Ch. 70, Appearances to the Apostles and Other Leaders

“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition

Appearances to the Apostles and Other Leaders

Resurrection Sunday was a terrible day for the ten apostles: they spent most of it in the upper chamber behind locked doors. They would have fled from Jerusalem, but they were afraid of being arrested by the Sanhedrin.

Thomas was alone in Bethpage dealing with one of his typical spells of depression. He would have fared better if had he remained with his friends and he would have helped them to direct their talks along more helpful lines, but the desire to be by himself was stronger. He slept part of the day and walked in the hills the rest of the time.

All day long John defended the idea that Jesus had arisen from the dead. He recalled no less than five different times when the Master had said he would arise again, and at least three times when he mentioned it happening on the third day. John’s attitude swayed the others, especially Nathaniel and his brother James. If he had not been the youngest member of the group he would have had even more influence.

The apostles’ isolation had much to do with their troubles. While John Mark kept them in touch with happenings at the temple and informed them about the many rumors gaining headway in the city, it had not dawned on him to bring news from the different people who had already seen Jesus. That was the kind of service that before had been handled by David’s messengers, but those men were all out on their last assignment heralding the resurrection to people far away. For the first time in all these years the apostles realized just how much they had depended on David for their daily information.

Peter, as was his nature, wavered between faith and doubt about the resurrection. He could not get past the sight of the grave cloths resting there in the tomb like Jesus’ body had evaporated from them. But if Jesus had arisen and can show himself to the women, why did he not show himself to them, his apostles?” Peter would get sad when he thought that maybe Jesus did not come to them because he was with the apostles—because he had denied Jesus that night in Annas’ courtyard. Then he would cheer himself with the word brought by the women, “Go tell my apostles—and Peter.” But to be encouraged by that message meant that he must believe that the women had seen Jesus. In this way Peter alternated between faith and doubt the entire day until just after eight o’clock when he went out into the courtyard thinking about removing himself from among the apostles in case it was him preventing Jesus from showing himself to the others.

James Zebedee at first supported the idea that they should all go to the tomb: he was strongly in favor of doing something to get to the bottom of the mystery. But Nathaniel prevented them from going out in public in response to James’ urging: he reminded them of Jesus’ warning that they should not jeopardize their lives at this time and by noon James had settled down with the others to watchful waiting. He said little; he was hugely disappointed that Jesus had not appeared to them, and he did not know about his visits to the others.

Andrew just listened to everyone. He was mystified by the situation and had more than his share of doubts. But at least he enjoyed a certain sense of freedom from responsibility when it came to leading his fellow apostles. He was indeed grateful that Jesus had released him from the burdens of leadership before they fell on these distracting times.

More than once during the long and weary hours of this tragic day the only thing that held the apostles together were Nathaniel’s characteristic bits of philosophy: he was their controlling influence. Never once did he express either belief or disbelief in Jesus’ resurrection, but as the day wore on he leaned more toward believing that Jesus had fulfilled his promise to arise.

Simon Zelotes was too crushed to participate in the talks. Most of the time he stretched out on a couch in a corner of the room with his face to the wall: he did not speak half a dozen times the entire day. His idea of the kingdom had crashed, and he could not see that Jesus’ resurrection would materially change the situation. His disappointment was personal and too keen to be recovered from on short notice, even in the face of such an astonishing fact as the resurrection.

Strange to record, the usually quiet Philip spoke up during the afternoon. In the morning he had little to say but all afternoon he asked the other apostles questions, which annoyed Peter but the others took good-naturedly. Philip particularly wanted to know if Jesus’ body would bear the physical marks of the crucifixion.

Matthew was confused: he listened to his friends talk but spent most of the time thinking about their future finances. Regardless of Jesus’ supposed resurrection, Judas was gone, they were without a leader, and David had unceremoniously turned the funds over to him. It turned out that before Matthew finally got around to giving serious thought to the resurrection he had already seen the Master face to face.

The Alpheus twins took little part in these serious talks; as usual they were busy caring for everyone. When Philip asked one of the brothers a question, he pretty much summed it up for both of them when he said “We do not understand about the resurrection, but our mother says she talked with the Master and we believe her.”

Jesus put off the first morontia appearance to the apostles for a number of reasons. First, he wanted them to have time after they heard of his resurrection to ponder what he had told them about his death and resurrection when he was still with them, especially Peter with his peculiar difficulties. Second, he wanted Thomas to be with them when he first showed himself. John Mark had found Thomas at Simon’s house in Bethpage early in the morning, and he let the apostles know where he was at about eleven o’clock. Any time during the day Thomas would have gone back with them if Nathaniel or any two of the other apostles had come to get him. He wanted to return, but having left like he did the evening before he was too proud to go back on his own. By the next day he was so depressed that it took almost a week for him to decide to return. The apostles waited for him, and he waited for his friends to seek him out and ask him to come back to them. Thomas remained away from the others until the next Saturday evening, when after nightfall John and Peter went over to Bethpage to get him. This is also the reason why the other apostles did not go at once to Galilee after Jesus first appeared to them: they would not go without Thomas.

The Appearance to Peter

It was almost eight-thirty in the evening when Jesus appeared to Simon Peter in the Mark’s garden. This was his eighth morontia manifestation. Peter had been living with doubt and guilt ever since he denied the Master. All day Saturday and this Sunday he had fought the fear that perhaps he was no longer an apostle. He shuddered at Judas’ fate, and even thought that he had also betrayed his Master. All afternoon he thought that it could be his presence with the apostles that stopped Jesus from appearing to them, provided of course he had arisen from the dead. This was Peter’s state of mind when Jesus appeared to him strolling among the shrubs and flowers.

Peter recalled Jesus’ loving look as he passed by on Annas porch, and the wonderful message brought to him that morning by the women, “Go tell my apostles—and Peter.” As he contemplated these tokens of mercy his faith removed his doubts and he stopped, stood still, and clenched his fists saying “I believe he has arisen from the dead; I will go and tell my friends.”

Suddenly there appeared a man’s form who spoke to him in a familiar voice saying “Peter, the enemy wanted to have you but I would not give you up. I knew it was not from the heart that you disowned me, so I forgave you even before you asked. But now you must stop thinking about yourself and the troubles of the hour while you prepare to carry the good news of the gospel to those who sit in darkness. No longer be concerned with what you can get from the kingdom, but rather be enthused about what you can give to those who live in dire spiritual poverty. Gird yourself, Simon, for the battle of a new day, the struggle with spiritual darkness and the evil doubts in people’s natural minds.”

Peter and the morontia Jesus walked through the garden and talked of things past, present, and future for almost five minutes. Then Jesus vanished from his gaze saying “Farewell Peter, until I see you with your friends.”

For a moment Peter was overcome with the realization that he had talked with the arisen Master, and that he could be sure that he was still an ambassador of the kingdom. He had just heard the glorified Master urge him to go on preaching the gospel. With all this welling up in his heart he rushed back to the upper chamber and bursting in on his fellow apostles breathless with excitement said “I have seen the Master; he was in the garden. I talked with him and he has forgiven me.”

Peter’s declaration that he had seen Jesus in the garden made a strong impression on his fellow apostles. They were almost ready to surrender their doubts, when Andrew stood up and warned them to not be too influenced by his brother’s report hinting that Peter had seen things before that were not real. Although Andrew did not directly reference Peter’s nighttime vision on the Sea of Galilee where he had claimed to have seen the Master coming to them walking on the water, he said enough to let everyone know that he had that incident in mind. Simon Peter was much hurt by his brother’s insinuations and immediately became silent. The twins felt sorry for Peter, and they both went over to express their sympathy saying they believed him, and to reassert that their own mother had also seen the Master.

First Appearance to the Apostles

While the Alpheus twins comforted Peter and Nathaniel argued with Andrew, the morontia Jesus suddenly appeared in the middle of the group and said “Peace be on you. Why are you so frightened when I appear, as though you had seen a spirit? Did I not tell you about these things when I was present with you in the flesh? Did I not say to you that the chief priests and the rulers would deliver me up to be killed; that one of your own number would betray me, and that on the third day I would arise? Why all of your doubts about the reports of the women, Jacob, Cleopas, and even Peter? How long will you doubt my words and refuse to believe my promises? And now that you actually see me, will you believe? Even now one of you is absent. When you are gathered together once more and after all of you know with certainty that the Son of Man has arisen from the grave, then go into Galilee. Have faith in God; have faith in one another, and so will you enter into the new service of the kingdom of heaven. I will stay in Jerusalem with you until you are ready to go into Galilee. My peace I leave with you.” Jesus vanished from their sight, and they all fell on their faces praising God. This was the Jesus’ ninth morontia appearance.

With the Morontia Creatures

The next day, Monday, Jesus spent with the morontia creatures then present on Urantia. More than one million morontia directors and associates together with transition mortals of various orders from the seven mansion worlds of Satania had come to Urantia to participate in Jesus’ morontia-transition experience. The morontia Jesus stayed with these splendid intelligences for forty days. He both instructed them, and learned from their directors the experience of morontia transition through the system morontia spheres as happens with the mortals from the inhabited worlds of Satania.

About midnight Jesus’ morontia form was adjusted for transition, and when he next appeared to his mortal children on Earth it was as a second-stage morontia being. As Jesus progressed in the morontia career it became, technically, more difficult for the morontia intelligences and their transforming associates to make Jesus visible to material eyes.

Jesus made the transit to the third stage of morontia on Friday, April 14^th; to the fourth stage on Monday the 17^th; to the fifth stage on Saturday the 22^nd; to the sixth stage on Thursday the 27^th; to the seventh stage on Tuesday, May 2^nd; to Jerusem citizenship on Sunday, May 7^th, and he entered the embrace of the Most Highs of Edentia on Sunday, May 14^th.

These transitions ended Michael of Nebadon’s service of having lived as those in his universe. In previous bestowals he had already experienced the full life of the ascendant mortals of time and space journeying from the headquarters of the constellation through service in the headquarters of the superuniverse. It was by these morontia experiences that the Creator Son of Nebadon finished and acceptably terminated his seventh and final universe bestowal.

The Tenth Appearance: At Philadelphia

Jesus’ tenth morontia manifestation occurred a few minutes after eight o’clock on Tuesday, April 11^th in Philadelphia where he showed himself to Abner, Lazarus, and about one hundred and fifty of their friends—including more than fifty of the seventy members of the evangelistic corps. They had just started a special meeting in the synagogue to discuss Jesus’ crucifixion and the more recent report of the resurrection: now that the resurrected Lazarus was a member of the group it was not hard for them to believe that Jesus had arisen from the dead. Abner and Lazarus were standing together on the pulpit when the entire audience of believers, except for Abner and Lazarus, saw Jesus suddenly appear between them.

The morontia Jesus stepped forward, and said “Peace be on you. You all know that we have one Father in heaven and that there is but one gospel of the kingdom—the good news of the gift of eternal life that people receive by faith. As you rejoice in your loyalty to the gospel, pray to the Father of truth to shed abroad in your hearts a new and more impressive love for humanity. You are to love all people as I have loved you; you are to serve all people as I have served you. With brotherly affection and understanding sympathy fellowship all your brethren who are dedicated to announcing the good news, whether they be Jew or gentile, Greek or Roman, Persian or Ethiopian. John announced the kingdom in advance; you have preached the gospel in power; the Greeks already teach the good news, and I am soon to send forth the Spirit of Truth into the souls of all these, my brethren, who have so unselfishly dedicated their lives to the enlightenment of their fellows who sit in spiritual darkness. You are all the children of light, so do not stumble into the entanglements of mortal suspicion and human intolerance. If you are ennobled by the grace of faith to love unbelievers, should you not also equally love those who are your fellow believers in the far-spreading household of faith? Remember, as you love one another all men will know that you are my disciples.’

“Go then into all the world: announce this gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of humanity to all nations, and be ever wise in how you present the good news to the people of the world. Freely you have received this gospel of the kingdom, and freely will you give the good news to all nations. Fear not the resistance of evil for I am always with you, even to the end of the ages. And my peace I leave with you.” Jesus then vanished from their sight.

With the exception of one of his appearances in Galilee where upward of five hundred believers saw him at once, this group in Philadelphia was the largest number of mortals who witnessed Jesus on any single occasion. Early the next morning while the apostles remained in Jerusalem waiting on Thomas’ emotional recovery, these believers in Philadelphia went forth announcing that Jesus of Nazareth had arisen from the dead.

The next day, Wednesday, Jesus spent with his morontia associates. During the midafternoon hours he received visiting morontia delegates from the mansion worlds of every local system of inhabited spheres throughout the constellation of Norlatiadek, and they all rejoiced to know their Creator as one of their own order of universe intelligences.

Second Appearance to the Apostles

Thomas spent a lonesome week in the hills around Olivet: he only saw John Mark and those at Simon’s house. It was about nine o’clock at night on Saturday, April 15^th when the two apostles found him and took him back the Mark’s home. The next day Thomas listened to the stories of Jesus’ various appearances, but he steadfastly refused to believe them: he maintained that Peter had stirred them all into thinking that they had seen the Master. Nathaniel reasoned with him but it did no good. There was an emotional stubbornness associated with his customary doubtfulness, and this state of mind coupled with his embarrassment from having run away from them conspired to create an isolated situation that even Thomas himself did not understand. He had withdrawn from his friends, he had gone his own way, and now even when he was back among them he unconsciously tended to disagree. Thomas was slow to surrender: he disliked giving up. Without intending it he enjoyed the attention being paid him—he had missed his friends for a full week and he derived unconscious satisfaction from their persistent attention.

The apostles were having their evening meal just after six o’clock—Peter sitting on one side of Thomas and Nathaniel on the other—when the doubting apostle said “I will not believe unless I see the Master with my own eyes, and I put my finger in the nail’s holes.”

Suddenly, Jesus appeared inside the curve of the table and standing directly in front of Thomas, said “Peace be on you. For a full week I have stayed so that I could appear again when you were all present to hear once more the commission to go into all the world and preach this gospel of the kingdom. Again I tell you: as the Father sent me into the world, I send you. As I have revealed the Father, so will you reveal the divine love, not merely with words, but in your daily living. I send you forth not to love the souls of people but rather to love people. You are not merely to announce the joys of heaven, but to also exhibit in your daily experience these spirit realities of the divine life because you already have eternal life as the gift of God through faith. When you have faith, when power from on high—the Spirit of Truth—has come to you, you will not hide your light here behind closed doors; you will make known the love and the mercy of God to all humanity. Through fear you now flee from the facts of a disagreeable experience, but when you have been baptized with the Spirit of Truth you will bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of announcing the good news of eternal life in the kingdom of God. You can stay here and in Galilee for a short season while you recover from the transition from the false security of traditionalism to the new order of facts, truth, and faith in the supreme realities of living experience. Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other people are the sons of God. And it will consist in the life that you will live among humanity—the actual and living experience of loving people and serving them, even as I have loved and served you. Let faith reveal your light to the world; let the revelation of truth open the eyes blinded by tradition; let your loving service successfully destroy the prejudice brought on by ignorance. By so drawing close to people in understanding sympathy and with unselfish devotion you will lead them into a saving knowledge of the Father’s love. The Jews praise goodness; the Greeks elevate beauty; the Hindus preach devotion; the faraway ascetics teach reverence, and the Romans demand loyalty. But I require of my disciples life: a life of loving service for your sisters and brothers in the flesh.”

Jesus, looking down into Thomas’ eyes, said “And you, Thomas, who said you would not believe unless you could see me and put your finger in the nail holes in my hands have now seen me and heard my words. And though you see no holes in my hands because I am raised in the form that you will also have when you depart from this world, what will you say to your friends? You will acknowledge the truth, for already in your heart you had begun to believe even when you so stoutly asserted your unbelief. Your doubts Thomas, always assert themselves the most stubbornly just as they are about to crumble. I bid you to not be faithless, but believing—and I know you will believe, even with a whole heart.”

Thomas fell to his knees before the morontia Master, and said “I believe! My Lord and my Master!”

Jesus said “You have believed Thomas, because you have seen and heard me. Blessed are those in the ages to come who will believe even though they have not seen with the eye of flesh or heard with the mortal ear.” Then after Jesus’ form had moved over near the head of the table he addressed them all, saying “Now all of you go to Galilee where I will soon appear to you.” He then vanished from their sight.

The eleven apostles were now convinced that Jesus had arisen from the dead and early the next morning, before dawn, they left for Galilee.

The Alexandrian Appearance

On Tuesday evening, April 18^th at about eight-thirty and while the eleven apostles were drawing near Galilee, Jesus appeared in Alexandria to Rodan and some eighty other believers. This was the Master’s twelfth appearance in morontia form. Jesus appeared before these Jews and Greeks at the end of David’s messenger’s report about the crucifixion. This messenger, being the fifth in the Jerusalem-Alexandria relay of runners, had arrived in Alexandria late that afternoon. After he had delivered his message to Rodan, they decided to call all of the believers together to receive this tragic word from the messenger himself. At about eight o’clock the messenger, Nathan of Busiris, stood before this group and told them in detail all that had been told to him by the preceding runner. Nathan ended his touching recital saying “But David who sends us this word reports that the Master, in predicting his death, declared that he would arise again.”

Even as Nathan spoke the morontia Master appeared in full view of everyone. After Nathan sat down, Jesus said “Peace be on you. What my Father sent me into the world to establish belongs not to a race, a nation, or to a special group of teachers or preachers. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to both Jew and gentile, to rich and poor, to free and bond, to male and female, even to the little children. And you are all to announce this gospel of love and truth by the lives that you live in the flesh. You will love one another with a new and startling affection even as I have loved you. You will serve humanity with a new and amazing devotion, even as I have served you. And when people see you so love them and when they behold how passionately you serve them, they will see that you have become faith-fellows of the kingdom of heaven and they will follow after the Spirit of Truth that they see in your lives to the finding of eternal salvation.’

“As the Father sent me into this world, I now send you. You are all called to carry the good news to those who sit in darkness. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to all who believe it; it will not be committed to the custody of mere priests. Soon the Spirit of Truth will come to you and he will lead you into all truth. So go into all the world preaching this gospel, and lo, I am always with you even to the end of the ages.” Jesus vanished from their sight.

All that night these believers remained together recounting their experiences as kingdom believers and listening to Rodan and his friend’s many stories. They all believed that Jesus had arisen from the dead. Imagine the surprise of David’s herald of the resurrection, the messenger who arrived two days after this, when they replied to his announcement saying “Yes we know, because we have seen him. He appeared to us the day before yesterday.”