Ch. 67, The Time of the Tomb
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
The Time of the Tomb
The day and a half that Jesus’ mortal body was in Joseph’s tomb, that period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in Michael’s career on Earth that is little known to us. We can narrate the burial of the Son of Man and put in this record the events associated with his resurrection, but we cannot offer much authentic information about what occurred during this time of about thirty-six hours—from three o’clock Friday afternoon to three o’clock Sunday morning. This period in Jesus’ career began shortly before he was taken down from the cross by the Roman soldiers where he had hung for about one hour after dying. He would have been taken down sooner but for the delay in killing the two thieves.
The Jewish leaders had planned to have Jesus’ body thrown into the open burial pits at Gehenna, south of the city. That was the custom for disposing of the bodies of the people that they killed. If this plan had been followed, Jesus’ body would have been exposed to the wild beasts. In the meantime, Joseph of Arimathea along with Nicodemus had gone to Pilate and asked that Jesus’ body be turned over to them for proper burial. It was common for friends of crucified people to bribe the Roman’s for their corpse, so Joseph went before Pilate with a sum of money in case it was needed. But Pilate would not take the money: he quickly signed the order authorizing Joseph to go to Golgotha and take full and immediate possession of Jesus’ body. While Joseph and Nicodemus were with Pilate, a group of Jews from the Sanhedrin went out to Golgotha for just the opposite reason: to make sure that Jesus’ body went along with the thieves to the open public pits.
Jesus’ Burial
When Joseph and Nicodemus arrived at Golgotha they found the soldiers taking Jesus down from the cross. The group from the Sanhedrin was there to see that none of Jesus’ followers interfered with his body going to the open pits. When Joseph showed Pilate’s order to the centurion, the Jews protested. In their rage they tried to forcibly take the body, at which point the centurion ordered four of his soldiers to his side and with swords drawn they stood over Jesus’ body. He then ordered the other soldiers to leave their work with the two thieves and drive back the angry mob of infuriated Jews. When order had been restored the centurion read the decree from Pilate to the group from the Sanhedrin, and then stepping aside he told Joseph, “This body is yours to do with as you see fit. My soldiers and I will stand by to see that no one interferes.”
A crucified person could not be buried in a Jewish cemetery: it was strictly forbidden. Instead, on the way out to Golgotha Joseph and Nicodemus decided to bury Jesus in Joseph’s new family tomb carved out of solid rock just north of Golgotha and across the road leading to Samaria. No one had ever rested in this tomb and they thought it appropriate that Jesus should be first. Joseph believed that Jesus would arise from the dead, but Nicodemus was doubtful. These former members of the Sanhedrin had kept their faith in Jesus more or less a secret, though the other rabbis had suspected them for a long time even before they withdrew from the council. But from this point on, they became the most outspoken of Jesus’ disciples in all of Jerusalem.
At about four-thirty Jesus’ burial party left Golgotha for Joseph’s tomb across the way. His body was wrapped in a linen sheet as the four men carried it, followed by the faithful women watchers from Galilee. The men carrying Jesus were John, Joseph, Nicodemus, and the Roman centurion. They carried the body into the tomb, a space about ten feet square, where they quickly prepared it: the Jews did not bury their dead, they embalmed them. Joseph and Nicodemus had brought plenty of myrrh and aloes and they wrapped the body with bandages soaked in those ointments. When done they tied a napkin around Jesus’ face, wrapped his body in a linen sheet, and reverently placed it on a shelf in the tomb. The Roman centurion signaled to his soldiers and all together the men rolled the stone door in front of the entrance. The soldiers then left for Gehenna with the bodies of the thieves while the others, sad, left to eat the Passover feast according to Moses’ laws. The reason the men rushed in preparing Jesus’ body was because this was the preparation day for the Passover and the Sabbath was coming on quickly.
The women were hiding near at hand, so they saw everything and knew where Jesus had been placed. They had hidden themselves because it was not permitted for women to associate with men at a time like this. After what they saw they did not think that Jesus had been properly prepared and they agreed among themselves to go back to Joseph’s house, rest over the Sabbath, make ready spices and ointments, and then return Sunday morning to properly rewrap Jesus’ body for the death rest. The women hidden by the tomb on this Friday evening were Mary Magdalene; Mary the wife of Clopas; Martha, another of Jesus’ aunts, and Rebecca one time of Sepphoris.
Aside from David Zebedee and Joseph of Arimathea, few of Jesus’ disciples believed that he was supposed to arise from the tomb on the third day.
Guarding the Tomb
If Jesus’ followers were not thinking about his promise to arise from the grave on the third day, his enemies were. The Pharisees and Sadducees well remembered that they had heard him saying that he would arise from the dead, and this Friday night after the Passover supper, at about midnight, they gathered at Caiaphas’ house to discuss their fears. At the end of the meeting a group of them was tasked with going to Pilate early the next morning to officially ask him to station a Roman guard at Jesus’ tomb, specifically to stop his followers from tampering with it. To Pilate their spokesman said “Sir, we remember that this deceiver, Jesus of Nazareth, while he was still alive said ‘After three days I will arise again.’ We have come to ask that you issue orders that will make the tomb secure against his followers, at least until after the third day. We are afraid his disciples will come and steal him away by night, and then announce to the people that he has arisen from the dead. If we should let this happen this mistake would be far worse than having allowed him to live.”
Pilate replied “I will give you a guard of ten soldiers. Go your way and make the tomb secure.” The Jews went back to the temple, gathered a squad of their own guards, and then even though it was the Sabbath morning marched out to Joseph’s tomb where these ten Jewish guards and ten Roman soldiers set their watch. On arrival the soldiers rolled another stone in front of the tomb, and then put Pilate’s seal on and around all of the stones in case someone disturbed them without their knowledge. These twenty men remained on watch up to the hour of the resurrection, the Jews bringing them their meals.
During the Sabbath day
Throughout Saturday the apostles and disciples remained in hiding while all of Jerusalem talked about Jesus’ death on the cross. This was the beginning of the Passover week and there were over a million Jews visiting Jerusalem from all parts of Mesopotamia and the Roman Empire; all of these pilgrims learning about Jesus’ death and resurrection carried the news back to their home countries. Late Saturday night John Mark called the eleven apostles secretly to his father’s house, where just before midnight they all gathered in the same upper room where they had eaten the Last Supper with Jesus two nights earlier. Mary, Jesus’ mother, with Ruth and Jude returned to Bethany to join their family arriving just before sunset. David Zebedee stayed at Nicodemus’ house where he had arranged for his messengers to gather early Sunday morning. The women of Galilee who prepared the spices to improve on the men’s embalming job stayed at Joseph of Arimathea’s house.
We are not able to explain just what occurred to Jesus of Nazareth during this period of a day and a half when he was supposed to be resting in Joseph’s new tomb. Apparently he died the same natural death on the cross as would any other mortal in the same circumstances. We heard him say “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” We do not understand what that means because his Thought Adjuster had long ago been personalized and because of that existed apart from Jesus’ mortal body. Jesus’ Personalized Adjuster could in no way be affected by his physical death. What Jesus put in the Father’s hands for the time being must have been the spirit counterpart of the Adjuster’s early work in spiritualizing the mortal mind to transfer the transcript of the human experience to the mansion worlds. There must have been some spiritual reality of Jesus’ experience that was similar to the spirit nature, or soul, of the faith-growing mortals of the worlds. But this is just our opinion: we do not know what Jesus entrusted to his Father.
We know that Jesus’ body rested in Joseph’s tomb until about three o’clock Sunday morning, but we are completely uncertain about the status of Jesus’ personality during that thirty-six hour period. We have dared at times to explain these things to ourselves in the following ways. First, Michael’s creator consciousness must have been at large and completely free from its associated mortal mind. Second, we know that Jesus’ former Thought Adjuster was present on Earth during this period and personally in command of the assembled celestial hosts. Third, Jesus’ acquired spirit identity must have been entrusted to the Paradise Father. This was gained during Jesus’ mortal life, first by the direct efforts of his Thought Adjuster and then by perfecting the balance between the physical and spiritual needs of the ideal mortal existence through constantly choosing the Father’s will. Whether or not this spirit reality returned to become a part of the resurrected personality we do not know, but we believe it did. Still, there are those in the universe who hold that this soul identity of Jesus now rests in the bosom of the Father to be later released to lead the Nebadon Corps of the Finality in their secret destiny in the uncreated universes in the unorganized realms of outer space. Fourth, we think that Jesus’ human consciousness slept during these thirty-six hours. We have reason to believe that the human Jesus knew nothing of what occurred in the universe during this time. To Jesus’ mortal consciousness the resurrection instantly followed death.
This is about all that we can put on record about Jesus’ status during this time in the tomb. There are many more points that we can allude to, but we are hardly competent to interpret them.
In the vast court of the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of Satania, there is now a magnificent material-morontia structure known as the Michael Memorial that bears Gabriel’s seal. This memorial was created shortly after Michael left this world and is inscribed with, “In commemoration of the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia.” There are records existing that show that during this period the supreme council of Salvington, numbering one hundred, held an executive meeting on Urantia under Gabriel’s presidency. There are also records showing that the Ancients of Days of Uversa communicated with Michael about Nebadon’s status during this time. We know that at least one message passed between Michael and Immanuel on Salvington while the Master’s body lay in the tomb. There is good reason to believe that some personality sat in Caligastia’s seat in the system council of the Planetary Princes on Jerusem, which took place while Jesus’ body rested in the tomb. The records on Edentia indicate that the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek was on Urantia, and that he received instructions from Michael during this time of the tomb. There is much other evidence that suggests that not all of Jesus’ personality was unconscious during this time of apparent physical death.
The Death on the Cross
Though Jesus did not die this death on the cross to atone for humanity’s supposed racial guilt or to provide some sort of way to approach an otherwise offended and unforgiving God; even though the Son of Man did not offer himself as a sacrifice to appease God’s wrath and open the way for sinful man to be saved; and even though these ideas of atonement and appeasement are wrong, still there are significant aspects of Jesus’ death on the cross that should not be overlooked. It is a fact that Urantia has become known among other neighboring inhabited planets as the World of the Cross.
Jesus desired to live a full mortal life in the flesh on Urantia. Death is ordinarily a part of life: it is the last act in the mortal drama. In your well-meant efforts to escape the superstitious mistakes of wrongly interpreting the death on the cross, you should be careful to not make the mistake of failing to realize the true significance of Jesus’ death. Humanity was never the property of the archdeceiver. Jesus did not die to ransom people from the clutch of renegade rulers and fallen princes of the worlds. The Father in heaven never conceived of such crass injustice as damning a mortal’s soul because of the evil-doings of their ancestors. Neither was Jesus’ death on the cross a sacrifice to pay some supposed debt humanity owed God.
Before Jesus lived on Earth you could have been justified in believing in such a God, but not since he lived and died among your fellow mortals. Moses taught the dignity and justice of a creator God, but Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father. The animal nature, the tendency to do evil, may be hereditary but sin is not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is the act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the Father’s will and the Sons’ laws by an individual will creature.
Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the people of this one world. While the mortals of the realms had salvation even before Jesus lived and died on Urantia, it is still a fact that his time on this world better lit the way to salvation: his death did much to forever make plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh. Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as one who redeems, ransoms, or sacrifices it is completely correct to refer to him as one who saves: a savior. He forever made the way of survival clearer and more certain for all mortals on all of the worlds in Nebadon.
Once you grasp the idea that God is a true and loving Father, the only idea that Jesus ever taught, you must from then on completely abandon all primitive beliefs of God being an offended king—a stern and all-powerful ruler whose chief delight is catching his subjects doing something wrong and then punishing them unless some being almost equal to God should volunteer to die for them in their stead. The whole idea of ransom and atonement is incompatible with the idea of God as taught and exemplified by Jesus of Nazareth: God’s infinite love is not secondary to anything in the divine nature.
This idea of sacrificial salvation is rooted in selfishness. Jesus taught that service to one’s fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers, and salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believer’s chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation, but rather the unselfish urge to love and therefore serve one’s fellows even as Jesus loved and served humanity.
Neither do genuine believers trouble themselves too much about the future punishment of sin. Real believers are only concerned about their present separation from God. True, wise fathers may scold their sons, but they do all this in love and for their son’s benefit. They do not punish in anger, neither do they reprimand in retribution.
Even if God were the stern and legal monarch of a universe where justice ruled supreme, he would certainly not be satisfied with the childish scheme of substituting an innocent sufferer for a guilty offender. The significance of Jesus’ death as it relates to enlarging the way of salvation and enriching the human experience is not the fact of his death, but rather the superb manner in how he met death. The entire idea of ransom places salvation on an unreal plane; such a concept is purely philosophical. But human salvation is real; it is based on two realities that can be grasped by the creature’s faith and in that way become incorporated into individual human experience: the fact of the fatherhood of God, and by extension, the truth of the brotherhood of humanity. It is true that you will be forgiven your debts, even as you forgive those who owe you.
Lessons from the Cross
Jesus’ cross shows the full measure of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd for even the unworthy members of his flock. It forever places all relationships between God and humanity on the familial basis. God is the Father; people are his sons. Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth in the universe relationships of Creator and creature instead of the justice of a king looking for satisfaction in the suffering of an evil-doing subject.
The cross forever shows that Jesus’ attitude toward sinners was neither condonation nor condemnation, but rather loving and eternal salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death win people over to goodness and righteous survival. Jesus loves people so much that his love awakens the response to love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus’ death on the cross exemplifies a love that is sufficiently strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus revealed to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice—mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs, it absorbs and actually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side, but love forever destroys the sin and all weakness that comes from it. Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil, but to find through him a goodness that destroys evil. Jesus’ forgiveness is not condonation, it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not slight wrongs, it makes them right. True love does not condone or compromise with hate, it destroys it. Jesus’ love is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master’s love implies rehabilitation—eternal survival. It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this type of eternal rehabilitation.
Jesus, by the power of his love for people, could break the hold of sin and evil. In that way he set people free to choose better ways of living. Jesus showed a deliverance from the past that in itself promised a triumph for the future. Forgiveness in this way provided salvation. The beauty of divine love once admitted to the human heart forever destroys the charm of sin and the power of evil.
Jesus’ sufferings were not confined to the crucifixion. In reality, Jesus of Nazareth spent upward of twenty-five years on the cross of a real and intense mortal existence. The true value of the cross consists in the fact that it was the supreme and final expression of his love—the completed revelation of his mercy.
On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who might have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight of faith have taken one more look at Jesus on the cross and have then forged on ahead, inspired by the sight of God laying down his mortal life in the unselfish service to humanity. The triumph of the death on the cross is summed up in the spirit of Jesus’ attitude toward those who attacked him. He made the cross an eternal symbol of the triumph of love over hate and the victory of truth over evil when he prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That devotion to love was contagious throughout a vast universe, and the disciples caught it from their Master. The first teacher of Jesus’ gospel who was killed in this service said as they stoned him to death, “Lay not this sin to their charge.”
The cross makes a supreme appeal to the best in people because it reveals those who are willing to lay down their life in the service of their fellow human beings. People can have no greater love than this: that they would be willing to lay down their lives for their friends. Jesus had such a love that he was even willing to lay down his life for his enemies, a love more majestic than any that had ever before been known on Earth. On other worlds as well as on Urantia, this spectacle of Jesus’ human death on the Golgotha cross has stirred the emotions of mortals while it has aroused the highest devotion of the angels.
The cross is that high symbol of sacred service: the devotion of one’s life to the welfare and salvation of one’s fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners to appease the wrath of an offended God. But it does stand forever on Earth and throughout a vast universe as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves on the evil, and in that way saving them by this devotion of love. The cross does stand as the token of the highest form of unselfish service: the supreme devotion of a righteous life in the service of wholehearted ministry, even in death. The sight of this heroic symbol of Jesus’ life truly inspires all of us to want to go and do the same.
When thinking men and women look on Jesus as he offers up his life on the cross they will hardly let themselves complain about even life’s severest hardships, much less its petty and fictitious problems. Jesus’ life was so glorious and his death was so triumphant that we are all attracted to a willingness to share both. There is true drawing power in the whole bestowal of Michael, from the days of his youth to the overwhelming spectacle of his death on the cross.
Make sure then that when you view the cross as a revelation of God you do not look at it with primitive eyes or like the later barbarian, both of whom regarded God as a relentless king of stern justice and rigid law enforcement. Instead, ensure that you see in the cross the final manifestation of the love and devotion of Jesus on the mortals of his vast universe. See in the death of the Son of Man the unfolding of the Father’s divine love for his sons of the mortal worlds. The cross in this way shows the devotion of willing affection and the gift of voluntary salvation on those who are willing to receive such gifts and devotion. There was nothing in the cross that the Father required, only what Jesus so willingly gave and that he refused to avoid.
If people cannot otherwise appreciate Jesus and understand the meaning of his time on Earth, at least they can understand his mortal suffering. People never need to worry that the Creator does not know the nature or extent of their earthly problems. We know that the death on the cross was not for bringing about humanity’s reconciliation with God, but rather to stimulate humanity’s realization of the Father’s eternal love and his Son’s unending mercy before broadcasting these truths to an entire universe.