Commemorating the Apostle Luke When His Feast Falls on a Sunday

By Fr. George Dorbarakis 

 

Our Church today sets aside the appointed sequence of readings, both the Gospel and the Apostolic reading, in order to turn its attention to Saint Luke the Evangelist, the Apostle and physician, a companion especially of the Apostle Paul, and, according to Tradition, the painter of the first icons of the Most Holy Theotokos. It does so by presenting texts associated with him. His personality and his contribution to the evangelization of mankind, both through preaching and through writing, are so great and significant that the Church does not wish to pass him by with only a few hymns. Saint Luke was not only an Apostle but also the author of the Gospel bearing his name in the New Testament, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostle Paul's reference to Luke as his beloved helper in the Apostolic reading emphatically confirms this.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 18

The Month of October

Day 18

49. On the Veneration of Holy Icons

(The Life of Saint Luke the Apostle and Evangelist)

In His second commandment, the Lord did not simply say, “You shall not make for yourself an idol,” but also added, “or any likeness.” Hence the question arises: may and ought we to venerate holy icons? We answer you, brethren, that holy icons most certainly may and ought to be venerated. This is evident from the following.

First, God Himself, who gave the words quoted above in His second commandment, nevertheless commanded Moses to place two golden cherubim in the Tabernacle, above the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, in the Book of Exodus, we read: “And the Lord said to Moses: ‘And you shall make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end … And the cherubim shall have their wings spread upward … and their faces shall be turned toward one another’” (Exodus 25:18–20).

Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Luke: On the Good Sower (Archimandrite George Kapsanis)

 

Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Luke: On the Good Sower 

By Archimandrite George Kapsanis,
Former Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Gregoriou, Mount Athos

(Delivered in 2001)

Today’s parable is our Lord’s most beautiful parable concerning the Good Sower, who sows the seed, whose fruitfulness or ultimate loss depends on the soil on which it falls. This parable prompts us to reflect on our responsibility concerning what kind of soil we ourselves are.

That is, whether we offer ourselves to God as good soil, into which His word can fall and bear fruit “thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold,” or whether, on the contrary, because of our passions, our indifference, and the cares of this life, the word of God falls and is heard by us but bears no fruit. It is lost.

Once again, we see that our salvation is the result of synergy. God works our salvation, but we too must cooperate. God sows His word, but we must be ready to hear the word of God and bear fruit, as the holy Evangelist characteristically says, “with patience.”

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Luke (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Luke, 
or Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost

On the Sowers of the Word of God

“The sower went out to sow his seed” (Luke 8:5).

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

Beloved faithful,

The Sower in today’s Gospel parable is none other than our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. He came forth from the bosom of the Father, as He Himself said: “I came forth from God” (John 17:8), and came to earth to sow the seed of His word. The field in which He sowed the seed of the Holy Gospel is this world, which He created, as He said in another parable: “The field is the world” (Matthew 13:38).

From this parable we see that only one-quarter of the field, that is, of the world, was good soil. Having received the seed of the word of God, this soil grew and yielded a hundredfold (Matthew 13:23). The other three parts of the field were a road trampled by people (Matthew 13:4), rocky ground, and soil overgrown with thorns (Matthew 13:22). When the good seed of the word fell upon them, it bore no fruit but was lost.

Although “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4), who is to blame that only one-quarter of the world is represented by good soil, receiving the seed of the word of life and bearing fruit a hundredfold? The entire blame for this lack of fruitfulness lies not with God, but with the human being who, through the disordered state of his soul, prevents the seed of the divine word from growing and bearing fruit. We must know that God created the human being with free will. He does not force open the doors of human hearts; He merely knocks at their doors, as it is written: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Luke (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Luke
 
21st Sunday after Pentecost 

Luke 8:5–15

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1964 at the Ćelije Monastery)

[Editorial Note: This sermon by Saint Justin Popovich has been translated from a Serbian transcription of an audio recording. The transcription contains passages that are unclear or missing, and the surviving recording ends before the sermon is complete. These gaps have been retained in the translation; no attempt has been made to reconstruct the missing words.]

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

A brief Gospel, a brief parable of the Savior, and yet the whole world is contained within it, all human labor is contained within it, and the entire destiny of the world is contained within it. Today’s Holy Gospel contains the whole history of Christianity and the entire history of every Christian individually. This world is God’s field for heavenly seed; the chief Sower is the God-man, the Lord Christ, who sows the heavenly, divine truths. Three-quarters of the seed perish; only one-quarter succeeds. Why? Because of the soil, because of the ground, because some seed falls on stony ground, some among thorns, some beside the road, and some on good soil (Luke 8:5–8). The Gospel is yours, the Gospel is mine, and undoubtedly the Gospel belongs to everyone. What is happening to the seed? Pay attention: you are a human being, which means that you are an earthly field for heavenly seed. Where has it fallen? Has it fallen among thorns, on stony ground, beside the road of your soul, or on good soil? The seed falls beside the road of a person’s soul when that person receives Christ’s teaching and listens to it but pays no attention to it, does not care about it, and leaves it there at the edge of the soul, where the racecourse of various temptations lies, where the racecourse of the sins of this world and of Satan, the ruler of this world, lies. What happens then? The Savior explains it to us, telling us the sad story of this seed: “Those are the people who hear the word of God, but afterward the devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). “Indeed, truth …” (Some words on the tape are unclear.—Transcriber’s note.) This means that he is here in the world around us; he prowls around us. No, he roams the earth and walks about, as he declares … (Same note as above.) when he is asked about the righteous Job: “I have been going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it” (Job 1:7).

Homily for the Second Sunday of Luke (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the Second Sunday of Luke, 
or Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost

On Love for Enemies

“And I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

Beloved faithful,

Our Savior Jesus Christ has shown that the greatest commandment in the Law is love for God, while the second, like it, is love of one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). He said that these two commandments contain the whole Law and all the Prophets (Matthew 22:40). If this is the truth, then no one can say that he loves God unless he first loves his neighbor. Saint John the Evangelist also says this, declaring: “If anyone says that he loves God, but hates his brother, he is a liar! For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20).

Therefore, the Holy Gospel that was read today commands us to love our enemies, for this commandment is founded upon love for God and for our neighbor. Our neighbor is every person in the world (Luke 10:36–37), and we have no right to hate anyone, for all are created by God and possess the same nature as we do. But perhaps someone will say that Holy Scripture nevertheless shows that we may hate certain people, as the Psalmist says: “Those who hate You, O Lord, I have hated, and I have been grieved over Your enemies. With perfect hatred I have hated them, and they have become my enemies” (Psalm 138:21–22).

Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke (St. Justin Popovich)

Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke

 

19th Sunday after Pentecost 

By St. Justin Popovich

(Delivered in 1964 at the Ćelije Monastery)

[The homily, which was transcribed from a recording, has no beginning. — Copyist’s note.]

This is achieved by living according to the gospel of the Lord Christ, by living according to His commandments, by fulfilling His commandments in this world, every day and every night of our lives. Therefore, He commands us in the Gospel: “Live as is fitting for God; live worthily of God.”1 Which God? The Lord Christ. He lived in this world as a man in order to help us human beings understand how we ought to live in this world. Behold, imitate Him. In the Gospel it is commanded: “Live as is fitting for the gospel of Christ.” And the entire gospel of the Lord Christ consists of commandments continually concerning how a person ought to live in this world.

Today’s Holy Gospel shows us in its own way how we ought to live. How? If we change our lives; if we live according to Christ, if we live in Christ; if our life is according to God and not according to sin; if we are truly Christians and not pagans in our way of life, while being Christians only in name. Through His commandments the Lord commands: “As you want people to do to you, you also do to them; if you love those who love you, what thanks have you, since sinners do the same, since pagans do the same?”2 Your love must be a new love, evangelical love, love from the other world, divine love, wholly divine. If you do good to everyone who does only good to you, what thanks do you have, since sinners do this too, pagans do this too; but your good must be divine good, it must be gospel good, it must be Christ’s good. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive something back, what reward do you expect, since other people, sinners and pagans, do this too. But you—you are new people in Christ; you are to have a new life.

Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke (Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov)

Homily One on the Second Sunday of Luke 

19th Sunday after Pentecost

On Love for Enemies

By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov

(Delivered on October 3, 1960)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus Christ, concerned for our salvation, that feelings of love for one another may be constantly preserved among us and that proper and right relations may be maintained, gives us today in the Holy Gospel that has been read His wondrous divine teaching, which should serve as a guiding rule in our daily Christian life. The Lord says: “And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

It is natural for a person to have a feeling of self-preservation, a constant striving to support and preserve his life and to place it in the best possible condition. This feeling prompts us, as human beings, to avoid dangers and everything harmful to our life, health, honor, and well-being, and, on the contrary, to desire and seek everything beneficial both for our life and for our moral well-being. Under the influence of this feeling, we not only strive ourselves to do what is beneficial for our lives, but we also desire that others do good to us, assist in carrying out our aims and plans, and contribute to the increase of our happiness and well-being. This desire of ours, the desire that people do good to us, extends to everyone, without excluding even our most hardened enemies. We desire that they also do good to us. Indeed, if we penetrate into the depths of our soul, into our innermost thoughts and desires, we must admit that even from our enemies we desire good, and only good, and that our mind always strives to find grounds for justifying this desire, for lessening our guilt before our enemies and for justifying ourselves before them. And so, guided by this feeling of self-preservation in a reasonable manner and remembering that our personal good is closely connected with the good of our neighbor, amid our concern for our own well-being we strive to support the well-being of our neighbor, who in turn helps us in what is necessary and useful for us. Through such interaction, through such mutual and friendly assistance among people, the happiness of people is naturally established and elevated, and the feeling of self-preservation becomes a beneficial force, an architect of human happiness.

Homily Two on the Second Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two on the Second Sunday of Luke 

19th Sunday after Pentecost

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

The God-speaking Evangelist Luke, in the Gospel read today, conveys to us the teaching and commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ concerning how we should conduct ourselves toward people in our common life, so that we may please both God and people, acquire for ourselves a good name and a blameless conscience, and be deemed worthy of the promised, incorruptible heavenly homeland because of our prudent conduct in our earthly homeland (Luke 6:31–36).

What wise, exalted, saving, truly divine teachings and commandments these are! Yet how contrary to them our daily, ordinary life proves to be! The Lord teaches us to deal with people as we would wish people to deal with us, that is, simply, benevolently, sympathetically, and patiently. He has made ourselves the measure of our relations with others, and this measure, this standard, is love: “for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it” (Ephesians 5:29). Yet in our common life it is often the opposite. The relations of people toward one another are very often improper and distorted, lacking the spirit of simplicity and sincerity, love and goodwill, peaceableness, gentleness and forbearance, purity and holiness, sympathy and mercy, and Christian patience. They are often characterized by a spirit of insincerity and duplicity, coldness and arrogance, cunning and ill will, or impurity and sensuality, base selfishness and self-interest. The root, or cause, the source of one kind of conduct or another among people is found in the human heart, for “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth what is evil” (Matthew 12:35). This arises either from his natural qualities, or from a fortunate or distorted upbringing, from various passions, inclinations, and habits—for example, habits connected with certain pleasures—from good or bad examples, from the circumstances of life, from a greater or lesser degree of material depersonalization, or from the environment in which a person lives, from his position in society, from various lessons or temptations of life, and finally from the degree to which a person has, or has not, become imbued with the spirit of Christ, of the gospel, and of the Church.

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

 

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke, 
or Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost

On the Fruits of Obedience to God

“Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; but at Your word we will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5)

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

Beloved faithful,

From the beginning of the creation of the world, all people who have obeyed God have been blessed, both in the present age and in the age to come. Thus we see that, as long as our foreparents, Adam and Eve, obeyed God, their Creator, and faithfully kept His commandment, they were blessed and enjoyed all the beauty and delight of Paradise. But when, of their own free will, they turned away from obedience and transgressed the commandment of their Creator, they were punished and driven out of Paradise (Genesis 3:16–19). If we look back through the sacred history of the world, that is, through what is written in the Holy and Divine Scripture, we shall see that all the holy and chosen people of God who obeyed and fulfilled His commandments were blessed on earth and deemed worthy of the blessing of God.

Noah, who was the second Adam of the human race, obeying God and building the ark and doing all that He had commanded him, was delivered, together with his entire family, from the waters of the Flood and was blessed by God (Genesis 6:22; 9:12). Likewise, the blessed patriarch Abraham, obeying God and departing from his land and from his kindred, went to Haran and from there to the promised land, Canaan, where, as he lived there, he demonstrated the most perfect obedience, to the extent that he was willing to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God, thereby mystically prefiguring the offering as a sacrifice by the heavenly Father of His beloved Son for the salvation and redemption of the human race from bondage to the devil. Because of this faith and perfect obedience of Abraham, God blessed him with an oath and called him the father of many nations (Genesis 22:1–18; 17:5). But in addition to the great divine blessing leading to eternal blessedness, Abraham was also blessed by God with temporal happiness, so that he might have an abundance of all that was necessary for life on earth. The divine Scripture says: “Now Abraham was rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold, and the land which he had inherited for his dwelling was like the Paradise of God” (Genesis 13:2, 10). Likewise, his son Isaac was blessed by God because he did not go down into Egypt, obeying His commandment (Genesis 26:2–4).

Homily Three on the First Sunday of Luke (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three on the First Sunday of Luke 

18th Sunday after Pentecost

By St. John of Kronstadt

“And He sat down and taught the people from the boat.” (Luke 5:3)

Brethren, what do I see? What is this spectacle at which heaven itself marvels? The eternal Son of God, the Creator of Angels, borne upon the Cherubim, the Creator of heaven and earth, surrounded by a small number of His chosen disciples, sits in a boat tossed by the waves of the sea; the eternal Word of the unoriginate Father Himself, in the humble form of a man, teaches a people immersed in the darkness of ignorance. O boundless goodness, O boundless condescension! Behold, man, what your God, your Creator, your Savior has done for you! He Himself came to enlighten you, to teach you the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His will. He Himself came to save you, a perishing sinner. Behold how precious and exalted He considers your salvation! And how do you value this condescension—and your own salvation? O, it seems that you have forgotten who you are and why you came into this world. You have forgotten that you are a being created in the image of God; that you are immortal in soul and will one day also be immortal in a transformed, spiritual body; you have forgotten that you are called to practice righteousness and holiness and to fulfill the commandments of God, which “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3), according to the word of the Apostle. You do the will of your own flesh, sinful and destructive, and you have sunk into lawlessness and are drowning in it.

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke (St. Innocent of Kherson)

Homily for the First Sunday of Luke

18th Sunday after Pentecost

By St. Innocent of Kherson

“Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.” (Luke 5:5)

How pitiful, brethren, it is to hear this complaint from the lips of the poor laborers who had toiled throughout the night! But why has it been repeated in the Gospel for so many centuries? Is it to arouse our compassion for the Apostles? But what need have those who afterward caught the whole universe with their nets for the fish they failed to catch? What need have those who have long since been crowned with heavenly glory for our pity, when perhaps they themselves grieve and lament a hundredfold over us because we are so indifferent to attaining that glory which has also been appointed for us? If the Gospel continues to tell us of the unsuccessful fishing, it is because, in the persons of the Apostles-fishermen, all of us are portrayed in this circumstance, with our labors and occupations. Therefore, I can find no subject more edifying for our conversation than to apply this Apostolic fishing to our own lives.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son 

By St. John of Kronstadt

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you” (Luke 15:18)

Beloved brethren, who among us has not labored and does not labor for sin every day, willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, in understanding or in ignorance? Who has not angered the Lord, infinite Truth and Love? Who has not been wounded by the blade of sin and felt its sharpness and bitterness — the heavy confusion of conscience, sorrow and distress, those constant companions of sin? All of us, from the least to the greatest, are sinners before God, and therefore are subject to punishment and separation from Him. And if the Lord, in His boundless love and mercy toward fallen humanity, had not granted repentance and the forgiveness of sins for the sake of the sacrificial death on the Cross of His only-begotten Son, then all people would have descended into hell, the place of eternal torment. But glory be to the all-good and all-wise God, who has given repentance to sinners unto eternal life. Countless multitudes of sinners have been washed by the words of repentance, justified and sanctified by the most pure Blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sins and bore all the punishments prepared for us — and now they rejoice with the Angels in the dwellings of the saints. All of you standing here, sinners like myself — do you cherish this priceless gift of the Lord, the gift of repentance? Do you sigh like the publican, weep like the harlot, wash your bed with tears like David the forefather? Do you return to the heavenly Father with sincere and deep repentance, like the prodigal son of whom you heard in today’s Gospel reading?

Homily for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee -- On Pride and Humility (St. Cleopa of Sihastria)

Homily for the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost
(Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee)
On Pride and Humility

By St. Cleopa of Sihastria

“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts;
for what is exalted among men is an abomination before God.” (Luke 16:15)

Beloved faithful,

In many places of Holy Scripture it is shown how great, how soul-destroying, and how hateful to God the passion of pride is. But no small measure of the wickedness of this sin can also be understood from the teaching of today’s Holy Gospel. Since I am too small and unskilled to show in writing or speech how many forms this evil of pride has and how varied it is, I shall bring before you a most wonderful teaching of Saint John of the Ladder on this subject. From this it will be known how many heads this dreadful beast of pride has, and by this the wise and discerning will understand how multicolored and dangerous this sin is.

Here is what this holy father says about pride:

“Pride is the denial of God, the teaching of demons, the contempt of men, the mother of condemnation, the great-granddaughter of praise, the sign of barrenness, the expulsion of God’s help, madness, the forerunner of falls, the cause of epilepsy, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the strength of demons, the guardian of sins, the cause of mercilessness, ignorance of compassion, the bitter examiner of the faults of others, an inhuman judge, a hostile fighter against God” (Philokalia, vol. IX, Homily 25, On Pride, Bucharest, 1980).

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Righteous Alexei Mechev)

Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on January 11, 1915)*

The publican and the Pharisee came to the temple to pray. During his prayer the Pharisee boasted of his deeds and condemned others, while the publican, in deep awareness of his own unworthiness, prayed thus: “God make atonement for me the sinner.” The former the Lord condemned, and the latter He justified, saying: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13–14).

Dear ones, if we look at outward actions rather than at the inner disposition of the heart, the Pharisee cannot at all be called a bad man. In any case, he was blameless in a civic sense and outwardly pious. And yet his prayer was rejected. On the contrary, the publican was not without sins and vices. He himself acknowledged his sinfulness, and yet his prayer was heard. Why is this so? Here is why: the Pharisee prayed arrogantly, with a disposition of spirit in which he fully revealed himself. For in prayer people show themselves as they truly are and as they live. The Apostle's words can be applied to the life of the Pharisee in the Gospels and his prayer: “Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive… having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:2–5).

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (St. John of Kronstadt)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee  

By St. John of Kronstadt

The present week in the Church order of weeks is called the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee. It is so named because on this day the Lord’s parable of the publican and the Pharisee is read from the Gospel. In this parable, by the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Lord teaches us with what disposition of soul we ought to pray in church or wherever we may be. Let us listen to how the Pharisee prayed and how the publican prayed; which of them pleased God by his prayer and which did not; by what one was pleasing and by what the other was not, so that we too may learn always to pray in a way pleasing to God and not unto condemnation. Prayer is a great thing: through prayer a person communes with God, receives from Him various gifts of grace, thanks Him as Benefactor for His unceasing mercies, or glorifies Him as the all-perfect Creator.

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Archpriest Rodion Putyatin)

Fourth Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee 

By Archpriest Rodion Putyatin

"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

To certain people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, Jesus Christ told the following parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not as other men are — extortioners, unjust, adulterers — or even as this publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ Now the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote himself on the breast, saying, ‘God make atonement for me the sinner.’ I tell you,” Jesus Christ adds, “that this publican went down to his house justified, but not that Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

So, this is what it means to boast about oneself and demean others! Look at this Pharisee praying in the temple of God. He took nothing from anyone, did no wrong to anyone, and led a chaste life; he fasted twice a week; he gave a tenth of his estate to the Church and the poor. Who would not say that this Pharisee was a righteous man? Yet it was not he who went home justified, but the tax collector. Yes, this virtuous Pharisee ruined all his virtues by praising himself and demeaning his neighbor.

Discourse on Zacchaeus (St. Amphilochios of Iconium)

Discourse on Zacchaeus 

 

By St. Amphilochios of Iconium

Nothing moves the soul so much toward joy as the fear of God and abstinence from evil, the path of repentance and the manner of confession. Therefore today David calls blessed those whose sins have been forgiven, revealing the philanthropy of Christ and at the same time preparing sinners to hasten to repentance. “Blessed,” he says, “are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.” Whoever, then, can feel like the harlot and the tax collector, let him run to the inexhaustible springs of Christ’s salvation. Without repentance it is impossible for anyone to receive release from evils or to attain blessedness, even if he be a Prophet or an Apostle or even an Evangelist. For in truth all have drawn from the same source. Among the Prophets is David himself, who even after adultery remained a Prophet, by the grace of Him who forgave him.

Among the Apostles are Peter and Paul: the one received “the keys of the kingdom” after his denial, and the other became the Apostle of the nations after his persecution, transforming Jewish zeal into an evangelical way. And within the Gospels I have known a tax collector who was saved — not only Matthew, but together with him two others. One of these, praying and striking his breast where the treasure of evils lay, and not daring to stand in the temple with uplifted hands and eyes, was not only justified but also crowned, in contrast to the Pharisee. And today’s Zacchaeus, after climbing the tree — where many times he had stood to spy lest some merchant escape him and remain untaxed — now took care lest the Merchant of heaven and earth pass by unnoticed, He who bore within Himself the inviolable treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Zacchaeus (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

Zacchaeus

Luke 19:1-10

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

The Lord, as He was walking toward Jerusalem, as we saw previously, arrived at Jericho. “Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector.” Tax collectors were those who collected tolls and taxes. Jericho was a center for the export of balsam, which was sold throughout the whole world, and a hub of communication between Judea, Perea, and Egypt. This Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector because he was the supervisor of those collectors. “And he was rich and sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd.” Because of the great press of people, walking along with the crowd for some time, Zacchaeus was unable to see Christ, “because he was small in stature.” He was short. “And running ahead,” that is, running forward, “he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was about to pass that way.” The sycamore was a tree with low branches extending parallel to the ground, having leaves like a mulberry and fruit like a fig. Therefore, it was easy to climb. He runs and climbs it, because Christ was going to pass near it.

The Ten Lepers (Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos)

The Ten Lepers

Luke 17:12-19

By Archimandrite Joel Yiannakopoulos

We have seen that Christ withdrew from Jerusalem after the raising of Lazarus, in order to avoid the envy of the Pharisees. He went to Ephraim, near Bethel. From there He proceeded farther north and came to the borders of Samaria and Galilee. From there He intended to return to Jerusalem by way of Perea. As Luke says: “It came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.”

Thus the Lord, intending to go up to Jerusalem to be crucified, found Himself on the borders of Samaria and Galilee.

There, “as Jesus entered a certain village, ten leprous men met Him, who stood afar off.” They remained at a distance, for such was required by the tradition. Since they were far away, “they lifted up their voices and cried out, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us'.”

As lepers, legally unclean, they lived outside the cities. Yet instead of crying out, as they were required, “Unclean, unclean,” they cried out asking to be cleansed from their leprosy and healed by Jesus.