29 “Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:29–31 (ESV)
It is important to observe the geographical context of Matthew 15:19. Matthew records that, ““Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee.” The sentence indicates that where Jesus went on from was the area of Tyre and Sidon (Matt. 15:21). Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee. The distance between the two Phoenician cities and the Galilean area is 177 miles.
How long would it have taken Jesus and His disciples to make this journey? The average foot speed for most adults is three miles per hour, or twenty minutes per mile. Dividing 177 by 3 equals 59. At an average foot speed of three miles per hour, it would have taken Jesus and His followers approximately 59 hours to make the 177-mile trip to Galilee from Tyre. This is roughly a 2.5-day journey. As John Wayne would say, “A good stretch of the legs.”
Upon arriving at Galilee, Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there. Mark 7:31 says that Jesus was in the region of the Decapolis. The Decapolis was a term meaning “ten cities” that designates a group of Hellenistic (Greek) towns predominately located on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. The area was probably the area known in the Old Testament as Gilead, and includes what is today northwest Jordan and southern Syria. Matthew recorded Jesus’ earlier visit to the Decapolis in Matthew 8:28-9:1. These inhabitants were Gentiles.
As before, the crowds brought the sick and infirm to Jesus. These included the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others with various maladies. All these conditions evidenced the consequences of the fall of man into sin (Gen. 3:1-7). The people place these sick at the feet of Jesus and He healed them all.
What was the response of the crowd? They wondered (θαυμάζω; thaumazo). They were astonished and marveled at what Jesus had done. They then glorified the God of Israel. It would be these same people, who were 4,000 men plus women and children (Matt. 15:38), that Jesus would feed with seven loaves of bread and a few, small fish (Matt. 15:34).
“Jesus’ ministry in this area reveals that the kingdom is for Jew and Gentile alike. His miracles here figure predominantly in the prediction of the Messiah’s reign in Isaiah 35. Christ’s work here shows that His blessing is for the nations, which may explain why His Jewish disciples had trouble conceiving that Jesus would feed unclean Gentiles (Matt. 15:33). Even Peter struggled to believe that the nations could become full citizens of God’s kingdom (Gal. 2:1–10).” explains Dr. R. C. Sproul.
Jesus, as the Bread of Life (John 6), is so not only for the Jews but also for the Gentiles (Romans 1:16-17). Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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