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Writer's pictureMichael Rynkiewich

Matthew 4b

Jesus has been anointed for ministry through John’s baptism in the Jordan River (Matthew 3). Jesus has survived hunger and parried the temptations thrust by the devil (Matthew 4: 11). The bottom-line temptation was to cling to the title ‘Son of God’ while exercising his own authority to carry out the mission on earth in his way. If Jesus had decided on this path, he would have been testing the Father with his disobedience. Jesus did not test the Father; he passed the test.

 

I am reminded of Moses when he was exasperated with the people who were complaining about hunger and thirst. In Exodus 17: 1-7, God instructed Moses to strike a rock with his staff; he did and water rushed out. Later, in Numbers 1-13, God instructed Moses to “command the rock before their eyes to yield its water.” However, when Moses and Aaron arrived at the rock, Moses said this to the people; “Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of the rock?” The ‘we’ refers to Moses and Aaron; no mention of God. “Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and livestock drank.” Well, it turned out all right. The people got water; so, same outcome, right?

 

Water, yes. Obedience, no. God had given specific instructions for each event. Instead of commanding the rock in the second event, Moses struck the rock as he had the first time. Each way would work, but efficiency is not the question. Obedience is the issue. Here is the next verse: “But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given to you’.” Now you can see the nature of the Jesus’ test. Jesus was determined to carry out God’s mission in God’s way, not in his own way. What a lesson for us![1]

 

4: 12-17.  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—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.”

 

This confirms that Jesus was on the Jordan farther south during the Baptism and the Temptations. Jesus goes home from the banks of the Jordan east of Jerusalem, then withdraws even further by leaving Nazareth. Why? Jesus was known as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ and could be found there if the authorities put out an arrest warrant. He moved, and will continue to move because he is embarking on life as an itinerant preacher and healer. Jesus often returns to his base in Capernaum, according to Matthew (Chapters 8, 11, 17) as well as the other Gospels.

 

Capernaum is in the area on the northeast edge of old Israel, and as a border district, it was the first to be overrun by invaders like the Assyrians. Zebulon and Naphtali are north and east of the Sea of Galilee, but they are not on the road to the sea (Mediterranean) or even across the Jordan … unless, as Isaiah does, you read the directions as an Assyrian would. Assyria was northeast of Galilee beyond the eastern side of the Jordan.[2] 

 

I say that to highlight Isaiah’s description, which Matthew adopts, which implies that the district of Galilee has a long history of invasion and mixing of peoples, so much that it was called ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’. That is why, from a Jewish perspective, it is a land of darkness with the ‘shadow of death’ hanging over it. Such a borderland that is often invaded could apply to many lands. Small countries between belligerent neighbors are vulnerable; The Netherlands and Belgium in both world wars, all of Eastern Europe after World War II, and Ukraine today.

 

Isaiah was talking originally about the return of the Exiles from Babylon who would enter the area through the northeast; but Matthew has repurposed the quotation to apply to the arrival of Jesus and, through his presence, the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

4: 17.   From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

 

Matthew is the writer, and he reports the gist of Jesus’ message, which is word for word the same as what he recorded as John’s message (3: 2). The difference is that, with the arrival of the Messiah, the kingdom of heaven even nearer than when John preached. Notice that Jesus does not call on Israel to be a Jewish Nation or Christian Nation, but rather calls on the people to ‘change their minds and change their ways’. Even the political and religious leaders, perhaps especially the political and religious leaders, are called to repent.

 

Jesus’ disciples, including us, should preach the same. Our job is to invite people into God’s life-saving and life-changing activities on earth, not to force a takeover of the government in order to make people comply with what one group thinks are Biblical principles. It is not uniform conformity that is in view, but rather whether or not people’s hearts are changed. The Beatitudes which follow this section tell us that because they describe the kind of people who are in the Kingdom of Heaven: people who are humble, meek, merciful, peacemakers, and are seeking God’s justice and righteousness.  

 

4: 18-22.   As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishers. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

 

There is no indication here of how long Jesus had been in Capernaum, and what preaching and healing he may have done there to establish his identity and authority. From the cryptic story of call to vocation that Matthew gives us, it would appear that the two sets of brothers were already acquainted with Jesus. The word ‘immediately’ is used twice here to describe their response; so it seems like they were prepared to follow because of what they had heard and seen.

 

Three of these four, Peter, James, and John, will become something of an ‘the inner circle’ of disciples. They will be invited to witness the Transfiguration (Matthew 17) and they will be asked to accompany Jesus while he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26).

 

Notice the contrast with many of today’s TV preachers and evangelists, and even with some leaders of short-term mission groups. Jesus did not ask people to repent, and then walk away and leave them. Jesus asked them to ‘follow him’. I was talking with a Baptist minister once, and he said that he led a short-term mission trip and they got 150 decisions for Christ. By contrast, John Wesley refused to ‘strike a blow where I cannot follow up’. He was afraid that he would leave skin-deep Christians who would easily backslide into the old life. That would cause more damage than good (see Hebrews 6). That’s why Wesley stayed around to form small groups and classes as discipleship support for emerging Christians.[3]  

 

4: 23-25.   Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the gospel) of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, people possessed by demons or having epilepsy or afflicted with paralysis, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

 

People often say that Jesus ministered to the Jews but not Gentiles. It is true that he met the latter only infrequently, Gentiles like the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8), the Syrophonecian woman (Mark 7), and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). But, here we are told that many from Syria and ‘beyond the Jordan’ were amongst the ‘followers of Jesus’. Sounds like a whole gaggle of gentiles.

 

Matthew is giving us a preview of Jesus’ ministries, which can be categorized as teaching, preaching, and healing.  In the current text (Chapter 4), the summary is followed by what is often called ‘The Sermon on the Mount’. A similar summary statement appears again at Chapter 9: 35-37. Immediately after that summary, the Twelve are sent out on a preaching and healing mission to the villages. There is a pattern to Matthew’s work.

 

So, conversion and discipleship are meant to be self-perpetuating. That is, mature Christians give birth to new fellowships, and so on and on.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven is near. Neither Israel nor America is the Kingdom of Heaven. However, there are citizens of Israel and citizens of America, and of India, and of Nigeria, and of Ukraine, and every nation who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s Dominion cuts across all secular boundaries, or rather ignores secular boundaries because the earthly kingdoms exist currents are irrelevant to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not the nationality that counts, it is the heart and what flows from the heart.

 

Further, the Kingdom of Heaven is not something that we establish, something that we ourselves build, or something that we defend (as if we could). The Kingdom of Heaven is the place and time where God rules in people’s hearts. No boundaries, no such thing as Christian nations; rather the Kingdom is peopled by those around the world who have opened their hearts to Jesus and have focused their loyalty on God. Those people are our brothers and sisters, whatever their temporal nationality.  


[1] I have just begun to read John Baur’s 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa: An African Church History, Second Revised Edition (1994). I am only 100 pages in, but it is so very clear that from the spread of Christianity in Egypt and Ethiopia in the Second Century through the Portuguese mission in the 16th century, mission practices were diluted and blunted by missionaries who pursued national power and economic goals. For example, Portuguese mission stations were often established in strategic places, that is, strategic to the military and trade interests of the Portuguese colonial project. If there was no gold or other valuable trade items to be had, the interior of Africa was reserved for slave raids. Even priests were involved in this lucrative trade.   

[2] Tasker, The Gospel According to Matthew, pages 56-57.

[3] Ben Witherington says: “In v. 17 the verb metanoeite means more than just to be sorry for or change one’s mind about. It means to make a radical life change, in this case to turn away from the patterns of sin and rebellion and turn back to God and to obedience to his will. This appeal to change is given urgency by what follows it—‘because the Dominion of God is at hand’.” Witherington, Matthew, page 95.

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