“In Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Divine bodily.” - Colossians 2:6, 9
Kempton New Church

Week 2
Day 5

    Listen:

Luke 20‒21

The Christ is not merely the son of David

Luke 20

41 And He said to them, How do they say that the Christ is the son of David?
42 And David himself says in the Book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord7, Sit Thou on My right hand,
43 until I put Thine enemies as a footstool of Thy feet.8
44 David therefore calls Him Lord, and how is He his Son?

45 And in the hearing of all the people He said to His disciples,
46 Beware of the scribes who desire to walk in robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the first seats in the synagogues, and the first places to recline at suppers,
47 who eat up widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers; these shall receive all the more judgment.

TCR 102. It is believed that the Lord as to His Human not only was, but still is, the son of Mary; but in this the Christian world is under a delusion. It is true that He was the son of Mary, but not true that He still is; for by the acts of redemption He put off the human from the mother and put on a Human from the Father. And this is why the Human of the Lord is Divine, and in Him God is Man, and Man is God.

That He put off the human from the mother and put on a Human from the Father, which is the Divine Human, is shown by the fact that He Himself never called Mary His mother, as can be seen from the following passages:

The mother of Jesus said to Him, They have no wine. Jesus said to her, Woman, what [is it] to Me and to thee? My hour has not yet come (John 2:3, 4);

and again:

When Jesus saw [from the cross] His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He says to His mother, Woman, behold, thy son. Then says He to the disciple, Behold, thy mother (John 19:26, 27); and on one occasion He did not acknowledge her: It was told Jesus by some who said, Thy mother and Thy brothers are standing outside, desiring to see Thee. Jesus answering said, My mother and My brothers are these who hear the Word of God and do it (Luke 8:20, 21; Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:31-35). Thus the Lord did not call her mother but “woman,” and gave her to John as a mother. In other places she is called His mother, but not by His own lips.

TCR 102:2. This is further confirmed by the fact that He did not acknowledge Himself to be the son of David, [as] we read in the Gospels....

[3] To the above I will add this, which is new: Once it was granted me to speak with Mary the mother. On a certain occasion she passed by and appeared in heaven above my head in white raiment like silk; and then pausing a little she said that she had been the mother of the Lord, who was born of her; but that He, having become God, had put off everything human that He had derived from her, and that she therefore worshiped Him as her God, and was unwilling that anyone should acknowledge Him as her son, because in Him all is Divine.

From all this there now shines forth this truth, that thus Jehovah is Man, as in first things so also in last things, according to these passages:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, He who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8, 11)....

AC 2162:10. Here... a “footstool” signifies natural things, both those which are sensuous, and those of memory-knowledge, and the derivative rational things of man, which are called “enemies” when they pervert worship, and do this from the literal sense of the Word, so that there is worship solely in externals, and either no internal worship, or else that which is filthy.... When natural and rational things are thus perverted and defiled, they are called “enemies;” but because, regarded in themselves, they have reference to internal worship—when this is restored, they become a “footstool,” whether they are things of external worship, or of the literal sense of the Word.


7 In Psalm 110, “Jehovah said unto my Lord”

8 Psalm 110:1

Questions and Comments
  1. David was the writer of many of the psalms, including Psalm 110. In it, David calls the Christ or Messiah “my Lord.” Fathers do not call their sons “my lord.” This shows that David did not consider the Christ his son.
  2. In TCR 102, “the acts of redemption” by which the Lord put off the human nature from Mary and put on the Divine Human, were the subjugation of the hells, the ordering of the heavens, and the establishment of a new church, the Christian Church. In the process of doing this work, He glorified His Human, that is, made it Divine. What is the parallel process with us, by which our human nature is regenerated?
  3. Why was it not rude of Jesus not to call Mary His mother? Would it be rude of our adult children to refer to us by our names instead of as mother & father?
  4. What is a modern example of religious hypocrisy?
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