Ancient & Modern Day Prophets
A Sermon on Matthew 4:12-17
At the beginning of the Matthew 4:12-17, Jesus “got word” of something bad that happened - John’s arrest - and Matthew shares that he withdrew. I could offer this paraphrase: Jesus heard the news that John was arrested, and he left.
Can I pause here for a moment? I find news these days something I really struggle with. I can’t avoid it, every time I scroll through Facebook, an old person’s social media apparently, open the sub stack app, or watch videos on tiktok it’s right in my face. It breaks my heart, and it makes me angry. I want to engage, to speak up… but I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.
When my son says “I’m scared,” all I can say is, “me too.” Maybe it means that, even though I sing about God’s faithfulness, I struggle when it comes to resting in it. So, I limit my time on my phone, I search for things that make me happy, or I scroll past the stories and videos that cause me fear. Not all the time, but for a couple days at a time. I withdraw, regroup, re-pray, and re-engage.
Now as I was researching this particular passage I read how the word “withdrew” - anachoreo in the Ancient Greek - is used only two times in the other gospels, but Matthew uses it ten times - and in all ten instances, it relates to Jesus encountering a threat. That he withdraws perhaps demonstrates how he used non-violent and non-retaliatory ways to respond to acts of aggression.
Yes, Jesus withdrew. Was it to regroup? I’m not sure. Did he do it to avoid being arrested himself because he was associated with John? I don’t know. Perhaps it was to pray. It wasn’t a short walk (~60mi/96km) it would take a couple days at least, and I often find that walking helps me ponder, pray, and gain clarity. Matthew doesn’t share the exact reason, but tells us “From that time on,” when he reached Capernaum, Jesus began his prophetic ministry using the exact words of John the Baptist - Repent, change your life, God’s Kingdom is near.
One of the reasons I chose this passage is because it included three prophets - John the Baptist, Isaiah, and Jesus. Another reason is because prophets, and prophetic voices, have been challenging me lately. In a good way, a way that causes growth. Last year I read The Tear of Things by Fransican Monk, Father Richard Rohr. The tagline is “prophetic wisdom for an age of outrage.” I think it’s a much needed book. In it he writes,
Besides being truth-tellers, they [the prophets] were radical change agents, messengers of divine revelation, teachers of a moral alternative, and deconstructors of every prevailing order… an officially licensed critic, a devil’s advocate who names and exposes their own group’s shadow side!
In our Western culture, just like ancient Israel, the voices of the prophets - the voices that speak out in support of the marginalized and oppressed - are often drowned out by the rulers, the religious elite, and the empire aka the status quo. Afterall, to engage our shadow side means that we must make some changes, and change can be difficult.
You see, prophets cause change, and resist empire. But I don’t believe prophets are only found in the Bible.
William Wilberforce was the driving force behind the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom, a process he became part of in the 1780’s. Unfortunately he died in July 1833, just one month before the bill was passed to abolish slavery.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 -1945) was a German theologian who co-founded the Confessing Church, alongside Martin Niemoller, in opposition to Hitler’s Regime. He was arrested for his resistance in April 1943, and executed at Flossenburg two years later, just a few days before the war ended in Europe. Throughout his time in prison, and concentration camps, Bonhoeffer continued to write letters, and famously said, “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” His prophetic voice still impacts us today.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Baptist minister, and the leader of the Civil Rights movement against segregation in the American South. He’s known for his use of non-violent methods to get the attention of the American people. In his now famous “I have a Dream” speech he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” MLK Jr., challenged the status quo of segregation in the American South. His actions led to the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. Every year we hear his prophetic voice ring out, once again sharing his dream with anyone who will listen.
Dorothy Day was a journalist, social activist, and feminist who converted to Catholicism when she was 30. During the Great Depression, she began writing the Catholic Worker, giving a voice to news that those in power didn’t want shared. She and her followers opened houses of hospitality, training individuals to live alongside the unhoused when she noticed a need. She wrote, “the Gospel takes away our right forever, to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” She died in 1980, at the age of 87. Her death ended her tenure as the editor of the Catholic Worker. A prophet in both word, and action.
On January 21, 2025, during the Washington Cathedral’s Service of Prayer for the Nation, Bishop Mariann Budde said, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now…” A prophetic I can’t begin to imagine the feeling of nervousness she may have had, at least, I would have!
I just shared the stories of people that did remarkable things, and while I admire them, I don’t think we all have to aspire to their actions. Cuban American theologian Kat Armas, shares “The thing about resistance is that it’s often loud - waged in the streets, shouted through a megaphone. And this kind of resistance is necessary. But sometimes, resistance is quieter, found in the defiance of a life given to the poor. It begins there, in the stillness: in the boundaries we draw, the love we protect, and the truth we refuse to water down.” Like when I tell my son, I’m scared too.
We turn the system upside down when we spend time with someone who simply needs a listening ear, like Jesus with the woman at the well. Or share our resources with others, like the boy who shared his lunch - a couple loaves of bread and a few fish. Or when we find ways to help those in our community - like Jesus with the widow whose son had died. We’re not all called to speak against the status quo. Small actions filled with love are a prophetic movement that can have a deep impact on those receiving them. It’s bringing peace in moments of confusion and fear.