A Homily for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost and the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils
This morning we heard in the Gospel of Matthew about two blind men who came to our Lord for healing. He had them come into the house, and by their faith, healed them there (Matt. 9:27-30).
An ancient Christian bishop (St. Remigius, 5th century) commented on this passage stating the two blind men represent the Jews and the Gentiles, the house in which they are healed is the Church. The two peoples are joined and healed together in the one House of God.
St. Paul writes of this when he states,
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation… so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity (Eph. 2:14-16).
We see here that God’s plan of salvation is to make all of humanity into one Christian people, being healed of sin, disease, and death by our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is how traditional Christians have believed for 2,000 years. Yet there is a movement among today’s Christians, especially here in America, to think of the Jews and Christians as being two separate people of God. This theological movement, often called Dispensationalism, views the Church as a temporary ‘Plan B’. In the eschatology (end times) of this movement, the Jews inherit the earth while the Gentile Christians go to heaven.
To that, I would quote from St. Paul, whom we heard this morning, “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines” (Heb. 13:9). After all, the most important promises made to Abraham and the Hebrew people concerned the coming Messiah, who is our Lord Jesus, the Son of God. The promises about land were secondary, and they were entirely contingent upon the Jewish people remaining faithful to God by following the Law, loving and caring for their neighbors, taking care of the poor, the orphans, and the widows.
The Church Fathers spiritualized the promises about inheriting the land, pointing to the Kingdom of God as our inheritance. They looked to our Lord, who said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land” – (Matt. 5:5) and to St. Paul, whom proclaimed, “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come” (Heb. 13:14).
My brothers and sisters, we must not forget that the purpose of our Lord’s Incarnation, the Cross, the Ascension, and the Resurrection was to unite the entire human race into one Body, His Body, the Church. St. John the Forerunner warned us all,
bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Luke 3:7-9).
We see that God is looking for spiritual fruit from us, not genetics or heredity. He seeks a heart changed by repentance and filled with faith. When standing before God, the Jews will not be able to claim lineage with Abraham, and Christians will not be able to claim church membership for salvation.
Both Jews and Gentiles alike will stand before God and must display fruits of repentance and faith in order to be saved. We are all in this together, being judged according to the same standard – no matter our ancestry or church membership. And all the faithful will inherit the blessedness of the Kingdom of Heaven together.
Let’s remember again the Gospel reading this morning of the two blind men, healed by faith while standing in the one House of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes, God “will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom. 3:30). So no matter what, we are called to faith.
A New Unified Israel
The Church Fathers and the hymns of the Orthodox Church occasionally refer to the Church as the New Jerusalem and Israel [see End Notes for more]. Here we are echoing St. Paul, “They are not all Israel who are of Israel” (Rom. 9:6). This is a bold claim. Of his Jewish brethren living in Israel he says they are not all Israel unless they have faith in their Messiah. Because faith, not genetics, makes us Israel.
A little later he writes, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Rom. 10:12-13).
And a little further, he reminds us, “we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:5). There is one Body – the Church – not two bodies.
On this Sunday in which we remember the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils, along with the blind men who were healed by faith, I think it is good for us to not be trapped by the theological errors of today, though popular and influential they may be.
In ancient times, Arius, Macedonius, and other heretics were spiritually blind, distorting the truth about who Christ and His Church are. The Holy Fathers, on the other hand, are celebrated because they – like Christ healing the blind men – restored the clear vision of the Church. A clear vision is important because it enables us to know who God is, what His Church is, and how to live a life of faith that is pleasing to God.
Of course, this is not the first time the Church has wrestled with the question of “Who is Israel, and how does that relate to the Church?” Much of St. Paul’s epistles to the Romans and Galatians were written to address this very issue.
I’ll give the final word on this issue to St. Paul, who wrote,
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29).
Practical Implications
Before closing, I would like to ask a practical question: what then do we do about this belief that we are all one Body?
First, we must remember that we will stand or fall before God due to our repentance and faith. Are we truly struggling against our sin, or are we playing games with God? Do we place our faith in God, or in our politicians, celebrities, or our ego?
We will all be ultimately responsible for one person at the Great and Terrible Day of Judgment, and that person is ourselves. So we must work on removing the beam from our own eye through repentance before we think we can help our neighbor.
Secondly, there is no excuse for any hatred toward any human being or race. We are all called to be one people, and we will be united in heaven to one another. If you harbor a grudge or hatred in your heart toward any person or any group of people, how can you possibly be united to them in the End?
That is why our Lord repeatedly emphasizes the importance of forgiving one another to receive God’s forgiveness. Heaven is union with God and one another. But if we hate anyone – for any reason, justifiable or not by human standards – then we exclude ourselves from the heavenly Kingdom.
May our Lord guide us in repentance, forgiveness, faith, and love.
End Notes:
Church Hymns about the Church as Israel:
The assembly of the Jews asked Pilate to crucify Thee, O Lord… but grant, O Lord, that the New Israel, which is the Church redeemed from among the nations, may glorify Thee forever (Matins for Holy Thursday, 12 Passion Gospels).
Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has shone upon thee! Exalt and be glad, O Zion… ” (From Pascha, Pentecostarion, & the Divine Liturgy priest prayers)
The Church Fathers explicitly interpret “New Jerusalem” and “Zion” here not as a geopolitical plot of land, but as the Church of Christ populated by the resurrected Body. We do not just think this way; we sing this way. Every time we sing during Holy Week that the Church is the ‘New Israel’, or every time we cry out in the joy of Pascha, ‘Shine, shine O New Jerusalem,’ we are proclaiming exactly what the Holy Fathers taught: that Christ did not build two separate houses, but one beautiful House where both Jew and Gentile are cured of their spiritual blindness.
Featured image courtesy of Getty Museum. All rights reserved.