Matthew 4:12-17

 Matthew 4:12-17

Jesus has returned to the Jordan valley and from the other Gospels we know that He also had a ministry of teaching and his disciples were baptizing in the river. When Jesus learns that John was arrested Jesus leaves the Jordan valley to go to Nazareth. In the same verse we learn that Jesus leaves Nazareth and goes to Capernaum.

There is an important principle in these geographic verses. That principle is that Jesus is completely subject to the Father’s timing and leading. There will come a day when Jesus will be tried in a Roman court, but that day is about three years away, it was not yet time. John’s ministry was widespread and well known and with John in prison if Jesus had continued His ministry in the Jordan River region He would have most likely picked up John’s followers and have enjoyed extreme popularity. With such popularity in that location and in the circumstances of John’s arrest an anti-Herod movement may have developed. This could have resulted in a premature arrest of Jesus. Herod rejected the message of repentance, so Jesus will move on. Jesus returns home and in Nazareth His stay, according to Luke, was short and unpleasant. Again the message of repentance is rejected and Jesus willingly walks away.

So, His home becomes Capernaum. Galilee of the Gentiles was the land of outcasts. The people of Jerusalem and Judea generally regarded Galilean Jews as tainted, the hick rubes of the family tree. They lived and co-existed with a large Gentile population. This was a land closer to the pagan and heathen influences. This was the land of the political, educational, economic, religious and social underdogs. Into the land of a troupe of castaways, untouchables, undesirables, has-beens that never really were, the Lord finds His people. Verse 16 is poetic and beautiful; in the dark, in the land of the dead, Light and Life have come. Lovingly and offering hope, Jesus begins letting people in on the secret that the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived.

Because our faith so mimics our society we often want our place in the Lord’s service to be a place of upward mobility. Think for a moment of how the church works toward bigger, better, wealthier and more publicized ministry. Jesus was unconcerned with upward mobility. He was concerned with speaking the Kingdom’s news to those who would listen.

Prayer challenge: Ask the Lord to move you toward meaningful service and ministry with eyes that are blind to the trappings of success, power or prestige. And with eyes open to see where you can serve Him with those open to the Good News of the Kingdom.