The Gramazin Blog
13
Jun
Jesus Moves to Capernaum
Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
Thursday June 13, 2024
Matthew 4:13-16, Luke 4:31
Father, please give me a heart for those who live in darkness. Help me to be a light that leads them to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Father, use me as a missionary within the community that I live. Help me to see a need for ministry that no one is filling and lead me to meet that need. Father, so many believers are reluctant to preach and teach repentance. I don’t want to be one of them. Please help me to set an example of repentance by how I live my life. Please also give me the courage to lovingly challenge my brothers and sisters in Christ to live lives of repentance and surrender. Father, help me to repent and to surrender my life to You. I want to live in obedience to Your ways, not because I have to, but because I want to in appreciation for what You have done for me. Amen.
Father, the text in this passage tells us that Jesus left Nazareth, packing whatever belongings He considered essential, and went to Capernaum to live.
This passage tells us that Jesus’ move to Capernaum was in fulfillment of a prophecy in Isaiah (Isaiah 9:1-2). Capernaum is in the region assigned to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali . Isaiah describes the city as being near the Sea of Galilee but on the north side (“beyond the Jordan”, which connects to the Sea of Galilee in the south). Isaiah’s text informs us that the people of Capernaum are corrupt and evil, “living in darkness” and “living in the shadow of death.” They are a spiritually dead people. However, they have “seen a great light”. “A light has dawned” upon them, none other than the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, who has come to live with them.
Father, Jesus loves these people who live in darkness. He loves sinners. He longs to bring the light of the gospel to them. He longs to bring salvation. This longing is so strong that Jesus moves into their community, ostensibly committing to long term missionary work with them. In other words, Jesus is a missionary who relocates to a land that needs the gospel.
Luke tells us in this passage that Jesus preached and taught in their synagogues with “the power of the Spirit” and that news about Him spread throughout the countryside surrounding Capernaum. He received praise for His preaching. Amen.
Those belongings most likely are in His mother’s home (Mary). Did Joseph still live there? How about any of Jesus’ four brothers and two sisters, their spouses, or children? Did they live nearby? It was probably a touching moment when the oldest child moved out of the family home, on a mission that will lead to His death on a cross. He will never live under the same roof again with His parents and siblings.
It is reasonable to think that Jesus was encouraged to move to Capernaum by the grateful royal official whose son Jesus had healed. It is safe to assume that this royal official introduced Jesus to many prominent people in Capernaum. In other words, Jesus had the proverbial “foot in the door” opportunity to ministry that thousands of missionaries throughout the church age have taken advantage of.
Read about the allotment of land for these two tribes in Joshua 19. Read also about these two tribes and the prophetess Deborah in Judges 4.
The praise of the people of Capernaum does not mean that they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. The text of Luke 10:15-16, where Jesus states that the destiny of the people of this city is hell because of their rejection of Jesus as their savior, leads us to the conclusion that many might praise a preacher for their preaching without their lives being transformed by the preacher’s message.
