Word Live: The Walkabout King
Use these words from Newton’s hymn ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds’* as a springboard for praise: ‘Jesus! my Shepherd, Husband, Friend, / My Prophet, Priest, and King; / My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, / Accept the praise I bring.’
*John Newton (1725–1807)
Bible passage
Matthew 4:18–25
Jesus calls his first disciples
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Jesus heals the sick
23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and illness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralysed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
If you wanted to hear John preach, you had to go to him in the desert (Matthew 3:1,5). In contrast, Jesus went to the people, like a king incognito, travelling throughout the densely populated Galilean region. He went into workplaces, calling disciples (vs 18,21), and religious meeting places, preaching and healing (v 23). Although he proclaimed and taught God’s kingdom, he was no ordinary preacher or teacher. By miraculously healing people he proved the kingdom had come (as Isaiah had prophesied, Isaiah 35:6)
The list of diseases (vs 23,24) implies that nothing was too hard for Jesus, while the list of places (v 25) indicates that he cared for everyone, no matter where they came from. People flocked to him from the Jewish heartlands (Jerusalem, Judea), as well as from the Gentile cities of the Decapolis and Syria.
Just as John had predicted (Matthew 3:5,11) Jesus’ reach, draw and power were indeed greater. Verses 18–22 show us why: he speaks with winsome authority, connecting with individuals in language they understand, offering them true purpose for their lives. Who would not want to follow such a King?
Author
Penny Boshoff
Respond
When we speak with people about Jesus, which aspects of his character or ministry do we focus on?
Deeper Bible study
Teach us, Lord, the true cost of discipleship and make us willing to meet it.
The call of the disciples as Jesus walked ‘beside the Sea of Galilee’ (v 18) is far from being the romantic, innocuous event it might appear at first glance. It demanded the abandoning of existing occupations and family ties: ‘they left the boat and their father’ (v 22). Capernaum had become an important centre for highly profitable fishing businesses, but those who owned boats and actually worked on the lake found themselves increasingly in debt to brokers (described in the Gospel as ‘tax gatherers’).1 Jesus’ call to follow him and become ‘fishers of men’ (v 19, KJV) was a summons to radical discipleship in the context of a kingdom movement which would challenge the values responsible for the ‘darkness’ existing across Galilee (vs 15,16). The alternative values shaping this new movement were to be spelt out in the Sermon on the Mount.
However, the movement initiated by Jesus is radical in another sense, because not only does he invite the fishermen who suffered the injustice of taxation and extortion to follow him, but he also calls the very people who benefited from this corrupt system, inviting them to abandon their privileged positions and join the movement too! Thus, Matthew is called to follow Christ while ‘sitting at the tax collector’s booth’!2 In this way the calling of the disciples demonstrates the nature of the kingdom of God; it not only brings justice to the poor and oppressed, but offers liberation and a life freed from the idolatry of wealth and possessions to people at the other end of the social scale. Thus, the barriers separating people are removed and a new community of love and justice begins, slowly and with setbacks, to emerge.
Does your church reflect the kind of community we have just described? How might it become more like the movement Jesus initiated?
1 On fishing in Galilee, see KC Hanson and DE Oakman, Palestine in the Time of Jesus, first edition, Fortress Press, 1998, p99–112 2 See Matt 9:9–13
Author
David Smith
