Fourth Sunday of Epiphany: Teaching

 Jesus went about teaching. (Matthew 4:23)

Epiphany celebrates the appearance of God among us in Jesus Christ. What happened when he made his appearance? Matthew sums up Jesus’ earthly ministry, prior to the events of Holy Week, like this (Mt 4:23-25, repeated in chp 9):

Jesus went about Galilee,

     -teaching in their synagogues and

    -preaching the gospel of the kingdom and        

    -healing all kinds of diseases among the people.

So his fame spread…, and they brought to him the afflicted… and he healed them. And great crowds followed him…

Jesus won’t always be so popular. In the end, the crowd turns on him. But for starters, when he went about teaching, preaching, and healing; Jesus drew crowds. That day, when he taught on the mount overlooking the Sea of Galilee, “the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Mt 7:28-29).

During Epiphany, we seek to listen again to the teachings of Jesus. That’s what makes us disciples—learners/students of Jesus. We have lots of teachers in our family, but there is for us only one upper case “T” Teacher!