Episode:Jesus of Nazareth—Childhood Career (Part 4)
During Jesus’ eighth year of life, while he continued to make enviable progress at school, all did not run smoothly for either parents or teachers. He persisted in asking many embarrassing questions concerning both science and religion, particularly regarding geography and astronomy. He was especially insistent on finding out why there was a dry season and a rainy season in Palestine.
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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Synagogue School, Mathematics, Music
Opening thought: What a transcendent service if, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus… [196:1.2]
Summary by Brad
On striving against material gravity using spirit gravity
Material gravity always wants to level us down; it's nothing personal. What it does to mountains (levels them) it would do to us. Material gravity is founded on The Isle of Paradise, which is an absolute. One absolute can only be overcome with another absolute. We must choose God—that level of absoluteness, that personality choice—to overcome material gravity. With a spirit nucleus, an inner life, I can maintain cosmic poise in the face of challenges. With a spirit nucleus, I can be wise even when the going gets tough. With a spirit nucleus, I can become the observer of that anxiety that surgin around in me as a part of my material origins. And though I cannot eliminate it, I can abandon it [48:7.21])—leave it behind—by going up to that spirit nucleus—seeking the kingdom heaven there.
But always remember: Your soul is in your free will hands. Even God cannot overrule free will. My inner-life freewill is so powerful and sovereign that I could exalt animal anxiety into my inner life, if I willed it. That would poison my inner life. And once that poison were to be in there, it's not easy to get rid of it. In fact, it would somehow follow me to the afterlife, eve if we don't fully understand how. Vigilance is the price we must pay for such a gift as free will. Vigilance with our inner lives.
123:5. School Days in Nazareth (cont'd)
By age 7, Jesus is having human experiences; he is an active and questioning self generating reflective questions. [102:4.2] His questions are not mere animal-instinct-driven curiosity (even cats are curious), nor are they those clever animal-machination questions kids are infamous for ("Eat your dinner." "But why?"). No, these are questions born in the higher levels of mind. We can say this confidently because the adults around Jesus were being led upward by and learning from Jesus' questions.
Jesus was intensely scientifically curious. He was intrigued by the landscape and the night sky (geography and astronomy), and he wanted causal explanations for it all. Nature and "her various moods" supplied plenty of material for an active and questioning self. His "reverent and sympathetic" contact with nature allowed his 6th adjutant mind-spirit to find expression, and this was grown into higher things: worship, compassion, etc. Those literal "jaunts" to physical overlooks encouraged he took with his father? They encouraged Jesus' mind to view all matters from a higher vantage point. All of these experiences served to progressively strengthen his connection with the three cosmic intuitions—the "purpose of education" [16:6.11] is the develop and sharpen these connections.
Science and religion need one another. Jesus' scientific curiosity was balanced by religious education, through stories and learning the law and Scripture. Never underestimate a young child's ability to store up Scripture and stories in their memory that can serve them well for a lifetime. Jesus selected Isaiah 61 as his birthday text. And what do you know: it got ingrained at a young age and became a recurrent motif throughout his life and througout his preaching. It was his touchstone.
How many of us today received a balanced scientific and religious education as children? This author can report attending Sunday School in childhood only in fits and start. And he can report it seemed boring and dead to him. Meanwhile, his scientific education was less of true science and more about random-factoid cataloging and reciting. We can do better than this for our children, in the light of an epochal revelation. These stories of Jesus' childhood can help be a guide.
We considered the "liberality" of Galilee and Nazareth and how it allowed Jesus' curiosity to flourish. Liberty originates in the inner life. In the outer life there is that which is liberal: liberty-like outward expressions of inner-life liberty such as freedom of speech, thought, and movement. "A liberal education" in the classic sense examines many lines of thought but then helps the student get above all of them. From that high vantage point, the student examines them all with top-down cosmic intuition to reflectively discern truth within them.
But please do take care: truth is not just what feels naturally pleasant to you based on your genetics—a common misconception. Also take care: liberality can be overplayed. Being overly liberal, one might consort with evil and sin, or even support ill-liberality in the name of liberality, or even fall into the pit of the false religion of skepticism. Liberality must be bridled, kept in check with respect to the cosmos.
123:6. His Eighth Year (A.D. 2)
Jesus started out life as a human boy, not a magic fetish boy and his magical doings. Overall he was not an unusual boy; he did well in school but was not the top of his class. It is, however, a curious coincidence that a math teacher crossed paths with him and helped further refine his analytical faculties. And he also began to like music and this was encouraged in his culture. All these things all continuing examples of just why Nazareth was an ideal place to grow up for Jesus.
Jesus became a teacher as soon as he could, teaching the alphabet to his brother James just as soon as James had the capacity. Even though Jesus had natural gifts as a teacher, this is not unusual in and of itself; teaching those a little bit behind us is a cosmic pattern we all are destined to experience.
Paper 123 ends with this urbane, sophisticated religious teacher from Jerusalem traveling to Nazareth and making a case for Jesus to return with him and enter something akin to a junior boarding school (this is not necessarily extraordinary; even today in our world many children go to school far from their home village). This teacher was not prepared for Jesus being such an impressively reflective human at age 8. Jesus at age 8 spoke with "frankness" about his understanding of the world, an understanding balanced between the scientific and the religious. Can we do the same in the light of an epochal revelation?
Brad's Notes
- Praying for wisdom? Any answer in this life will be more tribulation.
- Seeing to the proper education of children is part of the "supreme responsibility" [84:7.25] parents bear.
- We want our children to fall in love with and strive to know God.
- Recall that we are parenting someone who is designed.
- So it's by no means impossible or even Herculean. But it'd be good to read the manual the designer gave us.
- A co-host relayed teaching a lesson on the first cosmic intuition to the 8-year-old. "What do you think it means?" and "When you see things that remind you of it this week, let's talk about it."
- Also: recall children ideally become teachers of those just a little behind them, too.
- Jesus became a teacher at age 8, teaching his brother James just as soon as he was old enough for systematic learning (the alphabet)
- Jesus received compulsory religious education.
- Sunday school was the traditional modern equivalent. No longer popular.
- Bible stories can be taught to young children, and then become a foundation for their life. That will serve them well.
- Don't worry about telling primitive stories to kids. They'll outgrow them as needed.
- Isaiah 61:1 was a foundation text for Jesus' life he drew on repeatedly.
- Ensure this is a real, living religious consciousness, not dogmatic piety.
- His religious education was balanced with arts and sciences
- A scientific consciousness and a religious consciousness allows for a superadditive consequence.
- Nature is great for getting reflective questions going. The "Sunday drive" of those times.
- Jesus took Sabbath "jaunts." A "Sunday drive" might be today's equivalent.
- Growing up on a farm would teach a lot first cosmic intuition naturally. Most children today grow up in highly abstracted worlds.
- Jesus' math education was a beneficial foundation for his later life. Imagine being an itinerant preacher with no sense of "numbers, distances, and proportions."
- By age 8, Jesus was an impressive reflective thinker because of this balance.
- Jesus is having human experiences (see [102:4.2])
- His questions are real questions, reflective questions. Questions born in the higher levels of mind. Questions of an active and questioning self.
- They are not mere animal curiosity (even cats are curious)
- They are not animal conniving questions (the infamous disingenuous, procrastinating, manipulating questions of children)
- As with prayer, even before children can really ask "why," they're programmed to ask "why" in an impersonal way. After around age 6, you can take personal hold of it and run with it.
- Precision of language: The word liberal
- Literally "liberty-like": a downstepped outer-life expression of the liberty found in the inner life.
- In the outer life, we call that freedom. Speech, thought, movement. Respect for the preeminence of the individual.
- Liberality allows examination of many lines of thought (as opposed to orthodox)
- "A liberal education" examines many lines of thought and insists the student get above them
- From there, the student cultivates examining them with top-down cosmic intuition to discern truth..
- Liberality can be overplayed
- Overplayed, one might consort with evil and sin.
- Or support ill-liberality in the name of liberality.
- Or build a skeptical religion around the complexity of it all.
- Liberality must be bridled, kept in check with respect to the cosmos.
- "The meek" are those in faith submission to the Father's will; meek is not a synonym for weak, this author reminds himself.
- Material gravity wants to level you down. Choose God so it doesn't.
- What it does to mountains (levels them) it would do to you. It's nothing personal.
- It could theoretically overwhelm a Creator Son unless he chooses to go over it. (see 12/10/2019 episode)
- Material gravity if founded on The Idle of Paradise, which is an absolute. One absolute can only be overcome with another absolute.
- Anxiety is part of my animal heritage. I can't get rid of it. Leaving it behind (abandoning it [48:7.21]) by going up is the only viable option.
- Don't use your free will poorly and exalt/spiritualize animal anxiety into your inner life. Set a guard on your inner life.
External Links
- Minno. An app suggested by a co-host that tells Bible stories for children.
