. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,
Teaching us that after baptism we should most expect temptations, Jesus is led away by the Holy Spirit, for He did nothing apart from the Spirit. He is taken to the desert to show us that He tempts us when He sees that we are alone and do not receive help from others. Therefore, we should not refuse the advice of others and rely on ourselves.
for temptation from the devil,
The devil, that is, the slanderer, is called so because he slandered God to Adam when he said to Him: “God is jealous of you.” He still slanderes virtue.
And, having fasted
He fasted to show that fasting is a powerful weapon against temptation, just as satiety is the source of all sin.
forty days and forty nights,
He fasts as many days and nights as Moses and Elijah. If he had fasted more, His incarnation would have seemed illusory.
finally got hungry.
When he yielded to nature, then he became hungry, so that by hunger he would give a reason to approach and fight with Him and thus defeat him and overthrow him, giving us victory.
. And the tempter came to Him and said: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.
This seducer heard a voice from heaven: “This is My Son,” but on the other hand he sees that He was hungry, and wonders how the Son of God can feel hunger. Therefore, he tempts Him in order to make sure, saying: "if you are the Son of God", he flatters Him, thinking that He is hiding something. But you ask, what was the sin of making bread from stones? So, know that to obey in anything is a sin. On the other hand, the devil did not say: “let this stone be bread,” but “stones,” wanting to plunge Christ into excess, for bread alone is completely enough for a hungry person. That is why Christ did not listen to him.
. He answered and said to him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
This testimony is taken from the Old Testament, for these are the words of Moses. And the Jews ate manna, which was not bread, but according to the Word of God it satisfied every need of the Jews, it was everything that anyone wanted to eat. Whether the Jew wanted fish, eggs, or cheese, manna satisfied his taste.
. Then the devil takes Him to the holy city and places Him on the wing of the temple,
This was one of the parts of the temple that we call side; they seem like wings.
. and says to Him: If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.
Speaking: "if you are the Son of God", wants to say: I don’t believe the voice from heaven, but you show me whether you are the Son of God. Indeed, damned! If He was the Son of God, then should He really have thrown himself down? It is characteristic of your cruelty to overthrow those who are enraged, but to God to save. It is not written about Christ: “They will carry you in their hands”, but about saints who need angelic help. Christ, being God, does not need this.
. Jesus said to him, “It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Christ meekly reflects it, teaching us to defeat demons with meekness.
. Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,
. and he says to Him: I will give all this to You if you fall down and worship me.
Some understand by a very high mountain the passion of greed, into which the enemy is trying to draw Jesus; but they think wrong. For He appeared to Him sensually, but the Lord did not receive thoughts; no! So, he sensually showed Him all the kingdoms on the mountain, presenting them before His eyes in a ghost, and said: “I will give all this to You if, when you fall, you will worship me.” Because of his pride, he considers the world his property. This and now he tells the selfish that those who worship him will have peace in their power.
. Then Jesus says to him: Get behind Me, Satan; for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.
The Lord was angry with him when he saw that he was appropriating God’s things for himself, and said: “I will give all this to you,” supposedly his own. Find out from here what benefit the Scripture brings, for the Lord silenced the enemy with it.
. Then the devil leaves Him, and lo, the Angels came and served Him.
The Lord defeated three temptations: gluttony, vanity and passion for wealth, that is, greed. These are the main passions. Therefore, having defeated them, it is much easier to defeat the rest. That's why Luke says: "and having finished all temptation"(), although the Lord defeated only the main ones. Therefore, the angels served Him to show that after the victory they would serve us, for Christ does and shows all this for our sake. The angels always serve Him, as God.
. When Jesus heard that John had been given over into custody, retired to Galilee
. and leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali.
Jesus withdraws, teaching us this so that we do not expose ourselves to danger. He retires to Galilee, that is, a sloping country, for the pagans have fallen into sin, and settles in Capernaum, that is, in the “house of consolation,” because He came down in order to make the pagans the home of the Comforter. Zebulun in translation means “night”, and Naphtali means “breadth”, for the pagans had both night and breadth in their lives, since they did not walk the narrow path, but leading to destruction.
. that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, saying:
. the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, on the seaside way, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,
. the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and the shadow of death a light dawned.
“The path of the sea” instead – a country lying “on the way to the sea.” The great light is the Gospel. The law was also light, but small. The shadow of death is sin; she is the likeness and image of death, for just as sin captures the body, so sin captures the soul. The light shone upon us, for it was not we who sought it, but it itself appeared to us, as if pursuing us.
. From that time Jesus began to preach and say:
From the moment John was imprisoned, Jesus began to preach, for He waited for John first to testify about Him and prepare for Him the way that He was to go, just as slaves prepare the way for their masters. Being equal to the Father, the Lord Himself had His prophet in the person of John, just as His Father had prophets before John, or rather, they were prophets of both the Father and the Son.
repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Christ and a virtuous life are the Kingdom of Heaven. For if someone lives on earth like an angel, is he not heavenly? So in each of us there is the Kingdom of Heaven if we live like angels.
. Passing near the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen;
And he says to them:
They were John's disciples. When John was still alive, they came to Christ, and when they saw that John was bound, they again returned to the life of fishermen. Thus, passing by, he caught them, saying:
follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him.
Look what obedient people they were - they immediately followed Him. From this it is clear that this was a second calling. Having been taught by Christ, then leaving Him, they immediately followed Him again as soon as they saw Him.
To nourish one's father in his old age, and to nourish oneself with honest work, is a great virtue.
mending their nets, and called them.
They were poor, and therefore, not being able to buy new networks, they were forced to repair the old ones.
. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.
Zebedee apparently did not believe, and so they left him. You see when you need to leave your father: when he blocks the path to virtue and piety. The sons of Zebedee, seeing that the first (brothers Simon and Andrew) followed Christ, immediately, imitating them, themselves followed Him.
. And Jesus walked throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
He goes to Jewish synagogues to show that He is not an opponent of the law.
and healing every disease and every disease among the people.
He begins with signs so that they will believe what He teaches. Illness is a long-term suffering, while infirmity is a short-term disruption of the correct life of the body.
. And rumors about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all the weak, those possessed by various diseases and seizures, and the demon-possessed, and the lunatics, and the paralytic, and He healed them.
Christ did not ask any of those brought about faith, because this was already a matter of faith, that they were brought from afar. Those who go crazy are called lunatics. For the demon, wanting to convince people that the stars bring harm, lies in wait for the full moon and then torments them, so that they consider the moon to be the cause of suffering and slander God’s creation. The Manichaeans were also mistaken in this.
. And a great multitude followed him from Galilee, and from the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
2. THROUGH TEMPTATION (4:1-11) (MARK 1:12-13; LUK 4:1-13)
Matt. 4:1-2. Immediately after baptism, the Spirit of God led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil (according to legend, this happened near Jericho, map). Obviously, this period of time was necessary in the mind of the Father, so that in it the Son, led by His hand, would show a model of obedience (Heb. 5:8). The test or temptation of the Son began after He, having fasted for forty days and forty nights, felt a severe attack of hunger.
It appears that from God's perspective the Lord Jesus' putting him through temptation was intended to demonstrate His spiritual power. The Son of God could not sin by His nature, and by this the severity of His temptation was aggravated on a scale incomprehensible to us. He had to endure to the end, without “easing” his soul with his “fall.”
Matt. 4:3-4. The first temptation concerned the sphere of Jesus' filial relationship with the Heavenly Father. Satan hoped that, being the Son, Jesus could be “flattered” by some act or action “independent” of the Father. Tempting the Son, Satan acted subtly and cunningly: if you are the Son of God, he said, approaching Jesus, then you can turn these stones into bread with your own word. But Jesus knew that this was not the will of the Heavenly Father regarding Him. It consisted in allowing Him to “hunger in the wilderness” without food.
To listen to Satan's "advice" and satisfy your hunger would mean to act contrary to the will of the Father. And in response to the evil spirit, Jesus quotes words from Deut. 8:3 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” There is more good in being obedient to the word of God than in satisfying human desires. The fact that Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy shows that He recognized the infallibility of its authority, and this cannot but sound a rebuke to those theologians who dare to “criticize” it.
Matt. 4:5-7. By tempting Christ a second time, Satan tried to kindle in Him the desire to “show off oneself” for the sake of greater popularity among people. The evil spirit came from the same thing as in the first case: if you are the Son of God, that is, the Messiah, no evil will happen to you; and so the devil takes Him and... places Him on the wing of the temple. It is not possible to dogmatically judge whether this actually happened or was just a vision. One way or another, Satan took a cunning step here in relation to Jesus as the Messiah.
He, in essence, reminded Him of the prophecy of Malachi (3:1), based on which many Jews believed that the Messiah would suddenly descend from heaven and appear in the temple. Satan seemed to be saying: Why don’t You do what people expect from You, and what would be a demonstration of a miracle in their eyes? After all, it is written that the Angels “will carry You in their hands, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.” Satan may have thought that he, too, needed to quote from Scripture if Jesus was doing it.
However, he deliberately did not bring Ps. 90:11-12 exactly, omitting the important idea that “Angels are commanded to guard You in all Your ways.” The psalmist, meanwhile, meant exactly that, that God will protect in everything he who acts according to His will. If Jesus would have thrown himself down from the wing of the temple in order to raise His prestige among people in such an unusual way, then he would not have acted according to the will of God. That is why He again answered the tempter with the words from Deuteronomy 6:16, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,” implying that he who goes out of His will should not expect help from Him.
Matt. 4:8-11. The final temptation from Satan had to do with God's plan for Jesus. God intended that Jesus Christ would rule the world. And so Satan shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Currently, these “kingdoms” belong to Satan, since he is “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and “the prince of this world” (John 12:31 cf. Eph. 2:2). Consequently, by tempting Jesus, he really had the power at that time to give Him all the kingdoms, but on the condition: if you fall and worship me.
What Satan was actually saying was, “I can do God’s will for You, and You can have all these kingdoms now.” In that case, of course, Jesus would never have gone to the cross. One can assume that He could have become the “King of kings” without experiencing the suffering of the cross. This, however, would mean thwarting God's plan to save the world; and for Jesus personally this would mean bowing down to a creature inferior to Him. And again He refers to the book of Deuteronomy (6:13 and 10:20), where it is said that only God should be worshiped and served. Thus Jesus resisted this temptation.
It is interesting to note that Satan tempted Eve in the same way in the Garden of Eden. It affected her physical appetite (Gen. 3:1-3; Matt. 4:3), flattered her “feeling of security” (Gen. 3:4-5; Matt. 4:6), and finally inflamed her what we call “ambition,” the desire for power and authority (Gen. 3:5-6; Matt. 4:8-9).
In the same “three ways” the evil spirit has been seducing people from the ages (1 John 2:16). But the One who identified Himself with sinners through baptism and Who gives people righteousness has proven that He Himself is righteous, and this is confirmed by the Heavenly Father. The result is natural: the devil leaves Jesus. And at the same moment God sends Angels to serve Him.
II. News brought by the King (4:12 - 7:29)
L. The Beginning of His Sermons (4:12-25)
1. WORD OF JESUS (4:12-22) (MARK 1:14-20; LUK 4:14-15)
A. His Sermon (4:12-17)
Matt. 4:12-16. Matthew makes an important clarification regarding the timing of further events, noting that Jesus began His ministry only when he heard that John had been taken into custody. The reason for John the Baptist's imprisonment is given later in 14:3. Upon learning of John's arrest, Jesus leaves Nazareth and settles in Capernaum (Luke 4:16-30 explains why He left Nazareth). This area was inhabited by the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali (since these were the lands that fell to them according to the division made by Joshua), but pagans also lived there.
Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 9:1-2) that light would shine in this land, and Matthew views Jesus' removal to Capernaum as the fulfillment of this prophecy. One of the tasks of the Messiah was to bring light to those who are in the shadow (darkness) of death, to become this light for both Jews and Gentiles (John 1:9; 12:46).
Matt. 4:17. So, after John was imprisoned, Jesus began to preach. Many are already familiar with the motif, or rather, two motifs, that sounded in His words: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (compare 3:2). What John the Baptist had previously proclaimed, the Messiah Himself began to proclaim. Now God’s work was rapid progress towards the ultimate goal - the establishment of His glorious Kingdom on earth. And if someone wants to become a part of this Kingdom, they must repent. For repentance is an indispensable condition for joyful communication with God.
b. Jesus calls the disciples (4:18-22) (Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11)
Matt. 4:18-22. Because Jesus was the promised Messiah, He had the right to take people out of their daily activities and call them to follow Him. However, the meeting with Simon and Andrew that Matthew writes about was not Jesus' first meeting with these people; the first is described in the Gospel of John (1:35-42). But now Jesus called these fishermen to leave their usual occupation in order to follow Him always and everywhere. For from the “fishers” He intended to make them fishers (of the souls of men).
The news of the coming Kingdom of God had to be preached everywhere so that many could hear it and - through repentance - become “partakers” of this Kingdom. However, the call of Jesus was not easy to fulfill, for it assumed that a person would have to - in order to fulfill it - leave not only his studies, but also his neighbors. Matthew explicitly states that James and John parted not only with their fishing gear, but also with their father; both followed Jesus.
2. ABOUT THE WORKS OF JESUS (4:23-25) (LUKE 6:17-19)
Matt. 4:23. The Lord did not limit himself to preaching. His deeds were no less important than His words, since the Jews could always ask: “Can this one who calls Himself the Messiah do deeds worthy of the Messiah?” The summary of Jesus' works found in 4:23 is very important to the development of Matthew's main theme (note that Matthew 9:35 sounds almost identical to Matthew 4:23, which talks about several significant things).
1) . And Jesus walked throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He who claimed the title of King of the Jews taught among the Jews. He taught in synagogues where Jews gathered for worship.
2) . Jesus taught and preached, that is, he performed prophetic ministry - after all, He was the “Prophet” promised to the Jews in Deuteronomy (Deut. 18:15-19).
3) . He proclaimed to them the Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom. For the essence of His preaching was that God intended to fulfill what He promised to Israel (when He entered into a covenant with them) by establishing His Kingdom on earth.
4) . Jesus healed every sickness and every disease among people (compare “teaching,” “preaching,” and “healing” in Matt. 9:35). This proved that He was a true Prophet, since His words were accompanied by “signs.” All this should have convinced the Jews that God acted in history to fulfill His purposes. They were required to repent of their sins and recognize Jesus as their Messiah.
Matt. 4:24-25. The ministry of Jesus, and perhaps the ministry of the four disciples whom He called first (verses 18-22), made a tremendous impression on the people: hearing about the wonderful works of Jesus caused large crowds to flock to Him. Matthew writes: And rumors about Him spread throughout all Syria, that is, throughout all the territory north of Galilee.
Those who came to see and hear Him brought with them many sick people suffering from all kinds of diseases, and Jesus healed them. It is not surprising that many people followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis (meaning the area south and east of the Sea of Galilee), and Jerusalem and Judea, and beyond the Jordan (map).
FORTY-DAY FAST AND TEMPTATION FROM THE DEVIL
(Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13)
The first three Evangelists have a narrative about the forty-day fast of the Lord Jesus Christ and his subsequent temptation in the desert from the devil, and St. Matthew and St. Luke, and St. Mark only mentions this briefly, without giving details.
After baptism, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,” located between Jericho and the Dead Sea. One of the mountains of this desert is still called the Forty Days, after the Lord’s forty days of fasting on it. The first work of the Spirit of God that rested on Jesus at baptism was to lead Him into the wilderness, so that there He could prepare through fasting and prayer for the great service of saving mankind. There He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, i.e., as can be seen, during all this time He ate nothing at all and “after a hunger,” i.e. came to an extreme degree of hunger and exhaustion. “And the tempter came to Him,” this was the final attack of the tempter, for according to Luke the devil did not cease to tempt the Lord for 40 days (4:2).
What is the meaning of this temptation of the Lord from the devil?
Having come to earth in order to destroy the works of the devil, the Lord could, of course, destroy them immediately with one breath of His lips, but we must know and remember that the works of the devil were rooted in the errors of the free human soul, which the Lord appeared to save without depriving of freedom, this greatest gift of God to man, created not by a pawn, not by a soulless automaton, and not by an animal guided by an unconscious instinct, but by a free, rational personality. In relation to the Divinity of Jesus Christ, this temptation was a struggle between the spirit of evil and the Son of God, who came to save man, to maintain his power over people with the help of the ghosts of knowledge and happiness. This temptation was similar to the temptation of Jehovah that the Israelites allowed themselves in Rephidim (Ex. 17: 1-7), complaining about the lack of water: “Is the Lord among us or not?” So the devil begins his temptation with the words: “If you are the Son of God.” And just as the Psalmist says about the sons of Israel that they tempted the Lord in the desert, so the devil tempted the Son of God with the intention of irritating Him, angering Him, reproaching and insulting Him (Psalm 77:40-41). Mainly, the temptation was directed against the human nature of Jesus, on which the devil hoped to extend his influence, to seduce its will onto the wrong path.
Christ came to earth in order to establish His kingdom among people - the Kingdom of God. Two paths could lead to this goal: one, which the Jews of that time dreamed of - the path of the quick and brilliant accession of the Messiah as an earthly king, the other - a slow and thorny path, the path of voluntary moral rebirth of people, associated with much suffering not only for followers of the Messiah, but also for Himself.
The devil wanted to divert the Lord from the second path, trying to deceive Him, according to humanity, of course, with the ease of the first, which promised not suffering, but only glory.
First of all, taking advantage of the hunger that tormented Jesus as a man, the devil tried to convince Him to use His Divine power in order to get rid of this painful feeling of hunger for every person. Pointing to the stones, which in this area still resemble bread in their shape, he says: “If you are the Son of God, these stones will be bread.” The devil hoped that, having been tempted by this once, Jesus would continue to do the same: he would protect himself with legions of angels from a crowd of enemies, come down from the cross or call on Elijah to save Him (Matt. 26:53; 27:40, 49), and then the matter would the salvation of mankind through the sufferings of the Son of God on the cross would not have been realized. The God-man, who for others turned water into wine and miraculously multiplied the loaves, rejected this evil advice with the words of Moses, spoken regarding the manna with which God fed His people for 40 years in the wilderness: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth.” from the mouth of God" (Deut. 8:3). By “verb” here we must understand the good will of God, providing for man. The Lord worked miracles to satisfy the needs of others, and not His own: if, in all His sufferings, instead of enduring them, He had resorted to His Divine power, He could not have been an example for us. Repeating this miracle often, He could have attracted with Him all the people who were then demanding “bread and circuses,” but these people would not have been reliable for the free Kingdom of God that He founded. His goal was for people to freely follow Him according to His word, but not like slaves, carried away by the ease of possessing earthly goods.
Having been defeated in the first temptation, the devil proceeded to the second: he led the Lord to Jerusalem and, standing on the wing of the temple, suggested: “If you are the Son of God, look down from below: for it is written, that His angel commanded You to keep You, and they will take You in their arms You..." Again a proposal to strike the imagination of people who are tensely awaiting the coming of the Messiah with a miracle, so as to easily captivate them with him: and this, of course, would be fruitless for the moral life of people, and the Lord rejected this proposal too with the words: "Not tempt the Lord your God,” spoken at one time by Moses to the people of Israel (Deut. 6:16), i.e.: “one should not unnecessarily expose oneself to danger by experiencing the miraculous power of God’s omnipotence.”
Then the devil proceeds to the third temptation: he shows Jesus from a high mountain “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” and says: “I will give all this to you if you worship me.” St. Luke adds at the same time that the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the universe “in a moment of time” and said at the same time: “I will give you all this power and their glory: as it was given to me to eat, and if I want, I will give it” (4: b-7). The devil unfolded before the gaze of Jesus a picture of all the kingdoms of the earth, over which he really ruled, like a spirit of malice, showed Him what forces and means he had in this world to fight God, who came to earth to save man from his power. He hoped, obviously, that this picture would confuse the human spirit of Jesus with fear and doubt about the possibility of carrying out His great work of saving mankind. And indeed: what could be more terrible than the picture of a world that has voluntarily given itself over to the power of the devil?
Of course, in these words the devil promised Jesus purely external power over people, external dominion over them, while retaining internal, spiritual dominion for himself. This is exactly what the Lord did not want, who taught that He did not come for external dominion, not to be served as earthly rulers (Matthew 20:28) and that “His kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36), and this Kingdom is purely spiritual. Therefore, the Lord, with the words of Deuteronomy (6:13): “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone,” drives away the devil from Himself, saying: “Follow Me, Satan!”, indicating that He does not recognize the power of Satan over the world, because the universe belongs to the Lord God, and worship in it is due to Him alone.
“Then leave Him the devil,” according to the Evangelist Luke: “Depart from Him for a time,” because soon he again began to tempt Him through people, erecting all kinds of intrigues (Luke 4:13). The indication of Ev alone is important. Mark that in the desert the Lord was “with the beasts” (Mark 1:13). Like the New Adam, wild animals did not dare to harm Him, recognizing Him as their Master.
THE DESERT OF THE LORD TO GALILEE AND HIS CONVERSATION WITH THE SAMARITAN WOMAN
(Matt. 4:12; Mark 1:14; Luke 4:14; John 4:1-42)
All four Evangelists speak about the departure of the Lord to Galilee. St. Matthew and Mark note that this happened after John was thrown into prison and St. John adds that the reason for this was the rumor that Jesus makes more disciples and baptizes than John the Baptist, although, as he explains, Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples did. After John was imprisoned, all the enmity of the Pharisees was directed at Jesus, who began to seem more dangerous to them than John himself, and therefore Jesus, since the hour of His suffering had not yet come, in order to evade the persecution of his envious enemies, leaves Judea and goes to Galilee. Only the Evangelist John tells about the conversation between the Lord and the Samaritan woman that took place on the way to Galilee.
The path of the Lord lay through Samaria - a region located north of Judea and formerly belonging to the three tribes of Israel: Dan, Ephraim and Manasseh. In this area was the city of Samaria, the former capital of the kingdom of Israel. The Assyrian king Salmanassar conquered this kingdom, took the Israelites into captivity, and in their place settled pagans from Babylon and other places. From the mixing of these settlers with the remaining Jews, the Samaritans emerged. The Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch of Moses, worshiped Jehovah, but did not abandon serving their gods. When the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity and began to rebuild the Jerusalem temple, the Samaritans wanted to take part in this, but were not allowed by the Jews and therefore built themselves a separate temple on Mount Gerizim. Having accepted the books of Moses, the Samaritans rejected the writings of the prophets and all traditions: for this the Jews considered them worse than the pagans and in every possible way avoided having any kind of communication with them, abhorring them and despising them.
Passing through Samaria, the Lord and His disciples stopped to rest near a well, which, according to legend, was dug by Jacob, near the city of Shechem, called Sychar by the Evangelist. Perhaps this is a mocking name that has come into use from “shikar” - “drinking wine” or “sheker” - “lie”. The Evangelist points out that it was “the sixth hour,” in our opinion, noon, the time of greatest heat, which necessitated the need for rest. “A woman came from Samaria,” i.e. Samaritan woman, draw water. The disciples of Jesus went to the city to buy food, and He turned to the Samaritan woman with the request: “Give Me something to drink.” Having learned from speech or clothing that the person turning to her with such a request was a Jew, the Samaritan woman expressed surprise at how Jesus, being a Jew, asked her, the Samaritan woman, for a drink, meaning the hatred and contempt that the Jews had for the Samaritans. But Jesus, who came into the world to save everyone, and not just the Jews, explains to the Samaritan woman that she would not have raised such a question if she had known who was speaking to her and what happiness (gift of God) God had sent her in this meeting. If she knew who was telling her: “Give Me a drink,” then she herself would have asked Him to quench her spiritual thirst, to reveal to her the truth, to the knowledge of which all people strive, and He would have given her this “living water” under which to understand the grace of the Holy Spirit (See John 7:38-39). The Samaritan woman did not understand the Lord: by living water she understood spring water, which is at the bottom of the well, and therefore asks Jesus where He can get living water from, if He has nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. “Are You really greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and he himself and his children and his cattle drank from it,” she recalls with pride and love Patriarch Jacob, who left this well for the use of his descendants. Then the Lord raises her to the highest understanding of His speech: “Whoever drinks of this water will become thirsty again, and whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst for it; but the water that I will give him will be a source of water in him.” , flowing into the eternal belly." In spiritual life, blessed water has a different effect than sensory water in bodily life. He who is filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit will never again feel spiritual thirst, for all his spiritual needs are completely satisfied; meanwhile, the one who drinks sensual water, as well as satisfies all his earthly needs, quenches his thirst only for a while and soon “comes thirsty again.” Moreover, the blessed water will remain in a person, forming a source within him, flowing (literally from Greek: “jumping”) into eternal life, i.e. making a person a partaker of eternal life. Continuing to not understand the Lord and thinking that He is talking about ordinary water, but only some special one that quenches thirst forever, she asks the Lord to give her this water in order to save her from the need to come to the well for water. Wanting to make the Samaritan woman understand that she is not talking to an ordinary person, the Lord first orders her to call her husband, and then directly accuses her of the fact that, having five husbands, she is now living in an adulterous relationship. Seeing that the one speaking to her is a prophet who knows the unseen, she turns to Him for a solution to the question that most tormented the Samaritans at that time in their relationship with the Jews: who is right in the dispute about the place of worship of God, are the Samaritans who, following their fathers? , who built the temple on Mount Gerizim, brought worship to God on this mountain, or the Jews, who argued that God could only be worshiped in Jerusalem.
By choosing Mount Gerizim to worship God, the Samaritans were based on the command of Moses in Deut. 11:29 say a blessing on this mountain. And although their temple, erected on this mountain, was destroyed by John Hyrcanus back in 130 BC, they continued to make sacrifices there. The Lord answers the controversial question with the assurance that it is a mistake to think that God can be worshiped only in one specific place. The controversial issue between Jews and Samaritans will soon lose its significance, for both Jewish and Samaritan worship will cease in the near future. This was fulfilled when the Samaritans, exterminated by wars, became unconvinced of the significance of their mountain, and Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was destroyed by the Romans and the temple burned. Nevertheless, the Lord gives preference to Jewish worship, bearing in mind, of course, that the Samaritans, accepting only the Pentateuch of Moses, rejected the prophetic writings, which set out in detail the doctrine of the person and kingdom of the Messiah. And there is “salvation from the Jews” itself, for the Redeemer of mankind will come from among the Jewish people. Further, the Lord, developing the thought already expressed by Him, indicates that the time will come (and even has already come, since the Messiah has appeared) a time of new higher worship of God, which will not be limited to any one place, but will be universal, for it will be accomplished in the Spirit and truth. Only such worship is true, for it corresponds to the nature of God Himself, Who is the Spirit. To worship God in spirit and in truth means striving to please God not only in an external way, by making sacrifices to Him, as the Jews and Samaritans did, who thought that all worship of God comes down to this alone, but by true and sincere striving for God as Spirit , with all the strength of your spiritual being, to know God and love God, unfeignedly and unfeignedly desiring to please Him by fulfilling His commandments. Worshiping God “in spirit and truth” does not at all exclude the external, ritual side of worship of God, as some false teachers and sectarians try to assert, but they only demand that this side of worship be given first place. In the outer, ritual worship of God itself, one cannot see anything reprehensible: it is both necessary and inevitable, since a person consists not of one soul, but also of a body. Jesus Christ Himself worshiped God the Father with His body, kneeling and falling face down on the ground, and did not reject similar worship of Himself from other persons during His earthly life (see Matt. 2:11; 14:33; 15:22; John. 11:21 and 12:3 and many other places).
As if beginning to understand the meaning of Jesus’ word, the Samaritan woman, thoughtfully, says: “I know that the Messiah will come, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will tell us everything.” The Samaritans also expected the Messiah, calling Him Gashshageb, and basing this expectation on the words of the Pentateuch of Gen. 49:10, Num. Chapter 24 and especially in the words of Moses in Deut. 18:18. The Samaritans' concepts of the Messiah were not as corrupted as those of the Jews: the Samaritans were waiting for a prophet in the person of the Messiah, and the Jews were waiting for a political leader. Therefore, Jesus, who for a long time did not call Himself the Messiah before the Jews, directly tells this simple-minded Samaritan woman that He is the Messiah-Christ promised by Moses: “I am, speak with you.” Delighted with the happiness of seeing the Messiah, the Samaritan woman throws her waterpot at the well and hurries to the city to announce to everyone about the coming of the Messiah, Who, as a Heart-Teller, told her everything that “she had done.”
The disciples who came from the city at that time were surprised that their Teacher was talking with a woman, for this was condemned by the rules of the Jewish rabbis, who instructed: “do not talk for a long time with a woman,” “No one should talk to a woman on the road, even to his lawful wife.” "It is better to burn the words of the law than to teach them to a woman." However, in awe of their Teacher, the disciples did not express their surprise to Him with any question and only asked Him to eat the food they had brought from the city.
But natural hunger is drowned out in Him by the joy of the conversion of the inhabitants of the Samaritan city to Him and by concern for their salvation. He rejoiced that the seed He had thrown had already begun to bear fruit, and therefore, to the disciples’ offer to satisfy His hunger, He answered them that the true food for Him was the fulfillment of the work of saving people, entrusted to Him by God the Father. The Samaritans coming to Him are for Him a field ripe for harvest, while in the fields the harvest will only be in four months. When sowing grain in the ground, it usually happens that the same person who sowed it reaps; when sowing the word, the spiritual harvest more often goes to others, but the one who sows at the same time rejoices along with the one who reaps, for he sowed not for himself, but for others. Christ says therefore that He sends the Apostles to reap the harvest in the spiritual field, which was initially cultivated and sown not by them, but by others: the Old Testament prophets and Himself. During this conversation, the Samaritans approached the Lord. Many believed in Him at the word of the woman, but even more believed at His word when, at their invitation, He stayed with them in the city for two days. Hearing the teaching of the Lord, they, by their own admission, were convinced that He truly was the Savior of the world, Christ.
THE ARRIVAL OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR IN GALILEE AND THE BEGINNING OF HIS SERMON
(Matt. 4:13-17; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:14-15; John 4:43-45)
All four Evangelists speak about the coming of the Lord to Galilee and the beginning of His preaching there. Arriving in Galilee, He left His native city of Nazareth, testifying that a prophet has no honor in his own country, and settled in Capernaum by the sea, located on the territory of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, in which St. Matthew sees the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Isain 9:1-2. The Galileans received Him well, for they also went to the festival in Jerusalem and saw everything that Jesus did there. Soon the rumor about Him spread throughout the whole country, and He taught in their synagogues everywhere, beginning His sermon with the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near!”
It is remarkable that these were the same words with which John the Baptist began his sermon. The New Kingdom, the new orders that the Lord Jesus Christ came to establish in people, are so different from their previous sinful life that people really needed to leave everything the same and, as it were, be born again through repentance, i.e. through a complete internal change. Repentance is such a complete change of thoughts, feelings and desires.
Since the Lord returned from Judea to Galilee, Galilee has become the usual place of His activities. It was a country, small in territory, but very populous in population, which included not only Jews, but also Phoenicians, Arabians and even Egyptians. The excellent fertility of this country has always attracted numerous settlers to it, who became one people with the local population. The dominant faith was Jewish, although there were many pagans in it, which is why it was called the “Galilee language.” All this was the reason, on the one hand, for the great religious ignorance of the Galileans, on the other hand, and for their greater freedom from the religious prejudices of the Jews, in particular regarding the person of the Messiah.
The Savior's disciples were all from Galilee, and His other followers found it easy to follow Him everywhere in this small, fertile country. These considerations can be used to explain the reasons why the Lord chose Galilee as the primary place of His ministry. And we see that the Galileans really turned out to be more receptive to His preaching than the proud Jews.
CALL TO APOSTOLIC MINISTRY OF THE FISHERIES: PETER, ANDREW, JAMES AND JOHN
(Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11)
Three Evangelists tell us about the calling of the first Apostles: Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the first two briefly, as if stating only the very fact of the calling, and St. Luke describes in detail the miraculous catch of fish that preceded this calling. As St. tells us. Evangelist John, while still on the Jordan, His first disciples, Andrew and John, whom He had designated, followed the Lord, then Simon, Philip and Nathanael came to the Lord. But having returned with Jesus to Galilee, they little by little returned to their previous occupation - fishing. Now the Lord calls them to constantly follow Him, commanding them to leave fishing and devote themselves to other work - catching people for the Kingdom of God.
The rumor of the coming of the Messiah quickly spread throughout Galilee, and crowds of people flocked to listen to His teaching. Everyone crowded around Him, and so, one day, when He was on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, which was also called the sea (probably due to the strong storms that were there), He had to get into a boat to set sail a few times and teach the people from it. Having finished the teaching, the Lord ordered Simon, who owned the boat, to sail to the depths and cast his nets. An experienced fisherman, who worked unsuccessfully all night, was sure that the new catch would not be successful, but such a miraculous catch occurred that even the net broke through. Peter and Andrew had to call for help from their comrades who were in another boat, Jacob and John, so that they would help them pull out the caught fish. There were so many fish that both boats filled with them began to sink. Overwhelmed by awe, Peter fell at Jesus’ feet, saying: “Depart from me, Lord! For I am a sinful man.” In these words, he wanted to express the consciousness of his unworthiness before the greatness and power of the Wonderworker. With a word of meekness, the Lord calms Peter and predicts his future high destiny. According to the testimony of the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, the Lord said to both brothers Peter and Andrew: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!”, and then called the other two brothers James and John Zebedee to follow Him in the same way. Leaving their nets, and the last two and their father, they followed Jesus.
SERMON AND WORK OF THE LORD IN GALILEE
(Matt. 4:23-25; Mark 1:35-39; Luke 4:42-44)
As a man, Christ the Savior Himself suffered from exhaustion due to so much labor, and in this sense it can also be said that He took upon Himself our infirmities and suffered illnesses. And so the next day, early in the morning, in order to rest and strengthen His strength with solitary prayer, He again withdrew from people to a solitary place. But the people again crowded around Simon’s house, and, having learned that Jesus was not there, they began to look for Him. Seeing this, Simon and those who were with him, i.e. Andrew, James and John also went to look for Jesus and, having found Him, called Him to the city, where everyone was waiting and looking for Him. The Lord told them, however, that He needed to go to other cities and villages to preach, for that is why I came, that is why I was sent, that is, to preach the gospel to everyone. After leaving Capernaum, Jesus walked throughout Galilee, preaching and performing miracles. The rumor about Him spread far beyond the borders of Galilee, throughout Syria: the sick were brought to Him from afar - from the Decapolis, from Judea and Jerusalem and from beyond the Jordan, and He healed them. Many people followed Him and listened to His teaching.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Teaching us that after baptism we should most expect temptations, Jesus is led away by the Holy Spirit, for He did nothing apart from the Spirit. He is taken to the desert to show us that the devil tempts us when he sees that we are alone and do not receive help from others. Therefore, we should not refuse the advice of others and rely on ourselves.
For temptation from the devil. The devil, that is, the slanderer, is called so because he slandered God to Adam when he said to Him: “God is jealous of you.” He still slanderes virtue.
And fasting. He fasted to show that fasting is a powerful weapon against temptation, just as satiety is the source of all sin.
Forty days and forty nights. He fasts as many days and nights as Moses and Elijah. If he had fasted more, His incarnation would have seemed illusory.
Finally I became hungry. When he gave in to nature, then he became hungry, so that by hunger he would give the devil a reason to come up and fight with Him and thus defeat him and overthrow him, giving us victory.
And the tempter came to Him and said: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. This seducer heard a voice from heaven: “This is My Son,” but on the other hand he sees that He was hungry, and wonders how the Son of God can feel hunger. Therefore, he tempts Him in order to make sure, saying: “If you are the Son of God,” he flatters Him, thinking that He is hiding something. But you ask, what was the sin of making bread from stones? So, know that obeying the devil in anything is a sin. On the other hand, the devil did not say: “let this stone be bread,” but “stones,” wanting to plunge Christ into excess, for bread alone is completely enough for a hungry person. That is why Christ did not listen to him.
He answered and said to him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” This testimony is taken from the Old Testament, for these are the words of Moses. And the Jews ate manna, which was not bread, but according to the Word of God it satisfied every need of the Jews, it was everything that anyone wanted to eat. Whether the Jew wanted fish, eggs, or cheese, manna satisfied his taste.
Then the devil takes Him to the holy city and places Him on the wing of the temple. This was one of the parts of the temple that we call side; they seem like wings.
And he says to Him: if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone. By saying: “if you are the Son of God,” the devil wants to say: I do not believe the voice from heaven, but you show me whether you are the Son of God. Indeed, damned! If He was the Son of God, then should He really have thrown himself down? It is characteristic of your cruelty to overthrow those who are raging, but to God to save. It is not written about Christ: “They will bear you up in their hands,” but about the saints who need angelic help. Christ, being God, does not need this.
Jesus said to him, “It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.” Christ meekly reflects it, teaching us to defeat demons with meekness.
Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and says to Him: I will give all this to You if, when you fall, you will worship me. Some understand by a very high mountain the passion of greed, into which the enemy is trying to draw Jesus; but they think wrong. For the devil appeared to Him sensually, but the Lord did not accept thoughts; no! So, he sensually showed Him all the kingdoms on the mountain, presenting them before His eyes in a ghost, and said: “I will give all this to You if, when you fall, you will worship me.” Because of his pride, he considers the world his property. This and now he tells the selfish that those who worship him will have peace in their power.
Then Jesus says to him: Get behind Me, Satan; for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve. The Lord was angry with him when he saw that he was appropriating God’s things for himself, and said: “I will give all this to you,” supposedly his own. Find out from here what benefit the Scripture brings, for the Lord silenced the enemy with it.
Then the devil leaves Him, and behold, the angels came and served Him. The Lord defeated three temptations: gluttony, vanity and passion for wealth, that is, greed. This is the main passion. Therefore, having defeated them, it is much easier to defeat the rest. That is why Luke says: “and having finished all the temptations” (Luke 4:13), although the Lord defeated only the main ones. Therefore, the angels served Him to show that after the victory they would serve us, for Christ does and shows all this for our sake. The angels always serve Him, as God.
When Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew to Galilee and, leaving Nazareth, came and settled in Capernaum by the sea, within the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali. Jesus withdraws, teaching us this so that we do not expose ourselves to danger. He retires to Galilee, that is, a sloping country, for the pagans have fallen into sin, and settles in Capernaum, that is, in the “house of consolation,” because He came down in order to make the pagans the home of the Comforter. Zebulun in translation means “night”, and Naphtali means “broad”, for the pagans had both night and breadth in their lives, since they did not walk the narrow path, but leading to destruction.
May it be fulfilled that was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, who says: The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, on the seaside, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and a light shone to those sitting in the land of the shadow of death. "The path of the sea" instead - a country lying "on the way to the sea." The great light is the Gospel. The law was also light, but small. The shadow of death is sin; she is the likeness and image of death, for just as death captures the body, so sin captures the soul. The light shone upon us, for it was not we who sought it, but it itself appeared to us, as if pursuing us.
From that time Jesus began to preach and speak. From the moment John was imprisoned, Jesus began to preach, for He waited for John first to testify about Him and prepare for Him the way that He was to go, just as slaves prepare the way for their masters. Being equal to the Father, the Lord Himself had His prophet in the person of John, just as His Father and God had prophets before John, or rather, they were prophets of both the Father and the Son.
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Christ and a virtuous life are the Kingdom of Heaven. For if someone lives on earth like an angel, is he not heavenly? So in each of us there is the Kingdom of Heaven if we live like angels.
Passing near the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen; and tells them. They were John's disciples. When John was still alive, they came to Christ, and when they saw that John was bound, they again returned to the life of fishermen. Thus, passing by, he caught them, saying:
Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. Look what obedient people they were - they immediately followed Him. From this it is clear that this was a second calling. Having been taught by Christ, then leaving Him, they immediately followed Him again as soon as they saw Him.
Repairing their nets, and called them. They were poor, and therefore, not being able to buy new networks, they were forced to repair the old ones.
And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him. Zebedee apparently did not believe, and so they left him. You see when you need to leave your father: when he blocks the path to virtue and piety. The sons of Zebedee, seeing that the first (brothers Simon and Andrew) followed Christ, immediately, imitating them, themselves followed Him.
And Jesus walked throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He goes to Jewish synagogues to show that He is not an opponent of the law.
Healing every disease and every disease in people. He begins with signs so that they will believe what He teaches. Illness is a long-term suffering, while infirmity is a short-term disruption of the correct life of the body.
And rumors about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all the weak, those possessed by various diseases and seizures, and the demon-possessed, and the lunatics, and the paralytic, and He healed them. Christ did not ask any of those brought about faith, because this was already a matter of faith, that they were brought from afar. Those who go crazy are called lunatics. For the demon, wanting to convince people that the stars bring harm, lies in wait for the full moon and then torments them, so that they consider the moon to be the cause of suffering and slander God’s creation. The Manichaeans were also mistaken in this.
And a multitude of people followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Test time
Matthew unfolds the story of Jesus step by step before us. He begins with how Jesus was born into this world, then shows us that Jesus had to earnestly fulfill His duties towards family and home before He began to fulfill His task towards the world; that He had to prove Himself in small things before God entrusted Him with the greatest gift in the world.
Matthew shows us further how, with the coming of John the Baptist, Jesus' hour had come, and that the time had come to begin His mission. Matthew makes clear how Jesus stands in solidarity with people in a never-before-seen quest for God. At that moment, Jesus realized that He was truly God's Chosen One, but that His path to victory was through the Crucifixion.
And this same task faced Jesus. He came into the world to lead people to God. How to do this? Which method should I use? Should we resort to the methods of a powerful conqueror or to the methods of patient, sacrificial love? And this is what Jesus faced in His temptations. He is given a task: what method should he choose to accomplish the task God has given Him?
Matthew 4:1-11 Temptations of Christ
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting for forty days and forty nights, he finally became hungry.
And the tempter came to Him and said: If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.
He answered and said to him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil takes Him to the holy city and places Him on the wing of the temple, and says to Him: If You are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written: He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.
Jesus said to him, “It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and says to Him: I will give all this to You if you fall down and worship me.
Then Jesus says to him: Get thee behind Me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.
Then the devil left Him, and behold, the angels came and served Him.
Before you begin to study the passage about the temptation of Jesus, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the word tempt? In Greek it is peyradzein. In Russian it is used primarily in the sense of seducing someone into evil deeds, seducing someone into sin, taking the wrong path. But Peyradzein among the Greeks it has a completely different connotation in its meaning. It rather means experience how seduce in our sense of the word.
One of the greatest stories of the Old Testament is the story of how Abraham sacrificed his only son Isaac. In the Bible, this story begins like this: “And it came to pass after these things that God tempted Abraham" (Gen. 22:1). It is quite obvious that in this context it cannot mean at all try to seduce to do something bad. It is impossible to imagine that God would try to make a sinner, a transgressor, out of a person. But everything becomes completely clear if we imagine that this phrase has the following meaning: “After these incidents, God experienced Abraham." The time had come for the ultimate test of Abraham's faithfulness. Just as metal, before it can be used, is tested under stresses far beyond what it will ever have to withstand, so man must be tested before God can use him for His purposes. The Jews had a proverb: “The Most Holy God, blessed be His name, will not exalt anyone before He has tested and studied him; and the one who endures temptation, He magnifies.”
And this is the great and sublime truth. What we call temptation is not an incentive to sin; it should make us prepared. It should not make us weak at all, but should give us the opportunity to emerge from a difficult ordeal stronger and more beautiful. Temptation is not a punishment, it is a test that befalls a person whom God wants to use for His purposes.
We must further indicate where this test took place. All this happened in desert. Between Jerusalem, which lies on the central plateau that occupies most of Palestine, and the Dead Sea there is a desert. In the Old Testament it is called Jeshimmon, which means Desolation, and this is a very apt name. The desert covers more than one hundred square kilometers.
The English archaeologist and Assyrian George Adam Smith, who traveled along this plain, describes it as an area covered with yellow sand, broken limestone and pebbles. The hills are like heaps of dust; the limestone is all shelled and peeling; the rocks are bare, with sharp edges and ledges. Often the ground underfoot begins to rumble with emptiness when a person’s foot or a horse’s hoof steps on it. It glows with heat, like a big oven. The desert extends all the way to the Dead Sea, and there it is interrupted by a sheer cliff, several hundred meters high, rugged with crevices and cliffs. In this desert Jesus could find solitude like nowhere else. Jesus went into the desert to be alone. God spoke to Him, now He wanted to think about how to fulfill the mission that God had entrusted to Him. Before the work began, everything had to be put in order, and He needed to be alone.
After all, it may be that we often do the wrong thing just because we don’t try to be alone. Some things a man must do alone; sometimes no one's advice can benefit him. Sometimes a person must stop acting and reflect. Perhaps we make many mistakes precisely because we do not give ourselves the opportunity to be alone with God.
Matthew 4:1-11(continued) Sacred story
Before proceeding to a detailed analysis of the story of temptation, it is necessary to note the following.
1. It seems that the three gospel writers wanted to emphasize that temptations immediately followed the baptism of Jesus. Mark says: "Immediately after that the Spirit leads him into the wilderness" (Map. 1.12). One of the great truths of life is that after every great moment there is a reaction - and very often the danger lies in the reaction, in the reaction. This is what happened with the prophet Elijah. In his solitude, Elijah with brilliant courage confronted the prophets of Baal and defeated them on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18.17 40). This was Elijah's greatest moment of courage and wisdom. But the murder of the prophets of Baal aroused the wrath of the wicked Jezebel and she began to threaten the life of Elijah. “When he saw this, he arose and went to save his life, and came to Beersheba.” (1 Kings 19:3). The man who stood fearlessly against all the aliens is now running for his life in fear. The moment of reaction, counteraction has arrived. Apparently, such is the law of life that every time after the highest tension and resistance, decline occurs. The tempter carefully, subtly and skillfully chose the moment to attack Jesus, but Jesus defeated him. It would be well if we took special care and special attention just when life has lifted us high, for it is then that we are most in danger of falling.
2. This experience of Jesus should not be looked at only as something external: the struggle was in His heart, mind and soul. The fact is that there is no mountain from which all the kingdoms of the world can be seen: this vision was internal.
The tempter enters us through our most hidden thoughts and desires. His attack begins in our own mind. True, this attack can be so real that we almost see the devil. To this day you can still see the ink stain on the wall of Martin Luther's room at Wartburg Castle in Germany. It was left over from the inkwell that Luther threw at the devil who tempted him. But the power of the devil lies in the fact that he attacks from within and breaks through our resistance. He finds allies and his weapons in our hidden thoughts and desires.
3. Nor should one think that Jesus defeated the tempter once and for all, and that he never came to Him again. The tempter turned to Jesus again in Caesarea Philippi when Peter tried to dissuade Him from his decision to follow the path of suffering. And He said to Peter the same words that He said to the tempter in the desert: “Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:23). After all this, Jesus could say to His disciples: “But you remained with Me in My troubles.” (Luke 22:28). And never again in history has there been another such battle with temptation as Jesus fought in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the tempter tried to seduce Him from the path that led to the Crucifixion (Luke 22:42-44).
“Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.” There are no vacations for Christians on a military campaign. Sometimes people are nervous because they believe that they must reach a state where temptation can no longer reach them, where the power of the tempter will be broken forever. Jesus never reached this state. He had to fight from the beginning until the last day, and so He can help us fight our battles.
4. One point is especially important in this story: the temptations themselves are by their nature such that they could only come to the One who has absolutely exclusive power and is aware that he has it. The temptations that beset Jesus could only come to someone who knew He could do amazing things.
We must always remember that temptations often come precisely through our gifts and abilities. A person gifted with eloquence is tempted to use the power of his words to find clever explanations to justify his behavior. A person with deep mental gifts is tempted to use these gifts in his own personal interests, and not in the interests of other people. It is a sad fact, but temptation lies in wait for us exactly where we are strongest, and therefore we must always be vigilant.
5. To those who read this story, the thought comes that Jesus Himself should have told it. He was alone in the desert. No one was there when He fought this battle, and we know it only because Jesus Himself told it to His disciples. Here Jesus Himself tells us His spiritual autobiography. This story must always be approached with special reverence, because in it Jesus lays bare the secrets of His soul and His heart. He tells people about what He Himself went through. This is the most sacred of all stories because in it Jesus told us that He can help everyone who is overwhelmed by temptations because they overwhelmed Him. To help us in our struggle, He removes the veil of secrecy from His struggle.
Matthew 4:1-11(continued) Attack of the Tempter
The tempter launched an attack on Jesus in three directions.
1. He tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. There were a lot of small round pieces of limestone in the desert that looked a lot like bread rolls, and this is what might have tempted Jesus.
Here was a double temptation for Jesus: the temptation use Your power selfishly, for Your own purposes, which is what Jesus always refused to do. A person is always tempted to use the gifts God has given him for personal purposes.
God has given every person a gift, and every person can ask himself one of two questions: “What can I achieve for myself with this gift?” or “What can I do for others with this gift?” Such temptation can manifest itself in the simplest things. A person may, for example, have a good voice, and he may decide to "make money from it" and refuse to use it where they do not pay for it. No one is saying that he can't use it to get paid for it; he just shouldn't use it exclusively for that. There is no such person who would not want to use the talent given to him by God for his own purposes.
But there was another side to this temptation: Jesus was God's Messiah, and He knew it. In the desert, He chose a method and a way in which He could lead people to God. What method should I choose to accomplish the task God has given Him? How to turn a vision into reality and a dream into reality?
One sure way to get people to follow Him was to give them bread, to give them material goods. Doesn't history say this? Didn't God give His people manna from heaven in the wilderness? Didn't God say, "I will send you bread from heaven"? Wasn't this same dream in the vision of the coming Golden Age? Didn’t the prophet Isaiah say: “They will not suffer hunger or thirst”? (Isa. 49:10). Was not the idea of the Messiah's feast an integral part of the dream of the Kingdom of God in the era between the Old and New Testaments? If Jesus wanted to give people bread, He would have found ample excuses for it.
But giving people bread meant making a double mistake. First, it would mean bribing people to follow Him. This would be to entice people to follow Him for what they could get for it, when Jesus could only promise them one reward - the cross. He taught people to live by giving, not by receiving. Serving people with material goods meant abandoning everything that He was called to tell people.
Secondly, this would mean removing the symptoms of the disease, without any treatment of the disease itself. People are hungry, but the question is why are they hungry? Maybe this is a consequence of their own mistakes and helplessness or carelessness? Or is it the result of some selfishly owning too much while others have too little? The right way to cure hunger is to eliminate its cause, and this cause is in the souls of people. And besides this, material things cannot satisfy the hunger of the heart.
And so Jesus answered the tempter with the words that God wanted to teach His people in the wilderness: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut. 8:3). There is only one way to find true satisfaction - to understand that we are completely dependent on God.
2. Then the tempter resumed his attack from the other side. He raised Jesus up in a vision wing of the Temple. This phrase can have one of two meanings.
The temple stood on the top of Mount Zion. The top of the mountain was leveled and all the Temple buildings were built on this site. The royal portico and Solomon's porch converged in one corner, and here the mountain dropped steeply 150 meters into the valley of the Kidron stream. Why doesn't Jesus stand here on the wing of the Temple and throw himself down and land unharmed in the valley below? People would be amazed and would follow a person who could do such a thing.
On the wing of the Temple there was a platform where a priest appeared every morning with a trumpet, waiting for the first reflection of the sun's rays on the hills of the Kidron Valley. At the first rays of dawn, he blew the trumpet to notify people of the arrival of the hour of the morning sacrifice. Why wouldn't Jesus stand there and jump right into the temple courtyard and amaze the people so they would follow Him? Didn’t the prophet Malachi say: “The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple?” (Mal. 3.1). Was it not commanded that the angels would carry the man of God in their arms, so that He would not cause himself any harm? (Ps. 90,11.12). This is precisely the path followed by the constantly appearing false Messiahs. One of them, Theudas, led the people out of the city and promised them that at his word the waters in the Jordan would part. Famous Egyptian trickster (Acts 21:38) promised that from one of his words the walls of Jerusalem would fall. They say that Simon Magus promised to fly through the air and died on the first attempt. These deceivers promised sensations that they could not deliver. Jesus could fulfill everything He promised. Why shouldn't He do this?
Again, Jesus had two reasons for not doing anything like this. Firstly, the path in which a person tries to attract people to his side by promising them miracles leads to nowhere, because he needs to do more and more incredible things in order to maintain his power and strength. Miracles quickly become boring. This year's sensation, next year's banality. Evangelism based on sensationalism is doomed to fail. And, secondly, this is not how to use the power of God. “Do not tempt the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:16). What Jesus meant by this is this: There is no point in trying to test how far we can go; It makes no sense to deliberately expose yourself to danger unnecessarily and then expect God to save you from it.
God justifies a person who may take risks in order to remain faithful to Him, but He does not want a person to take risks to increase his prestige. Faith itself, based on signs and wonders, is not faith at all. He who cannot believe without sensations cannot have true faith; his faith is a doubt that seeks evidence and looks for it in the wrong place.
You cannot play and experiment with the saving power of God. One should calmly rely on it in everyday life. Jesus rejected the path of sensationalism because He knew that it was, as it is today, a destructive path.
3. And so the tempter launched a third attack. The voice of the tempter said: “Come down and worship me, and I will give You all the kingdoms of this world.” Did not God Himself say to His chosen people: “Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession.” (Ps. 2:8).
The tempter, in fact, said this: “Compromise, accept my conditions! Don't inflate Your demands like that! Turn a blind eye to vice, and the peoples will follow You in droves.” It was a temptation to accept the terms of the world rather than uncompromisingly present it with God's demands. It is a temptation to try to move forward by retreating back; try to change the world by becoming like him. To this Jesus replied: “Fear the Lord your God, and serve Him alone, and swear by His name.” (Deut. 6:13). Jesus was absolutely sure that evil could not be defeated by making a deal with it. He declared the uncompromising nature of the Christian faith. Christianity cannot stoop to the level of the world; it must raise the world to its level. Anything else will not be enough.
So Jesus made His choice. He must never call people to follow Him by bribing them; the path of sensation is not His path; there can be no room for compromise in the message He preaches and in the faith He demands. This irrevocably meant that He chose the Cross, but the Cross also inevitably meant the final victory.
Matthew 4:12-17 The Son of God is coming forward
When Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, he withdrew into Galilee
and leaving Nazareth, he came and settled in Capernaum by the sea, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, saying:
the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, on the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the heathen, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and shadow of death the light shone.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Soon misfortune befell John the Baptist. He was arrested by King Herod and imprisoned in the dungeon of the Macheron castle. His crime was that he publicly denounced Herod for seducing his brother’s wife and marrying her, sending his wife away from him. It is not safe to denounce an Eastern despot, and the courage of John the Baptist led him first to prison and then to death. Later we will turn to this story, which Matthew told only in Matt. 14.3-12.
The time had come when Jesus had to step forward to fulfill His mission.
Let's notice what He did first: He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum. There is some kind of symbolic irrevocability in this. Jesus left His home and never returned there again. Before opening the door that was in front of Him, He seemed to slam the door that remained behind Him. It was a final and clear transition from old to new; One stage ended and a new one began. There come such decisive moments in life. It is better to cut clean than to vacillate between two courses of action.
Notice where Jesus went: He went to Galilee. It was not by chance that He went there to begin His mission. Galilee is the northernmost region of Palestine. It extended from the Litany River in the north to the plain of Ezreel or Ezrelon in the south. In the west, it did not reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, because the coastal strip itself was in the possession of the Phoenicians. In the north, Galilee bordered on Syria, and in the east, its borders were the waters of the Sea of Galilee. The dimensions of Galilee were small: eighty kilometers from north to south and about forty kilometers from west to east.
But Galilee was densely populated. It was the most fertile place in Palestine; Her fertility was fabulous and unusual. There was a saying that it is easier to raise a grove of olive trees in Galilee than one child in Judea. Josephus, who was at one time the ruler of the province of Galilee, says: “It is rich in fields and pastures, on which all kinds of trees grow. Even those who are least inclined towards agriculture are ready to work on this basis; every piece of it is cultivated, nothing is wasted, and everywhere it is fertile.” And therefore in Galilee the population density was enormous. According to Josephus, there were 204 cities and villages in Galilee with a population of more than 15,000 inhabitants each. Thus Jesus began His mission in that part of Palestine where the greatest number of people could hear Him; He began his work in an area where there was a mass of people to whom the Gospel could be preached. But Galilee was not only distinguished by its population density; The Galileans were, moreover, a special kind of people. Of the areas of Palestine, it was Galilee that most welcomed new ideas. Josephus says of the Galileans: “They were very fond of innovation and were by nature prone to change and rebellion.” They were always ready to follow the leader and rebel; were famous for their temper and cockiness; they loved to argue, but at the same time they were knights. “The Galileans,” said Josephus, “were never lacking in courage.” "Honor meant more to them than profit." The innate qualities of the Galileans were their fertile ground for preaching the Gospel.
This openness to new ideas was the result of several factors:
1. Title Galilee comes from the Hebrew word galil, that is circle, district The full name of the region was district of the pagans. Some understand this as “pagan Galilee,” but the name comes from the fact that Galilee was surrounded on all sides by pagans: in the west by the Phoenicians; in the north and east - Syrians; and even in the south - the Samaritans. Galilee was the only part of Palestine exposed to non-Jewish influences and ideas. Galilee, like no other part of Palestine, was destined to be open to new ideas.
2. As we already saw when we talked about Nazareth, the greatest roads passed through Galilee. The sea route led from Damascus through Galilee directly to Egypt and Africa. The road to the east led through Galilee to the very borders. The message of the whole world passed through Galilee. Far to the south, Judea is cornered, isolated and secluded. As someone rightly said: “Judea is on the road to nowhere, Galilee is on the road to all ends.” Judea could create a fence around itself to prevent the penetration of any outside influence and new ideas; Galilee could do no such thing. New ideas must have come to Galileo.
3. The geographical location of Galilee left its mark on its history. More and more conquerors and victors came, waves of foreigners overwhelmed it.
It was originally given as an inheritance to the sons of Asher, Naphtali and Zebulun when the Israelites came to the promised land (Joshua 19) but these tribes could not achieve complete victory in eliminating the Canaanite inhabitants, and therefore the population of Galilee was mixed from the very beginning. From the north and east from Syria, Galilee was repeatedly invaded, and in the eighth century BC the Assyrians finally conquered it; most of its population was taken into captivity, and other peoples settled in Galilee. All this inevitably led to the fact that there was a lot of non-Jewish blood in Galilee.
From the eighth to the second centuries BC, Galilee was largely in pagan hands. When the Jews returned from captivity during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra, many Galileans moved south to Jerusalem. In 164 BC, Simon Maccabee expelled the Syrians from northern Galilee into their own territory, and on his return journey he took the remnants of the Galileans with him to Jerusalem.
The most amazing thing is that in 104 BC Aristobulus annexed Galilee to Judea and began to forcibly circumcise all its inhabitants in order to make them Jews, regardless of their will. History has destined Galilee to open its doors to new blood, to new ideas and to new influences.
The natural qualities of the Galileans and the course of history made Galilee the place in Palestine where a new teacher with a new message had a chance to be heard, and it was there that Jesus began His mission and first proclaimed His message.
Matthew 4:12-17(continued) Messenger of God
Before moving from this passage to another, we must note the following.
Jesus went to the city of Capernaum. The correct form is Capharnaum. Form Capernaum does not occur at all until the fifth century, but it is so firmly established in our minds and memories that it would be unwise to change it.
There was much debate about where Capernaum was located. Two assumptions have been made. It is most often (and seems most likely) identified with Tel Hum, on the western shore of the northern end of the Sea of Galilee. Another and less likely assumption is that Capernaum was located about four kilometers southwest of Tel Hum. In any case, where Capernaum might have stood, there is now nothing left but ruins.
The Bible says Jesus began preach. The word used in the Greek text is kerusein, what does a royal proclamation proclaimed by a messenger mean? Kerux - in Greek messenger, and the messenger brought news directly from the king.
This word reveals to us the character of Jesus' preaching, and this is how all preaching should be.
1. In the voice of the messenger sounded confident. There was no doubt about his message; he did not come to talk about possibilities, probabilities, thoughts; he came with a definite message. Goethe said: “Speak of what you are sure of; I have enough doubts myself.” Preaching is the proclamation of specific things; a person cannot convince others of what he himself doubts.
2. The messenger’s voice sounded authority. He spoke on behalf of the king; he set forth and proclaimed the royal law, the royal order, the royal decision. As they said about one major preacher: “He did not guess vaguely; he knew". Preaching is about imparting prophetic authority to the contemporary situation.
3. The messenger brings news from a source located outside of him; it comes from the king. A sermon is a voice from a source outside the preacher. This is not an expression of one person's personal thoughts; it is the voice of God transmitted to people through one person. Jesus speaks to people with the voice of God.
Jesus' message is a commandment that flows out of a new situation. “Repent! Turn from your ways and turn to God. Lift your eyes from the ground and look to the sky. Convert, do not move away from God, but go to God.” This commandment became extremely important because the Kingdom of God was approaching. Eternity has invaded life. God entered the world in Jesus Christ, and therefore it was of the utmost importance that man should stand on the right side and go in the right direction.
Matthew 4:18-22 Christ calls the fishermen
Passing near the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen,
and he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
And they immediately left their nets and followed Him.
And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.
In the center of Galilee lay the Sea of Galilee. It stretches for 21 kilometers from north to south, its width from west to east reaches 9.5 kilometers at its widest part. The Sea of Galilee is therefore small, and therefore it is interesting to note that the non-Jew Luke, who saw much in his life, never names it by sea (phalassa), but always only lake (limne). The Sea of Galilee has an oval shape with a widening at the top. It lies in a large cleft in the earth's crust, in which the Jordan River flows; its surface lies 208 meters below sea level. The fact that it lies so deep in the earth's surface gives it a very warm climate and extraordinary fertility. This is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Viewed from any of the surrounding heights, it appears as a beautiful surface of water - a polished mirror framed by rounded hills and pointed mountains, extending in both directions to Mount Hermon.
In the time of Josephus, there were no less than nine populous cities on the shores of the lake. In the 1930s. There was only a small village of Tiberias, but today it is the largest city in Galilee and it is constantly growing.
During the time of Jesus, the Sea of Galilee was full of fishing boats. During one of his expeditions, Josephus had no difficulty in collecting 240 fishing boats to set off from Tarikeya, but today there are few fishermen left and they are scattered along the entire coast.
There were several ways of catching fish: they caught with a fishing rod, they caught with nets.
The nets were round, up to three meters in diameter; they were skillfully thrown from the shore or from shallow water. The nets were equipped with lead weights along the circumference; the nets sank to the bottom and captured the fish; then the nets were pulled to the ground, like the top of a tent, along with the caught fish. This is how Peter and Andrew, James and John were working when Jesus saw them. These networks were called amphibioustron.
In addition, they caught with a seine, or a drag net. The drag, equipped with weights in the lower part, was thrown over the ropes from a boat, or from two boats, from four ends, and it seemed to stand in the water. The boats were rowed, the net stretched behind and formed a large cone (similar to a small modern trawl), in which the fish collected; and they took her onto the boat. Such a net is similar to the one discussed in the parable of the net, and it is called saguenay.
Jesus walked along the shore of the lake and called Peter and Andrew, James and John. One should not assume that He saw them for the first time, or that they saw Him. From the way John tells this story, we can conclude that at least some of them were already disciples of John the Baptist (John 1:35). Without a doubt, they had already spoken to Jesus and listened to Him, but at that moment His call reached them - to unite their destiny with Him once and for all.
Jesus called these fishermen to follow Him. It is interesting to note what kind of people they were. These were not very educated, influential or rich people, or people of special origin. But they were poor; these were simple workers. And these are the simple people Jesus chose.
One day a very simple man named Aeschines came to Socrates. “I am a poor man,” said Aeschines, “I have nothing, but I give myself to you.” “Don’t you see,” replied Socrates, “that you are giving away the most precious thing?” Jesus also needs ordinary people who give themselves to Him. With such people He can do anything.
In addition, they were fishermen. Many theologians have pointed out that a good fisherman must have qualities that can make him a good fisher of men.
1. The fisherman must have patience. He must wait patiently for the fish to take the bait. Someone who is not calm or too active will never make a fisherman. A good fisher of men needs patience. In preaching and teaching, results are only sometimes immediately visible. We must learn to wait.
2. He must have durability. He must learn to never lose heart and be able to start over every time. A good preacher and a good teacher should not despair if at first glance there is no progress. They should always be willing to try again.
3. He must be courageous. The fisherman must be willing to take risks and bravely face the fury of the sea and storm. A good preacher and a good teacher must be well aware that there is always risk and danger in telling people the truth. A person who tells the truth often risks his reputation and his life.
4. He should It's good to catch the right moment. A wise fisherman knows well that sometimes it is completely pointless to fish. A good preacher and a good teacher choose the right moment. Sometimes people welcome the truth, sometimes they are offended by the truth, sometimes the truth moves them, and sometimes it embitters them and they oppose it even more violently. A wise preacher knows that sometimes it is necessary to say, and sometimes it is better to remain silent.
5. He should choose the right bait for each fish. One fish rushes to one bait, and another to another. Paul says that he will become all things to all men if he can thus win anyone to Christ.
A wise preacher and a wise mentor know that you cannot treat all people the same. They are sometimes even forced to admit that there are limits to their capabilities, and that in certain areas they can work and in certain areas they cannot.
6. Wise fisherman shouldn't expose yourself. If he exposes himself, then even his shadow will scare the fish and it will not bite. A wise preacher and teacher will always show people not himself, but Jesus Christ. Their goal is to draw people’s attention not to themselves but to Him.
Matthew 4:23-25 Master's work
And Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every disease among the people.
And rumors about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all the weak, those possessed by various diseases and seizures, and the demon-possessed, and the lunatics, and the paralytic, and He healed them.
And a great multitude followed him from Galilee, and from the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Jesus decided to begin His work in Galilee, and we have already seen that Galilee was well prepared to receive Him. In Galilee, Jesus decided to begin His teaching in the synagogues.
The synagogue was the most important element in the life of a Jew. There was a certain difference between the Temple and the synagogues. There was only one temple - in Jerusalem, but there were synagogues everywhere where there was even a small colony of Jews. The temple served only for sacrifices; there was no preaching or teaching there at all. Theirs was intended exclusively for teaching. Synagogues were called "the people's religious universities of the time." If a person wanted to spread religious teachings or religious ideas, then it was necessary to start in the synagogue.
In addition, the service itself in the synagogue was structured in such a way that it gave the new teacher the opportunity to prove himself. The service consisted of three parts: the first part - prayers; the second is reading from the law and the prophets; Community members also took part in these readings; the third part is interpretation or preaching. It is interesting to note that in the synagogue there was no special person who would give sermons, that is, there were no professional priests there. The head of the synagogue led the service. Here any person from the outside could be asked to speak, and anyone could come forward with his message, and if the leader of the synagogue considered the person suitable for this, he could speak. Therefore, at the very beginning, the doors of the synagogue and its pulpit were open to Jesus. Jesus began His mission in the synagogues because that was where sincerely religious people could be found and He could speak to them. After the sermon there was time for conversations, questions, and discussions. The synagogue was an ideal place where new teaching could be brought to people.
But Jesus didn't just preach; He also healed the sick. It is not surprising that rumors of His activities spread, and people came in droves to hear Him, to see Him, and to benefit from His compassion.
They even came from Syria. Syria was a Roman province. Palestine was part of it. Syria lay to the north and northeast; its capital was the great city of Damascus, located in the center of the province. It so happened that from Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 1:13) one of the most remarkable legends relating to this time has come down to us. Tradition says that in the city of Edessa there was King Abgar; He was sick, so he wrote to Jesus:
“Abgar, ruler of Edessa, greetings to Jesus, the most perfect Savior, who appeared in the land of Jerusalem. I have heard about You and Your healings, performed without medicines and without herbs, for they say that You give sight to the blind, and the ability to walk to the lame. You cleanse lepers, cast out evil spirits and demons, heal the chronically ill and raise the dead. And so, having heard all this about You, I decided that one of the two must be true; Either You are God and, having descended from heaven, you do all this, or You are the Son of God. And therefore I write to You and ask You to come and heal the disease from which I suffer. For I have heard that the Jews murmur against You and plot evil against You. Well, I have a small but beautiful city, big enough for the two of us.”
Jesus is said to have responded: “Blessed be you, who believed in Me even without seeing Me. For it is written about Me that those who see Me will not believe in Me, but those who do not see Me will believe and be saved. As for your request to come to you, I must fulfill here everything for which I was sent, and having fulfilled it, I will be taken back to the One who sent Me. But, after I am taken back, I will send My disciple to you to heal your illness and give life to you and your (loved ones).”
And, according to legend, Thaddeus went to Edessa and healed Abgar. This is just a tradition, but it shows that people believed that even in distant Syria people heard about Jesus and with all their hearts desired the help and healing that only He could give. It is quite natural that they came from Galilee, and the rumor about Jesus reached in the south to Jerusalem and Judea, people began to come from there too. Those who lived beyond the Jordan came, in the land known as Perea and stretching from Pella in the north to the fortress of Selah (Petra). They came from Decapolis. The Decapolis was a federation of independent Greek cities located, with the exception of Scythopolis, beyond the Jordan.
This list is symbolic, for in it we see that not only Jews, but also pagans came to Jesus Christ to receive what only He could give. Even then, all directions of the world were gathering towards Him.
Matthew 4:23-25(continued) The Work of Jesus
This passage is significant because it condenses the three main areas of Jesus' work.
1. He walked testifying The Gospel, or as the Bible says, preaching Gospel. But, as we have already seen, preaching is a testimony to concrete facts, and therefore Jesus came to put an end to human ignorance. He came to tell people the truth about God, to tell them what they themselves could never know. He came to put an end to people's guesses and their walking in the dark.
2. He walked teaching in synagogues. Jesus came to subvert human misunderstanding. It happens that people know the truth, but interpret it incorrectly; that is, they know the truth but draw false conclusions from it. Jesus came to tell people the meaning of true religion.
3. He walked healing everyone who needed healing. In other words, Jesus has come end human suffering. It is important to note that Jesus not only told people the truth words; He came to turn her into action. One great missionary mentor said, “You will not achieve an ideal until you put it into action.” Jesus put His teaching into action by helping and healing people.
Jesus walked preaching to end ignorance; teaching to end misunderstanding; He went, healing people to save them from pain And suffering. We too must proclaim the facts of which we are confident; we too must be prepared to justify our faith; we too must translate the ideal into action and deeds.