Strategic Relocation

By Richard

We read in Matthew 4 that Jesus moves from Nazareth to Capernaum beside Lake Galilee. This fulfils a prophecy about a great light dawning on the Gentiles on, “Galilee, crossroads for the nations.” (Matthew 4: 15, the Message)

The phrase about Capernaum being a “crossroads for the nations” got my wheels turning. Jesus seems to make a highly strategic move by relocating Himself from Nazareth, a small quite hamlet in the Galilean hills, to Capernaum, beside Lake Galilee, near a crossing of the River Jordan, on major routes running north-south and east-west. He’s letting us know that He’s not just simply seeking to fulfil prophecy but that it’s time to get His message of the Kingdom of God out to the world.

I think Matthew must have understood Jesus’ strategy because he comments later, in the same chapter, how the message of the kingdom spread throughout Galilee, Syria, the Decapolis (ten towns), Jerusalem, Judea and the region beyond the Jordan. Jesus’ focus was to get the message out to as many people as possible.

If you look at a map of Europe, Madrid is in the dead centre of the Iberian Peninsula, a hub for Spain and Portugal. If you look a map of Madrid, Mountainview’s location at Colegio Balder in Las Rozas is in the dead centre of the NW, the “crossroads” of highways from Madrid, Villalba, and Boadilla. I think that if Jesus wanted to reach Spain He’d locate Himself in Madrid. I think that if Jesus wanted to reach the NW of Madrid He’d locate himself in Las Rozas.

I think that Jesus has established Mountainview in Las Rozas so that we will get the message out to Madrid, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and beyond.

Will you pray that we will find ways to use our strategic position in Mountainview to help the Good News of the Kingdom spread to others!