Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23
It was an inauguration, but not like any seen before.
The people there were not the usual suspects you would have expected to see, in
former times. The new leader broke with precedent, speaking with blunt
directness to the crowd, calling to anyone who would listen. What did he say?
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” Who was he? Jesus, the
Messiah. Where was he? Not in the centre of power, not in the sacred city of
Jerusalem, but out in the provinces, up north. Specifically, in Galilee.
We heard today the account from Matthew’s Gospel of the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry. One of Matthew’s trademarks is the way he
connects everything that Jesus does with the Old Testament scriptures, and he
sees the move of Jesus to Galilee as fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah that we
heard as our first reading.
That passage of Isaiah is a wonderful poetic passage,
but also a bit unexpected. Galilee of the nations, that is “of the Gentiles”
was regarded by the religious elite as not quite proper. It was a melting pot
of cultures and peoples, with open borders, and through it ran the “way of the
sea”. That’s not a piece of poetry but the real name of a road, just like the
M1 or the North Circular. It was the most important trade route connecting
Syria and Asia in the north with Egypt and the prosperous African coast in the
south. And along that trade route came all sorts of people from every land.
It’s really significant that Jesus inaugurates his
ministry there, a long way from the centre of power in Jerusalem, but right in
the middle of a mix of cultures and peoples, a place with open borders with
people coming and going from all over the world.
Trade routes, like the “way of the sea”, were very
important to the spread of the gospel immediately after the time of Jesus.
Trade was the main reason for travel, and some of those who travelled were
believers in the Gospel, ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Christianity spread out
on the map, fanning out along the main trading routes and becoming established
in every major city on the way. And then each city where a church started to
grow became a new hub from which Christians travelled to new places.
As the Gospel travelled, it adapted to the new cultures
it encountered along the way. The essential truth always remained the same, the
world is saved through Jesus. But that truth was expressed in ways that people
could relate to, as the frontiers of the gospel expanded further into the
world.
We can even see this in the four gospels themselves,
which were written down around forty to sixty years after the time of Jesus.
The gospels were written in Christian communities in different places, with
different cultures, facing different issues. This week we heard Matthew’s
account of the call of the first disciples, and you may have noticed that it’s
different to John’s account which we heard last week.
We can infer from John’s gospel that its community
included former disciples of John the Baptist, as well as Samaritans and
Greeks. It’s a community in which those people are significant. So John’s gospel
tells the story of how those people come to be disciples of Jesus, and the
first of them do so when John points out Jesus to them.
But Matthew’s gospel was written in a more Jewish
community facing opposition from the religious elite, so Matthew is concerned
to explain how faithful Jews can also be followers of Jesus, even if that comes
at a personal cost. For Matthew it is the compelling attraction of Jesus
himself and his message that is enough for people to leave everything and
follow him.
Like the first disciples, our call is to follow Jesus,
and make the gospel known, in the culture and context in which we find
ourselves. The frontiers of the gospel are all over the place today, and its
expression needs to be clear and accessible for all of them. London is in many
ways a global city, a bit like Galilee of the nations. People come here from
all over the world, and go out to the world from here as well. And Christians come
and go carrying the gospel – alongside those who live here full time.
Today trade is still very important of course, but
alongside trade routes like the “way of the sea” there are new highways along
which people travel. The networks in which we are involved extend beyond the
places in which we live. Like the first disciples in Galilee work and business
can take us to many places. But we also have the internet and social networks that
connect us to the whole world. We are Christians in those networks, as well as
when we are in Church on Sunday. We are ambassadors for Jesus Christ wherever
our daily lives take us, 24/7, following him where he calls as did the first
disciples.
We are to attend to the culture and context in which we
find ourselves, to make sure the expression of the Gospel is suited to our
times, so that the eternal truth of salvation can be heard, and is accessible,
to the people we encounter. The frontiers of the gospel are not far away on the
edges of the Empire, but right where we are.
Like the first disciples, we do not know where we will
end up. Or call is to follow. Whatever may happen in the world in the next few
years, the Gospel has open borders, and disciples are to follow Jesus
everywhere. And whatever threats or anxieties may menace our world, we have a
different message, a message for every place, every culture, every time. For
the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a
land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.
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