The Outsiders | Starting Something Important

Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said:

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light, and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.

From that time Jesus began to announce, "Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!" 

Matthew 4:12-17 (Common English Bible)

When you're starting something important, you don't pick just anywhere. You pick a place that already matters. If you're launching a tech startup, you go to Silicon Valley. If you're opening a new restaurant, you choose the busiest part of town. If you're starting a church, you look for a growing suburb or a thriving urban neighborhood. Because important things are supposed to start in important places. 

This logic isn't just practical. It's strategic. You go where the people are. You go where the resources are. You go where the infrastructure exists to support what you're trying to build. You maximize your chances of success by starting in the center, not the margins.

And this logic would’ve been just as true in first-century Israel as it is today. So when Jesus was getting ready to begin his earthly ministry, there was really only one place to start: Jerusalem.

Because Jerusalem wasn't just another city. It was the center of everything that mattered to the people of Israel. The Temple was there. And the Temple was the place where God's presence dwelt among his people, where sacrifices were offered, where priests served. Jerusalem was also where Israel's greatest king, King David, ruled. It was the place prophets had been talking about for generations. It was where the religious establishment gathered. It was where pilgrims came from all over the known world during major festivals.

If you wanted to reach people with your message, if you wanted to start a movement that would change the world, Jerusalem was the obvious choice. It had the people, the resources, the infrastructure, the significance. It had everything you needed for a successful launch.

So when Jesus was ready to begin his earthly ministry, everyone would have expected him to start in Jerusalem. That's where God was. That's where the people were. That's where history was made. Starting anywhere else would have been foolish.

So, of course, Jesus starts his ministry somewhere else. When it was time to start his ministry, Jesus began in Galilee.

And Galilee wasn't just a different place. It was the wrong place. It was rural and working-class. It was religiously suspect, "Galilee of the Gentiles," Matthew calls it, a place where Jews and Gentiles lived side by side. It was looked down on by people in Jerusalem. It was about as far from the center as you could get and still be in Israel.

Starting a movement in Galilee made no sense according to ordinary logic. It was like starting a tech company in a small town nobody's heard of instead of Silicon Valley. It was like opening a restaurant in a strip mall instead of downtown. It was strategically wrong.

But Matthew tells us this wasn't a mistake. This was the fulfillment of prophecy. Isaiah had said that the people living in darkness would see a great light. And Matthew is showing us that God planned all along to start in the margins, not the center. God planned all along to begin in the place nobody expected.

And this reveals something fundamental about who God is and how God works. We expect God to show up in our Jerusalems – in the big churches, the influential ministries, the places that look successful and important. We expect God to work through people who have credentials and platforms. We expect God to bless what already looks blessed.

But God shows up where we least expect. God shows up where we least expect.

This week, we're going to explore what it means that God started Jesus' ministry in Galilee instead of Jerusalem. We're going to examine why we're so convinced God should work in the center when God keeps showing up at the margins. And we're going to be challenged to pay attention to where God is actually working instead of where we expect God to be. Because if Jesus started his ministry in Galilee, then that's where God is still working today. 

Prayer:

God, we expect you to work in the center, in the places that matter, in the ways that make sense to us. But you chose Galilee over Jerusalem. You chose the margins over the center. You chose the unexpected over the obvious. Help us pay attention to where you're actually working instead of where we think you should be. Open our eyes to see you in the places we've been overlooking. And help us trust that your logic is better than ours, even when it doesn't make sense to us. Amen.