The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Jesus is Heaven on Earth:  Mt.4:17 – 25

^4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ¹⁸ Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. ²² Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. ²³ Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. ²⁴ The news about him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and he healed them. ²⁵ Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.

Jesus announces the ‘kingdom of heaven,’ and what is that?  Perhaps now the Romans would be overthrown?  Jesus was certainly heard with that political possibility.  Jesus in v.23 uses the word ‘gospel’ or literally, ‘good news’ (euangelion).  The term euangelion was also a political term:  a proclamation of the Roman Empire that a new Emperor had been born or had ascended the throne.  That was the ‘good news’ of Rome.  Here, Jesus announces ‘good news.’  As a revolutionary force where God’s rule as it is in heaven is coming to earth.  In the passage, what signs are there that a new kingdom is breaking forth?  For one thing, Jesus calls followers.  A proper king has subjects.  Also, there are demonstrations of Jesus’ power over evil, suffering, and demons.  There is this language of light shining in darkness and overcoming it.  What is Jesus fighting?  Disease, human brokenness, demons, and evil.  The disciples now knew that the kingdom Jesus had in mind involved a lot more than they thought it would. 

Why does Jesus require people to ‘repent’?  Why not say ‘Rejoice!  For the kingdom of heaven is near’?  What is repentance?  A turning, a switching of sides.  The term ‘pent’ connotes ‘a high point,’ like how a ‘penthouse’ is at the top of a building.  So to repent is to come back to the original high point where we should be.  They too had sin they needed to deal with.  They would eventually need to be transformed by Jesus as well.  Unbeknownst to the Jews of that time, in the midst of all the loud military and political wranglings they were going through, one man was realigning humanity with the love of God.  As Jesus continues to physically redeem his own humanity, he calls to himself a community of Jewish followers who would eventually participate in that redeemed humanity, and carry on his mission to the world to invite them into the same, the salvation from sin that God had worked out in the flesh of Jesus for all humanity (Rom.8:3).

Why does Jesus call people to repent?  Because they needed to approach him as king.  That’s what no one had done yet.  This is not just about behavior modification, or a social program.  Jesus is establishing a relationship where he is king and we are subjects.  Jesus is healing and renewing humanity in God’s image, and we are joining ourselves to him, to be healed and renewed.  The Jews of his day, for instance, were more defined by the trauma of oppression than by the love of God.  That impacted how they treated outsiders suspiciously, how they thought of themselves, how they conceived of God, and how they read the Scriptures in a slanted way.  The same things can happen to us.  So Jesus certainly comes to heal us from the way our brokenness causes us to sin and be self-protective.  That's an example of what Jesus' call to repentance implies.  Do we really believe this?  Are we willing to acknowledge him as this kind of king, of this kind of new humanity?  Are we allowing him to heal and renew us?  Are we willing to announce this to the unhealed and unrenewed world around us?