ROUGH DRAFT
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Adapted from the Urantia Book original paper here
The Ordination of the Twelve
Jesus knew that each man was different, and he taught this to his apostles. He constantly told them to not try and mold the believers into some set pattern. He said to allow each soul to develop in its own way, a separate perfecting person before God. In answer to one of Peter’s many questions, the Master said: “I want to set men free so that they can start out afresh as little children upon the new and better life.” Jesus always insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in other words, when giving charity not allowing the left hand to know what the right hand’s doing.
The three apostles were shocked when they realized that Jesus’ religion made no provision for spiritual self-examination. All religions before and after the times of Jesus, even Christianity, carefully provide for conscientious self-examination. But not so with the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus’ philosophy of life doesn’t include religious introspection, or the examining of one’s own mental and emotional process. The carpenter’s son never taught character building; he taught character growth, declaring that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. Still, Jesus said nothing against using self-analysis to keep one’s ego in check.
The right to enter the kingdom of heaven is conditioned by faith, by personal belief. The cost of remaining in the progressive ascent of the kingdom is the pearl of great price, which a man will sell all he has in order to possess.
Jesus taught a religion for everybody, not only for weaklings and slaves. His religion never became crystallized (at least during his day) into creeds and theological laws; he left not a line of writing behind him. His life and teachings were given to our universe to spiritually guide and morally instruct people of all ages and on all worlds. And even today, Jesus’ teachings stand apart from all religions, even though it is the living hope of every one of them.
Jesus didn’t teach his apostles that religion was man’s only earthly pursuit; that was the Jewish idea of serving God. But he did insist that religion was the exclusive business of the twelve. Jesus taught nothing to stop his believers from the pursuit of genuine culture; he only countered the tradition-bound teachings of the religious schools of Jerusalem. He was liberal, learned, tolerant, and big-hearted. Self-conscious piety – showing others how religious we are – had no place in his philosophy of living.
The Master offered no solutions for the nonreligious problems of his own time or for any later age. Jesus wanted to turn spiritual insight into eternal realities and to stimulate true living; he concerned himself exclusively with the underlying and permanent spiritual needs of the human race. Jesus revealed a goodness equal to God. He exalted love—truth, beauty, and goodness—as the divine ideal and the eternal reality.
Jesus came to create in man a new spirit, a new will—to give us a new capacity for knowing the truth, experiencing compassion, and choosing goodness—the will to be in harmony with God’s will, coupled with the eternal urge to become perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect.
The Day of Consecration
Jesus devoted the next Saturday to his apostles. They all went back to the highlands where he had ordained them, and there, after a long and beautiful personal message of encouragement he consecrated the twelve. On this Sabbath afternoon Jesus gathered the apostles around him on the hillside, and put them into the hands of his heavenly Father in preparation for the day when he would have to leave them alone in the world. There was no new teaching on this occasion, just visiting and communion and the sharing of their most intimate spiritual thoughts.
Jesus went back over a lot of the ordination sermon, which he gave on this same spot, and then, calling them before him one by one, he commissioned them to go forth in the world as his representatives.
The Master’s consecration charge was: “Go into all the world and preach the glad tidings of the kingdom. Liberate spiritual captives, comfort the oppressed, and minister to the afflicted. Freely you have received, freely give.”
Jesus advised them to not take money or extra clothing, saying, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” And finally, he said: “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be you therefore as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. But take heed, for your enemies will bring you up before their councils, while in their synagogues they will castigate you. Before governors and rulers you will be brought because you believe this gospel, and your very testimony shall be a witness for me to them. And when they lead you to judgment, be not anxious about what you shall say, for the spirit of my Father indwells you and will at such a time speak through you. Some of you will be put to death, and before you establish the kingdom on Earth, you will be hated by many peoples because of this gospel; but fear not; I will be with you, and my spirit shall go before you into all the world. And my Father’s presence will abide with you while you go first to the Jews, then to the gentiles.”
And when they came down from the mountain, they went back home to Zebedee’s house.
The Evening After the Consecration
That evening while teaching in the house because it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness or salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, “In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.” Many times he’d repeat, “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” The whole time the Master was explaining to his bewildered apostles that the salvation that he had brought to the world could only be had by believing, by simple and sincere faith. Jesus said, “John preached a baptism of repentance, sorrow for the old way of living. You are to proclaim the baptism of fellowship with God. Preach repentance to those who stand in need of such teaching, but to those already seeking sincere entrance to the kingdom, open the doors wide and bid them enter into the joyous fellowship of the sons of God.” But it was a difficult task to persuade these Galilean fishermen that, in the kingdom, being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in the daily life of the mortals of earth.
Another great handicap in teaching the twelve was their tendency to take highly idealistic and spiritual principles of religious truth and remake them into concrete rules of personal conduct. Jesus would present the beautiful spirit of the soul’s attitude, but they insisted on translating his teachings into rules of personal behavior. Many times, when they did make sure to remember what the Master said, they were almost certain to forget what he did not say. But they slowly assimilated his teaching because Jesus was all that he taught. What they could not gain from his verbal instruction, they gradually got by living with him.
The apostles didn’t realize that Jesus was engaged in living a life of spiritual inspiration for every person of every age on every world of a far-flung universe. Notwithstanding what Jesus told them from time to time, the apostles just didn’t get that he was working on this world, but it was for all other worlds in his vast creation. Jesus lived his earth life on Urantia, not to set a personal example of mortal living for the men and women of this world, but rather to create a high spiritual and inspirational ideal for all mortal beings on all worlds.
This same evening Thomas asked Jesus: “Master, you say that we must become as little children before we can gain entrance to the Father’s kingdom, and yet you have warned us not to be deceived by false prophets nor to become guilty of casting our pearls before swine. Now, I am honestly puzzled. I cannot understand your teaching.”
Jesus replied to Thomas: “How long shall I bear with you! Ever you insist on making literal all that I teach. When I asked you to become as little children as the price of entering the kingdom, I referred not to ease of deception, mere willingness to believe, nor to quickness to trust pleasing strangers. What I did desire that you should gather from the illustration was the child-father relationship. You are the child, and it is your Father’s kingdom you seek to enter. There is present that natural affection between every normal child and its father that insures an understanding and loving relationship, and that forever precludes all disposition to bargain for the Father’s love and mercy. And the gospel you are going forth to preach has to do with a salvation growing out of the faith-realization of this very and eternal child-father relationship.”
The one characteristic of Jesus’ teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relation of the individual to God—this very child-father relationship. Jesus placed emphasis on the individual, not on the race or nation. While eating supper, Jesus had the talk with Matthew where he explained that the morality of any act is determined by the individual’s motive. Jesus’ morality was always positive. The golden rule as restated by Jesus demands active social contact; the older negative rule could be obeyed in isolation. Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living.
This new religion of Jesus wasn’t without its practical implications. But whatever practical political, social, or economic value is found in his teaching is the natural result of this inner experience of the soul as it manifests the fruits of the spirit in personal religious experience.
After Jesus and Matthew had finished talking, Simon Zelotes asked, “But, Master, are all men the sons of God?”
And Jesus answered: “Yes, Simon, all men are the sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim.” But the apostles couldn’t grasp this doctrine; it was new, strange, and startling. And it was because of Jesus’ desire to impress this truth on them, that Jesus taught his followers to treat all men as their brothers.
In response to a question asked by Andrew, the Master made it clear that the morality of his teaching was inseparable from the religion of his living. He taught morality not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to God.
John asked Jesus, “Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?”
And Jesus answered: “The kingdom of heaven consists of three essential elements: first, recognition of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in sonship with God; and third, faith in the supreme human desire to do the will of God—to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials needed for salvation.”
After the week of waiting was over, they prepared to leave the next day for Jerusalem.
Okay, folks, that’s it for Son of Man: Urantia, Chapter 19, part 5, “The Ordination of the Twelve.”
Chapter 20, “Beginning the Public Work,” is next.
Have a fantastic week out there, everybody.
Bob