Jesus Knows the Glory of the Grind

Read Matthew 4:12-25

“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” (4:23).

      Josephus, writing a generation later, tells us that Galilee had 204 cities and villages with populations of at least fifteen thousand, which figures to a total population of over three million people spread over 2,800 square miles.  If Jesus and his disciples visited two towns a day, including on Sabbaths, it would take over three months to get through them all. 

       Of course, Matthew’s description doesn’t strictly demand that Jesus had ministered in every single city, nor that he neglected the smaller towns (both Clinton and Oliver Springs would be too small to make Josephus’ “census”).  But from what we know about the area generally, we can be fairly certain that the time of ministry covered by 4:23-25 was grueling work. 

      Jesus daily teaching and preaching would have covered the same general material in different locations, over and over again.  And people would be coming to him with the same kinds of problems and needs – over and over – and over again. 

      Perhaps you can see a parallel in your own life – and ministry, if you have one.  Faithfulness to what God wants us to do is often exhausting, and sometimes thankless work.  As Jesus knows and Paul encouraged, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”