What is the Road to Capernaum?
Here's a brief explanation of the title of this blog. The words that I've been carrying with me a lot this year have been the words "in process". I'd like to think that if we're all being honest, we're all in-process in some way. Yet we exist in a world that is often focused on destinations. I recently graduated from college last year and that's one destination some of us may be working towards. I know I've told myself before that "if I just get ______ or just had ______", I'd be set and life would be much more straightforward. And there might be some who have been satisfied to the utmost upon reaching their goals. I think what I can say is that all the destinations I've reached in my short life so far looked so much better before I got there, came with their own cadre of complications and nuances, and were only valued appropriately and seen truly once I was five miles down the road. And when I say they looked much better before I got there, I mean that dissatisfaction, anxiety, and tension stuck around despite the fact that some unnamed level of satisfaction or freedom was promised upon my arrival. I think that's what this blog is focused on. This space will hopefully...be spacious. It'll be more about questions than answers, more being on the way than being "there", and hopefully more about finding truth and satisfaction in Jesus than in lofty Christian language that conceptualizes and disembodies Jesus. I wanted to use this image of a road because we are on a journey in this life. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that there is much more to life than just life itself but I also believe living this life in a certain way is incredibly important and powerful. Hence, the inclusion of the road concept in the name. Lastly, I also want to highlight and wrestle with the voices of those who have been on this journey for much longer. I can quite confidently say that none of my thoughts are original and that I'm not a pioneer when it comes to following Jesus.
Secondly, the Capernaum part. There are certainly other famous roads named in the Bible (the Road to Emmaus1 and the Road to Damascus2 to name a few) and the Road to Capernaum isn't an explicitly stated phrase but we'll work with it. Capernaum was an ancient city located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee (known today as Lake Tiberias) in Galilee, a region in Israel. In the Bible3, there's a story about Jesus walking with his disciples to Capernaum. Along the way, his disciples get into a debate about who amongst them is the greatest disciple. As a huge sports fan, the parallels here are uncanny. Greatness is a hotly debated subject across all sports and "Who is the greatest?" never fails to be a divisive question on any comment thread. And what do we see in this Bible story? There's a pseudo-GOAT (Greatest of All Time) debate in the Bible! And what's so powerful about this passage is that Jesus flips the disciples' notion of greatness on its head. Instead of affirming their conversation, Jesus tells and shows them what true greatness is. He first gives them a visual demonstration. He takes a child, someone with low social capital back in Jesus' day, and places the child in the middle of the disciples. In doing this, he centers the marginalized which is something I had glossed over when I've read this story before. He then goes further by holding the child in his arms, seemingly identifying with and embracing the marginalized party (again, I had never really given much thought to Jesus' actions here). His words support these actions. He tells his disciples that his definition of greatness is predicated upon humble service to others. And to receive and love Jesus is equated with receiving and treating children with dignity, respect, and love. There is more to learn from and unpack with this story but this is where we'll start, on the road to Capernaum.
Living consistently with this definition of greatness in mind flies in the face of how greatness is defined in the sports world and in the world in general. I hope that this blog can provide space for us (or mostly me lol) to wrestle with what Jesus' definition and example of greatness shows us about the kind of people his followers should strive to be.
One last thought: if we were to answer the question, "What is life about?", what would we say? If we let our lives respond for us, how would this question be answered? Jesus' followers believe that truth and life can only be found in Jesus.4 That is a bold claim, a claim that says Jesus, not life or anything in it, is truly life-giving.5 I also hope to explore this core belief and its implications for our lives more in this space.
Source(s):
- 1 Bible Reference: Luke 24:13-35
- 2 Bible Ref: Acts 9:1-3
- 3 Bible Ref: Mark 9:33-37
- 4 Bible Ref: John 14:6
- 5 Bible Ref: Philippians 1:21
- For more original insights into what I've mentioned, you can follow this link to a podcast called Faith Improvised that first got me thinking about what Jesus is exactly doing and saying in this Bible story in Mark 9:33-37.
I learned something new Jeremy! Thanks for sharing. It reminds me that we're always on the road to somewhere. For Jonah, he tried to run the opposite direction for God's calling (I often identify myself in this). Even though the disciples didn't really know what they were talking about, it's encouraging that Jesus was walking alongside them even as He was guiding them.
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