“Jesus & Co”

“Jesus & Co” = Jesus and Community.

Why not say–Jesus and disciples?

Immediately in our year with Jesus, we are confronted with a fact that is implied by the Gospel accounts. Jesus was part of a larger regional community.

Church conversations most commonly refer to “Jesus and his twelve disciples.” This makes sense, because this social group consistently witnessed Jesus’ teaching and healing activity.

Travel to a feast, however, would include the community from Capernaum and its surroundings. Regarding one Feast-travel-community during Jesus’ youth, Luke refers to it as a “caravan” and describes the people in the community as Joseph’s and Mary’s “relatives” and “friends/acquaintances” (Lk 2:44).

We also encounter relatives and friends surrounding Jesus during his last journey to Jerusalem such as the mother of James and John who would be traveling with their father Zebedee (Mt 20:20), Mary Magdelene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and others (Mt 27:56). Reference to these folks indicates that Jesus was traveling to the Feast as part of larger family groups.

It is important to understand at the outset that the economy of Israel had its own family-schedule in which Jesus participated rather than led or disrupted.

Like the people in our lives, there was a web of relationships around Jesus. There were twelve disciples with Jesus as the Gospels relate, but Feast-travel was one context where Jesus was part of a larger community, thus, “Jesus & Co.”