Jesus of Nazareth, first and foremost, was a teacher during his natural lifetime. After he completed his extremely hopeful and moving “Sermon on the Mount”, he descended the mountain and began putting his words into action, making real his work among the people. The Reverend William Bruce, who published an in-depth commentary on the Gospel of Matthew in 1867, pointed out that the act of coming down off of a mountain-top might be interpreted by some as moving from an enlightened state to a more worldly state, but for Swedenborgians more accurately depicts ourselves after we have been inspired by truth. It is written the great crowds followed him, and we often visualize this as the Lord being followed by a multitude of people. In our experience, however, the multitudes are the thoughts and feelings that accompany us everywhere we go, inspired or not. After the personal epiphanies that grace our times of reflection, we need to re-enter the world, with all of our cares and concerns following us, hoping that the new perspective that the Lord has given us will make our life different, enriched, and peaceful.
This is an example of a Swedenborgian reading of the Word, an ongoing effort to uncover the “inner sense”. If the books of the Hebrew Scriptures are so much more lively and meaningful when we read them “correspondentially”, where every element of the story conveys to us a bit of our spiritual reality, why are we less prone to read the Gospels in the same spirit? What does the story of Jesus correspond to in our own spiritual development? Last week, we examined some of what Jesus saidcorrespondentially. This week, I’d like to examine what he did, namely, the instances of his miraculous healing.
Jesus began healing as soon as he stepped off the mountain, when he was approached by a man stricken with leprosy. Today, leprosy (or Hanson’s Disease) is extremely rare and extremely treatable, a bacterial infection that responds well to antibiotics, but in biblical times it was still very much a mystery. Swedenborg wrote that leprosy corresponds to a “profanation of truth” or, in other words, a denial in act of a heavenly notion that has been legitimately inspired. Spiritual leprosy is acting contrary to what we profess to be true. It’s “talking the talk, but not walking the walk”. Like the biological leprosy that becomes evident on the skin, spiritual leprosy becomes visible in our outward behavior to anyone who’s paying attention, and anyone who cares enough will call it out when they see it. We might think of it as an imbedded form of hypocrisy, rooted in our personality.
The leprous man that approached Jesus knelt before him, acknowledged that he was in need, and further acknowledged that Jesus had the power to cleanse him of the disease. Likewise, when we can acknowledge that we need to be cleansed of the falsities we have taken into our doctrines and we can confess that there have been times we haven’t lived up to the standards that we have professed—what Swedenborg and the rest of Christianity calls “confession”—then the Lord acts to change this flaw in our character. We can be cleansed of our hypocrisy. Even more, the Lord can remove our desire to be hypocritical in the future. The Divine Presence in our life actually has the power to do this, if we sincerely desire to have it done. There’s the real miracle, if you ask me! It may not happen with us “instantaneously” as it did with the man’s disease, but as Rev. Bruce put it, what is instantaneous in regard to time represents what is certain in regard to state; for the soul is not subject to time. For “immediately” we have only to read “certainly”, and we have the assurance which the spiritual language of revelation expresses, that to those who sincerely desire it, and co-operate with the Lord to receive it, salvation is sure.
The Lord’s second healing miracle happens when he enters the city of Capernaum, a city on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee and allegedly the fishing town where Jesus and many of the Disciples grew up. As a city in general corresponds to a particular doctrine—a way of thinking and feeling—Swedenborg identifies Capernaum as a doctrine in which one is eager to be taught. A centurian is, as you may have guessed, a Roman military officer, so what is he doing coming to a Jewish teacher with his helmet in his hands, asking for the healing of his servant? As we ponder this, we can become mired by what we know, or think we know, about the political situation of the day, but to Jesus the man was a Gentile, a human being who wanted to live a good life but did not have the benefit of Scripture, the biblical narrative, to serve as an ethical and moral guide. As a military man, he pictured truths in us that fight against that which is in opposition to a good life, however we define that, and his job was to protect Capernaum. We might say that he corresponds to our rationality which protects our integrity.
His beloved servant, which would correspond to ideas that serve the higher principles of doctrine, was afflicted with paralysis, or “palsy” according to other translations of the Bible. This servant wanted to serve, but couldn’t move, and that’s a terrifying state to be in, to want to do good, but not to have the power or the freedom to do good. Jesus offers to come to the centurian’s house to heal the servant. The centurian, however, turns down the offer. I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. How odd for a man in his position to say that. Jesus recognizes the centurian’s words as an expression of a faith that realizes the principles of love and wisdom cannot appropriately be “under the roof” of any personal doctrine. The centurian was not worthy to subordinate Divine principles to anything else in the life. If there is anything positive to say about a Roman soldier, it is his commitment to proper order.
Jesus not only heals the servant, allowing once again a desire to serve benefit the appropriately ordered mind, he also teaches that salvation is not determined by one’s particular allegiance. Swedenborg makes the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles in Jesus’ time as those “in truth without good” (the Jewish leadership, who had Scripture) and those “in good without truth” (the centurian, the Good Samaritan, and others who were outside of the Jewish faith). To sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is to be engaged in a progressively developing spirituality. Weeping and gnashing of teeth corresponds to a state of being without good and feverishly grasping for truth. One’s healthy spirituality, Jesus seems to be saying here, is not determined by the religion of one’s birth, but is possible for all people, all religions, everywhere (it’s ironic that Swedenborg was tried for heresy for saying the very same thing!).
So far, Jesus has brought healing to our hypocrisy and our spiritual paralysis. His next miracle was to heal the mother-in-law of Peter. Here is where the art of correspondence gets kind of fun. If Peter represents our faith, then his wife would correspond to the affection for a life of faith, or living a life of faith not only because you think it’s a good idea, but because you take joy in it. Peter’s wife’s mother would represent the good in one’s life that has given birth to that affection. Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever, which pictures a burning desire for evils that threatens the well-being of the whole. When the Lord “touches her hand” which bestows upon a person the power to resist these evils (because a hand corresponds to power), this good can once again rise up a serve our affection for the Divine in life. In addition to the healing of our leprous hypocrisy and our inability to turn our will to do good into action, the Lord also heals us of our internal attraction to the evils that can overwhelm us as we strive to be of service to others.
Each of these internal maladies pulls us away from our spiritual paths, the way through the wilderness we have all been instructed to walk. As human beings, we are susceptible to each of them and we must be vigilant against them in ourselves. Just as a disease forces us out of a healthy internal equilibrium, spiritual diseases like the ones we have discussed this morning force us off a right path of loving behavior. They can really take hold of us, too, until we come to believe that there is no way we can get better, but the clear message here is that there is no spiritual malady that the Lord cannot heal, and there is no path that cannot be restored. The essence of healing is to restore equilibrium, to put us back on the right path, to empower us to keep moving forward in our efforts to embrace heaven in our lives. To be healed spiritually is to be delivered from evils and falsities. When we don’t believe that we have the power to fend off the behaviors, the flaws, the addictions that keep us from living a healthy life, the Lord reminds us that healing is still possible. Like the Israelites walking through the wilderness, following God through Moses and wondering if they were ever going to get there, so we are encouraged to keep following the path of love, keep true to our faith, and be ever willing to remain open to the Lord’s healing.
The poem “Ithaka”, which we heard at the beginning of our service today, is one of my favorites, mainly because it reminds me that growth is a journey that can sometimes feel like it’s taking too long. It also reminds me that there is a wealth of experience to be had along the way, which can be lost if we are constantly focused on the destination. I also like the idea that the obstacles we face on the journey are only obstacles if we give power to them, much like the temptations that inhibit our spiritual progress. There was another Roman, Marcus Aurelius, who wrote that bad fortune, accepted with intelligence and grace, becomes good fortune. In a very similar way, our spiritual maladies, those temptations and challenges that can cause us to veer from our paths of blessedness, can become strengths when we permit the Lord to teach us through them, and in turn to heal us.
Dearest Lord, we ask for your help as we continue along the path that you are showing us, especially as we look within and identify those parts of us that need healing. Help us to remember that you are always available to us, in many ways, to give us a fresh perspective, to empower us to put aside our tendency toward self-centeredness, and to accept the correction that you provide through your inspired Word. Like all those who have been healed, give us the opportunity to rise up so that we may serve you better. Amen.
READINGS
Deuteronomy 5:28-33
The Lord heard your words when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me: “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you; they are right in all that they have spoken. If only they had such a mind as this, to fear me and to keep all my commandments always, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! Go say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.” You must therefore be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn to the right or to the left. You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess.
Matthew 8:1-15
When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour. When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him.
Reading from Emanuel Swedenborg’s Apocalypse Explained #365.32
[In Jeremiah 33:6 it is written:] Behold I will cause to go up unto them cure and healing; and I will heal them, and will reveal unto them and abundance of peace and truth.
This is said of the Lord, that [the Divine] will deliver from evils and falsities those who are in conjunction with [love and wisdom]. Deliverance from evils and falsities is signified by I will cause to go up unto them cure and healing; and I will heal them; for to be healed spiritually is to be delivered from evils and falsities, and as this is done by the Lord by means of truths it is said, and will reveal unto them and abundance of peace and truth.
Ithaka
by C.P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.