Fugitive 4: Jesus Skips Passover

What did Jesus Do Instead?

A Lifelong Custom Abandoned

For most of his life, Jesus and his family had attended the Feast of Passover in Jerusalem, making the trip from Galilee into Judea and into the temple to sacrifice a lamb. Then in the late winter of AD 27 he left his career as a carpenter, and after wandering in the desert for 40 days began a new career: Prophet of God.

But that didn't mean that he was going to give up a lifelong practice. In April of AD 27 he attended the Passover Feast again as had been his family custom. He probably travelled to Jerusalem with his family, for he had been in their company immediately before Passover, first at Cana and then at Capernaum. He may have had 5 newly minted disciples in tow.

In April of AD 28, Jesus attended Passover again, this time with 12 disciples in tow. He had other disciples, but these were the men he had specially selected to be with him and travel with him. This time in Jerusalem he got himself in a peck of trouble, first for healing on the Sabbath, then for hinting that he might be the Son of God. The first of these--breaking the Sabbath--was seen as breaking the special relationship between God and Israel. The second of these turned the whole Jewish sacrificial religion on its head and threatened every religious authority. Not only did he become persona non grata in Jerusalem, but the religious authorities were looking for a way to kill him off.

But now it's April of AD 29 and it's Passover, and they're having the feast again in Jerusalem. But where is Jesus?

Jesus is in a most peculiar place. He's not at his Capernaum home 85 miles north of Jerusalem. No, he's across the lake, in the "wilderness," preaching to a huge crowd and healing people. And a most peculiar thing happened out there.

It happened to be a year when one of the yearly Jewish fasting days immediately preceded Passover. Pious Jews would not be carrying any food with them, for this was a day for abstaining from food. So sundown came to end the fast, but there was no food to buy in the "wilderness."

No problem. His disciples had 5 loaves and 2 fish (in spite of the fast). Jesus took what they had and fed it to 5,000 men plus associated women and children, and they all were satisfied. Powerful!

But in spite of this power, Jesus was staying away, not only from Jerusalem, but from all the territory of Judea. After the Passover of AD 28, he stayed away from the temple for 18 months. During this time he visited:

The towns and villages of Galilee (of course),
Tyre and Sidon, two Mediterranean city-states of Phoenicia,
Some of the territory of the Ten Towns (Decapolis), avid followers of Rome,
Some of the towns and villages in Perea, the other kingdom of Herod Antipas
Some of the towns and villages in Trachonitis, the kingdom of Herod Philip, and
Some of the towns of Samaria, second-class citizens of the people of God.

He was gone so long from Judea that his brothers began to rag on him about it.
Tune in next week to see what Jesus did about that.

This is part 4 of an 8 part series about the visits of Jesus to Judea.