Episode:Jesus—Teacher of Living Truth (Part 1)
Just before noon on Sunday, January 12, A.D. 27, Jesus called the apostles together for their ordination as public preachers of the gospel of the kingdom. They journeyed to the highlands north of Capernaum, where Jesus instructed the twelve and then delivered the so-called “Sermon on the Mount.” A great silence pervaded the place while a host of celestial beings looked down upon this solemn and sacred scene—the Creator of a universe placing the affairs of the divine brotherhood of man under the direction of human hands.
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Twelve Apostles, Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes
Summary by Kermit
Paper 140. The Ordination of the Twelve
In our continuing study of the 4th ER, we turn to Jesus—Teacher of Living Truth and the ordination of the twelve Apostles. We examined his teachings and instructions to them as he prepares to place the affairs of the divine brotherhood of man under the direction of human minds.
All of the Apostles were reverent, reflective and expectant as they went apart with the Master to personally consecrate, and collectively dedicate themselves to the sacred work of representing Jesus in the proclamation of the coming of his Father's kingdom.
1. Preliminary Instruction
The Master, realizing that the Apostles had been in waiting several months eager to begin the work of proclaiming the kingdom, took great pains to make clear the nature of the kingdom and how they were to promulgate the it, addressing their preconceived opinions and the like, directly.
He begins his instruction teaching them about the everlasting dominion that is the Kingdom of God. The word kingdom refers to the domain of the king. It is the Universe Mother Spirit who establishes the domain of the kingdom through her presence (Place), contactable as the Holy Spirit. Herein, she establishes the capacity of the inner Temple, dwelling place of the Kingdom within. That this kingdom is an everlasting Dominion evokes the Fatherlike quality of direction.
The basic preliminary instruction contained the following teaching concerning the fundamental qualities and characteristics of His Father's Kingdom.
This Kingdom is universally accessible to all human beings, albeit he does forecast the Jewish rejection, in the same breath as he tells of the acceptance of the Kingdom by many from the east and from the west.
In His attempt to disabuse the twelve of their materialistic and militaristic ideas of the kingdom, he describes it as a brotherhood of love, whose battle cry is Peace and good will.
Entrance to the Kingdom is by the faith of a child, but progress therein is through the continual bearing of the fruits of the Father's spirit. You must DO something as well as BE something in to remain in the Kingdom.
Again, challenging the materialistic notions of his chosen, he bids them to look for the Kingdom within and not in an outward show of power. Even his prophesy that some of his listeners would not die until they had seen the reign of God come in great power, was quickly misinterpreted using a materialistic perspective that persists today and even in the minds of at least one of our SoS team. It is with these somewhat difficult teachings that Jesus puts upon the souls of his twelve, the solemn responsibility of representing him in the world, when he shall (presently) leave.
Commentary on the danger of providing powerful spiritual uplift to immature persons, being PRIDE. So the Master is trying to deflate their materialistic imaginings of glory and triumph.
2. The Ordination
As the Apostles all knelt it a circle, Jesus, he place his hands on each Apostle as he prayed aloud to the Father. In silence they remained following the prayer while a host of celestial beings looked down on this solemn, sacred scene. Here the Master is entrusting the work of establishing the kingdom to twelve commonplace men. In reality, he is continuing his cooperative subordination to The Paradise Trinity, and trusting in the evolutionary progress of the Supreme Being to accomplish the establishment of the Kingdom.
3. The Ordination Sermon
In contrasting the kingdoms of the world with the Father's Kingdom, Jesus is showing the distinction between kindred spirits and the higher level of kindred minds. The Apostles are being asked to live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and sent back as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better world. He then delivers the Beatitudes, much as we find in the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke. The authors demonstrate their keen discrimination of meanings in their choice of wording, in one case, citing both Matthew's and Luke's version of the same teaching, along with subtle rewording to convey more truth of meaning.
We discussed the substitution in the Urantia Book of the word Happy, for the word “Blessed”. Happiness is only possible through the whole hearted exercise of personality choice. The pursuit of happiness requires the greatest of efforts, and characterizes full membership in the Kingdom of God. It was observed that the revelators must have been pained to resort to using our words “HAPPINESS” and “LOVE”, inasmuch as the common usage of these words today represent the 1st and 2nd levels of meaning (flesh and feelings) instead of the 6th level of meaning, spiritual love.
In addition to the Beatitudes and the references to “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”, Jesus requires his Apostles to demonstrate the highest levels of love and service. He is demanding the most acute and penetrating discrimination of the twelve in their assessment of their fellows. On one hand they are to withhold kingdom teachings from those without the necessary capacity (to whom he referred as “dogs” and “swine”), and on the other he commands them to love their enemies, and to pray for those who persecute and abuse them.
The lives to which Jesus is calling the Apostles is not the same as that to which he calls his disciples. It is rather the elevated, and purely spiritual demonstration of the values of the 4th ER, the faith of Jesus himself. Jesus understands the great difficulty in attaining, maintaining and manifesting these values in the daily lives of the average man. He knows that we all live in a social, political, economic and cultural environment that requires keen judgement to navigate acceptably therein. But as we've said before on this broadcast the 4th ER is silent on all of these non-spiritual considerations, and as such his ambassadors must be also.
