The Urantia Book
PAPER 180
THE FAREWELL DISCOURSE
180:0.1 AFTER singing the Psalm at the
conclusion of the Last Supper, the apostles thought that Jesus
intended to return immediately to the camp, but he indicated that
they should sit down. Said the Master:
180:0.2 "You well remember when I sent you forth
without purse or wallet and even advised that you take with you no
extra clothes. And you will all recall that you lacked nothing.
But now have you come upon troublous times. No longer can you
depend upon the good will of the multitudes. Henceforth, he who
has a purse, let him take it with him. When you go out into the
world to proclaim this gospel, make such provision for your
support as seems best. I have come to bring peace, but it will not
appear for a time.
180:0.3 "The time has now come for the Son of
Man to be glorified, and the Father shall be glorified in me. My
friends, I am to be with you only a little longer. Soon you will
seek for me, but you will not find me, for I am going to a place
to which you cannot, at this time, come. But when you have
finished your work on earth as I have now finished mine, you shall
then come to me even as I now prepare to go to my Father. In just
a short time I am going to leave you, you will see me no more on
earth, but you shall all see me in the age to come when you ascend
to the kingdom which my Father has given to me."
1. THE NEW COMMANDMENT
180:1.1 After a few moments of informal
conversation, Jesus stood up and said: "When I enacted for you a
parable indicating how you should be willing to serve one another,
I said that I desired to give you a new commandment; and I would
do this now as I am about to leave you. You well know the
commandment which directs that you love one another; that you love
your neighbor even as yourself. But I am not wholly satisfied with
even that sincere devotion on the part of my children. I would
have you perform still greater acts of love in the kingdom of the
believing brotherhood. And so I give you this new commandment:
That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this
will all men know that you are my disciples if you thus love one
another.
180:1.2 "When I give you this new commandment, I
do not place any new burden upon your souls; rather do I bring you
new joy and make it possible for you to experience new pleasure in
knowing the delights of the bestowal of your heart's affection
upon your fellow men. I am about to experience the supreme joy,
even though enduring outward sorrow, in the bestowal of my
affection upon you and your fellow mortals.
180:1.3 "When I invite you to love one another,
even as I have loved you, I hold up before you the supreme measure
of true affection, for greater love can no man have than this:
that he will lay down his life for his friends. And you are my
friends; you will continue to be my friends if you are but willing
to do what I have taught you. You have called me Master, but I do
not call you servants. If you will only love one another as I am
loving you, you shall be my friends, and I will ever speak to you
of that which the Father reveals to me.
180:1.4 "You have not merely chosen me, but I
have also chosen you, and I have ordained you to go forth into the
world to yield the fruit of loving service to your fellows even as
I have lived among you and revealed the Father to you. The Father
and I will both work with you, and you shall experience the divine
fullness of joy if you will only obey my command to love one
another, even as I have loved you."
180:1.5 If you would share the Master's joy, you
must share his love. And to share his love means that you have
shared his service. Such an experience of love does not deliver
you from the difficulties of this world; it does not create a new
world, but it most certainly does make the old world new.
180:1.6 Keep in mind: It is loyalty, not
sacrifice, that Jesus demands. The consciousness of sacrifice
implies the absence of that wholehearted affection which would
have made such a loving service a supreme joy. The idea of duty
signifies that you are servant-minded and hence are missing the
mighty thrill of doing your service as a friend and for a friend.
The impulse of friendship transcends all convictions of duty, and
the service of a friend for a friend can never be called a
sacrifice. The Master has taught the apostles that they are the
sons of God. He has called them brethren, and now, before he
leaves, he calls them his friends.
2. THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES
180:2.1 Then Jesus
stood up again and continued teaching his apostles:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. I am the vine, and you are the branches. And the
Father requires of me only that you shall bear much fruit. The
vine is pruned only to increase the fruitfulness of its branches.
Every branch coming out of me which bears no fruit, the Father
will take away. Every branch which bears fruit, the Father will
cleanse that it may bear more fruit. Already are you clean through
the word I have spoken, but you must continue to be clean. You
must abide in me, and I in you; the branch will die if it is
separated from the vine. As the branch cannot bear fruit except it
abides in the vine, so neither can you yield the fruits of loving
service except you abide in me. Remember: I am the real vine, and
you are the living branches. He who lives in me, and I in him,
will bear much fruit of the spirit and experience the supreme joy
of yielding this spiritual harvest. If you will maintain this
living spiritual connection with me, you will bear abundant fruit.
If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to
commune freely with me, and then can my living spirit so infuse
you that you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills and do all this
with the assurance that the Father will grant us our petition.
Herein is the Father glorified: that the vine has many living
branches, and that every branch bears much fruit. And when the
world sees these fruit-bearing branches -- my friends who love one
another, even as I have loved them -- all men will know that you
are truly my disciples.
180:2.2 "As the Father has loved me, so have I
loved you. Live in my love even as I live in the Father's love. If
you do as I have taught you, you shall abide in my love even as I
have kept the Father's word and evermore abide in his love."
180:2.3 The Jews had long taught that the
Messiah would be "a stem arising out of the vine" of David's
ancestors, and in commemoration of this olden teaching a large
emblem of the grape and its attached vine decorated the entrance
to Herod's temple. The apostles all recalled these things while
the Master talked to them this night in the upper chamber.
180:2.4 But great sorrow later attended the
misinterpretation of the Master's inferences regarding prayer.
There would have been little difficulty about these teachings if
his exact words had been remembered and subsequently truthfully
recorded. But as the record was made, believers eventually
regarded prayer in Jesus' name as a sort of supreme magic,
thinking that they would receive from the Father anything they
asked for. For centuries honest souls have continued to wreck
their faith against this stumbling block. How long will it take
the world of believers to understand that prayer is not a process
of getting your way but rather a program of taking God's way, an
experience of learning how to recognize and execute the Father's
will? It is entirely true that, when your will has been truly
aligned with his, you can ask anything conceived by that
will-union, and it will be granted. And such a will-union is
effected by and through Jesus even as the life of the vine flows
into and through the living branches.
180:2.5 When there exists this living connection
between divinity and humanity, if humanity should thoughtlessly
and ignorantly pray for selfish ease and vainglorious
accomplishments, there could be only one divine answer: more and
increased bearing of the fruits of the spirit on the stems of the
living branches. When the branch of the vine is alive, there can
be only one answer to all its petitions: increased grape bearing.
In fact, the branch exists only for, and can do nothing except,
fruit bearing, yielding grapes. So does the true believer exist
only for the purpose of bearing the fruits of the spirit: to love
man as he himself has been loved by God -- that we should love one
another, even as Jesus has loved us.
180:2.6 And when the Father's hand of discipline
is laid upon the vine, it is done in love, in order that the
branches may bear much fruit. And a wise husbandman cuts away only
the dead and fruitless branches.
180:2.7 Jesus had great difficulty in leading
even his apostles to recognize that prayer is a function of
spirit-born believers in the spirit-dominated kingdom.
3. ENMITY OF THE WORLD
180:3.1 The eleven had scarcely ceased their
discussions of the discourse on the vine and the branches when the
Master, indicating that he was desirous of speaking to them
further and knowing that his time was short, said: "When I have
left you, be not discouraged by the enmity of the world. Be not
downcast even when faint-hearted believers turn against you and
join hands with the enemies of the kingdom. If the world shall
hate you, you should recall that it hated me even before it hated
you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its own,
but because you are not, the world refuses to love you. You are in
this world, but your lives are not to be worldlike. I have chosen
you out of the world to represent the spirit of another world even
to this world from which you have been chosen. But always remember
the words I have spoken to you: The servant is not greater than
his master. If they dare to persecute me, they will also persecute
you. If my words offend the unbelievers, so also will your words
offend the ungodly. And all of this will they do to you because
they believe not in me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suffer
many things for the sake of my gospel. But when you endure these
tribulations, you should recall that I also suffered before you
for the sake of this gospel of the heavenly kingdom.
180:3.2 "Many of those who will assail you are
ignorant of the light of heaven, but this is not true of some who
now persecute us. If we had not taught them the truth, they might
do many strange things without falling under condemnation, but
now, since they have known the light and presumed to reject it,
they have no excuse for their attitude. He who hates me hates my
Father. It cannot be otherwise; the light which would save you if
accepted can only condemn you if it is knowingly rejected. And
what have I done to these men that they should hate me with such a
terrible hatred? Nothing, save to offer them fellowship on earth
and salvation in heaven. But have you not read in the Scripture
the saying: `And they hated me without a cause'?
180:3.3 "But I will not leave you alone in the
world. Very soon, after I have gone, I will send you a spirit
helper. You shall have with you one who will take my place among
you, one who will continue to teach you the way of truth, who will
even comfort you.
180:3.4 "Let not your hearts be troubled. You
believe in God; continue to believe also in me. Even though I must
leave you, I will not be far from you. I have already told you
that in my Father's universe there are many tarrying-places. If
this were not true, I would not have repeatedly told you about
them. I am going to return to these worlds of light, stations in
the Father's heaven to which you shall some time ascend. From
these places I came into this world, and the hour is now at hand
when I must return to my Father's work in the spheres on high.
180:3.5 "If I thus go before you into the
Father's heavenly kingdom, so will I surely send for you that you
may be with me in the places that were prepared for the mortal
sons of God before this world was. Even though I must leave you, I
will be present with you in spirit, and eventually you shall be
with me in person when you have ascended to me in my universe even
as I am about to ascend to my Father in his greater universe. And
what I have told you is true and everlasting, even though you may
not fully comprehend it. I go to the Father, and though you cannot
now follow me, you shall certainly follow me in the ages to come."
180:3.6 When Jesus sat down, Thomas arose and
said: "Master, we do not know where you are going; so of course we
do not know the way. But we will follow you this very night if you
will show us the way."
180:3.7 When Jesus heard Thomas, he answered:
"Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the
Father except through me. All who find the Father, first find me.
If you know me, you know the way to the Father. And you do know
me, for you have lived with me and you now see me."
180:3.8 But this teaching was too deep for many
of the apostles, especially for Philip, who, after speaking a few
words with Nathaniel, arose and said: "Master, show us the Father,
and everything you have said will be made plain."
180:3.9 And when Philip had spoken, Jesus said:
"Philip, have I been so long with you and yet you do not even now
know me? Again do I declare: He who has seen me has seen the
Father. How can you then say, Show us the Father? Do you not
believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? Have I not
taught you that the words which I speak are not my words but the
words of the Father? I speak for the Father and not of myself. I
am in this world to do the Father's will, and that I have done. My
Father abides in me and works through me. Believe me when I say
that the Father is in me, and that I am in the Father, or else
believe me for the sake of the very life I have lived -- for the
work's sake."
180:3.10 As the Master went aside to refresh
himself with water, the eleven engaged in a spirited discussion of
these teachings, and Peter was beginning to deliver himself of an
extended speech when Jesus returned and beckoned them to be
seated.
4. THE PROMISED HELPER
180:4.1 Jesus continued to teach, saying: "When
I have gone to the Father, and after he has fully accepted the
work I have done for you on earth, and after I have received the
final sovereignty of my own domain, I shall say to my Father:
Having left my children alone on earth, it is in accordance with
my promise to send them another teacher. And when the Father shall
approve, I will pour out the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh.
Already is my Father's spirit in your hearts, and when this day
shall come, you will also have me with you even as you now have
the Father. This new gift is the spirit of living truth. The
unbelievers will not at first listen to the teachings of this
spirit, but the sons of light will all receive him gladly and with
a whole heart. And you shall know this spirit when he comes even
as you have known me, and you will receive this gift in your
hearts, and he will abide with you. You thus perceive that I am
not going to leave you without help and guidance. I will not leave
you desolate. Today I can be with you only in person. In the times
to come I will be with you and all other men who desire my
presence, wherever you may be, and with each of you at the same
time. Do you not discern that it is better for me to go away; that
I leave you in the flesh so that I may the better and the more
fully be with you in the spirit?
180:4.2 "In just a few hours the world will see
me no more; but you will continue to know me in your hearts even
until I send you this new teacher, the Spirit of Truth. As I have
lived with you in person, then shall I live in you; I shall be one
with your personal experience in the spirit kingdom. And when this
has come to pass, you shall surely know that I am in the Father,
and that, while your life is hid with the Father in me, I am also
in you. I have loved the Father and have kept his word; you have
loved me, and you will keep my word. As my Father has given me of
his spirit, so will I give you of my spirit. And this Spirit of
Truth which I will bestow upon you shall guide and comfort you and
shall eventually lead you into all truth.
180:4.3 "I am telling you these things while I
am still with you that you may be the better prepared to endure
those trials which are even now right upon us. And when this new
day comes, you will be indwelt by the Son as well as by the
Father. And these gifts of heaven will ever work the one with the
other even as the Father and I have wrought on earth and before
your very eyes as one person, the Son of Man. And this spirit
friend will bring to your remembrance everything I have taught
you."
180:4.4 As the Master paused for a moment, Judas
Alpheus made bold to ask one of the few questions which either he
or his brother ever addressed to Jesus in public. Said Judas:
"Master, you have always lived among us as a friend; how shall we
know you when you no longer manifest yourself to us save by this
spirit? If the world sees you not, how shall we be certain about
you? How will you show yourself to us?"
180:4.5 Jesus looked down upon them all, smiled,
and said: "My little children, I am going away, going back to my
Father. In a little while you will not see me as you do here, as
flesh and blood. In a very short time I am going to send you my
spirit, just like me except for this material body. This new
teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you,
in your hearts, and so will all the children of light be made one
and be drawn toward one another. And in this very manner will my
Father and I be able to live in the souls of each one of you and
also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love
real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now
loving you."
180:4.6 Judas Alpheus did not fully understand
what the Master said, but he grasped the promise of the new
teacher, and from the expression on Andrew's face, he perceived
that his question had been satisfactorily answered.
5. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
180:5.1 The new helper which Jesus promised to
send into the hearts of believers, to pour out upon all flesh, is
the Spirit of Truth. This divine endowment is not the
letter or law of truth, neither is it to function as the form or
expression of truth. The new teacher is the conviction of truth,
the consciousness and assurance of true meanings on real spirit
levels. And this new teacher is the spirit of living and growing
truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth.
180:5.2 Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and
living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the
realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with
God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can
experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty
of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in
formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human
conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth,
it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth,
even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar
form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead
truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth
is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the
human mind.
180:5.3 Intelligence grows out of a material
existence which is illuminated by the presence of the cosmic mind.
Wisdom comprises the consciousness of knowledge elevated to new
levels of meaning and activated by the presence of the universe
endowment of the adjutant of wisdom. Truth is a spiritual reality
value experienced only by spirit-endowed beings who function upon
supermaterial levels of universe consciousness, and who, after the
realization of truth, permit its spirit of activation to live and
reign within their souls.
180:5.4 The true child of universe insight looks
for the living Spirit of Truth in every wise saying. The
God-knowing individual is constantly elevating wisdom to the
living-truth levels of divine attainment; the spiritually
unprogressive soul is all the while dragging the living truth down
to the dead levels of wisdom and to the domain of mere exalted
knowledge.
180:5.5 The golden rule, when divested of the
superhuman insight of the Spirit of Truth, becomes nothing more
than a rule of high ethical conduct. The golden rule, when
literally interpreted, may become the instrument of great offense
to one's fellows. Without a spiritual discernment of the golden
rule of wisdom you might reason that, since you are desirous that
all men speak the full and frank truth of their minds to you, you
should therefore fully and frankly speak the full thought of your
mind to your fellow beings. Such an unspiritual interpretation of
the golden rule might result in untold unhappiness and no end of
sorrow.
180:5.6 Some persons discern and interpret the
golden rule as a purely intellectual affirmation of human
fraternity. Others experience this expression of human
relationship as an emotional gratification of the tender feelings
of the human personality. Another mortal recognizes this same
golden rule as the yardstick for measuring all social relations,
the standard of social conduct. Still others look upon it as being
the positive injunction of a great moral teacher who embodied in
this statement the highest concept of moral obligation as regards
all fraternal relationships. In the lives of such moral beings the
golden rule becomes the wise center and circumference of all their
philosophy.
180:5.7 In the kingdom of the believing
brotherhood of God-knowing truth lovers, this golden rule takes on
living qualities of spiritual realization on those higher levels
of interpretation which cause the mortal sons of God to view this
injunction of the Master as requiring them so to relate themselves
to their fellows that they will receive the highest possible good
as a result of the believer's contact with them. This is the
essence of true religion: that you love your neighbor as yourself.
180:5.8 But the highest realization and the
truest interpretation of the golden rule consists in the
consciousness of the spirit of the truth of the enduring and
living reality of such a divine declaration. The true cosmic
meaning of this rule of universal relationship is revealed only in
its spiritual realization, in the interpretation of the law of
conduct by the spirit of the Son to the spirit of the Father that
indwells the soul of mortal man. And when such spirit-led mortals
realize the true meaning of this golden rule, they are filled to
overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly
universe, and their ideals of spirit reality are satisfied only
when they love their fellows as Jesus loved us all, and that is
the reality of the realization of the love of God.
180:5.9 This same philosophy of the living
flexibility and cosmic adaptability of divine truth to the
individual requirements and capacity of every son of God, must be
perceived before you can hope adequately to understand the
Master's teaching and practice of nonresistance to evil. The
Master's teaching is basically a spiritual pronouncement. Even the
material implications of his philosophy cannot be helpfully
considered apart from their spiritual correlations. The spirit of
the Master's injunction consists in the nonresistance of all
selfish reaction to the universe, coupled with the aggressive and
progressive attainment of righteous levels of true spirit values:
divine beauty, infinite goodness, and eternal truth -- to know God
and to become increasingly like him.
180:5.10 Love, unselfishness, must undergo a
constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships
in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. Love must
thereby grasp the ever-changing and enlarging concepts of the
highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And then love
goes on to strike this same attitude concerning all other
individuals who could possibly be influenced by the growing and
living relationship of one spirit-led mortal's love for other
citizens of the universe. And this entire living adaptation of
love must be effected in the light of both the environment of
present evil and the eternal goal of the perfection of divine
destiny.
180:5.11 And so must we clearly recognize that
neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever
be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be
comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the
living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the
loving contact of one human being with another.
180:5.12 And all this clearly indicates the
difference between the old religion and the new. The old religion
taught self-sacrifice; the new religion teaches only
self-forgetfulness, enhanced self-realization in conjoined social
service and universe comprehension. The old religion was motivated
by fear-consciousness; the new gospel of the kingdom is dominated
by truth-conviction, the spirit of eternal and universal truth.
And no amount of piety or creedal loyalty can compensate for the
absence in the life experience of kingdom believers of that
spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness which
characterizes the spirit-born sons of the living God. Neither
tradition nor a ceremonial system of formal worship can atone for
the lack of genuine compassion for one's fellows.
6. THE NECESSITY FOR LEAVING
180:6.1 After Peter, James, John, and Matthew
had asked the Master numerous questions, he continued his farewell
discourse by saying: "And I am telling you about all this before I
leave you in order that you may be so prepared for what is coming
upon you that you will not stumble into serious error. The
authorities will not be content with merely putting you out of the
synagogues; I warn you the hour draws near when they who kill you
will think they are doing a service to God. And all of these
things they will do to you and to those whom you lead into the
kingdom of heaven because they do not know the Father. They have
refused to know the Father by refusing to receive me; and they
refuse to receive me when they reject you, provided you have kept
my new commandment that you love one another even as I have loved
you. I am telling you in advance about these things so that, when
your hour comes, as mine now has, you may be strengthened in the
knowledge that all was known to me, and that my spirit shall be
with you in all your sufferings for my sake and the gospel's. It
was for this purpose that I have been talking so plainly to you
from the very beginning. I have even warned you that a man's foes
may be those of his own household. Although this gospel of the
kingdom never fails to bring great peace to the soul of the
individual believer, it will not bring peace on earth until man is
willing to believe my teaching wholeheartedly and to establish the
practice of doing the Father's will as the chief purpose in living
the mortal life.
180:6.2 "Now that I am leaving you, seeing that
the hour has come when I am about to go to the Father, I am
surprised that none of you have asked me, Why do you leave us?
Nevertheless, I know that you ask such questions in your hearts. I
will speak to you plainly, as one friend to another. It is really
profitable for you that I go away. If I go not away, the new
teacher cannot come into your hearts. I must be divested of this
mortal body and be restored to my place on high before I can send
this spirit teacher to live in your souls and lead your spirits
into the truth. And when my spirit comes to indwell you, he will
illuminate the difference between sin and righteousness and will
enable you to judge wisely in your hearts concerning them.
180:6.3 "I have yet much to say to you, but you
cannot stand any more just now. Albeit, when he, the Spirit of
Truth, comes, he shall eventually guide you into all truth as you
pass through the many abodes in my Father's universe.
180:6.4 "This spirit will not speak of himself,
but he will declare to you that which the Father has revealed to
the Son, and he will even show you things to come; he will glorify
me even as I have glorified my Father. This spirit comes forth
from me, and he will reveal my truth to you. Everything which the
Father has in this domain is now mine; wherefore did I say that
this new teacher would take of that which is mine and reveal it to
you.
180:6.5 "In just a little while I will leave you
for a short time. Afterward, when you again see me, I shall
already be on my way to the Father so that even then you will not
see me for long."
180:6.6 While he paused for a moment, the
apostles began to talk with each other: "What is this that he
tells us? `In just a little while I will leave you,' and `When you
see me again it will not be for long, for I will be on my way to
the Father.' What can he mean by this `little while' and `not for
long'? We cannot understand what he is telling us."
180:6.7 And since Jesus knew they asked these
questions, he said: "Do you inquire among yourselves about what I
meant when I said that in a little while I would not be with you,
and that, when you would see me again, I would be on my way to the
Father? I have plainly told you that the Son of Man must die, but
that he will rise again. Can you not then discern the meaning of
my words? You will first be made sorrowful, but later on will you
rejoice with many who will understand these things after they have
come to pass. A woman is indeed sorrowful in the hour of her
travail, but when she is once delivered of her child, she
immediately forgets her anguish in the joy of the knowledge that a
man has been born into the world. And so are you about to sorrow
over my departure, but I will soon see you again, and then will
your sorrow be turned into rejoicing, and there shall come to you
a new revelation of the salvation of God which no man can ever
take away from you. And all the worlds will be blessed in this
same revelation of life in effecting the overthrow of death.
Hitherto have you made all your requests in my Father's name.
After you see me again, you may also ask in my name, and I will
hear you.
180:6.8 "Down here I have taught you in proverbs
and spoken to you in parables. I did so because you were only
children in the spirit; but the time is coming when I will talk to
you plainly concerning the Father and his kingdom. And I shall do
this because the Father himself loves you and desires to be more
fully revealed to you. Mortal man cannot see the spirit Father;
therefore have I come into the world to show the Father to your
creature eyes. But when you have become perfected in spirit
growth, you shall then see the Father himself."
180:6.9 When the eleven had heard him speak,
they said to each other: "Behold, he does speak plainly to us.
Surely the Master did come forth from God. But why does he say he
must return to the Father?" And Jesus saw that they did not even
yet comprehend him. These eleven men could not get away from their
long-nourished ideas of the Jewish concept of the Messiah. The
more fully they believed in Jesus as the Messiah, the more
troublesome became these deep-rooted notions regarding the
glorious material triumph of the kingdom on earth.
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