Jesus Prepares the Way for the Way

Jesus spent over two years in intense preparation for the launch of his ministry. Much of it was spent in continuing conversation with Abba but as much time was given to a form of reflection that was no longer assumed by him to be his own. He was one with Abba now. It was not that the two did not have separate consciousness and identity. It was simply that there was no need to assume a barrier. There was none. That is what unity is.

It is the same with individuals who have it. When there is no barrier there is nothing that can shock or amaze or seem out of place. It is not that all proceeds any differently than things proceed normally. It is simply that things are. That whatever it is is all right. And when unity exists this sense is fully shared.

So.

What Jesus knew is that he would walk to the Jordan. What he surmised is that there was a community there that he could become unified with. And that everything would build from there. What we call Capernaum was the region he had in mind.

Jesus looked no different now than he did when he was entering his twenties. He had the same look and his body language radiated a certain ease. It came from his growing sense of oneness with Abba and the sense that whatever might come this unity would not be broken.

Jesus knew that life itself out there would take forms he could neither anticipate or control. He might be beset by thieves as he walked toward the river. And that would end it then and there. That was all right. He did not have to know beyond any moment.

Some of his time was spent honing stories and messages and saying them to himself. He knew he would be talking to others after a life of virtual silence. His family spoke and he spoke with them but one could collapse the shared vocabulary into a large hand. Few words, nothing weighty.

One day he would simply walk away from Nazareth. He would come back a different person. Perhaps even with a new family. Yes he did think of the future. But he made no effort to settle on anything.

Before he went out he resumed his daily walk to the usual place where he and Abba had talked for many years. He thought that this large number of years would mean something around the synagogue when some boasted of having been this or that for, oh, more than twenty years! He wasn’t about to go and say, “Abba and I have been at it since I was a little boy.” He would get stares. Some might be quite impolite.

There was really no preparation needed. The story would become what it became. It would depend on his interactions. Other than his intent to go to the river and tell people about Abba and Abba’s way, there was no preparation needed.