Every story has a context. Over the centuries, we’ve become extremely disconnected from the context of the gospel stories, and one of those disconnects is about the political reality of life for fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.
As I noted last week, John Dominic Crossan was one of the speakers at the CAC’s Universal Christ conference. In one of his talks, he outlined the reasons that fishing on the Sea of Galilee had reached a major turning point about a decade before Jesus began his public ministry. To cut a complex and interesting story very short, Herod Antipas (a son of the Herod who tried to kill the infant Jesus) decided to prove his capability to Emperor Tiberias by commercializing the fishing industry in Galilee and selling salted fish to Rome.
To do this, he moved his capitol from Sepphoris to the newly built Tiberias (named, in good sycophant fashion, after the Emperor) on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (the image above is of Tiberias today). He then proceeded to commercialize the fishing industry by contracting professional fishermen and pushing out the local peasant fishermen who had been making a living on the sea for centuries.
Interestingly, Jesus grew up in Nazareth, only four miles from Sepphoris. Scholars suggest that much of the carpentry and related work that Joseph and Jesus would have done was as day laborers in Sepphoris (Nazareth was tiny, with only about four hundred people). When Herod Antipas abandoned his old capitol in favor of this new one, he also left a lot of peasant craftsmen out of work.
Perhaps Jesus had no choice in leaving Nazareth, because there was no steady work for him there anymore. We know that, as an adult, he moved to Capernaum (a fishing town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee) and made it his home base. From there, Jesus called those “freelance” fishermen. He knew they were struggling to keep afloat, on multiple levels. He knew their frustrations and fears because he’d experienced them at home in Nazareth. He, and they, were primed for an uprising.
Jesus called the fishermen to join his nonviolent revolution and couched it in terms they could understand. Instead of catching fish to be salted and sent to feed the fat cats in Rome, he was calling them to catch people for the Reign of God. Jesus was radically reinventing the purpose and meaning of their lives.
The fishermen’s response had to be radical, too. They had to leave their nets, their boats, and what they knew in order to embark on something unknown and untested. Perhaps being squeezed by the commercial fishing industry in Tiberias made their choice easier—but it’s seldom easy to leave behind the known, the comfortable, the routines we cling to for comfort.
Take a look at the world around you today. Where do you see people in power disenfranchising the poor and powerless? As I asked last week, where are you called to join Jesus’ nonviolent uprising today? How might you be called by Jesus to embark on something new and unknown?
How can we continue the revolutionary message of resurrection on behalf of those whose lives are being crushed by the powerful today?
By imposing a Marxist dialectic on the Gospel message, what do you hope to accomplish? That one can do this with a certain ease, trivializes the Christian message. The sacrifice of Calvary as a consequence of the collapse of the fishing industry is an insult and sacrilege. Then again that is Crossan’s stock in trade.
As to the disenfranchised of our time, how about the billions of people around the world harmed by global free trade policies? Or are we to feel empathy only for the preferred victims of the Democratic Party.
I used to play the Liberation Theology. Jesus Seminar Games and found them wanting. And I realized that Hell and Satan re real. I admit I have more intuition in my decision than “reason”. And there is more to be said than can be written here.
Ah, David, every bit of the Bible is complex, as is every day of our lives. We do not live in a vacuum, and the choices we make are inevitably influenced by context. That does not, in any way, negate the very real power of who Jesus was or what he did. Nor am I imposing a dialectic on the good news of God in Christ. I am widening the lens through which we view the very real and complex situation in which Jesus acted. As for playing “games,” we all do it. You are doing it by presuming I mean to insult and commit sacrilege. I do not.
As to our modern situation, I do not limit my empathy to any party’s preferred victims. The American oligarchy (by which I mean those in power, beyond and regardless of party; many of the truly powerful are business leaders, not politicians) has disenfranchised people along all parts of the political spectrum. In terms of the disenfranchised of the world, that’s part of why I chose a biblical image for my post today. It’s not American. It’s not modern. The basic problem is endemic to the human desire for power over others. Herod wanted more power. He disenfranchised the “small business owners” of his day to get it—just like so many oligarchs are doing today. I believe that saying so makes me a follower of Jesus, who was not afraid to speak uncomfortable truths.
Yes, there is always more to say on these topics.
Peace,
Shirin
Somebody wrote about the fishing industry, not me. Somebody implied that the collapse of the traditional fishing industry prompted a career change by Simon Peter, not me. I will concur with your characterization of the lust for power as a constant of sinful humankind, nor am I disputing the complexity of Holy Scripture.
I am uneasy with imposing issues of our own time, e.g. unfair competitive practices, onto the Galilean fishing industry. It’s an interesting theory, leave it at that.
The Incarnation was about more than dispensing justice from our human context.
David, if you wish to dialogue, I am happy to do so, but request that you refrain from the attacking “somebody” language. I honestly do not think we are that far apart. You concurred about the lust for power. I concur that the Incarnation is about more than justice. I hope we could both agree that we never make choices in a complete vacuum, so Peter’s choice to follow Jesus was inevitably influenced by what else was happening in his life at the time (much of which we will never know). That doesn’t negate Jesus’ compelling call. Obviously you have been called by Christ at some point in your life, to be so passionate about this. But I don’t know the influencing factors in your life which opened you to Christ’s call, just as you do not know mine. We can speculate, but we do not know.
Peace,
Shirin
Thank you, Shirin, for adding some background. I have always felt that I needed a history course before I could understand the context of Scripture. You have added a bit to my understanding.
You’re welcome, Suzanne! I’m glad this post was helpful for you.
Peace,
Shirin