01/09 - The Ministry Begins

Matthew 4:12-25

Here begins the most extraordinary campaign to change human hearts and human history ever conceived.

It was extraordinary because of the location Jesus chose. Although he moved from Nazareth to make Capernaum his home, neither village was very significant. Commonsense should have told him to head for the region of Judea and especially Jerusalem, its major city, the center of religion and culture. Instead he went back to Galilee, the back country, and kicked off the greatest spiritual revolution ever started.

The campaign was also extraordinary because of who Jesus chose as his lieutenants. Following the custom of other rabbis of the day, he picked students (i.e. disciples) who were essentially apprentices. However, instead of picking those with academic bent, for the most part he picked working class men, like the fishermen Andrew, Peter, James, and John. They were probably literate, having gone to synagogue school in their youth, but they likely had no special theological or religious knowledge. Jesus mentored them in every aspect of his life and his ministry to carry on when he was gone.

Jesus' campaign was extraordinary, however, mainly because of the man at its center. Probably few people in those crowds knew Jesus was incarnate deity, but they still knew he was extraordinary.

In him they saw a tanned, strong man in the prime of his life who a few months earlier had been a quiet citizen of his little village, a carpenter, his time taken up with tools and materials.

Now he was a traveling preacher at the center of great mobs of people who came from all over the nation. He no longer worked with wood and stone; now he worked with ideas and healed people.

Although Jesus was successful, his work was grueling and difficult. Fortunately, the words of God still rang in his ears, the power of the Holy Spirit worked in his mind and heart, and his mettle had been tested in the desert. He was ready to begin his ministry.