Save as PDFSermon of His Grace Bishop Job – on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit:
Icon of Jesus Christ: scene of temptation by the devil. The Greek Orthodox monastery on the slopes of the mountain Forty days, or mountain “Temptation” (“Iskusheniya”)
Today’s Gospel reading begins, not accidentally, with the words: “When He had come to the other side…” (Math.8, 28). Human life is like a river, it has two shores. After the Feast of Pentecost we, together with the Lord, for the next four Sundays were on one shore. This is the right shore of life, a place of God’s truth and faith. Now He crossed the river to the “other side” and took us with Him, in order to teach us a lesson. On the opposite shore Lord shows us the land of death. Here everyone lives either in tombs, or surrounded by tombs. Here the entire landscape is like one large cemetery. That is why, no sooner had the Lord arrived to the other shore, “He was met by two demon-possessed people, coming out of their tombs” (Math.8, 28). The inhabitants of this land were slaves to death and evil. The master of their life was the king of sin – devil himself…”
To awaken us and help us to make the right choice in life, Jesus shows us the contrast between God’s Kingdom and the frightening kingdom of evil. Christ describes the kingdom of death clearly as a lifeless desert, where the devil imprisons people. The fiend possesses those alive, who are among the dead. There is no life around them. They cease to be human and become more like animals. They [had a habit] to come out [from their tombs, where they dwelt] “exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way” (Math. 8, 28). On a Godless path there is no life. Where there is no faith in God, there evil rules, and it can only bring extinction. There the human beings perish, all values of goodness – family, country and culture – are ruined and life itself is exterminated…
Christ is stronger than evil. The devil fears God. The possessed yell to the Lord: “What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Math.8, 29). The devils know that Christ is the Son of God, but do not wish to repent. They do not want to become good and bright. The fallen angels acknowledge that God has the power to make them accountable for their actions and punish them on the spot in order to stop evil. Christ heals the possessed people by commanding the evil demons to release the prisoners. (Math.8, 31-33).
Demons fear God, Life, and Light and enjoy being in darkness. They are drawn to everything that is a symbol of uncleanness and sin. They feel good and comfortable among the pigs. It is terrible for a normal person to fall into an abyss, but for devils to fall into the sea from slippery cliffs, killing thereby those who are possessed by them, is normal and desirable. Demons’ goal is to destroy all of God’s Kingdom, but the Lord limits their power. They are bound by Christ. Devils are unable to do evil to the extent they wished. Christ has allowed them to enter the pigs to show us the only thing, which they are capable of – destruction.
Christ’s goal is to give life to all of God’s creation and to save mankind from sin, death, and the devil. That is why Christ is showing us who is who. The devil is a killer, and befriending him is dangerous. Fallen demons, like terrorists, can only murder and sow death around themselves. Christ is the Defeater of death and the Redeemer from the devil’s deadly grasp. That is why, only with Christ, a person can live joyfully and without torment! The demon-possessed were not the only ones, tortured by devils and afraid of Christ. The Gergesene inhabitants, having learned of what had happened to their pigs, came out to meet Christ and ask Him to depart from their region. They did not invite the Great Miracle Maker to their homes, but turn Him away. How lonely Jesus Christ had felt on earth – among those very people, whom He came to save from eternal death!
Once I met a woman who proudly exclaimed: “I do not touch your God, nor do I want Him to touch me, I want nothing to do with Him or let Him get close to me”!?! I answered her with these words: “Imagine, that you are now an infant who wants to say to his mother: «Do not do anything for me, I do not wish to know you!». What will this mother do? She understands that if she obeys the request, the infant will die without her. If she will stop feeding, clothing, and teaching the infant, then it will be unable to live normally. So she continues to hover over him, and care for him, disregarding the infant’s howling… She continues to love him. God acts likewise. He cannot disregard us! If He should leave us, we would all perish!!!”
Today, unfortunately, many people foolishly believe that they can do everything on their own, without God’s help. They chase away all thoughts of the future judgement and ask that God leave them alone… “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1,11), – sadly witnesses John the Theologian at the beginning of his Gospel.
“So He got into a boat, crossed over and came to His own city.” God left temporarily, in order to come back a second time, but then as a Judge. In order to save our souls, let us, with Christ, escape any sin, lewdness, nowadays gay parades, greed and pride. Instead, let us go to “His City”. Let us find ourselves where He lives on His side of the river, in His true Orthodox Church. Amen!
St. Barbara’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, July 5, 2015.