Plymothian

12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”[f]

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Kingdom of Heaven

Jesus, you came to establish a kingdom.  It hasn’t claimed a standard geographical domain, but it has claimed our hearts. There are those of us who are part of the revolution and when the world takeover comes, we will be ready to submit to your rule because we already have.  There are things that get in the way, Lord.  My strong desire to be right, to not get things wrong, stands in the way.  My pride, guilt, and shame also stand in the way.  Help me to further move elements that cause me to focus on myself out of the way so that you can reign in me without rival.  Help my thoughts to be clearly of you, for you, and with you.  I want to walk and talk in such ways that pagans and believers both go away with an awareness that they have encountered the kingdom.

The value of my life is measured by the strength of the Kingdom of Heaven in me.

Questions

1. Where did Jesus start preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven?
2. Why would devout Jews call the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven?
3. What would ancient Jewish people have had to do to prepare for the Kingdom of Heaven?
4. What must you change internally to further the Kingdom of Heaven?
5. How can you preach the Kingdom this coming week?

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”[a]

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Preparing Yourself

John prepared the way for Jesus.  People needed to prepare for the Messiah.

Jesus, I don’t want to change too much too quickly.  I have found change to be painful.  However, I know that there is so much in me that you want to change so that I am prepared to accept more of your life lived out in me.  I need to be constantly mindful of you.  However, I am struck by a defensive attitude on my part where I am not as constantly open to you.  I believe that you will hurt me.  I believe that you hold an axe and it is aimed ready to chop at me.

That image is not true.  It is true for worthless trees that are burned up in a bonfire.  Your own trees you prune and shape.  You lovingly tend your trees so that they can bear more fruit.  Help me to be less fearful.  Help me not to just come to you expecting you to say, “Nice try, but everything has changed and what you have done is not enough.”  I bring conceptions of who you are from my past.  I impose them on you and make a caricature of you.  Please be who you want to be and not who I construct in my fearful mind.

Let your love cast out my fear.  Then prepare my heart and mind to receive more of you.

Questions

1. Describe John.
2. How were people prepared?
3. Why might some Israelites feel that they did not need to change?
4. In what ways do you sometimes feel you have arrived and do not need to entertain change?
5. In what ways does the Spirit want to change you to be able to receive more of Jesus?

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”^[c]

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Far From Home

Jesus was carried into exile by his father.  It was to protect him, but as a toddler he must have wondered why his familiar settings in Bethlehem were being taken away.

Jesus, you were taken to Egypt and then brought back as part of the divine plan.  You didn’t have a place where you could put down roots because you were on the run.  You had a father who cared for you, in Joseph, who looked over you and did what was right.  He himself was looked over by your Father who looked over all of you and took you from place to place just like Israel had been cared for in the past.

Help me to see that as I wander from place to place I am not far from your Father.  Your Father is my Father and loves me unconditionally wherever I am.  It is hard for me to accept unconditional love.  I sometimes feel like a geographical and relational exile.  Some of my isolation is self imposed.  However, you too were isolated in various ways as a child to save you from harm.

Please teach me to look to the Father for tender care in every situation.

Questions

1. How did Joseph care for Jesus?
2. How did God the Father care for Joseph?
3. How did God’s care for Israel parallel his care for Jesus?
4. How does God show you love by protecting you?
5. How does another person reflect the Father’s love to you?

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[f] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Running On Rails

Jesus, it seemed your life was running on rails.  The players all moved into place and the plan unfolded as expected.  Expected from heaven’s perspective, that is.  Not expected from human perspective.  I don’t see a ‘pattern’ in my life very clearly.  In my mind the past seems somewhat chaotic, in line with my past mistakes.  However, the way your life was laid out gives hope.  In the chaos that is human life a thread of divine will can be traced.

What did you know as you were an embryo?  Precious little.  That gives me hope.  I can know as much as an embryo.  How much of this life I am living is part of the plan?  How much am I running on the rails?  I want to not be in the way.  I want to forget myself.  However, there is so much that I worry about.  It seems some people can’t see past themselves in a positive light, others in a negative light.  I just want to see you and follow.  An angel in a dream would be nice.  Writing on a wall.  Should we expect the supernatural to break through as it did at your birth.  I would like more peace, or happiness as some indication that your will is being carried out.

However, I do have faith.  I believe the events of Matthew happened.  I believe that you came as the one who saves.  I believe that you will save us from our ‘self’.  I believe I am on a path to redemption because your path to redemption was assured.

Questions

1. How was Joseph kept on the divine plan?
2. What name was he to give Mary’s son?
3. What does the name ‘Jesus’ or ‘Joshua’ mean?
4. Do you accept that Jesus was born in a miraculous way and lived out a planned life?
5. How is your life planned out by God the Father through Christ?

The family tree of Jesus Christ, David’s son, Abraham’s son:

2-6 Abraham had Isaac,
Isaac had Jacob,
Jacob had Judah and his brothers,
 Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar),
Perez had Hezron,
Hezron had Aram,
 Aram had Amminadab,
 Amminadab had Nahshon,
 Nahshon had Salmon,
Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab),
Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother),
Obed had Jesse,
Jesse had David,
and David became king.

6-11 David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife was the mother),
Solomon had Rehoboam,
 Rehoboam had Abijah,
 Abijah had Asa,
Asa had Jehoshaphat,
 Jehoshaphat had Joram,
 Joram had Uzziah,
Uzziah had Jotham,
Jotham had Ahaz,
Ahaz had Hezekiah,
Hezekiah had Manasseh,
Manasseh had Amon,
Amon had Josiah,
 Josiah had Jehoiachin and his brothers,
 and then the people were taken into the Babylonian exile.

12-16 When the Babylonian exile ended,

Jeconiah had Shealtiel,
 Shealtiel had Zerubbabel,
 Zerubbabel had Abiud,
 Abiud had Eliakim,
 Eliakim had Azor,
Azor had Zadok,
 Zadok had Achim,
 Achim had Eliud,
 Eliud had Eleazar,
 Eleazar had Matthan,
 Matthan had Jacob,
Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,
the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,
 the Jesus who was called Christ.

17 There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David,
another fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile,
and yet another fourteen from the Babylonian exile to Christ.

Jesus’ Pedigree

Jesus, I understand a little better your pedigree. I sometimes boast that I may contain some ‘blue blood’ as we call it. I think it makes me more important because the world appreciates status. However, my pedigree is nothing compared to yours. In fact it makes mine look petty. It shows all my posturing as self-interested nonsense that takes the focus off of where it should be. No-one had your heritage. You were born of God the Father and you were of a conjunction of priestly and kingly lines as far as your earthly parents go. Which makes me wonder whether we should think of Mary as your mother in the same biological way as we think of our own mothers. I have tended to think of Mary as a detached participant in the salvation story. I have also just this moment thought clearly of Joseph’s role as your adoptive father. I balk if someone refers to my adoptive children and then asks after their real father. In a sense, Mary and Joseph were your real parents. They changed soiled baby clothes when you pooped yourself. They rocked you to sleep at night. How could you, with all that status, allow Joseph and Mary to do that? Admittedly, you wouldn’t have known much when they were holding you, but in Heaven before you came down, you must have seen how it all would play out. There is such dependency in allowing a carpenter from Nazareth and his wife to rock you to sleep. There was trust. In a sense, you had faith in them. It was a faith made secure in the utter surety of the outcome, a bit like our faith in you.

Just like my son will trace his line through the Earl of Powys, so you could trace your line through the kings. When you were born there was a mark on you as someone special: A hidden king.

Jesus, I want to know you as a humble king. The kind who commands all respect and authority, but allows someone else to change his diaper.

Questions

1. What kind of men were the ancestors of Jesus?
2. What kind of women were included?
3. What kind of pedigree does Jesus have?
4. How do you react to people with grand heritage?
5. How does Jesus’ earthly heritage affect your relationship with him?