Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 188
THE TIME OF THE TOMB
1. The day and a half that Jesus' mortal body lay in the tomb of Joseph, the period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in the earth career of Michael which is little known to us.
2. Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, had gone to Pilate and asked that the body of Jesus be turned over to them for proper burial... Joseph went before Pilate with a large sum of money, in case it became necessary to pay for permission to remove Jesus' body to a private burial tomb. But Pilate would not take money for this…When Joseph presented Pilate's order for the Master's body to the centurion, the Jews raised a tumult and clamored for its possession. In their raving they sought violently to take possession of the body, and when they did this, the centurion ordered four of his soldiers to his side, and with drawn swords they stood astride the Master's body as it lay there on the ground... When order had been restored, the centurion read the permit from Pilate to the Jews and, stepping aside, said to Joseph: "This body is yours to do with as you see fit. I and my soldiers will stand by to see that no man interferes."
3. A crucified person could not be buried in a Jewish cemetery... Joseph and Nicodemus ....decided to bury Jesus in Joseph's new family tomb, hewn out of solid rock, located a short distance north of Golgotha...Joseph really believed that Jesus would rise from the dead, but Nicodemus was very doubtful ...From now on they were the most outspoken disciples of Jesus in all Jerusalem.
4. At about half past four o'clock the burial procession of Jesus of Nazareth started from Golgotha for Joseph's tomb across the way. The body was wrapped in a linen sheet as the four men carried it, followed by the faithful women watchers from Galilee. The mortals who bore the material body of Jesus to the tomb were: Joseph, Nicodemus, John, and the Roman centurion.
5. They carried the body into the tomb, a chamber about ten feet square, where they hurriedly prepared it for burial ...Joseph and Nicodemus had brought with them large quantities of myrrh and aloes, and they now wrapped the body with bandages saturated with these solutions. When the embalming was completed, they tied a napkin about the face, wrapped the body in a linen sheet, and reverently placed it on a shelf in the tomb.
After placing the body in the tomb, the centurion signaled for his soldiers to help roll the doorstone up before the entrance to the tomb.
6. While all this was going on, the women were hiding near at hand so that they saw it all and observed where the Master had been laid. They thus secreted themselves because it was not permissible for women to associate with men at such a time. These women did not think Jesus had been properly prepared for burial, and they agreed among themselves to go back to the home of Joseph, rest over the Sabbath, make ready spices and ointments, and return on Sunday morning properly to prepare the Master's body for the death rest. The women who thus tarried by the tomb on this Friday evening were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha another sister of Jesus' mother, and Rebecca of Sepphoris.
7. If Jesus' followers were unmindful of his promise to rise from the grave on the third day, his enemies were not ...a committee of Sanhedrists...were to visit Pilate...bearing the official request of the Sanhedrin that a Roman guard be stationed before Jesus' tomb to prevent his friends from tampering with it…When Pilate heard this request of the Sanhedrists, he said: "I will give you a guard of ten soldiers. Go your way and make the tomb secure." They ...marched out to Joseph's tomb with... ten Jewish guards and ten Roman soldiers... These men rolled yet another stone before the tomb and set the seal of Pilate on and around these stones, lest they be disturbed without their knowledge.
8. We are wholly uncertain regarding the status of the personality of Jesus during that period of thirty‑six hours. We have sometimes dared to explain these things to ourselves somewhat as follows:
1. The Creator consciousness of Michael must have been at large and wholly free from its associated mortal mind of the physical incarnation.
2. The former Thought Adjuster of Jesus we know to have been present on earth during this period and in personal command of the assembled celestial hosts.
3. The acquired spirit identity of the man of Nazareth which was built up during his lifetime in the flesh,...must have been consigned to the custody of the Paradise Father...
4. We think the human or mortal consciousness of Jesus slept during these thirty‑six hours...
9. In the vast court of the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of Satania, there may now be observed a magnificent material‑morontia structure known as the "Michael Memorial"...and it bears this inscription: "In commemoration of the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth on Urantia."
10. There are...records showing that the Ancients of Days of Uversa communicated with Michael regarding the status of the universe of Nebadon during this time. We know that at least one message passed between Michael and Immanuel on Salvington while the Master's body lay in the tomb. There is good reason for believing that some personality sat in the seat of Caligastia in the system council of the Planetary Princes on Jerusem which convened while the body of Jesus rested in the tomb. The records of Edentia indicate that the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek was on Urantia, and that he received instructions from Michael during this time of the tomb. And there is much other evidence which suggests that not all of the personality of Jesus was asleep and unconscious during this time of apparent physical death.
11. Even though the Son of Man did not offer himself as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God and to open the way for sinful man to obtain salvation; notwithstanding that these ideas of atonement and propitiation are erroneous, nonetheless, there are significances attached to this death of Jesus on the cross which should not be overlooked. It is a fact that Urantia has become known among other neighboring inhabited planets as the "World of the Cross."
12. Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the races of this one world. While the mortals of the realms had salvation even before Jesus lived and died on Urantia, it is nevertheless a fact that his bestowal on this world greatly illuminated the way of salvation; his death did much to make forever plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh.
13. Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain... Jesus taught that service to one's fellows is the highest concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believers chief concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one's fellows even as Jesus loved and served mortal men.
14. The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he met death.
15. This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature faith and thereby become incorporated into individual human experience; the fact of the fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man.
16. The cross of Jesus portrays the full measure of the supreme devotion of the true shepherd for even the unworthy members of his flock. It forever places all relations between God and man upon the family basis... The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness and righteous survival...Love is truly contagious and eternally creative ...Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them... Mercy sets the guilt of evil‑doing to one side; but love destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom.
17. Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil but to find through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil... Salvation does not slight wrongs; it makes them right. True love does not compromise nor condone hate; it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master's love implies rehabilitation,., eternal survival ...The beauty of divine love, once fully admitted to the human heart, forever destroys the charm of sin and the power of evil.
18. The sufferings of Jesus were not confined to the crucifixion. In reality, Jesus of Nazareth spent upward of twenty‑five years on the cross of a real and intense mortal existence. The real value of the cross consists in the fact that it was the supreme and final expression of his love, the completed revelation of his mercy.
19. On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who may have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight of faith, have taken one more look at Jesus on the cross and then have forged on ahead, inspired by the sight of God's laying down his incarnate life in devotion to the unselfish service of man.
20. The triumph of the death on the cross is all summed up in the spirit of Jesus' attitude toward those who assailed him. He made the cross an eternal symbol of the triumph of love over hate and the victory of truth over evil when he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
21. The cross makes a supreme appeal to the best in man... Jesus had such a love that he was willing to lay down his life for his enemies, a love greater than any which had hitherto been known on earth... The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one's life to the welfare and salvation of one's fellows... a sacred symbol of the good bestowing themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love.
22. When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offers up his life on the cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and their many purely fictitious grievances.
23. Make sure, then, that when you view the cross as a revelation of God, you do not look with the eyes of the primitive man nor with the viewpoint of the later barbarian, both of whom regarded God as a relentless Sovereign of stern justice and rigid law‑enforcement. Rather, make sure that you see in the cross the final manifestation of the love and devotion of Jesus to his life mission of bestowal upon the mortal races of his vast universe.
24. No man can ever fear that the Creator does not know the nature or extent of his temporal afflictions. We know that the death on the cross was ...to stimulate man's realization of the Father's eternal love and his Son's unending mercy, and to broadcast these universal truths to a whole universe.
Discussion Questions
1. Why are the Midwayers largely ignorant of what transpired while the body of Jesus was in the tomb?
2. Why do you suppose that Joseph believed that Jesus would rise from the dead while Nicodemus was very doubtful?
3. How do you suppose Rebecca’s love for Jesus expressed as a young woman and in being present at his crucifixion and burial was handled in the Mansion Worlds?
4. Do the assumptions of the Midwayers regarding the human and divine consciousness of Jesus while his body was in the tomb seem reasonable?
5. Will the Fifth Epochal Revelation finally terminate belief in the atonement doctrine?
6. Because of the Jewish leaders mistake in evaluating Jesus, might they become among the most ardent followers of Michael in our local universe?
7. How does the love of Jesus on the cross inspire us to face the “crosses” in our experience?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship