Matthew 9:28 “And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord.”
Matthew 13:1-36 “On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea … (36) Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
Matthew 17:24-26 “When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the tax came to Peter and said, "Does your Teacher not pay the tax?" (25) He said, "Yes." And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?" (26) Peter said to Him, "From strangers." Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.”
Mark 2:1 “And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.”
Mark 9:28-33 “And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" (29) So, He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." (30) Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it. … (33) Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”
Our Lord Jesus lived in the town of Nazareth for most of His life. But when He entered into the ministry, He and His family relocated to the town of Capernaum (Matthew 4:13), which was a town roughly three times the size of Nazareth. Our Lord Jesus began His public ministry at the age of thirty-eight (refer to my book, “The Body of Man” for more details about the Lord’s age), and by that time He was obviously living on His own. All of the above quoted passages of scripture refer to the house that our Lord lived in while He was in Capernaum. This was the same house that had the tiling removed by the four men who let their paralyzed friend down through the roof to be healed by the Lord (Mark 2:9-11). It was also this house which Mary and her sons stood outside, wanting to speak to Jesus (Mark 3:31). But I want you to notice that the scripture always refers to the home that the Lord lived in, as the “the house” and not “His house”. The reason for that is because the house that our Lord lived in was not His own, but rather one that He rented. This is why our Lord made the comment about Himself that, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20). This agrees with what the apostle Paul said about himself, for he also described himself as one who was homeless (1 Corinthians 4:11). And yet we know that Paul did from time to time, rent his own home to live in (Acts 28:30). So does this mean that our Lord Jesus does not want His saints to own their homes? Not at all, for as we have already said, our Lord Jesus only expects His ministers of the gospel to be prepared to leave all that they have to follow Him, and as such, Jesus has shown them the way through His example. Nevertheless the point that I want to highlight in this section is that included in the needs of our Lord Jesus that God the Father took care of, was a house for His Son to live in. And God continues to do the same thing for each of His children today.
Michael E.B. Maher
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