Matthew 14:34-36

3. The public ministry at Gennesaret 14:34-36 (cf. Mark 6:53-56)

This short section summarizes Jesus’ public ministry at this stage of His ministry. It shows that even though Jesus was withdrawing from unbelievers (Matthew 13:54 to Matthew 14:12) and giving special attention to the training of His disciples (Matthew 14:13-33), He still had time to minister to people who were in need.

Gennesaret was a plain on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee. There was also a village called Gennesaret on this coastal plain, probably very close to the modern town of Ginosar. The crowds recognized Jesus instantly when He got out of the boat, and they brought all types of needy people to Him for healing (cf. Matthew 3:5; Matthew 4:24). The woman with the hemorrhage had obtained healing from Jesus after touching the fringe of His cloak (Matthew 9:20-22). Now many others pressed on Him with similar faith and found healing (Matthew 14:36). The faith of these people contrasts with the faith of the disciples in the boat that was much greater.

These few verses do three things. They show the continuing broad appeal of Jesus’ ministry (cf. Matthew 4:23-25; Matthew 8:16; Matthew 9:35-36). They show that Jesus continued to minister to the multitudes even though He concentrated His ministry on His disciples. Third, Jesus showed no concern with becoming ritually unclean through his contacts with the common people. He made people clean rather than becoming unclean with these contacts. This last feature sets the stage for the confrontation over clean and unclean in the next section (Matthew 15:1-20).