“I Chose You…”
2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Romans 2:10-16; Matthew 4:18-23
After the feast of the birth of the Church of Christ - Pentecost, on the first Sunday, we honored all the saints who pleased God with their lives and their deeds. Many of them affirmed their faithfulness to Christ through great sufferings and hardships, losing their physical lives in order to preserve their souls and testify before people the truth of faith, and to establish it among people.
Now, on the second Sunday after Pentecost, the Church of Christ offers the faithful the Gospel account of the calling by Jesus Christ of His first disciples, who later became well-known apostles and received the grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, went into the world to preach the teaching of Christ -- the Gospel of salvation -- and laid the foundations for the building of the Church of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to His disciples, said:
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” (John 15:16)
And indeed it happened: the fruit – the Church of Christ for the salvation of different peoples – remained, the fruits of their preaching developed, and to this day the Church of Christ is growing among different peoples, the fruits of faith are borne, the seed of faith is sown. For by His Providence, by baptizing us in infancy, by raising us in Christian families, in the Church of Christ from a young age, God, Christ chose us before we could consciously choose Him.
But the time comes when we, being conscious and adult, must choose either fidelity and life in God, in Christ, or we will go the way of the wicked. God, having called us and made us aware, does not make us slaves, but leaves us the freedom of will, the freedom to choose. He calls us even now, as He called His first disciples:
“Follow Me!”
Christ calls young people even today, so that they may become “fishers of men” for Him, to give spiritual nourishment to His people in the Church of Christ. Unfortunately, “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few...” Only there are many critics: what kind of priest should he be, and what he should do...
Of course, there are other reasons besides the one mentioned above: people believe that for the priestly service one must have many talents (voice, teaching, and many “ands”...), many positive qualities, fine character, a model of perfection, so that one can serve as an example for others.
How did Jesus Christ choose his disciples?
Did He look for or choose perfect people?" – Let us remember Simon Peter: On Thursday at the Last Supper, Christ warns:
“All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night.”
Peter speaks up with passion:
“Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” (Matthew 26:31-33)
Jesus knew that he (Peter) was imperfect, hot-tempered, and therefore said that
“this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
Peter adamantly countered:
“Even if I die with You, I will not deny You!”
Yet, not only Peter, as The Gospel records:
“And so said all the disciples.” (Mat. 26:35)
But at night, when Jesus was taken to be interrogated, Peter denied Him three times and swore:
“I do not know the Man!” (Mat. 26:72)
Some of the first disciples, James and John, sons of Zebedee, at the urging of their mother, asked Jesus for the first places in His Kingdom. (Mat. 20:21)
Jesus also chose Thomas, who was distrustful, a pessimist, therefore imperfect. The Lord even called Matthew, who wrote everything that we read today, and in general, the most detailed book of the Gospel, yet he was known among people as a sinner, a tax collector for Rome.
From this, it is clear that Christ did not seek His disciples among perfect people. In fact, He said that He came not to the righteous, but to sinners to save them,
“For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mat. 9:13)
And among those sinful, imperfect people, He sought those who, although they had life's flaws and weaknesses, sought to know God and do God's will. The Apostle Paul asserts:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised hath God chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28)
As early as the 2nd century, the Roman philosopher Celsus ridiculed the Christian movement:
“Christ ... did not call righteous people or wise people, but sinners, lowly and defeated people.”
One of the Fathers of the Church, Origen, responded to him:
“It is true that Christ called the lowly and defeated, but He did not leave them broken and defeated and defeated.”
Christ called ordinary, imperfect people, yet filled them not only with the knowledge of God, but filled them also with the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and they spiritually overcame the world. Christ is able even in our times to fill us with that grace, if we obey Him and follow Him.
Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). He is “the light of the world” (John 8:12), “the door” (John 10:9), “the bread of life.” (John 6:35) Whoever follows Him, according to His call, will gain eternal life.
Let us, then, follow Him. Let us walk His narrow way, let us enter through His gates. His gates may be narrow, His road may be difficult, but it is certain—it leads to salvation. Let us not take the tempting side paths, shortcuts, and even though the road may be wide, it leads to destruction.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
