Episode:Jesus of Nazareth—Childhood Career (Part 7)
Jesus never shirked the responsibility of making the necessary daily adjustments between the realms of loyalty to one’s personal convictions and duty toward one’s family, and he achieved the satisfaction of effecting an increasingly harmonious blending of personal convictions and family obligations into a masterful concept of group solidarity based upon loyalty, fairness, tolerance, and love.
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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Tact and Discretion, Seasons of Uncertainty, Son of the Commandment
Opening thought: Let the sublime knowledge of the mortal life of Jesus of Nazareth sink into your souls, but waste no thought in useless speculation as to how this mysterious incarnation of Michael of Nebadon was effected. [20:6.1]
Summary by Brad
On transcending our animal origins
God created Havona directly—a billion perfect worlds. But we don't live in Havona. We live in a domain of reality where God doesn't do everything in such a direct fashion as He does in Havona. In fact, in our world there are things God cannot do and cannot create. There are things that we are doing. We are doing those things that God cannot do directly. We do this in partnership with God—consecrating our will to do His will. The Father's will alone cannot do what our will can do. God cannot will as we can. God cannot create a righteous person by fiat; a person must choose to be righteous.
As animal-origin creatures, there's actually nothing that profound about us, if only considered as products of nature. A mere animal can express passion, maybe zeal, power, and energy [99:7]. And all around us we have these vorticies swirling that seek to pull us back down into that natural estate—that dirt we went to all the trouble to rise up out of. On a surface level, it seems perhaps the atheists have a point: to outward appearances we appear to be victims of "the hopeless fatality of a mechanistic cosmic determinism." [103:5.10]
But it's not the case. Instead of all of the atheist's "doom of darkness and destiny of despair," [102:0.2] we can strive to be true humans—religionists—who identify with something revelatory, something given to us from above which pulls us upward with spirit gravity. We can be unnatural; we can transcend our animal-origin nature. A human who succeeds in transcending their animal-origin nature is no longer hopelessly imperfect, but instead is perfecting. A human can temper their animal passion, their zeal, their power, and their energy with with patience, insight, sympathy, and ideals. How does a human do this? By using their personality and free will wisely. A mind that is under personality management is an unnatural mind, a mind that is in the freewill control of the personality that's controlling it.
It's all a choice. Your relationship to God is a choice. Civilization is a choice.
We talk about these matters often on SoS because we serious students of the 5th ER need to maintain this unnatural concept frame in the fore of our minds in order to properly interpret this text and so that we seek truth instead of just getting affirmation and error.
124:4. The Twelfth Year (A.D. 6)
Jesus' material pragmatism continues to increase, giving him a fact-based relationship to God's reality. This is a counterbalance his high spiritual ideals and his aggressive temperament. As a result, Jesus becomes increasingly skilled at "facing facts and adjusting them to ideals to achieve wisdom." [160:4.14] For example, it was practical for Jesus to "conceal" some of his life from his neighbors. Now a spiritual idealist might chafe at any notion of concealment, but here in Jesus life it was practical here. As another example, it's implied that early on in life Jesus was tactless with his siblings, but learned how to be tactful. Jesus is growth; he's undergoing the same trials we must face in our lives.
Like Jesus, can we temper our spiritual idealism with material pragmatism? Can we clear away the fog of unity consciousness and think with clearness and precision? One of us confessed that even in our 40s we aren't doing as well as Jesus was by age 12. That's okay, but don't wait any longer. The double-edged sword of will power—potential creativity and destructivity—only gets sharper the higher you ascend toward Adjuster fusion.
Did Jesus experience first-stage evil during his childhood? He experienced "doubt," so it appears so or very nearly so. But that's only a problem if your concept of Jesus is that of a magic man. Error and evil are innate in how all of us start out here on this world or any world of mortal origin. Jesus had to overcome these things just as we do. Jesus' life would have no meaning if he would have just been born as a magical being who didn't have to overcome the same things we must overcome.
We discussed a potential cautionary tale with Mary the mother of Jesus. She was a "faithful" parent, yes, but she was "hurt" by Jesus not fulfilling her "fond expectations." Humans often stumble when God's plans don't meet their "fond expectations", don't they? They can develop a hardened heart by spiritualizing a nascent resentment of God's will and nursing this resentment in their inner life. Do you find yourself deeply, deeply hurt when God's plans don't match your own fond expecations and plans? If so, be careful with that.
We discussed Jesus' insistence on philosophic consistency. In family religious practices in his home, he insisted on consistency. This shows us that Jesus' mind was becoming philosophic—he was becoming a religionist of philosophic attainment. Only a philosophic mind, a reflective mind, can demand nothing less than consistency. And Jesus' "modification" of the religious forms of his home implied there already were pre-existing religious forms present in his home. This is a vital reminder to us today in our homes that God can't steer a parked car. You can't modify religious forms of the home if you don't have religious forms to begin with in your home! So we're encouraged through the story of Jesus to have religious forms in our homes that can be acted upon by God, that can be evolved and grown upwards.
We discussed the impending death of Jesus' father and how supremacy was able to work with it; listen to the archived episode for more details.
124:5. His Thirteenth Year (A.D. 7)
This year Jesus is 12 and 13 years old, and he is classified as an "adolescent." He is growing in both mind and body, with those changes of puberty coming along. He undergoes the bar mitzvah, literally "son of the commandment."
As that was happening if not before, people in his village were already making big plans for him as a prized student. They fully expected him to become a renowned rabbi by way of those schools at Jerusalem. But for several reasons this was not meant to be. Jesus had already recognized for years that those schools in Jerusalme likely were not his destiny (after all, those schools were the very definition of tradition and authority). But even more so with his earth father's soon-coming death, going to Jerusalem for extended school was not in the cards.
Notes by Brad
- Nothing about our doing God's will is in any way a surrender of our will. It's actually full use of our will.
- Being neither good nor bad is not an option in the cosmos.
- Just because you have the favor of your society, don't assume you have the favor of God. See how Jesus finds favor with God.
- It's great Jesus gains practical wisdom so young. As a teen the local chapter of the impractical, idealistic zealots begged him to run their organization. "No thanks," he said.
- Personality unifies whatever it encompasses. It can unify Jesus dual' nature. It can unify our natures, the three mindal selves that are at play in our person. However, because it is of spirit and unity, it can appear that we are just one mind; people can unfortunately confuse the material mind with the Thought Adjuster's mind. the 5th ER tries to help us sort this out.
- For Jesus, touching the doorframe as a reminder of God was not a problem in and of itself; it was the inconsistency with other prohibitions that caught his attention.
- Rituals to remind our animal selves about God, country and other critical matters are not a bad idea, especially for children.
- Jesus obtained the full range of parenting experience because of all of his brothers and sisters.
Our Merried Life Notes
- The bestowal son plan feels correct and beautiful.
- Jesus lived for us: he showed us what a balanced personality with a religious life looks like on Earth.
- He was fully human, an evolving person. And humans experience uncertainty, doubt, sadness. So did Jesus.
- He grew and evolved over time. He became increasingly tactful? That means when he was younger he was less tactful! Don't be alarmed; that's just human.
- Key: he reflected on his experiences, adjusted his actions, and became wise.
- This continued throughout his life. Late in life he adapted to using parables, for example.
- His is also a lesson in patience to us. Humility is called for in this life.
- Parents will form expectations for their children. But a light attachment to them is called for because God's will be done.
- Unfurl potentials for your children, yes! But don't hold firm to any expectations the kids develop along those avenues fully. Allow them to change course upon reflection.
- Too often, parents try to live our their unfulfilled fantasies through their children. This could be a blind spot for a parent.
- Two parents can help watch out for their respective blind spots in this regard.
- Balance: a child who thinks they want to do something, but are impatient for the hard work it entails. What lesson do you help them receive?
- Jesus helped to shape religious home culture. Does this apply today, particularly homes trying to live in the light of the 5th ER?
- Proposition: Be quick to entertain, but slow to commit.
- Perhaps some "1 in 10" model of experimentation?
- Let children offer ideas, sure.
- There's wisdom in having a structure that you know works well for the family. Order must be held in the home.
- Don't let children's whims torque the religious culture too quickly.
- Let children be individuals, yes, but also guide them to their moral duty, how they're part of a larger whole.
