Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. It's so nice that you've moved
up. There's not this big moat between me and
the congregation, but we're here together worshiping.
When we look at a Gospel reading, One of the
accounts we hear in church or read at home, today's
story in particular, we might say, oh, how nice.
Jesus healed a blind man. He's God, so he can
do that. End of the story, and we go on. But,
of course, that's not all that's happening here.
This is very profound, which is why we have it
now after theophany and before we start to prepare
ourselves for Lent. Just before the account that
the deacon chanted so beautifully, we read this
from Luke chapter 18. And taking the twelve,
when St. Luke says the twelve, you know what
that means. That's the twelve disciples. And
taking the twelve, he said to them, Behold, we're
going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is
written about the Son of Man by the prophets
will be accomplished. For he will be delivered,
he's speaking of himself, he will be delivered
over to the Gentiles, that is the Romans, and
will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit
upon. And after flogging him, they will kill
him. And on the third day he will arise. But
the twelve understood none of these things. The
saying was hidden from them, says St. Luke. And
they did not grasp what was said. St. Luke is
very clear. They didn't understand it, the saying
was hidden, and they could not grasp it. Jesus
is on the way, he's on the road. The way of the
cross, this is Luke 18. He's going up to Jerusalem.
He's in Jericho, 900 feet below sea level, Jerusalem
some 2 ,000 feet above. He is on his way. This
is just this gospel you heard today. It happens
just a few days before the raising of Lazarus,
which is depicted here on this west wall of the
choir, and then the meeting of Zacchaeus, which
is up here. One has to believe that the sufferings
to come were very much on Jesus' mind. So you
see, the church is preparing us already, not
so long now, for Lent, which begins on February
23rd. We'll have our Vespers of Forgiveness on
Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy on the 22nd,
if I have my dates correct. We'll have lunch.
We'll come back here for the vespers with the
rite of the ceremony of mutual forgiveness and
hear those wonderful hymns. Let us set out upon
the sea of the fast, as one says. So with this
account, this miracle, we should ask ourselves
a question about prayer as we look at this gospel.
It goes on to say, and as Jesus drew near to
Jericho with a huge contingent of people following
him, a blind man was sitting by the wayside begging.
And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what
it meant. And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth
is passing by. And he cried out saying, Jesus,
son of David, not Jesus, son of Nazareth. He
went straight for the one who could save him.
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Right
away, immediately the man began to shout, Jesus,
son of David, have mercy on me. For we know this
is the only name, it says in Acts, under heaven
given among mortals by which we must and can
be saved. And the man suffers all kinds of resistance
and pushback. People were telling him to be quiet.
Get back. Jesus doesn't want to see your dirty
body. You're embarrassing us and whatever else.
Shut up, basically. Stop yelling. I wonder, did
these people think that this man must be blind
and begging and poor because he was such a sinner?
That was probably in their head. But in his desire,
in his persistence, in his need, the blind beggar
takes the moment. He grabs hold of the moment.
He shouts out for mercy, and according to the
gospel, he is shouting out persistently and repeatedly.
He is grabbing that moment with all his force,
like Jacob wrestling the angel, which is Christ,
there in Genesis, wrestling and grasping the
Lord for his own. And Luke says very specifically,
Jesus standing still. Jesus stopped. He was standing
absolutely still. He's passing by, yes. But the
prayer causes him to stand still. This is a great
lesson for us. He's no longer passing by. Time
suddenly stands still, as surely as Joshua's
son. Maybe you know that story. You know, we
can traverse all kinds of distance with cars
and airplanes and our feet, but time is absolute
in this life. And it is extremely precious because
of that. I'd like to have a quarter. I used to
say a nickel, but inflation. I'd like to have
a quarter. For all the times I've let Jesus pass
me by in this life, I would be rich. But rich
in this world only. This man who gives this prayer,
this blind man, he is essentially saying what
we now say, the Jesus prayer. That we can cultivate
In the heart. It's the prayer of the one who
knows he is blind. For me, spiritually. But knows
there is also a light. A light has dawned, as
we heard last week. In the place, the region,
and darkness. The region of death. It's dawned.
It's coming. It's there. This man has persistence.
And then, after that persistence, comes the hope
from that desire. And the prayer to have that
light. That vision of Jesus Christ in the heart.
I'm speaking of us now. None of us here are blind.
Except perhaps spiritually. But how blind? The
vision of Christ in the heart. My dear brothers
and sisters, this is what Pascha is all about.
The risen Christ in the heart. To see that light.
to know that light, to have the kingdom of heaven
there in the heart, God's dominion, God's throne,
his rule, his peace, his love, his mercy, his
dominion, the kingdom of God is at hand. It's
a strange way to say it, but it means I can grasp
it then. This prayer that the blind man says,
which we now use as the Jesus prayer, is yes,
to see that light, but first, We have to see
our own sins. And to be able to say with St.
Paul, without a sense of debilitating psychotic
guilt, that I am the chief among sinners. Then,
being at hand, we can grasp Christ too. Like
Joshua, like this blind man. And he will stop
before us. But we have to pray. We have to notice
when he is there. He can come. Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. And we've got other noise
going, so we don't hear the knock. And then the
Lord maybe passes by for a while, so we do not
feel that he is with us. It's an amazing thing
that this man is teaching us about the importance
of persistence in prayer. To see this one thing
first. We do. We should. We must. We must pray
for many things. Think of the litanies the deacons
are praying. The many petitions that they chant.
All the things that we pray for. But how does
it start? In peace, let us pray to the Lord.
For the peace from above and for the salvation
of our souls, let us pray to the Lord. For the
peace of the whole world and for the salvation
of all, let us pray to the Lord. That's the first
thing we pray for before everything else. Because
you might be healed of whatever ailment you have,
but if you do not have that peace, what do you
have when you depart this life? You don't even
have peace. The recovery of your body because
it's going to die. It's the peace from above.
And this prayer, the Jesus prayer, is not something
we just repeat over and over and over again,
vainly. No, each one counts. Each one means something.
Each one, we're trying, we're yelling to the
Lord, stop, Lord, let me see. It shows our true
desire to not be discouraged. which you will
be, which we will be, I can guarantee, because
I'm there often, the difficulties of life, the
difficulties of the day, the hopelessness. If
you are new to the faith, full of zeal and desire
to know God, to serve God, to want the light
of God, to love him and your neighbor, to pray
and to worship, if you're new to the church,
Or perhaps, like me, you've grown up in the church
and you take things for granted. I promise you
there will come two sorts of resistance. The
first from inside you. Thoughts, difficulties,
this is too hard, temptations, anxieties, laziness.
And outside of you, like this man, experience
the noise, the distractions, the people telling
you this is stupid, the people telling you it's
false, it's narrow -minded, it's to this, it's
to that. When the blind man receives his sight
after his persistence, so keep your persistence
in prayer, no matter what. This is how we show
our love for God. This is how we acquire that
peace that St. Seraphim is telling us. He tells
us, you know, every time we walk in this church,
read that. He's talking to you and to me. He's
saying, don't forget, acquire the spirit of peace.
Acquire the spirit of peace. Acquire, yell like
this blind man with all your heart. Because time
is going. It's going away. And when the blind
man receives his sight, the first thing he sees
is what? It's Jesus, his Lord, his creator, his
savior, his creator. And the first thing he does,
and I would say the miracle of this story, despite
the noise against him and despite how long he
had been poor, begging, and blind, the first
thing he does, he follows Jesus. That's what
it says in the text. He follows Jesus. Immediately,
where is Jesus going? He's going to the cross.
But before Jesus continues on that dusty road
out of Jericho, I'm assuming some of you have
been there. There's a large banner. There was
when I went in 2009 over the city. It says, the
oldest city in the world. You could tell by the...
and the public restrooms. Before he follows Jesus,
but before Jesus continues on that dusty road
out of Jericho, he will look up into a tree,
happens to be a sycamore tree, and there's a
short little man up there, a notorious man, Zacchaeus
by name, up in that sycamore tree. We'll talk
about him next week. Now to the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise,
be honor and glory, now and ever and unto ages
of ages. Amen.