23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25 And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25 KJV)
Thomas Haweis’ Commentary
Verses 23-25: We have here,
1. Christ’s labours as a preacher. All Galilee heard his teaching; he appeared publicly in their synagogues, and published the gospel of the kingdom, the glad tidings of salvation, exhorting his hearers to that repentance and newness of life, which became those who had received the grace of God in truth.
2. His cures as a physician, wrought in confirmation of his doctrine. He did good to men’s bodies as well as souls, and, by a word, healed all manner of sickness and diseases among the people, however violent, inveterate, or of long standing: the incurables of other physicians went from him restored to perfect health and soundness. Nor did he merely relieve the most tormenting disorders of the body, but the more deplorable ones of the mind: the lunatic recovered the perfect exercise of his reason: and the possessed, whose bodies by divine permission Satan’s legions had seized and miserably harassed, were set free, and the foul fiends ejected. No painful operations, no tedious course of medicine, almost as bad as the malady, were employed: a word, a touch completed the cure; and all was freely done, without money and without price. The most wretched, the poorest never applied in vain. No marvel that his fame spread through the adjacent coasts of Syria, and that multitudes of patients sought this great Physician’s help. His cures bespoke his character, and vouched for his mission; they were innumerable, public, immediate, perfect, such as none could dispute or gainsay, his very enemies being judges. And they represent the more noble cures of men’s souls, by divine grace, from all the diseases of sin, wherein we see the Saviour’s power still displayed.
3. His popularity arising from both. An immense auditory from all parts, near and distant, assembled, curious to hear, or desirous to be healed, or convinced by his preaching and miracles, or enviously waiting for an opportunity to destroy him. Note, (1.) The preachers of the gospel will be generally popular; their message engages the attention of an auditory. (2.) Multitudes hear the gospel, but few receive it to the saving of their souls.