A sermon preached at the Metropolitan Community Church of New Haven, Connecticut, January 23, 2011
Scriptural reference: Matthew 4:12-23
Every year at this time, about four weeks after Christmas, we have finished telling the wondrous stories of Jesus’ birth, of the visit of the Wise Ones, of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. We remember that Jesus spent forty days in the desert, successfully resisted the temptations of the Evil One, and now we hear of how “Jesus begins his public ministry." This morning, I invite us to reflect on what Jesus does in this story, how the people around him would have received it, and what it says to us today.
I heard this story for decades without really paying attention to the seven words with which it begins: “Jesus heard that John had been arrested.” Somehow, what I remember having learned is that John the Baptist had to fade away so that Jesus could take center stage, as it were. Maybe that is an appropriate interpretation to teach children, but it misses a very important historical context. It would have been reasonable to assume that John’s arrest would be followed by John’s death. It would also have been reasonable to assume that if John had been arrested, Jesus could have been next. It finally dawned on me that a very human Jesus would have been very mortally frightened at John's arrest.
