Matthew 4:23, commentary and pictures

Jesus went on foot through all Galilee from city to city and village to village, teaching in synagogues and wherever hearts were ready, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every kind of sickness and disease among the people. His teaching, preaching, and healing were one united ministry, joining care for the body with care for the soul, relieving suffering first so that hearts could receive truth. He is the great Medical Missionary and Divine Physician, who in tireless compassion turned none away, laid hands on the sick and made them whole, while His bodily healings testified to His power to forgive sin and heal the soul. That life of unselfish, place-to-place service is the perfect example for His followers, who are to unite the ministry of the Word with physical healing and carry the gospel into highways, cities, and every household rather than confining it to one place.

Ministry Setting in Galilee

Matthew 4:23 describes an itinerant ministry throughout all Galilee, going from place to place through cities, towns, and villages rather than confining the work to one place. He traveled on foot from place to place and taught as He went, laboring untiringly in the work given Him and allowing nothing to turn Him from it. Though often physically exhausted, He continued to teach the way of eternal life and heal those who came to Him.

Teaching in their synagogues meant reaching those gathered there, but the work extended far beyond religious buildings to every place where hearts were ready to hear. He preached and healed in the temple and the synagogues, in public streets, in marketplaces, in workshops, in private homes, by the seaside, along busy roads and great thoroughfares of travel, among the hills and hillsides, and in the countryside. He labored through the day in public and private and often prayed through the night after sending the people home, renewing His work in the morning, and in the evening after work hours He talked with those who had to labor through the day to earn support for their families. His teaching and healing in Galilee was done on so large a scale that no building could hold the multitudes that thronged to Him, and every town and village He passed became His hospital.

This Galilean teaching, preaching, and healing was the disciples' first experience of His ministry as the great Healer. It followed His call of Peter, Andrew, James and John to leave nets, ship and father to follow Him and become fishers of men, and it fulfilled the rising of great light upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death in Zebulun, Naphtali and Galilee of the Gentiles. From this setting comes the lesson that Christ can make effective workers of uneducated lovers of Him, for the spirituality of His teachings shapes their minds and abilities so they can preach acceptably, and such workers are to be clothed with His righteousness.

Galilee offered a receptive field for this work, with a crowded, diverse population less controlled by religious bigotry and more open to truth. Its intense enthusiasm sometimes made it necessary for Him to hide, lest Roman authorities fear an insurrection. The work centered at Capernaum with healing, comforting, instructing, and waking hope, restoring sufferers to health, comforting the sorrowing, instructing the ignorant, and waking hope in the despairing. This healing work had begun unobtrusively before His public ministry, helping explain why many people later listened to Him gladly.

The sick were brought to Him from every city, town, and village, afflicted with many diseases. Disease had increased through successive generations while human life grew shorter, a rise linked to continued and repeated violations of the laws of life.

His fame went throughout all Syria, so that those taken with diverse diseases and torments, those possessed with devils, those which were lunatic, and those which had the palsy were brought to Him and He healed them. Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and beyond Jordan followed Him from near and far. Seeing the multitude He went up into the mountain with His disciples, where the beatitudes were given and where He then taught what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Day after day crowds gathered in the cities He visited, looking to Him as their healer, and the sick hoped for relief when they came to the Passover, so that after His death they were left without the healing they had expected, which physicians could not supply.

Threefold Work Joined Together

Matthew 4:23 sets forth three activities as one ministry, going about teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of sickness and disease among the people. That threefold pattern joins care for the body with care for the soul, for He came both to preach the gospel and to heal. His teaching and healing together exemplify service to people in need, showing Him teaching the way of life as well as ministering to physical suffering, and using different ways to reach people by joining gospel teaching and preaching with healing. His message taught that obedience to the laws of God's kingdom brings health and prosperity, connecting obedience with health and well-being.

Healing and teaching were linked closely together in His service, and the ministry of the Word and physical healing belong closely together. They are not to be separated today but are to remain united and be continued together, with ministering to physical needs and speaking of God's love belonging together. That union is the example for nurses trained to go out as medical missionary evangelists uniting the ministry of the Word with physical healing.

He healed the people first and then preached the gospel of the kingdom to those He had healed and to those who had witnessed the healings. He relieved the body first so the sufferer could better receive instruction and turn toward truth, and He followed up His healing work with instruction in spiritual truths. This healing-then-teaching order is the work laid out for those entrusted with the greatest wealth of truth ever committed to mortals, requiring them to leave self out and spend their energies in the Master's service.

Healing took more of His time than teaching, and healing was a major part of His ministry. This shows that teaching the gospel and healing belong together with healing given large place in Christian service, and supports carrying out these works together rather than separating them. His example joins the teaching of the gospel with care for the sick and calls believers to do the same work He undertook in their behalf and to follow His path of self-sacrifice.

His varied ministry brought the good news to people while meeting their physical needs, and His methods provide lessons for His followers' work. His practical care — feeding the hungry and healing the sick — made the gospel visible and practical through good works, loving words, kindness, and sympathy for the weary, burdened, and oppressed. Through compassionate words and loving deeds He helped the suffering and brought people gladness in the truth. His work illustrates how to prepare hearts to receive truth: teach, preach, and minister to people's needs, an example for gospel workers and medical missionaries to follow.

Christ the Compassionate Healer

The verse reveals Him as the great Medical Missionary and mighty Healer, the greatest physician who ever walked the earth, the great Physician and Divine Physician. He is the Saviour who purchased the race with His own life and the Creator worthy of confidence, the greatest missionary and evangelist sent by the Father to relieve suffering and bring life. His going through all Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching the kingdom, and healing every kind of sickness and disease is that gospel mission in action.

He healed all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, every kind of disease without exception. That completeness reached failing eyesight, pain in the head, bodily infirmities, and health of every faculty of thought. In every city, town, and village He met the sick with compassion, laid hands on them, and made them whole, willingly and joyfully, speaking with sympathy and compassion. His merciful and gracious promises of healing never fail when claimed by thoroughly understanding the science of faith and grasping them with simple, unwavering faith for restoration. That faith still brings head and eyes under His healing power with a cleansed heart and rich heavenly grace, yet it does not permit imprudent and careless living because a Great Physician exists; all God-given powers must still be exercised to be right and do right, and the bodily house must be preserved.

These bodily healings testified to His power to heal the soul. He healed bodily woes and the maladies of the sin-sick soul together. His doing good included forgiving sins, comforting mourners, banishing sorrow by His presence, and speaking peace to troubled hearts. He stands revealed as Restorer, who heals disease as well as forgiving sin. That same healing power in His name was promised to His disciples, to testify to that power and carry grace to all nations.

Though He was heaven's King, He took human nature in lowly garb and lived humbly to meet men where they were. He brought salvation and tidings of salvation to people of every station, rich and poor, free and bond. He was approachable even to the poorest and lowliest, meeting human suffering with practical care, comfort, hope, and peace, not seeking distinction but serving others and bringing consolation to the sad and burdened. His fame as the great Healer spread throughout Palestine, so the sick came to the places through which He would pass to call on Him for help, many anxious to hear His words and to receive a touch of His hand.

He went from place to place helping the afflicted and teaching the way of life, joining spiritual teaching with physical care. He sought people in public streets, private homes, synagogues, and by the sea, labored through the day in public and private, often prayed through the night after sending the people home, and renewed His work in the morning. Though often physically exhausted, He continued to teach the way of eternal life and heal those who came to Him, sacrificing Himself so that light and truth could reach people and the world could be saved. His ministry was constant self-sacrifice for souls, bounded only by love and sympathy and compassion without limit and not confined to any time or place. It was done on so large a scale that no building could hold the multitudes that thronged to Him, and every town and village He passed became His hospital, as He healed the people and pointed them to their heavenly Father in synagogues, on Galilean hillsides, in great thoroughfares of travel, on the seashore, in every place where hearts were ready to hear, and in the evening after work hours with those who had labored through the day to earn support for their families.

His miracles called people to faith in Him as the Son of God. Yet witnessing miracles did not itself make them willing to believe or receive His teaching. Many refused to be convinced of their lost condition, would not come to Him that they might have life, refused to be illuminated, and would not be healed of their soul diseases. That same refusal is still met in the present day.

He turned none away who sought His aid, but touched with tender pity for their distress He healed all who came to Him, willingly and joyfully, with sympathy and compassion. His healing brought joy and light to afflicted households and made families happy, comforting the sorrowing, instructing the ignorant, and waking hope in the despairing. Those healed left bearing evidence in their own persons of His healing and life-giving power. The poor and humble were most willing to accept the truth, and their hearts went out in reverential love for Him. His presence made earth seem like heaven, and great rejoicing followed where mercy brought grace through His healing and teaching.

Interest Awakened and Multitudes Followed

His works of sympathy in restoring the sick to health stirred deep interest in His work and prepared hearts to hear His teaching, cultivating the ground and opening doors for truth. That preparation led directly to the instruction of the disciples in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, a discourse full of precious instruction for all who claim to be His disciples. His healing help made a deep impression on the people to whom the gospel was proclaimed.

His fame as the great Healer went throughout all Syria, so the sick taken with diverse diseases and torments, those possessed with devils, the lunatic, and those with palsy were brought to Him and He healed them. Great multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and beyond Jordan followed Him from near and far, traveling to hear and to seek healing. Many came anxious to hear His words and to receive a touch of His hand, and He went from city to city and town to town preaching the gospel and healing the sick.

His labors resulted in great good, with many led to believe on Him through acts of matchless mercy that won the hearts of the multitudes. The people received His message and believed His words, the poor and humble being most willing to accept the truth with hearts going out to Him in reverential love. Where unbelief and discouragement and despair had held sway His works brought faith and hope and happiness, relieving the body first so the sufferer could better receive instruction and turn toward truth. His healing work had begun unobtrusively before His public ministry, helping explain why many later listened to Him gladly, and His healing and teaching brought great rejoicing so that His presence made earth seem like heaven.

His reputation for healing every kind of sickness and disease gave the Canaanite woman hope for her daughter, trusting that His help was not limited to the Jews or to the rich. The sick therefore looked to Him as their healer and hoped for relief when they came to the Passover. After His death they were left without the healing they had expected, which physicians could not supply.

Relieving the sick and injured prepares them to listen to the truth, and medical missionary work in continuation of His ministry can help convert people where sermons alone would not. Healing miracles may be wrought in His name through trained medical missionaries following His example of blessing and restoring suffering people to health.

Gospel of the Kingdom Proclaimed

What He preached in Galilee was the gospel of salvation, the good news of God, tidings of salvation to the poor, the way of life, the message of life spoken in simplicity. That preaching included repentance because the kingdom of heaven was near. When He began His public ministry He went about preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the sick, and comforting the sorrowful.

His message taught that obedience to the laws of God's kingdom brings health and prosperity. It connected obedience to God's kingdom with health and well-being, joining care for the body with care for the soul. He came both to preach the gospel and to heal.

He combined teaching the gospel from Scripture with healing the sick and imparting soul-saving truth. That teaching was the way of life as well as ministry to physical suffering, and it taught repentance, conversion, and salvation. As a true missionary He traveled from place to place, taught the gospel, illustrated His lessons with objects from nature, and lived a missionary life marked by self-denial.

The gospel of the kingdom is to be carried into every household and taught there, sometimes as little children are taught. It is gospel work to be carried to all peoples, to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Though He preached in the synagogues to reach those gathered there, He carried the truths beyond them, teaching by the seaside and along busy roads and public gathering places, showing that the gospel is to be shared wherever people can hear it and not confined to religious buildings.

Pattern for Present Service

His life of unselfish service from place to place is the perfect example and lesson book for all followers, ministers, and gospel workers to follow. His practical care made the good news visible through good works, loving words, kindness, and sympathy for the weary, burdened, and oppressed, feeding the hungry and healing the sick in synagogues, streets, marketplaces, workshops, private settings, the seaside, and the hills. His tender pity rebukes selfishness and heartlessness. Those who follow Him are to make continuous, persevering efforts to save souls without drawing back from sacrifice or hardship, laboring untiringly, allowing nothing to turn them from the work given them, obeying His teachings and following in His footsteps.

His going about all Galilee shows the work is not limited to one place or a few centers. Ministers and every minister of the gospel will be blessed in doing this very work of teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing, going forth into the highways and hedges to labor for those who are ignorant and out of the way. Those who have received light are to share it everywhere, with every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, carrying light and warning and the message of life spoken in simplicity to every place and all peoples, into needy portions of the field and to places where it has not been proclaimed. This calls for earnest, wholehearted labor in the cities everywhere and in the highways and byways, instead of making large centers in a few places where much means is absorbed while many fields remain unworked. His cultivating of hearts through united teaching, preaching, and healing opened doors for truth and shows how healing ministry can bring people to hear the message of salvation.

He is the great Medical Missionary and the example for medical work, joining teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing the sick, with healing and teaching linked closely together in His service. That union is not to be separated today but is to remain united and be continued on a higher plane, with nurses trained and fitted to go out as medical missionary evangelists uniting the ministry of the Word with physical healing. Physicians, ministers, medical missionary workers, and faithful stewards are to unite the ministry of the Word with physical healing, with missionary healing attending the last-day messages. Healing was a major part of His ministry, and He spent more time healing than teaching. Schools such as Huntsville are to train for this joined work, and workers at Loma Linda are to learn the true science of healing and health reform with Christ as educator, remembering that the Lord God omnipotent reigns, coming to Him for power of healing to restore spiritual and physical health, and He will baptize them with His Holy Spirit and fit them for service that blesses others.

Sanitariums and medical institutions for the relief of suffering humanity are to follow His principles in order to meet His approval. They are to resemble His noble, helpful, sympathetic ministry for soul and body, manifesting His cheerfulness and hope and grace as the highest ministry of truth and the most effective working agency for healing of both soul and body. That gospel medical missionary work of teaching and healing to meet human need is to be carried forward simply, without display, in self-denial and self-sacrifice. The medical missionary work He began going through cities and towns and villages healing the sick is, since He is no longer in this world in person, commissioned to His followers to carry forward and do their very best in it by establishing institutions for the care of the sick where suffering men and women may be placed under the care of God-fearing physicians and nurses and be treated without drugs. There the sick and afflicted can receive care and experience saving grace, seeking people where they are, teaching truths of His kingdom, blessing, comforting, and healing, praying with the sick and, when needed, treating them with remedies found in nature rather than medicines, with guarding influences and intelligent education, beginning in small quarters with few facilities where necessary.

Those continuing His work must come to Him for healing power, depend wholly on Him, and work out salvation with Christ as the disciples worked with Him, taking hold of God through simple faith, trusting His promises and believing. Those who serve the sick should point them to Him as Maker, great Physician, and mighty Healer and depend on Him for bodily restoration, directing the sick and suffering to come to Him with confidence for bodily restoration and praying with the sick. Trust in His promises brings the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit to both soul and body, and He is worthy of greater confidence than deceitful spiritual agencies as Creator and the One who gave Himself for redemption. Those closely connected with Christ and ministering to the sick with His sympathy and compassion may be used by God to heal many who suffer. Keeping heavenly hope in view offers more for the saving of body and soul than medication or dwelling on death amid physical suffering and moral evil.

His way of working by preaching the Word and relieving suffering by miraculous works of healing cannot be copied now, because Satan will exercise his power by working miracles and spurious works of healing claiming to be divine will be wrought. In place of working by miracles, gospel medical missionary work combining physical healing with teaching of the Word has been marked out through sanitariums established out of the cities, with connected workers doing genuine medical missionary work, throwing a guarding influence around those who come for treatment, and carrying forward intelligent educational work, beginning in small quarters with few facilities where necessary and removing every obstruction to this special line of work.

Practical care for the sick follows His example of teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of sickness and disease. His ministry restored suffering people to health and overturned the harm and destruction begun by Satan. Restoring the body to health prepares the way for restoring the soul, reflecting that He came both to preach and to heal.