FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Father’s Day
Back in 1983, following spinal surgery in Pittsburgh, the doctor who operated on me asked what I did to relax. I told him I was a jogger and played squash “That’s not what I had in mind,” he replied. “Have you ever tried fly fishing?” Little did I know it then, but that was my first introduction to a new dimension in life that soon became one of my passions.
I bought all of the equipment, found some fellow anglers, and on Sunday afternoons in the early spring right on through to November, I would take off for the trout streams in Western Pennsylvania. During that first year, on one March weekend, in the midst of a snowstorm and twenty-eight degree temperatures, having not hooked a single trout, I decided to pack it in and head home.
As I arrived at the back door, my family met me with their usual anticipation and asked, “How did you do?” I told them the truth, and at prayers before bedtime, our five-year old son Matthew bowed his head and said “Dear God, either help daddy catch a fish next time, or help him to give this thing up.”
My hunch is, that’s exactly how Simon Peter felt, with his brother Andrew, alongside their fishing partners James and John and their father Zebedee - my hunch is that’s how they all felt after a long and unproductive evening on the Galilean Sea.
If you put together our two scripture texts about the same story from Mark 1 and Luke 5, the Bible tells us that Jesus found them washing and mending their nets after a night of fishing without anything to show for their efforts.
Jesus said to them, “Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.” Peter answered “Master” (which makes it clear that those fishermen already knew Him), “we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking they beckoned to their partners to come help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.”
Well, the fishermen were astonished and fearful, and Jesus said to them “Do not be afraid. Henceforth you will be catching people” (Luke 5:1-10). That’s Luke’s account, and Mark adds that “…Immediately as Jesus called them, they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed Him (Mark 1:20).
Now whether you like to fish or not, that’s quite a story! And what strikes me as truly remarkable is the way those men – Simon Peter, his brother Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee - were willing to give up their fishing business and familiar way of life to become disciples of Jesus Christ.
But what intrigues and actually disturbs me in this story is the man they left behind. “Immediately” says Mark, “they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed Jesus.” So our question today is “Whatever happened to Zebedee?” And on this Father’s Day weekend, I think that’s a question which deserves our attention.
I.
You might remember that on Mother’s Day this past May, our sermon focused on another question which the mother of James and John – the sons of Zebedee – asked Jesus as they were headed toward Jerusalem. Jesus had no sooner finished saying that He was “going up to Jerusalem where He would be arrested, condemned to death, crucified and then would rise on the third day” (paraphrase from Matthew 20:17-10, when immediately following
that announcement, the mother of the sons of Zebedee wanted to know if her grown up boys could sit in a special place at the Lord’s right and left hand in His Kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21).
The other disciples were offended by that question and what appeared to be a lack of discretion, particularly under those foreboding circumstances. However, I suggested to you a month ago that we ought to cut that woman some slack, especially on Mother’s Day, by acknowledging and admiring her heartfelt hope and desire that both sons would draw closer to Jesus.
She appears only one more time in scripture, standing there at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalene (Matthew 27:57). That’s the sum and total of the Biblical account concerning the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. But what about their father? Whatever happened to Zebedee?
The Bible doesn’t say, but I’d like to suggest at least three possibilities and explore with you what they might mean for each of us and all of us today.
The first scenario could be that sometime after his sons got out of the boat “immediately” and went to follow Jesus, Zebedee died. He might have become heart-broken and lost his zest for life when James and John left him behind.
That would be a sad conclusion to this story. Even so, it could have happened to Zebedee, and it still does happen as people are overwhelmed by grief and sorrow and lose their sense of joy for today and hope for tomorrow.
Some years ago, I saw a Peanuts cartoon with Charlie Brown going up to Lucy who is standing in a cardboard box labeled “Doctor – Psychiatric Help - 5 cents.” He says to her “ Can you cure loneliness, Doctor?” She replies “For a nickel, I can cure anything!” He says, “Can you cure deep-down, bottom-of-the-well, no-hope, end-of –the world, what’s-the-use loneliness?” And in a loud voice she exclaims “For the same nickel?” You see, some people are overwhelmed by their grief and sorrow.
But as Christians, we believe in the promise that even though we will all walk some day through the valley of the shadow, we are not alone.
Do you believe that today? Robert Frost believed it. In the midst of his great triumphs and public success, Frost’s personal life was filled with pain and sadness. Three of his children died far too young, another daughter and his sister were committed to mental institutions, and the only daughter who survived blamed her father for their family misfortunes.
And yet, in the winter of his life, looking back at all that had happened, Robert Frost said that he could sum up everything he had ever learned in only three words: “Life goes on.” And because he was a man of deep faith, Frost added this: “God seems to me to be someone who wants us to win…”(From excerpts in an article by columnist James J. Kilpatrick, December 1977, and “Robert Frost: The Later years” by Lawrence Thompson.) Frost died in peace in 1963 at the age of 89.
Well, it could be that Zebedee died and that’s why he disappears from the pages of the Bible. But if that were true, we’d be at the end of this sermon now… and it doesn’t seem that we’re quite ready for lunch yet.
II.
So here’s a second possibility in answer to our question “Whatever Happened to Zebedee?” Perhaps he was just too busy to follow Jesus. After all, he had a fishing business to run and with his sons gone, it’s likely that Zebedee and the hired hands had to work that much harder to keep the boat afloat and the money coming in. At least, that’s the way we often justify our relentless schedules, assuming that if we’re not there, on the job, in the office, or out meeting customers and traveling to God knows where, the whole enterprise is going to fall apart.
The late and semi-great theologian Ann Landers (rest her soul), published a letter which she had received on Father’s Day, June 16, 1985 in the
Akron Beacon Journal. My sister Priscilla sent it to me and this is how it concludes:
“Fathers fight dragons almost every day. They hurry away from the breakfast table, off to the arena…called an office or a workshop…where they tackle the dragon with three heads – weariness, work and monotony. Knights in shining armor. Fathers make bets with insurance companies about who will live the longest… even as the odds get higher, they keep right on betting…and one day they lose…I don’t know where fathers go when they die, but I have an idea that after a good rest, they won’t be happy unless there’s work to do…so they will be busy there too – repairing the stairs, oiling the gates, improving the streets, smoothing the way.” (From an article by Ann Landers entitled “Dads Everywhere, This One’s for You,” printed in the Akron Beacon Journal, June 16, 2004.
That’s a sad, sad letter and thanks be to God, it doesn’t have to be that way. We fathers and mothers can learn how to work hard and make a living while at the same time paying attention to each other and to our children. It requires careful planning, setting priorities, self-discipline, and plenty of prayer. And when we do that, acknowledging that we are going to make mistakes and will need help every step of the way, some good things are going to happen.
John David Burton, a Presbyterian pastor and author, pictured it with this poem:
Affluence
I saw a man whose children ran
To meet him as he walked home on the
sidewalk from the train.
Behind his children came his wife.
She kissed him there, standing on the
sidewalk, in front of God and everybody…
I wonder if he knows how rich he is,
with love come out to meet him.
I saw a man whose children ran
to meet him.
I wonder if he knows how rich he is.
By
John David Burton
That is the hope and possibility for all of our families! And so it can be in our relationship with the Lord. The Dutch Priest Henri Nouwen once wrote that “A spiritual life without discipline is impossible.” (From “Making All Things New” by Henri J.M. Nouwen, Harper and Row Publishers, 1981, page 66.) We cannot expect to grow in our faith when we are constantly in motion, always on the run and not paying attention to the Holy One who desires to draw closer to us.
But when we decide to take the time and find a place to be still before God, to study His word and to pray, then our hearts will be filled with the presence of His Spirit and the peace of Jesus Christ. That’s the way it works in this Christian life.
All of which is to say that if Zebedee was so pre-occupied with his business that he couldn’t or wouldn’t follow Jesus, that father missed out on the great promise which the Savior has given to us: “Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). If that is what you need today, then ask for it, open your heart to it, and by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will receive it.
III.
Which leads to one last possibility as we wonder about “Whatever Happened To Zebedee?” What if, after his sons left him behind in the boat, what if that man went home and told his wife that he wanted more in life than fishing the Galilean Sea? And what if that mother and father decided together to go to Jerusalem where their sons James and John had followed Jesus? What if they walked with the crowd to the place called Golgotha and heard Jesus cry aloud so that everyone there could hear Him “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!” And what if, when the centurion whispered at the foot of the cross so that those nearby could listen “surely, this was the Son of God”…what if Zebedee, just a few feet behind his wife, bowed his head and said “Yes, He was. Yes, He is and always will be.” And what if, after the resurrection, Zebedee and his wife joined their sons in the community of faith in Jerusalem, and committed their lives to the work of Christ’s Kingdom on earth?
Of course, the Bible doesn’t tell us any of that, and what I have imagined may never have happened. But of this I am certain: when Jesus calls a man or a woman to follow Him, sooner or later we need to make a decision one way or the other. So the question “Whatever Happened To Zebedee?” is really a question about you and about me.
If we have heard the call of Jesus and committed ourselves to follow wherever He may lead us, then we are already on the way. And if anyone here in this sanctuary today or tuned in through radio or television is still waiting to make that decision, then the Lord of life is reaching out to you now, saying “come unto me” and I will show you how to find the Father in Heaven.
CONCLUSION
One way or the other, it just might be that the time has come to get out of the boat together with Zebedee, his wife and their sons, and to give your life to the worship, witness and work of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. Listen! His words still echo, echo, echo down through the centuries of time – “Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He is calling you, here and now. What will your answer be?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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