Truly great are You, Lord Jesus Christ. Mighty are You- so mighty that you need not show strength. Indeed, You are strong enough that you have dared to bear even weakness, and the greatest weakness: the cross.
But was it in fact your cross? Was it not our cross, our weakness – our inability to be strong, to triumph over sin and even death? That, and our inability to bear up to our own inability and to stand before God as the sinners we had become. Yes, it was these things, as You knew full well.
But You were able to stand before the Father, for You are always with Him– indeed it was You Yourself who said to us, that you are in the Father and He in you. Therefore you, desiring that we might stand with you, came to stand among us.
“Father, let me stand in mortal flesh. I will show them strength and integrity of heart. I myself shall heal their wounds. I myself will teach them what love is.”
“They have not listened, my Son. How often would we have gathered them, but they would have it not. Even if you also were to go, they would not bear your word, for our Truth is not in them.”
“Yet still will I go. If they will not have me then they shall have to kill me. I will not stop them, nor stay their wrath against me. But let me go to them. Then they themselves shall decide how it will be for them.”
“You are in truth my Son, my very Word. You have been with in the beginning, you in me and I in you. Now you shall show them love. Go, my Word, and be my word to them.”
And the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin. And she conceived and bore a son. And he is called Emmanuel.
But while the light shone in the darkness, the darkness did not understand it.
We have brought it to a conclusion. We have judged ourselves in that we have condemned the Just One. Who now will set us free from our wickedness?
But wait. What is this light, this sound, this fury hidden even now in the Depths? A light within the Pit, the place of death. There is no light there, nor glory, only the conclusion of our wickedness and sins.
But he has come. Embracing first out humanity, he has also embraced our destiny. Now a man rent spirit from flesh, His Body lies in the tomb. For we rejected Him and have slain Him. But not even then did He condemn.
Rather, he came to the Pit, to that place from which no one returns. He says, “All who will have my love, each of you can now go free.” And the bodies of many righteous persons lying in their tombs arose.
The Pit is there. It has always claimed and will always claim those who prefer not to love, those who do not dare to be weak and receive mercy.
But He is also there. Even were each of us to descend into the Pit, even there would He find us, because he has borne our weakness. He has suffered our death.
Death is not able to end His story. If we dare to be weak before Him and to suffer with Him, it will not end ours.
And the righteous ones, risen from the dead, are waiting in their tombs for Him to rise again. When He does, we shall proclaim Him.
Maranatha!
(Image: a traditional Serbian Orthodox icon of the Resurrection)
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