Following the Savior's Steps: The Second Galilean Ministry

Continuing a summary of the place and time of major events in Christ’s life from yesterday, after spending time in Samaria the Savior continued on his way to Galilee.  This is called “A Second Galilean Ministry” in the Harmony of the Gospels, the first being when He turned the water to wine.  He “came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine” (John 4:46).  It was there that “a certain nobleman” came to Jesus and asked for his son (not with him) to be healed, and Jesus healed him with His word alone, saying, “Go thy way; thy son liveth” (John 4:50).  The next event that John recorded was “a feast of the Jews” that Jesus went to in Jerusalem, and we don’t know what the feast was (perhaps Passover) or even when it was.  The synoptic gospels give us many more details about what took place in the second Galilean ministry, even if we aren’t sure on all of the timing of the events.

            This second Galilean ministry was marked by many powerful teachings and miracles.  Here are some of the major events that took place as recorded by the synoptic writers when “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14).  Sometime near the beginning of this time in His ministry He called Simon, Andrew, James, and John from their fishing boats on the Galilee, saying, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19).  Luke recorded that He also went to Nazareth and there quoted the Messianic passage from Isaiah and declared, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).  The people of Nazareth rejected Him, though, and threw Him out.  It appears that He spent much of His time in Capernaum, another city of Galilee, likely coming and going often from it.  In Capernaum He performed many miracles: He cast out an unclean spirit from a man in a synagogue (Mark 1:23-26), healed Peter’s mother-in-law from a fever (Mark 1:29-31), and in general “he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils” (Mark 1:34).  It was there that He also healed the man “sick of the palsy” who was lowered down through the roof (Mark 2:4) and has a feast at Matthew’s house when He was criticized for eating with “publicans and sinners” (Matt. 9:9-11).  It was at Capernaum as well that He raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead, healed a woman with an issue of blood, and healed the centurion’s servant (Matt. 9:18-22, Luke 7:1-10).  Jesus did not stay always in Capernaum at this time, though, “and he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee” (Mark 1:39).  At some point around this time He also cast out a legion of evil spirits “in the country of the Gadarenes” and sent them into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-13).  He also raised from the dead the son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-15).  He performed countless miracles throughout Galilee.

               It was likely near the beginning of this second Galilean ministry that Christ called the Twelve, giving them power, and sending them forth “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:1-6).  Matthew placed the calling of the Twelve well after the Sermon on the Mount, whereas Luke placed it before, but either way somewhere in Galilee around this time He gave the powerful sermon recorded in Matthew 5-7.  He also gave numerous parables which are recorded particularly in Matthew 13, such as the parable of the sower, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, and the pearl of great price.  This time in Galilee was a period of incredible miracles and powerful teachings by the Savior, aptly summarized by Matthew this way: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (Matt. 4:23).