Episode:Jesus Faces Death—Farewell Instruction (Part 8)

From Symmetry of Soul


Jesus prayed: "Father, my hour has come; now glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. I know that you have given me full authority over all living creatures in my realm, and I will give eternal life to all who will become faith sons of God. And this is eternal life, that my creatures should know you as the only true God and Father of all, and that they should believe in him whom you sent into the world."

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Last Group Prayer, The Bread of Life, The Living Water

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

We discussed further the meaning of the words “critic“ and its friend “discern.” Both words signify separation. Critical thinking, a grace given faculty of Holy Spirit (HS) encircuitment involves a sequence. Initially separate a phenomenon into its constituent elements (discernment), then objectively seek recognition of the significance of the separated elements to each other and the total, then proceed to think while maintaining the separation of elements, i.e. critically. This process of critical thinking when applied to the coordination of essential knowledge furnished by the 5th ER concerning a myriad of cosmic phenomena enables the student to access the truths of the revelation.

Paper 182 In Gethsemane

The midwayers narrate the doings of John Mark which show how he was able to witness what was happening to the Master and hear much of what he said from this time up to his crucifixion, and subsequently set down his record, which after considerable modification eventually emerged as the New Testament gospel of Mark. As partial and distorted as the gospels may be they have conserved essential elements of Jesus’ mission for the past two millennia. However, the world needs more, much more. Now with the 5th ER we can find a certain contentment with its enlarged concepts and advanced truth, but let us not succumb to being fully satisfied with our present apprehension of truth.

We pick up the story as Jesus and the eleven return to the Gethsemane camp. Not finding Judas, the apostles begin to put two and two together and realize that he has deserted them. We briefly discussed how it was that Judas did not go to iniquity as a result of his betrayal and that when we consider Judas from the vantage point of fatherly love embodied in the new commandment so recently given we can be void of offense.

182:1. The Last Group Prayer

While the venue has changed the Master has more instruction for his men before he is arrested. He addresses them as friends AND brethren. We noted the significance of this twofold manner of addressing the apostles in terms of the levels of meaning. They are indeed foundationally brethren (kin, 4th LoM), but to reveal the Father he does so from the vantage point of the 6th LoM (genuine love) where they are friends.

As Jesus prays aloud he leverages the setting to appeal to the feelings of the eleven. Here Jesus is attempting to give his men that which they can recall and which will serve them when the tension and confusion of the moment passes and they are better able to reflect on their experience. We observe that Jesus is employing prayer as a psychologic procedure for the eleven rather than a spiritual technique for himself.

Jesus petitions the Father (unnecessarily) to watch over his chosen, not because God needs to be asked but because the apostles need to be reminded of the Father’s ever constant watchcare. Jesus then extends the scope of his prayer to believers in the word of the apostles future ministry.

The Master also prays for unity among his followers, not uniformity. Unity IS. And this unity is the cosmic fact which makes possible and provides a place for the associativity of unique individuals. It represent the hope that regardless of the disparity and diversity of believers, all can find fellowship in this unity.

Before Michael’s bestowal, God in revealing himself to Moses could only get as far as causing it to be said “I AM”, and when pressed further only disclosed “I AM that I AM.” This is the existential aspect of God. Now, in the bestowal of Michael the experiential Deity of the Supreme and the pre-existent Father Deity in the Creator Son come together to allow for the experiential expression of the existential Father.

The midwayers conclude the section with a list sixteen expressions uttered throughout the Master’s ministry as God incarnate, for example, “I am the way , the truth, and the life.” In actuality these are the experiential terms which can be attributed to God the existential Father as revealed to the world by Jesus. Interestingly Jesus speaks of revealing the Father to the apostles and further that these believers will make the Father’s name known to other generations. Careful consideration of the implications of this statement should give us all pause in our efforts at evangelism. Whose name are we to make known to the world?

Notes by Brad

  • Concerning a living relationship with the 5th ER...
    • As opposed to a mere feeling-ful relationship to the text. That's an okay place to start, but aim higher.
      • When you first feel, you've begun the journey.


  • John Mark is crucial to the gospels. The Gospel of Mark, from which the other 3 based themselved on.
    • Then came Peter. Then came John.
    • Luke was another non-apostle who tried to "sleuth" out his gospel.
    • And then the gospels were edited subsequently and reworked.



  • "My friends and brethren"
    • The foundation is the 4th level of meaning, brotherly (brethren) love.
    • But built on that is friendship, the 6th level of meaning. And friend is a high word.
    • The 5th level of meaning (the level of selflessness) is where you turn away from yourself fully, neutralize yourself fully, looking outward at the cosmos by the 6th level of meaning.
      • It's like putting yourself as 90 degrees orthogonal to the line below where things happen, and you can see it objectively.
      • This is transcendence of yourself. Leaving room for God as a predicate instead of yourself as a predicate.
    • Can you learn all of this and not become newly self-obsessed, filled with navel gazing and self-analysis?
      • This author asks himself that strongly, indeed.
    • Jesus wants to talk about God with them, as friends. The real God is on the 6th level of meaning, so friendship is the right way to talk about the real God.


  • So Jesus starts to pray.
    • But he's still in an instructional mode: last words and all that
    • What mode is this prayer of Jesus here? See [91.4]
      • A material technique? No. It never really functions this way
      • A psychologic procedure? Surely, for the apostles sake. And this mode is not to be despised!
      • A spiritual procedure? Well, is his prayer not seeking anything for himself or his apostles? No, it's full of that.
    • So it's a psychologic procedure, but not for himself. For the apostles.
      • Direct evidence there is nothing bad about a prayer-as-psychologic-procedure. Ipso facto, Jesus is doing that here.
    • Is Jesus trying to remind the Father of something he missed? Of course not. This is a psychologic procedure.
      • This is yet another mode (like a parable is a mode) to try to reach them, inform them, educate them.


  • The child of God must believe in Jesus. An adult of God must believe with Jesus. See [Paper 196] for plenty on this.


  • What does Jesus mean by invoking "oneness" here?
    • Oneness connotes indivisibility. What God has joined together, no one can put asunder.
    • See yourself bound back (religious) to God. And standing unmoved.
    • If you use the absolute dimension of your personality, nothing finite can overrule that.


  • Are you stuck in life? What gets you unstuck? Let go of yourself.


  • There's a somewhat repetitive, chant-like quality here.
    • Fine! That's prayer. Remember we are programmed to pray. It's hard-wired into us.
    • But within the prayer itself are subtle points that might just stick with them, because of the hard-wired nature of this psychologic procedure.


  • Here's a very direct unity versus uniformity discussion at [182:1.8].
    • Even if you don't get what unity IS, start with "it isn't uniformity."
    • It's some literal fact that makes association... possible!
    • No much how it seems like you cannot be associated with some other person, unity says "yes, you can. Absolutely."
    • Can you leave an invisible seat at your Thanksgiving table for unity? So that associativity is possible?


  • Instead of simply the existential "I AM," there is a list here of experiential properties of God the Father, via his incarnation in Jesus.
    • And a lot about "the name of God" and making it known, not the name of Jesus.
    • This long list of "I am the bread of life" and so on is not about Jesus!
      • It's about the Universal Father, as revealed in Jesus.
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