Ordinary Radicals #4 – Basic Ingredients – Phil Moore

Posted on July 27th, 2010

I am not very good at cooking. I’m serious. If I ever invite you over to my house for dinner, then you’d better check my wife is cooking before you reply.

I can just about make something if I have a recipe book open and all the right ingredients are in front of me, but that’s only as far as my cooking skills can stretch. There’s no room for ad libbing or innovation when I’m cooking. I’m frankly just not good enough in the kitchen.

My wife Ruth, on the other hand, is a miracle-worker. She finds food at the back of the kitchen cupboard which I would look at and throw away, and instinctively turns it into a mouth-watering masterpiece. Unlike me, she can use the most basic of ingredients, because what matters in our kitchen is not the quality of the food but the quality of the cook.

Hold that thought. Remember that Matthew wants to teach us that Jesus is not looking for spiritual superstars in his Kingdom army, but Ordinary Radicals like Rahab and the Magi. That’s why he continues his same theme into chapter 4 of his gospel by introducing us to some of his Galilean friends. Jesus chose two sets of brothers to be his leading disciples – Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Jesus chose men who were very basic ingredients, because he has the skill to turn losers into leaders.

The four men were fishermen, but not very good ones. Luke tells us in his parallel account that they had fished all night without catching anything. They were not great fishermen, and they were no scholars either. The ruling Pharisees sneered at them in Acts 4:13 as “uneducated, common men”, and there is a marked deterioration in the quality of the Greek in 1 Peter, written with Silas, and the Greek of 2 Peter, written alone. Peter, Andrew, James and John were neither educated scholars nor skilful tradesmen. They were very basic ingredients in the kitchen of God’s Kingdom.

That’s precisely Matthew’s point. What matters is not the quality of the pupil but the quality of the teacher who enlists him to his class. A rabbi who was only as skilful as I am in the kitchen could only afford to choose the very best disciples. A rabbi like Jesus could afford to scrape the barrel. All that he demanded was their radical commitment.

You probably know the rest of the story. Peter, Andrew, James and John went on to be the leading apostles in the days after Pentecost. When they heard Jesus’ command in Matthew 4:19 to “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men,” they took it as a promise that HE would make them into all that they needed to be. Matthew tells us that Peter and Andrew “immediately” left their nets, and that James and John “immediately” left their boat and their father. They stopped writing themselves off as basic ingredients and started fixing their eyes on the skill of the master-chef Jesus.

Where are you directing your gaze today? Are you looking at yourself and assuming God can’t use you, or are you looking at Jesus and trusting his power to trump your weakness? Jesus is looking for very Ordinary Radicals, which means that neither you nor I are too weak for him to use. It’s to people such as us that Jesus vows to do the impossible: “Come, follow me, and I WILL MAKE YOU fishers of men.”

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One Response to “Ordinary Radicals #4 – Basic Ingredients – Phil Moore”

Kevmeister Says:
July 27th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I am a painter, self employed, after many years at my trade I have to concede I am a failure at running my trade as a business. I’ve been doing a slow bleed for the last couple of years trying to run it, My finances are shot, my patience has run out, my motivation is gone, I have to ask what is there left for me? more of the same.
I remember years ago somebody told me one day I would lay down my brush and paint other pictures, maybe it is coming to pass, it’s the same message, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men”.