Posted on 01/03/2022 10:51:31 AM PST by MurphsLaw
CHRISTMAS WEEKDAY
MATTHEW 4:12-17, 23-25
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says as he preaches, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We mustn’t flatten this out or render it too spiritually abstract, as though he were talking only about becoming nicer people, more generous and more kind. His preaching was about more than that. It was part and parcel of his messianic vocation.
What he was saying was something like this: a new order is breaking out in Israel, the tribes are coming back together, and Yahweh is going to reign. Therefore, adjust your lives, your vision, your expectations. Start living even now as members of this new kingdom.
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the
Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.
His fame spread to all of Syria,
and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases
and racked with pain,
those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics,
and he cured them.
And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and
Judea,
and from beyond the Jordan followed him.+++
Great timing.
The broad, always-observant, ever-learning perspective is the narrow way. It is slow to anger, and eager to learn something new every day.
The narrow, constricted, settled views pave the broad road.
It's the difference between life and death.
The broad road is the crowded, pushing and shoving, control-freaky place where everybody is right because everybody else is wrong. Safe bet nobody in that traffic jam is going to make it to 88 MPH before reaching the ravine where the bridge is out.
If the Messiah believed in the settled doctrines, he'd never recognize himself!
1 Sam 16.11. And Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? And he said, There remains still the youngest, and, behold, he keeps the sheep; And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him; for we will not sit down [turn around] till he comes here:
Bishop Barron: ‘I will confess to a certain fascination with Martin Luther’
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.