Following the Savior's Steps: The North Galilean Ministry

Jesus was 30 when He began His mortal ministry near the time of the Passover (generally called the “first” Passover of His ministry) when He cast out the moneychangers as is recorded in John 2.  The final (fourth) Passover, when He would have been 33, was the time at the end of His life when He was died and was resurrected about which all the Gospel writers tell us.  The Gospels are silent about the two Passovers in between, other than this statement by John before the feeding of the 5,000 in Galilee: “And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh” (John 6:4).  The text does not tell us conclusively which Passover this was, but John previously wrote that “there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (John 5:1).  Elder Talmage suggested the following: “If the unnamed ‘feast of the Jews’ referred to by John (5:1) was a Passover, as many Bible students hold, it marked the close of the year following the cleansing the temple; it is commonly spoken of and written about as the second Passover in the course of our Lord’s ministry. Then the Passover near which Jesus fed the five thousand (John 6:4) would be the third, and would mark the expiration of two years and a fraction since the baptism of Jesus; it certainly marks the beginning of the last year of the Savior’s life on earth.”

               So, using this chronology, about two years into His ministry we have the famous events of John 6 near the end of the Second Galilean Ministry.  This is when the 5000 were fed in a Galilean city called Bethsaida (Luke 9:10).  The night after the miraculous feeding the Twelve departed in a ship across the Sea of Galilee for Capernaum without Jesus, and the Savior walked across the water, arriving to them near the end of their nighttime’s journey (John 6:21).  The next day at the synagogue in Capernaum He gave the discourse we call the Bread of Life after which “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66).  This marked a period of increased opposition for the Savior as He entered into the final year of His ministry.

               The Harmony of Gospels characterizes some of the subsequent events of the Savior’s life as the North Galilean Ministry.  Matthew records, “Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.”  This was north of Galilee into the cities of the Gentiles.  He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:21-28), and then “departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain” (Matt. 15:29).  He continued His work of healing and fed the four thousand (Matt. 15:38).  Soon thereafter He went north again to Caesarea Philippi where Peter declared his testimony of the Savior: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  The Savior promised “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” to Peter and told His apostles how He would soon be killed (Matt. 16:16-21).  It was “six days” later that “Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart” where the Transfiguration took place and the sealing keys were given (Matt. 17:1).  After this the Savior continued teaching and heling in Galilee, healing the boy with the unclean spirit (Matt. 17:14-21), miraculously providing the tribute money to Peter in a fish (Matt. 17:24-27), and giving the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt. 23-35).  These were likely among the last events of His ministry in Galilee before He headed south for Judea and Perea in the last six months of His life.