With Whom Will You Ally?

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Scripture:  Matthew 4:12-23

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum… Read more…

Looking to Sunday

by Elaine Poproski

Over the next couple of months, we’re going to be spending a lot of time in Matthew’s gospel. This week, we’re reading about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. I find the way Matthew describes the beginning of the long-awaited Messiah’s ministry and mission to conquer sin and death to be amusingly low key. Jesus was baptised by his cousin John, spent a bit of time in the wilderness where he was confronted with some tempting alternatives to the mission assigned him by God, found a couple sets of brothers to be his disciples, and then “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.”[1]

It’s said so nonchalantly; it reads like Matthew is telling us it was a cloudy day or something equally unexceptional. Except the good news Jesus proclaimed literally changed the world. 2,000 years later, Jesus has followers around the world. Entire countries have been shaped, for better or worse, by people who claim an affinity with Jesus. Things like public schools and hospitals have their origins in Jesus’ proclamation of the good news of the kingdom and his example of love and compassion. The things Jesus taught, the example he lived, to say nothing of his death and resurrection, literally changed the world. And Matthew introduces it all like it’s mundane and commonplace.

But there’s nothing mundane or commonplace about Jesus or about anything he taught. I think that’s why the two sets of brothers so readily stepped out of their boats and their professions when Jesus invited them to follow him. Despite Matthew’s entirely unimpressive description of this beginning, there must have been something extraordinary about Jesus.

I wonder what it was like to learn from Jesus. I wonder what it was like to sit in his presence while he talked about the kingdom of God and exposed God’s incredible love and grace. I wonder what it was like to realize that Jesus expected that they would one day begin teaching the things he was teaching – proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom just like he proclaimed it. I think, if I’d been one of them, the idea that I would do as Jesus did would have been at least a little bit intimidating.

On Sunday we’re going to talk about the expectation that Jesus’ followers, today just like way back then, have a story to tell – good news that must be proclaimed. As you prepare for Sunday, perhaps spend some time considering how that expectation makes you feel. Does it excite you or scare you? Are you intimidated by the idea or confident you can do what’s expected? What does it mean to you to proclaim the good news of the kingdom?

 

[1] Matthew 4:23