Ep. 55: Galilee revisited
CLICK HERE for the corresponding devotional in Yeshua Adored
MATTHEW 17:22-18:22, MARK 9:30-50, LUKE 9:43-50
We find Jesus once more with his disciples passing through Galilee, ready for their journey to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
He now speaks clearly of his impending death and resurrection, to prepare them for what is to come. While he would keep his present stay in Galilee as private as possible. He would emphasise this teaching to his disciples so that it should sink in! Yet the announcement only filled their loving hearts with great sorrow; they did not understand it and were afraid to ask him about it.
It is well known that every male in Israel, from twenty years upwards, was expected annually to contribute to the Temple treasury. When it was told in Capernaum that the Rabbi of Nazareth had once more come to what seems to have been his Galilean home, it was only natural, that they who collected the Temple tribute should have demanded its payment. Possibly, this may have been fuelled by the wish to involve him in a breach of so well-known an obligation. Would he own the duty of paying the Temple tribute? The question which they put to Peter implies, at least, their doubt.
Since the first Passover, which had marked his first public appearance in the Temple at Jerusalem. He had stated that he was the Christ, the Son of God. To have now paid the Temple tribute, without explanation, might have involved a very serious misapprehension. Yet, Jesus would still further vindicate his royal title. He will pay for Peter also and pay, as heaven’s King, with a stater, or four-drachma piece, miraculously provided.
The event next recorded in the Gospels took place partly on the way from the Mount of Transfiguration to Capernaum and partly in Capernaum itself, immediately after the scene with the tribute money. The disciples were disputing among themselves which of them would be the greatest in the Messianic Kingdom of heaven. The honour just bestowed on the three, in being taken up the mountain, may have roused feelings of jealousy in the others perhaps through boasting by the three of them.
The spirit which John displayed in his harsh prohibition of the man who did not follow with the disciples and the self-righteous bargaining of Peter about forgiving the supposed or real offences of a brother give evidence of anything but the frame of mind which we would have expected after the vision on the mountain. What a disappointment for Jesus! In truth, the Apostles were still greatly under the influence of the old spirit.
It was the common Jewish view that there would be distinctions of rank in the Kingdom of heaven. Within the charmed circle of Rabbinism, there would be distinctions due to learning, merit and even favouritism. And in the Messianic age, God would assign booths to each according to his rank. How deep-rooted were such thoughts and feelings, appears not only from the dispute of the disciples by the way but also from the request by the mother of Zebedee’s children and her sons at a later period.
Again, the other disciples only came into Capernaum and entered the house just as Peter had gone for the stater, with which to pay the Temple tribute for the Master and himself. And we would suggest that the brother whose offences Peter found it so difficult to forgive, may have been none other than Judas. With his ‘Judaistic’ ways such a dispute would have particularly interested him. Perhaps he may have been its chief instigator?
Following on from this is another incident on the journey, which is afterwards related. In this, John seems to have been the principal antagonist. Perhaps in the absence of Peter, he claimed the leading role? They had met one who was casting out demons in the Name of Christ, whether successfully or not. So widely had faith in the power of Jesus extended, so real was the belief in the subjection of the demons to him, so reverent was the acknowledgement of him. A man who did so, thus forsaking the methods of Jewish exorcists, could not be far from the Kingdom of heaven. John had, in the name of the disciples, forbidden him, because he ‘was not one of them’.
It was quite in the spirit of their ideas about the Messianic Kingdom and of their dispute concerning which of his close followers would be greatest there. And yet, they might deceive themselves as to their motives. There is an eternal principle, ‘He that is not against us is for us’. He that does not oppose the disciples really is for them. Such a man would not lightly speak evil of Jesus and that was all the disciples should care for really. Jesus was certainly not going to stop him!
‘Who, then, is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?’ It was a general question but Jesus could read their hearts. Jesus called a little child - perhaps Peter’s little son - and put him in the midst of them. Not to strive who was to be greatest, but to be utterly without self-consciousness, like a child. As to the question of greatness in the Kingdom, it was really one of the greatness of service and that was the greatest service that implied most self-denial. Suiting the action to the teaching, Jesus took the happy child in his arms. Not to teach, to preach, to work miracles, nor to do great things, but to do the humblest service for Christ’s sake - lovingly, earnestly, wholly, self-forgetfully, simply for Jesus, was to receive Jesus – and therefore to receive the Father.
The love of Christ goes deeper than the act of receiving a child, utterly contrary to what a Pharisee would have done! A man may enter into the Kingdom and do service yet, if in so doing he disregards the law of love to the little ones, far better his work should be abruptly cut short; better that one of those large millstones, turned by an ass, were hung about his neck and be cast into the sea!
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)