Jesus spoke of none of these things, however, but faced the crowd with His back to the edge of the cliff. Any one of them could have thrust Him over it, but no man moved as He started walking toward the now silent mob. Asked what it was in His manner that cowed them, no one of those facing Him could have said. But as He moved toward them, they drew back and, like guilty children caught in an act of mischief, made a clear way for Him through their midst. Nor did any man so much as reach out to touch Him when He walked past them and started down the path leading to the town and His own house. Only when He had disappeared, did they slink away, silent, to their homes.
Jesus left the next day for Capernaum. Almost as if the rejection by His fellow townsmen were a pattern for the future, He was never again to know any place as a real home.
Chapter 12
Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.
Mark 1:17
But fruitful vines and the fat olives’ freight,
And harvests heavy with their fruitful weight,
Adorn our fields: And on the cheerful green,
The grazing flocks and lowing herds are seen. . . .
Perpetual spring our happy climate sees,
Twice breed the cattle and twice bear the trees.
So wrote a Roman poet in praise of his beloved homeland, but almost he might have been writing of the lovely region around the Sea of Galilee, and especially of the Plain of Gennesaret near where the Jordan, icy cold and bluish in color, plunged into the harp-shaped surface of the lake.
Capernaum lay almost at the edge of the plain, and here Jesus began a new phase of the mission He had been allowed to glimpse on the high peak in Judea, where He had been tempted to proclaim Himself king over all the world. In Nazareth a few days before, He had announced Himself as the Messiah and had been rejected. Here in the teeming cities of the lake region He could hope to be better received, but for a while He made no further claims to divinity.
The Galileans were a many-sided people composed of diverse types and nationalities. In the cities of the lake one might meet in the short space of an hour representatives from at least half the countries of the empire. Jews from the strong peasant stock of the region, almost militantly devout, yielded to no one. Pharisees and scribes from Judea walked the streets, their heads held high in contempt for the often defiled am ha-arets or common people, their tasseled robes much in evidence and phylacteries, small boxes containing portions of the holy writings, prominently worn upon their foreheads and wrists. Romans in togas and military trappings rubbed elbows with tall Nabateans from the east in flowing robes, hooded men with dark skins who kept proudly aloof. Swarthy Syrians from Antioch and the cities to the north argued with fat merchants from Damascus. Lean Phoenician sailors from the seacoast discussed the prices of precious stones and spices with Persians from the lands to the east. A giant Nubian, the slave of a Roman officer, stood head and shoulders above the crowd, his ebony-black skin shining in the always bright sunlight. Merchants, artisans, caravan drivers, traders—men of every occupation and ancestry rubbed elbows with beggars and with women whose bright garments and jingling ornaments proclaimed their profession. In fact, the small arc where the Way of the Sea, the Via Maris of the Romans, followed the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee before bearing westward again, was truly a crossroads of the world, joining the ancient east of the Persians to the brawling west of the Romans, the sophistication of Egypt in the south to the peasant simplicity of the Jews from the Galilean villages among the hills to the north.
Near the eastern boundary of Galilee, separating it from the domain ruled over by the tetrarch Philip, the mountainous backbone of land that rose steadily as one traveled eastward from the Great Sea, dropped suddenly in the form of a great divide at the bottom of which flowed the River Jordan. Arising on the western side of Mount Hermon, the Jordan flowed for only a short distance at a level above that of the Great Sea to the west. Dropping steadily in the deep rift at Lake Huleh, sometimes called Lake Semechonitis, where it first spread out for a short distance, the river was only about the height of a tall man above the level of the Mare Nostrum, as the Romans called the Great Sea. South of Lake Huleh the river again descended to plunge into the Sea of Galilee, more recently renamed by Herod Antipas the Lake of Tiberias in honor both of his new city located upon its western shore and the Emperor Tiberius in Rome. Here the lake bed was more than six hundred feet beneath sea level.
On the eastern side of the lake the hills rose to a high plateau upon which stood several Greek cities belonging to the Decapolis. Roman villas lined a part of this eastern shore, with terraced gardens descending the hillsides and marble stairways leading down to the water where sumptuous pleasure barges awaited their owners. Because of the hills surrounding the lake, the winds often spilled down upon it suddenly, setting up storms which made the trade of the fisherman a hazardous one.
A number of cities surrounded the Sea of Galilee. Located at its extreme northern tip was Bethsaida, often called “Fish Town.” Built by the tetrarch Philip and also named Julias to curry favor with the Romans, it was located a short distance from where the Jordan entered the lake. A populous center, Bethsaida was the seat of Philip’s court during most of the year. A group of springs in the hills behind it poured their water through a Roman aqueduct to supply the city, the overflow cascading into the lake. Striking the cold stream of the Jordan from the north as it plunged into the lake, this current set up a swirling motion and, perhaps because of the sharp change in water temperature at this point, fish in huge numbers frequented the area. A traveler on the Via Maris could easily see them leaping in great shoals and often the water seemed almost alive.
A short distance westward from Bethsaida was the customs house marking the boundary between the domain of Philip and Herod Antipas. Beyond this lay the beautiful and lush Plain of Gennesaret and the bustling city of Capernaum, where the great caravan road from Damascus bore westward away from the lake to the seacoast.
Southward from Capernaum along the shore lay Magdala and a little beyond it Herod’s magnificent new city of Tiberias. Shunned at first by devout Jews because it had reputedly been built on the site of an old cemetery, Tiberias was now a busy government center. A few miles south of it another group of springs, hot and heavily mineraled, burst from the rocky hillside. Here the sick, particularly those with inflamed or stiffened joints, came to bathe.
All along the western shore of the lake the pungent odor of drying fish rose from sheds built at the water’s edge. Many women worked in the sheds, splitting, cleaning, and drying fish caught by the men who plied the boats on the lake or fished along the shore. The greatest single business in all the lake region, the drying of fish gave Galilee a product highly prized as far away even as Jerusalem.
It was in this busy, often turbulent region that Jesus began to preach.
II
Accustomed to the hills of southern Galilee from whose peaks He could watch the sun dip into the Great Sea beyond Mount Carmel, Jesus found the depression between the hills where the lovely, harp-shaped Sea of Galilee lay an entirely different world. Alternately storm-tossed and glassy smooth, the lake dominated the scene as it dominated the lives of the people around it. Pelicans dropped like plummets from clear skies to seize unwary fish. Graceful black cormorants stalked in the shadows, now and then stabbing their beaks into the water to seize their prey. Boats of every size with sails of every color floated on the water, while the occupants busied themselves fishing.
Jesus could not help missing the olive groves of the Nazareth region, the locust-bean trees, and the beauty of the iris. But here among the jagged piles of black volcanic rocks that sequestered small grassy areas, thistle, wild fennel, and yellow chrysanthemums grew. And beside the brooks that came tumbling down from the rocky hillsides stood heavy thickets of oleander and chaste trees.
On the Plain of Gennesaret, however, pal
ms, figs, walnuts, olives, vines heavy with grapes, citrons, and all manner of delicate fruits and vegetables flourished. Grain, stalks were bowed almost to the ground at harvest time, and even during winter the shores were green and in spring roses could be picked on every hillside. For three of the four seasons the climate was pleasant and mild, never cold as in the higher elevations of northern Galilee. Only in summer, when the rays of the sun poured down into the cup in which the lake lay and no breeze swept the area, was the climate in the least oppressive. Then all who could retired to the hillsides for a season.
One of the busiest centers along the lakeshore, Capernaum possessed the largest synagogue in that region, built for the people by a respected Roman centurion named Paulos who lived there. It was here that Jesus began to teach on the Sabbath, and, because the people were more tolerant in their thinking than the villagers of Nazareth, He immediately began to excite comment.
Isaiah had foretold the coming of the Messiah to this land in one of the most beautiful passages among his often lyrical writings:
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali . . .
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
Jesus’ coming to Galilee was in every sense a fulfillment of this prophecy, especially during the first months of His ministry. When not teaching during the Sabbath and weekday services in the synagogue, He went about the city and along the surrounding shoreline, speaking to any who would listen. His favorite spot soon came to be a small cove along the shore north of Capernaum, beside the road leading to Bethsaida-Julias. Here He could be heard, not only by the crowds who followed Him but by the fishermen who waded in the shallows near the shore with their robes tucked up while with skillful movements they threw out the broad circular nets used for shallow-water fishing.
A larger net was used by the boats which usually fished in pairs at night. Ordinarily one or more nets were spread out by two boats and then dragged together so that the trapped fish could be hauled into the boats along with the nets. Still other fishermen worked along the shore using hooks of iron fastened to long cords which they tossed out into deeper water. The catch was either put into a pouch hanging from the waist, or strung on a cord attached to the fisherman’s foot.
One day when Jesus walked along the shore as was His custom, an unusually large group of people followed Him. In their eagerness to hear, they spilled over the confines of the small natural amphitheater and threatened to push Him into the shallows of the lake. Simon Peter and Andrew, with James and John, the sons of Zebedee who were their fishing companions, had been fishing all night but had caught nothing. Now they had brought their boats into the shallows and were standing in the water washing out the nets before spreading them on the shore to dry. While they worked, they listened to Jesus, as the fishermen often did when He taught on the shore of the lake.
The press of the crowd becoming too great, Jesus stepped into Simon’s boat and asked him to pull out a little way from the shore. From this vantage point He could still be heard, for the walls of the cove were almost like an amphitheater. Sitting there in the gently rolling boat, He spoke to the crowd, teaching them the same lessons of tolerance, understanding, and love for each other that He had taught the children of Nazareth. To these He added the stirring message He had brought to the synagogue in His home city, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and that in order to prepare themselves for a place in it, people should repent of their sins. But He did not stress here, as He had in Nazareth, His own identity as the Messiah.
When Jesus had finished teaching, He turned to thank Simon Peter who had been holding the boat motionless with an oar pressed against the bottom. Peter was tired; all night long he had cast out and drawn in the heavy nets, weighted at the edges to make them sink and trap the fish, with but little result. His discouragement at having worked fruitlessly through the night showed in his face, and Jesus was moved by it.
“Launch out into deep water,” He said, “and let down your nets for a catch.”
Peter hesitated. “Master,” he protested, “we have toiled all night and caught nothing.”
Jesus did not answer but continued to look at him levelly, almost as if He were testing him. The two had not been together much since they had journeyed back to Galilee from Bethabara and had attended the wedding feast at Cana. Some of Peter’s enthusiasm for following Jesus may even have waned, especially after Cana, for nothing else of a startling nature had happened and he had heard how Jesus’ own people at Nazareth had rejected Him.
Whatever doubts Simon Peter felt, however, they evaporated now before the quiet look in Jesus’ eyes. “Nevertheless at Your word,” he said, “I will let down the net.”
Andrew brought the nets, which had been drying in the sun, and the two brothers began to row the boat out upon the lake. Fishing with boats was almost always carried on at night, and since it was already well into the day, they could not have much hope of a catch. Notwithstanding, they let their nets down into the water as Jesus directed, paying them out in the circular pattern used to trap the fish.
Though to a master fisherman like Simon Peter, it might have seemed a foolish waste of time, it did not take long for him to realize that something unusual was happening. The circle of water encompassed within the confines of the net suddenly began to boil with fish, and when the two men tried to draw in the net, the fibers of the cords started to part under the weight of their catch.
James and John, with their father Zebedee, were still in the shallows with the other boat. When Peter signaled them to come and help pull the net, they got into the boat and rowed hurriedly out to where the two fishermen were struggling desperately to save both the net and their tremendous catch.
Even with five men working and two boats, the catch was so large that both boats were soon in danger of sinking. Very much afraid now, Peter prostrated himself in the boat at Jesus’ feet.
“Depart from me, O Lord,” he begged, “for I am a sinful man!”
Jesus merely smiled and with a gesture that took in not only Simon and Andrew in the boat with Him but James and John in the other boat, said quietly, “Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Their apprehension calmed, the men worked together to bring in the catch. Along the shore the strange phenomenon of a net filled in the daytime to bursting had already begun to attract attention. When the boats finally reached the shore and the fishing establishment of Zebedee, a great crowd had gathered, but the two pairs of brothers paused only to help deliver the catch to the fishhouse.
This done, they left boats and nets and followed Jesus.
III
Although Capernaum had never been known for the piety of its inhabitants, being second only perhaps to Magdala in wickedness, the manner of Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue there, as well as His doctrine that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, drew considerable attention. He preached now with an almost militant authority, as if He were giving the Law Himself rather than merely interpreting it as the scribes did.
The Sabbath after the four fishermen gave up their work to become His disciples, Jesus entered the synagogue with them. When the time came to speak, He rose and began to teach once again. This time, however, there was an interruption. Among those in the synagogue was a man so afflicted in mind it appeared that two people inhabited his body, one good and one evil. This type of illness was not at all uncommon, and its victims were generally believed to be possessed by a devil or an evil spirit.
While Jesus was speaking, the sick man stood up and cried out loudly, “What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” A s
udden silence fell upon the congregation, but before any further commotion could arise, Jesus said quietly, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”
Immediately the sick man fell down upon the floor in a convulsion, a not unusual thing in such cases. This time, however, there was a difference; when the man’s spasm was over, he seemed to have lost his illness entirely, and went out of the synagogue praising God for the miracle that had made him whole.
Jesus and His disciples left for Peter’s house as soon as the Sabbath service was ended, but word of the miraculous cure of the demoniac was already racing through the city. Soon the sick and afflicted began to converge upon Peter’s house from all parts of Capernaum, stumbling or crawling through the streets, while those unable to walk implored friends and relatives to bear them to the healer.
Before nightfall a large crowd had gathered around the small house, filling the courtyard where Jesus was performing His miracles of healing. To all who sought Him, including Peter’s mother-in-law, whose fever He healed, Jesus gave Himself unstintingly. But when some of the sick insisted on naming Him the Christ, He rebuked them gently and told them not to speak.
Chapter 13
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
Luke 5:32
The household of Simon Peter was still asleep when Jesus rose before dawn and left the house. Threading His way along deserted streets, He came to the outskirts of the city and began to climb the rocky hillside, following a path that terminated in a small isolated plateau. On the hilltop the air was fresh and clean as it had been among the hills of Nazareth, and filled with the fragrance of flowers blooming in the meadow. As dawn began to dispel the mists shrouding the narrow lowland along both sides of the Jordan, He knelt to pray.
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 13