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Jesus’
earthly life was devoted to one great purpose—doing the Father’s
will, living the human life religiously and by faith. [2090:1] Never
lose sight of the fact that the supreme spiritual purpose of the
Michael bestowal was to enhance the revelation of God. [1331:4]
Jesus,
the incarnated Christ Michael, is a Paradise Son of the Michael
order, a Creator Son, and we are instructed that each Creator Son
has to win and earn the unchallenged authority to rule his local universe,
a congregation of ten million inhabited worlds, thousands of
architectural spheres and trillions of mortal and celestial beings.
The last phase in a Creator Son’s gaining full sovereignty over
his creation is the seventh bestowal, an incarnation, which happens
only once during his career and always in the likeness of a human,
the lowest creature with survival potentials and capacity.
In
the course of the previous six bestowals Michael had done the will
of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit and the will of all possible
combinations of the members of the Paradise Trinity. On the seventh
and last bestowal he was to do and live exclusively the will of the
Paradise Father, the Father of all.
Christ
Michael’s, the Son of Man’s and the Son of God’s life was a
manifestation of God. In and through all this extraordinary
experience, God the Father chose to manifest himself as he always
does—in the usual way—in the normal, natural, and dependable way
of divine acting [1331:6]. From the philosophic viewpoint it is good
to note that Jesus’ life and teachings did not constitute an
absolute manifestation of the Father’s will; rather a finite
manifestation thereof. The finite aspect of God is called God the
Supreme; and God the Supreme is the maximum that a human being is
capable of realising of God and of Deity. We are instructed that
Jesus had embarked upon a programme of revealing the Supreme.
(1324:4)
The
Father’s will is that a mortal man becomes perfect even as the
Father himself is perfect. With respect to humans, this exhortation
concerns finite perfection. Jesus, the Son of Man, was fully true to
this expression of the Father’s will; Jesus the man achieved
finite perfection during his short mortal life of mere 36 years. And
he did so as a human, without recourse to his divine prerogatives;
he did achieve this perfection with the assistance of a Thought
Adjuster, and in incessant communion with his Paradise Father; and
every human being can potentially achieve the same. In so doing he
demonstrated to all humans on this planet and on all of the ten
million planets of his universe that it is possible to be true to
this mandate of the Father; it is possible to become perfect even
as the Father is perfect (1604:10, 2092:0, 2092:2).
Said
Jesus: “This entire relationship of a son to the Father, I know in
perfection, for all that you must attain of sonship in the eternal
future I have now already attained. The Son of Man is prepared to
ascend to the right hand of the Father, so that in me is the way now
open still wider for all of you to see God and, ere you have
finished the glorious progression, to become perfect, even as your
Father in heaven is perfect.” [1604:8]
The
Father of all has ordained that the perfecting of the creations of
time and space shall happen slowly but surely, through the long and
arduous evolutionary process with abundant assistance and ministry
provided by his subordinates, the celestial beings, but without
direct divine intervention and interference. Jesus, the Son of
Man, was ever faithful to this expression of the divine will. He
experienced the same evolutionary ordeals, trials and
disappointments as every human being has to experience, struggle
with and go triumphantly through. The Son of Man became at a certain
date conscious of his divine origin, his true nature, but he
refused to resort to demonstrations of his divine powers, to
miracles, the assistance of “twelve legions of angels” or
other superhuman forces. No, he accomplished everything in the
usual, normal, natural and dependable way (1425:2—6). Jesus was
not to interfere in the biologic constitution of mankind,
consequently he did not leave human offspring on this planet. Jesus
respected the normal evolutionary process of this world, even if
he, a dispensational Son as he was, was granted certain privileges
pertaining to the advancement of the spiritual and religious status
of the peoples of the world. (1330:0)
The
mission which Michael’s seventh bestowal as Jesus of Nazareth
consisted of is revealed in a concise manner in the instructions
imparted by Immanuel prior to Michael’s becoming incarnated as
Jesus; some of these instructions were arrived at in consultation
with Gabriel (1325:3— 1330:6). These instructions included the
following items and commissions, which must needs be expressions of
the will of his Paradise Father: His finite creature’s will was to
become one with the will of the infinite Creator (1328: 3). He was
to reveal God to man, and man to God (1328:5). He was to make a
contribution to the sovereignty of the Supreme (1328:3). He was to
be in unbroken communion with his Paradise Father (1326:1). He was
not to become an example for his human subjects to imitate or
follow in detail, he was rather to become an inspiration (1328:4).
He was to function in the role of a teacher, not that of a king or a
temporal ruler, not as a priest, preacher or founder of a new cult
or institutionalised religion (1328:2; 1330:1). He was not to become
the subject of idolatrous veneration (1330:2). He was to set man
spiritually free (1328:3), he was to devote his efforts to man’s
spiritual regeneration and intellectual emancipation (1329:5). He
was not to become a political leader or become entangled with the
economic structure of the world (1329:5). He was to liberate the
minds of men from age-old fears (1328:2). He was to live an ideal
religious life (1329:5). He was to minister to the physical
well-being and material comfort of his contemporaries; he was to
give “some attention to the realization and exemplification of
some things practical and immediately helpful” to his fellow men
(1328:2; 1329:3). Jesus was to terminate the Lucifer rebellion in
the system of Satania and to do it as the Son of Man, as a human
being (1327:2); it is most noteworthy that Jesus was to terminate
the rebellion as a mortal of this rebellion-tainted world, in
weakness made powerful by his submission to the will of the Father.
He was to end his bestowal with the pronouncement of a
dispensational judgment and the termination of the post-Adamic age,
and the concomitant resurrection of mortal survivors and a
declaration of a new dispensation, that of the Spirit of Truth
(1328:1). Jesus of Nazareth was to pour out the Spirit of Truth, and
thus, among other things, make the universal bestowal of Thought
Adjusters possible (1328:3).
Apart
from what Immanuel laid out as the plan which Michael of Nebadon had
to implement as Jesus, Joshua ben Joseph, we have been instructed
that every human needs to gain experience in child rearing, either
down here on earth or in the morontia worlds.
Jesus
accomplished, implemented and achieved all of the above. It was his
mandate, his mission. It was God’s will with regard to his seventh
bestowal.
1.
The Way Jesus Discovered the Father’s Will
Jesus
was and is a man and a God. He is this combination, which is
incomprehensible to a human being and to most of the celestial
beings as well. This combination is a secret of Sonarington, and
will for ever remain beyond the comprehension of beings other than
the order of Michaels.
Yet,
he was born and he lived and died on this word as any human, he was
a man among men. He experienced the same physical, mental and
spiritual growth, the same struggles, doubts, uncertainties and
efforts to discover and know the Father’s will as any human being
does. He experienced the same triumphs, convictions and certainties
as every human can experience; and he did all of that in unbroken
communion with his Heavenly Father, just like any human may do.
His
spiritual development was gradual growth, assisted by the Father
fragment (1425:1).
The
infant Jesus, who was born on 21 August 7 bc, spent the first years
of his life in Bethlehem, Alexandria and finally Nazareth just
like any boy of his time and age. On 11 February, 2 bc he made his
first wholehearted moral decision, and a Thought Adjuster came to
indwell his mind, just as happens with every child at about the
same age. The Thought Adjuster was a very experienced one, due to
his having served Machiventa Melchizedek almost 2000 years
before that memorable date. In likeness with all children of all
times, Jesus was not aware of the arrival of the Thought Adjuster.
Early
in his life Jesus went through the normal evolutionary development
of any child, including a primitive personal religion based on
traditional but incorrect notions of the nature of God. He was
reared by his parents, Joseph and Mary, as a Jew and was educated in
the doctrines and dogmas of the traditional Hebrew religion. Yet,
very early in his life he started questioning these dogmas, and he
sought answers to his incessant questions from his parents and
finally also from the chazan of the Nazareth synagogue, the teacher
of his school. The young Jesus evinced profound interest in
everything he observed around him, but more particularly in things
invisible. He likewise challenged some meaningless Jewish religious
habits and practices, like that of touching a parchment attached to
the door jamb.
He
used to say his traditional prayers the way his parents had taught
him to do, but this was not fully satisfactory to him. After he had
said his prayers, he usually spent some time in having “just a
little talk with my Father in heaven.” This was the beginnings of
his being in unbroken communion with his Father. We may benefit
significantly if we pay attention to what is reported about his
youthful talks and communions with his heavenly Father: he had
finally decided to “talk with my Father who is in heaven”; and
while he was not perfectly sure about the answer, he rather felt ...
[1365:4].
If
we present-day humans are not always sure about the answer, it is
nothing to worry about. But we do wisely if we, in a situation like
that, refrain from declaring our own thoughts as divine answers and
do not act as if we were doing the will of the Father. Over the
years, I have observed that many people, also Urantia Book readers,
act in an unwise manner in these situations. A great deal, maybe
all, of the difficulties that our youthful Urantia Book reader
community has been experiencing have their root causes in this human
tendency to declare one’s own thoughts, ideas, interpretations,
notions and desires to be absolute divine mandates, God’s commandments.
This then has resulted in fanaticism and ruthless ways of implementing
those purely human notions and ideas, even if they are in flagrant
violation or circumvention of mandates and instructions which
can, beyond all reasonable doubt, be regarded as having been issued
by our superhuman friends.
Time
and again his parents would find Jesus “sitting off by himself
with his youthful head in his hands, profoundly thinking”. Jesus
was a thinker, a deep thinker and planner. He discovered the will of
the Father in thinking—in comparing his own thoughts with thoughts
that he found truthful, beautiful, good and loving, and assumed that
they must be his heavenly Father’s thoughts.
The
first supernatural event in Jesus’ life occurred in the evening of
8 April ad 7, during his first Passover visit to Jerusalem, when
flood tides of spiritual illumination swept through the mortal mind
of Jesus ... and during the night, for the first time in his earth
career, there appeared to him an assigned messenger from Salvington,
commissioned by Immanuel, who said: “The hour has come. It is time
that you began to be about your Father’s business.” [1376:1]
Apart
from this visit of the Salvington messenger, who was voicing
ultimately the will of the Father, Jesus himself was still uncertain
about the origins of the thoughts in his mind; but he felt for
example that the slaughter and sacrifice of thousands of animals at
the Jerusalem temple was not what his heavenly Father required or
was pleased with. Yet, Jesus was day by day becoming more and more
conscious of what was in accordance with his Father’s will and
what was not. Even if Jesus did not as yet enjoy direct communication
with his Adjuster he knew the will of the Father, whose thoughts
became ever clearer to him.
Jesus,
the twelve year boy, a “son of the law” and a member of the
commonwealth of Israel, felt that after his first Passover in
Jerusalem he had to spend some time at the house of his Father, the
Jerusalem temple, and he was curiously forgetful of his earthly
parents at this point. For a number of days he participated in the
temple discussions baffling the learned rabbis with his penetrating
questions and comments. Yet, a few years later, he felt that it was
puerile, and did not want to have any part of those discussions ever
more. This again instructs us to the effect that we sometimes feel
very passionately about certain issues, which a while later seem
to have lost much or even all of their importance. This is just an
indication of growth; nothing to worry or feel shame about. This
temple incident, however, reflected also Jesus’ struggle to find a
solution to his dilemma of loyalties and allegiances: whether to be
about his heavenly Father’s business or to be a dutiful son to his
earthly parents. His pronounced decision was: “While I must do the
will of my Father in heaven, I will also be obedient to my father on
earth.” [1384:7] From now on, he was constantly facing the need
to decide between the affairs of this world and the contemplation of
his relation to his Father’s business [1386:2]. Only a short while
later Jesus had to determine whether to become involved in the patriotic
movement or not, whether in this issue to frustrate the will and
disappoint the desires of his mother and his relatives or not. He
faced a similar situation when he had to determine whether to join
the rabbinic academies or not, or whether to become a rabbi of the
mighty Alexandria synagogue himself. In his case these two options
of political involvement and rabbinical education ran counter to the
instructions he had been given by Immanuel—but about which Jesus
at this point of his life was ignorant—so his choices were
unquestionably his and his alone. Each time he had to determine his
stance with regard to the institutions of society and the usages of
the traditional Jewish religion, he used the criterion: What does it
do for the human soul? Does it bring God to man? Does it bring man
to God? (1388:5). We present-day Urantians are oftentimes facing
these same dilemmas; but in our case the correct choice is not
necessarily what Jesus chose, yet we may apply the same criterion.
When
Jesus was fourteen years of age, his father died accidentally, and
Jesus had to assume the responsibility of caring for his widowed
mother and his seven siblings. This was the opportunity for him to
gain an extensive experience of six years in child rearing,
including the care for a newly born infant, because the youngest
of his sisters, Ruth, was not even born at the time of her
father’s death. His earthly father Joseph’s death thus
determined the course of Jesus’ life for many years to come,
because he became the actual father to his brothers and sisters.
During
these years of working hard to win the bread for his family as a
carpenter, a boatbuilder and finally as interpreter and tutor, he
had the opportunity of learning to know practically every aspect of
the life of humans, so to become our understanding and compassionate
brother. All of that was according to the will of his Father in
heaven. His designing a new type of boat which was then used in
boating on the Sea of Galilee, serves as an example of his
implementing the mandate that he had to realise something practical
for the comfort of his contemporaries.
The
restatement of the fourth epochal revelation gives an account on the
earthly career of Jesus and reports, year by year, about his
efforts to control his mind, to achieve a unity between his mind and
the divine mind, to understand himself and his true nature, his
doubts and his feelings of uncertainty with regard to his mission,
whether he was the expected Jewish Messiah or not. The process of
gaining full mastery of his mind and full communion with his Thought
Adjuster continued for many years, all the way up to the moment of
his baptism on 14 January ad 26.
In
his fourteenth and fifteenth years he began to be self-conscious of
[his] divinity and destiny before he achieved a large measure of
communication with his indwelling Adjuster [1386:1]. During his
sixteenth year Jesus reached full physical growth and the full
growth of his human intellect (1395:7). As concerns his seventeenth
year, this year Jesus made great progress in the organization of his
mind. Gradually he had brought his divine and human natures
together, and he accomplished all this organization of intellect by
the force of his own decisions and with only the aid of his Monitor
[1398:4]. During his twentieth year, he is learning how to adjust
his ideals of spiritual living to the practical demands of earthly
existence ... He is steadily acquiring the art of adjusting his
aspirations to the commonplace demands of the human occasion. He has
very nearly mastered the technique of utilizing the energy of the
spiritual drive to turn the mechanism of material achievement ...
he is learning how to transform the difficulties of time into the
triumphs of eternity [1405:4]. In his twenty-first year he obtained
knowledge, gained experience, and combined these into wisdom, just
as do other mortals of the realm [1407:8]. During his
twenty-fourth year, ad 18, Jesus communed much with his Father in
heaven and made tremendous progress in the mastery of his human mind
[1414:4].
About
his twenty-fifth year we are told that he was engaged in seasons of
deep meditation and contemplation of his future activities
(1416:3), and we are led to understand that these seasons of deep
meditation occurred whenever and wherever, even when he was
working in his repair shop. As concerns his twenty-sixth year, we
learn that he was fully conscious of his potential powers, but that
he decided not to use those powers as the Son of Man. His
determination to do the will of his heavenly Father was replete
(1416:6; 1417:1). During his twenty-seventh year reportedly Jesus
made great advances in the ascendant mastery of his human mind and
attained new and high levels of conscious contact with his
indwelling Thought Adjuster [1421:4]. During his twenty-ninth and
thirtieth years, the years of his Mediterranean and Caspian tours,
ad 23 and 24, Jesus well-nigh completed his educational
contact-training with the many peoples of the world (1424:2). On
this Mediterranean journey Jesus made great advances in his human
task of mastering the material and mortal mind, and his indwelling
Adjuster made great progress in the ascension and spiritual conquest
of this same human intellect. By the end of this tour Jesus
virtually knew—with all human certainty—that he was a Son of God
[1424:4]. Yet he was still the Son of Man. He had not yet achieved
the complete mastery of his human mind; the Adjuster had not fully
mastered and counterparted the mortal identity. He was still a man
among men [1424:5].
The
purely human religious experience—the personal spiritual
growth—of the Son of Man well-nigh reached the apex of attainment
during this, the twenty-ninth year [1425:1]. Throughout these years,
while he did not appear to engage in so many seasons of formal
communion with his Father in heaven, he perfected increasingly
effective methods of personal communication with the indwelling
spirit presence of the Paradise Father [1425:2].
We
may learn much from these statements. The process to reach
meaningful communion with one’s Thought Adjuster is long, lasting
decades, but Jesus, the Son of Man, demonstrated that it is possible
of achievement even during the days in the flesh. Nonetheless, I
guess, that most of us need to wait till our sojourn on the mansion
worlds until we will be capable of this achievement. Another
observation to make and pay heed to is the fact that Jesus did not
engage in formal prayers or any rituals to attune to the presence
of God, rather his communion was constant, incessant; he truly
acted upon the fact that our Father is present always and everywhere;
he sees us all the time.
By
the end of the twenty-ninth year Jesus of Nazareth had virtually
finished the living of the life required of mortals as sojourners in
the flesh ... he had now become well-nigh the perfection of man
awaiting the occasion to become manifest to God. And he did all of
this before he was thirty years of age [1426:1].
Concerning
Jesus’ thirtieth year we learn that the year was one of the more
unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of Man; great
progress was made in effecting working harmony between his human
mind and the indwelling Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively
engaged in reorganizing the thinking and in rehearsing the mind of
the great events which were in the not then distant future ... These
were the in-between times, the transition stage of that being who
began life as God appearing as man, and who was now making ready to
complete his earth career as man appearing as God [1484:4].
In
his thirty-first year, ad 25, his Thought Adjuster led Jesus up to
the slopes of Mount Hermon that he might finish his work of
mastering his human mind and complete the task of effecting his full
consecration to what remained of his mission on earth. The Mount
Hermon episode of the last three weeks of August and the first three
weeks of September marked the termination of Jesus’ purely human
career (1492:6—7). During these six weeks of isolation he finished
the task of achieving the cosmic circles of mind-understanding and
personality-control. And upon this period only the final phase of
mind and Adjuster attunement remained to be consummated (1493:3).
It was then and there, during the last week of his sojourn on Mount
Hermon that Jesus, the Son of Man, wrestled victoriously in spirit
with Caligastaia and Satan, who represented Lucifer. This episode is
described as the final trial of human loyalty in the face of the
misrepresentations of rebel personalities [1493:5].
Then
and there, on an afternoon in late summer, amid the trees and in the
silence of nature, Michael of Nebadon won the unquestioned
sovereignty of his universe. On that day he completed the task set
for Creator Sons to live to the full the incarnated life in the
likeness of mortal flesh on the evolutionary worlds of time and
space ... the Lucifer rebellion in Satania and the Caligastia
secession on Urantia were virtually settled [1494:2].
The
celestial announcement of Jesus’ having completed his career as a
man among men, of his having achieved the perfection of human life,
happened on 14 January ad 26, at the moment of John’s baptising
him, when a voice was heard announcing: “This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased.” (1494:2, 1504:4). We need to take note of
this piece of information concerning the baptism: It is ... evident
that Jesus in no sense received John’s baptism as a rite of
repentance or for the remission of sins. In accepting baptism at the
hands of John, Jesus was only following the example of many pious
Israelites [1511:0].
When
Jesus was baptised, he was a mortal of this world who had attained
the fulness of human evolutionary ascension in all matters related
to the conquest of mind and to self-identification with the spirit.
He was now a perfected mortal. Perfect synchrony and full
communication had become established between his mortal mind and
the indwelling Adjuster (1511:1). Jesus would have fused with his
Adjuster, but since this mortal of the realm was also the Creator
Son, the Adjuster instead took leave of the perfect soul of Joshua
ben Joseph just to return a few moments later back from Divinington
as a Personalised Adjuster. It was this Personalised Adjuster that
made the announcement on Jesus’ being the beloved Son. Jesus was
now fully conscious of his status of a Creator Son.
After
the baptism Jesus retired to the hills of Perea for forty days, to
plan for the next phase of his life on earth, the phase of the
proclamation of the kingdom of heaven.
2.
The Way Jesus Lived the Will of God
Many
of the aspects of how Jesus lived the will of God have been given a
short discussion in the previous section whose primary focus was on
the ways he discovered that will, and I shall not repeat them in
this section of the presentation.
The
following statement gives us a summary of Jesus’ religious life:
The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this consciousness
of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and
sincere worship—unbroken communion with God—and not by leadings,
voices, visions, or extraordinary religious practices. [2089:0]
Jesus
was a finite revelation of his Paradise Father. This means that his
perfect life was a revelation of the divine way of living a human
life, and his teachings were a finite revelation of the absolute
ideas and thoughts of his Paradise Father. One of the reasons why
his Father and our Father could so fully manifest himself through
Jesus was his self-forgetfulness: When we stand confronted by such
splendid self-forgetfulness, we begin to understand how the
Universal Father found it possible so fully to manifest himself to
him and reveal himself through him to the mortals of the realms.
[2088:4]. This statement is addressed also to us, his fellow
mortals. What we do for the good of our fellows is important and it
opens the ways for our Father to manifest himself to them, the self
is not important.
In
the course of his short life on earth Jesus fulfilled every aspect
of the instructions given by Immanuel and Gabriel prior to his
seventh bestowal. His will became one with the will of the infinite
Creator. He revealed God to man, and man to God. He was in
unbroken communion with his Paradise Father. He did not become an
example for humans; he became an inspiration which made his
followers turn the word upside down—let alone that it happened in
a way that was beyond his control. He acted the public part of his
life as a teacher. He did everything to prevent the idolatrous
veneration of his person in his life time. He gave an enormous
contribution towards man’s spiritual regeneration and intellectual
emancipation. He did not become a political leader; yet he gave
some advice and imparted certain visions concerning the political
developments of the world. He did not become entangled in the
economic structure of the world, even if he again imparted good
advice and ethical instructions concerning the management of
wealth. He told his apostles: “It is not the will of the Father
that I should yield to the temptation to teach you rules of
government, trade, or social behaviour” [1576:6]. He contributed
mightily towards the liberation of the minds of men from age-old
fears. He lived an ideal religious life. He ministered to the
physical well-being and material comfort of his contemporaries. He
terminated the Lucifer rebellion and the Caligastia secession as
the Son of Man. He did declare a dispensational judgment of the
sleeping survivors. And finally he did pour out the Spirit of Truth.
Jesus
did not establish a new institutionalised religion. Jesus is not the
founder of Christianity. Christianity is a work of his followers
and supporters, who turned the saving gospel of Jesus about the
Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man into a religion about
Jesus. But Jesus did establish a religion, it was part of his
mission: Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing
the will of God and serving the human brotherhood; Paul founded a
religion in which the glorified Jesus became the object of worship
and the brotherhood consisted of fellow believers in the divine
Christ. In the bestowal of Jesus these two concepts were potential
in his divine‑human life, and it is indeed a pity that his
followers failed to create a unified religion which might have given
proper recognition to both the human and the divine natures of the
Master as they were inseparably bound up in his earth life and so
gloriously set forth in the original gospel of the kingdom. [2092:4]
Religion
is the exclusively spiritual experience of the evolving immortal
soul of the God-knowing man. [1739:5]
This
was ... an effort of Jesus’ part to make clear the fact that
religion is a personal experience. [1629:4]
I
do not pretend to be able exhaustively to capture every aspect of
Jesus’ life, nature and teachings. I can only select a few of
the innumerable features and facets of his life and teachings and
try to present a personal interpretation of them in a way that would
be applicable in the lives of present-day kingdom-builders and
serve the faith-sons of today in their struggles and quest for
truth. Because Jesus’’ life and teachings are to serve as an
inspiration for all of us I shall focus on features and facets that
are useful, sometimes startling, yet easily ignored and forgotten.
2.1.
The Human Jesus, How Was He Like?
Said
Jesus: “Tell my children that I am not only tender of their
feelings and patient with their frailties, but that I am also
ruthless with sin and intolerant of iniquity. I am indeed meek and
humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and
relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and
sinful rebelling against the will of my Father in heaven.”
[1766:5]
Jesus
was aggressive. This startling pronouncement is made seven times in
the restatement of the fourth epochal revelation. He also told his
apostles and followers to be aggressive: “you are also to be
valiant in defence of righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of
truth, and aggressive in the preaching of this gospel of the
kingdom, even to the ends of the earth.” [1931:5]
The
pictures of Jesus have been most unfortunate. These paintings of the
Christ have exerted a deleterious influence on youth; the temple
merchants would hardly have fled before Jesus if he had been such a
man as your artists usually have depicted. His was a dignified
manhood; he was good, but natural. Jesus did not pose as a mild,
sweet, gentle, and kindly mystic. His teaching was thrillingly
dynamic. He not only meant well, but he went about actually doing
good [1590:1].
Fidelity
was a cardinal virtue in his estimate of character, while courage
was the very heart of his teachings. “Fear not” was his
watchword, and patient endurance his ideal of strength of character.
The teachings of Jesus constitute a religion of valour, courage, and
heroism [1582:1].
A
common view on Jesus is that he was a man of sorrows and pain, a
mystic, a well-meaning but impractical fanatic and a pathetic
dreamer, a word reformer whose schemes for world betterment did completely
and miserably crash and fail. Or, in another view he was and
continues to be nice, one who condones anything and everything.
Jesus was none of that. Jesus was not a soft-spoken mystic, he was
forceful and aggressive; yet he was not a gloom person of worries
and anxieties, but yes, he was harsh from time to time, and yet he
was cheerful and loving; he was not a weakling, he was courageous
and inspiring; he was not a solitary hermit, no, he was easy of
approach, sociable and friendly. Jesus loved men, women and
children, he trusted them, even if he realised their frailties,
fears, dishonesty, selfishness—and all of the dark sides of man.
Even if forceful and aggressive, Jesus was not overpowering,
condescending or schoolmasterly. His way of teaching was unique: not
once did he attack the errors and flaws in anybody’s ideas or
thoughts, but he so illuminated what was correct and right in those
thoughts that his discussion partners themselves saw their errors
and mistakes. Even if he advocated the policy of nonresistance to
evil, it was not because of weakness, rather because it was a
positive way of acting in a startling and surprising way, a way to
give the aggressor a chance to reconsider.
Jesus
required his followers to react positively and aggressively to every
life situation. The turning of the other cheek, or whatever act that
may typify, demands initiative, necessitates vigorous, active, and
courageous expression of the believer’s personality [1770:1].
Jesus’ advice was: Do not make the mistake of fighting evil with
its own weapons [1580:2].
Jesus
gave these instructions to his apostles and other followers, but I
venture to guess that he would give the same instructions also to
us, his modern followers: You are not to be passive mystics or
colourless ascetics; you should not become dreamers and drifters,
supinely trusting in a fictitious Providence to provide even the
necessities of life ... you are also to be valiant in defence of
righteousness, mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive
in the preaching of this gospel of the kingdom, even to the ends of
the earth [1931:5].
What
Jesus required of his contemporaneous followers, concerns also us,
his later-day followers and believers. Jesus made many, many
statements which completely contradict the picture of him as an
embodiment of human goodness, justice and fairness. That they
contradict our notions of goodness, justice and fairness should make
us reconsider our notions. Jesus said: Extend sympathy to the brave
and courageous while you withhold overmuch pity from those cowardly
souls who only halfheartedly stand up before the trials of living.
Offer not consolation to those who lie down before their troubles
without a struggle [1766:7].
It
is God’s will that we progress, grow, become better; that we make
the effort, that we struggle and strive; because if we do not, we
retrogress, be slide back to something inferior. To stand still is
no alternative, no option at all. Jesus told his apostles that
they could not stand still; they must go forward in righteousness or
retrogress into evil and sin ... He besought them not to be content
with their childhood in the gospel but to strive for the attainment
of the full stature of divine sonship in the communion of the spirit
and in the fellowship of believers [1736:3]. He said also: “You
cannot stand still in the affairs of the eternal kingdom. My Father
requires all his children to grow in grace and in a knowledge of the
truth.” [1917:1]
The
feature of forcefulness and courage in Jesus’ life and teachings
is a feature that has not figured prominently in traditional
Christian religion.
Jesus
was selective. Even if Jesus was opposed to discrimination and
declared that the kingdom of heaven is for all, for the souls of
Jew and gentile, Greek and Roman, rich and poor, free and bond,
young and old, male and female, all men of all ages and of all
social conditions among all peoples (1536:3, 1593:6, 1608:3), he was
also selective. “Verily, verily, I say to you, not every one who
says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but
rather he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
[1569:1]. Now, to you who have refused salvation, the door is shut.
This door is not open to those who would enter the kingdom for
selfish glory. Salvation is not for those who are unwilling to pay
the price of wholehearted dedication to doing my Father’s will ...
it is useless in mind and body to stand before this door and knock,
saying ‘Lord, open to us; we would also be great in the
kingdom.’ Then will I declare that you are not of my fold. I will
not receive you to be among those who have fought the good fight of
faith and won the reward of unselfish service in the kingdom on
earth. And when you say, ‘Did we not eat and drink with you, and
did you not teach in our streets?’ then shall I again declare that
you are spiritual strangers; that we were not fellow servants in the
Father’s ministry of mercy on earth; that I do not know you.”
[1829:1]
He
called for discrimination and wisdom in winning souls for the
kingdom and proclaiming the gospel. Jesus said: “Present not
that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine,
lest they trample your gems under foot and turn to rend you”
[1571:5]. But the statement looks harsher than what it is. The dog
or the swine are those who make themselves dogs and swine, those
who are unreceptive of truth. In his reply to Ganid who was shocked
when Jesus seemed not to want to engage a certain person, a pagan,
in a soul-saving conversation, Jesus said: “Ganid, the man was not
hungry for truth. He was not dissatisfied with himself. He was not
ready to ask for help, and the eyes of his mind were not open to
receive light for the soul. That man was not ripe for the harvest of
salvation ... You cannot reveal God to those who do not seek for
him; you cannot lead unwilling souls into the joys of salvation. Man
must become hungry for truth as a result of the experiences of
living, or he must desire to know God as the result of contact with
the lives of those who are acquainted with the divine Father”
[1466:2].
What
are we to learn from this? The situation with regard to the fifth
epochal revelation in this respect is no different from what it
was with regard to the fourth. It would be equal to “presenting
that which is holy to dogs” should we toss The Urantia Book into
the hands of every mortal on this planet; they might “turn to rend
us.” It is wise to keep the revelation of truth accessible only to
those who “hungry for truth.” It is a mistaken assessment that
every man would be hungry for truth and receptive of a revelation.
The state of the world is a clear indication that they are not; most
people must be like the pagan: satisfied with themselves. To be
dissatisfied with oneself is the prerequisite for one’s asking for
help and having one’s mind open to “receive light for the
soul.”
There
was one more limiting aspect. Said Jesus: “Need I remind you that
they who are whole need not a physician, but rather those who are
sick? I have come, not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
[1541:0] There is no point in trying to win for gospel those who
already are in the kingdom of heaven. Also this aspect has some bearing
on the dissemination of the restatement of the fourth epochal
revelation, for example under the guise of separate publications of
Part IV of The Urantia Book; yet not so much so with regard to the
dissemination of the fifth epochal revelation, which can be of
great benefit even to the faith-sons of God, to those who already
are in the kingdom of heaven.
Yet
another aspect in this respect is what is revealed to us in these
words: So few mortals are real thinkers .. The ear of the human mind
is almost deaf ... [1213:1]. It requires a great deal of thinking,
it requires an open ear of the mind if one is to benefit from the
fifth epochal revelation. To disseminate these teachings among
people who are not real thinkers and whose mind is closed is equal
to “casting pearls before swine”. These are Jesus’ words:
“You cannot compel men to love the truth.” [1713:0]
Jesus
was also relentless and uncompromising. This is true when a choice
had to be made between truth and error, but it must not be
understood to mean that he had not exercised discretion and wisdom
in earthly and non-spiritual issues. He decided not to resort to
wonderworking or miracles in promotion of the kingdom of heaven:
Would it be consistent with “the Father’s will” for the divine
mind to make this concession to the doubting nature of the human
mind? Jesus decided that it would not [1520:4]. He likewise decided
against all compromise with the wisdom of the world and the
influence of riches in the establishment of the kingdom. He again
chose to depend exclusively on the Father’s will [1520:5].
Jesus
refused to compromise with evil, not to speak of consorting with sin
(1521:3). “Tell my children that I am not only tender of their
feelings and patient with their frailties, but that I am also
ruthless with sin and intolerant of iniquity. I am indeed meek and
humble in the presence of my Father, but I am equally and
relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and
sinful rebelling against the will of my Father in heaven.”
[1766:5]
That
he was a nonconformist was a natural consequence of the fact that
his life and teachings constituted the fourth epochal
revelation. But here again, he was non-conformist only in religious
and spiritual matters; otherwise he was a law-abiding citizen of a
Roman subject nation, whose standard reply to questions related to
earthly governments was, “render unto Caesars, what is Caesar’s,
and unto God what is God’s.” The same concerns his having been a
member of the Hebrew nation and its religion. He was true to
Immanuel’s instructions: “As you may see fit, you are to
identify yourself with existing religious and spiritual movements as
they may be found on Urantia.” Jesus himself said: “But do not
make the mistake of thinking that I have come to set aside the law
and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill, to
enlarge and illuminate. I come not to transgress the law but
rather to write these new commandments on the tablets of your
hearts.” [1576:2]
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