Arrival in Galilee

32 – Arrival in Galilee; John 4:43-45, Luke 4:15, Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15

John 4:43 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee 44 (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). 45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

Luke 4:15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[a]

Mark 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;[a] repent, and believe in the good news.”[b]

Footnotes (Matthew)
a. Matthew 4:17 Or is at hand

Footnotes (Mark)
a. Mark 1:15 Or is at hand
b. Mark 1:15 Or gospel

Commentary

Context

Once again, we should take a look at some other passages to set the stage for what we’re reading today. Take a look at Mark 1:14 and Luke 4:16, even though we used them in other studies already. Those are the verses we used to show Jesus left Judea, but they also say Jesus entered Galilee, transitioning into our study today, of His arrival in Galilee and pronunciation of His message. In John, we also saw the interlude in Samaria, as He stayed there two days during His journey.

Jesus went back to Galilee, even though there are several times in the gospels when the writers quote Him saying a prophet is not received in his own country/household/city, etc. I wonder why He kept going back. “He performed at least 33 known miracles there, and of 32 recorded parables, 19 were spoken in Galilee” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1710). The passage we’re studying in John this week also says the Galileans received Him enthusiastically, despite His concern over their familiarity with Him. However, this may have been a superficial excitement, rather than true belief.

Setting

The Word in Life Study Bible says that, since Galilee was scorned by neighbors in Judea, teaching in Galilee represented the bigger picture that the gospel message wasn’t only for the elite, but for all. But if He famously said He would not be received by His own, why wouldn’t He spend more time in regions where they were more receptive to His message? Andrew Robert Fausset said, “Galilee’s Gentile character caused the southern Jews of purer blood to despise it (John 1:46; 7:52); but its very darkness was the Lord’s reason for vouchsafing to it more of the light of His presence and ministry than to self-satisfied and privileged Judaea. There He first publicly preached, in Nazareth synagogue. From it came His apostles (Acts 1:11; 2:7); foretold in Deuteronomy 33:18-19, 23. Compare on Pentecost Acts 2:7; Psalms 68:27-28. Jerusalem, the theocratic capital, might readily have known Messiah; to compensate less favored Galilee He ministered mostly there. Galilee’s debasement made its people feel their need of the Savior, a feeling unknown to the self-righteous Jews (Matthew 9:13). “The Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of His people Israel,” appropriately ministered on the border land between Israel and the Gentiles, still on Israel’s territory, to which He was primarily sent (Matthew 15:24). Places and persons despised of men are honored of God. The region the first to be darkened by the Assyrian invasion was cheered by the prophet’s assurance that it should be the first enlightened by Immanuel (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Its population being the densest of any part of Palestine, and its freedom from priestly and pharisaic prejudice, were additional grounds for its receiving the larger share of His ministry” (http://sermons.pastorlife.com/members/sermon.asp?sermon_id=3411).

Despite the amount of time and energy He spent there, “there is little evidence that His message ever took firm root in Galilee after He left. His predictions about Capernaum, Chorazin, and other Galilean cities came true (Matt. 11:20-24). In their unbelief they rejected Him – their one and only Prophet and King” (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1710). It is possible that Jesus knew they would need extra convincing, since they had seen Him grow up from a child, so He spent a disproportionate amount of time there. In addition, it was His home. Not only was He comfortable there, but He was also familiar with the landscape, and He deeply loved the people. He longed for them to know the truth, even if He knew many of them would not believe it in the end.

Characterization of Jesus

Back to John 4:44, why is Jesus called a prophet? When I first read this, I was conflicted because I thought it undermined Jesus’ position as God incarnate. Isn’t a prophet just a man or woman? I looked into the definition and found “the OT prophet acted as a mouthpiece for God, receiving a message from Him and proclaiming it in accordance with His commands” (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 4 pg. 875). Regarding Moses’ relationship to Aaron when speaking publicly, Exodus 4:16 says “he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.” In all ways, Jesus, as a subordinate being during His life on Earth, declares submission to the Father. So if His objective was to carry a message from God to man, He fit the bill of a prophet entirely, although His relationship to God was different than any prophet who came before Him. He wasn’t there as a seer or soothsayer, as some pagan prophets, and His knowledge was not restricted to a few pronouncements God gave Him, as with previous Biblical prophets. He was a physical manifestation of God’s message to people who needed a tangible messenger.

Message

Regarding this message from God, Jesus’ inaugural address, in the passages above from Matthew and Mark, conveys the basic, critical message He had come to deliver, but why would it motivate the populace to hear the Kingdom is near? Both Jesus and John the Baptist delivered this same message, and the people found it remarkable because they were not necessarily expecting the Messiah to preach duty, but deliverance. They expected the Messiah to return and reestablish the great prosperity and independence of David and Solomon. The Old Testament prophecies said God was going to send a ruler, so they were expecting a king. As such, if Jesus was the king they had awaited (and if they believed Him), they were obliged to do the will of their king and would likely have done so enthusiastically if it meant freedom from Roman rule. However, they soon started to suspect Jesus was not going to achieve this Hebrew dominion they anticipated. Jesus later said His kingdom was not of this world, which was very confusing to the people who had been waiting their whole lives for someone to rebuild their nation, not save their souls. In these first teachings, Jesus tells the people that their response to the imminent arrival of the kingdom should be repentance. Keeping in mind their expectation was a physical kingdom, my first thought as a Jew would be, “If we’re being freed from oppression, what does that have to do with me repenting from my sins?” Perhaps they recalled, however, that throughout their history they had seen their people suffer for their disobedience to God, as well as receive blessings for obedience, so it’s possible they knew they would have to return to God in order for the Savior to fulfill His purpose.

Since both John the Baptist and Jesus delivered similar messages, calling for an “about face”, let’s take a look at what Jesus and John the Baptist might have been specifically asking them to change in their hearts and actions. They needed to change their allegiance from Rome and from their legalistic Jewish way of life to Jesus, the Messiah, committing to do His will above their own. They also needed to change their expectations, since the kingdom wasn’t the physical place they were expecting and did not appear to be fulfilled by the time Jesus left the earth. (However, Jesus did lay the cornerstone and promised to return to complete the establishment of His kingdom forever.) Thirdly, they needed to change their values. They valued physical comfort, power, and independence, perhaps higher than the souls of their people and the souls of their neighbors. The kingdom is about souls, not about physical comforts on earth. Jesus challenged the people to seek first the kingdom of God, even when they were in pursuit of basic physical needs. Finally, they needed to realign their purpose, as they realized the physical kingdom was not the end they had expected. The kingdom was not near, but here. Now their objective was to accept the lordship of Jesus and to spread the gospel message to as many others as possible (The Word in Life Study Bible pg. 1627).

Finally, in Mark 1:15, Jesus follows His admonition and command for repentance with encouragement to believe in the good news (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1238). He was teaching this message, at least in the beginning, in the synagogues, per Luke 4:15. Virtually every Jewish town had a synagogue, where the Jews were accustomed to learning about the Old Testament. Jesus, while teaching in the synagogue, used the Old Testament prophecies to point to Himself as the Messiah who had been foretold (Nelson KJV Bible Commentary pg. 1270). This would have been extremely good news for those who had ears to hear, and Jesus was trying to impress upon them that both repentance from sin and belief in the Messiah were critical components to their salvation.

See the next post here https://onthepath.online/2019/08/16/child-healed-at-capernaum/

Scripture References

John 4:43

John 4:40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.

John 4:44

Matthew 13:57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”

Mark 6:4 Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is without honor only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household.”

Luke 4:24 Then He added, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

John 4:45

Luke 13:1 At that time, some of those present told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

John 2:23 While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the signs He was doing and believed in His name.

John 4:54 This was now the second sign that Jesus performed after coming from Judea into Galilee.

Luke 4:15

Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Luke 4:16 Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read,

Matthew 4:17

Matthew 3:2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Mark 1:14 After the arrest of John, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God.

Luke 3:23 Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was known as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

Mark 1:15

Matthew 3:2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 20:21 testifying to Jews and Greeks alike about repentance to God and faith in our Lord Jesus.

Galatians 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

Ephesians 1:10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.

1 Timothy 2:6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all–the testimony that was given at just the right time.

Titus 1:3 In His own time, He has revealed His message in the proclamation entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.

Commentary

Matt. 11:20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His [a]miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the [b]miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in [c]sackcloth and ashes. 22 Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the [d]miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”

Ex 4:16 Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and he will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him.

Matt 1:22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Matt 2:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

Is 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel

Mic 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”

Is 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.