Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (A): Matthew 4:12-23
People in Maine are usually very interested in the weather. Although our homes offer us some protection from weather’s extremes – snow, rain, wind, heat, cold – many of our activities outside of our homes are affected by the weather. Will school be cancelled due to a coming storm? Will we be able to get to work? Will road crews get a heads-up so that they can be ready? How will our vacation be affected by the weather? Someone who owns a motel in Bar Harbor in the summer wants one kind of weather; another person with a motel in Greenville or Caribou in winter wants a different kind of weather. We – along with all these people – turn to the weather forecasts.
We may joke at times about the accuracy, or inaccuracy, of weather forecasts, but we rely on them. Many of our plans depend on the weather, at least to a degree. The more accurate the forecast, the better we can prepare or adjust our plans as needed. If anyone came up with a way to give us guaranteed 100% accurate weather forecasts all the time, that person could end up becoming quite rich and famous!
When Jesus began His public ministry, the Jewish people were also interested in forecasts. Not so much weather forecasts, but forecasts of a different kind. They were in a situation that was very difficult for them to understand. They believed that God had chosen them to be His own people. He had freed them from slavery in Egypt and given them a homeland so that they might be His own people, living according to His commandments. They believed that, if they were faithful, God would work through them to bring all the nations somehow to also believe in Him and worship Him. God was their King; no one else.
Here was the puzzle. Six centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Babylonians had conquered the area and destroyed Jerusalem. Prophets had told the people that this happened because of their sins. Seventy years later, under the Persians, the Jews who had been sent into exile were allowed to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. But pagans still ruled the land. The Persians. The Greeks. And, after a brief period of independence, the Romans were now in control. If God was the true King of Israel, how could unbelievers still be in control? The Jews, then, looked to the prophets of previous generations for a forecast. When would God finally establish Himself as the rightful King of Israel? And how? What should the people do in the meantime to be ready for God’s coming, when God would finally establish Himself as King, and when His Kingdom would rule all?
The Sadducees, who were the high priestly class, counseled compromise with the Romans whenever possible. The Sadducees were not looking forward to God doing anything drastic, as their arrangement with the Romans made them comfortably wealthy and influential. The Pharisees, who were largely laypeople who knew the Law of Moses, took a different tack. The Jews, they said, should protect themselves as much as possible from being contaminated by pagan influences. The way to do that was to focus on the purity and impurity laws and to use those laws as a defense against pagan influence. The Essenes believed that the societies of their day, both pagan and Jewish, were so corrupt that the only answer was to withdraw physically from society and live with like-minded people while waiting for God to act. The Zealots believed that waiting was the problem. God alone must be the King of Israel, and this must happen now. The Zealots were ready to use violence in an attempt to force God’s hand, so to speak, and make Him act on their behalf through their violent acts of rebellion.
This was the situation Jesus comes upon as he begins His public ministry. Jesus’ first public statement, in Matthew’s Gospel, is His own forecast, given on His own authority: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven (also known as the kingdom of God) is at hand”. God’s Kingdom is at hand. God is acting, in and through Jesus, bringing about His rule. God will be revealed as the true King, not only of Israel, but of the whole world.
What must Israel do? Repent. Notice that the call to repent is aimed not only at people who have openly rejected God and God’s commandments or who have cut themselves off from God’s people; it’s also aimed at Israel itself. Those who feel that they have been faithful to God. Those who feel that others need to change, not they. No, Jesus said, if God is to truly be King, you all have to change. You all need to do a 180. You Sadducees, you need to allow God to disrupt your comfortable compromises so that you can be free to hear Him and follow him. You Pharisees, the purity laws have their place, but aren’t enough. People you have rejected as impure, as sinners, need to be invited back and offered the mercy of God. You Essenes, yes, sometimes we need to withdraw from the world for prayer and rest. Some individuals and communities are called to withdraw from society for the sake of everyone else. But the renewed Israel, as a whole, must be salt of the earth and the light of the world. That light cannot be hidden; it must be seen, so that it can attract many. You Zealots, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. God’s hand cannot be forced; His Kingdom will not be imposed by military violence or by political power. It will come when we open ourselves in vulnerable trust to God and let His power shine through our weakness. Love and mercy will save the world. This is one of the reasons why Jesus told His disciples to take no staff or bag as they went about preaching. They were not to be confused with Zealots who had potential weapons with them. The disciples were to show by their vulnerability that they trusted in God alone. This is what it means for God to be the true King.
And what will be the ultimate sign that the Kingdom of Heaven is here? Jesus is clear on this in His words and His actions: the lost will be found, the stray will be brought back, those the world rejects as worthless will be welcomed and loved as much as anyone else; sinners will be forgiven and offered new life. In other words, all Israel will be gathered together again in Christ, beginning with those whom the world rejects. Jesus cannot be clearer on this: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my sisters or brothers, you do to me”. Moses insisted that the ultimate test for Israel was how people treated the weakest and most vulnerable of their own time: the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Jesus picks up on this and insists on it for His Church as well.
Recall that many people resisted Jesus on this. His own neighbors and relatives in Nazareth tried to kill Him. Ultimately, the leaders of the people rejected Him and had Him put to death. It wasn’t only those who refused to believe in Jesus who rejected His teachings. The New Testament shows us that many who believed in Him had a hard time letting go of the ways they had turned from in order to follow Jesus in the Church.
We, today, share that same struggle. Jesus calls us to follow Him. He tells us to repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. We believe Him, and still we struggle with the ways and the thinking of people all around us. We believe that God is the true King, and yet we persist in giving some of that kingship to someone or something else. It is not easy for us to place all our trust in God alone. The more we can, the more we allow God to work through us so that others can see Him in us and be led to Him, or have their faith in Him strengthened.
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He gives us a very reliable forecast. May we always trust His forecast, and follow Him!