April: Day 29: Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater With Their Companions

April: Day 29:*
Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater With Their Companions
 
(On What the Holy Apostles Did To Spread the Christian Faith and What We Must Do To Spread It)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Apostles of the Seventy, Jason and Sosipater, whose memory is celebrated today, disciples and relatives of the Holy Apostle Paul, preached the gospel together in various countries. On the island of Corcyra (Kerkyra) they were imprisoned for this and here “they converted seven thieves to Christ,” who accepted a martyr’s death for the faith: they died in a cauldron with melted resin, sulfur and wax. The prison guard, converted to Christ by the Apostles, was also put to death by beheading. The Apostles Jason and Sosipater themselves were subjected to torture in the eyes of all the people and then thrown back into prison. The daughter of the ruler of Corcyra looked on their sufferings from a window and was so amazed by the patience of the martyrs that she confessed herself a Christian. For this she too was imprisoned and then, hanged on a tree, accepted death for Christ, being suffocated by smoke and struck by arrows.

After the death of his daughter, the ruler began to persecute Christians even more fiercely, but, having set off for the island for this purpose, he drowned during the voyage. Then, having received their freedom, Jason and Sosipater continued to enlighten the people; for this they were again subjected to torture, but remaining unharmed in a cauldron of boiling resin, they so amazed the people by the manifestation of such Divine power over them that many then believed in Christ and even the new ruler cried out in emotion: "God of Jason and Sosipater, have mercy on me!" and after that he received baptism from the Apostles, who gave him the name Sebastian.

The now free preachers of the word of God spread it without hindrance and, performing many miracles (by the way, they resurrected the ruler’s dead son), converted the people to Christ.

Jason later became Bishop in his native city of Tarsus, and Sosipater in Iconium. Both of them died peacefully in old age.

II. We have seen, brethren, that the Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater devoted their whole lives to converting people to the light of the Christian faith: being locked in prison, they converted to Christ seven thieves, the prison guard, the governor's daughter, the new governor of the island, and then many other pagans. The example of their holy life, dedicated to spreading the true light of Christ among the pagans who sat in spiritual darkness, encourages us to imitate the Holy Apostles in the work of spreading the Christian faith.

In order that it might be easier for us to learn from the Apostles their holy zeal in spreading the Church of Christ on earth, we will first look at what the Holy Apostles did in general to create the Church of Christ, so that we can then more easily answer the question: “What should we do to preserve and spread it?”

a) What did the Holy Apostles do?

The Holy Apostles decided to give up everything in order to achieve their goal and gave up everything that could be most dear to them in the world – they gave up their family and fatherland. They firmly remembered the testament of their Lord: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). They remembered, and indifferently left for the Lord everything that was dear to them on earth.

The Holy Apostles, further, renounced all tranquility in life. Their whole life was spent in restless, difficult and dangerous journeys for the evangelical preaching. For the evangelical preaching they sailed beyond the seas, drowned, sailed again, went to the most remote, hottest or coldest lands, went without any supplies and without hope of the necessary shelter, went to the most rude peoples, very deeply mired in various vices, and therefore almost incapable of any kind of admonition.

The Holy Apostles decided to endure all the troubles that the malice of the Jews and pagans could subject them to while spreading the gospel teaching. The Apostle Paul, describing the apostolic state, says: “We are fools for Christ’s sake... Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now” (1 Cor. 4:10–14). A difficult situation! But this situation did not frighten or disturb them.

Finally, the Holy Apostles resolved to renounce even the preservation of their lives for the more convenient spread of Christ's teachings. Jesus Christ, before His suffering, clearly foretold this to them: "They persecuted Me, and they will persecute you" (John 15:20); "The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God" (John 16:2).

These are the sacrifices by which the Holy Apostles, with God's help, dispelled the darkness of error, weakened the power of sin, and founded on earth a kingdom of grace, educating citizens for the Kingdom of Heaven. Eternal thanksgiving to the Holy Apostles! Without their labors and zeal, we would now be sitting "in darkness and the shadow of death" (Matt. 4:16); perhaps we would still be worshiping idols and being "godless in the world" (Eph. 2:12); this misfortune, the most terrible of all misfortunes, was removed from us by the Holy Apostles.

b) What should we do to preserve and spread Christ's Church?

First of all, we must thoroughly know the teaching of Christ, and live not according to any other teaching, not according to any other rules of life, but according to the teaching and rules of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without a thorough knowledge of the teaching of Christ, we will not be able to communicate it to others, to our ignorant brothers and even to our children, whose enlightenment by faith is the first task of all parents. For if the responsibility of an ignorant doctor is awesome, who, even with indirect information, could restore the patient's health, but not only does not restore his health, but takes away his life, then how awesome is our responsibility, if by our ignorance we take away from our children, from our ignorant neighbors, the spiritual life, and cast them down not only to the grave, but also to hell!

Having thoroughly learned the teaching of Christ, we must constantly strive to live according to the teaching of Christ. “You, O man of God, pursue righteousness” (i.e., succeed in righteousness), “piety, faith, love, patience, meekness,” commanded the Apostle Paul to Timothy, the teacher of Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:11). And this is absolutely necessary. For Christ commanded all Christians: “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Can we powerfully teach others purity of morals, being impure ourselves? Will we be able to turn others away from vices when they see these vices in ourselves?

We are obliged to lead all those around us who are going astray onto the path of truth; we are obliged to feed with heavenly bread all those who thirst for eternal life. And in our time there are many false prophets, for example, various kinds of sectarians and dissenters, from whom we must strip the sheep's clothing with which they cover themselves, and destroy the sheep. And in our time there are those weak in faith, whom we must strengthen. And in our time there are outright unbelievers, whom we must bring to faith. Therefore, in our time we need apostolic labor - zealous and tireless labor.

The Lord certainly demands self-denial from each of us. Without self-denial we cannot leave self-love, and the self-loving one, because he loves himself most of all, cannot look as attentively at the Lord and His work as he looks at himself. He cannot preach the teaching of Christ either completely purely or with due zeal; even more so, he cannot faithfully adhere to the teaching of Christ and live as a Christian. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24), said the Lord. He who is not completely godly cannot zealously make himself godly, much less others around him.

III. Therefore, each of us must strive to become and truly be a man of God, "complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:17), and especially for the achievement of the great apostolic goal - the spread and strengthening of Christ's Church, if not by the word of the gospel, to which not all are called, then at least by a pious life, good advice, prayer and readiness to assist with our donations the evangelists of Christ. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.  

 

* In the Slavic calendar these Saints are commemorated on April 28th, which is where they are placed in the original text, but here in translation they are placed under April 29th, which is their feast day according to the Greek calendar.