Ch. 68, The Resurrection
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
The Resurrection
Soon after Jesus’ burial on Friday afternoon the chief of the archangels of Nebadon called together his council for the resurrection of sleeping will creatures. Present were archangels, life carriers, and their various associates in morontia creation and creature rehabilitation. Their purpose for meeting was to consider possible techniques to restore Jesus. These assembled sons of the local universe, Michael’s creatures, did this on their own responsibility: Gabriel had not assembled them. By midnight they had come to the conclusion that the creature could do nothing to help the resurrection of the Creator. They were persuaded to accept Gabriel’s advice to remember that since Michael had laid down his life of his own free will, he also had the power to take it up again.
Jesus’ Personalized Adjuster, then in personal command of the assembled celestial hosts on Urantia, said “Not one of you can do anything to assist your Creator-father in the return to life. As a mortal of the realm, he has experienced mortal death; as the Sovereign of a universe, he still lives. What you are observing is the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth from life in the flesh to life in the morontia. The spirit transit of Jesus was completed at the time I separated myself from his personality and became your temporary director. Your Creator-father has elected to pass through the whole experience of his mortal creatures, from birth on the material worlds, through natural death, resurrection in the morontia, and into the status of true spirit existence. A certain phase of this experience you are about to see, but you cannot participate in it. Those things that you ordinarily do for the creature you cannot do for the Creator. A creator son has in himself the power to incarnate in the likeness of any of his created sons; he has in himself the power to lay down his observable life, and to take it up again. He has this power because of the direct command of the Paradise Father, and I know of what I speak.”
The celestial host became anxious and expectant, from Gabriel down to the most humble cherubim. They saw Jesus’ mortal body in the tomb, and they also saw evidence of their beloved Sovereign’s universe activity. Not understanding such things they patiently waited for developments.
The Morontia Transit
At two forty-five Sunday morning the Paradise incarnation commission consisting of seven unidentified Paradise personalities arrived on the scene and immediately positioned themselves around the tomb. At ten minutes before three o’clock, intense vibrations of commingled material and morontia activities began to come from Joseph’s new tomb, and at two minutes past three o’clock this Sunday morning, April 9, A.D. 30 the resurrected morontia form and personality of Jesus of Nazareth came out of the tomb. The body of flesh that he had lived in on Earth for almost thirty-six years was still lying there on the shelf undisturbed and wrapped in the linen sheet, just like it had been put there by Joseph and the others on Friday afternoon. The stone in front of the entrance of the tomb was not disturbed in any way: Pilate’s seal was still unbroken and the soldiers were still on guard. The temple guards had been on continuous duty, and the Roman guard had been changed at midnight. None of these watchers suspected that Jesus had arisen to a new and higher form of existence, and that the body that they were guarding was now a discarded outer covering that had no further connection with the delivered and resurrected morontia personality of Jesus.
Humanity is slow to see that in all that is personal, matter is the skeleton of morontia and both are the reflected shadow of enduring spirit reality. How long before you will regard time as the moving image of eternity, and space as the fleeting shadow of Paradise realities?
As far as we can judge, no creature of this universe and no personality from another universe had anything to do with the morontia resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. On Friday, he laid down his life as a mortal of the realm; on Sunday morning, he took it up again as a morontia being of the system of Satania in Norlatiadek. There is much about Jesus’ resurrection that we do not understand, but we know that it occurred as we have stated and at about the time indicated. We can also record that everything associated with this mortal transit—the morontia resurrection—occurred right there in Joseph’s new tomb.
We know that no local universe creature participated in this morontia awakening. We saw the seven Paradise personalities surround the tomb, but we did not see them do anything in connection with the resurrection. Just as soon as Jesus appeared beside Gabriel directly above the tomb, the seven Paradise Personalities signaled their intention to leave for Uversa. Let us forever clarify Jesus’ resurrection by making the following statements. First, Jesus’ material body was not part of the resurrected personality. When Jesus came out of the tomb his body of flesh stayed undisturbed in the tomb. He emerged from the tomb without moving the stones in front of the entrance, and without disturbing Pilate’s seals. Second, Jesus did not come out of the tomb as a spirit or as Michael of Nebadon; he did not appear in the form of the Creator Sovereign like he had been before his incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh. Third, Jesus did come out of Joseph’s tomb like the morontia personalities of those mortals who—as resurrected morontia ascendant beings—themselves come out of the resurrection halls on the first mansion world of this local system of Satania. The presence of the Michael memorial in the center of the vast court of the resurrection halls of Mansonia Number One leads us to think that Jesus’ resurrection on Urantia was in some way furthered on that first mansion world. Fourth, Jesus’ first act was to greet Gabriel and order him to stay in executive charge of universe affairs under Immanuel, and to convey to him his brotherly greetings. He asked the Most High of Edentia for the certification of the Ancients of Days for his mortal transit, and then turning to the morontia groups of the seven mansion worlds who were there to welcome their Creator as a creature of their order, Jesus spoke the first words of his post-mortal career saying “Having finished my life in the flesh I would stay here for a short time in transition form so that I can better know the life of my ascending creatures, and further reveal the will of my Father in Paradise.” Jesus then signaled to the Personalized Adjuster, and all of the universe intelligences who had been assembled on Urantia to witness the resurrection were immediately sent back to their respective universe duties. Fifth, Jesus was introduced as a creature to the requirements of the life he lived for a short time on Urantia. This initiation into the morontia world required more than an hour of Earth time, and was interrupted twice by his desire to communicate with his former human friends as they came out from Jerusalem to look into the empty tomb. Sixth, at this point the morontia resurrection of the Son of Man is complete: the transitory experience of Jesus as a personality half-way between the material and the spiritual has begun. Jesus has done all of this through power inherent in himself: no celestial personality has assisted him. He now lives as Jesus of Morontia, and as he begins this morontia life the material body from before remains undisturbed in the tomb. The soldiers were still on guard and the Pilate’s seal around the rocks had not yet been broken.
Jesus’ Material Body
At ten minutes past three o’clock as the resurrected Jesus spoke with the assembled morontia personalities from the seven mansion worlds of Satania, the chief of archangels—the angels of the resurrection—went to Gabriel and asked for Jesus’ mortal body. He said “We cannot participate in the morontia resurrection of Michael our sovereign, but we would have his mortal remains put in our custody for immediate dissolution. We do not propose to employ our technique of dematerialization: we just want to use the process of accelerated time. It is enough that we have seen the Sovereign die on Urantia; the hosts of heaven would be spared enduring the sight of the slow decay of the human form of the Creator and Upholder of a universe. In the name of the celestial intelligences of all Nebadon, I ask for a mandate giving me the custody of the mortal body of Jesus of Nazareth and empowering us to proceed with its immediate dissolution.” After Gabriel conferred with the senior Most High of Edentia, the chief of the archangels was given permission to dispose of Jesus’ physical remains as he saw fit.
The angels of the resurrection, together with a large host representing all orders of celestial personalities and aided by the Urantia midwayers, took possession of Jesus’ physical body. This dead body was a purely material creation: it was literal and physical; it could not be removed from the tomb like the resurrected morontia form had been. With the help of certain morontia auxiliary personalities the morontia form can at one time be made like the spirit so that it is indifferent to ordinary matter, while at another time it can be seen and contacted by material beings of the realm.
The secondary Urantia midwayers were told to roll away the stones blocking the tomb’s entrance. The larger of these two stones was huge and circular, much like a millstone, and it moved in a groove chiseled out of the rock so that it could be rolled back and forth to open or close the tomb. When the Jewish guards and Roman soldiers who were standing guard in the dim light saw this huge stone begin to roll away from the entrance of the tomb, apparently by itself, they were seized with fear and ran from the scene. The Jewish guards first fled to their houses and then later went back to report to their captain at the temple, while the Romans ran back to the Antonia fortress and reported what they had seen to the centurion as soon as he arrived on duty.
The Jewish leaders initiated the despicable business of getting rid of Jesus by bribing Judas the traitor, and now when confronted with this embarrassing situation rather than punishing the guards for deserting their post they instead bribed each of the twenty men and told them to tell everyone, “While we slept at night his disciples came on us and took away the body.” And the Jews made a solemn vow to the soldiers to defend them before Pilate in case it should ever come to the governor’s knowledge that they had accepted a bribe.
The Christian belief in Jesus’ resurrection has been based on the fact of the empty tomb. It was indeed a fact that the tomb was empty, but this is not the truth of the resurrection. The empty tomb combined with the fact of Jesus’ resurrection led to a mistaken belief that the mortal body of Jesus had arisen from the grave. Truth having to do with eternal values and spiritual realities cannot always be known by a combination of apparent facts: although individual facts may be true, it does not follow that a bunch of facts leads to a true spiritual conclusion. Joseph’s tomb was empty not because Jesus’ body had been resurrected, but because the celestial hosts had been granted their request to give it a special and unique dissolution—a return of the dust to dust—without the delay of time and without the visible and ordinary process of material decay. Jesus’ human remains underwent the same natural process of disintegration that happens to all human bodies, with the exception of time: that was greatly accelerated, almost to that point where it was instantaneous.
The true evidence of Michael’s resurrection is spiritual in nature, although it is corroborated by the testimony of the many mortals who met, recognized, and talked with the resurrected morontia Jesus. While in morontia form Jesus became a part of the personal experience of almost one thousand human beings before he finally left Urantia.
The Dispensational Resurrection
Just after four-thirty this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the archangels to his side and made ready to open the general resurrection of the termination of Adam’s dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of seraphim and cherubim concerned in this illustrious event had been marshaled in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel and said “As my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in himself. Although I have not yet resumed exercising my universe jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any way restrict the bestowal of life on my sleeping sons. Let the roll call of the planetary resurrection begin.”
The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. Gabriel and the archangels moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of the planet, and when Gabriel gave the signal there flashed to the first of the system mansion worlds Gabriel’s voice saying “By Michael’s mandate let the dead of a Urantia dispensation arise!” Immediately, all of the survivors who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam and who had not already gone on to judgment appeared in the resurrection halls of Mansonia ready to be admitted to the morontia realm. And in an instant of time the seraphim and their associates left for the mansion worlds. Normally, these seraphic guardians that were at one time assigned to the group custody of these surviving mortals would have been present in the resurrection halls of Mansonia the moment they arose, but they were on this world at this time in connection with Jesus’ morontia resurrection.
While there have been many special and millennial resurrections of Urantia sons and countless people who have achieved the spiritual progress needed have gone on to Mansonia in the ages after Adam and Eve, this was the third of the planetary roll calls, or complete dispensational resurrections. The first occurred with the arrival of the Planetary Prince, the second during Adam’s time and this, the third, signaled the morontia resurrection—the mortal transit—of Jesus of Nazareth.
When the signal for the planetary resurrection had been received by the chief of archangels, Jesus’ Personalized Adjuster relinquished his authority over the celestial hosts assembled on Urantia and returned all of these sons of the local universe back to their respective commanders. Then he left for Salvington to register Michael’s completion of the mortal transit, and was immediately followed by all of the celestial host not required for duty on Urantia. Gabriel meanwhile, remained on Urantia with the morontia Jesus.
That is the recital of the events of Jesus’ resurrection as viewed by those who saw them as they occurred, free from the limitations of restricted human vision.
Discovery of the Empty Tomb
As we approach Jesus’ resurrection, remember that the ten apostles were staying at Elijah and Mary Mark’s home asleep in the upper chamber on the same couches they had each used during the last supper with Jesus. This Sunday morning they were all gathered there except Thomas: he was with them for a few minutes late Saturday night when they first got together, but the sight of the apostles coupled with the thought of what had happened to Jesus was too much for him. He looked his friends over, and immediately left the room going to Simon’s house in Bethpage where he grieved alone. The apostles all suffered, not so much from doubt and despair but from fear, grief, and shame.
David Zebedee, Joseph of Arimathea, and some twelve or fifteen of Jesus’ more prominent disciples were at Nicodemus’ home, and at Joseph of Arimathea’s house were some fifteen or twenty of the leading women believers. It was only these women who were staying at Joseph’s house, and since they hid inside during the Sabbath and the evening afterward they were unaware of the guard that was on watch at the tomb. Neither did they know that a second stone had been rolled in front of the tomb and that both of these stones had been placed under Pilate’s seal.
A few minutes before three o’clock when the first signs of daybreak began to appear in the east, five of the women left for Jesus’ tomb. They had prepared an abundance of special embalming lotions and they carried many linen bandages with them. Their purpose was to give Jesus’ body a more thorough death anointing and then wrap it more carefully with the fresh bandages. The women who went on this mission were Mary Magdalene; Joanna, Chuzas’ wife; Mary, the Alpheus twins’ mother; Salome, the Zebedee brothers’ mother and Susanna, the daughter of Ezra of Alexandria.
As the women passed out of the Damascus gate they encountered the soldiers running into the city panic-stricken and they paused for a few minutes, but when nothing more happened they kept going. It was about half past three o’clock when the five women, loaded down with their ointments, arrived before the empty tomb. They were surprised to see the stone rolled away from the entrance because on the way out they had been wondering who would help them with it. They set down their loads and looked at one another, afraid and utterly amazed. While the others stood there trembling with fear, Mary Magdalene ventured around the smaller stone and dared to enter the open tomb. The tomb was located on the eastern hillside of Joseph’s garden and the entrance also faced toward the east, so by this hour there was just enough light for Mary to see where Jesus’ body had rested and to see that it was gone. In the recess where Jesus had been Mary only saw the folded napkin that had covered his head and the bandages in which he had been wrapped. The sheet that had covered Jesus lay at the foot of the burial niche and everything was intact just like before the celestial hosts removed the body.
When Mary saw that Jesus’ body was gone and that in its place were only these grave cloths, she let out a cry of alarm laden with anguish. All of the women were terribly nervous: they had been on edge ever since they met the panic-stricken soldiers running through the city gate. When Mary screamed in anguish the others were struck with terror and quickly ran away, not stopping until they reached the Damascus gate. By that time Joanna had come to her senses and was conscience-stricken that they had deserted Mary: she rallied her friends and they started back to find her.
As they drew near the tomb the frightened Magdalene, who was even more terrorized when she did not find her sisters waiting for her, rushed up to them and said “He is not there. They have taken him away!” She led them back to the tomb and they all went in and saw that it was empty. The five women sat down on the stone near the entrance and discussed the situation. It had not yet occurred to them that Jesus had been resurrected. They had been by themselves over the Sabbath and they assumed that the body had been moved to another resting place. But they were at a loss to account for the orderly arrangement of the grave cloths. How could the body have been removed since the bandages that it had been wrapped in were still there apparently intact on the burial shelf?
As the women sat there in the dawn of this new day they looked to one side and saw a silent and motionless stranger. For a moment they were again frightened, but Mary Magdalene rushed over to him and talking to him like she thought he was the garden’s caretaker said “Where have you taken the Master? Where have they laid him? Tell us so we can go and get him.”
When the stranger did not answer, Mary began to weep. Jesus then said “Who do you seek?”
Mary replied “We are looking for Jesus who was resting in Joseph’s tomb, but now he is gone. Do you know where they have taken him?”
Jesus replied “Did not this Jesus tell you, even in Galilee, that he would die but that he would arise again?” The women were startled, but Jesus was so changed that they did not yet recognize him with his back facing the dim light. As they thought about his words he addressed the Magdalene with a familiar voice, saying “Mary.”
When Mary heard that word of well-known sympathy and affectionate greeting, she knew it was Jesus’ voice and she rushed and knelt at his feet exclaiming “My Lord, and my Master!” All of the other women then recognized that it was the Master who stood before them in glorified form, and they quickly knelt before him. These human eyes were enabled to see Jesus’ morontia form because of the special ministry of the transformers and midwayers in association with some of the morontia personalities then accompanying Jesus.
When Mary tried to embrace Jesus’ feet, he said “Do not touch me Mary, for I am not as you knew me in the flesh. In this form will I stay with you for a season before I ascend to the Father. But go all of you now and tell my apostles, and Peter, that I have arisen and that you have talked with me.”
After the women had recovered from their shock, they hurried back to the city and the Mark’s home where they told the ten apostles all that had happened. But the apostles did not believe them. At first they thought that the women had seen a vision, but when Mary Magdalene repeated the words Jesus said and Peter heard his name he rushed out of the upper chamber closely followed by John to see these things for himself. The women repeated the story to the other apostles but they still would not believe, neither would they go to see for themselves like had John and Peter.
John and Peter at the Tomb
As the two apostles raced for Joseph’s tomb, Peter’s thoughts alternated between fear and hope: he feared to meet the Master, but his hope was aroused by the story that Jesus had sent special word to him. He was half persuaded that Jesus was alive; he recalled his promise to arise on the third day. Strange to relate, but this promise had not occurred to him since the crucifixion: not until this moment as he hurried north through Jerusalem. As for John, a strange joy and hope welled up in his soul: he was half convinced that the women had seen the arisen Master.
John being younger than Peter outran him and arrived first at the tomb: he stood at the door and saw that it was just as Mary had described it. Soon Simon Peter rushed up and on entering saw the same empty tomb with the grave cloths so peculiarly arranged. The two apostles sat down on the round stone to ponder what they had seen and heard: they recalled all they had been told about Jesus, but could not understand what had happened.
At first Peter suggested that the grave had been ransacked: that enemies had perhaps bribed the guards and stolen the body. But John reasoned that the grave would hardly have been left so orderly if the body had been stolen, and he also asked how the bandages happened to be left behind and apparently intact. Again they both went back into the tomb to more closely examine the grave cloths. As they came out of the tomb the second time, they found Mary Magdalene standing at the entrance weeping: she had gone to the apostles believing Jesus had arisen from the grave, but when they all refused to believe her she despaired and longed to go back to the tomb where she thought she had heard Jesus’ familiar voice.
Mary lingered by the tomb after John and Peter left, and again Jesus appeared to her saying “Do not doubt; have the courage to believe what you have seen and heard. Go back to my apostles and tell them again that I have arisen, that I will appear to them, and that I will go before them into Galilee as I promised.”
Mary hurried back to the Mark’s home and told the apostles that she had again talked with Jesus. They still would not believe her, but when John and Peter returned they quit ridiculing her and instead became afraid and apprehensive.