Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
The Great Decisions: Jesus Decides How He’ll Conduct His Mission
After three days of contemplation and talking things over with his Personalized Adjuster, the heavens were opened to Jesus and he was shown the enormous celestial host that had been gathered from across the vast universe to do his will as needed. Surrounding the Earth and waiting to fill Jesus’s least desire were twelve legions of seraphim, and representatives from every other of the thousands of orders of universe intelligences. Their beloved creator was in mortal form, and they wanted to help him.
Jesus’ first decision was about whether or not he should use these mighty spiritual personalities, and all of the power they possessed as he finished his mission on Earth. His decision was no. He wouldn’t use any of the heavenly help available to him for any reason, unless of course, he decided that it was his Father’s will that he did use it for some reason. To follow through on this decision, Jesus put the entire heavenly army watching from above under the command of his Personalized Adjuster, and for over four years the entire host stood at the ready to assist their creator should he ever need them.
Next, and similar to his first decision, Jesus decided that while he might at times use his creator powers to help others, he’d never use any of his superhuman abilities to meet his own material needs, like to meet his want for food right then and there, because his body was pretty hungry after these first three days on the mountain.
Jesus also decided that acting in self-preservation, like defending himself, and engaging in the other natural bodily urges and desires of a normal man were also things that he wouldn’t do. Jesus supported these conclusions with the scripture that said, man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by the word of God.
Before going on, a note about a technical matter that’ll come into play several times later in this story. While Jesus and his Personalized Adjuster could control or limit what happened when it came to space activities – in other words, acts related to physics and material laws – Jesus had less control when it came to time activities – in other words, the will of God that has already been enacted in the timelessness outside of this bubble we experience as a linear-time event. Because of this, Jesus had to constantly keep the concept of time, which is a mortal and not a spiritual construct, in his awareness. This was because even though Jesus had decided not to break the natural material laws of his universe, if his combined man-God mind desired something that would normally take time, and he didn’t control his thoughts, then that thing his mind wanted would be immediately manifested.
Moving on.
Jesus knew the Jews were expecting a messiah who would show himself to be the messiah by doing even greater miracles than Moses did. And, Jesus knew he could do that kind of stuff and meet those expectations if that was his desire. Instead, he felt sorry for his people, and decided he wouldn’t break his own natural laws just to send the Jews back to their ignorant beliefs in magic, and the degraded practices of the savage medicine men of the past. Jesus’ intent was to show all worlds, not just ours, the better way to earn the rewards of deeper spiritual satisfaction: living by higher moral values. Jesus demonstrated for us that selfishness and gratifying the senses are not enough to bring happiness to people: that intellectual mastery and spiritual achievement bring greater joy than meeting any physical desires.
Next, Jesus had to decide what he would do when faced with danger. He chose to take normal precautions like everyone else to keep himself safe, but without the use of his creator powers. When Jesus was making these decisions, he was sitting in the shade under a tree that was growing right at the edge of a high cliff. He knew that if he wanted to, he could throw himself off of the cliff and nothing would happen to him – at least if he hadn’t already told the angels watching from above not to step-in to help him, and if he hadn’t just made the decision to not use his creative powers to take care of himself.
Jesus knew that the Jews were expecting just the opposite of everything he was going to do. They wanted messiah who would use miracles to save himself and live in glory. That’s how they would know him. All of his life Jesus had heard the scripture that said no evil or plague would affect the messiah because the angels in heaven would always be watching over him. And, in reality, they were, even if they’d been told to stand down. Jesus knew that this scripture came out of human desire, and that it wasn’t of divine origin. Miracles aren’t a revelation of the Father, they’re cheap parlor tricks messing with the established laws of the universe of universes. Hence, Jesus decided he wouldn’t use his superhuman powers to convince people of a personal loving God.
As mentioned earlier, while Jesus wouldn’t abuse his creator powers to break the established laws of the universe which have to do with space, in those events that had to do with time, events which were acted out by his Personalized Adjuster, he had no control. Still, when these time-shortening acts of mercy which were attributed to Jesus did happen, he almost always told the person who benefited from his Father’s healing to tell no one else what had happened. These events often surprised Jesus as much as everyone else, and they’re a mystery to the rest of the universe. This is why on the one hand, Jesus would refuse to do signs or miracles to satisfy the people or to help himself, yet on the other hand miracles of mercy did at times happen without him actually starting them.
Jesus, because he was still both man and God, at times had human doubts. He knew the Jews would reject him if he didn’t perform wonders like they wanted. That was fine. But here’s the catch: Jesus himself, knowing that his mind was made up of both human and divine natures, had to decide if the human side of his being also needed to see a miracle for it to be absolutely sure that Jesus really was who he thought was, and that he wasn’t just confusing himself. The question he had to deal with, was if it would be consistent with his Father’s will if he performed a miracle just for the benefit of himself, and not others? Jesus decided that no, it wouldn’t be right to prove to himself what he didn’t feel was right to prove to others. Instead, he decided that the presence of, and his experience with, his Personalized Adjuster was enough proof for him in the partnership of the human with the divine.
Knowing the ways of men in the world, Jesus had to decide on whether or not to use things like compromise and diplomacy, or worldly wisdom if you would, to persuade the people about God their Father. Again, he decided not to use either, and to rely just on his Father’s will. Caligastia had fallen from grace by trying to circumvent the slow, sure, and natural way of bringing about God’s divine purpose on Earth, and Jesus wasn’t going to do the same by using short-cuts like he’d done.
The problem in all of those cases, was if Jesus would have used his creator powers to gain our love, faith, and loyalty – instead of winning us over simply by showing us our Father’s loving mercy, then those actions wouldn’t have been in perfect harmony, or oneness, with God’s will. In other words, embracing those non-perfect ways of achieving his end purpose was in reality embracing error, that that is not perfect, which is also known as evil. Furthermore, and much worse, by Jesus knowing that he would be making a deliberate decision to choose error, or evil, he’d be, in reality, committing sin. And this, he’d never do. Jesus resisted these temptations that had brought down Lucifer and his crew, and in all cases he put loyalty to his Father’s will before any of his earthly needs.
After making his decisions about whether or not to use his creative powers, Jesus next turned his mind to figuring out how he was going to actually present his message to the people. John had already started the process, and now he had to decide if he was going to take over John’s mission, and if so, how he was going to best organize his followers. Regardless, the decision to go forth and introduce himself to the people in the form of the Son of Man, a mortal, and not as Michael, the eternal creator of our universe, was firm. And to be clear, by refusing to use miracles to win over us over, which would have set-up the possibility that we might then try to find God through miracles, Jesus demonstrated to the entire universe the commandment that, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”
Thinking about all of these decisions took days, and as they passed Jesus came to sense what was going to come. Choosing his Father’s way was the more difficult of the options, and Jesus realized it was not going to be easy, and most likely, bitter. Regardless, he held firm. Jesus was going through a process where his human mind, a product of his upbringing and the times in which he lived, was still asking questions, and in response he was receiving, accepting, and submitting to the divine guidance he received: he was crossing the final stage of the human becoming fully divine.
The idea of fighting or waging war was repulsive to Jesus, yet all of his life his mother had taught him the scriptures glorifying his rise to the throne of David, such as: “The Lord has said to me, ‘You are my Son; this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” In communion with his Personalized Adjuster, Jesus decided, again once and for all, that he would disregard those and any other messianic prophecies related to him or Israel.
Jesus decided that instead, he’d appear on Earth as the Prince of Peace to reveal a God of love. He had only one objective, the revelation of God to man thereby establishing the kingdom of the heavenly Father in the hearts of humanity.
Jesus decided to return to Galilee and quietly begin the proclamation of the kingdom, and while doing so he’d trust his Father, his Personalized Adjuster within, to work out the day-to-day details.
By making these decisions, Jesus set the example for us and mortals on the other worlds of time and space that we can’t use material tests to prove spiritual realities, or temporal power to gain glory from our Father in Heaven. And Jesus was well tested on these choices. Throughout the remainder of his time on Earth, Jesus was constantly confronted with the people’s desires to be fed, their urgings to see him do miracles, and his followers requests that he become king.
Before ending his forty days in the Perean hills, Jesus made his final decision. He pledged to his Personalized Adjuster that in all other matters, just like those decisions he’d already made, he’d be subject to the will of his Father. At that point, Jesus loaded his pack and headed back down the mountain to end his isolation, his face shining with spiritual victory and moral achievement.
Okay, folks, that’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 15, part 2, “Baptism and the Forty Days.”
Next week’s episode is Chapter 16, “Hanging Out In Galilee.”
Have a fantastic week out there.
Bob