Orthodox Sermons & Articles

 

Jesus Christ opened to us another perspective about our lives and gave us more useful rules. He taught us in His sermons and showed us in His Holy Resurrection that this earthly life is not the only life we are going to experience. He taught us that this earthly life is temporary and short lasting. He taught us that there is another life—eternal life, life with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom. To experience this eternal life we have to be ready for it.  To be ready, means that we have to prepare ourselves by exercising the spiritual Law.

 

 The Israelites knew about the coming Messiah and His Kingdom from their Law and the teachings of the Prophets. They were looking forward to it, but they misinterpreted the key prophecies and commandments.  As a result, they started to see God’s Kingdom, as an earthly kingdom with strict rules and commandments. They believed that formal fulfilling of the Law would open to them the gates of this kingdom. The Pharisees, lay experts on the Scripture and the Law, had found 613 commandments in the Scriptures and argued endlessly about which one was central. Jesus Christ had put an end to these discussions by switching our attention from our earthly laws to spiritual law. In all His sermons Jesus underlines that His Kingdom is not from this world, and in order to enter it one must prepare him or herself by leading a devotional to God. In order to achieve this, the most important law to be followed is the Law of Love. Without this Law we cannot truly live our lives in a manner pleasing to God.

 

On the lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment of the Law, Jesus answered without pause, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the other Laws and the teachings of Prophets.”

 

Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees’ very clearly that following all 613 commandments mean nothing if love is not present. All the Laws of Moses and teachings of the Prophets are based on true love to God and to our neighbors. Jesus Christ also points out our mistakes! Some people think it is enough for our salvation to visit church on Sundays and on Feast Days. But if we do not have love for God and for our neighbor, we are not worthy of Him. In His reply to the lawyer’s question, Jesus did not make exceptions to any of the commandments; His answer applied to the entire Law. So, dear brothers and sisters, even if we do good things for our neighbor, if it is not accompanied by love then our deeds are nothing but self-glorification. We have to watch closely what we are doing and how we are doing it. Without self-control of our spiritual side we cannot gain knowledge of our weaknesses; and self-control is impossible without a tight bond with Christ the Savior. In turn, a tight bond with Jesus is impossible without true love for Him and for all people. As we can see, love is the chain that ties together both the spiritual and material world.

 

 St. Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians that love is superior to all the special gifts we get from God: “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have no love, it profits me nothing” (1Cor. 13:2-3).  What strong words! Who could dare say that some of us, regularly attending church services on Sunday, will never see the Kingdom of God? We would not say it ourselves because human beings judge differently than God. But the Apostle had said this in order to prevent us from misinterpreting the spiritual relationship with God. One can see that in order to be with God forever we have to change our attitude not only to God only but to our neighbor as well.  This change has to be made on basis of true love.

 

Dear brothers and sisters, as we can see from the words above, our relationship with God and with all humans on earth has to be strengthened by love. Christ’s witness about the two commandments, which are alike in their base, have to be our path to follow during our life on earth. It does not matter if I am a Priest or a Bishop, or a lay member of the church.  If I do not have true love for God and for all people, there is no help for me in my position in Church. We have to remember the words of Christ and His Apostle about true love. As Christians, we have to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ because in fulfilling this we can learn to love everyone forever. We need this experience of love now because through it we participate in Christ’s Kingdom while on earth. Therefore, let’s view our lives through a prism of true love. Let’s destroy the image of a self-glorified “me” within ourselves and build a new one—the image of humble follower of Christ with love for all people without exception. This task is very hard to accomplish but there can be no salvation unless we undergo this self-examination. Let’s ask our Savior and Lord to provide us with help to find our way to Him and to grant us courage to follow His path up to the end of our lives. Amen.