Matthew 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom… The more special and public acts and events of a man's life gain place in his biography, but the commonplace, everyday associations of a man give the true impression of him. It is said that "no man is a hero to his valet;" but he ought to be. The routine life of a man should be the best revelation of the man. We may dwell on the greater scenes of our Lord's life, and learn much; but we know him imperfectly until we fairly estimate how he bore the strain of daily, commonplace duties. Four terms are used to describe our Lord's everyday life. I. JOURNEYING. He "went about all the cities and villages." Galilee was very thickly peopled at this time. Josephus exaggerates, but he says of Galilee, "The cities here lie very thick, and the very many villages here and there are everywhere so full of people, by the richness of their soil, that the very least of them contained about fifteen thousand inhabitants." He reports two hundred and forty cities and villages in the district. This gives us an idea of our Lord's active labours. Notice that (1) he was concerned for the village as well as for the town; (2) that such itinerating work is bodily exhausting; (3) that constant fresh scenes and associations destroy soul-quietness, and make the due maintenance of the spiritual life exceedingly difficult. We may sympathize with Christ. II. TEACHING. We now know that the afternoon service at the synagogue was conducted somewhat as a Bible-class, those present asking questions and giving answers. In such scenes our Lord naturally took his place as Teacher. Scripture was the text-book. Note that our Lord sought to arouse the activity of men's minds. He wanted intelligent religion. Teachers find in him their Model. III. PREACHING. This term represents the morning service in the synagogues, when announcements and expositions were given, but no response from the people was looked for. Preaching may be said to include three things: (1) heralding; (2) expounding; (3) persuading. Christ had a message; he opened up the Scriptures (as at Nazareth, see Luke 4.); and he could persuade to the acceptance of the truth. But teaching and preaching make heavy demands on spiritual strength. IV. HEALING. This is always to be regarded as auxiliary and illustrative work. Needful in those days, in order to call attention to the new Teacher, and awaken interest in him. It did for that day what newspapers and advertisements will do for great leaders and teachers nowadays. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. |
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