Sunday
\nLuke 18:10-14 – the publican and the pharisee<\/p>\n
The practices of this Pharisee are worthy examples to follow. His good deeds (fasting and giving tithes) are the primary weapons against the passions of lust and greed (adultery and extortion). However, without a humble and repentant heart, these outward practices are worthless and lead only to pride and judgment of others. Note that he prays with himself, for God is absent where there is boasting. The tax collector shows by his posture an awareness of the state of his soul, standing far from the altar of sacrifice with eyes cast downward. His prayer, God, be merciful to me a sinner, is the foundation of the Jesus Prayer, as is the refrain \u201cLord have mercy\u201d that permeates Orthodox worship and personal prayer. Justified means forgiven and set right with God, for inward humility is blessed while pride in outward deeds is condemned.<\/p>\n
Monday<\/p>\n
After the devil\u2019s temptations, the Lord Jesus Christ headed anew towards Jordan to John. In the meantime, on the eve of His return, John gave a new triumphant testimony of Him before the Pharisees \u2014 but this time, not as about the coming but the arrived Messiah. Only one Evangelist \u2014 John, narrates about this event. The Jews sent to John from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, who he is \u2014 maybe Christ? Because according to their understanding, only Christ-Messiah could baptize. \u201cHe<\/em> (John) confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, \u201cI am not the Christ\u201d<\/em> (John 1:20). To the question who he was, perhaps a prophet, he calls himself: \u201cI am the voice of one crying in the wilderness\u201d <\/em>(John 1:23), and emphasizes, that his baptism with water \u2014 like his entire service \u2014 is only preparatory, and in order to put aside the further questions, he concludes his answer with a triumphant declaration: \u201cThere stands One among you Whom you do not know. It is He Who, coming after me, is preferred before me\u201d<\/em> (John 1:26-27). He emerges for His service after me, but has eternal existence and Divine worthiness, He is \u201cWhose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose\u201d<\/em> (John 1:27). This testimony was given in Bethabara \u2014 where the masses of people used to flock to John. \u201cThe next day,\u201d i.e. the next time, after the 40-day fast and the devil\u2019s temptations, Jesus again comes to John at Jordan. Upon seeing Him, John announces to everyone: \u201cBehold! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tuesday<\/p>\n After hearing this testimony on Jesus\u2019s Divinity, this time both of John\u2019s disciples accompanied Him to where He lived, and stayed with Him from the 9th<\/sup> hour (or, in our terms since 4 o\u2019clock in the afternoon) till late evening, listening to His speech, which increasingly was instilling in them the unshakeable belief that He is the Messiah. One of the disciples was Andrew, and the other \u2014 Evangelist John himself, who never mentioned himself in the narration about those events, in which he personally participated. Returning home after conversing with the Lord, Andrew was the first to announce that he and John had found the Messiah; he informs his brother Simon: \u201cWe have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ<\/em>)\u201d. Thus, Andrew was not only the First-Called disciple of Christ, how they are used to call him, but he was also the first of the Apostles to preach about Him and to convert and bring the future leader of the Apostles. When Andrew brought his brother to Christ, the Lord, looking at him with a trying glance, called him Cephas, meaning \u201ca rock,\u201d i.e. Petros in Greek, or \u2014 Peter.<\/p>\n Wednesday<\/p>\n The following day, after Andrew and John\u2019s visit, Jesus wished to go to Galilee and summoned Philip to follow Him. Philip, locating his friend Nathanael, tried to invite him as well, saying: \u201cWe have found Him of Whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote \u2014 Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph\u201d.<\/em> However, Nathanael objected: \u201cCan anything good come out of Nazareth?\u201d<\/em> Apparently, Nathanael shared the common with many Jews prejudice that Christ, as a King with earthly greatness, will come and appear in glory among the higher echelons of Jewish society; apart from this, at that time, Galilee was held in bad repute among the Jews, and Nazareth, this small town that is not mentioned anywhere in the holy writings of the Old Testament, seemed in no way to be the birthplace of the Messiah, Who had been promised by the Prophets. Nevertheless, Philip did not see the need to refute his friend\u2019s prejudice and offered him to be convinced in the genuineness of his words, saying: \u201cCome and see\u201d. \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 Being a forthright and sincere person, and wishing to investigate the veracity of his friend\u2019s words, Nathanael went to Christ. The Lord testified of the simplicity and artlessness of his soul, and declared: \u201cBehold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Thursday<\/p>\n Nathanael expressed surprise, where the Lord knew him from, seeing him for the first time. So, to totally disperse Nathanael\u2019s doubts and draw him towards Himself, Christ reveals His Divine omniscience by hinting at a private circumstance in Nathanael\u2019s life, the meaning of which could only be known to no one but Nathanael: \u201cBefore Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you\u201d. \u00a0<\/em>Whatever Nathanael was doing under the fig tree is unknown to us, but as we can see, there is a hidden mystery in this event, about which besides Nathanael could know only God. This revelation startled Nathanael so much that all his doubts about Jesus dispersed in a moment: he realized that standing before him was not an ordinary human, but the One gifted with the Divine omniscience, and he instantly believed in Jesus as in the Divine Messenger-Messiah, expressing this with the words filled with fervent faith: \u201cYou are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel\u201d.<\/em> There is a premise that Nathanael was in the habit of performing his established prayer rites under the fig tree and, apparently, at that particular time, he probably experienced the peculiar anguish during the prayer, which clearly lodged itself in his memory and about which none of the people knew about. This is most likely why the Lord\u2019s words aroused such fervent faith in Him as in the Son of God, to Whom the states of the human soul are opened.<\/p>\n Friday<\/p>\n To Nathanael\u2019s exclamation, the Lord addresses not only to him alone, but to all His followers, predicting: \u201cMost assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man<\/em>\u201d. With these words the Lord is saying that His disciples will see His glory with their spiritual eyes, that the ancient prophesy of heaven connection with earth by a mysterious ladder, which the Old Testament Patriarch Jacob foresaw, is fulfilled (Gen. 28:11-17), through the incarnation of the Son of God, Who had now become \u201cSon of Man\u201d.<\/em> The Lord often calls Himself with this name; there are 80 cases of this in the Gospel. Through this, Christ positively and irrefutably confirms His human nature, and also underlines that He is the Human in the highest meaning of the word: the ideal, universal and absolute Person, the Second Adam, the primal father of the new mankind, regenerated through His sufferings on the cross. This way, the similar name comes in no way to denigrate Christ, but expresses His superiority above the general level, indicating in Him the accomplished ideal of human nature, i.e. of such a man, which is necessary for Him to be in accordance with the thought of His Maker and His Creator \u2014 God.<\/p>\n Saturday<\/p>\n Cana was a small town, located in 2-3 hours of walk towards the north of Nazareth and was called Galilean, unlike the other one \u2014 situated close to the city of Tyre. Nathaniel was a native of Galilean Cana.<\/p>\n By the custom of hospitality, Jesus was invited there as an ordinary person, like an acquaintance. His Mother was there already, having presumably arrived there earlier. The family that was celebrating the wedding was not rich, that was why, during the celebrations, they found out the lack of wine. The Ever-Holy Virgin took an active part in this circumstance, which threatened to spoil the innocent delight of the family\u2019s jubilation. Her soul, filled with grace, manifested the first example of Her consideration and intercession for people before Her Divine Son. \u201cThey have no wine,\u201d<\/em> \u2014 She says to Her Son, undoubtedly counting on His miraculous help to these poor people. \u201cWoman, what does your concern have to do with Me?\u201d <\/em>In the word \u201cwoman\u201d one should not see even a shade of disrespect \u2014 this form of addressing was usual in the East. During the hardest moments of His sufferings on the cross, the Lord likewise addresses His Mother, entrusting the care of Her to His beloved Disciple (John 19:26). \u201cMy hour has not yet come\u201d<\/em> \u2014 says the Lord. More likely, Christ meant, that not all the wine that had been saved for the wedding, ran out. In any case, from the further words of His Mother one can see that She did not interpret His response as a refusal. \u201cWhatever He says to you, do it\u201d<\/em> \u2014 She says to the servants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday Luke 18:10-14 – the publican and the pharisee The practices of this Pharisee are worthy examples to follow. His good deeds (fasting and giving tithes) are the primary weapons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3003,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/3003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}