Tarrying Time in Galilee

137:6.1Je­sus’ first pub­lic ap­pear­ance fol­low­ing his bap­tism was in the Ca­per­naum syn­a­gogue on Sab­bath, March 2, A.D. 26. The syn­a­gogue was crowded to over­flow­ing. The story of the bap­tism in the Jor­dan was now aug­mented by the fresh news from Cana about the wa­ter and the wine. Je­sus gave seats of honor to his six apos­tles, and seated with them were his broth­ers in the flesh James and Jude. His mother, hav­ing re­turned to Ca­per­naum with James the evening be­fore, was also pres­ent, be­ing seated in the women’s sec­tion of the syn­a­gogue. The en­tire au­di­ence was on edge; they ex­pected to be­hold some ex­traor­di­nary man­i­fes­ta­tion of super­nat­u­ral power which would be a fit­ting tes­ti­mony to the na­ture and au­thor­ity of him who was that day to speak to them. But they were des­tined to dis­ap­point­ment.

137:6.2When Je­sus stood up, the ruler of the syn­a­gogue handed him the Scrip­ture roll, and he read from the Prophet Isa­iah: “Thus says the Lord: ‘The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot­stool. Where is the house that you built for me? And where is the place of my dwell­ing? All these things have my hands made,’ says the Lord. ‘But to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a con­trite spirit, and who trem­bles at my word.’ Hear the word of the Lord, you who trem­ble and fear: ‘Your breth­ren hated you and cast you out for my name’s sake.’ But let the Lord be glo­ri­fied. He shall ap­pear to you in joy, and all oth­ers shall be ashamed. A voice from the city, a voice from the tem­ple, a voice from the Lord says: ‘Be­fore she tra­vailed, she brought forth; be­fore her pain came, she was de­liv­ered of a man child.’ Who has heard such a thing? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or can a na­tion be born at once? But thus says the Lord: ‘Be­hold I will ex­tend peace like a river, and the glory of even the gen­tiles shall be like a flow­ing stream. As one whom his mother com­forts, so will I com­fort you. And you shall be com­forted even in Je­ru­sa­lem. And when you see these things, your heart shall re­joice.’”

137:6.3When he had fin­ished this read­ing, Je­sus handed the roll back to its keeper. Be­fore sit­ting down, he sim­ply said: “Be pa­tient and you shall see the glory of God; even so shall it be with all those who tarry with me and thus learn to do the will of my Fa­ther who is in heaven.” And the peo­ple went to their homes, won­der­ing what was the mean­ing of all this.

137:6.4That af­ter­noon Je­sus and his apos­tles, with James and Jude, en­tered a boat and pulled down the shore a lit­tle way, where they an­chored while he talked to them about the com­ing king­dom. And they un­der­stood more than they had on Thurs­day night.

137:6.5Je­sus in­structed them to take up their reg­u­lar du­ties un­til “the hour of the king­dom comes.” And to en­cour­age them, he set an ex­am­ple by go­ing back reg­u­larly to work in the boat­shop. In ex­plain­ing that they should spend three hours ev­ery evening in study and prepa­ra­tion for their fu­ture work, Je­sus fur­ther said: “We will all re­main here­about un­til the Fa­ther bids me call you. Each of you must now re­turn to his ac­cus­tomed work just as if noth­ing had hap­pened. Tell no man about me and re­mem­ber that my king­dom is not to come with noise and glamor, but rather must it come through the great change which my Fa­ther will have wrought in your hearts and in the hearts of those who shall be called to join you in the coun­cils of the king­dom. You are now my friends; I trust you and I love you; you are soon to be­come my per­sonal as­so­ciates. Be pa­tient, be gen­tle. Be ever obe­di­ent to the Fa­ther’s will. Make your­selves ready for the call of the king­dom. While you will ex­pe­ri­ence great joy in the ser­vice of my Fa­ther, you should also be pre­pared for trou­ble, for I warn you that it will be only through much tribu­la­tion that many will en­ter the king­dom. But those who have found the king­dom, their joy will be full, and they shall be called the blest of all the earth. But do not en­ter­tain false hope; the world will stum­ble at my words. Even you, my friends, do not fully per­ceive what I am un­fold­ing to your con­fused minds. Make no mis­take; we go forth to la­bor for a gen­er­a­tion of sign seek­ers. They will de­mand won­der-work­ing as the proof that I am sent by my Fa­ther, and they will be slow to rec­og­nize in the rev­e­la­tion of my Fa­ther’s love the cre­den­tials of my mis­sion.”

137:6.6That evening, when they had re­turned to the land, be­fore they went their way, Je­sus, stand­ing by the wa­ter’s edge, prayed: “My Fa­ther, I thank you for these lit­tle ones who, in spite of their doubts, even now be­lieve. And for their sakes have I set my­self apart to do your will. And now may they learn to be one, even as we are one.”