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When I was in seminary, I was given the remarkable opportunity of visiting the lands of the Bible. Since it’s Epiphany and we talk about light, one of the most enlightening experiences we had occurred when we were down on the Sinai Peninsula 9,000 or so feet above sea level atop what is believed to be Mt. Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments watching the sunrise. The mountains there are mostly solid granite. As the sun came up the light reflecting on the rocks noticeably went through every colour you could image. In the midst of this breathtaking light display a Korean church group began singing How Great Though Art in Korean while others began to join in their own languages. It was beautiful. It was the kind of mountaintop spiritual experience you would expect on such a trip – light shining into darkness, peoples of many nations gathered in worship, God’s Presence abiding.
Another enlightening moment I had while there was about a week later when we went to the wee little town of Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, the town where Jesus lived as well as Peter, Andrew, James and John. There’s really nothing more than ruins there today and a UFO-looking Catholic church built on top of a 5th century church built on top of the house where the Apostle Peter is believed to have lived. It was there in Capernaum, while standing in the ruins of a 4th century synagogue that was built on top of the synagogue where Jesus worshipped and taught that something came over me, a sense of awe at just how real, historically real he was. This was Capernaum. These ruins were the place where Jesus lived, walked, taught, preached, and healed. Just to the south of there on a hillside along the shore of the Sea is where he delivered the Sermon on the Mount. And, just a little further south on the shore is the wilderness place now called Tabgha where Jesus fed the 5,000 (more than 15,000 if you count women and children too). What struck me was that the Christian faith isn’t just a bunch of religious superstition and philosophical, metaphysical, and ethical teachings. It is the outgrowth of a very real God’s very real historical involvement among a very real people in very real places. God isn’t just beliefs. God acts.
Now here’s something that’s going to wow you. Capernaum is located in the ancient tribal land of Naphtali, a name we heard in our reading. Jesus’ ministry lasted about three years and for most of those three years Capernaum was home-base. He appears to have kept coming back there. He may have even had a house there. Before he started his ministry, he lived in Nazareth which is in the land of Zebulon. Both are in the land of Galilee which Matthew or Isaiah rather calls the land of the Gentiles. Matthew here is quoting from Isaiah and he is proclaiming that Jesus’ presence and ministry there in the land of the Gentiles, Galilee, is a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy that was given nearly 700 years prior. Jesus’ real presence there and the Gospel of the Kingdom of heaven manifested in healings, exorcisms, teachings, and forgiving was the reality of God’s light shining on a people living in darkness, a people living in the land of the shadow of death. Well, guess what? There’s more to this picture than meets the eye. Please allow me to give you a little history lesson.
The lands of Naphtali and Zebulon had a lot going for them. There was a major north-south trade route running through them. They had the best agricultural land in the Middle East. And, they had the very lucrative Galilean fishing industry. One would think that the people there would be wealthy because they could produce a lot of food and had a major trade route there to get it places. But that was not the case.
When the northern kingdom of Israel fought with the southern kingdom of Judah and other surrounding kingdoms, which they often did, the majority of their battles were in Zebulon and Naphtali for control of that valuable land. Whenever Assyria, to the north wanted to attack Egypt to the south or vice versa the fastest route between the two was along that trade corridor. Armies trample things. Moreover, gaining control of the area of Zebulon and Naphtali guaranteed a good food source. For most of their history the people of Zebulon and Naphtali stayed occupied by people from away. They were beat down and poor and most of what they produced was taken from them to feed invaders.
In 722 BC, Isaiah’s day, Assyria sacked Israel and sent most of the people away into exile and resettled the land with foreigners. Thus, it was called the Land of the Gentiles by the rest of the Jewish people to the south. By Jesus’ day a Jewish population from the south had moved up. Finally, in Jesus’ day the Romans occupied the whole nation and the people of Naphtali and Zebulon still suffered the most of all the peoples in the Jewish nation for all the same reasons.
It was to and among these beatdown, not much reason to hope, poor people that Jesus began his ministry. It was to such as these that he came first. It was to such as these that Jesus began to proclaim, “Focus on God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” It was there that he called a handful of poor, disheartened, and probably embittered fisherman to be the first of his disciples. Together, they walked all over Galilee while Jesus taught and proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and it was more than just talk. Jesus healed every kind of sickness, the lame, lepers, and even cast out demons; and at one point he told a man his sins were forgiven and at another point he calmed a storm and ultimately cast out a legion of demons from a man across the lake. That’s about a thousand, the size of a legion in the Roman military. It was to these people that Jesus came first and readily ministered and proclaimed the Gospel of the present reality of the Kingdom of God.
About this word Gospel, the Greek word we translate as Gospel was the word the Romans used for an announcement of imperial “good news” as it pertained to the Roman emperor. They were announcements like “Caesar had a son” or “Caesar defeated the Gaul’s” or “Caesar is now to be worshipped as a living son of Zeus.” When the Romans came to Galilee, to Zebulon and Naphtali, they would have proclaimed a gospel to them, an announcement of imperial “good news”. It wasn’t “Focus of God, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”. It was, “Submit, for the kingdom of Caesar is at hand. You are now under his blessed rule.” They backed it up with legions of Roman soldiers who were very good at bullying local populations. But Jesus, on the other hand, he came proclaiming that God was now delivering his people and proved it by doing things that only God himself could do and say just as the ancient prophets had centuries ago prophesied that God would do.
Jesus called the people to repent. I say focus on God. Repent is a word with a lot of theological baggage. “Repent” wasn’t a warning to get yourself right with God so that things will go well for you now and after death. It was a call to focus on and get on board with what God is doing in your life right now. It’s a call to have faith and hope because God is among us delivering us, putting our lives to right, healing us, saving us so often from our own demise but just as often from the bad things that just happen to good people. The Greek word for repent actually means “to become with-minded”. To become with-minded with God is to have faith/hope and to become an active participant in what God is doing. If God is really acting in your life, then to become with-minded with God in his actions is to have faith/hope and get onboard with him.
I don’t know about you folks, but this wows me. It is in those places in our lives, in our very selves where it seems that we are living in darkness, walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death that the Father sends the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver us, to heal us, to set us free. Therefore, it is important that we be aware of what those places are in our lives are. What we are in bondage to and yes, these things will probably be the result of our own doing and yes, since they are of our own doing, we will be very reluctant to own up. On the other hand, we also suffer from things that are not so much our own doing; illness, hurtful relationships, over-bearing employers, wayward children, and so forth. If we want to see where God is at work in our lives, then we should look in the places where we are being beat down and made to be impoverished both internally in our emotional and spiritual worlds and in the externals that we should first look. It is to our weakness that the Father sends the Son in the power of the Spirit so that he may bring deliverance and healing. Remember, if Jesus had gone first to Jerusalem, the city of strength and power, they would have killed him right off the bat. So also, if the Triune God of grace came first to us in what we consider to be our strengths, we would try to kill him too. It’s our nature. Therefore, look for Jesus in your Zebulon and Naphtali areas. It is there that you will likely find that the light of salvation is dawning upon you, that he is with you to heal, strengthen, and uphold you. Amen.
