Ch. 65, Just before the Crucifixion
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
Just before the Crucifixion
As the guards led Jesus off to see Herod he turned to the Apostle John and said “John, you can do no more for me. Go to my mother and bring here to see me before I die.” John, though he was reluctant to leave Jesus alone with his enemies, quickly ran to Bethany where Jesus’ entire family was gathered at Mary and Martha’s house.
Several times during the morning messengers had brought news about Jesus’ trial. But Jesus’ family did not reach Bethany until just a few minutes before John arrived with the word that Jesus wanted to see his mother before he was killed. After John Zebedee had told them everything that had happened since Jesus’ arrest at midnight, Mary, Jesus’ mother, went at once with John to see her eldest son. By the time Mary and John reached the city, Jesus along with the Roman soldiers who were going to crucify him had already arrived at Golgotha. Ruth refused to stay behind with the rest of the family; since she was determined to go with her mother, her brother Jude went with her. The rest of Jesus’ family stayed in Bethany under James’ care, and almost every hour David Zebedee’s messengers brought them reports about the terrible business of killing their older brother, Jesus of Nazareth.
The End of Judas Iscariot
It was about half past eight o’clock in the morning when Jesus was given to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. As soon as the Romans took possession of Jesus, the captain of the Jewish guards marched his men back to their temple headquarters. The members of the Sanhedrin and others followed closely behind the guards and went to their usual meeting place in the temple. Here they found many of the other members of the Sanhedrin waiting to learn what had been done with Jesus. As Caiaphas was making his report to everyone about Jesus’ trial, Judas came before them to claim his reward for his part in Jesus’ arrest and death sentence.
Every single one of these Jews despised Judas; they looked on the betrayer with nothing but utter contempt. Throughout Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas and during his appearance before Pilate, Judas’ conscience assaulted him for his traitorous conduct; he was also now disillusioned about the reward he was supposed to receive for betraying Jesus. He did not appreciate the coolness he was feeling from the others: still, he expected to be well rewarded for his cowardly conduct and to be called before a full meeting of the Sanhedrin to be praised and honored for the enormous service he flattered himself having done for his nation. Imagine then this egotistical traitor’s utter surprise when one of the servants under orders of the high priest tapped him on the shoulder, called him outside the hall, and said “Judas, I have been told to pay you for betraying Jesus. Here is your reward,” handing Judas a bag with thirty pieces of silver: the current price of a good healthy slave.
Judas was stunned: dumfounded. He tried to go back into the hall but was stopped by the doorkeeper who would not let him enter. Judas could not believe that these Jewish rulers would let him betray his Master and friends, and then only offer him thirty pieces of silver as a reward. Judas was humiliated, disillusioned, and utterly crushed. He walked away from the temple in a trance automatically dropping the money bag deep into his pocket—the same pocket where he had for so long carried the apostles’ funds. Then Judas wandered out of the city following the crowds on their way to watch the crucifixions.
From a distance Judas saw them raise the cross piece with Jesus nailed on it, and on seeing this he rushed back to the temple and forced his way past the doorkeeper. At once Judas found himself standing in front of the Sanhedrin, which was still in session. The betrayer, hysterical and almost breathless managed to stammer out, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. You have insulted me. You have offered me money, the price of a slave, as a reward for my service. I repent that I have done this—here is your money. I want to escape the guilt of this deed.”
The Jewish rulers mocked Judas, and one of them sitting close to where he was standing pointed to the door and said “Your Master has already been killed by the Romans, and as for your guilt, what is that to us? Get out, and you see to that!”
As Judas left the Sanhedrin’s chamber he threw the thirty pieces of silver over the temple floor. The betrayer was almost beside himself: Judas was passing through the experience of realizing the true nature of sin. All the glamor, fascination, and intoxication of wrongdoing had vanished. Now the evildoer stood alone and face to face with his disappointed and disillusioned soul’s verdict. Sin was bewitching and adventurous when committing it, but now the harvest of the naked and unromantic facts had to be faced.
This onetime ambassador of the kingdom of heaven on Earth now walked through the streets of Jerusalem alone and abandoned. His misery was complete. He walked on through the city and outside the walls and on down into the terrible loneliness of the Hinnom valley. There he climbed up the steep rocks, and taking his cloak he tied one end to a small tree and the other end around his neck and cast himself over the cliff. Before he was dead the knot that his nervous hands had tied gave way and the traitor’s body was broken into pieces as it fell on the jagged rocks below.
The Master’s Attitude
When Jesus was arrested he knew that his work on Earth in the likeness of mortal flesh was over. He knew full well what kind of death he would face, and he had little concern about the details of his so-called trials. Before the Sanhedrin court Jesus refused to reply to lying witnesses, and he steadfastly refused to speak in the wicked and curious Herod’s presence. Before Pilate he only spoke when he thought that Pilate or some other sincere person would be helped to a better knowledge of the truth by what he said. There was just one question that would always get an answer whether it was asked by a foe or a friend, and that was about the nature and divinity of his mission on Earth. When Jesus was asked if he was the Son of God, he always answered. Jesus had taught his apostles the uselessness of casting their pearls before swine and now he dared to practice what he taught. At the time he showed the patient submission of the human nature joined with the solemn dignity and majestic silence of the divine nature. He was altogether willing to discuss with Pilate any question about the political charges brought against him that were the governor’s jurisdiction.
Jesus was convinced that it was the Father’s will that he submit himself to the ordinary course of human events, just like every other human must. He refused to use even his human persuasive powers to influence the plotting of his spiritually blinded and socially nearsighted fellow mortals. Although Jesus lived and died on Urantia, his whole human career was an exhibition designed to guide and influence the entire universe he created and is continuously maintaining.
These shortsighted vulgar Jews were screaming for Jesus’ death while he stood there in awful silence looking on the death rattle of a nation, that of his own earthly father’s people. Jesus had that type of human character that could assert its dignity and keep its composure in the face of continuous and unjustified insult. He could not be intimidated. When he was at first assaulted by Annas’ servant, he only suggested that it was correct to call witnesses who would testify against him. From beginning to end in his kangaroo court before Pilate, the onlooking celestial hosts could not stop themselves from broadcasting this horrific scene to the universe as “Pilate on trial before Jesus.”
When Jesus was before Caiaphas and when all of the lies offered against him had broken down, he did not hesitate to answer the chief priest’s question and in doing so give him, through his own words, the reason the Sanhedrin wanted to convict him of blasphemy. Jesus never showed any interest in Pilate’s well-meant but halfhearted efforts to get him released. He pitied Pilate and sincerely tried to enlighten his darkened mind. He was impassive to all of the governor’s appeals to the Jews to withdraw their criminal charges. Throughout the whole sad ordeal Jesus carried himself with quiet majesty and simple dignity. He would not even hint at the insincerity of his would be murderers when they asked him if he was the king of the Jews. With only a brief explanation, Jesus accepted the designation knowing that by the Jews refusing to accept him he would be the last person to ever give them real national leadership, even in a spiritual sense.
Jesus said little during these trials, but he said enough to show the Earth the kind of human character that a person can achieve when they are in partnership with God. He also said enough to reveal to all the universe how God can be seen in the lives of those people who choose to do the Father’s will, and in that way become an active son of the living God. Jesus’ love for ignorant people is shown by his patience and self-confidence in the face of the jeers, blows, and beatings of the rough soldiers and the unthinking servants. He was not even angry when they blindfolded him and hit him in the face cynically saying “Prophesize to us who it was that hit you.”
Pilate spoke more truly than he knew when, after Jesus had been whipped, he presented him before the crowd and yelled “Behold the man!” Indeed, the fear-ridden Roman governor little realized that at just that moment the entire universe stood to attention as all continued to gaze down on this scene of its beloved ruler being humiliated by the blows and taunts of his darkened and degraded human subjects. As Pilate spoke throughout all of Nebadon there echoed “Behold God and man!” Since that day across the universe untold millions have continued to behold that man while the God of Havona, the supreme ruler of the universe of universes, accepts that man of Nazareth as the ideal of the mortal creatures of this local universe of time and space. In his matchless life Jesus never failed to reveal God to humanity. Now in these final episodes of his mortal career and in his later death he made a new and touching revelation of humanity to God.
The Dependable David Zebedee
Shortly after Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers a squad of temple guards ran out to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus’ followers, but long before they arrived everyone had scattered: the apostles and disciples had gone to their hiding places, and the Greeks had spread out and gone to various homes in Jerusalem. David Zebedee, sure that Jesus’ enemies would return, had early on moved five or six tents up the ravine close to where Jesus had before prayed so many times. There he intended to hide and at the same time maintain a center for his messenger service. David had just left the camp when the temple guards arrived, and since they found no one there they contented themselves with burning it before hurrying back to the temple. On hearing the guards report, the Sanhedrin was satisfied that Jesus’ followers were so thoroughly subdued that there would be no danger of an uprising or any attempt to rescue Jesus from his executioners. At last they were able to breathe easily; they ended the meeting and every man went his way to prepare for the Passover dinner.
As soon as Pilate turned Jesus over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified, a messenger hurried off to Gethsemane to inform David. Within five minutes of him receiving it runners were on their way to Pella, Sidon, Hebron, Shechem, Damascus, Bethsaida, Alexandria, and Philadelphia. These messengers carried the news that Jesus was about to be crucified by the Romans at the insistence of the Jews.
Throughout this tragic day until the message finally went out that Jesus had been laid in the tomb, David sent messengers about every half hour to the Greeks, the apostles, and Jesus’ family gathered in Lazarus’ home in Bethany. When the messengers left with word that Jesus had been buried, David dismissed his corps of local runners for the Passover celebration and coming Sabbath telling them to report to him quietly on Sunday morning at Nicodemus’ home where he intended to hide for a few days with Andrew and Simon Peter.
The peculiar-minded David Zebedee was the only one of the leading disciples who literally believed Jesus when he had said that he would die and then “arise again on the third day.” David now intended to gather his messengers early Sunday morning at Nicodemus’ home so that they would be ready to spread the news when Jesus arose from the dead. David soon realized that none of Jesus’ other followers were expecting him to return so soon from the grave. He did not say anything about his belief and nothing at all about mobilizing his messenger force on early Sunday morning except to the runners who had been sent out Friday morning to the distant cities. So Jesus’ followers, scattered throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, celebrated the Passover that night and the next day remained in hiding.
Preparation for the Crucifixion
After Pilate had washed his hands before the crowd trying to escape the guilt of condemning an innocent man to crucifixion because he was afraid to resist the Jews, he ordered Jesus turned over to the Roman soldiers and told the captain to crucify him immediately. The soldiers led Jesus back into the palace courtyard, and after taking off the purple robe that Herod had put on him they dressed him again in his own cloths. These soldiers mocked and derided Jesus but they did not hit him anymore. Jesus was now alone with the Roman soldiers, his friends were in hiding, his enemies had gone their way, and even John Zebedee was no longer by his side.
It was just after eight o’clock in the morning when Pilate turned Jesus over to the soldiers and a few minutes before nine o’clock when they started for Golgotha, the crucifixion hill. During this interval of more than half an hour Jesus never said a word. The executive business of a vast universe was practically at a standstill. Gabriel and the chief rulers of Nebadon were either assembled here on Earth, or else they were closely watching the archangels’ space reports trying to stay advised as to what was happening to the Son of Man on Urantia.
By the time the soldiers were ready to leave with Jesus for Golgotha they were impressed by his unusual composure, extraordinary dignity, and uncomplaining silence. Much of the delay in starting off for Golgotha was because at the last minute the captain had decided to take along two thieves who had been condemned to die. Since Jesus was to be killed that morning, the Roman captain decided these two would die with him instead of waiting for the end of the Passover. As soon as the thieves were made ready they were led into the courtyard where they gazed on Jesus, one of them for the first time: the other had often heard Jesus speak, both in the temple and many months before at the Pella camp.
Jesus’ Death in Relation to the Passover
There is no direct relationship between Jesus’ death and the Jewish Passover. True, Jesus did lay down his life on this day—the day of preparing for the Jewish Passover—and at about the same time that the Passover lambs were killed in the temple. But this coincidence does not in any way mean that the Son of Man’s death on Earth has any connection with the Jewish sacrificial system. Jesus was a Jew, but as the Son of Man he was a mortal of the realms. The events already told and leading up to this hour of Jesus’ impending crucifixion are sufficient to show that his death at about this time was a purely human and natural affair.
It was people, not God, who planned and executed Jesus’ death on the cross. True, the Father refused to interfere with the course of human events on Urantia, but the Father in Paradise did not decree, demand, or require the death of his Son as it was carried out on Earth. It is a fact that in some manner, sooner or later, Jesus would have had to get rid of his mortal body—his incarnation in the flesh—but he could have done so in countless ways without dying on a cross between two thieves. All of that was our doing, not God’s.
By the time of Jesus’ baptism he had already finished what was needed to complete his seventh and last universe bestowal: at that time Jesus’ duty on Earth was done. All the life he lived afterwards, and even his death, was purely a personal ministry on his part for the welfare and uplifting of his mortal creatures on this world and others. The gospel of the good news, that people can by faith become spirit-conscious that they are sons of God, is not dependent on Jesus’ death. True, all of this gospel of the kingdom has been tremendously illuminated by Jesus’ death, but even more so by his life.
All that the Son of Man said or did on Earth beautified the doctrines of sonship with God and the brotherhood of humanity, but these essential relationships of God and humanity are inherent in the universe fact of God’s love for his creatures and the innate mercy of the divine Sons. These touching and divinely beautiful relationships between people and their Maker, on this world and on all other worlds throughout the universe of universes, have existed from eternity; they are not in any sense dependent on these periodic bestowals of the Creator Sons of God who assume the likeness of their created intelligences in acquiring unlimited sovereignty over their respective local universes.
The Father in heaven loved humanity just as much before the life and death of Jesus as he did after this divine demonstration of partnership between God and humanity. This mighty incarnation of the God of Nebadon as a man on Urantia could not enlarge the attributes of the eternal, infinite, and universal Father, but it did enrich and enlighten all other creatures administering the universe of Nebadon. While the Father in heaven does not love us more because of Michael’s time with us, all of the other celestial intelligences do. This is because Jesus not only made a revelation of God to humanity, but he also made a new revelation of humanity to the Gods and to the celestial intelligences of the universe of universes.
Jesus is not about to die as a sacrifice for sin. He is not going to atone for some idea that people are born already guilty of sin: humanity has no such racial guilt before God. Guilt is purely a matter of personal sin and knowing—a person’s deliberate rebellion against the Father’s will and his Son’s administration. Sin and rebellion have nothing to do with the fundamental bestowal plan of the Paradise Sons of God, although it does seem to us that the salvage plan is a temporary feature of the bestowal plan.
God’s salvation for the mortals of Urantia would have been just as certain and effective if Jesus had not been put to death by the hands of cruel and ignorant people. If Jesus had been favorably received by humanity and had left Urantia by voluntarily giving up of his mortal life, the fact of God’s love and the Son’s mercy—the fact of sonship with God—would have in no way been affected. You mortals are the sons of God, and only one thing is required to make that truth a fact in your personal experience: your spirit-born faith.