And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these words, he withdrew from Galilee, and came to the coasts of Judaea beyond the Jordan;
One sentence closes a discourse, ends the Lord's work in Galilee, and turns Him south toward Judea. The move is short on the map and large in the story: it opens the last stretch of the road to Jerusalem.
The opening words do more than link two scenes. They mark a shape running through the whole Gospel.
Five great sermons of Christ shape the structure of the gospel. Each one ends with the same sentence: "Now when Jesus had finished these sayings…"
For most of this Gospel the Lord had worked in the north, in the old tribal areas of Zebulun and Naphtali. Now He turns the other way, and where He is going matters as much as what He leaves.
At the opening of Matthew 19 (v. 1) the Lord begins to leave Galilee. Ever since Matthew 4:12 He had been in those parts, as the Light from Zebulun and Naphtali. Now He begins to set out for Judea. As we shall see, it is in Judea, not Galilee, that He will present Himself to Israel for the third and last time.
Leaving Galilee could look like giving up on a people. One writer says it is nothing of the kind.
This distance, however, is not abandonment. The time for that had not fully come. A long, sad time when His face would be hidden was waiting for Israel, but it had not begun in the days of Matthew 18–20. And now Jesus, the Glory of the temple and the God of the prophets, still waits at the doorway of the house, and rises up again and again to speak to them.
The land beyond the Jordan was not neutral ground. Herod Antipas ruled it — and that colours the first subject this chapter raises.
The Lord now says goodbye to Galilee for the last time. But before He comes into Judea, several important events take place between Galilee and Judea. It may make the subject here more striking that the area mentioned was ruled by Herod Antipas, who had married his brother's wife. The holiness of the marriage bond is pressed on us here, because in the Lord's day people held it very lightly. The disciples themselves thought it a good thing to be able to send their wives away if they displeased them.
What follows in this chapter and the next is not a random collection of stories.
Leaving Galilee with His disciples, the Lord travelled towards Jerusalem along the far side of the Jordan. Several incidents happened on the way, and as He journeyed to Jericho He used each one to teach His own. Marriage, children, this world's wealth, and the true spirit of service — these are subjects which came up as they went along.
The Lord had been unfolding new things. That raised a fair question about the older ties God built into human life.
Here was One who had declared Himself Lord of the sabbath, and who had set aside the sayings of ancient days with His emphatic "But I say to you." People might well ask how the new relationships He had announced would affect the relationships of nature. He had told one man He called to "leave the dead to bury their own dead," because that man was called into a new sphere and power of life. It was necessary to show whether nature was to have a place in the Kingdom of God, and how far. The two questions of marriage and of children throw light on this.
The answer given in the rest of the chapter runs against a common assumption.
There is no greater mistake than to suppose that God abandons or weakens natural relationships and authority in their place, just because His grace is now unfolded so richly in new things. The fresh revelations of grace take nothing away from what God established long ago in nature. On the contrary, they give new and greater force to the real value and wisdom of God's way, even in these smallest things.
- Finished. The same words close each of the Lord's five great discourses. One block of teaching ends, and the story moves on.
- Departed. He leaves Galilee, His base since chapter 4. Judea lies ahead, where He will present Himself to Israel for the last time.
- Not abandoned. The distance is not desertion. He still waits at the doorway and keeps speaking to His people.
- Arrived. He enters land ruled by Herod Antipas, who had married his brother's wife. Marriage is the first subject this chapter raises.
- Taught. The road becomes a classroom: marriage, children, wealth, service. Grace confirms what God set up at the beginning; it does not loosen it.
and great crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
The verse is a single line of narrative, easy to pass over: crowds trail after Jesus as He leaves Galilee, and He heals. Yet commentators read it as the hinge of the whole chapter — the close of His public ministry in Galilee, and the setting for the teaching that follows.
The move described in the previous verse is not a casual change of address. It marks the end of the long Galilean ministry and the start of the road that ends at Jerusalem.
At the opening of Matthew 19 (v. 1) the Lord begins to leave Galilee. From Matthew 4:12 onwards, according to Matthew, He had been in those parts, as the Light from Zebulun and Naphtali. But now He starts out on the road to Judea. As we shall see, it will be in Judea, and not in Galilee, that He presents Himself to Israel for the third and last time.
Mark describes the same stage of the journey, and the two accounts do not read alike. The difference is not a contradiction but a matter of what each writer shows us about Him.
Crowds came to the Lord, and He received them. Matthew (19:2) says He healed them; Mark (10:1) tells us He taught them, "as He usually did." Each of these two writers describes His work in his own characteristic way. Matthew presents Him as the Messiah, so Matthew tells us how the Lord was healing the sick. Mark brings Him forward as the Prophet, or Teacher, so Mark mentions His teaching.
There is also a small point of grammar worth catching in the words "he healed them."
Cases like Matthew 12:15 and Matthew 19:2 may illustrate this expression even better. It is plain that the connection is not with the crowds, but with those among them who needed healing.
The healings are not background detail. One writer reads these two verses as a picture of what the Lord was to the people around Him.
Matthew 19:1-2 presents the Lord as the one whose skill could refresh and heal. For the time being He drove away all the evil that oppressed the people linked with Him in His life on earth.
The healing of the crowds is the setting; the questions that follow are the substance.
The setting now is changed from Galilee to Judea, with great crowds following Him, finding healing from their illnesses. But the Lord Jesus has been announcing a kingdom unlike anything before it. So basic questions come up.
And what follows is not a loosening of ordinary human life but its defence.
Whatever the Church or the kingdom may be, it is exactly when the Lord unfolds His new glory in both that He upholds what is proper in nature, with its rights and integrity. There is no greater mistake than to think that the richest unfolding of God's grace in new things makes Him abandon or weaken natural relationships and authority in their place. Notice that the chapter begins at this point by defending the sanctity of marriage.
after_note: DISCUSS
One writer takes what the crowds found in Him then and holds it out to readers now.
There is no affliction of the soul that the great Deliverer cannot heal. He came to bless, and all who come to Him in faith and make use of His grace and power, whatever the distress, He will heal. No one but Jesus can relieve and set free the troubled soul: it is to Him we must bring them or point them. There must be personal contact with Jesus, even if it is only to touch the edge of His garment.
- Departure — Leaving Galilee begins the last stage of the Lord's public path. Judea, not Galilee, is where He presents Himself to Israel for the last time.
- Following — The crowds go after Him, and their need meets His power. "He healed them" points to the sick among them, not to every person there.
- Healing — Matthew records healing and Mark records teaching. Matthew is showing us Israel's Messiah.
- Relief — His power lifted, for the time, the whole weight of evil pressing on those around Him.
- Foundation — Out of that scene comes the chapter's teaching. The new things He brings never weaken the natural ties God set up long before.