Uncategorized – Page 17 – The Tao of Holy Orthodoxy

October 18, 2017October 18, 2017

20. The Holy Ascension & Future Return

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After His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ said to His Disciples,

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28.16-20, NKJV)

Forty days after Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, the Disciples witnessed their Lord being taken up into heaven. They watched Him go up until a cloud hid Him from their sight. (This is called the Holy Ascension.) Although as God, the Son had always been seated on the heavenly throne with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God loved us so much that after raising our human nature to immortality, He proceeded further to lift up our human nature to the heights of heaven. Having ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ sat down our human nature at the right hand of God the Father, that is, in the place of highest honor with God.

At the end of the present age, at the conclusion of time, our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ will return to earth from heaven in all His radiant Glory. At His return, Christ will raise all the dead and judge the world as the Holy King. Our Divine Physician Who came to save the world from death and accomplished everything that we might be healed, will receive into eternal Life all those who have believed in Him and who have submitted to be healed by His Grace. Through His Holy Ascension, Jesus Christ has shown us our ultimate and never-ending potential and purpose as human beings.

Read: Luke 24.50-53; Acts 1.9-11; Mark 16.14-20; Matthew 28.16-20; Ephesians 1.15-21; Mark 13.24-27; Matthew 25.31-46; 26.57-68; Romans 2.1-16; Revelation 20.11-18; 21.23-27; 22.1-5

October 18, 2017October 18, 2017

19. The Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ

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After He died, Jesus Christ’s pure body was taken down from the Cross, wrapped in fine linen with spices, and placed in a new tomb that was sealed with a large stone. After three days, an angel removed the stone door and announced that Christ was risen from the dead. The women reported what they saw to the skeptical Disciples. Peter and John ran to the tomb, discovering that the body of Jesus had vanished, but the grave clothes that had been wrapped around His body remained.

Three days after Christ’s death and burial, when His Disciples had gathered together behind locked doors, their Master suddenly appeared in front of them. He showed them the scars of crucifixion in His hands and side. Christ ate some food in order to prove that He was not a spirit or ghost, but physically alive.

The Disciple Thomas had been absent the first time Christ showed Himself to the other Disciples. After hearing his brothers talk about what they had witnessed, Thomas declared that He would not believe Jesus was raised from the dead unless he could investigate Christ’s wounds himself. A week later, Christ appeared again to the Disciples, including Thomas. When he saw Jesus Christ alive, the once-skeptical Disciple proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Over the course of forty days, Christ appeared at various times, showing Himself convincingly to be alive, the first-born immortal from among the dead.

Through the Holy Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God raised up our human nature to immortality. Christ did not exist the gave as a mortal, but was raised to immortality in a newly spiritualized physical body incapable of being touched by death again. Because Christ has brought immortality to the human nature we all share, at the end of time the soul of each human being will be reunited with the body, a body raised to immortality that is both spiritual and physical. Those who put their trust in Jesus Christ, the Immortal One, and follow His Way will live with God eternally in the kingdom of heaven after the general resurrection of the dead at the end of the age.

Every year at Pascha (called Easter in the West), we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the celebration, we sing, Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! This hymn proclaims with joy the reason that we follow Christ. Why does the Way of Holy Orthodoxy matter? Simply put, because “Christ is Risen!” As our Physician, Jesus Christ has conquered death in the soul and body on behalf of us all so that we too can share in His accomplishment and be completely healed from the disease of death with all its destructive effects.

Read: John 5.25-29; 20.1-21.14; Luke 24.1-12; Matthew 28.9-15; Luke 13-49; 1 Corinthians 15.1-28, 35-58.

October 16, 2017October 16, 2017

18. The Crucifixion of Christ

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At the appointed time, Jesus Christ entered the city of Jerusalem to submit to suffering and death. Soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and placed it on His head. They nailed his hands and feet to a wooden Cross and raised up his body for all to see. A sign above his head mocked him as a false king. Christ’s enemies did not realize that He had entered into the world for the purpose of ascending the Cross for the salvation of our human race.

In His human nature, Christ suffered and died on the Cross, but in His divine nature as God, suffering and death cannot touch Him. The Cross killed a man, but with this Cross, the King of All crushed the power of death. We speak poetically of the Mystery of the Cross: Although Hades (the place of the dead) took a body, it came face to face with the infinite God. Hades swallowed up a body it has seen, but it was destroyed by the uncontainable God it had not seen.

Through the Cross, death was changed to life. The old Adam had died by death because He had rebelliously eaten from the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the New Adam trampled down death by death through obedience. Christ transformed the Cross bearing His body into the Tree of Life, planted on the earth for the healing of all who would share in its Life-Giving Fruit.

On the Cross, Christ again showed us an image of what a healed human person looks like. The perfected human being is victorious through humility, transforming that which is meant to crush and destroy into something beneficial and healthful. A healed person, united with God, is moved by self-denying love.

Jesus Christ is both our Divine Physician and our only saving Antidote. He alone is capable of saving us from death.

Read: John 19; Philippians 2.1-11

October 15, 2017October 16, 2017

17. The Holy Transfiguration

Transfiguration Theophanes Greek (15th_c,_Tretyakov_gallery)

Jesus Christ said to His Disciples, “I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9.27, NKJV). Eight days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John upon Mount Tabor to pray. As Jesus prayed, these Disciples saw His appearance change before their eyes. They saw His face radiating with Light like the sun and His clothes became white, shining with Light, like lightning. Suddenly, they found themselves witnessing a conversation between Christ and two ancient prophets, Moses and Elias, about Christ’s approaching death. As this happened, a cloud surrounded them and the Disciples heard a voice from the cloud say, “This is My beloved Son with Whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Peter, James, and John fell on their faces, but Jesus approached and touched them, saying, “Get up. Do not be afraid.” When they looked up again, they saw Jesus standing alone.

On the mountain, the Disciples Peter, James, and John, saw Christ’s body transfigured by His own Divine Glory. (This event is called the Holy Transfiguration.) The Glory did not suddenly appear in that moment, but Christ opened the hearts of His Disciples so that they could see the radiance always present, yet hidden from the sight of blind human hearts. As God, Christ is the Source of Divine Glory. His Divine Presence shined through His human body as metal in hot fire glows brightly with light. He gave Peter, James, and John the gift of seeing the Glory for a moment, at least as much as they were able to withstand.

Through His Transfiguration, Christ showed His disciples that His suffering and death would not be imposed upon Him against His will by others, as though He were powerless, but that He willfully approached suffering and death with humility and love for the benefit of our humanity.

On Mount Tabor, Christ demonstrated His Power to heal and transform the human being. He showed Peter, James, and John what a healed human being looks like and what it means to be like Christ, united with the Divine Presence of God. Being the Son of God, Jesus Christ radiated with the brightness of His own Divine Glory. We are healed and perfected by personally participating in His Glory, the Uncreated Energy of God.

Read: Luke 9.21-39; Matthew 17.1-9; 1 Peter 1.1-18

October 11, 2017October 16, 2017

16. Christ Heals the Sick

After his Holy Baptism, Jesus Christ began his public ministry on earth so that everyone would know His words were true: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14.6). Christ taught those who followed Him the Way of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Way of Life that heals us from death. He healed the sick from illnesses ravaging the body. These physical healings pointed to the greater healing He came to accomplish: The destruction of death in soul and body.

Christ healed the paralyzed man to reveal His power to raise up souls paralyzed by sin and death. He gave sight to the blind to show that He, the Light of the World, is alone the Source of true spiritual Enlightenment. He anointed suffering soul with divine forgiveness and freed the possessed from their demonic tormentors. Christ even raised the dead to confirm His Life-Giving power over death in the soul and the body.

During His ministry on earth, Christ gathered together Twelve men to learn the Way as disciples and to carry the Way into the world as apostles. They witnessed what Christ said and did, announced the kingdom of heaven, healed the sick, and cast out demons. In addition to these Twelve, Christ also appointed Seventy apostles to share in this ministry.

By His teaching of the Way and His miraculous healings, Jesus Christ publicly demonstrated that He is the one Physician, being God and man, who can restore life to the whole human person, body and soul.

Read: Luke 4.14-30; 5.17-26; 6.12-16; 9.1-6; 10.1-18; Mark 5:21-43; John 5; John 9