When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen." From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." As he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. (Mt 4:12-23)
At the right time (when John had been arrested) Jesus came out of his own home and moved to Capernaum. Capernaum was a town near the sea of Galilee and made that place his home. He started his ministry from that town. It was to fulfil the scriptures he began the work there. It was also the place of extreme end of the land so he did not start from a place of importance. Light comes from the extreme end always like the sun rise.
His preaching was simple: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." He asked them to come back from the present way of lives. The present way of lives had gone away from God. Certainly the Jews, at the time of Jesus, were very religious and practiced the religion as they were taught. But it was an empty religion a religion without God. The religion had lots of rules and regulations and St. Paul himself would say, later on, that rules only would lead us to sin and not to salvation. Jesus asked his listeners to realize the presence of the kingdom of God.
The first disciples were called to be fishers of men. Jesus’ mission was to preach the kingdom to people, to persons. This probably would mean that his preaching and mission was not interested in the religion or purifying the religion rather he was interested in catching men and bringing them towards God. His mission was to build up God man relationship. He was interested in giving God experience to people and that was his religion.
