Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part IV
THE LAST JOURNEY

IV. THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM

"And when they came nigh to Jerusalem . . . at the Mount of Olives, He sendeth forth two of His disciples, and saith unto them, Go your way into the village . . . and. . . ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him. . . . And they went . . . and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met;. . . . And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and He sat upon him. And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches . . . and strewed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Mark 11:1 - 10.)

The Writings note that "The Lord went from the Mount of Olives, and suffered, and that by this was signified that in all things He acted from Divine Love."  Since all that He did was representative, and all that He spake was significative, it was of order that His environment at any given time should correspondently accord with and outwardly represent His inner states; and also that the successive mutations of His internal states should be represented in the progressive changes in His environment.  To attain this He came into the world, where alone were given those ultimates which are the final basis of reactive power, by means of which Divine power could be fundamentally exercised. He came in order to be and live in these ultimates to the end that He might, from firsts through lasts, bring all the intermediates of human life in both worlds into order.  Only so could men be redeemed and the heaven of angels be maintained in a state of integrity.  Only so could that connecting link between earth and heaven, the intermediate world of spirits, be so cleansed as to restore its vital function as a transferring medium.  This restoration was effected in Himself while He was a Man in the world.  This He could there do because as a Man in the world He included in Himself not only the firsts of pure Divinity and the lasts of ultimate creation, but also all celestial and spiritual intermediates, and this in Himself in Person, in the type and form pertaining to men who of themselves had failed to sustain even the analogue of a spiritual regeneration.

The Mount of Olives overlooked Jerusalem, which city was to be the scene of His death and His resurrection into life - into that Divine life which was inmostly His from birth, but which, owing to His incarnation, He could bring forth into ultimates only by degrees as the maternal inclinations in His bodily human were eradicated by successive temptations.  Only at the last was this, His ordained labour, fully accomplished.  At the time of which we write He was entering upon this final state. His arrival at the Mount of Olives initiated this reception of the Divine Love to a degree not before attained.  It also opened an inner communion with His Soul, more intimate than in any former state. Indeed, this intimacy was now so near to unity as to call for the pouring of the oil of anointing upon His feet, which signified the descent of His Divine Love to the lowest ultimates.  Or what is the same, the glorification of His natural, the natural of His body, which in consequence was now in process of being put off from without and put on anew from the Divine within, whereby His very body was to become altogether Divine.  But this was effected in its finality only at the close of His life on earth; yet the nearness of this end was making itself increasingly felt as He advanced from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem.

The Divine Love, signified by His anointing, was now descending into and filling all the forms of Truth which His Human had become. This process is presented to our minds by His riding into Jerusalem as an anointed King, seated upon the foal of an ass, which event symbolizes the successive subordination of the lower planes of His man-life in the world to the Divine Love inflowing, whereby those lower faculties, in sequence, became Divine Love in form.  It was because of this that He entered into Jerusalem as a Divine King, or as the Born of God. For this reason His entrance into the Holy City was not undertaken in a state of humiliation suggested by the word "lowly" in the ancient prophecy concerning that event.  Instead, it was accomplished in a state of exaltation, accompanied by all the signs and symbols of royal magnificence.  For to ride into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass was the special sign of a king.

The details of the account are significant. The Lord sent two of His disciples, saying, "Go . . . into the village . . . and ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat."  This colt, as the foal of an ass, signified the rational from the natural in the Lord's Human, which was to be reduced to that order and subordination apart from which His glorification could not advance to its ordained climax. The like, in a minor sense, may be said of man's regeneration.  But the rational from the natural, with the Lord, differed from that pertaining to any other man. It was like that of another only in so far as it was, in part, conditioned by the Lord's maternal heredity.  It was unlike the natural rational of mortal man in that from the beginning, and increasingly, it received and appropriated the Divine inflowing, which was at first but obscurely felt by Him and was then but obscurely effective. Yet, as His life advanced, this influx became increasingly clear and compelling. The difference in structure and composition between the Lord's first rational and that of another man is indicated by the fact that no man had ever sat upon the colt, the foal of an ass, which, on this occasion, was found and brought to the Lord.

It is recorded that when the disciples entered the village they found the colt "tied by the door without in a place where two ways met." This tells of the double influx to which He was subject as long as He was in the world; that is, He received an influx of the Divine from within through the door of the rational mind, and a converse apparent influx from the world without through His external senses into His natural, and thence into His derived rational. The rational was the place of contact of these two influxes. Therefore it was that the colt was found "tied by the door.... in a place where two ways met."

The Lord was now as never before subject to the Divine Love inflowing from His Soul. This Love, as said, was represented by the sacred mountain upon which He stood, and its influx by the oil of His anointing, which was poured upon His feet. The result was the ordination and subordination of all His lower human faculties with a view to a full reception and inclusion of the Divine. This is signified by what follows concerning the preparation for His ride into Jerusalem as a King. It is said the ordination and subordination of His human faculties because He was, as yet, a Man in the world, and His Divine was still inbound in human states, still conditioned outwardly by the order of the - external world, and still receptive of and affected by, the ultimate images thence arising in correspondence with His inner states of mind. Because of this it was of His good pleasure to fulfill these outward symbols, and now especially those which were a sign of His Divine royalty. This He did by riding into Jerusalem seated upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

It is recounted that on the occasion the disciples cast their garments upon the colt, and that He sat upon them, to signify the subordination of all truth to the inflowing Divine Good. It is further recorded that some spread their garments in the way before Him, while others cut down branches and strewed them in the way. The whole picture represents the successive subordination of lower things. The Writings tell us that this was to the end that the natural should serve the rational, and this the spiritual, and the spiritual the celestial, and that this last should serve the Lord Himself. (A. C. 2791.)  This was the successive sub-ordering which now took place in the Lord in preparation for His final and full glorification, when all planes of His life, the lower as well as the higher, should become purely Divine. The representation therefore pictures the complex of truths of every series, which, when He was in the world, became subject to Him as the highest judge and King; but which, after His glorification, flowed forth from Him, from His Human glorified, and filled the universal heavens with a new Divinity.

When the subordination of truth was accomplished it is further recorded that they who went before Him cried, saying, "Hosanna; Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." This cry was a shout of joy, an exclamation of rejoicing; it was an "acknowledgment," a "glorification," and a "thanksgiving," because of that which was now come to pass, and which was yet to be by virtue of the passion of the cross, namely, that He would, by that passion, fully unite His Human with His Divine, subjugate the hells, and restore the order of heaven. All this to the end that mankind might have the possibility of salvation, a possibility made permanent by the eternal procession of the Divine Good and Truth into and through the heavens and thence to men on earth. (See A. E. 365:10)

These Divine mysteries were involved in, and therefore, signified by the hosannas of those who went before and those who followed Him. Not that the multitude, nor even the disciples, so understood these events, or that they were gifted with any foreknowledge of the future. Much less did they perceive the truth of that deep revealing of His glorification which now, in some part, is given us to understand. John states that, "These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him." (John 12: 6)  It is always so. Every Divine enactment is accomplished above the knowledge of men and angels, though it may early take form in some unconscious prophecy.  Nevertheless the revelation of the Divinities involved may be long delayed. To the Lord alone the realization of the inexpressible truth was given.  The cry of joy was His.  The outward circumstance, the shouting of His disciples, was but an ultimate correspondence to His inner state of Divine perception and the joy thereof.

These outward events were afterwards recognized as a literal fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy. That ancient prophecy varies from the New Testament record of the event.  It was given in the form of an invitation to the daughter of Zion and of Jerusalem to rejoice at the coming of the Lord.  It reads, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, a foal of an ass, . . . And He shall speak peace unto the heathen: and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river, even to the ends of the earth." (Zechariah 9: 9 - 10)

Of this peace as the gift of the Lord to the heavens in consequence of His glorification, Luke wrote as follows:  "And when He was come nigh, even to the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." (Luke 19: 37 - 38)

The Lesson from the Writings for today (See A. C. 8493:4, 5) presents in broad outline the significance of this peace to the Lord Himself, and its meaning to the angels of heaven and also to men on earth. It is that Sabbath of rest which is given after the labors of temptation are over. It is the promise which leads man in his contest with the adversities arising from his proprial life. It is the hope that is held before us as the reward to be given of the Lord, in mercy, for our faithfulness, if so be our hearts are set to receive it.