Orthodox Sermons & Articles

 The previous verses of the Gospel say that this event took place in Judea. Jesus’ time on earth was close to its end, therefore He taught openly about salvation. Many Pharisees came to Him to test Him but He gave them honest answers and they could do nothing to Him. They tried to ask him questions about the Law of Moses so that they could seize Him and at least put Him into prison. But His answers were correct and powerful. Jesus answered these questions, as the One Who was the Master of the Law. Nevertheless, many others tried to catch Him on His words, just like today’s young man from the Gospel reading.

 

The young man started with a very usual appeal: “Good Teacher! What good things shall I do that I may have eternal life?”.  Jesus’ response perfectly shows the common mistake of that time. “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.” Pharisees liked it when people called them “Good teacher”, this is why Jesus wanted to clearly indicate that we humans are only learners and God is the Good Teacher. The young man sees Jesus as a man only; a Good Teacher of the written Law, not as God. Jesus answers him accordingly, Why do you call Me good? In saying, No one is good but One, that is God, our Lord rejects the worldly view that he is merely “a good man,” at the same time teaching that goodness is in God alone. Then He exercises the duties of goodness by opening the treasures of heaven to the young man, offering Himself as the guide to them. The Lord wisely switches their attention from His manhood to His divinity. In doing this He reveals Himself as God. So, at the beginning of the conversation the young man was referring to Jesus as to a man and now he was enlightened by the knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God. In regards to his question on what should he do to save his soul he receives the proper answer, “keep the commandments.” There was no other answer because Jesus is the Son of God, the Master of the Law. He could not teach differently. He only adds a New Testament’s light to this, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.”

 

Jesus told him to keep the commandments.  The young man affirmed that he did. But the young man’s soul was not comforted in just keeping the commandments; he was looking for something else that he was not yet ready for. This usually happens when we follow rules, as they seem to be stated rather than concerning ourselves about the inner spiritual meaning of them.  It happened to the young man of the Gospel and it happens to us all the time. We cannot find comfort in following the rules of the church if we just fulfill the “letter” of it. We have to seek the inner meaning of every single rule or commandment and follow it. In order to fulfill this, we need to come to Church and learn about this matter from our beautiful services and sermons. We need to exercise the spirit of the Law not the “letter”. We are in need of the constant assistance of the Holy Spirit because our nature is weak. All this is provided for us in God’s Greatest gift “The Church”. God will send to each of us the spirit of truth and understanding of the rules as long as we display a sincere desire to seek them.  Only then we will attain the desired comfort.

 

Following the reading we discover that the young man was not happy with the answer he heard from Jesus, partly because he has not been fulfilling the Law in its spirit and partly because he was very rich. He could not imagine himself without his possessions. In the same way, we today cannot imagine ourselves without them either.

 

 Salvation does not depend upon external things, whether they be many, few, great or small. They depend on the virtues of the soul. Specifically faith, hope and love; the reward of which is salvation. These virtues the young man still lacked. These are the virtues we all still lack although different persons in lack them in different amounts. But we have to work on them and to try to acquire these virtues, which will help us attain salvation.

 

I want to draw your attention to the following words of Jesus Christ: “If you want to be perfect.” If you want… God acts in cooperation with the human soul. To save the unwilling would be a display of force, but to save the willing is a display of grace. The work towards the attainment of perfection must be voluntarily and can be attained by sacrificing all to follow Christ for the cause of Kingdom. The Kingdom of God does not belong to sluggards, but to those who want to be perfect. We want to be perfect because we want to enter the Kingdom of God. But what do we have to do?

 

We must forget everything in the name of our salvation. We have to leave our sinful life behind us and start to live a righteous one. In our prayers we ask Jesus Christ to invite us to follow Him. And He does. He says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Do we go to Him? Not always because we love some of our sins too much. We do not want to see them. We get angry with anybody who dares to point out to our falsehood. Are we acting as Christ followers, as the ones who are invited to participate in the Great Supper? Let’s think about it, and let us make strong decisions about our priorities. We have to do this if we want to work towards perfection!

 

In today’s Gospel passage, dear brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ uses the great possessions of the young man as an example of different obstacles, which stand in our way to heaven. Jesus said, “It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” And the disciples were astonished. They thought who else could enter the Kingdom of God if not the rich ones. Great possessions were considered as a sign of great blessings. If it is so hard to enter the Kingdom for the blessed ones, “Who then can be saved?” How many times have we heard this question? People think that salvation can be find in different things, and they start to say, “There are so many different “yokes” we cannot bear. We will not be saved anyway. So, why bother.” These words are the words of sinful despondency. Jesus assures us: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

 

 There is no heavy burden for those who follow Christ because Jesus Himself sends them strength to carry their crosses. For He said in today’s Gospel reading, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Please, remember this verse! “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Is our yoke heavy? Yes, it is, but if we carry it with the name of the Lord on our lips, then it becomes easy. With God it becomes possible for us to do those things that we would consider impossible without Him. Therefore, anything we do we should do in the name of the Lord and our deed will be blessed and easy to carry. Yes, riches of the world are heavy. But start to use them in the name of the Lord and they’ll become your blessings not burdens.

 

So, dear brothers and sisters, let’s follow Christ, then, let’s turn to Him with our heavy burdens.  He will make them light and easy to carry. Our burdens can become blessings when we ask God for His help. Let’s learn what it is like to carry the yoke of Christ. May the merciful Savior enlighten us in doing this. Amen.