(Delivered in Kiev when Bishop Innocent was a Student at the Kiev Theological Academy)
By St. Innocent of Kherson
“And the people answered, saying, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” (Matthew 27:25)
The desire of your heart, O godless people, has been fulfilled! Your princes and leaders have been destroyed; “the walls of your city have been overthrown, your altars have been dug up, your prophets saw vanity, your priests sigh; the infants asked for bread; those who were joined to it have rejected it” (Lamentations 2:14–16; 4:4; 1:2; 3:44). The Most High Himself “covered Himself with a cloud, so that your prayer might not reach Him” (Lamentations 3:44).
Christians! We, being “wild branches,” have by the grace of God been deemed worthy to take the place of the “natural branches,” the Jews, and to be grafted onto the good olive tree, Jesus Christ, from which they were broken off (Romans 11:17–21). What feeling does this change wrought by the right hand of the Most High produce in us? Shall we say in shameful self-exaltation, “The branches were broken off so that we might be grafted in” (Romans 11:19)? But have we considered through what they were broken off from the tree of life, and through what we were grafted onto this tree? “They were broken off through unbelief” (Romans 11:20); we, however, stand through faith. Yet faith is not “from ourselves, but the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The same merciful God who bestowed upon us the pledge of faith can also restore it to them; the same righteous God who sent them a spirit of insensibility, “that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear” (Luke 8:10; Romans 11:8), can send us “an activity of delusion, so that we should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Therefore, we must not become high-minded when we look upon the rejected Jews, but must be filled with fear, lest God, who “did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). The example of this people should awaken us from sinful carelessness. Let us unfold this thought.
Our Orthodoxy is, it seems, the first stone that we turn from a stone of salvation into a stumbling stone, building upon it our carelessness in the matter of salvation. Trusting in the fact that we have been called to the Lord’s supper, we boldly go away, “one to his field, another to his merchandise” (Matthew 22:5), without considering that our places at the supper may long ago have been occupied by those who came from east and west, whom we considered unworthy even of the crumbs that fall from the Lord’s table. Having been seated by grace, so to speak, at the feet of the Savior, instead of “keeping His words in our hearts,” we fall asleep, reassured by His nearness, while He, having spoken the sorrowful reproach, “Sleep now and take your rest” (Matthew 26:45), may long ago have departed from us. Holding in our hands the thread of the true faith, instead of ascending by it to the throne of grace, we descend into the abyss of hell, all the more fearlessly because we imagine that we hold in our hands the thread of salvation. Thus, the mystery of faith, being driven from the heart by our impure conscience, gives way to the mystery of lawlessness.
But “if God did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). The Jews were the one people to whom the “words of God” had been entrusted (Romans 3:2). When the Gentiles, walking in the vanity of their minds, changed “the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of corruptible man and birds and four-footed creatures” (Romans 1:23), the Jews rebuked them, saying: “The gods who did not make heaven and earth shall perish from the earth, for there is no breath in them” (Jeremiah 10:11, 14). When the Gentiles, seeing within themselves and around themselves the struggle between two opposing principles, good and evil, offered worship to both, regarding them as co-eternal, the Jews proclaimed: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one; there is no God besides Him” (Deuteronomy 6:4; 4:39). When the Gentiles, seeing virtue suffering, cried out, “One fate comes to the good and to the wicked, to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice” (Ecclesiastes 9:2), the Jews answered: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are toward their prayer” (Psalm 33:16). The Lord knows how to deliver the righteous from death and to keep the wicked under punishment for judgment. What more was lacking in the Orthodoxy of the Jews? Yet when, instead of the fruits of faith, they brought forth the thorns of unbelief, the Most High turned His face away from them; they were scattered, made a proverb, and became a reproach among all the nations.
Christian! Even though the Church, of which you call yourself a member, were “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), even though everyone who knows you regarded you “as a prophet,” and your wisdom were “like the wisdom of an angel of God” (2 Samuel 12:20), yet if, looking into “the perfect law of freedom,” you “do not remain in it” (James 1:25), you deceive yourself in vain with the hope of salvation—you will be rejected. “Do not be high-minded (because of your Orthodoxy), but fear” (Romans 11:20).
Because of our Orthodoxy, the outward form of divine worship often becomes the most beloved support of our sinful carelessness. The outward form of divine worship is a ladder by which we ought to ascend from the depths of sensual thoughts to the heights of spiritual understanding, but we, on the contrary, descend by it more and more from this understanding into the depths of carnal-mindedness. The outward form of divine worship is the foliage of the tree of life, which ought to conceal the fruits of the spirit from the impure gaze of carnal men; but we conceal within it, like our first parents, the nakedness of our spirit from the Lord who seeks us. The outward form of divine worship is the garment of Christ, one touch of which, with faith, could heal the diseases of the soul; but we, like those who crucified Christ, often cast lots for it—sacrilegiously appropriating its dignity to our own use, and even tearing it apart through senseless disputes about its validity. Thus the letter of outward form kills the children of the new Israel, just as it killed the children of the ancient one. “But if God did not spare the natural branches,” “should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21).
What people had greater magnificence in outward worship than the Jews? Their temple, by its vastness, resembled a city more than a place of worship. The firstfruits of the crops and the firstborn of the animals exceeded the needs of the entire tribe of Levi; oxen and sheep were slaughtered by the thousands in the courtyard of the tabernacle; the seven-branched lamp was continually burning on the altar of incense; oil continually burned in the lampstand; the bread of the Presence continually lay upon the table. The magnificence of the sacrificial rites was heightened by the splendor of the feasts. Strict rest was observed every seventh day; each month the sound of the sacred trumpets was heard; every year booths were erected and the Passover lamb was slaughtered; every seventh year the fields were left unsown and the vineyards unharvested; every fiftieth year the right of freedom was restored to slaves and the right of ownership to those who had lost their property. Upon entering the land of Judea, one might have thought that this people had no other occupation than the performance of rites. Yet when the cloud of rites, instead of serving, according to the intention of the lawgiver of Sinai, as a protection from the uncircumcised, became an obstacle preventing them from seeing the rising “Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2), the Jews not only failed to receive healing from Him who had “risen with healing in His wings,” but were also condemned to remain in the darkness and shadow of death, from which the Gentiles were brought forth.
Christian! Even though you were to turn all your days into sacred feasts and celebrations, even though the number of sacrifices you bring to the altar were to exceed the number of your sins; yet if you “do not lift up your heart together with your hands to the Most High” (Lamentations 3:41), if the inner sanctuary of your spirit is filled with the abomination of desolation, you will be rejected. “Do not be high-minded because of the outward form of your worship, but fear” (Romans 11:20).
What does the sinner, limping upon both knees, not lean upon! The long-suffering of God, which ought to give wings to our return to the Heavenly Father, often becomes an excuse for wandering farther and farther away from Him. Knowing that the doors of repentance are open, we go farther and farther from them, without considering that a time may come when they will be shut, and when the Master of the house will say to those knocking at them: “I do not know you” (Matthew 25:12). Seeing the Heavenly Father stretching out His hands toward us all day long, we flee from His embrace, without considering that these hands will one day take up the sword for the destruction of the disobedient. Ah! Perhaps we would be less wasteful of the gifts of grace if the long-suffering of God did not open all the treasuries of His grace to us.
But let us beware, listeners, “lest, if God did not spare the natural branches, He should not spare” us either (Romans 11:21). What people had witnessed greater signs of God’s long-suffering than the Jews? Moses receives the Law on the mountain, while they worship the calf beneath the mountain, and yet the decree for their destruction is revoked. God sends them the Bread of Angels, while they hunger for the meat of Egypt, and yet the fire sent by the justice of the angered God is soon extinguished by His mercy. God, with His mighty arm, strikes down their enemies before them, while they enter into shameful relations with them; and yet the plague that was striking them is withdrawn. As time went on, the mercy of God, if one may put it so, grew weary of showing mercy to a stiff-necked people, and justice delivered them over to be mocked by the nations. But scarcely had they been led away to Babylon when the mercy of God, as though repenting, again turned His face toward them, comforted them, and finally brought them out into the land of their fathers. Jerusalem was rebuilt, the temple restored—and the daughter of Zion again turned to her lovers. It seemed that the Most High had forgotten the impartiality of the judgments of God, bearing with great long-suffering a people who, having drunk the blood of His servants and prophets, were preparing to wash their hands in the blood of His Son, whom He “sanctified and sent into the world” (John 3:17). No! He had not forgotten, but was waiting “until the vessels of wrath should be made complete for destruction” (Romans 9:22); and when the “time to destroy” had come, “the Most High bent His bow and slew all the beauty of the daughter of Zion, He shook His sanctuary, and strengthened His right hand, until it was finished” (Lamentations 2:4).
Christian! Do not abuse the long-suffering of God, lest you “store up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5), which “will not come with observation,” but when you think that you have “peace and security.” The thought of God’s long-suffering is often nourishment for our carelessness; nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that this nourishment rarely satisfies it. The gaze fixed upon mercy often, against our will, comes to rest upon divine justice, and we, trembling, seek the nearest support for our weakened knees and, unfortunately, almost always find it in the multitude of sinners like ourselves. We live as others live: this is the answer we ordinarily give our conscience when it urges us to examine whether we “are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). If all who live as we do are to be rejected, then “who can be saved?” (Matthew 19:25)—this is the justification we set against its reproaches: as though the names of sinners must be written in the book of life merely because the number of the elect who might fill it is small; as though the Almighty cannot raise up children for Abraham from stones when these children have turned themselves into stone through their hardness of heart. Count, listeners, if you can, the countless multitude of Jews who participated in the sin of deicide; add to this number the number of their children; combine the latter with the number of their descendants. What a terrible multitude! Yet all Israel has been scattered, and all Judea has been laid waste.
Christian! Come down from the broad way of the world, otherwise its breadth and the multitude of those walking upon it will not save you from heavenly wrath.
Unable to hide from heavenly wrath in the crowd of sinners like ourselves, we often take refuge under the shelter of the divine promises, but unfortunately not with the spirit of repentance, as we ought, but with a spirit of hardness that would like to set divine mercy in opposition to divine justice, so that, if possible, it might destroy the latter. If we are to be rejected, we often reason falsely, then the words of Scripture, “for the gifts, promises, and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), and “I will draw all to Myself; there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 12:32; 10:16), will not be “Yes and Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). But do we know, listeners, when reasoning in this way, what kind of people these are upon whom the judgment of God has been carried out for so many centuries? They are the people whose patriarch was once told: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and between your seed after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:7). Do you know who these people are who are now held in universal contempt? They are the descendants of the king to whom it was once promised: “If your sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, I will visit their iniquity with a rod and their unrighteousness with stripes; but I will not take My mercy from them” (Psalm 88:31, 33–34). Do you know what temple has been reduced to ruins? It is the temple of which God Himself said to Solomon: “I have sanctified this temple which you have built, to put My name there forever; and My eyes and My heart shall be there always” (3 Kings 9:3). Do you know what city has now been deprived of all its splendor and delivered into the hands of the nations? It is Jerusalem, concerning which God declared through the prophet: My mercy toward you shall not fail, “nor shall the covenant of My peace be removed” (Isaiah 54:10).
After this, who would dare apply to himself the words of Scripture: “The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Timothy 2:19); “the gifts, promises, and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29)?
Christians! The Church does not lose hope of one day seeing the scattered children of circumcision gathered beneath her wings. “Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. And thus all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25–26). Let us beware, lest the time of their conversion become the time of our rejection. “It is already time for us to arise from sleep!” (Romans 13:11). Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.