(Rough draft)
Conference with John’s Apostles
John the Baptist had been urged by Abner, the chief of his disciples, to do like Jesus had and appoint twelve of his top followers to be his apostles. John did this. Then around the 1st of October, Philip and some of Jesus’ other apostles ran into some of John’s new apostles at the market when buying food. After talking for a bit, they all decided to bring the two groups of apostles together for a conference so they could figure out how to go forward with the work. Beginning the second week of the month, the twenty-four started to meet at the Gilboa camp, but Jesus was only around for the first week of these talks. For three weeks the apostles of Jesus and John the Baptist came together six times a week, three times a day.
For the first week, Jesus chatted with them during the breaks between the morning, afternoon, and evening meetings. They all, of course, wanted Jesus to take charge of these talks between the two groups but he said no, and he wouldn’t budge. He did, though, agree to give them three lectures dealing with sympathy, tolerance, and co-operation.
So instead of Jesus moderating the talks between the two groups of apostles, Abner and Andrew took turns being in charge of the meetings. They had much to discuss, and a lot of problems to solve. And of course, even though he had already told them no, the apostles kept coming to Jesus for advice. And always, Jesus’ response was that he was only concerned with the person, not the group.
In other words, Jesus told them his purpose was to represent the Father to the individual, and to help that specific person as needed with their own personal religious problems. But, when it came to group decisions about coordinating the work and turning religious beliefs into an organized social group of people who all believe the same way, they would have to handle that themselves. Jesus also told them all, in advance, that he would go along with whatever they decided, as long as they were all in agreement.
After the first week of talks, Jesus left, telling them, “And now, in order to leave you alone so you can work, I’m taking off for two weeks. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be back. I’m going to be doing my Father’s business, because we have other realms besides this one.” Jesus then headed down the mountain, and they didn’t see him again for two weeks. No one ever knew where Jesus went or what he did during those fourteen days.
It took a little while for the apostles to calm down and get to work after Jesus took off, and they had to do so without Jesus’ help.
The first thing they all agreed on, was adopting the prayer Jesus had just taught them as the one prayer both groups would use to teach the people.
Next, they decided that as long as John was alive, whether he was in prison or not, both groups would keep doing their current work and they’d all meet-up every three months for a week or so to deal with any problems that might arise.
The most serious decision they had to make was about baptism, and they had no guidance from Jesus because he had refused, again, to tell them what to do. So they finally decided that for the time being, Jesus’ apostles would teach the people and John’s apostles would then baptize them. They all agreed that baptism should be the first step a person takes to show others that they are part of the brotherhood of the kingdom. And, if John were to die, they agreed that John’s disciples would then follow Jesus and they wouldn’t baptize people unless he or the apostles said it was okay to do so. In that case, Jesus’ apostles would then start to baptize believers using water to signify the Divine Spirit.
The final decision they had to make about baptism was whether or not to make repentance a requirement to receive it, and in the end, they just decided to leave that decision open. In other words, John’s apostles preached, “Repent and be baptized,” while Jesus’ apostles were telling people, “Believe and be baptized.”
This was first time Jesus’ followers started to coordinate their efforts and decide on the framework for the coming Christian religion, and in the process, they resolved many of their problems. For these twenty-four men, the two weeks by having to face their problems without Jesus’ help was a remarkable experience. They learned to differ, debate, and compromise while staying open, at least a little bit, to the other person’s viewpoint.
On the final day of their joint talks, Jesus returned. He listened to their report, and then he said he would help each of them to meet their responsibility to carry out the spirit of their joint decisions. For the next two and a half months, up until John the Baptist was killed, John’s apostles worked with Jesus and his twelve teaching and baptizing people in the cities of the Decapolis.
They broke camp on Mt. Gilboa on the 2nd of November, A.D. 27.
In the Decapolis Cities
November and December signaled the end of taking over John the Baptist’s work and instructing his disciples on Jesus’ teachings. The twenty-four did their work quietly in the Greek cities of the Decapolis, focusing most of their efforts in Abila, (‘abilə) Scythopolis (si’thäpōlis), Gerasa (ɡe’räsə), and Gadara (‘ɡadərə). They went out in pairs preaching the gospel as they each understood it, with Jesus’ apostles doing the teaching and John’s crew baptizing the new followers. Many gentiles and renegade Jews became believers in the new gospel of the kingdom.
While the apostles did the work with the people, Jesus spent most of his time teaching the twenty-four. He also had many special sessions with just John’s disciples, and this helped them to better understand why Jesus didn’t visit John in prison or try to get him out. Before coming to the Gilboa camp, most of these men had accepted Jesus because John said that they should, but afterwards they were beginning to believe in Jesus because of their personal contact with him. Still, they never could understand why he never performed any miracles to convince the people of who he was.
Abner, their leader, became especially devoted to Jesus and he was eventually put in charge of seventy other teachers that Jesus set up to teach the people. The process of integrating the two groups of apostles showed how a new revelation has to compromise with the former beliefs and practices that it’s trying to salvage. In this case, Jesus’ apostles agreed to baptism in order to include John’s apostles in their new religion, and John’s apostles, in turn, had to give up almost everything except the water baptism to be accepted by Jesus’ crew.
In Camp Near Pella
Toward the end of December, everyone went over to the Jordan close to Pella and continued teaching and baptizing both Jews and gentiles. One afternoon while Jesus was talking to the masses, some special friends of John the Baptist interrupted Jesus to say, “John the Baptist has sent us to ask—are you truly the Deliverer, or shall we look for another?”
This was the last message Jesus ever got from John, and since it had been a year and a half with almost no word about Jesus, it wasn’t odd for him to wonder about the status of the kingdom.
To answer John’s friends, Jesus paused his teachings to the masses and told them, “Go back and tell John that he is not forgotten. Tell him what you have seen and heard, that the poor have good tidings preached to them.” And after saying a few more things to John’s friends, Jesus turned back to the masses of people and said, “Don’t think that John doubts the gospel of the kingdom.
He’s only asking this question to assure his disciples, who are also my disciples. John is no weakling. Let me ask you guys who heard John preach before Herod put him in prison: What did you see in John—a reed shaking in the wind? A man who changes his moods and wears fancy clothes? As a rule, the people who wear fancy cloths and have easy lives are found in king’s courts and rich people’s mansions. But what did you see when you looked at John? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet. Of John it was written: ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face; he shall prepare the way before you.’ It’s true when I tell you that there has never been born a man greater than John the Baptist, but that said, a person born of the spirit, no matter how small he may be in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than John because he knows he’s become a son of God.” Many of the people who heard Jesus that day went and got baptized.
This event was the point where John’s apostles fully accepted Jesus and the two groups finally bonded more or less as one. After John’s friends had talked everything over with Abner, they headed back to Machaerus (mə’kērəs) to tell John what Jesus had said. This eased his mind, and strengthened his faith.
Later in the afternoon while he was still teaching the people, Jesus said, “But to what should I compare this generation? Many of you won’t believe John’s message or my teaching. You’re like kids playing in the marketplace telling their buddies: ‘We piped for you and you didn’t dance; we wailed and you did not mourn.’ And it’s the same with some of you. John didn’t come eating and drinking, and yet they said he had a devil. The Son of Man comes eating and drinking, and these same people say, ‘Look at the greedy pig and wino, a friend of sinners and tax collectors. It’s true, wisdom is justified by her children. It seems that the Father in heaven has hidden some of these truths from the wise and haughty, while he’s shown them to babes. But the Father does all things well; the Father reveals himself to the universe in his own way. Come, therefore, all you who work and carry heavy loads, and you’ll find rest for your souls. Take up the divine yoke, and you’ll experience the peace of God, which passes all other types of understanding.”
Death of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas had John the Baptist killed the evening of January 10th, A.D. 28. The next day some of John’s disciples went to ask Herod for John’s body, and then they placed him in a tomb. Later, he was buried at Abner’s home in Sebaste (si’bastə). The next day, the 12th of January, they headed north to the camp where Jesus and the twenty-four were teaching near Pella, and told Jesus what they had done.
When Jesus found out about John’s death, he stopped lecturing to the people and told everyone to go home. Then he called the twenty-four apostles together and said, “John’s dead. Herod had him beheaded. Tonight, all of you get together and arrange your affairs. The waiting’s over. The hour’s come for us to go out in power and announce the kingdom to everyone. Tomorrow, we’re going to Galilee.”
The next morning, January 13th, A.D. 28, Jesus, the apostles, and twenty-five disciples headed out for Capernaum to spend the night at Zebedee’s house.
Okay folks,
That’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 23, At Gilboa and in the Decapolis. Next up is Chapter 24, “Four Eventful Days at Capernaum.”
Bob