Matthew 4:13 · World English Bible
Matthew 4:13 Meaning Leaving Nazareth
Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
What does Matthew 4:13 mean?
After the desert trial ends, the figure of the whole self moves to the edge of the sea. Inland Nazareth holds a person's first sense of who he is, the familiar ground of birth and family.
From the Psychoanalysis reading below.
Matthew 4:13 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Psychoanalysis
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Psychoanalysis
After the desert trial ends, the figure of the whole self moves to the edge of the sea.
Inland Nazareth holds a person's first sense of who he is, the familiar ground of birth and family. Leaving it for Capernaum on the shore places the inner life at the border of everything not yet faced. In the deep mind shared by all people, water marks the dangerous region where the hardest-won treasure can be found.
From this coastal edge, the work of becoming whole finds its stage: the fishermen soon called up from the deep are the buried parts of a person, rising to serve his true center.
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Psychoanalysis lens
Live Matthew 4:13 today
- Go somewhere today that is not your usual seat, your usual route, your usual room. Being slightly unfamiliar to yourself is how you find out what was habit and what was you.
- Have one conversation with someone outside your normal circle, a neighbour, a coworker you barely talk to, someone with a different life. The edge of your circle is where you learn the most about its middle.
- When something comes up that you have avoided for months, step toward it instead of back. The uncomfortable thing is usually standing in front of exactly what you need.
What have I been staying inland to avoid?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching 8
Water takes the lowest place and finds its way into everything. The deep places are where the real work is, not the safe high ground.
Buddhism
The path begins by going forth from home into homelessness. What is left behind is not a house but the settled self the house was holding in place.
Hinduism · Upanishads
As rivers flowing into the sea lose their name and shape, the self that reaches the ocean is not destroyed but ceases to be separate. You come to know it by going to the edge and looking out.
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