In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today we
look toward the resurrection, and we look also set our eyes on the resurrection
we will celebrate with great fervor and zeal and festivity in only another
week. But today we look at our resurrection, very explicitly because Lazarus
was a man like us and was dead and already decomposing, and our Lord raised him
from the dead.
Imagine
what he felt. He was in Hades, and he heard the voice of God, all the way in
Hades, and He brought him back in an instant, in a flash. He knew the power of
God, and those around saw that power, as Jesus, with a loud voice said,
"Lazarus, come forth." And the same voice calls us -- the same voice
calls us to come forth. The same voice says, " I am the resurrection. If
you believe in Me you will have eternal life." We must believe. We must
understand. I tell you. We must also live according to the way Christ is, and
then you will understand what it means to be a Christian.
Did you
see the two ways that the sisters dealt with the death of their brother? One
stayed still in the house, and one ran out to Jesus. They both believed. But
their faith was weak, and they'd never heard of a man who was four days dead
being raised from the dead. They'd heard of a person who had died that day
being raised from the dead. Christ had done it twice. They knew of Saint Elias
who had raised someone from the dead, and of the prophet Elisha, but in both of
those cases the man was dead one day. Now a man had been dead four days, and it
was beyond their understanding how he could be raised from the dead. They
thought of a far-off time when there would be the resurrection of all things.
They didn't think really of how it applied to then and now.
The
resurrection applies to us now brothers and sisters. Not later -- now. It
changes us now, makes us able to live now . It comforts us now . It burns away
our passions and our sins now . "The kingdom of God is within you,"
Christ said. The Resurrection and the Life lives within us now . We must
understand this. We must live this.
And we
must approach Christ in these two ways that his beloved friends approached him.
Mary sat still in the house: we must pray, we must develop within ourselves
great love, great fervor, unshakable belief. We must also be active in our
faith. We must go to Christ. We must beg Him for the things we need. And we
must live according to the way He has told us to live. He has told us, live
within the ark of the church, to fast, to pray, to partake of all the things
that the church has given us. This is the activity that Martha points to. Both
are necessary. Neither one is enough to save a soul. We must have fervent
belief, and we must live within that belief.
Slightly
more than seven days from now -- no, actually it will be Friday evening -- I
will read a sermon of Saint Epiphanius in which he speaks of when Jesus Christ,
the resurrection and the life, when down into Hades. We have a taste of that
today. We should meditate very carefully, and think what it would be like to be
in the depths of Hades, to be in the depths of hopelessness, to see our flesh
and see how weak it is, and for God to say, "Come forth", and break
everything that is holding us fast. A Christian must really understand this.
This is what the resurrection means for us. It is how we reach our perfection.
It is
very painful. It is painful for me, and I tell you, it might sound strange, but
I hope and I pray that it is painful for you. I hope that you see the
uselessness of so much in what we call this life, that you see the depravity,
both in yourself and outside of yourself, and that you long to be made whole,
to be made complete. A Christian must be like that. He must be like a stranger
in a strange land, like Moses. He must consider himself to only be passing
through on the way to the heavenly city, to Zion, to Jerusalem, to perfection.
This is
what we are going after, you know. And we see that God can perfect. He didn't
just raise Himself from the dead; He raised us from the dead. This must be understood.
And it's not just something you read in a book and understand. It's not just a
point of doctrine or a question to be answered. It's in the heart. If you know
that God raised you from the dead, you won't want to do anything but to become
like Him, and you will know that you can become like Him. You have beenpromised
that you can become like Him. This is the meaning of the resurrection.
This is
why God raised Lazarus from the dead. To show us the power of the resurrection
in us, because we're weak. He knows. We might say, "He did it, but he is
God. So how does that apply to me?" Just like Mary and Martha, I know that
some day we'll be raised from the dead in the resurrection, but they didn't
apply it to their life now. This is why Lazarus was raised from the dead. And
it's also why Jesus waited. Not only so Lazarus would die. He certainly, as
God, could have arranged that He was near the town, but He was far away from
the town and after He was told about Lazarus, He went slowly to Bethany and
took four days. He waited so that He could teach us something that is very
important: that we must wait, that we must be patient, that we must have faith
even when it appears that things are not as we would wish them to be, and that
they won't change. Jesus Christ can take a man, stinking, from the grave, after
four days, and raise him from the dead, He can raise us.
But don't
believe in the resurrection later; believe in the resurrection now . Live in
that belief. Try to change because of that belief. Believe that you can be
changed. I don't care what it is that assails you. God can heal you. Not later,
but now . Don't believe in the resurrection -- later. Believe in the
resurrection and the life, Who is with us, now. We're about to partake of His
holy body and blood for our sustenance, that medicine of immortality. Our
immortality, you know, begins with our baptism. And we are just increasingly
fulfilling it every day that we live. Live in the light of the resurrection.
Believe it. Believe that you will change. And when you hear God's voice saying,
"Come forth" at the resurrection, you will be filled with joy. May
God help you.
By Fr.
Seraphim Holland
Source: http://orthochristian.com/69841.html
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