And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
As Jesus’s ministry and fame began to take off, the buzz was widespread, encompassing the epicenter of Jewish identity in Jerusalem and Judea, yet also the outlying regions of Galilee, Samaria, and the Decapolis.
For Matthew’s Jewish audience, this means that Jesus is appealing to not just Jews, but rival Samaritan Jews, and worse, gentiles.
The truth is that Jesus entered a world that was highly boundaried, with multiple lines of in or out, us or other, and he shattered all distinctions with his kin-dom of belovedness. It was a multiethnic, even multi-religious community.
He embodied God’s reign of radical belonging, where all are welcome and all patterns of exclusion are dismantled. Yet today we still gravitate towards tribalism, or an inclusivity that is comfortable.
Today, we'd like to challenge you to reach beyond your comfort zone and show inclusion and belonging.
How can you imagine doing this?
-- Evan Amo
We invite you to take it one step further, and drop us a quick note about what strikes you in today's frame.
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