Some years ago, I questioned why the risen Lord Jesus instructed his disciples to leave the City of Jerusalem and go north to Galilee. Once there, they were to go to a mountain (Matthew 28:10, 16).
The Spirit of God dropped the answer into my heart from Matthew 4:13-16. The term “Galilee of the Gentiles” was the key. These verses are quoted from Isaiah 9:1-2. Matthew applies a prophecy from Jewish history to the Lord’s ministry in Galilee. Historically, the area was known as “Galilee of the Gentiles” because of its proximity to northern nations such as Syria and (later) the first world empire of Assyria.
Did you know that Jesus did the majority of his miracles in Galilee — at least ten of them in the lakeside town of Capernaum? Many more took place there, which are referred to in passing or simply unrecorded. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, but after his return from Egypt, where in early childhood Joseph and Mary had escaped with him from murderous King Herod, the family settled in Nazareth, a hill village up north in Galilee.
When Jesus began his ministry in Galilee, the prophecy was fulfilled which stated: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” Capernaum was “exalted to heaven” — elevated in reputation — by the miracles that Jesus did in Capernaum.
The reason Jesus instructed his disciples to go and meet him there was so that he could charge them to carry out what we know as The Great Commission. Why did he not do that in Jerusalem? My belief is that he wanted them to know that the Good News was not only for Jews but for Gentiles — for the whole world — the world which “God so loved” (John 3:16).
The disciples then returned to Jerusalem, there to wait until they received “power from on high”, which they needed to carry out The Great Commission.
I get excited whenever I teach on “The Gentile Jesus”! Jesus was a Jew, but most of his recorded miracles of healing, took place in “Galilee of the Gentiles” — a term prophetic of his extended, worldwide one through his apostles and those who would follow down through church history into the present time.
In breaking down “the middle wall of partition” that separated Gentile from Jew through his death on the Cross Jesus brought into being “one new humanity” which is neither Jew nor Gentile. We tend to take this for granted, but for the three-and-a-half years of his ministry, Jesus showed that he was ‘at home’ away from the centre of Jewish culture and worship among “those who sat in darkness” — as much as he was among those who lived in the ‘light’ of the Law and the Prophets.
Has the “great light” of Jesus, the Son of God, shone in the “darkness” of your life yet? He will do so through those who preach the Good News of salvation through the Cross of Jesus and subsequent entry into the kingdom of God — if you open your heart to Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee and respond to his invitation.
You might think that the Lord is interested only in those who attend churches, but that isn’t true. Yes, Jesus knows by name those who are called Christians, but even they were not always believers. We all “sat in darkness” until we heard that God receives those who believe in Jesus.
At the age of twenty-one, I ‘saw the light’ and responded, and so can you, whatever your age. It’s not a matter of becoming religious enough for God to accept you (like going to Jerusalem), but rather of you being willing to accept Jesus as your Saviour and Lord right where you are (like those people did who “sat in darkness” in non-religious Galilee).
Jesus died to save all of us from our sins. And “most of us are like the rest of us”.