2022-06-28-Let Us Set the Record Straight

Session

Quote

“Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. But bread which comes down from God, if a man eats thereof, he shall never die in spirit. I repeat I am this living bread, and every soul who attains the realization of this united nature of God and man shall live forever. And this bread of life which I give to all who will receive is my own living and combined nature. The Father in the Son and the Son one with the Father—that is my life-giving revelation to the world and my saving gift to all nations.” (UB, 153:2.12)

Lesson

Thought Adjuster: “The sacrament of bread and wine performed by Jesus at the Last Supper was a novelty only in the elevated meaning he conferred to it. Centuries ago, Machiventa Melchizedek, another incarnated divine personality, wisely substituted “a sacrament of bread and wine for the older sacrifice of flesh and blood.” (UB, 93:4.14)

Water, bread, and wine were recurrent topics in Jesus’ life — in a material or spiritual sense, or both. During the Capernaum food shortage crisis, Jesus multiplied bread loaves to feed a multitude. At the Cana wedding, he turned water into wine. Both events were prompted by the irrepressible impulses of his compassionate heart — the human expression of divine love. To debunk any potential misunderstandings about the nature of his role as a Savior, Jesus stressed that his main focus was not merely to minister to temporal needs but to reveal his Father in heaven to his children on earth.

While addressing pilgrims, he once authoritatively pronounced: “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. From the Father above I bring to this world the water of life. He who believes me shall be filled with the spirit which this water represents. [. . .] When the Son of Man has finished his work on earth, there shall be poured out upon all flesh the living Spirit of Truth. Those who receive this spirit shall never know spiritual thirst.” (UB, 162:6.1)

At the Last Supper, after blessing a cup of wine, he said: “Take this cup, all of you, and drink of it. This shall be the cup of my remembrance. This is the cup of the blessing of a new dispensation of grace and truth. This shall be to you the emblem of the bestowal and ministry of the divine Spirit of Truth. And I will not again drink this cup with you until I drink in new form with you in the Father’s eternal kingdom.” (UB, 179:5.1)

Did he send subliminal messages when he turned water into wine or when he was perturbed by the bloody animal sacrifices conducted in the court of his Father’s Temple? How do you think it made him feel when the spotlight was redirected from the saving grace of his exemplary life to the supposedly redeeming shedding of his innocent blood — something he never condoned while alive?

Murder is murder. In this case, it was a horrendous miscarriage of justice witnessed by “the unseen hosts of a universe [who] stood in silence while they gazed upon this extraordinary phenomenon of the Creator as he was dying the death of the creature, even the most ignoble death of a condemned criminal. (UB, 187:3.1)

Only seasoned Devil’s advocates could manipulate a jury of their peers to become instrumental in such a miscarriage of justice. In fact, Jesus’ fate was sealed without any due process. It certainly was not an Act of God. Let us set the record straight.”