By the time Jesus was thirty most of his older brothers and sisters had got married and left home. The wedding of one of his sisters was at Cana in Galilee. Jesus then felt the call to start his mission. One Sabbath Saturday he went down to the local synagogue as he always did and it was his turn to read. He took the scroll and found a passage written about himself in Isaiah and read it, then sat down. Everyone stared at him, at first they wondered, then got cross and indignant.
Jesus made the decision to relocate to Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, really a large lake. This turned out to be a good move. He left his mother Mary with Joseph, by this time quite old, being aged nearly 80.
Jesus started to call disciples who were fishermen on the lake. The first four disciples were fishermen and cousins to each other: Simon and his brother Andrew, and James and his brother John. Many people started to follow Jesus and out of these followers he chose eight more disciples to make up the twelve. The twelve men shared Jesus’ actual life and ministry of preaching.
The cousins John and Andrew had started off as disciples of John the Baptist who was baptizing people in the River Jordan in Judea. Jesus went to John the Baptist at the river to be baptized. When he came up out of the water there was a sign that Jesus was indeed the Messiah – something like a dove descending from heaven lighted upon him and the Father’s voice was heard. John and Andrew then left John the Baptist excited to follow Jesus.
John the Baptist’s mission was preparatory to Jesus mission. Technically speaking John was Jesus’ first cousin once removed. John’s call to true religion was to lead to him being thrown into prison.
Merry and True 