(Rough draft)
The Healing at Sundown
The news of Jesus supposedly healing people spread throughout Capernaum and the surrounding area by dinner time that Saturday evening. The people were aroused by what they were hearing, and their excitement grew to the point that anyone who was sick with anything got themselves ready to go to Zebedee’s house after sundown and ask Jesus to be healed. Those who couldn’t make the trip under their own power, arranged for their friends to carry them to Jesus. They had to wait until after sundown, because Jewish law forbid doing anything during the day on the sabbath, even trying to improve one’s health.
As soon as the sun went below the horizon, people headed to Zebedee’s house in Bethsaida. One man with a paralyzed daughter didn’t even wait that long, leaving as soon as the sun had dropped from his view behind his neighbor’s house.
Everything that had happened throughout the day set the stage for extraordinary events that sundown. Jesus was compelling, and he spoke directly to the people’s souls while appealing to their hearts without fancy arguments. And he did all of this with a power, with an authority, none of them had ever before seen. Even the text that Jesus had read during his sermon that day suggested that sickness should no longer be part of their lives.
And the excitement surrounding these events wasn’t just confined to Earth. That Saturday, the entire universe was looking down on Capernaum as the real capital of our universe, Nebadon. This was a momentous day for both Jesus and the kosmos; many more entities than just a handful of Jews in the synagogue heard Jesus closing statements, when he said, “Hate is the shadow of fear; revenge the mask of cowardice,” and as he declared that, “Man is the son of God, not a child of the devil.”
It wasn’t long after the sun had set and Jesus and the apostles were still hanging around the dinner table after having eaten, when Peter’s wife heard some voices in the front yard. When she opened the door to look and see what was happening, she saw a large group of sick people gathering in front of the house. And when she looked farther beyond them, she could see that the road to Capernaum was filled with people on the way to their home. So, she immediately went and told her husband, who then told Jesus.
When Jesus stepped outside of Zebedee’s house, he was met by almost a thousand people gathered around. Most of these people had one health problem or another, and those who weren’t ill had brought those who were.
Jesus looked over the mass of sick and broken people, and while doing so he remembered that a lot of the reason for their suffering was because his own trusted Sons, tasked with administering the Earth according to his rule, had failed in their duty to us. This fact weighed heavily on Jesus’ human heart, and it challenged him to use his creator prerogatives to ease the people’s pain. But Jesus knew he couldn’t build a lasting spiritual movement on miracles, and since the incident at Cana with the wine, none of those types of events had again happened. Still, the suffering he saw got to him.
Then, someone out in the crowded mass of people yelled out, “Master, speak the word, restore our health, heal our diseases, and save our souls.”
The instant those words were spoken, the universe mobilized: the huge army of seraphim, midwayers, life carriers, and physical controllers that were always at hand for Jesus’s command, prepared to meet their Creators wish, whatever that would be. But this event was one of those times when Jesus’ divine wisdom was so tangled up with his human compassion, that he sought refuge by appealing to his Father’s will.
So, when Peter pleaded with Jesus to help the people, Jesus looked out over the crowd and said, “I’ve come into the world to reveal the Father in heaven and to establish his kingdom. This has been the reason for my life up until now. So, if it’s in our Father’s will, and if it doesn’t diminish my dedication to proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, I would like to see my children healed, and…”
But that was as far as Jesus got, or maybe just all that anyone heard, because the crowd immediately went wild and his words were drowned out in all of the commotion.
What happened was that Jesus was in a bind between his decision not to use miracles to win over the people, the compassionate side of his nature that wanted to ease all of the suffering that he saw in front of him, and his knowledge that it was his crew who screwed up in the first place when they were on Earth, and they were responsible for many of the later problems we have. So, Jesus left the decision up to his Father in heaven, and evidently, God had no problem with the people being healed.
As soon as Jesus indicated his desires, and God the Father let on that he had no objection to them, that vast host of celestial beings upstairs descended down into the motley crew of sick people around Zebedee’s home, and in an instant 683 men, women, and children were completely healed of anything problems they had.
Such a scene had never been witnessed on Earth before that day, nor has it been since. And for those who witnessed this wave of divine healing, mortal and celestial, it was indeed a thrilling experience.
But Jesus was more surprised by what happened that evening than any of the rest of the celestial host gathered around. Jesus had been so focused on the suffering in front of him, that he forgot the warnings of his Personalized Adjuster before coming to Earth who had told him that sometimes it was impossible to limit the time-element of a Creator’s prerogative.
To explain: Jesus had wanted to see his people healed if it wasn’t against his Father’s will. His Personalized Adjuster – who is in essence God the Ultimate in his mind – immediately decreed it wasn’t against his Father’s will, and since Jesus had expressed it as his will earlier, that desire – that creative act – was.
In other words, what a Creator Son wants, and what his Father wills, IS. There’s no process, no time involved. Once something is desired and willed, it is. Never again while Jesus was with us did a mass healing of people take place.
News of Jesus healing the people at Zebedee’s house spread throughout all of Galilee, Judea, and into the lands beyond. The people’s excitement once again got Herod’s attention, so, he sent out spies to report on Jesus’s work and teachings. Herod wanted to know if Jesus was the guy who used to be the carpenter out of Nazareth, or if maybe he was John the Baptist risen from the dead.
These events shifted the focus of Jesus’s time with us, and from then on, he became as much a physician as a preacher. While his apostles did the public teaching and baptizing, Jesus spent most of his time in personal work caring for the sick and distressed.
But in the end, this supernatural mass healing of people did nothing to advance the kingdom of heaven. A few of the people who were healed did benefit spiritually from the experience, but for most of the people it was nothing more than a passing boost in their faith.
As we’ve been told, miracles were not a part of Jesus’s plan for implementing the kingdom of God on Earth. And when they did happen, it was more a result of having a Creator Son with unlimited power being so close to so many opportunities for him to show divine mercy and human sympathy. The publicity and notoriety that Jesus got from these miraculous events did, though, cause him many problems.
The Evening After
All night long after this great outburst of healing, the people were ecstatic with joy and overran Zebedee’s home looking for Jesus.
For the apostles, this was probably the best of the best days they had with their Master. Not before nor after did their hopes ever peak to such heights. Jesus had just told them in Samaria that it was time to announce the kingdom with power, and now they had seen that power with their own eyes. Any lingering doubts about Jesus’ divinity were wiped out.
Jesus, though, was bothered by what had happened, and he took off to be by himself for the evening. When the apostles went looking for Jesus because the people were hanging around waiting to thank him, they couldn’t find him. They were confused as to why Jesus was secluding himself, and if it wasn’t for his absence their experience would have been perfect.
When Jesus did return that night, it was really late and almost all of the people had left. Jesus refused any congratulations for the healing, and just said, “Don’t be happy that my Father is powerful enough to heal the body, but rather that he is mighty enough to save your soul. Go and get some rest, everyone, because tomorrow we have to return to our Father’s business.”
The only ones to sleep much that night were the twins, as usual. The other ten apostles were all perplexed and disappointed. One moment Jesus would do something to cheer their souls, and next minute he’d dash their hopes to pieces.
They had but one thought going through their minds, “I don’t understand him; what’s this all mean?”
Early Sunday Morning
Jesus didn’t sleep much that night either. He was concerned that in this world with so much sickness, that he would get caught up spending most of his time healing people’s physical bodies instead of bringing them into the spiritual kingdom of heaven.
Because his mind was filled with these thoughts, Jesus got up from bed well before dawn and went out in the hills to his favorite spot to pray since there were no private rooms suitable for him to do so in the house. Jesus was asking for greater wisdom and judgement so he wouldn’t let his human sympathy and divine mercy cause him to spend too much time healing the physical and neglecting the spiritual. This isn’t to say he didn’t want to do any physical healing, just that he didn’t want it to distract too much from his primary mission.
Peter couldn’t sleep that night either, and he got up a little bit after Jesus had left. He woke up James and John, and then the three of them went looking for Jesus. They found him an hour or so later when he was praying.
They wanted to know what was going on: especially, why was he so down after healing all of the people, when they and everyone else were so excited about it all?
Jesus spent over four hours trying to explain to his three apostles what had happened at Zebedee’s house, and why a spiritual kingdom can’t be built with miracles and healing the people. He told them that was why he was out there praying for guidance, but again, most of what he taught them that day went over their heads.
Meanwhile, as the morning progressed, crowds of people, some sick and some just curious,
showed up and gathered around Zebedee’s house. They all wanted to see Jesus.
The apostles were in a spot and they didn’t know what to do, so, they eventually decided that while Simon Zelotes talked to the mass of people, Andrew and some of the others would go out and find Jesus and bring him back to Zebedee’s house.
When Andrew found Jesus, Peter, James, and John he said, “Master, why’d you leave us alone with the people? Everyone’s looking for you. We’ve never had so many people wanting your teaching. Right now, the house is surrounded with people from near and far because of your miracles. Won’t you come back with us and heal them?”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “Andrew, haven’t I taught you and these others that my mission on Earth is to reveal the Father, and that my message is announcing the kingdom of heaven? How is it, then, that you’d have me turn aside from my work just to gratify the curious and those looking for signs and wonders? We’ve been with these people for months, but have they flocked to us in droves to hear the good news of the kingdom? Why are they all here now? Isn’t it to heal their physical bodies rather than to save their souls? When people are impressed with miracles, they come to us for help with their material difficulties, not for truth and salvation.
“The whole time I’ve been in Capernaum, both in the synagogue and by the seaside, I’ve spread the good news of the kingdom to everyone who had the ears to hear and the hearts to receive the truth. It’s not my Father’s will that I return with you to cater to these curious ones, and busy myself with fixing physical things and not those spiritual. I’ve ordained you to preach the gospel and minister to the sick, but I can’t become engrossed with healing to the exclusion of my teaching. No, Andrew, I’m not going back with you. Go and tell the people to believe in what we’ve taught them, and to rejoice in the liberty of being the sons of God. Then get ready to head out to the other cities of Galilee. They’ve already been prepared for the preaching of the good tidings of the kingdom, and that’s why I came forth from the Father. Go, then, and get everyone ready to leave immediately, and I’ll wait here for you to get back.”
After Jesus had spoken, Andrew and the other apostles, all of them now a bit down and out, made their way back to Zebedee’s house. They sent all of the people home, and quickly got ready for the journey ahead.
And so, on Sunday afternoon, January 18th, A.D. 28, Jesus and the apostles headed out on their first really public and open preaching tour of the cities of Galilee, though for whatever reason, Jesus decided not to visit Nazareth.
A few hours after Jesus and his apostles had left for Rimmon (‘rimän), Jesus’ brothers James and Jude showed up at Zebedee’s house to visit him. About noon of that day Jude had gotten with his brother James, and insisted that they go and see Jesus. But by the time James agreed to go, Jesus and the others had already left.
The apostles weren’t happy about leaving behind all of the excited people in Capernaum. Peter figured that no less than one thousand believers could have been baptized into the kingdom. Jesus listened to them patiently, but he wouldn’t give in and go back. After that tense discussion everyone got quiet for a while, until Thomas had had enough, and said to his crew, “Come on! Let’s go! The Master has spoken. We may not understand all of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but there’s one thing we can be certain of – We’re following a teacher who seeks no glory for himself.”
And then, reluctantly, they went forth to preach the good tidings in the cities of Galilee.
Okay folks, that’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 24.2, Four Eventful Days in Capernaum. Next up is Chapter 25, First Preaching Tour of Galilee.
Bob