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MATTHEW XXI

DT762a1And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,          

1. Since the Mount of Olives signified the Divine love,, for that reason " the Lord in the day time preached in the temple, but going out at night, He abode in the mount of olives " and He also went thence to Jerusalem and suffered.                           R. 336.
Since the church was signified by Jerusalem, therefore also such things as are of the church were signified by many things, which were in it and around it. Near it also was the Mount of Olives, and by this the Divine love was signified.          R. 493.
As the Mount of Olives which was before Jerusalem eastward, signified the Divine love, and Jerusalem eastward signified the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine good, therefore the Lord usually abode upon that mount. From thence also He went to Jerusalem and suffered.   E. 405,
By the Mount of Olives is signified the Divine love, for the Mount of Olives was on the east of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem signified the church as to doctrine, and all the church and all the truth of doctrine is illustrated, and receives light from the Lord in the east. The east in heaven is where the Lord appears as a sun. And as-the sun signifies the Divine love, therefore the east, and the Mount of Olives, which was on the east of Jerusalem, signify the same.   E. 638.
1—8. To sit upon an ass and the foal of an ass, was the mark of distinction, belonging to a chief-judge, and also to a king (see Judges v. 9, 10), He who does not know what is signified in a representative sense by a horse, a mule, and the foal of an ass, supposes that the Lord's riding upon the foal of an ass signified misery and humiliation, whereas it signified royal magnificence. Therefore also the people then proclaimed the Lord king, and strewed their garments upon the way. The reason why this was done when He went to Jerusalem, was, because by Jerusalem is signified the church. E. 31.
1, 2, 4, 5, 7- To ride on a she-ass was characteristic of a judge, and to ride on a she-mule characteristic of a king, and to ride on a young ass was characteristic of a judge's son, and to ride on a mule of a king's sons, for the reason that the she-ass represented affection for natural good and truth, a she-mule the affection for rational truth, an ass or young ass natural truth itself, and a mule and also the son of a she-ass rational truth. Hence it is plain what is meant by the prophecy concerning the Lord in Zechariah ix. 9, 10. That the Lord when He came to Jerusalem was willing to ride upon these animals is known from the evangelists. To ride upon an ass was a sign that the natural was made subordinate. To ride upon a colt, the son of a she-ass, was a sign that the rational was made subordinate.
A.  2781.
1, 7, 8. To ride on an ass and the foal of an ass was a function of the highest judge and king. By the disciples putting their garments on the ass and her colt was represented, that truths in all complex should be strewed under the Lord as the Highest Judge and King, for the disciples represented the church of the Lord as to truths and goods, and their garments represented the truths themselves. The reason why they strewed branches of trees was because trees signified the perceptions and also the knowledges of truth and good, hence branches mean the truths themselves.     A. 9212.

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COMMENTARY

1, 2. The Lord had journeyed from Jericho in his way to Jerusalem, performing his last journey in the same line, or between the same extreme points, as the children of Israel had done from the time of their first entering the Holy Land till their taking possession of Jerusalem. This resemblance was not accidental, and is not without a meaning. Both represented the same spiritual journey - the same heavenly and divine progression, from the lowest to the highest, in the last and supreme degree of the regeneration of man and of the glorification of the Lord. And that this last journey of the Lord to Jerusalem might represent his last progress towards glorification, he entered the holy city as a king, and took possession of its temple - the symbol of the temple of his body - and drove out the buyers and sellers, and in his house healed the blind and the lame. In these acts he represented the expelling from his humanity of the last remnant of hereditary evil and infirmity, and his dispensing from the temple of his glorified humanity the gift of salvation to his lost creatures. Such being the general import of our Lord's journey to, and entry into Jerusalem, the particulars must be deeply interesting. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. Mount Olivet was the symbol of celestial love, or love in its highest degree; and Bethphage, which means the house of figs, was the symbol of natural love, or heavenly love in the lowest degree. In the gospel by Mark, Bethany is also mentioned, and the three signify good of all the three degrees, celestial, spiritual, and natural. This completeness is here to be understood, though it is not expressed, for Olivet and Bethphage being the highest and the lowest - the supreme and the ultimate - include the whole. The Lord had come to this place, to represent that he had now glorified his humanity as to the interiors of all the degrees of life and was about to glorify it as to the exteriors of those degrees also, that he might be the Word in ultimates, as from eternity he had been in first principles (John I. 14).

The Lord's sending forth from thence two of his disciples into the villa over against them, represented his opening up a communication, by means of good and truth proceeding from himself, meant by the two disciples, between the internal and external of his humanity, the external being meant by the village over against them. The purpose of this communication is, to bring the principles of the lower into subordination to, and harmony with those of the higher, and so unite them. This is signified by their loosing and bringing the colt to Jesus, and setting him thereon. The ass signifies the natural principle and the colt the rational; and the subordination of both to the spiritual is meant by the Lord riding upon them. The ass was to be found tied, and the colt with her. This represented that the natural principle, with the rational, was yet in bondage, but that the Lord came to set them free, first in himself, and then in those of his creatures who suffer themselves to be regenerated, as he was glorified. And the command, to bring them, when loosed, to Jesus, expresses the truth, that the natural and rational principles, when liberated, are to be brought into connection with the Lord's good and truth in the inner man, and to be made subservient to them.

2Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,

2, 4, 5- Heaven and the church where the Lord alone is worshipped are signified by mount Zion. In many places we read of the virgin and the daughter of Zion, by whom is not meant any virgin or daughter, but the church as to the affection of good and truth, the same as by the bride of the lamb. R. 612.
By Zion is understood heaven and the church in which the Lord reigns by Divine truth. E. 850.

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COMMENTARY

3. But in sending the disciples for the ass and the colt, the Lord desired them, saying, If any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. Although Matthew does not record the circumstance, Mark relates that certain asked this question, and that when the apostles repeated the Lord's words to them, they yielded to the divine requirement. He who, as the Lord foresaw and foretold, asked this question, is man himself, to whom the natural and rational principles belong, but who has become willing to yield the ownership of them to the Lord, and to "let them go," to become his, and be employed in his service. The Lord still spiritually sends his disciples to each of us to loosen the ass with her colt - to make our natural and rational faculties free, and bring them under a willing submission to his eternal love and truth.

We may feel some inward repugnance to comply with the object of the heavenly message - some principle within us may say, "Why loose ye the colt?" but let the blessed words of Jesus, "The Lord hath need of them" - be sufficient for us, and induce us joyfully to consent to the demand, enforced by a reason which expresses, at once the highest honour and the greatest blessing.

4, 5. The evangelist tells us that; All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. These prophetic annunciations serve as links to bind the old and the new covenant together. Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfillment are like the eternal Word, and that Word made flesh: the second is the incarnation of the first. They answer, therefore, to each other as the internal and the external in man. The daughter of Sion is the celestial church, and therefore that affection in the mind which receives the Lord as divine truth, but as divine truth that rules from love, for the King is said to be meek. The meek are they who are in the good of charity and as human meekness is from the good of charity, divine meekness is from the good of love. The Lord comes to the daughter of Sion as a king, meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of in ass, when his divine truth and love are received into the highest affection of the heart, with the concurrence and co-operation of the natural and rational principles of the mind. Heavenly order is then established in the mind, the natural serves the rational, the rational the spiritual, the spiritual the celestial, and the celestial the divine.

5Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,

5. By the daughter of Zion is signified the spiritual affection of Divine truth, which is the love of truth for the sake of truth, and the desire thereof for the sake of the uses of eternal life. E. 850.
See Chapter XXL, 1-8. E. 31.
The celestial church of the Lord's celestial kingdom is called the daughter of Zion from affection for good, or from love to the Lord Himself. A. 2362.
See Chapter XXL, i? 7, 8. A. 9212.

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COMMENTARY

6, 7. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. The garments of the disciples are spiritual truths. As two of the disciples were sent to bring the ass and the colt to Jesus, to represent that the natural and rational are liberated and brought to the Lord by the instrumentality of the spiritual; so when they had brought the ass and the colt, the disciples put their garments on them, and set Jesus thereon, to represent that spiritual truths are necessary to connect the natural and rational truths with the divine.

7And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
8And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.

7—9- Truths are meant by garments. R. 166.
The reason why garments signify truths is, because the light of heaven is Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as the sun there, and all things which exist in the heavens, exist from that light, as is the case also with the garments in which the angels appear arrayed. E. 195.

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COMMENTARY

8. And while the disciples placed their garments on the ass and the colt, a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from, the trees, and strewed them in the way. As trees signify the perception and knowledge of good and truth, branches signify truths themselves and the multitude strewed them in the way, because the way signifies the truth by which the man of the church is led to goodness. As the disciples represent the spiritual, the multitude represent the natural affections and thoughts. Therefore, while the disciples placed their garments on the colt, the multitude spread theirs in the way. The multitude is said to be very great, to express the idea of the whole of the affections and thoughts of the natural mind uniting with those of the spiritual mind in celebrating the Lord's entrance into the heart, there to set up his kingdom, to take up his abode with the daughter of Sion, the expressive name of the highest affection of love in the soul.

9And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
10And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?

9. See Chapter VI., 9. A. 2724.
In the name of the Lord means in the name of Jehovah. A. 2921.
See Chapter VI., 9. A. 6674.
See Chapter VII., 22. P. 230.
The Lord as to His Human is the name of the Father. R. 81.
See Chapter X., 22. E. 102.
Blessing when mentioned concerning the Lord, signifies thanksgiving that from Him comes all the good of love and the truth of faith, and thence heaven and eternal felicity to those who receive them. Nothing is a blessing, but what is given from the Lord, for that alone is blessed, because it is Divine and eternal, and contains in itself heaven and eternal felicity. All other things not having in themselves what is Divine and eternal are not blessings, although they may be so called. E. 340.

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COMMENTARY

JOC8229. And the multitudes that went before and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. They that went before are the affections, and those that followed are thoughts; thus all the natural principles, from first to last, from highest to lowest; and these unite, and all conspire, to exalt the Lord, to sing to him the hosanna of welcome and the blessing of praise. To describe the exaltation of the Lord both in the affections and in the thoughts, the multitude are represented as both crying and saying; for crying is expressive of affection, and saying of thought. To describe further this sacred duality, so often observable in the Word, the multitude not only sing hosannah to the Lord, but blessing. And to teach us that this twofold exaltation of the Lord is the exaltation his truth in the understanding, and of his good in the will, hosanna is sung to him as the son of David, and blessing to him as he that cometh in the name of the Lord; for the son of David is the Lord as to divine truth, and he that cometh in the name of the Lord (Jehovah) is the Lord as to divine good. But the multitude sing not hosanna only, but hosanna in the highest, expressing the exultation of the Divine good and truth above every other good and truth of which the mind is receptive, making the Lord practically above all and within all.

HOSA53310, 11. And when he was come into Jerusalem all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. Jerusalem represented the church and heaven, and the Lord's entering the holy city as a king means his ruling in his spiritual kingdom by his divine truth. The spectacle of Jesus making his triumphant entry into Jerusalem with the symbols of royalty naturally produced great excitement and led the people to inquire who this was, to whom the multitude rendered the homage due to a king. And here again we have a distinction between Jerusalem and the city. The city means the people, but the term by which they are indicated signifies doctrine; and the commotion which the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem produced through the city, signifies the effect of the Lord's presence on those who are in knowledge of its doctrines. We are not told by what feeling the people were moved. It could not be a feeling of indignation or hatred against Jesus, for they knew not at the time who Jesus was, since it led them to inquire, "Who is this?" They appear to have been moved by astonishment. The commotion and inquiry represent the feelings and inquiry in the church, here signified by Jerusalem; which the Lord's presence produces. The inquiry by those who belong to the city, and the answer of those who do not, may be understood like the responsive voices of those within and those without the gates of the city, as so graphically described in the 24th Psalm, when the ark, of the Lord was introduced into Jerusalem. Those who carried up the ark, when they came to the entrance of the city, cried, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." And when those within demanded, "Who is the King of glory?" those without replied, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle - the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." The introduction of the ark and the Lord's entry into Jerusalem have both the same representative signification and the first may be regarded as a type of the other. There is this further resemblance between them, that as the ark was carried into the tabernacle, so he whom the ark represented went into the temple. In reference to the Lord, both these events represented his ascension when he passed through the Jerusalem which is above into the holy of holies, thence to send out his light and his truth, to lead all men to himself. Practically, in relation to us, they represented the Lord's upward progress in the regenerate mind, till he enters into the inmost of our affections, there to place his law of righteousness, and dwell for ever in our purified souls as temples of his presence. The answer of the multitude to the inquiry of those of the city was indeed different from that of those who accompanied the ark. Their answer to the inquiry was, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." Jesus in the New Testament is equivalent to, and has the same significance as, Jehovah in the old. Both signify the Lord as to his divine love. The Lord, as THE prophet, was the Word, or the Divine Truth itself. Jesus, the prophet, is the Lord as divine love and divine truth; and Nazareth of Galilee, from which he was, signifies the Divine love and truth in ultimates.

11And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

11. That that prophet who shall come and teach is the Lord is known in the church, and it was also known to the Jews and Gentiles of that time, as is evident from Matthew, also Luke i. 76; vii. 16, etc. A. 9188.
That the Lord was a prophet may appear from these passages. L. 15,
See Chapter XIII., 57. T. 129.
The prophets of the Old Testament represented the Lord as to the doctrine of Divine truth. The chief of them represented the Lord as to the Word itself, from which the doctrine of Divine truth is derived, as Moses, Elias, Elisha, and John the Baptist. And as the Lord is the Word, that is the Divine truth, therefore He Himself,, in the supreme sense of the Word, is called a prophet.
E. 624.
11. 46. See Chapter XIII., 57. R. 8,

12And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

12. By the sellers and buyers are here signified those who make gain to themselves from holy things, by the tables of the money changers is signified from holy truths, and by the seats of them who sold doves from holy goods, wherefore it is afterwards said, that they made the temple into a den of thieves, thieves meaning those who despoil the goods and truths of the church, and thence make to themselves gain. E. 840,

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COMMENTARY

12-14. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. We have already mentioned that this cleansing of the temple represented the final and complete glorification of the Lord's humanity, by the expulsion of everything of hereditary evil and infirmity that adhered to him. The particulars demand our attention. The temple is called the temple of God. In the next verse it is called "my house of prayer," which in John ii. 16 is expressed as "my Father's house." The name temple, like the divine name God, signifies the spiritual church, and the divine spiritual principle in the Lord and the name house, like the divine name Father, signifies the celestial church, and the divine celestial principle in the Lord. Or, to express the same truth otherwise, in relation to ourselves, the temple is the understanding, and the house is the will; and the understanding is the temple of God when the Lord's truth is in it, and the will is the Father's house when the Lord's love is in it. And the mind is a house of prayer when the Lord is worshipped from love. But the human mind, at the time our Lord was upon earth, had become a den of thieves. Evil had taken possession of the human will, and falsity of the understanding - those faculties which God had formed to be the dwelling-place of his own goodness and truth. But a still greater sin than this had been committed. Evil and falsity had entered into and taken possession of good and truth, and profaned them, - men claiming for themselves what belongs to God, which is meant in the spiritual sense by theft. This had come to be the practice of the church, as it is in every time of great corruption. By those that sold and bought are signified those who make gain to themselves of things holy; by the money-changers are signified those who make gain of holy truths, and by them that sold doves are meant those who make gain of holy goods: wherefore it is said, that they had made the temple a den of thieves, for they are called thieves who steal truths from the Word, and pervert them, and apply them to confirm falses and evils, and extinguish them. These the Lord cast out of the temple. For that divine work which the Lord performed in the temple of his own body, was followed by a corresponding work in man, and in the church. The humanity which the Lord assumed from the fallen daughter of a fallen race inherited all human imperfections. When he had cast them out from his own humanity, he could then cast them out from men and from the church, and dispense the blessing of salvation to suffering humanity.

13And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

13. By the house of the Lord is signified the church, and by prayers worship performed there, and by a den-of thieves the profanation of the church and of worship. From this opposite sense it is also evident, that prayers signify worship originating in the good of love and of charity. E. 325.
By the house in these passages is signified, in a universal sense, the church, and as worship was performed in the temple at Jerusalem, it is therefore called the house of prayer. E. 410.

14And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.

14. See Chapter IX., 27-31. A. 6990. See Chapter IX., 27-29. E. 152.

See Chapter IX., 27-31. E. 239.

15And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,

15. 16. The children crying, Hosanna to the Son of David, was to represent that only innocence acknowledges and receives the Lord — that is they who have innocence. A. 5236.

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COMMENTARY

TPC53415, 16. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying; Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased. These unspiritual men seem ever to furnish a dark background to the fairest scenes ever presented before the eyes of men in this sublunary world. But our own hearts present too often the same sad spectacle. The selfhood forms as dark a background to every heavenly scene which the hand of Infinite Wisdom traces upon the table of the most yielding heart. The conduct of these men, while it can hardly fail to excite indignation, should also produce humility; for we who condemn them do the same things. The evil and falsity of the old man are ever ready to oppose the good and truth of the new. But, of all things, innocence stirs up in the corrupt mind the bitterest feelings of' resentment. When the children shouted their hosannas, the priests spoke out, and with mingled feelings of contempt and anger, addressed Jesus in the reproachful words, Hearest thou what these say? We find that during the Lord's progress to Jerusalem the multitudes shouted hosanna to him, but when he came into the temple this shout was, taken up by the children. The Lord in the temple represented Jehovah, in his humanity - the temple of his body. Children shouting hosanna to Jesus in the temple represented that innocence of heart is that from which springs the acknowledgment of the Lord in his Divine humanity.

Heavenly innocence is the sinlessness which results from overcoming sin - the good which is acquired by the conquest of evil. This is the innocence which the Lord became by glorification, and it is his innocence in us that enables us to acknowledge him as Innocence itself. But the state here represented is not one of complete glorification on the Lord's part, nor of complete regeneration on ours. He had been casting out the mercenary dealers, and healing the diseased in the temple, representing the removal of evil from his humanity, and also from the human mind, and the restoration of its faculties to soundness and right action. But the scribes and the priests of the old and corrupt dispensation were still present, and watching with malignant jealousy his good and benevolent works, and the acceptance he found with the people, and with the very children. The priests demanded of the Lord, "Hearest thou what these say?" To hear means to hear approvingly - to accept the homage which this salutation implied. From the Lord's answer to the Jews, it would seem that, in their estimation, it involved something reproachful for a wise man to listen with approbation to the applause of children. But the Lord did hear them. To the priests' sneering question, Jesus said unto them, Yea. And as he heard and accepted their innocent and hearty praise, he justified both them and himself. Have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? Since their angels always behold the face of the Father, we may conclude that the hosanna to the son of David, sung by the children in the temple, brought angels and men nearer to each other. On this principle, the praise of the children was more perfect than that which had been offered by the multitude. But the Lord in this, as in all other cases, expressed a spiritual truth within the natural truth. The babes and sucklings out of whose mouth the Lord perfects praise are those who are in the innocence of celestial and spiritual wisdom. Praise is perfected when worship proceeds from innocence and wisdom united, when a good understanding from a pure heart, gives to the Lord the praise which is his due, and which includes, as all true praise of the Lord must, a confession of him, as God-man, the root and the offspring of David.

16And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
17And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

16. Infants stand for celestial love and sucklings for innocence. A. 3183.
Innocence is signified by infants or little children. A. 5608.
That to praise God signifies to worship Him, and hence that the praise of Him is the worship of Him, is evident from many passages in the Word. R. 809.
That to give praise to God, and to praise God is to confess Him, and from confession of heart to worship Him. E. 1210.

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COMMENTARY

17. The objections of the chief priests and scribes to the hosannas of the children showed their depravity, and the hatred of the Jewish church against the Lord as Innocence itself; and as such a state indicates the end of all true religion amongst them, which is the consummation of the church, therefore our Lord left them, and went out of the city into Bethany. The Lord leaves the church only when the church leaves him, or when she has degenerated so far as to reject all truth and goodness, for in rejecting these she rejects the Lord, from whom they proceed, and who is present in them. The Jewish church was represented by the city Jerusalem, and the evil and false principles of that church by the chief priests and scribes, whom the Lord left. And when he left these rulers of the church, and departed from the city, he went to Bethany, and lodged there. Bethany was the town of Martha and Mary, whose brother Lazarus the Lord raised from the dead. The raising of Lazarus represented the raising up of a church among the Gentiles. The Lords leaving Jerusalem and going to Bethany represented, that, when the Lord was rejected by the Jews, he was received by the Gentiles - when the church among the Jews should have come to it full end, then would the Lord raise up the church among the nations. When the Lord went from Jerusalem to Bethany, he did not remain, he only lodged there. His sojourn there was temporary; his work was not yet finished.

18Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.

18, 19. The fruit of faith, as it is called, is the primary of faith, faith without fruit, that is without good of life, is only a leaf. Thus the man, who is the tree luxuriant in leaves without fruit, is the fig-tree which withers and is cut down. A. 9337.
By the fig-tree is here also understood the church with the Jewish nation. That with that nation there was not any natural good, but only truth falsified, which considered in itself is mere falsity, is signified by the Lord coming to the fig-tree, and finding on it nothing but leaves. Fruit, which He did not find, signifies natural good, and the leaf truth falsified, which in itself is falsity. Leaf in the Word signifies truth, but the leaf of a tree that is without fruit, signifies what is false, and with respect to that nation, truth falsified because they had the Word in which truths are, but which they falsified by application to themselves whence arose their traditions. That the Jewish nation would never be principled in any natural good from a spiritual origin, which good is called spiritual natural is signified by the words of the Lord, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever, whence from that time it withered away. To wither away meaning that good and truth were no more. The reason why this circumstance took place when the Lord was returning into the city and hungered is, because by the city of Jerusalem is signified the church, and by hungering when predicted of the Lord, is signified to desire good in that church. E. 403.
18-21. A fig-tree signifies natural good in man, because every tree signifies something of the church in man, and thus also man in respect to it. R. 334.

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COMMENTARY

TFG25518. When the Lord had passed the night in Bethany he returned in the morning into the city. This mode of representatively expressing a new state is connected with in incident which describes, by a striking symbolism, the state and consummation of the Jewish church, notwithstanding the Lord's desire to save it. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. Natural hunger the Lord might no doubt feel; but there was a deeper cause for his hunger, and a deeper significance in it, than the natural man may be able to conceive. He had meat to eat that men knew not of: his meat was to do the will of him that sent him, and to finish his work. The Lord's hunger was therefore hunger after righteousness. He desired righteousness in his church and people. He desired this, because without righteousness on the part of the church and her members, they can have no part in the Lord, and he can have no part in them. This was the hunger which Jesus felt, on returning in the morning to the city. It was his intense desire to save his people.

19And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
20And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

19. By this was meant that nothing good, not even
natural good was found on earth. A. 217.
That not even natural good was left with the Jewish nation is signified by the fig-tree spoken of in Matthew. A. 4314.
Rational truths are also signified by leaves, but their signification is according to the species of the trees. The leaves of the olive and the vine signify rational truths from heavenly and spiritual light, the leaves of the fig rational truths from natural light, and the leaves of the fir, the poplar, the oak, the pine, rational truths from sensual light. R. 936.
Every man who from natural is becoming spiritual undergoes two states, the state of reformation and the state of regeneration. Those two states are represented by various things in the universe. The man who stops in the first state and does not enter the second, is like a tree which only bears leaves, and not fruit, concerning which it is said in the Word that it is to be rooted up.
T. 106.
What is an external in man without an internal, but like the fig-tree without its fruit, which the Lord cursed. T. 676.
By the fig-tree is signified the natural man and his interiors, and by the fruit his goods. E. 109.
19, 20. The Jewish church was here meant in particular by the fig-tree, in which there was no longer anything of natural good, but the doctrinals of faith, or the truth which was preserved in it, were the leaves. A. 885,
Unless it be known that all things of the Word contain a spiritual sense, it may be supposed, that the Lord thus acted from indignation because He was hungry, but by a fig-tree, is not understood a fig-tree, but the church as to natural good, and specifically the Jewish church. That there was not any natural good therein, because there was nothing spiritual, but only some truths from the literal sense of the Word, is signified by Jesus finding nothing on the tree but leaves, leaves signifying the truths of the literal sense of the Word. That with that nation there existed no natural good which is of the church, because they were in dense falsities and in evil loves is signified by Jesus saying (see verse 19). E. 386.

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COMMENTARY

19. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. No one who has any faith in the divinity of Jesus, or any conception of the spirituality of his Word, can suppose that this incident has no other than the literal meaning. In the other, gospels where this incident is recorded, Jesus is represented as expecting to find fruit on the fig tree, and cursing it for its barrenness, as if in the indignation produced by disappointment. Do not the whole character and the omniscience of the Lord entirely set such an idea aside? He who knew what was in man could not be ignorant of what was on the fig tree; and he who meekly endured the cruelest treatment from sinners, could not be angry at the unoffending and unconscious fig tree. Is it not obvious that the fig tree which the Saviour met with on his way to Jerusalem was but a type of the church towards which his desires were directed? We need only recognize this general truth, to see the appropriateness of the symbol which the barren tree presented of the state of the Jewish church, and to perceive in the curse pronounced upon it an annunciation of the fate which awaited the unfaithful dispensation. In Scripture a tree is the figure of a member of the church, and thence of the church itself. The character of the church is described by the particular tree selected to represent it. The celestial church is described by the olive tree, the spiritual church by the vine, and the natural by the fig tree. The most ancient church was an olive tree, the ancient was a vine, and the Israelitish church was a fig tree. The fig tree to which the Lord came on his way to Jerusalem was therefore a type of the Jewish church. The church was not, however, rejected or condemned because it was natural. For when we speak of the Jewish church in its normal state being natural, we do not mean that it was natural as opposed to spiritual, but only as interior to it. This church was natural from its commencement; it had no knowledge of spiritual truth, and hardly any of life and immortality. But so long is it continued faithful to the knowledge it possessed, and was obedient to the laws which had been revealed for its government, it remained in a state which gave it conjunction with God, and secured to its members the blessings of salvation. It was only when it had departed from the simplicity and sincerity of its original state, that it became separated from God, and subject to the judgment of condemnation. This was its state at the time our Lord came into the world, and this was indeed the immediate cause of his coming. All that constituted the church had died out among the Jewish people, and nothing could provide for the existence of a church, as a means of salvation, but the Lord's coming into the world. The Lord came in the ardency of divine love, desiring to find the church yielding the fruits of righteousness, but he found it, as he found the fig tree, having nothing thereon but leaves only - the leaves of barren knowledge, of a fair but fruitless profession. And the Lord is represented as being deceived by its luxuriant growth and promising appearance, and disappointed in his just expectation of obtaining fruit to satisfy his hunger, to express that hypocrisy had entered so deeply into the heart of the church, that it desired to deceive not men only but even God himself. Hypocrisy, or simulated religion, eats into the very heart of man, and destroys the roots of goodness, or kills the germs of life in the seeds that have been sown in the heart; and when these have been destroyed, the means of restoration no longer exist. The Lord taught this when he pronounced upon the fig tree the judgment, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever." Divine judgments are not the awarding of consequences only, but the disclosing of states. The Lord's judgment on the fig tree was the utterance of divine truth respecting the Jewish church, that it was utterly devastated that it would produce no fruit of spiritual goodness for ever. And how fully has that judgment been accomplished! The nation continues, but the church is gone. If the church can be said to exist, it is but in name - the lifeless form of the once goodly tree under whose shadow the nations of the earth reposed.

20. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Marvelous, indeed, must have been the change in the tree, transformed at once from a state of luxuriant beauty to one of blasted ugliness. No less marvelous, though less sudden, the change in the state of a church, when stripped of its fair appearances, and reduced to its real condition. To change our view of the subject, not less astonishing and appalling is the change wrought upon those in corresponding states, when they are brought into judgment - when the fair appearance they have assumed and maintained in the world is removed, on the soul's entrance into the other life. The change may not be so sudden, but it is no less certain, as certainty in the spiritual sense, and in the spiritual world, corresponds to suddenness in the natural. According to Mark (xi. 20), it was on the morning of the day after that on which the fig tree had been pronounced for ever fruitless that the disciples beheld it dried up from the roots. So, when our day of probation is done, and the morning of an eternal day dawns upon us, our state is utterly changed. If we have had "no root in ourselves," but the growth of the heavenly seed has only been in the rank soil of our own self-righteousness, the fair appearance will quickly vanish, and leave nothing but the stump in the earth, fit only to be cast into the fire and burned.

21Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
22And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
23And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
24And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
25The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?
26But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.
27And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
28But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
29He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
30And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
31Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
32For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.

21, 22. See Chapter VII., 7, 8. S. 51.
See Chapter VII., 7. R. 951.
See Chapter VII., 7, 8. T. 226,
That these things are not to be understood according to the mere letter may appear from this consideration that it was said to the disciples that if they had faith, they would be able to pluck up mountains, and cast them into the sea. But by faith is here understood faith from the Lord, wherefore it is called the faith of God, They who are in faith from the Lord ask for nothing but what conduces to the Lord's kingdom and their own salvation. Other things they do not desire, for they say in their hearts, why should we ask for anything that is of no such use? E. 815.
21, 22, 31? 32- See Chapter VIII., 10-13. A. 10083.
22. See Chapter VII., 7-8. R. 376. 28-31. See Chapter XX., 1-8. R. 650. 28-32. See Chapter III., 7. A. 4314. 28, 29, 33-41. See Chapter, XX., 1 et seq. A. 9139. 28, 38-41. See Chapter, XX., 1-8. E. 919. 31, 32. The reason of the incredulity of the Jews was, because they wanted a Messiah who should exalt them to glory above all the nations of the earth, and because they were altogether natural, and not spiritual. Also because they had falsified the Word, especially where it treats concerning the Lord and concerning themselves.   E. 815.

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COMMENTARY

21. But this subject has another side - one that affords us a lesson of encouragement after this lesson of warning. The Lord told the disciples, when they expressed their astonishment at the withering away of the fig tree, that they might do what he had done; and he intimated to them that they could do this by faith. If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. The Lord mentions the mountain as well as the fig tree, to intimate to us that there are two kinds of principle to be removed from the mind. The fig tree signifies a false principle that has to be removed from the understanding, and the mountain signifies an evil love that has to be removed from the will. Our faith and love are at first both natural; the one is tainted with the pride of intellect, the other with the pride of life. A spiritual principle underlies the natural, and ultimately, if we persevere, overcomes it. Saving faith, which comes by an internal way, works its way downwards, and expels that historical and scientific faith which has come from without; and that faith, grounded in and working by love to God and man, casts out the love of self and of the world from the heart, as well as self-confident faith from the understanding. But the mountain is not only to be removed, but cast into the sea. This declaration is very significant, and shows how much wisdom is contained in those expressions of the Word that seem merely rhetorical. The sea is a symbol of hell, and to cast the mountain into the sea is to cast evil love forth into the kingdom of evil, whence it came. But what is meant by doing this, and how are we to do it? We cast evil into hell when we believe evil in its origin and nature to be infernal. If we really believed that all evil comes from hell and all good from heaven, we should neither appropriate evil nor claim the merit of goodness. We make evil our own by identifying it with ourselves; for what we believe to be our own, we love as a part of ourselves; and we fail to make good our own by claiming the authorship of it, for we then sever it from God, and defile it with ideas of our own merit. If therefore we would remove the mountain and cast it into the sea, we must practically acknowledge evil as in itself diabolical in its nature and origin, and, as such, resist it in mind and shun it in action.

22. To these particular results of faith, the Lord adds a general promise as the fruit of believing prayer. All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. The previous promise relates to the removal of evil; this refers to the reception of good. And here we see the order according to which regeneration proceeds - the bad must be cast out before the good can be appropriated. We do not say before the good can be received, for evil could not be removed if there was no good in the heart to remove it. Satan does not cast out Satan. We must receive the Spirit of God before we can remove the spirit of evil; but the Spirit of God does not obtain undisputed possession of the heart till the spirit of evil has been dislodged from it. Regeneration consists, therefore, of two parts, - the removal of evil by good, and the substitution of good for evil. Christ casts out demons, and then restores us to a sound mind, by himself dwelling where demons had been. So when faith has cast out the mountain of evil, and withered the fig tree of falsity up from its roots, then all things are given to confiding prayer. True prayer springs from good in the heart, and is directed by truth in the understanding. Such prayer asks only what is consistent with the will of God, and the welfare of the supplicant. It is wild enthusiasm to suppose that, ask what we will, if we only believe, we shall receive it. Every true prayer comes from God, and therefore ascends to him again, If it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, it is he also that worketh in us to desire and ask according to his good pleasure. Prayer is the incense that ascends to God from the altar of a renewed heart, and the holy fire that burns upon it is kindled from heaven, being the Lord's love dwelling in the affections. It is enough for the largest legitimate desire, that whatsoever we ask in faith shall be granted us. Let us only have the faith of God, and we shall receive whatever that faith embraces in its petitions.

JPP455_240_17923-25. When the Lord, after instructing his disciples, was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it from heaven, or of men? These functionaries did not concern themselves with the character of the Lord's teaching and miracles; they questioned his right to do them. In his doings they no doubt included his casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple. In our Lord's answer we see the same wisdom that characterized all his replies to the questions or objections of his subtle adversaries. He would tell them the origin of his authority, if they would tell him the origin of John's baptism. But what, may we suppose, was the Lord's object in submitting this question to their decision, and making his answer contingent upon theirs? If Jesus intended only to nonplus these wily and wary objectors, we can see how well his purpose was answered by the test to which he subjected them. But he who was wisdom itself in person, did everything for a wise end. He did not for cunning with ingenuity, but turned the attempt to defeat the truth into a means of advancing it. Literally considered, there is no very intelligible lesson to be learned from it. We must look at the subject spiritually. Thus regarded, what may we learn from it? What relation had the origin of John's baptism to the origin of Christ's authority to purge the temple and heal and teach within its sacred precincts? John represented the Word, Jesus was the Word itself made flesh. The acknowledgment of the origin of John's baptism is still the condition of acquiring the knowledge of the origin of Christ's authority. Those only who acknowledge the real origin of the written Word can know the real origin of the incarnate Word; those only who recognize the heavenly origin of the purifying truths of revelation can recognize the saving power of him who was revealed once for all as the Truth itself. The baptism of John in Jordan represented the purifying of the external man, by which there is introduction into the church; Jesus purging the temple, and healing and teaching in it, represented the purifying of the internal man. The one work is the necessary precursor of the other. The second cannot be acknowledged, much less experienced, without the first. The Lord himself underwent the baptism of John, preparatory to his entrance on the great work of his ministry. Those who spiritually follow the Lord must be spiritually baptized with the baptism of John; they must pass through the purifying work of repentance before they can become the Lord's disciples. Thus understood, the subject is seen to be one of great practical importance to ourselves. Our own natural reason still demands of the Lord by what authority or power he does his works, and whence he derives it. The Lord said to his disciples that, if they would believe, and doubt not, they would be able to do as he had done to the fig tree. But we may believe, and yet doubt; and active doubt implies latent denial, for doubt is the offspring of belief and unbelief, and the two opposite natures are in it struggling for the mastery, and the result of the conflict is undoubting faith or utter denial. The priests and the elders are the principles of unbelief which rise up in the mind against, and question the Divine authority, even when the Divine power is manifested in ourselves; and against this unbelief the Lord still has to contend. Let us see the result, as it comes out in the present instance.

25, 26. The priests and elders reasoned with themselves. These dignitaries did not reason which was true, to believe, but which it was safe to acknowledge. Like the natural man, they no doubt could have confirmed either proposition, as they would evidently have acknowledged either, according as it might have suited their purpose. It happened to suit their purpose to confess neither, and therefore they asserted their inability to decide. They could not tell whence was the baptism of John. There were two influences acting upon them, which led to this neutral decision, - that of Jesus on the one hand, and that of the multitude on the other. If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? but if we shall say, of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. We are told that when the highest and the lowest principles in man are in a state of order, intermediate principles are ruled and brought into order by their means. Such a state is here represented. The Lord is the highest, the people are the lowest, the priests and the scribes are the intermediate. Yet these intermediate principles have a greater affinity with the lowest than with the highest, for they are the priests and scribes of the people. They were not, indeed, convinced by the influences acting upon them, but they were awed into submission; their hostility was neutralized, so far as its active operation was concerned. And such will ever be the case with us individually. The remains of the old man within us will be checked in its operations when the highest and the lowest, the first and the last things, are in right order. The highest and lowest things of religion are right motives and right actions right motives are those which have respect to the Lord, and right actions are those which have respect to the neighbour. If our love and obedience are sincere, however imperfect, no corruptions of our nature will be able to injure us. The evil promptings and false suggestions of our selfhood will be defeated or neutralized, and finally overcome.

27. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. The power of right ends and actions operates in two ways; it restrains the selfhood from bringing forth falsehood and evil, and from profaning goodness and truth. When the evil desire to know truth, it is that they may use it to serve their own evil ends. As the Jewish hierarchy desired to entangle Jesus in his talk, so they seek truth to pervert and destroy it. To prevent this great sin, the Lord's providence is exerted to hide the things of his Word and the mysteries of his kingdom from the wise and prudent, and reveal them unto babes. For this end he spake in parables; for this end he defeated the cunningly devised questions of the chief among the Jews; and for this end he refused to tell the priests and scribes by what authority he did those things which they beheld him perform in the temple. This teaches us that when we find our own perverse reason casting stumbling blocks in the way of the Son of man, by insinuating doubts of the power and authority of his truth, and seeking to evade its chastening but beneficent operations upon ourselves, we must save the truth from such profanation, by shutting the mouth of the evil ones speaking in our hearts, and defeat their end by denying them the means. We must not encourage evil thoughts respecting the truth and good of heaven, when they arise in our hearts, but silence them and put them down by a wise and temperate exercise of the authority with which the Truth itself has invested us.

28-32. When the Lord in his wisdom had made his haughty interrogators defeat their own object, he proceeded to instruct them by parables, that he might lead them to a knowledge of their own character, and show them the danger to which they were exposed. The first which our Lord addressed to them was the parable of the man who had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, the first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. On the Lord's asking the priests and scribes "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" they at once answered, "The first." Having drawn from them an acknowledgment of right and wrong in relation to the conduct of the persons of the parable, he pointed out to them that their own conduct to John the Baptist had been that of the fair but false son of the parable to his father, while the conduct of the publicans and harlots had been like that of the disobedient but repentant son, whom they themselves had pronounced to be the one who did the will of his father. John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. This parable is instructive, as showing how mere formalism in religion has a tendency to harden the heart and engender spiritual pride, and render men less capable of being awakened to a sense of sin than some who live a less correct external life. The Lord's teaching offers no encouragement to sin, but only gives a warning against self-righteousness. Difficult as it may be to bring sinners to repentance, it is still more difficult to produce penitence in those who "think themselves righteous, and despise others." This useful lesson lies upon the surface of the parable. There are deeper truths in its spiritual sense - truths that reveal the causes and nature of the internal states which are outwardly exhibited as the parable represents them. That pharasaical element, which says and does not, and which comes out in professional holiness and formal piety, exists either as an active or latent principle in every human mind, where also are the publican and the harlot. Under the smooth and tranquil surface of ecclesiastical order and religious observance in the church we see a struggle going on for honour and self-aggrandizement, we have only to turn our sight inward to see the same condition of things either in act or in effort in ourselves. All have in them the same elements of character, the only difference being that some allow them free course, whilst others strive conscientiously against them. With all, too, there are some evils that lie more upon the surface, and are therefore better seen, but which may be less malignant than others that are more deeply seated and less observed. Infirmities of temper are less malignant than corrupt dispositions, such as hatred and revenge; for the temper may be ruffled by a momentary excitement, while revenge often lies as a smouldering fire, ready to burst forth when opportunity occurs. A hasty temper, like the first son of the parable, may say No to the father's command, but as quickly turn and do his will; while an evil heart may, like the second son, say Yes, without any intention of doing what he requires. The first son of the parable typifies those persons whose internal is better than their external; while the second son typifies those whose external is better than their internal. The first are they who, notwithstanding their evil lives, have some remains of good left, upon which the Lord can operate so as to produce repentance; while the second are they who, not withstanding the profession of righteousness they make, are yet inwardly in the spirit and intention of disobedience, which hardens the heart, so as to produce intentional and settled impenitence. Individually applied, evils of the external man are meant by the first son, evils of the internal man are meant by the second. By evils of the external man we mean evils in act; by evils of the internal we mean evils in intention. Evil actions cannot, indeed, proceed from good motives; but some good actions may proceed from worse motives than some evil actions. The worst state in regard to spiritual and eternal life is that of saying and doing not; more hopeful is the state of saying No, for it indicates some amount of honesty and consistency that may be worked upon by the truth. The difference in these cases is something like that between a word against the Son of man and the sin against the Holy Spirit - the one is an offence against the letter, the other against the spirit of the law; the one offends against its outward command, the other against its indwelling spirit. Therefore, when the Word comes to us in the way of righteousness, calling us to repentance, and offering to wash us from our impurities in the living stream of divine truth - the Jordan through which we must pass if we would enter the Canaan of the church and heaven - we should obey the call, and come with an undivided mind, earnestly desiring to be made clean, knowing that the righteous only shall possess the land.

33Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:

33. That wisdom, intelligence, reason and knowledge are not of man, but of the Lord, is very evident from what the Lord teaches — as in Matthew where the Lord compares Himself to a householder. A. 124.
When the church of the Lord is compared to a vineyard, those things which belong to worship and to its conservation are compared to a winepress, and to a tower in the vineyard. A. 1306.
The vineyard stands for the spiritual church, the noble vine (see Isaiah v. i, 2) for spiritual good, and the tower built in the midst of it for the interior things of truth. A. 4599.
33-39- See Chapter XX., 1-8. R. 650.
The reason that exploration is signified by a winepress is, that in winepresses the new wine is pressed out of the clusters, and the oil out of the olives, and from the new wine and oil pressed out it is perceived of what quality the clusters and the olives were. R. 651.
33-41. Since the vine signifies the spiritual church, and the primary thing of the spiritual church is charity, in which the Lord is present, and by means of which He conjoins Himself to man, and Himself alone works every good, therefore the Lord compares Himself to a vine.
33 and He describes the man of the church or the spiritual church in John xv. 1-5, 12. A. 1069.
That works are what make the man of the church, and that he is saved according to them, the Lord also teaches
in the parables, very many of which imply that they who do good are accepted, and they who do evil are rejected,
as in the parable of the husbandman in the vineyard, and
of the talents and the pounds. Life 2.
The foregoing statement of Life 2 is partly repeated in T. 483.
See Chapter X., 17, 18. E. 122.
33-39, 41, 43. See Chapter III., 10. R. 934.
33 et seq., 45- By the vineyard which the father of the family planted is signified the church instituted with the sons of Jacob. By the hedge which he set about it is signified a guard from the falses of evil which are from hell, and digged a winepress in it signifies that it had spiritual good, and built a tower signifies interior truths from that good which looked to heaven. And let it out to husbandmen signifies to that people, who slew the servants that were sent to them, signifies the prophets, and lastly his son, signifies the Lord. E. 922.
See Chapter III., 7. A. 4314.
See Chapter III., 7. A. 9320.
33, 37, 38. To possess by inheritance and to inherit in the Word, when they are predicted of men, signify to receive life from the Lord, consequently eternal life or heaven, for they alone receive heaven who receive the Lord's life. A. 2658.

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COMMENTARY

33-41. The Lord put forth another parable. A householder lets out his vineyard to husbandmen, who not only refuse to render the fruit of the vineyard, but injure or kill those who are sent to receive it. In the internal historical sense this parable relates to the Jewish people, who had been entrusted with the Divine oracles, and formed into a church. To them the Lord sent prophets and other messengers, to induce them to render to him the fruits of righteousness, but these messengers they condemned, or persecuted, or destroyed; and when at last he sent his Son, or came in the form of a man, they conspired against him as the heir, that they might make his inheritance their own. And the conclusion of the parable is, that the kingdom should be taken from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; which was fulfilled when the church was transferred from the Jews to the Gentiles. The spiritual sense does not relate to any one particular church, but is of universal application, having reference neither to time nor place, but to states of spiritual life, which are states of truth and goodness, or to the opposite states of falsity and evil. In this sense, as in the other, the vineyard signifies the church, but the church as formed in man by the Lord implanting in his mind the principles of goodness and truth. These principles constitute the church, or, what amounts to the same, religion. Where there is no religion, there is no church. And neither religion nor the church can exist amongst men except so far as they exist in them. But the church, while it exists in its principles in the mind, exists in its fruits in the life. Between the implanting of religion in the mind, and the producing of its fruits in the life, the great struggle takes place; for conflict and sorrow are experienced in bringing forth into actual life that which has been implanted in the mind. In the purely spiritual sense, in reference to individual regeneration, this struggle is described by the resistance of the husbandmen to the will of the householder, which means the resistance of the external man to the will of the internal. The servants who were successively sent by the householder to the husbandmen, to receive the fruit of the vineyard, are the truths proceeding from the internal into the external man, to cause or enable him to yield the fruits of righteousness, and induce him to ascribe them, not to himself, but to the internal, and through the internal to the Lord, by whose power he produces them. The Son, who is sent last of all, is good proceeding immediately from the internal, and appealing to the highest affections of the natural mind. In all these cases the husbandman are represented as hating, stoning, and killing those who were sent unto them, and lastly, casting out and slaying the Son himself. Like the historical facts which this so plainly describes, this murderous conduct does not represent the actual rejection or destruction of the good and true principles that come from the Lord through the inner man, but only the temptations and trials which those principles undergo in the natural mind, ending in their dying, and rising into a new and higher life, as our Lord himself did after he had been crucified by the Jews. The parable ends, indeed, by the vineyard being taken from those husbandman to whom it had been let, and given to others. But when these two different husbandmen represent different faculties in the same mind, the taking of the vineyard from one class and giving it to another represents only the transfer of the church from one faculty to another. The first husbandmen signify the thoughts of the understanding, the second signify the affections of the will. The effect of regeneration is to elevate the principles of the church out of the understanding into the will. To describe this, the Lord says, "The kingdom shall be taken from you (the Jewish people), and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; for the term nation, as distinguished from the term people, signifies the will as distinguished from the understanding; and as the principles of the church, or of good and truth, when they are elevated into the will, come forth into the life in works that are really good, the vineyard is said to be given to a nation "bringing forth the fruits thereof." This is a brief outline of the meaning of the parable, when viewed in its application to the individual man who is passing through the regenerate life; but many significant and interesting particulars are contained in it which it may be useful to consider.

33. There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. The Lord no doubt intended to make this parable not simply graphic, but instructive, every particular having a spiritual meaning. The planting of a vineyard signifies, we have seen, implanting the principles of the church in the internal man, and the setting a hedge about it signifies the establishment of order in the external. Principles of life and laws of order are to each other as a vineyard and a hedge, or as a city and its walls. Principles constitute the kingdom of God in man, and laws are its guard and protection. Every work of order has its laws. The universe is hedged about with laws, without which it would fall into confusion and dissolution. The church and state have their laws, and so have social and domestic life. Principles and laws are the first and the last things in the Lord's kingdom in man, and these form its essentials. But there are intermediate things necessary to its completeness and perfection, and these are meant by the winepress and the tower. The winepress and tower are emblematical of things of the rational mind. The pressing of the grape is analogous to the thrashing of the corn, as the subsequent fermentation of the wine is to the leavening of the bread. On this account the treading of the winepress is frequently used as an emblem of judgment, which is called the treading of the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Rev. xix. 15). Yet judgment is not only God's general work of separating the good from the evil in the spiritual world, but his particular work of separating good from evil in the human mind When the householder had made every preparation necessary for the working of the vineyard, he let it out to husbandman, and went into a far country. When the Lord, as the Creator, has formed the human being, and endowed him with every faculty that belongs to his nature, and provided him with every means that may be requisite for the proper and profitable exercise of his faculties, he leaves him to work out his own salvation. His leaving him to himself is only an appearance, or rather, it is a mode of expressing the fact of man's being left to act from liberty, and under a full sense of his responsibility.

34And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
35And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
36Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.
37But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
38But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
39And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

34, 40, 41, 43. See Chapter III., 8, 9. A. 1017.

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COMMENTARY

34. But although the owner of the vineyard went into a far country, when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. The servants whom the Lord sends are the truths of his Word, which seasonably remind us of our stewardship, and require us, while we enjoy the Divine bounty, to acknowledge whence we derive the blessing. Nor is it enough to make this acknowledgment in words; we must make it in deeds - not with the intellect only, but with the heart. This practical acknowledgment is meant by rendering unto the Lord of the fruit of the vineyard; the verbal and intellectual acknowledgement had been made when the vineyard was hired, for this was the condition. Here our real labours and temptations begin. It is easy to acknowledge with the understanding that all our blessings come from God; to acknowledge this with the heart and in the life, can only be accomplished with trial and perseverance. The natural mind resists with all its power, and many struggles are required to overcome its opposition. This is described in what now follows.

35. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. The temptation of which we have spoken is in some sort the result of the labour; for when by labour we have procured fruit, we are tempted to think that we owe it entirely to our own exertions, and may therefore claim it as our own. The Divine Husbandman sends his messengers to us, to claim his share of the fruit which the vineyard that his hand has planted in our hearts has yielded. Although we are left free, we are not left without a witness, to remind us of what is our duty, that we may freely do it. And even then we are left at liberty; for the husbandman did not command his servants to take of the fruits by force, but only to require what was his due. The natural mind manifests its enmity to the truth in various ways and degrees of malignity. It is disposed to pervert the truth, which is meant by beating one of the servants; to reject it, which is meant by killing another, and to falsify it, which is meant by stoning another.

36. But the Divine mercy does not leave them to themselves. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. As the unregenerate man falls into deeper states of evil, and as the regenerate man falls into deeper states of temptation, the Lord applies to them other truths more suited to their states, and therefore capable of enabling them to resist evil and do good, and to render to him the fruits of their life and experience. But those to whom the vineyard had been let out did to the second as they had done to the first servants. Their state and conduct were not such as the mercies they had received should have produced.

37. The Divine mercy of the Lord still follows his sinful creatures with the means and offer of salvation. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. The sending of his son - the coming of the Lord into the world - is the crowning act of Divine Goodness to his rebellious subjects. The son is God himself in human nature - the Divine truth coming forth from and manifesting the Divine love. This truth, the offspring and the express image of the Divine love, is the truth, the knowledge of which makes us free indeed, but the rejection of which makes us hopeless bondmen. Those who reject the truth of doctrine from their understandings are too liable to reject the truth of love from their hearts. This truth it is that puts in the strongest claim for the Lord's share of the fruit of the vineyard, by urging the practical acknowledgment of his claim to the merit of our works, and the authorship and ownership of the faculties that produce them.

38. But it is this that provokes the natural desire most strongly to claim that merit and ownership for itself. The united cry of the husbandmen is, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. To extinguish the voice of divine love, and set up our own right to what is the lawful inheritance of the Lord - to claim righteousness as our own, instead of acknowledging the Lord as our righteousness, - this is the sin that separates finally and fully between us and our God.

39. The rejection of the truth, which offers to make us free, is described by the husbandmen's treatment of the son. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. This is expressive of complete rejection: for their taking him is expressive of rejection from the will; casting him out of the vineyard, of rejection from the understanding; and slaying him, of rejection from the whole mind and life.

40When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
41They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

40, 41. See Chapter VIII., n, 12. Life 65.
40-43. See Chapter V., 19. E. 785.

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COMMENTARY

40. Then comes the judgment. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh - a coming of the Lord to judgment, which takes place when the state of evil is full, and ripe for decision. This takes place with a church only when its state is so completely devastated as to admit of no restoration. Such was the state of the Jewish church when it had consummated its wickedness by slaying the Lord, who came in the character of a Saviour; then did the Lord return to judgment, making a complete end. It is only when the evil are guilty of corresponding conduct that their judgment overtakes. The Lord does not himself describe the judgment, but demands of those who were to be judged what the judgment should be. What will he do unto those husbandmen?

41. And the husbandmen give the answer, - He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. This involves an important truth in relation to judgment. In the spiritual world no one is judged till he himself is not only convicted but convinced of the character of his own state, and of its necessary consequences. Every one, so to speak, judges himself. "I," said the Lord, "judge no man: the word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day." The unpractised truth that we carry with us into the other world is that which judges us to perdition. Everyone is judged by and according to the light he has received. Here is justice as well as mercy. The less light, the less condemnation to those who do evil; for it is light that makes evil to be evil - that makes man responsible for his actions, and blameable for his evil deeds. "To whom much is given, of them much will be required." To the Lord's questions "What will he do to those husbandmen?" the Jews answer, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." This expresses another truth or law of judgement, as enunciated by the Lord himself: "Take from him the talent, and give it to him that hath ten talents "Unto him that hath shalt be given; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." From those who have only truth, that truth will be taken away; to those who have only good, that good will be enriched with truth. It is therefore said that the vineyard should be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof; for the term nation, as distinguished from that of people, signifies those who are in good, as distinguished from those who are in truth.

42Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

42. Corners stand for strength and firmness. The reason why corners have this signification is, because in them is the greatest resistance and also the connection of the whole. As corner stands for strength and firmness, such as is that of Divine truth from Divine good, therefore the Lord is called the stone of the corner. A. 9494.
That a corner signifies the ultimate which sustains things higher, as the foundation does a house, and so also all things is manifest. R. 342.
Since every doctrine of truth from the Word must be founded upon the acknowledgment of the Lord, the Lord is therefore called the stone of Israel (Gen. xlix. 24), also the corner stone which the builders rejected. R. 915.
By the corner stone is signified all Divine truth upon which heaven and the church are founded, thus every foundation, and in as much as the foundation is the ultimate upon which a house or temple rests, therefore it signifies all things. E.417.
That the Lord the Saviour Jesus Christ is called in the Word of both testaments a stone and a rock is plain from many passages. Isaiah xxviii. 16, 17 : Zechariah x. 3, 4, etc. Coro. 2.
42, 43. The stone is the Lord. The builders are they who are of the church. A. 9256.
42-44. Passages quoted. Coro. 60.
Passages quoted. D. P., Page 50.
42, 44. The stone in the supreme sense is the Lord as to the Divine truth of His spiritual kingdom. A. 6426.
Stone signifies Divine truth, and the stone of Israel the Lord as to the Divine Human, the builders are they who are of the church. The head of the corner is where the two ways are, to fall and to be broken is to deny and perish. H. 534.
Divine truth is signified by a stone, and the Lord as to Divine truth is understood by a rock. E. 411.

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COMMENTARY

JCS55342. When our Lord had finished his parable, and drawn from his auditors its practical meaning, he proceeded to point out an important prophecy relating to himself, as rejected by the Jews and received and acknowledged by the Gentiles. Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? This stone, this precious corner-stone, this sure foundation, is the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a profound truth in this symbolism. The Lord is called a stone because a stone is a symbol of truth - he is called the Stone because he was the Truth itself. And he is called a foundation and corner-stone because, by assuming humanity as it exists in the world, he brought himself, as the Eternal Truth, or the Word, into manifestation in the ultimate sphere of existence, for the redemption and salvation of the human race, and so became the foundation on which the church and heaven should rest, the corner-stone by which they should be held together. As the Stone, he was rejected by the builders of the Jewish church, or by the carnal builders in the church universal; but he, nevertheless, not only without their aid, but against their will, became the head of the corner. As this figure relates to the building of the temple, in the highest sense it refers to the Temple of the Lord's body, the glorification of which was completed by the stone becoming the head of the corner, when heaven and the church, angels and holy men, shouted grace, grace unto it. This was indeed the Lord's doing, for it was a work purely divine - and it is marvelous in the eyes of angels and men, for it is the great mystery of godliness - the great marvel of divine wisdom as well as of divine love. Subordinately to, and correspondently with, this work, the Lord becomes the head of the corner when he is acknowledged in his Divine Humanity as the head of the church; and especially when he has become the supreme good and truth in the heart and mind of man.

43Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
45And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.
46But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.

43. See Chapter III., 8, 9. A. 7690. See Chapter V., 19, 20. Life 2.
See Chapter VIIL, n, 12. Life 65.
See Chapter III., 8. Life 104.
See Chapter VII., 19, 20. P. 128.
See Chapter III., 2. R. 749.
See Chapter III., 8. T. 483.
See Chapter XI., 11. T. 572.
That the kingdom of God there signifies the church as to truths, thus also the truths of the church, is manifest from ^ts being said that it should be taken away from them, and given to a nation bringingTorth the fruits thereof, and fruit signifies good. E. 48.

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COMMENTARY

43. As a consequence of their refusing him as the chief corner-stone, the Lord said unto them, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Those who receive him form the "nation" to whom the kingdom is given - the good to whom truth is imparted; while those from whom the kingdom is taken away are such as have been in evil, and who, though they had known, had not obeyed the truth.

44. Reverting again to the figure under which prophecy had spoken of him, the Lord delivers a solemn admonition to all to whom he, as the Truth, is revealed. Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. This no doubt describes two different kinds of opposition to the truth, with their different results. We fall upon the stone when our opposition to the truth arises from falsity, and the stone falls upon us when our opposition to it arises from evil. Of those who fall upon the stone it is said they shall be broken - of those on whom the stone falls, that it shall grind them to powder. To break in pieces is to divide and separate the parts which together form one whole - thus the truths united under one good may have their connection with that good broken, which may involve the serious damage or destruction of a man's faith. To grind or reduce to powder denotes not only the dividing of truths from their good, and from each other, but the dissipation of the truths themselves, and the consequent destruction of every principle of faith and love. Understood in relation to the regenerate, it no doubt has a favourable meaning. Judgment is the separation of the good and the evil, and the determination of both to their final state. Individually, judgment separates all that is good and true from the wicked, and everything evil and false from the righteous. What is here rendered, "ground to powder," literally means dissipated like chaff - a mode of expression applied to the wicked, who are like chaff which the wind driveth away (Ps. l. 4). But the righteous stand in the judgment; the only effect upon them is, that it sifts them as wheat, removing what imperfections and infirmities have obscured their excellences.

45, 46. When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. In this conduct we see a not uncommon result of reproof. Instead of being humbled, the sinner is too often exasperated by having his sins pointed out. The enmity manifested in all ages against the written Word, by wicked and impenitent men, is caused by its laying open their secret sins, and announcing the condemnation they bring upon themselves. And many of these, too, would willingly lay hands upon the Word, were it not that they fear the multitude, whose faith reposes on its teaching and promises. The inward belief of the faithful secures for the Word and religion the outward respect of many of the unbelieving. Outward respect or restrained hatred will not avert, and may not even mitigate, the final judgment but it has the effect of aiding the cause of external decency and order in the present world. But how much do the priest and the Pharisee in ourselves rise up against reproof; and how often would they seek to lay unhallowed hands upon the truth, were they not restrained by the influence of our better feelings.

Let us cultivate those feelings, and love to bring under their dominion the tempers and dispositions of our corrupt selfhood, till they submit themselves to the Divine will and wisdom.

AUTHOR: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (COMPILED BY ROBERT S. FISCHER AND LOUIS G. HOECK 1906)

COMMENTARY AUTHOR: WILLIAM BRUCE (1866)

PICTURES: JAMES TISSOT Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum

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