Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
John Journeys North
John’s spirit was solid, but he was still confused about the nature of the coming kingdom and Jesus’ role in it. At times he wished he could talk with Jesus, but they’d agreed not to see each other until the baptism. John traveled north preaching and teaching at various spots along the Jordan, and in the process expanded his message as he learned from answering his follower’s questions. More and more people came to be baptized, and many stayed at the river and followed along with John.
When John was camped at Adam, one of his disciples asked him if he was the Messiah. John told the man that no, he wasn’t the Messiah. He went on to say, “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. And his shovel is in his hand thoroughly to cleanse his threshing floor; he will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he’ll burn up with the judgment fire.”
Meeting of Jesus and John
News of John’s preaching spread across Palestine, and since Jesus had spoken well of John and his message, many of the people in Capernaum had gone and been baptized, including the sons of Zebedee, James and John. These two brothers would go and see John once a week, and it was them who kept Jesus up-to-date on what John was doing. Jesus’s brothers, James and Jude, had wanted to get baptized, but they thought it best that they first ask Jesus what they should do. They brought this question to Jesus on on Saturday, January 12, A.D. 26.
Jesus didn’t answer James and Jude right away. Instead, he told them that he wanted to sleep on it. They all agreed to meet the next day at the boat shop for lunch, and Jesus said he’d give them an answer then.
That night Jesus slept little, instead talking with his Thought Adjuster. The next day, his brothers got to the boat shop early and were waiting out in the wood room for Jesus to take his lunch break. A little before noon, Jesus, who was at his bench inside, put down his tools, took off his work apron, and told the other three workers in the room that, “My hour has come.” He then went outside to where James and Jude where, and told them the same thing, adding, “let’s go see John.” They left immediately, and the three ate the lunch that James and Jude had brought as they walked.
When Jesus, James, and Jude got to the Jordan River, John was in the water concentrating on baptizing one person after the other from a long line of believers stretching off into the country. It wasn’t until John looked up and saw Jesus standing in front of him, that he knew they were there.
John greeted Jesus and his brothers, and then he asked Jesus why he had come down in the water to greet him. Jesus said that he was there to be baptized. When John heard this, he said it was he who needed to be baptized by Jesus. “Why do you come to me,” he asked? And then Jesus leaned over and whispered to 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.”
John, who was now trembling with emotion, did as he was told by the creator of our universe and baptized Jesus and his two brothers at noon, Monday, January 14, A.D. 26. After baptizing the three, John then told the other people in line that he was done for the day, but that he’d start baptizing people again the next day at noon. As people started to leave, John, Jesus, James, and Jude - who were all still in the water - heard a strange sound as 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.”
A great change came over Jesus. Without saying a word, he got out of the water and started walking toward the hills far off to the east, and no one saw him again for forty days. John tried to talk to Jesus as he was walking away, but Jesus wouldn’t reply. Before giving up, John said to Jesus, “Now I know of a certainty that you are the Deliverer.”
Forty Days of Preaching
Over the next forty days, thousands of people showed up at John’s camp to see the new Messiah. When they didn’t see him, many doubted he existed. About three weeks after Jesus wandered off into the hills, another group of priests and Pharisees showed up to again question John. This group of Jewish religious leaders wanted to know if John was the prophet Elijah, or if he was the Messiah. When John said he was neither, they then wanted to know by what right was he here in the river baptizing people and causing all of this commotion?
To this, John answered: “It should be for those who have heard me and received my baptism to say who I am, but I declare to you that, while I baptize with water, there has been among us one who will return to baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Early in the morning, Saturday, February 23, John looked up from breakfast and saw Jesus coming down the trail toward the camp. John immediately got up and climbed to the top of a nearby rock. Standing tall and raising his voice for all to hear, John 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.’”
When Jesus got to the camp he ate breakfast with John, and then early the next day he left for Galilee. Jesus didn’t say anything about what he was doing, or when they would see him again. John asked Jesus for advice about his own mission and preaching, but all Jesus would tell him was that his Father would guide him now and in the future as he had in the past. When Jesus left that day for Galilee, it was the last time that he and John saw each other in this lifetime.
John Journeys South
Since Jesus was heading north to Galilee, John decided that he’d go south and backtrack his journey to that point. John was a changed man after parting from Jesus: he was sad and lonely. John sensed that the responsibility for the coming kingdom was no longer his, and while he continued to preach and to baptize people, he did so with less of the fire he had exhibited in earlier times. John’s preaching shifted to now being more about mercy for the common people, while at the same time he redoubled his criticism of corrupt political and religious leaders. One of John’s attacks was when he was camped near Adam, and Herod Antipas unlawfully took the wife of another man. That outburst eventually cost John dearly. By June, A.D. 26, John and the disciples that were still with him were back at the Bethany ford, the same place where a year before he had started his preaching mission.
John’s preaching and his denouncement of Herod Antipas got him arrested. Herod’s agents came early in the morning on June 12 before everyone else arrived, and they hauled John off to prison. After several weeks with no word from John, his disciples left and scattered across Palestine. Many of them ended up going to Galilee and following Jesus.
John in Prison
John rotted in prison for over a year and a half. During this time, only a couple of visitors were allowed to see him. John had many doubts during this period. His loyalty to Jesus, his faith in God, and even the memories of his own mission and experiences were at times brought into question under his suffering and isolation.
After he had been in prison for a couple of months, two of his disciples were allowed to see him. They told John all about Jesus’ public activities, and then they said: “So you see, Teacher, that he who was with you at the upper Jordan prospers and receives all who come to him. He even feasts with publicans and sinners. You bore courageous witness to him, and yet he does nothing to effect your deliverance.”
When John heard this, he said the following to his friends:
“This man can do nothing unless it has been given him by his Father in heaven. You well remember that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I am one sent on before to prepare the way for him.’ And that I did. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands nearby and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is fulfilled. He must increase but I must decrease. I am of this earth and have declared my message. Jesus of Nazareth comes down to the earth from heaven and is above us all. The Son of Man has descended from God, and the words of God he will declare to you. For the Father in heaven gives not the spirit by measure to his own Son. The Father loves his Son and will presently put all things in the hands of this Son. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. And these words which I speak are true and abiding.”
Those words amazed John’s desciples, and they left carrying his message. But John was still sad that Jesus hadn’t come to see him, or used any of his power to get him out of prison. These were horrible times for John. But Jesus knew all of what was happening with John. He also knew that John’s work on Earth was finished, and the glory that awaited him if John didn’t lose his faith. And, it wasn’t for Jesus to interfer in the natural process of events in John’s life.
Close to the end of his days on Earth, John sent a message to Jesus again wanting to know what he should do. John was doubting himself and looking for guidance. Jesus told the messengers the following: “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.”
This was the last word John ever heard from Jesus, and it did much to comfort his heart, stabilize his faith, and gird him to meet his end soon to come.
Death of John the Baptist
When John was arrested, he was taken to the prison at the fort in Machaerus, Perea, where Herod Antipas had one of his homes. Herod was perplexed, and he didn’t know what to do with John. He was afraid to let him go because John might start a rebellion, and he was afraid to kill him because he was a Jewish holy man and he didn’t want to stir up trouble with their religious leaders. And when he asked John a couple of times to just leave or to stop preaching to the people, John refused. To top it all off, Herodias, the illegal wife that Herod had stolen from that guy back in Adam - the one that John had publicly condemned Herod for taking - hated John with a passion. So much so that she had asked Herod several times to kill John. So, Herod, not knowing what to do, just left John in prison.
For his birthday, Herod planned a big feast for all of his top people in Galilee and Perea. Herodias decided to use this event to plot John’s death, and devised a plan involving her daughter and lots of wine.
Late in the evening of his birthday party, after Herod was well drunk, Herodias had her daughter dance for him and the other guests for Herod’s birthday gift. Herod was enthralled with the young woman’s performance, and afterward, said, “You are charming. I am much pleased with you. Ask me on this my birthday for whatever you desire, and I will give it to you, even to the half of my kingdom.”
The daughter then went and asked her mother, Herodias, what she should tell Herod she wanted in return for her dance. Herodias told her daughter to go back and to tell Herod that she, right then, wanted the head of John the Baptist given to her on a platter.
When Herod heard this he was filled with fear and sorrow. But he had invited all of the important people in his land to dinner, and in his drunken state couldn’t see his way to breaking his word in front of them. So, Herod sent a soldier to the prison where the guards cut off John’s head, and after putting it on a platter they gave it to Herodias’ daughter in the rear of the banquet hall later that night.
When John’s disciples were told of his murder, they came to collect his body and a messenger was sent off to tell Jesus about John’s death.
Okay, folks, that’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 14, part 2, “John the Baptist.”
Next week’s episode is Chapter 15, “Baptism and the Forty Days.”
Have a fantastic week out there.
Bob