Ch. 72, Final Appearances and Ascension
“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition
Final Appearances and Ascension
Jesus’ sixteenth morontia manifestation occurred about nine o’clock at night on Friday, May 5th in Nicodemus’ courtyard. This meeting was the Jerusalem believers’ first attempt to come together since the resurrection. Gathered were the eleven apostles, the women’s corps and their associates, and about fifty of Jesus’ other leading disciples including a number of the Greeks. They had all been talking for more than half an hour when suddenly the morontia Master appeared in full view and immediately began to instruct them. Jesus said “Peace be on you. This is the most representative group of believers—apostles and disciples, both men and women—that I have appeared to since my death in the flesh. I now call you to witness that I told you beforehand that my time among you must come to an end: I told you that soon I must return to the Father. I plainly told you that the chief priests and the Jewish rulers would give me up to be put to death, and that I would then arise from the grave. Why then did you allow yourselves to become so upset by all of this when it happened? And why were you so surprised when I arose from the tomb on the third day? You failed to believe me because you heard my words without understanding their meaning.’
“Now you should listen to my words in case you again make the mistake of hearing them with your minds, while in your hearts you fail to understand. From the beginning I taught you that my one purpose was to reveal my Father in heaven to his children on Earth: I have lived the God-revealing life that you may experience the God-knowing career. I have revealed God as your Father in heaven; I have revealed you as the sons of God on Earth. It is a fact that God loves you, his sons. By faith in my word this fact becomes a living and eternal truth in your hearts. When by living faith you become divinely God-conscious, you are then born of the spirit as children of life and light, even the eternal life where you will ascend the universe of universes and attain the experience of finding God the Father on Paradise.’
“I caution you to always remember that your mission among humanity is to announce the gospel of the kingdom—the reality of the fatherhood of God and the truth of the sonship of humanity. Announce the whole truth of the good news, not just a part of the saving gospel. Your message has not changed by my resurrection experience. Sonship with God, by faith, is still the saving truth of the gospel of the kingdom. You are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service of humanity. What the world needs to know most is that people are the sons of God and through faith they can actually realize and daily experience this ennobling truth. My bestowal should help all people to know that they are the children of God, but such knowledge will not suffice if they fail to personally faith-grasp the saving truth that they are the living spirit sons of the eternal Father. The gospel of the kingdom is concerned with the love of the Father and the service of his children on Earth.’
“Among yourselves you share the knowledge that I have arisen from the dead, but that is not strange. I have the power to lay down my life and to take it up again: the Father gives such power to his Paradise Sons. You should instead be stirred in your hearts by the knowledge that the dead of an age entered on the eternal ascent soon after I left Joseph’s new tomb. I lived my life in the flesh to show how you can, through loving service, become God revealing to people even as I, by loving you and serving you, have become God revealing to you. I have lived among you as the Son of Man so that you and all other people could know that you are all indeed the sons of God. Go now into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom of heaven to all people. Love as I have loved you; serve people as I have served you. Freely you have received; freely give. But for the time being while I go to the Father stay here in Jerusalem and wait until I send you the Spirit of Truth. He will lead you into the enlarged truth and I will go with you into all the world. I am with you always, and my peace I leave with you.” Then Jesus vanished from sight. This group of Jerusalem believers discussed the Master’s cautions and recounted their past experiences with Jesus until almost dawn.
The Appearance at Sychar
At four o’clock on Saturday afternoon, May 13th Jesus appeared to Nalda and about seventy-five Samaritan believers near Jacob’s well at Sychar. The believers were in the habit of meeting at this place close to where Jesus had spoken to Nalda about the water of life. Just as they had finished talking about the reported resurrection, Jesus suddenly appeared before them and said “Peace be on you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the life, but this will gain you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal spirit and in that way you come to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you are the faith sons of my Father you will never die; you will not perish. The gospel of the kingdom has taught you that all people are the sons of God, and this good news concerning the love of the heavenly Father for his children on Earth must be carried to all the world. The time has come when you worship God neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem, but rather where you are as you are, in spirit and in truth. It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of God to everyone who believes they are his sons. But do not be deceived: while salvation is the free gift of God and is given to everyone who accepts it by faith, there follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of humanity, and if people are your brothers they are even more than your neighbors who the Father requires you to love as yourself. Your brother, being of your own family, you will not only love with a family’s fondness but you will also serve as you would serve yourself. And you will love and serve your brother that way because you, being my brethren, have been in that way loved and served by me. Go then into all the world telling this good news to all creatures of every race, tribe, and nation. My spirit will go before you, and I will be always be with you.”
These Samaritans were astonished at the Master’s appearance, and they hurried off to the nearby villages where they announced abroad the news that they had seen and spoken to Jesus. This was the Master’s seventeenth morontia appearance.
The Phoenician Appearance
The Master’s eighteenth morontia appearance was at Tyre on Tuesday, May 16th shortly before nine o’clock in the evening. Again he appeared at the close of a meeting of believers just as they were about to leave, and said “Peace be on you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has arisen from the dead because you know that means that you and your friends will also survive mortal death. But such survival is dependent on you having been born previously with a God-finding and truth-seeking spirit. The bread of life and the water that springs forth are only given to those who hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness: for God. The fact that the dead arise is not the gospel of the kingdom. These noble truths and these universe facts are all related to this gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news, and they are embraced in the later experiences of those who by faith become in deed and in truth the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into the world to announce this salvation of sonship to all people; now I send you abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. Those fruits of the divine spirit that are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are undying hope, loving service, enduring peace, confiding trust, sincere fairness, unselfish devotion, merciful ministry, courageous loyalty, unfailing goodness, enlightened honesty, and forgiving tolerance. If those who profess to believe in this gospel do not bear these fruits of the divine spirit in their lives, they are dead: the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless branches on the living vine and they will soon be taken away. My Father requires that the children of faith bear much spirit fruit. If you are not fruitful he will dig about your roots and cut away your unfruitful branches. Increasingly in your lives you must yield the fruits of the spirit as you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a child, but the Father requires that you grow up by grace to the full stature of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good news of this gospel, I will go before you and my Spirit of Truth will abide in your hearts. My peace I leave with you.” Then Jesus vanished from their sight.
The next day people went out from Tyre carrying this story to Sidon and even to Antioch and Damascus. Jesus had been with these believers when he was in the flesh and they were quick to recognize him. While his friends could not easily recognize his morontia form when it was made visible, they were never slow to identify his personality when he spoke to them.
Last Appearance in Jerusalem
Early Thursday morning, May 18th Jesus made his last appearance on Earth as a morontia personality. As the eleven apostles were about to sit down to breakfast in the upper chamber of Mary Mark’s home, Jesus appeared to them and said “Peace be on you. I have asked you to stay here in Jerusalem until I ascend to the Father, even until I send you the Spirit of Truth who will soon be poured out on all flesh and who will provide you with power from on high.”
Simon Zelotes interrupted Jesus, and asked “Then Master, will you restore the kingdom and will we see the glory of God manifested on Earth?”
Jesus replied “Simon, you still cling to your old ideas about the Jewish Messiah and the material kingdom. But you will receive spiritual power after the spirit has descended on you, and you will presently go into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom. As the Father sent me into the world so I am sending you, and I wish that you would love and trust one another. Judas is no more with you because his love grew cold and because he refused to trust you, his loyal friends. Have you not read in the scripture where it is written, ‘It is not good for people to be alone. No man or woman lives to themselves? And also where it says ‘Those who would have friends must show themselves to be friendly’? And did I not even send you out to teach, two and two, that you would not become lonely and fall into mischief and the miseries of isolation? You also well know that when I was in the flesh I did not permit myself to be alone for long periods. From the beginning of our friendship I always had two or three of you constantly by my side or else near at hand, even when I talked with the Father. Trust and confide in one another, and this is all the more needful since today I am going to leave you alone in the world. The hour has come; I am about to go to the Father.”
Jesus motioned for them to follow him, and he led them out on the Mount of Olives where he said his farewells before departing from Urantia. This was a solemn journey: not a word was spoken.
Causes of Judas’ Downfall
In the first part of the Master’s farewell message he referenced losing Judas, and he held up the tragic fate of their traitorous friend as a solemn warning against the dangers of social and familial isolation. It may be helpful to believers in this and in future ages to briefly review the causes of Judas’ downfall in light of the Master’s remarks and in view of the enlightenment gained with time.
As we look back on this tragedy we imagine that Judas went wrong mostly because he was an isolated personality: a personality shut in and away from ordinary social contacts. He persistently refused to confide in or freely socialize with his fellow apostles. But his being an isolated type of personality would not in and of itself have brought such trouble for Judas if it had not been that he also failed to grow in love and spiritual grace. To make a bad matter worse, he continually harbored grudges and fostered ideas of revenge and the general craving to get even with somebody for all of his problems.
This unfortunate combination of mental tendencies conspired to destroy a well-intentioned man who failed to subdue these evils by love, faith, and trust. That Judas need not have gone wrong is well proven by Thomas and Nathaniel, both of whom were cursed with this same sort of suspicion and hyper-individualism. Even Andrew and Matthew had many leanings in this direction. But all of these men grew to love Jesus and their fellow apostles more, not less, as time passed. They grew in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. They became increasingly more trustful of their friends and slowly developed the ability to confide in them, while Judas persistently refused to do so. When his emotional conflicts would pile up and he was forced to express himself, he always sought the advice and received the unwise support of his unspiritual relatives or those chance acquaintances who were either indifferent or actually hostile to the progress of the heavenly kingdom of which he was one of the twelve blessed ambassadors on Earth.
Judas was defeated in his battles with the earth struggle because of the following personal tendencies and character weaknesses. First, Judas was an isolated type of human being. He was highly individualistic and chose to grow into a shut-in and unsociable sort of person. Second, as a child life had been too easy for him: Judas bitterly resented losing; he always expected to win and he was a poor loser. Third, Judas never acquired a philosophical manner for meeting disappointment. Instead of accepting disappointments as a regular feature of human existence, he always resorted to the practice of blaming someone in particular or his associates as a group for all of his problems. Fourth, Judas was given to holding grudges; he was always thinking about revenge. Fifth, Judas did not like to face facts and his attitude was dishonest toward life situations. Sixth, Judas refused to discuss his difficulties with his real friends and those who truly loved him. In all the years of their association he never once went to Jesus with a purely personal problem, and seventh, Judas never learned that the real rewards of noble living are spiritual prizes that are not always given out during this one short life in the flesh.
As a result of his persistent isolation, his sorrow increased and his despair deepened almost beyond endurance. While this self-centered and ultra-individualistic apostle had many psychic, emotional, and spiritual troubles his main difficulties were: personality wise, he was isolated; mentally he was vengeful and suspicious; temperamentally he was surly and vindictive; emotionally he was loveless and unforgiving; spiritually he became arrogant and selfishly ambitious, andsocially he was unconfiding and almost wholly self-contained: Judas ignored those who loved him, and in death he was friendless.
These were the aspects of mind and the influences of evil that if taken altogether explain why a once sincere believer in Jesus, even after several years of intimate friendship with his transforming personality, deserted his friends, renounced a sacred cause, abandoned his holy calling, and betrayed his divine Master.
The Master’s Ascension
Jesus and his eleven silent and somewhat bewildered apostles arrived on the western slope of Mount Olivet about seven-thirty that morning. From this location about two-thirds of the way up the mountain they could look out over Jerusalem and down on Gethsemane. Jesus stood there before them, and without being told to do so the apostles knelt in a circle around him. Jesus said “I asked you to stay in Jerusalem until you were endowed with power from on high. I am now about to leave you: I am about to ascend to my Father and soon, very soon, we will send into this world the Spirit of Truth, and when he has come you will begin the new announcement of the gospel of the kingdom, first in Jerusalem and then to the farthest parts of the world. Love people with the love that I have loved you, and serve your fellow mortals even as I have served you. By the spirit fruits of your lives urge souls to believe the truth that people are the sons of God and that all people are brethren. Remember all I have taught you and the life I have lived among you. My love overshadows you, my peace will abide in you, and my spirit will dwell with you. Farewell.” Jesus then vanished from their sight.
This occasion, the so-called ascension of Jesus, was in no way different from the other times he vanished from mortal sight during the forty days of his morontia career on Urantia. It was about fifteen minutes before eight o’clock when Jesus disappeared from his apostles’ sight and ascended to the right hand of his Father to receive formal confirmation of his completed sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon. Jesus went to Edentia by way of Jerusem where the Most Highs under the observation of the Paradise Son released Jesus of Nazareth from the morontia state and through the spirit channels of ascension returned him to the status of Paradise sonship and supreme sovereignty on Salvington.
Peter Calls a Meeting
Acting on Peter’s instructions, John Mark and others went out to call the leading disciples together at Mary Mark’s home. By ten-thirty, one hundred and twenty of Jesus’ foremost disciples in Jerusalem had gathered to hear about Jesus’ farewell message and to learn of his ascension. Among them was Jesus’ mother, Mary. She had returned to Jerusalem with John Zebedee when the apostles came back from their recent stay in Galilee. Soon after the Pentecost she returned to Salome’s home at Bethsaida. James, Jesus’ brother, was also at this meeting, which was the first conference of the Master’s disciples to be called after he ended his planetary career.
Simon Peter took it on himself to speak for his fellow apostles: he reported about their last meeting with Jesus and touchingly portrayed his final farewell and disappearance. It was a meeting like had never before occurred on this world. Peter explained that they had decided to choose a successor to Judas Iscariot, and that a recess would be held to let the apostles decide between the two men who had been suggested for this position, Justus and Matthias. The eleven apostles then went downstairs, cast lots, and declared Matthias to be the new apostle. He was duly sworn into his office and then appointed treasurer. Matthias, though, had little part in the apostles’ later activities. Peter called everyone together, and they prayed to be prepared to receive the gift of the spirit that Jesus had promised to send.
Soon after the Pentecost the twins returned to their homes in Galilee. Simon Zelotes retired for a while before going forth to preach the gospel: Thomas worried for less time and then resumed his teaching. Nathaniel increasingly differed with Peter regarding his decision to preach about Jesus instead of announcing Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom. This disagreement became so sharp that by the middle of the following month Nathaniel withdrew going to Philadelphia to visit Abner and Lazarus. After staying there for more than a year he went on into the lands beyond Mesopotamia preaching the gospel as he understood it. This left just six of the original twelve apostles to announce the gospel in Jerusalem: John, Peter, James, Andrew, Philip, and Matthew.