Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part IV
THE LAST JOURNEY

VI. THE TEMPLE

"And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve." (Mark 11:11)

The transfiguration marked the beginning of the last series of events leading to the Lord's full glorification. It was the sign of the end, and more than a sign. By that Divine vision the glorified Human was manifested to Peter, James, and John.  "Their eyes being opened, they saw Him transfigured before them."  "His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow."  "A cloud overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son." (Mark 9: 2 - 7)  By this vision the end was revealed.  Peter, James, and John then saw Him in the glory of His Divinity, and they were thereby prepared to follow Him on His last journey - a journey leading from the mount of transfiguration to the hill at Jerusalem whereon His cross was fixed.  Yet they were only in part prepared.  By this vision their eyes were opened, but they were to be further instructed by the sequence of events.  "As they came down from the mountain He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another, what the rising from the dead should mean." (Mark 9: 9, 10)

Passing through Galilee on the way, He spoke to them again, this time of His death at the hands of men, and of His resurrection.  Still they were uncertain and afraid.  Entering the coasts of Judea, by the farther side of Jordan, it became clear to them that they were on the way to Jerusalem, and it is recorded they were amazed and fearful.  But Jesus went before them, and taking the twelve, He said, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him unto the Gentiles, and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again." (Matt. 20: 18 - 19)

Thus by degrees and with increasing fullness, He prepared them for the final event.  First He spake of His rising from the dead; then of His death, that it was to be at the hands of men, and finally, of the indignities which He would suffer, and of His rising on the third day.  At first He spoke only with Peter, James, and John; but on the third occasion He spoke to the twelve.  This sequence represents in each stage a fuller preparation, and in consequence, a marked change of state as a result of more particular instruction - a change which enabled the disciples to face the future and see through the intervening temptations to final victory - through death itself to the resurrection into life.  So from a state of amazement, fear, and a holding back, they joined Him in the courageous and triumphal advance.

At the conclusion of His journey, He entered Jerusalem as a King, riding in royal state.  The "city was moved" at His coming, saying, "Who is this?" (Matt. 21: 10)  On entering the city, He advanced to the heart of it, and into the temple.  Here there was a pause in the great forward movement.  The journey was ended.  He stood in the temple, the house of God, the residence of His Divinity.

Many thought that He was come to make Himself the King of the Jews, and to sit upon the throne of David. The twelve, being instructed, looked not for so literal a fulfillment; yet they understood not the deep significance of this event - that is, of His entrance into the temple on this occasion, when to every appearance nothing was done.  It is simply recorded of this most impressive moment that "He looked round about upon all things."  He, the Lord of all being, stood in the temple at Jerusalem and looked round about upon all things - upon the temple from within, and upon the things that were in it.  This temple, in its manifest significance, symbolized the Jewish Church, the history of which was inwrought in every feature of that representative structure, and, like the representative Jewish Church, it was also an embodiment of Himself.  So, on the following day, when the temple was cleansed by Him of its defilement, it represented the church restored, and, by the same token, His Human glorified. When, therefore, He looked round about upon all things of the temple, a Divine survey on His part was signified - a survey both of the history and the present state of the church.  Also, His "looking" on this occasion was as an introspection into His Human, about to be glorified.

The status of the temple at the time was reflexed upon Him as He stood within it.  He saw Himself therein as in a mirror.  It was as if His body were inclosed in a luminous correspondent of lower ultimation.  He was, in fact, now standing in the sacred house which was built to conform to, and so to express everything of His own human structure, and in so doing to represent all the several planes of human life, whether earthly or heavenly.

In its widest meaning, the temple, as He stood within it, presented a picture of the Divine in its own creation. The things that He saw by this introspection as He looked round about told in fullness of the states of His Human - states resulting from the presence of the Divine in an infirm body and of that Divine as it progressively glorified the body.  These things, in detail, can never be entirely explained in human language; yet they are all involved in the statement of the text. In their spiritual wisdom, which is Infinite, they engage the thoughts of the angels with an everlasting delight therein. Well may we marvel as to what He saw when His eyes rested, in human fashion, upon the temple from within, upon its divisions, and upon its vessels of Divine service; upon those that belonged there, of use and order, and so were of sacred significance; and also upon those that were not of order, but which had found place there by some corrupt custom or perverted usage, and which were therefore of profane significance. Certainly we may know that all the sacred vessels were, of Providence, in their appointed place, and in their order, made ready for the moment of this Divine survey; and yet we also know that there were other things therein which stood for another service, and which were of evil import, as, for instance, the tables of the money changers.

As He looked upon the vessels of Divine service and upon those of evil significance, He saw more than can ever be told of the glories of the church yet to be, and, as well, of that broken and crumbling church now in process of passing away. He saw more than can ever be revealed to men or angels of the state of His infirm human, of its impending death, and so also of the stage of His preparation for, and advancement to, complete glorification. Even so, what He saw is in general revealed. It is revealed in every page of Scripture, to those whose eyes are open, and in the degree that they are open. All the Writings tell of these, His inner visions, as He surveyed the state of the church, and of His Infinite introspection into the state of His Human.  All this is revealed in the first place in the ancient Scriptures, there enclosed in remote symbols, and veiled in dark sayings; but now exposed to rational view by the doctrines contained in the Writings of the church, which are openly comprehensible to men and more so to the angels.

The text from the New Testament gives simply the inclusive statement that He looked round about upon all things, and this means that He perceived the significance and sustaining power of the temple and of its sacred vessels in their order. He also perceived the destructive significance and the evil influence which was reflexed upon Him by the presence in the temple of other things that were not of order, but were of profane import. It was because of these last that a shadow overcast His mind. It is recorded that as He looked round about, the eventide fell; the night was at hand. This eventide was a symbolic forecast of that spiritual night in which the church went down. For Himself it foretold the darkness which supervened at His crucifixion.

He now stood in the temple and looked round about upon all things, of both good and evil import. A total revelation was given Him. He saw the desperate condition of men pictured by the status of the temple, and this also He felt as a grief in His body and mind. He perceived the only way of redemption, the way which led through the fall of the church and through His death. No other way was possible. No, nor can be, save through death; for that is the way of life. Death is the certain end of all things. But a resurrection is given. This is the rule of life. The spirit rises in a new embodiment. The question of death comes whenever the eventide falls, and with it a tempting doubt. Only the morning can dispel it. It is so in all things, minor and great. This alternation of night with day, of uncertainty with that which is sure, is the ground of human variability, both with the children of nature and with the life of the spirit.

Nothing is constant save the Divine. The Lord, by His human put on from nature, partook of nature's inconstancy. This He derived from man - from man's variability; his alternation of states, his light and shade. Herein is the marvel of the Lord's Advent, that by means of this human variability He might draw near to man. In this, He suffered changes of state, even as men. Through our imperfections, put on by Him, He made Himself comprehensible to us. The incompletions of His mind and body, in any given state, were predicates of His Humanity while He was in the world. Else for Him there could have been no shadow, no twilight, and nothing to call Him away from the temple to pass the night on the Mount of Olives, which signified a withdrawal into his inner Divine, while temptation endured - while the night lasted; there to await the morrow when He would return to the temple and to the work of its cleansing.

The temple was as His body in lower extension and more ultimate correspondence. As His body assumed was ever more wrought into a likeness with His Divine, so of need must the temple be correspondently cleansed of its defilement. His body and the temple were one. So when He spake of the temple, of its destruction, and the raising of it in three days, the disciples perceived that He spake of the temple of His body. Between these two there was the unity of correspondence. This was a spiritual unity. The temple made of stone followed in the way of His material body. It was destroyed in sequence with the fall of the church, and as a result of His death. After Jesus was glorified, the temple at Jerusalem cumbered the ground. One of His disciples, speaking of it, said, "Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are these. And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." (Mark 12: 1 - 2)  After His death and resurrection there was no longer a need or service for that structure.  One greater than the temple was come, who spake to men of the temple of His body, and who substituted His body glorified, for those "great buildings," and offered it as the sole object for the worship of men.