Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Old Testament book of the Wisdom of Sirach or Sirach, as it is sometimes abbreviated, or Ecclesiasticus, as it is also called, meaning “the Church’s Book,” we hear this instruction which the Church has taken to heart:
Stretch forth your hand to the poor, that your blessing may be complete. Let the kindness of giving be shown in the presence of all the living. And do not withhold kindness from the dead (Sr. 7:32-33).
And, again, from the same book, we are counseled, “My son, let your tears fall for the dead, and as one suffering grievously, begin the lament. With the honor due him, wrap his body and take care of his burial” (Sr. 38:16).
Today, on this Third Sunday of Great and Holy Pascha, those blessed Myrrh-bearers, both the women so named and the men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, get their just due for honoring the dead and showing great mercy. They embody for all time in their righteous act one of the chief works of mercy which the Church has deemed morally essential and spiritually full of grace: to bury the departed honorably, and to pray for them. We hear of the great lengths to which these Myrrh-bearers go, not only to secure the corpse of Jesus from hostile forces, but to procure the spices and ointments essential for His burial, denied to Him, for the most part, due to the haste of the approaching Sabbath. At great risk to himself personally, Joseph dares to beg the relic – the body – of Jesus from the political power that judged Him and crucified Him, and he risks his standing among his religious peers by inferring his devotion to Jesus as one of His “hidden” disciples. But, his yearning for the Kingdom of God constrained him to do what the Twelve had not done or had yet to do, locked, no doubt, behind closed doors for fear of the Jews (Jn. 20:19).
The women, likewise, in stark juxtaposition with the disciples seized with fear, put themselves at risk going so early in the dark before the dawn to the sepulcher, not knowing what or who they might encounter along the way, and whether or not it would be friend or foe. Like Joseph who offers the body of Jesus a final resting place in his own newly hewn stone tomb instead of a pauper’s grave (Mt. 27:57-60), the women spare no expense to obtain the spices and ointment needed to perfect in love the burial of their Master. They fret over who or how the large stone sealing the door might be moved, but this does not deter them from their service of profound love. For love has no limitations! Between all of these Myrrh-bearing men and women, Jesus will be adorned as a king lying in state at a cost gladly borne by them.
On this Sunday, there is much love and devotion with service and servanthood underscored and highlighted, both here in the Holy Gospel, and in the Acts of the Apostles, taking the form of the apostolic service of the presbyters devoted to the spiritual service of the Word and prayer by which the Church is fed God’s Life, and in the diaconal servanthood of Stephen and the others with him devoted to the physical welfare of others, thus feeding the body while the Apostles tended to the soul (Ac. 6:1-7). Both ministries are necessary, though both are differentiated from each other. The deacons are ordained by the hands of the Apostles after due process for the particular ministry of caring for the physical well-being. But, the very fact that such care was taken in the selection of qualified men and that it involved ordination or the laying on of hands, thus placing these deacons in obedience to the Apostles, tells me that there was more at work here than the simple calling to social service or to be social workers. The deacons become, by virtue of ordination, extensions of the Apostles’ ministry of service and servanthood, thus fulfilling the ministry of the Master Who had ordained His Apostles the evening of Great and Holy Pascha to be His servants (Jn. 20:19-31).
The Myrrh-bearers become icons of all that our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ embodies and taught on the night of His betrayal. The service of love . . . . . servanthood will identify all those who are His followers. “’By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples,’” Jesus said in the Upper Room of the Last Supper, “’if ye have love one for another’” (Jn. 13:35). But, this isn’t and can’t be any old sort of love so often masquerading as love. Their love has a new source and comes about by a new commandment rooted in Jesus Christ the Son of God soon to be crucified, dead, and buried. “’A new commandment I give unto you,’” He says, “’that ye love one another, as I have loved you, . . . .’” (Jn. 13:34; 15:12, 17). Jesus sets the measure and the standard for what it means to love . . . as He has loved. He is the One Who enfleshes to the full the agape love of God, that is, love that gives of itself and sacrifices, even at great risk to itself. It is deemed by the world as foolish and extravagant, but by our Lord it is priceless! “’For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many’” (Mt. 20:28; Mk. 10:45; Pp. 2:5-11). These are His words. This is how He lived among us. This is how He died. This is how He was raised from the dead, never to die again.
On the night of His betrayal, despite knowing what was to come and what He must endure as God’s Suffering Servant for the salvation and life of the world, He nonetheless set the tone for His Church and her baptized. He was not deterred nor dissuaded. All through His ministry, He had set His face like stone to go up to Jerusalem where He would suffer His Great and Holy Passion “for us men and for our salvation” (Nicene Creed). So, after His last meal with His beloved Disciples, He took off His garments, wrapped a towel about Him, and stooped like the most common of servants to wash the feet of those assembled at table with Him. He had fed them His Body and His Blood. Now, He clearly reveals the fullness of that action. After having washed the feet of those who have been with Him so long and having overcome Peter’s resistance, He asked them if they comprehended what He has done. Remaining before them as One Who has come to serve and not be served, He said,
‘You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them’ (Jn. 13:1-17).
In everything we are first and foremost servants of Christ and, then, of each other. It is the service of love: love for God that overflows in the love for one another. “They will know that you are My disciples by your love for each other.” We cannot say we love God if we fail to love our brethren (1 Jn. 3:11-12, 14-18; 4:7-11, 20-21). Love for our brethren flows necessarily from love for God and all that He commands us. If it doesn’t, then it is dead fruit, fit only to be gathered and tossed into the fire (Jn. 15:1-17).
The angel tells the Myrrh-bearing women that Jesus the crucified and risen Nazarene will meet them in Galilee, where it all began. They are to console the heart of Peter who had denied his Lord and God, assuring him that the Master wants him there in Galilee. Our Lord demonstrates with all splendor that He is the Servant of the servants of God, that love is merciful to the repentant. Jesus continues to minister to His Church, having defeated death by Death and having been raised up to the Glory of the Father. It is here, beloved, that we, too, meet Jesus the crucified and risen Nazarene. Here is our Golgotha. Here is our Empty Tomb. Here is our Galilee. Here, at this Altar, shrouded with His winding sheet, sits the Body and the Blood of the Lamb of God. Here He once more speaks His healing and saving Word to us sinners. Here He once again ministers to us so that we might minister to others with the same love we have received, unworthy as we are. Here we are washed in the waters of Baptism and cleansed ever and again when we confess our sins and receive His Absolution. Here we are fed the Word of Life in the hearing of the Gospel, and in the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Him Who is the Gospel. Here we are adorned as servants of the King of kings so that we, in turn, might adorn others, caught in sin and death, with the adornment we ourselves have received by His own crucified hand (2 Cr. 1:3-7). Here, in the fear of God, and with faith and love, we dare at great risk to draw near to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
PROPERS:
Ac. 6:1-7
Mk. 15:43-16:8