Hi everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. We're going to take a look at the Gospel reading from today's mass, which is Matthew 4, verses 12 to 23. So let's start by reading the text Hearing that John had been arrested. Jesus went back to Galilee and leaving Nazareth. He went and settled in Capernaum. A Lakeside town on the borders of zebulun and naphtali. In this way, the prophecy of
Isaiah was to be fulfilled. Land of zebulun land of naphtali way of the see, on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nation's, the people that lived in darkness have seen a great light on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned. From that moment, Jesus began his preaching with the message, repent. For the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon, who is called Peter and his brother Andrew.
They were making a cast in the lake with their net. For they were fishermen And he said to them, follow me. And I will make you Fishers of Men. And they left their Nets at once and follow him. It going on from there. He saw a another pair of brothers, James, son of Zebedee. And his brother John. They were in their boat with their father Zebedee. Mending their Nets, and he called them at once leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
He went around the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues. Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing, all kinds of diseases and sickness among the people. So that's our reading. It's a bit of a longer one today, and this is in Matthew's gospel, it's situated right? At the start of his ministry. It's fairly similar to other passages in Mark and Luke. Although Matthew here brings out that quote about the land of zef
zebulun and naphtali. So let's start at verse 12, so hearing that John had been arrested. So later on in the gospels, we find out why John the Baptist has been arrested and we know that Jesus was quite effective.
To buy John's arrest. It appears that the arrest of John, the Baptist is Jesus motivation to leave and to go into Galilee. So at the moment before, this is been in the wilderness where he's tempted in Judea and now he hears about John the Baptist death and apparently that's what makes him leave the Wilderness and come to Galilee. Perhaps it's a case of Jesus thinking if John can no longer preach the kingdom then I need to take his place.
Some schools also think that maybe Jesus was an actual disciple of John the Baptist. And since John has been captured now, Jesus is perhaps sort of running away to flee, the authorities in that area who might come looking for John's disciples as well, that's possible. Anyway, something about John's arrest makes Jesus moved to Galilee. So he's walking from Judea to Galilee that's about 160 km or 34 hours of walking and he first goes to Nazareth which is his family's Hometown.
That's when Mary and Joseph live. But he's only there for a short time. He then decides to move to Capernaum and he sets up his new base in Capernaum, which is about 50 kilometers from Nazareth. So Capernaum is a fishing Village. It's reasonably large. It's right on the Sea of Galilee, and it was quite a thriving town that it's time. You can go see it today. And it's where Peter lived and some of the other disciples live there and Jesus makes this his home as well.
So this is his new base of operations for his ministry. Jesus does most of his early ministry here from Capernaum. And Matthew now tells us the Capernaum is in the territory of zebulun and naphtali. So that's according to the Old Testament, tribal divisions, each of the twelve sons of Jacob was given a different share of land, two of his sons zebulun and naphtali were given that area of land, that's now basic. Well, that was basically Galilee in the time of Jesus.
So, Matthew mentions that he wants his readers to know, Galilee is in the area, in the region of zebulun and naphtali. So that the prophecy is about to quote, make sense verse 14. Matthew says in this way, the prophecy of Isaiah was to be
fulfilled. So Matthew often does this, he wants to highlight how the Old Testament, prophecies are fulfilled in Jesus and he quotes from Isaiah 8:23 through to the start of chapter 9. And in the context of Isaiah chapter 8, it's the 8th Century BC, the land of Israel has been overtaken and zebulun and naphtali was one of the significant areas that saw a lot of Destruction. It's saw a whole lot of people taken away to slavery, and that's the reference to Darkness and death here.
And at that time, it had sort of been, a lot of Gentiles were also in that area too. And certainly the time of Jesus, it still had a lot of Gentiles as well. So let's keep that perspective in mind. As we read the quote, which is in verse 15, of our text, land of zebulun, and land of naphtali way of this. See, on the far side of Jordan, Galilee of the nation's, the people that lived in darkness have seen a great light on those who dwell in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned.
So, Matthew sees this prophecy about the land of zebulun and land of naphtali being shrouded in darkness. But seeing a great light, he sees this as fulfilled in Jesus preaching, because Jesus is the great light, and he now lives in Galilee. The great light has moved and settled in Galilee. Maybe Jesus chose this region to live in deliberately, if you think about, he could have chosen any number of places and some Scholars. Think that because this part of Israel is everyone at NAFTA.
Lee was the first region of Israel to be judged by God and destroyed. So when the armies came in in the eighth Century BC and destroyed Jerusalem, sorry I destroyed the northern part of Israel. This was the area that was hit first zebulun and naphtali. So maybe because that was the area of Israel that experience God's judgment first, maybe Jesus gives them the chance. Chance for a neural on repentance first.
That's possible. So he settles there in Galilee and verse 17 from that moment, Jesus began his preaching. So this is the beginning of Jesus public preaching here in Matthew chapter 4. And we know that it's about three and a half years long. And Matthew says that, a summary of Jesus teaching, is this repent for the kingdom of God is at hand? That's a summary of what Jesus
is all about. So the Jews did believe that the kingdom of God was coming, that was part of the thinking Jewish prophecy But they had different expectations of what the kingdom would look like than what Jesus was going to tell them.
So that the Jews at that, most of them at that time, believed that the kingdom of God was going to come automatically, all the Jews would be part of it, and there was no role for repentance in that Kingdom. But Jesus says, if you want to be part of that Kingdom, you have to have repentance. John the Baptist says the same thing.
So the core idea of the kingdom of God as presented to us in the gospels is that God, is now establishing his will and Reign on Earth through the Messiah. That's the idea of the kingdom of God. He's establishing his will and Reign on Earth through the Messiah in Matthew. The kingdom of God is often translated as the Kingdom of Heaven. It's the same thing, it's just that Matthew because he's a Jew, avoids, you In the word God,
where possible. So that he doesn't offend people, it's sort of a Jewish way of avoiding using God's name, but it's the same concept. Now notice that Jesus message is basically the same as John's message repent for the kingdom of God, is here. Very similar to what John said, so the strong continuity between Jesus and John so neat. Now, in verse 18, this could be some time later.
Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee and that's New component, where Jesus Lives. It's a relatively small Lake and Jesus spends a lot of time walking around and preaching. There, you can still go there today, can see the beautiful Sea of Galilee with heels on either side. And he sees Simon and Andrew, they're both professional fisherman on the Sea of Galilee now. They're not recreational fishermen, they're not there to
destress. This is their job to be fisherman and it was quite common in that time for people to be in the family business together and he sees them casting their net into the sea. So probably a large circular net and they're thrown from a standing position in the shallow water and they gather a whole lot of fish and then they would make money by selling the fish at the market. It's and it says that Jesus saw these two men and that's probably not an accident. Jesus is the son of God, he
probably knows that. He's going to find Simon and Andrew there. Now Jesus is actually already met Simon and Andrew earlier in the Gospel of John, Jesus meets Simon and Andrew just before Jesus own baptism. And that's the time at which he gives the name Peter to Simon. So he's met these guys before but he hasn't officially called them now, he calls them So he says to them, follow me.
So at that time, Jews would have been familiar with this idea of following a rabbi because they did, they could choose to follow a rabbi. And there were lots of traveling preachers moving around Israel, that people could choose to follow. But what's different here? Is that usually the student chooses the rabbi. But here, the rabbi Jesus comes up.
To these men and says, follow me and they must be something quite captivating about him because they immediately dropped their Nets and they follow him, which is quite significant because they're leaving behind their entire livelihood and they choosing to follow Jesus. Wherever he goes, they don't really know this man and they don't know what the future looks like, but still something about him. Makes them want to leave behind their old life and follow him.
And he says he's going to make them Fishers of Men. So what that probably means is currently, you're fishing for fish. I'm going to make you fish for something far greater something far greater than catching fish, you'll catch people. So what he means by catching people is your bring them into the kingdom of God.
With your grace spiritual Nets, you'll gather people into the kingdom of God. So this is the call of Simon and his brother Andrew. Sort of the to innermost disciples or two of them verse 21. Jesus, now finds the other two close Apostles of Jesus and they are James and John the sons of Zebedee. So he goes on a bit further and he sees James and John who are also fishing on the Sea of Galilee these two men, the sons of Zebedee. Say goodbye to their father as
well as their business. This is probably quite a wealthy business because they have men working with them and And they say, have to say goodbye to their father. So again, there must be something captivating about Jesus, that makes James and John, these wealthy fisherman, dropped, their Nets and followed Jesus. So, who would James and John? Because there's a quite common names in the New Testament. James, the son of Zebedee is sometimes called James the great and he's not Jesus brother.
It's a different guy. He is later killed in the book of Acts by King Agrippa. We don't hear a whole lot about this particular James because he's killed early on one of the first upon First Christians to be killed and his brother John son of Zebedee. He's a lot more well-known. He is usually identified with the Beloved disciple who is mentioned in the Gospel of John and here's the one, John son of Zebedee is the one who writes a lot of the New Testament.
So he writes the Gospel of John and then the three letters of John, as well as the Book of Revelation. So, John is very significant in our Christian theology. Probably, the youngest Apostle and he appears to be the last Apostle to die. So James it appeared. Well, if you don't count Judas, James is the first Apostle to die and his brother. John is the last Apostle to die. So here we have the call of Peter, Andrew James. And John, the first four apostles, who make up Jesus in a
circle. Some Scholars would say that what we've just seen here with the calling of the for fishermen is the first miracle in Matthew's gospel. It seems like a supernatural call-and-response. The fact that they just dropped their Nets and followed Jesus is perhaps a miracle in itself. So that's your text for today. How does the Catholic Church develop its teaching based on Matthew chapter 4? There's a few references in the catechism mostly to Jesus earlier in the passage.
Remember, Jesus is Calling people into the kingdom of God, saying, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and that's taken up in paragraph 17 20, which says the New Testament uses several Expressions to characterize the beatitude to, which God calls Al's man such as the coming of the kingdom of God, Etc. And then in paragraph 1989, which is in the discussion about how men are saved.
It says, the first work of the grace of the holy spirit is conversion affecting justification in accordance with Jesus, Proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, move by Grace man, turns toward God, and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness, from on high, Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of
the Interior man. And then in paragraph, 8 7 8, which is in the section about the hierarchy of the church, it talks about how the call of the for fishermen here is a personal call that Jesus gives them. And in the same way each disciple and each of Christ's ministers, the priests is also called in a personal way. Just like those first four apostles, So, I'll put all those catechism references in the show notes for you to have a look at as well.
So hopefully you learn something new there about the start of Jesus Ministry in the gospel of Matthew. Thanks for listening.