Matthew 4:12-13

THE MINISTRY BEGUN

‘Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum.’

Matthew 4:12

We approach now the beginning of our Lord’s ministry. He left His quiet country home and went forth to the great work He had come to achieve. As priests of old were washed and anointed in preparation for their priestly office, so Christ, our Prophet, Priest, and King, was washed in the Jordan, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and went forth to win for us a great victory in the wilderness over Satan and sin. Matthew does not tell us the actual beginning of His work. St. John (chaps, 2, 3, 4) shows that Christ had worked at Jerusalem, in Judæa, in Samaria, before He made Capernaum His centre.

I. Why Christ left Judæa.— Herod Antipas had shut up John in prison; the Pharisees seemed to be getting jealous of Christ’s growing influence (St. John 4:1), and He goes northwards, where He could pursue His work with less risk of interruption. Where would He most likely go to in Galilee? Surely to His own town, Nazareth. Yet He did not stay there. St. Luke (Luke 4:29) tells us why. What place did He then make His centre? Capernaum, a town on the extreme north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee. In our Lord’s day it was a fruitful and lovely spot; a splendid centre of trade and population, with the great main roads running through it.

II. The prophecy.—The circumstances under which Isaiah delivered this prophecy (Matthew 4:15) are exceedingly interesting. Ahaz was on the throne of Judah. The neighbouring kingdom of Israel, aided by the Syrians, attacked him in his capital. Isaiah foretold the speedy destruction of Judah’s enemies. He told how at first the two northern tribes of Zebulon and Naphthali were to be ‘ lightly afflicted’ by the Assyrian invader, and how afterwards they should be ‘ more grievously afflicted’ when the Assyrians returned later and made an end of the northern tribes by carrying them away captive to Assyria. Yet was there comfort for these afflicted lands; ‘ a great Light’ was to appear, ‘ the Prince of Peace’ was to arise there. That prophecy was fulfilled in our Lord’s days. It was ‘ Galilee of the Gentiles’ even in the prophet’s day; for, lying on the borders of the heathen world, many Gentiles had flocked into it. In Christ’s days Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Phœnicians, abounded. Probably the foreign element was larger than the Jewish. This explains why the ‘ darkness’ was probably darkest in Galilee; why it still deserved Isaiah’s description as ‘ the region and shadow of death.’

III. The Sun of Righteousness arose in Galilee.—Upon the darkness of heathenism the Light shone and bright Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel.

—W. Taylor.

Illustrations

(1) ‘For some time opinions as to Capernaum were about equally divided between Tell Hûm, at the north-east, and Khan Minyeh. Thomson (Land and the Book, p. 352) advocates the former; Robinson (Bibl. Researches, vol. iii. p. 348) the latter. Recently, the investigations of the Palestine Exploration Fund have pointed to Tell Hûm; but Mr. Macgregor (Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 374), whose long and minute exploration of the Lake—its waters as well as its shores—makes him a very great authority, argues almost conclusively for Khan Minyeh; and Dr. Tristram, who advocated (Land of Israel, p. 442) a different and third view, has yielded to his reasonings.’

(2) ‘The little city, Capernaum, rose under the gentle declivities of hills that encircled an earthly Paradise. There were no such trees and no such gardens anywhere in Palestine as in the land of Gennesareth. The very name means “garden of abundance,” and the numberless flowers blossom over a little plain which is “in sight like unto an emerald.” It was doubtless a part of Christ’s divine plan that His ministry should begin amid scenes so beautiful, and that the good tidings, which revealed to mankind their loftiest hopes and purest pleasures, should be first proclaimed in a region of unusual loveliness. “The cities,” says Josephus, “lie here very thick; and the very numerous villages are so full of people because of the fertility of the land.” Through this district passed the great caravans on their way from Egypt to Damascus; and the heathens who congregated at Bethsaida Julias and Cæsarea Philippi must have been constantly seen in the streets of Capernaum. In the time of Christ it was, for population and activity, “the manufacturing district” of Palestine, and the waters of its lake were ploughed by four thousand vessels of every description, from the war-vessel of the Romans to the rough fisher-boats of Bethsaida, and the gilded pinnaces from Herod’s palace.’