When Jesus heard that John had been arrested He withdrew to Galilee.
From that time on Jesus began to proclaim this theme:
“Reform your lives! The kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

The arrest of John marks the end of the period of preparation for the Messiah which it was his mission to preach. On receiving the news of it, Jesus begins His mission as Messiah.  Matthew, who is so careful to show that even Jesus’ geographical movements are intended to fulfill the prophecies, explains that the move to Capharnaum too fulfills a prophecy. This is why he quotes the passage from Isaiah. While Nazareth is in the territory of Zebulun, Capharnaum is in that of Naphtali, on the ’way of the sea’, which was understood by Matthew as the main road which runs from Damascus, round the North end of the sea of Galilee, down to Egypt.

Capharnaum became the home town of Jesus, though he visits Nazareth once more, only to be rejected there. The Gospel of Luke advances this visit and rejection in order to motivate Jesus’ change of residence.

Jesus proclaims the message put by Matthew also in the Baptist’s mouth: ‘repentance’ or metanoia. The reason given is that the Kingdom of Heaven has come. The concept of the messianic kingdom, already used in Mark’s Gospel 15 times, is given enormous prominence by Matthew who uses it 52 times.

Unlike Mark who uses the phrase Kingdom of God, Matthew uses Kingdom of Heaven, a typical Jewish circumlocution of respect that avoids using the name of God and substitutes   His dwelling place. In the Old Testament, God Himself is king over the world in virtue of creation, and more especially of Israel. Gradually it came to be seen that this kingship of God was to be established in a special way by a messianic king.

So what message does this have for us today? It captures, I believe, the core or God’s revelation through Jesus. It states that God’s Kingdom is here right now and it is given to help us grow as spiritual human beings – children of God. This can, however, only be accomplished by metanoia, that is changing the way we think and behave. Human behavior is controlled by our thinking.

The problem is, as I see it, that in order for us to change how we think we must first become aware of how we think. The thinking of most people is based on their learning as children – behavior is controlled by unconscious thoughts and ways of thinking. So, the first order of business must become self-reflection and self-assessment. More often than not, however, we are afraid to make an accurate assessment of our thinking.