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AFTER
BREAKFAST we tried to check our
email in the hotel, but the lady
in charge kept rushing in and
giving us the evil eye so we
didn’t spend much time there.
On
this day we planned to do the
eastern side of the lake, first
stopping at Kheresa, the village
where James and Judas Alpheus
came from and where the Kheresa
lunatic episode took place.
JESUS
IN KHERESA
Although most of the near-by
eastern shore of the lake sloped
up gently to the highlands
beyond, at this particular spot
there was a steep hillside, the
shore in some places dropping
sheer down into the lake.
Pointing up to the side of the
near-by hill, Jesus said: “Let
us go up on this hillside for
our breakfast and under some of
the shelters rest and talk.”
This entire
hillside was covered with
caverns which had been hewn out
of the rock. Many of these
niches were ancient sepulchres.
About halfway
up the hillside on a small,
relatively level spot was the
cemetery of the little village
of Kheresa. As Jesus and his
associates passed near this
burial ground, a lunatic who
lived in these hillside caverns
rushed up to them. This demented
man was well known about these
parts, having onetime been bound
with fetters and chains and
confined in one of the grottos.
Long since he had broken his
shackles and now roamed at will
among the tombs and abandoned
sepulchres.
This man,
whose name was Amos, was
afflicted with a periodic form
of insanity. There were
considerable spells when he
would find some clothing and
deport himself fairly well among
his fellows. During one of these
lucid intervals he had gone over
to Bethsaida, where he heard the
preaching of Jesus and the
apostles, and at that time had
become a halfhearted believer in
the gospel of the kingdom. But
soon a stormy phase of his
trouble appeared, and he fled to
the tombs, where he moaned,
cried out aloud, and so
conducted himself as to
terrorize all who chanced to
meet him.
When Amos
recognized Jesus, he fell down
at his feet and exclaimed: “I
know you, Jesus, but I am
possessed of many devils, and I
beseech that you will not
torment me.” This man truly
believed that his periodic
mental affliction was due to the
fact that, at such times, evil
or unclean spirits entered into
him and dominated his mind and
body. His troubles were mostly
emotional—his brain was not
grossly diseased.
Jesus,
looking down upon the man
crouching like an animal at his
feet, reached down and, taking
him by the hand, stood him up
and said to him: “Amos, you are
not possessed of 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 speak these words, there
occurred such a transformation
in his intellect that he was
immediately restored to his
right mind and the normal
control of his emotions. By this
time a considerable crowd had
assembled from the near-by
village, and these people,
augmented by the swine herders
from the highland above them,
were astonished to see the
lunatic sitting with Jesus and
his followers, in possession of
his right mind and freely
conversing with them.
As the swine
herders rushed into the village
to spread the news of the taming
of the lunatic, the dogs charged
upon a small and untended herd
of about thirty swine and drove
most of them over a precipice
into the sea. And it was this
incidental occurrence, in
connection with the presence of
Jesus and the supposed
miraculous curing of the
lunatic, that gave origin to the
legend that Jesus had cured Amos
by casting a legion of devils
out of him, and that these
devils had entered into the herd
of swine, causing them forthwith
to rush headlong to their
destruction in the sea below.
[1695-1696]
There
was little left of the town
itself, but we found the cliffs
with sepulchers carved into the
stone exactly as described in
the Urantia Book. We figured
that the sea must have come up
closer in those days. Seeing
these sights and walking around
in them gave us a better
perspective of the distances
between the places where Jesus
lived and worked.
* * *
In the
same vicinity, between Kheresa
and Bethsaida-Julius, we found a
park where we are convinced
Jesus fed the five thousand.
Some accounts say it was in
Tabgha, but the Urantia Book as
well as our Bible map showed it
to be here.
FEEDING THE
FIVE THOUSAND
The Master had so little rest
over the Sabbath that on Sunday
morning, March 27, he sought to
get away from the people. Some
of the evangelists were left to
talk to the multitude while
Jesus and the twelve planned to
escape, unnoticed, to the
opposite shore of the lake,
where they proposed to obtain
much needed rest in a beautiful
park south of Bethsaida-Julias.
This region was a favorite
resorting place for Capernaum
folks; they were all familiar
with these parks on the eastern
shore.
But the
people would not have it so.
They saw the direction taken by
Jesus' boat, and hiring every
craft available, they started
out in pursuit. Those who could
not obtain boats fared forth on
foot to walk around the upper
end of the lake. . . . By
Wednesday noon about five
thousand men, women, and
children were assembled here in
this park to the south of
Bethsaida-Julias. The weather
was pleasant, it being near the
end of the rainy season in this
locality.
. . . It was
being quietly whispered about
that Jesus, desiring to avoid
trouble with both Herod and the
Jerusalem leaders, had chosen
this quiet spot outside the
jurisdiction of all his enemies
as the proper place to be
crowned king. The enthusiasm of
the people was rising every
hour. . . .
This was the
stage setting about five o'clock
on Wednesday afternoon, when
Jesus asked James Alpheus to
summon Andrew and Philip. Said
Jesus: “What shall we do with
the multitude? They have been
with us now three days, and many
of them are hungry. They have no
food.” Philip and Andrew
exchanged glances, and then
Philip answered: “Master, you
should send these people away so
that they may go to the villages
around about and buy themselves
food.” . . .
[Jesus said],
“I do not want to send these
people away. Here they are, like
sheep without a shepherd. I
would like to feed them. What
food have we with us?” . . .
[Andrew replied], “. . . only
five barley loaves and two dried
fishes.”. . .
Jesus turned
suddenly to Andrew and said,
“Bring me the loaves and
fishes.” And when Andrew had
brought the basket to Jesus, the
Master said: “Direct the people
to sit down on the grass in
companies of one hundred and
appoint a leader over each group
while you bring all of the
evangelists here with us.”
Jesus took up
the loaves in his hands, and
after he had given thanks, he
broke the bread and gave to his
apostles, who passed it on to
their associates, who in turn
carried it to the multitude.
Jesus in like manner broke and
distributed the fishes. And this
multitude did eat and were
filled. And when they had
finished eating, Jesus said to
the disciples: “Gather up the
broken pieces that remain over
so that nothing will be lost.”
And when they had finished
gathering up the fragments, they
had twelve basketfuls. They who
ate of this extraordinary feast
numbered about five thousand
men, women, and children.
And this is
the first and only nature
miracle which Jesus performed as
a result of his conscious
preplanning. It is true that his
disciples were disposed to call
many things miracles which were
not, but this was a genuine
supernatural ministration. In
this case, so we were taught,
Michael multiplied food elements
as he always does except for the
elimination of the time factor
and the visible life channel.
[1701-1702]
Joy
had hoped to find the “huge
stone” the UB describes Jesus as
standing upon when addressing
the multitudes, but she was
disappointed to discover that
there were many large rocks in
this park!
This mighty
shout of the multitude had
hardly ceased to reverberate
from the near-by rocks when
Jesus stepped upon a huge stone
and, lifting up his right hand
to command their attention,
said: "My children, you mean
well, but you are short-sighted
and material-minded." There was
a brief pause; this stalwart
Galilean was there majestically
posed in the enchanting glow of
that eastern twilight. Every
inch he looked a king as he
continued to speak to this
breathless multitude: "You would
make me king, not because your
souls have been lighted with a
great truth, but because your
stomachs have been filled with
bread. How many times have I
told you that my kingdom is not
of this world?” [1702]
* * *
From
there we drove down to the
famous archaeological site of
Beth-Shean, the city known as
Scythopolis in Jesus’s day and
where, at age eleven, he
together with his father Joseph
had visited the amphitheater:
JESUS AND
JOSEPH IN SCYTHOPOLIS
About the middle of May [A.D. 5]
the lad accompanied his father
on a business trip to
Scythopolis, the chief Greek
city of the Decapolis, the
ancient Hebrew city of
Beth-shean. On the way Joseph
recounted much of the olden
history of King Saul, the
Philistines, and the subsequent
events of Israel's turbulent
history. Jesus was tremendously
impressed with the clean
appearance and well-ordered
arrangement of this so-called
heathen city. He marveled at the
open-air theater and admired the
beautiful marble temple
dedicated to the worship of the
“heathen” gods. Joseph was much
perturbed by the lad's
enthusiasm and sought to
counteract these favorable
impressions by extolling the
beauty and grandeur of the
Jewish temple at Jerusalem.
Jesus had often gazed curiously
upon this magnificent Greek city
from the hill of Nazareth and
had many times inquired about
its extensive public works and
ornate buildings, but his father
had always sought to avoid
answering these questions. Now
they were face to face with the
beauties of this gentile city,
and Joseph could not gracefully
ignore Jesus' inquiries.
It so
happened that just at this time
the annual competitive games and
public demonstrations of
physical prowess between the
Greek cities of the Decapolis
were in progress at the
Scythopolis amphitheater, and
Jesus was insistent that his
father take him to see the
games, and he was so insistent
that Joseph hesitated to deny
him. The boy was thrilled with
the games and entered most
heartily into the spirit of the
demonstrations of physical
development and athletic skill.
Joseph was inexpressibly shocked
to observe his son's enthusiasm
as he beheld these exhibitions
of “heathen” vaingloriousness.
After the games were finished,
Joseph received the surprise of
his life when he heard Jesus
express his approval of them and
suggest that it would be good
for the young men of Nazareth if
they could be thus benefited by
wholesome outdoor physical
activities. Joseph talked
earnestly and long with Jesus
concerning the evil nature of
such practices, but he well knew
that the lad was unconvinced.
The only time
Jesus ever saw his father angry
with him was that night in their
room at the inn when, in the
course of their discussions, the
boy so far forgot the trends of
Jewish thought as to suggest
that they go back home and work
for the building of an
amphitheater at Nazareth. When
Joseph heard his first-born son
express such un-Jewish
sentiments, he forgot his usual
calm demeanor and, seizing Jesus
by the shoulder, angrily
exclaimed, “My son, never again
let me hear you give utterance
to such an evil thought as long
as you live.” Jesus was startled
by his father's display of
emotion; he had never before
been made to feel the personal
sting of his father's
indignation and was astonished
and shocked beyond expression.
He only replied, “Very well, my
father, it shall be so.” And
never again did the boy even in
the slightest manner allude to
the games and other athletic
activities of the Greeks as long
as his father lived. [1370-1371]
THE JOURNEY
TO JERUSALEM WITH MARY AND
JOSEPH
As they rounded the base of
Gilboa, the pilgrims could see
the Greek city of Scythopolis on
the right. They gazed upon the
marble structures from a
distance but went not near the
gentile city lest they so defile
themselves that they could not
participate in the forthcoming
solemn and sacred ceremonies of
the Passover at Jerusalem. Mary
could not understand why neither
Joseph nor Jesus would speak of
Scythopolis. She did not know
about their controversy of the
previous year as they had never
revealed this episode to her.
[1374]
The acoustics were excellent in
the amphitheater. Joy was
helping a little old lady
maneuver the rocky path, and
although I was quite a distance
away I could hear every word
they were saying to each other.
The rest of the ruins were
magnificent but we were
beginning to get jaded, to
believe we had seen enough of
them for now.
Here we encountered a very loud
born-again Southern Baptist
group, in some ways acting like
big, wide-eyed, overgrown American kids.
“Did you pray?” one of them
eagerly asked a non-Baptist
coming down from a steep climb
off a nearby archaeological
mound. “I was just trying to
breathe!” gasped the non-Baptist
in response.
* * *
On the way back we stopped in at
a travel agent in Tiberias to
inquire once more about the boat
to Greece via the island of
Rhodes leaving every Thursday.
After much confusion we gave up
on the boat and bought a plane
ticket to Athens for the next
Sunday, leaving from Tel Aviv.
We would not be taking the
much-looked-forward-to boat
after all. Our new plan was to
spend a few days on a Greek
island after returning to Athens
before heading back to the
States on Thursday.
Feeling a cold coming on, I went
to bed early and bundled up for
fear that it might worsen.
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