Urantia Book Paper 175 The Last Temple Discourse
SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... The Last Temple
Discourse
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Paper 175 The Last Temple Discourse
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Introduction
SHORTLY after two o'clock on this Tuesday afternoon, Jesus, accompanied by
eleven apostles, Joseph of Arimathea, the thirty Greeks, and certain other
disciples, arrived at the temple and began the delivery of his last address in
the courts of the sacred edifice. This discourse was intended to be his last
appeal to the Jewish people and the final indictment of his vehement enemies
and would-be destroyers--the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the chief
rulers of Israel. Throughout the forenoon the various groups had had an
opportunity to question Jesus; this afternoon no one asked him a question.
As the Master began to speak, the temple court was quiet and orderly. The
money-changers and the merchandisers had not dared again to enter the temple
since Jesus and the aroused multitude had driven them out the previous day.
Before beginning the discourse, Jesus tenderly looked down upon this audience
which was so soon to hear his farewell public address of mercy to mankind
coupled with his last denunciation of the false teachers and the bigoted rulers
of the Jews.
1. THE DISCOURSE
"This long time have I been with you, going up and down in the land proclaiming
the Father's love for the children of men, and many have seen the light and, by
faith, have entered into the kingdom of heaven. In connection with this
teaching and preaching the Father has done many wonderful works, even to the
resurrection of the dead. Many sick and afflicted have been made whole because
they believed; but all of this proclamation of truth and healing of disease has
not opened the eyes of those who refuse to see light, those who are determined
to reject this gospel of the kingdom.
"In every manner consistent with doing my Father's will, I and my apostles have
done our utmost to live in peace with our brethren, to conform with the
reasonable requirements of the laws of Moses and the traditions of Israel. We
have persistently sought peace, but the leaders of Israel will not have it. By
rejecting the truth of God and the light of heaven, they are aligning
themselves on the side of error and darkness. There cannot be peace between
light and darkness, between life and death, between truth and error.
"Many of you have dared to believe my teachings and have already entered into
the joy and liberty of the consciousness of sonship with God. And you will bear
me witness that I have offered this same sonship with God to all the Jewish
nation, even to these very men who now seek my destruction. And even now would
my Father receive these blinded teachers and these hypocritical leaders if they
would only turn to him and accept his mercy. Even now it is not too late for
this people to receive the word of heaven and to welcome the Son of Man.
top of page - 1906
"My Father has long dealt in mercy with this people. Generation after
generation have we sent our prophets to teach and warn them, and generation
after generation have they killed these heaven-sent teachers. And now do your
willful high priests and stubborn rulers go right on doing this same thing. As
Herod brought about the death of John, you likewise now make ready to destroy
the Son of Man.
"As long as there is a chance that the Jews will turn to my Father and seek
salvation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will keep his hands of mercy
outstretched toward you; but when you have once filled up your cup of
impenitence, and when once you have finally rejected my Father's mercy, this
nation will be left to its own counsels, and it shall speedily come to an
inglorious end. This people was called to become the light of the world, to
show forth the spiritual glory of a God-knowing race, but you have so far
departed from the fulfillment of your divine privileges that your leaders are
about to commit the supreme folly of all the ages in that they are on the verge
of finally rejecting the gift of God to all men and for all ages--the
revelation of the love of the Father in heaven for all his creatures on earth.
"And when you do once reject this revelation of God to man, the kingdom of
heaven shall be given to other peoples, to those who will receive it with joy
and gladness. In the name of the Father who sent me, I solemnly warn you that
you are about to lose your position in the world as the standard-bearers of
eternal truth and the custodians of the divine law. I am just now offering you
your last chance to come forward and repent, to signify your intention to seek
God with all your hearts and to enter, like little children and by sincere
faith, into the security and salvation of the kingdom of heaven.
"My Father has long worked for your salvation, and I came down to live among
you and personally show you the way. Many of both the Jews and the Samaritans,
and even the gentiles, have believed the gospel of the kingdom, but those who
should be first to come forward and accept the light of heaven have steadfastly
refused to believe the revelation of the truth of God--God revealed in man and
man uplifted to God.
"This afternoon my apostles stand here before you in silence, but you shall
soon hear their voices ringing out with the call to salvation and with the urge
to unite with the heavenly kingdom as the sons of the living God. And now I
call to witness these, my disciples and believers in the gospel of the kingdom,
as well as the unseen messengers by their sides, that I have once more offered
Israel and her rulers deliverance and salvation. But you all behold how the
Father's mercy is slighted and how the messengers of truth are rejected.
Nevertheless, I admonish you that these scribes and Pharisees still sit in
Moses' seat, and therefore, until the Most Highs who rule in the kingdoms of
men shall finally overthrow this nation and destroy the place of these rulers,
I bid you co-operate with these elders in Israel. You are not required to unite
with them in their plans to destroy the Son of Man, but in everything related
to the peace of Israel you are to be subject to them. In all these matters do
whatsoever they bid you and observe the essentials of the law but do not
pattern after their evil works. Remember, this is the sin of these rulers: They
say that which is good, but they do it not. You well know how these leaders
bind heavy burdens on your shoulders, burdens grievous to bear, and that they
will not lift as much as one finger to help you bear these weighty burdens.
They have oppressed you with ceremonies and enslaved you by traditions.
top of page - 1907
"Furthermore, these self-centered rulers delight in doing their good works so
that they will be seen by men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge
the borders of their official robes. They crave the chief places at the feasts
and demand the chief seats in the synagogues. They covet laudatory salutations
in the market places and desire to be called rabbi by all men. And even while
they seek all this honor from men, they secretly lay hold of widows' houses and
take profit from the services of the sacred temple. For a pretense these
hypocrites make long prayers in public and give alms to attract the notice of
their fellows.
"While you should honor your rulers and reverence your teachers, you should
call no man Father in the spiritual sense, for there is one who is your Father,
even God. Neither should you seek to lord it over your brethren in the kingdom.
Remember, I have taught you that he who would be greatest among you should
become the server of all. If you presume to exalt yourselves before God, you
will certainly be humbled; but whoso truly humbles himself will surely be
exalted. Seek in your daily lives, not self-glorification, but the glory of
God. Intelligently subordinate your own wills to the will of the Father in
heaven.
"Mistake not my words. I bear no malice toward these chief priests and rulers
who even now seek my destruction; I have no ill will for these scribes and
Pharisees who reject my teachings. I know that many of you believe in secret,
and I know you will openly profess your allegiance to the kingdom when my hour
comes. But how will your rabbis justify themselves since they profess to talk
with God and then presume to reject and destroy him who comes to reveal the
Father to the worlds?
"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You would shut the doors of
the kingdom of heaven against sincere men because they happen to be unlearned
in the ways of your teaching. You refuse to enter the kingdom and at the same
time do everything within your power to prevent all others from entering. You
stand with your backs to the doors of salvation and fight with all who would
enter therein.
"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! for you do
indeed encompass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you have
succeeded, you are not content until you have made him twofold worse than he
was as a child of the heathen.
"Woe upon you, chief priests and rulers who lay hold of the property of the
poor and demand heavy dues of those who would serve God as they think Moses
ordained! You who refuse to show mercy, can you hope for mercy in the worlds to
come?
"Woe upon you, false teachers, blind guides! What can be expected of a nation
when the blind lead the blind? They both shall stumble into the pit of
destruction.
"Woe upon you who dissimulate when you take an oath! You are tricksters since
you teach that a man may swear by the temple and break his oath, but that whoso
swears by the gold in the temple must remain bound. You are all fools and
blind. You are not even consistent in your dishonesty, for which is the
greater, the gold or the temple which has supposedly sanctified the gold? You
also teach that, if a man swears by the altar, it is nothing; but that, if one
swears by the gift that is upon the altar, then shall he be held as a debtor.
Again are you blind to the truth, for which is the greater, the gift or the
altar which sanctifies the gift? How can you justify such hypocrisy and
dishonesty in the sight of the God of heaven?
top of page - 1908
"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees and all other hypocrites who make sure
that they tithe mint, anise, and cumin and at the same time disregard the
weightier matters of the law--faith, mercy, and judgment! Within reason, the
one you ought to have done but not to have left the other undone. You are truly
blind guides and dumb teachers; you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel.
"Woe upon you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! for you are scrupulous to
cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within there remains the
filth of extortion, excesses, and deception. You are spiritually blind. Do you
not recognize how much better it would be first to cleanse the inside of the
cup, and then that which spills over would of itself cleanse the outside? You
wicked reprobates! you make the outward performances of your religion to
conform with the letter of your interpretation of Moses' law while your souls
are steeped in iniquity and filled with murder.
"Woe upon all of you who reject truth and spurn mercy! Many of you are like
whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead
men's bones and all sorts of uncleanness. Even so do you who knowingly reject
the counsel of God appear outwardly to men as holy and righteous, but inwardly
your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity.
"Woe upon you, false guides of a nation! Over yonder have you built a monument
to the martyred prophets of old, while you plot to destroy him of whom they
spoke. You garnish the tombs of the righteous and flatter yourselves that, had
you lived in the days of your fathers, you would not have killed the prophets;
and then in the face of such self-righteous thinking you make ready to slay him
of whom the prophets spoke, the Son of Man. Inasmuch as you do these things,
are you witness to yourselves that you are the wicked sons of them who slew the
prophets. Go on, then, and fill up the cup of your condemnation to the full!
"Woe upon you, children of evil! John did truly call you the offspring of
vipers, and I ask how can you escape the judgment that John pronounced upon
you?
"But even now I offer you in my Father's name mercy and forgiveness; even now I
proffer the loving hand of eternal fellowship. My Father has sent you the wise
men and the prophets; some you have persecuted and others you have killed. Then
appeared John proclaiming the coming of the Son of Man, and him you destroyed
after many had believed his teaching. And now you make ready to shed more
innocent blood. Do you not comprehend that a terrible day of reckoning will
come when the Judge of all the earth shall require of this people an accounting
for the way they have rejected, persecuted, and destroyed these messengers of
heaven? Do you not understand that you must account for all of this righteous
blood, from the first prophet killed down to the times of Zechariah, who was
slain between the sanctuary and the altar? And if you go on in your evil ways,
this accounting may be required of this very generation.
"O Jerusalem and the children of Abraham, you who have stoned the prophets and
killed the teachers that were sent to you, even now would I gather your
children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you will
not!
"And now I take leave of you. You have heard my message and have made your
decision. Those who have believed my gospel are even now safe within the
kingdom of God. To you who have chosen to reject the gift of God, I say that
you will no more see me teaching in the temple. My work for you is done.
Behold, I now go forth with my children, and your house is left to you
desolate!"
And then the Master beckoned his followers to depart from the temple.
top of page - 1909
2. STATUS OF INDIVIDUAL JEWS
The fact that the spiritual leaders and the religious teachers of the Jewish
nation onetime rejected the teachings of Jesus and conspired to bring about his
cruel death, does not in any manner affect the status of any individual Jew in
his standing before God. And it should not cause those who profess to be
followers of the Christ to be prejudiced against the Jew as a fellow mortal.
The Jews, as a nation, as a sociopolitical group, paid in full the terrible
price of rejecting the Prince of Peace. Long since they ceased to be the
spiritual torchbearers of divine truth to the races of mankind, but this
constitutes no valid reason why the individual descendants of these long-ago
Jews should be made to suffer the persecutions which have been visited upon
them by intolerant, unworthy, and bigoted professed followers of Jesus of
Nazareth, who was, himself, a Jew by natural birth.
Many times has this unreasoning and un-Christlike hatred and persecution of
modern Jews terminated in the suffering and death of some innocent and
unoffending Jewish individual whose very ancestors, in the times of Jesus,
heartily accepted his gospel and presently died unflinchingly for that truth
which they so wholeheartedly believed. What a shudder of horror passes over the
onlooking celestial beings as they behold the professed followers of Jesus
indulge themselves in persecuting, harassing, and even murdering the later-day
descendants of Peter, Philip, Matthew, and others of the Palestinian Jews who
so gloriously yielded up their lives as the first martyrs of the gospel of the
heavenly kingdom!
How cruel and unreasoning to compel innocent children to suffer for the sins of
their progenitors, misdeeds of which they are wholly ignorant, and for which
they could in no way be responsible! And to do such wicked deeds in the name of
one who taught his disciples to love even their enemies! It has become
necessary, in this recital of the life of Jesus, to portray the manner in which
certain of his fellow Jews rejected him and conspired to bring about his
ignominious death; but we would warn all who read this narrative that the
presentation of such a historical recital in no way justifies the unjust
hatred, nor condones the unfair attitude of mind, which so many professed
Christians have maintained toward individual Jews for many centuries. Kingdom
believers, those who follow the teachings of Jesus, must cease to mistreat the
individual Jew as one who is guilty of the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus.
The Father and his Creator Son have never ceased to love the Jews. God is no
respecter of persons, and salvation is for the Jew as well as for the gentile.
3. THE FATEFUL SANHEDRIN MEETING
At eight o'clock on this Tuesday evening the fateful meeting of the Sanhedrin
was called to order. On many previous occasions had this supreme court of the
Jewish nation informally decreed the death of Jesus. Many times had this august
ruling body determined to put a stop to his work, but never before had they
resolved to place him under arrest and to bring about his death at any and all
costs. It was just before midnight on this Tuesday, April 4, A.D. 30, that the
Sanhedrin, as then constituted, officially and unanimously voted to impose the
death sentence upon both Jesus and Lazarus. This was the answer to the Master's
last appeal to the rulers of the Jews which he had made in the temple only a
few hours
top of page - 1910
before, and it represented their reaction of bitter resentment toward Jesus'
last and vigorous indictment of these same chief priests and impenitent
Sadducees and Pharisees. The passing of death sentence (even before his trial)
upon the Son of God was the Sanhedrin's reply to the last offer of heavenly
mercy ever to be extended to the Jewish nation, as such.
From this time on the Jews were left to finish their brief and short lease of
national life wholly in accordance with their purely human status among the
nations of Urantia. Israel had repudiated the Son of the God who made a
covenant with Abraham, and the plan to make the children of Abraham the
light-bearers of truth to the world had been shattered. The divine covenant had
been abrogated, and the end of the Hebrew nation drew on apace.
The officers of the Sanhedrin were given the orders for Jesus' arrest early the
next morning, but with instructions that he must not be apprehended in public.
They were told to plan to take him in secret, preferably suddenly and at night.
Understanding that he might not return that day (Wednesday) to teach in the
temple, they instructed these officers of the Sanhedrin to "bring him before
the high Jewish court sometime before midnight on Thursday."
4. THE SITUATION IN JERUSALEM
At the conclusion of Jesus' last discourse in the temple, the apostles once
more were left in confusion and consternation. Before the Master began his
terrible denunciation of the Jewish rulers, Judas had returned to the temple,
so that all twelve heard this latter half of Jesus' last discourse in the
temple. It is unfortunate that Judas Iscariot could not have heard the first
and mercy-proffering half of this farewell address. He did not hear this last
offer of mercy to the Jewish rulers because he was still in conference with a
certain group of Sadducean relatives and friends with whom he had lunched, and
with whom he was conferring as to the most fitting manner of dissociating
himself from Jesus and his fellow apostles. It was while listening to the
Master's final indictment of the Jewish leaders and rulers that Judas finally
and fully made up his mind to forsake the gospel movement and wash his hands of
the whole enterprise. Nevertheless, he left the temple in company with the
twelve, went with them to Mount Olivet, where, with his fellow apostles, he
listened to that fateful discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end
of the Jewish nation, and remained with them that Tuesday night at the new camp
near Gethsemane.
The multitude who heard Jesus swing from his merciful appeal to the Jewish
leaders into that sudden and scathing rebuke which bordered on ruthless
denunciation, were stunned and bewildered. That night, while the Sanhedrin sat
in death judgment upon Jesus, and while the Master sat with his apostles and
certain of his disciples out on the Mount of Olives foretelling the death of
the Jewish nation, all Jerusalem was given over to the serious and suppressed
discussion of just one question: "What will they do with Jesus?"
At the home of Nicodemus more than thirty prominent Jews who were secret
believers in the kingdom met and debated what course they would pursue in case
an open break with the Sanhedrin should come. All present agreed that they
would make open acknowledgment of their allegiance to the Master in the very
hour they should hear of his arrest. And that is just what they did.
top of page - 1911
The Sadducees, who now controlled and dominated the Sanhedrin, were desirous of
making away with Jesus for the following reasons:
1. They feared that the increased popular favor with which the multitude
regarded him threatened to endanger the existence of the Jewish nation by
possible involvement with the Roman authorities.
2. His zeal for temple reform struck directly at their revenues; the cleansing
of the temple affected their pocketbooks.
3. They felt themselves responsible for the preservation of social order, and
they feared the consequences of the further spread of Jesus' strange and new
doctrine of the brotherhood of man.
The Pharisees had different motives for wanting to see Jesus put to death. They
feared him because:
1. He was arrayed in telling opposition to their traditional hold upon the
people. The Pharisees were ultraconservative, and they bitterly resented these
supposedly radical attacks upon their vested prestige as religious teachers.
2. They held that Jesus was a lawbreaker; that he had shown utter disregard for
the Sabbath and numerous other legal and ceremonial requirements.
3. They charged him with blasphemy because he alluded to God as his Father.
4. And now were they thoroughly angry with him because of his last discourse of
bitter denunciation which he had this day delivered in the temple as the
concluding portion of his farewell address.
The Sanhedrin, having formally decreed the death of Jesus and having issued
orders for his arrest, adjourned on this Tuesday near midnight, after
appointing to meet at ten o'clock the next morning at the home of Caiaphas the
high priest for the purpose of formulating the charges on which Jesus should be
brought to trial.
A small group of the Sadducees had actually proposed to dispose of Jesus by
assassination, but the Pharisees utterly refused to countenance such a
procedure.
And this was the situation in Jerusalem and among men on this eventful day
while a vast concourse of celestial beings hovered over this momentous scene on
earth, anxious to do something to assist their beloved Sovereign but powerless
to act because they were effectively restrained by their commanding superiors.
top of page - 1912
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings
of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal
Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of
Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus'
Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's
Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John
The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The
Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning
The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And
In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of
Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The
Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The
Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last
Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And
Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour
Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean
Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The
Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way
To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The
Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The
Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final
Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before
The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The
Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus
Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final
Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The
Faith Of Jesus
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