A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOSHUA BEN JOSEPHMatthew 14-15:20; Mark 6:14-7:23 [ = click cursor]

Joshua son of Joseph… we know him as Jesus…. Who was this Jesus? We accept him easily as

both God and man. We don’t say he was the son of Joseph, we say he is the Son of God. He is our savior and Lord. But what did it mean to live the life he led?

What did it feel like to be him? What was his experience as a human

being? When we read the gospels, it is fairly easy to read between the lines in order to understand, even if imperfectly, what his life looked like. Today we are going to look at one full day in the life of Jesus. We will be using the accounts of his life found in Matthew 14 and Mark 7.

The background of this day is tragedy. John the Baptizer was executed by Herod at the fortress

Machaerus. John paved the way for Jesus’ ministry with a strong message for people to turn back from

their wrongdoing in preparation for the coming of the long awaited Messiah.

Machaerus was the eastern most of Herod’s renovated palatial fortresses.

It stands out because of its location east of the River Jordan.

Rising majestically above the Dead Sea the fortress could be seen from as far north as Alexandrium and as far

south as Masada; smoke signals from the citadel were visible in Jerusalem. In addition to its natural defensible position on a rocky hilltop, Machaerus served as the first line of defense—and warning—against any eastern invaders.

Machaerus was more than just a military outpost; the extensive

renovations by Herod turned the originally defensive center into a lavish palace.

Herod the Great had two sons: Herod Philip and Herod Antipas. Herod

Philip married a woman called Herodias. When Herod Antipas visited his brother, he wanted Herodias as his wife. So

Herod Antipas divorced his own wife, and married Herodias. She, of course, had to divorce Herod Philip first. John the Baptist called this adultery and humiliated Herodias in public over it. Herodius was furious. So Herod Antipas ordered John's arrest and imprisoned him in Machaerus.

During a lavish birthday party held there at the palace fortress, Herodius had

her beautiful daughter Salome dance for Herod. He was so smitten with her that he agreed to give her anything she wanted. Under the influence of her mother, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

Even though Herod liked John and respected him, apparently the good opinion of his guests mattered more, so he had John executed.

When John was executed, his disciples buried him and then they went to tell Jesus. The 90 mile distance would take

nearly 4 days to walk.

Actually the day we’re going to look at started quite well: Jesus’ 12 disciples, had

just come back from their teaching and healing mission throughout the Capernaum area. They gathered around

Jesus telling him excitedly about their experiences. As one account put it: “[They] returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Now the life of Jesus and the disciples was all about people. Crowds followed

them, there were people who needed physical healing, and mental healing. Because Jesus seemed actually to get results, he, along with his disciples, were constantly interacting in some way with people in trouble. Even at that moment, when he and his disciples

were trying to debrief about this amazing unbelievable experience, people were coming and

going. The scripture says that they were being interrupted so much that “[the disciples] did not even have a chance to eat.” Finally Jesus decided they’d had enough. “Come with me” he said, “by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they did, they got into a boat and went to a solitary place.

Even today, that would not be difficult. A visitor to the Sea of Galilee, which is where Jesus and the

disciples hung out, would be amazed to see that it is not developed as it would be here in the states, such as Lake

Tahoe. Even with tourists crowding Capernaum for instance, all you have to do is walk 100 yards, and suddenly all is quiet.

But as they were enjoying the quiet, John’s disciples found them and told Jesus about John’s death. “When

Jesus got the news he slipped away in a boat to be by himself.” It was

clear that this had affected him deeply, and he needed a little quiet time with God to grieve and pray. But as we know, life has a way of going on whether we want it to or not.

Unfortunately, he was not sneaky enough, because someone saw him take off. The crowd simply walked

around the lake, intercepting him when he landed. When he went ashore “he saw the great crowd there and he had compassion for them and healed their sick.”

When dinner time came, there was no town nearby, and there was nothing to eat. This was a crowd of 5000 men plus women and

children. As evening came the disciples told Jesus to send the crowd away so they could go find something to eat. But Jesus suggested that the disciples give

them something. Of course, that seemed to be an impossibility. They didn’t have the kind of money it would take to order out. All they had were 2 fish and 5 little loaves of bread. Jesus thanked God for the food, broke the bread, handed the food to the disciples to pass out, and it went around with 12 baskets of bread left over.

As soon as the food was handed out, Jesus had the disciples get into the boat and go to the other side of the lake while he stayed and dismissed the crowd. Finally maybe he was going to get some time to himself. After the disciples and the crowds left, he went up into the

hills to pray. He prayed there all night, until the fourth watch which, according to Roman calculation, was between

3 and 6 am.

Sometime during the night a storm arose on the lake, and the disciples… a third of whom were skilled sailors

began to get into trouble. They might have been struggling for awhile, but sometime between 3 and 6 am Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

When they saw him they were terror-stricken because they thought it was a ghost. But no, it was Jesus.

Then the intrepid Peter set out a challenge: “Lord if it is really you call to me to come on the water.” So Jesus says, “Come on out, Peter, the water’s fine.” Peter boldly stepped out of the

boat. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve

and started to sink. “Master, save me!” he cried out. Jesus reached down and grabbed his hand. The two of them got into the boat and the wind died down.

They landed at Gennesaret.

When the people realized who it was they sent word throughout the area

and rounded up all the sick who begged that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Just about that time a representative group of religious leaders from Jerusalem showed up and challenged him about his

disciples breaking the ceremonial law.

They asked… Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat.”

Jesus comes right back at them: “And why do you break the commands of God for your tradition? God clearly says, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone denouncing their father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying ‘Whoever wants to can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You nullify the command of God for the sake of your tradition.”

But that wasn’t all… he added “You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly

about you when he said: this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me…” The disciples seemed a little upset about this, because they reported to him that the Pharisees had been offended by what he said. And Jesus reply was “Leave them, they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”

At that point it seems he has had enough. The scripture says that Jesus packed up and left town to go to the region of

Tyre and Sidon. Both were on the coast, Tyre about 30 miles away.

Jesus chose to go to towns that were architecturally magnificent

and commercially important.

Both cities were long-time centers of Canaanite paganism, with temples to Melqart , a Phoenician sun god; Astarte, the consort

and sister of Baal, the most active Canaanite god, as well as other deities.

Tyre’s most

coveted export was the costly scarlet-purple dye, called 'Tyrian,' made from the local murex shell. The Tyrians jealously guarded the processes used to extract and blend their dyes. Some of these trade secrets still lie buried in the ruins of ancient Tyre.

Why would they choose to take off for cities that were so far different from what they were doing? Maybe it was simple burnout… they needed a

little R and R. Perhaps as they walked for the two days up the hills of Galilee

down the other side into the plain and

onto the coast they had some private time that they so desperately needed.We have now looked briefly at just one day out of three years. Jesus had no

real home, having been forcefully ejected from and

almost killed by the people of his hometown of Nazareth. His home base

had become Capernaum where Peter and his brother Andrew along with their father had a fishing

business. He and his disciples who were essentially itinerant preachers, were supported by donations from faithful followers.

His lifestyle was punishing. On just that one day he

listened to and shared the enthusiasm of his disciples, he received news of the loss of his cousin John; he had compassion on the people who were chasing him; he had no time out for

himself; he focused on other peoples’ needs and pain: feeding them, healing

them, listening to them, absorbing their trauma and suffering. The only quiet he finally got was by staying up all night. Then he went through a storm, and at the end of that was faced with more pain and sickness. As if this were not enough, he challenged religious leaders.

He kept this up day after day, week after week, month after month. What could have possessed him to put up with such a brutal way of life? Some in a similar position might be gratified that people needed them.

Others may have liked the glory of all the attention. Still others might have liked spitting in the face of authority.

Jesus did it because he loved.