And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.
And he said unto them, Let us go - or, according to another reading, 'Let us go elsewhere' [though the word allachou (G237a), added by Tischendorf and Tregelles, has scarcely sufficient authority].
Into the next towns, х eis (G1519) tas (G3588) echomenas (G2192) koomopoleis (G2969)] - rather, 'unto the neighbouring village-towns;' meaning those places intermediate between towns and villages, with which the western side of the sea of Galilee was studded.
That I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth - not from Capernaum, as De Wette miserably interprets, nor from His privacy in the desert place, as Meyer, no better; but from the Father. Compare John 16:28, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world," etc.-another proof, by the way, that the lofty phraseology of the Fourth Gospel was not unknown to the authors of the others, though their design and point of view are different. The language in which our Lord's reply is given by Luke (Luke 4:43) expresses the high necessity under which, in this as in every other step of His work, He acted - "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore" х eis (G1519) touto (G5124)] - or, 'to this end' - "am I sent." An act of self-denial it doubtless was, to resist such pleadings to return to Capernaum. But there were overmastering considerations on the other side.
Remarks:
(1) How terrific is the consciousness in evil spirits, when brought into the presence of Christ, of a total opposition of feelings and separation of interests between them and Him! But how grand is their sense of impotence and subjection, and the expression of this, which His presence wrings out from them! Knowing full well that He and they cannot dwell together, they expect, on His approach to them, a summons to quit, and, haunted by their guilty fears, they wonder if the judgment of the great day be coming on them before its time. How analogous is this to the feelings of the wicked and ungodly among men-opening up glimpses of that dreadful oneness in fundamental character between the two parties, which explains the final sentence, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"! (Matthew 25:41).
(2) The remarkable words which the first Evangelist quotes from Isaiah 53:4 - "HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND BARE OUR SICKNESSES" - involve two difficulties, the patient study of which, however, will be rewarded by deeper conceptions of the work of Christ. First, the prediction is applied, in 1 Peter 2:24, to Christ's "bearing our sins in His own body on the tree," whereas here it is applied to the removal of bodily maladies. Again, the Evangelist seems to view the diseases which our Lord cured as only transferred from the patients to Himself. But both difficulties find their explanation in that profound and comprehensive view of our Lord's redeeming work which a careful study of Scripture reveals. When He took our nature upon Him and made it His own, He identified Himself with its sin and curse, that He might roll them away on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:2), and felt all the maladies and ills that sin had inflicted on humanity as His own; His great conscience drinking in the sense of that sin of which Himself knew none, and His mighty heart feeling all the ills He saw around Him as attaching to Himself. And as we have already seen that His whole ministry of healing, as respects the body, was but a visible exhibition and illustration of His mission "to destroy the works of the devil," so the eye which rightly apprehends the vysible miracle, piercing downward, will discover the deeper and more spiritual aspect of it as a portion of the Redeemer's work, and see the sin-bearing Lamb of God Himself, the Bearing, in this sense, of every ill of sinful humanity that He cured. But the subject is fitter for devout thought than adequate expression.
(3) Did Jesus, before He started on His first missionary tour, "rising up a great while before it was day," steal away unperceived even by those under whose roof He slept, and hieing Him to a solitary spot, there spend the morning hours in still communion with His Father, no doubt about the work that lay before Him? And will not His servants learn of Him not only to sanctify their whole work by prayer, but to set apart special seasons of communion with God before entering on its greater stages, or any important step of it, and for this end to withdraw as much as possible into undisturbed solitude?
(4) When we find our Lord, from the very outset of His ministry, acting on that great principle enunciated by Himself, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work" (John 9:4); and actuated by this principle, disregarding the demands of wearied nature and the solicitations of friends, what an example is thus furnished to His ministers in every age, of self-denial and devotion to their work! Oh, if the Lord of the harvest would but thrust forth such labourers into his harvest, what work might we not see done!
(5) What an affecting contrast does Capernaum here present to its final condition! Ravished with the wonderful works and the matchless teaching of Him who had taken up His abode among them, they are loath to part with Him; and while the Gadarenes prayed Him to depart out of their coasts, they are fain to stay Him, that He should not depart from them. And if our Lord declined to settle in Nazareth, and even to do there the mighty works which He did at Capernaum, because of the disrespect with which He was regarded in the place where He had been brought up, how grateful to His feelings would be this early welcome at Capernaum! But, alas! in them was fulfilled that great law of the divine kingdom, "Many that are first shall be last." What a warning is this to similarly favoured spots!