© 2015 Max Masotti
© 2015 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Jesus
R.1. Machiventa continued his activities as provisional planetary administrator up to the time of Michael’s triumph on Urantia. Thereafter he was attached to the service of Urantia, on Jerusem, as one of the twenty-four administrators, and has just recently been elevated to the position of personal ambassador of the Creator Son on Jerusem, with the title of Vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.(UB 93:10.5)
R.2. It was Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, both armed with an order from Pilate authorizing them to take the body, who took possession of the body of Jesus to ensure a decent burial. UB 188:0.3
R.3. The body of Jesus rested, for a day and a half, in the tomb of Joseph dug in the rock and located nearby, to the north of Golgotha, on the other side of the road leading to Samaria. UB 188:0.1 and UB 188:1.2
R.4. Around half past four, the funeral procession of Jesus of Nazareth left Golgotha for the tomb of Joseph.
The mortals who carried the material body of Jesus to the tomb were: Joseph, Nicodemus, John and the Roman centurion. UB 188:1.3
R.5. Jesus looked down at this scene, it was noon, and he said to his mother: “Woman, behold your son!” Then, speaking to John, he said: “My son, behold your mother!” Then he addressed the two saying: “I desire that you leave this place.” John and Jude therefore took Mary away from Golgotha. John took the mother of Jesus to the place where he was staying in Jerusalem, then hurried back to the scene of the crucifixion. After Passover, Mary returned to Bethsaida where she lived with John for the rest of her earthly life. She barely survived the death of Jesus for a year.(UB 187:4.7)
R.6. The last conscious thought of the human Jesus was his mental repetition of a portion of the Book of Psalms now called Psalms XX, XXI and XXII. UB 187:5.2
R.7. After the death of the Master, John sent the women, under the direction of Jude, to the home of Elijah Mark, where they remained until the day after the Sabbath. As for John, now well known to the Roman centurion, he remained at Golgotha until the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus with an order from Pilate authorizing them to take possession of the body of Jesus. UB 187:6.2
R.8. The Jewish leaders had planned to have the body of Jesus thrown into one of the open mass graves of Gehenna, south of the city; it was the custom to dispose of the victims of the crucifixion in this way. If this plan had been followed, the body of the Master would have risked being at the mercy of wild beasts.(UB 188:0.2)
R.9. Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, had gone to Pilate to ask him that the body of Jesus be given to them to ensure a decent burial.
It was not uncommon for friends of those crucified to offer bribes to Roman authorities for the privilege of coming into possession of the bodies.
Joseph came before Pilate with a large sum of money but Pilate would not accept any money for it.(UB 188:0.3)
R.10. 332. Here are the names of the women who lingered near the tomb this Friday evening: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha (another sister of the mother of Jesus) and Rebecca of Sepphoris. UB 188:1.7
R.11. That Friday evening, about midnight, after the Passover supper, a group of Jewish leaders met at Caiaphas’ house, where they discussed their fears concerning the Master’s claims that he would rise from the dead on the third day. The meeting concluded with the appointment of a committee of Sanhedrin members to visit Pilate early the next day, bringing him the official request of the Sanhedrin to have a Roman guard stationed in front of Jesus’ tomb to prevent his friends from touching it. The spokesman for this committee said to Pilate: "Lord, we remember that Jesus of Nazareth, that deceiver, said while he was still alive, After three days I will rise again. Therefore we have come to you asking you to give the necessary orders that the tomb may be secured against his disciples, at least until after the third day.(UB 188:2.2)
R.12. After hearing this request of the Sanhedrists, Pilate said to them: “I will give you a guard of ten soldiers. Go and see that the tomb is safe.” They returned to the temple, recruited ten of their own guards, then went to Joseph’s tomb with these ten Jewish guards and the ten Roman soldiers, although it was a Sabbath morning, to set them up as watchmen before the tomb. These men rolled another stone in front of the tomb and put Pilate’s seal on these stones and around them, lest they be moved without their knowledge. And these twenty men remained watching until the hour of the resurrection, and the Jews brought them food and drink.(UB 188:2.3)
R.13. On other neighboring inhabited planets, Urantia is called the “World of the Cross.”(UB 188:4.1)
R.14. The animal nature—the tendency to evil—may be hereditary, but sin is not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is an act of conscious and deliberate rebellion against the will of the Father and the laws of the Sons, committed by an individual volitional creature. UB 188:4.5
R.15. The cross of Jesus depicts the full measure of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd to the members, even the unworthy, of his flock. It definitively places all relationships between God and man on the basis of the family. God is the Father, man is his son. Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth of the relationships between Creator and creature in the universe — and not the justice of a king who seeks his satisfaction in the suffering and punishment of his evil subjects.(UB 188:5.1).
The cross shows forever that Jesus’ attitude toward sinners was neither condemnation nor indulgence, but rather the eternal, loving pursuit of their salvation.
The forgiveness of love far transcends the forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets aside the guilt of wrongdoing, but love permanently destroys sin and all the weaknesses that result from it.(UB 188:5.2)
R.16. At ten minutes to three, intense vibrations of mixed material and morontia activity began to emanate from the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and at two minutes past three on Sunday, April 9, A.D. 30, the resurrected morontia form and personality of Jesus of Nazareth emerged from the tomb.(UB 189:1.1)
R.17. 348. The chief of the archangels—the angels of the resurrection—approached Gabriel and asked him for the mortal body of Jesus.(UB 189:2.1). “In the name of the celestial intelligences of all Nebadon, I request an order entrusting me with the custody of the mortal body of Jesus of Nazareth and giving us the power to proceed with its immediate dissolution.”
After Gabriel had conferred with the Dean of the Most Highs of Edentia, the archangel spokesperson of the celestial legions, he had received the requested authorization
R.18. Here are the names of the women who went on a mission to anoint the body of Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the twins Alpheus, Salome the mother of the brothers Zebedee, Joan the wife of Chuza and Susanna the daughter of Ezra of Alexandria.(UB 189:4.4).
R.19. It was Peter and John who went to the tomb as quickly as possible and saw things for themselves.(UB 189:4.13).
Being younger than Peter, John ran faster than him and arrived first at the tomb.(UB 189:5.2)
R.20. Jesus spent the entire next day, Monday, with the morontia creatures then present on Urantia. More than a million morontia directors and their associates, as well as mortals of various orders in transition on the seven mansion worlds of Satania, had come to Urantia to participate in the Master’s morontia transition experience. The morontia Jesus sojourned for forty days with these splendid intelligences.(UB 191:3.1).
In his next appearance on earth, to his mortal children, he was a second-stage morontia being.(UB 191:3.2)
Jesus transited to the third morontia stage on Friday, April 14; to the fourth stage on Monday, April 17; to the fifth stage on Saturday, April 22; to the sixth stage on Thursday, April 27; to the seventh stage on Tuesday, May 2; to the citizenship of Jerusem on Sunday, May 7; and he entered the embrace of the Most Highs of Edentia on Sunday, May 14.(UB 191:3.3).
R.21. 365. Early on Thursday morning, May 18, Jesus made his last appearance on earth as a morontia personality. As the eleven apostles were about to sit down for their morning meal in the upper room of Mary Mark’s house, Jesus appeared to them and said: “Peace be upon you. I have asked you to remain here in Jerusalem until I ascend to the Father, and even until I send you the Spirit of Truth, who will soon be poured out on all flesh and will confer upon you power from on high.” (UB 193:3.1) § 2.
After thus speaking to them, he beckoned them to accompany him and led them to the Mount of Olives, where he bade them farewell in preparation for his departure from Urantia.(UB 193:3.3).
It was approximately 7:45 a.m. on the morning when Jesus, in morontia form, passed out of the sight of his eleven apostles to begin his ascension to the right hand of the Father and there receive official confirmation of the completion of his sovereignty over the universe of Nebadon. UB 193:5.5.
R.22. There are three distinct proofs that this spirit (the Adjuster) indwells the human mind:
R.23.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come; your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow;
Refresh our souls with the water of life.
And forgive each of us our trespasses
As we have forgiven those who trespass against us.
Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil,
And make us more and more perfect like yourself.(UB 144:3.3-12)
And, for those who are fond of Aramaic, a little reminder of Link 47.
“Obuakh tibishmo itchtekesh eshmakh
tshifkan irotshakh ekhmelbishmo
tshibalarha epleh lehmah okhul
iaolmah oruferleh htiofah ekhmel
anah ergaf ril iltimakhit emeinah
ulofash etakhlinakh tshirlubiosah bes
haslannah mesheida, Amin. »
R.24. (Not recorded in the Urantia Book).
Nicodemus said to Joseph of Arimathea: "You surely know the lesson that I, a teacher of the law of God, have always learned and always needed to relearn. Here it is: It is worse than useless to offer a spiritual truth to a being who is not ready to receive it.
Pouring pure water on the desert sand is useless, but does not do much harm; the dry sand absorbs the water and, in an instant, regains all its dryness. Whereas trying to put a pure truth into a mind not disposed to receive it is doing great harm, which will be very hard to undo. The mind stiffens, becomes irritated, becomes more stubborn against the truth which would be beneficial to it.
If the master insists, the mind invites passion and prejudices to obsess it, in the name of reason.
But these clouds are not the kind that dissipate quickly.
When all is said and done, the idea of Father still remains the highest human concept of God.
End of quizzes