And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So, His fame spread. Matthew 4:23-24a ESV1
Read Matthew 4:23-25, Mark 3:7-21 & Luke 6:12-19
Do you feel overwhelmed with the craziness of your life? Are you inundated with responsibilities, deadlines, phone calls, emails, rough commutes, long lines, things that don’t work, needy people, messes, arguments, lost possessions, financial troubles, betrayal, unreconcilable situations, sickness, pain, or sleepless nights? Do you want to scream, “Slow down World, and let me off!” Jesus knows how you feel. He experienced similar feelings when His ministry here on Earth suddenly exploded.
“And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So, His fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought Him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and He healed them. And great crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea” (Matthew 4:23-25), “and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon” (Mark 3:8). “And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all” (Luke 6:19). “And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured” (Luke 6:18). “And whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God’” (Mark 3:11).
Jesus was on the move, but He wasn’t getting anywhere fast. People flocked to Him. He knew they would. Do you remember how Jesus told the man He cleansed from leprosy not to tell anyone? Do you recall how the man didn’t obey, “but he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to Him from every quarter” (Mark 1:45)? That is exactly what was happening at this point in Jesus’ ministry. Take a moment to look at a map of Israel during Jesus’ time, either in the back of your Bible or online. You will notice people really were coming “from every quarter,” hordes of them, and every one of them wanting something from Jesus.
At one point, things got so out of control that “Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed … When the great crowd heard all that He was doing, they came to Him. And He told His disciples to have a boat ready for Him because of the crowd, lest they crush Him, for He had healed many so that all who had diseases pressed around Him to touch Him” (Mark 3:7-10). Talk about crazy!
Jesus knew He had to do something about the craziness (besides retreating to a boat to keep from being trampled), so “He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night He continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Jesus had to have been exhausted. I imagine His body ached, and it took everything He had to keep His eyes open. He needed sleep in order to have the energy to continue to minister, but He drug Himself up the side of a mountain because He needed something more than sleep. He needed some alone time with His Father. Jesus didn’t just say a quick, “God help Me,” prayer and drift off, in much-needed sleep, under the shelter of a tree. He had a serious, probably agonizing, lengthy prayer time asking His Father for strength and guidance. His Father met Him in prayer and provided Him with exactly what He needed to keep ministering.
“And when the day came, [Jesus knew just what to do.] He called His disciples and chose from them twelve, whom He named apostles: Simon, whom He named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew [Nathanael, John 21:2)], and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James [(Thaddaeus, Mark 3:18)], and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor” (Luke 6:12-16), “so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mark 3:14).
Did you catch that: “so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons” (Mark 3:14)? In Jesus’ all-night chat with the Father, He was led to ask for help. Imagine, Jesus, in whom “the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9), needing to ask for help from humanity. Jesus had access to everything God could provide. God provided help, not in an amazing blast of heavenly power, but in the form of twelve, imperfect men.
Peter was impulsive (see Matthew 16:15-16 & 21-23). James and John were prideful (see Matthew 20:20-24) and had bad tempers (see Luke 9:52-55). Thomas was a doubter (see John 20:24-29) and a pessimist (see John 11:16). Matthew had been a despised tax collector for the Romans (see Matthew 9:9). Simon was part of a political group, the Zealots, who wanted to violently overthrow the Romans (see Luke 6:15). James the son of Alphaeus was young (see Mark 15:40). Judas the son of James was probably a Momma’s boy; he was nicknamed, Thaddaeus, which means breast child.2 Bartholomew, whose first name was Nathanael, was prejudiced (see John 1:46). Phillip was overly concerned about money (see John 6:5-7). And Judas Iscariot later betrayed Jesus (see Luke 22:2-6 & 47-48).
They were twelve imperfect men, but they were the kind of help God chose for Jesus. Though Jesus was fully God, He was also fully human. Humans often need the help of other humans. On Earth, as a human, Jesus needed the help of other humans. But even now that He is in Heaven, He chooses to use the help of imperfect humans.
It is humans who make up the Church, the Body of Christ. It is to humans that spiritual gifts are given to build up the Church. Christ places humans in Him and the Holy Spirit lives in those humans. If He wanted to, Jesus could have saved us and immediately taken us to Heaven, but He left us here on Earth to do join Him in His work. We may think His work is something He could do far more effectively without us. Instead, He has chosen to do His work through us. God does nothing without purpose. It is for the benefit of humans that we join Him in His work. It is for the benefit of humans that other humans, who have the power of Jesus working through their bodies, reach out to them when they are in need.
We may do imperfectly the work to which Jesus is leading us, but His work is still being completed because He is the One ultimately doing it. “I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). We may feel overwhelmed at times, but Jesus has shown us exactly what to do when things get out of control. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus gets it. We do not have a Lord who is unable to sympathize with our crazy lives, because He lived a crazy life, and He lived it well. He routinely went to His Father in prayer; we can too. And He accepted the help God gave Him; we can too. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.
2 MacArthur, John. Twelve Ordinary Men. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2002., page 178. For more information on all twelve apostles, check out this book.