On Holy Friday, you meditated on the cross, that is, suffering for a greater purpose. You looked at the crosses in your life along side the Cross of Christ. You heard Christ’s challenging invitation, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
The Cross on Friday is quite different from the Cross on Sunday. For one thing, there is no body on the cross. He who was Crucified has come out victorious over the Cross. For another, the Cross has proven not to be an end in itself, but rather, a path to the greater good, and the Victory.
The invite we have received from Jesus has always been after the Resurrection. The only Cross we have known is the conquered Cross. Feel the weight of the crosses in your life today. If they feel lighter and manageable, you have found the balance of Armodoxy.
O Christ, protect and guard me under the shadow of your Holy Cross in peace. Deliver me from enemies visible and invisible. I will glorify you along with the Father and Holy Spirit. Amen.
And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last.
Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
This centurion, who was a commander in the Roman army, makes a proclamation about Jesus based on the sensational events surrounding the last minutes in our Lord’s life on earth.
At some point in your life, you arrive at a conclusion about Jesus. This day after Easter, after you have heard so much about Jesus and the Resurrection, is a day of contemplation and reflection, to arrive at your own proclamation about Jesus.
https://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/P1030309-scaled-e1711947284460.jpg10791715Vazken Movsesianhttps://epostle.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/final_logo_large_for_epostle_web-300x189.pngVazken Movsesian2024-04-01 00:01:272024-03-31 21:56:30Overheard Last Week
Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! (Luke 24)
There you have it! He is not here! He has risen!
Your fifty-day journey comes to a head with this news. He has risen.
Fifty days! Count them: You had one-day of introduction – boon barekentan, forty-days of Lent, and nine-days from the end of Lent to today, Easter Sunday. Fifty-days of twists and turns, spiritual questioning and, hopefully, encounters with God. You have arrived at this day, born anew and born from above, ready to take on life with love and the passion that God has put inside of you. The Resurrection of Christ is your invitation to the Resurrection in your life.
Congratulations! You have just learned the secret of Armodoxy. It’s the foundation of faith for a people who have survived and thrived despite not having military weaponry and or aggressive inklings for world domination. You have experienced the formula for life, that behind Crucifixion there is Resurrection.
The answer to today’s question – the last question in this series – can only be answered by you, and you alone: Why do you seek the living among the dead?
Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.– John 19:41
If you’ve ever lost someone close to you, you know that there is a period following that loss when it still hasn’t sunk in that you will no longer see this person. You start replaying the last few days in your head, remembering some of the last things that were spoken.
On this Saturday, the disciples and friends of Jesus were in shock. The events of the last week were surreal. On Sunday Jesus enters into Jerusalem as a “king” with the approval and praise of thousands of people. Five days later he’s abandoned. He was executed as a common criminal for the crime of… spreading love and harmony as the path to God. It must have been so confusing for his followers, as it is to us, two-thousand years later.
The Hope had died in their witness.
Those at the foot of the Cross, surely remembered the haunting last words of Jesus.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Even after being barbarically beaten and left to die, He forgives.
I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. Even in His agony His love was directed to others.
Woman, behold your son! The Blessed Mother must have reflected on the 33 years of miracles and amazement, and now it had come to an end.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus taught us to rely on our Heavenly Father, and now, in His hour of need, had God forgotten him?
I thirst. The One who offered living waters that would satisfy any thirst, was now exclaiming his thirst.
It is finished. There was a purpose for all that happened.
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit!
On this Holy Saturday, on the road to Resurrection, the question that comes to us, a question which you, and you alone, can answer: Not knowing what tomorrow brings, what is your take-away from all that happened over these past few days, the days we call Holy Week?
Each day of Holy Week, on the road to Resurrection, we have been confronted by a question which only you, and you alone, can answer. On this Holy Friday, we come up against the Cross, which in itself is an enigma. It is an instrument of torture. It is the instrument upon which the Son of God, was tortured and killed and yet, within our faith, it is the symbol of Christianity, and therefore the symbol of love.
Within the course of one night, Jesus was accused, stood trial on false charges, was taken back and forth between the chief priests, the councils, the Jewish king and the Roman procurator and was sentenced to death. The means of death was crucifixion – a slow, painfully agonizing means of torture by which an individual hangs from nails through his hands and feet while he suffocates to death over the course of a few hours. Meanwhile, crowds gather to watch the spectacle, mock and chastise him. All four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record this event in their Gospels, with graphic detail.
Jesus willingly accepts the path of the Cross, because it is there that He sacrifices for the salvation of the world. In so doing, Jesus transforms that cross from an instrument of torture to an means of salvation, just as he transforms the reality of the day, from a truly Bad and Evil Friday to “Good Friday.”
During His ministry, Jesus calls on us and challenges us, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
As we stand before the Cross of Christ, on this Good Friday, let us listen to the words of our Lord carefully. Let us absorb the events of this day. The question on this Friday, on the Road to Resurrection asks, “Are you picking up your cross and following Him?”
Each day of Holy Week, on the road to Resurrection, we are presented with a question which only you, and you alone, can answer.
During the Last Supper, Jesus speaks openly to his beloved and seated disciples.
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15)
Jesus tells his disciples that by love they will be identified as his followers, that is, Christianity is defined by love. Love begins with God and is expressed through sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice being the offering of life, the greatest of all the gifts of God.
Following the Supper, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me, nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
It is there that a mob arrives, led by one of the 12 disciples named Judas Iscariot. Judas kisses the Lord to betray him to the mob. Jesus is captured as a common criminal, then taken before the religious elite to stand trial for conjured-up charges. The passion, that is the suffering of the Lord, continues through the night. From mock trials to the religious leaders, to the government officials, He is humiliated, beaten, mocked, and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
From the point of his arrest to the sentencing, Jesus has been abandoned by all of his friends and followers. One of his friends betrayed him (with a kiss) while another, Peter, denied him three times, when asked if he knew Jesus. Yet all the while, Jesus does not abandon anyone – neither his friends, his followers, nor His accusers, nor any one of us, for that matter. He stands as a testament to the power of Love. He accepts the sentence and makes his way to the Cross. It is here that we understand that the Cross, therefore, is the ultimate expression of Love within Armenian Orthodox theology.
The sixth question on this road to the Resurrection, comes in a form first asked to Judas, “Do you betray the Son of God with a kiss?” and then asked of Peter, “Are you with Jesus?” They are one in the same question: Love is what defines us as Christians according to Jesus and He himself, in a gesture of Love is sacrificing his life. Are you with him? Or have you betrayed him? Certainly a very heavy questions for a very heavy night. The night of the Passion of our Lord.
On this Wednesday, the fifth day on the road to Resurrection, we are reminded of our aim, the presence of Christ. In Armodoxy, the Christ Presence is accessible to all. “Let the little children come to me,” says Jesus, “and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) The children, being pure of heart, have access and therefore, the potential for everyone to have access is a given.
Before He was betrayed, before his trial and crucifixion, Jesus ate one last meal with his loved ones. Known as the “Last Supper,” this is where Jesus gave his instruction to disciples. Addressing them by using the same descriptive phrase, “Little children,” Jesus tells them, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13) He placed love as the highest standard for identification as a follower of Christ.
As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26) These words of Institution established the ritual of Communion. It is a sacred and a holy act by which we literally and completely absorb Christ as the energy source by which we live the expression of love. The Christ Presences is not outside of you, but, in the words of Jesus, “Indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17)
Today’s question, Where is the Christ Presence in your life?
Each day of Holy Week, on the road to Resurrection, we are presented with a question which only you, and you alone, can answer.
On Tuesday of Holy Week, the Armenian Church recounts a parable offered by Jesus, known as the “Parable of the 10 Maidens” (Matthew 25). The guests of a wedding celebration are awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. As the sun sets guests are left in the dark. Half of them have come prepared with lanterns filled with oil, while the others have exhausted their resources. Jesus refers to these guests as “foolish” for their lack of preparedness. Jesus says, “The foolish guests said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’” The foolish guests had to leave the gathering in order to purchase more oil. While they were gone, the bridegroom came. The wise guests entered while the foolish ones, as a consequence of their unpreparedness, were left outside of the wedding feast.
The bridegroom alludes to Christ and the celebration is being in Christ’s presence. Preparation for this “feast” is to be wise, that is to always be prepared. Jesus concludes the parable with the words, “because you do not know the day or the hour.”
While yesterday’s question challenged us to look within and identify the change we are looking for, on this fourth day on the road to Resurrection, we are being questioned, Are you ready for the change that comes with the Christ presence?
What is it that you fearthat would make you silence voices of praise? was the second question of this Holy Week. Each day of Holy Week, leading to the Resurrection, presents us with a question which only you, and you alone, can answer.
On Holy Monday, we wash the altar of our church with wine and water. After Jesus came to the Holy City on Palm Sunday, he entered the temple courts, and began to drive out the merchants and moneylenders who were selling and trading in this sacred space. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of thieves.’” (Luke 19)
Jesus is the author of change. When he enters your life, your sacred space, He drives out everything that does not belong there and cleanses what remains.
What is it that does not belong in your life? This then is the third question on the road to Resurrection. With a question that is equally important, Are you ready for this cleansing?
Stones: Palm Sunday (Question 2 of 9 Questions to Resurrection, an Armodox journey through Holy Week)
“Do you believe this?” is the simple question posed to us by Jesus, with which we began Holy Week. Each of the days of Holy Week leading to the Resurrection presents us with a question which only you, and you alone can answer.
On the Sunday before Easter, Scripture tells us that Jesus entered into Jerusalem, humbly, but was quickly elevated by the people to the status of king, a savior who had come to liberate them from the political bonds that enslaved them.
In the Gospel of John (12) we read, “…When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
The religious establishment fearing the possibility of a religious rebellion told Jesus to stifle the crowd – to rebuke them, to which Jesus says, “I tell you that if these [people] should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19)
What is it that you fearthat would make you silence voices of praise? is the second question of this Holy Week.
