When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: 15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, 16 the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” 17 From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus hears that John has been arrested, he “withdrew to Galilee.” The movement matters because Matthew has already used “withdrew” language when danger rises and God’s plan continues by another path. John’s arrest is not an incidental detail. It signals that opposition has begun, and it foreshadows what will later happen to Jesus as well. Mark describes the same sequence in brief: after John is arrested, Jesus goes into Galilee and proclaims God’s message (Mk. 1:14-15).
Jesus then leaves Nazareth and goes to live in Capernaum by the sea. Matthew is not only giving geography. He is showing where Jesus chooses to begin, and why. Capernaum sits in a region Matthew describes using older tribal names, “Zebulun and Naphtali.” Those names reach back into Israel’s story. They recall the northern areas that were among the first to suffer when the Assyrians invaded and shattered life in the land. Matthew presents Jesus’ arrival there as the start of reversal. God begins where the wound had been deep. The place that had known early devastation becomes the place where the Messiah’s work is first heard.
Matthew then quotes Isaiah to explain what is happening. The quotation names Zebulun and Naphtali, speaks of “the way to the sea,” and calls the region “Galilee of the Gentiles.” In Isaiah’s day, the language describes territories that had come under foreign domination. Populations were displaced, and outsiders were brought in. Over time this produced a region that was mixed in culture and contacts. Matthew does not treat this as a problem for Jesus’ mission. He treats it as part of God’s design. The Messiah’s light is not turned inward. It rises where both Israel and the nations are in view.
That is why Isaiah’s line about darkness is so central here. “The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light.” The image is plain. Darkness is not just the absence of information. It is life lived under the shadow of death—under fear, sin, oppression, and the limits of human power. Isaiah’s promise is that God will act in such a way that light breaks into that condition for all. This is fulfilled as Jesus takes up residence and begins his work. Luke uses similar language earlier, describing the coming of salvation as a dawn that shines on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow (Lk. 1:79). John, in his own way, also frames Christ’s coming as light entering darkness (Jn. 1:4-5). Matthew’s point is concrete: the light is now present in the person and mission of Jesus, and it begins to shine from a place long marked by hardship.
Matthew also calls the region “Galilee of the Gentiles.” That phrase does not mean that Jesus’ mission in Matthew is detached from Israel. Matthew will later show Jesus focusing his personal mission on “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 15:24). Yet Matthew also shows, from the beginning, that the salvation God brings through Israel is meant to reach beyond Israel. Jesus begins in Galilee, a region marked by Israel’s history and also shaped by contact with Gentiles—so his ministry starts in a place that naturally faces outward to the wider world. By starting there, Jesus is already positioned for the widening horizon that will become explicit at the end of the Gospel, when the risen Lord sends his disciples outward to all nations (Mt. 28:16-20).
After the Isaiah quotation, Matthew marks a new stage with a clear transition: “From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say…” Matthew uses this kind of phrase to signal major turns in the narrative. Here it introduces Jesus’ first summary proclamation: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The wording closely matches John the Baptist’s earlier preaching. The continuity is deliberate. John announced that God’s kingdom was near; Jesus now declares that it is near because he has come and begun his work.
“Repent” in Scripture is not merely feeling regret. It is a real turning toward God. It includes sorrow for sin, but it goes further. It means a change of mind and heart that leads to a changed direction in life. Some Christian traditions also speak of this as conversion. Catholic language often includes the word “penance,” not only as outward acts, but as the interior change that must be lived out. The core idea is not complicated: a person stops walking away from God and begins to walk with him.
“The kingdom of heaven” is Matthew’s usual way of speaking about the kingdom of God. Matthew’s phrase can sound as if the kingdom is only “up there,” but Matthew does not mean that. He means God’s reign—God’s active rule—now drawing near and pressing into human life. When Jesus says it “is at hand,” he means it has come close enough to demand a response. People cannot treat it as distant or theoretical. In Jesus, God is reclaiming what is his. He is calling people out of sin and into a restored relationship with him. The outward renewal of the world that God intends is not finished in this passage, but the first reality of the kingdom is already present: God offering himself and calling people back to him through his Son, the Messiah, who has come.
This is why Matthew places the proclamation right after the “light” quotation. The great light is not only a comforting image. It is the message Jesus speaks and the rule of God he brings near. Light reveals what is true. It exposes what is hidden. It guides those who have lost their way. Matthew’s opening picture is that Jesus enters a region long marked by darkness and begins speaking the words that call people into God’s reign.
Jesus begins this preaching not in Jerusalem, not at the center of power, but in Galilee. Matthew is teaching that God’s saving work does not depend on human prestige. God keeps his promises in the places people overlook. He begins where suffering has already been real, and where the need for light is not abstract. That is how Matthew introduces the public mission of Jesus: the promised light rises, and the first word is a call to turn toward God because his kingdom is now near.
Lord Jesus, you are the light that has risen in our darkness. Turn our hearts back to God. Give us the grace to repent with sincerity, and to live under your reign with faith and obedience. Lead us out of sin and into the life you bring. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew (Ignatius Press), 13.
- Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), 638-639, para. 20.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: Matthew (Scepter), 57-58.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018), 917-918.
- John R. Donahue et al., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (3rd rev. ed.; 2020), 1180.
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