Holy Tuesday

Holy Tuesday*  (Taking place on Monday night)

Themes: Parable of the 10 Virgins, Alertness/Attentiveness, the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees, Second Coming of Christ

Gospel Reading: Matthew 22:15-46, 23:1-39

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The Fathers of the Church who put together the services over time, especially the services of Hoy Week, have really done an extraordinary job.  In fact, only through the Holy Spirit could such a task have been accomplished.  Each service connects with the previous one and continues the demonstrative, pedagogic, edifying, beautiful, agonizing, and glorious recounting of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ.  If we are paying attention to the hymns and readings, we will be taken through Jesus’ final discourses to His disciples and the people.  It will be as if we were present at the Last Supper and Garden of Gethsemane.  We become witness to the betrayal, arrest, and mock trial of Jesus.  We agonize with Jesus’ passion and sing gloriously upon His resurrection.

In the Gospel reading from yesterday, Holy Monday, we heard about faithlessness (particularly of those who reject the Christ), faithfulness, and Jesus prophesying His passion and resurrection.  Today, Holy Tuesday, the focus is on the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees.  Although Jesus rails against them, we should heed Jesus’ words ourselves lest we fall into the same sinful pride and arrogance, and lest we reject or ignore the “weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.”

What has always struck me the most, however, are the final words of Jesus in this reading:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
There are two striking issues for our purposes today.  And for both, we have to look at this from the perspective of Jesus both pre-incarnate and incarnate.

First, for those who may not have been sure exactly Who Jesus was, Jesus makes a clear statement.  After lamenting about the actions of Israelites who should have been following the Lord in a better fashion (the first sentence above), Jesus then says, “How often  I  wanted to gather…”  The first sentence is Jesus looking down from Heaven before He was born of the Virgin Mary; centuries before.  He had sent prophets and holy people to show the Israelites the Way, but they were often ignored and even killed.  But it shows that it was Jesus Who desired this and was doing this (accomplishing the will of the Father) when He said, “How often I…”  Jesus is not telegraphing, not even broadcasting in HD, 5G, digital Dolby surround on a rollable plasma wireless television; He has come in person to say then, and forever more, that it was always He Who was doing everything possible to bring back His beloved people to Him.  Whose hands fashioned man?  Whose breath gave man life?  Who was walking with Adam in the garden?  Who spoke to David so many of the words of the Psalms?  Who did Nebuchadnezzar see in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  Who did Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel see in their visions?  The answer to all: the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.

From the beginning, God only expressed love for mankind.  Now, in order to express it in such a way that could never be mistaken, God’s Son, Jesus, will complete the plan of salvation that God put in place upon the fall of Adam and Eve.  And Jesus is telling us this in these passages and through the Holy Spirit inspired hymns of the Church.
Second, we can clearly see how deeply Jesus loves us and desires us to be with Him through His example of the mother hen with her chicks.  Jesus is saying, “from the moment I created you, I’ve always wanted you near me.  When you moved away from me and were in danger, I called out to you to come back under the “shelter of my wings” (see Psalms 17:8, 36:7, 57:1 for this relationship).  However, you have neglected my calls to safety and the warnings I have offered.”

Therefore, the time had come for God to reveal His plan for our salvation completely.  Jesus lowered Himself as God to come to our station as a human being – all for what is about to happen in the coming days: to suffer, die, be entombed, and rise on the third day to dismantle and shatter the power of sin and death.  

As Jesus’ arms are stretched out upon the cross, instead of being a sign of Roman torture and intimidation, they are meant to bring all people under His protection; to “draw all peoples to [Himself]” (John 12:32).  In other words, it is like Jesus saying, “I will go down to where you are, stretch My hands out for all the world, gather you, and bring you up with Me out of the dangers of sin.”

This nothing on earth that can truly protect us: no army, no medicine, no political system, no wealth, no hiding place, nothing.  Only God, through Jesus Christ, protects us by opening eternal life for all who remain under His wings.  And on Holy Tuesday, as we will experience again on Holy Wednesday, the services of Holy Week keep stressing the incredible work of salvation, the work for everlasting life, that Jesus offers to us through His passion and resurrection.  Amen.
 With Love in Christ,
+Fr. Nick
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* During Holy Week, things change a bit.  Normally, we think of an Orthros taking place in the morning and a Vespers at night.  During Holy Week, however, the reverse happens – the Vespers takes place in the morning and the Orthros at night – all done in anticipation of the coming day.  For example, the first service after the Divine Liturgy on Palm Sunday that we celebrate during Holy Week is on Sunday night.  Instead of being a Vesper service, technically, it is the Orthros for Holy Monday.  Likewise, the Bridegroom Service on Holy Monday night is the Orthros for Holy Tuesday; the Bridegroom Service on Holy Tuesday night is the Orthros for Holy Wednesday.  On Holy Thursday morning, we celebrate a Vesperal Divine Liturgy remembering the Mystical Supper (Last Supper/Institution of the Holy Eucharist).  On Holy Thursday night, the Service of the 12 Gospels, is really the Orthros for Holy Friday.  We mention this so you know what the proper order of services is during Holy Week.