This 6-part series of 15 minute audio reflections explores the prediction of Jesus bringing forth of Lazarus from out of the grave and of how this speaks to our own awakening by the Word from spiritual sleep, which is essentially spiritual death.

1. This Sickness Is Not Unto Death (16 mins)

2. When The Lord Tarries (10 mins)

3. Going To Judea (12 mins)

4. Resistance To The Leading Of The Word (13 mins)

5. Living In The Light (15 mins)

6. Preparing The Understanding For Spiritual Work (11 mins)

And they said to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while He spoke to us in the way and while He opened to us the scriptures and standing up in that same hour, they return to Jerusalem and found the 11 assembled and those who were with them saying the Lord has certainly risen and has appeared to Simon, and they related the things done in the way and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread. But as they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and says to them, peace be to you. But being terrified and in fear, they thought that they beheld a spirit.

He said to them, why are you disturbed and why do reasonings arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet that it is I myself, handle me and see for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you behold me having. And as He said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they yet believed not for joy and marveled, He said to them, have you here any food?

And they gave Him a part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And taking it He did eat before them. And He said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you. That all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me.

Then He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and He said to them, thus, it is written, and thus Christ had to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you. But sit ye in the city of Jerusalem until you put on power from on high. And He led them out as far as to Bethany. And lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed them, He was parted from them and taken up into heaven. And they having worshipped Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.

(Luke 24:32-53)

All Scripture deals with the processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind. And certainly, from a Logopraxis perspective, that is what we are interested in so far as our understanding of Scripture is concerned. So we come to this remarkable passage which expounds upon the processes involved in the opening of the Scriptures as we willingly open ourselves to them so that that inner work can be done. Who hasn’t had the experience of their heart burning within them as insights begin to unfold within our conscious awareness as we engage with the Word?

“Did not our heart burn within us while He spoke to us in the way.”

The Lord speaks, “in the way,” that is, when we are “in the way” or, when we are engaging with truths from the Word, so then, the opportunity is open to us for the divine influx of the Lord’s life to put in front of us an awareness of things unseen in our normal mode of consciousness.

For the Scriptures to open, we have to be opened. Our hearts have to be opened in order to receive from the Lord. And so, as we engage in our practice or, as we are “in the way,” insights begin to flow. And because it is the Word that we are engaging with, we begin to see the Lord. We see the Lord, as the Word, as the Sacred Scripture, as Divine revelation. And so our appreciation of the Word is elevated and along with it, so are we. And in that elevation we come to see what it means to be standing up or, to arise…

“and standing up in that same hour, they return to Jerusalem.”

And so it is that new insights dawn out of practice. We return to our understanding of the Lord and it becomes modified to reflect the new experience of the Word working in our life. A new understanding is beginning to be born here. That is something that is only possible when the Word is taken into our life and integrated through practice. For Jerusalem is our understanding of the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity, and so is our understanding of the Lord.

And what is it that we find there? We find that the eleven are assembled, that things are there in order, in the order of what has been our past experience. But now something new is beginning to dawn and as we come into contact and begin to reflect on our understanding of things from our experience arising from practice, so changes have to take place within the mind in order to accommodate things. Those changes alter our understanding of the Word and so we begin to see how things are actually able to be applied to the life of the human mind.

To find the eleven assembled constitutes the organic form that doctrine takes within the human mind. For doctrine, as a living form within the mind, is a body, a spiritual body, that houses our understanding of the Lord. This is the temple that the Lord spoke of that if destroyed, He would raise in three days.

For whether it is the eleven curtains of the tabernacle, the eleven stars and sheaves that bowed down in Joseph’s dreams, the Arcana Coelestia tells us in each and every case that by the number eleven is meant all the goods and truths of the church. And that these should be subject to Joseph, who is the Lord Himself, and to be subject to means to be extended from for all the goods and truths of the Word represented by this number eleven, constitute the Lord as understood by those present here.

Indeed it is our own understanding of the Lord as found in what we hold to doctrinally that is under consideration here and the impact that a direct experience of the opening of the Scriptures has upon that understanding which, up to this point, serves as a historical faith but not as a living faith. And so now through direct experience of the Word working in someone’s life that whole structure comes under scrutiny and stress as it needs to accommodate the new revelation that arises when the Word is opened through its practice.

And we see that this is indeed the case for what they testify to is that the Lord has certainly risen and has appeared to Simon. From out of the death of a historical faith now comes a living faith, that what was seen by Simon that is, what truths testified to intellectually – is now known experientially.

And so it is from a Logopraxis perspective, when we take hold of the Word, when we find our task, when we begin to work with it, when we go out into “the way,” so as new insights arise, we return, and begin to see and understand what the implications are for our doctrine. For the things done “in the way” transform us. The things done “in the way” also transforms others. Through the sharing of our direct experience of the Word working in our life others can also be supported and transformed as they too engage and work with the Word.

Verse 35 reads .

“And they related the things done in the way and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.”

In verse 36 we read…

“but as they thus spoke, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and says to them, peace be to you.”

When we unfold our experience of the Word to others, so it is that the Lord Himself stands in the midst of them. He rises in our midst, if you like,

“and as He stood in the midst of them, He says to them, peace be to you.”

So it is that the Word speaks “peace.” It seeks our peace. Yet we have to go through a process by which those things in our mind that are opposed to the Word are brought into subjection to it.

And when that subjection is realised, so heaven is realised, this is the peace that the Word speaks into our life. The concept of speaking is one of influx and perception that comes from that influx. So as we perceive what is of heaven drawing nearer, so things come into a different light.

It is as we speak of our experience of the Lord working in our life as the Word that He appears in the midst. And so we’ve come to know Him in a different way. For the Lord appearing is insights arising and as He stands in the midst of us, so to He orders all things from the centre to the periphery. And in ordering the mind, there is stress and strain placed upon it as we struggle to incorporate new insights into our old understanding of things.

So while the Word looks to bring the peace of heaven, so the mind that is in disorder resists that peace, that movement toward what is higher and seeks to understand things on its own terms. And so it is, we read in verse 37,

“but being terrified and in fear, they thought that they beheld a spirit.”

What can this possibly mean? Well, initially it has to do with something manifesting that is not of an earthly or material nature. It is seen to be otherworldly. Something that stands outside our normal understanding of things. Something that is beyond the capacity of our historical faith to explain and something that to our historical faith appears threatening.

This is the nature of any true spiritual insight for our attachment to our historical faith must be loosened if we are to enter into a living faith. Insights that arise directly from the practice of the Word can call into question long held belief structures. These come under threat when that which is of a living nature approaches. For it is a dead thing until it is resurrected and made living. For it is a dead thing, that sits purely in the understanding. It has to be resurrected. That is, it has to enter into the very life of our being. Otherwise, it just remains knowledge that is contained in the memory and something in the memory is never inside the person.

For something to be integrated into the life of a person the truth of it has to be seen and that truth is the Lord. They thought they “beheld a spirit.” That is, their understanding of things saw this new understanding as something disembodied, so high, so much more deeper was the direct experience of the Lord that the old understanding could not conceive how the letter of the Word could hold it as its body.

The old understanding saw it as something disembodied separated from itself. Yet the Word responds in mercy and love. For in verse 38, the Lord says,

“why are you disturbed and why do reasonings arise in your hearts.”

The new understanding, the new insights that are arising out of direct experience of the Lord as the Word working in one’s life needs to be re-grounded in the letter of the Word.

Only now the letter must support a new way of seeing and being. So where the historical faith understanding was once in place now it is being dislodged and what we see is that the Word has to be understood at the level of the letter in a way that supports the new insights.

This is them being terrified and in fear. For to enter into these new insights so that they become integrated into life as our doctrine, there has to be a willingness to let go of the old way of being, the old way of knowing, the old way of seeing which can no longer serve to move the process of the regeneration of the human mind forward.

So the process involves a disconnecting from an old understanding and the integration of new insights into the self same letter that supported the old view. Now it has to be recast so that it can support the new understanding that is a rising out of direct experience. When that new experiential understanding is grounded in the letter of the Word, then it is established in us because it has become integrated into us. No longer will it be disembodied, no longer will it be seen as a spirit, which brings terror and fear, but it will be seen as that which the Lord has implanted within the mind. A doctrine born of life, resurrected from the death of that historical understanding which was purely constituted of memory knowledge.

The Word places us in front of our disturbed mind. It places us in front of the reasonings that arise of the doubts that we face, and it says to us in verse 39,

“see my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself, handle me and see for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you behold me having.”

and verse 40…

“and as He said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.”

The hands and feet of the Lord are those parts of the Word that are open to us and bring us into connection with the deeper aspects dealing with the processes by which the human mind is regenerated. Those insights, those insights that relate to process are here being reconnected with the hands and feet of the Lord so that they can be seen to be supported by the letter of the Word.

In order to be able to see how new insights relate to the Word we have to follow the Lord’s injunction here and “handle Him.” That is, we have bring our experience into contact with the Word itself, with the letter of the Word, in order that the experience can be validated by the Word itself.

The letter of the Word holds all things within it. Every aspect of the processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind can be grounded and seen in the letter itself for the letter affirms and confirms what is of the spirit and so gives the spirit a basis and foundation within which it can sit within the human mind.

But it is not the letter literally understood. It is the letter understood as to its spirit that gives it life. For, as we handle or, engage with the Word, we come to see that it has flesh and bones, that is, it has goods and truths adapted to a natural mode of thinking from which the human mind can be elevated into a genuine spiritual life. For by flesh is to be understood natural forms of good and by bones, natural forms of truth which together forms the ultimates of the Lord’s Divine Natural.

That these ideas that constitute the internal sense of the Word are not something disembodied, they are not spirit in the sense of having no concrete manifestation and so it is, the admonishment is to handle the Word, to work with it, to engage with it. It is only as we do that, that we can come to see that it has flesh and bones, that it is something substantial and real, and something that can absolutely transform our life and understanding of reality.

Flesh and bones refers to the letter of the Word. That letter is present with us, yet through our experience of it, through our direct experience of working with truths from the Word, so the letter arises, is resurrected, becomes Divine in itself. The Word is seen to be the Lord. The important point here is that the letter is not removed, not separated from the spirit, but serves as a body by which the things of the spirit can be known.

The difficulty of integrating new insights continues. Having seen His hands and feet, having experienced His flesh and bones, doubt continues and the struggle to integrate new insights remains. The next phase of the process is one of assimilation. Those elements of the Word that have supported the old understanding have to be assimilated through a process of digestion. They have to enter back into the Word and be reborn as it were, so that they can be seen to be one and the same as the Lord Himself.

And so He requests from them what they possess that is truly His own. There is always a need to hand back to the Lord what we have taken to ourselves and claimed as our own. And so in the midst of our doubt, there arises a sense of the possibility that the Lord Himself is present with us as the Word. Dare we believe it! That He is never far from us and that, even in our darkest hour, we need only turn and acknowledge that He is life Itself, that He has not died and can never die and that He is constantly rising in order to bring new life into our life. And so He asks of us,

“have you here any food?”

And so it is the Word when engaged with questions us, it raises the question, what do you have to give that will nurture and sustain the spiritual life?

Return this to the Lord that His hunger for your salvation might be fulfilled. And what is it we have to give? But a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb. The broiled fish represents those things of the letter of the Word that have been processed through practice. For to broil something is to cook it through the application of heat.

And as we know, heat is good, and in this case, the good of practice, which prepares the fish or those things of the letter of the Word for their assimilation into the body. This, like all things from the Lord, has to be returned to Him. And in a Logopraxis context it is when we bring what the Lord has given to us through the experience of having worked with something from the Word, we bring that to the LifeGroup and offer it up back to the Lord in the midst.

It is our willingness to work with the Word, with its truths to examine our life that produces an offering acceptable to the Lord. Its acceptability is in the fact that it is able to bring life to our life. That through an experiential knowledge of the Word we find our salvation. To bring, as it were, broiled fish and to offer our experience through sharing it with our Life Group is to feed the Lord in each other.

Now, honeycomb represents the delights of the letter of the Word, and it’s the delight that arises from seeing the Word in terms of its application to life whereby new insights are made available. That delight, as much as the broiled fish which are the truths of the Word, needs to be returned to the Lord so that all that is attributed to Him is returned to Him. And when this is done from sincerity of heart, He takes it and He eats it. So verse 43 we read,

“And taking it He did eat before them.”

This describes the assimilation once again of that which is of the Word being restored back through acknowledgement to the Word. For all things received from the Lord are assimilated back into the Lord, and that is described by the process of digestion. That these things are indeed of the Word and not to be taken literally is revealed in verse 44 where it says,

“and He said to them, these, that is the broiled fish and the honeycomb, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me.”

for when the Word is seen to be the Lord then our understanding is opened.

Verse 45,

“He then opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And He said unto them, thus it is written and thus Christ had to suffer and to rise again from the dead the third day. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.”

And so it is that we bear witness to the internal processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind and that we see that the Scriptures describe these processes so far as their spiritual meaning is concerned. For it is only through such an understanding that repentance and forgiveness of sins can take effect throughout the whole of the human mind.

As stated from verse 47,

“and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem.”

That Jerusalem, being our own understanding of doctrine, needs reforming and understanding in the light of spiritual process is clear from what the spiritual meaning of the Word reveals.

To be a witness of these things is to be in their practice so that we are witnesses to the power of the Word to transform our life. That is what we bear witness to. To bear witness means to testify to one’s experience, and in order to do that, one must first have an experience.

The final stage of having truths integrated into the life through their practice is described from verse 49 where it reads,

“and behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you. But sit ye in the city of Jerusalem until you put on power from on high.”

Every authentic, genuine, spiritual experience has to be integrated into the life. And that integration involves a reforming of our understanding of doctrine; doctrine seen in the light of process as opposed to that which is constructed around a historical faith.

That transformation requires a time of contemplation, a time of meditation, a time of sitting in Jerusalem – sitting with those ideas of a doctrinal nature that guide and direct our life. As we sit with these,

“behold,” the Lord says, “I send the promise of my Father upon you…” and once that promise has been fulfilled, so there is “power from on high.”

Power from on high relates to the idea that things have been integrated deeply into the life. For on high means within, and it is from within that all that is authentically spiritual can flow forth.

These are the blessings that the Lord bestows upon, those who wait upon Him.

“And He led them out as far as to Bethany and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass while He blessed them, He was parted from them and taken up into heaven. And they having worshipped Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.”

We see then that the process culminates in the Lord blessing His disciples. This blessing constitutes being endowed with all that is good and true. As those goods and truths fill the regenerate mind, so to the Lord is taken up into heaven. That is, He is seen to be the Word, the Word is seen to be the Divine Human.

And so He departs from their sight at a sensory level to be held deep within the heart from which all things flow forth. For when the Word is seen to be Divine, there is no longer any need for sensory proof. For to enter into a deeper understanding of the Word is to see the Word as the Divine Human itself. The Divine Human passes beyond all comprehension, all understanding, and so all finite forms depicting the Lord are seen to be appearances of the Lord and the Divine Human is seen to be as it truly is, the infinite and the eternal God. Thus, we have a returning to Jerusalem or a new way of understanding the Sacred Scriptures so that they can be read spiritually rather than naturally. To see the Lord as the Word is to behold Him as that temple in which the Lord is praised and blessed continually.

“See my hands and my feet that it is I myself, handle me and see for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you behold me having.”

But late in the sabbaths, at the dawning into the first of the sabbaths, Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary came to gaze upon the grave. And, behold! A great earthquake occurred! For descending from Heaven and coming near, an angel of the Lord rolled away the stone from the door and was sitting on it. And his face was as lightning and his clothing white as snow. And those keeping guard were shaken from the fear of him, and they became as dead. But answering, the angel said to the women, You must not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He was raised, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying. And going quickly say to His disciples that He was raised from the dead. And behold! He goes before you into Galilee. You will see Him there. Behold! I told you. (Matthew 28:1-7)

And concerning the earthquake which took place when the angel descended and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, it is thus stated: When “Mary Magdalene came and the other Mary to see the supulchre; and, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone from the mouth, and sat upon it” (Matt. xxviii. 1, 2).

Those earthquakes took place to indicate that the state of the church was then being changed; for the Lord, by His last temptation, which He sustained in Gethsemane and upon the cross, conquered the hells, and reduced to order all things there and in the heavens, and also glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine, therefore, there was an earthquake, and the rocks were rent. That the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, signified that His Human was made Divine; for within the veil was the ark in which was the testimony, and by the testimony was signified the Lord as to His Divine Human (as may be seen shown above, n. 392). The veil signified the external of the church which was with the Jews and Israelites, and which covered their eyes, so that they might not see the Lord and the Divine truth, or the Word in its own light. The same is signified by the great earthquake which took place when the angel descended from heaven and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, namely, that the state of the church was being entirely changed; for the Lord then rose again, and as to His Human took upon Him all dominion over heaven and earth, as He Himself says in Matthew (xxviii. 18). The angel rolling away the stone from the mouth and sitting upon it, signifies that the Lord removed all the falsity that cut off approach to Him, and that He opened Divine truth; for a stone signifies Divine truth, which the Jews had falsified by their tradition; for it is said that: the chief-priests and Pharisees sealed the stone with a watch (Matt. xxvii. 66); but that an angel from heaven removed it, and sat upon it. But [although] the things that are mentioned respecting the earthquakes, also respecting the veil of the temple, and the stone before the mouth of the sepulchre, are few, there are still more things signified thereby; for everything in general and particular written in the Gospels concerning the Lord’s passion involves and signifies arcana.

(Apocalypse Explained 400)

This is a wonderful passage full of hope and of promises realised. Jesus, when he was with His followers, often told them of what must come to pass. On numerous occasions he spoke to them of His impending death and resurrection. But His followers didn’t really hear what He was saying to them. They probably lived in a state of wishful thinking where these matters were concerned, hearing but not hearing, or hearing the words but not comprehending their meaning. But a little reflection on our own experience of the operation of spiritual truths in our life will reveal that we are not too dissimilar in our own responses and attitudes to that of the disciples in matters concerned with living a spiritual life. The Word deals with the idea of death and resurrection on almost every page. The implication is that the spiritual life can be viewed as a whole series of deaths and resurrections as we die to old states of life that can no longer usefully serve our spiritual progress only to rise to new states of life that are able to carry us through to the next phase of dying and rising. These states, when set in a spiritual context, are always connected with our understanding of the Lord’s Word. This involves dying to one level of understanding so that there might arise a new, deeper, understanding of the Word made possible through the application of truths to the life of our minds.

It’s a remarkable thing that when we begin to view the spiritual principles that the Word communicates to us through the stories we find there, how much of our experience of life is actually pictured within them. On the other hand we shouldn’t be that surprised, for the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity teach us that on a deeper level the Word is actually all about our regeneration. The stories with all their characters and events represent spiritual or mental realities that play out within us as we respond to the challenges that truths from the Word make upon our life. In this sense, the Word is a truly invaluable guide for our spiritual life. This can be difficult to see when we are caught up in natural concerns, what the Gospels refer to as the cares of this world, or when we have fixed ideas about what it is the Lord seeks to achieve in our life. The disciples, like us all, had fixed ideas about how they were going to benefit from their connection with the Lord. They had natural ideas and dreams of ruling and reigning with the Lord in an earthly kingdom, and they probably held onto this belief right up to His death. Unfortunately this prevented them seeing that the Lord’s kingdom was not of this world, never has been, and never will be. We too are like this when we confuse natural aspirations and desires for spiritual realities. The disciples’ attachment to their own natural aspirations and the Lord as the vehicle to attaining them, was so strong that they were unable to grasp anything the Lord was saying to them that contradicted these. This too is like us.

When we hold to preconceptions about how we think things ought to be, rather than what the Word says they are, we can put ourselves in a position where we can’t hear or see anything that goes against these preconceptions. An important spiritual principle found in the teachings for Spiritual Christianity is that of “affirmative doubt.” This is an attitude that holds that the Word is true regardless of whether we can see how it is true or not. So, where something in the Word doesn’t make sense, or fit in with our worldview, to maintain an affirmative attitude means that we hold it to be true so as not to dismiss it before we can gain insight into its spiritual applications. This requires us to consciously put our own agendas, ideas, or perspectives on hold to await insight into the matter. If we are readers of the Word we will often hear or read something that goes against our own ideas about how things are, or what we think ought to be, and because it goes against what we think we can tend to reject what’s said or dismiss it without giving it our considered attention.

We need to see that this dismissive response is one that makes truth subject to our own reasoning powers and is linked to thinking we know best and the intellectual pride associated with this. In the case of our study of the Word we have to learn not to respond in this way. The Word is designed to challenge our natural patterns of thought and behaviour and the teaching of the doctrines gives us what we need to be prepared for this. We need to understand that our proprium or ego, with its intellectual pride, stands opposed to the truths that it offers. The doctrines for Spiritual Christianity teach that the proprium is in the principle of “negative doubt” in relation to spiritual things. This principle is rooted in our intellectual pride and holds that anything that challenges our world view or unsettles us must be false and that whatever we find agreeable is the only thing that is held to be true.

When this attitude is active truths, rather than being used to challenge us and draw out our motives, are used to support our proprium’s own self-centred position. Something we saw in some detail in the character and response of Pilate in the article, Truth on Trial. By making a conscious effort to subject our proprial responses to the things of the Word that challenge us to this principle of affirmative doubt we can ensure that we remain open to heavenly influences and so be open to a much wider range of possibilities. It also puts us in a position of being open to being led by the Word which is to be led by the Lord. If we are too fixed in our own views, assumptions, or agenda’s then, when we are challenged by the Word, we will find ourselves being resistant and hardening ourselves against where truth is seeking to take us. This hardening towards truth is illustrated in our reading today by the stone that blocks the way into the sepulchre, which represents the resurrection of heavenly and spiritual things that lie within the letter of the Word within our own minds.

The whole idea of death and resurrection is really about putting off the old to allow the new to come. The principle is clear, you can’t have a resurrection without something dying first – you can’t jump straight into the resurrection side of the process without the pain and suffering associated with that of being severed from old attachments. This is referred to in the Scriptures as the death to self. Jesus said that we have to lose our life if we are to find it, this being a leading principle of spiritual life. But we struggle with pain and suffering, and seek to avoid it, often at any cost. We may even view such states as indicative of a lack of spiritual progress because we see distress, whether it is physical, psychological, or spiritual, as a lack of Divine favour. But whether we embrace the processes involved or resist them we ultimately can’t escape the pain associated with dying on its various levels of meaning, because we can’t escape change.

The disciples’ resistance was highlighted many times over in the Gospels.  They struggled at times not just with what the Lord taught, but with how he was with others – the Samaritan woman in John 4 is one example that readily comes to mind. Here he chose to speak with a woman, and a Samaritan woman at that. This was so contrary to what was expected of a good Jew, for the Jews despised the Samaritans, and so the disciples, being Jewish, really struggled with it. It struck at their prejudices. The disciples represent our ideas about spiritual things, ideas that have been developed in the company of the Word and this encounter with the Samaritan woman highlights our own prejudices in relation to the Word when it begins to challenge how we are and how we are viewing things. When we first come to the Word and begin to build an understanding of it we frame it within our own pre-existing natural ideas. Thus, in the example mentioned at the beginning, the disciples really expected Jesus to lead them against the Romans and become rulers with the Him over Israel. For them, everything He did and said was framed by this belief. We too have preconceived ideas about what it is to follow the Lord, how a church should be, what a church is, how others should be etc, but as we begin to work through things with an open heart we will come to see that often the things we hold as so important are really minor and the things we see as having less of a priority take on a much more significant role.

It’s inevitable that our views, values and priorities will change as our understanding of spiritual things develops. Whereas in the beginning, everything spiritual is framed in accordance with natural beliefs. But as more spiritual knowledge is gained, and we begin to work with the principles we are learning and gain experience of how the Word works in our lives, so we acquire the material for a new framework – a new way of seeing things, a spiritual way of seeing things. But there is a period of transition, a period in which our old beliefs begin to die, and we struggle to find our connection to the Word in the way that we had previously. When we are in such times, we will find that we struggle to draw meaning from the Word, as what we believed previously has now become an obstacle to moving forward. This stone of old natural ways of understanding has to be rolled away if we are to come to understand things in a new way and see how these things actually fit together so that we can move forward into Galilee where the Scriptures declare the Lord is to be found.

Crucial to this happening is the development of a genuine affection for truth. This affection is drawn from the Word itself and is developed within us through our being willing to live our lives according to the understanding of truth we have. When we are willing to learn truths with a view to applying them to our own lives then the Lord infills this effort with an affection for the things of the Word. When this affection is alive in us, in the truths we have from the Word, then we will be motivated to persevere in our search, even when all appears lost. Our thirst for truth will continue to draw us to the living water of the Word, the only place where we will be able to find something living and real. We know that if we are sincere in our efforts, we will find a way forward; we will come to see how the Word can meet us to support and nurture our spiritual life. This will occur because the Lord promises that He will rise – and He is faithful to His Word.

This affection for truth that draws us to the Word even when it appears to lack life for us is represented here by the two Mary’s. Notice that it is the women who come to the tomb first here. The word tomb is from a Greek word that literally means, “memory vault”. There is a wonderful picture here of the process of spiritual resurrection, of coming to see the Word in a new way. The affection for the Word is represented by the two Mary’s and we see from their loving response an illustration of how this affection draws us back to our memories of the Word as we first understood it. We come knowing that it is no longer able to be with us as it once was, but as the approach is made, knowing that things can’t be the same and that the Lord as we knew Him has died, we find as we gaze on the grave that our understanding of the Word has become, that an earthquake occurs. Something deep within us shifts and out of the disruption of moving from our old understanding of things, an angel descends from heaven. This angel is a new heavenly understanding breaking forth from the Word, and this new understanding, as it descends from on high, moves the stone that blocks our way into something deeper within. The stone is our old understanding of the Word, our natural understanding of spiritual things, which has blocked our perception of the spiritual realities that lie within the letter of the Word.

The guards set at the tomb, those fixed false ideas and preconceptions which guarded and preserved the old understanding are rendered as dead, they have no power in the presence of the internal sense of the Word represented by this angel.  The old ideas tied to a historical faith of the memory, being no longer able to preserve the way things are, give way to the word of an angel who represents the internal sense of the Word which tells us that the one we seek is not in those old ways of thinking and seeing. That if we want to discover our real life, we must go to our spiritual Galilee which represents living the life of good from truths. We must apply the truths of the Word to the life of the affections of the will to have what is opposed to the life of heaven exposed.  To do this is to go to Galilee where the Lord is. This is our worship, and this is where the material for living our spiritual life is to be found.

And behold! He goes before you into Galilee. You will see Him there. Behold! I told you.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God, and God was the Word.

This was in the beginning toward God. All came into being through it, and apart from it not even one thing came into being which has come into being. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light is appearing in the darkness, and the darkness grasped it not …

And the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is made clear to us at the beginning of John’s Gospel that Jesus is the Word made flesh. So we begin with this in mind but as the story starts to unfold and events and places and people begin to be described, we find ourselves being drawn into the natural experience of the story. We find ourselves identifying with the traits and qualities of the characters in the story, including Jesus Himself.

And then if we contrast these qualities of Jesus with our understanding of what the Divine is, we find that there is a conflict. The Divine Itself can’t have qualities of sorrow, happiness, anger, jealousy, disillusionment, envy, or even compassion and mercy because the Divine Itself is infinite Divine love and infinite Divine wisdom. It isn’t discerning or selective or subject to any conditions, it never changes or alters.  It is Esse and Existere, it is Being and Becoming… it just IS. However, if we remind ourselves that Jesus is the Word being made flesh among us, then we see that our experience of the Word becoming real and alive like ‘flesh’ to us, does indeed go through these changes in natural affections and thoughts that are only attributable to finite beings.

So if we reflect on the passion of the cross; the way that Jesus is treated, the events that unfold and the way in which Jesus reacts to them, and hold this as our experience of the Word moving and fluctuating in different lights of understanding and affections of love… then we find that it is our own personal story. The literal text of the Word then opens up as an interior experience of the Lord descending into our life, into the life of our affections and thoughts.

…for universal nature is a theatre representative of the Lord’s kingdom in the heavens, thus of His kingdom on earth, that is, in the church, and hence of His kingdom in every regenerate man. From this it is plain how natural or domestic good, although a merely outward delight and indeed a worldly one, may serve as a means for producing the good of the natural, which may conjoin itself with the good of the rational, and thus become regenerate or spiritual good, that is, good which is from the Lord.  (Arcana Coelestia 3518)

So as we read of the earthly experience of Jesus in this world, it becomes the theatre for us to experience the play about our own journey. We have characters – the central character being Jesus, and then we have all the others who move in and out of relationships and associations with Jesus.

The passion of the cross is towards the end of the play and we see, mainly in this part of the story, the struggle between the Word wishing to be made more present in our life, in our everyday experiences, and the struggle of the hellish proprium, whose only wish is for us to remain in states where the Text is read very literally and doesn’t seem to have much application to our life at all. It wishes us to believe that the Word is in fact just a book of skewed history of mankind that is full of contradictions in its messages. On one hand, we see that Jesus is only wishing love and peace in what He offers and on the other hand we are met with the violent images of the inhumane torment and despair that is inflicted upon Him.

So as we enter the story at John chapter 18 we find on stage:

• Jesus = the Word
• Jewish nation = those states that live in the externals only, who only see the literal text and not the inner meaning or how it applies to the inner life
• Scribes and Pharisees = those states that hold the literal text above all else
• Chief priests = those who lead the Jewish states in its worship and work closely with those who hold the literal text above all else
• Soldiers = those who enforce the law of the Jewish states
• Disciples = the different characteristics of the church as it is developing with us

We find the Word in a state where it has passed over the brook of Cedron, which means that which is dark and turbid, and into the garden and then away again from the garden. It has been bound and led away by the Jewish soldiers towards the Jewish high priest. So this is a state that enforces the things that wish for self-love to rule, rather than things of spiritual intelligence, which a garden represents. A state with us where the Text is seen as just a book that has some nice message of peace but nothing else beyond the surface.

We find that the different characteristics of the church have been scattered, with the disciples being removed from Jesus (the Word) and led away from Him. So it is a state when the church doesn’t feel connected to the text of the Word anymore. In fact, we find Simon Peter – whose name means hearkening stone– has actually joined the slaves and deputies and is warming himself by their charcoal fire. So he is characteristic of the church that should normally be a truth that listens and obeys but has instead found itself drawn to the apparent warmth of the love of things in the natural.

The chief priest, as one who leads the Jewish states of living in the literal text only or natural life only, asks questions of the Word (Jesus).   Then we hear the Word confirm:

And Jesus answered him, “I with boldness have spoken to the world. I always teach in a synagogue and in the sanctuary where all the Jews are coming together, and in hiding I speak nothing.” (John 18:20)

If the Word remains out of sight in our understanding and unacknowledged as the Lord, then the literal Text speaks nothing to us… it means nothing that is of use to our spiritual life.

So, we then see the Word taken away to Pilate for judgment. Pilate means close pressed’ so he represents the state in us that feels pressed upon or compelled to act when we are confronted with the Word in front of us, particularly when we see it contrasted and presented against the literal meaning of the text or the thoughts and affections that enforce this like the chief priests.

Pilate, then, came outside to them and is averring, “What accusation are you bringing against this man? They answered and said to him, “If this man were doing no evil, we would not give him up to you.  (John18: 29-30)

This is how the hellish proprium views the Word… that it is evil and needs to be taken away and removed from sight. It wishes for us to disregard any sense that there is something that lies beneath the literal words on the page and opposes, with much passion, anything that threatens to open it up into something more meaningful.

The state in us that now feels close pressed (Pilate) is then said to take the Word (Jesus) inside the pretorium – leaders tent or judgement hall – and asks him questions. So we take what is presenting and examine it more internally in light of what the Word is speaking to us… we let the Word answer our questions. And what do we hear?

“You are saying that I am a king. For this also have I been born, and for this have I come into the world, that I should be testifying to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth is hearing My voice. (John 18:37)

The state in us that feels pressed by the Jewish nation and its priests and chiefs, hears that the Word is testifying truth to us and that we will hear its truth if we are willing to listen.

But when Pilate announces that he can find nothing untrue in what the Word has told us, the Jewish crowd continues to press back.

We see next in our theatre on stage, that Pilate then scourges Jesus.  Now scourge means to thoroughly whip… but the origin of the word ‘whip’ means to swing, leap or dance, quick movement.  So the state in us that feels close pressed, moves quickly and thoroughly in the Word.

The Jewish nation fights back and the soldiers who enforce the law of the hellish proprium make a mockery of the Word by placing a purple robe on it in jest and a crown of thorns on its head. The head and purple usually represent what is celestial but in this case, it’s the opposite of this as the hellish proprium serves only self-love.

But Pilate holds his ground and insists that he still finds no fault in Jesus. There is now a state in us that has been confronted with the Word and has examined it and seen, heard and acknowledged it as something that belongs to the spiritual life where truth is active. This is contrasted to the states that only worship the literal Text without application to spiritual life.  In fact when Jesus is led out into the crowd – so when the state sees the Word led right out into the midst of what is sensual – the state in us that feels pressed (Pilate) begins to falter as the crowd’s strength and loud voices cry, insisting that the Word be crucified.

When, then, Pilate hears this saying, he was the more afraid.” And he entered into the praetorium again, and is saying to Jesus, “Whence are you? Yet Jesus gives him no answer.”  Pilate, then, is saying to Him, “To me you are not speaking! Are you not aware that I have authority to release you and have authority to crucify you? (John 19:8-10)

After hearing the Jewish nation and feeling fear, that which is close pressed (Pilate) goes back into internals – to a place of judgement and self-examination and asks… “Where are you?” as it seeks the Lord. There is frustration that He doesn’t answer but it’s because the state in us still thinks that it has authority… we still see our life as our own. And so the Word answers again and we hear:

Jesus answered him, “No authority have you against Me in anything, except it were given to you from above. (John 19:11)

We finally hear the Word tell us – “no I am the authority” and then we seek to release Him, to allow Him to be unbound by the hellish proprium- for ourselves to be unbound from its sway.  We move into a state of repentance.

Therefore we start to see real separation now or see with increased clarity. The Jewish nation pledges its allegiance to Caesar whose name means ‘severed” – so that which is severed from the Word, from love and wisdom. Pilate then leads Jesus outside again to Gabbatha; so that which is close pressed moves into the externals of the Word but this time with an acknowledgement of its internal authority. Gabbatha means a high place and Jesus is placed on a dais, which is a high table of judgement. The state is one in which the Word as we experience it, can stand its ground in the externals now and we are able to submit it to the Jewish nation knowing that this will allow for what is needed for further separation and removal.  We no longer have as much fear about submitting our understanding of the literal Text to the state of the hellish proprium because we have acknowledged the inner application of it in our life.

And sure enough, we see the contrast brought out into open view

Now Pilate writes a title also, and places it on the cross. Now it was written, “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” (John 19:19)

This is contrasted with what the Jewish nation wants on the title because they do not acknowledge the Word’s authority but instead are loyal to Caesar – to that which is severed.

The chief priests of the Jews, then, said to Pilate, “Do not be writing ‘The King of the Jews’ but that ‘that one said “King of the Jews am I.” (John 19:2)

But the state that was close pressed, that has allowed the Word to cross-examine it, is now clear in what it is loyal to…

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written!”  (John 19:22)

And here’s where we reach the point in the play where it feels like the literal Text has been pulled apart and left us in a state of disorder and mess; or that the experience of temptation has left us in a dishevelled state; or that the memories that the Text has brought up from our natural life, has left us in a state of confusion where we are worse off than when we started. But we are reminded that it is only the outer garments that can be divided and that the inner spiritual meaning of the Text, its inner tunic, is always protected and maintained in its integrity.

The soldiers, then, when they crucify Jesus, took His garments and make four parts – to each soldier a part; and the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven from above throughout the whole. (John 19:23)

And so the state of the Word with us is offered truths that are bitter to swallow but that are able to offer purification and healing.  These are able to move us beyond, to a state where the Word is able to ascend again into things that are higher; into a state of glorification where the Word is recognised as the Divine Itself, embodied in the true Human form of His love and wisdom in use in application in our life.

After this, Jesus, … is saying, “I thirst!” ….

Sticking a sponge, then, distended with vinegar, on hyssop, they carry it to His mouth.

When, then, Jesus took the vinegar, He said, “It is accomplished!”

And reclining His head, He gives up the spirit.  (John 19: 28-30)

We find then that celestial things, things belonging to the affections of His love, present to offer to consummate the state and allow completion. Joseph of Arimathea meaning that which adds of Jehovah of a high place, and Nicodemus meaning conqueror of the populace or common people, take His body and embalm it and prepare it for the garden tomb.

…bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds troy.” They got the body of Jesus, then, and they bind it in swathings with the spices (John 19: 39-40)

And here we have a lovely return to the image of the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger. It’s a return to the beginning but now the Word as the Lord in us is in a state of innocence of wisdom as opposed to the initial state of innocence that was in ignorance, of things not yet understood or worked into our lives. The Word descended as a baby into our life and grew into a man, moving throughout the Holy land, healing and expressing love but also meeting resistance until finally, it submitted to the full treatment of the Jewish states that live in the self-love that is the hellish proprium.  This allowed for overt, increased clarity and vision of the state of the hellish proprium which enabled separations between it and what is of the Word as the Lord, so that the latter could then be raised into higher states and so glorified and acknowledged as Divine.

This feels like a good place to leave the scene that is before us on the stage. We’ve seen the inhumane treatment of Jesus by the Jewish nation but experienced it as the treatment by the hellish proprium as it resists the Word descending into the life of our mind and hence into spiritual application. It feels inhumane because it opposes what is truly human, the true human form which is love and wisdom united in use. This process of resistance and seeing has to occur though if we are to know the Word as the Human Divine. The literal text of the Word, the external Word, is then acknowledged as that which supports the internal Word as the Lord within us. The historical descriptions of Jesus in the Text become relevant in the present for us now, in the internal spiritual life of our thoughts and affections. Our own memories in our past also become integrated into our life now, as the Word stirs them up. It reintegrates them in the context of the truths it offers us, keeping the things that are of the Lord in them and relocating the things that aren’t, out into the periphery of our mind. They are not discarded as they are the container for internal things but they are no longer the main focus.

I have spoken with the angels concerning the memory of things past, and the consequent anxiety regarding things to come; and I have been instructed that the more interior and perfect the angels are, the less do they care for past things, and the less do they think of things to come; and also that from this comes their happiness. They say that the Lord gives them every moment what to think, and this with blessedness and happiness; and that they are thus free from cares and anxieties. Also, that this was meant in the internal sense by the manna being received daily from heaven; and by the daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer; and likewise by the instruction not to be solicitous about what they should eat and drink, and wherewithal they should be clothed. But although the angels do not care for past things, and are not solicitous about things to come, they nevertheless have the most perfect recollection of past things, and the most perfect mental view of things to come; because in all their present there are both the past and the future. Thus they have a more perfect memory than can ever be thought of or expressed. (Arcana Coelestia 2493)

And this is the process every time we return and work with the Word.

Each time it restructures and reforms us and then completes us again.

Each time we are birthed again, more and more deeply into His life.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger…(Luke 2:7)

Now at their speaking these things, Jesus Himself stood in their midst and is saying to them, “Peace to you!” Yet, being dismayed and becoming affrighted, they supposed they are beholding a spirit.” And He said to them, “Why are you disturbed? And wherefore are reasonings coming up in your hearts? Perceive My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and perceive, for a spirit has not flesh and bones according as you behold Me having.” And saying this, He exhibits to them His hands and feet.” (Luke 24: 36-40)

The things just spoken had to do with all that occurred with those who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus, that affirmed the testimony of those who had seen, and so were claiming, that the Lord had in fact risen from the dead. As this testimony was being unfolded, so the Lord appeared in their midst. There are a number of things in this post resurrection account that I would like us to focus on because they speak to some of principles on which Logopraxis is built, and they also affirm the collective experience of many of you who have participated in Logopraxis Life Groups. So, we’ll move through things verse by verse with a view to drawing these principles out. But before we do that consider what the following number from the Arcana Coelestia has to say in the light of the Lord’s words of peace given to his followers, and the dismay and fear they illicit in response.

Turmoil is used to mean the rearrangement and reordering of truths within the natural, a reordering about which the following ought to be known: The order in which the factual knowledge and the truths in the human memory are arranged is not known by men; but angels know it, if the Lord so pleases. It is an amazing order – facts and truths are grouped together in bundles, as also are the actual bundles; and all this in keeping with the interconnection of things of which the person has gained a mental grasp. The way they are grouped together is more amazing than anyone can ever imagine. In the next life visual presentations of them sometimes appear; for in the light of heaven, which is a spiritual light, things such as these can be displayed for the eye to see in a way utterly impossible in the light of the world. The arrangement of the facts and truths into those bundle-like forms depends entirely on the person’s loves. Self-love and love of the world leads to their being arranged into hellish forms, whereas love towards the neighbour and love to God leads to their being arranged into heavenly ones. Consequently when a person is being regenerated and the good of the internal man is becoming joined to the truths of the external man, turmoil develops among the truths; for they are being rearranged into a different order. This turmoil is what is being described here and is meant by their being filled with dismay. The dismay which comes to be felt at this time reveals itself through anxiety arising out of the change in the state immediately before; that is to say, it arises out of being deprived of the delight which had been present in that state. (Arcana Coelestia 5881)

So, holding these things in mind, let’s begin by shifting our focus onto the inner realities being spoken about in our reading from the Gospel by reminding ourselves that the historical context and events are given to support us to move into what they point to within our own experience of working with the Lord as the Word. For by the Lord, from a Logopraxis perspective, we understand the Word and its activity within our minds, and by Jesus specifically, we understand the Lord as to Divine Good. But in more concrete terms, Jesus is understood to be the Lord’s desire for our salvation, and His speech is how that desire takes form as thoughts based on truths from the Word within our mind.

In Logopraxis, we meet together to share our experience of the Lord as the Word working in our life, and we do that in the hope that the Lord might be made visible in our midst. Of course, by saying the Lord is made visible in our midst, we don’t mean visible as someone appearing before our physical senses, rather we mean that when what is of the Word passes between people we come to see a little more clearly the Lord’s presence in our life as the Word, either through the opportunity to share our personal experience of it, or in hearing of how it is experienced in the lives of others. For as people share together their experience of the Word working in their life, their understanding of it increases. So the principle here is that it is as we share our experience of the Word in our life that our sense of the Lord expands in a way where He becomes mentally more visible or accessible to us all.

This is illustrated in verse 36 where we read…

Now at their speaking these things, Jesus Himself stood in their midst and is saying to them, “Peace to you!”

The things spoken of were those things related to a journey by two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus. But this isn’t just a journey in history, for the journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus is every spiritual journey on every scale of manifestation. It describes the journey we take across the whole of our life, or it can describe any portion of it.  From a Logopraxis, perspective it describes our journey across each Session Cycle of our practise; stretching from our initial contact with the reading, through to the sharing of our experience of the Word with others. We approach our initial reading not knowing where it will lead, at the end of the cycle we come into a new sense of the Lord as the Word through the truth we felt drawn to that formed the basis for our inner work with the Text. In a sense, we always begin in Jerusalem, and arrive at Emmaus every time we move into a new experience that deepens our sense of the Word as the Lord.

It is as we share in the experience of the Word working in the lives of others that the possibility opens to finding Jesus standing in the midst, speaking into each and every heart, “Peace to you!” Through sharing our experience of the Word with others we share our life with the Lord and this expands our appreciation for how the Lord as the Word works to regenerate the human mind. Through building an understanding of the processes involved and how they are experienced directly we are given a sense of “peace”. But this “peace” is not the absence of conflict, trial, or struggle, rather it is a peace that comes with knowing that the Lord is with us in our difficulties and that despite how things appear, the Word is well able to carry us through. Remember what these disciples had just been through – and what they had yet to endure. To practise the Word, which is what Logopraxis means, by taking truths and applying them to the life of the mind through the spiritual disciplines of self-examination and repentance, puts us in front of many difficulties. So the “peace” mentioned here is not how the world defines peace, but is the peace that comes with knowing that every difficulty is permitted by the Lord for the sake of the end which is eternal life.

That difficulties are part of the spiritual life and arise from contact with the Word can be seen in verse 37.  For even though the Lord speaks “peace” those present are dismayed, becoming fearful for they suppose they are beholding a spirit. In Logopraxis we are learning to find our security in an experiential understanding of what’s involved in working with truths from the Word. What presents when truths are being applied to the life of the mind doesn’t always fit with the understanding we have acquired that belongs to the memory and so constitutes our historical faith. In fact, if our historical faith is not being challenged at some stage in our practice of the Word, we are probably not doing Logopraxis. The religion of the natural man is built on the misunderstanding that its understanding of doctrine is the Truth. In Logopraxis we are continually discovering that our understanding of truth at any given stage of our development is simply how things appear in relation to our state. That our understanding of truth is just that, our understanding of it, and that this will undergo shifts and changes as we look to practise the Word through applying its truths to the life of our minds.

All fear, dismay, or turmoil that arises in the face of what’s presenting from our efforts to examine our life in the light of truths from the Word is an indication that the truths within the natural, that belong to our current understanding of things, are undergoing a rearrangement and so are being reordered. To understand and accept this as a necessary aspect of the outworking of regenerative processes, goes a long way to providing valuable support, enabling us to navigate the difficulties that must be faced as things within the mind are reordered. When in states of spiritual disorder, fear and dismay arise as new truths are spoken into our life and make their presence felt. We may become disorientated and lose touch with our sense of connection with Lord as we are pushed and pulled by spiritual influences that manifest as emotional responses, over which we seem to have little control. These states can give rise to doubts about the substantial nature of spiritual things over natural things, for in such states what presents on the surface to our senses seems much more real than those things that the Word says is real.

The Word says, “Peace to you!” the appearances of the senses say, what the Word declares is not real – that it is vague and without substance being described as a “spirit”. The peace that the Word speaks into our life can only become something substantial if we allow the Word to do its work. Nothing but peace can issue forth from the Word but this peace cannot be experienced in the natural mind where the loves of self and the world rule. So in speaking “peace” the Word first of all looks to restructure the mind into a form that can receive the peace of heaven. For, if the kingdom of heaven is to rule in our life, then that which is opposed to it must be put to flight – and in this process the Word is experienced more like a sword than as a dove. And so it must be, the disordered state of our natural mind has to first be put into order if peace is to be established in us.

For those in Logopraxis work, there needs to be a recognition of this fact. Through sincere self-examination by using truths from the Word to assess the quality of our mental life, with its affections and thoughts, we can come to see the disordered state of our mind. We can know from first hand experience that what truths teach concerning our proprium are in fact true, that living a spiritual life involves facing the discomfort that seeing our self in the light of what truths teach brings. Hence what follows in verses 38 to 40 describes a deepening level of self-examination that arises as we continue to work with the Word. There we read…

And He said to them, “Why are you disturbed? And wherefore are reasonings coming up in your hearts? Perceive My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and perceive, for a spirit has not flesh and bones according as you behold Me having.” And saying this, He exhibits to them His hands and feet.”

In asking these questions the Lord is seeking to get those He is speaking to to reflect more deeply to discover the origin of their mental state. Within us this same process takes place, only we experience it as questions arising within our own minds as we engage with and practice the Word. Such questions appear to be the product of our own thinking but we can be sure that any question that focuses the mind onto matters connected with its regeneration, through getting us to examine the source of the motivations and reasonings arising within it, is a sign of the Word working to bring forth the kingdom of heaven within. If we find ourselves inwardly disturbed in our work with truths from the Word, then we need to ask, If the Lord seeks only our peace then why is there this disturbance? Perhaps it’s because what truths are highlighting are things detrimental to our spiritual welfare, things our sense of self is so invested in we find ourselves in a real struggle to let go of them. It is not truths that cause disturbance but the evils and falsities through which negative spiritual associations are able to form a part of our sense of self. These are the cause of disturbances because they look to resist truths and darken the saving light that truth can bring.

In addition to the emotional disturbance we are also asked to take stock and look at the source of the reasonings arising in our hearts. Unpacking the origin of these two dimensions to our mental life, our emotional states and the thoughts or reasonings coming into our conscious awareness, and bringing these before our understanding of the Word, is what spiritual work involves. This must be done if we are to see and therefore verify for ourselves that what the Word teaches concerning the state or condition of the human mind is actually so. Without doing this the Word shall remain weak and ineffectual in our life. As people who profess a belief in the holiness and power of the Word we need to be engaging with it regularly, otherwise our profession is mere lip service. We should not underestimate the proprium’s ability to use negative emotional states and false reasonings to undermine the power of the Word in our life, and there is perhaps nothing more subtle in this regard than a profession of a belief in the centrality of the Word to spiritual life without engaging the will in an intentional practice to back it up as a matter of life.

The absolute importance of remaining in touch with the Word through its practice as the basis of a commitment to self-examination and repentance where our mental life is concerned, is highlighted in the final verses taken from the Gospel reading today where the Lord admonishes us to…

Perceive My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and perceive, for a spirit has not flesh and bones according as you behold Me having.” And saying this, He exhibits to them His hands and feet.”

If we wish to move into a firmer sense of the substantial nature of the Word as a basis for life then we need to engage with it for ourselves. This is what is meant by the phrases, “Perceive My hands and feet…” and “Handle Me and perceive…” The Word itself asks us to open ourselves up to it, to allow our powers of perception to be directed towards its “hands and feet…” which is the Text Itself. The command to see or perceive means to give attention to something, it is a command from the Word to focus our intellectual powers upon the Text of Divine Revelation in an effort to understand what’s here and what it claims itself to be. The “hands and feet” of the Word are its extremities, or those teachings that pertain to eternal life that can be accessed through the surface meaning of the Text. The hands are teachings of an internal quality that have to do with the power of the Lord to save (Arcana Coelestia 78{3-4}), while the feet are those teachings found in the letter of the Word (Arcana Coelestia 9406) that provide support for people to walk in what’s required of them to live the spiritual life.

But it is not enough to just read about them, the Word actually needs to be engaged with, hence the second command from the Lord concerning the Word is, “Handle Me and perceive…” The first command to, “Perceive My hands and feet” pertains to understanding things intellectually but the second command is to, “Handle” the Word “and perceive”, which speaks of the need to move from an intellectual understanding of truths into an understanding that comes from their application to life.

First, we need knowledge in order to know what’s required of us in the spiritual life but knowing must move to actual application which relates to handling the Word through its application to the life of the mind and its regeneration. From this a deeper appreciation of the substantial nature of the Word is able to be entered into due to actually having experienced it first-hand working in our life. This fuller kind of perceiving is only possible after the application of truths to the life of the mind which is clearly indicated in the order of the words, “Handle Me and perceive.” The Logopraxis structure seeks to provide overt support for this so that we can consciously experience this process for ourselves over each Session Cycle.

To the natural mind or man, spiritual things appear vague and without substance which is illustrated by the idea of Jesus appearing to be a spirit in the perception of those beholding Him. From a Logopraxis perspective, we know that this is also true of our sense of the Word. It’s not until we have really experienced the Text working in our life through handling it as it relates to the inner practice of self-examination and repentance that it becomes something substantial for us. To handle the Word is based on the sense of touch. Touch spiritually means conjunction and the only way conjunction with the Lord is possible is through the integration of truths from the Word into our life, and this only occurs when those truths are being practised. For the saving power of the Word to be active in our life it must not only be affirmed intellectually but must also be made real experientially. It is only through experiencing the Word first-hand, as something that is having a real effect in our life, that it is able to be seen to be the Lord, and to be Him right down to the very letter of the Text. For if we can receive it, the letter of the Word becomes the very flesh and bones of the Lord Himself, this being the foundation and container of the Divine Good and Divine Truth Itself, through which He is able to be made real and present in the midst of those who seek Him.

Perceive My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and perceive, for a spirit has not flesh and bones according as you behold Me having.” And saying this, He exhibits to them His hands and feet.”

And Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor questioned Him, saying, Are You the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say it. And when He was accused by the chief priests and the elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, Do You not hear how many things they testify against You? And He did not answer him, not even to one word, so that the governor greatly marvelled. And at a feast, the governor customarily released one prisoner to the crowd, whom they wished. And they had then a notable prisoner, Barabbas. Then they, having been assembled, Pilate said to them, Whom do you wish I may release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus being called Christ? For he knew they delivered Him up through envy. But as he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Let nothing be to you and that just one. For I have suffered many things today by a dream because of Him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds, that they should ask for Barabbas, and to destroy Jesus. And answering, the governor said to them, From the two, which do you wish that I release to you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, What then should I do to Jesus being called Christ? They all say to him, Crucify Him! But the governor said, For what badness did He do? But they the more cried out, saying, Crucify! And seeing that nothing is gained, but rather an uproar occurs, taking water, Pilate washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous one; you will see. And answering, all the people said, His blood be on us and on our children. Then he released Barabbas to them. But having flogged Jesus, he delivered Him up that He might be crucified. (Matthew 27:11-26)

The Lord had two purposes in coming into the world, redemption and the glorification of His Human; and by these He saved both men and angels. These two purposes are quite distinct, but still they are combined in effecting salvation. The nature of redemption was shown in the preceding paragraphs to be a battle against the hells, their subjugation and afterwards the ordering of the heavens. Glorification, however, is the uniting of the Lord’s Human with His Father’s Divine. This took place by stages and was completed by His passion on the cross. For every person ought for his own part to approach God, and the more nearly he does so, the more closely does God on His side enter into him. It is similar to the building of a church: its construction by human hands must come first, and then afterwards it must be consecrated, and finally prayers must be said for God to be present and unite Himself with its congregation. The reason why the actual union was fully achieved by the passion on the cross is that it was the last temptation which the Lord underwent in the world; and temptations create a link. In temptation it looks as if a person is left to himself, but he is not, since God is then most closely present in his inmost, and secretly gives him support. When therefore anyone is victorious over temptation, he is most inwardly linked with God, and in this case the Lord was most inwardly united with God His Father. (True Christian Religion 126)

I just wanted to draw on the events around Jesus interactions with Pilate in the Gospel of Matthew with a view to gaining a little more understanding about what these events leading up to the death of the Lord mean in terms of our own interaction with the Word, or when we are confronted with truths about ourselves. In the story the Jewish authorities had taken and bound Jesus to be led to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea at that time. The Jewish religious leaders, in particular, had become increasingly uncomfortable with the presence and influence Jesus was having on the masses and saw this as going against their own interests, so much so that they were willing to falsely accuse him, and stage what was effectively a mock trial to condemn him to death. But there was a problem with this in that due to Roman rule they had no authority to enact capitol punishment, something left to the Roman authorities. So having bound Him they sent him off to Pilate with a view to getting Roman approval to put him to death.

These events, framed in a historical way, are understood from the perspective of Spiritual Christianity to represent internal spiritual realities and are a reminder of the Lord’s work in our own lives. There is a part of us, like the religious authorities of Jesus’ time, that is unwilling to face up to certain spiritual responsibilities that we are obligated to perform in the face of our understanding of truths and in how they relate to areas of our life that we need to deal with, if we are to grow into our full potential as spiritual beings.

We can so easily read of these events and wonder at the cruelty of those figures who could take an innocent man and subject him to such barbarity out of envy. Jesus’ activities were unsettling for the Jewish leaders because if he became too popular it could well undermine their power and influence as far as the people were concerned. This could then have a direct influence on their own lives and from their perspective that just would not do! The high priest actually said as much when he said, What of it if one man should die for the sake of many? He, of course, was unaware that these words amounted to a prophecy concerning the Lord. We may well look on all this and think that this is something we would never participate in. What we don’t so easily see is that every time we are confronted with truth and look to dismiss it as something that we don’t need to apply to ourselves, we are in a sense looking to dismiss that truth. And if we feel its too confronting we may even look to raise arguments against it to justify our position in opposition to it.

These events, spiritually understood, confront us with this fact because they confront us with the nature of self interest or self love. It is self love that looks to dismiss the truth because the natural side of us, our ego or proprium, is a power that will not willingly submit itself to the authority of the Word. The Lord had to play this story out in the events of his own life in such a dramatic and forceful way because we just don’t get it. All the characters and events in the Word describe our own states and tendencies and if we think we don’t fall into the traps that involve dismissing truth in our life so that our world can remain the same and because we don’t like feeling uncomfortable, or like having the status quo upset – then we simply haven’t reflected on our life to any real depth.

When we do reflect on our lives with a view to working on them it becomes painfully obvious that the proprium, our love of ourselves, is capable of anything in the service of its own interests. Thankfully there is another side to us that the Lord has implanted within us. A side that desires what is higher and this is open to higher heavenly influences, which if we are open to, is able to give us the courage that we need to find our way through those things we have to deal with if we are to have our attachments to what is lower in us broken, and put into their proper place and order. In the Gospel story the side of self-interest is represented by those elements that are opposed to the Lord whilst the heavenly or spiritual side is represented by the Lord Himself and those men and women who follow Him. This higher side comes to the fore in the story of the resurrection, which we will look at some other time- but for now we have the opportunity to learn more about this lower side. We need to learn about it so we can come to recognise it in our own lives because if we are unable to see how it operates it will continue to bind truths as they enter our minds and prevent them from having an influence for real positive change in our lives.

Self interest is always looking to bind the influence of truth in our lives. Truth is always looking to move us towards being more loving and compassionate in our responses by giving us the ability to reflect on our motives, identify our evils and work with the Lord to have their influence removed. This self interest within us is represented by the actions of the Jewish religious authorities who bind Jesus. Jesus is the power of the Word to save us and it does this by a process that involves uncovering the true nature of our motives so that we can see where we miss the mark and so seek the Lord to have them purified so that good might flow more freely. But when we are unwilling to hear what the Word is saying and actively resist it because we prefer to remain in selfish states of life, we effectively look at truths that challenge us and judge them as having no authority in the areas of our life that are being exposed. In such instances we judge the truth or in the context of our reading today, we put the truth on trial, that is we make it subject to our own selfish interests and so bind its influence for good in our life.

The next thing that happens is that the truth bound by self interest is then exposed to Pontius Pilate to be judged. The meaning of his name is revealing from a spiritual perspective. Pontius means “belonging to the sea” and Pilate means “armed with a spear“. The office he held was that of governor. So he represents something in us that governs and is able to make judgements, assess things and deliver decisions. You will notice that all these abilities are abilities most associated with intellectual functions – the ability to weigh evidence, to question and probe and arrive at the “truth” of a case. These are functions commonly associated with reasoning and this, of course, is what Pontius Pilate represents within us, our lower reasoning faculties. When spiritual truths lose their ability to influence our mind its reasoning powers become dominated by lower lusts belonging to the self and from a spiritual perspective, the mind created for truth is then dominated by a foreign power – the love of self. This is illustrated by the foreign occupation of the Holy Land by Rome. Israel represents the spiritual aspect of our mind and Rome our natural reasoning powers. So we see that the whole state of the nation at this time represents our state when we refuse to heed the Word and so allow what is lower in us to use our reasoning powers to judge the truth.

The meaning of the name Pontius, “belonging to the sea” gives us more insight into the representation. For all names in the Word correspond to the quality of some aspect of our mental world, and the sea being what is low represents what is lower in us. Water taking the form of a sea represents that vast sea of facts present in our minds, in Isaiah this imagery is used where it says…

They shall not do evil, nor destroy in all My holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

Here we see that waters and sea is associated with the idea of knowledge. The second part of the name is Pilate or “armed with spear“. This is a weapon of war, and the weapons of the Word represent truths which can disarm false arguments which are weapons in the hands of evil. We use such terms in debating, we talk of the cut and thrust of an argument, having a sharp mind etc. The name Pilate refers to the function of this level of the mind when it is not really interested in truth but is motivated by whatever seems best in terms of its own interests and so gathers facts to support and justify its stance. All facts are gathered in accordance with our underlying beliefs to strengthen our point of view. When the mind is occupied with what is lower it uses it powers to produce reasoned arguments or weapons to resist truths, it becomes armed with a spear to ward off whatever threatens its position.

Despite Pilate washing of his hands in the situation, he had the power to free Jesus – to free love but he chose not to, preferring to abdicate this responsibility and handing it onto the crowd who were being influenced by the Jewish religious authorities. This is typical behaviour of our own reasoning faculties when we find it difficult to face truths about ourselves and actively work against them. With a little reflection we are able to see this in those times where we have been or are being challenged about something that needs attending to in our life in which that lower part of us finds some kind of delight or pleasure. There is always this clamour of voices that arises from lower influences that demand to be satisfied and if we will not heed higher heavenly influences and take a stand against this crowd of lower self orientated demands, then that faculty within us represented by Pilate becomes powerless and yields. It simply washes its hands of all responsibility and does nothing to protect the innocent. This act results in Barrabas being freed and the spirit of Barrabas represents the spirit of rebellion or insurrection that is our proprium or ego. When the Lord’s truth is bound then so is His love and when truth is condemned or judged to be of no real consequence, the rebellious spirit of the self, Barrabas, is release back into life to wreck its havoc.

We all will have areas in our lives we are being challenged in. Let us take these lessons of Easter to heart so that we can be more aware as to how our proprium operates and so with this knowledge work to have our evils removed, looking to remain open to the good influences of the Word. To be ever responsive to truth as it examines us and exposes our motives in the light of the one true judge of all that is in heaven and earth, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.