Orthodox readings for 2 November 2021

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Philippians, Chapter 2, verses 16-23

¹⁶ and comforts to him their apostle, who is now ready to be offered up to God, ¹⁹ He hopeth to send Timothy to them, whom he greatly commendeth

¹⁶Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

¹⁷Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state.

²⁰For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.

²¹For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

²²But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel.

²³Him therefore I hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me.

Read more:Philippians, Chapter 2

Luke, Chapter 9, verses 23-27

⁷ Herod desireth to see Christ; Christ feedeth five thousand

²³And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

²⁴For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

²⁵For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

²⁶For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

²⁷But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Read more:Luke, Chapter 9

NOTES

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all...

Luke briefly touches on a whole series of events about which the other evangelists, especially Matthew, speak in greater detail. He gives the central place to Peter's confession and to Jesus' account of His approaching death and resurrection. There is a logic to this presentation. First of all, the Savior lets His disciples feel the power of the Kingdom and learn from their own experience how this power acts in the world. And not only them: the miraculous feeding of thousands of people with five loaves and two fish is also possible only in the Kingdom. This is not surprising: when it comes to the Kingdom, it is easier to show than to tell. Meanwhile, even those who had previously taken no interest in Christ's testimony begin to notice it—for example, Herod, who was generally wary of every kind of messianic movement that threatened his power.

This is precisely why, immediately after Peter's confession, Jesus explains to the disciples just how different the messiahship He has brought into the world is. Of course, the apostles fully understood everything Jesus told them only on the day of Pentecost. But it was immediately after Peter's confession that He began speaking to them about His messiahship and His path. It is as though He is trying to make everything clear from the outset, so that His messianic ministry will not become associated in His disciples' minds with traditional popular messianic expectations.

From the very beginning, the Savior does everything possible to help His disciples understand as much as they can of what they will have to understand fully in due time. This is natural: Golgotha lay ahead. The disciples had to be prepared, as far as possible, for what awaited them—and what awaited them was the shock of the complete collapse of their entire worldview and sense of the world. Only the experience of the Kingdom could help them endure it—not the earthly kingdom of popular expectations, but the true Kingdom, the one the Savior brought into the world.

The apostles gained as much experience of the Kingdom as was then possible after they went out to preach on their own, without their Teacher. The new ideas about the Kingdom proved more difficult: they would not fit into the disciples' minds or find room in their consciousness. All that remained was to rely on their intuition and, above all, on the personal relationship that bound them to Jesus. Nevertheless, He tells the apostles everything that can be said in human words about His earthly path and earthly ministry. And then each one takes in as much of His words as he is able to take in.

Today's reading offers us several events that Luke links together, making them links in one chain. The passage begins with a description of how Jesus...

Today's reading offers us several events that Luke links together, making them links in one chain. The passage begins with a description of how Jesus sends the twelve apostles out to preach (vv. 1-10), continues with the story of the miraculous multiplication of the loaves (vv. 11-17), and ends with the account of Peter's confession, including Jesus' conversation (vv. 18-27). And this connection is, of course, not accidental. Jesus sends His disciples to witness to the Kingdom, and to witness not only by word but also by deed, so that the witness would be supported by such a visible manifestation of the Kingdom as healings (vv. 1-2). And the apostles' preaching, as we see, had success, attracting the attention not only of the people but also of the authorities (vv. 7-9).

Then something happened that perhaps even the apostles did not expect. The miracle of the multiplication of the loaves was, as we see, a surprise even for them. In order to feed the gathered people, they were ready to act by the most ordinary methods (vv. 12-13), but Jesus expected something different from them: He told them to behave as if they were in the Kingdom (vv. 14-16). And then something really happened that could not happen according to the laws of our world, not yet transformed, but that is possible in the Kingdom: a small amount of food was enough for everyone, and more than enough, so that if even more people had gathered, there would have been enough for each one (v. 17).

This was a very important experience of the Kingdom for everyone, and above all, of course, for the apostles themselves. Until now they had been witnesses of how the power of the Kingdom acts in a world not yet transformed, a world where its action manifests itself, in one way or another, in opposition to the evil in which this world remains. Now the apostles saw the Kingdom from within, as it will be when the world is completely transformed and renewed. Such an experience of abiding in the triumphant Kingdom could not pass without a trace, and Peter's confession may have become its result (vv. 18-20).

Then Jesus warns His disciples that before the victory of the Kingdom, which they had already partly had occasion to see, becomes complete, He Himself will have to pass through the cross, and those who follow Him will have to share that cross with Him (vv. 21-27). Thus, by giving His disciples a share in the Kingdom, Jesus at the same time tells them about the price of the Kingdom. About the price of the world's transformation and its deliverance from the evil into which the fall plunged it.

The Savior's words about the cross, it would seem, would not have been very clear to His listeners: His death on the cross...

The Savior's words about the cross, it would seem, would not have been very clear to His listeners: His death on the cross still lay ahead. But the Jews of the Gospel era knew firsthand what a cross was: about a century before the events described by the evangelist, when Judea was still independent, during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus, there was an uprising under religious slogans, led by representatives of the Pharisaic movement. It was brutally suppressed, and hundreds of its participants were crucified.

Such an execution was not only agonizing and shameful: death on a cross defiled a person religiously, and the authorities clearly wanted to humiliate the rebels in this respect as well. That is why Jesus' words were understandable to every one of His listeners, especially the Pharisees, who, of course, had not forgotten their martyrs. But Jesus clearly has in mind not religious and political questions at all, although those who were ready to see Him as the Messiah expected from Him precisely a call to struggle, to an uprising against the Romans, to a holy war against the Gentiles who occupied the holy city.

The Savior speaks of the Kingdom that is "not of this world," and of the new life lived by its inhabitants. And He says: whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever gives it up for My sake will save it. These words sound paradoxical. But if we think carefully, if we look at earthly life from the point of view of the fullness of the Kingdom's life, everything falls into place.

In fact, sooner or later one has to part with what the fallen world calls life: in essence, it is not life at all, but only its pitiful remains, flowing away like water into sand. And even if a person, having refused the Kingdom, receives the whole world in exchange, that very untransformed world into which the Savior came in order to bring the transforming Kingdom, the life of the one who refused will not become fuller from such power. But to give up a part and receive fullness in return is an entirely reasonable and entirely real way out. For the life of the Kingdom is not some other life flowing in some other dimension. It is the same life of ours, only brought to fullness. To the fullness possible in the Kingdom, but unthinkable in the untransformed world.

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