Matthew 4:12-23
Today is a history lesson about Rome. What is it we think of when we think of the Roman Empire? How big it was, how long it lasted, and it was the place where Christianity was recognized, eventually as the state religion. We seem to forget how they ruled, how they invaded other people and took over everything. We romanticize the occupation that was going on and just concentrate on Jesus wandering around with no trouble. This is not what it was like.
If your really want to dig deeply into the realities of that time Reza Aslan does a great job in his book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. I'm not directly quoting from this today but it is where I have some background information for this. In that time Rome occupied Israel. Now this is the first problem we have to tackle in our minds because occupation is something which is hard for us to imagine as Americans. We've had attacks, but we have never been occupied by another country and expected to adopt their rules.
This is what we come into in Jesus' time. Rome occupied, with troops, with force, with fear all of Israel. Part of being occupied meant in any temple you had there had to be a statue of Cesar there. Now for the Hebrew people that flew in the face of not worshipping idols and Rome had not sympathy for this. The compromise made was for the statue to be placed in the outer most court. Still this only brought a temporary peace.
There were resistance groups in Judea and the surrounding countryside because they believed it wrong to have any image near the temple grounds. It is why the temple eventually is destroyed to try and get a handle on these people who are occupied and unwilling to come fully under Roman law.
The religious officials try and keep a peace and are in league with Roman officials to do that. This happens a lot during occupation some people try to appease and others take up the sword.
Into all of this comes Jesus. Imagine it, telling the people to repent. Repent? What do they have to repent from? They are caught up in living according to the rules. The law of Moses. What happens when we get caught up in law? There is always a right and a wrong way. What Jesus is asking instead is for people to repent, which literally means to course correct. Stop looking at the law and start looking at the Kingdom of Heaven.
We today have gotten so caught up in doing right and wrong we have forgotten to look forward to the Kingdom of heaven. Now as we journey deeper into Matthew we will see what this is but today I want to concentrate on repent. We all need to do this because we have all gotten so caught up on who is right and wrong we have lost God's way. This is what Jesus is calling for today. For us to recognize we have forgotten one another in favor of whether people are right of wrong.
This is not God's way and has never been. Just think of the outrageous stories the bible gives to us. Ruth who isn't Jewish, Esther who doesn't live in her own country, Rahab who isn't a part of the Hebrew people but is both used and kept in the story all of these and more come to us for an example of how to live in God's way.
We must open ourselves once again to this way. Even I have struggled with this myself this year. I get all busy evaluating what is right and wrong I forget that the God spark is in those people as well. Repent, and return, turn and see how God sees us. Repent was we explore the Kingdom of heaven drawing near.
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