Verse 58 says, “And He did not do many works of power there because of their unbelief.” The rejection of the Pharisees caused the heavenly King to forsake them. The unbelief of the Galileans caused the Lord not to do many works of power among them. Because of the Galileans’ natural knowledge, the Lord Christ could not do anything with them. The Galileans did not say, “Jesus, we don’t want You! Get away from here!” They simply asked, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power?” These questions were sufficient. The heavenly King could no longer remain there, and His gracious works of power could no longer be enjoyed by them. Therefore, He departed from them to the desert where there was no culture, no religion, and, as we shall now see, no politics.
In 14:1-13 we see the rejection by the heathen tetrarch. Politics is always alongside religion and culture. According to Matthew’s presentation, after the rejection by religion and natural knowledge, there is the rejection by politics. Herod the tetrarch represents the rejection by politics. This is the basic principle of 14:1-13.
Herod had John the Baptist beheaded in prison. In 12:24 the Jewish religious leaders, representing the entire nation of the Jews, rejected the heavenly King to the uttermost. This forced Him to forsake His natural relationship with them (12:46-50). Then in 13:53-58 He was also rejected by the Galileans. Now in chapter fourteen, Matthew in his doctrinal arrangement unveils to us how Gentile politics treated the King’s forerunner. Gentile politics were evil and full of corruption and darkness. Up to this point Matthew has given a full picture of how the Jews, Galileans, and Gentiles rejected the ministry of the kingdom of the heavens.
Firstly, the rejection by religion reached its climax. Following this came the rejection due to natural knowledge. The rejection by politics coincided with the rejection by religion and natural knowledge. The religionists, those with natural knowledge, and the politicians did not hold a conference for the purpose of rejecting the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, their rejection of Him coincided. Religion, natural knowledge, and politics all came together in the rejection of Christ.
In chapter fourteen we see the darkness, rottenness, and injustice in politics. Our eyes need to be opened to see that in religion there is no welcome to our heavenly King. Neither is there a place for Him in natural knowledge nor in today’s rotten, dark politics. In this generation there is no place for the heavenly King. Religion, culture, and politics are all one in rejecting the heavenly King. How I thank the Lord for the record in the Gospel of Matthew. If you read the chapters prior to fourteen, you will see the deceitfulness in the Jewish religion. You will also see that natural knowledge has caused great damage to people. Furthermore, you will see the rottenness and darkness in Roman politics, which was the leading political system on earth at the time. But even in the best political system there is nothing but rottenness and darkness.
Thus far, we have seen the first two stations on the pathway to glory. The first station is the rejection by natural knowledge, and the second is the rejection by politics. The rejection both by culture and by politics compelled the heavenly King to retreat. When He heard of the execution of John the Baptist, “He departed from there in a boat to a desert place privately” (14:13). Due to the rejection by all the religious, cultured, political peoples, the heavenly King left them for a desert place. This indicates that henceforth He would hide Himself privately in a desert, in a place without culture, away. from the religious, political, and cultured people. He did this in a boat, implying He would do this through the church. Due to the rejection of the civilized world, the Lord, through the church, has always been hiding Himself privately from the religious and political circles in a realm without much culture.
The remainder of 14:13 says, “And when the crowds heard of it, they followed Him on foot from the cities.” In spite of the rejection of all peoples, there was still a good number who followed the heavenly King. They did this by leaving their cities. It was not that the King came to their cities to visit them, but that they left their cultured cities to follow Him in the desert. Through all the centuries, the true followers of Christ have left cultured spheres to follow their heavenly King outside the cultured world. We are among those who have followed Him. Where He is, we go. We follow Him through all manner of rejection to the desert.