Tarrying Time in Galilee

137:1.1Dur­ing this Sab­bath two of John’s lead­ing dis­ci­ples spent much time with Je­sus. Of all John’s fol­low­ers one named An­drew was the most pro­foundly im­pressed with Je­sus; he ac­com­pa­nied him on the trip to Pella with the in­jured boy. On the way back to John’s ren­dezvous he asked Je­sus many ques­tions, and just be­fore reach­ing their des­ti­na­tion, the two paused for a short talk, dur­ing which An­drew said: “I have ob­served you ever since you came to Ca­per­naum, and I be­lieve you are the new Teacher, and though I do not un­der­stand all your teach­ing, I have fully made up my mind to fol­low you; I would sit at your feet and learn the whole truth about the new king­dom.” And Je­sus, with hearty as­sur­ance, wel­comed An­drew as the first of his apos­tles, that group of twelve who were to la­bor with him in the work of es­tab­lish­ing the new king­dom of God in the hearts of men.

137:1.2An­drew was a silent ob­server of, and sin­cere be­liever in, John’s work, and he had a very able and en­thu­si­as­tic brother, named Si­mon, who was one of John’s fore­most dis­ci­ples. It would not be amiss to say that Si­mon was one of John’s chief sup­port­ers.

137:1.3Soon af­ter Je­sus and An­drew re­turned to the camp, An­drew sought out his brother, Si­mon, and tak­ing him aside, in­formed him that he had set­tled in his own mind that Je­sus was the great Teacher, and that he had pledged him­self as a dis­ci­ple. He went on to say that Je­sus had ac­cepted his prof­fer of ser­vice and sug­gested that he (Si­mon) like­wise go to Je­sus and of­fer him­self for fel­low­ship in the ser­vice of the new king­dom. Said Si­mon: “Ever since this man came to work in Zeb­e­dee’s shop, I have be­lieved he was sent by God, but what about John? Are we to for­sake him? Is this the right thing to do?” Where­upon they agreed to go at once to con­sult John. John was sad­dened by the thought of los­ing two of his able ad­vis­ers and most promis­ing dis­ci­ples, but he bravely an­swered their in­quiries, say­ing: “This is but the be­gin­ning; pres­ently will my work end, and we shall all be­come his dis­ci­ples.” Then An­drew beck­oned to Je­sus to draw aside while he an­nounced that his brother de­sired to join him­self to the ser­vice of the new king­dom. And in wel­com­ing Si­mon as his sec­ond apos­tle, Je­sus said: “Si­mon, your en­thu­si­asm is com­mend­able, but it is dan­ger­ous to the work of the king­dom. I ad­mon­ish you to be­come more thought­ful in your speech. I would change your name to Pe­ter.”

137:1.4The par­ents of the in­jured lad who lived at Pella had be­sought Je­sus to spend the night with them, to make their house his home, and he had prom­ised. Be­fore leav­ing An­drew and his brother, Je­sus said, “Early on the mor­row we go into Gal­i­lee.”

137:1.5Af­ter Je­sus had re­turned to Pella for the night, and while An­drew and Si­mon were yet dis­cussing the na­ture of their ser­vice in the es­tab­lish­ment of the forth­com­ing king­dom, James and John the sons of Zeb­e­dee ar­rived upon the scene, hav­ing just re­turned from their long and fu­tile search­ing in the hills for Je­sus. When they heard Si­mon Pe­ter tell how he and his brother, An­drew, had be­come the first ac­cepted coun­selors of the new king­dom, and that they were to leave with their new Mas­ter on the mor­row for Gal­i­lee, both James and John were sad. They had known Je­sus for some time, and they loved him. They had searched for him many days in the hills, and now they re­turned to learn that oth­ers had been pre­ferred be­fore them. They in­quired where Je­sus had gone and made haste to find him.

137:1.6Je­sus was asleep when they reached his abode, but they awak­ened him, say­ing: “How is it that, while we who have so long lived with you are search­ing in the hills for you, you pre­fer oth­ers be­fore us and choose An­drew and Si­mon as your first as­so­ciates in the new king­dom?” Je­sus an­swered them, “Be calm in your hearts and ask your­selves, ‘who di­rected that you should search for the Son of Man when he was about his Fa­ther’s busi­ness?’” Af­ter they had re­cited the de­tails of their long search in the hills, Je­sus fur­ther in­structed them: “You should learn to search for the se­cret of the new king­dom in your hearts and not in the hills. That which you sought was al­ready pres­ent in your souls. You are in­deed my breth­ren—you needed not to be re­ceived by me—al­ready were you of the king­dom, and you should be of good cheer, mak­ing ready also to go with us to­mor­row into Gal­i­lee.” John then made bold to ask, “But, Mas­ter, will James and I be as­so­ciates with you in the new king­dom, even as An­drew and Si­mon?” And Je­sus, lay­ing a hand on the shoul­der of each of them, said: “My breth­ren, you were al­ready with me in the spirit of the king­dom, even be­fore these oth­ers made re­quest to be re­ceived. You, my breth­ren, have no need to make re­quest for en­trance into the king­dom; you have been with me in the king­dom from the be­gin­ning. Be­fore men, oth­ers may take prece­dence over you, but in my heart did I also num­ber you in the coun­cils of the king­dom, even be­fore you thought to make this re­quest of me. And even so might you have been first be­fore men had you not been ab­sent en­gaged in a well-in­ten­tioned but self-ap­pointed task of seek­ing for one who was not lost. In the com­ing king­dom, be not mind­ful of those things which fos­ter your anx­i­ety but rather at all times con­cern your­selves only with do­ing the will of the Fa­ther who is in heaven.”

137:1.7James and John re­ceived the re­buke in good grace; never more were they en­vi­ous of An­drew and Si­mon. And they made ready, with their two as­so­ciate apos­tles, to de­part for Gal­i­lee the next morn­ing. From this day on the term apos­tle was em­ployed to dis­tin­guish the cho­sen fam­ily of Je­sus’ ad­vis­ers from the vast mul­ti­tude of be­liev­ing dis­ci­ples who sub­se­quently fol­lowed him.

137:1.8Late that evening, James, John, An­drew, and Si­mon held con­verse with John the Bap­tist, and with tear­ful eye but steady voice the stal­wart Judean prophet sur­ren­dered two of his lead­ing dis­ci­ples to be­come the apos­tles of the Galilean Prince of the com­ing king­dom.