"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

What amazing words these must have been to Mary, a young woman, when she first heard them. Just minutes before she had probably been engaged in some mundane task of daily life in her mother's home, perhaps grinding flour or baking bread, maybe weaving or spinning wool into yarn. If she was like most young women who are shortly to be married, her mind would have been turned to her future life with Joseph, what their home would be like, the children they would have and the life that they would lead together. Happy images of the future would have filled her thoughts. She would have had her hopes, dreams and expectations--images of how her life would be as the future wife of Joseph.

Suddenly with the appearance of the angel Gabriel, her visions of the future contained a new and dramatically different element. The angel told her that she was highly favored and blessed among women, that the Lord was with her and that she would soon conceive and bring forth a son whose name would be Jesus. This child would be given the throne of Mary's ancient forebear, King David, and reign forever.

Mary voiced the question of how this would take place. She knew the order of natural conception and knew that the angel's message did not fit into this order. In explanation the angel Gabriel told her of the greatest miracle of all time saying, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. Some people are troubled by the idea of miracles based on their picture of cause and effect in this world. They have accepted that the only causes are natural ones, the laws of physics and so on. For such a person the idea of Jesus being born without a natural father is fantastic beyond belief.

But we are called to believe that miracles have and do occur. There are forces that attack this belief. We have grown up in a culture that has a strong sense of natural order. Science today is capable of explaining so many events that previously were mysteries. It is capable of explaining them by means of fundamental laws of nature. For some this sense of natural law can become so strong that the Lord's active presence within creation vanishes. For some there is no Divine intervention within this system. All is fixed and moves along with changes taking place by mere random accident. But it could be noted that according to natural law most changes result in more chaos, not less chaos. Changes tend toward the break down of a higher order into a lower one.

Think of the example of a person quickly typing out a document on a computer. You would expect that errors would be introduced into the typing. What is the likelihood that the errors would improve the original document? It’s possible, but rather unexpected. But the argument for pure natural evolution is that given enough time and the forces of natural selection life as we now know it has developed. Asserting that human life came about purely by random accidents starting with the genetic code of the most primitive life millions of years ago seems akin to saying that given enough time and enough typed copies a simple child’s nursery rhyme could evolve into a Shakespearean play without any plan or higher thought being involved.

We are called to believe that miracles do occur. However, the Writings for the New Church have taught us that we are not to expect to see the miracles of the Old and New Testaments performed today in the same way they were performed in the time those books were written. We read:

The reason miracles are not done at this day, as before, is that miracles compel, and take away free will in spiritual things; and from being spiritual, they make a person natural. All in the Christian world . . . can become spiritual; and they become spiritual solely from the Lord through the Word; and the faculty for this would perish if they were brought to believe through miracles. (True Christian Religion 501)

Partially based on statements such as this, a person can come to a pattern of thinking that does not believe in the Lord’s ability to affect things for good in a miraculous way even today. A person could believe in God, but still tend to view the progression of his or her life as following laws of a machine-like system. Anything that does not fit into this fixed system is believed to be a miracle that would take away spiritual freedom--the very freedom that the Lord was born into the world to reestablish.

Perhaps, though, it is too easy for us to become too limited in our view. So limited that we block out a sight of the miracles that can occur within our own lives without taking away our spiritual freedom. Perhaps it is too easy for this limited point of view to block out a sense of the Lord's presence, a sense of the Holy Spirit's presence. How does the Lord reach out to touch our lives?

What of Mary's life? The events surrounding the first Christmas were a major intervention within her life. The same is true of her husband to be, Joseph. Both of them could have denied the possibility of a miraculous conception and this state of denial would have been far more damaging than that of Zacharias's. Could the Lord's birth ever have taken place if Mary was not willing to accept the angel's words? Her firstborn was to have a continuing effect throughout her whole life. His presence was not without many events that brought a sense of awe and wonder to both Mary and Joseph. We know of at least one event that showed that raising Jesus was not always easy. At age 12, they spent three anxious days searching for Him, only to find Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of teachers, listening and asking questions.

In addition to the way in which Jesus' birth and life intervened in Joseph and Mary's life, think of the way His presence affected the disciples. Many of them were happily going about their daily jobs when they were called to leave all behind and follow Him. While this intervention sometimes involved something of the miraculous, it also involved an element of free will. Just as Joseph and Mary could have resisted the words of the angel announcing that the Lord would be born, so also the disciples could have heard the Lord call them to follow and shook their heads and returned to their work. There were many, many others who were influenced in this same way. Many others who heard the Lord's words calling to them and had their lives profoundly influenced by what He said.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives many times each day. While we may not have anything occur in our lives that an objective observer would call miraculous, it is not true that our lives will follow some pre-established route, set by our inborn nature and directed by compelling experience of the natural world. The Lord's first birth represents the way in which He comes in any age to anyone who will receive Him. Just as the words of the angel Gabriel would have been a dramatic intervention within the happy normalcy of the future that Mary would have envisioned, so also the Lord can come to us announcing the conception of a future for us that is far different from the one our natural mind would envision. The Lord comes to us offering and promising a far different set of reactions to daily events from the ones we presently have--a different perspective, a far greater patience in some areas and a stronger resolve and commitment in others. He comes to us bringing light to areas of thoughts that we had resigned ourselves to being in deep darkness and bringing warmth to much that we might otherwise have done from need or duty.

The angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin, whose name was Mary. Ancient prophecies had promised that the Messiah would be born as the child of a young woman. Several hundred years after this prophecy was given, a Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, introduced a new element of the miraculous by using a word in this prophecy that was not the general one for a young woman, but rather the distinctive Greek term for "virgin." When the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, the gospel of Matthew records that he quoted this prophecy according to the way it is presented in the Septuagint. The Writings for the New Church make it quite clear that this seemingly added idea is correct and even essential in our understanding of the Lord's advent.

There are two distinct reasons for the importance of a belief in the virgin birth. One reason has to do with the essential need for Jesus to be born with a natural mother but without a natural father if He was going to become our Savior and Redeemer. It was crucial for the work of Jesus that He not derive from His birth any of the internal evils that are passed on through the soul provided by the natural father in any natural conception. His soul and life came directly from the infinite God. His developing mind and life were the ever more perfect manifestation in human form of the Father and creator, our Lord and God. But it was important that He take on a natural mind at first empty of any experience and knowledge as you and I were born with. It was important that He take on the hereditary inclinations to evil that birth to a natural mother brought to His life.

The second reason for believing in the virgin birth exists because of the representation of the term virgin and what this says about how the Lord comes to us in our lives. We are told that a virgin represents someone who willing to have his or her life affected by truth. In this story, Mary represents a state of mind in each of our lives that is not controlled by self interest nor committed to a determined course of action. It is a state of mind that is open to new possibilities.

The Lord comes to us to each of us bringing the promise of a new conception of life just as the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary. He comes promising a rebirth or regeneration of life that is radically different from the one we come by naturally. It is not to the hustle and bustle of established life that He appears, but rather to those states of mind that, like the virgin Mary, look forward to something new and different and most importantly are willing to receive the conception of this new life. The life that comes to us naturally, apart from any presence of the Lord, is like a child conceived of a human father and mother. Without the Lord's presence, this life cannot have any other basis than self-interest and worldly concern. Experience may teach us to broaden this self-interest and to temper these concerns, but apart from the Lord's advent within our lives they will never rise above this level. The Lord is born within each of our lives within the states of mind that are willing to be affected by what the Word teaches--by the states of mind that are willing to rise above the prompting of our natural inclinations to be self-serving and natural in our interests, thoughts and actions. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to turn outward to recognize and serve the needs of those around us. He is born within the states of mind that are willing to recognize that natural things exist to serve the needs of mankind and creation as a whole and have their proper uses as well as their abuses.

Our preparation for the celebration of Christmas, more than any other event of the season, tends to turn people outward to others. It is a time that can help us to recognize the community of caring people that we live in. And it is a time that can remind us that many are in need--there are many people who can use our help. This help may be a matter of providing food, clothing and shelter for those have not been able to or have not yet come to be provident enough to provide them for themselves. It can be a matter of giving a hand to someone who could use some help with a job, sharing some burden with them. Christmas is a time when we give gifts that symbolize and love and friendship for others. The most lasting gifts are those that we give when we recognize the spiritual needs of others—when we recognize that, by our words and actions, we can help the Lord bring loving warmth to another person's life. We, by our words and actions, can bring the light of greater understanding to another person's life. We have the capability of helping others receive far greater blessings in life than they might otherwise. Our preparation for and celebration of Christmas can remind us of how a truly Christian life is one of wisely giving and of serving. The state of mind that receives this reminder is the one imaged by the virgin, Mary.

The Lord comes to each of us in our lives, just as the angel Gabriel came to Mary. He comes telling of events that can take place, if we are willing, which far exceed anything we might picture ourselves. He promises us a new life, born within our own, but not taking its source from us. He promises the presence of the Holy Spirit within this new life. He comes with a miraculous intervention in the natural course of events. The words of the angel Gabriel to Mary are also words to us with the promise of a new life that will profoundly affect what we care about, think and do each day throughout the year. These words are the promise of a new life for each of us.

After the close of this service you are invited to take the sacrament of the Holy Supper. This act of worship represents our desire to receive the Lord’s gifts of love and wisdom within our lives, represented by our eating of the bread and drinking of the wine. There is a powerful reminder of the words of the angel Gabriel in The True Christian Religion description of this sacrament

...the Holy Supper for those who approach it worthily is a kind of guarantee and seal put on their adoption as sons of God ... the Lord is then present and introduces into heaven those who are born of Him, that is, who are regenerated. (True Christian Religion 728)

As the angel Gabriel said to Mary, so the Lord would say to us, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

(References: Arcana Coelestia 1573 [1-8]; Isaiah 7:1-15; Luke 1:26-38)

15. By His Suffering of the Cross the Lord Did Not Take Away Sins, but Bore Them

Some people in the church believe that by His suffering of the cross the Lord took away sins and made satisfaction to the Father, and so redeemed mankind.

Some believe, too, that He transferred to Himself the sins of people who have faith in Him, bore them, and cast them into the depths of the sea, that is, into hell.

They confirm these beliefs of theirs by John’s saying in regard to Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29) Also by this declaration in Isaiah:

...He has borne our diseases and carried our sorrows.... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His wound we are healed.... Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.... ...He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people they were stricken, that He might deliver the wicked to their tomb and the rich to their deaths....

...By the labor of His soul He shall see [and] be satisfied. By His knowledge He shall justify many, by His bearing their iniquities.... ...He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Both passages have as their subject the Lord’s temptations or trials and His suffering. His taking away sins and diseases and Jehovah’s laying on Him the iniquities of us all have the same meaning as His bearing our sorrows and iniquities.

[2] First, therefore, we must say what bearing our iniquities means, and then what it means to take them away.

To bear iniquities means nothing else than to endure severe temptations or trials, and to allow the Jews to treat Him as they treated the Word. He allowed them to treat Him in the same way because He embodied the Word. For the church which existed at that time among the Jews was completely destroyed, having been destroyed by their perverting everything in the Word, to the point that there was no truth left. Consequently neither did they acknowledge the Lord. This is what is meant and symbolized by everything having to do with the Lord’s suffering.

The prophets were treated similarly, because they represented the Lord in relation to the Word and so to the church, and the Lord was the prophet.

[3] That the Lord was the prophet can be seen from the following passages:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” (Matthew 13:57, cf. Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24)

Jesus said:

...it is not right that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.” (Luke 13:33)

People called Jesus the prophet from Nazareth (Matthew 21:11, cf. John 7:40-41). Fear seized them all, and they praised God, saying that a great prophet had risen up among them (Luke 7:16). [And we are told] that a prophet would be raised up from among the people’s brethren, whose words the people were to obey (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

[4] That the prophets were treated similarly is clear from the passages that follow now:

The prophet Isaiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by removing the sackcloth from his loins, taking his sandals off his feet, and going naked and barefoot for three years, as a sign and a wonder (Isaiah 20:2-3).

The prophet Jeremiah was commanded to represent the state of the church by purchasing a sash and putting it around his waist, by not drawing it through water, and by hiding it in a hole in a rock by the Euphrates, which after some days he found to be ruined (Jeremiah 13:1-7).

The same prophet also represented the state of the church by not taking himself a wife in the place where he was, by not entering the house of mourning, by not going off to lament, and by not going into the house of feasting (Jeremiah 16:2, 5, 8).

[5] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by passing a barber’s razor over his head and beard; by then dividing the hair, burning a third in the midst of the city, striking a third with a sword, and scattering a third in the wind; by binding a small number of them in the edges of his garment; and by finally throwing them in the midst of a fire and burning them (Ezekiel 5:1-4).

The same prophet was commanded to represent the state of the church by making containers for departure, by departing to another place in the eyes of the children of Israel, by bringing out the containers by day and digging through a wall at evening and going out through it, and by covering his face so as not to see the ground, so that he was thus a sign to the house of Israel. And by the prophet’s saying, “Behold, I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them.” (Ezekiel 12:3-7, 11)

[6] The prophet Hosea was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking himself a harlot as a wife. He also did take one, and she bore him three children, one of whom he called Jezreel, the second Not-To-Be-Pitied, and the third Not-My-People. (Hosea 1:2-9)

The same prophet was commanded again to go and love a woman who was loved by a companion and who was an adulteress, whom he obtained for himself for fifteen pieces of silver (Hosea 3:1-2).

[7] The prophet Ezekiel was commanded to represent the state of the church by taking a brick and carving “Jerusalem” on it; by then laying siege to it, and putting a wall and mound against it; by setting an iron pan between himself and the city; by lying on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, and then on his right for forty days; by taking wheat, barley, lentils, millet and spelt and making of them bread for himself, which he then ate; and by drinking water by measure. Also by his being commanded to make for himself a barley cake mixed with a stool of human excrement. And because he prayed for it, he was commanded to make it with cow dung. (Ezekiel 4:1-15)

The prophets also represented other things besides, like Zedekiah and the horns of iron he made for himself (1 Kings 22:11). And another prophet by his being struck and wounded, and putting ash on his eyes (1 Kings 20:35, 37-38).

[8] The prophets in general represented the Word in its outermost sense, namely the sense of the letter, by a hair shirt (Zechariah 13:4). Elijah therefore wore such a shirt, and he was girded about the loins with a leather girdle (2 Kings 1:8). John the Baptist was clothed similarly, having a garment of camel hair and a leather girdle about his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4).

It is apparent from this that the prophets represented the state of the church and the Word. For whoever represents one, also represents the other, since the church is founded on the Word, and is a church in accordance with its reception of the Word in its life and faith.

Consequently wherever prophets in either Testament are mentioned, they symbolize the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word. Moreover, the Lord, as the greatest prophet, symbolizes the church itself and the Word itself.