547 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
547 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
Urantia Book Paper 189 The Resurrection
|
||
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 ... The Resurrection
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Paper 189 The Resurrection
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Introduction
|
||
|
||
SOON after the burial of Jesus on Friday afternoon, the chief of the archangels
|
||
of Nebadon, then present on Urantia, summoned his council of the resurrection
|
||
of sleeping will creatures and entered upon the consideration of a possible
|
||
technique for the restoration of Jesus. These assembled sons of the local
|
||
universe, the creatures of Michael, did this on their own responsibility;
|
||
Gabriel had not assembled them. By midnight they had arrived at the conclusion
|
||
that the creature could do nothing to facilitate the resurrection of the
|
||
Creator. They were disposed to accept the advice of Gabriel, who instructed
|
||
them that, since Michael had "laid down his life of his own free will, he also
|
||
had power to take it up again in accordance with his own determination."
|
||
Shortly after the adjournment of this council of the archangels, the Life
|
||
Carriers, and their various associates in the work of creature rehabilitation
|
||
and morontia creation, the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, being in personal
|
||
command of the assembled celestial hosts then on Urantia, spoke these words to
|
||
the anxious waiting watchers:
|
||
|
||
"Not one of you can do aught to assist your Creator-father in the return to
|
||
life. As a mortal of the realm he has experienced mortal death; as the
|
||
Sovereign of a universe he still lives. That which you observe is the mortal
|
||
transit of Jesus of Nazareth from life in the flesh to life in the morontia.
|
||
The spirit transit of this Jesus was completed at the time I separated myself
|
||
from his personality and became your temporary director. Your Creator-father
|
||
has elected to pass through the whole of the experience of his mortal
|
||
creatures, from birth on the material worlds, on through natural death and the
|
||
resurrection of the morontia, into the status of true spirit existence. A
|
||
certain phase of this experience you are about to observe, but you may not
|
||
participate in it. Those things which you ordinarily do for the creature, you
|
||
may not do for the Creator. A Creator Son has within himself the power to
|
||
bestow himself in the likeness of any of his created sons; he has within
|
||
himself the power to lay down his observable life and to take it up again; and
|
||
he has this power because of the direct command of the Paradise Father, and I
|
||
know whereof I speak."
|
||
|
||
When they heard the Personalized Adjuster so speak, they all assumed the
|
||
attitude of anxious expectancy, from Gabriel down to the most humble cherubim.
|
||
They saw the mortal body of Jesus in the tomb; they detected evidences of the
|
||
universe activity of their beloved Sovereign; and not understanding such
|
||
phenomena, they waited patiently for developments.
|
||
|
||
1. THE MORONTIA TRANSIT
|
||
|
||
At two forty-five Sunday morning, the Paradise incarnation commission,
|
||
consisting of seven unidentified Paradise personalities, arrived on the scene
|
||
and
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2021
|
||
|
||
immediately deployed themselves about the tomb. At ten minutes before three,
|
||
intense vibrations of commingled material and morontia activities began to
|
||
issue from Joseph's new tomb, and at two minutes past three o'clock, this
|
||
Sunday morning, April 9, A.D. 30, the resurrected morontia form and personality
|
||
of Jesus of Nazareth came forth from the tomb.
|
||
|
||
After the resurrected Jesus emerged from his burial tomb, the body of flesh in
|
||
which he had lived and wrought on earth for almost thirty-six years was still
|
||
lying there in the sepulchre niche, undisturbed and wrapped in the linen sheet,
|
||
just as it had been laid to rest by Joseph and his associates on Friday
|
||
afternoon. Neither was the stone before the entrance of the tomb in any way
|
||
disturbed; the seal of Pilate was still unbroken; the soldiers were still on
|
||
guard. The temple guards had been on continuous duty; the Roman guard had been
|
||
changed at midnight. None of these watchers suspected that the object of their
|
||
vigil had risen to a new and higher form of existence, and that the body which
|
||
they were guarding was now a discarded outer covering which had no further
|
||
connection with the delivered and resurrected morontia personality of Jesus.
|
||
|
||
Mankind is slow to perceive that, in all that is personal, matter is the
|
||
skeleton of morontia, and that both are the reflected shadow of enduring spirit
|
||
reality. How long before you will regard time as the moving image of eternity
|
||
and space as the fleeting shadow of Paradise realities?
|
||
|
||
As far as we can judge, no creature of this universe nor any personality from
|
||
another universe had anything to do with this morontia resurrection of Jesus of
|
||
Nazareth. On Friday he laid down his life as a mortal of the realm; on Sunday
|
||
morning he took it up again as a morontia being of the system of Satania in
|
||
Norlatiadek. There is much about the resurrection of Jesus which we do not
|
||
understand. But we know that it occurred as we have stated and at about the
|
||
time indicated. We can also record that all known phenomena associated with
|
||
this mortal transit, or morontia resurrection, occurred right there in Joseph's
|
||
new tomb, where the mortal material remains of Jesus lay wrapped in burial
|
||
cloths.
|
||
|
||
We know that no creature of the local universe participated in this morontia
|
||
awakening. We perceived the seven personalities of Paradise surround the tomb,
|
||
but we did not see them do anything in connection with the Master's awakening.
|
||
Just as soon as Jesus appeared beside Gabriel, just above the tomb, the seven
|
||
personalities from Paradise signalized their intention of immediate departure
|
||
for Uversa.
|
||
|
||
Let us forever clarify the concept of the resurrection of Jesus by making the
|
||
following statements:
|
||
|
||
1. His material or physical body was not a part of the resurrected personality.
|
||
When Jesus came forth from the tomb, his body of flesh remained undisturbed in
|
||
the sepulchre. He emerged from the burial tomb without moving the stones before
|
||
the entrance and without disturbing the seals of Pilate.
|
||
|
||
2. He did not emerge from the tomb as a spirit nor as Michael of Nebadon; he
|
||
did not appear in the form of the Creator Sovereign, such as he had had before
|
||
his incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh on Urantia.
|
||
|
||
3. He did come forth from this tomb of Joseph in the very likeness of the
|
||
morontia personalities of those who, as resurrected morontia ascendant beings,
|
||
emerge from the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of this local
|
||
system
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2022
|
||
|
||
of Satania. And the presence of the Michael memorial in the center of the vast
|
||
court of the resurrection halls of mansonia number one leads us to conjecture
|
||
that the Master's resurrection on Urantia was in some way fostered on this, the
|
||
first of the system mansion worlds.
|
||
|
||
The first act of Jesus on arising from the tomb was to greet Gabriel and
|
||
instruct him to continue in executive charge of universe affairs under
|
||
Immanuel, and then he directed the chief of the Melchizedeks to convey his
|
||
brotherly greetings to Immanuel. He thereupon asked the Most High of Edentia
|
||
for the certification of the Ancients of Days as to his mortal transit; and
|
||
turning to the assembled morontia groups of the seven mansion worlds, here
|
||
gathered together to greet and welcome their Creator as a creature of their
|
||
order, Jesus spoke the first words of the postmortal career. Said the morontia
|
||
Jesus: "Having finished my life in the flesh, I would tarry here for a short
|
||
time in transition form that I may more fully know the life of my ascendant
|
||
creatures and further reveal the will of my Father in Paradise."
|
||
|
||
After Jesus had spoken, he signaled to the Personalized Adjuster, and all
|
||
universe intelligences who had been assembled on Urantia to witness the
|
||
resurrection were immediately dispatched to their respective universe
|
||
assignments.
|
||
|
||
Jesus now began the contacts of the morontia level, being introduced, as a
|
||
creature, to the requirements of the life he had chosen to live for a short
|
||
time on Urantia. This initiation into the morontia world required more than an
|
||
hour of earth time and was twice interrupted by his desire to communicate with
|
||
his former associates in the flesh as they came out from Jerusalem wonderingly
|
||
to peer into the empty tomb to discover what they considered evidence of his
|
||
resurrection.
|
||
|
||
Now is the mortal transit of Jesus--the morontia resurrection of the Son of
|
||
Man--completed. The transitory experience of the Master as a personality midway
|
||
between the material and the spiritual has begun. And he has done all this
|
||
through power inherent within himself; no personality has rendered him any
|
||
assistance. He now lives as Jesus of morontia, and as he begins this morontia
|
||
life, the material body of his flesh lies there undisturbed in the tomb. The
|
||
soldiers are still on guard, and the seal of the governor about the rocks has
|
||
not yet been broken.
|
||
|
||
2. THE MATERIAL BODY OF JESUS
|
||
|
||
At ten minutes past three o'clock, as the resurrected Jesus fraternized with
|
||
the assembled morontia personalities from the seven mansion worlds of Satania,
|
||
the chief of archangels--the angels of the resurrection--approached Gabriel and
|
||
asked for the mortal body of Jesus. Said the chief of the archangels: "We may
|
||
not participate in the morontia resurrection of the bestowal experience of
|
||
Michael our sovereign, but we would have his mortal remains put in our custody
|
||
for immediate dissolution. We do not propose to employ our technique of
|
||
dematerialization; we merely wish to invoke the process of accelerated time. It
|
||
is enough that we have seen the Sovereign live and die on Urantia; the hosts of
|
||
heaven would be spared the memory of enduring the sight of the slow decay of
|
||
the human form of the Creator and Upholder of a universe. In the name of the
|
||
celestial intelligences of all Nebadon, I ask for a mandate giving me the
|
||
custody of the mortal body of Jesus of Nazareth and empowering us to proceed
|
||
with its immediate dissolution."
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2023
|
||
|
||
And when Gabriel had conferred with the senior Most High of Edentia, the
|
||
archangel spokesman for the celestial hosts was given permission to make such
|
||
disposition of the physical remains of Jesus as he might determine.
|
||
|
||
After the chief of archangels had been granted this request, he summoned to his
|
||
assistance many of his fellows, together with a numerous host of the
|
||
representatives of all orders of celestial personalities, and then, with the
|
||
aid of the Urantia midwayers, proceeded to take possession of Jesus' physical
|
||
body. This body of death was a purely material creation; it was physical and
|
||
literal; it could not be removed from the tomb as the morontia form of the
|
||
resurrection had been able to escape the sealed sepulchre. By the aid of
|
||
certain morontia auxiliary personalities, the morontia form can be made at one
|
||
time as of the spirit so that it can become indifferent to ordinary matter,
|
||
while at another time it can become discernible and contactable to material
|
||
beings, such as the mortals of the realm.
|
||
|
||
As they made ready to remove the body of Jesus from the tomb preparatory to
|
||
according it the dignified and reverent disposal of near-instantaneous
|
||
dissolution, it was assigned the secondary Urantia midwayers to roll away the
|
||
stones from the entrance of the tomb. The larger of these two stones was a huge
|
||
circular affair, much like a millstone, and it moved in a groove chiseled out
|
||
of the rock, so that it could be rolled back and forth to open or close the
|
||
tomb. When the watching Jewish guards and the Roman soldiers, in the dim light
|
||
of the morning, saw this huge stone begin to roll away from the entrance of the
|
||
tomb, apparently of its own accord--without any visible means to account for
|
||
such motion--they were seized with fear and panic, and they fled in haste from
|
||
the scene. The Jews fled to their homes, afterward going back to report these
|
||
doings to their captain at the temple. The Romans fled to the fortress of
|
||
Antonia and reported what they had seen to the centurion as soon as he arrived
|
||
on duty.
|
||
|
||
The Jewish leaders began the sordid business of supposedly getting rid of Jesus
|
||
by offering bribes to the traitorous Judas, and now, when confronted with this
|
||
embarrassing situation, instead of thinking of punishing the guards who
|
||
deserted their post, they resorted to bribing these guards and the Roman
|
||
soldiers. They paid each of these twenty men a sum of money and instructed them
|
||
to say to all: "While we slept during the nighttime, his disciples came upon us
|
||
and took away the body." And the Jewish leaders made solemn promises to the
|
||
soldiers to defend them before Pilate in case it should ever come to the
|
||
governor's knowledge that they had accepted a bribe.
|
||
|
||
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus has been based on the fact of
|
||
the "empty tomb." It was indeed a fact that the tomb was empty, but this is not
|
||
the truth of the resurrection. The tomb was truly empty when the first
|
||
believers arrived, and this fact, associated with that of the undoubted
|
||
resurrection of the Master, led to the formulation of a belief which was not
|
||
true: the teaching that the material and mortal body of Jesus was raised from
|
||
the grave. Truth having to do with spiritual realities and eternal values
|
||
cannot always be built up by a combination of apparent facts. Although
|
||
individual facts may be materially true, it does not follow that the
|
||
association of a group of facts must necessarily lead to truthful spiritual
|
||
conclusions.
|
||
|
||
The tomb of Joseph was empty, not because the body of Jesus had been
|
||
rehabilitated or resurrected, but because the celestial hosts had been granted
|
||
their request to afford it a special and unique dissolution, a return of the
|
||
"dust to
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2024
|
||
|
||
dust," without the intervention of the delays of time and without the operation
|
||
of the ordinary and visible processes of mortal decay and material corruption.
|
||
|
||
The mortal remains of Jesus underwent the same natural process of elemental
|
||
disintegration as characterizes all human bodies on earth except that, in point
|
||
of time, this natural mode of dissolution was greatly accelerated, hastened to
|
||
that point where it became well-nigh instantaneous.
|
||
|
||
The true evidences of the resurrection of Michael are spiritual in nature,
|
||
albeit this teaching is corroborated by the testimony of many mortals of the
|
||
realm who met, recognized, and communed with the resurrected morontia Master.
|
||
He became a part of the personal experience of almost one thousand human beings
|
||
before he finally took leave of Urantia.
|
||
|
||
3. THE DISPENSATIONAL RESURRECTION
|
||
|
||
A little after half past four o'clock this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the
|
||
archangels to his side and made ready to inaugurate the general resurrection of
|
||
the termination of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of
|
||
the seraphim and the cherubim concerned in this great event had been marshaled
|
||
in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel, saying: "As
|
||
my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in
|
||
himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe
|
||
jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the
|
||
bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary
|
||
resurrection begin."
|
||
|
||
The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia.
|
||
Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of
|
||
the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the
|
||
system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: "By the mandate of Michael,
|
||
let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!" Then all the survivors of the
|
||
human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who
|
||
had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of
|
||
mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the
|
||
seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds.
|
||
Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of
|
||
these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking
|
||
in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at
|
||
this time because of the necessity of Gabriel's presence here in connection
|
||
with the morontia resurrection of Jesus.
|
||
|
||
Notwithstanding that countless individuals having personal seraphic guardians
|
||
and those achieving the requisite attainment of spiritual personality progress
|
||
had gone on to mansonia during the ages subsequent to the times of Adam and
|
||
Eve, and though there had been many special and millennial resurrections of
|
||
Urantia sons, this was the third of the planetary roll calls, or complete
|
||
dispensational resurrections. The first occurred at the time of the arrival of
|
||
the Planetary Prince, the second during the time of Adam, and this, the third,
|
||
signalized the morontia resurrection, the mortal transit, of Jesus of Nazareth.
|
||
|
||
When the signal of the planetary resurrection had been received by the chief of
|
||
archangels, the Personalized Adjuster of the Son of Man relinquished his
|
||
authority over the celestial hosts assembled on Urantia, turning all these sons
|
||
of the local universe back to the jurisdiction of their respective commanders.
|
||
And
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2025
|
||
|
||
when he had done this, he departed for Salvington to register with Immanuel the
|
||
completion of the mortal transit of Michael. And he was immediately followed by
|
||
all the celestial host not required for duty on Urantia. But Gabriel remained
|
||
on Urantia with the morontia Jesus.
|
||
|
||
And this is the recital of the events of the resurrection of Jesus as viewed by
|
||
those who saw them as they really occurred, free from the limitations of
|
||
partial and restricted human vision.
|
||
|
||
4. DISCOVERY OF THE EMPTY TOMB
|
||
|
||
As we approach the time of the resurrection of Jesus on this early Sunday
|
||
morning, it should be recalled that the ten apostles were sojourning at the
|
||
home of Elijah and Mary Mark, where they were asleep in the upper chamber,
|
||
resting on the very couches whereon they reclined during the last supper with
|
||
their Master. This Sunday morning they were all there assembled except Thomas.
|
||
Thomas was with them for a few minutes late Saturday night when they first got
|
||
together, but the sight of the apostles, coupled with the thought of what had
|
||
happened to Jesus, was too much for him. He looked his associates over and
|
||
immediately left the room, going to the home of Simon in Bethphage, where he
|
||
thought to grieve over his troubles in solitude. The apostles all suffered, not
|
||
so much from doubt and despair as from fear, grief, and shame.
|
||
|
||
At the home of Nicodemus there were gathered together, with David Zebedee and
|
||
Joseph of Arimathea, some twelve or fifteen of the more prominent of the
|
||
Jerusalem disciples of Jesus. At the home of Joseph of Arimathea there were
|
||
some fifteen or twenty of the leading women believers. Only these women abode
|
||
in Joseph's house, and they had kept close within during the hours of the
|
||
Sabbath day and the evening after the Sabbath, so that they were ignorant of
|
||
the military guard on watch at the tomb; neither did they know that a second
|
||
stone had been rolled in front of the tomb, and that both of these stones had
|
||
been placed under the seal of Pilate.
|
||
|
||
A little before three o'clock this Sunday morning, when the first signs of day
|
||
began to appear in the east, five of the women started out for the tomb of
|
||
Jesus. They had prepared an abundance of special embalming lotions, and they
|
||
carried many linen bandages with them. It was their purpose more thoroughly to
|
||
give the body of Jesus its death anointing and more carefully to wrap it up
|
||
with the new bandages.
|
||
|
||
The women who went on this mission of anointing Jesus' body were: Mary
|
||
Magdalene, Mary the mother of the Alpheus twins, Salome the mother of the
|
||
Zebedee brothers, Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna the daughter of Ezra of
|
||
Alexandria.
|
||
|
||
It was about half past three o'clock when the five women, laden with their
|
||
ointments, arrived before the empty tomb. As they passed out of the Damascus
|
||
gate, they encountered a number of soldiers fleeing into the city more or less
|
||
panic-stricken, and this caused them to pause for a few minutes; but when
|
||
nothing more developed, they resumed their journey.
|
||
|
||
They were greatly surprised to see the stone rolled away from the entrance to
|
||
the tomb, inasmuch as they had said among themselves on the way out, "Who will
|
||
help us roll away the stone?" They set down their burdens and began to look
|
||
upon one another in fear and with great amazement. While they stood there,
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2026
|
||
|
||
atremble with fear, Mary Magdalene ventured around the smaller stone and dared
|
||
to enter the open sepulchre. This tomb of Joseph was in his garden on the
|
||
hillside on the eastern side of the road, and it also faced toward the east. By
|
||
this hour there was just enough of the dawn of a new day to enable Mary to look
|
||
back to the place where the Master's body had lain and to discern that it was
|
||
gone. In the recess of stone where they had laid Jesus, Mary saw only the
|
||
folded napkin where his head had rested and the bandages wherewith he had been
|
||
wrapped lying intact and as they had rested on the stone before the celestial
|
||
hosts removed the body. The covering sheet lay at the foot of the burial niche.
|
||
|
||
After Mary had tarried in the doorway of the tomb for a few moments (she did
|
||
not see distinctly when she first entered the tomb), she saw that Jesus' body
|
||
was gone and in its place only these grave cloths, and she uttered a cry of
|
||
alarm and anguish. All the women were exceedingly nervous; they had been on
|
||
edge ever since meeting the panicky soldiers at the city gate, and when Mary
|
||
uttered this scream of anguish, they were terror-stricken and fled in great
|
||
haste. And they did not stop until they had run all the way to the Damascus
|
||
gate. By this time Joanna was conscience-stricken that they had deserted Mary;
|
||
she rallied her companions, and they started back for the tomb.
|
||
|
||
As they drew near the sepulchre, the frightened Magdalene, who was even more
|
||
terrorized when she failed to find her sisters waiting when she came out of the
|
||
tomb, now rushed up to them, excitedly exclaiming: "He is not there--they have
|
||
taken him away!" And she led them back to the tomb, and they all entered and
|
||
saw that it was empty.
|
||
|
||
All five of the women then sat down on the stone near the entrance and talked
|
||
over the situation. It had not yet occurred to them that Jesus had been
|
||
resurrected. They had been by themselves over the Sabbath, and they conjectured
|
||
that the body had been moved to another resting place. But when they pondered
|
||
such a solution of their dilemma, they were at a loss to account for the
|
||
orderly arrangement of the grave cloths; how could the body have been removed
|
||
since the very bandages in which it was wrapped were left in position and
|
||
apparently intact on the burial shelf?
|
||
|
||
As these women sat there in the early hours of the dawn of this new day, they
|
||
looked to one side and observed a silent and motionless stranger. For a moment
|
||
they were again frightened, but Mary Magdalene, rushing toward him and
|
||
addressing him as if she thought he might be the caretaker of the garden, said,
|
||
"Where have you taken the Master? Where have they laid him? Tell us that we may
|
||
go and get him." When the stranger did not answer Mary, she began to weep. Then
|
||
spoke Jesus to them, saying, "Whom do you seek?" Mary said: "We seek for Jesus
|
||
who was laid to rest in Joseph's tomb, but he is gone. Do you know where they
|
||
have taken him?" Then said Jesus: "Did not this Jesus tell you, even in
|
||
Galilee, that he would die, but that he would rise again?" These words startled
|
||
the women, but the Master was so changed that they did not yet recognize him
|
||
with his back turned to the dim light. And as they pondered his words, he
|
||
addressed the Magdalene with a familiar voice, saying, "Mary." And when she
|
||
heard that word of well-known sympathy and affectionate greeting, she knew it
|
||
was the voice of the Master, and she rushed to kneel at his feet while she
|
||
exclaimed, "My Lord, and my Master!" And all of the other women recognized that
|
||
it was the Master who stood before them in glorified form, and they quickly
|
||
knelt before him.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2027
|
||
|
||
These human eyes were enabled to see the morontia form of Jesus because of the
|
||
special ministry of the transformers and the midwayers in association with
|
||
certain of the morontia personalities then accompanying Jesus.
|
||
|
||
As Mary sought to embrace his feet, Jesus said: "Touch me not, Mary, for I am
|
||
not as you knew me in the flesh. In this form will I tarry with you for a
|
||
season before I ascend to the Father. But go, all of you, now and tell my
|
||
apostles--and Peter--that I have risen, and that you have talked with me."
|
||
|
||
After these women had recovered from the shock of their amazement, they
|
||
hastened back to the city and to the home of Elijah Mark, where they related to
|
||
the ten apostles all that had happened to them; but the apostles were not
|
||
inclined to believe them. They thought at first that the women had seen a
|
||
vision, but when Mary Magdalene repeated the words which Jesus had spoken to
|
||
them, and when Peter heard his name, he rushed out of the upper chamber,
|
||
followed closely by John, in great haste to reach the tomb and see these things
|
||
for himself.
|
||
|
||
The women repeated the story of talking with Jesus to the other apostles, but
|
||
they would not believe; and they would not go to find out for themselves as had
|
||
Peter and John.
|
||
|
||
5. PETER AND JOHN AT THE TOMB
|
||
|
||
As the two apostles raced for Golgotha and the tomb of Joseph, Peter's thoughts
|
||
alternated between fear and hope; he feared to meet the Master, but his hope
|
||
was aroused by the story that Jesus had sent special word to him. He was half
|
||
persuaded that Jesus was really alive; he recalled the promise to rise on the
|
||
third day. Strange to relate, this promise had not occurred to him since the
|
||
crucifixion until this moment as he hurried north through Jerusalem. As John
|
||
hastened out of the city, a strange ecstasy of joy and hope welled up in his
|
||
soul. He was half convinced that the women really had seen the risen Master.
|
||
|
||
John, being younger than Peter, outran him and arrived first at the tomb. John
|
||
tarried at the door, viewing the tomb, and it was just as Mary had described
|
||
it. Very soon Simon Peter rushed up and, entering, saw the same empty tomb with
|
||
the grave cloths so peculiarly arranged. And when Peter had come out, John also
|
||
went in and saw it all for himself, and then they sat down on the stone to
|
||
ponder the meaning of what they had seen and heard. And while they sat there,
|
||
they turned over in their minds all that had been told them about Jesus, but
|
||
they could not clearly perceive what had happened.
|
||
|
||
Peter at first suggested that the grave had been rifled, that enemies had
|
||
stolen the body, perhaps bribed the guards. But John reasoned that the grave
|
||
would hardly have been left so orderly if the body had been stolen, and he also
|
||
raised the question as to how the bandages happened to be left behind, and so
|
||
apparently intact. And again they both went back into the tomb more closely to
|
||
examine the grave cloths. As they came out of the tomb the second time, they
|
||
found Mary Magdalene returned and weeping before the entrance. Mary had gone to
|
||
the apostles believing that Jesus had risen from the grave, but when they all
|
||
refused to believe her report, she became downcast and despairing. She longed
|
||
to go back near the tomb, where she thought she had heard the familiar voice of
|
||
Jesus.
|
||
|
||
As Mary lingered after Peter and John had gone, the Master again appeared to
|
||
her, saying: "Be not doubting; have the courage to believe what you have seen
|
||
and heard. Go back to my apostles and again tell them that I have risen,
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2028
|
||
|
||
that I will appear to them, and that presently I will go before them into
|
||
Galilee as I promised."
|
||
|
||
Mary hurried back to the Mark home and told the apostles she had again talked
|
||
with Jesus, but they would not believe her. But when Peter and John returned,
|
||
they ceased to ridicule and became filled with fear and apprehension.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 2029
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
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
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>Ŀ
|
||
<EFBFBD> // <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> The Time Of <20> Morontia <20> Urantia Book <20> Search <20> SiteMap! <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> The... <20> Appear... <20> PA... <20> <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>
|
||
//
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>Ŀ
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> http://www.spiritweb.org <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> Webmaster <webmaster@spiritweb.org> <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> AUSTRALIA <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>
|