The Messenger's Pledge
The Story of David Zebedee
“I am neither a teacher nor a preacher, but it is in my heart to do this, and none can stop me.”
By Buck Weimer
The Urantia Book introduces us to various types of messengers with specialized functions and distinct spiritual status. These messengers range from Mighty and Solitary Messengers down to Lanonandek Messenger Sons, Seraphic Messengers, and even Adams and Eves. Messengers are often part of a group, or corps. Our wonderful ancestor, Grandfanda, has a corps of 999 Gravity Messengers, and Lanaforge, a Lanonandek Son and our System Sovereign, has a messenger corps of 400,000.
While Jesus lived on our planet Urantia, he benefited from an earthly messenger corps, one organized and led by David Zebedee. The story of these messengers is a tale of steadfast loyalty and memorable contribution. David’s messenger service inspires and enlightens all who learn about it.
Jesus had a very long and multifaceted relationship with the Zebedee family. He interacted with them as a friend, carpenter, boatbuilder, and teacher. James and John Zebedee, of course, became apostles and received the nickname “sons of thunder” from Jesus. Their brother, David, at first admired Jesus primarily for his (boatbuilding) skills as a mechanic but took little interest in Jesus’ religious and philosophic teachings. Nonetheless, David came to embody Jesus’ teachings in a way that many apostles did not. His personal experiences with the Master were unique and of eternal value.
Early on, when Jesus was teaching near the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he summoned a nearby boat to rescue him from the pressing crowd of listeners. David Zebedee and two mates were on the boat—a boat that Jesus had built with his own hands. Jesus stepped aboard and was able to continue teaching, free from the pressing crowd.
Afterward, Jesus wished to repay the three fishermen for providing him with the use of their boat. The three had caught nothing all night, and Jesus suggested that David and the disheartened and disagreeable men go fishing with him. The men thought it useless to try, even as they cast their nets where Jesus instructed. But soon, their nets were full to near breaking and were overflowing with fish. From that day forward, all three followed Jesus.
Once Jesus had chosen his twelve apostles, they made their residence at the Zebedee home, from May to the beginning of October of that year. To accommodate the growing number of believers attracted to Jesus, David established and maintained–with the help of the Alpheus twins—a very large seaside camp. This ever-changing population numbered from 500 to 1500 people, eventually becoming a self-sustaining model of order, administration, and sanitation; the camp even offered medical assistance.
(A little bit of Midwayer humor regarding David: In response to the problems caused by Kirmeth, the apparently self-deceived prophet from Baghdad, David and a self-appointed committee decided to remove the troublemaker. They took Kirmeth out into the lake and dunked him repeatedly in the water, afterward advising him to leave, organize, and build his own camp.)
David maintained the permanent headquarters for the kingdom’s messenger service at his father’s house in Bethsaida. From there, he maintained an overnight relay service between Jerusalem and Bethsaida, with runners leaving each evening, relaying at Sychar and Scythopolis, and arriving in Bethsaida in time for breakfast. He used that site as a clearinghouse and relay station among workers throughout Palestine and nearby regions. David did this on his own initiative, with the approval of Andrew, and he employed forty to fifty messengers at any one time.
When not directing the messenger service, David supplemented his income by spending time at his old job of fishing. Jesus, too, went fishing when he had a week of rest, and when not fishing alone, Jesus and David would go fishing together.
May 22nd A.D. 29 was an eventful day in the life of Jesus. On that day, approximately one year before his trial, one of David’s messengers arrived from Tiberias, in great haste, to say that Herod was giving the officers of the Sanhedrin permission to arrest Jesus. This escalation on the part of the religious leaders revealed how much more aggressive Jesus’ enemies had become. But David’s messengers did not shrink from the challenge. Jesus agreed that the service should continue through this trying time, and these courageous, rapid messengers kept all the kingdom’s workers, throughout the Levant and into Egypt, in communication, especially during the most perilous hours.
This was also the day Jesus uttered the greatly misunderstood quote, “I have no mother.” (154:6.5) These words expressed Jesus’ commitment to doing his Father’s will above all (a moral decision?) but his earthly family, who were strangers to Jesus’ teachings, mistook his words for rejection. Later, as Jesus entered a boat in hasty flight from the Sanhedrin officers, he asked David to tell his mother and brothers that he appreciated their attempt to contact him, and he intended to see them, adding for them to find no offense in him and to seek for the knowledge of God’s will and the courage to do it.
David’s Promise to Jesus
In bidding the Master farewell, David assured Jesus with these words, “Go forth to your work, Master. Don’t let the bigots catch you, and never doubt that the messengers will follow after you. My men will never lose contact with you, and through them you shall know of the kingdom in other parts, and by them we will all know about you. Nothing that might happen to me will interfere with this service, for I have appointed first and second leaders, even a third.” (154:5.3)
Then he concluded with his seraphic-like pledge, “I am neither a teacher nor a preacher, but it is in my heart to do this, and none can stop me.” (154:5.3)
True to David’s promise, the messengers never lost track of Jesus and his apostles. On one occasion, when a temple tax collector approached Peter about an overdue payment, David’s secret messenger overheard the conversation and quickly acted. The messenger arranged for a fellow messenger and friend to give Peter several large baskets of fish. Peter was able to sell the fish and pay the tax collector.
Few of Jesus’ followers were aware of the extensive value that the messenger corps afforded the larger group. Along with keeping believers and apostles throughout Palestine in touch with each other and in addition to providing camp services, the messenger organization collected funds, not only for Jesus, the apostles, and the evangelists, but also for their families.
The headquarters for the messenger service remained in Bethsaida until the time when Abner moved his operations from Hebron to Bethlehem. During the mid-December rainy season of A.D. 29, David and the messenger corps loaded onto their pack animals the camp equipment stored in his father’s house. The kingdom was taking on a new phase. Bidding adieu to Bethsaida, the corps proceeded along the Jordan into Perea where they set up a camp large enough to accommodate almost fifteen hundred pilgrims arriving from Mesopotamia and the remote regions of the Roman Empire.
This complex enterprise required expert administration and substantial funding to keep running. In answer to an earnest seeker asking whether believers should have earthly possessions in common and if having wealth was a sin, Jesus said that having honorable wealth is not a sin. He shared that many of the pilgrims at the camp were fed and housed in the nearby tented city because liberal men and women of means had given the necessary funds to the host, David Zebedee, for such purposes.
David moved the tented camp in accordance with Jesus’ itinerary. When moving from Perea northward to Pella, David hosted almost four thousand residents, not including more than one thousand seekers who stayed with the apostles at the teachers’ camp. By mid-March, the Apostle Andrew instructed David to close the camp. And, as much as he disliked doing it, David sold all the equipment and carried the funds to Jerusalem, where he handed the money to Judas Iscariot.
In the days that followed, David and some of his messenger associates effectively spread the word among the pilgrims and visitors that Jesus was about to make his triumphant entry into the city. In preparation, David set up a private camp near Gethsemane, close to the public camping ground. Before arriving at the new camp, Jesus had spoken to his apostles about the destruction of Jerusalem and his second coming. These were very difficult concepts for the apostles. As they journeyed toward their new camp, each struggled to fit the Master’s words with their expectations. For Judas, this was the moment when he internally confirmed his decision to abandon his fellow apostles and the cause. As they arrived at the camp, David was there to meet Jesus and the somewhat befuddled apostles. Thus, David was in Jerusalem for that last tragic week.
The next day, Wednesday, was a time of rest. Jesus was ready to go into the hills by himself when David Zebedee, with three well-armed Galilean guards, challenged him about going into the hills, alone. Jesus knew the Pharisees wanted to capture him, but said, “You mean well, but you err in that you fail to understand that the Son of Man needs no one to defend him… These men may not accompany me. I desire to go alone, that I may commune with the Father.” (177:0.3)
This day also marked the memorable scene where John Mark tenaciously held onto the lunch basket offered to Jesus and eventually gained his approval to accompany Jesus to the mountains—another clever attempt of the Midwayer team at humor?
The Unseen Messenger
Several days earlier, through his secret agents in Jerusalem, David had learned of the plans to destroy the Master. He was convinced that Jesus would not employ force in his own defense and understood that this could mean the Master’s death. Accordingly, he hurriedly dispatched a messenger to Jesus’ mother, urging her to come to Jerusalem with the rest of Jesus’ family, so they could see their father-brother before his death.
David knew about the part Judas would play in this plot but never disclosed it to the apostles. He did, however, make bold to ask Jesus if he knew about it. Jesus, in his fatherly way, held up his hand stopping David and said he was fully aware of it and knew that David knew. He told David to tell no one and to doubt not that the will of God would prevail in the end.
Shortly thereafter, Judas heard the Master speaking with Philip and, hoping to hear their conversation, drew closer. But David, standing nearby, adroitly stepped up and started a business conversation with Judas. When Judas handed him a sum of money for provisions, David asked for more, saying, “Judas, might it not be well, under the circumstances, to provide me with a little money in advance of my actual needs?” (178:2.10)
Judas agreed and wisely handed all the remaining cash and receipts for deposited funds to David, just in case. It wasn’t until the next evening that the apostles learned of this transaction.
Returning to the camp after the Last Supper, the apostles were very shocked to find Judas absent. David Zebedee and John Mark took Jesus aside to reveal their knowledge about Judas’ plan to betray the Master. And again, Jesus responded, “Let not your hearts be troubled; all things will work together for the glory of God and the salvation of men.” (182:2.1)
Later, Jesus called David to request, “Send to me your most fleet and trustworthy messenger.” The messenger, one Jacob, rehearsed the message for Abner in Philadelphia and went on his way after hearing this enduring assurance from Jesus, “Fear not what any man may do to you, Jacob, for this night an unseen messenger will run by your side.” (182:2.5)
None of the apostles expected anything unusual to happen that night; only David and John Mark knew the enemies of Jesus were coming with Judas that very night. David was to guard the upper trail leading to the Bethany-Jerusalem road, and John Mark agreed to watch along the road coming up from Kidron to Gethsemane.
Before leaving for the self-imposed guard duty, David was again able to speak to Jesus, to say farewell, and to share the joy it had been for him to serve the Master. David said that even though his two brothers were apostles, he experienced great delight in doing the seemingly lesser things as they should be done.
He said that he would miss Jesus with all his heart when he was gone.
Jesus responded, “David, my son, others have done that which 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 some day serve with me in the eternal kingdom.” (182:2.10)
As the events of that night unfolded, John Mark informed David that Jesus had been bound and that the Roman guards had started him back to Jerusalem. They both rushed back to the tents of the sleeping apostles and told them of the Master’s betrayal and arrest.
News of Death…and Resurrection
David remained at the camp, with three or four messengers, keeping it as a clearinghouse. The other messengers were sent out to secure information about what was being done to Jesus, most of which was supplied by John Zebedee, David’s brother. The information was then relayed to the apostles and Jesus’ family.
This was the situation during the last half of Thursday night and the early morning hours of Friday regarding the apostles, the chief disciples, and the earthly family of Jesus. David’s messengers provided all this information as they operated from the Gethsemane camp. Almost every hour the messenger service brought news to the family of Jesus about the terrible business of putting to death their eldest brother.
Believing their enemies would soon return, David removed most of the tents to the ravine near where the Master often prayed. And that happened just in time, because the temple guards arrived and burned down the camp before hastening back to the temple, temporarily satisfying the Sanhedrin.
Within five minutes after finding out about the impending crucifixion, David sent runners to Bethsaida, Pella, Philadelphia, Sidon, Shechem, Hebron, Damascus, and even Alexandria carrying the news of what the Romans were to do at the insistent behest of the Jewish rulers. (Being aware that Alexandria, Egypt was/is approximately 507 kilometers, 315 miles from Jerusalem, it’s a long way to run, given the rough terrain and footgear available at that time.)
It was about half past three o’clock amidst the darkness of a sandstorm, when David sent out the last of his messengers to relay the news of the Master’s death. The last of these runners went to Bethany, to the home of Martha and Mary where he assumed the mother of Jesus stopped to rest.
David sent messengers every half hour to the apostles, the Greeks, and Jesus’ family throughout that tragic day until the Master had been laid in the tomb. Consequently, David temporarily dismissed the corps of runners for the coming Passover, the Sabbath, and some much needed rest, while he went into hiding with Andrew and Simon Peter.
Then came the events of the resurrection!
David was a peculiar-minded person and the only one of the leading disciples of Jesus inclined to take a literal and matter-of-fact view of the Master’s assertion that he would die and “rise again on the third day.” (186:3.4). Interestingly, here the Midwayer authors designate David as a disciple! David also accepted that none of the apostles and none of Jesus’ followers, with perhaps the exception of Joseph of Arimathea, believed as he did about the resurrection, so little was said about this matter or of his bid to again mobilize his runners.
David and Joseph of Arimathea were willing to believe that the five women had seen and talked with the resurrected Jesus. So strong was this belief that the two men went to the tomb and found it just as the women had described. They were the last to view the sepulcher, because shortly thereafter the captain of the temple guards removed the grave cloths. The captain wrapped them all up in the linen sheet and threw them over a nearby cliff.
Interestingly, David steadfastly refused to argue with the apostles, even reprimanding them at one point saying, “You are the apostles, and you ought to understand these things. I will not contend with you; nevertheless, I now go back to the home of Nicodemus, where I have appointed with the messengers to assemble this morning, and when they have gathered together, I will send them forth on their last mission, as heralds of the Master’s resurrection. I heard the Master say that, after he should die, he would rise on the third day, and I believe him.”(190:1.3)
After speaking this way to the dejected and forlorn ambassadors of the kingdom, this self-appointed chief of communication and intelligence took leave of the apostles. On his way out of the upper chamber he dropped the money bag received from Judas into the lap of Matthew Levi.
Shortly thereafter and after the last of the twenty-six messengers arrived at the home of Nicodemus, David delivered a most endearing and unforgettable speech to his extraordinary volunteer runners,
“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.’” (190:1.5)
The Final Message of Truth
Many tried to dissuade David and the messengers, but they would not listen. And so, just before ten o’clock this Sunday morning, the twenty-six messengers went on their run as the first heralds of the magnificent truth of the resurrection of Jesus.
These men had great confidence in David, departing without even stopping to talk with those who had seen the resurrected Jesus, taking David at his word. Each messenger carried his message swiftly and with certainty heralding this great event.
After the third resurrection appearance, the one to Jesus’ older brother James, David justifiably exclaimed that not only excited women had seen Jesus but strong hearted men as well. And David eagerly anticipated seeing Jesus, too.
David did not wait long. For it was Jesus’ fourth resurrection appearance (while still in the first stage of Morontia form) at the back door of Martha and Mary’s home, where Jesus materialized before his earth family and friends, twenty in all, including David. Here, Jesus questioned their doubt and encouraged all to enter the fellowship of the Spirit of Truth in the Father’s kingdom.
The far-reaching messaging system between Jerusalem and Alexandria required a relay system of five runners. The fifth runner, Nathan of Busiris, arrived about eight-thirty in the evening on April eighteenth and delivered to Rodan the message about the crucifixion and hoped-for resurrection. Rodan called together some eighty Greek and Jewish believers and just at the conclusion of the messenger’s report, the Master made his twelfth appearance in fourth-stage morontia form.
Imagine the surprise when, two days later, the runner who heralded Jesus’ resurrection arrived in Alexandria to tell Rodan and his group that Jesus had risen, and they said to him, with another nugget of humor, “Yes, we know, for we have seen him. He appeared to us day before yesterday.” (191:6.4)
Sometime after the master’s forty-day morontia career on Urantia, David, after his mothers’ death, assisted Martha and Mary with the selling of their real estate. In early June, David married Ruth, Jesus’ youngest sibling. Then with Martha and Mary, they left Bethany and traveled to live in Philadelphia, where David, in association with Abner and Lazarus, became the financial overseer of all those large interests of the kingdom which had their center at Philadelphia during the lifetime of Abner.
We may not all be apostles or disciples. But as believers in Jesus’ gospel and as faith children of our loving Father, we can make the pledge… “It is in my heart to do this, and none can stop me.” (154:5.3)
Buck Weimer is a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Spiritual Fellowship, a previous member of The Urantia Book Fellowship General Council and International Committee Chair, and a retired board member of Urantia University Institute.
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