Forgive me a Sinner
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
For most of us, this morning’s gospel lesson is really, really confusing.
That passage comes from St. Mark. At the conclusion of the passage, the apostles are arguing about which of them is the most important. Christ Jesus breaks up the argument and He tells the apostles that whoever wants to the greatest must be the servant of all.
But earlier in the passage, St. James and St. John approach our Lord and Master and they ask Him if they can sit at His right hand and at His left hand in the Kingdom of God. Now, you’d think that Christ Jesus would have said something like this to St. James and St’ John: “Guys, you don’t understand. We don’t have those kinds of distinctions in the Kingdom of God because we are all servants.”
But that’s not what our Lord and Master says. What Christ Jesus says to St. James and St. John is this: “I’m sorry, guys, but those seats are taken.” And we actually know who it is that is sitting at the right hand and the left hand of our Lord and Master. The Most Holy Theotokos is on His right. St, John the Forerunner is on His left. We see that on our iconostasis. But how do we square that with what Christ Jesus says later in this same passage? How can we all be servants and, at the same time, have these positions of prominence and authority and power?
What Christ Jesus is describing for us in this passage is the way hierarchy functions. And that’s why most of us find all this so very confusing. Because we’ve been taught that hierarchy is a bad thing and a lot of us have had experiences which confirm that perspective: Because when folks occupy positions of prominence and authority and power, they often get really, really full of themselves and they often end up abusing those positions.
So, hierarchy can definitely be a bad thing, but it’s not necessarily that way. After all, Christ Jesus clearly states that there is a definite hierarchy in the Kingdom of God, but this structure is not based on privilege. It’s based on service. And we need to understand this structure, because it is based on the way things work in that Divine Community that we call the Most Holy Trinity.
For example, the word that we use to describe God the Father is unoriginated. That’s because the Father is the source, or origin, of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The Son is begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, so there is a hierarchy within the Most Holy Trinity. However, God the Father is not greater than or more important than the Son and the Spirit. In fact, all three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity give Themselves ceaselessly to each Other. They serve One Another without holding anything back.
So this hierarchy of service is not a human arrangement. It’s not a political configuration. It’s how things work at the very center of all reality—and we find that same structure throughout the spiritual world.
Just think about the bodiless powers. The Seraphim and the Cherubim are closer to the Most Holy Trinity than all the other angelic orders, but that doesn’t mean they are somehow more important. What it means is that they work harder to support and nurture all the other angels. They serve without holding anything back.
And the communion of the saints is structured in the very same way. We’ve already mentioned the fact that the Most Holy Theotokos and St. John the Forerunner are at the right hand and the left hand of Christ Jesus. But those positions of honor only give them more opportunities for service. Those places of respect simply make it possible for them to serve without holding anything back.
So there’s this vast hierarchy of service that begins with the Divine Community of the Most Holy Trinity and extends through all the angelic orders and the entire communion of saints. But, we are also part of this structure. The angels and the saints are closer to the Most Holy Trinity than we are, but that doesn’t make them better than us or more important than us. What it means is that the angels and the saints serve us. They work with us to get us closer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and they don’t hold anything back.
Now, at this point, there are a couple of questions floating through most of our minds. Some of us are thinking, “OK, there are angels and saints between us and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But I always thought we had direct access to the Most Holy Trinity. In fact, the more I think about it, I don’t like the idea of anyone or anything coming between me and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
That’s one question a lot of us are kicking around. Here’s the other question: “OK, all this is interesting, but this week, we’re finishing up Great Lent and on Saturday we’re going to begin Holy Week. So what does all this talk about hierarchy and service have to do with the end of Great Lent and the beginning of Pascha?”
Those are both important questions and we can actually answer them together. The idea that there should not be anyone or anything between us and the Most Holy Trinity is one of the original Protestant teachings, but, nowadays, a lot of American Roman Catholics feel pretty much the same way. And, spiritually speaking, it’s just a very immature perspective. The insistence that we can somehow do it all ourselves, that we can approach the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit without any help from anyone is the kind of stubbornness that a five year old displays when she doesn’t want mom or dad to run alongside her bike.
And this is precisely why it’s so important that we talk about all this as we are wrapping up Great Lent—especially, this year. Because the truth is, whatever spiritual progress we’ve made over the past forty days is only because the angels have been running right alongside us. It’s only because the saints have been keeping us steady with their intercessions. It’s only because everyone in that vast hierarchy of the kingdom has been serving us and not holding anything back.
And all of those great and holy servants, all of those wondrous saints who shine like stars in the kingdom, all of those angels and principalities and powers in the hosts of heaven, all of them, each and every one of them, are also going to be with us at Pascha. At this point, it looks like only the clergy and a few chanters will be present in the nave. But even if we are standing in our living rooms with our family, even if we are sitting alone before our icon corner, our celebration will still be vast. It will be cosmic and that’s not because we will have access to a streaming service on a phone or a computer. It will be because we are part of a feast that flows all the way up and down the hierarchy of the kingdom and all the way through that Divine Community that we call the Most Holy Trinity.
Mothers and Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, that’s a celebration that we don’t want to miss. So as we rise and turn to our Typika, let us thank the angels and the saints whose service has brought us this far. And let’s look forward to that glorious night, two weeks from now. Because, wherever we may be, we can join with that entire hierarchy of service that we call the Kingdom of God and we can, with one mouth and one heart, praise and glorify the all honorable and majestic Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.