Catholic Commentary
Jesus Continues His Galilean Ministry
1When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Matthew 11:1 marks the conclusion of Jesus's missionary discourse to the Twelve, signaled by a deliberate literary formula that also closes the other four major teaching blocks in Matthew's Gospel, echoing the structure of the Torah. After completing this instruction, Jesus departs to conduct his own ministry of teaching and preaching in Galilean cities, demonstrating that true leadership requires both delegating authority to disciples and personally embodying the mission.
Jesus doesn't manage from behind after sending the Twelve—he hits the road himself, teaching and preaching in every town, showing that apostolic delegation never replaces the shepherd's direct presence.
Catholic tradition reads this verse within the profound theology of apostolic mission that runs from the Father through the Son to the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that "the whole concern of doctrine and its teaching must be directed to the love that never ends" (CCC 25), but prior to that, it insists that Christ himself is "the one Teacher" (CCC 2) — a claim that makes this verse theologically charged. When Jesus departs to teach and preach even after commissioning the Twelve, he enacts the truth that the apostolic office never supersedes but always derives from his own ongoing teaching authority.
St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Matthew, Hom. 35) notes the significance of Jesus' personal continuation of ministry alongside the mission of the Twelve: "He sends them as a general deploys soldiers, yet enters the fray himself." This insight guards against a clericalism that would reduce Christ's role to a distant authorizer of the hierarchy.
Vatican II's Dei Verbum (§2) teaches that God's revelation is communicated through deeds and words — precisely the pattern Matthew describes in "teaching and preaching." The two modes are inseparable: proclamation (kērygma) announces the Kingdom; teaching (didachē) unfolds its meaning and demands. Pope Benedict XVI, in Verbum Domini (§53), connects this dual activity to the Church's permanent mission: the Word proclaimed must always be accompanied by the Word explained.
The "five discourses" structure of Matthew also carries dogmatic weight. Origen and later St. Thomas Aquinas (Catena Aurea) saw in the five discourses a fulfillment of the Pentateuch, signaling that Jesus does not abolish the Law but brings it to its interior completion — a truth enshrined in CCC 577–582.
This single verse poses a quiet but demanding question to every Catholic: do I keep teaching and preaching after I have sent others to do so? Parents who have sent their children to Catholic school or religious education cannot thereby consider the work of faith formation delegated. Pastors who have commissioned catechists must themselves remain active teachers of the Word. Leaders in Catholic organizations who build teams still bear personal responsibility for the mission.
More broadly, the verse counters the modern temptation to manage the faith rather than live it. Jesus is not an administrator in Matthew 11:1 — he is a pilgrim preacher who moves on to the next city. For Catholics today, this is an invitation to ask: where are my "cities"? Where are the workplaces, neighborhoods, and family tables to which I have not yet carried the teaching and proclamation of the Gospel? The missionary impulse of Evangelii Gaudium (Pope Francis, §20) — "the joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus" — is already visible in embryo in this one restless, purposeful verse.
Commentary
Matthew 11:1 — "When Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples…"
The Greek word translated "directing" or "commanding" (diatassōn) carries the weight of authoritative, ordered instruction — the same root used for military orders or legal statutes. Matthew uses the formula "when Jesus had finished" (kai egeneto hote etelesen) as a deliberate literary hinge that also appears at the close of the Sermon on the Mount (7:28), the mission discourse of chapter 10, the parabolic discourse (13:53), and the community discourse (18:1), and the eschatological discourse (26:1). Scholars call these the "five great discourses" of Matthew, and this formula marks the end of each one, consciously echoing the five books of the Torah and presenting Jesus as the new Moses who gives the new Law from the mountain and from the road.
The number twelve is never incidental in Matthew. It evokes the twelve tribes of Israel, and Jesus' choice and commissioning of twelve disciples is a deliberate act of new-covenant constitution. By "finishing" the direction of the Twelve, Matthew signals that one distinct phase — formation and sending — is complete. The disciples have been named (10:1–4), given authority over unclean spirits and disease, and dispatched with detailed missionary instructions spanning the entire length of chapter 10.
"…he departed from there to teach and preach in their cities."
What is striking here is the immediacy. Jesus does not pause, does not retreat into privacy, does not await reports from the Twelve. He "departed" (metebē ekeithen) — moved on from there — and resumed his own direct ministry of teaching and preaching. The two verbs didaskein (to teach) and kēryssein (to preach/proclaim) appear together throughout Matthew (4:23, 9:35) as a kind of programmatic doublet describing Jesus' Galilean ministry. "Teaching" suggests sustained catechetical instruction; "preaching" suggests the herald's proclamation of the Kingdom's arrival. Together they are the twin lungs of Jesus' mission.
"Their cities" (tais polesin autōn) most naturally refers to the towns of Galilee — the cities of the Jewish populace he came to serve. Some Fathers read "their" as referring to the disciples, suggesting Jesus is now covering the same territory his disciples are evangelizing, a reading that deepens the sense of collaborative, coordinated mission.
Typological and Spiritual Senses:
Typologically, Moses also sent the twelve spies into Canaan (Num. 13) and then himself led the people. The new Moses not only commissions agents but personally embodies the mission he entrusts to others. In the allegorical sense, the Church Fathers saw this pattern — Christ sending apostles then himself following — as the very rhythm of divine mission: God prepares heralds and then comes himself (see Origen, ). In the moral sense, this verse calls every Catholic to recognize that discipleship is never mere delegation: the teacher follows what he teaches.