When people ask my favorite site in Israel, the ruins of Capernaum are high on the list. Here we can literally walk where Jesus’ did, visit the ruins of His adopted hometown and the headquarters for His ministry, and, if excavators are correct, stand in front of the actual house of Simon Peter.
Peter and his brother Andrew grew up in Bethsaida, as did the disciple Philip (John 1:44). Archaeologist R. Steven Notley suggests the remains of Bethsaida are today known as El-Araj and located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, just to the east of the incoming Jordan River. It’s possible Andrew and Peter kept their family home in Bethsaida or let their extended family live in it. Jesus frequently visited Bethsaida, and perhaps He stayed in this house.
Peter and Andrew, however, relocated their immediate families to Capernaum, five miles down the western side of Lake Galilee. After Jesus was rejected in Nazareth, He trekked to Capernaum and moved in with Peter’s family.
The location of this town was lost to history until 1866, when the British engineer and explorer, Captain Charles Wilson, identified the site. In 1894, the Franciscan Fathers bought a portion of ground here, excavated it, built a high stone wall around it, and oversee it to this day.
Capernaum was a prosperous fishing town in New Testament times. In The Archaeology of Daily Life, David A. Fiensy writes about the remains of ancient fish bones in Israel. “We know that one of the major Galilean export items was fish. The Sea of Galilee contained many varieties of fish edible for both Jews and Gentiles. These fish were pickled or salted, and then sold all over Israel. Many were involved in this trade, from the fishermen—who could be day laborers—to the owners of the fishing boats and the merchants who marketed the fish.”
In nearby Magdala, it’s possible excavators have discovered “some of the fish vats where the fish were pickled/salted, as well as possible aquaria where live fish were kept until ready to be killed and processed.”
Around the lake, there were at least sixteen harbors in New Testament times. Dr. Titus Kennedy wrote, “These harbors were built with the local black basalt stones, and the harbor of a town usually consisted of several piers that protruded out into the water, stopping the waves and providing calm and protected docking locations for the boats. The known harbors are located around the Sea of Galilee and demonstrate the prolific fishing industry during the time of Jesus.”
Dr. Kennedy estimates the population of the whole Galilee region in the time of Christ as 200,000. That made Capernaum an ideal headquarters for Jesus, who was able to “teach and perform miracles in front of thousands of people during his early public ministry without traveling any great distance, often using boats to go from town to town.”
I’ve come to believe that Peter and Andrew were the prosperous owners of a fishing enterprise, in partnership with Zebedee and his sons, James and John (Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19-20; Luke 5:10). As I’ll show in a later chapter, I believe John was a teenage entrepreneur who marketed the fish in Jerusalem, selling Galilean specialties to the rich and famous.
The name of the town—Capernaum, or Kfar Nahum—means village of Nahum, though we cannot connect it with the Old Testament prophet by that name. The town seems to have occupied about twenty-five acres with a population of perhaps 3,000. It could have been considerably larger, for much of the area in and around Capernaum hasn’t been excavated. A major highway ran through the town, and a Roman customs house that collected taxes from travelers, traders, and merchants. That, too, will show up in a later chapter.
Kennedy writes, “Due to its location, the town was home to a wide variety of professions, such as fishermen, farmers, artisans, merchants, government officials, soldiers, scholars, and religious leaders.”
Visitors to Capernaum today see the magnificent ruins of a synagogue that was built after the time of Christ, but it sits atop the ruins of a first-century synagogue, the one in which Jesus taught. For example, when I lead tours to Israel I often read portions of the Lord’s sermon about the Bread of Life from John 6 in the center of this synagogue. After recording this sermon, John added, “He (Jesus) said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum” (John 6:59). This is the only time I can definitely say we’re standing exactly where Jesus gave a specific set of teachings.
Just a few steps from the synagogue is the house where He stayed, the house of Peter and Andrew and their families. When I first visited Capernaum in 1975, I was thrilled to see the ruins of the home of Simon Peter. To me, the most obvious stones formed a large octagonal space. Beneath the octagon, however, were the remains of a large, multi-room Jewish home in the first century. The house was organized around two interior courtyards, one of them containing a round oven.
In the time of Peter and Andrew, large crowds gathered in front of the door of their house. Kennedy wrote, “This suggests that a large space was available in front of the house of Peter where people could gather. Excavations of the house demonstrate that it was along the main north-south street of the town, and a large open space did exist between the street and the doorway, which would allow a crowd to assemble in front of the house and all the way down the street as their waited to see Jesus.”
We even know something about the roof of this house. Another archaeological expert, John C. H. Laughlin, wrote, “One major architectural difference between the buildings at Capernaum and those at contemporaneous sites (such as Chorazin and Meiron, as well as sites on the Golan and in Transjordan) is that the Capernaum builders did not roof their structures with basalt slabs (at least none were found in the remains). The Capernaum roofs were probably made of wood, covered with grass/straw and earth. This technique of roof construction has also been suggested for the first century house associated with St. Peter on the Franciscan side of the property.”
That explains how the teachings of Jesus were interrupted in Mark 2:1-9, when four men tore through the room and lowered their paralyzed friend on a mat, begging for Jesus to heal him.
This house was converted into a church only a few years after the resurrection of Christ, in the mid-first century. The floors, walls, and ceiling of the largest room were plastered, which was highly unusual in Capernaum. Plaster allowed lamps to better reflect their light, as was popular with churches. Over the next decades, over a hundred graffiti were scratched into the walls mentioning Jesus as “Lord” and Christ.”
Later, the area was expanded and renovated to form a larger church. Then in the 400s, an octagonal church was built over the area, which is what drew my attention in 1975.
In the 300s the Spanish pilgrim, Egeria, whom we’ve met in a previous chapter, visited the site and said, “In Capernaum, a house-church was made out of the home of the prince of the apostles, whose walls still stand today as they were.”
In the 500s, another pilgrim visited Capernaum and wrote, “We came to Capernaum to the house of St. Peter, which is now a basilica.”
Just as we have evidence for the house of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth, and just as we’ve good reason to trust the location of Cana, so we have excellent evidence for the ruins and floorplan of the house where Jesus stayed in Capernaum—His primary headquarters for His ministry.
The Gospels tell of five significant events that took place in this very house: (1) The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-39); (2) the aforementioned paralyzed man who was lowered through the room (Mark 2:1-13); (3) the teachings of Jesus while His family waited and worried outside, trying to see Him (Mark 3:20-35); (4) the conversation between Jesus and Peter regarding the temple tax (Matthew 17:24-27); and (5) the Lord’s question to His disciples about their quarreling (Mark 3:33-50). I think I can detect a common theme in these stories, and I’ll give you the axiom now: Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.
The First Visit Inside Peter’s Home
Now, let’s knock on Peter’s door and see who answers.
Oh, it’s an older woman with a smile on her face. Her story is very short, but it’s told in Matthew, in Mark, and in Luke. Look at Luke 4:38-39
“Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left here. She got up at once and began to wait on them” (Luke 4:38-39).
We don’t know what had caused the woman’s fever, but mosquitoes and malaria were problems in Galilee in biblical times. She may have had malaria. Jesus bent over her, rebuked the disease, and she was instantly well. And what did she do? She got up and quickly began waiting on them. It doesn’t say she got up and worshipped, or she got up and prayed, or she got up and gave her testimony. It simply came naturally to her to start serving.
“Oh, my, you need that dirt washed off your feet. You need somewhere to sit down. Let’s find you a cool drink. Then I need to get back to roasting those fish. We’re going to have a lot of mouths to feed today with all this company. I’d better cut up some more cucumbers. I think I have time to bake another loaf of bread.”
She got up and served them. Is that what you or I would have done?
If I could go back and re-live my life—including my years as a husband to Katrina—I like to think I would do a better job about humbly serving. In looking back at her prolonged illness, there were times when I was called upon to do things I never expected to do. Everyone who has done serious caregiving knows what this is like. It is almost traumatic at times. It was exhausting. It was messy. I wasn’t prepared, and if I could do it over I think I could do better at following my axiom: Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.
Sometimes I did that, but many times I didn’t. Studying Peter’s house has made me reevaluate some things about my entire life.
I just finished reading Chad William’s book, Seal of God. His dad was a pastor, and Chad caused his parents many sleepless nights. He was a stubborn teenager looking for fun and adventure. At some point, he decided he wanted to be a Navy SEAL, and he went after it with all heart. He made it. The Navy SEAL trident was pinned onto his uniform.
His parents planned a big party for him at their home in Huntington Beach, and as he drove home for his party a feeling of desolation came over him. He wrote, “The farther I drove, and the deeper I reflected, the more let down I felt. I had reached my mountaintop, only to discover after a brief look around that the view disappointed me. And there was no higher step to take. I had reached as high as I could reach, accomplished everything I believed I could accomplish….”
He went on to say, “There had to be more than a hundred people at my parents’ house for the celebration. Everywhere I turned, someone was walking up to me with a ‘Congratulations, Chad!’
“‘Thanks,” I would answer, with a smile—a fake smile. I knew they expected me to appear excited, but deep down I wasn’t. Why did I feel so disappointed?”
“I didn’t tell anyone how I felt. I just began looking around for the missing piece. Unfortunately I started my search in all the wrong places…. That is when I reached a new level of recklessness—not only with my drinking, but with my entire lifestyle.”
He went on to describe the crazy, foolhardy things he became involved with, and I wondered how he could survive the things he was doing. Finally his threw him out of the house. He had come home for a break, but his behavior was so self-destructive they told him to leave. He was killing them. But there was a problem. He had a lot of alcohol hidden in their garage, and he didn’t want to get kicked out of the house before smuggling it out. So he decided to buy some time.
“Hey, you guys are going to some church thing tonight, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” they said.
“I’ll go with you.” He thought that would buy him one more day at home and give him time to smuggle out his contraband. So he went with them to a tent meeting where evangelist Greg Laurie was preaching. Before he knew it, Chad was getting caught up in the sermon, and to his own shock and consternation, when Laurie gave the invitation, Chad got up. The moment he stood up, he felt a change come over him instantly.
He wrote, “I had already felt a complete transformation inside of me, but when I started down the aisle, I experienced yet another new feeling: humility. That walk was like a walk of humiliation. I felt exposed…. And I felt like a quitter—but the good kind of quitter. I was admitting that I couldn’t keep living my life on my own. I was… enlisting to live a life God’s way.
“Such an attitude doesn’t come naturally to a SEAL… it was a big step into humility for me to remove my trust in myself and place it completely in God. Nothing in my life—not even Hell Week [during SEAL training]—made me feel weak. But that night I did feel weak. it wasn’t what I would have thought weakness would feel like, though.”
He said it was like the apostle Paul said, that in our weakness we feel God’s strength.
You may wonder what this had to do with Peter’s mother. When we turn our lives over to Christ, when He heals us, we have to accept what Chad Williams called, “another new feeling: humility. That walk was like a walk of humiliation. I felt exposed….”
To serve your husband or your wife or your children, to serve those under your roof, to serve your friends and community, to be a caregiver—that’s a walk of humility. I haven’t always done it as well as I should have. But Peter’s mother-in-law can teach us a very important lesson. She only has two verses in the Bible. She makes only a cameo appearance. But the moment the fever felt away from her, her strength returned and she got up and started serving the large crew that had shown up in her son-in-law’s house.
More Visits Inside Peter’s Home
Let’s briefly look at three more things that took place within the walls of Peter’s home. In Mark 2, the whole town was trying to get inside of that house: A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.
Jesus had made their town and in particular Peter’s house His home. Jesus will move right into your house and life with you, if you’ll let Him.
They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.
A group of men—who knows the number, perhaps a dozen or so—had a buddy who was paralyzed. These men loved their buddy. He might have been one of the coworkers who had been injured in an accident. This was a group of men who had placed their faith in Jesus, and they believed Jesus could heal him. So they put their buddy on a stretcher, and for of them carried him to Jesus. But the crowd was so great they couldn’t get in the door. But these men would not be denied. Some of them climbed on top of the room and started shoving aside the wood and the branches, which probably sent a cloud of dirt and dust down on top of Jesus.
I’ve had sermons interrupted by many things, but never this. They formed a human chain and somehow got their buddy situated so they lowered him through the roof.
These men had faith in Jesus, but the paralyzed man must have also had a lot of faith in his buddies. I remember during Katrina’s illness someone became worried about my lifting her all the time and they said we needed to get a Hoyer Lift. That’s a contraption where you put the person in a sling and then take them through the air from one place to another.
I had Katrina swinging through the air like she was on an amusement park ride. She was shouting, “Robert! Robert!” I’d try to land her in the right place, but my bearings were off, so up she’d go again! It was like the swings at the State Fair. I finally landed her safe and sound in the bed, but it was akin to the space shuttle splashing down.
I imagine that’s how the man felt as he came down through the roof. But the passage says, “Jesus saw their faith…,” meaning the faith of the group of men. And He healed the man, forgave his sins, and the man walked out under his own power.
When a group of men have faith in the Lord and want to serve their buddy, that’s a combination that draws the attention of Jesus. Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.
Our next visit is when the Lord’s brothers show up in the next chapter, Mark 3:31-35, as we saw in the previous chapter. They thought Jesus was out of His mind. But Jesus told the crowd: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Then He looked at those seated in a circle around Him, and He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Doing God’s will. Serving Him. Humbly doing what He says.
The next time we visit Peter’s house, Jesus is inside and Peter is upset about paying the temple tax. Jesus said, in effect, “I am the Lord of the temple; I don’t have to pay the tax. But let’s not cause offense. Go catch a fish and you’ll find a coin in its mouth. Take it and pay My tax and yours too” (see Matthew 17:24-27).
Not only did Jesus offer to pay Peter’s tax, but He did it when He didn’t have to, just to avoid causing offense, causing a problem. And He threw in a personal miracle for Peter as well.
The Last Visit Inside Peter’s Home
Before making our last visit to Peter’s home, let’s look at the context. Mark 9:2-4 says, “After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and let them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whither than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.”
This is the ultimate mountaintop experience. This was the most exciting, glorious, single moment in the Lord’s entire ministry prior to His resurrection. Why didn’t He take all His disciples with Him? Well, He had another assignment for them. He left them down in the lower elevations to work on a problem.
Look down at verse 14: “When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.” The other nine disciples had gotten into a shouting match with the crowd. They were arguing. Jesus approached the group and said, “What are you arguing about?” (verse 16). The problem was that the other disciples had failed to cast a demon out of a boy. They had tried. They had probably said, “Demon, come out of him. In the name of Jesus, come out of him.” But the boy had gone berserk, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and becoming as rigid as an iron pipe.
Jesus cast the demon out, and then He and His disciples returned to Capernaum and came into Peter’s house. They were home. Now look at verses 33-37:
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house [that would have almost certainly been Peter’s house, where He was staying], he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
Can you get the feeling of this? Jesus was apparently walking some distance ahead of them, or perhaps behind them, but He could see they were bickering. They were quarreling. Have you ever walked in on a married couple and realized you walked in on a squabble? What do you think caused the argument? Peter probably said, “We were up on the mountain with Jesus in all His glory, and there you guys were. You couldn’t even cast out the stupid demon!”
Nathanael shot back, “I’d like to have seen you try. You have no idea what we were dealing with.”
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Children had the very lowest status of anyone in the culture. That was especially true in the ancient world. They couldn’t do anything except run around and play and cry and make messes and be fed and go to the bathroom whenever and wherever they felt like it. Jesus was telling them, “Taking care of these little children and feeding them and changing them and caring for their needs is a greater thing that hiking to the mountaintop to see Me transfigured.”
Do you think they got the message?
No. Luke 22 says that in the Upper Room on the final night of our Lord’s natural life as He met with them amid the flickering candles and lamps, they were still put out with each other. Luke 22:24 said, “A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.”
I believe that’s when, according to John 13, Jesus said, in effect, “No one here has offered to do that task that Jewish people have been doing for 2000 years, washing the dust and dirt off your feet. So I’m going to do it.” And He washed their feet like a slave or a servant would have done.
Did that do the trick?
Nope. After Jesus rose from the dead, He met with Peter one day on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and they had a very tender moment together. Then Peter saw the disciple John in the distance and said, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus said, in effect, “If I want Him to live to be 2,000 years old and stay on this earth until I return, what does that have to do with you? I have a plan for him and I have a plan for you, and they are two different plans. You follow Me. You serve Me” (See John 21:21-23).
There’s a paradox to being the servant of the Lord. In the Old Testament, it was considered a phrase of honor—the servant of the Lord. The Bible talks about Moses the servant of the Lord (Deuteronomy 34:5); Joshua the servant of the Lord (Joshua 24:29); and David the servant of the Lord (Psalm 18:1). And yet, there’s a humility to it, because it is, by nature, a lowly place.
In preparing for this message, I read a book titled Born to Serve. The author was Samuel Sutton Jr., a Navy veteran, who served as the personal valet to three presidents—Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Sutton is a dedicated Christian. He grew up in a house with no heat or air conditioning, no hot water, and he walked over three miles to church every Sunday. He worked in the tobacco fields from the age of ten until he was nineteen and joined the Navy where he says he had his first hot shower. In the Navy he was assigned to drive around the admiral, and he became his valet. In time he became the same for General Joe Vessey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Samual wrote, “I cut the grass, cleaned the house, washed clothes and cars… [and took care of] the general’s uniform…. General Vessey had at least thirty ribbons and stars that had to be put back in the same exact way after his uniform was cleaned.”
In time, Samuel was appointed to the White House. He wrote, “Other than the First Family, no one is physically closer to the president than his valet.” The valet is the one who wakes the president up, whether it’s in the middle of the night or at six o’clock in the morning. He helps him with his bath, selects his clothes, shines his shoes, helps him dress, get his breakfast for him, gets lunch for him, takes the dog on a walk, and tucks the president in at night.
Samuel said that when Barack Obama woke up on his first morning in the White House, he looked over and said, “Sam, where’s a good place to smoke.”
Sam said, “Mr. President, I think the greenhouse would be best.”
Sam found an ashtray and led Obama to the solarium on the roof where the new president lit his cigarette. Obama asked him about his service in the Navy, and then he said, “I need your help with something. Can you show me the right way to salute when I’m walking to a helicopter or meeting with our military.”
“Mr. President, I’d be happy to help you.”
Obama put down his cigarette and the two men faced each other and for the next half hour he taught the forth-fourth president of the United States how to salute.
Here is what I highlighted in Samuel Sutton Jr.’s book:
Performing the duties of a valet is an underappreciated art. It’s not something you can master in a month or two. You have to be aware of a person’s tastes, moods, inclinations, likes, and dislikes. It’s not a haphazard job….
My life has been a life of faith. I believe that God sent Jesus to die for our sins. If God is for me, then who can be against me? I know I’m not perfect. I get up every morning and pray to God to make me a better person. I know I would not have come this far without his help. I pray throughout the day for God to help me. If something gets in my way, I take a breath. God, help me put this breakfast together real quick. And then the angels come, and help is on the way….
I was born to serve. That service has afforded me opportunities that have richly blessed my life and my family.
That’s what Peter would have said. In fact, he said something very similar when he wrote 1 Peter. He said, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up…. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms….”
He learned those lessons under his own roof when Jesus came to stay with him. Let’s open the door for Jesus too. Let’s make room for Him. And let’s remember:
Jesus employs only servants. Following Him means a humble willingness to joyfully do whatever is required.