Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but because I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18)
This is a verse taken from the Gospel we read from St. John on Holy Thursday evening, where our Lord is speaking about “the world”. “The world” is a term constantly referred to in Holy Scripture, and also constantly spoken about by the Saints and theologians, and priests during their homilies. It doesn’t always refer to God’s glorious and beautiful creation like we hear in Genesis. In many places, like in the excerpt I just read, it refers to anything that is in rebellion against God.
Jesus often taught and spoke about how we are to be “not of the world”. All of us are called to be different. We are called to think different, to act different, and to be transformed from what “the world” would normally expect. Being different…living in the world but not “of the world”…this is the way of a true Christian.
As an aside, being apart of a Church that is not of “the world” is also why so many people have found their way into the Holy Orthodox Church! The teachings don’t change! The Gospel doesn’t change with the ebbs, flows, and popular opinions of society. We say so beautifully at the beginning of Lent that “This is the faith of the apostles! This is the Faith of the Fathers! This is the Faith which has established the universe!” It is this faith that keeps itself separate from “the world” which our Lord spoke about.
During the three years of our Lord’s public ministry in the midst of the “world”, how many times did He do or say things contrary to “worldly thinking”? When Jesus was calling His disciples, one of them told Jesus: “I need to bury my father who just died, I can’t follow you yet.” What was our Lord’s response? “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead!” This is so backwards to the reaction that “the world” would expect! Yet in this one response from our Lord, an entire homily could be written about new life that is found in following after Christ!
There are so many other examples of people of “the world” responding to Christ in shock and awe of his teachings…that were not of “this world”:
In a few weeks we remember St. Photini, the Samaritan woman at the well. The disciples will ask Jesus: “Why are you talking to this samaritan woman who is a sinner?”
“Why Lord, are you letting the kids surround you?”
“Why do you eat with tax collectors and harlots?”
“Why do you forgive sins when only God can do that?
“Why are you washing our feet?”
“You mean I have to forgive those who hurt me?”
“Wait, you are going to Jerusalem to die? Are you crazy?”
“Why don’t you answer the charges put against you?”
Our Lord taught us through each of these examples, and so many more, how we are meant to live, think, and act differently than what is expected in “the world”.
What better example do we have than the women who are presented by the Church today on this Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers. The Theotokos, Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife of Cleopas, Joanna, Salome, Mary and Martha…these women could care less about “worldly thinking”. They had no fear whatsoever of what society might think of them. They followed and ministered to Jesus from the very beginning! They showed no fear to stand at the foot of the cross and show their love and devotion to Christ. They showed no fear of going in the dark to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus.
The Holy Myrrhbearers were different. They had an unwavering dedication to Christ…and they were rewarded for it. Did God bestow the greatest news the entire universe had ever known to the disciples first? No! They ran, scattered, and hid behind closed doors for fear of the Jews…for fear of “the World!” Yet for those who fearlessly followed after Christ with all of their heart, upon them was bestowed the blessing to hear those three sweet words that will continue to strengthen us for the rest of our lives: “Christ is Risen”.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ…Be different. The winds of change in “the world”, even in our own country, are constantly howling. Right will become wrongs, and wrongs will be made right. St. Anthony the Great once said: “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying: ‘You are mad; you are not like us.”
We take the example of how we ought to live in the midst of this chaos from the Myrrhbearers and the Saints who came after them…by being different and living our lives in accordance with He Who has conquered “The world”