SETTING OFF TO TOUR GALILEE WITH THE FIRST FOUR

“Beginning the Galilean Ministry”, Artist and date unknown (from mydivinemercy.blogspot.com)

SETTING OFF TO TOUR GALILEE WITH THE FIRST FOUR

Matthew 4:23-24, Mark 1:35-39, Luke 4:42-44

Jesus is about to start his first great campaign. It is known as the Great Galilean Ministry and for good reason. It stretches over a period of a year and a half and is mostly conducted in Galilee or to areas further north, such as Syria. We often associate Jesus with Jerusalem, but he actually spends the smaller part of his life in Judea. He was born in Bethlehem, which is a stones throw from Jerusalem, but as an infant was hustled off to Egypt and then settled for his youth in Nazareth in Galilee.

There were certainly pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the holy feast days, but we don’t find him spending a lot time in southern Israel during his adulthood. He goes south to be baptized, where he meets some of his future Apostles. He returns home for a while, and then goes to Jerusalem for Passover where he causes a ruckus at the Temple. This basically makes him something of an outlaw. He flees into the wilderness until John the Baptist is arrested, then he fleas through Samaria back to Galilee.

He will have a brief ministry in Judea during the fall of 29 A.D., but then the remainder of his preaching travels will be across the border in Perea. Finally he will enter Jerusalem again for the Passion Week. It is clear that for most of his ministering life he stayed away from the center of Jewish religious and secular power. From the time he upset the Moneychangers tables he was a man with a target on his back and lived a life of at least a semi-fugitive.

Now having set up his base in Capernaum and called four of his followers to him, he has indulged in some very localized preaching and healings. His popularity in the region has grown and word of his deeds has begun to spread. He is ready to widen the circle, to take the message further and as a result his fame will grow even greater.

And when in the morning, rising up a great while before it was day, he went out, and departed into a solitary desert place and there prayed. And the people sought him, and came to him, and stayed him that he should not depart from them. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him and when they had found him, they said to him, “All men seek for you.”

This is the Sunday after the Sabbath. The first day of the week, and it on this day Jesus makes a decision for another change. Before he does and before he announces it, he does what we Christians should, but often neglect to do. Jesus goes to a place alone and prays about it. When it says he “departed into a desert place”, this may not mean he went into a literal desert, it could simply mean a deserted or solitary place. He rises and goes to this place before dawn, probably an attempt not to be seen.

Whether anyone saw him leave or not doesn’t matter, he wasn’t solitary for long because the people came looking for him, found him and wouldn’t leave; in fact, attempted to not let him leave either.

“Simon and they that were with him” most likely includes Andrew, James and John, the four fishermen who had been at Simon’s mother-in-law the evening before. They did not accompany him to this place. Jesus probably slipped out while the others were still sleeping so he could be alone with God the Father. Note it says they followed and found him. Their comment that, “All men seek for you” applies to them as well.

And he said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there. I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent forth.

There are several things we see here and an interesting question. First, there has been a definite progression or widening of the events in Jesus’ ministry through this point. Secondly, there has been an indication that each such as been directed by God. It raises a question, which we can’t really answer, of how Jesus all man coexisted in communication with Jesus all God. Third, there has been a pattern of withdrawal before each new moving forth. Jesus.

Now after praying, he says to his four followers that he must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities and that he is sent forth. This would be the direction he received during his prayer session.

 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And he preached in the synagogues throughout all of Galilee, healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people and cast out devils.And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

He has widened the circle again and he began in the same manner as when he came down to live in Capernaum, where we are told: “Then he, they, went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and when the Sabbath came on, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.”

At this point of his ministry, Jesus is staying within the traditions of the religious practices of his day and he is doing his teaching in the synagogues. Obviously there has not yet rose animosity against him from the local Rabbis or congregations. We are not given a time period for this initial period of preaching where he is moving about freely in the countryside from town to town. We see word of him is spreading because the sick are coming to him and people are bringing those too ill or possessed to come on their own.

It is probably safe to say these people were not yet honing in on his message. The passages have constantly emphasized his healings. Although we have statements where people noted he spoke with authority, there is no indication of anyone disputing his preaching’s as outside the Jewish canon of the times. No one is commenting on it being a new way yet. It is not that Jesus may not be saying anything of a radical nature, for perhaps he was. It would appear that he has not made any stunning declaration along the line of what he said in Nazareth again. Most likely his miraculous healings are the cause of his spreading fame at this point.

Jesus is also moving about freely. The people might flock to him at the synagogues or seek him out when he goes off to a private place, but they have not reached a point where he can’t go wherever he wishes when he wishes. This is about to soon change.