I happen to come across one of those ad laden internet rabbit hole posts that tried to convey through photos of the sheer and scary power of the sea. It showed pictures of large container ships being tossed around by 60 ft waves like they were toy ships, and how in the depths of the sea, objects are smashed as they succumb to the pressure of the deep!
The sea is a scary place even for us living in this age of technology, but it was even more an object of fear 3 and 4 millennia ago! In ancient times and writings, the sea represented “unformed chaos”. Knowing this adds some context to the scripture. For example, we remember the lesson of Christ sending the demons from the demoniac into a herd of swine. The herd immediately rushed off of a cliff and into the Sea of Galilee! In this, we are meant to see that when the devil takes control of creation, the only place that it leads to is the “abyss”. The demons lead our lives to chaos.
The prevailing thought in ancient times was that if you wanted to not succumb to the chaos of the waters, you needed to try and appease whatever demon gods controlled them. The Canaanites for example would offer sacrifices to the demon God “Yam” to carry favor with him so that their voyage would be blessed.
Praying to the demons wasn’t just the case with water. In ancient times, you offered praise and sacrifice to whatever demon was in charge of what you desired. If you wanted good weather, you would sacrifice bulls to Manuzi, the god of weather. If you wanted good crops, you would pray to Nikkal Wa-lb, the goddess of orchards and fruit. If you wanted a bright sunny day, you tried to appease Malakbel, the god of the sun. All of the various elements of the world were believed to be controlled by these demon spirits, to whom a good and easy life depended on.
Demon spirits controlling the vary faucets of existence was the prevailing thought in the world, until these pagan nations came face to face with the people of Israel, who began to show the world something completely different: The existence of THE GOD! The God who created everything Ex Nihilo, out of nothing! The one who didn’t just control the waters like “Yam", but created them! He didn’t control the crops like Nikkal Wa-lb, but literally made the dirt that it grows in. God didn’t just make the sun shine like Malakbel, He rather created the Sun itself!
The revelation of God (with a capital “G) blows the minds of the pagans! How is the God of Israel doing this?! The Egyptians watched as God, from the breath of his nostrils, split the Red Sea into two, and allowed his people to walk safely to the other side while simultaneously destroying the Egyptian Army. They asked Who is this God that he has power over “Nun”, the Egyptian God of water?
In the book of Joshua, God orders that he take his people into the Holy Land after 40 years in the dessert. They didn’t pray to the Yam to allow it to happen. The God of Israel rather tells the priests to simply take the ark of the covenant and cross over the river Jordan. As soon as their feet touch the water, the Jordan River turned back and they walked across!
The Prophet Elijah took his robe and struck the Jordan, and the waters turned back as if it was dry land, and him and Elisha crossed over. Not long after that, we are reminded of the time Elisha was cutting down trees near the Jordan, and one of the disciple’s ax heads came off and sank in the middle of the river. Elisha cut off a piece of wood, threw it into the water, and the iron ax head defied nature itself and began to float, so the disciples could go and retrieve it.
The demons who once controlled the elements now find themselves subject to the very God who created everything! They come face to face with THE God of the whole world! This brings us to what we continue to celebrate today, the feast of Holy Theophany which means “the appearance of God”
Christ comes into the midst of the waters and into direct contact with these fallen spirits. The Church, as if mocking the demons themselves, ask in the hymns: What ails you O sea, that you fled? And you Jordan, that you have turned back? It is as if the Church is saying to the demons “What’s the matter? Your power is gone…and accounts to nothing when you come face to face with Christ!” When God commands something into being, it happens. When he enters battle with the demon gods, there is no battle…simply defeat. God is victorious!
On Holy Theophany, the world learned that Jesus is that same God. He commands the winds of the sea. He has power over sickness and disease. As we will see in a couple months, He has power even over death. Jesus isn’t some water or agricultural God that can make sure our life goes well and our crops grow, He is rather the God of all creation. Everything is subject to His command.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, other than an awesome history lesson that puts the Church Hymns into perspective, what does this mean for us?
1.) The Spiritual Forces that encompassed the natural world and the existence of demons are and always will be absolutely real. To many countries throughout the world, an understanding of the spiritual world is taken for granted, but for us living in a materialistic society, we tend to hide the existence of such things.
I shared with you the story of the life of Mary, a woman who recently passed away that spent her last years under the dominion of these demonic presences, until she found out that she had the power to destroy them. This reality leads me to my second point…
2.) Theophany reveals to us the very purpose of our existence! Through the very water that once represented chaos, Christ brings order to our life through Holy Baptism. He gives us all the chance to put off our old way of life that leads to the chaos of the fallen world, and to be reborn into a new life with God Himself. God calls us every day to be united to Him in a way, that like we see in the lives of the saints, and in the life of dear Mary, the demons flee from us! The unformed chaos of the world is dispelled.
May the “Giver of Life enlighten us who have gone astray, and deliver us in His compassion from every snare of the dragon…Amen”