Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 142
THE PASSOVER AT JERUSALEM
1. The first day in Jerusalem Jesus called upon his friend of former years, Annas, the onetime high priest and relative of Salome, Zebedee's wife... When Jesus perceived Annas's coldness, he took immediate leave, saying as he departed: "Fear is man's chief enslaver and pride his great weakness; will you betray yourself into bondage to both of these destroyers of joy liberty?"
2. Besides teaching in and about the temple, the apostles and other believers were engaged in doing much personal work among the Passover throngs. These interested men and women carried the news of Jesus' message from this Passover celebration to the uttermost parts of the Roman Empire and also to the East. This was the beginning of the spread of the gospel of the kingdom to the outside world. No longer was the work of Jesus to be confined to Palestine.
3. Said Jacob to Jesus: "But, Rabbi, Moses and the olden prophets tell us that Yahweh is a jealous God, a God of great wrath and fierce anger... Jesus replied: "Jacob, you have well stated the teachings of the olden prophets...Our Father in Paradise is changeless...I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds... Remember, Jacob, that a good and true father not only loves his family as a whole—as a family—but he also truly loves and affectionately cares for each individual member."
4. Then Jesus went on to say: "When your children are very young and immature, and when you must chastise them, they may reflect that their father is angry and filled with resentful wrath... But when these same children become grown‑up men and women, would it not be folly for them to cling to these earlier and misconceived notions regarding their father? As men and women they should now discern their father's love in all these early disciplines.
5. The Master proceed to instruct the apostles about the evolution of the concept of Deity throughout the course of the development of the Jewish people. He called attention to the following phases of the growth of the God idea. 1. Yahweh the god of the Sinai clans... 2. The Most High. This concept of the Father in heaven was proclaimed by Melchizedek to Abraham...3. El Shaddai...the Egyptian concept of the God of heaven... 4. Elohim. From the times of Adam the teaching of the Paradise Trinity has persisted... 5. The Supreme Yahweh. By the times of Isaiah beliefs about God had expanded into the concept of Universal Creator who was simultaneously all‑powerful and all‑merciful ...6. The Father in heaven. And now do we know God as our Father in heaven.
6. Never before had the apostles been so shocked as they were upon hearing this recounting of the growth of the concept of God in the Jewish minds of previous generations; they were too bewildered to ask questions... the Master continued: "And you would have known these truths had you read the Scriptures.
7. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt... they had ten commandments... And then, amidst the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, Moses gave them the new ten commandments, which you will all allow are more worthy utterances to accompany the enlarging Yahweh concepts of Deity... "And then will you remember that once again—in the greater spiritual enlightenment of Isaiah's day—these ten negative commandments were changed into the great and positive law of love, the injunction to love God supremely and your neighbor as yourself. And it is this supreme law of love for God and for man that I also declare to you as constituting the whole duty of man."
8. Flavius, the Greek Jew ...was a great lover of the beautiful in art...When he first thought of inviting Jesus to his home, he feared that the Master might take offense at the sight of these so‑called images... The Master saw that his host was bewildered at his friendly attitude toward art; therefore, when they had finished the survey of the entire collection, Jesus said:..."In an age when my Father was not well understood, Moses was justified in his attempts to withstand idolatry, but in the coming age the Father will have been revealed in the life of the Son; and this new revelation of God will make it forever unnecessary to confuse the Creator Father with idols of stone or images of gold and silver. Henceforth, intelligent men may enjoy the treasures of art without confusing such material appreciation of beauty with the worship and service of the Father in Paradise, the God of all things and all beings."
9. A man from Damascus ....asked Jesus: "But, Rabbi, how shall we know of a certainty that you are sent by God...and Jesus answered: "As to my message and the teaching of my disciples, you should judge them by their fruits. If we proclaim to you the truths of the spirit, the spirit will witness in your hearts that our message is genuine ...You, then who hear this message and believe this gospel of the kingdom are the sons of God, and you have life everlasting; and the evidence to all the world that you have been born of the spirit is that you sincerely love one another."
10. One evening at the home of Flavius there came to see Jesus one Nicodemus, a wealthy and elderly member of the Jewish Sanhedrin...Upon being presented by Flavius, Nicodemus, said: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God, for no mere man could so teach unless God were with him. And I am desirous of knowing more about your teachings regarding the coming kingdom, Jesus answered Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say to you, Nicodemus, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God"…And Nicodemus said: "But how can I begin to lay hold upon this spirit which is to remake me in preparation for entering into the kingdom?" Jesus answered: "Already does the spirit of the Father in heaven indwell you. If you would be led by this spirit from above, very soon would you begin to see with the eyes of the spirit, and then by the wholehearted choice of spirit guidance would you be born of the spirit since your only purpose in living would be to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. And so finding yourself born of the spirit and happily in the kingdom of God, you would begin to bear in your daily life the abundant fruits of the spirit."
11. Nicodemus was thoroughly sincere. He was deeply impressed but went away bewildered...But Nicodemus did summon faith enough to lay hold of the kingdom. He faintly protested when his colleagues of the Sanhedrin sought to condemn Jesus without a hearing; and with Joseph of Arimathea, he later boldly acknowledged his faith and claimed the body of Jesus, even when most of the disciples had fled in fear from the scenes of their Master's final suffering and death.
12. Said Thomas: "Master, on the day we were set apart as ambassadors of the kingdom, you told us many things, instructed us regarding our personal mode of life, but what shall we teach the multitude?...Very plainly Jesus explained that the kingdom of heaven was an evolutionary experience... In the course of the evening he definitely stated that at some future stage of kingdom development he would revisit this world in spiritual power and divine glory. He next explained that the "kingdom idea" was not the best way to illustrate man's relation to God.
"The people of another age will better understand the gospel of the kingdom when it is presented in terms expressive of the family relationship...Then the Master discoursed at some length on the earthly family as an illustration of the heavenly family, restating. the two fundamental laws of living: the first commandment of love for the father, the head of the family, and the second commandment of mutual love among the children, to love your brother as yourself. And then he explained that such a quality of brotherly affection would invariably manifest itself in unselfish and loving social service.
13. Jesus stated that a true family is founded on the following seven facts:
1.The fact of existence ...Children inherit certain parental traits...The relationship of father and child is inherent in all nature and pervades all living existences.
2. Security and pleasure.
3. Education and training.
4. Discipline and restraint.
5. Companionship and loyalty.
6. Love and mercy...Real families are built upon tolerance, patience, and forgiveness.
7. Provision for the future. Temporal fathers like to leave an inheritance for their sons. The family continues from one generation to another.
14. “This entire relationship of a son to the Father, I know in perfection, for all that you must attain of sonship in the eternal future I have now already attained. The Son of Man is prepared to ascend to the right hand of the Father, so that in me is the way now open still wider for all of you to see God and, ere you have finished the glorious progression, to become perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” ...Jesus revealed a God of perfection to man and presented in himself the perfected son of the realms to God.
15. Although Jesus discoursed for several hours, Thomas was not yet satisfied, for he said: "But Master, we do not find that the Father in heaven always deals kindly and mercifully with us” ....Jesus replied: "Thomas, Thomas, how long before you will acquire the ability to listen with the ear of the spirit? How long will it be before you discern that this kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and that my Father is also a spiritual being?... Will you not allow me to use the earth family as an illustration of divine relationships without so literally applying my teaching to material fairs?...When I speak the language of the spirit, why do you insist on translating my meaning into the language of the flesh ...By this time it should be possible for me to instruct you as full‑grown men of the spirit kingdom. Must I ever address you only as children? Will you never grow up in spirit perception? Nevertheless I love you and will bear with you, even to the very end of our association in the flesh.”
16. By the end of April the opposition to Jesus among the Pharisees and Sadducees had become so pronounced that the Master and his apostles decided to leave Jerusalem for a while, going south to work in Bethlehem and Hebron...A part of this time, while the apostles taught the gospel and ministered to the sick, Jesus and Abner spent at Engedi, visiting the Nazarite colony. John the Baptist had gone forth from this place, and Abner had been head of this group. Many of the Nazarite brotherhood became believers in Jesus, but the majority of these ascetic and eccentric men refused to accept him as a teacher sent from heaven because he did not teach fasting and other forms of self‑denial.
17. Although Jesus and the apostles spent the entire month of June in or near Jerusalem, they did no public teaching during this period. They lived for the most part in tents, which they pitched in a shaded park, or garden, known in that day as Gethsemane...One Friday evening Nicodemus and one Joseph of Arimathea ventured out to see Jesus but turned back through fear even after they were standing before the entrance to the Master's tent. And, of course, they did not perceive that Jesus knew all about their doings.
18. And thus affairs moved along quietly until the last days of June, when one Simon, a member of the Sanhedrin, publicly espoused the teachings of Jesus, after so declaring himself before the rulers of the Jews. Immediately a new agitation for Jesus' apprehension sprang up and grew so strong that the Master decided to retire into the cities of Samaria and the Decapolis.
Discussion Questions
1. Had Annas responded positively to Jesus and his teachings, would the history of religion on our world be much different?
2. What immature ideas of God and immature loving relationships with others do we have in our culture today?
3. How is the concept of God changing in our day?
4. By what spiritual standards should we evaluate art?
5. How does one evaluate the authenticity of the Urantia Synopsis of Papers?
6. Is use of the expression “born again” helpful or confusing in our Christian culture?
7. How do we apply spiritual motivation and interpretation to the difficult material problems facing each person and generation?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship