Matthew 4:12-22
RTNT 2021. Anyone who is reading the Bible or the New Testament or only the gospels for the first time will naturally begin the gospels with Matthew. And beyond His early life all they have of Jesus is His baptism and His temptation in the wilderness. Then He heads to Galilee and calls His first four disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John. What they miss is Jesus’ earlier interaction with these three or four disciples that we read about in John’s gospel. So in beginning with Matthew it seems like Jesus is calling these four fishermen “out of the blue”, causing them to leave their boats, their nets, and even one father and follow Him. It had always seemed strange to me when I regularly began the gospels with Matthew that these men would just walk away from what they were doing. However, if they had had earlier encounters with Jesus down in Judea as John reports, then their “abrupt” departure makes more sense. (John’s comment from two years ago emphasizes this interaction more fully.)
And leaving Nazareth He went and lived in Capernaum… (v. 13a) In a couple of days we will see in Luke’s gospel that Jesus had spent some time in Nazareth between his time in Judea and His moving on to Capernaum. So a more complete blending of Luke’s item and John’s gospel gives us the following chronology (after Jesus’ childhood): Jesus is baptized, meets His early disciples, is tempted, and goes to the Cana wedding; returns to Judea for the Passover, cleanses the temple, and meets Nicodemus; heads back to Galilee through Samaria and meets the woman at the well; goes to His home in Nazareth (Luke in two days), then finally heads to Capernaum and calls His first four disciples (today’s reading). I’m thankful for having discovered a chronological Bible!
See also: February 5 / Matthew 4:12-22
The timing that John S. noted (in a comment on the 2019 post) and Fred referred to makes so much sense. It just seemed so rash to drop everything to follow Jesus if they knew absolutely nothing about Him. Good point, you guys.
I have always thought that Jesus has a sense of humor and His interaction with Peter and Andrew here is one example of that. Jesus says “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” as they were casting their nets into the sea. I think Peter and Andrew probably laughed about that (and they probably thought that being fishers of men would be a cakewalk next to fishing for fish to make a living).
There’s a parallel message in today’s readings with yesterday’s readings regarding harvest. Yesterday’s reading gave me the impression of grain harvest from farming the land. Today’s reading is about a harvest from the sea from fishing. The harvest I’m picking up on in both of these readings is not food for bodily nourishment, but food for spiritual nourishment. That’s spelled out clearer in John and more implied, at least to me, in Matthew.
Good point, Bruce. I’ve never connected the fields white with harvest and the harvest of fish. That’s a benefit from reading chronologically.
The reference to ‘darkness and light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned’ is a recurring theme for me. At a time when there was no light, save for candles and torches; when the sun went down, it was darkness that we can only imagine. And, at a time when entire populations were conquered, killed, and placed into slavery, those living through such ‘darkness’ were desperate for the ‘light’ that Jesus brought them.
Good point, Tom. And in Exodus we read about the plague of darkness, a “darkness that could be felt”! (Ex 10:21) That’s DARK!!