Matthew 14:13

13. Jesus heard of it, he departed The death of John transpired while the twelve were absent on their mission, described in chapter tenth. Their return and the news of the Baptist’s death concurring in time, Jesus took his departure northward. Our Lord gives to his disciples, as a reason for this departure, (Mark 6:31,) their need of retirement and rest. And in relation to them, it was a true and a tender reason; but in regard to himself and his mission a far higher reason existed.

When Jesus, at his early home in Nazareth, heard that John was baptizing in Jordan, he doubtless realized that he was summoned to enter upon the preparation for his ministry. Yet after his baptism he still stood in the background while his messenger was preparing his way before him. After that time, the key of all the transactions between the Baptist and the Messiah is furnished in John’s words, (John 3:30,) “He must increase and I must decrease.” The subordinate must gradually retire before his superior. When John was imprisoned, (Matthew 4:12,) therefore, a period arrived in which our Lord commenced his opening ministration. The subordinate ceases his labours, but he and his disciples are still extant. But with the forerunner’s expiring breath the interregnum closes, and the Lord enters upon his full office. At that same period our Lord is commissioning his twelve, and sending them forth as apostles to the twelve tribes. His fame is filling the halls of Herod Antipas. It is both a crisis of great danger and the period of his broadest enlargement. To avoid the ruling powers, whose eyes are now in search of him, he departs for Northern Galilee, where he spends the whole of this period of his ministry. (See Historical Synopsis.) He crosses the Lake of Gennesaret, followed by thousands; he is at one time at the extreme northwest, even at Tyre and Sidon; and soon at the extreme northeast at Caesarea Philippi. Though an apparent refugee from the ruling power, his field is broadening, his fame spreading, and his disciples unite in the completest recognition of his Messiahship. That meridian point attained, this period closes and the ministry of sorrow commences. Matthew 16:21.

He departed… by ship into a desert place Matthew mentions not whither he departs. But Luke states (Luke 9:10) that it was to the desert near Bethsaida; and John (John 6:1) that it was beyond (on the east side of) the Lake of Gennesaret. At this place (probably Butaiha, see note on Matthew 14:15-21) he fed the five thousand, and returning thence he recrossed, walking upon the sea.

Across the lake Jesus was out of the dominion of Herod Antipas, the murderer of the Baptist, and whose eye was already directed toward himself. Jesus is now within the tetrarchy of Herod Philip, a prince of remarkable mildness and justice, especially for a Herod. The Saviour, therefore, dares perform a miracle of public notoriety without enjoining secrecy upon its subjects. Yet even here he does not linger long after its performance.

When the people It appears from John 6:4, that a passover was nigh at hand; and the people consisted of crowds or caravans on their way to Jerusalem. Followed him on foot As his boat crossed the lake from Capernaum, coasting perhaps along the northern shore, passing the entrance of the Jordan, where Bethsaida stood, the people ran around the northern shore and arrived at Butaiha. The multitudes “ran” so rapidly that, according to Mark, they “outwent” the boat and “came unto him” as he landed; “and” says Luke, “he received them.”