Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again? Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.  Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” (John 11:1-16)

Today as we continue in our final segment with the story of Lazarus I’m going to be reading from the Kempton translation.

“And after this he says to them, ‘Lazarus, our friend reposes, but I go that I may bring him out of sleep.’ Then his disciples said, ‘Lord, if he repose he will be saved.’ But Jesus had told of his death, but they thought that he spoke of the repose of sleep. Then said Jesus to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and I rejoice on your account that I was not there, that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Then said Thomas, who is called Didymus, to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us go that we may die with him.'” (John 11:11-16)

So Jesus, by whom we now understand the internal sense of the Word from which comes all motivation in the spiritual life, having just provided insight into the need to live in the spiritual light the Word offers and not in the darkness of the ignorance of self-intelligence, now seeks to direct the attention toward clarifying the pressing issue. The disciples, representing our developing understanding of spiritual realities, are now to be instructed as to the impact that active unregenerate states of mind represented by Judea have on those things of the Lord which exist on a lower plane of awareness. Lazarus represents that which is open to spiritual influence on this lower level, but as yet is unable to be maintained in its sense of the power of the Word or Logos due to the influences of evils arising from falsities tied to the appearances of the senses.

The Word works continuously to awaken the human mind out of sleep, to raise it up out of its ignorance of spiritual realities through providing a new vision of reality grounded in truths of the Word. Spiritual sleep is a lack of spiritual consciousness or a state in which spiritual principles become inactive or unavailable as a basis for interpreting what’s being experienced through the senses. Spiritual sleep is a condition of the understanding in contrast to spiritual death which is a condition of the will. When the appearances of the senses dominate a person’s sense of reality, the sense of self is identified with external life. They fall into a waking sleep or a kind of hypnotic trance in which spiritual things appear vague and dreamlike, if they appear at all and natural things seem to be what is real and substantial. When in this state, the mind can be said to be spiritually sick or infirm even if by worldly standards it demonstrates a high level of functioning. The Greek word describing Lazarus as sick or infirm in verse 2 can be literally read as unfirm as in not firm.

whose brother, Lazarus, had been continuing ill (weak; sick) (Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

For the mind undergoing regeneration it describes a state in which the natural mind is not yet firmly established as a vessel for higher spiritual principles and so is easily swayed by the appearances of the senses. This idea is captured in verse 10 where it states that

if a man walk in the night he stumbles because there is no light in him.

The term sleep and night both denote a lack of light and where there is a lack of spiritual light or the light of spiritual consciousness, ignorance and obscurity rule.

All the characters in the story represent aspects of a single mind so the story is a description of a psychological process. It describes the operation of the Logos represented by Jesus working to bring insight into the precarious state of the external level of the mind as represented by Lazarus in Judea. So it is an image of the natural mind that is under the influence of the old will that is being instructed through a receptivity to spiritual teachings, as represented by the disciples, so that there is a willingness from the understanding given to follow where the Lord as the Word leads.

There is a process of clarification here which can be seen in the dialogue between Jesus and the disciples. If Jesus represents the Word and the disciples represent our developing understanding that receives instruction from the Word, then the dialogue represents the process of thinking from the insights being offered as we engage with the Word. And remember that speech represents thought, so in the Word whenever anyone is speaking it is thought that is being represented. So if we look at the dialogue here we see that there is a degree of obscurity on the part of the disciples as to what it is Jesus is saying concerning Lazarus. As the literal sense goes it appears as if Jesus Himself is adding to the confusion by not clearly stating from the outset that by sleep he meant death. In verses 11 to 14 we read,

He says to them, ‘Lazarus, our friend reposes, but I go that I may bring him out of sleep.’ Then his disciples said, ‘Lord, if he repose he will be saved.’ But Jesus had told of his death, but they thought that he spoke of the repose of sleep. Then said Jesus to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead,

Spiritually, this apparent confusion in the letter of the Word so far as the disciples were concerned serves to convey how we work through things mentally as we look to the Word to gain clarity as to what it is that is being asked of us. Spiritual communication is a process of influx and all communication is by means of correspondence. However influx is not a movement of something from point A to point B. The term influx describes the experience of receiving insight or light arising within our natural awareness after the natural mind has been brought into a corresponding alignment with higher psychic structures that can serve to have what is spiritual within the natural shine forth to view – and this is why working with the Word is so important. For the Word being the Lord present with us in the form of Sacred texts provides the corresponding vessels or ideas that ground heavenly thoughts and affections into our awareness and so into our life.

Coming back to the dialogue, we see that there is a movement from a focus on the issue as a problem with the understanding as represented by Lazarus being said to repose and sleep, to gaining more clarity through engaging with the Word that the real issue is one of the will. That is, Lazarus is dead. This reflects a common misattribution in the spiritual life that fails to recognise that the old will being our sense of self is dead, that is, it is dead to anything good and true. There is an inherent tendency toward which the human mind is prone and it is that knowledge in and of itself can save it. That one merely has to think aright and all will be well. But even if a dead man thinks aright it doesn’t change the fact that he is still a dead man. The whole psychic structure of the self identified in the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity as the infernal proprium and here represented by Judea, is spiritual death. No amount of effort in concealing the spiritual fact beneath the well-formed doctrines of religious thought and traditions of a historical faith changes the condition of what lies beneath it all. The following from the work the Divine Providence 282 speaks to this,

It would have been possible for the Lord to heal the understanding in every man, and so cause him to think not evil but good, and this by means of fears of various kinds, by miracles, by conversations with the dead, and by visions and dreams. But to heal the understanding alone is to heal man outwardly only; for the understanding with its thought is the external of man’s life, while the will with its affection is the internal of his life. Therefore, the healing of the understanding alone would be like palliative healing, by which the interior malignity, shut in and prevented from coming out, would destroy first the near and then the remote parts till the whole would become mortified. It is the will itself that must be healed, not by means of an influx into it of the understanding, for that is not possible, but by means of instruction and exhortation by the understanding. If the understanding alone were healed man would become like a dead body embalmed, or covered over with fragrant spices and roses, which would soon draw from the body such a foul odour that they could not be brought near anyone’s nostrils. So would it be with heavenly truths in the understanding if the evil love of the will were denied outlet.

And so it’s not enough that the Word remain at the level of the disciples or understanding only. This must be brought into Judea so that the evils of the old will can be exposed, acknowledged and shunned which then releases the power of the Word to regenerate the human mind as represented ultimately by the Lord calling Lazarus forth from out of the grave or tomb.

¹ Now there was a certain man being constantly ill (habitually weak; progressively infirm; repeatedly sick) – Lazarus, from Bethany, from out of the village of Mary and Martha, her sister. ² In fact, it was the Mary who at one time rubbed and anointed the Lord (the Master) with perfumed oil (ointment) and then wiped off His feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, had been continuing ill (weak; sick). ³ So the sisters dispatched a message to Jesus, which was saying, “O Lord (Master), take note, he whom You habitually regard as a friend (constantly treat with fondness and affection; continuously cherish and love as a congenial associate) continues being weak and sick.” ⁴ Now Jesus, hearing [this], said, “This weakness (sickness; infirmity) is not directed or leading toward death, but to the contrary [is] over [the issue of] God’s glory (or: reputation), to the end that through it God’s Son would be glorified (may receive a good reputation and a manifestation which calls forth praise).“ ⁵ Now Jesus was loving and continued in loyal appreciation of Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. ⁶ However, when He heard that he continues being sick and weak, He then, indeed, remained two days within [the] place in which He was [staying]. ⁷ Thereupon – after this – He is saying to His disciples, “We should proceed going into Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples are then saying to Him, “Rabbi, at the present time the Jews (= leaders of the Jewish religion) have been seeking to stone You – and You are proceeding to go there again?” ⁹ Jesus decidedly replied, “Are there not twelve hours [in] the day (= of daylight)? If anyone may habitually walk around (= live his life) within the Day, he does not constantly stumble (cut toward or strike against [something]), because he continually sees (looks at; observes) the Light of this world (of this cosmos; this system’s light; or: = because he progressively perceives the light and understanding that guides this System and secular society). ¹⁰ “Yet, if anyone should habitually walk around within the Night, he constantly stumbles (strikes against [things]), because the Light is not (does not exist) within him.” ¹¹ He said these things, and after this He presently says to them, “Our friend Lazarus has been made to sleep (or: has been lulled to sleep; has been caused to sleep; or, as a middle: has fallen asleep; has found repose), but even so, I am setting out to proceed in journeying to the end that (or: so that) I can awaken him out of [his] sleep.” ¹² Therefore the disciples said to Him, “O Lord (Master), since (or: if) he has been caused to sleep (or: fallen asleep) he will be restored to health (made to recover; saved; rescued; delivered).“ ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken (made a declaration; = used the phrase) about his death, yet they suppose (imagine; think) that He is saying [it] concerning (or: is talking about) the taking rest and repose of sleep. ¹⁴ Therefore, Jesus then plainly and openly said to them, “Lazarus died. ¹⁵ “And because of you folks I am progressively rejoicing that I was not there, so that you can trust (or: would believe). But now, we can (or: should) be going to him.” ¹⁶ Then Thomas, the one being normally called “ [the] Twin” (or: Didymus), said to [his] fellow disciples, “We should also be going, so that we can die with Him.” 

(Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again? Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” (John 11: 1-10)

So today we just continue with our look at the story of the raising of Lazarus which is found in chapter 11 of John’s Gospel. And last time if you remember we dealt with verse 8 and in particular we dealt with the idea of resistance in the spiritual life. So today we will consider verses 9 and 10 as they deal with Jesus’s response to the disciples.

 ⁸ The disciples are then saying to Him, “Rabbi, at the present time the Jews (= leaders of the Jewish religion) have been seeking to stone You – and You are proceeding to go there again?” ⁹ Jesus decidedly replied, “Are there not twelve hours [in] the day (= of daylight)? If anyone may habitually walk around (= live his life) within the Day, he does not constantly stumble (cut toward or strike against [something]), because he continually sees (looks at; observes) the Light of this world (of this cosmos; this system’s light; or: = because he progressively perceives the light and understanding that guides this System and secular society). ¹⁰ “Yet, if anyone should habitually walk around within the Night, he constantly stumbles (strikes against [things]), because the Light is not (does not exist) within him.” (Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

So the first thing we need to take note of is the response of the Word or Logos to that within our natural mind that can both receive and resist the influx of its life. This dual dynamic, represented by the disciples, speaks to the process of spiritual transformation for resistance is needed if a new will is to come into being. We see in the Scripture that the Logos directs the mind towards considering the nature of the regenerative process and in doing so highlights a number of key principles that govern that process.

It shows that in order for resistance to be overcome, knowledge of a higher order must be delivered into the perceptive faculties of the human mind. All progression in spiritual matters requires that a person acts freely from their understanding of spiritual realities. The ideas of rationality and freedom are central to understanding the nature of what it means to be human and the Lord can never violate either of those. So the intellectual faculty’s key function is to acquire knowledge which then can be converted into a form that informs the recipient mind as to what it is it needs to do. So at that point, knowledge has become information. When a recipient mind is in possession of information as to what to do and then moves to do it, that is, wills it, then that information is transformed into understanding. It is in the act of doing, of applying truths to life, that understanding becomes integrated into that very life. That is, it becomes that which stands under or supports the formation of a new will or a new heavenly mode of being from which wisdom then becomes possible.

So in Logopraxis, there are two dimensions of work associated with the understanding. There is the need to acquire a more formal kind of knowledge that’s provided through the Text of Divine revelation, on a level that just holds what the Texts have to say about various spiritual topics. To work at this level means reading and studying and thinking about things for oneself. So we can get the general ideas provided through the Word organised in our thinking and hopefully that will provide a basis for understanding the lived experience that arises from the practice or the practical application of spiritual principles to life. However, while the acquisition of a esoteric framework of ideas is an important work, it is only a first step to the more important practical study of our inner life. The first kind of study gives us something to frame our practice, like a kind of map, but as the old adage states, the map is not the territory. Knowing that there is a spiritual world and thinking about what the Bible and the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity have to say about it, is not the same thing as having a direct experience of it. Knowledge of something doesn’t equate to knowing that thing. It’s like the difference between knowing everything there is to know about someone I’ve never met, and then knowing them deeply through sharing in their life.

Logopraxis, so far as our relationship to the Word is concerned, is designed to take us from a knowledge about the Word and give us a direct knowing of the Word working in the life of our mind. This dimension of study is the study of one’s self in the light of what truths teach. The method is self-examination or the examination of what we take for our self, that is, the patterns of thinking, feeling and acting that we identify with as our self. And that practice is done in an effort to discern the quality of that self so that we can know what kind of response is required on our part.

So we looked at the psychic structure of the self in a previous article in this series which address questions around why inner change can be so challenging. Without resistance or temptation a new will or sense of self or heavenly proprium cannot be established. So for resistance to be worked with so that it can be overcome or transformed or be transformative or be an element that can transform things – there is a need for light that brings an awareness of what to do and that light is contained in Jesus’s response to the disciples. Therefore in response to that resistance in us represented in the disciples concern for Jesus traveling to Judea, the Logos or Word offers insights, offers teaching, offers to provide something of an understanding into those principles that govern the inner life. So with that in mind let’s just unpack what the Word has to offer us in Jesus’s response to the disciples.

Jesus decidedly replied, “Are there not twelve hours [in] the day (= of daylight)?

Spiritually, light is consciousness and this reference to there being twelve hours in the day points to the need to work spiritually while it is possible to do so, while there is light available. For while we have light as to what’s required of us then we need to be in the effort to apply truths to life, that is, to the life of our mind. So we see that there are twelve hours in the day. In dealing with this idea of hours and days we are dealing with the idea of time in general in contrast to space. So in the Word what relates to time represents states of mind with an emphasis on truths or what is known or can be known or received. The progression of time represents the progression or development of the understanding with regard to spiritual realities. In this case, we see in the idea of a day being partitioned into twelve that there is an ordered unfolding to this development so that the next phase represented by the actual journey to where Lazarus is can be initiated.

Resistance in the spiritual life is only overcome when we are willing to take what the Word offers us and engage with it with a view to practical spiritual or inner work and we have to do that in the face of what resists it. Light provides what’s needed to see what’s required. In another place in the Gospel the Lord says,

I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day night comes when no one can work. While I am in the world I am the light of the world. (John 9:4-5)

The Logos or Word is the light being spoken of here. Its truths when applied enlighten the mind so that we can see the real quality of our inner mental world. This inner world is a cosmos or a psychological system in which our sense of self, developed from the loves of self in the world, sits as a kind of sun around which everything revolves. It is literally a state of self-centredness whose light is darkness, speaking from a spiritual perspective. Into this system a new light the heavenly light of consciousness is needed if the journey toward a resurrected self represented by Lazarus is to be ultimately realised. This light enters the system only while we are willing to apply the truths of the word to the life of our minds. When we are receptive to truths, the Word works, providing the light by which we can navigate this inner cosmos. When the Lord as the Word is the light of our life, progress is assured for we then are not in a state of constantly stumbling and even when we do feel we are stumbling, from the Lord’s perspective this is merely an appearance serving as a sure means to the end He desires. With the Psalmist we too can acknowledge that

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. (Psalm 119: 105)

Through being willing to examine what we take for our self we are given the vital self knowledge needed to identify and shun what is opposed to and destructive of our spiritual life. So if we are to play our part in the regeneration of the human mind then we have to be willing to engage with truths with a view to being placed in front of seeing the nature of that self that is invested in the infernal proprium. Without such knowledge we remain at the mercy of unconscious forces that drive the habitual patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that our sense of self is mistakenly identified with as ‘our self’.

So all this is captured in the Jonathan Mitchell translation of the New Testament quoted earlier. Of particular note is what it draws out as an alternate reading so it states

If anyone may habitually walk around (= live his life) within the Day, he does not constantly stumble (cut toward or strike against [something]), because he continually sees (looks at; observes) the Light of this world (of this cosmos; this system’s light; or: = because he progressively perceives the light and understanding that guides this System and secular society). ¹

To be in the light of the Word through the practice of its truths opens our understanding to see the true nature and arrangement of things within the inner psychological cosmos that is our mind. These insights provided by the Word strengthens what’s needed so far as our understanding is concerned so that we will move forward into the inner Judea of our minds where Lazarus lies entombed. The Lord or Word is the day or state of thought and affection which we need to dwell in to gain light, to be in the light which is something that occurs progressively as we choose to live in the little light that we have. While we invite the Word into our life through practicing it He is truly the light of the world the light of the cosmos or that inner system.

So let me just summarise to finish off today. This exchange between Jesus and the disciples represents the ongoing exchange that occurs within the minds of those undergoing the processes of regeneration and it manifests as an inner dialogue often between the Logos as represented by Jesus and the belief structures being developed by the Logos represented by the disciples. The disciples are in development as is our understanding of the Word or Logos, in particular where it relates to its application. So all movement forward toward a resurrected self represented by Lazarus requires adjustments in our thinking and this produces resistance so instruction or light is required if the process is to be moved forward and it is this light that provides what’s needed like this light being instruction from the word. It provides what’s needed so that we can not only know what to do but know why we need to do what is asked of us. So when we apply truths to life, to the life of the mind, they become integrated into new affections that form a new will or willingness to follow where truths lead. And in our case, so far as the story is concerned, it is the movement back into Judea and what represents the proprial loves that need to be seen or worked with for a new mode of being – a heavenly mode of being – can come into existence.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” (John 11: 1-8)

We’re going to be dealing with verse 8 today, but I’m going to begin with reading verses 8 to 10 because what we cover off today has a direct bearing on the next two verses.

 ⁸ The disciples are then saying to Him, “Rabbi, at the present time the Jews (= leaders of the Jewish religion) have been seeking to stone You – and You are proceeding to go there again?” ⁹ Jesus decidedly replied, “Are there not twelve hours [in] the day (= of daylight)? If anyone may habitually walk around (= live his life) within the Day, he does not constantly stumble (cut toward or strike against [something]), because he continually sees (looks at; observes) the Light of this world (of this cosmos; this system’s light; or: = because he progressively perceives the light and understanding that guides this System and secular society). ^{1 10} “Yet, if anyone should habitually walk around within the Night, he constantly stumbles (strikes against [things]), because the Light is not (does not exist) within him.” (Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

So all changes in our habitual patterns of affection and thought initiated by the operation of the Logos within the human mind that touches on what is core to our felt sense of self – is met with resistance. So essentially, that sense of self drawn from external life exists in a state that resists the processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind. In a word, it stands opposed to the influx of the Lord’s life. This opposition, for those who perhaps have a sympathetic stance towards spiritual and religious modes of life, can be deeply hidden behind a persona that has been adopted to prevent one’s evils coming into conscious awareness. However, it is the case that once genuine spiritual work begins, subtle indications also begin to arise that see suppressed aspects of one’s interior states breaking into consciousness. And this happens as truths from the Word highlight the contradictions that exist between what we might inwardly think and feel, and the self image which we project out for others in external life.

Now the identity we acquire by virtue of being born and living in the external world, develops as a means to protect our felt sense of self. This psychic system, or cosmos, expends incredible amounts of energy to maintain its stability. And all regenerative work, by definition, involves the extraction of our sense of self from the habitual patterns of behaving, thinking, and feeling that are grounded in the loves of self in the world, to which we have become attached and mistake for our self. What we tend to forget is that this sense of self is a composite and not a single entity. But for all intensive purposes we experience it as a single entity by attributing the pronouns me or I etc to it. When we understand the composite nature of the self we can perhaps see the magnitude of the forces that are involved in holding it together to maintain its integrity as a single stable psychic system. There are numerous examples illustrating the composite nature of the self in Scripture, where people are possessed by multiple entities. And perhaps the most graphic illustration of this can be found in the story of the man possessed by Legion in chapter 5 of Mark’s Gospel. And of course this multiplicity of the self is dealt with in great detail in the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity.

The point here is that every self is made up of an incredibly complex nested network of spiritual associates who are invested in maintaining the stability of the psychic structure on pain of the disintegration of their identity. This is why changes involved in the regeneration of the human mind can only occur incrementally for it involves the reformation of a whole inner cosmos or psychic system. And this becomes even more complex due to the fact that every single pattern of behaviour, every pattern of thought, every pattern of feeling that makes up the habitual sense of ‘our self’, involves incalculable numbers of spirits all working together in concert.

So perhaps we can see why spiritual transformation and rebirth is difficult. All significant changes to human psychic structures have to be navigated at the risk of the loss of not just our own identity, but every other identity involved in this inner cosmos or psychic system. Is it any wonder then that inner work involves periods in which difficult emotional states manifest? In many instances, we have no idea what the source of these emotional states are. And that’s understandable, for we really are only conscious of what lies on the surface, which takes the form of an appearance of a single emotion.

All this is to say that with real change comes resistance due to how things are psychically organised. Change, as we have said, involves a shift from a relatively stable state through a series of less stable intermediary states before a reformation of things back into a stable psychic system, or cosmos and within that, a new form of self. It is the incremental nature of the shifts that enables our sense of self to be maintained at a fundamental level as something stable across these transitions.

So what has this to do with the verse we’re looking at today? Well, having tarried for two days, the state of preparation and alignment of the mind to bring about a change of mental state, the Logos is now received in a form that initiates a change of state within. And this was indicated as we saw last time by verse 7, where it says

He is saying to the disciples, We should be proceeding going into Judea again.

It needs to be understood that this statement isn’t a suggestion, at least when it’s looked at from a spiritual perspective. It’s what now must come to pass and it describes the influx of the Lord’s life into the mind to initiate a series of changes in its mental structures. That influx is received into what are termed disciples, which collectively represent a developing understanding of the Word, drawn from the Word. To proceed going into Judea again is to have our attention turn toward the inner work of self examination, in particular, toward what is of the affectional or motivational side of life. It is a focus on having evils brought into consciousness where they can be shunned as sins against the Word, or Lord

We see that immediately there is resistance. In verse 8 it reads,

The disciples are then saying to Him, “Rabbi, at the present time the Jews (= leaders of the Jewish religion) have been seeking to stone You – and You are proceeding to go there again?”

At the level of the literal meaning, this presents a concern for Jesus‘s safety. Interiorly, though, it illustrates a state of psychological resistance to having deeper motivations associated with the loves of self and the world exposed to consciousness. From a Logopraxis perspective, it reflects states of reluctance, or lack of motivation to work with the Word, due to the difficulties we experience when we do this. For it is just a fact of spiritual life that as truths are applied to the life of the mind, what opposes them is made manifest. It is our attachment to evils and falsities that are the cause of mental or spiritual distress.

So it is helpful to remember that states of distress that arise when truths are used for the purposes of self-examination and repentance is what temptations are. And that temptations are the only means by which goods and truths from the Word can be integrated into our life. Seen in this light, the arising of forms of resistance and being willing to work to follow through on what the Word is asking of us can be seen as the means by which a new will, that is the basis for a new sense of self, can begin to form within our understanding of truths when that understanding is applied to soul work.

The disciples response here illustrates a level of understanding existing that has been born from the experience of working with truths from the Word. There is a recognition of the nature of evils belonging to the old will that constitute the infernal proprium represented by the Judeans. And that when we work from truths, falsities are produced that stand to protect the infernal proprium from being exposed. This is represented by the desire to stone the Lord or kill off the impact of truths on our life through producing all manner of falsities represented by stones. And all this so that the infernal proprium can maintain its hold on our life, on our sense of self. There is an example of a subtle form of this in this very statement associated with the disciples. It describes a response to the Word that calls into question its wisdom and by extension its authority. The subtle aspect is that it is clothed in a semblance of good, a concern for the Jesus’s welfare.

But everything the Lord does is as one who is fully conscious. The Logos or Word is never caught unaware. So for us, within our own resistance to the leading of the Word to bring the evils that have a hold on our life to consciousness, the same dynamic will play out. Such resistance has to be justified of course. But if we will make the effort to reflect a little on how this dynamic plays out for us, we will find that things are easily twisted in a way that convinces us that we know better than the Word so far as what’s needed for our spiritual development. When difficult states arise in some form or another we will often convince ourselves that what we arrive at to avoid inner work is for the best.

So we can leave it there for today and I look forward to exploring the rest of the reading with you next time.

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Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” (John 11: 1-7)

So today we’re going to be looking in detail at John chapter 11, verse seven, and this will set us up for reflecting on the following couple of verses.

Thereupon – after this – He is saying to His disciples, “We should proceed going into Judea again. (Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

We’ve already seen how the name Jesus, from a spiritual perspective, represents the more interior aspects of the Word, or Logos. And so far as the human mind is concerned, this name describes the operation of the Lord’s love for the salvation of the human race and its influx into the psychological structures of the human mind. This is constantly seeking out, that is, this influx is constantly seeking out what is its own within the mind that has been drawn from the Texts of Divine revelation. So speech in the Word represents the activity of thought and so when we read of the Jesus speaking, what is then signified is the coming to perception in the form of thought as an experience of what the Divine love is seeking. So when we read of Jesus

saying to his disciples, We should proceed going into Judea again,

we need to lift our thinking out of natural ideas of persons, places, times and spaces and give attention to how this might relate to what is spiritually relevant. For the Word of the Lord as to its internal meaning deals with nothing else than the processes and structures of the human mind and of the activity of the Word in bringing that mind through a progression of countless states of transition toward its regeneration.

So if Jesus represents the operation of the Lord’s love for the salvation of the human race, then His speech represents the perception of Divine truth flowing forth from that love into the human mind. So this statement,

we should proceed going into Judea again,

signifies the initiation of a change of state that the Lord’s love brings about in a mind receptive to its inflow. And that receptivity is only possible when there is within the mind what is His own upon which that love can act, this being what exists there that has been drawn from the letter of the Word, coupled with a desire for applying truth to life, or what is termed an active affection for truth. And so when we talk about applying truths to life, we mean the life of the mind and the specific means of applying things has to do with the act of self examination and repentance, or what is termed in the Greek, metanoia.

Good or love becomes truth when it is perceived within the human mind. This is because truth is good in a form that can be intellectually perceived. The interior love of the Logos or Word represented by Jesus becoming truth is represented by him speaking, by Him saying to his disciples. So the disciples themselves represent those psychic structures that are built up within the mind through the continual practice of the Word. His disciples, spiritually understood, constitute our understanding of the Word into which influx from the Divine can be received, and by which the Lord can be perceived, and so responded to.

Once a psychological state connected to the regeneration of the human mind has been consolidated, so that mind exists in a state of stability. This then becomes the base from which the advance to a new state is created can be initiated. By definition, spiritual transitions from one stable psychological state of mind to another involve a movement into intermediary psychological states that lack the stability of the originating state, but must be embraced for the regenerative process to advance. So such intermediary states of mind are represented in the word by journeyings, or a movement through space and time from one place to another. So from a Logopraxis perspective, this statement,

We should proceed going into Judea again,

indicates a transition toward a new state being initiated by the operation of the Word within the human mind as it is being applied to its life.

It should be remembered that what the Lord speaks must come to pass. And here, as elsewhere, the utterance of the Lord is the continuous projection of Divine law or Divine order into the individual and collective human mind. And that law, that Divine presence, is that which governs the recreation or regeneration of the mind. Now this can be seen if we remove our thought from what is natural or sensuous when reading the Word. In particular regarding the name Judea here, we are not to think of it as a place, but as something describing a spiritual or psychological state. And following on from that, we can see that if we take the Holy Land as a whole, we have represented the full complex of spiritual states that make up the psychological operating ground of the Word or the logos within the human mind. That land at the time of the Lord’s first advent was divided into three regions or states and so represented the three great general states found within the human mind. These went by the names of the state of Galilee, the state of Samaria, and the state of Judea. By Galilee is represented that degree or state of mind that is concerned with how to act in life. By Samaria is that degree that gives energy to understanding concepts and principles that are hopefully aligned with our values. And by Judea we have represented the seat of our sense of self or what is often referred to as proprium and this is where the affections and loves belonging to the will reside.

Now, as the regeneration of the human mind involves, representatively, the raising of Lazarus from out of the midst of that which is dead, the Lord says to his disciples,

we should proceed going into Judea again.

The spiritual life involves being placed in front of the unbelief and resistance of the human will to the authority of the Word. Therefore, the Word leads the seeking soul back into Judea again, and again, and again. What this illustrates is that there is a continual movement or cycle whereby the things belonging to the infernal proprium have to be brought to the surface or brought to consciousness and it is these aspects that are termed evils. For what is resistant to what is genuinely of heaven needs to be exposed if we are to be able to have it dealt with and have our sense of self moved into a new state of being. So it is these evils or this resistance to the things of heaven to the Lord himself, to what is good and true, that is the state of spiritual death. And this must be exposed through the work of self examination. There is no other way that that a reciprocity between the Lord and ourself can actually take place other than through the removal of what is preventing us from experiencing the Lord in all his fullness. So it is through this process of self examination and subsequent repentance that a new human, a new proprium, a heavenly proprium is able to be raised up, and it is raised up through the transformation that the shunning of evils as sins against the Lord facilitates.

Now, this is what is meant by metanoia, or that change of mind that comes when the natural finally is made subservient to what is spiritual. And the initiation of this is what is represented by what this verse states.

Thereupon after this, he is saying to his disciples, we should proceed going into Judea again.

So that completes our look at verse 7 and hopefully that sets us up for exploring the next step in this series which is verses 8 and 9 in this process toward seeing Lazarus raised from out from among the dead.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. (John 11:1-6)

So continuing with our story in John chapter 11 of the raising of Lazarus, we come now to verses 5 to 7, which is what we’re going to be focusing on in this reflection.

Now Jesus was loving and continued in loyal appreciation of Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. ⁶ However, when He heard that he continues being sick and weak, He then, indeed, remained two days within [the] place in which He was [staying]. ⁷ Thereupon – after this – He is saying to His disciples, “We should proceed going into Judea again. (Jonathan Mitchell New Testament)

So again, just by way of a reminder, we are dealing here with interior processes that have to do with the regeneration of the human mind, and that’s what the Word always is dealing with so far as its interior sense or internal meaning is concerned.

Reading from a process perspective, what we see here is that there is a need to bring what is unknown regarding the Word’s operation within the human mind into consciousness. Now, in that process, the Lord and his work with the human soul or the psyche may, at least our perspective, tarry, or not seem to move quickly enough for our liking. For of course, his work has nothing to do with our agenda or our timeframes and that’s what this tarrying of two days in the story here illustrates. The deeper psychological meaning is that for soul work to progress, all things must find an optimal arrangement, and all activity, or non activity, so far as Divine operations are concerned, is a fully conscious act in view of the end, which is the regeneration of the human mind. So every Divinely conscious act looks to bringing about healing and wholeness, where there is wounding and brokenness in spirit. Jesus’s apparent lack of urgency by human evaluation is precisely what’s needed so that a glorious end might be realised. The Lord’s love for all is palpably expressed in the Text’s declaration in verse five, where it states that

Jesus was loving and continued in loyal appreciation of Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

By Martha, her sister, and Lazarus, we are not to understand the Lord’s affections for particular individuals. What we have here is an objective love that goes beyond any particular individual and is focused universally on aspects within the human mind, within every human mind, or every human soul, to which the Lord’s love is continually directed by means of an inward way. So by Martha, her sister, and Lazarus are understood psychological structures, not individual persons. From a inner process or Logopraxis perspective, they represent those faculties or psychic structures that are open to receiving the Lord’s influx of life into the more exterior plane of the human mind.

It is a mark of a truly objective state of consciousness that can hold off from acting under immense interior and exterior pressures that are demanding a response, and it does this to ensure that all things that need to align, do in fact align, so that the end which is preeminently in view, so far as the Lord is concerned, is able to be manifest. That end in view, from a limited finite perspective, is often invisible but here, represented by the Lord as the Word working within the mind, we have a higher degree of consciousness than can ever be accessed by any human capability. This consciousness works to an end which shall be fulfilled, and that end was described in the previous post as being God’s Son glorified, the salvation of the human race.

Now the key to understanding what’s happening in these three verses is found in verse six, where despite Lazarus’s condition, Jesus is said to have remained a further two days. This remaining in place is a consolidation of the presenting state, the mental state or the psychological state in us all. It’s helpful to remember that the only thing that ever prevents the Lord’s movement toward the human mind’s regeneration are the structures of the mind itself. It is not that the Lord won’t move, it is that He can’t move without causing harm to the soul that is being regenerated. Love would move the process forward in a moment, but wisdom maintains all that is necessary for the end to be reached so that the regenerating mind is not swamped by more than it can handle of the Divine love. So we read that there is a need for the Lord to remain in place. Psychologically or spiritually speaking, this means that it’s a state of mind that it must be maintained until all the elements within that state are aligned in such a way that things can move forward.

Now, what is in need of being aligned are states of belief and the affections associated with those beliefs. These are the preeminent aspects of the psyche that need working on if the Lord is to move the state forward. So all things have to be suitably arranged before a new state, represented by the movement through space and time to where Lazarus is can be enacted. So the key here is the use of the number two expressed in terms of Jesus remaining two days.

However, when He heard that he continues being sick and weak, He then, indeed, remained two days within [the] place in which He was [staying]. 

The number two is a significant number, it symbolically represents the relationship of one thing to another and so symbolises the nature of a relational connection. It specifically describes the link whereby two become one when they are seen together and as such carries the idea of a marriage or a unity of things being established. So before a new state of seeing the power of the Word manifest, there has to be this preliminary aspect of waiting or remaining two days, and that state has to do with things of the mind that have to be brought into alignment, and once those things are in alignment, then and only then can there be an interior movement initiated, as is captured in verse seven.

Thereupon, after this, he is saying to his disciples, We should proceed going into Judea again.

Let’s draw this back to our Logopraxis work. The names used of the Lord in the Text are significant. And the name Jesus here has to do with the Lord’s desire for the salvation of the human race and so it captures the idea of the Word working within the human mind. To bring that mind into a form whereby the Lord’s love can be more fully expressed through it. So one of the key ideas that is perhaps expressed here has to do with the need to lay aside our own agenda when working with the Word, and this is captured in the delay of Jesus tarrying to attend to the situation with regard to Lazarus. For often when we are working with the Text it doesn’t address what we think it needs to address. Portions of it reach out to us of which we can’t perhaps see their application, particularly in the light of what we feel it is that needs to be addressed. And there is this delaying that takes place until we can come into an alignment, taking hold of what it is the Lord wants us to work with from out of the Text. For it’s only as we come to terms with giving ourselves over to the authority of the Text, to that which is reaching out to us, that things can then perhaps begin to move forward.

The thing to hold in mind is that the Lord is never late. His timing is always perfect. So we’re admonished then to wait on the Lord and that is no easy thing to do particularly when we are confronted with states that perhaps are difficult to cope with. But we can’t rush things in this work, and we can’t make things happen. In Logopraxis, we have that aphorism, which states that no effort on our part can make anything happen, but without effort, nothing can actually happen. So really we are to do what we are given to do…

and in this work, what we’re given to do is what we’re offered to work with from the Word.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4, NKJV)

What I’d like to do is to look at the story of Lazarus and we’ll just deal with this in blocks. And the first block that I want to look at so far as the Text is concerned is what it has to reveal to us is from John chapter 11 verses 1 to 4. I’m going to be reading from the Jonathan Mitchell New Testament translation, which tries to extract the fullness of meaning found in the original Greek language. So there are a few more words added here just to fill things out. And the reason that I’m reading from this is because I feel that it draws us closer toward process and so brings the spiritual meaning within the Text closer to the surface.

Now there was a certain man being constantly ill (habitually weak; progressively infirm; repeatedly sick) – Lazarus, from Bethany, from out of the village of Mary and Martha, her sister. ² In fact, it was the Mary who at one time rubbed and anointed the Lord (the Master) with perfumed oil (ointment) and then wiped off His feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, had been continuing ill (weak; sick). ³ So the sisters dispatched a message to Jesus, which was saying, “O Lord (Master), take note, he whom You habitually regard as a friend (constantly treat with fondness and affection; continuously cherish and love as a congenial associate) continues being weak and sick.” ⁴ Now Jesus, hearing [this], said, “This weakness (sickness; infirmity) is not directed or leading toward death, but to the contrary [is] over [the issue of] God’s glory (or: reputation), to the end that through it God’s Son would be glorified (may receive a good reputation and a manifestation which calls forth praise). JMNT

The first thing that we need to hold foremost in our mind is that this story describes a spiritual or psychological state. Once we begin to unpack it, for those of you who have consciously worked with the Word in terms of applying it to your life with a view to self examination and repentance, this will become more clear as we go. So a certain man, when we speak of a man, we’re talking here about an understanding and the meaning of the word or the name Lazarus is he whom God helps. So this is an understanding into which the Lord can assist us to be in the spiritual life. And we see that this understanding is described as being out of the village and a village represents a state of mind, and it’s a state of mind which is attributed to the persons of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha are sisters and what they represent are two affections, one that is more interiorly orientated, and the other more exteriorly orientated. So Mary represents an interior affection for truth and Martha represents an exterior affection for truth. And Lazarus being the brother of these two sisters represents the understanding of charity that arises from those affections, he is that through which charity can be expressed. And charity has to do with a capacity for perceiving what belongs to the interior life, or what is asked of us by the Word so far as our work on an interior basis is concerned.

We read therefore that this understanding represented by Lazarus is ill or infirm. That is, it cannot facilitate the desires of the heart or, when we try to live from these higher principles that we are working from, we find that our understanding is not yet equipped to be able to give full expression to perhaps the fullness of the desire to live a spiritual life. This of course is a concern that most of us engaged in a work with the Word are put in front of on a regular basis. And we might ask what the issue is? What is it that prevents this inflow of the Lord’s love becoming more a more full expression in our lives? Well, if we go to verse 2, it starts to become a little clearer as to what what the issue might be. Here we are given an insight into the depth of devotion represented by the interior affection for truth. This being Mary, who we read

At one time rubbed and anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and then wiped off his feet with her hair.

This is an important point because it shows us where the level of devotion is in terms of contact with the Lord. So here we have the anointing oil, which is the devotion and love that is being applied to the Lord’s feet and the point of contact is with Mary’s hair. So both of these elements represent what is external. So with the hair of Mary, we have a relatively externalised understanding of the Word and this is what is coming into contact with the letter of the Word, which is represented by the Lord’s feet, this being His natural. So the point of contact is one which is very much tied into understanding the Word in terms of person, place, space and time. These elements are what adhere, if you like, to this understanding and it makes it infirm because the more interior meaning is not available. Now the redeeming aspect of this, of course, is that there is a perception that there is a problem with Lazarus. This perception images a person’s realisation that their understanding of things isn’t able to convey what it needs to in order to move the regenerative process forward.

And so this triggers a search and the search is described in verse three where we read that

The sisters dispatched a message to Jesus, which is saying, “O Lord, take note, he whom you habitually regard as a friend that you constantly treat with fondness and affection continuously cherish and love as a congenial associate continues being weak and sick.

So we see that it is the sisters who dispatch this message and so the interior and exterior affections are aligned – there is a perception of a need to gain a more interior understanding of things so that these affections can find an understanding that can give a fuller expression to the Lord’s love in life. So again, names are important because they convey the quality and in this case the message is dispatched to Jesus or Yeshua. And of course that name means Jehovah, Saviour, and it is a looking to the interior things of love that have to do with the Lord’s love for the salvation of the human race. And so this is the interior aspect of the Word being searched out. It is the both the interior and exterior affection for truth that is focused on drawing, out of the Word whom Jesus represents, an interior sense of the Word, a meaning that isn’t encumbered by ideas of person, place, space and time. For as far as the Word goes in terms of its interior meaning, this is only accessible when we remove person, place, space and time. But while person, place, space and time, which belongs to the letter of the Word dominates our thinking, we are unable to access the Word as it relates to our interior states, so states of mind.

And so far as the story is concerned, we see ourselves, or our own states, reflected here because while we may desire to have these interior things, if we don’t have an understanding that can contain them, then we are going to struggle. And that struggle is represented in the sisters approaching Jesus. So there is a need to lay aside what is of the natural to access those truths that have a more psychological or spiritual application so that we can actually use the Word to investigate our interior states with a view to self-examination and repentance through the shunning evils as sins against the Lord. Now any genuine interior work is going to put us in front of what is opposed to the life of heaven. Interior work and the use of truths to that end is going to reveal those things that we are identified with, that we are invested in, in fact, which make up the infernal proprium. The Lord’s goal is to bring us into a new sense of self or a heavenly proprium, but in order to get there, these illnesses and infirmities have to be exposed and revealed so that they can be dealt with. And these states are difficult states to deal with. Of course they are, but they are unavoidable. This is captured in the fourth verse where we read,

Now Jesus hearing this said, this weakness, sickness or infirmity is not directed or leading toward death.

So in one sense, this is a very odd statement because the Lord knows full well that Lazarus is going to die. But that death that Lazarus will suffer is not an eternal death, if you like, it is only a temporary death for the Lord will raise him up and in the raising of Lazarus, he will be glorified. What this means, from a Logopraxis perspective, is that the power of the Word working in one’s life to raise us up glorifies the Lord. It brings about a realisation in us that the Word is indeed the Lord for the sepulchre out of which Lazarus is raised is the infernal proprium or hell. This process illustrates how the understanding of truths when they can be applied to the life of the mind, elevate that mind out of the clutches of hellish thinking which relies on the sensory faculties, or a command over the sensory faculties where appearances are believed to be true. But when we remove person, place, space and time from our thought in regard to the Word, so then interior things begin to shine forth. And these are what raise us out of believing the realm of person, place, space and time to be a conveyor of what is real and into seeing what is truly real, which is the application of how the Word can be applied to our interior life.

Now Jesus hearing this said this weakness, this infirmity, this sickness is not directed or leading toward death, but to the contrary is to the end that through it, God’s son would be glorified.

So again, this is a reference to our perception of things. It’s about coming to see that, yes, while we’re engaged in inner work, the infernal proprium seems to be that much more in our face that we come to see its true condition, its true nature and of how we are invested in it. This may be a disturbing and difficult thing to face but here the Word is that it is not unto death, that this has to be seen. We have to see what we are imprisoned by before we can be released from it because the Lord has to honour our freedom and rationality throughout this process. But we will see more of what’s required when we come to Lazarus‘ actual raising from the dead.