But he said to them, I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for for this I have been sent forth.
At Capernaum He healed every sick person brought to Him. The next morning the crowds came to stop Him leaving. His reply was not a preference but a necessity, and it turned on two words: must and sent.
The whole answer rests on the last clause. He does not argue about the crowd's wishes; He points to the One who commissioned Him.
He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. So when men held Him back to stop Him leaving, He points to His mission to preach elsewhere also. He is always the obedient One.
The welcome here was warm. It was nothing like the treatment He had met in Nazareth. Yet kindness did not hold Him.
The next day the people looked for Him and found Him alone in a deserted place. They invited Him to stay — so unlike the treatment He had received at Nazareth. Still, He refused. His reason was obedience to Him who had sent Him.
Popularity was at its height, and that is the moment He walked away. One writer names both what Christ came to do and the rule He kept.
The great object of Christ's coming was to preach God's kingdom. It brought God and God's power before men — God's power visiting man in mercy. No healing of diseases or casting out of demons could satisfy the Lord. And when He had by His miracles drawn attention in any place, that was all the more reason for His going to another. He did not seek His own fame; another would come in his own name who would seek it. But for our Lord Jesus to attract a name was a reason for departure, not for staying.
The miracles were real and full of mercy, but they were not the point. He named preaching, not healing, as the work He came to do.
His miracles had two purposes to accomplish: they confirmed the testimony He gave, and they set people free from Satan's power there and then. But His great business was preaching the kingdom of God. He will set up the kingdom in power later on. But His great aim then was, and still is, to bring the heart into contact with God. The word does this more than miracles do.
There is a warning folded into this for anyone who prizes the spectacular over the message.
Nothing would turn Him aside from His blessed work of preaching the Word of God. He made it clear that His miracles were meant only to draw attention to the vital truth of that Word. If people made miracles their object, they lost the true blessing.
Here He preaches the kingdom. The gospel of the grace of God came later, after His death and resurrection. Commentators are careful to say these are not two rival gospels.
The kingdom of God is where the authority of God rules. This kingdom had to be set up even before the gospel of the grace of God was announced, after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Paul preached both (Acts 20:24-25). There are not two gospels. The kingdom speaks of God's authority set up over its subjects. The grace of God is vital too, for authority and grace are complements of one another.
The phrase refuses to let the good news settle in one town. One writer takes these very words as the motto of every believer who tells others about Christ.
The size of the effort does not matter. It may be a few words dropped in a friend's ear, a tract given, a note written, a prayer breathed. But one thing is certain. A healthy, vigorous Christian will be an evangelistic Christian — a teller of good news. His sympathies, desires and energies are always going out toward "the regions beyond." "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose." Such was the language of the divine Evangelist.
- Sent — the One who sent Him set His path, not the crowd who wanted Him to stay. He is always the obedient One.
- Must — a mission makes movement a duty, not a choice. A warm welcome and a growing name were reasons to move on, not to stay.
- Word — preaching was His great business. Miracles confirmed the testimony and freed people from Satan's power, but the word brings the heart into contact with God.
- Kingdom — the message announced God's authority. Grace and authority belong together, and Paul later preached both.
- Beyond — "the other towns as well" keeps the good news moving outward. Every healthy believer shares that same outward pull.
And he was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Luke ends chapter 4 with a one-line summary: Jesus left the crowd that wanted to keep Him and went on preaching, synagogue after synagogue. That single line raises two questions — why He chose synagogues, and why this verse says Judea.
A synagogue was a local meeting place. Jewish people gathered there each Sabbath to hear the Scriptures read. That weekly crowd is why Jesus went there.
The Lord regularly taught and preached the word in the synagogues, where the Jews gathered on the sabbath (John 18:20). When the people came together like this, there was a chance to put the truth before many at once, and the Lord took that chance again and again (Matt. 4:23; Matt. 12:9; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:44). It was His "custom" to do so (Luke 4:16).
Some copies of Luke read "the synagogues of Galilee" here. Others read "Judea", and the ESV follows them.
In Luke 4:44 there is a striking variant reading — "the synagogues of Judea" — which is placed in the text of the "Workers' New Testament" and in the margin of the R.V.
If "Judea" is the right reading, it is not narrowing His work to the south but widening it to the whole country.
If the reading "Judea" is accepted, it must mean the whole land, as in Luke 1:51. For the ministry in Judea proper, compare Luke 13:34, Luke 19:31, Luke 22:14, Acts 2:9, Acts 10:37.
The verse shows Jesus on the move, and moving away from a place that wanted Him. Success in one town became a reason to leave it.
Christ came above all to preach God's kingdom. That meant bringing God and God's power before people — God's power visiting man in mercy. No healing of diseases or driving out of demons could satisfy the Lord. When His miracles had drawn attention in one place, that was all the more reason for Him to go to another. He did not seek His own fame; another would come in his own name who would seek it. But when our Lord Jesus attracted a name, that was a reason to leave, not to stay.
Commentators also take this as a pattern for anyone who serves God. A warm welcome is not, by itself, a reason to stay.
Notice here the same steady purpose, for humanly speaking there was much in this request to hold Him back. This matters greatly in service, both for our own state of mind and for finishing the work. Nothing would have been added to the work here; the request itself grew out of what had already happened. They wished to keep Him because of what He had done — not from an awakened desire about what was to come. It is a spirit of diligent service. Looking at the Lord Jesus here as our Pattern in service, the very request that He stay was proof that He might go away.
His subject was the kingdom of God. That message does not rival the message of grace preached later; the two belong together.
The kingdom of God is where the authority of God rules. This kingdom had to be established even before the gospel of the grace of God was announced, which came after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Paul preached both (Acts 20:24-25). There are not two gospels. The kingdom speaks of the authority of God established over subjects. The grace of God is vital too, for authority and grace complete one another.
This verse marks a stage, not a limit. Luke later shows the same preaching reaching places with no synagogue at all.
This time villages were to hear the good news as well as cities. The good news was not to stay inside places that had synagogues. At first (Matt. 4:23; Mark 1:39; Luke 4:44) the Lord preached in synagogues. But He would widen the range of His work to reach people, if possible, wherever they were. It was the King proclaiming the kingdom.
- Custom — He preached in synagogues by habit. One gathering put the truth before many people at once.
- Commission — He came to preach God's kingdom. That purpose, not the crowd's wishes, set His route.
- Cost — Crowds that admired Him were a reason to move on, not to remain; He did not build a name for Himself.
- Content — He announced the kingdom of God: God's authority established. The message of His grace came later, and the two belong together.
- Compass — Synagogues were where He started, not where He stopped. The good news soon reached villages that had none.