"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."The feast of Pascha (Passover) or Easter in the Orthodox Church, is the most significant of the entire year. Commemorated more than Christmas, which was not celebrated at all in its current form in the Orthodox tradition until a few hundred years ago.
Pascha celebrates not only the resurrection of Christ, significant as that is, but also the end of the beginning of the restoration of human nature and the entire creation to its original divine state.
Mankind was originally intended to be divine - partakers of the Divine nature - images of God, the Creator. But, having as part of that nature the authority to exercise free-will, humanity (personified in the nature of Adam - the first man) chose to reject the loving provision of God for a self-motivated, self-gratifying way of life. In so doing, humanity lost connection with God, our Divine nature became corrupted - the disease called sin infected not only humanity but all creation.
From the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great:
"For having made man by taking dust from the earth, and having honored him with Your own image, 0 God, You placed him in a garden of delight, promising him eternal life and the enjoyment of everlasting blessings in the observance of Your commandments.
But when he disobeyed You, the true God who had created him, and was led astray by the deception of the serpent becoming subject to death through his own transgressions, You, 0 God, in Your righteous judgment, expelled him from paradise into this world, returning him to the earth from which he was taken, yet providing for him the salvation of regeneration in Your Christ.
For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, 0 Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways: You sent forth prophets; You performed mighty works by Your saints who in every generation have pleased You. You spoke to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, announcing to us the salvation which was to come; You gave us the law to help us; You appointed angels as guardians.
And when the fullness of time had come, You spoke to us through Your Son Himself, through whom You created the ages. He, being the splendor of Your glory and the image of Your being, upholding all things by the word of His power, thought it not robbery to be equal with You, God and Father.
But, being God before all ages, He appeared on earth and lived with humankind. Becoming incarnate from a holy Virgin, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, conforming to the body of our lowliness, that He might change us in the likeness of the image of His glory.
For, since through man sin came into the world and through sin death, it pleased Your only begotten Son, who is in Your bosom, God and Father, born of a woman, the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary; born under the law, to condemn sin in His flesh, so that those who died in Adam may be brought to life in Him, Your Christ.
He lived in this world, and gave us precepts of salvation. Releasing us from the delusions of idolatry, He guided us to the sure knowledge of You, the true God and Father. He acquired us for Himself, as His chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Having cleansed us by water and sanctified us with the Holy Spirit, He gave Himself as ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the cross, that He might fill all things with Himself, He loosed the bonds of death. He rose on the third day, having opened a path for all flesh to the resurrection from the dead, since it was not possible that the Author of life would be dominated by corruption. So He became the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first born of the dead, that He might be Himself the first in all things. "
I love the phrase: "...that He might fill all things with Himself, He loosed the bonds of death."
When I first heard the "message of salvation" from an Evangelical perspective I thought it was saying that Jesus was "being punished for our sins." He was the "scapegoat" that took the "punishment" of God intended for us on Himself and therefore provided a means by which we could enter Heaven when we died. I struggled with that understanding because the implication was that God was not as forgiving as He wanted us to be. (i.e. Matt. 18:20-22 "Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.") I could not reconcile the divine compassion of Christ, the Son, who even forgave His own killers and tormentors, with the apparent "avenger" God, the Father that would kill His own Son.
In Orthodoxy, salvation is not only about what Jesus did, it is also about Who He is. In simple language, paraphrasing the beautiful words of Basil the Great - Jesus, became a human being so that He could be "infected" with our mortality - but being divine or having the DNA of God He carried in His blood immunity to death. However, by voluntarily choosing death, He overcame death and restored (or immunized) humanity from the terminal nature of death. As Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Church in America put it:
"Through Christ the sting of death no longer has venom" - Pascha Message, 2006
In Evangelical Christianity I understood that salvation occured at the moment I "accepted" Christ. In Orthodox Christianity I understand that salvation began when Mary said "Yes" to God and became the God-bearer (Greek: Theotokos). Salvation continues as a process of restoring humanity to the fulness of its nature. (This process of becoming divine-humanity is described by the Greek word: Theosis.)
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
1 comment:
Awesome as usual!
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