¹² When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee. ¹³ He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

Matthew 4:12-13

Dear God, I wonder what Jesus would have done had John not been arrested. Would he have stayed closer to John. Would they have worked together? Did you get John out of his way? Hmmm.

So Jesus went back to Nazareth, but we learn from Mark that Nazareth didn’t go well. Too much family and familiarity. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what those people in Nazareth knew about him? The Bible Project Podcast is doing a series on the Book of Jude. Jude was one of Jesus’s brothers. The first episode in the series did a deep dive about what different scholars think “brothers” meant. Some think it means sons of both Mary and Joseph, some that they were children from a previous marriage for Joseph, and some think they were cousins. Point being, there were people, one way or another, who knew Jesus as a five-year-old. Ten-year-old. Twenty-year-old. We don’t get those pictures. They knew something we don’t know.

So he left Judea and got funneled to Capernaum. That’s where he meets Peter and the boys. Destiny? Chance? Part of your plan? I would imagine there were no accidents. I wonder how much Jesus knew about all of this in advance and how much he figured out as it unfolded.

Father, I obviously know about very little in advance. I can’t even know what will happen in the next second. All I really have is this moment, and that’s okay with me. If you have a destiny, if you have a plan for me, please make the path so obvious or so capable of withstanding my stupidity and ignorance that it will unfold just as you have prescribed it. Predestination? I don’t know. But I know you want to use me in some way. Here I am. Send me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen