Thoughts for the Day

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.’

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The Gospels differ in their accounts of the order of some events, as we might expect from accounts written many years after they happened, but both Matthew and Luke quote Isaiah's prophecies that the Messiah will come from Galilee, where the two tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun had settled after arriving in the area centuries earlier. It was a very cosmopolitan area, not least because the two tribes were surrounded by Gentile territory, with the Phoenicians to the west between them and the sea, and the Syrians to the north. Then there was the hated Samaritans lying to the south that obstructed the route to Jerusalem. However, the area lay close to the great highways, that ran from east to west and north to south, connecting countries like Damascus to Egypt and Africa. It's population was therefore cosmopolitan.

The words "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light" in today's reading reminded me of an old television series called "Dad's army", a comedy programme about the UK's Home Guard during the Second World War. The opening credits had a black shadow moving across a map to show how Nazi Germany had swallowed up Europe. It was quite shocking to see the darkness cover the whole map, except for the UK.

By using Isaiah's words Matthew wants us to see the arrival of the adult Jesus into the region of Galilee as the answer to the old prophecy. He is like a light in a dark place. No light shines brightly in daylight, but put a small light in a dark place and it will be seen clearly. Not only that, but his message about the Kingdom of God and his new ideas were sure to spread far and wide along the highways of the Roman Empire. If the light was to defeat the darkness; if good was defeat evil this was a good place to start. Far from being a backwater Capernaum in Galilee was to kickstart Jesus' three year ministry.

Lord Jesus Christ,
the Hebrew world may have thought
that Galilee was a backwater
and that all influence lay in Jerusalem,
but you were to prove otherwise.
You were to use the area as your base,
mixing with ordinary men and women
and with their gentile neighbours.
Your new and radical message
was to travel far and wide,
until it reached us centuries later.
May we be truly grateful
that we have seen the light of truth,
and may we be faithful to its message.
Amen.