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John 12:1-18 & Phil. 4:4-9
The news of the miracle that we celebrated yesterday, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, spread quickly throughout the environs of Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus Christ was already well known throughout the land because of the many miracles that he had performed and because of His preaching. Now He was nearby, at the home of Lazarus in Bethany. Then the news came that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem; the people of that city began to get excited.
In the meantime, Jesus Christ had instructed His disciples to go into the city to a certain place and there they would find a donkey with a colt. They were to take this donkey along with her colt and bring it to Him just outside the city. If anyone were to ask, all they were to reply was that “the Lord has need of it” and all would be well. Things went exactly as our Lord instructed them and they brought this colt, the foal of an ass, to Him. Our Lord sat on the colt and began to ride towards the gates of the city of Jerusalem. This action had great significance for in that land where everyone walked, even to ride a donkey was the prerogative of Kings. And the disciples, schooled in the Scripture, remembered the prophecy that the King would come to them riding on the colt of an ass. Inspired by this and recalling also their own recognition that Jesus was the son of God, the promised Messiah, began to cry out praising Him saying “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord”. Lacking anything else, they took off their coats and laid them on the roadway as a kind of carpet on which Jesus would ride. When their coats were not enough, they began to strip branches from the nearby palm trees and lay them in the way. The people nearby, already excited at the prospect that the great teacher and prophet Jesus was nearby, observed the commotion and took up the praises of the disciples. They too began to offer their own coats and then to bring more branches to create this carpet for the King to ride on. Doing so, they took up the song of praise that the disciples were singing. As more people joined, the commotion got to be greater and the people inside the city heard what was happening and they too began to spill out of the gates of the city to meet the Lord and to join in giving Him a royal welcome to the city. Soon there was a solid mass of people laying a carpet of cloaks and palm branches on the road into Jerusalem and singing with joy, “Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!” welcoming our Lord Jesus Christ into the city as the promised Messiah and King of the Hebrew people.
In the Epistle today we heard something that reminds us of this great entrance and of the state of the people. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice … The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing and fill your mind and heart with whatever things are true and noble and just and pure and full of virtue and praiseworthy”. Today, we too see the coming of the King. The Lord is indeed near. Therefore, with rejoicing, we take up the cry, “Hosanna in the Highest, blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!”
What a wonderful thing to realize, that the Lord is near. Now for the past 6 weeks we have struggled through Lent, working to draw near to God and now, we hear that our labor has not been in vain, but that the Lord is at hand. What great joy fills our hearts with this news that the object of our labor, the goal of this work that we have been doing together, is nearly upon us. And so the Apostle tells us first “Rejoice” and then continues to describe for us how the nearness of our Lord should affect us. He says first that we should be anxious for nothing, but that we put all of our requests, all of our needs and desires, in God’s hands. He has come and He will care for us. Does not the Gospel tell us that just as we give good things to those we love, so also our Lord will give to us good things and then as the Apostle reminds us, all things that God gives to us work together for the benefit of those who love the Lord. If we love God and put all of our trust in Him, then we can confidently receive everything that comes to us with thanksgiving, knowing that no matter what it is, all things are beneficial to the working out of our salvation. This is important to remember especially at the beginning of Holy Week, for during this week we will relive some of the darkest, most dreadful and painful moments in the life of Christ. With Him we will suffer, with Him we will be scourged and tortured, with Him we will ascend the cross and enter the tomb. But even in the midst of this there is the constant reminder that the Lord is near and that it is necessary only to depend on Him and He will not abandon us in the grave but that with Him we will also prevail over death and with Him we will rise from the grave and with Him we will ascend into Heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father. To this end the Apostle further instructs us that having laid all of our prayers, our needs and desires, in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He will in turn fill us with His peace.
In order to maintain this peace within us, knowing that the enemy of mankind will seek to destroy the gift of God in us, the Apostle tells us to guard our hearts and minds and so preserve God’s gift. In order to do this, he instructs us to focus our thoughts on those things which are true, those things which are just, those things which are pure, those things which are lovely and of good report. And then also to further meditate on that which is virtuous and praiseworthy.
In the coming week many things will be presented to us upon which we can fix our minds and hearts and so guard the gift of joy and peace that God gives to us today. The approach of our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross is indeed Truth; He is the epitome of purity and even hanging upon the cross, when seen in the light of the hope of the resurrection, He is lovely. This week, above all others, we are inundated with these things, that we might fill our minds and hearts with them. In fact not only do we partake of these images, these remembrances and blessings now, but we also stockpile them within our hearts so as to be able to revisit them throughout the coming year. Although Holy Week is the most intense period of this remembrance, every week in our prayers we remember on Wednesday and Friday, the cross and on every Saturday (Sabbath) we remember the burial and on every Sunday we rejoice in the Resurrection. All that we experience in this upcoming Holy Week is recapitulated for us in a small way in every week of the year.
The Lord is near and therefore rejoice in the Lord, again I say Rejoice! The Lord is near and therefore put all things in His hands, trust Him and be anxious for nothing and He will give to you His peace which surpasses all understanding. The Lord is near and so guard your souls by looking only upon that which is true and just and pure and lovely and of good report and virtuous and praiseworthy. Fill yourself with these good things for the Lord is near and when He arrives, when He breaks forth from the tomb and comes to us as to the Apostles in the upper room, we will be ready for Him. Today of all days, as we sing hymns of praise to our Lord, let us remember that He is near and is coming soon to us. Rejoice, and again I say rejoice. Hosanna in the Highest, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.
For many people, the word “gospel” has come to refer to a biography of Jesus. The word gospel, however, was not originally a Christian term, but was taken on by Christians. It means, “good news” and could refer to the good news of the birth of a king, or the good news of a great military victory. Such things would be proclaimed to the people so that they would be prepared to accept the authority of the one proclaimed and receive him appropriately.
Today is the forefeast of the Annunciation. The announcement brought by the Archangel Gabriel to the Mother of God that she would give birth to a Son who is called both Emmanuel, which means “God with us” and Jesus, which means “Savior.” The name for this feast in Greek literally means “good news.” The gospel is brought to the Mother of God who first hears the message of our deliverance.
She is the first to hear this message, but certainly not the last. This message, however, was kept in secret at first. It was not openly proclaimed to the whole world. With the birth of Christ, with the beginning of His great miracles and wonders, we see the true gospel message hidden from plain sight. When our Lord would heal the sick, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, make lame men walk, or raise the dead to life again, people would wonder whether He was the promised Messiah, whether He would free them from Roman Captivity, and restore Israel.
Even the disciples whom He had chosen, to whom He had given power and authority, who had known Him better than anyone else, frequently misunderstood Him. Even after the Resurrection, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
The gospel, the good news, is not that a king has been born to rule over an earthly kingdom, it is not that a mighty king has subdued earthly kingdoms, or empires, and will reign over them. The King proclaimed to the Mother of God which was kept in her heart, the Kingdom which the Apostles was different than the Kingdom of Caesar. Our Lord said to Pilate, Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Because His Kingdom is not from here, not of this world, we are not called to wage war on the world. As Saint Paul said, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
This brings us into conflict with the world which constantly enslaves itself to evil powers, but we do not fight against people. We see a good example of this in the life of Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow who died on the Feast of Annunciation 100 years ago, and whom we celebrate today. Saint Tikhon left his native Russia to serve as a bishop in North America. He founded dozens of parishes, a monastery, a seminary, and a cathedral, all in the interest of sharing the gospel, the good news of the Christian Faith in a new land. He saw that all nations need this good news of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil, and establishment of His Kingdom and dominion over all of creation.
He was recalled to Russia a decade before the Revolution, and was chosen as the first Patriarch of Russia since the time of Peter the Great two hundred years earlier. He viewed the tribulation and calamity of the revolution as a chastisement for the sin of the people, and first and foremost, he called the people to collective repentance. As innocent blood was poured out for the sins of the people, He excommunicated those responsible, but also called on all the people to not seek retribution.
After the death of the Royal Martyrs, Saint Tikhon wrote, “It is not for us to pass judgment on the earthly powers, and all power permitted by God has our blessing insofar as it is indeed ‘the servant of God,’ for the good of those subject to it.” This echoes the words of Christ to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” Saint Tikhon didn’t approve of the persecution of the Church, but he also saw the crown of martyrdom being made all the more glorious by the suffering of the people, and he saw it as a reminder of the need to repent of our sins.
In a couple short weeks, we will celebrate our Lord’s victory over death. In preparation for that, we will accompany Him as He goes to His voluntary Passion and Crucifixion. We should pay special attention in this time to what kind of King our Lord is, to what kind of Kingdom He is establishing. If we pay attention, we will realize that we, like the disciples often get things wrong. We often give into fear or flee from persecution. We often seek to fight for our Lord, like Peter cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant, but we should hear the Lord’s rebuke to him, telling him to put away his sword.
If the Kingdom that we seek is one of anger, violence, or fear, and not one of longsuffering, forgiveness, and mercy, we are not seeking His Kingdom but one of our own making. In his farewell sermon to the American land, Saint Tikhon said, “the Church of Christ is the kingdom not of this world. It does not possess any of the attractions of the earthly world. It is persecuted and slandered. Yet it not only avoids perishing in the world but grows and defeats the world! This happens everywhere, and here in our land as well.”
It can be hard for us to accept that the rulers and powers of this world are given authority but are more often than not arrayed against the Church and against Christ. It can be hard to endure persecution, but our Lord tells us that if they persecuted Him they will persecute us. The world has not become better or more civilized in the hundred years since the death of Saint Tikhon. And we can do nothing better than what he did, or the martyrs and confessors throughout the last 2000 years, because what they did was what Christ Himself did.
The good news that is brought to the Mother of God is not one of victory over political adversaries; it is the victory that we are racing to celebrate in two weeks, and one that in every generation is lived out through faithful imitation of Christ who was crucified so that we might have His life.
Mark 9:17-31
In the Synaxarion (a collection of readings from the lives and writings of the saints) for Great Lent we read: “There are three things, my brethren, by which Faith stands firm, devotion remains constant, and virtue endures. They are prayer, fasting and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, mercy and fasting: these three are one, and they give life to one another.” Today we heard how when the disciples asked Jesus about the reason they had been unable to cast out a particular demon, He answered them saying, “This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.” But it is not just the demon possessed who require prayer and fasting in order to be freed, it is in fact all of us. We are possessed, not necessarily by demons, but more certainly by our own passions. We are enslaved to them and are constantly “thrown into the fire” of passionate temptation by them. When faced with our own weakness and lack of success when we try to resist the passionate temptations over and over again, we can ask the same question of our Lord, “Why were we not able” to resist these urges to sin. And the answer is the same: these kinds do not come out except by prayer and fasting. It is not sufficient just to pray, nor is sufficient just to fast; it is necessary to combine these powerful spiritual tools, especially when facing the most powerful temptations.
The Synaxarion continues: “Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others you open God’s ear to yourself.”
When we look at ourselves and see that we are unable to resist even the smallest passionate urge, then it is necessary to remember this great remedy, “prayer and fasting”. Now, when we say prayer let us not just think that it is enough to just automatically say a few prayers in the morning and a few prayers in the evening (often while we are distracted by the cares of the day). When we talk about prayer as a spiritual weapon, it is necessary to understand that it is something that requires constant use and undivided attention. Those who are adept at using the weapons of the world know that if you try to use your weapon while distracted, not only will you be unsuccessful in accomplishing anything useful, but you will also put yourself in great danger. Effective prayer demands our attention, it demands that we hear the words of our prayer and let them sink into the heart. Prayer must be expressed with the whole being: with the mind, the heart, the will and even the body. This is the “fervent and effective” prayer that is spoken of in the scripture. Therefore, when you pray, “enter into your closet”, that is shut out the outside world, cut off all the exterior distractions and even the thoughts about what is going on in the world, and focus entirely on your prayer, letting the mind rest in the heart and putting all your attention on the words of the prayer.
Not only do we wield our weapons with attention, but we must wield them constantly. Our spiritual foes never rest but are always looking for weaknesses and places to attack us. Therefore, we must at all times be ready with this weapon of prayer to fend off an attack from the enemy. Also, it is important to attend to the train of thoughts leading up to a temptation so that we can recognize the attack of the enemy from afar and cut off his approach even before he can reach out his hand to assail us.
But prayer is only a portion of our arsenal – the second great weapon that we have is fasting. It is good to follow the fasting rule of the Church, but this is like “working out” to stay in shape. When temptation comes, we add to this regular rule and intensify our fast. By fasting we weaken the strength of the physical demands and strengthen the spiritual core of the soul. And so, in order to fast aggressively: keep a strict fast on days that are not fasting days (the only exception to this is that we do not keep a strict fast on Saturdays or Sundays) or perhaps it is possible to eliminate one meal a day as a spiritual exercise in fasting, perhaps it is possible to cut in half the amount of food that you eat, perhaps it is possible to abstain completely one day a week. There are many possibilities, which can be undertaken with the blessing and direction of your spiritual father, however, whatever you do, always remember that you are in a spiritual war over the possession of your soul and that battle never ends until you close your eyes in death.
Prayer and fasting are an inseparable combination in our spiritual arsenal – either one can be effective in its own right, but together they are most effective. In order to bring our prayer and fasting before the throne of God and to attract His aide, we must align ourselves with Him by being like Him and that means to be merciful and compassionate towards those around us. To this end the Synaxarion instructs us: “When you fast, see the fasting of others. If you want God to know that you are hungry, know that another is hungry. If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give. If you ask for yourself what you deny to others, your asking is a mockery. Let this then be the pattern for all men when they practice mercy: show mercy to others in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness, as you want others to show mercy to you.” The addition of mercy to our prayer and fasting brings us quickly before the throne of God, Who seeing our need and our sacrifice will quickly respond and send His help to deliver us from our plight.
“Therefore, let prayer, fasting and mercy be one single plea to God on our behalf, one speech in our defense, a threefold united prayer in our favor.”
Man was created in order to live with God. When God breathed life into his nostrils, this life was not intended as a temporary gift which would one day depart from him, but was meant to stay with man forever. That death entered into the world through the sin of Adam is a terrible tragedy. Death is not a natural part of life as the world would have us believe. Rather it is the enemy of mankind, and an enemy which our Lord came into the world to defeat.
Living in this world without sinning, our Lord showed Himself to be the source of life, healing all manner of illnesses, forgiving the sins of many, and even raising the dead back to life. He also demonstrated for us that he was not subject to death. When the people in the synagogue in Nazareth didn’t like what He said, they sought to push Him off a cliff, but He passed through the midst of them (Luke 4:29-30). When Jesus said to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am,” they picked up stones to stone Him to death, but He walked away through the midst of the crowd (John 8:58-59). When He said to the Jews, “I and my Father are one,” they again took up stones and He escaped out of their hands.
Our Lord escaped from the crowds of hostile people miraculously, in part because His hour had not yet come, and also to demonstrate that death had no power over Him. As our Lord said, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the giver of life, and His life cannot be taken away. Our Lord did not sin, and so He is not subject to sin or death which is the wages of sin. But our Lord came into this world to be crucified – to lay down his life so that when He takes it back up again in the Resurrection, He might do so as a man like us in every respect but sin. He defeats death through life and raises us together with Himself.
When He faced death, when He drew near to that enemy of life, He reacted in a completely human way. We are not created for death. We recoil from it because it is not natural for us. We are created for life and the tearing of soul from body is not what was meant to happen to us. So when our Lord prays in the Garden of Gethsemane what we see is not doubt, it is not wavering or lack of resolve, it is not uncertainty about what lies ahead of Him, it is rather the normal human reaction to what God never intended for man to suffer. And by showing this, our Lord shows that He is with us even as we draw near to death and suffering.
Today, at the midpoint of Great Lent, the Church brings before us the Cross as a reminder of where this is all heading. All this time, we have been trying to die to ourselves, that we might have the life of Christ living in us. And all this time, we’ve likely been struggling to do what we have been asked to do, or struggling with how hard it has been, or focused on doing it all on our own.
But all of this is about the Cross, and the Cross is not about us, it is about obedience, even unto death. Our Lord went voluntarily to His death, and we must too. We hear our Lord saying to us today, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” As much as we might think of our Lenten efforts as being imposed upon us, we are given a choice. Will we deny ourselves, or will we do what we please? Will we take up our cross, or will we flee from it? Will we follow Christ, even to the point of death that we might have a share in His resurrection, or will we follow the world into destruction?
The world has its appeals, its enticements, and we desire to cling to this life, life in this world as the only one we know. But we are being called to know another kind of life, an eternal one which surpasses in all respects this temporal and fleeting life. Saint Gregory Palamas says that “On the face of it, anyone who lowers and humbles himself in all respects seems to be bringing dishonor on himself, anyone who flees carnal pleasures appears to be causing himself toil and grief, and anyone who gives away his possessions looks as though he is making himself poor. But by the power of God this poverty, grief and dishonor give birth to inexhaustible riches, inexpressible delight and eternal glory, both in this world and in the world to come.”
But just being crucified does not bring these rewards. Two thieves were crucified with the Lord, and only one saw paradise. We must suffer in this life with Christ, for Christ, and in Christ. When we encounter difficulties in this life that we have not sought, when we are sick or suffer, or when we are mistreated by others, we endure whatever is sent to us, especially when it feels undeserved. In this we walk the path that Christ walked – we follow Him in His suffering and enduring what He did not deserve.
When we take up ascetic labors, when we fast, pray, or give alms, we suffer for Him. We choose the better things that are found only in Him over even good things that this world has to offer. We see a cross before us that we could escape, one that has no power over us except if we submit to it, and we willingly ascend that cross for the sake of the resurrection that can be found through it.
But we must also suffer in Christ. Our suffering cannot be separate from Him. God does not desire that we should suffer from the things that happen to us. He also doesn’t want us to choose suffering for suffering’s sake. He wants us to be joined to Him. We must use this opportunity of Great Lent to draw closer to God in the Church in His body. We must commune of the Holy Mysteries, we must have His life in us. Our Lord rose from the dead because the life that was in Him was greater than the death that is in the world. If we are to rise with Him, we must have that life in us.
So with each day, with all of the difficulties of that day, tell yourself “I choose this cross.” Voluntarily choose to suffer whatever difficulties you face so that you are following Christ to His passion, choose to willingly undertake more for the sake of the Lord who accepted what He did not have to, and seek to live in Him so that all things that you endure may be filled with the Life that only He can give.
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