Episode:Jesus Culminates His Ministry—Last Free Day on Earth (Part 3)
Said Jesus to the twelve before they entered Jerusalem together for the last time: “You should know that in my Father’s universe and in mine are many abodes, and that there awaits the children of light the revelation of cities whose builder is God and worlds whose habit of life is righteousness and joy in the truth. But first must you gird yourselves and complete the work which you have begun with me.”
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Faith-Submission, The Last Supper, Desire for Preference
Opening thought: You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God. Deuteronomy 29:12-15
Summary by Andrea
After the review
We discussed the directive given to us by the Master to “seek first the Kingdom of Heaven” as a fundamental prelude to service. We are reminded that God didn’t put any of us on this planet to save the planet. He put us here to choose to join him in salvation. That fundamental reciprocal perspective is what we are trying to restore. Everything has been flipped around to a humanist perspective. Even most of those who call themselves religionists are not doing what he told us to do.
We continued to discuss how easy it is to get so caught up in the business of the world and to think that we must get out and do things that would save the world from its various problems. But the first order of business must always be remaining firm to what is so eloquently written: “The twentieth century has brought new problems for Christianity and all other religions to solve. The higher a civilization climbs, the more necessitous becomes the duty to ‘seek first the realities of heaven’ in all of man's efforts to stabilize society and facilitate the solution of its material problems.” [195:5.1] Our highest calling is to move inward, closer to God.
God is something we need to seek. His presence is not something we innately experience since Pentecost.
Seeking God and serving our fellows are not exclusive of each other. It’s in the ordering of these where the truth lies.
- True service starts with the Fatherhood of God which we experience in our inner lives.
- Then service to the brotherhood of man flows naturally as we serve God’s children in submission to that higher power.
Understanding The Urantia Book requires understanding this vertical flow of love from the higher power out to humankind. Service is the fruit of the inner life.
We discussed the word religion and how its definition is important to a proper understanding of life. Many people form some concept of this word and then cannot transform its meaning because of the paucity of information in the world today to help re-orient us. There are a few dozen words in the revelation that are upstepped so as to help us reframe our minds to conform to the cosmos. Without a proper understanding of these fundamental words, we will experience more rather than less distortion of meaning when reading the book and living our lives.
At about 37 minutes we discussed a ministry group becoming involved in political affairs. From there we discussed:
- zealous religionists
- the importance of the 3rd and 4th epochal revelations
- the difficulty that every planetary prince’s staff endures as they watch the struggles of mankind through the ages
- taking on the faith of Jesus out to the world; and
- how the 5th epochal revelation, being a philosophic text, will tear apart every belief system that we think is settled, whether it be science, religion, or philosophy.
Unless people can agree that seeking the kingdom of heaven first and foremost is the right order of things, there will never be peace among any group.
More and more people are willfully rejecting the still small voice within. The militant secularists have declared a war that no one is clear how it began, what the rules of engagement are, or what direction it might take.
178:3 On The Way to the Supper
As Jesus and the apostles paused at the brow of Mount Olivet he leveraged the scene of Jerusalem below, and the emotion that was evoked, to really warn the apostles what lies immediately ahead. Jesus tells them, “As the Father sent me into this world, so am I about to send you forth to represent me and finish the work I have begun.” The faith of Jesus, his inner life, the preeminence of that individual, is the 4th epochal revelation.
As Jesus begins by telling them all frankly he is going back to the Father, he reiterates how important it is for them to look after their own lives and safety. He furthermore tells them that it now falls upon them to carry forth his message of salvation. He speaks of the faith they need but also of the submission to the Father’s will as the events at hand unfold. Then he turns to the glories of what the future holds for them because of this faith-submission and tells them that in “my Father's universe and in mine are many abodes, and that there awaits the children of light the revelation of cities whose builder is God and worlds whose habit of life is righteousness and joy in the truth.”
At about 1 hour and 12 minutes, a caller asked apostleship versus discipleship. Discussion ensued about the 6th adjutant and the overcontrol of the 7th. The 6th adjutant gets the ball rolling and the 7th can steer the person into wise and productive service. The Urantia Book cannot send us out, but we can consecrate ourselves to the teachings therein. We can follow its instructions and use it as an augmented foundation for our faith, therefore allowing us to be a disciple of the 5th epochal revelation. We can let our light shine in the world so others will be attracted to the truth. For more about this listen to the archive.
Paper 179. The Last Supper
As they made their way to the home of John Mark, we learn that it was this lad who had set all of this up beforehand. The apostles were not surprised to see that the meal laid out did not include the paschal lamb. We marveled at how this setup allowed for Jesus to naturally be thought of as the lamb―the final sacrifice―and all of the so-called coincidences in the way things are played out. And we are reminded that there are no coincidences in Supremacy. The Supreme seems to be supplying these events in perfect accord.
Paper 179:1. The Desire for Preference
As the apostles entered the upper chamber they noticed the basins of water and towels set up to wash the feet. But they all decided that they would not want to act as a servant to any of their fellows. Their efforts to be true apostles are on shaky ground. Jesus is calling them to faith-submission and yet they are failing miserably at this moment. And while we may judge, it’s important to ask ourselves how we might do in similar circumstances.
Then the jockeying for the seating around the table takes place. Judas had the audacity to seat himself in the place of honor. This created a wave of indignation and they all made reactionary choices in seating themselves. We all tend to have a need for top billing. It’s that clamoring of the inescapable self for recognition and honor that we all must deal with. It’s experiences like this that allow for the learning of self-control that’s needed to conquer the clamoring self.
Here, these apostles have been studying with the Creator of our universe for years and they are still behaving poorly. And while it’s easy to see them as pathetic we simply must ask ourselves “how much have we been moved by what we have learned?” We read that, “This supper is their last rendezvous with Jesus, and even in such a solemn setting, under the leadership of Judas the apostles are led once more to give way to their old predilection for honor, preference, and personal exaltation.” [179:1.6] To think that they could be under the leadership of Judas makes us wonder if that is what set the tone from the beginning of this gathering. Let us take a hint from what we see happening at this point in the supper. We must set a guard on ourselves so as not to be misled by the various voices of the world.
Once Jesus entered the room, he looked disappointed but did not change their seating arrangements.
