Reading the Gospels Together The Movement of Jesus to Galilee – Part 1 Following the baptism/anointing of Jesus, all four gospel writers tell their readers that Jesus left Judea and moved on to Galilee. But that is about as far as the similarity goes. In this section we will need to consider Mark 1:14-15, 21; Matthew 4:12-17, Luke 4:1-16, 31, and John 1:43 and John 2:1, 12. As is usual, Mark is the briefest in his description. After announcing to his readers that John the Baptist has been arrested, he tells them that Jesus came to Galilee and there he made his first proclamation – “The time is up, the kingdom of God has dawned, repent and believe the good news.” In many ways that is Mark’s programmatic statement of Jesus’ ministry. Mark tells his readers that Jesus is passing by the Sea of Galilee, the first geographical reference as to where he is in Galilee, and calls four disciples. And from there he moves on to Capernaum which will be the center of Jesus’ activity in Mark’s gospel. It is significant that Mark locates the focus of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee in Capernaum. For the most part Matthew is faithful in following his primary source which is Mark. But Matthew does add some information. He tells his readers that that Jesus “heard” of the arrest of John the Baptist and thus he “withdrew” to Galilee. Perhaps we should not make too much of the way in which Matthew has put it, but he seems to emphasize that the arrest of John the Baptist was the trigger that led Jesus to Galilee. Matthew inserts one of his OT “proof texts” at this point remembering the words from Isaiah 9. He also implies that Jesus first went to his hometown of Nazareth before moving to Capernaum. Following his insertion of this material Matthew returns to Mark’s first proclamation of Jesus but Matthew has shortened it significantly. Jesus only says, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has dawned” which is exactly the same message that John the Baptist had proclaimed. Gone is Mark’s comment that “the time is up” and that those who hear are to “believe the good news.” Matthew softens the urgency of Mark’s proclamation. We might ask why Matthew has done all of this. Was he simply seeking to clarify what is at best implied in Mark’s gospel? Why does Matthew want his readers to see this movement as fulfilling OT prophecy? Why soften Mark’s urgency? Again, it may be that Matthew is concerned with the legitimacy of Jesus. Any evidence that Jesus was indeed fulfilling OT prophecy would be helpful for Matthew. And perhaps he was attempting to portray Jesus as being more deliberate in his actions. Jesus went to Galilee purposefully to fulfill OT prophecy. At any rate, Matthew has remained faithful to Mark while providing his readers with a bit more information. Matthew follows Mark fully in describing the call of the first four disciples as Jesus walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but then Matthew does not announce that Jesus moves on to Capernaum. Perhaps that is because Matthew has already told his readers that Jesus has made that move. But Matthew also omits the magnificent first day in the ministry of Jesus that Mark tells his readers when he brings Jesus to Capernaum. Again; however, it is significant that Matthew also places Jesus in Capernaum at the focus of the Galilean ministry of Jesus. While there are traces of Mark’s story in Luke’s gospel, Luke has essentially re-written the script. Luke had already told of the arrest of John the Baptist even before the baptism of Jesus so he does not mention it here. Luke also omits the first proclamation of Jesus that Mark and Matthew had mentioned and replaces it with the episode of Jesus at this hometown of Nazareth – an event that he finds later in Mark’s gospel and moves forward to this point making it his programmatic statement regarding the ministry of Jesus. Quoting from Isaiah, Jesus claims that the words of Isaiah have been fulfilled in his reading of them – perhaps this is Luke’s way of saying, “The Kingdom of God has dawned.” Mark had made reference to the Sea of Galilee as the first place Jesus appeared after his move from Judea to Galilee. Luke places Jesus first in Nazareth and will only later tell his readers of the appearance of Jesus in Capernaum. Yet it is significant that Luke does mention Capernaum as the place where the main focus of Jesus’ ministry will take place. And one final change that Luke makes to the scenario is that Luke does not mention the call of the first four disciples by the Sea. Instead, Luke tells the story of the call of Peter in a very different way from Mark. Again, we might ask why Luke made all these changes to his primary source. Luke made a deliberate choice to move the story of Jesus in his hometown of Nazareth forward from where it is found in Mark’s gospel. Likely he did that in order to emphasize that Jesus came to his own people and was rejected by them – the visitation of God to his people generates either acceptance or rejection. And the location for that first story of God’s visitation at Nazareth works well for Luke. And Luke wanted to make the call of disciples more “reasonable” to his readers – thus the story of Peter and the great catch of fish.