Gracious Jesus -1: Presenting the KingChikamu

Jesus Begins His Ministry

After around 30 years of being an obedient son and loyal member of the synagogue, Jesus begins His public ministry. 

The Greek word for ministry is “diakonia,” meaning “service.” 

Jesus starts and finishes His ministry at Galilee. Galilee was the most despised area in Israel. It contained a large mixture of Gentiles and was a politically unstable region at the time. Galileans were considered unlearned, ignorant, troublemakers, etc.

Yet, it is here that Jesus makes His ministry base.

Before being introduced to Jesus, Nathaniel said, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Nazareth had huge limestone quarries. The population were in the construction business but when the business went down, they turned to garbage collection. At Jesus’ time an estimated 70 percent, according to historians, were garbage collectors. Jesus’ father, Joseph, was in the construction business. 

As Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth reading the scripture, as He often did, He chose the passage in Isaiah describing His purpose and ministry.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and recovering of sight to the blind,

    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” (Luke 4:18,19)

When Jesus refers to “the poor” –it normally has a spiritual connotation. The “poor in spirit” are those who recognize their need for Jesus.  Similarly, there are also spiritual captives, blind and oppressed. While He did physically restore them as well, He did it in order for people to realize His capacity to spiritually release and bless them.

The response of the Nazarenes after having the light of God with them for almost 30 years, is tragic. En masse they wanted to slaughter and throw Him over the cliff. Jesus moves on to Capernaum as His next ministry base.

As disciples of Jesus, we too have a ministry. Christ has given us different gifts to enable us to serve Him wherever we are. If we have difficult surroundings, so did Jesus.

Are we fulfilling our calling? Paul says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24)

“When we seek to glorify God in all we do, all we do becomes ministry.”