change, what change(s) do you think Jesus might be looking for?
• What has your experience of grace been like in your church or faith community? What do you think your church or faith community could be like if it changed & committed to follow Jesus, prioritise discipleship & learn his ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ together?