Orthodox Sermons & Articles

Today’s gospel reading, dear brothers and sisters, is very interesting as it gives us some perspective on what kind of people the Apostles were before the Holy Spirit descended on them in the days of Pentecost. As you know, they were not well-educated men. They could read and write but none of them studied any abstract and lofty subjects like philosophy. As good Jews, they knew the Old Testament, and the Law of Moses but none of them were capable of establishing systematic teaching approaches; The majority of them were just fishermen. In addition, they were not free from human weaknesses either.

When Jesus Christ called them to apostleship, they were just regular men waiting for their Messiah to come. God always knows our inner strengths, our thoughts and our potential. Therefore, He could see that these men, although not educated, were capable of bringing His Good News of salvation to the hearts of all people. Seeing their capabilities, Jesus took them by His side and taught them all the truths of His Kingdom. It was only Christ’s death on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection that caused a complete change in the way the Apostles’ life their lives.

In order to understand all this, let us go back to the Gospel reading. On His last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ started to teach the disciples about His impending Passion, Death and Resurrection. He did this only because the disciples were not yet strong enough to see their Teacher dieing on the Cross and he wanted to ensure that they would not to lose their faith in Him. As you know, even after all these precautions, the disciples ran away when Jesus was seized in the Gethsemane. After Christ’s Glorious Resurrection, these precautions served as strong testimony in response to the question about the Messianic side of Jesus Christ and as a proof of His Sonship to God. The Lord told the twelve that He is going to Jerusalem where He "will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again" (Mark 10:33-34).

After hearing this prophecy about Christ’s Resurrection, the Apostles started to think that Jesus was going to establish His Kingdom in Jerusalem right after He came to life again. This was a common mistake about Jesus in those days. In fact, He was sentenced to death because of two major mistakes: first, the Pharisees and the Scribes could not bear the fact that He is calling Himself the Son of God; and second, the Romans were convinced by the Jews that He was going to challenge and possibly destroy the emperor’s ruling in the region and establish His own kingdom. When Pilate had to make his decision, he was told that they [the Jews] "found this [man] perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying, that he himself is Christ a king" (Luke 23:2). This false accusation was strengthened by remark that Pilate could not call himself Caesar’s friend if he allowed anybody else to call himself or herself a king or queen: "If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king, speaks against Cesar" (John 19:12).

We know about the apostles’ mistaken view on Jesus’ Kingdom because immediately after His prophecy two of them (James and John, the sons of Zebedee) came to the Lord in private asking for higher positions in His Kingdom, which they thought He was going to establish in Jerusalem: "Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory" (Mark 10:37). However, the answer of Jesus was not so promising for them: "You do not know what you ask" (Mark 10:38). Jesus explained that in asking for a place beside Him, they were asking to die by Him, as He was going to be put to death. He also prophesied that they would drink the cup of martyrdom and would taste of what He was going to taste in Jerusalem. Eventually, the ungodly rulers martyred all the apostles except John.

Now, look at the rest of the twelve: they all were involved in the mistake of John and James. "When the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John" (Mark 10:41) and only Jesus’ words could calm down their hurt feelings: "…whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all" (Mark 10:43-44). Therefore, the Son of God came to this world not to change the rulers but to change humans’ nature and give us an opportunity to enter God’s ETERNAL Kingdom. For this we need to prepare ourselves by serving others just as our Lord did: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

Dear brothers and sisters, what is there for us in today’s Gospel reading? Today we received the clearest message that we need to pursue our final goal of eternal salvation and to follow Christ’s teaching and His example of life no matter what is happening to us. We saw today that even for the Apostles who were close to the Lord it was not enough just to know the teaching of the Savior. They needed to experience His Cross and Resurrection. Additionally they had to become fully aware of Christ’s mission, and change their attitude to it accordingly. We too, my dear brother and sisters, need not only to know Jesus’ teaching, but also experience His Passions, Cross and Resurrection through the realization of our weaknesses and comprehension of the necessity of living with the Lord. We also need to carry our own crosses trying not to complain about everything but rather accept everything as a test of our faith and devotedness to our Savior. Through this we become stronger in faith, more loyal to others and learn to appreciate everything we receive from the Lord. Our life then will change just as the Apostles’ lives changed after the Day of Pentecost. We have already received the Holy Spirit. Now we must let Him renew our old selves and fill each of us with a new essence so that we can enter the Heavenly Kingdom and bring with us the good fruits of our lives.

May our Savior Jesus Christ help us all to achieve these virtues and to follow His path with our crosses upon our shoulders.

Amen.