Where did Jesus live?

The Lord was pleased to select Capernaum as His abode in Galilee, making from thence His circuits through the numerous towns and villages of that populous district. Capernaum was from this circumstance highly favoured as a place. Matthew, alluding to the Lord's residence there, speaks of it as "His own city" (9:1). In the words often quoted from Chrysostom, "Bethlehem bore Him, Nazareth nurtured Him, Capernaum had Him continuously as inhabitant."

The Lord Himself referred to this mark of outward privilege and its abuse in words of solemn and tremendous import, "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [hades]; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" (Matt. 11:23). Capernaum repented not at the preaching of Jesus, and while its unbelieving inhabitants must answer for themselves individually in a day of judgment yet to come, this, the Lord's own city in Galilee, has been so completely overthrown that its site cannot with certainty be identified.

1918 71 Capernaum is called His own city because, though the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem and brought up in Nazareth, He had made His home there. Thus was Capernaum "exalted to heaven."

Here in Matthew 2 we read of the calculating cruelty of Herod, who in aiming his blow at the children clearly intended to put an end to the One who threatened his throne. No doubt it was the devil who, well knowing Who it was that had been born, moved Herod to perpetrate such an atrocity (Revelation 12:4). Its purpose fails. Joseph is warned of the danger and takes "the young child and His mother" and flees into Egypt. Nevertheless the blow falls and who can tell the sorrow that it must have entailed? Though the circumstances and geographical location were different Jeremiah 31 verse 15 is applied as expressing the grief of those affected. The very next verse in Matthew 2 records the death of Herod. He was soon called from his seat and will stand before the great white throne for judgment as Revelation 20:11-15 describes. The remainder of the chapter explains why, though born in Bethlehem, our Lord was brought up in Nazareth, and notices the general testimony of the Old Testament prophets that He would be the more despised and rejected on that account.

"But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young Child's life. And he arose, and took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel" (ver. 19-21). It is sweet to find "the land of Israel" occurring here. It was not merely the country, as known among men, where poor Jews lived by permission of their Gentile lords. How few look on it as "the land of Israel" now! But God's thoughts are toward His people in connection with the glory of His Son. If Jesus had His earthly tie there, if Emmanuel were now born of the virgin, why should not the land be called the land of Israel? It was the divine purpose completely to expel the foot of the Gentile that was now treading it down. If the people would only bow and receive Him to take His place as their King, how blessed their lot! But would Israel receive Jehovah-Jesus now returning from Egypt? — There was no readiness for Him yet. One Herod passed away; another followed. Hence, when the young Child was taken back into the land of Israel, and Joseph heard "that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene" (vers. 22, 23).

The method of citation is worthy of note here. Note that it is not one particular prophet, but "the prophets". And by that we are to gather, not that any one inspired writer said these words, but it is the spirit of the prophets who do speak of Him. When we read in one prophet, "They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek"; in another, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief "; and again, what they should give Him for meat, and in His thirst for drink, and how He should be taunted up to the last — we can understand this application of the prophets. It was the well-understood language expressive of contempt in that day: He should, in other words, be called a Nazarene. Nazareth was the most scorned of places. Not only did the men of Judea proper look down upon Nazareth, but the Galileans themselves despised it, though it was part of their own district. Later on we read of a guileless Israelite who, when he heard of Jesus being there, exclaimed, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Thus, if one spot in Palestine, more than another, would accord with the rejection that was the portion of Christ, it was Nazareth. A striking picture, surely, of One who, while He was the true King, was yet refused by His own people! Gentiles might have done Him reverence; but His own nation was indifferent. How little fruit was there to answer to the culture that God had bestowed upon them! But here was the blessed One who pursues His path of obedience unto death, who would not show His glory by protecting Himself. His people went down into Egypt: He goes down there also. He has to be called out of Egypt: that was His portion. He would not screen Himself from the sorrows of His people: He would share them all. When He does come forth, Israel is still unprepared for Him. His parents turn to Nazareth once more, Joseph having been again divinely instructed in a dream. This is the last mention that we have of him in Matthew. Luke gives us later circumstances; but Joseph wholly disappears before our Lord entered upon His ministry.

When He is called out of Egypt, He cannot go to Jerusalem, nor to Bethlehem either. He was to be despised and rejected: the prophets had said so: their words must be accomplished. Archelaus reigned in Judea: a usurper was still there. Joseph, at the warning of God, turns aside to Nazareth, and Jesus dwelt with them; that the word of the prophets might be fulfilled in our Lord's proving to the full what it was to be the most despised of men. He knew it pre-eminently on the cross; but it was His all through. And this is the way that God speaks of the Messiah to Israel. He shows what their hardness of heart and unbelief would entail — even if it were to the Messiah Himself. What a picture of man, and especially of Israel, when such must be His portion! He comes and calls, but no answer greets Him. The unbelief of man hinders the blessing of God. It was the sin of Israel that thus complicated the early history of the King. But future chapters will show that God would turn the very unbelief of Israel into the means of blessing for the despised Gentiles, and that if the Jews rejected the counsel of God, to their own perdition, the Gentiles would hear and receive all blessing in the blessed One.

For a time the Lord Jesus remained in Judes, baptizing (that is, his disciples doing so), as is seen in John 3:22-23 and John 4:1-2; and this at the same time as John was baptizing in Judea also. This ministry of baptizing evidently come to an end when John was put in prison. No longer do either John or the Lord Jesus continue to baptize, so for as the record goes. Hearing of John's imprisonment, He did nothing to intervene, but left Judea for Galilee, where this Gospel views him until chapter 19. His brief visit to Nazareth is implied here, but nothing said of it, as in Luke 4:1-30. To fulfil Isaiah's prophecy, however, He came to live in Capernaum on the sea-coast of Lake Galilee, the tribes of Zebulon and Naphtaii being specially favored by the presence of the Messiah of Israel.

At Capernaum. — He went down therefore to Capernaum, a city of Galilee on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret; Luke thus reminding us that Nazareth in the hill country was at a higher elevation than the margin of the lake. Matthew (4:13) tells us that having left Nazareth He came and dwelt in Capernaum. He mentions the fact. Luke acquaints us with the reason. At Nazareth they would not receive His ministry, hence Capernaum became His abode, having, as we have already learnt (Luke 4:23), been previously visited by Him. Capernaum then became His own city (Matt. 9:1), whilst Nazareth was His own country (Mark 6:1); and at the former He taught them on the Sabbath days. To one of those Sabbaths attention is now directed. Entering the synagogue, which had been built, as we subsequently learn, by a centurion (Luke 7:5), the Lord taught them. They were astonished, for His word was with power; and with authority He could and did act. A man was there with the spirit of an unclean demon, who cried out with a loud voice, "Ah [rather than, Let us alone], what have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Nazarene? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God." An awful question was asked, indicating what the demons know is their fate, and that without hope of deliverance in the future. To this the Lord made no answer. But as at Philippi (Acts 16:17), so here, the demon would attempt to advertise. Jesus, the Nazarene, it declared, was the Holy One of God. True indeed; and the folly and the blindness of the men of Nazareth, a demon could see and proclaim. But testimony from a demon to His person, however true in itself, the Lord would not receive. So He rebuked that spirit, distinguishing between it and the man through whom it had spoken, "Hold thy peace, and come out of him." The effect on the demon was seen at once. That word of command was instantly obeyed. It went out of its victim, and though it had first cast him on the ground, it hurt him not. The effect too on the beholders, and the result from that miracle, Luke has reported (4:36-37). Those present were amazed, and the Lord's fame was spread abroad "into every place of the country round about." To exorcise demons was nothing new (Matt. 12:27), yet all present were amazed. Unquestioning obedience to Him was rendered by unclean spirits. One was upon earth who had never as a man been here before.

"And He entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city." Having left Nazareth, as we saw, He takes up His abode in Capernaum, which was henceforth "His own city." To the proud inhabitant of Jerusalem, both one and the other were but a choice and change within a land of darkness. But it was for a land of darkness and sin and death that Jesus came from heaven — the Messiah, not according to their thoughts, but the Lord and Saviour, the God-man. So in this case there was brought to Him a paralytic man, lying upon a bed, "and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." Most clearly it is not so much a question of sin in the aspect of uncleanness (typifying deeper things, but still connected with the ceremonial requirements of Israel, as we find from what our Lord said in the chapter to the cleansed leper). It is more particularly sin, viewed as guilt, and consequently as that which absolutely breaks and destroys all power in the soul towards both God and man. Hence, here it is a question not merely of cleansing, but of forgiveness, and forgiveness, too, as that which precedes power, manifested before men. There never can be strength in the soul till forgiveness is known. There may be desires, there may be the working of the Spirit of God, but there can be no power to walk before men and to glorify God thus till there is forgiveness possessed and enjoyed in the heart. This was the very blessing that aroused, above all, the hatred of the scribes. The priest, in chap. 8, could not deny what was done in the case of the leper, who showed himself duly, and brought his offering, according to the law, to the altar. Though a testimony to them, still it was in the result a recognition of what Moses commanded. But here pardon dispensed on earth arouses the pride of the religious leaders to the quick, and implacably. Nevertheless, the Lord did not withhold the infinite boon, though He knew too well their thoughts; He spoke the word of forgiveness, though He read their evil heart that counted it blasphemy. This utter, growing rejection of Jesus was coming out now — rejection, at first allowed and whispered in the heart, soon to be pronounced in words like drawn swords.

But there is another thing. If the two disciples are drawn after Jesus, His heart goes forth to them. "Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour." (vv. 38, 39.) Nothing more delights the heart of Christ than the desires of the soul after Him. Attracted to Him, these two disciples would learn more of the One whose beauty had begun to dawn upon their souls, though as yet their apprehensions were so feeble and inadequate. The Lord knew their weakness, and thus He allures them on by His gentleness and grace. In their timidity they might have been repelled by reserve; but He who does not quench the smoking flax will intensify their interest and desire; and thus He turned, and seeing them following, said, "What seek ye?" He knew what they sought, their hearts lay bare before His eyes; but by this simple question He was but leading them on, throwing around them the cords of His love to bind them to Himself. Emboldened, therefore, by such grace, they respond, "Master, where dwellest thou?" It may be that they little understood the largeness of their request, yet surely the Spirit of God animated their words. The home of the Lamb of God! To discover this is to learn the whole secret of redemption; yea, to know the Son as the Revealer of the Father. For we read in this very chapter, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (v. 18.) No earthly dwelling could claim the honour of being His home. On earth He had not where to lay His head; but even while a stranger here, and walking this weary scene, He could speak of Himself as "in heaven" (John 3:13); and from the Scripture just cited we learn that in heaven the bosom of the Father was His home.

The Word become flesh was the Son of Man with rights to the whole creation. Yet He had not where to lay His head. He said of Himself, “The foxes have holes, and the birds have nests; but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Creatures of His hand, members of the lower creation, they had their lairs and their nests, but He, the Lord of them all, was homeless.

The subjects of this narrative formed a particularly-favoured trio. Their home had become, if we may so say it, the Lord's home in Judea. In the other Gospels His ministry in Galilee is prominent, even as that in Judea is the main topic of John. And it is recorded that while He taught in Jerusalem He sought rest and refreshment in Bethany at the house of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. This was the circle into which death entered.