“When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”  From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” (Matthew 4:12-23)

We continue in the season of Epiphany with our scripture reading today, Matthew 4:12-23. Remember, the word “Epiphany” means “revealing”. During the season of Epiphany in the church lectionary calendar we read the scriptures that reveal the “big picture” of who Jesus really is. We learn what it means when the scriptures proclaim, “Jesus Christ is Lord” and “The kingdom of God is at hand”.  We learn what it means when Jesus says, “All power and authority in heaven and earth has been given to me”. In the other seasons of the church year, we focus on each of the individual “confessions” about Christ that make up the gospel. So each season is like listening to one of the individual instruments in an orchestra. But during Epiphany we hear all the instruments together, playing the whole symphony!

Sadly, most Christians have never even heard of Epiphany. Christmas and Easter have been the most popular Christian religious holidays in modern times. As a result, Christians today often conclude that Christmas and Easter must be the two main parts of the Christian message. We end up thinking of Jesus as a “Christmas-Easter Jesus”, and we end up with a “Christmas-Easter gospel.” We believe that the gospel message is that God sent his Son into the world (on Christmas!) so that he would die for our sins and open the way to eternal life (at Easter!). We know that all the other things about Jesus are important, but we think that Christmas and Easter are the cornerstones of the gospel, and as long as we get people to believe in the Christmas-Easter Jesus, the rest of the details of his life and of the Christian faith can be filled in later. 

But in fact, none of the four gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) begin their gospels with Christmas, and none of them end their gospels with Easter. They all want to make sure we understand that Jesus is not a new character in the Bible story who first appears at Christmas and who completes his work at Easter. Jesus is not the offspring of the God of the Old Testament, whom the Old Testament God kept hidden until he sent him into the world on a mission to die for our sins. Jesus is in fact that God who has spoken since the beginning, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the New Testament doesn’t reveal “the son of the Old Testament God”. The New Testament reveals that the Old Testament God is in fact Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, along with all the other New Testament writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John start their stories of Jesus before Christmas and continue their stories of Jesus after Easter. They don’t proclaim a “Christmas-Easter Jesus” or a “Christmas-Easter gospel”. They proclaim Jesus as the Great “I AM”—the Alpha and the Omega—the image of the invisible God. He is the one who has been speaking since the beginning—to Adam, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, and to the Prophets. He is the Word. He is the one who created all things and the one in whom all things hold together. He comes not only to die but to defeat death. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John write their gospels not so that we respond by saying, “Thank you Jesus for dying for my sins.” They write so we will respond by falling at his feet in worship and crying out, “My Lord and my God!” That is why we have the season of Epiphany. It reveals who, and how big, Jesus is.

Jesus had gone to the south, to begin his ministry by being baptized by John the Baptist. John spoke out against King Herod because the king had married his former sister-in-law, so Herod had John arrested. When Jesus heard this, he withdrew back to the north, to Galilee, to begin his public ministry where had been raised. This was not because Jesus was running from Herod. As we see later, especially in Luke 13, Jesus knew he must enter Jerusalem freely, as its Lord, coming on the day he had appointed in the Old Testament for the city’s visitation. he would give himself up freely into the hands of Herod and the authorities only after his visitation

When the Gospel writers quote the Old Testament, it is because they want us to go back and read those scriptures. When we do that, we understand who Jesus is from Isaiah 9:6-7.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Who is Jesus? He is not the Christmas-Easter Jesus who was born to die. He is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, who reigns on David’s throne, who came to bring a kingdom that continues forever. Even death cannot stop his kingdom.

One of the controversies that Jesus faced was that the religious leaders claimed he could not be the Messiah because he was from Nazareth—“nowheresville”—in Galilee, which was the land of the Gentiles. But Jesus continually rebuked the religious leaders for their failure to read the scripture, which he said clearly testified of him. This scripture is a good example. Isaiah said the Messiah would indeed be from Galilee—and that he would in fact be the Mighty God himself.

In the case of every scripture, and in the case of today’s scripture reading, it is important to read the verses before and after the text at hand in order to fully understand the scripture’s context. Directly before today’s scripture reading, we read that Satan offers Jesus all “the kingdoms of the world”, and Jesus rejects the offer. And a few verses later, Jesus preaches “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. The backdrop for Jesus’ announcement is Daniel 2:44.

“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”  (Daniel 2:44)

Jesus, here in Matthew, is the God of heaven who brings with him from heaven to earth a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Jesus doesn’t transform the kingdoms of this world into Christian kingdoms. Nor is it that Jesus’ kingdom is only in heaven and we only enter it when we die. Instead, Jesus brings a kingdom from heaven which crushes all of those kingdoms.

From the beginning of scripture, God’s purpose has always been to rule directly and personally over creation. When Adam and Eve rebel against God’s rule and place themselves under the rule of Satan, God doesn’t destroy them. Instead, God proclaims the gospel:

“…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

God’s direct personal rule over his people is restored through Jesus Christ, the promised offspring of the woman. God doesn’t replace non-Christian shepherds with Christian shepherds. He himself shepherds the sheep directly and personally. He himself provides all they need.

“…I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:9b-11)

We Christians are citizens of one kingdom: the kingdom of God. We are servants of one king: the Lord Jesus who presently rules and reigns over all people. He crushes all the kingdoms of this world, not us.

“With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:51-52)

“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.” (1 Corinthians 15:24)

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” (Romans 16:20)

But Jesus does not crush the nations with a sword in his hand; he does it with the sword of his mouth, the sword of his word.

“Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.” (Revelation 19:15)

Jesus presently holds all authority and we are his slaves, servants, and brothers and sisters. We submit to the authority of the rulers of this world, but we do not become involved in their work. We have our own kingdom to serve—the kingdom of heaven.

This is why for the first three hundred years of Christian history, Christians didn’t sign up to serve in the militaries or administrations of the countries they lived. And soldiers and civil servants who became Christians struggled to figure out whether they should continue to serve the kingdoms under which they had been commissioned. It was a real issue in the church. Unfortunately, the church has almost totally forgotten this today. It mistakenly believes that we serve Christ and the kingdom of heaven by serving in the kingdoms of this world.

In today’s scripture reading, in Matthew 4:17, Jesus announces that the kingdom of heaven has come, fulfilling the prophecies all the way back to the beginning of the scriptures. He says the proper response to the coming of the kingdom is for us to repent. When we hear that, we fill in our own meaning for the word “repent”. We think it means to feel genuinely sorry for our wrongdoing and to change our behavior. That is because we don’t understand the biblical meaning of sin.

Sin doesn’t just mean “bad things we do”, and repentance doesn’t just mean “stop doing those bad things.” Sin means “rebellion against the direct rule of God” and repentance means “receiving the direct rule of God.” The apostles repented by placing themselves in a position of complete dependence upon Jesus, the king of the kingdom of heaven.

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23)

Jesus did not do the works he did in order to give others a good impression about him by offering humanitarian aid. He does these works because he is carrying out the responsibilities of the king of the kingdom of heaven to his people. He frees them from captivity, shepherds them, and provides for their needs.

When missionaries go to other countries and give humanitarian aid, but do not preach the gospel, they are not imitating Jesus. Jesus announces his kingdom openly.

When Jesus dies on the Cross, he is not simply dutifully carrying out his Father’s command to die for our sins. He is carrying out his responsibilities as our king. On the cross he defeats death and all the kingdoms of this world and all the things that stand in the way of him shepherding us personally and providing for us directly.