Episode:Jesus Culminates His Ministry—Last Free Day on Earth (Part 4)
Jesus questioned his apostles, saying: “Do you really understand what I have done to you? You call me Master, and you say well, for so I am. If, then, the Master has washed your feet, why was it that you were unwilling to wash one another’s feet? What lesson should you learn from this parable in which the Master so willingly does that service which his brethren were unwilling to do for one another?”
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, The Last Supper, Server of All, Spiritual Equality
Summary by Brad
On incessant clamoring of self
It's one thing for our animal self to crave honor and recognition during our short lives—it's understandable. But why are we so interested in our legacy, like being remembered 1,000 years later here on Earth? An animal can't even think past the current moment. So why should the animal in us care about its legacy?
Well, a superconscious part of us is based on eternity (in the upper domain of the hourglass analogy of mind), and this gets projected into the lower domain and is usually interpreted in a very literal, material way—a muddled eternalization. The animal in you clamors, but what makes it incessant (i.e., unceasing, eternity-like) is a super-animal part of you.
All of this is because of the energization of our minds by the seven adjutant mind-spirits. The 5th ER gives us a starting point for an all-new science of mind so we aren't stuck with foggy, vague models like chakras. But, as discussed often here, these adjutant mind-spirits don't innately bestow upon us their fullest uplifting ability, not as we just idly sit back luxuriating. No. All we get innately is their basic energization of our mind. You must make a spirit-born choice to allow true spirit ministry to be an uplifting force on you and your mind. You must seek. And that takes effort, struggle, conflict.... You are not innately the full expression of the spirit of wisdom. I fyou find yourself saying, "I'm already divine and I need do no work for it," be careful. Lucifer said that.
On feelings, downwellings, and upwellings
A complication in our lives is that feelings are caused both by upwellings and downwellings in the mind. Feelings can be:
- an upwelling from the animal below; or
- a downwelling that is an inexorable result of goings-on on higher levels of mind and even spirit.
Are you experiencing a merely pleasurable emotion, or is that pleasant emotion the playing out of something higher? It's not immediately clear.
It's further complicated because conscience sits above feelings, and so the dictates of conscience are technically a "downwelling." But conscience is not spirit. It's even more complicated because the upper domain of mind generates downwellings into the lower domain of mind, but the upper domain of mind is not God. Just because it's a downwelling, that doesn't mean it must be divine. Meanwhile, we're so simplistic that we usually naturally misinterpret any and all "oddball" feelings as spirit doings. True insight is required to discern these issues.
One example may suffice. True worship (something above feelings) implies that reverence (a feeling) will be felt. But just because you are feeling reverence it does not follow that you are experiencing worship; other things can generate feelings of reverence.
On how this was all constructed
At 37 minutes we discussed how the 5th ER is constructed as a text. The Urantia Papers are of a profoundly evolutional construction. They play off what we already have in the biblical gospels and other writings. We are not given an all-new new record, unless there is no other option.
In the reading here, 179:2 parallels the opening events recounted in the gospels of Luke and John, while 179:3 parallels the gospel of John, the only one to recount the foot-washing episode. Sparse as biblical accounts may be, and as lacking in objectivity as they may be, the authors of the 5th ER use the gospels as much as they can. Even the seemingly non-sequitur mention of the prince of darkness in the reading here fits in, because the devil is mentioned in John's gospel during these events.
179:2. Beginning the Supper
At 44 minutes we began discussing the text itself. We see Jesus trying to uplift the apostles' thoughts all throughout this evening. Despite their unfortunate table manners, and despite how "they may not fully understand" these events, nevertheless, Jesus tries to enlighten them. In subsequent years after this evening, upon reflection and with the Spirit of Truth's help perhaps some apostles (and us) began to understand more of what this was about.
He tries to get them thinking about communion, something far transcendent of just another dinnertime meal. In this life we may dine together, but we can also seek to share communion together as we dine. Jesus uses the entire dinner as an analogy for pointing the apostles (and us) toward this high concept of communion. Communion consists of real spirit interactions that help us ascend the rungs of the ascension career. Communion is not about our bodies or even our emotions. Communion is spiritually consequential, not merely emotionally consequential. Jesus calls the apostles to realize (reality-ize) this evening in their inner lives and to use their personality management—to be children of light.
179:3. Washing the Apostles’ Feet
This is not a parable of fatherly love but a parable of brotherly love—the level of kindness. It's a parable about doing something―being a server of all. This is not an outer-life moment; the "cleanliness" here Jesus speaks of is not about dirt on their bodies. Jesus is asking the apostles (and us) for an inner-life consecration that is the same as his inner-life consecration―the faith of Jesus, a fully human faith.
We may not appreciate it, but in this day and age Jesus becoming a servant here completely upended the apostles' deep-seated cultural framing. It shattered all those hardened forms in their minds so something better could be put in their place. This is was revelation always seeks to do: to upend our expectations. Here, eleven of the apostles could go along with this because they humbly trusted and loved Jesus. But as for Judas and his vainglorious self-exaltation, it was all too much.
This is a parable about spiritual equality. We each have equal potential in personality endowment, so from an existential viewpoint we're all spiritually equal. And on that firm foundation of spiritual equality, we can enter the world as servers of all. But spiritual equality does not mean that, experientially speaking, we will all turn out equally the same way.
You ascend in perfecting righteousness. Trust Jesus. Trust the 5th ER. If you seek first the kingdom of heaven, your desires to help the world will be an automatic fruit. This is the way, the only way. Don't count on any ribbons or awards from the weary world that affirm you in this way. Just trust.
Brad's Notes
- Values are felt, [111:3.6] yet it's our thoughts, not feelings, that lead us Godward. [101:1.3]
- Sounds like a paradox, but insight provides a way to discriminate here. See the summary for more.
- James and Judas Alpheus are Thaddeus and Lebbeus, respectively.
- The mixing of water and wine here is a versatile symbology in the ceremony. It may remind one of times of scarcity, of times of poor-quality water sources, or even other things such as the inevitabilities.
- See [121:8.1] and [121:8.12-13] for open disclosure of how Part IV was constructed.
- For the new commandment Jesus mentions here that he will give them, see [180:1] and our 10/8/2019 episode.
