Pledge Your Allegiance to Christ

Homily for Sunday, January 25, 2026
The Third Sunday After the Epiphany
Matthew 4:12-23

One Sunday at announcement time at her church in Boxford, Tamara Davis heard a fellow parishioner stand up and ask for support and prayer and, oh, might someone please donate a kidney,because mine are failing?  Tamara raised her hand.

Growing up in early 20^thcentury Turin, Italy, Pier Giorgio Frassati (now Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati) one day answered a knock on the door to a woman begging with her son, who was shoeless.  On the spot, Pier took off his own shoes and gave them to the boy.

In the summer of 2024 at the Taize community in France, Joelle, a young Christian woman from Lebanon, met and befriended Asil, a young Muslim woman from Lebanon.  Later that year when the war escalated,Asil’s family’s home was destroyed, and the family fled to Joelle’s.  When they knocked on the door, Joelle’s surprised mother opened it.  “This house is yours,” she said.

I want to return to Tamara, Pier and Joelle’s mother, but first, the setting of today’s Gospel lesson, Matthew’s account of Jesus calling the first disciples.

Matthew writes that Jesus “left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum… in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.”  Matthew’s is the only Gospel that mentions “Zebulun and Naphtali.”  Matthew’s stated reason for adding this detail is, “so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled” (that “the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light…”).   But it is likely that Matthew added this detail in order to draw a parallel between Jesus’ calling of the disciples and the context of Isaiah chapter 9 (from which Matthew quotes).  

The context of Isaiah chapter 9 is the late 8^th century BCE Assyrian occupation of Israel, which included Galilee, the territory associated with Jacob’s sons Zebulun and Naphtali.  The Assyrians were notoriously brutal occupiers, the “evil empire” of their day.   Given the Assyrians’ reputation for cruelty,it makes sense that Isaiah would address his audience in occupied Galilee as “the people who sat in darkness,” and as “those who sat in the region and shadow of death.”  

Matthew wrote his Gospel around the year 80CE, about a decade after the First Jewish Revolt in which hundreds of thousands and perhaps over a million Judeans were either massacred in battle, sold into slavery or starved to death in famines.  As of Matthew’s writing, Galilee was still occupied by the Romans.  By citing these verses from Isaiah, Matthew suggests that, as did the residents of Galilee under Assyrian occupation, so do the residents of Galilee now under Roman occupation sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death.  Further, suggests Matthew, Jesus is the “great light,” the saving presence, that now shines on them.

Given the context of Isaiah and also Roman occupation, it could be (as some scholars have suggested) that Matthew viewed Jesus calling the disciples as an act of rebellion.  For example: In place of Rome, Jesus came announcing “the kingdom of heaven.”  Instead of supporting the imperial economy, of which fishing with its taxable income was a part, Jesus called the disciples to “fish for people.”  In contrast to the Romans’ brutal methods of asserting control (like with crucifixion), Matthew writes that Jesus came “proclaiming good news, and… curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”  Given the context of Isaiah and also the Roman occupation, it could be (as some have suggested) that Matthew understood Jesus’ calling of the first disciples to be an act of rebellion.  

But Matthew goes deeper than mere rebellion.  Immediately preceding today’s story of Jesus calling the first disciples is the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  “If you are the Son of God,” the devil said, “command these stones to become loaves of bread.”  And again, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” from the pinnacle of the Temple.  Or again, all the kingdoms of the world and their glory “I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  To each of these temptations Jesus responds with scripture: “One does not live by bread alone;” “Do not put the Lord your God to the test;” “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”  Knowing the scriptures and using them authoritatively to resist the devil suggests that for Matthew Jesus is the definitive arbiter of Israel’s reality. It is Jesus who correctly interprets the Torah; it is not Rome but Jesus whose kingdom it is; and it is not the emperor but Jesus who is the true focus of Israel’s worship.

The placement of Jesus’ calling of the first disciples immediately after his encounter with the devil suggests that for Matthew, Jesus’ calling was not merely an act of rebellion against Rome but was more about choosing one’s life’s allegiance.  In that moment on the beach, Jesus in effect asks Peter and Andrew and James and John whether they wished to live their life n allegiance to the powers of darkness and death, or whether they wanted rather to turn and follow Jesus and live their life in allegiance to light and life.   In positing this choice Matthew echoes Genesis chapter 1 with its images of light and dark and the potential of new creation – “Will you come into the light and become a new creation?”  Matthew echoes the experience of the Exodus –“Will you allow yourself to be led out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land?”  Matthew echoes Moses’ farewell address at the end of Deuteronomy – “I have set before you today life and death, blessings and curses.  Choose life so that you… may live” (Deut 30:19).

The powers of darkness and death are as much at work in our world today as they were during the time of the Assyrians and the Romans.  To read the headlines is to see daily:  corruption,cruelty, greed and a callous disregard for human dignity.  The choice of which allegiance to follow, whether to be an accomplice to the powers of darkness and death or to follow Jesus, is no less stark for us today than it was for the disciples then.  It is one thing to “rebel” against these powers; it is quite another to choose instead an allegiance, to intentionally set one’s life course on a different path, to say in effect: “I am not under the power of this or any other entity marked by darkness and death.  My loyalty lies with Jesus; I am following in his way.”

Frank’s Baptism in December reminded us of the choice of allegiances we Christians make when we are initiated into the Church.  We asked Frank six questions.  The first three are the so-called, “Renunciations:”

“Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” “I renounce them,” said Frank.
“Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”  “I renounce them.”
“Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?”  “I renounce them.”

We then asked Frank three more questions called, “The Adherences:”

“Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your savior?”  “I do,” said Frank.
“Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?”  “I do.”
“Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?”  “I do.”

When we make our Baptismal vows, we do not know how we might be called to live them out.  Regularly, whether we are aware of it or not, the powers of death try to tempt us away from our allegiance to Christ.  And though we might think that remaining loyal to our vows and to our allegiance is something heroic and therefore rare; to the contrary, daily – again, whether we are aware of it or not –  life presents us with opportunities to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus.

When Jesus called Peter and Andrew and James and John, they expressed their allegiance not to Rome but to Christ when they on the spot left their nets and followed.  On that Sunday morning in church, Tamara Davis expressed her allegiance to Christ when on the spot she raised her hand and offered to donate a kidney.  Pier Giorgio Frassati, when the woman and her shoeless son came begging at his door, expressed his allegiance to Christ when right then and there he took off his shoes and gave them to the boy.  Joelle’s mother, when Asil’s family’s home was destroyed and they came knocking on her door, expressed her allegiance to Christ: “This house is yours,” she said.  In these and in many other ways, small and great, life daily presents us with opportunities to reaffirm again and again our allegiance to following Jesus.

May God give us the grace to recognize these moments in which Jesus calls us.  And may God give us the grace to continually,daily, in our words and by our deeds, whether small or great, to reaffirm our allegiance, not to “Rome” and the powers of darkness and death, but to Jesus Christ and light and life.