Matthew 4 — The Wilderness, the Light in Galilee, and the First Disciples

The water of the Jordan was still drying on my skin when the Spirit led me away from the river, out into the wilderness. Not wandering. Not lost. Led. There was something waiting for me in that silence, and I did not turn from it.

Forty days I went without food. Forty nights under a sky so wide it seemed to have no edges at all. And when the forty days were finished, I was hungry. Truly hungry — the kind of hunger that makes a man forget everything in the world except bread.

That is when the tempter came to me. He said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

I looked at the stones at my feet. And I answered him with words older than my hunger: It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then he took me into the holy city, and set me on the highest point of the temple. The courts below so far down they seemed small as grains of wheat. Throw yourself down, he said. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

He knew the scriptures. He quoted them to me, word for word. But he offered them to me as a dare, and the word of God was never meant to be a dare.

I told him, It is also written: you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

A third time he came. He took me up to a very high mountain, and showed me all the kingdoms of the world, and all their glory — every throne, every crown, every gate. All of this I will give you, he said, if you will fall down and worship me.

Away from me, Satan. For it is written: you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

And then he left me. And angels came, and cared for me there.

When I heard that John had been put in prison, I withdrew into Galilee. I left Nazareth, the town that raised me, and went to live in Capernaum, by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

So that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and on those who sat in the land and shadow of death, a light has dawned.

From that time, I began to preach. Repent, I said — turn, and come home. For the kingdom of heaven is near.

I was walking beside the Sea of Galilee when I saw two brothers — Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the water, because they were fishermen.

Follow me, I said to them. And I will make you fishers of men.

At once, they left their nets. And they followed me.

Going on from there, I saw two more brothers — James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in the boat with their father, mending their nets. And I called them.

Immediately they left the boat, and they left their father, and they followed me.

Then I went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, telling the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Word of it spread all through Syria. And they brought me everyone who was suffering — those worn down by every kind of illness, those in severe pain, those tormented by demons, those who fell with seizures, those who could not move their own limbs. And I healed them.

Great crowds followed me — from Galilee and the Decapolis, from Jerusalem and Judea, and from the region beyond the Jordan.

They came out of their towns and across their hills, carrying the ones they loved. And I did not turn a single one of them away.