The Marks of the Kingdom

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Matthew 9:35-10:14

As best as we can tell from the Gospels, it appears that Jesus began his ministry wandering from town-to-town teaching and preaching in the region of Galilee. It seems he liked to start his visit to a town by teaching in the synagogue. We know that he did have some rather large outdoor moments like when he preached the Sermon on the Mount and when he fed the 5,000-15,000. He also wound up getting invited to dinner quite often. And, it goes without saying that he spent a lot of time just teaching his disciples as they made their way from place to place. Nevertheless, the local synagogue on the Sabbath seemed to be where he made his initial stop when he came to town.

Now surprisingly, we don’t know much at all about what went on in the local synagogue back then. Synagogues arose during the Babylonian Exile as places for the displaced Jews to go and be Jews together and the practice followed them back from exile. We know that after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and leveled the Temple in 70AD and then for sure by the 300’s AD, the synagogue became very important as a place of worship. But as far as in Jesus’ day, we know there was a place called a synagogue in most small towns in Israel and throughout the Roman empire where there were large communities of Jews. The word itself means “the gathering” and that seems to have been the synagogue’s most important function. It was a place for people to gather.

In the first century, the synagogue building seemed to have been a large, walled courtyard that may or may not have had a roof. There were benches for sitting around the walls with one important spot called the “Seat of Moses” where the head teaching rabbi sat when they gathered on the Sabbath. Outside of the Sabbath, it seems the courtyard served as a marketplace or park. Similar to how the rural/small town church used to be the social hub a few decades ago in North America, the synagogue was more so a place for fellowship in first century Judaism. The crowds that Jesus had compassion for were likely townspeople fellowshipping at the synagogue.

As far as what synagogue worship was like, well, your guess is as good as mine. As important as these places were, none of the rabbis or the Temple authorities ever wrote down the rubrics of what synagogue worship would look like. We know there was prayer. They probably read the story of the Exodus, a few excerpts from the Law, and a bit of a prophet read by whoever was invited to read. At some point, a local rabbi would give a short commentary on one of the readings. There might be some discussion. That’s about all we know.

As I mentioned earlier, Jesus liked to start his local ministry in the synagogue, but things didn’t always if ever go without confrontation. He and his Kingdom of God message stirred things up. In the Gospel of Mark as a matter of first course, we see Jesus visit the Capernaum synagogue. Capernaum and a house there seem to function as a home base for Jesus. The people, the crowd, at the synagogue were amazed at his teaching. Just then a demoniac challenged Jesus calling him the Holy One of God. Jesus told him to shut up and cast the demon out of the man, an act of the Kingdom or reign of God being at hand. The crowd was gobsmacked.

But tides change. When Jesus went to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, he was given the Scroll of Isaiah to read. News of Jesus and his ministry preceded him. They wanted to hear what their hometown boy, whom everybody knew, would have to say. He read a passage about things the Messiah would do, things only God could do, the miraculous things which he had been doing. For his brief commentary on the passage, he simply said “Today, this passage has been fulfilled within your hearing.” That prompted some heated discussion for which they ran him out of town.

From then on, most of his teaching moments in synagogues which were always accompanied by healings and exorcisms were met with opposition from the synagogue authorities, the scribes and Pharisees. No wonder Jesus said that the crowds for which he had such compassion were like sheep without a shepherd. When it came to the crowds fellowshipping in the synagogues, distressed and dejected due to Roman oppression, the shepherds did not feel compassion for them but rather an apparent love of authority over them.

So, Jesus would come to a town and go to the synagogue and teach/preach that the Kingdom of God has come near and he demonstrated it by healing people, casting out demons, holding the authorities accountable, touching the unclean, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and sometimes he even raised the dead. To these crowds of troubled people of God and to the outcast among them he came and brought real hope. He didn’t come with a moral code to be obeyed or else. He didn’t come saying, “believe what I believe or else.” He certainly did not come preaching, “Believe in me or go to Hell when you die.” He came bringing the Kingdom of God.

Well, that was a long time ago in a land 9,353 kilometers (5,812 miles) as the crow flies from my recliner. What does Jesus bringing his Kingdom look like today in our communities? A primary marker for the presence of Jesus and his kingdom is compassion for the crowds, a real burden to do something to uplift the multitudes of people in our communities who are troubled, cast out, and vulnerable like shepherdless sheep. Israel in Jesus day was a land occupied and overtaxed by a foreign nation and there was widespread hopelessness. In the small towns the people gathered at the synagogue. That’s not our context today, but there are still a lot of people troubled by economic hardship, medical issues, family problems. It’s a huge list. There are plenty of people ostracized in our communities, lots of young people being ostracized in online communities. There are still all those phobias and -ism’s that people use to build walls to throw people off of. There are vulnerable people all around. People getting scammed in ways we can’t even imagine. Are we moved with compassion?

About crowds, it’s a reasonably sure bet to say that the primary place Jesus saw the crowd was at the synagogue. For us today, local churches are not the place people are gathering to. The gathering places are online. They are at sporting events and concerts. We have to go to big cities to see people crowding through the routines of daily life on public transportation or going to shopping and education centres. Nevertheless, people gathering for fellowship is a rare gift if you can find it. Today is not the day to expect people to come to a church and discover the secret gem of compassionate fellowship that we house in our small congregations. Rather, the harvest is out there at the county fair, the fitness center, the beach, the Tim’s, and so on. But – and this is scary - the predominant place that people are gathering now is online in social media outlets were taking advantage of or outright attacking the vulnerable is the name of the game. Human beings need face-to-face, in-person community.

Jesus said pray the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into the harvest. That’s us. Notice in the passage that those workers were immediately all listed by name. The small church is like the theme song to that TV show Cheers from years ago. “Sometimes you wanna go where everyone knows your name. And they’re always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see our troubles are all the same. You wanna be where everybody knows your name.” People long to be known. So, we need to be the people who go out there among the harvest and putting our fears and shyness aside we learn people’s names and something about them. We take nothing with us like agendas and we expect nothing in return. We just go and listen giving love and support. We just want them to get a sense of the peace of Christ that abides with us. Who knows? Maybe they will want to know where we got this peace from and come and fellowship with us. Amen.