#49 John Sends Disciples to Jesus

#49 John Sends Disciples to Jesus

Please first read: Matthew 11:2-30; Luke 7:18-35

Jesus continues his ministry in Galilee. He has drawn crowds of people but there has been opposition … many people refuse to repent and believe. He has just left Nain and word of his raising the dead son of the widow has gone throughout all Judea and Samaria. It is now summer and John the Baptist (JB) has been in Herod’s prison at Machaerus Castle since last fall. It is possible that news of the events at Nain have already reached John. There is no question in JB’s mind regarding Jesus. He knows Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is now trying to get his faithful disciples to understand they are to leave JB; his mission for God is through. They are now to transfer their allegiance to the one for whom John prepared the way. It is understandable they would be reluctant to leave John, and him in prison as well. Since Jesus in now in the area John may very well wonder if Jesus intends to free him from prison. This action by JB of sending his disciples to Jesus is a final great testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is relying on their seeing and hearing the Master, the Spirit will prompt them to go to this greater light.                                                                                                                                                                                               

Points considered in these scriptures:

·         Getting JB’s followers to now follow Jesus

·         Jesus’ efforts to make this happen … he does not say “yes” to their question

·         Jesus testifies of John the Baptist

·         The people have had two different messengers from God testify of the Messiah who is now here … many have refused both of them

·         Jesus testifies of himself

John’s disciples come and ask Jesus if he is the One, the Messiah, or should they be looking for another. Instead of saying “yes” Jesus makes them think of the marvelous things they have seen, and heard him do, and then sends them back to John who will give testimony and confirmation of Jesus as the Messiah. A new age has dawned … new words and new deeds are appearing.   They are seeing and hearing these events against the many-centuries-taught expectation the Messiah will come with great power and over-throw all Israel’s enemies. (They expect the second coming.)

When they went out to see JB who and what did they expect to see? A reed shaking in the wind … someone fickle, of easy persuasion? Someone clothed in soft raiment … someone weak, unsure? What they did see was a prophet in the style of the Old Testament dispensation … rough, strong, forceful, unbending, fearless. They reject John, they believe he has devil in him.

Now Jesus comes with a sympathetic, loving heart, healing and helping, and they call him a “winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. He offers evidence of being the Messiah and teaches from Old Testament prophecies (Isaiah and others) that the time of salvation has come, but they reject him also.

Luke 7:28: No greater prophet than John the Baptist.

·         He was chosen to prepare the earthly way before the Lord.  A signal honor.

·         He baptized the Savior.

·         He was the only legal administrator with Priesthood keys and powers on earth in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28:  

“he (Jesus) that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he (John.)”

Joseph Smith said: “Jesus was looked upon as having the least claim in God’s kingdom, and (seemingly) was least entitled to their credulity as a prophet; as though he had said, “He that is considered the least among you is greater than John – that is I myself.” (“Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” p.276)

Matthew 11: 16-19; Luke 7:31-35:

“What illustration can I choose to show how petty, peevish, and insincere are you unbelieving Jews? You are like fickle children playing games; when you hold a mock wedding, your playmates refuse to dance; when you change the game to a funeral procession, your playmates refuse to mourn. In like manner you are only playing at religion. As cross and capricious children you reject John because he came with the strictness of the Nazarites, and ye reject me because I display the warm human demeanor that makes for pleasant social intercourse.” (“Doctrinal New Testament Commentary,” volume one, Bruce R. McConkie)     

Matthew 11:20-24:

“Woe,” Judgement of the cities … Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum. Translation of the word “woe” means/reveals judgement not as a curse but more as pity and sorrow than anger.      Capernaum was Jesus’ home city for his work in this Galilee area. It was beautiful, well-populated, on the Sea of Galilee, economically prosperous with fishing, agriculture, and a commercial center. There was a toll station there … caravan routes passed through … and a military post. Jesus did much of his teaching here and in the surrounding cities and areas. This passage is a strong warning as to the unbelief of these cities. In the final wars between Rome and the Jews, Capernaum and the surrounding towns were obliterated; this area was almost totally destroyed. Only the ruins of a later synagogue remain.

Prophet Spencer W. Kimball:

President Kimball loved to walk in the paths of Jesus. He once visited the site of the three cities mentioned herein and shared the following in a Conference talk in April 1961:

“We asked our guide for the cities in which Jesus lived and performed so many miracles, for we remember that in this area of but few miles, much of his work was done, much of his ministry was accomplished. We would like to walk through the triplet cities he so often visited: Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum. We see no spires nor towers, nor walls. We ask our guide:  Where is Chorazin? He shakes his head. There is no Chorazin. We conclude it must have been on those hills where now are sprouting grain and vegetables and dry weeds.

“Then where is Bethsaida? We ask. Where is that noted city where so many sick were healed and the lame were made to walk; where deaf could hear and lepers lost their curse? Where is his favorite place he often lodged, the home of Andrew, Peter, and Philip, his dearest friends?   Where is Bethsaida? the house of fishers, the place of miracles, the seat of gospel teachings, where fishermen became apostles? In these very few miles much of interest happened. Where is Bethsaida? Our guide shakes his head again. There is no Bethsaida.

“Capernaum, then? We ask. Where is that important place, the port where fish were loaded, traded, marketed? He shakes his head again, then smiles as he thinks it through and changes the accent, and, Oh, you mean CaperNAUM. He shows us the ruins of a large synagogue. If this is of the Messianic period … it is the sole survivor. A back wall, great stones tumbled in disarray.   But (this IS) Capernaum, his own city, the great Capernaum, the haughty, wicked rebellious, Capernaum!”

Glenn R. McGettigan

February 2016

References: 

“Doctrinal New Testament Commentary.” Volume 1. McConkie

“Jesus the Christ.” Talmage

“Our Lord of the Gospels.” Clark

“Complete Biblical Library: Matthew and Luke.”

“Communicator’s Commentary: Mathew and Luke.”  

“Companion Study of the New Testament.” Ludlow

#13 Jesus and the Meridian of Time

#13 Jesus and the Meridian of Time

Just as we must deal with, and are affected by the environment into which we are born and live, so it was with the society into which Jesus came. He would have to deal with the existing societal influences, prejudices, cultures, customs and beliefs of that time, from his birth to the completion of the Atonement and his earthly ministry.

The time and locale of Jesus' birth were about as difficult and negative as they could be. Rome was the master of this ancient world. It had become so by brute force and death to any nation that opposed it. Israel was a captive slave to Rome … yearning for and expecting God to come and deliver them from bondage … to free them and restore them to might and power … to vanquish all their enemies.

Their ancestry back to Abraham was a vital part of who they were. For centuries they had believed they were the exclusive chosen people of God, and therefore above all other races.   There was great hatred and animosity between Rome and Israel. This condition would also exist between Jesus and Israel, and between Jesus and Rome. The Jews hated most other people … they were gentiles and unclean. Many of these gentiles in turn despised the Jews.

The Samaritans were gentiles who had intermarried with unworthy Jews and were especially disliked. Orthodox Jews would not even travel through Samaria because they became defiled and unclean by so doing. They would journey the longer way around the land of Samaria.

There was also much animosity within the Jewish nation between Sadducees and Pharisees, various schools of the Jewish law who had opposing views, and between groups known as Herodians, Essenes, Zealots, Nazarites and others.  A “good” Jew did not associate with gentiles, heathens, or unworthy Jews. This exclusiveness brought much ridicule onto them from other nations and peoples.

Jewish people were required to be well acquainted with the nations religious laws, but there was much disagreement within themselves regarding interpretations and the importance of these laws. The various well-known religious schools (Gamaliel, Hillel, Shammai) disagreed on numerous points of doctrine. There was also very little distinction between Jewish civil and ecclesiastical laws. Obviously, this in itself caused great dissention.

The Jews by this time were largely a dispersed people, widely scattered among the nations. They were no match for their captors. For many generations they had lived in servile bondage. The ten tribes were now lost to history. The Jewish population in Palestine when Christ was born was only a small remnant of what had once been a great Davidic nation.

Jesus was raised and grew up in a traditional Jewish home of that time. He was taught their religious ways and requirements, laws, ceremonial observances and sacrifices. Also the history of his people, a trade, and observed and practiced these things along with the other members of his earthly family. Of course, our Heavenly Father prepared him for all that he would be required to do while on this earth.

The ancient prophet Isaiah prophesied: “He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground.” (Isaiah 53:2) In the words of the Apostle Bruce R. McConkie: he “grew up before his Father as a Tender Plant, as a Vine of whose fruit men may eat and never hunger more. He grew up in the arid soil of a spiritually degenerate society … in a Holy City that had become like Egypt and Sodom; among a people who chose darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

So, this somewhat sets the stage upon/within which we may consider our Savior's earthly life, his teachings, restoring the gospel in its fullness, suffering the agonies of the Atonement, and opening the doors of the Resurrection for all of our Father's children. I sincerely believe that a knowledge of such things greatly enhances our understanding and learning from the scriptures.

History

The following is a very brief history of the Jewish people during the 1000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. As mentioned earlier, the Jews were very jealous and proud of their ancestry and previous generations. These things greatly influenced the “who, what, why and how” of the people living when Jesus was on the earth.

With the death of King Solomon about 97 BC there was a revolt within the Twelve Jewish tribes. The tribes of Judah and part of Benjamin followed Solomon's son, Rehoboam, and became the kingdom of Judah. The other Ten tribes followed Jeroboam as king and became the kingdom of Israel. They each enjoyed autonomy for some 250 years.

Israel became captive to Assyria in 720bc and these Ten tribes were carried away into other countries and lost. Judah was overrun by Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian empire) in 588 BC. Babylonia was subdued by Cyrus of Persia about 550 BC. The Hebrew people were allowed to return to Judea/Jerusalem. Only a small number (some 50,000) returned. The rest remained in Babylonia. The Jews were never again an independent people. They were later dominated in turn by Greece, Egypt, Syria, and Rome.

The Jews were led to revolt in 165 BC by a patriotic group of their people called the Maccabees. This resulted in some semi-independence, but they were not strong enough to maintain this status. To gain a measure of national protection the Jewish nation formed an alliance with the Roman empire which had now (around 50 BC) gained dominance and control of this ancient world.

Augustus Caesar was emperor/god when Jesus was born. The Roman government allowed some national autonomy to its captive subject/nations, especially within their religious beliefs and ceremonies, so long as they paid their tribute to Rome and did not interfere with its governance.

 

Glenn R. McGettigan

November 2011; Revised August 2014

References:

“Life of Christ.” Geikie

“Caesar and Christ.” Volume 3. Durant

“Jesus the Christ.” Talmage

“Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.” Volume 1. Edersheim

“The Mortal Messiah.” Book One. McConkie

“The Politics of Jesus.” Hendricks

“The Gospels.” Volume 5. Jackson & Millet

                                              

#12 Jewish Boyhood

Note: This topic has already been addressed in my previous post #12 Childhood and Youth. However, latter-day prophets have provided us modern day revelation on the topic.

                  

#12 Jewish Boyhood

In the scriptures we find very little about our Savior's early years on earth. We get a few words in Luke 2: Matthew 3: and the Inspired Version of Matthew 3, where we learn: Jesus grew strong in spirit, wisdom, stature and grace, and in favor with God and man. He grew up with his brethren. He served under his father. He was found in the temple with the learned doctors and Rabbis, hearing and asking, and amazing them with his understanding and answers.

We are very fortunate in that we know historically a great deal about the society, culture, life and ways of the Jewish nation into which our Savior was born and reared. We know what would go on in a typical family, neighborhood, and community such as his would be. Given this knowledge we can with some assurance get a feeling and picture of what Jesus' early life was probably like.

I believe this greatly enhances our understanding of the factors and forces faced by our Lord during his earthly ministry. It helps us to more clearly see the why, the how, the what, and the way of things that he did and taught.

Apostle Bruce R. McConkie:

“Jewish Family Life in Jesus’ Day” offers a good look at what we could expect the Lord's life to have been during those years.

Note: As with us today, on a scale of one to ten, there were all grades of homes and families. The following standards/events would be what an orthodox Jewish family would try to achieve … at the upper end of the scale. We may assume that Mary and Joseph would be at the upper end.   

In Jesus’ day the Jews had their temple, their synagogues, and their homes, and around them their whole life revolved. Three times each year faithful men appeared before the Lord in his sanctuary, and would not Jesus, who kept his Father's law, have been among them there; to

sacrifice, to recommit themselves to Jehovah and to receive a new remission of their sins?

Many people frequented the sacred courts to teach and be taught and to partake of the spirit of worship that centered in the Holy of Holies.

Every Sabbath and on certain feast days the faithful came to the synagogue to pray, to hear the word of the Lord and to receive the exhortations so important even to the most spiritual of men. But the home was something else ... the home was the place where true worship was taught and practiced. Every Jewish home was to be a house of worship, a house of prayer and a house of God.

And Jesus our Lord was nursed and suckled in a Jewish home; he played within its walls as a child; he was guided by a Jewish mother and a Jewish foster father as he learned the customs and discipline and the way of life of the race of which he was a part. In the real and practical sense it was his first and chief house of worship.

It is true that he worshipped as a youth and in his maturing years in Jewish synagogues; we know that during his ministry he used them as teaching centers, as the sites for miracles, and as the reverent and sacred houses of worship that they in fact were.

But we cannot see our Lord in proper perspective unless we see him in the home of Joseph and Mary; unless we know what he was taught within those private walls. Jesus was the Son of God and dwelt among men with native endowments without equal, but he was also a product, as we all are, of his environment; and his Father chose to place him in the care and custody, during his formative years, of Jewish Joseph and Jewish Mary and their Jewish home with all its Jewish teachings, practices, and ways of worship.

Joseph and Mary lived in modest circumstances. Their home in Nazareth would have been small, without running water and other amenities common in even the poorer homes today ... and as to their food, the principal fare would have been the meat and vegetables and fruits grown and raised so abundantly in the hills of Galilee.

They lived in close and intimate quarters, with limited amounts of this world's goods. The Father of the Son placed his Eternal Offspring in modest circumstances. But it is the spirit and teachings, the love and harmony, not the wood and mortar and chairs that make a true home.   And in those things that are important, the home provided by the just and faithful husband of Mary excelled. Surely the Father of us all, who also was the Father of the One only in mortality, would have chosen that family circle which was preeminent above all others as the environment for his Only Begotten Son.

Men married at sixteen or seventeen years of age, almost never later than twenty; and women at a somewhat younger age, often not older than fourteen. These ages applied to all, Joseph and Mary included. Children were esteemed to be a heritage from the Lord and were devoutly desired.

Mothers taught their children almost from the moment of birth; at least tutorial processes began by the time infant lips began to utter their first words and phrases. The Psalms and prayers were used as lullabies. At the age of two years children were weaned, with the occasion being celebrated by a feast. When the children reached about three years of age fathers began to assume their imposed obligation to teach them the Law; not nursery rhymes, but verses of scripture, benedictions, and wise sayings. Formal schooling began at five or six, with the Bible as the text.

The educational system imposed upon Jewish children was more, far more, than formal schooling arrangements. It was part and portion of their way of life. They learned from what was done as well as from what was said. A spirit of religion and devotion pervaded the home. Every pious home had either portions or all the Old Testament. There were even little parchment rolls for children that contained such scriptures as the Shema, the Hallel, the history of the creation and of the flood, and the first eight chapters of Leviticus. Jewish homes, Jewish family life, the rearing of Jewish children, indeed, the whole Jewish way of life was founded upon Jewish theology.

Alfred Edersheim:

“The pious Jew had no other knowledge, neither sought nor cared for any other … in fact denounced it … than that of the law of God.”

Glenn R. McGettigan

December 2011; Revised December 2014