© 1994 The Brotherhood of Man Library
The Sunshine Coast Study Group
Articles written by our members for newsletters or journals associated with The Urantia Book are usually read and commented upon by other Urantia Book readers prior to their publication. The articles appearing in this issue that touch upon the symbolism of the cross and the Remembrance Supper opened up a can of worms in exposing psychological problems related to the possible use of these symbols at meetings of readers.
One of the reasons appears to be linked to an aversion to the idea that the crucifixion was in any way a sacrificial offering by Jesus for the benefit of us Urantians; another is in the implication that eating the bread and drinking the wine of the Remembrance Supper may symbolize the body and perhaps the blood of the crucified Jesus.
In discussion, it transpired that there was some uncertainty about what The Urantia Book really says on these subjects. Readers knew that Jesus sometimes referred to himself as the “Bread of Life” and spoke about the “water of life” and “living water.” Firmly in the minds of all was the awareness that the book is adamant that Jesus’ death was in no way an offering to appease the wrath of an angry God. Nor does it have any relationship to the sin of Adam. But in the minds of some, Jesus death was purely due to circumstances that inevitably arose because of the antipathy of the Sanhedrin to his teachings. In no way was it a sacrificial death, in no way was it related to the sinfulness of mankind, and in no way does the Remembrance Supper imply the commemoration of Jesus’ suffering. Are these concepts, held by many Urantia Book readers, closer to the truth than traditional views of much of mainstream Christianity? Some of us were not too sure, hence our study group decided to have another look at what The Urantia Book really does tell us about these matters.
The Epochal Sermon in The Urantia Book, preached by Jesus shortly after the feeding of the five thousand, is closely parallel to the biblical account given in Jn 6. In The Urantia Book account, Jesus states: “You have thought that your forefathers in the wilderness ate manna—the bread of heaven—but I say to you that this was the bread of earth. While Moses did not give your fathers bread from heaven, my Father now stands ready to give you the true bread of life. The bread of heaven is that which comes down from God and gives eternal life to the men of the world. And when you say to me, Give us this living bread, I will answer: I am this bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who believes me shall never thirst.” UB 153:2.8
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Here, Jesus says that he is the bread of life and that whoever comes to him will neither hunger or thirst. A pharisee in the audience later picked up on this. Refusing to acknowledge that Jesus was speaking symbolically, he shouted out a question: “You tell us you are the bread of life. How can you give us your flesh to eat or your blood to drink?” Jesus response was: “I did not teach you that my flesh is the bread of life nor that my blood is the water thereof. But I did say that my life in the flesh is a bestowal of the bread of heaven.” A little further on he elaborated: “You cannot eat my flesh nor can you drink my blood, but you can become one in spirit with me even as I am one in spirit with the Father. You can be nourished by the eternal word of God which is indeed the bread of life, and which has been bestowed in the likeness of mortal flesh; and you can be watered in soul by the divine spirit, which is truly the water of life.” UB 153:3.2
There is a lot more of this kind of symbolism and an explanation of its meaning in this epochal sermon. How many of us could have hoped to get it right if called upon to put the sermon down in writing even immediately after the event? John is said to have dictated his gospel many years later when he was a very old man. If we compare Jn 6 with The Urantia Book version then it is pretty impressive. John made it obvious that Jesus was speaking symbolically but he confused the water of life as a symbol of that which derives from God with the blood of Jesus as a symbol of the water of life. We can find nowhere in The Urantia Book where Jesus talks symbolically about drinking his blood but he did refer to himself as the bread of life and he did say: “and this is the bread of life which the Son gives to all who will take it and eat, for the Father has given the Son this life without measure.” UB 153:2.7
Jesus arose from the couch and, taking the cup in his hands, blessed it, saying, “Take this cup, all of you, and drink ofit. This shall be the cup ofmy remembrance. This is the cup of the blessing of a new dispensation of grace and truth. This shall be to you the emblem of the bestowal and ministry of the divine Spirit of Truth.” (UB 179:5.1)
In view of the complexity of this symbolism, we can hardly blame John, the other apostles, and the early Christians for confusing the symbolism of the bread and wine of the Remembrance Supper with the symbolic body and blood of Christ.
Moving on to just prior to the final entry into Jerusalem, Jesus used these words: “From olden times the prophets have perished in Jerusalem, and it is only fitting that the Son of Man should go up to the city of the Father’s house to be offered up as the price of human bigotry and as the result of religious prejudice and blindness.” UB 171:4.7 Christianity says that the death on the cross was the price of sin. In his book, “The religions of the World,” Huston Smith states that sin in its Protestant interpretation means, basically, estrangement from God and one another. Is not human bigotry, religious prejudice and blindness both sinful and estrangement from God? If so, the gap between the concepts of mainstream Christianity and Urantia Book teaching is not as wide as some believe.
Let’s now examine what Jesus said at the Remembrance Supper:
. . . Take this bread of remembrance and eat it. I have told you that I am the bread of life. And this bread of life is the united life of the Father and the Son in one gift. The word of the Father, as revealed in the Son, is indeed the bread of life.” When they had partaken of the bread of remembrance, the symbol of the living word of truth incarnated in the likeness of mortal flesh, they all sat down. UB 179:5.3
The bread of remembrance which we eat in this simple ceremony is the symbol of the living word of truth incarnated in the likeness of the mortal flesh. In many Christian churches the words spoken at the passing out of the bread of remembrance are along these lines: “This is my body which is given for you. Take and eat this in remembrance of me.” In the Catholic mass, the congregations partake only of the bread, not of the wine.
When questioned, even members of fundamental protestant churches stated that, to them, the communion bread and the wine serve as symbols to remind them that Jesus gave his life for us. The Urantia Book tells us:
"The sufferings of Jesus were not confined to the crucifixion. In reality, Jesus of Nazareth spent upward of twenty-five years on the cross of a real and intense mortal existence. The real value of the cross consists in the fact that it was the supreme and final expression of his love, the completed revelation of his mercy.
On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who may have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight of faith, have taken one more look at Jesus on the cross and then have forged on ahead, inspired by the sight of God’s laying down his incarnate life in devotion to the unselfish service of man. UB 188:5.4-5
At the conclusion of the Remembrance Supper, Jesus really did instruct us to continue to carry out the symbolic breaking of bread and partaking of wine in a non-formalized way, both in remembrance of his life in the flesh and to arouse our awareness of his real presence with us. UB 179:5.9 It seems that many mainstream Christian churches come much closer to fulfilling this request in its totality than do most members of the Urantia movement. It is worth some unprejudiced reflection.
¶ External links
- Article in Innerface International: https://urantia-book.org/archive/newsletters/innerface/vol1_2/page12.html