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    When God Walked in Galilee: Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (A Narrative Commentary on Matthew 1–4)
    When God Walked in Galilee: Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (A Narrative Commentary on Matthew 1–4)
    When God Walked in Galilee: Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (A Narrative Commentary on Matthew 1–4)
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    When God Walked in Galilee: Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (A Narrative Commentary on Matthew 1–4)

    By Rachel Starr Thomson

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    About this ebook

    Do we know who our King is?

     

    At thirty years of age, Jesus launched his ministry with the words "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 

     

    Yet even before then, his life pulsated with the mystery and revelation of the kingdom of God—still the most critical and yet misunderstood component of the Christian faith and the life of anyone who desires to follow Jesus.

     

    In this electrifying little book, author and speaker Rachel Starr Thomson argues that King and kingdom are inextricably interlinked: to see one is to see the other. In her lyrical, accessible style, she guides readers through Jesus's early life as chronicled in the gospel of Matthew—an ancient book that bridges Old and New Testaments and reveals king, and kingdom, within their prophetic and historical context.

     

    Every day, millions of Christians pray "Your kingdom come." Let this journey with Jesus deepen your understanding and practice of those words as you see Jesus in a whole new light, and with him, discover the astonishing reality of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

     

    Rachel Starr Thomson lives, writes, and drinks too much coffee in the Niagara Region of Ontario. She is an international speaker with 1:11 Ministries and the author of thirty-some works of fiction and nonfiction. Since 2015, she has blogged verse by verse through the gospel of Matthew.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLittle Dozen Press
    Release dateDec 4, 2019
    ISBN9781393263036
    When God Walked in Galilee: Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth (A Narrative Commentary on Matthew 1–4)
    Author

    Rachel Starr Thomson

    Rachel Starr Thomson is in love with Jesus and convinced the gospel will change the world. Rachel is a woman of many talents and even more interests: she’s a writer, editor, indie publisher, singer, speaker, Bible study teacher, and world traveler. The author of the Seventh World Trilogy, The Oneness Cycle, and many other books, she also tours North America and other parts of the world as a speaker and spoken-word artist with 1:11 Ministries. Adventures in the Kingdom launched in 2015 as a way to bring together Rachel’s explorations, in fiction and nonfiction, of what it means to live all of life in the kingdom of God. Rachel lives in the beautiful Niagara Region of southern Ontario, just down the river from the Falls. She drinks far too much coffee and tea, daydreams of visiting Florida all winter, and hikes the Bruce Trail when she gets a few minutes. A homeschool graduate from a highly creative and entrepreneurial family, she believes we’d all be much better off if we pitched our television sets out the nearest window. LIFE AND WORK (BRIEFLY) Rachel began writing on scrap paper sometime around grade 1. Her stories revolved around jungle animals and sometimes pirates (they were actual rats . . . she doesn’t remember if the pun was intended). Back then she also illustrated her own work, a habit she left behind with the scrap paper. Rachel’s first novel, a humorous romp called Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe, was written when she was 13, followed within a year by the more serious adventure story Reap the Whirlwind. Around that time, she had a life-changing encounter with God. The next several years were spent getting to know God, developing a new love for the Scriptures, and discovering a passion for ministry through working with a local ministry with international reach, Sommer Haven Ranch International. Although Rachel was raised in a strong Christian home, where discipleship was as much a part of homeschooling as academics, these years were pivotal in making her faith her own. At age 17, Rachel started writing again, this time penning the essays that became Letters to a Samuel Generation and Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer. In 2001, Rachel returned to fiction, writing what would become her bestselling novel and then a bestselling series–Worlds Unseen, book 1 of The Seventh World Trilogy. A classic fantasy adventure marked by Rachel’s lyrical style, Worlds Unseen encapsulates much of what makes Rachel’s writing unique: fantasy settings with one foot in the real world; adventure stories that explore depths of spiritual truth; and a knack for opening readers’ eyes anew to the beauty of their own world–and of themselves. In 2003, Rachel began freelance editing, a side job that soon blossomed into a full-time career. Four years later, in 2007, she co-founded Soli Deo Gloria Ballet with Carolyn Currey, an arts ministry that in 2015 would be renamed as 1:11 Ministries. To a team of dancers and singers, Rachel brought the power of words, writing and delivering original narrations, spoken-word poetry, and songs for over a dozen productions. The team has ministered coast-to-coast in Canada as well as in the United States and internationally. Rachel began publishing her own work under the auspices of Little Dozen Press in 2007, but it was in 2011, with the e-book revolution in full swing, that writing became a true priority again. Since that time Rachel has published many of her older never-published titles and written two new fiction series, The Oneness Cycle and The Prophet Trilogy. Over 30 of Rachel’s novels, short stories, and nonfiction works are now available in digital editions. Many are available in paperback as well, with more released regularly. The God she fell in love with as a teenager has remained the focus of Rachel’s life, work, and speaking.

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      Book preview

      When God Walked in Galilee - Rachel Starr Thomson

      Before You Begin ...

      A picture containing text, sign Description automatically generated

      Scripturally solid. Spiritually inspired.

      Click to subscribe.

      Volume 1 of this series contains material adapted from the first seventeen posts on my blog, where I have been blogging verse by verse through the gospel of Matthew since the fall of 2015. They cover Matthew 1–4. All the original posts (going far beyond this book) can be viewed at:

      rachelstarrthomson.com/category/gospel-of-matthew.

      Introduction: The Day When Jesus Heals Everyone

      In September 2014 I had a sudden cardiac arrest in a Canadian Tire parking lot. No cause was ever found, but God provided immediate care in the form of a nurse who just happened to pull into the parking lot at the very moment that I collapsed. I lived through the experience with minimal damage, though I am told I was technically dead for twelve minutes.

      The hospital where I recovered, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, is a merger of two older institutions: Hôtel-Dieu (hostel of God), founded by Roman Catholics, and Grace Hospital, founded by the Salvation Army. Although it’s government run now, the signs of faith are still everywhere in this hospital and infuse the atmosphere. On the wall in the lobby is a two-story mural of a tree, with the words The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). Viewable from a broad window in one of the halls is a garden with another mural: this one a long piece of sculpture, three granite slabs with carved depictions of every healing Jesus performed in the gospels. On those stones, the blind see and the lame leap; paralytics dance and the withered are made whole.

      This is how we as the world remember Jesus: as one who healed. Instinctively we know this was more than just a sign of his legitimacy as one sent by God. It was a revelation of his character—of the character of God himself—a signpost of his purpose and desire for the world.

      Matthew 4 describes the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry:

      Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about Him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics,[1] and the paralytics. And He healed them. (Matthew 4:23–24)

      For me this passage simultaneously offers hope and raises questions. If we will let it, it can shape our entire conception of who God is. This, after all, is our first real glimpse of the incarnation in action: in human flesh, God heals everyone who comes to him.

      Healing Physical and Spiritual Brokenness

      The story of humanity as the Bible tells it is the story of a beautiful vision marred and broken by a failure of trust and relationship. In the garden of Eden, a perfect world was destroyed by the willingness of human beings to stab God in the back. That brokenness affected all of creation both physically and spiritually in ways we still don’t fully understand.

      Our brokenness is summed up in the twin problems of sin and death. We miss the mark (the literal definition of sin) and everything dies. That is the curse of our world.

      In Matthew’s account, all who were afflicted and suffering came to Jesus. There are many kinds of affliction and suffering in the world that are not mentioned here, but the kinds that are mentioned function as bookends, framing all the brokenness of creation and human life. At the far physical end, those suffering from disease came to him. At the far spiritual end, the demon-possessed came.

      All the rest of our pain lies between those bookends: a combination of physical and spiritual factors that make up the totality of our lives.

      Matthew takes time to point out that those who were healed could not even come themselves. These were people so struck down by their afflictions that they had to be brought. He doesn’t say who brought them; just that news of what Jesus was doing spread, and the people were brought.

      And he healed them.

      Jesus Our Healer

      Healing was part of Jesus’s mission from the beginning, and in the end his whole enterprise will be seen as one of healing—not just of individuals but of the cosmos, the whole world. One of the details that moves me most in this account is that Jesus healed everyone who came to him. This is stated elsewhere in the gospels as well: when people came, when they were brought, Jesus did not turn them away without giving them what they were looking for. He was a generous healer, a no-strings-attached physician. He did not require them to respond to his message first or to follow him afterward. If they had faith enough to come, he healed them.

      In a world where it often feels like there isn’t enough of what we need to go around, I am profoundly moved by this. They didn’t have to earn healing; they didn’t have to qualify. They just had to come. Jesus’s power and will to heal were abundant.

      When John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was the prophesied messiah, Jesus sent back his resume:

      Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. (Matthew 11:4–5)

      What Jesus did locally in Galilee, for a relative handful of people, is intended to eventually release the entire world from the curse of death:

      For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. (Romans 8:19–21)

      Glimpses of the Future

      Jesus still heals today.[2] I have personally witnessed divine healing and know many people who have experienced it. The heart and power of God to heal our brokenness—all forms of brokenness—remains.

      At the same time, I know many people who have prayed for healing and not received it. The New Testament indicates that this was the case for the early church as well: while healings and miracles did continue into the apostolic era, we get glimpses in Paul’s letters especially that universal healing wasn’t expected, and some Christians (including probably Paul himself) suffered from

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