Kheresa

• Kheresa

138:1.1The next day, Sun­day, June 23, A.D. 26, Je­sus im­parted his fi­nal in­struc­tions to the six. He di­rected them to go forth, two and two, to teach the glad tid­ings of the king­dom. He for­bade them to bap­tize and ad­vised against pub­lic preach­ing. He went on to ex­plain that later he would per­mit them to preach in pub­lic, but that for a sea­son, and for many rea­sons, he de­sired them to ac­quire prac­ti­cal ex­pe­ri­ence in deal­ing per­son­ally with their fel­low men. Je­sus pur­posed to make their first tour en­tirely one of per­sonal work. Al­though this an­nounce­ment was some­thing of a dis­ap­point­ment to the apos­tles, still they saw, at least in part, Je­sus’ rea­son for thus be­gin­ning the procla­ma­tion of the king­dom, and they started out in good heart and with con­fi­dent en­thu­si­asm. He sent them forth by twos, James and John go­ing to Kheresa, An­drew and Pe­ter to Ca­per­naum, while Philip and Na­than­iel went to Ta­ri­chea.

151:5.1The mul­ti­tude con­tin­ued to in­crease through­out the week. On Sab­bath Je­sus has­tened away to the hills, but when Sun­day morn­ing came, the crowds re­turned. Je­sus spoke to them in the early af­ter­noon af­ter the preach­ing of Pe­ter, and when he had fin­ished, he said to his apos­tles: “I am weary of the throngs; let us cross over to the other side that we may rest for a day.”

151:5.2On the way across the lake they en­coun­tered one of those vi­o­lent and sud­den wind­storms which are char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Sea of Gal­i­lee, es­pe­cially at this sea­son of the year. This body of wa­ter is al­most seven hun­dred feet be­low the level of the sea and is sur­rounded by high banks, es­pe­cially on the west. There are steep gorges lead­ing up from the lake into the hills, and as the heated air rises in a pocket over the lake dur­ing the day, there is a ten­dency af­ter sun­set for the cool­ing air of the gorges to rush down upon the lake. These gales come on quickly and some­times go away just as sud­denly.

151:5.3It was just such an evening gale that caught the boat car­ry­ing Je­sus over to the other side on this Sun­day evening. Three other boats con­tain­ing some of the younger evan­ge­lists were trail­ing af­ter. This tem­pest was se­vere, not­with­stand­ing that it was con­fined to this re­gion of the lake, there be­ing no ev­i­dence of a storm on the west­ern shore. The wind was so strong that the waves be­gan to wash over the boat. The high wind had torn the sail away be­fore the apos­tles could furl it, and they were now en­tirely de­pen­dent on their oars as they la­bo­ri­ously pulled for the shore, a lit­tle more than a mile and a half dis­tant.

151:5.4Mean­while Je­sus lay asleep in the stern of the boat un­der a small over­head shel­ter. The Mas­ter was weary when they left Beth­saida, and it was to se­cure rest that he had di­rected them to sail him across to the other side. These ex-fish­er­men were strong and ex­pe­ri­enced oars­men, but this was one of the worst gales they had ever en­coun­tered. Al­though the wind and the waves tossed their boat about as though it were a toy ship, Je­sus slum­bered on undis­turbed. Pe­ter was at the right-hand oar near the stern. When the boat be­gan to fill with wa­ter, he dropped his oar and, rush­ing over to Je­sus, shook him vig­or­ously in or­der to awaken him, and when he was aroused, Pe­ter said: “Mas­ter, don’t you know we are in a vi­o­lent storm? If you do not save us, we will all per­ish.”

151:5.5As Je­sus came out in the rain, he looked first at Pe­ter, and then peer­ing into the dark­ness at the strug­gling oars­men, he turned his glance back upon Si­mon Pe­ter, who, in his ag­i­ta­tion, had not yet re­turned to his oar, and said: “Why are all of you so filled with fear? Where is your faith? Peace, be quiet.” Je­sus had hardly ut­tered this re­buke to Pe­ter and the other apos­tles, he had hardly bid­den Pe­ter seek peace where­with to quiet his trou­bled soul, when the dis­turbed at­mo­sphere, hav­ing es­tab­lished its equi­lib­rium, set­tled down into a great calm. The an­gry waves al­most im­me­di­ately sub­sided, while the dark clouds, hav­ing spent them­selves in a short shower, van­ished, and the stars of heaven shone over­head. All this was purely co­in­ci­den­tal as far as we can judge; but the apos­tles, par­tic­u­larly Si­mon Pe­ter, never ceased to re­gard the episode as a na­ture mir­a­cle. It was es­pe­cially easy for the men of that day to be­lieve in na­ture mir­a­cles inas­much as they firmly be­lieved that all na­ture was a phe­nom­e­non di­rectly un­der the con­trol of spirit forces and super­nat­u­ral be­ings.

151:5.6Je­sus plainly ex­plained to the twelve that he had spo­ken to their trou­bled spir­its and had ad­dressed him­self to their fear-tossed minds, that he had not com­manded the el­e­ments to obey his word, but it was of no avail. The Mas­ter’s fol­low­ers al­ways per­sisted in plac­ing their own in­ter­pre­ta­tion on all such co­in­ci­den­tal oc­cur­rences. From this day on they in­sisted on re­gard­ing the Mas­ter as hav­ing ab­so­lute power over the nat­u­ral el­e­ments. Pe­ter never grew weary of recit­ing how “even the winds and the waves obey him.”

151:5.7It was late in the evening when Je­sus and his as­so­ciates reached the shore, and since it was a calm and beau­ti­ful night, they all rested in the boats, not go­ing ashore un­til shortly af­ter sun­rise the next morn­ing. When they were gath­ered to­gether, about forty in all, Je­sus said: “Let us go up into yon­der hills and tarry for a few days while we pon­der over the prob­lems of the Fa­ther’s king­dom.”

151:6.1Al­though 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.”

151:6.2This 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 grot­toes. Long since he had bro­ken his shack­les and now roamed at will among the tombs and aban­doned sepul­chres.

151:6.3This 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.

151:6.4When 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.

151:6.5Je­sus, 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.

151:6.6As 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. Be­fore the day was over, this episode was pub­lished abroad by the swine ten­ders, and the whole vil­lage be­lieved it. Amos most cer­tainly be­lieved this story; he saw the swine tum­bling over the brow of the hill shortly af­ter his trou­bled mind had qui­eted down, and he al­ways be­lieved that they car­ried with them the very evil spir­its which had so long tor­mented and af­flicted him. And this had a good deal to do with the per­ma­nency of his cure. It is equally true that all of Je­sus’ apos­tles (save Thomas) be­lieved that the episode of the swine was di­rectly con­nected with the cure of Amos.

151:6.7Je­sus did not ob­tain the rest he was look­ing for. Most of that day he was thronged by those who came in re­sponse to the word that Amos had been cured, and who were at­tracted by the story that the demons had gone out of the lu­natic into the herd of swine. And so, af­ter only one night of rest, early Tues­day morn­ing Je­sus and his friends were awak­ened by a del­e­ga­tion of these swine-rais­ing gen­tiles who had come to urge that he de­part from their midst. Said their spokesman to Pe­ter and An­drew: “Fish­er­men of Gal­i­lee, de­part from 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 stand in dan­ger of los­ing many swine. The fear of you has de­scended upon us, so that we pray you to go hence.” And when Je­sus heard them, he said to An­drew, “Let us re­turn to our place.”

151:6.8As they were about to de­part, Amos be­sought Je­sus to per­mit him to go back with them, but the Mas­ter would not con­sent. Said Je­sus to Amos: “For­get not that you are a son of God. Re­turn to your own peo­ple and show them what great things God has done for you.” And Amos went about pub­lish­ing that Je­sus had cast a le­gion of dev­ils out of his trou­bled soul, and that these evil spir­its had en­tered into a herd of swine, driv­ing them to quick de­struc­tion. And he did not stop un­til he had gone into all the cities of the De­capo­lis, declar­ing what great things Je­sus had done for him.

• Kheresa

154:7.3They rowed over to near the vil­lage of Kheresa, put their boat in the cus­tody of friends, and be­gan the wan­der­ings of this event­ful last year of the Mas­ter’s life on earth. For a time they re­mained in the do­mains of Philip, go­ing from Kheresa up to Cae­sarea-Phi­lippi, thence mak­ing their way over to the coast of Phoeni­cia.

• Kheresa

155:0.1Soon af­ter land­ing near Kheresa on this event­ful Sun­day, Je­sus and the twenty-four went a lit­tle way to the north, where they spent the night in a beau­ti­ful park south of Beth­saida-Ju­lias. They were fa­mil­iar with this camp­ing place, hav­ing stopped there in days gone by. Be­fore re­tir­ing for the night, the Mas­ter called his fol­low­ers around him and dis­cussed with them the plans for their pro­jected tour through Batanea and north­ern Gal­i­lee to the Phoeni­cian coast.

• Kheresa

156:6.4Dur­ing a brief con­fer­ence with David they learned that many lead­ers were then gath­ered to­gether on the op­po­site side of the lake near Kheresa, and ac­cord­ingly, that very evening a boat took them across. For one day they rested qui­etly in the hills, go­ing on the next day to the park, near by, where the Mas­ter once fed the five thou­sand. Here they rested for three days and held daily con­fer­ences, which were at­tended by about fifty men and women, the rem­nants of the once nu­mer­ous com­pany of be­liev­ers res­i­dent in Ca­per­naum and its en­vi­rons.

138:2.63. James Al­pheus, a fish­er­man and farmer of Kheresa, was se­lected by James Zeb­e­dee.

138:2.74. Ju­das Al­pheus, the twin brother of James Al­pheus, also a fish­er­man, was se­lected by John Zeb­e­dee.

138:4.1On the mor­row all nine of them went by boat over to Kheresa to ex­e­cute the for­mal call­ing of the next two apos­tles, James and Ju­das the twin sons of Al­pheus, the nom­i­nees of James and John Zeb­e­dee. The fish­er­man twins were ex­pect­ing Je­sus and his apos­tles and were there­fore await­ing them on the shore. James Zeb­e­dee pre­sented the Mas­ter to the Kheresa fish­er­men, and Je­sus, gaz­ing on them, nod­ded and said, “Fol­low me.”

139:9.1James and Ju­das the sons of Al­pheus, the twin fish­er­men liv­ing near Kheresa, were the ninth and tenth apos­tles and were cho­sen by James and John Zeb­e­dee. They were twenty-six years old and mar­ried, James hav­ing three chil­dren, Ju­das two.