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Urantia Book Paper 186 Just Before The Crucifixion
SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Just Before The
Crucifixion
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Paper 186 Just Before The Crucifixion
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Introduction
AS JESUS and his accusers started off to see Herod, the Master turned to the
Apostle John and said: "John, you can do no more for me. Go to my mother and
bring her to see me ere I die." When John heard his Master's request, although
reluctant to leave him alone among his enemies, he hastened off to Bethany,
where the entire family of Jesus was assembled in waiting at the home of Martha
and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead.
Several times during the morning, messengers had brought news to Martha and
Mary concerning the progress of Jesus' trial. But the family of Jesus did not
reach Bethany until just a few minutes before John arrived bearing the request
of Jesus to see his mother before he was put to death. After John Zebedee had
told them all that had happened since the midnight arrest of Jesus, Mary his
mother went at once in the company of John to see her eldest son. By the time
Mary and John reached the city, Jesus, accompanied by the Roman soldiers who
were to crucify him, had already arrived at Golgotha.
When Mary the mother of Jesus started out with John to go to her son, his
sister Ruth refused to remain behind with the rest of the family. Since she was
determined to accompany her mother, her brother Jude went with her. The rest of
the Master's family remained in Bethany under the direction of James, and
almost every hour the messengers of David Zebedee brought them reports
concerning the progress of that terrible business of putting to death their
eldest brother, Jesus of Nazareth.
1. THE END OF JUDAS ISCARIOT
It was about half past eight o'clock this Friday morning when the hearing of
Jesus before Pilate was ended and the Master was placed in the custody of the
Roman soldiers who were to crucify him. As soon as the Romans took possession
of Jesus, the captain of the Jewish guards marched with his men back to their
temple headquarters. The chief priest and his Sanhedrist associates followed
close behind the guards, going directly to their usual meeting place in the
hall of hewn stone in the temple. Here they found many other members of the
Sanhedrin waiting to learn what had been done with Jesus. As Caiaphas was
engaged in making his report to the Sanhedrin regarding the trial and
condemnation of Jesus, Judas appeared before them to claim his reward for the
part he had played in his Master's arrest and sentence of death.
All of these Jews loathed Judas; they looked upon the betrayer with only
feelings of utter contempt. Throughout the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas and
during his appearance before Pilate, Judas was pricked in his conscience about
top of page - 1998
his traitorous conduct. And he was also beginning to become somewhat
disillusioned regarding the reward he was to receive as payment for his
services as Jesus' betrayer. He did not like the coolness and aloofness of the
Jewish authorities; nevertheless, he expected to be liberally rewarded for his
cowardly conduct. He anticipated being called before the full meeting of the
Sanhedrin and there hearing himself eulogized while they conferred upon him
suitable honors in token of the great service which he flattered himself he had
rendered his nation. Imagine, therefore, the great surprise of this egotistic
traitor when a servant of the high priest, tapping him on the shoulder, called
him just outside the hall and said: "Judas, I have been appointed to pay you
for the betrayal of Jesus. Here is your reward." And thus speaking, the servant
of Caiaphas handed Judas a bag containing thirty pieces of silver--the current
price of a good, healthy slave.
Judas was stunned, dumfounded. He rushed back to enter the hall but was
debarred by the doorkeeper. He wanted to appeal to the Sanhedrin, but they
would not admit him. Judas could not believe that these rulers of the Jews
would allow him to betray his friends and his Master and then offer him as a
reward thirty pieces of silver. He was humiliated, disillusioned, and utterly
crushed. He walked away from the temple, as it were, in a trance. He
automatically dropped the money bag in his deep pocket, that same pocket
wherein he had so long carried the bag containing the apostolic funds. And he
wandered out through the city after the crowds who were on their way to witness
the crucifixions.
From a distance Judas saw them raise the cross piece with Jesus nailed thereon,
and upon sight of this he rushed back to the temple and, forcing his way past
the doorkeeper, found himself standing in the presence of the Sanhedrin, which
was still in session. The betrayer was well-nigh breathless and highly
distraught, but he managed to stammer out these words: "I have sinned in that I
have betrayed innocent blood. You have insulted me. You have offered me as a
reward for my service, money--the price of a slave. I repent that I have done
this; here is your money. I want to escape the guilt of this deed."
When the rulers of the Jews heard Judas, they scoffed at him. One of them
sitting near where Judas stood, motioned that he should leave the hall and
said: "Your Master has already been put to death by the Romans, and as for your
guilt, what is that to us? See you to that--and begone!"
As Judas left the Sanhedrin chamber, he removed the thirty pieces of silver
from the bag and threw them broadcast over the temple floor. When the betrayer
left the temple, he was almost beside himself. Judas was now passing through
the experience of the realization of the true nature of sin. All the glamor,
fascination, and intoxication of wrongdoing had vanished. Now the evildoer
stood alone and face to face with the judgment verdict of his disillusioned and
disappointed soul. Sin was bewitching and adventurous in the committing, but
now must the harvest of the naked and unromantic facts be faced.
This onetime ambassador of the kingdom of heaven on earth now walked through
the streets of Jerusalem, forsaken and alone. His despair was desperate and
well-nigh absolute. On he journeyed through the city and outside the walls, on
down into the terrible solitude of the valley of Hinnom, where he climbed up
the steep rocks and, taking the girdle of his cloak, fastened one end to a
small tree, tied the other about his neck, and cast himself over the precipice.
Ere he was dead, the knot which his nervous hands had tied gave way, and the
betrayer's body was dashed to pieces as it fell on the jagged rocks below.
top of page - 1999
2. THE MASTER'S ATTITUDE
When Jesus was arrested, he knew that his work on earth, in the likeness of
mortal flesh, was finished. He fully understood the sort of death he would die,
and he was little concerned with the details of his so-called trials.
Before the Sanhedrist court Jesus declined to make replies to the testimony of
perjured witnesses. There was but one question which would always elicit an
answer, whether asked by friend or foe, and that was the one concerning the
nature and divinity of his mission on earth. When asked if he were the Son of
God, he unfailingly made reply. He steadfastly refused to speak when in the
presence of the curious and wicked Herod. Before Pilate he spoke only when he
thought that Pilate or some other sincere person might be helped to a better
knowledge of the truth by what he said. Jesus had taught his apostles the
uselessness of casting their pearls before swine, and he now dared to practice
what he had taught. His conduct at this time exemplified the patient submission
of the human nature coupled with the majestic silence and solemn dignity of the
divine nature. He was altogether willing to discuss with Pilate any question
related to the political charges brought against him--any question which he
recognized as belonging to the governor's jurisdiction.
Jesus was convinced that it was the will of the Father that he submit himself
to the natural and ordinary course of human events just as every other mortal
creature must, and therefore he refused to employ even his purely human powers
of persuasive eloquence to influence the outcome of the machinations of his
socially nearsighted and spiritually blinded fellow mortals. Although Jesus
lived and died on Urantia, his whole human career, from first to last, was a
spectacle designed to influence and instruct the entire universe of his
creation and unceasing upholding.
These shortsighted Jews clamored unseemlily for the Master's death while he
stood there in awful silence looking upon the death scene of a nation--his
earthly father's own people.
Jesus had acquired that type of human character which could preserve its
composure and assert its dignity in the face of continued and gratuitous
insult. He could not be intimidated. When first assaulted by the servant of
Annas, he had only suggested the propriety of calling witnesses who might duly
testify against him.
From first to last, in his so-called trial before Pilate, the onlooking
celestial hosts could not refrain from broadcasting to the universe the
depiction of the scene of "Pilate on trial before Jesus."
When before Caiaphas, and when all the perjured testimony had broken down,
Jesus did not hesitate to answer the question of the chief priest, thereby
providing in his own testimony that which they desired as a basis for
convicting him of blasphemy.
The Master never displayed the least interest in Pilate's well-meant but
halfhearted efforts to effect his release. He really pitied Pilate and
sincerely endeavored to enlighten his darkened mind. He was wholly passive to
all the Roman governor's appeals to the Jews to withdraw their criminal charges
against him. Throughout the whole sorrowful ordeal he bore himself with simple
dignity and unostentatious majesty. He would not so much as cast reflections of
in-
top of page - 2000
sincerity upon his would-be murderers when they asked if he were "king of the
Jews." With but little qualifying explanation he accepted the designation,
knowing that, while they had chosen to reject him, he would be the last to
afford them real national leadership, even in a spiritual sense.
Jesus said little during these trials, but he said enough to show all mortals
the kind of human character man can perfect in partnership with God and to
reveal to all the universe the manner in which God can become manifest in the
life of the creature when such a creature truly chooses to do the will of the
Father, thus becoming an active son of the living God.
His love for ignorant mortals is fully disclosed by his patience and great
self-possession in the face of the jeers, blows, and buffetings of the coarse
soldiers and the unthinking servants. He was not even angry when they
blindfolded him and, derisively striking him in the face, exclaimed: "Prophesy
to us who it was that struck you."
Pilate spoke more truly than he knew when, after Jesus had been scourged, he
presented him before the multitude, exclaiming, "Behold the man!" Indeed, the
fear-ridden Roman governor little dreamed that at just that moment the universe
stood at attention, gazing upon this unique scene of its beloved Sovereign thus
subjected in humiliation to the taunts and blows of his darkened and degraded
mortal subjects. And as Pilate spoke, there echoed throughout all Nebadon,
"Behold God and man! " Throughout a universe, untold millions have ever since
that day continued to behold that man, while the God of Havona, the supreme
ruler of the universe of universes, accepts the man of Nazareth as the
satisfaction of the ideal of the mortal creatures of this local universe of
time and space. In his matchless life he never failed to reveal God to man.
Now, in these final episodes of his mortal career and in his subsequent death,
he made a new and touching revelation of man to God.
3. THE DEPENDABLE DAVID ZEBEDEE
Shortly after Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers at the conclusion of
the hearing before Pilate, a detachment of the temple guards hastened out to
Gethsemane to disperse or arrest the followers of the Master. But long before
their arrival these followers had scattered. The apostles had retired to
designated hiding places; the Greeks had separated and gone to various homes in
Jerusalem; the other disciples had likewise disappeared. David Zebedee believed
that Jesus' enemies would return; so he early removed some five or six tents up
the ravine near where the Master so often retired to pray and worship. Here he
proposed to hide and at the same time maintain a center, or co-ordinating
station, for his messenger service. David had hardly left the camp when the
temple guards arrived. Finding no one there, they contented themselves with
burning the camp and then hastened back to the temple. On hearing their report,
the Sanhedrin was satisfied that the followers of Jesus were so thoroughly
frightened and subdued that there would be no danger of an uprising or any
attempt to rescue Jesus from the hands of his executioners. They were at last
able to breathe easily, and so they adjourned, every man going his way to
prepare for the Passover.
As soon as Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers by Pilate for
crucifixion, a messenger hastened away to Gethsemane to inform David, and
within five minutes runners were on their way to Bethsaida, Pella,
Philadelphia, Sidon,
top of page - 2001
Shechem, Hebron, Damascus, and Alexandria. And these messengers carried the
news that Jesus was about to be crucified by the Romans at the insistent behest
of the rulers of the Jews.
Throughout this tragic day, until the message finally went forth that the
Master had been laid in the tomb, David sent messengers about every half hour
with reports to the apostles, the Greeks, and Jesus' earthly family, assembled
at the home of Lazarus in Bethany. When the messengers departed with the word
that Jesus had been buried, David dismissed his corps of local runners for the
Passover celebration and for the coming Sabbath of rest, instructing them to
report to him quietly on Sunday morning at the home of Nicodemus, where he
proposed to go in hiding for a few days with Andrew and Simon Peter.
This peculiar-minded David Zebedee was the only one of the leading disciples of
Jesus who was inclined to take a literal and plain matter-of-fact view of the
Master's assertion that he would die and "rise again on the third day." David
had once heard him make this prediction and, being of a literal turn of mind,
now proposed to assemble his messengers early Sunday morning at the home of
Nicodemus so that they would be on hand to spread the news in case Jesus rose
from the dead. David soon discovered that none of Jesus' followers were looking
for him to return so soon from the grave; therefore did he say little about his
belief and nothing about the mobilization of all his messenger force on early
Sunday morning except to the runners who had been dispatched on Friday forenoon
to distant cities and believer centers.
And so these followers of Jesus, scattered throughout Jerusalem and its
environs, that night partook of the Passover and the following day remained in
seclusion.
4. PREPARATION FOR THE CRUCIFIXION
After Pilate had washed his hands before the multitude, thus seeking to escape
the guilt of delivering up an innocent man to be crucified just because he
feared to resist the clamor of the rulers of the Jews, he ordered the Master
turned over to the Roman soldiers and gave the word to their captain that he
was to be crucified immediately. Upon taking charge of Jesus, the soldiers led
him back into the courtyard of the praetorium, and after removing the robe
which Herod had put on him, they dressed him in his own garments. These
soldiers mocked and derided him, but they did not inflict further physical
punishment. Jesus was now alone with these Roman soldiers. His friends were in
hiding; his enemies had gone their way; even John Zebedee was no longer by his
side.
It was a little after eight o'clock when Pilate turned Jesus over to the
soldiers and a little before nine o'clock when they started for the scene of
the crucifixion. During this period of more than half an hour Jesus never spoke
a word. The executive business of a great universe was practically at a
standstill. Gabriel and the chief rulers of Nebadon were either assembled here
on Urantia, or else they were closely attending upon the space reports of the
archangels in an effort to keep advised as to what was happening to the Son of
Man on Urantia.
By the time the soldiers were ready to depart with Jesus for Golgotha, they had
begun to be impressed by his unusual composure and extraordinary dignity, by
his uncomplaining silence.
Much of the delay in starting off with Jesus for the site of the crucifixion
was due to the last-minute decision of the captain to take along two thieves
who had
top of page - 2002
been condemned to die; since Jesus was to be crucified that morning, the Roman
captain thought these two might just as well die with him as wait for the end
of the Passover festivities.
As soon as the thieves could be made ready, they were led into the courtyard,
where they gazed upon Jesus, one of them for the first time, but the other had
often heard him speak, both in the temple and many months before at the Pella
camp.
5. JESUS' DEATH IN RELATION TO THE PASSOVER
There is no direct relation between the death of Jesus and the Jewish Passover.
True, the Master did lay down his life in the flesh on this day, the day of the
preparation for the Jewish Passover, and at about the time of the sacrificing
of the Passover lambs in the temple. But this coincidental occurrence does not
in any manner indicate that the death of the Son of Man on earth has any
connection with the Jewish sacrificial system. Jesus was a Jew, but as the Son
of Man he was a mortal of the realms. The events already narrated and leading
up to this hour of the Master's impending crucifixion are sufficient to
indicate that his death at about this time was a purely natural and man-managed
affair.
It was man and not God who planned and executed the death of Jesus on the
cross. True, the Father refused to interfere with the march of human events on
Urantia, but the Father in Paradise did not decree, demand, or require the
death of his Son as it was carried out on earth. It is a fact that in some
manner, sooner or later, Jesus would have had to divest himself of his mortal
body, his incarnation in the flesh, but he could have executed such a task in
countless ways without dying on a cross between two thieves. All of this was
man's doing, not God's.
At the time of the Master's baptism he had already completed the technique of
the required experience on earth and in the flesh which was necessary for the
completion of his seventh and last universe bestowal. At this very time Jesus'
duty on earth was done. All the life he lived thereafter, and even the manner
of his death, was a purely personal ministry on his part for the welfare and
uplifting of his mortal creatures on this world and on other worlds.
The gospel of the good news that mortal man may, by faith, become
spirit-conscious that he is a son of God, is not dependent on the death of
Jesus. True, indeed, all this gospel of the kingdom has been tremendously
illuminated by the Master's death, but even more so by his life.
All that the Son of Man said or did on earth greatly embellished the doctrines
of sonship with God and of the brotherhood of men, but these essential
relationships of God and men are inherent in the universe facts of God's love
for his creatures and the innate mercy of the divine Sons. These touching and
divinely beautiful relations between man and his Maker on this world and on all
others throughout the universe of universes, have existed from eternity; and
they are not in any sense dependent on these periodic bestowal enactments of
the Creator Sons of God, who thus assume the nature and likeness of their
created intelligences as a part of the price which they must pay for the final
acquirement of unlimited sovereignty over their respective local universes.
The Father in heaven loved mortal man on earth just as much before the life and
death of Jesus on Urantia as he did after this transcendent exhibition of the
copartnership of man and God. This mighty transaction of the incarnation of the
God of Nebadon as a man on Urantia could not augment the attributes of the
top of page - 2003
eternal, infinite, and universal Father, but it did enrich and enlighten all
other administrators and creatures of the universe of Nebadon. While the Father
in heaven loves us no more because of this bestowal of Michael, all other
celestial intelligences do. And this is because Jesus not only made a
revelation of God to man, but he also likewise made a new revelation of man to
the Gods and to the celestial intelligences of the universe of universes.
Jesus is not about to die as a sacrifice for sin. He is not going to atone for
the inborn moral guilt of the human race. Mankind has no such racial guilt
before God. Guilt is purely a matter of personal sin and knowing, deliberate
rebellion against the will of the Father and the administration of his Sons.
Sin and rebellion have nothing to do with the fundamental bestowal plan of the
Paradise Sons of God, albeit it does appear to us that the salvage plan is a
provisional feature of the bestowal plan.
The salvation of God for the mortals of Urantia would have been just as
effective and unerringly certain if Jesus had not been put to death by the
cruel hands of ignorant mortals. If the Master had been favorably received by
the mortals of earth and had departed from Urantia by the voluntary
relinquishment of his life in the flesh, the fact of the love of God and the
mercy of the Son--the fact of sonship with God--would have in no wise been
affected. You mortals are the sons of God, and only one thing is required to
make such a truth factual in your personal experience, and that is your
spirit-born faith.
top of page - 2004
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
Faith Of Jesus
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