The second year: popularity

The second year unfolds in Galilee, around the lake. Rejected at Nazareth, Jesus settles at Capernaum, calls his first disciples, and his fame grows through a teaching full of authority, through healings and the forgiveness of sins. He gives the great Sermon, institutes the Twelve, speaks in parables, commands the elements, the demons and death, sends the Twelve on mission and feeds the crowds. The year reaches its summit and turns at the Bread of Life discourse.

Rejected at Nazareth

Back in Galilee, Jesus comes to Nazareth, where he grew up, and reads in the synagogue the prophecy of Isaiah about the one whom the Spirit consecrates and sends to announce the good news to the poor (Isaiah 61:1-2). He closes the book and declares: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:21. His fellow townsmen, who know him as the carpenter’s son, take offense. Jesus observes that “no prophet is welcome in his own homeland” Luke 4:24. They drive him out of the town to throw him from the brow of the hill, but he passes through their midst and goes away. The year opens on the refusal of his own.

The first fishermen

He settles at Capernaum, by the lake, and calls four fishermen at their nets, Simon and Andrew, James and John: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19. They at once leave boats and nets and follow him. A Sabbath at Capernaum reveals his authority: he teaches, drives out an unclean spirit with a word, heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and in the evening the whole town brings its sick to his door. “They were struck by his teaching, for he taught with authority.” Mark 1:22.

The call of Matthew

Passing the tax office, Jesus calls Matthew the publican: “Follow me.” Matthew 9:9. The man leaves everything and follows him, then welcomes him at his table with other collectors and sinners. To the Pharisees scandalized to see him eat with them, Jesus answers: “It is not the healthy who need the physician, but the sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17.

The cleansing of the leper

A leper approaches Jesus, falls on his knees and begs him: “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Mark 1:40. Leprosy then cut a man off from the people: declared unclean, the sick man lived apart, and whoever touched him took on his defilement (Leviticus 13:45-46). Moved with compassion, Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the leper, which no one did: “I am willing; be clean.” Mark 1:41. At once the leprosy leaves him. The contact that should have made Jesus unclean makes the leper clean: purity passes from him to the sick man. He orders him to say nothing of it and to go show himself to the priest and offer what Moses prescribed (Leviticus 14:2-4), so that his healing may be confirmed according to the Law. The man proclaims everywhere what has happened to him, so that Jesus can no longer enter the towns openly.

The forgiveness of sins

At Capernaum, the house where he is teaching is so full that no one can get near. Four men, carrying a paralytic, go up onto the roof, open it, and lower the sick man before Jesus. Seeing their faith, he speaks first to the soul: “My child, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:5. The scribes are indignant within themselves: God alone can forgive sins, and this man blasphemes. Their reasoning is right on one point, that God alone forgives, and wrong on the other, for the one who speaks is God. Jesus knows their thought and puts the question to them: which is easier, to say that sins are forgiven, or to order a paralytic to walk? Both surpass man; but the second can be verified before all. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” Mark 2:10, he commands the sick man to rise, take up his pallet and go home. The man rises at once, and the crowd, astonished, gives glory to God: “We have never seen anything like this.” Mark 2:12. The visible healing attests the invisible forgiveness: Jesus claims, and exercises, what belongs to God alone.

The lord of the Sabbath

Controversies multiply around the Sabbath. When his disciples, on a Sabbath day, pluck heads of grain to eat them, the Pharisees see in it a transgression: on that day all work was forbidden. Jesus recalls that David, hungry, ate the loaves of the offering reserved for the priests, and that the priests themselves carry out their service in the Temple on that day without being at fault (1 Samuel 21:1-6). The Sabbath is given for the good of man: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27. Jesus then claims over this day an authority that God alone possesses: “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. A memorial of creation and of the covenant, the Sabbath comes from God himself; to call oneself its lord is to set oneself at the rank of the one who established it.

On another Sabbath, Jesus enters the synagogue, where a man is present whose right hand is withered. The Pharisees watch him to see whether he will heal on that day, looking for grounds to accuse him. Jesus calls the man into the midst of the assembly and says to them: “Which one of you, who has but one sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? And how much more is a man worth than a sheep! It is therefore lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:11-12. Then he orders the man: “Stretch out your hand.” Matthew 12:13. The man stretches it out, and it is made whole again. The Sabbath day, made for the good of man, sees Jesus restore to a man the use of his hand: the one who called himself lord of the Sabbath exercises that lordship by doing the very thing for which the day was given. The guardians of the Law prefer the rule to the man; they go out to plot the death of Jesus (Matthew 12:14).

The Pool of Bethesda

On the occasion of a feast, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. There lies a pool, Bethesda, where a crowd of the sick lie. It was believed that at certain moments the water was stirred, and that the first to step down then was healed; so the sick watched for that moment. A man is there, paralyzed for thirty-eight years, with no one to lower him into the water in time: another always goes down before him. Jesus asks him whether he wishes to be healed, then says: “Rise, take up your mat and walk.” John 5:8. At once the man is healed. Now it was a Sabbath day. Instead of marveling that a man infirm for thirty-eight years now stands, the authorities retain only one thing: he is carrying his mat on the Sabbath. Their unbelief blinds them to the work of God accomplished before their eyes; this refusal of evident grace is the mainspring of the sin against the Spirit, which will soon lead them to attribute to the devil the very works of God. Jesus answers them: “My Father is at work until now, and I also am at work.” John 5:17. From then on they seek all the more to put him to death, for not only did he break the Sabbath, but he called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. Jesus then unfolds the mystery of his union with the Father: “The Son can do nothing of himself, except what he sees the Father do.” John 5:19. This word expresses their common acting: begotten of the Father from all eternity, the Son receives everything from him and acts with him, of one and the same power; and it is through the Son that the Father carries out all his work. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he does: he communicates to him his whole life. As the Father raises the dead and gives life, the Son gives life to whom he wills; and the Father has handed all judgment to the Son, “so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father.” John 5:23. He announces the hour when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and live, for the Son has life in himself as the Father has life in himself. In support, he calls four witnesses. John the Baptist first: Jesus names him “the lamp that burns and shines” John 5:35, a torch kindled to lead to the light and to bear witness to the truth. His works next: the miracles the Father gives him to accomplish attest, more than John, that the Father sent him. The Father himself bears witness to his Son. The Scriptures finally, which these men search to find life in them: “It is they that bear witness to me.” John 5:39. Moses, on whom they rely, wrote about him: he had announced that a prophet like himself would be raised up, and that the people must listen to him (Deuteronomy 18:15-19); in refusing the Son, they disown their own Scriptures.

The Sermon on the Mount

Seeing the crowds, Jesus climbs the mountain and gives the great charter of the Kingdom. It opens with what are called the Beatitudes, which overturn the world’s judgment about happiness. Those whom men pity or neglect, Jesus declares blessed because of what God holds in reserve for them: to the poor in heart the Kingdom of heaven, to the afflicted consolation, to the meek the earth as their inheritance, to those who hunger for justice their fill, to the merciful mercy, to the pure of heart the sight of God, to the peacemakers the name of sons of God. And to those persecuted for justice he promises a great reward in heaven.

He calls his disciples the salt of the earth and the light of the world, made to give savor and clarity to the rest. Then he sets his teaching in relation to the Law: “I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17. He carries each commandment down to its root, in the heart, from which deeds come: “Guard your heart above all else, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23. Beyond “you shall not kill,” anger against one’s brother is already murder; beyond “you shall not commit adultery,” the lustful look is already adultery. He forbids oaths and vengeance, and commands love of enemies and prayer for persecutors, so as to be sons of the Father who makes his sun rise on the wicked and on the good.

He teaches a piety that hides itself: almsgiving, prayer and fasting are done in secret, under the gaze of the Father alone. At the heart of the Sermon he gives the Our Father, the prayer of sons. He warns against money, which one cannot serve at the same time as God, and against anxiety: the Father who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies knows what his children need; let them seek first the Kingdom, and the rest will be given them. He closes on two images. By the narrow gate, he teaches that the way of life is constrained and that few find it, while the wide road leads to perdition. By the house built on rock, he shows that only the one who hears his words and puts them into practice stands firm when the rains come, unlike the one who hears them without acting, whose house, set on sand, collapses.

The Twelve

Before choosing his own, Jesus goes up the mountain and spends the whole night in prayer (Luke 6:12). At daybreak he calls his disciples and chooses twelve, whom he names apostles, from the Greek apostolos (ἀπόστολος), “one sent.” The number takes up that of the twelve tribes of Israel: the Twelve are the foundation of the renewed people, as the patriarchs were of the old. He institutes them for a twofold charge, “that they might be with him, and that he might send them to preach, with power to cast out demons” Mark 3:14-15: first to live in his company, then to prolong his work in his name. He names them one by one: Simon, called Peter, at their head; then Andrew his brother, James and John the sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, Jude and Judas Iscariot, the one who would betray him.

The centurion of Capernaum

A centurion, a Roman officer at the head of a hundred men, has a servant who is sick, near death. He sends word to Jesus not to trouble himself by coming under his roof: he does not judge himself worthy of it. Used to command, he says to one “go” and he goes, to another “come” and he comes; he grants Jesus’ word the same authority over the sickness: “Only say a word, and my servant will be healed.” Luke 7:7. Jesus marvels at him and, turning to the crowd that follows him, holds him up as an example: “I have not found such great faith in Israel.” Luke 7:9. The servant is healed that very hour. This pagan believes on the word alone, with no wonder before his eyes, and goes ahead of Israel in faith: already the nations appear who will enter the Kingdom.

The widow’s son at Nain

At the entrance of the town of Nain, Jesus meets a funeral procession: the only son of a widow is being carried out for burial. In those days a widow depended on her sons to live; in losing her only child, this woman lost her sole support and was left without resource. Moved with compassion, he says to her: “Do not weep.” Luke 7:13. He touches the bier, the bearers stop, and he commands the dead man: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Luke 7:14. The dead man sits up, begins to speak, and Jesus gives him back to his mother. This is the first he calls back from death. The touch of a corpse made one unclean, and death does not obey a command; here life passes from him to the dead man, as purity passed to the leper. The crowd, seized with awe, acknowledges: “A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people.” Luke 7:16.

The forgiven sinner

A Pharisee, Simon, receives Jesus at his table. A woman of the town, known for her sins, comes in, stands weeping behind him, bathes his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair and covers them with perfume. Simon says within himself that, were Jesus a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. Jesus answers his thought with a parable: of two debtors, forgiven the one a large debt, the other a small, the one who will love more is the one forgiven more. Simon offered him neither water for his feet nor a kiss; this woman has not ceased to bathe and anoint them. “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she has loved much.” Luke 7:47. The guests wonder: who is this who even forgives sins? And Jesus to the woman: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:50.

John’s question

John, in his prison, hears of the works of the Christ. He who had pointed him out then sends two of his disciples to ask: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?” Matthew 11:3. At that very hour Jesus heals a great number of the sick, then sends the messengers back with an answer that takes up the words by which Isaiah had announced that God himself would come to save his people (Isaiah 35:4-6): the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and the good news is announced to the poor.

To the crowds, then, he bears witness to John. No man born of woman is greater than he; and yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater still. John is the greatest of men because he is the last of the prophets and the one who pointed out the Messiah present: the others had announced him from afar, while he showed him with his finger and baptized him. His greatness remains that of the earth, and the one who will have in heaven even the least share of glory already surpasses him. This glory of the blessed, which is to see God face to face and to live by his life, is given in degrees according to the measure of charity: all are filled, but each according to the capacity of his love, like vessels of unequal size all filled to the brim, for one star differs from another in brightness (1 Corinthians 15:41).

Returning to John, Jesus identifies him with a figure foretold: an ancient prophecy promised the return of Elijah before the great day of the Lord, to turn the hearts of fathers toward their sons (Malachi 4:5-6), and this awaited Elijah is he.

The Reproach to the Towns

Jesus then addresses a reproach to the towns where he had done the most miracles, because they had not repented: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!” Matthew 11:21. If the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon, known for their idolatry, had seen such signs, they would long since have repented in sackcloth and ashes. And Capernaum, lifted up to heaven by its privileges, will be brought down to the realm of the dead; Sodom itself, before such wonders, would still be standing. These towns had received more light than any other, Christ himself acting in their midst; the greater the light given, the heavier the responsibility of the one who turns away from it.

Beelzebul and the Sin against the Spirit

A man possessed, blind and mute, is brought to him; Jesus heals him, and the crowd marvels. But the Pharisees claim that he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Jesus shows the absurdity of the accusation: a kingdom divided against itself runs to ruin, and if Satan were casting out Satan, his reign would collapse. “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 12:28. Moreover, no one can plunder the house of a strong man without first binding him: by delivering the possessed, Jesus binds Satan and snatches away his captives. He then warns of a sin that will not be forgiven: “The blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” Matthew 12:31. Every sin can be forgiven, even insult against the Son of Man; but to attribute to the devil the manifest work of the Spirit is to reject knowingly the very grace that forgives. This sin remains without remission, not because God’s mercy fails, but because the one who persists in it closes himself to the only hand that could raise him up.

The True Family

As he speaks to the crowds, his mother and his kinsmen stand outside and ask to see him. He is told of it; Jesus stretches out his hand toward his disciples and declares: “Here are my mother and my brothers; whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is for me a brother, a sister, a mother.” Matthew 12:50. This word reveals a kinship that surpasses that of blood: those who do the will of God belong to his family. And none has done it more perfectly than Mary, who had given herself entirely to God’s design; mother according to the flesh, she is first also according to faith.

The parables of the Kingdom

Jesus begins to teach the Kingdom in parables, stories drawn from ordinary life whose meaning yields to whoever seeks it. The sower casts the seed: depending on the soil, it is devoured, scorched, choked, or bears fruit, like the word of God according to the heart that receives it. The mustard seed, smallest of seeds, becomes a tree where the birds make their nests: the Kingdom begins imperceptible and grows beyond all expectation. The weeds grow mixed with the good grain, and the master lets both grow until the harvest: the separation of the good from the wicked is reserved for the final judgment. The treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great price are worth selling everything to acquire: the Kingdom comes before all else. Apart, Jesus explains the meaning to his disciples; to the crowds he speaks in images. The parable reveals to whoever opens himself and remains obscure to whoever closes himself, fulfilling the word of Isaiah about the people who look without seeing and hear without understanding (Isaiah 6:9-10).

The storm stilled and the demoniac

One evening, Jesus tells his disciples to cross to the other shore of the lake, and they take him in the boat. A violent storm rises, the waves fill it, and he sleeps in the stern, his head on a cushion. Wakened by their fright, he rebukes the wind and the sea: “Quiet, be still.” Mark 4:39, and the calm comes. Seized with awe, the disciples ask: “Who is he, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:41.

On the other shore, in the country of the Gerasenes, a man possessed by a host of demons lives among the tombs, whom no chain can hold. The demons, who call themselves Legion “for they are many,” beg Jesus not to drive them into the abyss and ask to enter a herd of pigs; he allows it, and the herd rushes down the slope into the lake and drowns. Frightened, the people of the region beg Jesus to leave their territory. The delivered man wants to follow him, but Jesus sends him to announce to his own what the Lord has done for him.

Jairus and the sick woman

On his return, Jesus is approached by Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, who throws himself at his feet: his twelve-year-old daughter is dying. Jesus follows him, pressed by the crowd. On the way, a woman ill with a flow of blood for twelve years, whom no one had been able to heal, touches from behind the fringe of his cloak, certain that it will be enough. At that instant she is healed, and Jesus, sensing that power has gone out from him, turns and looks for her. Trembling, she reveals herself; he says to her: “My daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Mark 5:34.

Meanwhile, word comes to Jairus that his daughter is dead, that it is too late. Jesus strengthens him: “Do not fear, only believe.” Mark 5:36. He enters with Peter, James and John, sends away those who weep, saying the child is sleeping, takes the little girl by the hand and says to her in Aramaic: “Talitha koum,” that is, “Little girl, arise” Mark 5:41. At once she rises and walks.

The sending of the Twelve

Jesus sends the Twelve two by two throughout Galilee, giving them power over unclean spirits. They set out with nothing, neither bread, nor money, nor bag, so as to rely only on God and on the welcome given them. They preach conversion, cast out demons and heal the sick: the mission of the Master is now extended through his own, who act in his name.

The death of the Baptist

This is also the moment when the end of John arrives. Herod had had him imprisoned because John reproached him for taking Herodias, his brother’s wife. Yet Herod feared him, held him to be a just and holy man, and liked to listen to him; Herodias, for her part, wanted to put him to death, but could not, for Herod protected him Mark 6:19-20. She seized the occasion of a banquet: her daughter having danced before the king and his guests, her dance pleased Herod, who promised on oath to give her whatever she wished; instructed by her mother, she demanded the head of John on a platter. Caught in the trap of his oath before his guests, Herod, with regret, had the prophet beheaded in his prison.

The multiplication of the loaves

The Twelve return from mission, and the crowds keep streaming in. Jesus withdraws with them to a deserted place, but the crowd reaches him there; moved with pity for these people “like sheep without a shepherd,” he teaches them at length. When evening comes, the disciples want to send them away to find food; Jesus answers them: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” Mark 6:37. Only five loaves and two fish are found. He takes them, raises his eyes to heaven, pronounces the blessing, breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples for the crowd. Five thousand men eat their fill, and twelve baskets full of the leftover pieces are gathered. The crowd, satisfied, wants to seize him to make him king; Jesus withdraws alone to the mountain to pray.

The walking on the water

When night comes, the disciples cross the lake without him, and the wind is against them. Toward the end of the night, Jesus comes to them walking on the sea; they take him for a ghost and cry out in fear, but he reassures them: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27. Peter wants to join him: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Matthew 14:28. He steps down, walks toward Jesus, then, seeing the wind, grows afraid and begins to sink; he cries out: “Lord, save me!”, and Jesus seizes him at once: “Man of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31. When they climb into the boat, the wind drops, and those who are there bow down: “Truly, you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:33.

The Bread of Life discourse

The next day, the crowd rejoins Jesus at Capernaum, still seeking bread. He warns them not to work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life. When they demand a sign in order to believe and recall that their fathers ate the manna in the desert, Jesus corrects them: it is not Moses, but his Father who gives the true bread from heaven, the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then he reveals what this bread is: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger again.” John 6:35.

He then says what bread he will give: “The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” John 6:51. The Jews protest: how can he give his flesh to eat? Far from softening, Jesus presses harder: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:53. He then uses a Greek verb cruder than “to eat,” trōgō (τρώγω), which means the act of chewing: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” John 6:54. “My flesh is true food, and my blood true drink.” John 6:55. He announces here the Eucharist, in which this gift will be realized.

The word is too hard for many: “This word is harsh, who can listen to it?” John 6:60. Many of his disciples, until then attached to him, withdraw and cease to walk with him. Jesus lets them go without taking back anything of his words, and turns to the Twelve: “Do you also want to leave?” John 6:67. Simon Peter answers for them: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:68. The year of popularity ends on this division: the summit of the crowds is followed by the first great defection, and the Twelve remain, attached to the one who alone has the words of eternal life.

The coin in the fish

At Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax ask Peter whether his master pays the didrachma, the tax that every man of Israel pays each year for the service of the sanctuary. Peter answers yes. When he comes in, Jesus speaks first and questions him: do the kings of the earth take tribute from their sons or from strangers? From strangers, Peter answers. “Then the sons are exempt.” Matthew 17:26. The Temple is his Father’s house, and he, the Son, owes nothing there. So as to scandalise no one, he pays it nonetheless: he sends Peter to cast a hook, open the mouth of the first fish caught, and take from it a stater, a coin of four drachmas worth two didrachmas, enough to pay for Jesus and for Peter. “The sea is his, for he made it.” Psalm 95:5.