September: Day 13: Teaching 1:
Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
(The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Serves as Proof of His Divinity)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
(The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Serves as Proof of His Divinity)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The Feast of the Dedication, i.e. the Consecration, of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which is celebrated today, was established in the following manner. The place where the Lord accomplished our salvation, i.e. Mount Golgotha, where He was crucified, and the burial cave from which He rose, were in time abandoned and even desecrated by the Jews and pagans, who hated Jesus Christ and His disciples. Thus, the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century ordered the Lord's tomb to be filled with rubbish and earth, and erected a pagan temple on Golgotha. In exactly the same way, other places consecrated by the Savior were desecrated by pagan temples and altars. Of course, this was done in order to erase the holy places from memory; but this is what helped their discovery. When, in the 4th century, the Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena accepted the Christian faith, they wished to renew the holy places in the city of Jerusalem and to open holy places for Christians. Empress Helena with a lot of gold went to Jerusalem for this. She, with the assistance of the Jerusalem Patriarch Makarios, destroyed the idol temples and renovated Jerusalem. She found the cross of the Lord and the tomb, and on Mount Golgotha, over the places of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, she built a large and magnificent temple in honor of the Resurrection. The temple was built in ten years. In 335, on September 13, it was solemnly consecrated, and it was decided to celebrate this consecration or dedication of the temple every year.
II. The Feast of the Dedication, i.e. the Consecration, of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ reminds us, brethren, of such an event in the earthly life of Christ, which serves as an indisputable proof of His Divinity. Jesus Christ, let us say in the words of the Apostle, "through the resurrection from the dead, was revealed in all His power as the Son of God" (Rom. 1:4). And truly, of all the proofs adduced by theologians in confirmation of the divinity of Christ, there is not a single one that would prove it so obviously and powerfully as His resurrection from the dead.
a) Jesus Christ, if we judge of Him by His human nature, which was inseparably united with His Divinity, was a most virtuous and holy man. According to the testimony of the Apostle, who was His constant and close disciple, "He committed no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). His innocence in everything was so great that He could boldly ask His enemies: "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" (John 8:46). And His enemies, with all their desire to accuse Him, could not find anything bad in Him. Such wonderful holiness of Jesus Christ, which no other man had and cannot have, clearly shows that He was a being higher than man - God-like; but it does not yet prove beyond doubt that He was the true God: for unbelievers may object to us that even among ordinary people there have been many great righteous men who, although not equal in holiness to Jesus Christ, are at least like Him in it.
b) Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher of truth , such as never was and never will be on earth. His teaching, in its loftiness, purity and beneficence, immeasurably surpasses all that earthly sages have ever said that was good; and from this we can conclude that it did not come from the human mind, but was inspired by the wisdom of God. This was testified to even by His enemies, who were amazed at the wisdom of His teaching, and involuntarily confessed that "no man ever spoke like this man" (John 7:46; Matt. 13:54). However, the wondrous and saving teaching of Jesus Christ does not yet prove beyond doubt that He Himself was the true God: for unbelievers can object to us that even among ordinary people there were many, such as the prophets and apostles, who proclaimed the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, and spoke "not in words taught by human wisdom, but were enlightened by the Holy Spirit" (Cor. 2:7, 13; 2 Peter 1:21).
c) Jesus Christ was the greatest miracle worker. He performed many wondrous deeds, obviously surpassing the power of nature and human skill: with a single word He gave sight to those blind from birth, opened the mouths of the dumb and the hearing of the deaf, healed the lame and bleeding, calmed storms, cast out demons and even raised the dead. Such miracles, to which the Savior solemnly pointed out as proof of His divine intervention, and, pointing to them, boldly said to the Jews: "If you do not believe Me, believe by My works" (John 10:38; 5:36), - such miracles, we say, clearly show that in Jesus Christ and through Him the power of God acted, conquering the laws of nature. However, from this we cannot yet decisively conclude that He Himself was the true God: for unbelievers can object to us that there were miracle workers among people who, by the power of the grace of God given to them, also performed miraculous deeds. For example, Moses turned rods into serpents, led the Israelites through the sea as if on dry land, brought water out of a rock, and others even resurrected the dead.
d) But behold, Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and we can boldly affirm before the whole world that He is the true God, the only begotten Son of God. What can unbelievers object to us now? Will they point to any other person who rose from the dead like Jesus Christ? But how different their resurrection is from the resurrection of Christ! All of them were resurrected not by themselves, but by the power of prayers to the true God and the action of other holy men: the son of the widow of Zarephath was resurrected by the prophet Elijah (3 Kings 17:20-22), Tabitha by the apostle Peter (Acts 9:36-41), Lazarus by Jesus Christ (John 11:43, 44). But what righteous man, what Elijah or Peter, prayed for the resurrection of Christ? What other Jesus called Him from the grave, like Lazarus? And from this it is evident that He rose again without any human assistance, by the sole power of the Divinity that dwelt in Him (Col. 2:9), or, to use the words of the Apostle, He was "made alive by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18). The aforementioned resurrected people did not at all know that they would rise again after death, and therefore did not predict this; on the contrary, Jesus Christ clearly and repeatedly said that He would rise again on the third day after His death (Matt. 16:21; 17:23), and He actually rose again, as He predicted. Those, after their resurrection, soon died again; but He ascended into heaven, and "no longer dies" (Rom. 6:9). See what a great difference there is between the resurrection of the first and the last! There the weakness of the resurrected, inherent in human nature, is visible in everything; but here, on the contrary, in everything one can see such power of the Resurrection, which only God can have.
III. Come then, all ye faithful, let us worship the holy resurrection of Christ, through which we have come to know that the author and finisher of our faith is the true God, Who has destroyed death and will one day raise us up to eternal life. Now each of us can boldly say with the apostle: "I know Him whom I have believed" (2 Tim. 1:12) – I know in Whom I believe – I know that He, being crucified as a man, rose again as God, and will raise us from the dead at the time predetermined by Him. Let us therefore bless Him for this, and let us eternally rejoice in His resurrection: "Rejoice always in the Lord; and again I say, Rejoice." Amen.
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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