© 1993 Ann Bendall
© 1993 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Ann Bendall, Nambour, Queensland
Their nerves were on edge, their minds confused and, daring not to examine the words of the man all but one dearly loved, those tactless brothers of mine sought to attend the last supper still indulging in the game of their spiritual childhood — vying for position.
Their behaviour gave rise to the beautiful psychodrama of the washing of the feet of Jesus. He gave them the one commandment of the whole of their religion: “That you love one another even as I have loved you”. And he also gave the outcome attendant on their following his commandment: “And by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another”. He could not spell it out any clearer. He symbolized it to them by proceeding to do the chore of a servant — washing their feet.
Now I know that I could go around washing all the people’s feet who happened to cross my path. We also do not wash our feet before sitting down to a meal. Most of us do not take off our shoes, and if we did, they would not be dirty. We have a habit of washing our hands but this is not insisted upon. To the apostles, it brought home what Jesus was asking of them, in a manner hard for us to appreciate.
And so we look to the commandments. The commandments of Moses’ day spoke in ‘shalt nots’. The authors of The URANTIA Book refer to how Jesus spoke in positive terms. Our beautiful Creator Son also spelt out the benefits of his instructions whenever he gave them. How blessed we readers are! The students of The URANTIA Book who wish for the escalated spiritualization of this planet are more gifted (favoured?) than those dedicated religionists who do not have the blue book. We know how, as individuals and as a body of readers, we can assist in the undoubted (eventual?) spiritualization of Urantia. We can pull our planet out of its strife-torn and sin-stricken state (I think they were the descriptive words of one revelator) by simply loving one another as Jesus loves us.
Now just in case we get confused in our operational definition of ‘love’ we simply refer to the blue book and we see how Jesus showed his love in more situations than any one of us is ever going to experience in our lifetime here. It is all so easy. Indeed we are spoilt God children.