My Beloved the Benevolent                            April 2023

Xhristos Anesti           Alisos Anesti

Christ is Risen,         Truly He is Risen.

I am pleased to congratulate you all on the glorious Feast of the Resurrection. Wishing you a blessed feast, to enjoy all the power of the glorious Resurrection.

The Feast of Resurrection is also called the Passover Feast; the word Passover means “passage”. Christ by His resurrection, passed over from death to life in order to pass us from death to life; as the Apostle St. Paul said about His resurrection, “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 2:6, “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” Ephesians 2:5

The passage of death took place through death, just as we praise the risen Christ in the hymns of the praise of the Resurrection, “By death He trampled death and those who are in the tombs were granted the eternal life.”

+Sin is death, because it is separation from God, the source of our life; so, God said to Adam, “for in the day that you eat of this tree, you shall surely die.” Genesis 2: 17 “For the wages of sin is death”. Romans 6:23 Therefore, sin was only abolished by death; not by the death of transgression but by the death of obedience, “Became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8

The first Adam disobeyed God, and he died because of transgression; he was expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Lord God said to him, “For dust you were, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19 and forbade him from eating from the tree of life. As for the second Adam, He died the death of obedience on the cross, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

Christ offered perfect obedience to God the Father on our behalf because we were unable to offer perfect obedience to God due to the corruption of our human nature, as we were under the dominion of death and sin.  Christ’s death on the cross abolished sin, “but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Hebrews 9:26

In the Old Testament, God provided humanity with examples of crossing the death of transgression and servitude with the death of obedience.

The Passover Lamb, i.e. the Lamb of the Cross

The people were under the bitter slavery of Pharaoh just as humanity was under the bondage of Satan.  In order for God to pass the people out of slavery and free them from it by slaughtering the Passover lamb, He commanded them, “And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.” Exodus 12:22

The blood symbolizes death, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed” Genesis 9:6

The presence of the children of Israel inside their homes, and the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, meaning that they are under death, but it is the death of obedience, because God commanded them to do so. 

So the fruit of this obedience is life, “For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your house to strike you” Exodus 12:23.  Certainly, the Lord knew the houses of His people, the Israelites, and did not need to put blood on their houses to distinguish between the homes of the Egyptians and the homes of the Israelites; but putting the blood and staying inside the house is a sign of death of obedience, so they escaped the death of slavery by means of the death of obedience.

Crossing the Red Sea … Crossing the sea is death

For the Israelites, it was a life-giving death, and for Pharaoh and his soldiers, it was a mortal death; the difference being obedience. The Israelites crossed the Red Sea in obedience to God who commanded Moses, “But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” Exodus 14:16 The sea split when Moses obeyed, “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea” Exodus 14:21. When Pharaoh and his soldiers entered to cross the sea, they perished because they entered into disobedience to God, who commanded Pharaoh to release his people. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned” Hebrews 11:29.

My beloved, let us rejoice in our crossing with our risen Christ, by dying and rising with Him with sound faith and full obedience to the commandments of God, who loved us and died for us.

May God bless your offerings to support Santa Verena’s charitable programs and many happy returns.

Metropolitan Serapion