Ch. 45, Last Visit to Northern Perea
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
Last Visit to Northern Perea
Jesus and the twelve apostles stayed with Abner and the women’s corps in northern Perea for over a week. Everyone was doing well and Jesus repeatedly pointed out that the gospel could now spread without miracles. Abner and his crew worked the entire three months with little help from the apostles. Their focus was on Jesus’ teachings, and not so much his personality. But this did not last long: soon after the resurrection Jesus’ followers put his teachings aside and instead founded the early church around ideas of miracles and glorified memories of Jesus’ divine-human personality.
The Pharisees at Ragaba
On Saturday, February 18th Jesus was in Ragaba. A wealthy Pharisee named Nathaniel lived there, and since many of his fellow Pharisees were following Jesus and the twelve around the country Nathaniel made breakfast for everyone, about twenty in all, and invited Jesus to be the guest of honor.
By the time Jesus arrived most of the Pharisees along with a few lawyers were already seated at the table. After Jesus entered the room he walked straight over to his seat to the left of Nathaniel and sat down without first making a ceremony of washing his hands. Many of the Pharisees, especially those who followed Jesus, knew that he only washed his hands when they were dirty and that Jesus abhorred these types of religious rules. So while they were not surprised that Jesus did not wash his hands, Nathaniel was shocked: Jesus was breaking one of the Pharisees strictest laws.
Nathaniel began whispering with one of the unfriendly Pharisees who was sitting on his right side, while other Pharisees across the table from Jesus were lifting their eyebrows and curling their lips back sneering. After tolerating their disrespect for a while, Jesus said “I thought you invited me here to have dinner with you, and maybe to ask me about the new gospel of the kingdom. But now it seems to me that you brought me here to watch you celebrate your own self-righteousness. Since you have now done me that favor, what will you do next to honor me as your guest this morning?’
After Jesus spoke, everyone looked down at the table and remained silent. Jesus said “Many of you Pharisees are here with me as friends, some of you are even my disciples. But the majority of you continue to refuse to see the light and truth, even when the work of the gospel is shown to you with majestic power. You carefully clean the cups and plates for your earthly food, while the vessels for your spiritual food are filthy and polluted! You make sure to look holy and pious to the people, but your souls are filled with greed, extortion, self-righteousness, and all manner of spiritual wickedness. Your leaders even dare to plot against me and plan the murder of the Son of Man. Do you foolish men not understand that God looks at the inner motives of the soul as well as your outward charades of holiness? Do not think that giving out charity and paying your temple tax will wash away your unrighteousness and let you stand clean in front of the Judge of all humanity.’
“Pity on you Pharisees who continue to reject the light of life! You make sure to pay the temple tax and you make a ceremony of giving to beggars so that everyone knows how supposedly pious you are, but you knowingly reject God’s visit and snub the revelation of his love. While it was okay to attend to your minor duties, you should not have left undone the more important requirements of the kingdom. Misery on anyone who shuns justice, spurns mercy, and rejects truth! Anguish on everyone who despises the Father’s revelation while seeking the highest seats in the synagogue and craving flattery and recognition in the markets!”
As Jesus was about to stand to leave, one of the lawyers said “But Master, in some of the things you are saying you are also scolding us. Is there nothing good in the scribes, lawyers, or Pharisees?”
Jesus stood up and said “You, just like the Pharisees, take pleasure in wearing long robes and being the first to eat at the feasts while you put heavy burdens dreadful to carry on people’s shoulders, and when people’s souls stagger under these heavy loads you will not even lift a finger to help them. Woe to you who take your greatest delight in building tombs for the prophets that your fathers killed! The fact that you agree with what your fathers did is shown by how you are now planning to kill those who are coming today and doing what the prophets did in their day: announcing the righteousness of God and showing his mercy to all people.’
But of all the generations that are past, the blood of the prophets and the apostles will be required of this stubborn and self-righteous generation. Misery on all of you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge from the common people! You yourselves refuse to enter the way of truth, and at the same time you try to stop anyone else from entering. But you cannot shut the doors of the kingdom like that. These doors we have opened to everyone who has the faith to enter. These portals of mercy will not be closed by the prejudice and arrogance of false teachers and untrue shepherds, who like freshly painted burial crypts beautiful on the outside are filled with dead people’s bones and all types of spiritual filth on the inside.’
Jesus left Nathaniel’s house without eating. Some of the Pharisees who heard Jesus that morning entered the kingdom, but most of them stayed in darkness and became even more determined to catch Jesus doing something against the Jewish law. There were three acts of outward devotion that the Pharisees insisted people obey: paying the temple taxes, not associating with anyone who was not a Pharisee, and strictly following the laws of purification, in other words washing your hands before and during meals. During this breakfast Jesus showed the Pharisees how paying the temple tax and washing their hands had no spiritual meaning: he held back on scolding them for not associating with non-Pharisees.
The Ten Lepers
The next day Jesus and the apostles walked to Amathus near the border with Samaria. As they approached the city they ran into a group of ten lepers who were camped along the way. Nine of these lepers were Jews and one was a Samaritan. Ordinarily the ones who were Jews would not have anything to do with this Samaritan, but since they all had leprosy they put their prejudice aside. These men had heard much about Jesus and his miracles. Since the seventy evangelists made it a practice to tell everyone whenever Jesus was going to visit, they knew ahead of time that he was coming. With the hope of attracting Jesus’ attention as he walked by, the lepers had moved their camp to the outskirts of the city to keep watch for him. When the lepers saw Jesus coming down the road they did not dare to go up to him, so instead they stood back a way and yelled out “Master have mercy on us; cleanse us from our disease. Heal us like you have healed others.”
Jesus had just been explaining to the twelve apostles why the gentiles and less orthodox Jews in Peria were more willing to believe the gospel than the more orthodox and tradition-bound Jews in Judea. He had also called their attention to the fact that their message had been better received by the Galileans and even the Samaritans. But the twelve apostles were still not yet willing to release their ill will toward the long-despised Samaritans. So when Simon Zelotes saw the Samaritan with the lepers, he tried to convince Jesus to walk right by the group and straight into the city without even slowing down to say hello. Jesus said “But what if the Samaritan loves God as well as the Jews? Should we sit in judgment on others? Who can tell? If we make these ten men whole, perhaps the Samaritan will prove more grateful than even the Jews. Do you feel certain about your opinions, Simon?”
Simon quickly said “If you heal them, you will soon find out.”
Jesus said “So be it, Simon, and you will soon know the truth regarding people’s gratitude and the loving mercy of God.”
Jesus approached the lepers and said “If you want to be healed, go right now and show yourselves to the priests as required by the law of Moses.”
As the men went to do this they were made whole. When the Samaritan saw that he was being healed he turned back, and while he was looking for Jesus he began to shout out his glory for God. When he did find Jesus he fell on to his knees at his feet and thanked him for his healing. The other nine lepers, the Jews, had also realized that they were being healed, but while they were grateful for their cleansing they also continued on their way to show themselves to the priests.
As the Samaritan kneeled at Jesus’ feet Jesus looked around at the twelve, especially at Simon Zelotes, and said “Were not ten people healed? Where then are the other nine, the Jews? Only one, this foreigner, has returned to give glory to God.” Then Jesus said to the Samaritan, “Get up and go your way; your faith has made you whole.” Jesus again looked at his apostles as the stranger left and not one of them said a word. Neither did Jesus: it was not needed.
All ten of these men had believed they had leprosy, but only four of them—including the Samaritan—were actually lepers; the other six were suffering from a skin disease that was mistaken for leprosy. Jesus urged the twelve to not say anything about him healing the ten men. As they continued on and into Amathus, he said “You see how it is that the children of the house, even when they are not faithful to their Father’s will, take their blessings for granted. They think it is a little thing if they do not give gratitude when the Father heals them, but the strangers when they receive gifts from the head of the house are filled with wonder, and they feel they have to show their gratitude for the good things they have received.” And still the apostles said nothing.
The Sermon at Gerasa
As Jesus and the twelve visited with David’s messengers at Gerasa, one of the Pharisees who was in the kingdom said “Lord, will there be few or many that are saved?”
Jesus replied “You have been taught that only Abraham’s children will be saved, and that only the adopted gentiles can hope for salvation. Some of you have reasoned that since the scriptures say out of the people who escaped Egypt only Caleb and Joshua entered the promised land, that in the same way only a few of those who look for the kingdom of heaven will be able to enter it. And you have another saying that contains much truth, ‘That the way that leads to eternal life is straight and narrow, so that of all of those who are looking for salvation only a few can enter it.’ ‘You also have a teaching that says the way to destruction is broad—that the entrance to it is wide and that there are many people who choose this path.’ This proverb is not without its meaning. But I am telling you that salvation is first a matter of your personal choosing. Even if the door to the way of life is narrow, it is wide enough to admit all who sincerely want to enter it because I am that door. The Son will never refuse entrance to any child of the universe who by faith wants to find the Father through the Son.’
“But here is the danger for everyone who wants to wait to enter the kingdom while they continue to pursue immature pleasures and give into their selfishness: after having refused to enter the kingdom as a spiritual experience they may want to enter the kingdom later when the glory of the better way is revealed in the age to come. If so, when those people who refused the kingdom when I came in the likeness of humanity look to enter when it when I am revealed in the likeness of divinity, then I will tell those selfish ones ‘I do not know you. You had your chance to prepare for this heavenly citizenship but you refused all offers of mercy: you rejected all invitations to come while the door was open.’ Now to you who have refused salvation, the door is shut. This door is not open to those people who would enter the kingdom for their own selfish glory. Salvation is not for those who are unwilling to pay the price of wholehearted dedication to doing my Father’s will. When in soul and spirit you have turned your backs on the Father’s kingdom, it is useless in mind and body to stand before this door and knock saying ‘Lord, open to me: I would also be great in the kingdom.’ Then I will state that you are not of my fold. I will not receive you among those who have fought the good fight of faith and won the reward of unselfish service in the kingdom on Earth. When you say ‘Did we not eat and drink with you, and did you not teach in our streets?’ then again I will tell you that you are spiritual strangers; that we are not fellow servants in the Father’s ministry of mercy on Earth; that I do not know you, and then will the Judge of all the Earth say to you ‘Depart from us all of you who have taken delight in knowingly sinning against the will of God.’
“But the rest of you fear not: everyone who sincerely desires to find eternal life by entering the kingdom of God is sure to find that everlasting salvation. But you who refuse this salvation will someday see the prophets of Abraham sit down with the believers of the gentile nations in this glorified kingdom to enjoy the bread and water of life. Those who will take the kingdom by living faith and spiritual power come from the North and the South, and from the East and the West. And observe, many who are first will be last and those who are last will many times be first.” This was a new and strange version of the old and familiar proverb of the straight and narrow way.
Slowly the apostles and many of the disciples were understanding the meaning of Jesus’ earlier statement, “Unless you are born again, born of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Still, to all who have honest hearts and are sincere in faith it remains eternally true, “Know this: I stand at the doors of people’s hearts and knock, and if people will open to me I will come in and I will eat with them and I will feed them with the bread of life; we will be one in spirit and purpose and we will forever be brothers in the long and fruitful search for the Paradise Father.” So whether few or many are to be saved entirely depends on how many will accept the invitation. “I am the door, I am the new and living way and whosoever wills may enter to embark on the endless search for truth and eternal life.”
Teaching about Accidents
While most Palestinians only ate twice a day, it was Jesus and the apostles’ custom when traveling to stop at noon for rest and lunch. During one of these breaks on the way to Philadelphia, Thomas said “Master, after hearing your remarks this morning I want to know whether spiritual beings have anything to do with strange events in the material world, and also whether the angels and other spirit beings are able to prevent accidents.”
Jesus replied “How long have I been with you, and yet you still ask me these questions? Have you failed to see how the Son of Man lives as one with you, and how he consistently refuses to use the forces of heaven for his personal needs? Do we not all live in the same way that all people live? Do you not see the power of the spiritual world in the material life, or do you only see the Father when he sometimes heals his children?’
“For too long your fathers have believed that prosperity was the sign of divine approval; that adversity was the proof of God’s displeasure. I am telling you that those beliefs are superstitions. Do you not see that many more of the poor joyfully receive the gospel and immediately enter the kingdom? If riches are proof of God’s favor, why do so many rich people refuse to believe this good news from heaven?’
“The Father causes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust. In the same way the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous. You know about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, but I tell you those Galileans were no more sinners than their brothers just because that happened to them. You also know about the eighteen men who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Do not think that those men were killed because they were the worst sinners in Jerusalem: they were simply the innocent victims of one of the accidents of time.’
“There are three types of events that can happen in your lives. You can share in the normal life experience that comes about as you all live your material lives on Earth; you can fall victim to a natural accident or someone’s mistake knowing full well that such misfortune was in no way prearranged or otherwise caused by the spiritual forces of the realm, and you can reap the harvest of your direct efforts in compliance with the natural laws governing the world.’
“There was a man who planted a fig tree in his yard and over several seasons of looking for fruit and finding none, he called his gardeners in front of him and said “I have come here for three years in a row looking for figs from this tree, and I have found none. Cut down this barren unfruitful tree: why should it take up space in the ground?’
“But the head gardener said ‘Leave it alone for one more year so that I can dig around it and put fertilizer on it, and then next year if it still does not bear fruit it will be cut down.’ Since the tree was good and living when they had thus followed the laws of fruitfulness they were rewarded with a full harvest.’
“When it comes to health and sickness you should know that these bodily states are the result of material causes: health is not the smile of heaven, neither is disease the frown of God.’
“People have equal ability to receive material blessings and our Father gives physical things to his children without discrimination. When giving spiritual gifts the Father is limited by the person’s ability to receive them: although he is no respecter of persons, he is limited by people’s faith and by their willingness to always abide by his will.”
As they journeyed on toward Philadelphia, Jesus continued to teach the apostles and answer their questions about miracles, sickness, and accidents. But one hour of teaching will not wholly change the beliefs of a lifetime, so Jesus found it necessary to repeat his messages many times. Even then the apostles did not understand Jesus’ reason for being on Earth until after his resurrection.
The Congregation at Philadelphia
Jesus and the apostles visited Abner and his gospel messengers in Philadelphia. Of all of the cities in Perea, Philadelphia had the largest group of people—rich and poor, Jews and gentiles, educated and uneducated—who believed in the gospel and had entered into the kingdom. The Philadelphia synagogue had never been subject to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, and it had never closed its doors to Jesus’ teachings: at that time Abner was teaching there three times a day. In later years this synagogue became a Christian church and the missionary headquarters for spreading the gospel into the Eastern lands. It was long a stronghold of Jesus’ teachings and stood alone in this region as a center of Christian thought for centuries.
There had always been animosity between the Jews in Jerusalem and the Jews in Philadelphia. After Jesus’ resurrection the Jerusalem church—of which James, Jesus’ brother, was the leader—began to have serious problems with the believers in Philadelphia. Abner became the head of the Philadelphia church and remained its leader until his death. The separation that resulted from these disagreements with Jerusalem explains why Abner and his work is not mentioned in the New Testament. This feud between Jerusalem and Philadelphia lasted throughout James and Abner’s lives, and then it continued on for some time after the destruction of Jerusalem. Philadelphia was the real headquarters of the early church in the South and East, just like Antioch was in the North and West.
It was apparently Abner’s misfortune to be at odds with all of the leaders of the early Christian church. He fell out with Peter and James (Jesus’ brother) over questions of jurisdiction and administration, and he parted company with Paul over the differences they had in theology and philosophy. Abner was more Babylonian than Hellenic in his philosophy and he stubbornly resisted all of Paul’s attempts to change Jesus’ teachings so that they were less objectionable, first to the Jews and then to the Greco-Roman’s who believed in the mysteries.
Abner was forced to live an isolated life. He was the head of a church that had no standing in Jerusalem. He had dared to defy James, Jesus’ brother, who Peter later supported. These actions worked to separate him from all his former associates. Then he dared to go up against Paul. Although he was wholly sympathetic with Paul in his mission to the gentiles, and although he supported Paul in his disagreements with the church at Jerusalem, he bitterly opposed Paul’s version of Jesus’ teachings. In his last years of life, Abner denounced Paul and called him the “clever corrupter of the life teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God.”
During Abner’s later years and for even some time afterward, the people in Philadelphia held to Jesus’ life and teachings more than any other group of people on Earth. Abner lived to be 89 years old dying in Philadelphia on November 21, A.D. 74.