Family First

The last couple of years I have been consistently reminded of this simple truth: take care of family before you take care of other people. Today was another day in which I was reminded of that. Our professor said, “If you’re doing the work of God and you’re neglecting your own family then you aren’t doing the work of God.” Jesus had a mom and brothers and at some point the Scriptures stop talking about Joseph and only mention them. Scholars assume it is because Joseph has died at this point and Mary is a widow. Jesus doesn’t start His ministry until He is thirty and in the meantime scholars assume He is working as a handyman, taking care of mom. I’ve never thought about that. How did Jesus take care of His family? He gets a bad rap for Matthew 12:48 when He says, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” It’s almost like Jesus doesn’t care when people tell Him His family is outside but at the cross we get a different picture. “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home (John 19:26-27).” He made sure that before He died He had someone taking care of His mother. I think it is safe to assume that when He does things like He did in Matthew 12:48 He is trying to make a point about the family of the Kingdom of God, but that John 19:26-27 show how Jesus really treated His mother. All too often I make the mistake of sacrificing my family on the altar of ministry and it shouldn’t be like this. That thought process all happened sitting within an old synagogue in the city of Capernaum, where Jesus lived after Nazareth (Matthew 4:13-16).

The synagogue in Capernaum is not amazing just because it is a synagogue, but because it is a synagogue in which Jesus Himself had been. Mark 1:21-22 explains that He taught in this synagogue and that people were astonished with what He was teaching. In fact, continue reading Mark 1 and you find out that Jesus healed a man with an unclean spirit there. Absolutely mind-boggling to be sitting on the ruins of a place Jesus was not only in but taught in. After that we climbed down the cliffs of Arbel, a place involved in the rebellion of the Jews and Herod killing all of them. It was more of a hiking trail than an incredible historical site for me. We climbed down some sheer rock wall using handles and ropes built into the side of the cliff. It was a blast to rock-climb like that. We also did it when we visited the aqueduct that Herod built to bring water to Caesarea.

Speaking of Caesarea, this old city was my favorite city of the trip. Right along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea this city built by Herod the Great out of nothing is gorgeous. Herod had a palace right on the edge of the water that must have been breathtaking. Acts 10 recounts the story of Peter being called by Cornelius, a centurion who feared God. Verses 9-16 explain a vision that Peter has about unclean animals but taking into consideration the surrounding context it does not seem to be talking about food to eat. After all, there is a group of Gentile soldiers coming to take Peter to Caesarea. These unclean people, these Gentiles, are obviously not Jews and God is telling Peter to not call unclean what God has made clean. God is talking about them! God is telling Peter that the Gospel is for all people, not just the Jews. It is a recurring theme among the Jews to believe that they are special and everyone else is terrible. God flips that on its head constantly by letting them know that really His plan all along was for the world, they were just the instruments. Herod’s palace in Caesarea is also where Paul spoke and was heard by multiple Roman officials in Acts 23:12-26:32. We were standing in the city where Peter and Paul preached. It was absolutely incredible to end the trip on this note. The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of learning and astonishment and thinking and wrestling with misconceptions and old ideas and new ideas. It has been a trip that will stick in my mind for the rest of my life and as I study my Bible and get ready to preach from it I will have the places we have visited in my mind’s eye constantly.