Why is it so important to the author of Matthew’s Gospel that we know what happened in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali?
Gospel Reading: Matthew 4:12-23
For Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011: Year A - Epiphany 3
Let’s get started!
It is Gospel go time. After six weeks of looking forward to, and then doting on the baby Jesus (however briefly), half of which were spent being reassured that John the Baptist was not the Messiah, we can finally get on with it. John has been arrested and we can put him away until the summer solstice (his feast day, and you don’t want to miss out on celebrating the feast day of a man whose head was served on a platter at a feast).
This is the introduction, the declaration, the thesis statement, the beginning of what we are all about. This is a full portion of scripture this week. There is geography, quotes from Isaiah, the calling of disciples and the inaugural proclamation of the Good News. This is one of those weeks where a preacher sort of has to just pick one.
I’ll have “Geography” for $50, please.
The land of Zebulun and Naphtali - Zebulun and Naphtali!? Who are these guys? They sound like a Jethro Tull album and a bar of hippie soap or maybe a hillbilly Italian law firm (apologies to classic rock aficionados and those who self-identify as hippies, hillbillies or Italian lawyers). Zebulun and Naphtali are two of the twelve tribes of Israel. They are sons number two and six of Jacobs. Their mothers are Leah and Bilhah respectively.
But why does the proclamation of the Kingdom of God start in the territories granted to these two centuries earlier? Zebulun and Naphtali? They are to the tribes of Israel what Thaddeus and Bartholomew are to the disciples. Why does the incarnation of the word of God not start in Jerusalem, but instead begins out in the Gentile countryside?
The Text Pushes Back
The text appears to answer this question of course, but really only pushes it back.
He left Nazareth and made his home in... Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”
In all four gospels Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, but only in Matthew is the geographical location identified as the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. Only in Matthew is this Isaiah quote included.
The Hardest Question
Why is it so important to the author of Matthew’s Gospel that we know what happened in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
