Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
1. When baptizing people near Adam, John was asked again if he was the Messiah. He said no, “There will come after me one who is greater than I, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
2. At noon on Sunday, January 13, A.D. 26, Jesus, who was working at his bench, laid down his tools, took off his work apron, and told the others in the boat shop that “My hour has come.” Jesus and his brothers James and Jude immediately left Capernaum for John on the Jordan River.
3. At noon, Monday, January 14, A.D. 26, John was baptizing a long line of people. He looked up and saw Jesus. John said it was Jesus who should be baptizing him. Jesus told John, “Bear with me now, for it becomes us to set this example for my brothers standing here with me, and that the people may know that my hour has come.”
4. After baptizing Jesus and his brothers, John told the others to leave. As they were doing so, a spirit presence appeared above Jesus’ head. And then, the four of them heard, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
5. A change came over Jesus. Saying nothing to anyone, he got out of the river and started walking toward the hills far off on the eastern horizon. No one saw Jesus again for forty days.
6. Jesus returned to the camp, Saturday, February 23. John stood on a tall rock and raising his voice, said, “Behold the Son of God, the deliverer of the world! This is he of whom I have said, ‘After me there will come one who is preferred before me because he was before me.’ For this cause came I out of the wilderness to preach repentance and to baptize with water, proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And now comes one who shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And I beheld the divine spirit descending upon this man, and I heard the voice of God declare, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’”
7. Jesus left and went north. John backtracked his way south. Near Adam, John publicly condemned Herod Antipas for illegally taking another man’s wife. On June 12, when camped at Bethany ford, Herod’s agents arrested John and put him in prison.
8. John rotted in prison for over a year and a half. Herod didn’t know what to do with him, and John refused to leave Herod’s lands or to quit his teachings. Herod’s illegal wife, Herodias, hated John with a passion, and wanted him dead.
9. John suffered much in prison. He often had doubts about his mission and questions about Jesus’s plan. Jesus knew he suffered, but also that John’s mission was over, that John had glory waiting for him in heaven, and that it wasn’t Jesus’ place to interfere in the natural outworking of events.
10. Jesus replied to a message from John. He said: “Go back to John and tell him that I have not forgotten but to suffer me also this, for it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Tell John what you have seen and heard—that the poor have good tidings preached to them—and, finally, tell the beloved herald of my earth mission that he shall be abundantly blessed in the age to come if he finds no occasion to doubt and stumble over me.”
11. Herod had a birthday party. Herodias used this time to plan John’s death, and had her daughter dance for Herod. Pleased, Herod offered the daughter whatever she wanted. After talking with her mother, the daughter told Herod she wanted, right then, John the Baptist’s head on a platter.
12. Herod was drunk and afraid to go back on his word. He sent a soldier to the prison where they cut off John’s head. The soldier returned to the party, put it on a platter, and gave it to Herodias’ daughter in the rear of the banquet room. John’s disciples came for his body, and a messenger was sent off to tell Jesus that John had been killed.
Okay, folks, that’s it for the highlights of Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 14, part 2, “John the Baptist.”
This week’s episode is Chapter 15, “Baptism and the Forty Days.”
Have a fantastic week out there.
Bob