© 2010 Jean Royer
© 2010 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
When he undertakes his journey around the Mediterranean, Joshua knows that he has the dual mission of making God known to men and of making man known to God, but he does not know who he himself is. It is only gradually that he becomes aware of his dual nature, culminating in his baptism where he sees himself in glory.
Nevertheless, for 26 years, without his knowledge, he has been God and man and it is in this dual capacity that he expresses himself. Let us see how through a few examples taken from the five hundred people contacted during this Roman stay and his personal ministry in Corinth.
In a number of instances The Urantia Book reports to us in one form or another, either in the words of Joshua himself or in their contents rendered in language adapted to our understanding, what he conveyed to his interlocutors without our knowing the effect of his words upon them. Thus it is with the Roman soldier, the Roman centurion, the miller, the Mithraic chieftain, the Epicurean master, the Greek entrepreneur, the Roman judge, the innkeeper, the Chinese merchant, the traveler from England, the runaway boy, the condemned criminal. In each case it addresses an individual, but what it says goes far beyond the individual. In fact, it is indeed a Jew of 26 or 27 years old who consoles a stranger, but it is also, without either he or his interlocutor being aware of it, the Creator Son of Nebadon who addresses all the judges, all the criminals, all the millers of the local universe with his experience as a creator dating back more than 200 billion years.
And this treatment of his fellow human beings applies to all the personalities who then accompanied him, the angels, the midwayers, the Evening Stars, and doubtless many others, throughout Nebadon.
Imagine for a moment that you are the landlady of the Greek inn and that a stranger says to you: "Offer your hospitality as one who receives the children of the Most High. Raise the drudgery of your daily work to the high level of an art by the growing awareness that you serve God by serving the people whom God inhabits by his spirit come to live in the hearts of men. Seek in this way to transform their minds and to lead their souls to the knowledge of the Paradise Father who has granted all these gifts of divine spirit. UB 133:4.8
¶ How would that affect you?
Certainly, if this stranger was dressed in the manner of priests, despite his young age, while being surprised, you would take him as part of his ministry, but coming from a simple citizen probably dressed in the Roman tunic or perhaps the pallium, it would no longer be surprise but astonishment. We are in a largely oral civilization and if the landlady may not have retained the word for word, she must have retained its meaning. We will not know more. But the story has undoubtedly made the rounds of the taverns of the entire local universe and modified the attitude of many innkeepers.
In a number of other cases we know the immediate or delayed result of Joshua’s words. He discussed politics and government with a Roman senator, and this single contact with Jesus made such an impression on this legislator that he spent the rest of his life trying to induce his colleagues to change the course of existing policy by substituting the idea of a people maintaining the government for that of a government maintaining and feeding the people. [UB 132:4.5]
Perhaps the most striking case is that of the young man who was afraid, met on the island of Crete. Most of us, vexed by the negative attitude of the character who answers: “But - I didn’t ask you anything.” would leave this young man who doesn’t want to know anything, but this is not the divine attitude, Joshua perceives what is hidden behind this attitude and this human and divine perseverance pays off. This young man, named Fortuné, later became the leader of the Christians in Crete and the close companion of Titus in his efforts to elevate the souls of the Cretan believers. [UB 130:6.5]
Young people and adults, even old people, who are afraid for today and tomorrow, we all know them, parents, relatives, neighbors, they number in the millions on this planet alone and probably on others. Our leaders and sometimes our Churches still think that the only way to reign is through fear, but we should be able to say to all the depressed: “Rise up, young man! Say goodbye to the life of servile fear and cowardly flight. Return quickly to your duty and live your carnal life as a son of God, a mortal devoted to the ennobling service of man on earth and destined for the magnificent and perpetual service of God in eternity.” [UB 130:6.4]
P.S. “Rise” seems to be a favorite formula of Jesus since it is found at least twice in the gospels. It is the famous “Talitha koum” of Jairus’ daughter reported by Mark in 5:41, often translated as “Young girl, rise”, one of the rare times Jesus is quoted in Aramaic, and it is the no less famous “Lazarus, rise” reported by John in 11:43. It is true that the word-for-word translation for Jairus’ daughter is “Young girl, wake up” and that of Lazarus is: “Get out of here” or “Come out”, but in all three cases it is indeed an act of will to escape what seems inexorable. In all three cases we are tempted to say “They are born again”.
Jean Royer