Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part VI
THE RESURRECTION

III. THE RISEN LORD AND THE COMMUNION

"And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the (mother) of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  And very early in the morning the first (day) of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.  And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?"

"And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away; for it was very great.  And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.  And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid him." (Mark 16: 1 - 6)

When Jesus rose from the grave, a dying age revived, a new church came into being.  The news of His resurrection spread far and wide.  Men question, saying, What think ye?  Do we rise from the grave to new life?  This question is at the heart of all men in every age.  Their hope, their faith, their doubt, their denial rises and falls.  They never quite give up all hope.  They are never altogether free from doubt and its temptation.  The veil between the two worlds varies in density; sometimes little or no light passes through; and again, it becomes all but transparent.  This with the varying influence of religion, the decrease or increase of faith.

A fallen religion encourages doubt and increases pessimism.  A new church brightens the light from heaven, and faith strengthens until it imparts a realizing sense of certainty and security.  In the beginning of a new church heaven draws near, and men become spiritually minded.  Their hearts turn to the life beyond as to a future home.  Their interest is engaged with the new truth that is revealed.  A new revelation and church are companion parts; one is not given without the other.  A new church is a new religion which brings with it a new age.  A new church is not a mere reformation nor a schismatic development.  This last divides the church, and at last brings it to an end.

The Lord came to establish a new church.  The old had fallen through successive ages, until it became a denial of that which brought it into being.  The circle of its life was completed.  Its morning had passed into a lasting night, a Sadducean night, in which there is denial of a resurrection - no hope of a new spiritual day.  In this night our Lord was buried; yet He came forth from the darkness of death in the early morning, at the rising of the sun to signify the commencing of a new church - the dawning of a new spiritual age and the rising of a new spiritual sun.

He, after His resurrection, was the Sun of heaven renewed, with an increase of glory.  Yet He was a Man Divine, and the same with Himself as He was a man in the world, and known to His disciples.*  As such, He was seen by them for a period after His resurrection and prior to His ascension.  He was seen by them, not with their natural, but their spiritual eyes; but they knew not the difference.  His Resurrection Body could not be seen in the light of the natural sun; yet it was as if they so saw Him, as if He stood before them in a material body.  It was thus that they witnessed His resurrection; and their witness was accepted by those who were ready to believe, not by others.  This witness was called for.  It was a spiritual requirement, and it became a natural ground of faith.

* Believe this should read "The same within Himself as when He was a man in the world."

Yet this witness was not in itself sufficient for the unbelieving, to compel their faith.  A miracle, if at first accepted, is soon discredited.  The simple in heart were convinced by this witness of the disciples.  Their trusting minds were perceptive.  Their confidence was of the spirit.  Their proof came from an inner light.  In this they transcended the witness of the eyes and overcame the doubt of natural reason.  Their faith was based upon the heart's necessity and its sense of immortality.  This is more certain in its convictions than any outward proving. Its discernment is derived from the self-evidencing reason of love, which is unerring in its divining.  It perceives truth and senses realities, not knowing how.  Its apperceptions go deeper into spiritual causes than the reasoning mind can see.  This is the sight of true faith; not of faith as a formula or a persuasive dogma, but of faith as an inner state of life.  This is the faith of love.  It is also called the faith of God.  It is the faith of the God-fearing and God-loving mind, in which there is nothing of self with its conceit in its powers of reasoning - which turns the back to God and the thought away from heaven.  This self of man can perceive no spiritual truth, cannot see God as the pure in heart do.  It is engaged with its self-concern and its relation to the world.  To such a mind, no spiritual vision is given.

There were many in Jerusalem - a multitude - to whom the Lord's resurrection passed as a thing unknown, or as at once discredited.  Only a chosen few saw Him, and of these there was one who doubted.  Yet the fact, the truth of His resurrection ruled the world for ages thereafter.  This is the high proving of Providence.  It is a fact of history, incomprehensible on any other ground than that of truth.

The angel said to the women who came to the sepulchre early in the morning, "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen: He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him."  The stone was rolled away, and the body was not here.  This meant that He was raised, even as to the body -  His body made Divine.  There was a difference between this and the body that was carried to the tomb.  Something happened in the sepulchre - a miracle, which time cannot explain to the carnal mind, but which is affirmed by revelation.  There was a dissipation of the residue of the maternal human.  This happened in the tomb.  (Ath. Cr. 161, 162)  His Resurrection Body was there clearly glorified.  It was in this Glorified Body that He appeared to His disciples, their eyes being opened.  They beheld Him in spiritual vision, not in the fancy of their imagination.  In spiritual vision realities are seen - spiritual realities.  He appeared to them in His own Divine Body on the plane of their spiritual sensual sight, on the plane of that outward spiritual vision of which the disciples were capable, and which brought Him before them even as they had known Him on earth.  It was this that enabled them to testify in truth that He had risen.

A more interior vision of the Divine Human was later given, but that pertained to another age, to the time of His Second Coming, when He, in His Divine Human, presented Himself as the Divine Truth, as the Truth of Divine Revelation.  The two Advents are distinguished, the one from the other, in this, that at His First Coming He appeared in the world, in His Second He appeared in the Word.  At His First Coming He appeared in person, as a man; at His Second Coming He appeared in the truth of the Word revealed.  And the reason given, why His Second Coming was effected in and by this truth, and not in person, was that, after His ascension, He was in His Glorified Human, which cannot come again into the world, cannot appear in person before the natural eyes of men, but can become visible to their spiritual sight only.  And therefore it is recorded that, when He showed Himself to His disciples after His resurrection, it was not to their bodily, but to their spiritual, eyes.  This also is that which happened to them on the occasion of His transfiguration. (T. C. R. 777)

While the vision of the Divine Human as the Divine Truth united with the Divine Good, given at the time of His Second Advent, is a more interior revealing than that of His Human Body Form which was given to His disciples immediately after His resurrection, yet His appearing to His disciples in His ultimate Human Form was of order, and it was a true vision of His Human Glorified.  This is clear from the teaching that while He appeared to them, and presently did not appear, yet He was a Man when seen and when not seen - that is, He did not put on an appearing body for the occasion and then put it off again. (C. L. 31)  His so appearing was therefore not imaginary.  It was a real presence and a real appearing of Him as He was.

The disciples' witness to this fact was vital to beginning Christianity, and it is vital to the Church at this day as the ground of the Second Advent faith, which faith, however, calls for and receives an interior manifestation of the Divine Human adapted to a later and more rational age.  While it should be noted and emphasized that the faith of the New Church is interiorly and essentially dependent upon its own revelation, yet that revelation supports by rational interpretation the original inspired account.  In this way the two Advents and the truths thereof make a complete unity.

On the occasion of His ascension, it is recorded that "while they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.  And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?  This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." (Acts 1: 9 - 10)

"In like manner."  What is the meaning of this?  Men have concluded that, in the last day, they would behold Him descending from the starry heaven to the earth, even as they thought they saw Him ascend.  But it is manifest that, on this occasion also, their eyes were opened.  His ascent was seen in spiritual vision, and His Body then seen was the Resurrection Body, which cannot become visible to natural eyes.  That which made Him visible in the world of nature was put off in the sepulchre.  It follows that His Resurrection Body would become manifest at His Second Coming, not to the natural, but to spiritual sight.  And indeed He was so seen by the Seer, whose eyes were opened, and also by the very many gathered for judgment in the spiritual world.  But the higher revealing of Himself at the Second Coming was through and by means of that which is signified by the "cloud" which received Him on the occasion of His ascension, namely, the Word in its letter, which was the ultimate means of an internal manifestation of Him glorified, of Him manifest in the Body of His Divine Truth, which Truth alone is also one in Essence and Identity with His first seen Resurrection Body, the only difference being the planes of Manifestation - the plane of external spiritual sight and that of rational spiritual perception.

The Resurrection Body, clearly and fully glorified, and one in Essence with the Divine Human of the Second Advent revelation, is the sole object of our worship.  And this it is which is representatively administered in the Holy Communion of the New Church.  And it is in this specifically that that Communion is new.  This is a matter of no little importance - the significance of the Communion before and after the Second Coming.  The Writings tell us that the doctrine of the Church enters into the Communion, that that which is administered is qualified by the doctrine concerning it.  Clearly, in the New Church, it is the Divine Human which is administered; for this is nowhere else known or acknowledged.  This is that which is represented to us by the bread and the wine.  Truly then, the Communion in the New Church is a new thing - distinctly so, even as the doctrine of the Divine Human is a new doctrine.

The Holy Supper was first administered by the Lord Himself, and this prior to His death.  It was then administered in the evening, signifying the last time of the Church, - the night in which the Church went down, and also the darkness of the grave into which He was to enter.  Many have felt that the evening was the fitting, the significant, time for the administration of the Supper.  As a historical memorial this is so.  But note again that, in the New Church, that which is administered is not the body as it went down into the grave, but the Human ascended and glorified.  This Human first stood forth in the fulness and completion of its glory early in the morning of the resurrection day, at the rising of the sun, which symbolized His Human Glorified as the Source of all light in heaven, and as well the true light of the world.

The Lord's last Supper with His disciples indeed involved all this, and interiorly looked to it, but the occasion of that Communion obviously pointed to the night in which the Church went down - pointed to the death and the grave for Himself.  For of that evening Supper He said, "With desire I have desired to eat of this passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22: 15)  In this the Sacrament was a memorial of His death.  But we worship Him not as He hung upon the cross nor as He lay in the grave.  In the new Communion there is no symbol of death, but all is Life Divine, Life ascending, even as the Sun in its continual rising.  It follows from this that the new Communion is a morning Communion - the resurrection Communion.  Of this the Lord spoke when He said, "I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." (Luke 22: 16)

The Communion as a death memorial called for its fulfillment in and after the resurrection.  This was involved in His saying that He would drink no more of the fruit of the vine until He drank it "new" in the kingdom of God (Mark 14: 25), or until He should drink it new with them in the kingdom of God.  The significance of this is clear.  There was to be another and a new Communion after His resurrection, and indeed, in consequence thereof, such a Communion as could not be given before, because it was only after His resurrection that "all Divine Truth in heaven and the Church proceeded from His Divine Human," ascended and glorified.  And it was because of this that He said that He would drink of the fruit of the vine new with them in His Father's kingdom.  For only after His resurrection did all the Divine proceed from Him, - that is, then only did the Divine proceed from His Human in fullness. (See A. E. 376:26)  The mortal human - the maternal with its infirmities - was always more or less an inhibiting medium; but with the resurrection the last of this human was put off, so that He in Body was totally Divine.  It is this total Divinity, therefore, which is signified in and by the new wine of the heavenly Communion, and it is this which is signified by and represented in the new Communion of the New Church.