Orthodox readings for 15 January 2020

King James Version (en)

Hebrews, Chapter 10, verses 1-18

¹ The weakness of the Law sacrifices, ¹⁰ The sacrifice of Christ's body, once offered, ¹⁴ for ever hath taken away sins

¹For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

³But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

⁵Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

⁷Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

⁸Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

⁹Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

¹⁰By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

¹²But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

¹³From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

¹⁴For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

¹⁵Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

¹⁶This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

¹⁷And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Mark, Chapter 7, verses 28-37

²⁴ He healeth the Syrophoenician woman's daughter of an unclean spirit, ³¹ and one that was deaf and stammered in his speech

²⁸And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

²⁹And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

³⁰And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

³¹And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

³²And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

³³And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

³⁴And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

³⁵And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

³⁶And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

³⁷And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

NOTES

Faith and long-suffering are symbols of Christian steadfastness in trials. When the Lord helps us, when all suffering ends, we often begin telling everyone about what has happened. And at...

Jesus forbids the healed man and those who accompanied him to spread the report of the miracle that had taken place, of which they had become witnesses. And this is not the first time He has proclaimed such a prohibition. It looks very much as though Jesus wanted the event of healing, the event of divine intervention in a person's fate, to remain a mystery, a secret between Jesus and the one who had been healed. And all for the simple reason that a miracle can happen only on the personal level; and only on that level, in that inward and hidden dimension, does God reveal Himself to a person. For any miracle, in the end, whether healing, rescue in the midst of mortal danger, or something else, if it is, of course, perceived as a miracle and not as a random coincidence, is a flash of divine light in our life. And such a flash is our personal, intimate glimpse into the depths of life, into the depths of God, the appearance or sharpening of the ability to hear the "harmony of Heaven."

As for outside observers, for them everything "miraculous" is most often perceived as some kind of divine trick, or as the deeds of a good magician providing for the material well-being of his charges. It was precisely from this perception that Jesus wanted to protect everyone who might hear the story of the miracle or see someone they knew healed. After all, in the final analysis, the purpose of every word and action of Jesus, and therefore of God acting through Him, is to open a person's eyes to his real disastrous condition and, what is still more important, to show the path of liberation: liberation from being fixated on one's own problems, from attempts to get rid of them by one's own strength and to be happy at the expense of others and only for oneself... Incidentally, this may be why the witnesses of the healing of the deaf-mute also turn from amazed outside observers into active participants in the miracle. For they meet God in the act of their compassion and active care for their maimed fellow tribesman, whom they "brought to Jesus."

The words Christ spoke to the Syrophoenician woman sound very troubling: "...it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." As if He were supporting xenophobia and superiority over people of another faith...

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