Where Jesus walked, part 1

The Journeys of Jesus – The Early Years.

By Andrew McIlwrick, 16th November 2025

A short series on the ground covered by the Lord Jesus while on earth.

As I thought on the time taken to get from A to B then and the time that the same distances can be covered in today, how much faster and safer it would have been in many cases, I was struck by the thought that this one who was carried on a donkey and walked everywhere during His lifetime, is God. For context, I just want to make clear who we are considering before we look at his earthly travels:

The one who came was the eternal One, who had been promised in the Old Testament to come to earth as part of God’s promise to Abraham that all nations of the earth would be blessed through his family line and Jesus’ family tree is traced back to Abraham in Matthew chapter 1, (Micah 5:2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”)

Omnipresent, in other words He is in all places at all times and does not need to travel from one place to another to find out what is going on there, to catch up on the news from the area, (Psalm 33:13-14 The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth)

He is omniscient, or already knows all that has happened, and will happen, (Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure’)

He is Omnipotent, or all powerful and it is He that holds the worlds in place, who put the planets in their orbits, who put the stars and the galaxies in their place and knows every star, (Genesis 1 In the beginning God created…) and yet the Gospel books, the first four books of the New Testament give great insight into the humanity of Jesus, the things He did, the places He went, the people He healed, the power He displayed, but most important of all – the reason He came. It was not to demonstrate the life that we should have lived so we could feel bad and realise we deserve the punishment we get for the things we have done wrong, the Old Testament law already does that. Rather He came that we might be forgiven for our sins, that we might have a new and everlasting life, that we might have a pattern to live by, until He comes a second time to take us home.

I thought it worthwhile to look again at the walk of the Saviour and some of the work He did on Earth day to day, as well as the ultimate aim of His coming, that He would fulfil the will of His Father, die on Calvary’s cross and be punished for our sin. That He would return to Glory as the victor over sin and death and hell, and that ultimately He will overcome all opposition and take all those who are His to be with Him where He is, in heaven in all its glory.

It still seams unbelievable that He would consider me a reward for His work on Calvary, part of the Bride of Christ, given to Him by His Father.

The aim is to give an overview of the events of Jesus life with some reference to His coming to earth and the history of it, but looking mostly at the things He did while He was here, the path He walked, the example He left, the work He accomplished.

The earthly order of events is not written like a journal of the captain of a ship, with a date and time of events being recorded, but is a summary by four writers of the things they recalled, through the power of the Holy Spirit, of the actions of Jesus while here. I am indebted to those who have spent years looking at the scriptures and trying to fill the details of His walk chronologically to the best of their ability, and although there may be disputes of the exact order, it does not remove the fact that they were accomplished and that the records are an accurate and detailed written record of the life of Jesus Christ while here on earth.

We shall look briefly at the historical promises of the One to come, His coming, and the early records of His life, then look at events from when He first made Himself known and began His work, declaring the word of God to men, the time of His growth in popularity with the people, the final period of increasing opposition and then finally His last months and days.

I have not scoped this out in terms of how long it will take, but let us see where the scripture takes us as we explore the life of Jesus on earth.

Why did he come?

(Luke 2:10-11 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”)

(Hebrews 10:1 ,7 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect...”Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come — In the volume of the book it is written of Me — To do Your will, O God.’ ”)

This statement is one that is lived out in the life of Christ and Noted by His Father that His Son had done all that was asked of him. We are reminded of how painful the will of God was in the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus acknowledges the difficulty of what is to come.

(Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high)

It is the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15, the promise of one who would come and crush the Serpent’s head, that is Satan, after His heel had been bruised.

The whole of the Bible focuses in on this event, it is the central event of the history of the world, the one event that changes everything, and it took God the Son to accomplish it because we are not able to.

There are many more scriptures which we will consider in a few weeks as we lead up to Christmas, but the coming of Christ is hugely significant and has had, and will continue to have influence on men until He returns.

Before His birth the scriptures are clear about His position as the eternal Son of God, but they also highlight the word brought to individuals of their position within the promise of God to send a Saviour very near to the time of His coming.

Mary, who was told by an angel that she would become a mother by miraculous conception of the Holy Ghost and would bear the Son of God.

Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary who would become known as his father, but he was told that Mary would have a child by miraculous means.

Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, was to have the forerunner of Christ, and Zacharias was told in the temple that he would have a son despite their age and lack of children to date who would be the promised forerunner. (Luke 1:16, spoken of in Isaiah 40:3 and applied in Matthew to John the Baptist who lived in the desert and proclaimed the Word of God: Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’ ” And John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.) John also used this of himself in the gospel of John 1:23.

Given all the information, you would have thought that the Son of God would be born in a palace and of high royal esteem, and yet the angels announce the birth to shepherds on a hillside and tell of a manger and a couple who were poor.

So the journeys of the Lord Jesus Christ begin on Earth. The Son of God will demonstrate what it means to be holy, to be humble, to be meek and mild, to be faithful, to be loving, to be righteous, to be honest, to be hard working, to fulfil all that we were created to be. There is nothing that we have experienced that He has not, there is no challenge we can face that He has not experienced, and yet never once sinned, being despised and rejected by people who He came to save, His own nation and people. So often that is the worst of situations, we talk of sticks and stone breaking bones, and words not hurting, we know that words cut like a knife, and God is clear, the Bible leaves no excuse not to trust Jesus as Saviour for it cuts to the quick, right to the centre of our self righteousness. Hebrews chapter 4 v 12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Jesus knew what it was to be admired and rejected and we shall look at some of the incidents in His life that illustrate it.

The journeys of Jesus – the early years

The first journey was from Heaven where He lays aside His majesty and is implanted in the womb of Mary, but there is no map for that one. On reflection we will all one day make the reverse journey when He comes to take us home. That will be fascinating as we see what astronauts see and what they cannot see, not even with the greatest of telescopes billions of miles from earth, and we will cover it in a flash as we are taken into heaven.

His first earthly journey was from Jerusalem to a city in Judea before He was born and we have no record of where Zacharias and Mary lived, but we know that Mary travelled there after she was told of her pregnancy.

The first recorded journey was from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It is a distance of about 97 miles, so not ideal on the back of a donkey for a heavily pregnant young woman. We are not told where they stayed overnight, but I doubt there were many Premier Inns along the way, and there would have been some difficult days and nights as she travelled to Bethlehem for the Census, whereby you were required to go to the ancestral home of your family line, which meant Bethlehem, because they were of the line of David. King David of Old Testament fame is from Bethlehem. We are reminded that Jacob promised the law giver would not depart from the tribe of Judah and that Bethlehem Ephrathah would be the place of His birth because He would be of the line of David. There are no coincidences with God.

After the birth, the first journey is from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the Temple to fulfil the requirement of the law for circumcision of every Jewish male, and then again 40 days later after Mary’s purification period to present the child to the Lord (Luke 2:21-24) for the purification of the child and the offering of two doves as required by the Law in Leviticus. It is worth remembering that although the books that we are looking at for the information on where Jesus went and who He met are included in the New Testament because these men were part of the start of the Church, but the life of Christ begins in the Old Testament under its laws and regulations, and these details show that Jesus fulfilled all the Law, even when it was not His responsibility and outside of His capacity as a baby to do so. No one could point a figure at Him and say that He had missed one bit of the Law, He was Jewish through and through.

At the Temple Simeon and Anna (Luke 2)

Return to Bethlehem – 6 miles

At this point they would have been in more suitable accommodation and the skills of a carpenter would be of value anywhere.

At some point the Magi pitch up, having asked direction of Herod and followed the provision of God in a star. They present their gifts and some very important visitors that were allowed access to the Roman-appointed head of the area, bow down and worship. Instead of returning home via Jerusalem to report to Herod what they had found, they are warned and head home a different way. That really ticks off Herod at being slighted and he plots to kill all the children in the area of Bethlehem, because the Jewish leaders confirm that will be the place of the coming Messiah’s birth.

Joseph is also warned in a dream to get out of town and head to Egypt (Matthew 2:13) where they would be safe in the short term from this very cruel man who has all the children under two killed in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:16).

The trip to Egypt

Joseph was warned to flee. This journey was about 40 miles or so and would have been one without any delay. It is across the desert to Egypt where the power of Herod does not extend.

We are not told how long he remains there, but we know that God instructs Joseph to return to Israel (Matthew 2:19-23). That fulfils the prophecy of Micah that says God would call His Son out of Egypt as He had done with Israel years before at the exodus.

The return to Israel – about 140 miles

He considers Judah and possibly Bethlehem again, but the next ruler, Herod Archaleus, Herod the Great’s eldest son, is also considered evil and so he decides to return to their home town of Nazareth where the local ruler, Herod Antipas is considered less violent, or the least worse option.

I was struck that God had instructed him to return but trusted him to use his intelligence on where to go. We are to trust God but not be lazy, He requires us to use the intelligence He has given us to make wise decisions, whilst trusting the outcome to Him.

The Passover trip to Jerusalem – about 80 miles

That would be considered about 4 days travel. This was the first Passover feast that He is mentioned as going to at the age of 12.

On the return journey as they travel with all those who had gone up from Nazareth, it is found that He is missing. His parents head back and search for Him and find Him in the temple after three days, five days after He goes missing, discussing with the doctors and amazing them with His knowledge, wisdom and answers. He is a child with a desire to learn and challenge and explain the scriptures to others. He was a child that they had appreciated for his desire in the things of God.

And even at that young age His reply indicates his direction of travel – I must be about my Father’s business.

He sets out from the beginning His priority in life, the will of God which will take Him to the cross and that sword will pass through Mary’s soul too. But here is the first mention of it.