Bert introduces the Jesus of Matthew 4:23-25 as a sort of traveling pentecostal preacher: he’s preaching the gospel, healing people, casting out demons, and he gathers a large international following. For us, these activities are associated with pentecostal preaching, but in Jesus’ time these activities had sociopolitical significance — even healing and casting out demons. At the time, Satan was seen as the spirit behind the Roman Empire, and therefore demons were his minions. And healing reversed the effects of Empire. The ruling classes would hoard food in order to cause food shortages leading to profit. This resulted in widespread hunger, malnutrition, disability, and disease — so that healing was an anti-imperial act.

Jesus was doing this in synagogues, which to us were religious spaces, but in the first century Galilee these were the town governments. They were centers of self-governance and communal political and religious life. The local village assembly had officers that presided at meetings, collected and distributed goods for the destitute, administered beatings that had been ordered, and attended to communal construction projects. So synagogues were governmental bodies that attended to municipal matters. It was rather like a town hall. And it was fairly democratic. So Jesus was going through the towns and villages spreading the good news of the kingdom of heaven — God’s new society. And he told his disciples that they would do the same.

The closest analogy in our context is speaking at our local city councils. We too should be speaking in these spaces, or in any spaces that speak to power, or to the wider community. We should be doing this creatively and collectively as part of our discipleship.

Bert goes on to talk about how PMC has been participating in this process, and has PMC members share about their experiences.

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