Redemption 4 – Fruitless Ministry

Capernaum.

It means Village of Comfort.

A logical place for an Exhorter to have his base.

Jesus poured into Capernaum, doing endless teaching and more miracles there than in all the rest of Israel put together, so far as we can tell.

Net result:  Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

Woe to you, Korazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?  No, you will go down to the depths.  If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.  But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Matthew 11:20ff NIV

Pretty bad when you pour yourself into a community with signs and wonders and teaching, and in the end they are cursed with judgment and called worse than Sodom.

Not the highest compliment.

So . . . how did Jesus experience redemption for three years of massively fruitless ministry?

My view is that He was “in the gym” in Capernaum.

Isaiah said, In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan — The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:1ff NIV

He went there deliberately.  With all of Israel to choose from, He deliberately, knowingly chose Capernaum.  The land of the shadow of death.

I believe He choose to live and work long periods of time under that evil spirit as preparation for the time on the cross.  If we understand the Shadow of Death correctly, it is what came between Jesus and the Father for those three hours on the cross.

The initial invasion of the Shadow of Death, between Jesus and Father was so traumatic as to wrench a brutal cry of anguish from Jesus.  Then there was deep silence as He wrestled with the most acute pain He would ever know – far more than the cross itself.

In the end, He won.  The Shadow of Death fled with a broken arm and the reconciliation between Jesus and Father was so complete, that shortly thereafter Jesus said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

My opinion: He could not have done that without being in the gym, over and over again, in Capernaum.

His monumental victory on the cross, was rooted in the spiritual authority He accrued in Capernaum.

Was the ministry there a failure?

Yep.  They should have responded very differently, and they will pay the high price for having the Son of God in their midst, and using Him as a commodity, not recognizing Him as the Messiah of Israel.

But, that bitter disappointment was redeemed on the cross, when the painful time in the gym, earning authority, changed history for eternity.

THAT story line is quite familiar to me.  So often, God has sent me somewhere to do something, and I expected fruit.  And the fruit did not come.  I doubled down.  And still no fruit.  So I blamed myself, and condemned “them” and generally acted stupidly.

All the time, God was taking me to the gym with an eye on a future event I knew nothing about.

But when I arrived there, being startled by the assignment, and discovering I DID have the needed authority, I looked back to see what I had accidentally done right, somewhere.

And so often, I end up in places of broken dreams and barren work.  It was THERE that Jesus took me to the gym, when I thought I was on a farm.

No fruit.

Lots of authority.

Just like the Master.

Copyright by Arthur Burk
December 2021

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