The Galilean Ministry Begins
THE GALILEAN MINISTRY BEGINS
MATTHEW 4:12-25
Doing our present task well is the best preparation for a bigger one.
Jesus only had to get on board a ship from “Capernaum by the sea” (4:13) to cross the lake and be out of reach of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, who had imprisoned John, so it was a suitable base for Jesus’ Galilean ministry. In the evangelist’s eyes it was suitable also because this is the area where, according to the oracle of Isaiah 9:1f., light (associated with the promised Prince of the house of David) is to break forth on those who had endured the darkness of defeat and depopulation. The Gentiles of Transjordan (4:15) are to share in the messianic blessing (cf. 8:28ff.; 15:29ff.).
Jesus’ message is summed up (4:17) in the same words as John’s preaching (3:2), but “the kingdom of heaven” on his lips had not the same connotation as it had on John’s (cf. 11:2ff.). Jesus’ call to repentance was a call to men to reassess all personal and social values in the light of the approach of the divine kingdom in his ministry; the nature of this re-assessment appears, for example, in the beatitudes of 5:3-12.
Right at the beginning of the Galilean ministry he summoned his first four disciples to leave their nets and come along with him: they were to become “fishers of men” (4:19), bringing them into the new order which Jesus announced. The claims of the kingdom of heaven were paramount and imperious; neither family ties nor business interests might stand in their way (4:22).
Jesus’ ministry at this early stage was one of public teaching and healing; the synagogues of Galilee were open to him for his proclamation that the ancient prophecies were now being fulfilled. The “gospel of the kingdom” (4:23) was the good news that God, as he had promised, was visiting his people. The various kinds of physical and mental affliction enumerated in 4:24 were intrusions into God’s good creation: the power of the kingdom of heaven was manifested in the relief which Jesus gave to their victims (cf. 12:28). The news of his ministry naturally traveled far and wide, and crowds flocked to him from all parts of Palestine and the adjoining lands.
Note 4:24: The word rendered “epileptics” literally means “moonstruck,” but it denotes not lunacy (cf. KJV “lunatick”) but epilepsy (as also in 17:15).