Friday, January 25, 2013
Matthew 4:13-16 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles-- the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light ..."
LIGHT DAWNS IN A DARK LAND
When John the Baptist was arrested, it seemed the perfect time for Jesus to take his place. John deferred to Jesus at His baptism. John directed his own disciples to follow Jesus. When John's followers worried that Jesus' disciples were baptizing more people that John's were, John gently told them that Jesus was the main event, John was just the warm-up band. Jesus must loom larger, John must fade away.
Now, John had been imprisoned. Surely, if Jesus was serious about this ministry thing, now was the time to begin preaching where John had been. Maybe, now was even the time to start moving closer to Jerusalem, where the influential religious teachers of the day lived and worked.
But instead, Jesus withdrew.
Jesus moved away from the Jordan River, and away from Jerusalem, the great epicenter of Jewish religious life. And He wasn't just retreating to gather supporters from His home town. He moved to Capernaum, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee.
In previous generations the people of this region had fallen from the true faith and were eventually killed or carried away by the nation of Assyria as a judgment from God. Not only was Galilee full of the spiritual deadness of unbelief, it was also a place where ancient armies had decimated the people, deporting them until the land was all but uninhabited! It was populated again by the time of Jesus, but why in the world would Jesus start His religious career in a place known for spiritual darkness?
One simple answer comes from Jesus' own mouth, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matthew 9:12 NIV).
