Jesus and His disciples moved north, first visiting his hometown of Nazareth, and then headquartering in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee.

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   Continuing north from Samaria, Jesus and His six disciples travel to Galilee, Jesus' home territory. Galilee was removed from the intense and exclusivistic religious environment of Judea and Jerusalem. Since Samaria was located between Judea and Galilee, the religious leadership from Jerusalem had to travel through Samaria and encounter the uncleanness of the half-breeds, or go around Samaria and travel up the Jordan valley in order to reach Galilee. Galilee was another political region with an entirely different governmental structure. Whereas Judea had a Roman governor or procurator, Galilee still had one of the sons of Herod the Great, Antipas, ruling the region. This made it more difficult for the religious leaders of Jerusalem to exercise their "connections" with the political leaders like they did in Judea, calling for "political favors" and threatening to disrupt the peace if they did not get such. The religious pressure was not as intense, and it was a safer place for Jesus to teach and minister.

   Galilee was far more diverse and disparate. Whereas Judea was almost exclusively populated with Jews, Galilee had more of a mixture of races and religion. Jesus grew up in this social environment, even though His religious training would have taught Him isolationism and separatism. The region of Galilee had such an admixture of different peoples that it was often referred to as "Galilee of the Gentiles," and regarded by the self-enlightened religionists of Judea as a place of "darkness." Part of that designation was due to the region's population being primarily employed as tradesmen, farmers, and those near the Sea of Galilee as fishermen, all of whom were regarded as lacking an elite religious and intellectual education. Jesus came as the "Son of Man" identified with all humanity universally regardless of race, gender, economic status, educational privilege, etc., so the varieties of peoples in Galilee was conducive to His ministry.

(39) Preaching the kingdom in Galilee - Matt. 4:17; Mk. 1:14,15; Lk. 4:14,15

   John the Baptist had been apprehended by Herod Antipas, at the instigation of his wife, Herodias, for denouncing the adulterous and incestuous relationship of the two. John was taken down to the east side of the Dead Sea in the region of Perea which Antipas ruled, and incarcerated in the prison at Macheaerus. Apparently his followers had some access to visit him there, as they later come asking questions of Jesus on John's behalf (Matt. 11:2-6).

   After hearing that John had been taken into custody, Jesus went through Samaria staying a couple of days in Sychar, and proceeded north to the region of Galilee. His reputation for having confronted the religious corruption in the temple at Jerusalem preceded Him, and there was great anticipation for what He would say and do.

   Jesus came "in the power of the Spirit," doing what He did by the dynamic empowering of the Spirit of God functioning in and through His humanity. He was teaching in the synagogues of Galilee and "preaching the gospel of God." Since the gospel of God is entirely embodied in the person and work of Jesus, we must not apply a religious interpretation that makes the gospel into a corpus of information and doctrine that can be taught and assented to intellectually. To "believe in the gospel" is to be receptive and open to all that He can and will do, for He is the "good news."

   Jesus' message to the Galileans was "Repent, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand." The people needed a "change of mind that led to a change of action," but inherent in Jesus was the empowering to effect such a change in behavioral expression. The "time" anticipated by all of the old covenant prophets, the time of radical newness, the time of the Messiah, the time when the kingdom of God would come, the time when mankind would be restored in relationship with God, the time when all religion would be confronted by God's reality in His Son was fulfilled and continues to be fulfilled in the activity of Jesus Christ. The "fulness of time" (Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:10), the "proper time" (I Tim. 2:6; Titus 1:3) was fulfilled. The kingdom of God wherein God in Christ actively reigns in the lives of His people came into being by Jesus' incarnational advent and redemptive action. It was not the concept of the kingdom that the Jewish religion of His day was expecting, nor the kingdom that religion today is still trying to reconstruct or waiting for futuristically, but it was the kingdom God promised nevertheless. Jesus ushered in the final and eternal kingdom of God.

(40) Healing a royal official's son at Capernaum - John 4:46-54.

   Returning to Cana where He had turned water into wine, Jesus encounters a royal official who probably served under Herod Antipas. The official's son, located in Capernaum, was deathly ill, and the official requested that Jesus might go to Capernaum and heal him, having heard of His ability to do so.

   Jesus was very cautious about being manipulated by man to perform miracles on demand. Religious methodology may be quick to do so, but Jesus was always cognizant of the greater spiritual need of mankind, and knew that He had not come simply to be a "miracle-worker". "Signs and wonders" do not necessarily lead people to receive what Jesus has come to make available in Himself. They can become an idolatrous object of concern in themselves.

   The anguishing petition of the official in entreating Jesus to, "Come before my child dies," evidences his desperate heart and his hope in who Jesus is and what Jesus can do. Responding with compassion, Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." Here was an opportunity of trusting faith: The official had requested Jesus to "come," and Jesus commands him to "go." Did he have faith that Jesus could act "at a distance"? Apparently he did, for he started off immediately on the twenty mile trek down to Capernaum. On the journey home he was met by some of his slaves who were coming to report that the child was relieved of the fever, and he ascertained that the timing corresponded with the very hour when Jesus had said, "Your son lives."

(41) Rejection at the synagogue in Nazareth - Lk. 4:16-30.

   Returning to His hometown, Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and was apparently invited by the elders to read and expound the lesson from the prophets, which always followed the lesson from the Law. When the scroll was handed to Him, Jesus read from Isaiah 61, verses one and two. His subsequent exposition of the text explained that the fulfillment of that prophecy was present in their midst, inherent in Himself.

   "Today this is realized in Me," Jesus explained. "This is the day that the Lord has promised and prophesied, the day of the Lord, the day of salvation, the Messianic day, the last days, the favorable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee"; all of these concepts may be included in what Jesus is declaring. This is not the "someday" promises of religion, but a realization of the fulfillment of all God's promises in His Son. "It has come true today!"

   With a clearly defined Messianic consciousness, Jesus is aware that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him and He has been Messianically anointed to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the downtrodden, all within Himself. Beyond the hand-outs of religion, the poor may have spiritual riches in Christ (Eph. 1:18; 3:8,16). Those "held captive by the devil" (II Tim. 2:16), captivated and bound by religion, are released from that prison in Christ. Those "blinded by the god of this world" (II Cor. 4:4) can see the spiritual reality of God in Jesus Christ. The downtrodden, the disadvantaged, the oppressed, whether economically, politically or religiously, can be liberated by Christ and find real freedom to be all they were meant to be spiritually and behaviorally. Such is the real spiritual fulfillment of the prefiguring of the Year of Jubilee in the old covenant, when the oppressed were set free. Religion often seeks temporal deliverance, just as the Jewish religion of Jesus' day sought deliverance from Roman oppression. Since that time religion has continued to advocate deliverance from economic, political and social oppression, from ideological captivation, and from physical and psychological illness. But Jesus came, first and foremost, for the spiritual deliverance of mankind.

   When Jesus sat down after reading from the scroll there was rapt attention on the part of the synagogue audience. They awaited His interpretation of the text, and were amazed at what He said, giving witness to their admiration. They wanted to believe that the promises were fulfilled and their hopes were to be realized, but then the doubts began to set in concerning whether this hometown boy, the son of Joseph the carpenter, was being too arrogant and audacious in claiming that the prophecy was being fulfilled in Himself. Their initial good impression turned to skepticism.

   Jesus read the audience, detected their skeptical thoughts, and posited that they are probably thinking, "Physician, heal yourself." "Instead of claiming to be the Physician that heals all the ills of mankind, perhaps You ought to heal Your own psychological delusions," may have been their thoughts. Such skepticism would also have sought spectacular verification of His supernatural ability, as they had heard reported from Capernaum. Jesus does not cater to such religious skepticism with its requests for external verification.

   Citing the adage that "a prophet is never welcomed or accepted in his hometown," Jesus proceeds to illustrate that the prophets Elijah and Elisha both went beyond their own peoples. Elijah went to Zarephath, the widow in the land of Sidon (I Kings 17). Elisha cleansed Naaman, the Syrian leper (II Kings 5). If Nazareth will not receive Him for who He is, Jesus will also go to the Gentiles and allow the Nazarene religionists to atrophy in their own exclusivism and narrow-minded regionalism, rejecting the universal spiritual deliverance in Himself.

   Having been summarily dismissed for their unbelief, the Nazarene synagogue attendees turn hostile. Anger and murderous intent are typical defenses of religion when their identity, ideology and power is threatened. Religionists revert to vengeance, terrorism, "holy war." Hoping to shove Him off the precipice in a mob action of murder without any individual guilt, Jesus forestalls such and departs.

(42) Residing in Capernaum - Matt. 4:13-16.

   Moving even farther north away from Jerusalem and Nazareth, Jesus takes up primary residence in the seaside resort of Capernaum. The name of the city means "Nahum's village," and it has been conjectured that the prophet Nahum was buried at this location. Capernaum was both a farming and a fishing community, located strategically on the main route between Damascus and Jerusalem. It probably had an even more diverse and mixed population including many Gentiles than did Nazareth.

   Matthew explains that Jesus' establishment of His headquarters in Capernaum was a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that in "Galilee of the Gentiles" located "toward the sea" in the former areas of Naphtali and Zebulun, there would "spring up a great light" among those "who sat in darkness and the shadow of death" (Isa. 8:23; 9:1,2). Jesus came as "the light of the world" (John 8:12), bringing spiritual light and life to all men including Gentiles, who would remain in spiritual darkness (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13) languishing in the "shadow of death" (Heb. 2:15) apart from His Messianic and mediatorial action on their behalf.

(43) Four fishermen called to follow - Matt. 4:18-22; Mk. 1:16-20; Lk. 5:1-11

   The six disciples who were following Jesus earlier, Andrew and Peter, James and John, Philip and Nathaniel, apparently returned to their families and vocations while Jesus was ministering throughout Galilee. Now, having settled into residence at Capernaum, Jesus encounters four of them again. These two sets of brothers, Andrew and Peter, James and John, were fishing partners on the Sea of Galilee and were preparing their nets after a long night of unsuccessful fishing. As the crowd of curious listeners pressed upon Him, Jesus stepped into one of Simon's boats, asked him to shove offshore a short distance, and there taught the growing gathering of people from the pulpit of the boat.

   Then Jesus instructed Simon Peter to, "Put out into the deep water and drop your nets for the catch." Though exhausted from a night of fishing, Peter did as he was told and caught so many fish that the nets were tearing and he had to summon his partners from the shore to come and assist. The haul was such that it almost caused both boats to sink. Responding to such, Peter fell at Jesus' knees confessing his sinfulness for he knew he was in the presence of the Lord.

   Jesus called the four fishermen, saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men who will catch men alive in numbers beyond what you can imagine." They left the fishing business, surrendering any preoccupation with physical possessions and pursuits which can so easily become idolatrous, and cast their lot in following Jesus. Whereas religion places a "call" upon men to respond to the "need" of their "cause," or to follow the precepts, principles or procedures of their teaching system, Jesus simply invites men to follow Him. Ontological involvement with the Person of Jesus Christ is the essence of Christianity, in contrast to all religion. Christians are not called to follow a religious program or agenda, or to attach themselves to a belief-system or morality-system, but are invited to identify with Jesus Christ and to derive all from Him.

(44) Man with unclean spirit healed on Sabbath - Mk. 1:21-28; Lk. 4:31-37.

   On the Sabbath Jesus went to the synagogue in Capernaum and was apparently asked to teach by the presiding elders. The manner of His teaching caused the audience to be filled with astonishment and wonder, for "He taught as one having authority, not as the scribes." Religious teachers often drone on monotonously, quoting the opinions of so-called scholars who have preceded them. Such religious teaching does not bear the dynamic of God's life; it is dead, dull and depressive. On the other hand, it is possible for religious teachers to assert a self-appointed authority over their listeners, claiming to have all truths figured out and dogmatically affirming the veracity of their teaching and the moral obligation of those who hear to respond. They are often aware that their audience is comprised of passive followers who do not think for themselves. The authority of Jesus' teaching, though, was the authority of God making known spiritual realities. The synagogue audience recognized that such teaching was very different from their typical religious fare, for it spoke to their spiritual needs and hunger.

   Suddenly in the midst of the synagogue session a man possessed of a demon became the vehicle of that evil spirit's verbal outburst. As "the whole world lies in the evil one" (I John 5:19), and many of those within his subtly disguised religious realm, the diabolic agencies hate to have their duped and deceived religious adherents hearing the Truth of spiritual realities in Christ. The demon yelled from the man, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you are the Holy One of God." The plural pronouns in the initial questions seem to indicate the identification and yet the distinction between the demon spirit and the inhabited man. The demon has a supernatural knowledge of the identity of Jesus and announces such (cf. Matt. 8:29; Lk. 4:41). In response Jesus does not employ any religious sleight-of-hand or any magical incantations of exorcism techniques, but simply rebukes the demonic spirit and orders him to come out of the man.

   Jesus had entered Satan's house, as it were, and because He was who He was He could bind the diabolic strong man and spoil his house (cf. Mk. 3:27). The demon threw the victimized man to the ground, screeched a blood-curdling scream, and departed from the man. The audience was now even more amazed that Jesus had the authority to command evil spirits, questioning, "What is this teaching, this word, this expression of God, that has power over demons?" Few of those who heard and saw Jesus seem to have understood that He was teaching of Himself in everything He said and did. His miracles and exorcisms were not crowd-drawing spectacularism, but the visible expression of His identity as the spiritual reality of God.

(45) Peter's mother-in-law and others healed - Matt. 8:14-17; Mk. 1:29-34; Lk. 4:38-41.

   Leaving the synagogue, Jesus and the four fishermen disciples He had called, went to the local home of Simon. Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a fever, whereupon Jesus touched her, relieved her of her illness, and she immediately got up and served them.

   Meanwhile the rumor-mill was spreading the word of Jesus' miracles and public exorcism in the synagogue meeting. As sunset was the completion of the Sabbath day, many were soon thereafter at the door of Simon's house seeking physical healing and relief from demonic oppression. Having compassion upon their suffering, Jesus healed their diseases and called the demons out of them. Many of the demons had supernatural knowledge that Jesus was the Son of God, but Jesus rebuked them and forbade them to reveal such, for their testimony would not serve His purposes. Only that which is derived from God can bring glory to God, and the statements of these demons were not derived from God.

   Matthew explains that the healings and exorcisms in Capernaum were a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. In the distinctly Messianic prophecy of the Suffering Servant, Isaiah speaks for God saying, "He took our infirmities and carried away our diseases" (Isa. 53:40). Matthew saw that take place physically in Capernaum, though the spiritual healing of the painful consequences of sin was also inherent in what Isaiah prophesied.

(46) Preaching in the synagogues of Galilee - Matt. 4:23-25; Mk. 1:35-39; Lk. 4:42-44.

   The morning after the Sabbath, Jesus arose before daybreak and sought out a solitary place to pray, evidencing his human dependence upon the function of God in the man. Simon and the other disciples, discovering that Jesus had departed, went out to hunt Him down, noting that there was a miracle-seeking multitude searching for Him.

   At the height of popularity, when religion would have seized the moment to cash-in on it and receive the glory of men, Jesus determined that He should go to other locations to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God. Jesus knew that He had not come as a temporal miracle-worker, but to reveal the good news of the kingdom of God in Himself. The supernatural sensationalism would later cause some of the Jewish people to try to impose upon Jesus their misguided interpretations of a material and militaristic kingdom, but Jesus knew that the kingdom He came to usher in was not "of this world" (John 18:36), but was the spiritual reign of His life and being in the lives of receptive persons identified with Him.

   Along with the four fishermen disciples Jesus began to preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout Galilee. Again He drew great crowds from as far away as Judea and beyond the Jordan River, often seeking physical healing and release from demonic activity.

(47) A leper healed and the news spreads - Matt. 8:2-4; Mk. 1:40-45; Lk. 5:12-16

   While in an unknown city of Galilee a leper sought out Jesus and fell on his face before Him saying, "If you so will, You can make me clean." Leprosy was a particularly loathsome disease that rotted the tissues of the body. The Jewish religion of the time regarded leprosy as divine punishment for grotesque sins. A leper was ostracized from society, could not enter into any walled city, and when any other person came near him was required to yell, "Unclean! Unclean!" This man was daringly audacious to approach Jesus requesting cleansing. Equally contrary to the social and religious traditions, Jesus put forth His hand to touch the leper and declared him cleansed of his leprosy. The leper would still have to go through the ceremonial cleansing of a Jewish priest in order to be duly declared "clean" and socially acceptable, and Jesus encouraged him to do so, asking him not to explain how he was healed of the leprosy. The man was incapable of understanding that the Messianic mediator between God and man had cured his physical disease, but was within Himself the remedy for all the maladies of man and the spiritual restoration of divine health and life. The proclamation of another physical healing, especially of leprosy, would bring increased popularity that centered on external application rather than on who Jesus was and what He was to do in Himself.

   Jesus' request for silence and secrecy was not honored by the cleansed leper, for he was probably so excited that he couldn't keep quiet. Though we can understand his enthusiastic joy, his disobedience led to the crushing influx of crowds seeking external relief of their physical symptoms from Jesus, and He chose to withdraw into the unpopulated desert regions, probably on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, to avoid the crowds and to pray.

(48) Paralytic lowered through roof and healed - Matt. 9:1-8; Mk. 2:1-12; Lk. 5:17-26

   Returning to Capernaum by boat sometime later, Jesus was apparently again in the house of Peter and the rumors spread quickly that Jesus was back in town. In the midst of teaching the many inquirers who crowded into the house and courtyard each day, including some religious "doctors of the Law" and Pharisees who came to check out this phenomenon, four enterprising young men brought a man who was paralyzed in order that he might be healed by Jesus. Unable to push through the crowd with the pallet bearing the paralyzed man, they ascended the external steps to the roof of the house and proceeded to take off the roof tiles in order to lower the pallet right into the presence of Jesus.

   Seeing their belief in His ability to provide remedial relief to the physical condition of this paralyzed man, Jesus declared, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Jesus knew that the organized opposition of the religionists was present, hoping to pin Him down with false teaching and violation of religious law. In the thought of Jewish religion, sickness and disease was viewed as a consequence and punishment for sin. If sickness was to be cured the causal sin would have to be forgiven first, and that only through their intermediary religious endeavors on behalf of God. It always serves the purpose of religion to keep people paralyzed in guilt about their sinfulness whenever they experience sickness, for such keeps religious people in the repetitive performance of turning to and giving to the religious system which is seen as the instrument for their forgiveness of sins. Religion perpetuates such a "self-sustaining system of penitential achievement and forgiveness".1

   Sin can indeed be the cause of sickness, both naturally and supernaturally, but all sickness is not always to be identified as the result of individual sin in a direct cause and effect premise. Religion falsely presumes to assume the prerogative of representing God in the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was acting in accord with their religious and theological premises by first forgiving the man's sin, but in so doing He ran into conflict with their presuppositions about who could represent God in such. The religionists were correct in their premise that "only God can forgive sin," but they were incorrect in charging Jesus with blasphemy, for by their own admission they did not know who this was that was speaking, having no understanding or willingness to understand that He was the Messianic, mediatorial God-man.

   Perceiving the hypocritical evil in the hearts of the religious leaders as they suspected Him of blasphemy, Jesus asks a question that places them on the horns of a dilemma. "Which is easier," He said, "to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to exercise the power of God and heal this man of his paralysis?" In essence Jesus was saying that since they did not represent God they could do neither of them. Then, in order to document that He, the Son of Man who had come to enact the everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:13,14) of God, did indeed exercise the power of God, Jesus told the paralyzed man to "Get up, take the pallet he was laying on, and walk out." The invisible reality of God's power expressed in verbalizing the declaration, "Your sins are forgiven," is now visibly documented in the healing of his physical paralysis, evidencing the power of God at work in the person of Jesus. The issue of this confrontation with religion was whether Jesus was blasphemously claiming to be God by forgiving sin as the religionists surmised, or whether He indeed was God evidencing such divine authority by visible physical healing and invisible spiritual healing of sin. God's person and power was not separated way up in heaven somewhere to be administrated by the religionists, but was inherent in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

   The people who observed what Jesus did that day were convinced that they had seen God at work. Though filled with fear of the awesomeness of God, they praised God that He had expressed such power among men.

(49) Matthew, the toll-tax collector, called to follow - Matt. 9:9; Mk. 2:13,14; Lk. 5:27,28.

   Walking along the seashore must have been a relaxing respite for Jesus since He was so often crowded by onlookers and seekers. Even so, a large following developed and Jesus taught them until he met Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at his toll-booth. As many in this region of mixed races and religion had both a Hebrew name and a Greek name, he might have had a dual name of Levi Matthew, and it is the latter of these by which he is more popularly known and identified elsewhere. Levi was a Jew who was employed by the Roman government to collect tolls, tariffs and custom taxes, and was referred to as a "publican," for he engaged in such public duty. Since Capernaum was on the primary trade route from Damascus, Levi would have been collecting highway tolls for using the road, import and export taxes on merchandise traveling in either direction, farm taxes, fishing taxes, along with fees and taxes on almost any other objects and activities that he and his superiors could think of taxing. His position allowed for much abuse and graft, embezzlement and extortion. It is not difficult to see why first-century Jewish patriotism regarded tax-collectors as collaborators with the oppressive occupying power of Rome. They were regarded as traitors who had sold out to the enemy of God for mercenary motives. There was an intense hatred for these legalized criminals who seemed to have "a license to steal." Pharisaic tradition regarded them as morally unclean and unacceptable, to be ostracized as outcasts in the same category as harlots, thieves, gamblers and common criminals, allowing for no association without contamination and moral pollution.

   Without respect for religious and cultural traditions, Jesus came to make Himself available to all mankind regardless of their race, nationality, sex, morals, vocation, economic class or other concerns. Jesus does not seem to have shared the narrow patriotic attitudes of the zealots of His day, who regarded paying taxes to Rome as an unfair imposition. He did not engage in the pretensions of religious and social respectability which would ostracize the civil servant employed by Rome. He invited Matthew to become His disciple, saying, "Follow Me." Again we must note the ontological basis of identification with the very person and being of Jesus in contrast to religious solicitations to follow after and identify with a cause celebre based on a particular ideology. Matthew followed Jesus and became true to his name which means "gift of God."

(50) Matthew's Feast - Matt. 9:10-13; Mk. 2:15-17; Lk. 5:29-32

   Sometime afterwards Matthew arranged for a great feast to be held in his house, inviting his former publican associates to sit down and eat with Jesus and His disciples. The Pharisees and their scribes, who would never have accepted an invitation to such a meal, were apparently lurking in the shadows and peeking over the wall at those assembled for this feast. These religionists regarded it scandalous that Jesus would mix socially with "publicans and sinners" who were regarded as "unclean." The religious definition of a "sinner" is usually one who does not conform to the acceptable moral code of the religionists, and thus offends them by such offense against their rules. The religious and cultural traditions of these Jews regarded fellowship at a meal as indicative of mutual acceptance and the recognition of a sense of equality with the other persons. They regarded Jesus to be "sitting in the seat of scoffers" (Ps. 1:1), and were appalled that He would associate and consort with the disreputable, the dregs, the "low-lifes" and sleazy types, becoming "a friend of tax collectors and sinners" (Matt. 11:19).

   The Pharisaic religionists called the disciples of Jesus to the side to ask them, "Why does Jesus, and why do you, eat with publicans and sinners?" Perhaps they thought they could discredit Jesus with the impropriety of this disreputable social action and create disloyalty in His disciples. Jesus overheard their murmurings and confronted the religionists with their proud exclusivism which regarded themselves as "righteous" and all others as "sinners." "Though you may think that publicans and sinners are incapable of true repentance," Jesus seems to say, "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." "I came for those who recognize that they are spiritually sick and need a Spiritual Physician," Jesus said. "Perhaps you religious teachers ought to go and start learning what God meant when He said through the prophet Hosea, 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.'" (Hosea 6:6). The empty show of religious ritual and pretense is an abomination before God. Jesus came to demonstrate the love (I John 4:8,16) and compassion of God toward mankind who has been used and abused by diabolic forces in the dysfunctionality of sin.

(51) Why Jesus' Disciples don't fast like John's Disciples - Matt. 9:14-17; Mk. 2:18-22; Lk. 5:33-39.

   Keying off of the feast at Matthew's house, the next issue of confrontation between Jesus and the religionists recorded by the gospel writers is that of fasting. The dichotomy between feasting and fasting again evidences the difference between what Jesus came to bring in Himself and religion.

   The identity of the questioners is somewhat ambiguous, but it may have been the disciples of John who were encouraged to do so by the conniving of the Pharisees. The question is asked, "Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast, but the disciples of Jesus do not fast?" The religionists did not regard the disciples of Jesus to be engaging in acceptably religious activities of personal austerity and self-abasement whereby they should participate in the self-discipline of personal mortification (cf. Col. 2:16-23). It is indicative of much religion to encourage a proud pretense of piety by putting on a face of mournful dreariness and engaging in the abstinence of all pleasurable activities. Such "dill-pickle piety" is not very inviting, and attracts only those who feel so laden with guilt that they must afflict themselves with such abstinence to merit God's pardon.

   Jesus responds to their question by using one of His favorite teaching techniques. To explain one subject, He parabolically throws down another mental picture alongside of the other in order to illustrate His point.

   The first illustration is a take-off from John the Baptist's words just prior to his incarceration at Macheaerus. John had noted that Jesus was the Bridegroom and he was but the friend of the Bridegroom rejoicing greatly because of the Bridegroom (John 3:29). Jesus now explains that the friends and guests of the bridal-party do not mourn and fast at the wedding when the Bridegroom is present. It is time to celebrate! It is a time to rejoice with excitement and enthusiasm and conviviality. Notice how often Jesus illustrates the vibrancy of His own life in the context of a party celebration, whereas religion is more like the mourning at a morgue that sadly sings the dirge of death. The presence of Jesus should always bring great joy!

   Secondly Jesus indicates that the life that He has come to bring in Himself is so novel, unique and innovative that it is as incompatible with old religious routines such as fasting. The radical "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4) that we receive within the "new covenant" (Heb. 8:) when we become "new creatures in Christ" (II Cor. 5:17) cannot serve as a "patch of reformation" upon the old covenant religion of Judaism to which the Pharisees and the disciples of John were contextually related. The old tattered garment of religious orthodoxy with its set patterns of ritual, like fasting, would be hopelessly contorted and torn if the new cloth of Christ's life were merely applied like a patch. The sterility of religious conservancy must be dispensed with.

   The third illustration also reveals the incompatibility of the newness of Jesus' life with the old patterns of religion. If new wine is put into old brittle wineskins, the animal skins that were used to contain wine in the first-century, then when the new wine began to ferment it would burst open the skins and all would be lost. The new wine of Jesus' life is bubbly, effervescent and explosive. "Old-time religion" has no elasticity or flexibility. It is rigid and hard, set in its ways, static and incapable of expansion. The dynamic of Jesus' life cannot be contained in religious formations like fasting, but must be free from such traditions in order to be expressed however God desires.

   Jesus is fully cognizant of people's religious preference for the old, familiar and established ways. They will say, "The old is good," and will want to conserve their attachment to the traditions. It is difficult for them to give up the old patterns of religion. Many would "rather fight than switch," arguing that "we've never done it that way before." But Jesus is saying that the radical newness and joy of His life requires the repudiation of and dispensing of the old religious rituals and routines which cannot be the means of expressing His life.

(52) Man healed at pool of Bethesda and defense thereof. - John 5:1-9.

   It is definitely an arbitrary and subjective determination to place this incident at this location in the harmony, for it inserts a complete change in location. Jesus had been ministering in Galilee, but in this narrative He is attending a feast in Jerusalem. If the feast referred to was the Passover, this could elongate the ministry of Jesus by another year by adding another Passover observance to be accounted for, or this incident could have transpired during one of the other recorded Passover visits.

   Jesus came to the pool called Bethesda, meaning "house of mercy," and found many physically afflicted people who were superstitiously awaiting an angel to stir up the water, on which occasion the first one in the water would be healed. Jesus singled out a particular man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, and asked, "Do you want to get well?" After first decrying his disability, the man decided to act in obedience to Jesus' command to "Arise, take up your pallet, and walk," therein discovering the divine dynamic within the demand.

(53) Violation of the Religious Sabbath - Jn. 5:10-18

   Now it was the Sabbath when this took place, and the religious legalists seem to have cared less that a man had been healed, but were very upset that the man was violating the religious rules of the Sabbath by carrying his pallet. Though initially unable to identify who had told him to carry his pallet, he later told the Jewish authorities that it was Jesus, and they then sought to prosecute Jesus as an habitual Sabbath-breaker. The issue that caused the confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish religionists was the place and purpose of the Sabbath day. Though originally instituted so that man could rest and enjoy what God had done, the religionists had added restrictive rules and regulations, prohibitions and injunctions, that made the Sabbath into a legalistic nightmare. Though the Law read that the people of God were not to work on the Sabbath (Exod. 20:10), Jesus explains to the authorities that God, His Father, had continued to work, and therefore He was continuing to work irregardless of the day of the week. On the basis of that Self-assertion the religious authorities not only sought His death for Sabbath-breaking but for blasphemously calling God His personal Father and making Himself equal with God.

(54) The Works of the Father - Jn. 5:19-47

   Jesus goes on to explain to the religious antagonists that He did nothing of His own initiative by exercising independent divine prerogative but derived all that He did from God the Father, so that all that He did was really God at work in the man. From this divine union and mutuality enacted by functional derivation, Jesus claimed to have the divine power of life and judgment for all mankind. In skillful legal deposition Jesus lists the witnesses of His identity and power: the divinely ordained forerunner, John the Baptist; the divine works He has accomplished; the divine witness of God the Father; and the divinely inspired Scriptures. Then Jesus brings counter-charges against the religious leaders, which have general validity as charges against religion in every age. In essence Jesus says, "You are engaged in bibliolatry, for you search the Scriptures, thinking that in them you have eternal life, when it is they that bear witness of Me, and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life." In addition, "You do not have the love of God within you; You are unwilling to receive Me for who I am, coming in the name of My Father, God; You do not seek the glory of God, but of men; You don't even believe your own patriarchal founders and prophets, for they foretold of Me."

   Leaving them stunned in condemnation with the jury still out, Jesus departed. He had confronted and exposed the Jewish religion in particular and all religion in general.

(55) Disciples pick grain on Sabbath - Matt. 12:1-8; Mk. 2:23-28; Lk. 6:1-5.

   With no indication of location, another Sabbath controversy is recorded by the synoptic gospel writers. Jesus and His disciples were traveling through some fields of grain, and His disciples picked some heads of grain, rubbed them together in their hands separating the husks and chaff, and ate the dry grain. Jewish Law allowed for such action even in other's fields (Deut. 23:25), but the ridiculously scrupulous Pharisees had determined that such action was "reaping" and "threshing," and therefore "work" that could not be performed on the Sabbath. When religion attempts to micro-manage life with the minutia of meticulous mandates, they inevitably make mountains out of molehills.

   The Pharisaic religionists asks Jesus and His disciples, "Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath day?" Their question presupposes that their own traditional interpretations are to be regarded as the criteria for determining what is lawful, right and good. Religion engages in the "good and evil game" that was first played in the garden of Eden, whereby man sets himself up as his own center of reference for the determination of good and evil.

   Jesus responds by deftly questioning whether they had ever read the Scriptures about their favorite Jewish hero, David, who along with the men who were with him, was hungry, and they entered into the holy place and ate consecrated show-bread from the tabernacle (I Sam. 21:1-6) which was reserved for the priests to eat on the Sabbath (Lev. 24:9). Here was a precedent for the sustenance of life superseding the Sabbath regulation, which would prove His point about the Sabbath being made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. "If David could set aside or suspend the Law, then as the fulfillment of all that David was but the prefiguring of, I can supersede the Law," Jesus seems to be saying.

   Then Jesus proceeded to question whether they had ever read in their own Law about how the priests set aside Sabbath restrictions of "work" in order to prepare for the worship of God (cf. Numb. 28:9,10,18,19). Jesus is the High-priest of God who is essential to all true worship of God, which expresses the "worth-ship" of God's character regardless of time and place. Jesus is greater than the religious temple of the Jews, for He is the One in whom God tabernacled in man, and is the spiritual reality for which the physical temple served only as an instrumental prototype.

   The old covenant Law was intended for the purpose of revealing the character of God and man's inability to manufacture such character. The Sabbath observance was established so that man could take time to rest and enjoy God and His creation. It was intended to be a blessing, rather than a burden that kept men in paranoid uncertainty about observing every traditional detail and thereby quenched the expression of God's character in the enjoyment of God and for others. Religion uses the Law to dominate and oppress people, allowing it to become an idolatrous and legalistic club, rather than a merciful functional tool.

   "If you had understood Hosea," Jesus chides the religious Pharisees, "you would have understood that "God desires mercy, and not sacrifice," (Hosea 6:6), and "would not have been falsely accusing My disciples of breaking the Sabbath law." Rather than enthroning the Law as a legalistic taskmaster to impose the conformity of obedience upon religious people, it must be recognized that the rigid rules of religion are self-serving restrictions and regulations that serve the dictatorial benefit of religion, disallowing the merciful benefit that God intended for man through the Sabbath-Law.

   The capstone of Jesus' argument is His claim to be "Lord of the Sabbath." Jesus is the One who rested from His creative activities on the seventh day. He knew what their purpose was when the Triune God established the Sabbath in the old covenant Law. He controls the Sabbath, and can interpret it and change it. This He has done by becoming the personal indwelling provision for expressing the character of God, the "law written in our hearts" (Heb. 8:10; 10:16), allowing for a perpetual Sabbath-rest (Heb. 4:1-11) wherein the Christian enjoys the activity of God.

   The Jewish religionists were appalled that a Person should claim to have authority over the prescriptions of the Law. Religion continues to prefer the legalism of prescribed demands over the personified dynamic of Jesus Christ.

(56) Man with withered hand healed on Sabbath - Matt. 12:9-14; Mk. 3:1-6; Lk. 6:6-11.

   Yet another confrontation concerning the Sabbath is recorded by the gospel writers. They wanted to make sure that their readers understood that Jesus did not capitulate to rigid legalism of religion, but kept confronting such in order to reveal that the shackles of Sabbatarianism have been stripped and superseded by the freedom to be man as God intended by participation in His life.

   In a synagogue at an unidentified location, Jesus entered on the Sabbath, probably along with His disciples, and found there a man with a withered right hand. The religious scribes and Pharisees who were following Jesus everywhere He went in order to entrap and accuse Him were again present. To precipitate the conflict they ask Jesus, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?," knowing that the Law did allow healing if a man's life was in danger, but that this man was not in danger of dying from his condition.

   Jesus calls the man forward and asks the scowling, long-bearded Pharisees, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm; to save a life, or to kill?" They sat in sullen silence because they knew it was lawful to save a life on the Sabbath, but if they admitted it was lawful to "do good," which in this case was one and the same, they would sanction the healing of this man. These religious hypocrites would rescue a sheep who fell into a pit on the Sabbath because it served their own greedy economic benefit, but they wouldn't allow a man's arm to be restored. Jesus obviously considered a man to be of more value than an animal. The anger of God burned within Jesus as He viewed the inconsistent insensitivity of their religiously hardened hearts which were impervious to all spiritual truth.

   Telling the man to, "Stretch forth your hand," Jesus blatantly defied the legalistic guidelines of the Pharisees and restored the use of the man's withered hand. The confrontation with religion was becoming increasingly more defined. The Pharisees were seething with rage at Jesus' action, and went out to conspire with the Herodians, whom they contemptuously hated as heretical and traitorous, in order to plot the destruction of Jesus. Religion seeks strange bedfellows in its efforts to seek its own ends. Henceforth the foreboding of Jesus' death at the instigation of the religious leaders will haunt the gospel-narratives.

(57) Teaching and healing by the Sea of Galilee - Matt. 12:15-21; Mk. 3:7-12.

   Jesus and His disciples were again by the Sea of Galilee, and throngs of people from far off places came to hear Him teach and to be healed of their infirmities. They often pressed upon Him so hard that Jesus instructed His disciples to have a small boat ready in case He needed to use it to back off from the crowd. Some of the demons who were cast out by Jesus would supernaturally identify Jesus as the "Son of God," but Jesus forebade such knowing that such testimony was not derived from God.

   Matthew explains that this ministry of Jesus was a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah 42:1-4. Jewish interpreters applied these words to the nation of Israel, but Matthew applies them to Jesus. Jesus is indeed the Servant chosen by God in whom God is well-pleased to have His Spirit function within the man, in order to proclaim hope to the Gentiles. Jesus did not strive for personal recognition nor cry aloud for attention, for He even commanded the demons not to broadcast His identity. This particular point seems to be the connection that Matthew made with what Jesus was doing. Matthew was also apparently impressed with the tenderness of Jesus in response to the people's problems.

(58) Selecting the twelve disciples - Mk. 3:13-19; Lk. 6:12-16.

   Jesus went up to a mountain to pray and determined to designate twelve men as a select group who would be sent out as "apostles." The number twelve corresponds with the twelve tribes of Israel and represents the completeness of God's people. The symbolic significance of the number twelve provides a picture of the continuity of completeness in the spiritual new Israel, the new People of God, the Christian community wherein Christ reigns as King in the promised Kingdom of God.

   The twelve men selected were just ordinary men. Some were married. Several were fishermen; one was a publican; and one is identified as a zealot. The majority were from Galilee. The only one who appears to have come from Judea was Judas Iscariot who is identified last in the listing along with the notation that he was the traitorous betrayer of Jesus.

1    Goppelt, Leonhardt, Theology of the New Testament, Vol. I. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1981. pg. 131.