Perhaps in an effort to escape the crowds that filled his days and demanded so much of him, Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and traveled about 35 miles to the Northeast, to the region of Tyre, a city on the shore of the Mediterranean. By doing so they left a predominantly Jewish region for a Gentile area. Tyre was located on the seashore of modern day Lebanon. A seaport, the ships of Tyre went all over the world in the first millennium B.C. In the 9th Century B.C. Hiram of Tyre furnished cedar trees and workmen for the palace of King David in Jerusalem, and also provided cedar and craftsmen for the building of the first temple by Solomon.
Ahab, king of the Northern Kingdom in the late 9th Century B.C., married a princess from Tyre, the infamous Baal worshipper Jezebel. Tyre was able to resist the invasion of Assyria with some success, but fell to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon after a 13 year long siege. Tyre was a tough nut to crack. The main city was built on the sea shore, but the fortress of Tyre was an island to the west of the city. That island was largely built by the city over a period of many years, in much the same way huge jetties are built into the ocean today. That 13 year siege exhausted the city and it soon came under the domination of the Persian Empire with the complete and sudden defeat of the Babylonian empire.
When Alexander the Great invaded the Persian Empire in 332 B.C. he attacked Tyre, as it was a center for the Persian war fleet. Not wishing to undergo a long siege, as had Nebuchadnezzar; Alexander constructed a causeway (200-300 yards wide) from the mainland to the island fortress. For building material he ravaged the city on the shore, tearing down the buildings and walls, repurposing the stones, timber, and debris to build the causeway. The city of Tyre was literally scrapped bare like a rock. Today that causeway is still there, overlain with sand from the sea, having become an actual isthmus.
The city slowly rebuilt under the influence of the Greek Kingdoms. By the time the Roman state was established, Tyre was again a major city and transportation center for the eastern Mediterranean. Tyre and the surrounding region served as something of a retreat for Jesus and his disciples. They were known there, as people from that region were among the crowds that followed Jesus from early in his ministry, both Jewish and Gentile.
Jesus and the disciples didn’t stay there long. While there he healed people, with specific mention made of a demon-possessed little girl and a deaf and mute man. He soon returned to Galilee, with this description of his activity: “Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down. A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, and those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.”
He continued on by teaching, feeding another crowd miraculously—4,000 this time—and defending himself from the Pharisees. It simple had to be incredible to watch him and listen to him, day after day. But, as the next passage will indicate, his disciples continued to be hard of heart and slow to understand. But despite their struggles, the crowds poured in, the sick were healed, and the Kingdom of God was both spoken and illustrated by Jesus. More on this tomorrow.
Prayer: “Great Father, you are the author of great spectacles. But I think that the sights, sounds, and emotions surrounding Jesus must be the greatest of all…yet tiny in comparison with the vast multitudes who shall gather before your throne to enter your joy and walk forever with the savior. How I long for that time. Amen.”