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The Appearance at Sychar.
Imagine that you were the morontia Jesus with just forty days available to you to cement the purposes of the Fourth Epochal Revelation and to ensure its survival. For the very first time your followers are finally forced to accept that you are not going to take over Jerusalem, liberate your people from Roman rule, and restore the largely mythical glories of the throne of David.
Of all the accounts of Jesus' morontia appearances, the one at Sychar appears to most effectively portray the fundamental purpose of Jesus' incarnation for the people of Urantia--in actuality the revelation through Jesus' life of the nature of the Father, but re-interpreted as being "the establishment of the kingdom."
Jesus' followers who met at Sychar were all Samaritans and thus totally free of egocentric Jewish dreams about their own ultimate glory. Most of the previous contact of these Samaritans with Jesus and his apostles embraced only a few weeks of teaching that followed the incident of the woman at Jacob's well.
Judged by the recorded accounts, this meeting with the morontia Jesus could not have been longer than perhaps between five and ten minutes. Into those few minutes Jesus condensed the very heart of his teaching.
"Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the life, but this will avail you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal spirit, thereby coming to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish.
"The gospel of the kingdom has taught you that all men are the sons of God. And this good news concerning the love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth must be carried to all the world. The time has come when you worship God neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem, but where you are, as you are, in spirit and in truth.
"It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of God to all who believe they are his sons. But be not deceived; while salvation is the free gift of God and is bestowed upon all who accept it by faith, there follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man." (2053)
There are three messages in these words. The first, that mere knowledge of the resurrection will avail you nothing, unless you are first born of the spirit.
Second, being born of the spirit entails your recognition we are all children of a loving Father-God.
Third, being members of God's family requires commitment to a life of service to that family.
Jesus then added a few words on the meaning of God's family, told them to spread his message, and bade them farewell.
Jesus took great care that he did not give his audience too much. Probably most, perhaps all, of this group of Samaritans were illiterate. His previous appearance had been to his apostles, and the one before that to a sophisticated group of associates of Rodan in Alexandria. Of these two groups he asked much more. The disciples at Alexandria received this instruction:
"Peace be upon you. That which my Father sent me into the world to establish belongs not to a race, a nation, nor to a special group of teachers or preachers. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to both Jew and gentile, to rich and poor, to free and bond, to male and female, even to the little children. And you are all to proclaim this gospel of love and truth by the lives which you live in the flesh. (2044)
Thus these Alexandrians were told to proclaim Jesus' gospel of love and truth, not by preaching, but by the actual lives they lived in the flesh. And it appears to be correct to state that a similar instruction was given to only one other group--the apostles. That was during Jesus' morontia appearances in Galilee. (2043) To them he said, "I send you forth not to love the souls of men but to love men." And shortly after he followed with:
"Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among men--the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I have loved and served you."
Only those with an adequate knowledge and comprehension of Jesus' life, and how he lived it as a life of love and service to his fellow mortals, could reasonably be asked to "preach" the gospel by means of the lives they themselves actually live. Which is probably why the revelators have informed us:
"Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of
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