Matthew 4


The Temptation of Jesus

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
⁴Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
   " 'He will command his angels concerning you,
       and they will lift you up in their hands,
   so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"
⁷Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
¹⁰Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Matthew 4:1-11

Explanation:

God's Son Passes the Test (4:1-11)
Scholars' interpretations of the temptation narrative broadly fall into three primary categories (Theissen 1991:218-19): (1) Jesus' testing recalls that of Israel in the wilderness; whatever God commanded Israel his child in the wilderness, much more he would require of his Son the Messiah. (2) Jesus provides a model for tested believers. (3) The narrative affirms a correct understanding of Jesus' messiahship as against contemporary political or militaristic interpretations. Clues within the narrative (such as 4:2) and the rest of Matthew (such as 6:13; 26:41; 27:42-43) indicate that the narrative functions in all three ways.

Matthew emphasizes that Jesus, unlike Israel, passed his test in the wilderness. Matthew makes this biblical background clear even in simple ways like saying the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, reflecting a common biblical motif of God guiding his people in the wilderness (as in Ex 13:18, 21; 15:13, 22; Deut 8:2). We should also note that Jesus quotes three texts from Deuteronomy, all of them commandments that Israel failed to obey but that Jesus is determined to obey.

Like John, Jesus had to exit the confines of society for his supernatural encounter (see comment on 3:1-12). The wilderness (translated desert in the NIV because few people lived there) was not a pleasant place: some believed the wilderness to be a special haunt of demons (see comment on 12:43; compare 1 Enoch 10:4; 4 Macc 18:8). Apart from a few rugged people like John who made the "wilderness" between the Jordan Valley and Judean hills their home, it represented a dangerous and inhospitable setting (E. Sanders 1993:113).

But when we think of applying this passage today, we may meditate at greater length on the other two lessons scholars often draw from the narrative: what Jesus' victory models for us as his disciples and what the passage tells us about the true character of Jesus' mission. No less than Matthew's discourse sections (28:19), this narrative provides a model for us. (Jewish teachers instructed by example as well as by word, and biographers taught moral lessons through their accounts. So narratives about Jesus teach us no less than his direct commandments do.) For instance, if John had been a model of sacrificial obedience for living in the wilderness and subsisting on locusts, Jesus who fasts in the wilderness is even more so.

This narrative underlines the biblical principle that God's calling must be tested. The Spirit, having empowered Jesus for his mission as God's Son (3:16-17), now is the one who leads him into the wilderness where his call must be tested (4:1, 3, 6). Matthew expressly informs us that the purpose of the Spirit's first leading of God's Son was that he might be tested! Like most of his heroic predecessors in biblical history (Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Job), Jesus had to pass a period of testing before beginning his public ministry. Some of his predecessors almost snapped under pressure, restrained only by God's favor (for example, 1 Sam 25:13-34; 1 Kings 19:4; Jer 20:7-18), but our Lord Jesus provides the perfect model for triumphing in testing.

If God is calling and empowering you to do something for him (3:16-17), you can expect to be tested (compare comment on 6:13), and you can expect testing commensurate with the seriousness of your call. The devil may not show up in person or test you on the same supernatural level that he tested Jesus, but your hardships may seem unbearable apart from the grace of God. Nevertheless, testing is for our good: when biblical heroes had matured through the time of testing, they knew the depth of God's grace that had sustained them. The truly triumphant boast not in their success in the test but in God's empowerment, without which they could not have overcome. Jesus went into this testing only after the Father had empowered him in the Spirit (3:16).

This narrative presents Jesus as our vicarious advocate, relinquishing his own power for his mission to save us from our sins. In this narrative Matthew presents Jesus as Israel's-and our-champion, the One who succeeded in the wilderness where Israel had failed. (A champion was one who fought another on behalf of and as a representative of his people, the way David fought Goliath.) Christians are destined for testing (6:13; 26:41), but Jesus our forerunner has gone before us and shown us how to overcome.

The devil tempts Jesus to abuse his calling and power for selfish ends. The "christological" interpretation of this passage noted above has much to teach us. In 3:16-17 God identifies Jesus as his Son; now the devil tries to redefine the nature of Jesus' sonship (4:3, 5-6, 8-9). If you are the Son of God can also be translated "Since you are the Son of God," which may be more likely in this context: the devil invites Jesus not so much to deny his sonship as to act according to various worldly expectations for that role. This narrative warns all of us whom God has called not to let the world define the content of our call. For instance, some pulpit ministers ought to be ministering as public school teachers or social workers in addition to or instead of pulpit ministry, and some in other professions should be training to become expounders of God's Word.

In other words, we must acknowledge God's right not only to determine what to label our calling but also to determine what that label should mean. A call to evangelism may be a call to bring Christ to people on the streets or in hospitals rather than in a traditional pulpit-yet such a ministry may bring more people to Christ than most traditional pulpit ministries can. Disregarding the church hierarchy and the "ministerial ethics" of his day, John Wesley went into other ministers' parishes to reach the people those ministers were not reaching-the poor and alienated. Wesley's call did not fit traditional categories of ministry, but the revival that ensued turned Britain inside out. We, like Jesus, can begin our mission only once we have demonstrated that our commitment is to God who called us and that we will let him rather than human honor define the nature of our call.

Note how the devil seeks to redefine Jesus' call: he appeals to various culturally prevalent models of power to suggest how Jesus should use his God-given power. God's empowerment does not guarantee that we are doing his will in all details (compare 1 Cor 13:1-3). One example of exploiting God's power for selfish ends is the minority of clergy and other professional authority figures who abuse their calling for sexual or other advantages. When we confuse others' dependence on our office with dependence on us as persons, we endanger our own relationship with God as his humble servants (Mt 23:5-12; 24:45-51; Prov 16:18; 18:12).

The devil tests Jesus with three roles into which other Palestinian charismatic leaders had fallen-from the crassly demonic sorcerer's role to that of an apparently pious leader. Jesus' refusal in each case allows Matthew to define Jesus' call over against the charges of his opponents (12:24; 26:55; 27:11, 40-43).

First, Jesus was not a magician (4:3). Magicians typically sought to transform one substance into another to demonstrate their power over nature (as in p. Hagiga 2:2, 5; Sanhedrin 6:6, 2). Jesus' opponents could not deny his power but wished to attribute it to Satan, as if he were a magician (Mt 12:24); many Jews associated demons with the worst kind of sorcery (Ps-Philo 34.2-3; b. Sanhedrin 67b). Unlike most of Jesus' religious contemporaries, however, the reader knows the true story and just how false the charge of Jesus' association with magic was. Even after a forty-day fast, and though Jesus had power to multiply food for the crowds (Mt 14:13-21; 15:29-38; 16:9-10), he resisted the temptation to turn stones into bread. Where magicians manipulated spiritual power and formulas, Jesus acted from an intimate, obedient personal relationship with his Father (6:7-9). Like a father disciplining his children, God humbled Israel in the wilderness, teaching his people that he would provide their bread while they were unemployed if they would just look to him (Deut 8:1-5). Jesus accepts his Father's call in the wilderness and waits for his Father to act for him (Mt 4:11).

Second (pace Albert Schweitzer), Jesus was not a deluded visionary (4:5-6) like Josephus's "false prophets" who wrongly expected God to back up their miraculous claims (Jos. Ant. 20.168; War 2.259). By wanting Jesus to jump over an abyss (perhaps on the southeast corner of the temple area overlooking the Kidron Valley) known to invite certain death without God's intervention (see Jos. Ant. 15.412), the devil wants Jesus to presume on his relationship with God, to act as if God were there to serve his Son rather than the reverse. Religious teachers later echo Satan's theology: if Jesus is God's Son, let God rescue him from the cross (Mt 27:40-43). When people become so arrogant as to think we have God figured out, we can easily miss God's true purposes and become Satan's mouthpieces.

Among contemporary charismatics (of whom I am one) I observe two prominent models for being "charismatic." One is to "claim" blessings on the basis of spiritual formulas, a method whose success God never guaranteed. Like the first-century false prophets who promised the pious Jerusalemites the deliverance they wanted to hear (as in Jos. War 6.285-87), our brothers and sisters who follow this method without the Spirit may encounter some uncomfortable surprises. (Matthew would also have balked at some charismatics' claim to be able to "send" angels-4:6; 26:53.) The other method is to sensitively follow the Spirit's leading to do what God has called us to do. When God has genuinely spoken and his servants act in obedience, he will accomplish his purposes-even if those purposes must lead us through the cross. For "who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?" (Lam 3:37).

Jesus did not get himself into testing presumptuously; like Elijah of old, he did what he did at God's command (1 Kings 18:36). Jesus understood Scripture accurately and alluded not only to the passage he cited but to its context. When he warns against putting the Lord your God to the test (Mt 4:7; Deut 6:16), he alludes to Israel's dissatisfaction in the wilderness (as in Ex 17:2-3). Although God graciously supplied their needs, they harshly demanded more, forgetting how much God had delivered them from. We, like Israel, serve a living God and must be prepared to do his will whether or not it is to our immediate liking (Mt 26:42).

Finally, Jesus was not a political revolutionary, contrary to the assumptions and charges of the Jewish aristocracy (26:55, 61; 27:11-12; compare P. Ellis 1974:108). As another Gospel puts it, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest" (Jn 18:36). Many citizens of the Roman Empire felt that Rome ruled the earth's kingdoms (for example, Rev 17:18; Jos. War 2.361; 3.473); to rule the earth would include the subjection of the Roman emperor. If Matthew writes after A.D. 70, his audience knows how Roman forces had slaughtered the Jewish revolutionaries and how resounding defeat had dashed their people's hopes for a worldly kingdom; how would deliverance come?

The devil offered Jesus the kingdom without the cross, a temptation that has never lost its appeal. Corrupted once it achieved political power and popularity, its members' motives no longer purified by persecution, the medieval church too often was marked by corruption and repression that we today repudiate; but we can face the same temptations. Upon facing this temptation, not Jesus' opponents but his own star disciple Peter echoes Satan's theology exactly: the messianic kingdom without the cross (Mt 16:22). Jesus thus pushes away Peter in disgust as he had Satan-even to the point of calling Peter Satan (16:23; compare 4:10). Jesus' mission involved the cross (26:54), and whether we like it or not, so does our mission (16:23-26).

Political and social involvement are important; marketing strategies are not necessarily wrong; but when we substitute any other means of transforming society for dependence on God, we undercut the very purpose for our mission. Where the church flirts with political power to enforce public morality, it must become all the more conscious of its own need for spiritual renewal. Atheists and Christians often use the same methods of social change; but if we genuinely embrace a faith worth defending, can we also have the faith to go beyond those methods and depend on God to give us revival? The temptation narrative strikes at the heart of human religion and worldly conceptions of power-and reminds us of how close that danger can come to believers.

The narrative also emphasizes that we can use Scripture for righteous or unrighteous causes. Jesus and the devil argue Scripture, and both are adept in it (as some later rabbis expected the devil and some demons were; for example, b. Sanhedrin 89b), though the devil quotes Scripture out of context and so values its wording over its meaning (4:6). (Psalm 91:3-10 addresses protection from dangers that approach the righteous, not testing God to see whether he will really do what Scripture promises.) That the devil quotes Scripture out of context should not surprise us, since he does it even today in many pulpits every Sunday morning. (I say this only partly tongue in cheek; religious leaders in Mt 27:40 become mouthpieces for the devil's lie in 4:3, and Jesus' leading disciple in 16:22 echoes 4:8-9. Piety, whether feigned or genuine, does not necessarily preserve us from communicating false ideologies from our culture or spiritual tradition that we have never taken the time to examine from God's revealed Word.) Notice too that whereas Jesus uses Scripture to teach him God's will, the devil presents it merely as promises to be exploited for one's own purposes-as some of the more extreme radio preachers today have put it, "how to get God to work for you."

But the devil's abuse of Scripture should not lead us to neglect Scripture's real power when rightly interpreted and applied. Our Lord himself submitted his life to its claims (compare 3:15) and calls us to do the same (5:17-20). Jesus' three responses in this testing narrative share the phrase It is written (NIV) or "It has been written" (4:4, 7, 10). It comes as no surprise that Jesus' first citation declares the primacy of God's words, on which we his people should feed as on necessary food (4:4; compare Jer 15:16). Not worldly categories but God's will revealed in Scripture defined the character of Jesus' call.

Jesus' specific Spirit-led behavior in this model is significant: he already knew God's commands and their context, and for him to know was to obey. He adds no reasoning to God's simple commands. "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you" (Ps 119:11). We must learn Scripture well and, empowered by the Spirit, choose to obey it rather than flirting with temptation. We can overcome temptation in any given case; hence no matter how great we feel our temptations are, there is no temptation too great to endure (1 Cor 10:13). As many modern authors emphasize, we need to be honest about temptation and not say, "I can't help it"; if we are tempted, we must be honest and say, "I won't." Jesus' victory for us has taken away our excuse; he has provided us the power to overcome if we dare to believe him.

Finally, God brings triumph to those who remain faithful in testing (4:11). Without Jesus' submitting to the devil (compare Mt 4:6: his angels . . . will lift you up), God's agents provide Jesus' needs as soon as he has vanquished his foe. After three high-stake tests the devil leaves, so that Jesus can later say that he is freeing Satan's possessions because he has already bound the strong man (12:29). Jesus is the new Moses who will provide bread for his people (see commentary on 14:13-21; 16:29-38), whom God will deliver by the resurrection and who will eventually rule the nations (Ps 2:7, cited by God in Mt 3:17). According to Jesus' call, all these things belonged to him; but the ends of God's call in the long term do not justify inappropriate means in the short term (such as affirming unjust denominational policies or cheating on seminary exams). Our mission is most of all obedience to our Father's will, both in our destiny and in the details. God's vindication does not always come in this life, but in the end he always delivers his own.

Matthew 4


Jesus Begins to Preach

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. ¹³Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali-- ¹⁴to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:
    ¹⁵"Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
       the way to the sea, along the Jordan,
       Galilee of the Gentiles--
    ¹⁶the people living in darkness
       have seen a great light;
   on those living in the land of the shadow of death
       a light has dawned."

Matthew 4:12-16

Explanation:

Moving to a Bigger Town (4:12-16)
John's imprisonment-which foreshadows Jesus' own suffering-becomes the signal for Jesus to begin public ministry (4:12; compare Jn 3:23-30). The forerunner has completed his mission of preparing the way (3:3).
Matthew may address three issues in Jesus' move to Capernaum. First, the move may indicate a concerted missions strategy. Although Jesus had grown up in a relatively unpretentious town (see commentary on 2:23), the time apparently had come for him to find a more suitable base for his urgent mission-a town with more people, with greater notoriety and from which news would spread quickly around the perimeters of the lake of Galilee and perhaps also via the nearby trade route. (Capernaum probably held at least fifteen hundred people-E. Sanders 1993:103.) Capernaum would also prove more responsive than Nazareth (compare 9:1-2; 11:23; 13:54-57). That Capernaum appears in later rabbinic accounts solely in connection with "schismatics," presumably Jesus' followers (Theissen 1991:50), suggests that Jesus' missionary strategy was ultimately successful.

Although God may intend for many of us to serve in places like Nazareth for years, he is undoubtedly calling many of us to larger challenges at some point in our lives. I say "undoubtedly" because the vast majority of full-time Christian workers serve among peoples where the gospel is widely available, while fewer than thirty thousand serve the half of the world's population that has never received an adequate witness of the gospel. Given both Jesus' mission for us (28:19) and the love we should have for our fellow human beings, should we not be seeking God as to whether he wants us to serve him by staying or going?


But besides Jesus' own mission strategy, Matthew stresses Jesus' Galilean ministry base for two other reasons more directly relevant to his audience. The second issue is that Matthew's opponents undoubtedly criticized the Jesus movement's Galilean origins. The Pharisees and their successors, centered in Judea, retained considerable prejudice against Galilee, which they also used against Jesus' followers. Matthew thus cites Scripture about a messianic role in Galilee to counter regional prejudice against the gospel.

Third, and probably most important, what Isaiah says about Galilee foreshadows the Gentile mission that Matthew keeps urging on his readers (4:14). Jesus again acts in obedience to Scripture (4:14-15), and this passage (Is 9:1-2; compare Lk 1:79)-which in context addresses the work of the Davidic Messiah (Is 9:6-7)-indicates that he will work in Galilee of the Gentiles. This is not to say that Jesus directed much of his own ministry to Gentiles; but the text allows Matthew to foreshadow Jesus' command to proclaim the kingdom to the nations (Mt 24:14; 28:19). Capernaum was actually in Naphtali's territory, not directly Zebulon's (Meier 1980:32); yet Zebulon, sometimes associated with the fishing industry (Gen 49:13; Test. Zeb. 5:5), was not far away. At any rate, this Isaiah text would refute the claims of scribes who insisted that a Messiah must hail directly only from Bethlehem (Mt 2:5-6; Jn 7:42).

Matthew 4


¹⁷From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

The Calling of the First Disciples

¹⁸As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." ²⁰At once they left their nets and followed him.
²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, ²²and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Matthew 4:17-22

Explanation:

Abandoning All for the Kingdom (4:17-22)
Once God had commissioned Jesus (3:17), the devil had tested him (4:3-11), the forerunner had completed his mission (4:12) and Jesus had settled in Capernaum (4:12-16), he was ready to begin his public ministry (from that time on, 4:17). Matthew opens this section with a summary of Jesus' message (v. 17). As this message summarizes Jesus' proclamation of God's authority, so verses 18-22 demonstrate people's proper response to God's rule; verses 23-25 demonstrate God's rule over sickness and demons; and chapters 5-7 flesh out the nature of the ethic of repentance one must live to be prepared in advance for the kingdom.
For Matthew, the message for both Galilean Jews (10:5-7) and eventually Gentiles (28:18-19) is the same as John the Baptist's (3:2) and that of Jesus: Get your lives in order, for God's kingdom is approaching (4:17). Only those who submit to God's reign in advance (as in 4:18-22) will be ready when he comes to rule the whole world. Just as Jesus' message concurred with that of John, so the message of Jesus' followers must accord with that of Jesus. We must proclaim the imminence of the kingdom (10:7; compare 28:18), demonstrate God's rule over sickness and demons (10:8), and pass on our Master's teachings (28:19).

In 4:18-22 the One whom the Father called now calls others who will advance his mission. Jesus' call to leave profession and family was radical, the sort of demand that only the most radical teacher would make. This text provides us several examples of servant-leadership and radical discipleship.

Jesus Calls a Nucleus of Disciples (4:18-19)

Early Jewish and Greek tradition normally assumes that disciples are responsible for acquiring their own teachers of the law (m. 'Abot 1:6, 16; ARN 3, 8A; Socrates Ep. 4). The more radical teachers who, like Jesus, sometimes even rejected prospective disciples (see commentary on Mt 19:21-22) probably considered the disciple's responsibility so weighty that it would be dishonorable for the teacher to seek out the disciple.

Jesus' seeking out disciples himself may thus represent a serious breach of custom (Malina 1981:78; though compare Jer 1:4-10), "coming down to their level" socially. This would be like itinerant preachers going out to the unchurched instead of expecting them to visit our churches and appreciate our well-prepared sermons. Probably Jesus is choosing as his model the prophetic way of choosing one's successor found in 1 Kings 19:19-21 (see also Lk 9:61-62).

Jesus Relates to His Hearers in Terms They Can Understand (4:19)

Although most scholars agree that Matthew's community included Christian scribes (Mt 13:52; 23:34), Jesus did not call professionally trained rabbis (who might have had a lot to unlearn first) to be his disciples. He called artisans and encouraged them that the skills they already had were serviceable in the kingdom. If God called shepherds like Moses and David to shepherd his people Israel, Jesus could call fishermen to be gatherers of people. Some great men and women of God in the Bible never even became public expositors of Scripture; aside from his prophetic gifts, Joseph's witness involved especially public administration, learned in Potiphar's house and a prison and then applied to all Egypt. Social workers, teachers and many others have skills and backgrounds on which we must draw to be an effective church today. It is to our loss that congregations disregard the insights of the various professions among us.


Jesus' Call Involves Downward Mobility (4:20)

Although artisans had far less income than the wealthy (who made up perhaps 1 percent of the ancient population), they were not among the roughly 90 percent of the ancient population we may call peasants either (popular jokes about low-class disciples "mending their nets" aside-the expression can mean preparing their nets-v. 21). Family businesses like these were especially profitable. Even if disciples followed Jesus only during certain seasons of the year, they could not easily return to abandoned businesses.

The disciples thus paid a price economically to follow Jesus. Jewish people told stories of pagans' relinquishing their wealth on converting to Judaism (Sipre Num. 115.5.7), and Greek philosophers told stories of converts to philosophy who abandoned wealth to become disciples (Diog. Laert. 6.5.87; Diogenes Ep. 38). These stories demonstrate not only the relative worthlessness of possessions but also the incomparable value of what the converts gained. The kingdom is like a precious treasure, worth the abandonment of all other treasures (Mt 13:44-46). Many of us today respond defensively, "I would abandon everything if Jesus asked me to, but he has not asked me to." Yet if we value the priorities of the kingdom-people and proclamation more than possessions-I wonder whether Jesus is not speaking to us through the world's need for the gospel and daily bread. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear.

Jesus' Scandalous Call Costs Comfort and Challenges the Priority of Family (4:21-22)

James and John abandoned not only the boat-representing their livelihood-but also their father and the family business (4:22). In a society where teachers normally stressed no higher responsibility than honor of parents (Jos. Apion 2.206; Keener 1991a:98, 197), including economic responsibility for them, some people would view such behavior as scandalous. Jesus elsewhere affirms the importance of marriage (19:9) and filial (15:4-6) relationships; the kingdom is never an excuse to downplay our crucial responsibilities to our families (see Keener 1991a:98-99, 102). They too warrant our attention and our ministry. At the same time God has called his servants, and that means we are not our own. Those of us who are single dare not choose marriage partners who cannot bear our calling, and we must recognize the demands of God's kingdom-announcing its good news-more highly than the shame it brings on our families or the way they feel about that shame (10:35-37; compare 1:24).

Matthew 4


Jesus Heals the Sick

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. ²⁴News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. ²⁵Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

Matthew 4:23-25

Explanation:

Jesus Demonstrates God's Reign with Power (4:23-25)
No less a historian than E. P. Sanders declares it an "almost indisputable" historical fact that "Jesus was a Galilean who preached and healed" (1985:11) and that "the sheer volume of evidence makes it extremely likely that Jesus actually had a reputation as an exorcist" (1993:149; see also Meier 1994:646-77).
Technically this paragraph in Matthew serves as part of the narrative introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, although it is included in the "introduction" to Jesus' ministry here (1:1-4:23) because of the title I have chosen for the next section. Before each of the first two discourse sections, Matthew includes a summary of Jesus' kingdom works (4:23-25; 9:35). Jesus was teaching and preaching the good news of the kingdom. Teaching generally involved ethical or apologetic instruction, whereas preaching was proclamation aimed at bringing about conversion (Dodd 1980:7-8; compare Guelich 1982:43). Yet Jesus not only proclaimed and explained the kingdom; he demonstrated God's authority by healing the sick and expelling demons (Ladd 1978a:47). That he healed "all" diseases (4:23; NIV every disease) may mean every kind of sickness rather than every sick person, since the all of verse 24 is necessarily hyperbole; surely suppliants did not bring every sick person in Syria to him (Blomberg 1992:92 n. 5)!

Jesus Begins Where the People Are (4:23)

Where possible, Jesus worked through existing institutions. He taught in the synagogues, the educational and community centers of the day.

Jesus Ministers to His Hearers Both Physically and Spiritually (4:23-24)

Many conservative Christians rightly stress personal conversion but wrongly ignore the desperate physical needs around them (both for miracles and for social intervention). Many other churches rightly address societal injustices but neglect spiritual needs and personal human pain. Jesus cared about people in their totality and was concerned for their pressing needs. His example summons us to a more well-rounded ministry that preaches the gospel through evangelism and demonstrates the gospel through ministries of compassion, justice and Spirit-empowered healing (see Sider 1993).

This renewed vision of Jesus' compassion can encourage us in our prayers. When we care for people's brokenness as Jesus does, we can bring their pain to God in prayer with greater confidence. The Jesus who healed people then can heal people today, both emotionally and physically (see Deere 1993). Too many of us offer prayers while secretly doubting that God can hear us. Although God always has the right to do as he wills, we would pray with greater faith if we recognized his compassion.


Word About Jesus Spreads Widely (4:25) Ancient narratives about popular teachers (as opposed to more aristocratic figures who often disdained the masses) praised them by emphasizing their popularity (for example, Philostr. V.A. 1.40; Robbins 1992:122 n. 74). Matthew is also interested in the geographical distribution of this popularity. Josephus indicates that many Jews lived in Syria in Jesus' day (Jos. War 2.461-68); if Matthew writes to believers in Syria (see Meier 1980:36; see also introduction), he may use the mention of Jewish followers from Syria (Mt 4:24) to encourage his own audience.

In the context of the whole Gospel, however, Jesus' popularity in this passage provides a warning. God's call demands faithfulness with or without popularity. Jesus had awaited God's time for him to minister (4:12); now word about him was spreading quickly. Subsequent narratives in this Gospel, however, warn that momentary popularity is just an opportunity to convey the word to those who really have ears to hear. Popularity does not always translate into deep commitment in the end (27:20). Thus Matthew warns his first audience and us as well not to build our assurance of God's call on others' responses to our message; our knowledge of our God-given mission in life must go unshakably deeper than that (3:16-4:11).