Ch. 35, The Stay at Tyre and Sidon

“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition

The Stay at Tyre and Sidon

Jesus and the apostles arrived in Sidon on Friday afternoon, June 10^th. They entered town a quiet group, all of them deep in their own thoughts about what Jesus had just taught. Each of them grasped part of his message, but none of them understood all of it. They remained around Sidon for almost two and a half weeks before going north to visit the cities along the coast. Jesus stayed at the house of a well-to-do woman named Karuska who had been a patient at the Bethsaida hospital, and the apostles and evangelists stayed with her friends that lived in the neighborhood.

The Syrian Woman

In Sidon there was a Syrian woman named Norana who had heard about Jesus being a distinguished healer and teacher. This woman had a young daughter about twelve years old who suffered from regular seizures. The next day, Saturday afternoon, she took her child to see Jesus.

Jesus had told the apostles and evangelists to not let people know that he was staying with Karuska because he needed some rest. But while his followers did as they were told, Karuska’s servant went to Norana’s house and urged her to take her daughter to see Jesus. They believed, of course, that the girl was possessed by a demon. When Norana arrived at Karuska’s house with her daughter, they were met by the Alpheus twins who told them that Jesus needed to rest and could not be disturbed. Norana said that was fine, and that they would stay there until Jesus was done resting. Then Peter tried to reason with her, again saying that Jesus was tired and asking her to go home. But it was all futile: Norana said “I will not leave here until I have seen your Master. I know he can cast the demon out of my child, and I will not go until the healer has looked at my daughter.”

Then Thomas talked with her, and also met with failure. She said “I have faith that your Master can cast out this demon that terrorizes my child. I have heard of his mighty works in Galilee, and I believe in him. What has happened to you, his disciples, that you would send away those who come seeking your Master’s help?” At that point Thomas gave up.

Simon Zelotes was next to try and get her to leave, and said “Woman, you are a Greek-speaking gentile. It is not right that you should expect the Master to take the bread meant for the children of the favorite household and cast it to the dogs.”

But Noranda refused to get mad at Simon, and just said “Yes teacher, I understand your words. I am only a dog in the eyes of the Jews, but as concerns your Master I am a believing dog. I am determined that he will see my daughter because I know that if he would just look at her she would be healed. And even you my good man, would not dare to deprive dogs of the privilege of getting the crumbs that by chance fall from the children’s table.”

Right then the young girl had a seizure in front of everyone, and Norana cried out “There, you can see that my child is possessed by an evil spirit. If our need does not impress you, it would appeal to your Master who I have been told loves all people and dares to even heal the gentiles when they believe. You are not worthy to be his disciples. I will not go until my child has been cured.”

To everyone’s surprise, Jesus, who had heard all of this going on through an open window, came outside. He said “O woman great is your faith, so immense that I cannot withhold what you want; go your way in peace. Your daughter has already been made whole.” And the little girl was well from that hour. As Norana and the child left, Jesus asked them to tell no one about what had occurred. But again, while the apostles and evangelists did as he wanted Norana and her daughter did not; they told so many people across the countryside that a few days later Jesus had to find somewhere else to stay.

The next day when talking with his apostles, Jesus said “And so it has been all the way along. You can see for yourselves that the gentiles can have faith in the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and save themselves. It is the truth when I tell you that the Father’s kingdom will be taken by the gentiles if Abraham’s children do not show enough faith to enter it.”

Teaching in Sidon

There was a bridge that people had to cross to go into Sidon. For many of the apostles and evangelists this was the first bridge that they had ever seen. As they walked over to it to Sidon, Jesus said “This world is only a bridge: you can pass over it, but you should not think about building a home on it.”

The apostles and evangelists spread out to work in Sidon. Jesus went just north of the city to stay with Justa and her mother, Bernice. In the mornings the twenty-four would go to Justa’s house to meet with Jesus, and then in the afternoons and evenings they would teach and preach in Sidon. The twenty-four were excited about their reception: it was a fruitful harvest and during their six weeks in Phoenicia many new converts were added to the kingdom. But years later the Jews who wrote the gospels down-played the apostles’ success because at that time so many of their own people were hostile against Jesus.

In many ways these gentile believers respected Jesus’ teachings more than the Jews. Many of these Greek-speaking Syrophoenicians not only understood that Jesus was like God, but also that God was like Jesus. These so-called heathens understood Jesus when he taught that laws are uniform throughout this world and the entire universe; that the Universal Father has no favorites; that God is no respecter of people, nations, or cultures and that the universe is always dependable and law-abiding. These gentiles were not afraid of Jesus and they dared to accept his message. Throughout history it has not been that people are unable to understand Jesus, but rather that they have been afraid to know him.

Jesus made it clear to the twenty-four that he did not flee from Galilee because he was afraid to confront his enemies. They understood that he was not yet ready for an open clash with established religion and that he did not want to become a martyr. It was during one of these conversations at Justa’s house that Jesus first told his disciples, “even though heaven and Earth will pass away, my truth will not.”

The focus of Jesus’ teaching in Sidon was spiritual progression. He told the apostles and evangelists that they could not stand still—that they must go forward in righteousness or fall back into sin. He warned them to “forget those things that are in the past, while you push forward to embrace the greater realities of the kingdom.” He asked them to not be content with being mere children in the gospel of heaven, but to work to become full sons with God in the divine brotherhood of the kingdom.

Jesus said “My disciples must not only stop doing evil but they must also learn to do well. You must not only rid yourself of all conscious sin, but you must also refuse to harbor even the feelings of guilt. If you confess your sins they are forgiven. Because of that you must keep your mind free of those types of memories still hanging on from the past.”

It was Norana’s sense of humor along with her insistent faith that had touched Jesus’ heart and begged for his mercy. Jesus felt sorry that his people, the Jews, had so little humor in their lives. One time he told Thomas, “My people take themselves way too seriously; they have almost no sense of humor. The Pharisees’ oppressive religion could never have happened among people with a sense of humor. The Pharisees’ also lack consistency—they worry about gnats, but swallow camels.”

The Journey up the Coast

On Tuesday, June 28^th Jesus and the others left Sidon and walked up the coast to Heldua and Porphyreon. The evangelists taught in Heldua and the apostles preached in Prophyreon. They were received well and many new converts were added to the kingdom. Meanwhile, Jesus went over to Beirut on the coast and met with a Syrian named Malach, a believer who the year before had been at Bethsaida.

On Wednesday, July 6^th everyone came together at Justa’s house and stayed there until they left for Tyre on Sunday morning. They took the coastal route south through Sarepta and arrived at Tyre on Monday, July 11^th. The apostles were becoming more comfortable working with the people in these parts: while they were so-called gentiles, most of them were descendants of the Canaanite tribes who themselves descended from the Semitic tribes before them. All of them spoke Greek and the apostles were happily surprised at their eagerness to learn about and believe the gospel.

At Tyre

They taught in Tyre for two weeks, until July 24^th. The apostles and evangelists paired up together and they canvased the entire busy seaport preaching the gospel. The people in Tyre were a mixed lot speaking many languages; again the gospel was received well, and many new believers were brought into the kingdom. During this time Jesus lodged several miles away at the home of a Jewish believer named Joseph, not far from the tomb of Hiram, who had been king of Tyre when it was a city-state during the days of David and Solomon.

Every day during these two weeks the twenty-four would pass through Alexander’s mole to enter Tyre and hold small meetings, and then at night most of them would return to the camp to be with Jesus at Joseph’s house south of the city. And every day people would come out from Tyre to see Jesus. Jesus only spoke in Tyre once: the afternoon of July 20^th. He taught that the Father loves every person, and about the Son’s mission to show the Father to all of humanity. The people were so interested in Jesus’ message that they opened the doors of the Melkarth temple to him. Interestingly, many years later a Christian church was built on the exact site of this ancient temple.

Tyre and Sidon were famous around the world because it is where they made a dye called Tyrian purple. The world-wide commerce in this dye did much to enrich those cities, and many of the leaders manufacturing the Tyrian purple were believers in the gospel. A short time after this visit the shellfish that produced the dye died off for some unknown reason on that part of the coast. The dye makers left Tyre in search of more shellfish, and in their migration to the ends of the Earth they spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus’ Teaching at Tyre

Jesus began his talk this Wednesday afternoon with the story of the white lily. This beautiful flower rears its pure and snowy head high into the sunshine while its roots are deep in the muck and slime below. It is the same with people, Jesus said. He told the crowd that even though people have their roots in the animal soil of human nature, they can by faith raise their spiritual nature high into the sunlight of heavenly truth and in the process bear the noble fruits of the spirit.

Jesus then told the people a parable about carpentry, the only time he ever used his former trade in his lessons. Jesus had just said “Build well the foundation needed for the growth of a noble character of spiritual gifts,” when he then said “To grow spiritual fruit you must be spiritually born. You must be led and taught by the spirit if you want to live a spirit-filled life among your friends. But do not make the mistake of the foolish carpenter who wastes valuable time squaring, measuring, and smoothing his worm-eaten and inwardly rotting timber, and who then after he has put all of his work into the bad wood cannot use it for the foundation of his building that needed to be able to withstand the ravages of time and weather. Every person has to make sure that the moral and intellectual foundation of their character is strong enough to support the superstructure of their growing and ennobling spirituality: the transformation of the human mind along with the evolution of the immortal soul. Your spiritual nature, the soul created by you and the spirit of God inside of you, is alive and growing. But it is your mind and your morals that make up the soil from which spring forth these higher signs of the spirit: the soil for the evolving soul is material, but the destiny of the soul is divine.”

Later in the evening, Nathaniel said “Master, why do we pray that God will lead us not into temptation, when we well know from your revelation of the Father that he never does such things?”

Jesus replied “It is not strange that you ask such questions, seeing that you are beginning to know the Father like I know him and not like the early Hebrew prophets who barely saw him. You well know how our ancestors thought they saw God in almost everything that occurred. They looked for God’s hand in all natural occurrences, and in anything unusual that happened. They connected God to both good and evil. They thought God softened the heart of Moses, and that he hardened the heart of the Pharaoh. When a person had a strong urge to do something, whether good or evil, the habit was to make an excuse saying ‘The Lord spoke to me saying do this and do that, or go here and go there.’ Since people were so often and so violently tempted it became our forefathers habit to believe that God led them there to test them, punish them, or make them stronger. But you indeed now know better. You know that people are all too often tempted by their own selfishness and animal natures. When you are tempted in this way I warn you to recognize that temptation honestly and sincerely for just what it is. Then intelligently redirect the energies of your mind, body, and spirit that are seeking expression into higher channels and toward more idealistic goals. This is how you transform your temptations into higher spiritual goals while you avoid these wasteful and weakening fights between the animal and spiritual natures inside of you.’

“But let me warn you against the stupidity of trying to overcome temptation and become a better person just through will power. If you want to get rid of the temptations of your lower self you have to have the spiritual advantage of truly wanting to be a better person. This way you succeed through spiritual transformation instead of deceiving yourself by suppressing your desires. The old and the inferior will then be forgotten in the love for the new and the superior. Beauty always triumphs over ugliness in the hearts of all people who are illuminated by the love of truth. A new and sincere spiritual desire has immense power to rid a person of their animal nature. And again I am telling you be not overcome by evil, but rather overcome evil with good.”

The apostles and evangelists continued to ask Jesus questions long into the night. They learned that seasoned wisdom, forceful ambition, and intelligent judgment are the essentials of material success; that leadership is dependent on will power, discretion, natural ability, and determination and spiritual destiny is dependent on love, faith, and devotion to truth—the hunger and thirst for righteousness and the wholehearted desire to find God and to be like him. Do not become discouraged by discovering that you are human. Human nature may tend toward evil, but it is not inherently sinful. Do not be downcast by your failure to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The mistakes that you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in eternity. Lighten your soul’s burdens by quickly developing a long-distance view of the expansion of your career throughout the universe.

Do not make the mistake of estimating the soul’s worth by mental imperfections or the body’s appetites. Do not judge the soul, or evaluate a soul’s destiny, by a single unfortunate human episode. Your spiritual destiny is conditioned only by your spiritual longings and purposes. Religion is only about the spiritual experience of the evolving soul of the God-knowing person. But morality and spirituality are mighty forces that can be used to deal with difficult social situations and to solve tricky economic problems. These moral and spiritual gifts make all levels of life richer and more meaningful. You are certain to live a mean and narrow life if you learn to love only those people who love you. Love may indeed be give and take, but divine love is outgoing in all that it seeks. The less love there is in a creature’s nature the more critical the need for love, and the more that divine love seeks to satisfy that need. Love is never self-seeking and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot be self-contained: it must be unselfishly given to others.

Those who believe in the kingdom of God need an unspoken faith that righteousness will win. Those building the kingdom cannot doubt the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn how to step aside from the rush of life, escape the harassment of material existence, and refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit with worship. God-knowing people are not discouraged by misfortune, or downcast by disappointment: those who believe in the kingdom of heaven are immune to the depression that comes with life’s problems. People who live in the spirit are not upset by the material world, and those who want eternal life are resourceful at meeting life’s problems and every day they find it easier to do the right thing.

A spiritual life eminently increases true self-respect, but that is not self-admiration. Self-respect always includes love and service for others. It is not possible to respect yourself more than you love your neighbor: the one is the measure of the other. As the days pass every true believer becomes more skillful in bringing others to the love of eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to humanity today than you were yesterday? Are you a more righteous example this year than you were last year? Are you becoming increasingly artistic in the way you lead hungry souls to the spiritual kingdom? Are your ideals high enough to ensure your eternal salvation while your ideas are practical enough to make you a useful citizen? In the spirit your citizenship is in heaven: in the flesh you are still citizens of earthly kingdoms. Render to the Caesars the things that are material, and to God those that are spiritual. The spiritual capacity of your evolving soul is based on your faith in truth and your love for humanity, but the measure of your strength of character is your ability to resist holding grudges and to not fret in the face of sorrow. Defeat is the mirror you need to use to honestly see who you are.

As you grow older and more experienced are you becoming more tactful, in other words more skillful and sensitive when dealing with troublesome people; are you more tolerant living with stubborn friends? Tact is the fulcrum of social leverage, and tolerance is the hallmark of a noble soul. If you possess these rare and charming gifts you will become more alert and expert in your ability to stay out of unnecessary social misunderstandings. Such wise souls are able to avoid much of the trouble that comes to people who will not grow up, who lack emotional adjustment, and who refuse to grow old gracefully.

Avoid dishonesty and unfairness in all your efforts to preach truth and announce the gospel. Do not seek unearned recognition or crave undeserved sympathy. Love, freely love in return, and freely receive from both divine and human sources. But in all other things related to honor and praise, only look for that honestly yours. God-conscious people are certain of salvation, unafraid of life, and honest and consistent. They know how to bravely endure unavoidable suffering, and they do not complain when faced by inescapable hardship. True believers do not grow tired doing well just because they have problems. Obstacles and difficulties only make the lover of truth more excited, resolved, and passionate.

The day before Jesus left Tyre to go back to the area around the Sea of Galilee, he called everyone together and he told the twelve evangelists to take a different route than he and his apostles were going to take. After the evangelists left they were never again so closely associated with Jesus.

The Return from Phoenicia

About noon on Sunday, July 24^th Jesus and the twelve apostles left Joseph’s house south of Tyre and walked down the coast to Ptolemais. They stayed there for a day ministering to the people, and then the next evening Peter gave a sermon. Tuesday morning they left Ptolemais, and going inland they headed east on the Tiberias road. On Wednesday they arrived at Jotapata and taught the people there, and then on Thursday they continued northward on the Nazareth-Mount Lebanon trail. They met with believers in Ramah on Friday, stayed over there for the Sabbath, and arrived in the small village of Zebulum on Sunday, July 31^st. That evening they met with their followers and then they departed the next morning. They first walked to the junction of the Magdala-Sidon road near Gischala, and then they made their way to Gennesaret on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, south of Capernaum where they had arranged to meet David Zebedee.

David informed them that many Jewish leaders were right then gathered together on the other side of the lake near Kheresa. That evening they hired a boat to take them across the lake, the next day they rested in the hills, and then the following day they went to the park where Jesus had fed the five thousand people. They rested there for three days and had daily meetings with the remnants of the once many believers who lived in Capernaum and the surrounding area.

With Jesus away from Capernaum and Galilee teaching in Phoenicia, his enemies assumed that the whole movement had been broken up. They thought that since Jesus had been in such a rush to leave that it meant he was so thoroughly frightened that he would probably never again return to bother them. All active opposition to his teachings had about ended. The believers were beginning to hold public meetings once more, and there was a gradual but effective consolidation of Jesus’ true and tried followers.

Philip, Herod’s brother, had become a half-hearted believer in Jesus and sent word to him that he was free to live and work in his lands. The order to close all of the synagogues to Jesus’ teachings had backfired on the scribes and Pharisees: as soon as Jesus removed himself as an object of controversy, there was general resentment among the people against them and the Sanhedrin. Many of the rulers of the synagogues had already begun to quietly open their doors to Abner and his group claiming that these teachers were John’s followers and not Jesus’ disciples.

Even Herod Antipas experienced a change of heart, and when he learned that Jesus was staying across the lake in his brother Philip’s land, he sent word to Jesus saying that while he had signed warrants for Jesus’ arrest in Galilee he had not authorized his arrest in Perea. In other words, he was telling Jesus that he would not be molested if he stayed outside of Galilee, and he sent this same ruling to the Jews in Jerusalem.

That was the situation around the first of August, A.D. 29 when Jesus returned from his mission on the Phoenician coast and began to reorganize his tested, scattered, and depleted forces for his last eventful year on Earth. The battle lines were clearly drawn, and Jesus and the apostles prepared to announce the new religion of the living God’s spirit dwelling in the minds of humanity.