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Jesus--Inspiration and Friend
Ann Bendall
In some perspectives of Jesus' life I consider him to be a model rather than an inspiration, and this is predominantly in relation to his life experiences.
The Urantia Book states that, "you cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not felt except in adversity." (557--Morontia Mota)
In looking at Jesus life I do not believe that any other human being could ever have been subjected to as much adversity during such a short life span as that which he endured. My own life experiences pale into insignificance in comparison, and I know that whatever I may be subjected to, so also was he--and far, far more.
Examples of Jesus' life experiences include:
To experience poverty and unremitting financial pressure.
To have the reality of financial hardship being reversed as a result of a legitimate claim for a capital sum--only to have the claim dismissed (i.e. the sum legally awarded in compensation for his father's death being rejected by Herod). As was natural, Jesus had already planned how he would utilize the proceeds. Jesus' desires were to buy a small tract of land as a more suitable environment for the rearing of his brothers and sisters, and to be able to afford a dog a pet for the children--but he had all of his plans shattered by the action of "that fox."
To be required to manage the family finances from adolescence until such stage as his brothers reached an age of maturity where he could delegate it to them.
To have his father, perhaps the closest person to him in all his life, go to work and be killed in an accident, and to be deprived of the opportunity of saying goodbye.
To attend to his mother at the birth of her ninth child, with his father having died four months earlier.
To care for a young brother, striving to help him overcome illness, and to have him die in his arms.
To be ostracized and rejected by his peer group and the local community from adolescence onwards.
To be deprived of adolescence due to enforced responsibilities of having to be father to eight brothers and sisters.
To have to sell his one pleasure--his harp, a decision made to prevent it being taken by the tax collector.
To be unappreciated and/or misunderstood by those closest and dearest to him.
To have no understanding friend in whom he could confide.
And these life experiences/adversity led, at the age of twenty, to his being described by his revelators as:
"Jesus is rapidly becoming a man, not a young man, but an adult. He has learned to bear responsibility. He knows how to carry on in the face of disappointment. He bears up bravely when his plans are thwarted and his purposes temporarily defeated. He has learned how to be fair and just, even in the face of injustice. He is learning how to adjust his ideals of spiritual living to the practical demands of earthly existence. He is learning how to plan for a higher and distant goal of idealism while he toils earnestly for the attainment of a nearer and immediate goal of necessity.
"He is steadily acquiring the art of adjusting his aspirations to the commonplace demands of the human occasion. He has very nearly mastered the technique of utilizing the energy of spiritual drive to turn the mechanism of material achievement. He is slowly learning how to live the heavenly life while he continues on with earthly existence. More and more he depends upon the ultimate guidance of his heavenly Father while he assumes the fatherly role of guiding and directing the children of his earth family. He is becoming experienced in the skilful wresting of victory from the very jaws of defeat; he is learning how to transform the difficulties of time into the triumphs of eternity." (1405)
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