Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part V
THE LAST STATES

III. THE BREAD OF LIFE

"Jesus . . . said unto His disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill Him.  But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people." (Matthew 26: 1 - 5)

This conspiracy against the Lord came forth from the deepest origin of evil, that is, the primal perversion of the gift of life to ends other than the love of God.  Men antagonize each other when their loves clash, but hatred of the Lord, in His Divinity is normally concealed from view - so much so that its existence is denied save in madmen.

Yet this hatred lies at the heart of evils of every kind.

Men were prompted to slay Him as if they could do no otherwise.  They followed a seeming instinctive emotion.  Self-seeking love ever strives to kill that which stands in its way.  It has been so since the day when Cain slew Abel.  The Lord came to subdue this evil love.  This was the bearing of His every word and deed.  It could not be but that He would encounter assaults from those who represented the established order of life in His day.  This order was moulded to serve the selfish ambitions of the priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people.  He stood to them as a reformer, and while reformation is the only way of life's renewal, its penalty is death.  His reformation reached to the heart of evil and stirred an animosity that was radical.  Superficially, He was to the authorities a disturber of the peace who endangered their sacred traditions.  His following might threaten the state and the institutions of the prevailing religion.  This gave ultimate warrant for that persistent opposition and that ever present conspiracy which followed Him from the first to last.

While He was hated beyond the measure of any man, yet there was an appeal in His presence which carried fear to the hearts of His enemies, and caused them to take counsel with prudence.  After each, encounter they withdrew and consulted in secret.  His death was the only answer to their fears - the only freedom from an intolerable constraint upon their lives; and this, while His doctrine and life profoundly moved and lifted up every remnant of good, whether in the simple hearts of His disciples, or in the hearts of publicans and sinners.  He was accused because of His association with these, and this was made an excuse for a resentment which proved its evil origin.

This hatred of men was surpassed by that of the spirits of evil who were gathered in the other life from past ages.  There was the origin of the conspiracy which swayed the minds of men.  These spirits acted into and through men, by an unconscious influence.  They also were of clearer sight.  They perceived in the Lord's life as a man in the world the end of their dominion.  In their totality, and acting as one, they composed that devil who tempted the Lord with a threefold temptation.  Their impulse against Him was beyond their control.  They could not but conspire.  Their life was a continual conspiracy.  Their ambitious self-elation knew no limit; what they resisted was the imposition of limits upon their evils.  Gradually they had, by action from below, constrained the heaven of angels.  They aspired to the throne of God.  This ambition is inherent in evil.  It seeks to cast down the God of heaven.  Evil spirits conspired against the Son of God, in the world, since He was come to make secure the throne of God in the hearts of men.  Evil spirits, therefore, were the master conspirators; and men in the world of an evil temper were their subjects.  By influx they moved the congregations of men and guided their hands against Him.  How could it be otherwise?  Death is ever the fate of one who stands in the way.  It was so with the Lord.  An evil will is pitiless.  This is the reason why between good and evil there is life against life, with death at the end.

He came into the world to die, as of human necessity.  If not, there would have been no call for His coming; yet herein the Divine miracle is involved in an apparent contradiction - as His death drew nigh, His life increased.  By means of death, His life was raised to its everlasting supremacy.  This fact was the means, thereafter, of man's salvation.  In His every approach to glorification, He beheld not His own lifting up, but its effect in drawing men to Himself.  In His resurrection, He, in finality, confirmed the power of man's regeneration.

The conspirators thought and willed, by His death, to save themselves and the things they loved.  This is the constant delusion of evil.  Yet even upon the evil an unwilling gain was imposed.  Their assault upon His life imposed permanent bonds upon themselves; and this, in despite of themselves, was for them a gain of security - the security of a prison, which had to be provided or universal destruction would have been the inevitable result.  Herein was His mercy shown to the evil and the good alike, but with a difference.

It was fitting that this final conspiracy against Him should meet with apparent success; that it should fulfill the impulse of the former like attempts.  It was also of order that this final effort should combine, in its undertaking, all the forces of evil into one head; that it should represent each and every evil, and bring them all to the supreme delusion of a conclusive victory.  For the sake of this summation, it was fitting that the conspiracy should be devised in an assembly of the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people.  This was a representation of the fact that every evil had its part in His death.  It was fitting also that the conspirators should assemble in the palace of the high priest.  There the conspiracy was centrally located, and thence it derived its authority.  This placing of it was evidence that the will to His death had gained such headway that it could no longer be stayed, and that it could not but succeed.  Yet, even on this occasion, there was fear and the counsel of prudence.  They said, "Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar."

At the time of this palace conspiracy, it was but two days to the feast of the passover, a memorial of the exodus, the coming out of Egypt, and the redemption of Israel from slavery.  At this feast the people rejoiced for seven days.  The feast, itself, was held on the first of the seven days.  The conspirators decided against His taking on that day, lest their design should be interfered with by some popular demonstration.  This was to be guarded against on grounds of prudence, since that day was most holy and not to be disturbed.  Yet, this passover was the time appointed, of Providence, and this because of its spiritual significance because of its intimate reference to Him.  Therefore, the seven days of the passover saw not only the fulfillment of the conspiracy - His capture, trial, and death, but also its sequence, which was not contemplated; namely, His resurrection, which was the final sign given of His glorification.

There never was before, nor thereafter, such a passover as this.  There was on this occasion a Divine fulfillment of all that that ancient ceremony signified; namely, the marvel of His resurrection, which was first represented in national symbol on that far-off day when the children of Israel held themselves ready to go forth out of Egypt; when in haste they ate of unleavened bread, with their loins girded, with staff in hand, and shoes on their feet.  The mystery of the unleavened bread, of which they ate, is deeper than words can express.  But this much is known - He was that Bread.  The journey which followed also told, in its least details, of Him.  In its events, though remote in time, His life story was foretold.  Like His people, He also was called out of Egypt, and freed from bondage.  His maternal ancestors were of those who made this journey.  Their life story was His inheritance, and He was its product.

The events of that journey prefigured the successive occurrences in His life.  They foreshadowed not only the outer events, but also the inward transactions of His spirit, the trials and temptations through which He passed as He successively united in Himself the Human with the Divine.  How fitting, therefore, that the conclusion of His life as a Man in the world should occur at the memorial of the passover, whereby the beginning and the end came together, and the end came forth from the beginning.  Unless this be seen, the true story - of His life cannot be understood.  Unless this be seen, the true significance of the Scripture cannot be known - nor yet the mystery of the unleavened bread, which Israel ate in yearly festival, in remembrance of the exodus; and which He, at the time of the passover, sanctified anew.

The Writings tell us that the passover signified the Lord's glorification and His conjunction with the human race, through love. (See A. C. 2342) They also say that the feast of unleavened bread signifies the worship of the Lord and thanksgiving on account of liberation from evil; but they add that that feast "properly signifies the Lord's glorification, and its remembrance, and this because by His glorification and the consequent subjugation of the hells, man is liberated from his evils."  Moreover, "that the passion of the cross was His full glorification, by which event the Prince of this world was cast out, for by that passion He was glorified, whence comes salvation."  For this He came into the world, and therefore it is further stated that this was the "primary cause of the institution of that feast" in the beginning, and also of its re-stablishment by Him, in the Holy Supper.  The same teaching closes with the statement that "at that feast He rose again." (See A. C. 10655)

This feast, then, was the appointed time.  At another, the letter of the Scripture would not have been fulfilled.  In this, Providence overruled both the progression, and also the conclusion, of the conspiracy, to the end that the final events might take place during the week of this most holy of Jewish festivals.  The conspirators said, "Not on the feast day."  The feast, itself, was held on the first day.  On that day He instituted the Holy Supper.  The custom was that if the first day was not convenient, then it was observed on the last day.  The whole week, however, was a continuous festival, and for the seven days they ate unleavened bread only.  He was that Bread.  It was necessary that Israel should represent Him in this, even while they killed Him.  They were of His Human, and as the flesh of His body.  That church was His body, and death was in it.  This was the cup of which He would that it might pass from Him; but of which He drank, at the will of His Father.  That church was His body, and Life was in it, and a remnant for re-embodiment, and a new representation of Him - a new church, even as the old feast of the passover became the new Holy Supper at His hands.  Hence the significant words of the Writings, that "at that feast He rose again."