Ch. 12, The Return from Rome
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
The Return from Rome
Jesus arrived in Rome without announcement and left the same way. It took his friends almost a year to realize that he had left. The people that Jesus taught either in person or in small groups of two or three found themselves drawn together around his teachings. They continued to meet and discuss his lessons up until the first preachers of the new Christianity found their way to Rome.
Jesus, Gonod, and Ganid walked the Appian Way while all of their merchandise was sent ahead by pack train to Tarentum. Along the road lived many Greek and Roman colonists and they met people from many lands. One day while resting over lunch, Ganid asked Jesus what he thought of India’s caste system. Jesus told Ganid that differences in people’s abilities and moral, social, mental, and physical endowments can appropriately differentiate people into many classes, but that those designations mean nothing except to us. According to God there are only two groups of people: those who want to do God’s will, and those who do not. Nothing else matters: God is truly no respecter of people. Everyone stands on equal footing before our Father; we are to make no distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of humanity when assembled for worship in the presence of God. As far as how the many types of celestial entities in the universe view any inhabited world, there are mortals who know God and those who do not—the latter being considered no more than animals of that realm.
Mercy and Justice
As they were approaching Tarentum they happened on a bully beating up a younger boy. Jesus intervened and held the bully back until the smaller boy could run away. When Jesus let go of the bully, Ganid jumped in and started to beat him up. Again Jesus intervened, this time holding back Ganid as the bully escaped down the road. Ganid, excited and gasping for breath, wanted to know why Jesus had stopped him—if mercy required saving the boy, did not justice then demand punishing the offender?
Jesus explained that mercy is the work of the individual, while justice is the function of the government. Jesus was beholden to show mercy and rescue the boy, but that was all. It was not his place to then sit in judgement of the bully and punish him. Mercy is lavish, but justice must be precise. No two people would ever agree exactly as to what punishment the bully deserved, so those decisions are best left to the people and groups that society chooses to make those decisions.
Ganid asked Jesus what he would do if someone attacked him and tried to kill him. Jesus could not tell Ganid everything because he could not yet reveal who he was. But Jesus did say that he would first determine if the person attacking him was a son of God, and if not he would do whatever it took to defend himself regardless of what happened to the other person. But if the person was a brother in sonship with God, Jesus said he would not hit back: that he would do everything he could to talk the person out of hurting him, but that was all. Jesus told Ganid that he had absolute faith that his Father was watching over him and that no real harm could ever happen to him.
Catching the Boat at Tarentum
On arrival in Tarentum they went to the docks to catch the boat to Nicopolis and then Corinth. While waiting, they saw a man hitting his wife. Jesus went up behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder, and then asked him if they could talk in private for a moment. After Jesus took the man aside, he asked him what had occurred that was bad enough to cause him to beat his wife in public? Jesus went on to say that he was sure the man had a good heart: that if he found Jesus by the side of the road beaten by robbers, that he would do everything in his power to help him. So why was such a big good-hearted man hitting the mother of his children? Did she do something to deserve it, or did he just lose his temper?
Jesus’ words and his compassionate look touched the man’s heart. Thinking that Jesus was probably a priest of the Cynics, the man thanked Jesus for restraining him and promised to live better in the future. Before parting, Jesus told him to always remember that a man has no rightful authority over a woman unless she has willingly and voluntarily given him that right. He said that the love and consideration that a man shows his wife and children are the measure of his creative and spiritual self-consciousness. Men and women are partners with God in creating new eternal souls, and it is God-like to share that journey on equal terms. Love your children as God loves you, and you will love and cherish your wife as God honors and exalts the Infinite Spirit Mother of the children of a vast universe.
Gonod was listening in on this conversation, and although he said nothing he vowed that he would change his household when he returned to India.
At Corinth
Corinth was the largest city in the Mediterranean after Rome and Alexandria, and it mingled people from three continents. Later when Paul preached there for eighteen months, he met many people who had talked with Jesus, known to them as the Jewish tutor of the son of an Indian merchant.
The three met Crispus who was in charge of the synagogue, and Justus who was a merchant who lived close by. Jesus and Ganid spent much of their time visiting these two men and their families. Jesus had over twenty conversations with Crispus on advanced religious ideas, and those talks eventually led Crispus to become one of the chief supporters of the Christian church that Paul organized there years later. Ganid meanwhile, spent his time watching how Crispus and Justus managed their Jewish family life. At first he was shocked, and then charmed, at the status of women in a Jewish home.
One evening as Jesus and Ganid were out walking, two prostitutes offered them their services. Ganid became angry and told them to go away. Jesus calmed him down, and said that even though he meant well he was not in a position to sit in judgement on the two women. He went on to ask Ganid if he knew what had happened in in these women’s lives to cause them to choose this line of work? The two ladies were even more surprised than Ganid at what Jesus said.
Jesus continued speaking to Ganid in front of the women. He said that while God is in our human minds guiding us, there are also many natural tendencies in our being that serve us and humanity. At times, especially in a world dominated by sin, selfishness, and the need to have money to survive people get confused and have a hard time seeing their way forward. As I look on these two women I do not see anything wicked in their faces. Rather, I see much sorrow and suffering in their past, all leading up to discouragement and them surrendering to the pressures of the moment by taking this type of work. Some people are wicked and do bad things, but do these two women look bad or wicked, he asked Ganid? Ganid stammered out a “no” in response, and apologized. Jesus then said that they were all going to go to their friend’s house and figure out a better way forward for the women. When the four of them showed up at Justus’ house, Jesus asked his wife Martha to make them all something to eat. He then said he thought that maybe Martha would like to talk with these two women, and help them find a new start in life. Jesus and Ganid then left to return home leaving the three women alone. Martha did as Jesus asked, and while the elder of the two women died shortly after this, she did so with the hope of eternal life. The other lady went to work for Justus, and later became a member of the new Christian community.
Personal Work in Corinth
Jesus counselled many people while in Corinth. To the miller he advised grinding up the grains of divine truth to make them easier for even the weak to receive, and to be sure to serve his truth according to the other person’s ability receive it. To the Roman centurion he said give to your Caesar those things that are his, and to give to God the things that are God’s. There is no conflict between the two as long as Caesar does not presume to claim what is God’s. To the Mithraic priest Jesus said he was in error looking for God in humanity’s mysteries and philosophies, and to instead know that God in Heaven has sent his spirit to live in all people and that you are a son of God if you truly want to be like him. To the Epicurean teacher he said the greatest thrill of the human experience was knowing the spirit of God inside you, and embarking on the almost endless journey to the personal presence of God in Heaven. To a Greek contractor he said that while you build houses for people here on Earth, do not neglect to build your own mansion in eternity: that there is a city built on truth and righteousness whose maker is God. To a Roman judge Jesus reminded him that as he judges people now, someday he too will be judged by the rulers of the universe: be just and merciful and you can expect the same. To a young man who had run away, Jesus said to remember that he could never run away from himself or from God inside of him, so quit lying to yourself, determine to be a real man, and go forth living with courage and the assurance you are a son of God with eternal life. And to the condemned criminal Jesus said that if your repentance is true and your faith is sincere, you can ask God for forgiveness and you need not fear meeting the judgement of the heavenly courts.
After two months in Corinth, Gonod had finished his business and the three set sail in a small boat for Athens.
At Athens: The Talk on Science
Athens was the ancient cultural center of Greek knowledge during the Alexandrian empire that had reached all the way to India. Gonod did not have business in Athens, so he spent his time with Jesus and Ganid listening in on their talks. One evening Jesus had a long conversation over dinner with a Greek philosopher about science.
Jesus said that religions exalt eternal values, science deals with physical energy, and philosophy is the wisdom that best brings the two together. Logic works in the material world and mathematics is true when limited to physical things, but neither is dependable when applied to life problems. Life includes stuff not material. In other words, mathematics says if one man can sheer a sheep in ten minutes then ten men could sheer it in one minute. But life would not allow that. Also, a group of people working in harmony produces much more than the strict sum of their numbers. Both science and religion need to shed their dogma and open themselves to criticism before we can find the unity needed to know the truth about our universe.
At Ephesus: The Talk on the Soul
After leaving Athens, Jesus, Gonad, and Ganid made their way to Ephesus, the Roman capital of Asia. The people there still worshiped the mother goddess of ancient times. After Ganid out of caution bought a small silver shrine to honor the fertility goddess, he and Jesus had a long talk about the problems of worshiping things made by mortal hands. When they met a young man discouraged that another worker had been promoted over him, Jesus comforted him by explaining that a person’s gift from God, if nourished, makes room for them before illustrious people. And when a Greek philosopher asked Jesus the meaning of the word “soul,” he said that the opportunity to grow with God and eventually become an eternal soul one with God is freely given to all mortals by our Father in Heaven when they make their first moral choice as a child: that an actual spirit of God enters the person’s mind and works to guide their actions, but that it is then their responsibility to continue choosing God’s will. Jesus explained that people who grow in their ability to do so are assured of survival status, but that people who remain stagnant or who willingly choose against God’s will eventually lose any desire to know God: they lose their survival potential and their personalities cease to exist when they die.
The ability to self-reflect that arises when a mortal is guided by the divine is what separates us from animals. Animals are conscious of being alive, but they do not have the ability to question why they are alive. Conflict happens when there is a lack of harmony between a person’s moral self-consciousness and their purely intellectual beliefs. Until we reach eternal perfection with God, the individual soul-in-the-making exists between the material and spiritual realms and cannot be proven by either. Yet regardless of science or religion not being able to prove the existence of the soul, every person who has received their spirit of God can know their evolving soul as a real experience.
The Stay at Cyprus: The Talk on Mind
Their journey around the Mediterranean was coming to an end, so the three decided to sail to Cyprus and camp in the hills to rest. They enjoyed themselves for the first couple of weeks, and then all of the sudden Ganid became deadly sick. They were camped too far away from anyone to go for help, so Jesus and Gonad cared for him right there as the fever ravaged his mind and body. As Ganid improved they had time to talk, and at one point he again questioned Jesus on the difference between higher human and lower animal consciousness.
Jesus said that if what starts as a human mind does not receive the spirit of God and hence only matures through physical sensations, it cannot attain God. It would be an animal mind without moral bearing, a sense of eternal values, or a guiding spiritual presence giving it survival status. But a human mind gifted with God’s spirit is self-reflective; it is not bound by time and space, and as the mortal and divine increasingly become one it is reflected in those people’s lives. Jesus explained that evolving souls cannot survive a dual allegiance to both good and evil—that the disruption to the mind will eventually destroy it. Instead, we live best when wholly dedicated to the will of our Father in heaven by boldly embracing the truth and overcoming evil with the power of good.
After Ganid was well, the three came down from the hills and set sail for Antioch on the Syrian coast. When they arrived, Gonod took care of his business while Jesus and Ganid wandered around the city. While they talked with fewer people this time, Ganid did get the chance to practice what Jesus had taught him. There was a man working for Gonod who was angry because he did not like the job he had been assigned and he was going to quit. Ganid took it on himself to speak to this man, and while he did improve the man’s understanding of God it was the ancient Hebrew proverb that kept him on the job: “Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do that with all of your might.”
When Gonod had finished his business in Antioch, they loaded twenty camels with all of their luggage for the journey across the desert to Ur. When Ganid saw Jesus helping the caravan drivers prepare for the trip, he asked Jesus in amazement if there was anything that Jesus could not do? Jesus just smiled and replied “The teacher surely is not without honor in the eyes of a diligent pupil.”
Ur was the birthplace of Abraham and home of the ruins and traditions of Susa. Jesus wanted to spend several weeks investigating the city before they continued on their way. While there, Jesus and Ganid talked again about wisdom and knowledge. Jesus told him that wisdom was the principal thing, so get wisdom; when looking for knowledge, get understanding.
The day arrived for the three friends to part ways: they were all sad but brave. Telling Jesus good-bye, Ganid said it was not forever and that he would look for him the next time that he was in Damascus. Ganid told Jesus that he thought that our Father in Heaven must be something like him, because Jesus was so much like how he had described God. Ending his farewell, Ganid said he would never forget Jesus’ teachings, but most of all he would never forget him, the man. The father, Gonod, told Jesus that he was an excellent teacher and that he had made Ganid and him better men; that he had helped them to better know God. Jesus replied “Peace be on you, and may the blessing of the Father in heaven ever abide with you.”
With that the three departed to never see one another again. Ganid went on to be an eminent businessman like his father, and he spread many of the noble truths he had learned from Jesus, his beloved teacher. He never did know that Joshua, his Jewish tutor, was the later Jesus of Nazareth. For Jesus, this parting of the ways with Gonad and Ganid signaled the end of his time as Joshua, the teacher.