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John
and Jesus
John
the Baptist prepared the way for the arrival
of the Messiah, and John's ministry itself
marked the beginning of the preaching
of "the gospel of the Kingdom of
God" (Luke 16:16). Some of the pivotal
events in John's life and his heralding
of the coming of Jesus took place in Jordan.
Though Jesus Christ's divinely inspired
role was announced before and during His
birth, He launched His public ministry
at Bethany beyond the Jordan at age 30,
immediately after He was baptized by John
and anointed by God (Luke 3:21-23; Acts
1:21-22). Several seminal events happened
during Jesus' three-day stay with John
at Bethany beyond the Jordan. John called
Jesus "the Lamb of God" and
Jesus gathered his first disciples (Simon-Peter,
Andrew, Philip and Nathaneal) (John 1:35-51).
Here is where Jesus is first reported
to have prayed to God (Luke 3:21). When
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness
after his baptism (Mark 1:12), He may
well have been in the stark, desolate
marl area immediately east of the Jordan
River and north of Bethany beyond the
Jordan. A nearby valley to the south,
near Mount Nebo, is known to this day
as "the valley of the devil"
(Wadi al-'Afreet). Jesus often travelled,
taught and healed the sick throughout
Transjordan, in the regions of the Decapolis
and Peraea, and from here he started his
last, purposeful journey to Jerusalem
(Matthew 19:1). Among the parables and
statements that Jesus spoke in the land
of Jordan were those about the Kingdom
of Heaven belonging to the children; the
prohibition against divorce ("..what
God has joined together let no man separate...");
the advice to the young ruler that to
inherit eternal life he must sell his
possessions and give to the poor; that
it is "easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the Kingdom of God"; and
that "the last shall be first and
the first last" (Matthew 19; Mark
10:1-31).
A
local tradition at the town of Anjara,
in the hills of Gilead east of the valley,
recounts that Jesus, His disciples, and
His mother Mary passed through the town
and rested there in a cave, which has
been commemorated in the form of a modern
shrine/church to Our Lady of the Mountain.
This was one of five pilgrimage sites
for the Jubilee Year 2000 designated by
the Catholic Churches of the Middle East.
The others were Mount Nebo, Machaerus,
Tell Mar Elias near Ajloun, and the Jordan
River region at Bethany beyond the Jordan.
Pope John Paul II visited Mount Nebo and
Bethany beyond the Jordan during his March
2000 pilgrimage in Jordan.
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