“The Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages.” - True Christian Religion §791
Kempton New Church

Week 5
Day 6

    Listen:

Luke 23

The burial of His body

Luke 23

50 And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor, being a good and just man,
51 who had not consented to their counsel and deed; he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself was waiting for the kingdom of God.
52 This man, going to Pilate, asked for the body of Jesus;
53 and taking it down, he wrapped it in a cloth, and placed it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, where no one had yet been laid.

54 And that day was the preparation, and a Sabbath began to dawn.
55 And the women also, who came together with Him from Galilee, followed after and observed the sepulcher, and how His body was laid.
56 And returning, they prepared spices and ointments. And indeed, they were quiet for the Sabbath according to the commandment.

AC 10252:7. As “myrrh” signified the most external truth, which is sensuous truth, and its perception, therefore the bodies of the dead were formerly anointed with myrrh and aloes. By this anointing was signified the preservation of all truths and goods with man, and also their resurrection. For this reason such a substance was employed as signified the ultimate of life with man; this ultimate is called the sensuous life.

That the body of the Lord was anointed with such things, and was encompassed with them together with a linen cloth, and that this was the custom of the Jews, may be seen in John 19:39, 40; Luke 23:53, 56. But be it known that what is said of the Lord Himself in the Word is to be understood in a supereminent sense, and therefore these things here signify His Divine life in the sensuous, which is the life proper to the body, and also the resurrection of this. It is known that the Lord rose again with the whole body which He had in the world, differently from other men, for He left nothing in the sepulcher. And therefore He also said to the disciples, who when they saw the Lord supposed that they saw a spirit, “Why are you troubled? Behold, My hands and My feet, touch Me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:38, 39).

Doc. of the Lord 35. By successive steps the Lord put off the human taken from the mother, and put on a Human from the Divine within Him, which is the Divine Human, and is the Son of God. It is known that in the Lord there were the Divine and the human: the Divine from Jehovah the Father, and the human from the virgin Mary. Hence He was God and Man, having a Divine essence and a human nature; a Divine essence from the Father, and a human nature from the mother. And therefore He was equal to the Father as to the Divine, and less than the Father as to the human. It is also known that this human nature from the mother was not transmuted into the Divine essence, nor commingled with it, for this is taught in the doctrine of faith which is called the Athanasian Creed. For a human nature cannot be transmuted into the Divine essence, nor can it be commingled with it.

Lord 35:2. In accordance with the same creed is also our doctrine, that the Divine assumed the Human, that is, united itself to it, as a soul to its body, so that they were not two, but one Person. From this it follows that the Lord put off the human from the mother, which in itself was like that of another man, and thus material, and put on the Human from the Father, which in itself was like His Divine, and thus substantial, so that the Human too became Divine. This is why in the Word of the Prophets the Lord even as to the Human is called Jehovah, and God; and in the Word of the Gospels, He is called Lord, God, Messiah or Christ, and the Son of God in whom we must believe, and by whom we are to be saved.

Questions and Comments
  1. In what ways can we emulate Joseph of Arimathea? (How striking that there is another good man named Joseph at the beginning of His life, and the Joseph in Genesis, who also clearly represents the Lord.)
  2. The Lord preserves and raises up all the goods and truths with us when we die, all the way down to the sensuous. What might be some examples of goods and truths based in sense experiences?
  3. The Lord came into the world to show us the way to eternal life. With us, what is the parallel to the way the Lord put off the human from the mother and put on the Human from the Father? What is different about the Lord and what is parallel to the regeneration through which the Lord leads us?
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