Here’s a picture of one my Christmas gifts, a stocking stuffer. Not the cap, but the light clipped to the bill. It’s an LED light which presumably I would wear on a cap when fishing in the dark. It seems like a nice idea, handy for tying on a fly or whatever in low light. The problem is that I seldom fish in the dark (it’s illegal in Oregon to fish after dark for trout, salmon and steelhead) and I never wear ball caps when fishing. Be all that as it may, I thought of this gadget as I read the Gospel text for this Sunday, Matthew 4:12-23.
In the text, Matthew combines what he sees as the fulfillment of a prophetic promise in Isaiah 9:1-4 (our Old Testament reading) to the territory of Galilee, a “great light” dawning on “people who sat in darkness,” with Jesus’ call of fishermen disciples who are directed to follow and learn to “fish for people.”
As I thought of lights for fishing I also remembered how attracted fish are to light. Where legal (and sometimes even where it’s not) fishermen use lights on the water, submerged lights, and even lighted lures to attract fish. I remember going to a grunion run one evening on a beach in California. Though the little fish are afraid of light on the beach where they come up to spawn, lights shined out on the water were being used to attract them closer to shore.
Pondering the present darkness of our world (which I realize is not much different from many ages before), I think about how attracted people are to real light when they see it. It seems to me that if, with those first disciples, we are going to answer Jesus’ evangelistic call to fish for people, then we will need to shine an attractive light for those around us to see.
That’s exactly what Jesus Himself did in the last verse of the text, 23, as He is described going about the whole region, teaching good news and healing sickness. If we really want to emulate Jesus, then we must be light-filled, winsome people whose message is good news rather than condemnation, whose actions bring healing and health rather than dysfunction and disease. Seems pretty obvious, but it’s worth remembering and saying again. It feels like we still have a ways to go to get it right.