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At our last
talk I mentioned that we entered the period of the Triodion which began
with the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. The Parable, with its
message of repentance and humility, set in motion a period of
preparation to help us prepare for Great Lent and more importantly for
the spiritual journey that will lead us to Pascha, the Feast of Feasts.
As we saw
last time, the preparation period is designed to teach us about the four
basic and essential elements of repentance, humility, love and
forgiveness, required if we want to progress up the spiritual ladder.
Along the same lines, the middle group of Parables we have been studying
during our recent meetings, and which we have termed as the behaviour
Parables all teach us about these essential elements and spiritual
qualities we must strive for.
The Sunday
after the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee the Gospel reading was the
very moving Parable of the Prodigal Son who wanted independence from
what he considered were the strict rules that his father imposed, and so
left to find freedom. His newly found freedom led to a life of sin and
he ended up wasting all his inheritance by leading a wasteful and
reckless life. Having reached rock bottom, he came to his senses and
decided to return to his father's house.
The Parable
of the Prodigal Son belongs to preparation period and also to the group
of behaviour parables and has mush to teach us about repentance and
humility. Having said this, it is a parable that we have seen in great
detail in previous years and because this is our last talk on the
parables and our last talk before we break up for Great Lent and Pascha,
we will give it a miss this year and look at some of the other parables
of the same group.
Before we
begin our study of today's parables I want us to quickly see the
remaining two Sundays of the Preparation Period. Last Sunday's Gospel
reading was the Parable of the Last Judgement which we saw on our study
of the Parables in December. The message we received from this Parable
was that God will not judge us according to how we fasted, neither how
we prayed nor how good a Christian we might have appeared to be, but
according to our attitude towards our fellow men, in other words the
criterion by which we shall be judged will be love. If we cannot love
our fellow men then in truth we don’t love Christ, because he has
created each man in his own image and likeness.
The last
Sunday of preparation is this coming Sunday known as Cheesefare Sunday
which is also called Forgiveness Sunday. It has two themes: The first we
hear in the hymns during Vespers and Mattins, which is the Expulsion of
Adam from the Paradise of bliss. Man was created for Paradise, for
knowledge of God and communion with Him. Man’s sin has deprived him of
that blessed life and his existence on earth is in exile. Christ, the
Saviour of the whole world, opens the door of Paradise to everyone who
follows him, and the Church revealing to us the beauty of the Kingdom,
makes our life a pilgrimage towards our heavenly fatherland. Thus just
before we begin our journey through Lent we are reminded of how great a
loss Paradise was for mankind and how much Adam must have wept bitterly
knowing what he had lost.
The second
theme is ‘fasting and forgiveness’ and is taken from the Gospel for the
day. All the Gospels we heard in the previous weeks taught us how our
inner self should be to be saved. We must first have the humility of the
Publican, the repentance of the Prodigal Son and the love of Christ. But
to accomplish all these things is by no means an easy task and each man
needs a great deal of help to be able to reach home to the Father. The
help comes from Christ himself, but we must first take that first step.
Great lent is that period when the Church gives us the opportunity to
make these first and very essential steps and gives us the means through
fasting and the daily Lenten services. But the Gospel for this Sunday of
Forgiveness warns us to beware how we use these means at our disposal.
It tells us firstly that if we are to ask of our heavenly Father to
forgive our sins, we must also forgive those who have sinned against us,
and if we have not the love and humility to forgive them then neither
will our heavenly Father forgive us. And when we fast let us not be as
the hypocrites who make themselves look dismal, who disfigure their
faces, so that they may appear to men that they keep to a strict fast.
And if that is how you fast, don’t expect any reward from God because
you’ve already received your reward through the praises of men. In other
words let us not tell people that we fast so that they can say “oh well
done! how do you manage it?” Contrary to this, Christ tells us to keep
our fast a secret that only the heavenly Father who knows the secrets of
men can see and who will reward us openly. And he tells us also of one
more thing to beware of: not to collect earthly treasures which from one
moment to the next can be ruined by moths or rust or can be stolen, but
to store up treasures in heaven where we will have them for all
eternity.
So now let's
go to our first parable for today: the Parable of Building a Tower and
Making War.
"Christ said: If any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my
disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down
first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish
it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to
build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he
be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he
sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise,
whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple." (Luke 14:26-33)
The meaning
of the twin Parable of building a Tower and the king making a war is
made clear in the verse leading into the parable. Christ said: whoever
does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sister
and even his own life cannot be my disciple. This doesn’t mean that we
should only love Christ and no one else, or to abandon everyone we love
and go and join a monastery. Many have done this and the Apostles also
left all that they had to follow Christ, but this verse should not be
interpreted fanatically. Christ would not have us hating our beloved
family members when elsewhere he tells us that we should also love our
enemies. What Christ means is that if we have love for God above all
others, if we make Christ the centre of our lives then our love will
become Christ-like and not only our love for our family members, but
love for all people will follow naturally. But a sign of a true follower
is that he must be prepared, if absolutely necessary, to sacrifice even
family relationships especially when these family members have an
unbelief and total disregard for God.
Our true faith will
be tested if we find ourselves in a position of having to choose between
a temporary worldly life with our family members or following the way of
Christ and eternal life. Thus through faith and trust in God Abraham
parted with his own country, and Moses with Pharaoh's court. Our faith
will also be tested if we have to choose between staying alive but
denouncing our faith in Christ or remaining steadfast in faith and dying
a martyr's death. If we are not ready to take up our cross and follow
him then we are not worthy to be called his disciples. Christ is not
referring to his own crucifixion which is still to come, but gives a
image of the Roman custom whereby those condemned to crucifixion had to
carry the shameful instrument of the penalty - the cross - to the place
of punishment (John 19:17), which magnified their sufferings even more.
But Christ is not talking about a punishment, but a voluntary suffering
that we will endure for his sake. Christ is warning those who say they
are willing to follow him that the road ahead is painful and full of
sacrifice. Are we then ready to take up our cross? Do we have faith to
endure like Christ the spitting, the scourging, the buffetings, the
scorn, the mocking; do we have faith to endure until the end and death.
Thus Christ
tells us that before we begin to be his followers we should sit down and
calculate the cost to ourselves just like someone intending to build a
tower. When taking on any building project we must first sit down and
calculate the cost and see if we have enough funds to finish the
project. If we begin blindly and lay the foundation and then realize
that we cannot finish because we had no idea of the costs we would
appear like fools.
Christ is
therefore advising his followers to calculate their strength and see
whether they have sufficient faith to finish what they started. A
Christian must be aware of the costs of being a Christian and the cost
is one's very life. It is a way of life that needs deep thought and
serious contemplation. The person who decides to follow the way of the
Gospel attempts to build a tower, not like the Tower of Babel which
remained unfinished, but a tower in accordance with God's will who will
help the builder bring it to completion. The builder will begin low
putting the foundations deep into a rock and will slowly build the tower
until it reaches heaven. But this tower will have high costs. The
builder will have to put to death the sin working within him and all the
strong temptations and desires of the flesh. He must live a life of self
denial and keep watch over his work lest evil enemies come at night and
demolish the tower before it reaches heaven. It may, perhaps, cost him
his reputation among men, his estates and liberties, and all that is
dear to him in this world. He may even be asked to give his life in
defence of his tower.
Many that
begin to build this tower do not go on with it, nor persevere in it, and
it is their folly; they have not courage and resolution, and so bring
nothing to pass. It is true, that none of us in ourselves have
sufficient to finish this tower, but Christ has said, My grace is
sufficient for thee, and that grace shall not be wanting to any of us,
if we seek for it and make use of it. Nothing is more shameful than for
him that has begun well in religion to break off; every one will justly
mock him, as having lost all his labour he has put in until then because
he did not persevere. We lose the things we have wrought (2 Jn. 8), and
all we have done and suffered is in vain, (Gal. 3:4)
The twin
parable of the king preparing to make war is similar in meaning. A wise
king will sit down with his advisers to see if he has the military
strength to go to war against a much stronger enemy and if the odds are
against him then it would be wiser for him to send an ambassador with a
hope of a peace settlement.
The state of
a Christian in this world is a military state. A Christian is a soldier
and there are many stages of the spiritual life that can be resembled to
warfare? We must have our sword ready at hand to fight the restless
spiritual enemies that come in force to battle against us. Thus like the
king in the parable, we ought to consider whether we can endure the
hardness which a good soldier of Jesus Christ must expect and count upon
before we enlist ourselves under Christ's banner; whether we are able to
encounter the forces of hell and earth, which come against us twenty
thousand strong. The fight against evil needs a strong and fearless
heart which bears its strength in faith. The Christian must be
courageous and believe that God will be with him in his struggles.
Weighing up his strength the Christian must not fear the twenty thousand
strong enemy and consider the fact that he is on the defence fighting
for his land. It is his calling and holy duty to fight and his courage
and self sacrifice should more than make up for the numbers. But what if
someone hasn't the courage to battle what should he do? Christ said:
"while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and
desireth conditions of peace." Christ is not saying that we should seek
conditions of peace with the devil. That is a choice that many have made
when after renouncing the way of the world have for a while keep the
faith but when tribulations and persecutions arose they didn't have the
strength to fight and took the easy way out and returned to the world
and their old life of sin.
It is better
for someone to remain an honest person religiously indifferent and cold,
than to be an inconsistent Christian changing sides whenever it suits
him. Christ warns his followers that if they are not prepared and
determined to follow him until the cross, if there is a possibility that
they will betray him at the last minute, then it is better for them not
to sever their relationship with the world.
Such is
Christ's narrow path. The Christian must renounce himself, leave
everything behind him, and not glance back and if he cannot do it he
cannot be Christ's disciple.
The overall message in the twin Parable is that we cannot be just a
Christian by name alone or a part time Christian. We must count the cost
and weigh our faith before embarking on the road of the Gospel. The Cost
is self denial and we can adapt the meaning of the parable to the period
of Great Lent which we will enter on Monday. Great Lent and the fast it
entails is a tool that helps us learn about self denial. It is a tool
that the Church gives us to help us keep in check our free will, but it
is also a means which helps us to free ourselves from the dependence of
food and other material things with the aim of making us aware that our
life does not depend on food but on God.
Fasting
helps us to place a boundary to our own egotistic desires, it is a
voluntary self denial with the intention of disciplining ourselves to
live according to what is truly necessary and not according to worldly
pleasures. In this sense it is a real fight because we are doing battle
not only with the devil but with our passions which can be stronger than
any temptation he can hurl at us to bring us down. Self denial is a
means to salvation: which as we saw in the parable, we are called to
denounce our very lives and to voluntarily bear our cross and follow
Christ. And because fasting is a self denial we must weigh the costs
just like in the parable of the king contemplating going to war. Fasting
is not just an exercise of giving up certain foods: there is a right and
a wrong way of fasting and only if done correctly can it bring forth the
fruits of the Holy Spirit. Many people keep the fast like a religious
duty a Christian is obliged to do and that by fasting they are somehow
pleasing to God. But fasting involves a lot more than just giving up
certain foods. St. John Chrysostom says that fasting implies not only
abstinence from food, but from sins also. “The fast,” he insists,
“should be kept not by the mouth alone, but also by the eye, the ear,
the feet, the hands and all the members of the body: the eye must
abstain from impure sights, the ear from malicious gossip, the hands
from acts of injustice.” It is useless to fast from food, protests St.
Basil, and yet to indulge in cruel criticism and slander: “You do not
eat meat, but you devour your brother.
True fasting
means to put away all evil, to control the tongue, to forbear from
anger, to abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury. Only if we
renounce these things is our fasting true and acceptable to God. And if
our fasting is true we should see a spiritual change in us. If our
fasting is true then we will also experience temptations, weakness,
doubt, and irritation. It is highly significant that it was while
fasting when the body was weak that Christ was tempted by Satan. If
Christ was tempted then we also will be tempted but we should not fear
this because Christ later said that Satan can be overcome by fasting and
prayer. True fasting is a real spiritual fight and we will probably fail
many times.
But the very
discovery of Christian life as fight and effort is the essential aspect
of fasting. A faith which has not overcome doubts and temptation is
seldom a real faith. No progress in Christian life is possible, without
the bitter experience of failures. Too many people start fasting with
enthusiasm and give up after the first failure. I would say that it is
at this first failure that the real test comes. If after having failed
and surrendered to our appetites and passions, we start all over again
and do not give up no matter how many times we fail, sooner or later our
fasting will bear its spiritual fruits.
Let's now
move on to our next twin Parable of the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep.
"And Christ spake this parable unto them, saying,
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth
not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which
is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on
his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together
his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I
have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy
shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety
and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman
having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a
candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And
when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours
together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I
had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:3-10)
The occasion
for the Lord to say these parables came after the Pharisees and Scribes
murmured against him for keeping company with sinners and eating with
them. Christ's tolerance and acceptance of sinners bothered the Scribes
and Pharisees, who considered a helping hand to a fallen brother or
simply touching him as ritual pollution. These elite scholars thought
that Jesus sinned by consorting with sinners. So they warned people to
shun Him. Instead of rebuking them for their inhumane dealings with
sinners, he humbly directs these parables to them, to teach them that
each person is special to God.
Christ used
the image of the shepherd in his preaching because His audience knew
this image from the pastoral economy and from the books of the Old
Testament. The Israelite shepherd is both leader and comrade. This
powerful man defends his flock from wild beasts while knowing his sheep
well (Proverbs 27:23), adapting to their situation (Genesis 33:13),
carrying them in his arms (Isaiah 40:11), even loving one or another of
them as a daughter (II Kings/II Samuel, 12:3). His authority is
indisputable, based on devotion and love. The ancient Babylon and
Assyrian kings called themselves shepherds with a divine ministry to
gather and care for sheep of the flock.
The parables
of the lost sheep and the lost coin depict the Lord's true concern for
the conversion of a sinner, and the joy in the heavens for those who
repent. These parables emphasize that God Himself seeks out the sinner
to save him. Christ is saying to his accusers: "You bring an accusation
against me that I accept sinners who have fallen away from God, that I
even go after them, bring them to repentance, saving them from perdition
and return them to God. But, after all, you Scribes and Pharisees also
act likewise in regards to that which is near and dear to you.
"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he
lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost, until he find it? Or what woman having
ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle,
and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?" If
you act that way on losing your property, then why do you reproach Me,
when I am saving men who have fallen away from God, their Father.
A
responsible, good shepherd, on finding a lost sheep, does not punish it
because it fell away from the flock, does not even drive it back to the
flock; but, rejoicing that he found it, takes it on his dependable
shoulders and bears it home; he calls his friends and says to them:
"Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto
you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance."
This is how God rejoices to return the lost sheep to the flock of
salvation.
The parable
of the Lost Sheep speaks of a hundred sheep of which ninety nine do not
need saving. Some have interpreted this as the angels whom Christ left
in heaven when he came down from heaven and became incarnate, but I
think this is just an illustration of the Son of man's coming into this
world, to seek, and to save mankind, his lost sheep. The parable does
not mention that the ninety nine were righteous, but that he left them
to seek out the one that strayed. The ninety nine must be referring to
the Scribes and Pharisees to whom the parable is directed and who
believed they were righteous and had no need of repentance because they
fulfilled the duties prescribed in the Mosaic Law.
They too
need saving but their hearts are closed to receive God's calling. On the
other hand the lost sheep may be a sinner dead to virtue and blessedness
for which God had created him, but he had not lost all capacity for
repentance and conversion to God. The sheep who ran away from the flock
is a pitiful animal. If is truly lost because it doesn't have the
instinct to find its way back. It may stray where there is neither feed
nor water and it is in grave danger because it doesn't have claws or
horns to protect itself and becomes prey to wild beasts seeking to
devour it. In comparison, a man's soul is exposed to every delusion and
passion and is an easy prey of the devil who according to the word of
Scripture "walketh about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour" (I Peter 5:8).
The lost
sheep is truly lost because it doesn't give to God the honour, worship
and obedience it is obliged to do. It is lost to the fold because it
separated itself from it and doesn't have any form of communication with
it. It is lost to itself because it doesn't know where it is and roams
from place to place alone. It is lost because it is impossible without
help to find its way back to the fold.
The Lord
shows great care for lost souls, whom He boundlessly loves. He
diligently seeks out each person calling him by his name and doesn't
give up until he is in range and can hear his voice and respond. And
when he finds the lost soul he does not reprimand him or punish him for
being a sinner and falling away, he doesn't drag him behind him like a
slave, or beat him to go in front, neither does he order others to carry
him back but himself takes him onto his shoulders, encourages and
comforts him, for as he said: "Come unto me, all
ye who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"
(Matthew 11:28). The person who has been carried by the heavenly
shepherd will never again be lost. The Good Shepherd carries the sheep
home here meaning Paradise and calls his friends and neighbours to
rejoice with him for having found the sheep that was lost. Friends and
neighbours suggest that in heaven there are various ranks of heavenly
dwellings apart from the angels. Notice also that Christ does not say
that he found the sheep that he lost but rather that he found the sheep
that was lost because the sheep was lost through its own negligence and
recklessness, whereas in the case of the woman finding the coin she lost
it through her negligence. But also notice how with satisfaction and
deep affection Christ says I have found my sheep.
The parable is very
similar to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. There the Father never gave
up hope that one day he would see his son again and one day, seeing him
in the distance, he is so overcome with joy and love that he doesn’t sit
and wait for him to approach, but runs out to meet him and there face to
face with his long lost son, he embraces him and smothers him with
kisses. The father’s joy was so great; his love was so overwhelming that
he never once considered punishing his son further than what he had
punished himself. He had been to hell and back and he came back a new
person, a new son with knowledge of good and evil. This was a time for
celebrating. He orders the servants to bring forth the best [first]
robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his
feet: And kill the fatted calf, to eat, and be merry, saying:
"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he
was lost, and is found."
Similarly in this
parable of the Lost Sheep, Christ tells the Scribes and Pharisees of
what happens in heaven to those sinners they considered were polluted
and untouchable. For each sinner that repents there is joy and merriment
by all the inhabitants of heaven much more than over ninety and nine
just persons, which need no repentance. If we understand here that the
ninety nine just persons refers to people already saved and therefore
are on the right road and have no need of repentance, this doesn't mean
that God does not rejoice and love the righteous. The passage is a human
expression, we rejoice when we find something that we thought we had
lost more than for the things that we haven't lost. Another image is
parents with their children. When one child is seriously ill the parents
love and attention is more concentrated on that child more than on the
other children who are in good health. The parents love all their
children, but the necessary attention to the one child might seem to the
others that they have been neglected. When the child recovers the
parents rejoice because the child in once again in good health, but that
doesn't mean that they love the child more than the others.
The parable
of the woman and the lost coin is almost identical in meaning but with
the difference that the good shepherd is replaced with a woman and the
sheep that was lost through its own negligence with a silver coin not
lost through its own negligence but through the woman's and therefore
cannot feel the consequence of being lost as could the sheep. In the
Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Shepherd represents Christ, but in this
parable the woman cannot also represent Christ for the very fact that
she lost the coin through negligence, something that Christ would never
ever do.
Some of the
Church fathers have said that the ten coins represent the angels and
men, as there are nine ranks of angels, and mankind making up the ten.
The silver coin has an image on it which represents the image of God
that is in man. The coin representing the human race seduced by the
devil falls from the grace of God and is lost somewhere in the house
collecting dust which conceals the image of God. The coin remains lost
in the dark house until Christ came to earth to seek and find that which
was lost. The candle that the woman lit can represent Christ who came as
a light to those in darkness. The woman now enlightened with the divine
light sweeps the house meaning that she sweeps away the dust collected
through sin and finds the coin, the likeness of the Creator is restored
in man.
Both
Parables teach us that Christ desires that we would imitate his love for
every man. In each man, we must see a brother in Christ and an image of
God. No matter how a man might fall and darken God's image in himself,
the image is still there and through repentance and God's divine light,
love and wisdom, man can once again regain the true image of his
creator.
With this we
have come to an end to our study on the Parables. Over the ten weeks of
this study we have covered most of the Parables. If we have understood
the majority of them and applied them to our lives then those we didn't
have time to see will become clearer and self explanatory during our
private readings of the Gospels.
This is also our last talk of the season because as always we break up
for Great Lent and Easter and begin again the week after Bright Week. So
with that I wish you all Kalo Stadio. Enter the arena of Great Lent as
fearless soldiers of Christ with drawn swords ready to battle against
the twenty thousand strong enemy. Great Lent is a battle, but remember
also that it is a spiritual journey taking us to Pascha, the celebration
of our return to Paradise our true homeland and our return to God and
eternal salvation.
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