04/17/2022
Blessed Palm Sunday! (And Easter to our non-orthodox friends)
Fr John’s Paschal newsletter:
Dearly beloved of St. Nicholas Church, Christ is Risen!
The Gospel message is simple, but powerful. Gospel, “Evangelion” in Greek, means an announcement of a military victory. Emperors and kings in the time of Christ would send messengers ahead of them in newly conquered territories, with “Evangelia,” listing the many victories of the conqueror, preparing those there for the coming of the ruler and expectation of how they were to respond to his coming. It’s no coincidence that the apostles chose to preach Christ’s resurrection as a “Gospel,” announcing his victory over death and his coming Kingdom.
Since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, mankind was plagued by three problems: 1) Because of Adam’s disobedience, he departed from the God who is life, thus introducing death into our humanity. We each receive that same corruption towards death, being of the same nature and substance as our forefather Adam. 2) Through the fear and corruption of death, we lost our original glory and the image of God was distorted in us, bringing about a rule of sin in our members–we became inclined toward vice, and we struggle to live towards virtue. And the growth of sin increased the corruption of death, and the fear of death caused mankind to live ever more wickedly. 3) The devil and his angels who rebelled were given, for a time, to reign over the realm of the dead. Unclean spirits also worked evil in the creation, leading mankind to all sorts of wickedness and idolatry, taking worship for themselves instead of teaching mankind to worship the true God. In these three problems, we were without help or hope; even in faithfulness to God, those holy men and women of the Old Testament still went into the grave, still were subjects to death, sin, and the devil.
The message of the Gospel is that Christ has completely defeated his enemies, namely, each of these three problems. 1) Death has been conquered by the one who became like us in every respect except sin and rose again. Death could not hold the author of life captive. True, spiritual death no longer has a claim on human nature, which has been united with Christ. 2) Christ’s blood has purified the creation and washed away our sins, and given us the ability, in Him, to no longer live under the power of sin, as we no longer live in abject fear of death, which has been transformed into life in Christ. 3) The devil and his angels, who for a time held sway using sin and fear of death as their weapons, are now utterly defeated; the faithful souls in hades are freed by Christ’s voice, the power of the demons is driven back, and authority in heaven and on earth (and in the grave) is now given to the Eternal Son of God. Christ’s victory is total, and the whole creation is now under his reign.
So why is there still sin, death, and evil? The war is won, but the battles persist. We the faithful, are now driving out the enemy. We do this by living a life united in the risen Christ, growing ever more in His life, deepening our Love for God, and living the life of the heavenly Kingdom now, by keeping His commandments.
But we also are expected to become heralds of his kingdom. We are the ones who are supposed to bring the message, the “Evangelion”, the announcement of Christ’s victory, to those who don’t know it. When the world sees darkness, we announce the One who has driven out the darkness. When the world sees and fears death, we announce the One who turned death into a passage from death to Life, in Him. When others seek the best way to live in this evil world, we announce (and live out!) the goodness of the way of life in Our Lord’s Kingdom, even here and now: defeating darkness, restoring the sinner, and raising the dead to eternal Life.
CHRIST IS RISEN!!!
With love in Christ,
Fr. John, Mat. Nadia, Jonah (&baby sister)
