Church of the Holy City

Ther Greatest Miracle Ever

The Greatest Miracle Ever
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
Easter Sunday
April 4, 2010

On Easter Sunday the greatest miracle in human history happened. Jesus rose from the grave. Jesus rose body and soul, as no human can. We leave our physical body behind when we transition to the next plane. But Jesus’ material body was so intimately joined with God that even His physical body came to life. The risen Christ was physical enough that He could eat a fish. He did so to show His apostles that He was not a ghost, which is what they thought at first. But Christ’s body was so spiritual that He could go through walls, which is what He did after eating a supper with the apostles.
But the greatest aspect of this miracle is that with the resurrection, God and Man became fully united. This means that the Creator of the universe, who existed before time, now has a human body. This means that God has all the levels of personality that we have. God has a soul, an internal person, a rational mind, a natural mind, a sensual degree, and a physical body.
Before His incarnation, God’s Humanity was the angelic heaven. He flowed down through the layers of heaven to the humans on the earthly plane. But by the time of His incarnation, the powers of darkness had clouded the connection between heaven and earth. God assumed a human form so that He could come to earth through His own Divine Humanity, and does so now. God’s Divine Humanity is a powerful channel through which God’s own life, love, and wisdom flow into our hearts, minds, and souls.
God came to earth to save the whole human race. His sole concern was that humans would let God into their hearts and know the joy of love. His sole concern was that humans would know the love that would give them eternal happiness in heaven with God. And His work on earth was tireless. He taught; He healed; He communed with humans; He comforted. And the risen Christ continues to do all these things for us in our hearts, minds, and souls.
Throughout His life on earth, God and Human were in a process. At times, Jesus’ consciousness was in the human he took on from Mary. During these times, He spoke to God as if to another person. This is illustrated most profoundly in His prayer at Gethsemane, where He prayed to the Father be released from His impending trial and crucifixion. And at other times He was fully united with the Father, as in the transfiguration on the mountain top when He shone like lightning. Or at other times, as when He was talking with His disciples. John records such a time, when Jesus says to Philip,
Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? (John 14:9-10)
Likewise, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). On the cross, Jesus fully yielded to the human condition and knew death. On Easter Sunday He became fully Divine and rose from the dead.
Swedenborgian theology is very different from that of traditional Christianity. In traditional Christianity, there is some sort of difference between Jesus and God. In traditional Christianity, Jesus’s death on the cross is seen as a sacrifice that reconciles God to humans. For traditional Christians, then, the crucifixion is the main act of salvation. For them, Christ bore all our sins on the cross, and belief in His sacrifice is what saves a person. This belief system is called “the atonement.” So in atonement theology, the emphasis is on the crucifixion.
But for Swedenborgians, Christ’s full union with God the Father is the main point. This occurred on Easter Sunday, when everything merely human that God inherited from Mary was put off. And after putting off the humanity inherited from Mary, Jesus put on a Divine Humanity. This process of putting off the human from Mary and putting on the Divine Humanity is called “glorification.” And in the resurrection, Jesus became fully glorified–that is, united fully with God who is His soul. Swedenborg teaches that the power to come to us through the Divine Human is what saves us. We are saved to the extent that we embody God’s love and wisdom. And that love and wisdom comes to us from God’s Divine Human. So for Swedenborgians, it is not the crucifixion that is the main point, it is the glorification. We do not emphasize the passion of the cross, but the resurrection on Easter Sunday. This is why Swedenborgian churches do not display a crucifix–that is, a cross with Jesus hanging on it. We display the bare cross itself as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection and of our own ascension up into heaven. The vertical and horizontal crosspieces symbolize the love and wisdom we accept from God.
What could be more comforting than a God who knows the human condition? A God who has gone through all the stages that we go through. A God who knew birth and family. A God who knew friendship and love. A God who knew sorrow and disappointment. A God who knew betrayal and abandonment.
And yet this is a God who triumphed over all that life can give us. Jesus tells us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And earlier in John’s Gospel we are told, “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, he gave the power to become the children of God” (John1:12). In Christ’s Divine Humanity, we can bear any trouble we confront. And in Christ’s Divine Humanity, we can rejoice in all the good things that come to us.
Just as Jesus was born into the world 2,000 years ago, so today we need to ask the risen Christ into our world. We need to ask Christ to live in our hearts and minds. We need to invite the power of Christ’s love into our hearts, and we need to ask Christ’s wisdom to inspire our thinking. At Christmas we sing about the advent of Immanuel. In Hebrew, Immanuel means, “God with us.” And with the resurrection, God is with us in an intimate and powerful way. Swedenborg tells us that God appears in heaven as a sun in the sky. He tells us further that with the resurrection, the spiritual sun grew seven times brighter. Through His Divine Humanity, God’s power over darkness is ours to call upon in our own struggles. And through His Divine Humanity, God can fill us with His own love, joy, and innocence so that we can live with Him in heavenly happiness forever. It is all ours for the asking.
The miracle of the resurrection takes place in each of us in a figurative way. Just as Jesus fought against the hells, put off the humanity inherited from Mary, and put on the glorified Divine Humanity, so the Christ works a miracle in our souls. When we call upon Him, Christ’s power enters us with its’ cleansing love and drives out our negative tendencies and actual actions. As the Humanity of Jesus was elevated into union with the Father, so our souls are elevated into union with the Christ. It is only through God’s power, acting through His Divine Humanity, that we are borne upward into heaven. It is only through God’s power, acting through His Divine Humanity, that we do good works. So Christ says,
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
So as Jesus was resurrected on Easter Sunday, we have the promise of resurrection upon our passing from this world. Christ has cleared the way for us and makes a place for us. He came to earth to be with humans, and He rose from the dead to be with all humans through all time. So Jesus says,
In my Father’s house are many room; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:2-3).