Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part IV
THE LAST JOURNEY

III. THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

"They drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives." (Matt. 21: 1)

Passing through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem, the Lord with His disciples came to the Mount of Olives. Their formal entrance into the city was not immediate. The mountain was a "Sabbath Day's journey" to the East of Jerusalem, separated from it by the Valley of Jehoshaphat, through which ran the brook of Kidron. The sacred mountain overlooked the city. It dominated it, even as in life states of love dominate thought and doctrine. At the time of the Lord's presence upon it, the mountain represented the state of life at which He, in the progress of His glorification, had arrived; namely, the good of love. With Him this good was Divine. His presence on the mountain therefore signified His reception of that love in fullness, and so His preparation for entrance into the Divine doctrine, signified by the Holy City. By the acquirement of this love He was prepared also for entrance into the city of the Jews, there to sustain the things which were to come to pass as a result of His final encounter with a corrupt church. His presence on the mountain therefore at this time, in its supreme meaning, betokened the near climax of His glorification; so near, indeed, that He then was Divine Good, but with a notable qualification.

After His ascension all the degrees of His life were fulfilled and united. He was then the Divine Good of the Divine Love without any qualification. But when He stood on Olivet, this Good, though dominantly present in Him and near its entire fulfillment, was still qualified by its presence in a natural human body, in some part mortal and capable of death. He was still a Man among men. It is fortunate that we may so think of Him when He came to the mountain and for a short time thereafter. The Divine, apart from some accommodation, is quite invisible to human eyes and unknowable to human thought. It can be seen only under finite appearances. For this He was born, lived, and died. So we now see Him as He comes to us through the images laid in our minds by His life on earth. He there provided a succession of such images in an unbroken series, and even thereafter to the point of His ascension. Then indeed He departed from the world, but the vision of Him remains unbroken even by His death, and it is now again renewed by a final revealing. It is fortunate, however, that we may still see Him as a Man on earth and as He stood upon the Mount of Olives, fulfilling in His person every Divine prophecy of bygone ages. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Isaiah 52: 7.) Thus He stood upon the Mount of Olives, looking to Jerusalem, the city of desolation and of hope, the place of His death and of His resurrection; the city over which He wept, and which in its spiritual significance He raised to a new life.

His state upon the mountain, expressed in the relative words of human language, was a surpassing love for the human race. Of this love we may have some comprehension. From our limited love of a few we may conceive of a love that embraces many, even all. His love, though Divine, was at this time also a human state of love, for He was still a Man in the world. States are predicates of the human mind, whether they be states of love and light or of cold and shade. They are spiritual qualities, and their changes are the means of man's Providential government - the means of his regeneration. The constant fact about them is that they change. In this lies the possibility of man's betterment, or otherwise.

As long as the Lord was a Man in the world, He underwent changes of state. His mind, even as His body, was human; that is, it was human Divine; and since states and their changes are mental predicates or spiritual qualities, they are ascribed to the Lord at all points of His life on earth. They are spoken of as Divine (A.E. 4237); but their Divinity was, as said, qualified.

The world of nature is under the all-present rule of time and space. The world of the mind and the spiritual world know only states. The Divine in Itself is qualified by neither. The Lord in the world conformed to both time and space, and He partook of all human states of good. Thus the Divine which was inmostly in Him was conditioned by His mind and body, neither of which was life, but vessels receptive thereof. In the words of the Writings, "The Lord's internal Human, before it was fully glorified, was a receptacle of the Divine. (A. C. 5417.) Thus we see Him on the mountain as God humanly veiled. Because of this veiling He comes to our vision. Because of this the message of His love reaches us. He was then a messenger of love and peace, and also of judgment.

Peace can come only through a judgment; not otherwise. This is so of the peace called regenerate. No other is here meant save that which comes after trials and afflictions. This is a hard lesson to learn. We speak of spiritual temptations and their theoretical suffering; yet we know them not, even when they are upon us. When the mind is clouded and depressed we miss the true issue, for we are then in prison to false conclusions. Every temptation leads to a judgment, and only after the judgment is peace given. We seek peace, yet our troubles multiply, and also the restlessness which comes of unattainable desires. The proprium of man is incurable. Attempts to subdue it fail unless Divine aid is given. If we seek such aid, we must look to the mountains, "from whence cometh our help," that is, to the Lord upon the mountain. We see Him on the Mount of Olives, on His way to Jerusalem, a Messenger of peace but also of judgment. He Himself was come to meet the judgment to be passed upon Him by men, but the penalty of this judgment was, in truth, theirs. Their judgment upon Him became His judgment upon them; that is, upon all those who could not, with Him, be raised to new life. The consummation of this judgment was at hand, and an old and fallen church was giving place to a new one.

The Mount of Olives upon which the Lord stood was not only deeply significant, - it was rich with many sacred memories. From it the Lord went to Jerusalem, riding in triumph as a King, and during the last days of His intercourse in the sacred city He returned to the Mount of Olives to pass the night. On one such occasion, returning from the temple after prophesying its destruction, He sat with Peter, James, and John, and Andrew on that mountain and spoke of the things to come; of wars and rumors of war, of nations arising against nations, of earthquakes and famine, of troubles and sorrow, of trials and the preaching of the Gospel, of betrayals and of the abomination of desolation. And even as He spoke the judgment was come. Its spiritual manifestation was unseen by worldly eyes, yet it was taking place in the spiritual world, even as described in the forecast of it by the prophet Zechariah: "Then shall Jehovah go forth to fight against the nations . . . and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem, on the cast, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east, and toward, the west, and there shall be a great valley, and half the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south." (Zechariah 14: 3 - 4.) This description pictures the judgment upon the ancient congregation gathered in the spiritual world and there awaiting the Lord's coming. It was a judgment upon the Ancient Churches, and basically upon the Jewish Church. It was accompanied by manifestations such as the prophet describes. This judgment in the spiritual world, in its sequences, paralleled the events of the Lord's life in the natural world, even as effects follow from their causes.

The judgment upon the Jewish Church in this world was also represented by the violent division of the Mount of Olives. That division is said in the Writings to signify the passing of the Christian Church to the Gentiles. This is the historic meaning of Zechariah's prophecy. In the Arcana Coelestia 9780, it is said of the prophecy that it treats of the coming of the Lord, and that by the Mount of Olives is meant the Good of Love and of Charity, thus the church. That the church would recede from the Jewish nation and would be set up among the Gentiles is signified by the mountain being cleft asunder, toward the east and toward the sea, and toward the north and the south. Also, in a universal sense, by Jehovah going forth to fight against the nations, and by His feet standing upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem, is meant that the Lord from Divine Love would fight against the hells, for the "nations" are evils from hell, and the Mount of Olives on which He stood is the Divine Love. (See also A. E. 405:23.)

With reference to the church and the judgment the mountain signifies one thing, and with reference to the Lord and His glorification, another; yet the two are intimately related. The mountain disrupted and divided in every direction, obviously bespeaks the fate of the church, and in this respect also the fate of the Lord as a Prophet Who put on representatively all the states of the church, and in so doing, suffered. His Human crucified was significant of the death of the church; but His Human glorified carried with it the resurrection of a new church. We see, therefore, in the Mount of Olives, a double signification. With reference to the Lord's glorification it was, indeed, the Mountain of His Holiness; but with reference to the church, as it then existed, it was the mountain of judgment and of condemnation. Therefore, in the prophecy of Zechariah, it was destroyed by division and separation. This also was that which happened to His worldly Human. It was put off in likeness to the church which was passed away, to make place for a new one. In this sense the mountain may be called a mountain of corruption. It was so called in the days of Solomon when that kind defiled it by false worship established on its heights. At that time the Mount of Olives was joined with the old Jerusalem in an evil significance. Yet supremely, and with reference to the Lord's glorification, it was indeed the Mountain of His Holiness, signifying the Good of His Divine Love from which He performed His every judgment, and from which He also, in the supreme moment, united His Human with His Divine. Therefore it was that from this holy mountain He was seen ascending to heaven. This was a sign to men that the gates of heaven were open, and that the Lord was passing though. This was the sign of redemption, for men were free to follow Him in the way. The gates of heaven were opened, and men were redeemed to God - because the Lord, by His ascension, entered into full union with His Father.

The Lord said, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in us. And the glory which Thou gave me I have given them, that they may be one, I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One." (John 17: 17 - 22)