KING AND LORD OF WHOM

 The first few chapters of Matthew are familiar to most people. Should I gloss over things that almost everybody already knows, or should I dig deeper? Who cares that the Jew Jesus was a Galilean? Who cares that Syrians admired His works? Why are those things prophesied long ago and written about much later? Let is pursue those things.

Today the commentary begins with the healing from Matthew chapter four. Jesus, had said, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17) to the people, not just the Jews but to the Galileans.

Repentance is “to change one’s mind” (Strong 1890). The people had to do one specific thing; they were to change their minds. Is that a “work” that they must do? Let it be said that the thief on the cross during the crucifixion was bound and nailed to a “tree” so fast that he could not even move, but he was saved.

What did the thief on the cross do to be saved. He repented, “We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong” (Luke 23:41; NLT). The thief, “Dismus,” had only to think, I did wrong and deserve to die for it. He had a change of mind. He had rationalized his criminal activity but when confronted by death, he could have begged for mercy, but instead he admitted that he was a sinner.

As Paul would say, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Surely the thief was afraid to die; anyone would be. Perhaps as he dreaded to die, he looked forward to having the fear of death removed.

The thief could have justified himself (dikaioo) — thinking of himself as righteous, but, no, he thought of himself as unrighteous. It seems, therefore, that since he was saved to Paradise that day, that true repentance is the Way to salvation. It is a new way of thinking about your own values. The thief valued Jesus over himself… he gave up his flesh for the sake of Jesus, and like Abraham who would not have to give up his own flesh and blood, Dismus did that without any argument with the mob, Pontius Pilate, nor God.

He worked out his own salvation, not to save himself but to redeem the innocent man, Jesus.

“Work out” in the Greek is katergazomai, contrasting with ergon — hard physical work. Working out is easy work, now called “ergonomics.”

 The easiest work is done by thinking the job through. The thief knew his guilt and it would be vain (hard work for nothing) to talk his way innocent. He confessed that he was guilty as charged but that Jesus was innocent.

Jesus was crucified for two reasons: (1) He was next in line to be King of the Jews, but abdicated His throne on Earth, indicating that His Kingdom was not of this world, and (2) He admitted that He is the very Image of God, as the “Son of God.” They thought that He was a crazed lunatic for the latter, but worried that He might claim the throne of Judea.

They all knew better, Herod Antipas claimed Jesus as a fellow Galilean and thus He was called “Jesus of Nazareth” of Galilee. As such, Antipas was not worried about Jesus pursing the throne of Judea (Luke 23:6-7); it was not His territory under Caesar.

So, the first point to be made from Matthew chapter four is that repentance is on the Way to salvation, and that thought is the most ergonomically efficient, requiring no physical work at all! (That is the reason that Paul baptized few but persuaded many.)

The second point is that Jesus was a Galilean (Mat 4:15). The Judean kingship was an ethnarchy because it was an area of ethnic Jews. Matthew wrote about that as a fulfillment of prophecy, that Jesus would be from Galilee.

That was significant or it would not have been in earlier or the New Testament scripture.

Jesus of Nazareth was from Lower Galilee. From the time of Isaiah, Galilee was a gentile nation, and not Jewish at all. They worshipped as Jews and thought of themselves as Jewish, but the people of that district were gentiles, not Jewish but outsiders. Galilee was populated by Itruean converts from outside the district during the Hellenistic era. Many of the people there were pagan warriors who were forcibly converted to Judaism, according to Josephus.

Nobody knows the genealogy of the Galileans at all. They could have been from anywhere and everywhere, but amongst them lived many Jews, and the Galileans were Jews, not by genealogy, but by coercion.

That Jesus was of Nazareth was a Galilean has some important implications. He was not just King of the Jews, as the “Son of David,” but King of Galilee in the sense that He was King of Gentiles and Jews. He was not just a contender for the Judean Throne but Herod Antipas’s throne as well, of which Antipas seemed well aware because Jesus was a citizen of his district.

Point two is that Jesus is not just “King of the Jews” as Pilate noted with the sign placed above His head, but “King of the Gentiles” as well. Jesus preached first to the Gentiles, and only secondly to the Jews, as Paul would learn was more effective.

“His fame went throughout all Syria.” Syria was all the districts combined and was the Roman Colony in the Holy Land. It consisted of all the small kingdoms whose kings took the right hand of friendship with each other and with Caesar.

The third point is that Jesus was King of Syria as well. Syria at that time was almost, excepting small areas, was the Kingdom of David whose area was about the same limits. So, Jesus was heir to the Kingdom of David which included all of Syria, but he denied that kingdom for the realm not of this world (John 18:36).

Now, consider the Book of Jasher, mentioned several times in the Bible. Abraham was a king without land. He was promised the Promise Land, but he received no territory. He lived in the land of Canaan as king. With that said, Abraham’s kingdom was not of this world but in another realm and the “Promised Land” was not terrestrial but celestial.

So, why the lineage of Abraham in Matthew chapter one? Jesus was of the lineage of Abraham. He was the “Son of Abraham” as well as the “Son of David,” not in the sense of father/son, but of the gens (genetic family) of both Abraham and David. Jesus was heir to the kingdom of Abraham as well as David. They occupied the same “space,” but one kingdom was in the world and the other not of this world.

That is not to say that the world is “Paradise” at all but that there is an unseen kingdom in another realm whose entryway is by Jesus — the “Pathway” and the “Gate” (Mat 7:14).

With that said, “Abraham’s Bosom,” of Luke chapter sixteen is the Kingdom of Abraham that awaited his gen (the Promise of the Abrahamic Covenant.) Jesus was heir to the Paradisical throne of Abraham whose territory is Abraham’s Bosom… where he rests.

Syria was representative of that land during the Roman era as well as the Greek times. The Kingdom of Jesus was not Syria where Caesar was King of kings, but in the Heavenly Paradise where He is the “Caesar” as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16).

Albeit Caesar was King of kings over Syria, he was also Lord of lords as Pontificus Maximus over the Roman Empire. He claimed to be God in the flesh as well as King of kings. As Pontificus Maximus, Caesar claimed to be “Lord of lords.” Jesus recognized Caesar’s authority on Earth but claimed the same titles in His own realm.

The last point is that all things are in scripture for a purpose and should not be glossed over. That Jesus was a Galilean implies many things. The genealogy of chapter one does as well. They all identify Jesus to be who He claimed to be and who He claimed not to be. He did not come to be King of the Jews but King of All! The question is, Is He your Lord and King?

(picture credit; Bang Blogs)