The Gospel Triangle - July 2, 2014

The Sea of Galilee is a beautiful place. Today we explored the northern edge of it. This area – comprising the towns of Magdala, Capernaum, and Bethsaida – is called the “gospel triangle” because this region is where the gospels record Jesus doing most of his ministry. I had not paid much attention to the names of towns in scripture before, never taking time to look them up on a map. Even if I had, I likely would not have understood the significance of their locations. This trip has changed that.

At the time of Jesus, the area around the Sea of Galilee was divided into political districts: Galilee (100% Jewish), Decapolis (100% Gentile), and Gaulanitis (50/50% mix of Jew and Gentile). Jesus was from Nazareth, a fairly isolated town a good distance west of the Sea of Galilee. But, when he began his ministry, he based himself in Capernaum right on the coast within easy access to diverse peoples. If he had remained in Nazareth, or if he had made Jerusalem his base, he would have been much more isolated and limited, ministering to Jews only. But, he came to be the light of the world, not Israel alone.

While I knew that Jesus interacted with Gentiles in the Gospels and healed them, I thought that it was only because they sought him out, not because he made himself available to them. In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus begging for healing for her daughter. When his disciples urge him to send her away, he responds that he was sent only to the “lost sheep of Israel.” Yet, he had just left 100% Jewish Galilee and traveled to Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast filled with Gentiles. Why would he go there instead of remaining in Israel?

Luke records a story in chapter 8 of Jesus traveling by boat across the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes in the Decapolis (100% Gentile). Here he encounters a demon-possessed man wandering in the hills. After sending the demons into a herd of pigs which rushes off and drowns in the Sea, the man begs Jesus to let him go with him back to Galilee but Jesus tells him no, to go back to his hometown and tell others what God has done for him.

As I noted in my journal a few days ago, Jesus is clearly opening the kingdom to people outside the nation of Israel. He is coming to fulfill the purpose which Israel failed to do. Yahweh chose Israel to be the ones who would tell others about the life available through him. Not only did they fail to tell others, they also failed to appropriate the full life God wanted to give them by giving themselves over to false gods.

Parts of the church today have a similar problem. We are so busy trying to decide who is “in” and who is “out” that we fail to make ourselves available to others as Jesus did, putting ourselves in places where we can minister to those who need the good news. We fight amongst ourselves about points of doctrine and fear looking like the “unbelievers” so much that we avoid being around them. Jesus was not afraid. He went where he was needed, to the lost sheep of the world.