Have you ever struggled to understand how the people and events of the Old Testament
relate to us today?
Have you ever felt discouraged, doubtful that God is actually at work in your life?
Have you ever wondered if your *idea* of God matches up with who God *actually* is?
Hey everybody this is Steve and God has shown His face to us.
In this week's Gospel, Philip leads Nathanael to the Messiah.
And in this week's Epistle, Paul remembers the prophets who received the promise of salvation.
Links, as always, are down in the doobley-doo.
And remember to check out the intro videos we made for both John's Gospel account and
Paul's epistle, to help you better understand the readings.
This is it.
We've made it to Great Lent and we're here at the very first Sunday of the Fast, which
is dedicated to the Triumph of Orthodoxy.
It's a day that celebrates the end of iconoclasm.
Iconoclasm, which literally means the destruction or breaking of images, was a period in Church
history when people tried to stamp out icons and end their use in the Church.
After centuries of persecution, when countless icons were destroyed and countless saints
were persecuted (and even killed) for standing up to the truth, the Church finally restored
the use of icons.
This happened on the first Sunday of Great Lent in 843, and we've been remembering this
Triumph of Orthodoxy on the first Sunday of Lent ever since.
But if you've read the Gospel and Epistle for the week, you probably have the same question
I did:
What exactly do these readings have to do with icons, or Orthodoxy?
That's a natural question because of a slight misunderstanding about the day.
The Triumph of Orthodoxy isn't merely about icons or the Faith in an abstract sense.
It's about honoring the saints who suffered and died for the Truth rather than sacrifice
it or submit to pressure and persecution.
And this actually builds on the original meaning of the first Sunday of Lent.
Because, before people fought to remove icons, and before the Church finally restored them,
the first Sunday of Lent was dedicated to Moses, and Aaron, and Samuel, and all the
prophets of the Old Testament.
Which makes sense because, if you look at the readings, they have a lot to the prophets.
That's obvious in the Epistle, where Paul recites a long list of prophets and their
great deeds:
"For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel
and the prophets -- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises..."
(Hebrews 11:32-33)
You might recognize this reading from episode 14, where we explored what exactly it meant
for the promise which the prophets received to be fulfilled in us.
We saw the way that God offered his promise to our ancestors, and the way that promise
is fulfilled in us.
The way past, present, and future are connected in Christ.
But the Gospel reading is Philip bringing Nathanael to see Christ.
We don't see any reference to prophets there.
Or do we?
At the very end of the passage Nathanael, who was sceptical about Jesus at first, becomes
convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one, the one who has come to save Israel.
He's convinced of this because Jesus tells Nathanael that He saw him, in a mysterious
way, while he was still under the fig tree.
It seems that whatever was going on beneath that fig tree was known only to Jesus and
Nathanael, and this is enough to blow Nathanael's mind.
And Jesus tells Nathanael, if you think *that's* impressive, just wait and see what's to come.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of man."
(John 1:51)
If you've ever read the Book of Genesis, you might recognize the reference to an important
moment in the life of Jacob.
Jacob is the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, one of the patriarchs of the Old
Testament.
Except Jacob really wasn't supposed to be a patriarch.
His older brother, Esau, was technically the one who was supposed to receive that inheritance.
But Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, into blessing him.
Which caused Esau to get very, very angry.
And caused Jacob to run away.
While he was on the run, he spent the night in an isolated place.
And, in a dream, he saw a great ladder.
The bottom rested on the earth, and the top reached all the way to heaven.
Jacob saw angels ascending and descending the ladder.
And by the ladder, he saw the Lord, who told him this:
"I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you
lie I will give to you and to your offspring... and all the families of the earth shall be
blessed in you and in your offspring."
(Genesis 28:13-14)
Jacob was comforted and inspired by this vision.
And he made a vow, to return to his father's house and be reconciled with his brother;
and to worship the Lord.
"If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread
to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then
the Lord shall be my God..."
(Genesis 28:20-21)
Years later, Jacob finally encountered his brother.
And it was a terrifying moment.
Remember, Jacob tricked his father and basically stole his brother's inheritance.
His brother had every reason to want revenge.
By finally meeting his brother, Jacob was putting his life in his brother's hands.
He was potentially walking into a trap and certain death.
Yet the night before this meeting, something incredible happens.
Jacob was alone, yet the Scripture says that, all of a sudden, he found himself wrestling
a mysterious man until the sun rose.
Jacob had the upper hand.
He was winning.
And he wouldn't let go until the mysterious person blessed him.
But first, the mystery man did something, well, mysterious.
He gave Jacob a new name.
"You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and
with humans, and have prevailed."
(Genesis 32:28)
And when Jacob asked for the man's name, he wouldn't give it.
He simply offered Jacob His blessing.
Jacob seems to have realized something after he received the blessing, because marveled
at this, and named the place where they wrestled Peniel, "For I have seen God face to face,
and yet my life is preserved."
(Genesis 28:30)
But before Jacob has time to collect himself, he looks up and he sees his brother approaching
with 400 men.
Jacob, remember, is all alone.
And his brother, Esau, is armed.
And very, very mad.
So Jacob walks out to meet Esau.
And he bows down 7 times.
He humbly prostrates himself 7 times before the brother he wronged.
What happened next was completely unexpected.
"But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they
wept."
(Genesis 33:4)
This sounds a lot like the Parable of the Prodigal Son, doesn't it?
Just like we saw in episode 20, a confrontation that could have easily ended in judgment instead
became a moment of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Jacob, despite his sin, despite the ways he had wronged his brother, wrestled with God
until daybreak.
He humbled himself in the wilderness.
He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him.
The Lord came to him.
And Jacob looked upon the face of the Lord and lived.
Just like Nathanael, who had been seeking the Messiah his entire life, who was prepared
to be disappointed (because there's no way the poor son of a Nazarene carpenter could
be the one promised by God).
Nathanael, too, looked upon the face of the Lord.
And it was promised to him that he would see what Jacob had seen--the union of heaven and
earth.
While he started a skeptic, he ended up confessing the truth about Jesus, the truth that is the
foundation of the New Israel:
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God!
You are the King of Israel!"
(John 1:49)
Nathanael looked upon the face of the Lord and lived.
Paul gives us a long list of prophets who received a promise, that they would see the
Lord.
And they endured great suffering for the sake of this promise.
Though they didn't live long enough to see it fulfilled.
Yet that promise is fulfilled in us.
Because we have looked upon the face of the Lord and lived.
The promise of the Lord is that He would unite heaven and earth as if by a ladder.
That He would give us new life just as he gave Jacob a new name.
The promise of the Lord is that He, though God.
Though invisible.
Though completely transcendent and beyond us.
That He would take on flesh, and become one of us.
The promise of the Lord is that He would become one of us so that we could be like Him: sons
and daughters of the Most High God.
The promise of the Lord is that He, though He was beyond even spirit, would become like
us.
With hands we could hold.
With a heart that could break for us.
With blood He could spill for us.
With a face we could look upon.
So that we could live.
So, on the first Sunday of Lent, where we once celebrated the prophets of the Old Testament,
who suffered for a promise they didn't get to see fulfilled.
Today we celebrate all the saints who sacrificed and gave their lives for the sake of the Lord
and the Good News He brought us.
For the Good News of our salvation.
And that's why there's no better time than this first Sunday of Lent, when we celebrate
these great saints and prophets, to venerate the icons that embody so much of this Good
News.
Because the invisible God has become visible.
The God that was beyond even spirit has taken on flesh.
The transcendent Son of God has remained true God of true God yet also become the true human
being.
We look upon icons because we can now look upon the Lord.
We reach out and touch icons because we can now reach out and touch the Lord.
We can even kiss icons because we can now kiss the Lord, who humbled Himself so He could
embrace us with His resurrected body and lift us into His Kingdom.
This is the Good News that the saints struggled and died for.
This is the Good News we will be preparing to celebrate as Great Lent makes way for the
Lord's crucifixion and glorious resurrection.
We've covered a lot of ground today.
And to help work through what this all means for each us, we'll end as we always do on
Live the Word: with 3 questions.
First, how does God's promise of salvation give you hope?
The prophets endured great suffering for the sake of the promise, trusting in God's goodness.
What are you enduring in hopes that you too will see the face of the Lord?
Maybe you're in chronic pain, physical or emotional.
Maybe you've just lost a job or a relationship or a loved one.
How does God's promise give you hope in the face of such suffering?
Second, how have you wrestled with God?
Have you had doubts that you've brought before Him in prayer?
Have you held onto Him and begged for His blessing in times of trouble?
Jacob walks away from the encounter limping for the rest of his life: what about you?
Are you finding yourself walking away from God somehow feeling weaker than before?
Third, how has God caught you off your guard?
Nathanael was taken off guard by the reality of God's self-revelation in Christ.
What's been your mental image of God, and how has He radically transformed that image
by encountering you; person to person, face to face?
We'll be back with a new episode on Monday.
And my buddy Christian will have a short response video up on Thursday as he wrestles with these
questions.
I hope you'll read the Gospels and Epistle passages we covered today.
And, whether it's with family or friends or a Bible Study group, I hope you'll talk about
what we've covered and wrestle with what God has for you, in your life.
Most importantly, I hope you'll celebrate with us this Sunday and every Sunday, to hear
the beautiful Scripture readings proclaimed during the Divine Liturgy and to learn how
you can Live the Word.
Thanks for watching.
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