Encore Post: For people in ancient times, the sea was a symbol of chaos and evil. They had a good reason to think this way. Not only was the sea a place that could become violent at a moment’s notice, they had no way to know about coming storms as we do today.
The disciples were veterans of the sea, not bothered much by the wind and wave, even when it was rough. That evening, the sea was much trouble. They could not use their sails, which would be blown to pieces. So they labored to row against it. They soon became afraid they would sink.
Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat, sleeping on the sails and the sack with rocks to keep the boat balanced on the sea. When they woke Jesus, he yelled at the wind and waves the way we would yell at a barking dog. The disciples shouldn’t have been afraid, since Jesus was with them. They realized then that Jesus is God and were more afraid of Him than the sea.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: The long-standing hatred between the Jewish people and Palestinians has its roots over three thousand years ago, when the Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel and when the Babylonians conquered Judah. These empires left people behind in the land, who married people from these kingdoms and established their own traditions. The Jews who returned from exile in Babylon thought of them as traitors and sellouts. The Samaritans resented the Jews and their temple. By the time of Jesus, Jews would avoid traveling through Samaria. Jesus and His disciples did not.
The woman at the well had good reason to be surprised by Jesus. For him to take water from her would make Him ritually unclean — unable to make sacrifices in the temple or enter the synagogue. More than that, she was considered a very immoral woman, the kind even Samaritans warned their sons to avoid. By speaking with her, Jesus showed her unexpected love and mercy.
Jesus engages her in a spiritual discussion by speaking of living water. At first, she may not have understood what he meant. She thought it would be great to go without drawing water from a well! Jesus followed up by telling her things that he could not possibly know — she had been married five times and now lived with a man to which she was not married! Now she knew Jesus had to be a prophet and needs to know how to make things right with God.
Jesus told her things had changed; He is the Messiah! She went back to town and brought her friends to hear him teach. For two days, Jesus stayed with them. So it was that the first Gentiles came to faith in Jesus.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: The Pharisees loved God so much that they tried hard to keep all of his commands. They even added more rules to be sure that they did this. They believed that if all of God’s people did everything God wanted them to do, then the Messiah would come, defeat the Romans in battle and rule the world from Jerusalem forever.
But they had so many rules, it was hard to learn them, remember them and keep them. Most people could not follow them all, so they really did not try hard. This upset the Pharisees so much they called these people “sinners.” They thought they were as bad as tax collectors, who worked for the Romans and made themselves rich at their neighbor’s expense.
So, when Jesus saw Matthew at his tax collecting booth and called him to be a disciple, they were outraged. It got worse when he went to Matthew’s house to eat dinner. In the Middle East to this day, inviting someone to dinner is a sign of deep friendship. Sinners and Tax Collectors were unclean and to eat with them would make you unclean. To the Pharisees, this meant Jesus didn’t take the law seriously at all. What they missed was that Jesus came precisely to save the lost, so he needed to go where they are.
Later, Jesus would remind his disciples and the Pharisees that everyone is sinful and cannot be good enough to please God. He came to die for us all to pay for our sins and bring the forgiveness of sins to us. He came to look for us, find us all and save us. So, people like Matthew are just the kind of people he wants as his disciple.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: Rabbis in Jesus’ day often had students — disciples — who followed them, observed everything they did, memorized every word they taught and imitated their actions. Most of the time, the students chose their teachers. Jesus turns that around when He chose his own disciples. Disciples often became rabbis themselves. When Jesus told them Peter, James and John they would “catch people,” his disciples would assume they were to train for that very occupation.
It is easy to think that Jesus just walked up the disciples with no notice and ordered them to follow him, and they did. But this is likely not the case with any of them. Simon, Andrew, James, and John already knew Jesus when he called them. Jesus had made Capernaum, the headquarters of their fishing business, his hometown. Before this event, Jesus had taught in their synagogue, healed Peter’s mother-in-law, cast out demons, healed a paralytic, the Roman centurion’s daughter and many others. His brother Andrew and others were disciples of John the Baptist, who identified Jesus as the Lamb of God. Matthew was the toll collector at Capernaum before Jesus called him, but likely heard a lot about him.
Jesus would select twelve disciples to be his closest students. The number twelve reminded Jews of the twelve tribes of Israel. By doing this, he signaled he was re-establishing God’s chosen people. These twelve would eventually be commissioned as his apostles, on whom Jesus would build his church. These would become witnesses to his resurrection and take the gospel to the ends of the Roman world. All but two would die as martyrs — Judas, who betrayed him and John, who lived a long life and whose own disciples would pass the faith on to new generations.
Encore Post: On the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, along the Roman road known as “the Way of the Sea,” the fishing village of Capernaum existed as a trading center during the 1st Century A.D. The apostles Simon and Andrew had moved there with their families to be near their fishing partners, Zebedee, James and John. The apostle Matthew also lived in town. His job as toll collector was likely practiced in a toll booth along the trade route.
The commander of the Roman army unit guarding the town, a centurion, lived in town as well. He was likely a God-fearer — a gentile who believed in the God of Israel, but who was not circumcised. He was the patron of the local synagogue, who paid for its construction and was well-loved by the residents of the village.
After Jesus began his ministry, he moved to Capernaum to make it a kind of headquarters for the Galilean phase of his earthly ministry. It was here he preached his first sermon, cast out demons and healed the sick, healed the servant of the beloved centurion and a paralytic lowered through the thatched roof of St. Peter’s house on his bed. Tradition places the Sermon on the Mount on the hillside near the village along the Sea of Galilee.
The ruins of the town were unearthed beginning early in the 20th Century. The floor of the synagogue in which Jesus preached and the likely location of the house of St. Peter have been uncovered and can be visited today.
Encore Post: Just after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the desert alone for forty days to fast and pray prior to beginning to minister. The number forty was important to the Jewish people. Their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert. God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark for forty days. For them, the number forty stood for a period of testing.
For us, the temptation of Jesus is wonderful. He could have blown Satan away. But He chose to face temptation in a way that we can face temptation. He quoted the will of God from the Scriptures. In God’s Word is the power to overcome the Devil — and the world and our flesh, too. The Scripture calls on us to pray to a Lord who was tempted in every way the way we are, except that He did not sin. Because He faced temptation as a human, we know He understands us and is ready to help.
Encore Post: Weddings are very joyful occasions. Everyone dresses their best. There is music, dancing and feasting. The bride and groom are excited because their life together will soon begin. Weddings in our culture, however, are very different from they were during the earthly life of Jesus.
Jewish weddings in first century Galilee were seven days long, most of it eating, drinking, dancing, reciting wedding poetry — and eating. On the first day, the bride and her wedding party would walk from her house to her groom’s house. They would say their vows in his house or under a tent that stood for the house. Then the party would begin.
Cana was a small town in Galilee, a few miles north of Nazareth. Mary, Jesus, and his disciples were invited to attend a wedding there. It is likely Mary was a relative or a close friend of the groom’s parents. The family was likely well off. They could afford a large wedding feast, with lots of guests and servants to cater the event. They had six large stone jars to contain water to be used by the guests to remain ritually clean.
For one reason or another, the feast ran out of wine. Since the only drinks used in Galilee at the time were water and wine from the vineyards near Nazareth, this was a major problem. Hospitality was very important at weddings. The groom would have to be sure there was plenty to eat and drink. Running out of wine was a disaster in the making.
Jesus’ mother Mary asks him to take care of the problem. Jesus’ reply sounds cold in modern English, but was not cold or disrespectful on that day. It roughly means, “How is that our problem, Ma’am?” Yet Mary trusts Jesus will do what was necessary to solve the problem and told the servants to do what he told them to do.
By turning over 120 gallons of water into the finest wine, Jesus saved the couple a lot of embarrassment. More than that, He showed His mother and His disciples that He was God and cared for people in their everyday lives. The church believes the fact that Jesus attended this wedding blessed all marriages by making wine for the celebration. It is mentioned in every traditional wedding.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Encore Post: On the First Sunday after Epiphany, the Church celebrates the day that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.(Matthew 3:13-17) The baptism that John performed was for the forgiveness of sins, so it puzzled John. Why would the sinless Son of God need to be baptized? Jesus told him it was “fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) Like the scapegoat and the Passover Lamb of the Old Testament, John called him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. “(John 1:29)
So, when we go into the waters of Holy Baptism, Jesus washes away our sins (Ephesians 5:26-27) These sins he took upon himself at his baptism and carried them to the cross. When he died, we died to our old life. When he rose, we rose with him to new life. Our sins were forgiven and we need sin no more. (Romans 6:3-11)
When Jesus came out of the water, God the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) The Holy Spirit also appeared in the form of a dove that landed on Jesus. An appearance of God in this world is called a theophany. At the Baptism of Jesus, all three persons on the Trinity appear in our world. In the readings for the Church Year, the season of Epiphany begins with this theophany and concludes by celebrating another — the Transfiguration.
Encore post: Four hundred years had passed since the last prophet had spoken. Now a new prophet had come. When he grew up, he dressed like the Prophet Elijah, ate the same foods that Elijah ate, preached where Elijah preached.
John the Baptist had all the credentials to be the Messiah. His Father was a priest, descended from Aaron. His mother was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so descended from King David. An angel in God’s temple announced his birth, while his father was offering the prayers of the people to God. Both of his parents were very old, like Abraham and Sarah, and barren, like Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Many people wondered if he was the Messiah. But he wasn’t. As the last prophet before him predicted, he came to prepare God’s people for the Messiah.
God named him “John (God’s gift),” in the same way He named Isaac and changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The angel announced he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets. Yet from the very start, he and his parents understood John was not the Messiah, but the one who would reveal him to the world and prepare the way for him.
When he baptized Jesus, John finally knew it was his cousin, Jesus. He pointed to Jesus and said: “Look! The Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world!” The Messiah had come not as a conqueror, but as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world. Now His baptism gives us the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.
Encore Post: The Gospels give us only brief glimpses into the first thirty years of the life of Jesus. We have, of course, the Christmas story. They mention the circumcision of Jesus on the 8th day (we celebrate it on New Year’s Day). After forty days, his mother Mary and adoptive father Joseph take him to the temple to redeem him and to purify Mary. There they meet Simeon and Anna. Then sometime in the first two years, scholars from the east come to their house in Bethlehem, worship him and give him gold, frankincense and myrrh. Warned by angel, they move to Egypt while Herod the Great vainly tried to kill him and instead slaughtered innocent boys. In a matter of months, they move back to Nazareth and settle there. Then, that’s it for twelve years. We hear about Jesus among the teachers in the temple and then silence again for sixteen years!
False teachers, psychics and prophets of other religions could not resist. They tell stories of a self-centered child animating clay pigeons, raising a child from the dead to testify that he did not shove the child off a roof and similar things. Some have him move to India to learn under gurus. Islam has him speak while in the cradle. None of these things happened, but are simply stories made up to fill a vacuum they believe exists.
So, what was Jesus’ first thirty years really like? We don’t know precisely other than it was perfectly normal. He grew up as the son of a faithful Jewish craftsman. He learned his father’s trade, living what was a kind of middle class life. Likely, they worked to build the nearby capital of Herod Antipas, called Sepphoris. He would have studied the Torah, learned Hebrew, observed all the customs of the law, and studied under rabbis. He likely spoke in Koine Greek and learned something about Greek and Roman culture. He grew up so normally that no one who knew him could imagine him as God. Luke sums it up: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
