Year in the Bible Week 40
The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Caliari (also called Paolo Veronese), 1563
Luke 3:23 says: “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry.”
This is such an innocuous way to announce the most significant event in the history of the world.
Imagine what it must’ve been like to walk with him, to hear great wisdom and see life-transforming miracles! How could there be any doubt that he was the Messiah? This week we read of his encounters with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, and he faces rejection in his hometown of Nazareth. The disciples are called, and he begins to teach throughout Galilee. You may have noticed that we have to skip around in the gospels to line everything up chronologically. This week in particular we read about a passage from chapter one of Mark that doesn’t happen until chapter eight of Matthew. They are presented together for our purposes, and then Matthew’s gospel resumes at chapter 4.
Jesus and the disciples moved around quite a lot, and on a travel day we could expect that they would have walked about twenty miles. It was easy for him to walk and teach his way down to Jerusalem, then go back north. The map below gives a great picture of the journeys involved, if you click on it you get to a rather comprehensive treatment of his early, middle, and late travels on the Jehova’s Witnesses website. Remember that all of Israel is about the size of New Jersey.
The companion artwork this week is the largest painting in the Louvre, and it hangs directly across from the Mona Lisa. The painting is massive, over 22 feet high and 32 feet long, and it was originally commissioned to hang in the dining hall at a monastery in Venice. The painting’s has an amazing history. Napoleon’s forces ripped it down when they conquered Italy, and they brought it to Paris. Many of the world’s masterpieces taken in conquest have been repatriated by now, but the French made a deal to keep the painting in its honored place.
Next week Jesus gets even more popular, the Pharisees get angrier, and the Lord continues to say revolutionary things. He feeds thousands, does even more miracles, and starts to teach in parables more and more. Those who have ears to hear will understand, while those whose hearts are hardened will be thwarted. Lord, give me ears to hear you!