Matthew 26:32 - Exposition

After I am risen again. He comforts his followers now, as always, with the announcement that after his Passion and death he would rise again and meet them. So in the prophet's words succeeding the quotation there is a similar encouragement, "I will turn mine hand upon the little ones;" i.e. I will cover and protect the humble and meek, even after they fled and were scattered. I will go before you ( προα ì ξω ὑμᾶς ) into Galilee ( Matthew 28:7 ). The verb is of pastoral signification, as in the East the shepherd does not drive his sheep, but leads them ( John 10:4 ). The apostles, or many of them, after the Resurrection, returned to their old homes in Galilee, but Christ preceded them, and they found him there before them ( Mark 16:7 ; John 21:1-25 .; Acts 1:3 ; 1 Corinthians 15:6 ). He again gathered around him his little flock lately scattered. True, he had then already appeared to them at Jerusalem more than once; but this was, as it were, fortuitously and unexpectedly. The meeting in Galilee was by appointment, and of most solemn import, Christ then reuniting the apostolic body, and renewing the apostolic commission ( Matthew 28:18-20 ).