(Rough draft)
By March 10th, all of the various groups had arrived at Bethsaida. On Thursday and Friday night a lot of them went out fishing, and then on Saturday they all went to the sabbath services at the synagogue. There, they heard an old Jew from Damascus talk about the glory of the father Abraham. Jesus spent most of the day alone in the hills. Later that night, he spent over an hour talking about the mission of adversity, and the spiritual value of disappointment. This was a memorable evening, and the people never forgot his lessons.
Jesus was still a bit down about what happened in Nazareth. The apostles could sense a line of sadness mixed in with his normally cheerful attitude. Peter was busy directing the new corps of evangelists, so James and John spent much of their time with Jesus. The women spent most of this period, where everyone was more or less waiting around to go to the Passover in Jerusalem, going from house to house in Capernaum and the surrounding villages to teach the gospel and minister to the sick.
The Parable of the Sower
That Saturday evening, Jesus and the apostles talked long into the night, so few of them were up the next morning for breakfast. Jesus decided to wander down to the shore where they kept Peter and Andrew’s old fishing boat for him to use, to sit and think by himself about his next move in building the kingdom. One of Jesus’ decisions was to start using parables to teach the people.
Jesus didn’t have peace for long. The word spread that he was down on the shore, and by ten o’clock that morning almost one thousand people were bunched up on the beach hollering for his attention. About this time, Peter showed up and managed to make his way to Jesus in the boat, where he asked Jesus if he wanted him to talk to the people. Jesus said, “No, Peter, I will tell them a story.”
Peter and Andrew’s boat had an elevated seat, and it was the custom back then for teachers to sit while talking with the people. So after taking his seat, and Peter had spoken a few words to the crowd on the shore, Jesus began telling them the parable of the sower, one of the first of many that he was to teach the people. Jesus said, “A man went forth to plant his seeds for the coming harvest, and as he sowed his seed some of it fell on the path to be crushed underfoot and eaten by the birds of heaven. Other seeds fell in the rocks where there was only a little dirt, and they immediately sprung up because there was no depth to the soil, but as soon as the sun shone, they withered because they had no roots to get moisture. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and as the thorns grew up the seedling were choked so that they yielded no grain. Still other seeds fell on good ground and, when ripe yielded, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold.” When Jesus had finished telling the people this parable, he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The apostles and those who were with them were puzzled when they heard Jesus teach like this, and they spent some time talking it over between themselves. Then, later in evening when they were all in Zebedee’s garden, Matthew asked Jesus, “What is the meaning of these dark things that you’re telling the people? Why are you talking in parables to people who are looking for the truth?”
And Jesus said, “I’ve been patient teaching all of you up until now. You are all supposed to know the secrets of the kingdom. But from now on, in order to teach the crowds of people lacking your spiritual insight, and because among those crowds there are those who seek our destruction, we will present the kingdom’s mysteries in parables. This way, those who really want to join the kingdom will figure out the meaning of the parable and find salvation, while those trying to hurt us will be even more confused because they are trying to see without seeing and hear without hearing.
My children, do you see the law of the spirit that says ‘to him who has will be given, so that he will have abundance; but from him who has not will be taken away, even what he has.
So from now on, I’ll use many parables to teach the people so that our friends and others looking for the truth can find it, and our enemies and those who don’t love the truth will hear me without understanding the lesson. Most of those people will not follow the truth. The prophet was correct describing these unseeing souls when he said, ‘For these people’s hearts have hardened, and their ears have dulled, and their eyes have closed so that they can’t see the truth or understand it in their hearts.”’
The apostles did not understand the whole meaning of the Jesus’ words. As Andrew and Thomas continued talking with Jesus, Peter and the other apostles went to another area in the garden and had a long discussion about that teaching.
Interpretation of the Parable
Peter and group with him decided that the parable was an allegory, a story meant to reveal hidden meanings, usually moral or political. In other words, they believed that every part of the parable had some secret meaning, so they went to ask Jesus for an explanation. Peter said, “Master, we are not able to get to the meaning of this parable, and since you said we are supposed to know the mysteries of the kingdom, we would like you to explain it to us.”
When Jesus heard this, he said, “My son, I do not want to keep anything from you, but first, tell me what you guys have been talking about. What is your interpretation of the parable?”
Peter was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “Okay, I think that the sower planting the seeds is the preacher teaching the gospel, and the seeds are the word of God. The seeds that fell on the path to be stepped on are those people who do not understand the gospel teaching. The birds that ate the seeds are Satan, who steals what has been planted in those unknowing people. The seeds that sprung up in the rocks, and then quickly withered away, represent superficial people who don’t think too much: people who are excited when they hear the good news of the kingdom but stumble at trouble and fall away at temptation because they have no real understanding of the God’s word. The seeds that fell in the thorny weeds are people who want to hear the message of the kingdom, but who allow worldly problems and the illusions of wealth to choke off the word of truth and not allow it to bear fruit. But the seeds that fell on fertile ground, and that went on to bear thirty, sixty, and on occasion a hundred times their weight when harvested, represent the people who have heard the truth, and then because they all have different levels of intelligence, respond to it with various degrees of spiritual understanding.
Jesus listened to Peter’s explanation, then asked the other apostles if they had anything to add. Only Nathaniel piped up, and he said, “Master, while I see a lot that I think is right in Simon Peter’s explanation, I’m not in full agreement with all of it. For me, the seed is the gospel of the kingdom, and the sower, those planting the seeds, are the messengers of the kingdom. The seed that fell underfoot on the hardened path stand for the people who have not heard much of the gospel of the kingdom, those who don’t care about it, and those who have turned their hearts against it. The birds that snatch away the seeds that fall on the path are a person’s bad habits, evil temptations, and human sexual desires. The seed that fell in the rocks are those unstable emotional types of people who lacking spiritual perception are quick to believe, and equally quick to give up, as soon as the going gets rough. The seed that fell in the thorns are those people who see the truth in the gospel and sense that they should follow it, but who have allowed envy, pride, jealousy, and fear to stop them. And the seed that fell on good soil and that brought forth a harvest thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold represents the various degrees of ability and spiritual perception among the believers in the gospel of the kingdom.
When Nathaniel was done speaking, everyone else started taking sides and debating who was right, Peter or Nathaniel, while those two went into the house and continued their argument.
Jesus let this go on until everyone had vented their ideas, and then he clapped his hands to get their attention, and brought them all together around him. He said, “Before I begin, does anyone have anything to say?”
After a moment, Thomas said, “Yes, Master, I want to say a few words. I remember that you once warned us about doing this very thing. You told us that when using illustrations for our preaching, we should use true stories, not fables. And that we should use the story that best demonstrates the one central truth that we want to get across to the people. But once we’ve made that main idea clear, we are not supposed to then try and turn every little detail of the story into some kind of a spiritual teaching. So, I think both Peter and Nathanial are wrong. I admire their efforts, but I’m just as sure that any attempt to turn every part of a parable about nature into some kind of spiritual message will only confuse people and stop them from getting the main point of the parable. And I’m right. Look at what has happened to us. We were all in agreement an hour ago, but now were not only divided in what we all think, but we are all so convinced that we are right that I think it has clouded everyone’s ability to understand the true meaning of the parable that you had in mind when you told it to the people and asked us to comment on it.”
Thomas’ words hit home, and they all shut-up as they remembered what Jesus had taught them. Before Jesus started speaking again, Andrew stood up and said, “I think Thomas is right, and I would like him to tell us what he thinks the parable means.” Jesus motioned for Thomas to do so, and then Thomas said, “I do not want to hold us up, but since you ask, I think that this parable has one great truth, which is no matter how hard we try to teach people the gospel there are going to be those people who get it, and those who do not. This is just the result of the world we live in, and there is little if anything that we can do about it.
When Tomas was done, most of the crew agreed with him, and Peter and Nathaniel were actually on their way over to talk to him when Jesus stood up and said, “Good job, Thomas. You are correct about the true purpose of parables. But Peter and Nathaniel have also done you all just as much good by so thoroughly showing you the dangers of trying to make an allegory, a story where every little detail has a meaning, out of my parables. In your own thoughts you might sometimes learn from letting your imagination run off on different angles of the parable, but it is a mistake to put those thoughts into your public teaching.”
Now that everyone had calmed down, Peter and Nathaniel congratulated each other on their interpretations, and except for the Alpheus twins, all of the other apostles made their attempt to interpret the parable of the sower before they went to bed. Even Judas Iscariot offered a very plausible interpretation.
The twelve would, among themselves, often try to figure out the Master’s parables like they would a story with lots of meanings, but they never again took those fantasies seriously. This was an important lesson for the apostles and the others, especially since from this time on Jesus used more and more parables in his public teaching.
More About Parables
Now, all that the apostles could think about were parables. So, the next evening they continued their discussion. Jesus started the meeting and said, “My beloved, you must always adjust your teachings to suit the minds and hearts before you. When you stand before a bunch of people with various intellects and temperaments, you cannot say different words to each of them. But, you can tell a story to get your teaching across, and each person will then make their own interpretation based on their spiritual perception. Let your light shine, but do so with wisdom and discretion. No man, when he lights a lamp, covers it up with a jar or puts it under the bed. No, he puts his lamp on a night stand so everyone can see the light. I tell you that nothing is hid in the kingdom of heaven that will not be made manifest; neither are there any secrets that will not ultimately be made known. Eventually, all these things will come to light. Do not think only of the masses of people and how they hear the truth; also, be sure of how you hear it. Remember that I have told you many times, To him who has shall be given more, while from him who has not will be taken away even what he thinks he has.”
The following is a summary of that night’s discussion where Jesus taught the apostles how to interpret parables and the reasons why he was going to use them more in his public teaching.
1. Jesus advised against using either fables or allegories to teach the truths of the gospel. He recommended the free use of parables, especially parables that had to do with nature. He emphasized the value of using the analogy, in other words the similarity, existing between the natural and the spiritual worlds as a means to teach truth. He often suggested that the natural world was the “the unreal and fleeting shadow of spirit realities.”
2. Jesus recited three or four parables from the Hebrew scriptures, pointing out that this way of teaching was not new. However, Jesus changed the way parables were used from this time onward.
3. When teaching the apostles about the value of parables, Jesus called attention to the following points:
- A parable appeals to many different levels of mind and spirit. The parable stimulates the imagination, forces discrimination, and provokes critical thinking; it promotes sympathy without arousing antagonism.
- The parable goes from the things that are known, to the seeing of those things unknown. The parable uses the natural and material as a means of introducing the spiritual and the super-material.
- Parables promote impartial moral decisions. The parable works without prejudice, and gracefully puts new truth in someone’s mind with a minimum of resentment.
- To reject the truth in a parable takes conscious action that is disrespectful of the person’s honesty, fairness, and judgment. Hearing the parable forces one to think.
- Using parables lets the teacher present new and even startling truths, while at the same time avoiding controversy and clashing with established authority.
- When similar situations happen later in life, the parable helps the person to remember the truth they once learned.
Close to the end of the evening’s lesson, Jesus made his first comment on the parable of the sower. He said it referred to two things: First, it reviewed his own ministry up to that time, and it forecasted what lay ahead of him for the remainder of his life on Earth. And second, it hinted as to what the apostles and other messengers of the kingdom might expect in their ministry from generation to generation as time passed.
Jesus also used parables as the best way to counter the Jewish religious leaders when they would say that his work was done with the help of demons and the prince of devils. By appealing to nature, Jesus was rejecting that type of teaching because back then all-natural occurrences were thought to be the direct product of spiritual and supernatural forces. He also used parables because he could both get truth to those looking for it, while at the same time avoid giving his enemies too many excuses to accuse him of something.
Before ending the meeting, Jesus said, “Now I will tell you the last part of the parable of the sower. I am testing you to see how you receive this, The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon the Earth; and while he slept at night and went about his business by day, the seed sprang up and grew, and although he didn’t know how it happened, the plant came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth his sickle, and the harvest was finished. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.”
Many times the apostles turned this saying over in their minds, but Jesus never again commented on this addition to the parable of the sower.
More Parables by the Sea
The next day, Jesus was again in the boat teaching the people. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who planted good seed in his field; but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then ran away. And so when the young blades sprung up and later were about to bring forth fruit, there appeared also the weeds. Then this man’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, did you plant good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?’ And he replied to his servants, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants then asked their master, ‘Do you want us go out and pluck up these weeds?’ And he said, ‘No, incase while you are gathering up the weeds, you also uproot the wheat. Instead, let them both grow together until the harvest, when I will tell the reapers, Gather up first the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn, and then gather up the wheat to be stored in my barn.’”
After the people had asked a few questions, Jesus told them another parable. He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man planted in his field. Now a mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, but when it is full grown, it becomes the greatest of all herbs and is like a tree so that the birds of heaven are able to come and rest in its branches.”
“The kingdom of heaven is also like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, and in this way all of the flour was leavened.”
“The kingdom of heaven is also like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man discovered. In his joy he went out and sold all he had so that he might have the money to buy the field.”
“The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant seeking scarce pearls; and having found one pearl of great price, he went out and sold everything he had so that he could buy the extraordinary pearl.”
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, and it gathered up every kind of fish. Then when the net was filled, the fishermen drew it up on the beach where they sat down and sorted out the fish, gathering the good into vessels while the bad they threw away.”
Jesus told the crowd many more parables. From this time forward, he seldom taught the people by any other means. Then, afterwards in the evening classes, he’d explain his teachings in more depth to the apostles and evangelists.
The Visit to Kheresa
The crowds of people grew throughout the week. On Saturday Jesus took off into the hills, but on Sunday the people were back. Peter preached to them in the morning, and then Jesus spoke to them in the early afternoon. Afterwards, Jesus said to the apostles, “I am tired of the throngs of people; let us cross over to the other side of the lake so we can rest for a day.”
The Sea of Galilee is almost seven hundred feet below sea level and surrounded by high banks, especially the western portion. Steep gorges carve their way down to the sea. During the day, the hot air rises into a pocket over the lake, and then after sundown the air quickly cools and rushes down these ravines to create sudden and violent gales that come on quickly and leave just as suddenly, especially during this time of year.
As Jesus and the apostles made their way across the lake in their boat, with three other boats carrying the younger evangelists following him, they were hit by one of these sudden gales. The storm was strong, even though it was confined to this part of the lake: there was no sign of the tempest on the western shore. A strong gust of wind had torn away the sail before the apostles could haul it down, and the wind was so strong that the waves started to wash over the boat. The shore was a bit more than a mile and a half away, and the apostles were hard at the oars trying to make way and stay afloat.
While all of this was going on, Jesus was sound asleep under a small overhead shelter back in the stern of the boat. He had been really tired when they left Bethsaida, and the reason for going across the lake in the first place was to get some rest. The apostles were strong and experienced fishermen used to oaring in rough water, but this gale was one of the worst they had ever encountered. The wind and the waves were tossing the boat about like it was a toy ship in the water, and the whole time Jesus slept on unaware of what was happening.
Peter was on the starboard, or right side, oar at the stern. When the boat started to fill up with water, he let go of his oar, rushed over to Jesus, and shook him really hard to get him to wake up. Once Jesus came to, Peter said, “Master, don’t you know we are in a violent storm? If you do not save us, we will all die.”
Jesus went out on deck and into the rain. First he looked at Peter, then he peered through the darkness to see the other apostles struggling at their oars. Simon Peter was scared and still had not returned to his oar. Turning back to him, Jesus said, “Why are all of you so filled with fear? Where is your faith? Peace, be quiet.”
Almost immediately after Jesus had scolded Peter and the other apostles by telling them to seek peace in their souls, the storm quit. The atmosphere had reached equilibrium, and a great calm came across the lake. All at once the waves left, and the clouds, now empty of water, vanished allowing the stars to shine through.
As far as we can tell, this was all a coincidence. But the apostles, especially Simon Peter, never quit believing that this episode was a miracle that Jesus performed on nature. This was easy for them to believe, because back in that day everyone was sure that everything in nature was directly controlled by spirits and other supernatural beings.
Jesus was very clear when he explained to the apostles that he had been speaking to them, to their fear-full minds and troubled spirits, when he had told them to find peace and be quiet, and that he had not commanded the elements to obey his words. But it didn’t matter. Everyone who followed Jesus persisted in putting their own interpretations on these kinds of events. From this day on, they insisted that Jesus had absolute power over all of nature. Peter never grew tired of saying how, “even the winds and the waves obey him.”
It was late when Jesus and the others reached the shore, and since it was now a calm and beautiful night they slept in the boats, not going ashore until a little after sunrise. The next morning when they were all gathered together, there was about forty of them in all, Jesus said that they were going to go into the hills to hang-out for a few days while they pondered the problems in the Father’s kingdom.”
The Kheresa Lunatic
At this spot on the lake, or the Sea of Galilee, the shoreline was steep, sometimes dropping straight off into the water below. Jesus had pointed to a spot-on a near-by hill when he said, “Let us go up on that hillside under some of the shelters for our breakfast, and to rest and talk.”
This entire hillside was covered with small caves, or holes, that had been carved into the rock. Many of these cavities were ancient sepulchers, small enclosures for placing dead people instead of burying them in the ground. About halfway up the hillside on a small, somewhat level spot, was the cemetery for the little village of Kheresa.
As Jesus and the others passed close to this burial ground, a lunatic who lived in the hillside caves rushed up to them. This demented man was well known about these parts, at one time having been bound with shackles and chains and confined in one of the grottoes. But he had broken his shackles a long time ago, and now he roamed at will among the caves and tombs.
This man’s name was Amos, and he had mental problems that would come and go. There were long periods when he would put on some cloths and behave okay around people.
During one of these times when he was well, he had gone over to Bethsaida where he heard Jesus and the apostles preaching. At that time, he had become a halfhearted believer in the gospel of the kingdom. But soon after, his mental illness reappeared, and he fled back to the cemetery where he moaned, cried out aloud, and terrorized everyone who happened to run into him.
When Amos recognized Jesus, he threw himself down at his feet and said, “I know you, Jesus, but I am possessed of many devils, and I beg that you will not torment me.”
This man truly believed that his periodic mental illness was due to evil, or unclean, spirits entering him and dominating his mind and body. But his troubles were mostly emotional, he wasn’t really sick.
Jesus, looking at the man crouching like an animal at his feet, reached down and taking him by the hand stood him up and said, “Amos, you are not possessed by a devil; you have already heard the good news that you are a son of God. I command you to come out of this spell.”
And when Amos heard Jesus, there was such a mental shift that he was immediately restored to his right mind and the normal control of his emotions. By this time a good-sized crowd had gathered around from the village near-by, and these people, plus the swine herders from the highlands above them, were astonished to see the lunatic sitting with Jesus and the others in his right mind and freely talking with them.
At this point, the swine herders rushed into the village to spread the news of the taming of the lunatic. When they did this, the dogs in the area charged on a small untended herd of about thirty pigs, and ran most of them over a cliff into the sea. And it was this occurrence that happened just by chance, along with Jesus being there and the supposed miracle of curing the lunatic, that started the legend that Jesus had cured Amos by casting a legion of devils out of him and into a herd of swine, and then causing them to rush headlong to their destruction in the sea below.
Before the day was over, the pig farmers had spread the story far and wide, and the whole village believed it. Amos definitely believed this story. He saw the pigs tumbling over the cliff right after his mind had quieted down, and he always believed that those pigs took with them the same evil spirits that had tormented him for so long. And this belief had a lot to do with his cure being permanent. It is just as true that all of Jesus’ apostles (except for Thomas) believed that the event with the pigs was directly connected to curing Amos.
Jesus did not get the rest for which he was looking. Most of that day he was thronged by those people who came after they heard that Amos had been cured, and who were attracted by the story that the demons had gone out of the lunatic and into the herd of swine. And then, after only one night’s rest, on early Tuesday morning Jesus and his friends were woken up by a delegation from the gentiles who owned the pigs. They had come to urge Jesus and the others to get out of the area. Their leader said to Peter and Andrew, “Fishermen of Galilee, leave us and take your prophet with you. We know he is a holy man, but the gods of our country do not know him, and we risk losing many swine. We fear you, and we pray that you leave at once.”
And when Jesus heard them, he told Andrew, “Let us return to our place.”
As they were about to leave, Amos begged Jesus to let him go back with the group, but Jesus would not agree, and instead said to Amos, “Do not forget that you are a son of God. Return to your own people and show them the great things that God has done for you.”
And Amos went about telling everyone that Jesus had cast a legion of devils out of his troubled soul, put them into a herd of pigs, and quickly drove them to their own destruction.
And Amos did not stop declaring the great things Jesus had done for him until he had gone into all the cities of the Decapolis.
Bob