S2 E3 "THE WAR IMMINENT.", Matthew 4:12-17

The Ordinary Times

On April 12, 1861 The New York Times published, "THE WAR IMMINENT." It was a telegraphed, live reporting from Charleston, SC of the final hours before the first shots of the Civil War. Those shots did not signify the separation of the Southern States into the Confederacy, because that had already occurred earlier. Rather it symbolized a violent national break-up, a damnable divorce and a dissolution of a Union that was under the illusion that both sides somehow stood for Freedom. And yet, in the beginning of those dark times, there is a comparison to the light of Scripture found in the Gospel of Matthew 4:12-17. In it we find Jesus dealing with his own national history (both distant and immediate). In the middle of it all he finds meaning in the words of an ancient prophet who spoke to the woes of war, civil divisions, military melees and political strife of his own time. Inspired by it, Jesus proclaimed a peaceful invasion following the inundating militaristic ones.