DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS
St. John 7:14-30 (5/21) CHRIST IS RISEN! Gospel for Wednesday
of Mid-Pentecost
Opposition to Christ II ~ Submit or Resist:
In today’s world many extol education as
the cultural engine for creating openness and tolerance to new ideas. The truth is that much that poses as
education actually is training in contemporary bias and prejudice. “Popular wisdom” in this
century accepts the “truth” of the theory of evolution and upholds
it unquestioningly as scientific fact.
Great leaders among the “educated” will not even consider
the validity of other alternatives. Hence the luminaries of the day suggest
the teaching of creation is simply blind, misinformed, religious bigotry.
The Lord Jesus faced just these same sort of closed, “educated” assumptions. Religious authorities in the first
century accepted the standards and “givens” provided in the
training of the official schools of the day. Jesus of Nazareth was a shock to such
people, as were His Apostles after Him (Acts 4:13). The Jewish teachers marveled, “How
does this Man know letters, having never studied?” (Jn.
7:15). In many other places in the
Gospels, evidence of shock at the Lord’s wisdom abounds (e.g., Mt. 13:54;
Lk. 20:26), for regularly He silenced His educated
opponents with His answers and questions (Mt. 22:32-33).
It was unthinkable that anyone not trained
under famous Rabbinic instructors could possibly have
true knowledge of Holy Scripture.
Yet the educated were confronted with the Man of Wisdom. Let us not quail before the experts. Let the Lord Jesus’ answer be
ours: “My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me”
(vs. 16).
In
The Lord understood the social processes of
the time, for He knew “what was in man” (Jn.
2:25). Notice the response when He
stripped away the veneer by His question about killing Him. They accused Him of being
demon-possessed, and flared up in “innocence,” “Who is seeking to kill You?” (Jn 7:20). Do you see? They thought Him crazy and dangerously
deluded. Later the High Priest
would say “that it was expedient that one man should die for the
people” (Jn. 18:14). Dostoevsky placed this theme of
“dangerous insanity” in the mouth of the Grand Inquisitor in The
Brothers Karamazov. In the past
century, likewise, Marxist ideology vigorously took a similar position against
the Church and Christian Faith.
Do men harden against the Faith? Study Romans 1:20, 21 along with vs. 28
of today’s reading. Something in the people who resist the
Lord knows that He is true and comes from above, and yet, in darkness they
“do not know.” In the
end, “they sought to take Him” (vs. 30).
I have no life, no light, no joy or wisdom;
no strength except in Thee, O God.
Because of my unrighteousness I dare not raise my eyes to Thee.” Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov