William Cooper
Jesus spent his twenty-sixth year preparing to leave home. He spent a lot of time with each family member. His oldest brother, James, married Esta. His oldest sister, Meriam, married his good friend Jacob, the son of the stone mason.
Then one rainy Sunday morning in January of his twenty-seventh year he said his good-byes to his family, explained that he was going to Tiberius and other cities around the Sea of Galilee. With that he left home, never again to be a regular member of the household.
Jesus spent only a week in Tiberius. Then he traveled through Magdala and Bethsaida to Capernaum where he stopped to visit with his father’s friend, Zebedee the boat builder. Zebedee’s three sons, James, David and John were fishermen.
Jesus was expert at designing and building and he was a master at working with wood. Zebedee had long known of Jesus’ skill. For a long time, Zebedee had contemplated making improved boats. He laid his plans before Jesus and invited him to join in the enterprise. Jesus readily consented.
So, from this commercial transaction arose the extraordinary friendships between Jesus, Zebedee, Salome – Zebedee’s wife, and their sons James, David and John. Jesus lived in the Zebedee home for a little over a year. He created a new type of boat as well as the entirely new methods to build it. The boat was far safer than earlier designs and within five years nearly all the boats on the Sea of Galilee had been built in Zebedee’s shop. Jesus greatly enjoyed working with Zebedee. They worked together like very compatible father and son.
Zebedee’s four daughters looked upon Jesus as an elder brother. Jesus often went fishing with James, John and David. The Zebedee family almost worshipped Jesus. Zebedee was moderately wealthy, not rich, but what he had was at Jesus’ disposal throughout Jesus’ life. Zebedee’s home was Jesus’ home. Several of the healings, sermons and teachings recounted in the scriptures took place in the Zebedee back yard at Bethsaida. The training of the apostles took place at Zebedee’s home.
James and John Zebedee were attracted to Jesus’ philosophy and religion. David admired and respected Jesus for his carpentry skills. All three loved him more than life itself. James and John became apostles. David too became fully involved in Jesus’ ministry but as an administrator rather than as a preacher or teacher.
David ran the Evangelist training camp at Bethsaida following the apostle’s first preaching tour. Simon Peter saw to the teaching and training of evangelists but David ran the camp and it was large. For five months there were between 500 and 1500 people in residence. David saw to the tents, food, security, sanitation, etc. and made the camp self-supporting.
When Jesus and the apostles decided to move on, it was David who closed-down the camp, sold the tents and other assets and turned the proceeds over to the apostolic treasury. He assumed a lot of responsibility for a twenty something year old fisherman. But the sons of Zebedee were intelligent, courageous, and versatile people.
The first preaching tour when the apostles went out by twos into the countryside probably suggested the need for a messenger service to David. David’s principal service to Jesus and the building of Jesus’ new kingdom was the intelligence service including secret agents and the messenger service. The messenger service consisted of more than 25 runners who carried messages and funds among centers of believers, evangelists, and Jesus’ camp. David was the organizer and dispatcher of the messengers. They were bound to David and to each other by solemn oath. They delivered messages as far away as Alexandria in Egypt and established an overnight messenger service between Bethsaida and Jerusalem. This could not have been either safe or comfortable for these young men.
David was often in Jesus’ camp and in his personal presence. He was a trusted and loved friend of Jesus and rightly so. David was present in Jerusalem for the crucifixion Passover. He learned from his secret agents in Jerusalem of the plot to capture and kill Jesus and of Judas’ involvement, but he never revealed this to the apostles. David took Jesus aside after the noon meal on last supper Thursday to ask him if Jesus knew and Jesus replied “Yes David, I know all about it, and I know that you know, but see to it that you tell no one. But be assured in your own heart that the will of God will prevail in the end.”
Thursday evening was full of Jesus’ final admonitions to the apostles, his final discourse, the last supper, the foot washing, the new commandment, the vine and the branches and it was near midnight when Jesus and his exhausted apostles returned to their camp on Mount Olivet. And David was there. Of the seventy followers of Jesus encamped there, only David and John Mark and Jesus himself knew that Judas and the Sanhedrin guards would come to arrest Jesus that night. The others expected trouble on Friday morning. Jesus sent his apostles and other followers to their tents to sleep except James, John, and Peter whom he requested to go with him to pray.
Jesus asked David to send him his fastest and most trustworthy messenger. David brought Jacob, a former runner in the overnight messenger service between Bethsaida and Jerusalem. Jesus sent Jacob to Abner in Philadelphia with this message. “The Master sends greetings of peace to you and says that the hour has come when he will be delivered into the hands of his enemies who will put him to death, but he will rise from the dead and appear to you shortly, before he goes to the Father, and that he will then give you guidance to the time when the new teacher will come to live in your hearts.” As Jacob was departing, Jesus said to him “Fear not what any man may do to you, Jacob, for this night an unseen messenger will run by your side.”
Jesus’ camp probably did not ordinarily have sentries, but this evening it would. David had arranged personally to take sentry outpost duty on the upper trail to the camp but before he departed, he spoke his farewell to Jesus. “Master I have had great joy in my service with you. My brothers are your apostles, but I have delighted to do the lesser things as they should be done, and I shall miss you with all my heart when you are gone.” And then Jesus said to David, “David, my son, others have done what they were directed to do, but this service have you done of your own heart, and I have not been unmindful of your devotion. You, too, shall someday serve with me in the eternal kingdom.” As he prepared to go on watch by the upper trail, David said to Jesus, “You know, Master, I sent for your family, and I have word by a messenger that they are tonight in Jericho. They will be here early tomorrow forenoon since it would be dangerous for them to come up the bloody way by night.” And Jesus looking down on David only said, “Let it be so, David.” David then departed the camp to take up his post as sentry at the upper trail and Jesus went apart to pray.
When David heard the commotion in the camp upon Jesus’ arrest, he rushed back and began to set up a center for the messenger service to gather and disseminate information regarding Jesus’ capture, trial, and crucifixion. John stayed with Jesus throughout the hours of his trial. David quickly established a rotation of messengers who contacted John about each half hour to find out what was happening. Then David dispatched this news to Jesus’ followers in hiding around Jerusalem and elsewhere, even as far away as Philadelphia, Sidon, Damascus, and Alexandria in Egypt. David acted very quickly to get information in and out and he always seemed to have sufficient messengers on hand. Only when Jesus was laid in Joseph of Aramathea’s tomb did David dismiss his messengers for Passover; but he instructed all of them to report to him Sunday morning at Nichodemus’ house where he would spend the Passover with other believers in hiding. David was the only one of Jesus’ leading disciples who took a literal and matter of fact view of Jesus’ assertion that he would die and rise again on the third day. Therefore, David directed his messengers to be present Sunday morning to carry the news.
Jesus was resurrected at 3:02 am Sunday morning. His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene and four other women at the tomb at 3:30 and the second one was 15 minutes later at the tomb and again to Mary. The third was to his brother James at Bethany at noon. So, at 9:30 when the last of the messengers reported to David, the only report of seeing Jesus was from Mary Magdalene. The despondent and depressed followers of Jesus discounted her report as seeing things that weren’t there. They believed Jesus would return someday but not so soon. They thought that his body had been taken and hidden by the Jewish officials. David believed otherwise and he was encouraged by the fact that Jesus’ grave clothes remained in the tomb as though his body had disappeared without disturbing them. This was too tidy and too difficult for Sanhedrin body thieves.
When the messengers gathered at Nicodemus’ house and were receiving their message, most of the believers present urged David not to send messages advising Jesus had risen. David would not be dissuaded. At 9:30 David assembled his 26 messengers in the courtyard of Nicodemus’ home and addressed them as follows: “Men and brethren, all this time you have served me in accordance with your oath to me and to one another, and I call you to witness that I have never yet sent out false information at your hands. I am about to send you on your last mission as volunteer messengers of the kingdom, and in so doing I release you from your oaths and thereby disband the messenger corps. Men, I declare to you that we have finished our work. No more does the Master have need of mortal messengers; he has risen from the dead. He told us before they arrested him that he would die and rise again on the third day. I have seen the tomb—it is empty. I have talked with Mary Magdalene and four other women, who have talked with Jesus. I now disband you, bid you farewell, and send you on your respective assignments, and the message which you shall bear to the believers is: ‘Jesus has risen from the dead; the tomb is empty.’”
David remained at Bethany with Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary and helped them dispose of their possessions so that they could Join Lazarus at Philadelphia. David married Jesus’ youngest sister, Ruth, in early June and the following day he, Ruth, Martha and Mary went to Philadelphia to live and where he became the administrator and financial steward of the early church at Philadelphia.
Conclusions:
The new teacher Jesus promised to Abner is the spirit of Jesus which has come to live in our hearts and who will lead and guide our actions.
- Praise God, Jesus is still a person. He lives.
- Praise God, there is life after this life.
- Praise God, evil cannot defeat good.
The story of David charms me each time I hear it. David’s love for Jesus and his gift of himself to serving Jesus move me every time I go over this story. David is my friend now and I hope he is
Peace be unto you.