Like his cousin John , Jesus too had need of followers, or “disciples”. These were not “hangers-on” but leaders-in-the-making. Jesus knew that unlikely as they were they would nonetheless change the world. But, they certainly didn’t appear to be world changers. Indeed, the first four were two pairs of brothers, all of them fishermen. And, if the catch in “Kinneret” (Sea of Galilee) was like it is today, they were experts in catching sardines! There is no mention of their qualifications, education, or predisposition to spiritual matters. They were just “there” and Jesus said, “Follow me”. So Simon, Andrew, James and John dropped everything and did just that — “immediately”, says Matthew. Amazing! Could it be that the word had spread about the dove and voice from heaven a few weeks previously at Jesus’ baptism? Or was it that John the Baptist’s disciples had told their acquaintances that Jesus was the next big thing? We don’t know. All we do know is that Jesus’ invitation was irresistible.
John the Baptist’s imprisonment precipitated Jesus’ “withdrawal” from Nazareth to Capernaum in the Galilee. The regional’s was known as “The Galilee of the Gentiles”, looks down upon by the citizens of Judea, but critical to international trade as it was on the trade route between Egypt and Damascus (called “the Way of the Sea”). As such it was cosmopolitan and alive with the bustle of camel caravans and the colourful languages and fashions of the outside world. For Jesus this was a critical move — he left his provincial home town Nazareth and established “worldly” Capernaum as his ministry base — as it was often said, “the world comes through Galilee”. Jesus placed his hand on the pulse of the world’s heartbeat, and brought Good News to people.
Jesus had a succinct message, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” This was the novel message for the Gentiles, but had familiar ring for any Jewish person. Whenever a Jew recited the “Great Shema” (“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One”) he took upon himself the “yoke of the kingdom” (De. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Nu. 15:37-41). This confession of faith, recited every Sabbath in the synagogues of Judah, was pregnant with hope, a hope of a time when Israel’s messiah would rule the world from Jerusalem. Even though they were under the yoke of Rome they dreamed of a day when another yoke, the yoke of freedom, would see them working with Messiah to bring righteousness and justice to the world.
Perhaps some of you have logged on to biblediscoverytv.com lately and joined a prayer time hosted by Rod Hembree. I’ve been cohosting twice a week.
The point is to pray for those suffering the direct or indirect impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.
As always, prayer meetings, whether in a church, a home, or online bring out the universal vulnerability we all share, not only in terms of health crises but also in terms of ongoing human need.
Those prayer requests range from pending death to minor aches and pains.
This, of course, is what Jesus faced in his 3 short years of ministry. He was besieged by human need. He showed tremendous patience with the petty and profound compassion for the grievously afflicted. He set no qualifying bar. He simply stated,” Come unto me all you who are weary and heavily laden, and I will give you rest”.
We do not have to be on death’s door to ask for prayer. Our sweet Lord just says,”Let me help”.
Immediately after the Father had singled Jesus out as his “son”, Jesus was “led by the Spirit” into the wilderness for forty days of testing. This is often referred to as the “temptation” but the Greek suggests “testing”. Whereas “temptation” bears the nuance of being tempted to sin, “testing” possessed a more positive tone. Jesus was, then and always, sinless. The point of the testing here was his “new” status as “my Son”. Satan hoped to capitalize on any deep-seated insecurity that Jesus might have about his exalted position (thus, the “‘if’ you are the Son of God”). Satan of course, wasted his breath.
Satan’s testing was double-pronged. He tried not only to underscore Jesus’ (non-existent) insecurity but also to encourage him to misuse his power and rights as “Son of God”. So he pushed Jesus in three directions: 1. use your power to meet your physical needs; 2. force God’s hand to stop a suicidal leap from the “pinnacle of the temple” thereby setting yourself up as a force and even “tempting” the Father to send protective angels; 3. avoid the knobby little hill called “Calvary” and short-cut your way to political dominance in the world — a kingdom without a cross.
Jesus met each of these diabolical ideas with scripture, all from Deuteronomy chapters 6-8. Satan even quoted scripture himself (Ps. 91:11,12)! But the battle was won even before it began. Satan slunk away, defeated. Jesus was not ready to preach.
As we continue to reevaluate our lives, our values under deep assessment, it’s tempting to yield to “end of the world” thoughts. Not only is the world shut down but so is life as we’ve known it. Many of us feel lost without the former parameters of social, physical, emotional, and spiritual markers that gave our lives context and meaning. Then we look outward via the internet and see Yemen about to implode, South Sudan and East Africa besieged by billions of crop destroying locusts, multilateral aid agencies warning that huge famine is closing in, and reports that the world economy may never achieve its former strength, and we wonder… are we nearing the “End”?
I think we would do ourselves a favour in this bleak hour to remember that even though calamity on a worldwide scale is new to us it’s not new to history. Just last century our world reeled from not one but two World Wars, countless regional conflicts, and yes, a pandemic-the Spanish Flu. We took the blows, suffered for a while, then got back onto our feet.
We will do so again.
In other words there is hope. And faith. Soldier on!
The big question here is “Why?”. Why would the sinless Son of God intentionally submit to John’s baptism of repentance? Some commentators suggest it betrayed a dawning awareness on Jesus’ part that he was special. Others say he did so because he was anticipating a “word from Heaven”. Still others suggest he began his public ministry by taking on the sins of mankind (thus the need for baptism) and ended it by dying for those sins. Even John himself wonders “Why?”. He tried to stop Jesus with “I need to be baptized by you.” (The word “need” in the Greek suggests a “gap” – thus, “There is a gap in my ministry. It’s not complete”). Regardless, the mystery is only partially solved by Jesus’ response, “It is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What does he mean by that?
In the Old Testament scriptures the word for righteousness is “zedek” or “zadkah”. It refers to the fulfillment of mankind’s relationship with God. As such it is both a present and an ongoing process that will see fulfillment ultimately in heaven. Righteousness is a “space/time” characteristic of those who have an “eternal” worldview. Jesus took on “space/time” limitations in the incarnation. In that context he saw himself as “Son of Man”. As such he must “fulfill” his relationship with the Father. He knew the Father was at work in John’s “fore-running” ministry. He also knew he was about to be severely tested by Satan. The baptism was synchronous with a process that would ultimately result in the cross and an empty tomb.
God’s pleasure at Jesus’ submission to John’s baptism was immediately expressed by the descent of “the Spirit of God” alighting on Jesus like a “dove”, with the loving assertion “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” There is an interesting nuance to the word “this” in the Greek. It suggests “this one”. It’s as though the Spirit saw two outstanding men standing in the Jordan, but He put his “finger” on Jesus: “This is the one. Of the two he is the One.” Jesus was to live a singular life from that point on.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is an unwelcome adventure but adventure none-the-less. The Oxford dictionary calls an adventure “a daring enterprise; a hazardous activity”, which this crisis certainly is. No doubt it’s “hazardous”, but there are also many elements of “enterprise”.
There are several burgeoning medical breakthroughs in potential vaccines, repurposing of proven anti-retrovirals; and societal revisioning involving everything from how and where we work to relearning relational skills. New horizons are being forced upon us which may be catalytic to innovations that otherwise would never have been considered.
Then there’s the spiritual renewal. Prayers, hymns, and a new soft-heartedness to faith have emerged along with a rediscovery of kindness. It would appear to be true that “every cloud has a silver lining”.
For sure his lifestyle was similar to theirs (referring to desert holy men). And his message had parallel aspects as well. These Essenes saw themselves as “end-time” heralds of a coming war between “the Sons of Darkness and the Sons of Light”. The end was near. Their urgent task was to call people out of the morally bankrupt towns and cities to become cleansed soldiers in the last battle.
Like the Essenes, John preached “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near”, or, “is at hand”. Repentance was not just a cleansing from past sins, but a preparation for the coming kingdom. And part of that preparation was to “prepare the way for the Lord”. In ancient times work crews toiled sometimes for weeks in the hot sun, smoothing out a path on the stony ground for the chariots and carriages of a royal procession as a king or emperor made a “state visit”. In John’s view the king was coming.
The king needed a “path prepared”. So John set about preparing that path. His message was essentially this: 1. Repent! 2. No excuses — even the claim of Abrahamic pedigree is not enough. 3. Demonstrate your repentance through acts of righteousness. 4. Don’t delay — “the axe is already at the root of the trees”. 5. The king is coming, and his agent will be terrible for those who have not been prepared. “He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost…”, signifying supernatural cleansing, and “with fire”, which will consume all the unrighteous and unjust “chaff” smothering Israel. The “threshing floor” will be swept clean. This king will play hardball.
We’ve just come through the Passover/Easter week even while in the grip of Covid-19. This has been a Holy Week like none other-ever. Imagine online Easter services and Passover by Zoom! No need to imagine. It happened.
The underlying life lesson in this anomaly is how much we need each other. Whether sacred services, weddings, funerals, baptisms, they are all community celebrations. Remove community and meaning can be lost.
Luke’s record of the early Church’s beginnings says “They continued daily in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer…all who believed were together, and had all things in common” (Acts 2:42,43). The work of the Holy Spirit in the Church was inextricably tied to community.
So, we may not have been fully aware of it but we were participating in an historic Holy Week. The world may never again see one like it. Maybe, when we’re finally able to meet in community for worship once more, not only will the houses of worship be full, but so will our hearts-with gratitude.
Jesus’ cousin John (the “Baptist” as he became known) was just a few months older and unlike Jesus had spent most of his young adult life in the desert. In fact he had become a bit of a “wild man” in the sense that his clothing, diet, and ministry were offensive to city dwellers. Smelling like the camel whose hair he had fashioned into a shirt, eating whatever he could find (“locusts and wild honey”), and preaching cutting sermons against priests, tax-collectors, and soldiers, he seemed a throwback to the prophets of Israel’s ancient history.
Calling to the city and town folk to join him in the desert he baptized them in the Jordan River, a symbol of the “cleansing” of repentance. But, when Pharisees, Sadducees, tax-collectors, and soldiers came to hear him, he excoriated them referring to them as snakes fleeing a grassfire. Why was he so hard on them? For one, they were collaborators with the Roman occupiers. The priestly class (Pharisees and Sadducees) had compromised temple worship, the tax-collectors were working the occupiers (and gouging their own people with surcharges), and the soldiers were enforcing occupation law (although some commentators see them as insurgents who because of their poor pay were forcing their own people to support them). John and Jesus ministered in a tumultuous time. The people’s hopes for a peaceful, triumphal messianic era were all but dashed, and all they could expect was subjugation by foreign powers. They grumbled and rumbled. Chaos was a heartbeat away.
Indeed, just a few kilometres from John’s baptismal site, was a hermitic sect called the “Essenes”. They lived in a settlement built among the mountains bordering the southwest shows of the Dead Sea. Totally ascetic, they lived a harsh lifestyle reflective of their sun-scorched environment, studying the ancient Hebrew texts of the Toran and writing end-time treatises. A simple diet, constant prayers, and stringent discipline were matters of course. So too were daily baptisms (or “mikvot”), ceremonial immersions in water they collected during winter storms and preserved in cisterns. Little wonder many commentators see John the Baptist as one of these desert holy men.
Joseph, like his patriarchal namesake, was a “dreamer”. Here in these four verses of scripture we read of a third, then a fourth directive dream. Joseph receives from the Lord. The third instructs him to go back to Israel. The fourth moves him and his young family on to the region of the Lower Galilee to a town called Nazareth. It was here that Jesus lived the next thirty years of his life, working as a carpenter side-by-side with his mentor Joseph. We can only imagine the conversations, the family meals, the fellowship with friends and neighbours, that helped shape the emerging Messiah.
Nazareth was, and in many ways still is, an inconsequential, nondescript town. Situated on a range of hills overlooking the Jezreel Valley, its only distinction was its proximity to international trade routes. It was a frontier town, out of the mainstream, and marked with a peculiar accent. Indeed Nazareth and Nazarenes were looked on with scorn by the Jewish world to the south of them. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” was a common slight. So even the moniker “Jesus of Nazareth” had a certain innuendo — yes he was from Nazareth, but he was also “from Nazareth”, not to be taken seriously. (It took more than a bit of getting used to be being called “Notzrim” when I and my family first moved to Jerusalem in 1981. I was often introduced by my Israeli friends to others as a “Notzri”. Not much good out of that town. I always felt slightly diminished). Nevertheless that’s where Jesus grew up, and that’s what makes Nazareth a name of honour to this day. He was “called a Nazarene”.
You’re reading this in self isolation and I’m writing in similar circumstances. We’re all in lockdown. Who knew?
Well, not to be trite, but the Lord knew. Indeed, he knows. Covid-19 is no surprise to him. And we know that his omniscience informs his sovereignty- he is Lord of every situation.
I think there will be a renewal of spirit all over the world as we re-examine our values and priorities. As many freedoms are currently lost to us – like freedom of movement for example- we may rediscover the freedom of spirit that emerges with reading, prayer, and lengthy talks (via social media) with loved friends and relatives. This enforced sabbatical may “recreate” us.
