Beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry
It is the third Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s scripture reading tells us that the time has finally come for our Lord Jesus Christ to begin his Galilean ministry. Before he came into the public eye, it was his cousin John the Baptist who was preaching the good news in the wilderness, until he met our Lord Jesus Christ in the River Jordan and baptized him. Today’s gospel can be found in Matt. 4:12-23.
“12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali — 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. 15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 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.”
17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 18 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. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 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, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
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While writing this article, I was tuned to the peaceful transfer of power in the US with the historic inauguration of the 45th US President Donald Trump in Washington DC. This transfer promotes continuity in America’s democracy. In today’s gospel reading, we can find similarities with that political event in the sense that when our Lord Jesus Christ was informed of the arrest of John the Baptist, he immediately withdrew to Galilee where he concentrated and began his ministry and started it by echoing the words of John: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” He knew that John the Baptist could no longer preach the good news from his prison walls, so now it was the time of our Lord to do what his Father sent him to this world to do.
But the Lord cannot fulfill his ministry all by his lonesome, so he walked along the shore of Lake Galilee and met two brothers, Peter and Andrew, who were fishing in the lake the whole night and caught nothing. We have already written a lot about how our Lord asked Peter to cast the net and their nets were tearing and their boats sinking. After this small miracle, he asked Peter and Andrew to follow him to make them “fishers of men.” They were later joined by the brothers James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to form the first of the 12 apostles.
With apostles following him, the Lord Jesus Christ then walked along the shores of Lake Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of heaven and healing the sick, the lame, curing every disease and sickness of the people living in Galilee.
In proclaiming the word of God, he allowed the people to connect directly to their creator for the good news of salvation had begun with the Galilean ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the only begotten Son of God the Father, whose lifelong mission was to redeem mankind from sinfulness because for too long, man had gone astray and away from God and his teachings. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ chastised and condemned the Pharisees and Scribes for giving burdens to the people, but not themselves.
A few months from now, we will be commemorating the Holy Week season and it’s a good time to ponder our lives and return back to the fold of God.
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