Ch. 25, First Preaching Tour of Galilee
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
Chapter 25
First Preaching Tour of Galilee
Jesus, his twelve apostles, and the former apostles of John the Baptist spent two months ministering to the sick and baptizing people across Galilee. They taught for several days in each of the cities of Iron, Cana, Nain, Endor, Ramah, Madon, Rimmon, Zebulun, Gischala, Chorazin, and Jotapata as well as many other smaller towns as they passed through. This was the first time that Jesus gave the apostles free reign to preach, and they did so with passion. Jesus told them to stay out of Nazareth and to keep a low profile while going through Tiberias and Capernaum. This preaching tour lasted until March 17th when they returned to Capernaum.
Preaching at Rimmon
Rimmon was a smaller city that had once been dedicated to the worship of Ramman, a Babylonian air god. The Rimmonites still held many of these beliefs, so Jesus and the twenty-four concentrated on explaining the differences between the new gospel and their older teachings. It was here where Peter shined when he preached on “Aaron and the Golden Calf.”
The apostles were successful and many Rimmonites entered the kingdom, but in later years they also caused significant trouble for the other disciples: it is difficult for people to shift their worship of nature over to adoring a spiritual ideal in a single life time. By including the Persian and Babylonian ideas of light in the later so-called doctrines of Christianity, the gospel was easier for people in the Near East to adopt. In a similar fashion including Plato’s ideas that things visible and material are imperfect representations of ideal and invisible patterns, which Philo later adapted to Hebrew theology, made Paul’s version of Christianity more acceptable to the western Greeks. It was here at Rimmon that Todan entered the kingdom, one of the first people to take Jesus’ gospel past the Euphrates and into Mesopotamia and the lands beyond.
At Jotapata
Jotapata was another small town where Jesus and the apostles were successful wining people for the kingdom. But what sets Jotapata apart was the sermon that Jesus gave to the twenty-four apostles the second night they were in town. Nathaniel was still confused about the difference between prayer, worship, and gratitude so Jesus took the time and explained his teachings in detail. The following is a summary of Jesus’ lesson that night.
God hears all of his children, but the quality of that connection depends the person’s heart and actions. If people continue to sin, if they continue to willingly choose to do what they already know is evil, or not in God’s will, their level of personal communion with God degenerates, and the Paradise Deities despise any prayer that is deliberately inconsistent with the established laws of God regarding mind, spirit, and matter. To clarify his point, Jesus quoted the Prophet Zechariah, “But they refused to listen and turned away. Indeed, they made their hearts hard like stone so they would not hear my law that I sent through the prophets; therefore did their evil thinking result in an enormous wrath on their guilty heads. And so it came to pass that they cried for mercy, but there was no ear open to hear.” And then Jesus quoted the proverb of the wise man who said “He who turns his ear away from hearing the divine law, even his prayer will be an abomination.”
People can immediately access the stream of divine ministry constantly flowing to mortals on the worlds of time and space just by unblocking their end of the channel. As soon as people hear God in their hearts, God at the same time hears their prayers. It is the same with forgiveness: your Father in heaven forgives you even before you think to ask him for forgiveness. But that divine forgiveness is dependent on and simultaneous with the act of you forgiving others: yes, God will in fact forgive you, but you will not experience that forgiveness until you offer forgiveness to other people. This link between divine and human forgiveness is stated in the prayer Jesus taught his apostles.
There is a basic law of justice in the universe that even love combined with mercy cannot circumvent—the unselfish glories of Paradise cannot be received by a selfish person on the worlds of time and space. Even God’s infinite love for someone cannot force that person to choose eternal survival. Jesus quoted again from the scriptures and said “I called and you refused to hear; I stretched out my hand, but no one took it. You do not listen to my advice and you have rejected my criticism, and because of that rebellious attitude it is assured that when you call on me in times of suffering you will not receive an answer.”
Those who want mercy must show mercy: how you judge others is how you will be judged. Mercy cannot completely take the place of universal fairness. In the end it will prove true that, “Those who close their ears to the cry of the poor will also someday cry for help and no one will hear them.” The sincerity in a prayer is what assures that it is being heard, and the wisdom it contains and the extent that it is consistent with universal law determines how, when, and to what degree it is answered. A wise father does not give unwise children whatever they want.
When a person becomes wholly dedicated to the Father’s will all of that person’s prayers will eventually be answered, because each one is now in line with what the Father desires and our Father’s will is always manifested throughout the universe. Whatever the true son desires and the infinite Father wills, is. This type of prayer has to be answered, and no other type of prayer can be answered.
A person’s efforts to be perfect as God is perfect is the act of faith that opens the door to the Father’s truth, mercy, and goodness: gifts that are waiting for the son to come and take. Prayer does not change God’s feelings toward the person, it changes the person’s attitude to God. It is the motive of the prayer that determines if it is heard by God not the social, economic, or outward religious status of the person offering it.
Prayer cannot be used to speed up time or to violate the laws of space; it is not a way to show-off or to gain advantage over someone else. In the true sense of the word a completely selfish person cannot pray. Like Jesus said “Let your supreme delight be in the character of God, and he will surely give you the sincere desires of your heart.” “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will act.” “For the Lord hears the cry of the needy, and he will regard the prayer of the destitute.”
Jesus said “I have come forth from the Father, so if you are ever in doubt about what you should ask the Father ask in my name and I will present your prayer according to your real needs and desires and in accordance with my Father’s will.” Be cautious of the great danger of becoming self-centered when you pray. Avoid praying much for yourself; pray more for the spiritual progress of your friends. And do not pray for material things; pray in the spirit, and for the gifts of the spirit.
When you pray for the sick, do not think that your prayers will take the place of loving and practical care for their problems. Pray for the welfare of your friends and families, but especially pray for those who curse you and with love pray for those who harm you. Jesus said “But when to pray, I will not say. Only your indwelling spirit can move you to express your inner relationship with the Father of spirits.”
Many people only pray when in trouble, which is misleading and thoughtless. Yes, it is good to pray when you are harassed, but also remember to talk to your Father as a son when things are going well. Let your real prayers always be in secret and do not let other people hear them. Prayers of gratitude are okay for groups of worshipers, but prayers of the soul are a personal matter. There is only one prayer that is correct for all of God’s children and that is “Regardless, your will be done.”
Everyone who believes in the gospel should pray for the extension of the kingdom of heaven. Of all of the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus approved most the prayer of the Psalmist, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. Purge me from secret sins and keep back your servant from presumptuous transgression.” Jesus spoke at length about praying to control one’s speech, quoting “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” “The human tongue” Jesus said “is a member that few people can tame, but the spirit of God in a person can transform this unruly member into a kind voice of tolerance and an inspiring minister of mercy.”
Jesus taught the apostles that praying for divine guidance in one’s life was next after praying for knowledge of God’s will. This is in actuality praying for divine wisdom. Jesus did not teach that special skills or human knowledge could result from prayer, but he did teach that prayer increases one’s ability to receive the presence of the divine spirit. When Jesus taught people to pray in the spirit and in truth, he meant praying sincerely and according to one’s enlightenment: earnestly, steadfastly, intelligently, and with one’s whole heart.
Jesus warned people that prayer is not influenced by fasting, penance, sacrifices or using ornate repetitions and eloquent phraseology. But he did urge people to use prayer to work their way through gratitude and into true worship. Jesus deplored that so little sincere gratitude was in the prayers and worship of his followers. He quoted from the scriptures saying “It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In everything I will give thanks according to the will of God.”
Jesus said “Do not be overanxious about your common needs: do not be apprehensive about the problems of your earthly existence, but in all these things by prayer with the spirit of sincere gratitude spread out your needs before our Father who is in heaven.” Then Jesus quoted from the scriptures, “I will praise the name of God with a song and I will magnify him with gratitude, and this will please the Lord better than the sacrifice of an ox, or bullock with horns and hoofs.”
Jesus taught people that after praying they should remain silent and receptive for a short while so that their spirit has the opportunity to speak to their heart. We best communicate with our spirit of God in true worship when we are aided by the spirit and illuminated by the spirit of truth. Jesus taught that worship increasingly makes one like the being who is worshiped: it is a transformative process where the finite gradually reaches the Infinite. And Jesus taught his apostles many other truths about man’s relationship with God.
The Stop at Ramah
At Ramah, Jesus and the others met an older Greek philosopher who taught people that science and philosophy were enough to satisfy their lives. Jesus was patient and sympathetic as he listened to this man. When he was through Jesus agreed that there was much truth in what he had said, but he also told the man that he had not explained the “why, whence, and whither” of the human experience.
Jesus said “Where you leave off, we begin. Religion reveals to people’s souls spiritual realities that cannot be known by just using the mind. Intellectual learning teaches the facts of life, but the gospel of the kingdom brings forth the truths of existence. You have been talking about the material shadows of truth. Now, would you like to hear about the actual eternal and spiritual realities that originally cast those transient material facts?” For over an hour Jesus talked with this old philosopher, and being of honest heart the man quickly accepted the gospel of heaven.
The apostles who had been listening in on this conversation were flustered when they heard Jesus agree with much of the Greek’s philosophy. Later in private Jesus told them, “My children, do not be surprised that I was tolerant of the Greek’s philosophy. Truth does not resent honest criticism, and when a person is sure of their beliefs they are not afraid to examine them. Do not forget that intolerance is just a mask covering up a person’s own secret doubts in their beliefs. When you are confident in your own beliefs it does not matter to you what another person thinks. With courage and confidence those who are sincere in their beliefs are willing to honestly examine their true convictions.”
The second night they were in Ramah, Thomas asked “Master, how can someone new to your teaching really know, really be certain, about the truth of the gospel of the kingdom?”
Jesus replied “A person’s proof of the kingdom of heaven and their eternal survival is based on their personal religious experience and their faith in that truth: this determines the degree that a person is certain of the eternal realities of divine truth. In other words, spiritual assurance equals your faith plus your personal religious experience plus your intellectual understanding of eternal realities minus your doubts.’
“The Son is naturally endowed with the life of the Father. Having been given the living spirit of the Father you are therefore sons of God. You survive your material life in the flesh because you identify with the Father’s living spirit, the gift of eternal life. Many people had this life before I came forth from the Father, and many more have received this spirit because they believed me. But after I return to my Father he will send his spirit into the hearts of all people.’
“While you cannot see the divine spirit working in your mind, the love you have for other people demonstrates the degree that you have followed your divine guidance. Your spirit guide is the Father’s love, and as that loves takes over a person’s life it always leads to divine worship and unconditional love for one’s fellows. In the beginning, you believe you are the sons of God because I have taught you to be more conscious of the Father’s presence inside of you. But soon the Spirit of Truth will be poured out on to humanity, and it will live among you teaching the truth even as I am doing now; this is how you will know that you are the sons of God: it will bear witness alongside the spirit of God that will then be in all people as it is now in some.’
“Every person who follows the leading of this spirit will eventually know the will of God, and those who surrender to the will of my Father will abide forever. The way from life on Earth to the eternal estate has not been made plain to you, but there is a way, there always has been, and I have come to make that way new and living. He who enters the kingdom has eternal life already: he will never die. But much of this you will better understand after I have returned to the Father and you are able to look back on these experiences with hindsight.”
Everyone who heard Jesus was excited. The Jewish teachings were confused and uncertain when it came to the survival of the righteous, and it was inspiring for Jesus’ followers to be assured of eternal survival in such a definite and positive way. The apostles continued to preach to and baptize believers, as well as visit with people in their houses ministering to the sick and comforting the downcast. During this period and until they went to Jerusalem for the next Passover, each of Jesus’ apostles was paired with one of John’s, and Abner worked with Andrew.
Jesus’ earlier special talk to the apostles in Zebulun was mostly about the mutual obligations of the kingdom and clarifying the difference between personal religious experiences and maintaining harmonious relationships in religious social groups. Over his lifetime Jesus only gave his followers bits of advice on the social aspects of creating a religion, and this was one of those few times. The people in Zebulun were a mixed race being not Jew or gentile, and few of them believed in Jesus even though they had heard about him healing the sick in Capernaum.
The Gospel at Iron
Many of the smaller villages of Judea and Galilee had their own synagogue. During the early days of his ministry Jesus preached in these synagogues on Saturdays, usually in the morning, and then Peter or one of the other apostles took over the lessons in the afternoons. During the week the other apostles often taught in the evenings. The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was becoming increasingly antagonistic toward Jesus and his work, but at that time they did not have direct control of the synagogues outside of Jerusalem; later they managed to create such a degree of resentment against Jesus and the apostles that almost all of the synagogues closed their doors to them and the gospel.
Iron was a mining town and the work was a new experience for Jesus. While the apostles talked with people in their homes and preached in the public spaces, Jesus worked underground with the men in the mines so he could better understand their lives. His fame had spread to even this remote village, and many sick people benefited from Jesus’ ministry. But the only miracle that occurred in Iron was the healing of the leper.
It was late in the afternoon on the third day that they were in Iron and Jesus was coming back from the mines. He decided to take a narrow side street he had not taken before to return to his room. A man with leprosy, known to everyone in town as the sick one, lived in a small hovel alongside this road. He had heard of Jesus’ fame as a healer, so as Jesus passed by the leper went outside, gathered his courage, and kneeling before Jesus said “Lord, if only you would you could make me clean. I have heard the message of your teachers, and I would enter the kingdom if I could be made clean.”
The leper spoke that way because according to Jewish law lepers were forbidden to attend the synagogue, or engage in any other type of public worship. This man believed he could not enter the kingdom of heaven unless he was cured of his leprosy first. When Jesus saw that he really did have leprosy and he heard the man clinging to his faith when he had asked to be healed, it touched Jesus’ human heart and moved his divine mind with compassion. As Jesus was looking down on him the man fell to the ground and worshiped. Then Jesus reached down and touching him said “I will: be clean,” and immediately the man was healed: he no longer had leprosy.
After Jesus helped the man to his feet, he said “See that you tell no man about your healing, but rather go quietly about your business showing yourself to the priest and offering those sacrifices commanded by Moses in testimony of your cleansing.” But like with almost everyone else that Jesus healed, this man did not do as he was asked. Instead, he told everyone in town that Jesus had cured his leprosy and since he was well known to the people they were able to see that he had been cured of the disease. This man also did not go to the priests like Jesus had instructed.
Because of the attention he aroused, the next morning so many people were coming to Jesus for healing that he and the apostles had to get up early and leave town. Jesus never returned to Iron after that, but he did camp out for two days near the mines and continued his ministry with the men working there. Healing the leper was the first miracle that Jesus intentionally did up to this time.
After leaving Iron, Jesus and the apostles went to Gischala where they spent two days announcing the gospel, and then they went to Chorazin where they spent almost a week preaching. But this was not a successful stop—nowhere else was Jesus rejected like he was in Chorazin, and the apostles were unable to bring many people into the kingdom. This was a depressing time for most of them, and Abner and Andrew had a difficult time helping their friends alleviate their fears. After leaving Chorazin they quietly went through Capernaum and made their way to Madon where they had more luck with the people. Most of the apostles harbored the thought that their recent lack of success was due to Jesus insisting that they not call him a healer. They all wished he would go out and cure another leper or do some other miracle to get the people’s attention, but Jesus was adamant and would not budge.
Back in Cana
The apostles cheered up when Jesus said “Tomorrow we go to Cana.” Jesus was well known in Cana and everyone expected a better reception than they had received in Chorazin. They were right, and all was proceeding well when on the third day a nobleman from Capernaum, Titus, arrived. Titus was only a partial believer in Jesus’ message, but he also had a son at home in Capernaum who was sick to the point of dying. When Titus heard that Jesus was in Cana, he hurried over to see him knowing that the people in Capernaum believed Jesus could heal anything.
When Titus found Jesus in Cana he tried to get him to rush back to Capernaum right then and heal his son. The apostles were present when Titus talked with Jesus, and they held their breath as they waited to see what would happen. Jesus looked at the father and said “How long will I bear with you? The power of God is in your midst, but you only see signs and wonders and you refuse to believe.”
But the nobleman begged Jesus, saying “My Lord I do believe, but hurry up and come before my child dies, because when I left him he was then at the point of death.”
Jesus bowed his head for a moment in silent meditation, and then suddenly said “Return home; your son will live.”
Titus believed Jesus and hurried back to his house in Capernaum where his servants ran outside to greet him, saying “Rejoice, your son is better: he lives.” Then Titus asked his servants when the boy had started to improve, and when they said “yesterday about the seventh hour the fever left him,” the father remembered that was about the time Jesus had said “Your son will live.” From then on Titus and his family believed in Jesus and the kingdom of heaven with all of their hearts.
Titus’ son became a mighty minister of the kingdom and he was later killed with the others who suffered in Rome. Even though Titus’ entire household, their friends, and even the apostles thought that this event was a miracle, it was not. At least it was not a miracle in the sense of curing a physical disease. It was just a case of pre-knowledge about the course of natural law, the same type of knowing that Jesus used many times after his baptism.
Again, Jesus and the others had to leave Cana in a hurry because of all of the attention over this second miraculous event in the village. All of the townspeople remembered the water and the wine, and now that Jesus supposedly healed the nobleman’s son from so far away, they not only brought him their sick in person but also sent messengers asking for healing from afar. When Jesus saw that the whole countryside was aroused, he said “Let us go to Nain.”
Nain and the Widow’s Son
Jesus’ era was one where the people believed in signs: they were a wonder-seeking generation and they viewed Jesus and his ministry in terms of miracles. Hundreds of honest people who suffered from nothing more than emotional problems went to just be around Jesus, and then they returned home to their friends and told them that he had healed them. The simple-minded people believed that these were actually miraculous events of physical healing.
When Jesus left Cana to go to Nain, a crowd of believers and others who were just curious followed after him. They were intent on seeing a miracle, and it happened that they were not going to be disappointed. As Jesus and his apostles were approaching the gate to the city, they encountered a funeral procession on its way to the nearby cemetery. The people were carrying the only son of a widow from Nain. This woman was well respected and nearly half of the village was following the coffin bearers. When the crowd reached Jesus and the others, the widow and her friends recognized Jesus and asked him to bring the boy back to life.
These people thought that if Jesus could cure any disease, he should be able to even raise the dead. Jesus stepped up and opened the lid of the coffin to look at the boy. He could tell immediately that the boy was not dead and he could see the tragedy he was preventing. Jesus turned to the mother, and said “Weep not. Your son is not dead. He sleeps. He will be restored to you.” Then taking the young man by the hand, Jesus said “Awake and arise.” Soon, the boy who was supposed to be dead sat up and began to speak. Jesus then tried to send everyone back to their homes, but it was useless. The masses of people that had followed him, along with the whole village of Nain, were in an emotional frenzy. Fear seized many people, panic took over others, and some fell to their knees praying and wailing over their sins. It was not until long after sundown that the clamoring crowd was willing to leave. Even though Jesus had said the boy was not dead everyone insisted that a miracle had happened: that Jesus had raised the dead.
Word that Jesus had raised the widow’s son from the dead spread throughout Galilee and into Judea. Many of the people who heard this, believed it. Jesus could not even get all of his apostles to believe that the boy had not been dead when he had told him to wake up. Jesus impressed on his apostles to not put this event in their later records, and none of them did except Luke who recorded it as told to him. And again so many people came to Jesus to be healed that they all had to get up early the next morning and leave for Endor.
At Endor
At Endor Jesus managed to rest for a few days. While there he taught his apostles the story of King Saul and the witch of Endor. Jesus explained that the rebellious midwayers who had many times before impersonated the supposed spirits of the dead would soon be brought under control so that they could no longer do these strange things: that after he returned to the Father and they had poured out their spirit on humanity, that these semi-spirit beings could no longer possess the feeble and evil-minded people among us. Jesus said that the spirits of the dead do not come back to the world of their origin to communicate with people. Only after the passing of a dispensational age would it be possible for the advancing spirit of a person to return to Earth, and only then in exceptional cases and as a part of the spiritual administration of that planet. After their rest, Jesus said “Tomorrow let’s return to Capernaum for a few days and teach while the countryside quiets down.”