Sunday, 3rd Ordinary Time. Cycle A
In the two Sundays preceding this, we were beside the Jordan River, remembering the baptism of Jesus and the testimony that John the Baptist gave about him. The liturgy now makes a notable leap. It omits the temptations of Jesus (which will be read on the first Sunday of Lent) and places us in a later moment, when Herod, annoyed by the preaching of John, decides to put him in prison. What happens next is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew in three brief passages: the initial activity of Jesus, the calling of the first four disciples, and a summary of the activity in Galilee. The liturgy allows one to limit oneself to the first, choosing the short form of the Gospel. Given its importance, perhaps that is the most advisable. But I will add something about the other two passages.
**1. The Initial Activity of Jesus (Mt 4,12-17)**
A disconcerting beginning. The first thing Jesus does is flee; the second, act in the most forgotten region; the third, repeat verbatim the preaching of John the Baptist. But all this contains a mystery that Mt helps us to unravel.
**Moment of Activity**
Jesus doesn’t begin to act until John the Baptist is imprisoned. It’c as if that event awakened in him the awareness that he must continue John’s work. We are accustomed to seeing Jesus in too divine a way, as if he perfectly knew what he must do at every instant. But it is very probable that God the Father spoke to Jesus in the same way he speaks to us, through events. And the great event is the disappearance of John the Baptist and the need to fill his void.
But there’s a very subtle difference between what Mark and Matthew recount. According to Mark, as soon as John is imprisoned, Jesus begins to preach. According to Matthew, the first thing Jesus does is withdraw to Nazareth. From a historical and psychological point of view, it seems a more suitable interpretation, which also opens the way to a more human vision of Jesus, as if he took a time of reflection and decision.
Place of activity
The choice of the place of activity is surprising. Jesus addresses a region without importance in Jewish history, even known with the disparaging name of “Galilee of the Gentiles.” “If anyone wants to enrich himself, let him go north; if he desires to acquire wisdom, let him come to the south,” a proud rabbi commented. The Gospel of John picks up a similar idea when the chief priests and the Pharisees say to Nicodemus: “Investigate and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee” (Jn 7:52).
Within Galilee, he does not choose Sepphoris, the capital, nor Tiberias, newly built on the shore of the lake, but Capernaum, a town of fishermen, farmers, and merchants, a place of transit, which allows him contact with a wide variety of people and easy access to the nearby villages.
However, Mateo sees things differently than the modern historian. The choice of Galilee reminds him of a prophecy of Isaiah, in which it is spoken of the terrible misfortunes suffered by that region during the Assyrian invasion of the 8th century B.C. and salvation is announced for the future (theme of the 1st reading).
For Mateo, the essential thing is that Jesus will not address important people, those who can change the world, but to “those who live in darkness,” “those who lived in a land of shadow and death.” The most despised and forgotten people (farmers and fishermen) will be Jesus’ first audience. For them he becomes a “great light.”
**The initial message**
Mateo summarizes it in two points: conversion and the imminence of the Kingdom of God. “**Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand**.”
Conversion encompasses two aspects: returning to God (as the prodigal son returns to his father) and the consequent change in lifestyle, acting as God wants.
The imminence of the reign of God can cause quite a bit of bewilderment, especially if we relate it to the end of the world. To understand what Jesus says, it is necessary to start from the historical experience. From the 6th century BC, the Jewish people were subjected to foreign powers (Babylon, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Syria). Oppression became increasingly harsh, and it awakened the longing for God to reign in the world to end all the arbitrary and injustices that dominated it. Thus arises the idea of the reign of God (or “of the heavens,” to avoid pronouncing the divine name). Some groups understand it in a symbolic way: God reigns through the Jewish religious authorities.
Others interpret it in a strict sense, as an authentic coming of God to establish a new and definitive world. These apocalyptic groups were convinced that this coming of God, the end of the present world, was imminent.
It is understandable the success that this message finds among contemporaries: to poor, simple, oppressed people by the Romans and their collaborators, announces a new world, of justice, peace, tranquility, love, in which God will be the true king. Is that what Jesus thinks and promises? Matthew will soon clear up the doubts, in the Sermon on the Mount, which we will read in the coming Sundays.
**Our response**
This brief passage forces us to question our own lives. Would it be the same if Jesus had not begun to act and proclaim his message? Are we aware that we, like the inhabitants of Galilee, were immersed in darkness and have seen a great light? Do we allow ourselves to be challenged by Jesus’ call to return to God and change our way of life?
2. The First Disciples (Mt 4,18-22)
This brief passage, seemingly so easy to understand, is full of mysteries when one thinks of the main protagonists.
Starting with Jesus, who would hire four fishermen to found and run a multinational? Only a madman. They don’t need a degree from the universities of Jerusalem or Babylon. It’s not necessary that they have studied with the best rabbis or that they know the Torah by heart. It is enough that they want to follow him, renouncing everything.
If Jesus’ conduct is mysterious, so is that of the four called. What moves them to leave everything, even their father, and follow Jesus without knowing him beforehand? Here there are two distinct questions: prior knowledge and radical following.
Some allude to the fourth Gospel, where it is said that Jesus came into contact with them when the baptism (Jn 1,35-51). Or affirming that the true order of events is the one preserved in the Gospel of Luke (4,31-5,11): after healing a man with an unclean spirit, Peter’s mother-in-law, after many other healings and exorcisms, when Jesus is already well known, is when he calls the first four disciples and they follow him.
But this prior knowledge does not solve the problem of radical following, of renouncing everything. What drove them to it? Mark does not say this at the moment. Later he will indicate that James and John did so, at least in part, because of political ambition: they were convinced that Jesus would come to reign in Jerusalem and they intended to hold the first two positions in his court (Mc 10:35-37). Also, Simon, when confessing Jesus as Messiah, rejecting suffering and death, demonstrates a political concern. Something that Luke makes very clear when he speaks of the disciples of Emmaus and in the last dialogue before the ascension: they conceived of Jesus as one who would liberate Israel (Lc 24:21) and establish his sovereignty (Acts 1:6).
However, the explanation above, although valid, assumes anticipating data. At this moment, we are left without knowing what moved the four to follow Jesus.
What is not in doubt is that they followed him. These four disciples represent the first fruit of Jesus’ preaching: they believe in the good news of the Kingdom of God, they follow him, and radically change their lives.
And this must have provoked deep amazement in the first readers of the Gospel at the power of attraction of Jesus and the absolute availability of the disciples. Something in which they would see themselves reflected, because they too had felt the call of Jesus and, despite all the difficulties and criticisms, had followed him.
3. Summary (Mt 4,23)
The final phrase, so brief, can go unnoticed. But it represents an essential complement to what was said in point 1. There, Jesus’ activity focuses on teaching. Here, teaching is accompanied by action: he goes through, teaches, proclaims, and heals. Healing illnesses and ailments occupies a large part of Jesus’ time. Two Sundays ago, Peter summarized everything with the words: “going about doing good.” But there is something in this summary that we generally do not value: He went through all Galilee. This implies effort, sacrifice, going from 38º in the lake to snowy villages in winter.
José Luis Sicre
English version translated with AI