Ep. 31: Mission

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MATTHEW 9:35

It was on this return journey to Capernaum that the two blind men had their sight restored. It was then, also, that the healing of the demonised dumb man took place. Even these circumstances show that a new stage in the Messianic drama had begun. It is characterised by a fuller unfolding of his teaching and working and, consequently, by more fully developed opposition from the Pharisees. For the two went together.

That new stage had opened on his return from the ‘Unknown Feast’ in Jerusalem when the ‘religious’ leaders started following him. It first actively appeared at the healing of the paralytic in Capernaum, when, for the first time, we heard the tut-tutting of the Scribes, and, for the first time also, the distinct declaration about the forgiveness of sins on the part of Jesus.

The same twofold element appeared in the call of Matthew and the disdain by the Pharisees at Jesus’ subsequent eating and drinking with ‘sinners.’ It was in further development of this separation from the old and now hostile element, that the twelve Apostles were next appointed and that distinctive teaching of Jesus addressed to the people in the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ which was alike a vindication and an appeal.

On the subsequent journey through Galilee, the hostile party does not seem to have actually joined Jesus’ band, but their growing and now outspoken opposition is increasingly heard, as we saw in the episode with Simon the Pharisee.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)