Jesusonia

Jesusonia

By Jonathan Zoba

“He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is perhaps the first reference in recorded literature that Christians accept as alluding to Jesus, and his triumph over the evil one. It is recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. It is in reference to the fall of Adam and the trials that would ensue as a result of it, yet it is a prophecy of victory over ‘that serpent’––a high celestial being who had long before rebelled and was roaming the earth.

And thus we observe that even in the days of Adam and Eve, Jesus, the Son of God was anticipated to come to the world.

This hope was rekindled and confirmed about 2000 years before Christ’s birth when Melchizedek ‘Priest of the Most High’ as he is referred to in the Book of Hebrews, arrived in Palestine, as one without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

This Son of God came as a Revelation to the world and established the Salem colony, which would eventually become known as Jerusalem. Among those who learned from him was Abram, who was renamed Abraham. And [He] made a formal covenant with Abraham at Salem. Said he to Abraham: “Look now up to the heavens and number the stars if you are able; so numerous shall your seed be.” And Abraham believed [the Lord], “and it was counted to him for righteousness.”

And so it came to pass that at noon on August 21, 7 B.C. (according to the Urantia Book) the Son of the Living God, Joshua Ben Joseph, was born in Bethlehem, and the Seraphim sang anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger.

The arrival of Jesus, the Son of God, marks the most significant event in human history as is clearly evident by the fact that our calendar is based on his life (notwithstanding the efforts of some to obscure this fact).

Jesus lived a simple life as a man among men. He was born of a woman just as all other babies are, and he grew up facing the same trials and struggles that most normal children do. He faced challenges balancing his Divine mission and his human obligations as is represented in the Biblical account of Mary and Joseph “losing” Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, only to find him confusing the Jerusalem Rabbis, so-called wise men of the law, with his penetrating questions. Even at such a young age he graciously mastered his parents’ misunderstanding of his absence by saying: “Why is it that you have so long sought me? Would you not expect to find me in my Father’s house?”

And he grew into manhood, commanding the respect and devotion of hearty Galileans, working men, who came to call Jesus Master. And truly he was the Master, not only over the heavens and the earth, but also over things material and practical. He was an expert carpenter, fisherman, and according to the Urantia Book, an expert boat builder, among other things. He went about doing good, being of service to his fellows and revealing the simple truths of the Kingdom: God is your Father, the Father himself loves you. He fully committed his life in loving service to men and glory to his Father. He said, love one another, even as I have loved you . . . for greater love can no man have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends.

The sublimity of his teachings were just the beginning, for truly, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, he was a man who was a prophet mighty in word and deed before God and all the people.’

He was man so self-forgetful as he went about loving and serving others that when addressed as Good Teacher, he instantly replied, “Why do you call me good?”

He fearlessly confronted and deposed the Adversary alone on a mountainside saying, “The will of my Father be done.”

There is no question that the culmination of his revelation of love to the world was revealed in his majestic courage and unwavering consecration to the Father as he went to the cross. As he hung upon the cross, in his final hours of life he could think of nothing but to bring others into the Family of God when he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Was there ever a greater expression of manliness and divinity? One who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. In all things he was wholly committed to the will of our Father in Heaven.

And he conquered even death when he was resurrected on the third day, revealing himself in new form to many believers. And at Pentecost, he bestowed his spirit, the Spirit of Truth, upon on all men, and as Peter preached ‘three thousand were added to their number that day.’

This was also the day that the message about Jesus was first preached as opposed to the message of Jesus. Peter proclaimed salvation through the resurrected Christ, emphasizing the fact of his life and triumph over death, rather than the simple message of Jesus, ‘to love one another as I have loved you.’

It was this sermon, and then later the influence of Paul and his personal theology that was the origin of Christianity as opposed to the message of Jesus exclusively. This powerful Christian message went on to conquer the Roman Empire all the while absorbing the practices and traditions of sundry pagan beliefs, and thus the pageantry of the Catholic church was eventually elaborated, only dimly reflective of the robust and manly life that Jesus lived among men.

It was eventually the Germanic peoples of the north that recaptured a more personal and less institutionalized understanding of Jesus’ message. It was the courage of men like Martin Luther and Menno Simons, who liberated the message of Jesus from the clutch of the totalitarian church during the reformation.

And then, of these groups that sought liberty from the institutional dominance of religion, the Puritans, courageously left the coast of England and settled on the rocky and frigid shores of New England. These robust and committed idealists settled no more than three miles from this very location across Beverly Harbor. They called their new settlement Salem––the city of peace––the very name of the colony settled by Melchizedek about 4000 years ago. It is from here that the dominant stream of religious thinking poured into the new world, starting with the founding of Harvard College, a school originally intended to train Christians in the Bible.

As is recorded in the Urantia Book: The rehabilitation of Christianity, following the passing of the dark ages, resulted in bringing into existence numerous sects of the Christian teachings, beliefs suited to special intellectual, emotional, and spiritual types of human personality. And many of these special Christian groups, or religious families, still persist at the time of the making of this presentation.

And here we stand, one of those very religious families who has persisted over two millennia of struggle, faithfully extolling our Lord despite the vicious secularism that surrounds us. Many of us are Gordonians, sons and daughters of the culture derived from the Gordon College, which was founded by the passionate and progressive Baptist, Rev. Dr. Adoniram Judson (A. J.) Gordon. A graduate of Brown University, he promoted a religion of practical service and education. Gordon College was founded in 1889 under the name Boston Missionary Training School, one of the first of its type to accept blacks and women. In 1955, the same year of the publication of the Urantia Book, Gordon College moved to its present location in Wenham, only a few miles north of Salem, the onetime ‘city on a hill.’ We are the heirs of this long struggle of believers who have stood with Jesus’ simple

and saving message to ‘love one another as I have loved you.’

This is our legacy, but what is our destiny?

The world is rushing forward into new and unprecedented realms both intellectually and technologically. New scientific discoveries are being made, and new questions are being asked. All of a sudden our faith is facing new and unforeseeable problems that Paul and Peter never could have imagined. Globally suicidal weapons, and new and terrible dimensions of slavery are being recognized in the modern world. Even earlier this week bombs went off in the heart of Boston. We are caught in the world sway of powerful social and political currents, and what anchor will we hold on to? Is it enough to continue to look backward into the traditions and teachings of the believers of millennia past?

And now, as Christians we are confronted with a new reality, the fact of a new body of professed believers in Jesus who are not Christian. Look around you and behold your brethren, those who have discovered Jesus through the Urantia Book. Here they stand with you, desiring to be obedient to His spirit that indwells all of our hearts.

As a Christian, I have personally come to accept this new record as a clearer picture of our Master. We are taught in the New Testament that the sheep will recognize the voice of the Shepherd, and I declare, the Shepherd speaks.

It is not through persuasion or proof that this restatement will be recognized by those of his flock, but through the revelation of his Spirit to the heart. In this Book, we find a new discovery of our Lord, the longing of the ages, and I invite you to join me in this rediscovery of the life and teachings of our Lord.

ister to those needs. In the end, we will all as individuals, not as denominations or even religions, have to bow before the cross, and what will be revealed in that hour?

It is recorded, “Many will come to me saying Lord, Lord, but only those who do the will of the Father in heaven will be saved.” And we know of those who ‘honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’ And ‘what is requited of thee, oh man, but to love mercy, act justly and walk humble before your God.’ And who shall see the Master on that day? Those who see him today, in the one who thirsts and gives him water, the one who hungers and gives him food, and the one who is naked and gives him clothes.

And what shall we say about this body of believers in Jesus that is not Christian? Remember the words of our Lord, “he who is not against us if for us.” If the spiritually hungry world is asking for the bread of life, will we give them a cold theology? When they come thirsting for the water that forever quenches, will we give them book? When the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and the disenfranchised, the rejected, the lost, and the broken, came to Jesus what did he give them? Did he give them a theology? did he give them a book? He gave them his life. And this is the greatest thing that anyone can give.

Let each of us, in our own way consider how the Master gave his life to us and to the world, and meditate on how we may go and do likewise.

But tonight, let us all rejoice in the thing that we all do have in common: Jesus. He is present and he loves us, so let us celebrate the life that he lived, and remember that he not only lived in Palestine 2000 years ago, but that he lives today in each of our hearts.

Regardless of the personal conclusion that one comes to about interpreting the New Testament record or any other record, we will all have to one day confront the reality of our own lives which we have lived according to the conclusion we do come to. How much more difficult is it to simply do what we already know we should do, rather than avoiding this soul struggle through endless speculation about what Jesus might or might not have actually said or meant.

If there is human need before us, do we need intellectually ‘correct theology’ to minister to it? If we could only see one another as Jesus saw us, as brothers and sisters for whom the overflow of his heart poured forth, we would busy ourselves less with sectarian and creedal division, and we would join together in addressing the real problems we face in the world. Let the goal of loving and serving one another unite us, rather than uniformity in theology. Perhaps we will discover something beyond theology when we actually roll up our sleeves and get into the grit of serving one another on such a damaged world.

The heart of what I am trying to say is: there will always be different views and interpretations of who Jesus is and what he did. But we must no longer be divided by mere intellectual, emotional or social differences, but rather be united in the mission of Jesus, to reveal to man that God the Father loves them and that they are his children. We may never be united by intellectual beliefs and interpretations. But we should at least be united by the mission of loving and serving God’s children on earth.

Christians, consider how many thousands of pages of commentary and theology as been written about a comparatively short and ancient record of this man who lived 2000 years ago. This diversity of understanding is presently being further compounded by the presence of believers in Jesus who only partially identify with Christianity, or not at all.

Jesus poured out his Spirit upon all flesh, not just one group or one religion. We can spend our time looking around at others attempting to discern how they may or may not be ‘believing’ correctly, or we can look around at others, and attempt to discover what their real needs are, and to explore in practical ways how we may min-

Jonathan Zoba 2013