Orthodox Sermons & Articles

"Follow Me", said Jesus to Philip, inviting him to take part in preaching the Good News to the world. "Follow Me," says Jesus to us, also inviting us into His eternal Heavenly Kingdom.

Today’s Gospel story is not a parable but a fact that really happened at the beginning of Jesus’ preaching when He selected the Apostles. This task started earlier when John the Baptist showed Jesus to his followers, two of which followed Christ to see where He lived. One of the two, as Saint John the Evangelist witnessed, was Andrew who also brought to Jesus his brother Simon (Peter).

So, at the time that the Lord asked Philip to follow Him, the two brothers Andrew and Simon were already chosen for the apostleship. Philip was from the same city as these two brothers and the one who diligently sought the way to recognize the Messiah. As you can see from the story, Philip immediately obeyed, perhaps because he already knew about Jesus from Andrew and Simon, or perhaps because he felt the divine presence within Jesus.

Philip in turn found Nathaniel – a Jew who also was concerned about the Messiah’s coming to the world. Nathanael knew the prophets and the Law. This is why Philip told him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph." Not only did Nathaniel understand the Law of Moses and the writing’s of the prophets regarding the Messiah, but he also knew the history of his people. There was no example of something great coming from the small town of Nazareth previously. So, his indifferent remark about the odds of the Messiah coming from Nazareth had some basis. Nevertheless, he went to meet Jesus in person and as we know this meeting changed his life forever. When Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him He remarked that he was a true Israelite "in whom is no deceit." This meant that Nathaniel was really concerned about the coming of the Messiah. Jesus knew that Nathaniel had worked very hard by studying the prophets and the law to ensure that he did not miss the opportunity to recognize the Messiah when he saw Him.

Nathaniel experienced a great change within himself right on the spot: he changed his indifference about Jesus of Nazareth into a deep faith in Jesus as the Son of God. When Nathaniel asked the Lord how He knew him, so that He could make such a statement about him upon his approach, Jesus replied that He knew him long before the time that Philip called upon him. By the way, Jesus did not see Nathaniel sitting under the fig tree with His eyes but with His Almighty, Divine presence. As the Son of God, He knew everything, including the smallest details about everyone. Precisely this side of Jesus’ nature was revealed in this conversation with Nathaniel. Being a man of deep faith and intelligence, Nathaniel recognized it immediately, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

What a joyous confession of faith, dear brothers and sisters! His life changed in minutes only because he recognized Jesus as the Son of God, Who came to save His people from the bondage of sin. Isn’t it this that we are also called to do?

The Apostles gave us their knowledge of the Savior through the Scripture. They invited us to come to see Jesus by our own eyes and we responded to their invitation when we were baptized in His name. Our baptism will be helpful for us only if we use all the benefits of it, which means we must follow Jesus up to the end. To be baptized and then do nothing about our relationship with Christ means that we are indifferent to our own souls just as Nathanael was indifferent to anyone coming from Nazareth.

But leaving his indifference behind, Nathaniel goes to meet Jesus. Let’s leave our indifference behind; let’s open the door of our hearts for Jesus to step in and to change our lives in moment. We are in much better position then Nathanael was because while we already know Christ, he was still searching for Him. All we need is to make sure that we pursue the next step of demonstrated by Nathaniel – follow Jesus Christ and preach His Name to all the ends of the world, and by living our lives in a manner worthy of our calling. This is our Christian duty and this is what we are obligated to fulfill.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Savior of the world has been the center of many discussions, conversations, debates and even court battles. Around His blessed name many people have stood guarding the true meaning of Jesus and His works for us Christians.

Today’s Sunday is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy because we celebrate our victory over heresies that tried to lessen the real meaning of Jesus Christ and His works in our lives. Some of these heresies taught that Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God incarnated, but just His ghost. Others tried to take His human nature from His Person saying that the Son of God could not really become a man because it would be unworthy of Him to do so. These two major false teachings created many other false teachings, which perpetuated even more falsehoods. During the first nine centuries, the Orthodox Church had to battle numerous false teachings in order to finally come our current correct Orthodox Belief System.

The Symbol of Faith we have as the base of our beliefs, the Creed, was established in the forth century. But it took a long time for the heresies to calm down. There were many local confrontations in Christian communities as well as global ones that would usually end up at the Ecumenical Councils of Bishops. The latest in church history was a heresy concerning icons. The heretics preached that icons are idols and that people should not revere them. This confrontation was resolved at the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Bishops, which stated that icons are not idols but holy images of Jesus Christ and His Saints, which we must honor respectfully.

Today there are still people who follow false teachings about Jesus Christ and who reject the true teachings. It is time to say here that the Orthodox Church celebrates her victory not over people, not over other bishops or Christian communities, but ONLY over FALSE TEACHINGS about Jesus Christ – this is what every Orthodox Christian should know, remember and tell others. We love all with the same love regardless of their nationality, race or religion because our Lord and Savior taught us to do so. He came to save ALL who wanted to be saved; therefore, He died for all, so that every person on earth could join Him in His heavenly Kingdom.

Dear brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel reading in the person of Nathaniel gave us a good lesson as to how to seek Christ and how to follow Him up to the end. Today’s Sunday theme encourages us to learn more about our faith, which is faith of our fathers because it has been started by Jesus Christ Himself and spread by His Apostles, Bishops and Priests. The history of our Church is long and interesting, so let’s study it and learn from the holy Fathers of the Church how to believe properly. May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who built His Church on His Precious Blood, give us the desire to follow Him to the end and help us to continue learning about His Holy Church.

Amen.