Rough draft.
The Lesson on the Family
After the Passover week in Jerusalem, Jesus and the apostles went to Bethany and spent the next Wednesday resting up from their work. That afternoon, Thomas asked Jesus some questions about the coming kingdom.
Thomas started out by saying that when Jesus had set them apart as the ambassadors of the kingdom, he had given them some rules for their personal lives. But now Thomas wanted to know what they were supposed to teach the other people. Things like, should your disciples own slaves, and should people embrace poverty and give up material things? And also, will mercy somehow take over so we won’t need laws and justice anymore?
The first thing that Jesus tried to make clear to his apostles was the fact that he, Jesus, was living a very different life on Earth than everyone else, and because of that he had certain rules that he was supposed to follow. Likewise, the apostles, since they had been chosen to work with him, also had an obligation to follow many of those same rules.
Jesus went on and explained that the kingdom of heaven was something that we first enter into, and then we work our way through until the end when we graduate as eternal souls in perfection with God. The kingdom of heaven is an evolutionary experience that starts during this first life in the flesh on Earth, and then progresses through many lifetimes lived on many future training worlds.
He also told them that at some stage in the development of the kingdom of heaven, he would revisit the Earth in full spiritual glory. In other words, Jesus will return at some point, we just don’t know when.
Jesus told his apostles that his use of the kingdom idea wasn’t really the best way to describe man’s relationship with God. He said that the only reasons he was using this idea of a kingdom of heaven in his teachings were first, because all of the Jewish people were expecting a coming kingdom, and second, because John the Baptist had also been preaching to the people about the kingdom.
But Jesus went on to tell the twelve that in the future, when people understand that his religion is the fatherhood of God and the subsequent brotherhood of humanity, people will better understand his gospel by presenting it in terms of the family group.
The earthly family, he said, represents the heavenly family. The two fundamental laws of living in either one are first, loving the father, the head of the family, and second, loving your brother as yourself.
Jesus explained that this level of brotherly love would eventually result in unselfish and loving social service.
He then discussed with the apostles how the fundamental characteristics of family life apply to our relationship with God. Jesus said that a true family is based on the following seven facts.
1. The fact that we exist: The inherent relationship between father and child across nature. Children originate from their parents and take on some of their traits. The existence of our personality depends on the acts of our parents.
2. Security and pleasure: True fathers take pleasure in not only providing what a child needs to live, but also what it needs to be happy.
3. Education and training: Wise fathers prepare their children for life’s responsibilities by planning for their training and education.
4. Discipline and restraint: Astute fathers also know the need for discipline and guidance, and sometimes correcting and restraining their young children.
5. Companionship and loyalty. An affectionate father is friendly and loving with his children, and always open to hearing their needs and problems in life; above all, he’s interested helping his children grow-up.
6. Love and mercy. A compassionate father freely forgives his kids, and never holds grudges against his them. Parents aren’t supposed to be judges, enemies, or creditors. Real families are built on tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.
7. Providing for the future: Earth fathers like to leave something for their sons so the family can continue on from one generation to another. Death ends a person’s life, but not necessarily the family’s existence.
Jesus and the apostles talked about these similarities in family life and man’s relationship to God for hours.
In conclusion, Jesus said, “This entire relationship between a son and the Father, I know perfectly because all that you have to attain for eternal sonship, I have already achieved. I, the Son of Man, am prepared to rise to the right hand of the Father so that the way for the rest of you to see God is even clearer, and you can become perfect as is your father in heaven.”
On hearing Jesus’s words, the apostles remembered John’s pronouncement when he baptized Jesus, and much later long after Jesus’s death and resurrection, they remembered this talk as well.
Jesus had been with God, and had the Universal Father’s confidence. He had now lived his earth life to the satisfaction of the Father, and as such, he now understood man. Jesus attained the perfection of man, the same as all believers will achieve through him. Jesus revealed a perfect God, and presented himself the perfect son of God.
Even after explaining all of this for several hours, Thomas still wasn’t satisfied. So, he piped up again, and said, “But, Master, in our experience the Father in heaven isn’t always kind and merciful. We suffer a lot on Earth, and are prayers aren’t always answered. What are we missing?”
These questions landed Thomas a bit of a scolding from Jesus, who replied, “Thomas, Thomas, how long’s it going to be before you can hear with the ear of the spirit? When are you going to figure out that this is a spiritual kingdom, and that God our Father is a spiritual being? Why can’t you see that I’m teaching you as spirits in the spiritual family of heaven, and that the head of that family is an infinite and eternal spirit? Can’t you see that I’m using the earth family only as an example to explain spiritual realities? I’m speaking in the language of the spirit, but you’re translating my words into the language of the flesh just because I’m using material problems to illustrate spiritual ideas. You’re not separating the spiritual realm from the material world of social, economic, and political problems.
My children, I’m begging you to quit equating the teachings of the spirit with the dirty dealings of slavery, poverty, material wealth, and the problems of human rights and justice. These are the concerns the of the men of the world.
But you’ve been called as spiritual ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom to represent me in the world, even as I am here to represent our Father. Do I have to talk to you like children forever? By this time, I should be able to teach you like adults of the spirit kingdom. When are you going to grow up and be able to see the spirit? Regardless, I love you and I’ll bear with you for as long as we’re together in Earth, and after I’ve left, my spirit will still go before you into all the world.”
In Southern Judea
By the end of April, the Pharisees and Sadducees had become so upset with Jesus that he took his apostles and went south to work in Bethlehem and Hebron. They spent May working with the people in house-to-house visits rather than public preaching. While the apostles were meeting with people one-on-one, teaching the gospel and ministering to the sick, Jesus and Abner would occasionally visit the Nazarite colony at Engedi. It was from here that John the Baptist had gone out to proclaim the coming messiah when Abner had been the leader of the group.
Many of the men in the Nazarite brotherhood did eventually follow Jesus. But the majority of these guys still believed that the way to heaven was through extreme acts of abstinence and self-discipline, and since Jesus didn’t force fasting and self-denial on the people they refused to accept him as a teacher sent from heaven.
Most of Jesus’ disciples and the people living in this area didn’t know that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, instead assuming that he was from Nazareth. But his apostles knew otherwise.
This excursion to south Judea gave the crew a chance to rest, and in the process, they brought many souls into the kingdom. The excitement about Jesus, and the agitation against him in Jerusalem, had quieted down by the first week in June so they all returned to the city to continue their work. But still, Jesus kept them from doing any public preaching.
For all of June, they camped in tents in a shaded park, or garden, named Gethsemane on the western slope of Mount Olives not far from the Kidron stream. Jesus only went into Jerusalem a few times this month, but a lot of people came to the encampment to visit with him. One Friday evening, even Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea went to see Jesus. But they only got as far as his tent flap, before they got scared and went home. Jesus, of course, was aware of this when it happened, even if Nicodemus and Joseph didn’t realize it. On Saturday’s, the sabbath, Jesus and the apostles would go to Bethany and spend the day with Lazarus and his sisters.
When the Jewish rulers found out that Jesus had returned to Jerusalem, they decided to arrest him. But when they saw that he wasn’t doing any public preaching, they decided that he was afraid of them and had learned his lesson. So in the beginning, they let Jesus continue to teach in private and they didn’t bother him.
And this worked out well, at least up until the end of June. At that point, a member of the Sanhedrin named Simon, came out of the closet and publicly announced his belief in Jesus. This caused such a large and immediate uproar among the Jewish rulers that Jesus and the apostles had to pack up and move themselves to Samaria and the Decapolis to continue their work.
Okay, everyone. That finishes up Chapter 21, “The Passover at Jerusalem.”
Commentary
In answering Thomas’ question about how the people should live compared to how they, the apostles were supposed to live:
Jesus first told them that he, because he was the Son of God, had certain rules he had to follow while he was in the flesh on Earth.
And by extension, because they had chosen to be his apostles, some of those rules also applied to them.
But when it comes to everyone else in this world and on all of the others, we’re supposed to live our own lives in context of our own time and place in history.
Our lessons from Jesus’ life relate to the faith he showed us in our Father’s love and mercy, and the need for us to love all other people as we love ourselves.
We have no responsibility to adopt Jesus’ and the apostle’s lifestyles, nor do we have any responsibility to Jesus or to God our Father to follow any rule of any religion, especially with the expectation that by doing so we’ll enter the kingdom of heaven.
And if we try to do so, if we try to secure our place in heaven by following religious dogma instead of simply having faith in the love and mercy of God our Father and loving our brothers as ourselves, we fall into the trap of worshiping false Gods – those rules.
In other words, and this is the essential message, there is absolutely nothing in-between you and God your Father. The link between you and God is not only direct, it is taking place inside your material mind right now, and it’s been there from the moment you received your Thought Adjuster.
Moving on.
Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven in terms of its development. This is because it’s not only us, mortals across all of the worlds of time and space, that are growing in perfection with God, but our universe and many others are going through a similar process as well.
This has to do with the level of purity of God throughout all universe specific time and space, and when everything in our universe has reached absolute perfection with God, we, our universe, becomes one with the kingdom of heaven in Paradise.
At some point in this long process of bringing his universe to perfection with God, Jesus said he would show back up on Earth, but this time in full spiritual glory as the actual creator of our universe. But he never said when he’d return for a visit.
And Jesus told his apostles that their journey was to grow in perfection across many life times on many different worlds.
To be clear, that is exactly what Jesus meant. After death, we continue on through a series of hundreds of training worlds as we, progressively through our own efforts, become more and more God-like.
In other words, in the future after this first life in the flesh, each time we end our time on a particular world we’ll translate to another, higher, world were we’ll assume another, finer, more spirit like body to continue our growth.
This is the progression to perfection, our evolution to being perfect as God is perfect, that Jesus describes.
We don’t just die as messed up humans and wake up perfect eternal souls. We have to earn that status, and that means actually experiencing the growth of becoming a soul.
And to finish up the commentary,
Jesus explained that using the idea of a kingdom of heaven to tell people about their sonship with God wasn’t really the best way to go about it.
He said that in the future, like now, it’ll work better to teach people about the Fatherhood of God by using the family unit as an example.
This is because the earth family and the heavenly family both operate on two fundamental laws: loving the father, the head of the household, and loving our brothers and sisters as we love ourselves.
And this, Jesus tells us, will eventually lead to unselfish and loving service between us.
Bring it on, brother, bring it on.
Okay everyone,
Next up is Chapter 22, “Going Through Samaria.”
Until next time,
Defend liberty. Protect everyone’s kids. And get out there and serve man for God.
Bob