The Glory of His First Galilean Tour

The Suffering of Christ · AD 28

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Isaiah 53:4

At the beginning of summer, AD 28, Christ set out on His first preaching tour through Galilee, and it revealed Him as a man of sorrows who bore our griefs. Though His own body was untouched by sickness, He walked among the suffering, felt their pain as His own, and never once turned a hurting soul away. This tour began with a long Sabbath of healing in Capernaum, ran through the villages of Galilee, and ended back in Capernaum with the leaders of Israel plotting to kill Him.

Read: Mark 1:21–45; Mark 2:1–28; Mark 3:1–12

A Long Sabbath Day in Capernaum

On the Sabbath after calling His disciples, Christ went into the Capernaum synagogue and taught with a clarity and authority the people had never heard from the scribes. Suddenly a demon-possessed man cried out, for the unclean spirit knew exactly who Jesus was. Christ felt compassion for the man, rebuked the demon, and commanded it to be silent and come out — and the whole region was astonished that even the unclean spirits obeyed Him.

Leaving the synagogue, Christ went to Simon's house, where his mother-in-law lay sick with a high fever. He gently took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her at once, so that she rose and began to serve them. By evening the whole town had gathered at the door, bringing everyone who was sick or oppressed.

Rather than turning the crowds away, Christ dealt with each person individually, laying His hand on them one by one late into the night. This was no quick mass healing but a long, tiring, personal labor of love. He had not come into the world to enjoy the blessings of life but to help those suffering under the curse of the fall.

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

Mark 1:24

Preaching and Healing Through Galilee

Before sunrise the next morning, while everyone slept, Christ slipped away to a nearby mountain to be alone and pray. Though He prayed without ceasing, He was compelled to break away for long, extended times of private prayer, for as the Son of Man He felt His dependence on the Father. When His disciples found Him, He insisted on moving on: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

So He traveled through the villages of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, healing the afflicted, and casting out demons. His fame spread like wildfire — into Syria, the Decapolis, Judea, and beyond the Jordan — as people brought Him all who were diseased, oppressed, or paralyzed. This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

One of those He had compassion on was a leper, an outcast whom no one would dare to touch. The man ran to Christ, fell to his knees, and pleaded, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Christ was not repulsed. He stretched out His holy hand, touched the unclean man, and said, “I will; be clean” — and the leprosy left him instantly.

Christ told the man to show himself to the priest and tell no one, for He was not seeking fame. But the man was so overjoyed that he told everyone, so that Christ could no longer openly enter towns and had to stay in desolate places. The more good He did, the more it cost Him.

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”

Mark 1:41

The Light that Forgives Sins

Returning to Capernaum, Christ again found the house so crowded that no one could get in — this time filled with Pharisees and scribes come from all over Galilee, Judea, and even Jerusalem. Four men, unable to reach Him, tore open the roof and lowered their paralyzed friend down before Him. Seeing their faith, Christ said to the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The scribes were outraged, for they rightly knew that only God can forgive sins. So Christ answered them: which is easier, to say “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say “Rise, take up your bed and walk”? Then, that they might know the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He told the paralytic to rise — and the man stood, took his bed, and went home.

Soon after, walking by the sea, Christ stopped at a tax booth and called Matthew, the son of Alphaeus — a man the Jews despised as a traitor. Matthew rose, left everything, and followed Him, then hosted a feast that only incensed the self-righteous Pharisees further. For Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Mark 2:5

Lord Even of the Sabbath

The Pharisees questioned why Christ's disciples did not fast, and He answered that wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. The old covenant was giving way to the joys of the new — and it is no more fitting to sew new cloth on an old garment or pour new wine into old wineskins. But the leaders did not want the new wine, for they did not want to part with their old wineskins.

When they accused His disciples of plucking grain on the Sabbath, Christ recalled how David ate the bread of the temple, and He declared Himself Lord even of the Sabbath. God had given the Sabbath as a gift of rest and love for man, but the Pharisees had turned it into a weapon against man.

Then, on another Sabbath, a man with a withered hand entered the synagogue, and the Pharisees watched to trap Him. Christ asked whether it was lawful to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill, but they said nothing. Grieved at their hardness of heart, He told the man to stretch out his hand, and it was restored — while the Pharisees went out and conspired with the Herodians to destroy Him.

So Christ withdrew with His disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee, Judea, and even from Tyre and Sidon to the north. To keep from being crushed, He taught from a boat and healed all who came, yet ordered them not to make Him known — fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of the servant who would not quarrel or cry aloud in the streets.

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:27

For Reflection

Down, down, down the Lord went in bearing our afflictions. Every step of His first Galilean tour was self-sacrifice: long, exhausting days of healing the lame, never turning a single sufferer away, feeling the weight of their burdens as His own. He did not undo the effects of sin from a safe distance; He became one of us and suffered alongside us. Yet the leaders of Israel hated Him for His love and, without just cause, resolved to kill Him.