“The Church is... where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is.” - The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine §242
Kempton New Church

Week 3
Day 5

    Listen:

Luke 21‒22

Preparing for the Passover

Luke 22

7 And the day of unleavened bread came, in which the Passover must be slaughtered.
8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go prepare for us the Passover, that we may eat.
9 And they said to Him, Where wilt Thou that we prepare?
10 And He said to them, Behold, as you come into the city, a man shall meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he goes in.
11 And you shall say to the householder of the house, The Teacher says to thee, Where is the inn, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?
12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished7; there prepare.
13 And going, they found as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

AE 820:5. ...Because “Peter” signified truth from good which is from the Lord, and consequently also doctrine... he represented those who are in truths from good and in the doctrine of genuine truth from the Lord; and since people like this instruct others and are instructed by the Lord, therefore Peter so often spoke with the Lord and was also instructed by the Lord [as in the story above].

AE 706:12. An “inn” signifies a place of instruction.

AC 3068. A “water-jar” or “pitcher” signifies memory-knowledges. This comes from the fact that “water” signifies truth... and a pitcher is a vessel containing water, just as memory-knowledge is a vessel in which is truth. For every memory-knowledge is a vessel for truth, and every truth is a vessel for good. Memory-knowledge without truth is an empty vessel; and so too is truth without good. But memory- knowledge in which there is truth, and truth in which there is good, are full vessels. Affection which is of love is that which conjoins so that they may be within in order; for love is spiritual conjunction.

TCR 839. Finally we talked about the interior and exterior man [compare with the upper and lower stories of a house] . It was said that men who perceive things interiorly are in the light of truth, which is the light of heaven, while those who perceive things exteriorly are in no light of truth, because they are in the light of the world only. Thus interior men are in intelligence and wisdom, but exterior men are in insanity and in distorted vision.... Interior men are spiritual because they think from the spirit exalted above the body, and therefore see truths in light; while exterior men are sensual-natural because they think from the fallacies of the bodily senses....

Moreover, internal men are like those who live in the second or third story of a house or palace, the walls of which are a continuous window of clear glass, who look round about upon the city in its whole extent and recognize every cottage in it; while external men are like those who live in the lowest story, the windows of which are made of pasted pieces of paper, who cannot see even a single street outside of the house, but only what is within it, and not even that, except by the light of a candle or of the fire.... Furthermore, internal men perceive that what they know compared with what they do not know is like water in a pitcher as compared to that in a lake; while external men have no other thought than that they know everything....

TCR 186. ... The human mind is divided into three regions, as a house into three stories, or the angelic abodes into three heavens.

Then an angel standing near said, “With those who love truth because it is true, theological matters rise even into the highest region of the mind, because in that region is their heaven, and they are in the light in which angels dwell. But moral subjects theoretically examined and perceived have their place in a second region beneath these, because they communicate with spiritual things. Beneath these in the first region, political subjects have their place; while scientific matters, which are manifold, and may be referred to genera and species, form a door to these higher matters. Those with whom things spiritual, moral, political, and scientific are thus subordinated, think what they think and do what they do from justice and judgment. This is because the light of truth, which is also the light of heaven, illuminates from the highest region all things that follow, as the light of the sun, passing in turn through the ethers and through the atmospheres, illumines the eyes of men and beasts and fishes.

TCR 395:2. The human mind is like a house of three stories which communicate by stairs, in the highest of which angels from heaven dwell, in the middle men in the world, and in the lowest one, genii. The man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated can ascend and descend in this house at his pleasure; and when he ascends to the highest story, he is in company with angels as an angel; and when he descends from that to the middle story he is in company with men as an angel man; and when from this he descends still further, he is in company with genii as a man of the world, instructing, reproving, and subduing them.


7 Literally, “spread”

Questions and Comments
  1. When we prepare for the holy supper, do we too follow a man bearing a pitcher of water, spiritually? Do we seek an upper room as an “inn,” a place of instruction?
  2. How can we let the Lord fill our pitchers with water?
  3. How can we seek to make sure to have the stories of the house of our mind right side up, with the Lord’s Word ruling moral and political and scientific matters?
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