Episode:Jesus—Human and Divine (Part 1)
By the end of his twenty-ninth year Jesus of Nazareth had virtually finished the living of the life required of mortals as sojourners in the flesh. He lived a real life, a full life, and a truly normal, natural, and average life. The Son of Man experienced wide ranges of human emotion—from superb joy to profound sorrow. At the same time, the life which Jesus lived constituted the fullness of the revelation of the eternal God to mortal man.
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Son of Man, Spiritual Growth, Perfected Human
Summary by Kermit
129:3 The Later Adult Life of Jesus, The Twenty-Ninth Year (A.D. 23)
We began a new series last week, Jesus—Human and Divine. For the human side of Jesus, we read from Paper 129:3-4. The story at this point covers his twenty-ninth year, during which time made his trip around the Mediterranean basin in the company of the Indian father Gonod, and his son, Ganid.
This eventful period allowed Jesus to make many contacts with his fellow men, although he never disclosed the details of this experience to his family or apostles. Only Zebedee of Bethsaida knew of this chapter in Jesus’ life, and he told no one.
Understanding the motivation of the Michael bestowal is crucial to discerning the meaning of Jesus’ life here. Jesus was careful not to build up an over-attractive and attention-consuming personal career. He conducted his work of revealing the heavenly Father to his fellows and doing it, all the while subject to the will of the same Paradise Father.
It was mentioned that perhaps Jesus disguised his human pre-public ministry too well, such that later followers fabricated explanations for his whereabouts and overemphasized his divine nature thus nearly depriving the world of a picture of his human nature.
In addition, Jesus’ life on Urantia was lived for the benefit of his entire universe of Nebadon. That he came as a spiritual uplifter explains his reluctance to offer teachings and make proclamations concerning the political, social, and economic affairs of men during his public ministry. Yet, during this private ministry as the Son of Man, through the gift of the 5th ER, we have numerous stories of Jesus’ experiences with others and see his teachings in a cosmic perspective, not merely a spiritual one. In order for the Michael bestowal to be accessible to all of his universe children on the widely disparate material spheres of our local universe, from the primitive to those settled in light and life, his life and teachings must be presented in a full cosmic perspective.
Here, for the first time in human history, we are given a glimpse into the inner workings of Jesus’ personal growth in his conquest of the seven psychic circles of cosmic achievement. Through careful reading and reflection on the text, we can infer the milestones of Jesus’ attainment of his third and first psychic circles. We read in section 1 of this paper that during his twenty-seventh year, “...he made great advances in the ascendant mastery of his human mind and attained new and high levels of conscious contact with his indwelling Thought Adjuster”. This suggests third circle attainment. It was mentioned that third circle attainment is a significant step in the separation of self from animal origins. Thus Jesus’ mastery of the third circle coincided with this Mediterranean trip, on through the second circle, culminating with his first circle completion at his baptism. So, when we speculate and conjecture as to our own circle status, we have details of his Mediterranean trip where we see the Son of Man as a third circler meeting and loving all manner of his fellows to serve as inspiration, reflection, and revelation for our own circle progress. In this manner of circle attainment, Jesus can truly be said to be the new and living way from man to God. Lest any of us think that we have any idea of our own circle status, a reference to worlds in light and life and was given suggesting that third circle attainment is relatively rare on our world. [55:4.2]
4. The Human Jesus
This period of Jesus’ life was the most enthralling of all his earth experiences as far as the on looking celestial intelligences. Now through the revelation we are enabled to witness the gradual spiritual growth of the Son of Man whereby the making of the material mind of man one with the indwelling Adjuster is accomplished. We are reminded that Jesus experienced higher stages of human development concerning his circle attainment all
We can see that Jesus experienced the wide range of human emotions common to us all. We can take to heart, that Jesus knows from personal experience, the sum and substance of living the life of human beings on material worlds of time and space. Even though he may have avoided living through many of the extremes of the material life, he intellectually became wholly familiar with the entire and complete experience of humankind.
As we know, Jesus’ lived a perfect life in the likeness of mortal flesh. While not receiving the unqualified and universal approval of his contemporaries, we are assured that Jesus’ life in the flesh and immediately following, did receive the full and unqualified acceptance by the Universal Father. He fulfilled the dual purpose of revealing the eternal God to mortal man, and the perfected man to God.
We are admonished that we are not to attempt to copy or imitate Jesus’ actions as we seek to grow spiritually (and cosmically). However, we are urged to seek to become perfect in our life and circumstances as Jesus did in his.
