Ruins of the Synagogue in Capernaum
The pastor of one of the largest churches in America once said to me: “For a church to be successful and grow it needs the right leader in the right place at the right time with the right method.” And that is exactly what we see taking place in Jesus’ kingdom movement as recorded in Matthew 4:12-17. Listen for God’s word to you…
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
The first thing we see here is that Jesus began his ministry at just the right time. Paul says in Galatians 4:4, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law.” And when the time was just right, that Son went forth to preach.
What made this the right time for Jesus to preach? There was Messianic expectation in the air. Luke tells us, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” (Luke 3:15) John told them he was not the Messiah, but that there was a greater one coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John prepared the way for Jesus and now that John had been put in prison by Herod, it was time for Jesus to make his move.
And it was a very definitive move. Jesus left his hometown of Nazareth and took up residence in the town of Capernaum. William Barclay comments on this…
There was a kind of symbolic finality in that move. In that moment Jesus left his home never again to return to live in it. It is as if he shut the door that lay behind him before he opened the door that stood in front of him. It was the clean cut between the old and the new. One chapter was ended and another had begun. Into life there come these moments of decision. It is always better to meet them with an even surgical cut than to vacillate undecided between two courses of action.
Perhaps it is the right time for you to make a clean break from something or someone in your past. Only the Lord can tell you if this is the time to make such a move. But one thing I know for sure… it is always the right time to follow Jesus.
The second thing we see in this passage is the right place.
When John was put in prison, Jesus returned to Galilee, specifically to the town of Capernaum, and probably to Peter’s house there. If you were to visit Capernaum today, you could see the ruins of the 4th or 5th century synagogue that may have a 1st century foundation underneath. You could also see the ruins of what people call “Peter’s House”. The reason why archaeologists think it may be Peter’s house is because it has some graffiti dating to the 2nd century and had a house church built on top of it in the 4th century, followed by a Byzantine church in the 5th century. What is clear is that this place was venerated by Christians from a very early date.
But why was Galilee the right place for Jesus to begin his ministry? Josephus, the first century Jewish historian who was at one time governor of the province, tells us that there were over 200 villages in the region, and all of them had a population of 15,000 or more people. That seems extraordinary. But if Josephus was right then Jesus began his ministry in a region where there were plenty of people to hear him.
Not only that, but Galilee was a place where people were open to new ideas. Perhaps this was the case because Galilee was surrounded by Gentiles. The great roads of the world passed through Galilee. Because of its location, Galilee had been invaded over and over again. Thus, Galilee was a place full of new ideas and a diversity of lifestyles. The history of Galilee made it the one place in all Israel most open to a new teacher with a fresh message. Galilee’s more orthodox neighbors to the south may have looked on the area with disdain, but how like God to choose an unexpected place to do a great work.
You may feel that the place where you live, and work, is an unlikely place for God to do anything special. But God wants to use you right where you are to touch others with the good news about his Son, Jesus. All we have to do is be prepared and open for God to work through us. As it says in 1 Peter 3:15,
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
A third thing I see in our passage for today is that Jesus used the right method in his ministry.
Matthew is fond of looking for Hebrew Scripture passages in which he sees a foretelling of the events of the Messiah’s life. This time Matthew turns to Isaiah 9, a chapter full of Messianic significance, often preached on during Advent and Christmas.
Why does Matthew link this passage with the ministry of Jesus? He does so because it is a passage that talks about the Messiah liberating God’s people, though not through the standard method of revolution. The same passage from Isaiah, quoted by Matthew, and that we read earlier, also says:
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning
will be fuel for the fire.
In other words, military equipment will no longer be needed when the Messiah comes on the scene.
Jesus saw people all around him who were bent on revolution of the militaristic variety. Many Jews, even among Jesus’ followers, wanted to build up military resistance against the occupying force of Rome and eventually seize power.
But this was not to be Jesus’ method. Jesus obviously thought this militaristic method was akin to fighting darkness with darkness, whereas he wanted to bring God’s light into the world. Thus, Matthew quotes Isaiah 9, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
Not much has changed in 2000 years, has it? People are still trying to solve their perceived problems by military force—but it has never worked. Jesus offers an alternative.
Now, not only was Jesus beginning his ministry at the right time, in the right place, with the right method, he also had the right message. We read that, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’”
When my friend, the Rev. Deborah McKinley, preached here for our Thanksgiving service, she talked about another preacher friend of hers who challenged her to preach a sermon with the same number of words as the Gettysburg Address. Depending on which version you read, and how you count, the Gettysburg Address has somewhere between 263 and 270 words. That’s not long! I sometimes use that many words or more just for my introduction!
So, can you imagine someone preaching a sermon with only 8 words? That’s how many words there were in Jesus’ sermon according to our English text. It was 7 words in Greek. I don’t know how many in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. And to be accurate, I should acknowledge that this is merely Matthew’s summary of what Jesus preached. There was probably more to it. But what power there was in these few words!
Now, what does the text mean when it says that Jesus began to “preach”? We all know what preaching is, don’t we? Let’s not be too sure. I think the meaning and practice of preaching has come down in the world since Jesus’ time. Preaching is all too often associated with boredom. But there is nothing boring about what Jesus is doing. People in his audience sensed the electricity in the air when Jesus spoke.
The word for “preaching” in Greek is “kerussein” which means “a herald’s proclamation from a king”. The herald was the person who brought a message straight from the king’s throne room. There was a note of certainty in the message of the herald. He spoke with a note of authority. This was because the herald’s message came from a source greater than himself.
People would later say of Jesus, “he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:29)
But what did Jesus preach? He preached the same message as John the Baptist. Matthew summarizes Jesus’ preaching in 4:17 using the exact same words as in 3:2, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is near.”
The word for repentance is “metanoia”. It means a change of mind. What did Jesus want his audience to change their mind about?
Well, for one thing, Jesus wanted them to change their mind as a nation about “rushing towards the cliff edge of violent revolution and instead go the other way, towards God’s kingdom of light and peace and healing and forgiveness, for themselves and for the world.” (N. T. Wright)
In order to apply the preaching of Jesus to our own context we might ask: “How is our nation bent on violence?” We are a violent nation in many ways. Last year in the United States there were more mass shootings than any other year on record. How might God be calling us to change our minds about the violence all around us?
And why should we repent? Why should we change our mind and direction in life? Jesus invites us to do so because “the kingdom of the heavens is near.” What did Jesus mean by that?
First, we need to understand what he didn’t mean. When Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven he wasn’t talking about the place where believers go when they die. Matthew quotes Jesus as saying, “kingdom of heaven”, whereas Mark and Luke quote Jesus as saying, “kingdom of God”. Using the word “heaven” instead of “God” was a normal Jewish way of avoiding the use of God’s name out of reverence and respect. It was a euphemism.
Any Jew hearing the phrase “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven” in Jesus’ day would have known what he meant. They would have known he was talking about revolution because there were many kingdom movements that had come and gone in their day.
The Romans had conquered Palestine just sixty years before Jesus’ birth. Many other nations had done the same before the Romans. The Romans installed Herod the Great, and his sons following him, as puppet rulers. Most Jews were resentful of Herod’s leadership and Roman occupation of their homeland. Thus, the Jews longed for revolution.
But they had a deeper desire for revolution than most oppressed people. They wanted revolution because they believed they were God’s chosen people and that it wasn’t God’s desire to have foreigners ruling over them. The Lord had promised in numerous scriptures that he would rescue his people. The Jews of Jesus’ day believed there should be no king but God. Therefore, they longed for the kingdom of God.
In our own time, the story has been told of a young boy who would call up people he didn’t know on the telephone. When someone answered, he would ask, “Are you on the line?” When they answered, “Yes, of course,” the boy would say, “Then get off quick because there’s a train coming!” And then he would hang up!
Jesus’ message was sort of like that crank call. Only Jesus wasn’t a crank. He was letting people know there was a train fast approaching. And if you’re standing on the railway line when a train is approaching you better get out of the way. Or even better, maybe you ought to get in position to jump on the train before it leaves you behind.
Of course, the revolution Jesus promised turned out to be nothing quite like what any of his contemporaries expected. The kingdom of heaven crashing into the kingdoms of this world looked completely different than what first century Jews hoped for. That’s why some of them had a hard time accepting Jesus or even wanting to follow him. In the end, even his closest followers forsook him. From the standpoint of Good Friday, Jesus didn’t look like the leader of a successful kingdom movement. But of course, that was not the end of Jesus’ story.
The kingdom of heaven is still crashing into the kingdoms of this world today. Wherever the two meet up there is royal conflict. The key question for us is: which kingdom are we going to be a part of? Which train are we going to jump on?
And how do we get on the right train? How do we become part of the kingdom of God?
I think it works kind of like becoming the citizen of another nation. My friend, Douglas Gresham, was born a United States citizen, but when his mother married C. S. Lewis, Doug also became a citizen of the United Kingdom. Years later, Doug married Merrie Conan Davies, an Australian citizen. They gave birth to children and raised them in Australia. So eventually, Doug wanted to become an Australian citizen like the rest of his family. But the Australian government said, “You will have to give up either your American or British citizenship to become an Australian citizen. You can be the citizen of two countries but not three!” Doug chose to give up his American citizenship and become a citizen of Australia.
We are all citizens of this world by birth, but we must choose to become citizens of the kingdom of God. Repentance is a choice. Faith in Jesus Christ is a choice. Standing up and announcing your allegiance to King Jesus is a choice. When push comes to shove, when our citizenship in the kingdom of this world comes in conflict with our citizenship in the kingdom of God, then we have to make a choice. We have to decide which we are going to put first. It is a choice I think we need to weigh very carefully because our eternal destiny may just depend upon that choice.
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