Ch. 8, Jesus’ Later Adult Life

“Son of Man: Urantia,” 2nd edition

Jesus’ Later Adult Life

Jesus spent four years preparing his family for when he would have to leave the house. This was a difficult process for everyone because love generates even more love. Love is not a finite source of energy: it is the essence of our existence. It is the only source of perpetual energy known—the more we love, the more love we receive in return. Given the amount of love Jesus had showered on his family over the years, his departure was all that much harder.

The Twenty-Seventh Year (A.D. 21)

In January, Jesus traveled to Tiberias and the other cities on the Sea of Galilee. From this point on he was never again a regular member of the household. After making his way through Magdala and Bethsaida, Jesus arrived in Capernaum to visit his father’s friend—Zebedee the boat builder. His sons were fisherman, and for some time Zebedee had been thinking about building an improved style of fishing boat. He asked Jesus to stay there in Capernaum and help him with the project, and Jesus agreed.

Jesus and Zebedee found a better way to steam boards that made the fishing boats more seaworthy. Jesus stayed with Zebedee’s family near Bethsaida for almost a year as they perfected these new techniques. Their design was so successful that in five years all of the boats on the lake had been built in Zebedee’s shop. Jesus enjoyed working with his father’s old friend, and Zebedee’s wife, Salome, and her four daughters all admired Jesus; he often went out fishing with the boys—John, James, and David. All the while Jesus continued to send money home for his family. Jesus did not return to Nazareth until October for Martha’s wedding, and after that he was gone for two years until Jude and Simon’s double wedding.

When it was time to pay the Roman tax, Jesus claimed his residency in Capernaum. The captain of the Roman outpost in Capernaum was a gentile believer in the Jewish faith, and he had built the Jews a synagogue shortly before Jesus arrived. This gave Jesus a chance to conduct the services, and some of the people traveling through with the caravans remembered Jesus from Nazareth. The synagogue had a library and Jesus spent most of his evenings in it studying. One night a week he would visit with the elders, and one night a week with the young men. Jesus interacted well with younger people because he was both interested in their lives, and he was not always telling them what to or not to do.

In the evenings after dinner but before going to the library to study, Jesus would hold a question and answer session with the neighbors and Zebedee’s family. He spoke about things like science, politics, and philosophy varying what he taught depending on the people who were present. But the only time he would state that something was absolutely a fact was when he spoke of people’s personal relationship with God. Once a week Jesus would hold a similar meeting for Zebedee’s employees and the other workers in the area. It was this group of admirers that first called Jesus the Master. Jude would come over from Magdala for these sessions, and the more he was around Jesus the more he admired him.

Jesus continued to master his mind and improve his communication with his Thought Adjuster. From this year on, he travelled: Jesus still did not know humanity well enough to begin preaching his gospel. First he needed to go abroad, meet more people, and experience how different cultures lived.

The Twenty-Eighth Year (A.D. 22)

In March, Jesus took a part of his back wages and left Zebedee’s house in Capernaum for Jerusalem. Before he left everyone agreed to meet in Jerusalem for the Passover supper, and Jesus arranged for John Zebedee to send the money owed him to his family in Nazareth. John and Jesus had grown close during Jesus’ stay, and John promised to watch over Mary and the others. After Jesus left, John and his father Zebedee decided to invest Jesus’ wages and use the income for his family. They did this by buying a small two room house and renting it out; without his knowledge, Jesus owned a house in Capernaum.

In Jerusalem, Jesus spent his time at the temple listening to the discussions; on Saturdays, he would go out to Bethany to visit. Salome, Zebedee’s wife, was a relative of Annas who years before had been the high priest of Jerusalem. Salome gave Jesus a letter of introduction to Annas, and the two of them visited many of the schools and religious teachers in town. Annas was confused by Jesus and did not know how he could help him. It was obvious that Jesus did not need to be a student in any of the schools, but then again he could not be a teacher because he had never attended them.

When the Zebedee family arrived for the Passover, they and Jesus ate the supper at Annas’ large house. Before the week was over, Jesus had met a man and his seventeen-year-old son from India: they were traveling the world and making their way to Rome and other areas around the Mediterranean Sea. Their trip was going to last for a couple of years and they were looking for someone to be both an interpreter and a tutor for the boy. After arranging for his first year’s wages to be sent to his family in Nazareth, Jesus agreed to join this father and son on their journey to Rome.

Before leaving, Jesus told Zebedee that he was going to Rome and that he would not return for about two years. Jesus also made Zebedee promise not to tell anyone, even his own family, where he was at during this time. If it was not for John and Zebedee occasionally visiting Jesus’ family and assuring them that everything was fine, they all would have given Jesus up for dead before he returned. And like Jesus had asked him to do, John always remembered to take Mary and Ruth a small gift on these visits.

The Twenty-Ninth Year (A.D. 23)

During this two-year journey Jesus became known as both the Jewish tutor and the Damascus scribe. He met many people, but he never told his family or even his apostles about this trip to Rome and other parts of the Mediterranean. His family just assumed he had gone to Alexandria: only Zebedee knew the truth.

There was no need for Jesus to impress people with huge accomplishments, and he was not going to overpower them with mental arguments. Michael lived his last incarnation on Earth with us, but not just for us: Jesus lived the mortal life for the benefit of the entire universe now existent, and for all of the worlds that will become inhabited throughout eternity. By the time Jesus returned to Nazareth two years later, he knew without a doubt that he was a Creator Son. He was remembering the details of his past, and his Thought Adjuster was showing him memories of the Paradise Father even before he ever started creating our universe. Jesus’ final pre-human memory came to him when he was baptized by John in the Jordan River, and that scene was his last talk with his older brother Immanuel right before he was born into the material realm.

The Human Jesus

For the rest of the universe watching these events unfold, Jesus’ Mediterranean trip was the most fascinating part of his incarnation. He was not yet conscious of his divine side: he was still the son of man working with people at a personal level, rather than preaching in public like he did later in his career. At twenty-nine years old Jesus had almost completed the human side of his spiritual development, and he had done so living a normal life in the flesh. When Jesus received his Thought Adjuster as a child it began conditioning him to the eternity, infinity, and universality of God the Father; as he became conscious of this activity Jesus opened himself to the guidance offered and when he finally brought his mind to perfection it melded in complete and absolute harmony with God. This event, which is the mortal personality forever becoming one with God in the creation of the new eternal soul, occurred when Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River.

Jesus lived with us as an average man, and in the course of his life he intellectually gained the equivalent of the entire sum of our existence as human beings on the material worlds of time and space. Like us he experienced the extremes of joy, sorrow, and grief; he cried, he laughed, he cared for us, and at times he became angry and vented his indignation. Jesus experienced all of the urges and confusion that we do at any point in our lives.

Furthermore, during part of his time on Earth Jesus lived in full communication with his Thought Adjuster. In other words, there was a period when Jesus lived among us like life is lived on advanced evolutionary worlds already settled in life and light—a level few of us ever reach on Earth. Jesus was a complete human personality in every sense, and because of that he knows humans across all levels of mortal existence in the universe. Jesus revealed both the eternal God to mortal man, and presented himself as a perfected human personality to the Infinite Creator.

While we are supposed to learn from Jesus’ life, he did not intend for us to try and copy it. Jesus lived as a man of his time and we are to do the same. Our lesson is in learning how to live our lives according to the guidance of our Thought Adjuster, and then regardless of the time or place opening ourselves to God’s grace and following Jesus’ example of the new and living way for the mortal to become eternal.