Episode:Jesus in Galilee—Early Public Work (Part 10)

From Symmetry of Soul


Said Jesus: “Some of you may not stand high in actual levels of soul and spirit, but you are making daily progress on the living way opened up, through faith, to God. There are tremendous possibilities in each of you for the future. Better by far to have a small but living and growing faith than to be possessed of a great intellect with its dead stores of worldly wisdom and spiritual unbelief.”

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Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Old Wineskins, Spiritual Pride, Freedom from Fear

Summary by Kermit

Commentary on the Review

Recalling that in our evolutionary domain goodness can be defined as “perfecting-ness” rather than perfect-ness, we commented further on the teaching that the Godward direction of one’s progress in the cosmos is of infinitely more importance than the present actuality of universe status. Jesus’ address to the apostles to this effect included a curious phrase —“progress in the eternal ascent to Paradise”. We paused to reflect on this in light of the Paradise ascent as portrayed in the revelation is an accomplishment in time. What is the difference between the “eternal ascent to Paradise”, and the temporal ascent to Mansion World #1?

147:5. Visiting Simon the Pharisee (cont.)

As Jesus elaborates on the universe status of Simon vs. the Godward direction of the so-called sinful woman we noticed how the revelators’ caustic characterization of the Pharisees’ “false progress of the illusion of traversing deceptive circles of meaningless ceremonial services” parallels the cosmic advancement description of the psychic circles. Also we noted contrast between the temporal human differential, bottom up comparison of the Pharisee and the woman with the top down spiritual equality of the two. Jesus concludes his lesson warning listeners against presuming on the Father’s love and viewing God as some overindulgent parent, declaring self-destructive and sinful practices of his children to be an abomination in the sight of God. Also, check out our focus on the word abomination, used three times in the revelation, all three of which we have encountered in this and the previous paper of our current arc. Etymology of the word abomination suggests away from man, inhuman. This leads to the interesting conclusion that the above referred to self-willed practices result in removing one’s self from the human, thus separation from God, in a manner erroneously ascribed to God in certain Old Testament passages. Lest these rugged truths put one’s destiny doubt, the good news is that the Mansion World career is designed to provide more than enough opportunity for the rehabilitation and restoration of a misspent life in the flesh.

147:6. Returning to Capernaum

Jesus and the apostolic party made their way back to Capernaum through Perea, taking advantage of the jurisdiction of Herod which was less antagonistic to the spiritual kingdom preached by Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders were now agreed in their determination to stop the Master’s teaching. They ultimately concluded that he would have to be brought up on religious charges before the Sanhedrin. Accordingly, they dispatched six spies to attach themselves to the apostolic party for the purpose of gathering evidence of lawbreaking and blasphemy. What follows is the almost humorous story of the spies seizing upon the interpretation of the law whereupon plucking and rubbing wheat in preparation for eating was lawbreaking, but the eating itself was not. Quibbling with Andrew and confronting Jesus regarding such legalistic minutia resulted in the Master’s memorable declaration that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, even that he, the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.

147:7. Back in Capernaum

Back in Capernaum the spies again confront Jesus on his neglect in commanding his disciples to fast and pray as John the Baptist bade his followers. Here is where we are introduced to our oft’ referred to warning against putting the new wine of the gospel into the old wineskins of olden teachings and traditions. Lest anyone is tempted to view such teaching in dichotomous terms the Master goes on to make clear it is not the newness of any teaching that must honored, but its trueness, be it old or new which is to be kept.

147:8. The Feast of Spiritual Goodness

Our paper and series concludes with an inspiring and extended citation from Isaiah regarding the value of actual fasting versus the sharing of bread with the hungry and ministry to afflicted souls. He exhorted the apostles to at least live up to the ideas of the olden prophet and progress far beyond even the ideals of Isaiah and the prophets of old. His last words of this late night special instruction were yet another reiteration of his new gospel of the kingdom: “Grow in grace by means of that living faith which grasps the fact that you are sons of God while at the same time it recognizes every man as a brother.

Notes by Brad

  • Remember: our job in this life is to master ourselves, not the external world
    • And do so with a gentle hand, a fatherly hand. Pay attention to your direction, not your absolute position. Perfectingness, not perfection.


  • It isn't that God loves... God is love. Period. Love on the highest of the levels of meaning.
    • A personal realization of divine fellowship


  • Are you certain you don't resemble a Pharisee caught up in illusions of meaningless ceremonials?
    • Don't be so sure! Stay humble.


  • The word abomination is concentrated in these two papers.
    • Literally this words signifies "from human". That etymology helps. The ceremonial connotation (e.g., shellfish being an abomination) is an old wineskin.
  • Can you stand apart from the fools of the earth who are raising their children in demoralizing ways? Can you stand on your own in how you raise your children?
    • Don't confuse group think with group wisdom.
    • Stand courageously and independently. As a parent, this is your first very significant challenge.
    • Moral growth is transcendent of (mere) spiritual progress (suggested by the word order here). So, try not to demoralize your children.
    • But don't overplay this. There are mansion worlds to remediate parenting problems. We are born in ignorance.


  • The scheming Sanhedrin sending spies into Jesus midst. Has anything changed in 2000 years? How many self-appointed "clever" schemers are still doing their childish machinations?
    • And three of the six eventually them join Jesus.
    • After the incident with the wheat on the road, three were reflecting and asking some deep and tough questions. The other three were stewing in their self-righteousness.


  • Jesus added to (positive) instead of taking away. For example, take a slavish ceremonial and make it better.


  • The difference between righteousness and self-righteousness is subtle indeed. If it weren't subtle and easy to miss, there wouldn't be self-righteousness in the world at all!


  • "Spirit is something you do to yourself. Not something that you are."


  • Here is the old wineskins analogy in the text!
    • Fermenting a new wine into old is taxing to a skin. Do it too much and it becomes brittle and may even burst.
    • But this is not usually avoidable. Not by timid souls. It takes courage and independence.
    • Some of your worldview is nearly unconscious, unchallenged assumptions nearly invisible.
    • And yet there is a way...
  • One difficult framework: the one you don't know is there. "Interpretation? There's no such thing! The Bible's words are its words."
  • Another difficult framework: the bottom-up foundation of adjutant-mind fear.
    • Perforce we serve two masters in this life...
      • Don't beat yourself up about fear being there. You've only just begun.
      • Even still with a lot of fear, there is plenty of space to practice self-mastery.


  • And then this intriguing Section 8, an extended excerpt from Isaiah 58.
    • It's a complex book with complex authorship, to say the least.
    • Goodness is a spirit word. It has nothing to do with dinner, or fasting.
    • Why spend so much ink in the 5th ER doing this?
      • The very end of Isaiah 58 is about earnestly keeping the Sabbath. And people focus on that.
      • But what about the other part of Isaiah 58? The context? That's the point Jesus is trying to make.
    • For an "old" text, it really gets it. There's a lot of truth in here.
    • The revelators translation of it also is quite marvelous, this author notes.


  • Are you someone who would stay up late into the night with Jesus? Do you not tire in hearing of the truth?