"They Crucified the Lord of Glory" (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

"They Crucified the Lord of Glory"

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

(Homily Delivered on Great Friday in the Church of Saint Paraskevi in Nafpaktos on May 3, 2024)

Holy and Great Friday is a very important day for the Orthodox Church and for Christianity in general, because on this day Christ (the human nature of Christ) died on the Cross and the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ was taken down from the Cross, as you saw earlier.

The Sacred Service, which begins in the morning, is the Service of the Royal Hours, because during this service, in Constantinople, the King-Emperor would also descend from the Palace to the Sacred Temple of Hagia Sophia, which is why they are called the Royal Hours, and would witness this great event. And, of course, after the Great Hours comes the Service of Vespers, in which we are in now, during which the Gospel is read and the Descent of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ from the Cross and the procession of the Epitaphion within the church takes place.

1. Readings From the Old and New Testaments

When one carefully reads the Services of the Great Hours and Vespers, which is the Vespers of Great Saturday, one will find that various readings from the Old and New Testaments are very closely intertwined. Texts are read from the Book of Genesis, the Psalms of David, and the Prophets of the Old Testament, such as Zechariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Book of Job, all of which refer to Christ. Also, you previously heard the Apostolic Reading from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in which he speaks of the Cross of Christ, and the Gospel reading followed. That is, there appears to be a unity between the Old and New Testaments.

The cohesive bond between the Old and New Testaments is Christ, the Crucified One, the One who was up until now on the Cross and now the Unnailing has taken place and He is before us. That is, Christ is the One who unites the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is the Covenant that God made with His people, the Hebrews, and the New Testament is the Covenant that He made with His new people, the Christians. We have, then, the One who is truly “the Lord of glory,” the Crucified Christ.

And when I say that Christ is the center of the Old and New Testaments, the connecting link between the two Testaments, I am referring to a passage written by the Apostle Paul in his 1st epistle to the Corinthians, that none of the rulers of this age knew “the wisdom of God” and the Wisdom of God is the Son and Word of God, because “had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8).

This is the interpretative key of the entire Holy Scripture with which we can interpret the Old and New Testaments, that “they crucified the Lord of glory.” In what sense is this said? Not in the sense that the God Who was revealed in the Old Testament was the Father and in the New Testament the Son, as some falsely and unsubstantially teach, but in the Old Testament He is the Son and Word of God without flesh and in the New Testament the same Son and Word of God appears in the flesh and Who was crucified and resurrected.

In the Old Testament, all who saw God saw the Son and Word of God in His glory, and when I say in glory, I mean in the light, as happened with Abraham, Jacob, and later with David; all saw “the Lord of glory.” And they called Him “the Lord of glory” because the Son and Word of God appeared and the difference between Him and the created angels was immediately visible, which is why He is also called “the Angel of the Great Council.” And because the Word, God, appeared to the Prophets and the saints in His glory, His divinity, that is why He was called “Lord of glory.” And this “Lord of glory,” when the fullness of time came, became incarnate, took on human nature, was crucified and resurrected.

This is the interpretive key of the Old and New Testaments. The Jews could not understand how “the Lord of glory,” who had appeared to the Prophets, now took on flesh and was crucified. That is why the Apostle Paul, in the Apostolic Reading that we heard earlier, writes that the Cross is the great mystery, "which for the Jews is a scandal and for the Greeks it is foolishness, while for us Christ whom we preach is the power and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 2:18-24).

The Crucified Christ is a scandal for the Jews, because they knew Him from the Old Testament as the “Lord of glory,” they saw him in the light, in glory, and they could not understand how “the Lord of glory” became man and was crucified. So, the Cross was a scandal for the Jews. Moreover, the Cross was foolishness to the Greeks, because according to Greek philosophy, Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers, it is completely impossible for someone to say that God, who is the Supreme Being, the world of ideas, the first Unmoved Mover, “the Universal Logos” according to pre-Socratic philosophy, that He became man and was crucified; therefore the Crucified God is foolishness.

The Apostle Paul knew this too, which is why he persecuted Christianity at the beginning, because he could not understand how “the Lord of glory” Who appeared to the Prophets and the Righteous, His friends, in the Old Testament, was now being preached as Crucified. That is why he persecuted Christianity.

However, when he went to Damascus and saw “the Lord of glory” who said to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”, he denied it, because he knew the Old Testament very well, and answered: “Who are you, lord, that I persecute You?” He now saw Him in the flesh. Christ in His glory said to him: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” And then the Apostle Paul understood that this “Lord of glory” of the Prophets of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ who became incarnate and was crucified. And then he interpreted all the prophetic texts of the Old Testament, which he knew from reading the Old Testament, from this perspective. That is why he said: “We preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23).

Thus, he understood through the theoptic experience that he had that the Old Testament had ended and the New Testament was beginning, that “the Lord of glory” of the Prophets, Kings and High Priests, who saw Him in the Old Testament, is Jesus Christ, who preached for three years, performed miracles and then was crucified and resurrected. Therefore, the key to the interpretation of the Old and New Testaments, the connecting link between them is the passage of the Apostle Paul that “they crucified the Lord of glory.”

2. Prophetic, Royal and Hierarchical Grace

Speaking of the Old Testament, we know that many were the friends of “the Lord of glory” in this period. Among them, mainly the instruments that helped the people were the Prophets, the Kings, such as David and Solomon and other Kings, the Hierarchs and Priests. So, among the people there were three great authorities, three instruments, we would say, which “the Lord of glory” used to guide His people. It was the Prophets who saw the pre-incarnate Word, “the Lord of glory”, it was the Kings and especially those who had the Spirit of God, like David who saw “the Lord of glory”, and it was also the High Priests, who performed the sacrifices prescribed by the law that God gave in the Old Testament.

We have, therefore, three great charismatic offices in the Old Testament, namely the Prophets, the Kings and the High Priests/Priests. And now comes “the Lord of glory” and takes on a human body, human nature, and is crucified, and in this way all the prophecies that we heard before, which spoke of the Son of God and the Son of Man, who will be crucified, are fulfilled.

Christ, with His incarnation, forms a new people. And while in the Old Testament there were Prophets, Kings and High Priests, now He Himself becomes Prophet, King and Great High Priest. He takes everything upon Himself. And we see this clearly in all the work that He accomplished for three years.

This is especially evident on the evening of Great Thursday, because as Great High Priest He celebrated the Secret Supper for the first time, delivered the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist, and has a new relationship with His new people. And immediately after the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist, He went out with His Disciples to Gethsemane and made that famous, sublime prayer: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39), and He expresses that He is a Prophet, who both taught His Disciples, but also prayed to His Father for all people. And then, by going up to the Cross voluntarily - because, if He had wanted to, He could have avoided the Cross - He defeated the devil, sin and death in order to show another type of kingdom, that He is a King who rules through humility, through sacrifice, through offering; he wanted to show another way of power, which does not rule through force, but through love, through freedom and humility.

In this way, He Himself, the Crucified and Risen Christ, is the Great High Priest, the Great Prophet, the Great King who changed everything and showed another way in which we can approach God and people. And now it is not simply “the Lord of glory”, but it is the Crucified and Risen Christ who was sacrificed and is sacrificed every time we celebrate the bloodless sacrifice, the Divine Eucharist, and we too can approach this Crucified and Risen Christ and see Him as Prophet, as King and High Priest. And not only that, but those who are connected to Him through Baptism and the sacramental life – because Baptism is a crucifixion with Christ and we are connected with Him – then in a general sense they also become charismatic and Christ gives them these three charisms.

Every blessed Christian, who truly lives in the space of the Church and is connected to the Prophet, the King, the Great High Priest Christ, also receives these three great gifts. He receives the gift of prophecy by becoming a teacher and praying, the prophetic gift of prayer. He receives from Christ the gift of being a king, of dominating his passions and not leaving himself uncontrolled, of not letting the incensivene and appetitive part of the soul do whatever they want, but for man to be king of himself and his passions. And, also, He gave to man, who is connected to Him, the gift to become that Priest, that is, to offer himself as a “blameless sacrifice,” having a “broken and humble heart,” to God and to his brethren.

Therefore, Christ, "the Lord of glory", the Crucified and Risen Christ, has formed His own people and especially those who are His friends and are connected to Him and have received these general gifts, because the most special gifts are possessed by the Bishop who is, as is said in the texts of the Church, the successor of the Holy Apostles and in the type and place of the presence of Christ and has the prophetic, royal and hierarchal gifts.

However, in a more general form, every Christian who fights “the good fight of faith” expresses through his prayer the prophetic charisma he has, through his struggle over his passions he shows that he is a king and is connected to the royal Grace and energy of Christ, and through the offering of himself as a spotless sacrifice to God and his brethren he expresses this prophetic, royal and priestly charisma, this inner form, I would say, of authority, which is connected to love, humility and freedom.

My beloved brethren,

On this Great Day when we stand before the Crucified Christ and His Cross, knowing all this, that the Cross and the Crucified One are the link, the cohesive bond between the Old and New Testaments, let us become, as best we can, better friends of the Crucified One, the “Lord of glory,” so that we too may be glorified by Him.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.