Urantia Book 14. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, Joshua ben Joseph, Christ Michael, Sovereign God of the Universe of Nebadon. When Jesus was 28 (AD 22), he left Capernaum for Jerusalem. He had accrued a great deal of money, and it was invested, so his family was well cared for. Jesus spent a couple of months listening to the discussions in the Temple; he spent Sabbath days at Bethany. Salome sent with him a letter of introduction to her relative Annas, the former high priest, who spent much time with Jesus. Annas took Jesus to the many academies of the religious teachers. Passover arrived with all the Zebedees, and they all celebrated at Annas’ house. At the end of Passover, Jesus met a wealthy businessman from India and his 17 year old son. This man was traveling around the Empire and needed an interpreter. He wanted to hire Jesus, but he did not want to go far from his family. The merchant offered to give Jesus his years’ wages in advance, so Jesus accepted.******************************* Jesus spent his 29th year touring the Mediterranean world. He made many contacts, which was his purpose for going. He never told anybody but Zebedee where he was going, not even his disciples and especially not his mother. His family thought he had gone to Alexandria, and he said nothing to change this story. What was the motivation of the Michael bestowal? What was the purpose of his sojourn on Planet Earth? “He was consistently careful not to build up an over-attractive and attention-consuming personal career. He wanted to make no unusual or overpowering appeal to his fellow men. He was dedicated to the work of revealing the heavenly Father to his fellow mortals and at the same time was consecrated to the sublime task of living his mortal earth life all the while subject to the will of the same Paradise Father” (129.3.5). Also living this life on Urantia, he was living it for the whole universe. By the end of his tour with the merchant and his son, he had thoroughly learned the subject of man and how man lives on earth. To know humans and how they lived was the real purpose of his trip. He met and loved all sorts of humans–high and low, rich and poor, black and white, educated and uneducated, moral and immoral. Jesus progressed in knowing the mortal mind–he had graduated. And also at the end of the tour, Jesus knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was the Son of God–a Creator Son of the Universal Father. His Thought Adjuster was bringing to Jesus’ conscious mind the time when he was a child being trained in Paradise long before he created his universe. The TA also gave him the memory of the farewell conference with Immanuel when he was baptized by John in the Jordan River.********************* But he still hadn’t achieved full control of his mind. Jesus was on the cusp of the fusing of the “material mind of man and the mind-endowment of the spirit–the phenomenon of the making of these two minds one, the experience which the Son of Man attained in completion and finality, as an incarnated mortal of the realm, on the day of his baptism in the Jordan” (129.4.2). We may not aspire to live the life of Jesus, but we can live our own lives by the same means he lived his. Jesus is not a technical and detailed example for us to follow, but he is everlastingly the inspiration and guide.*********************************** The tour of the Roman world with Gonod and Ganid took all of Jesus’ 29th year. They left Jerusalem on April 26, AD 22. Jesus traveled with them until they parted at Charax on the Persian Gulf on December 12, AD 23. They traveled first to Alexandria and Rome, putting in at ports along the way. They went to Mesopotamia, visiting Ur. They traveled back to Damascus, where Jesus translated a book from Greek into an Indian language with the help of an Indian scholar. Jesus tutored Ganid every morning, and in the afternoons they were free for sightseeing. Jesus also acted as translator for Gonod’s business dealings. On his own time he sought out people for conversations which would give him more insight into humanity. He also acquainted himself with the higher material and intellectual civilization where-ever they happened to be. He learned much about India and China from Gonod and Ganid, who had been to China three times. They invited Jesus to come back to India, but he declined, citing family.***************************** At Joppa Jesus met an interpreter named Gadiah, and they quickly became friends. “This young Philistine was a truth seeker, Jesus was a truth giver; he WAS the truth for that generation on Urantia. When a great truth seeker and a great truth giver meet, the result is a great and liberating enlightenment born of the experience of new truth” (130.1.1). Gadiah and Jesus took a walk one night, and Gadiah asked Jesus if he thought Jonah was really in the belly of a whale. Jesus gave him a truly brilliant discourse on the symbolism of the event. Jesus recognized that Gadiah had learned from the text “the folly of trying to run away from duty; Jesus therefore said nothing that would suddenly destroy the foundation of Gadiah’s present motivation for practical living” (130.1.2). On their last visit Gadiah asked: “How can God, if he is infinitely good, permit us to suffer the sorrows of evil; after all, who creates evil?” Jesus replied that God’s goodness is so great and real that it cannot contain evil. There is no place in him for negativity. Evil is the immaturity of those who are resistant to goodness and disloyal to truth. Evil is the disturbing influence of ignorance. It is the darkness following rejection of light. When consciously embraced, it becomes sin. (UB) Gadiah was fully satisfied with Jesus’ answers–I am, too, they are so sophisticated for their time. I wish these explanations were in the Bible.*********************************** They were held up in Caesarea for a few days because a new paddle had to be made for the boat they were traveling on. Jesus offered to put his wood-working skills to the job. While they were waiting they went to the theater and saw a Greek play. Ganid was very impressed with the temple of Augustus. They also paid a formal visit to the palace of the Roman governor. Jesus met a Taoist from Mongolia and, because he could speak Greek, Jesus was able to tell him about the gospel of the heavenly Father and the kingdom of heaven. When he arrived back in Mongolia, he told everybody what Jesus had said. As a result his eldest son became a Taoist priest, preaching the one God. This priest influenced so many people that his own son and grandson became priests of the One God. The UB says that India and China were thirsty for the Gospel, and it’s sad that there was no Peter or Paul to go there and preach the Gospel.********************************** One day as they were working on the paddle, an employee heard Jesus mumbling and asked him what he was saying. Jesus indicated that the Father in heaven was interested in the welfare of his children on earth. Anaxand answered,” If the Gods are interested in me, then why do they not remove the cruel and unjust foreman of this workshop?” Jesus replied that the boy could lead his foreman to a better way by not letting him control all their interactions. The boy could use kindness. He should stop letting his foreman’s evil influence him. Return good when given evil.(UB) Jesus’ words impressed the boy, and he repeated them that night to the foreman, whereupon both of them came to Jesus for advice about their souls. Later on when Phillip was preaching in their town, they both became Christians.***************************** As Jesus and Ganid were playing with a very intelligent shepherd dog, Ganid wanted to know if the dog had a soul or a will. Jesus said it had a mind, and can know its master, but not God; therefore has no spiritual experience. The dog may have a will by nature and training, but it’s not like the human will. Dogs can’t decide on personal survival; only humans can do that because they have will (UB). As a result of this conversation Ganid no longer believed in the transmigration of the souls of men into the bodies of animals. Those recording Jesus’ every word heard him sum up by saying: “Will is that manifestation of the human mind which enables the subjective consciousness to express itself objectively and to experience the phenomenon of aspiring to be Godlike” (130.2.10).