Fr. Evan Armatas: Good morning! As we continue our study in Mark, we are concluding the eighth chapter. We’ve been moving briskly. This is a chapter we’ve been able to get through faster than others. That’s good, because chapter nine’s going to take us a long time, because the Transfiguration is coming.

The last time that we were together, we were going through the confession of faith offered by Peter. I mentioned at the conclusion that I would offer a few remarks on the difference between the account here and that found in Matthew. We know that in Matthew’s account, we have the rather laudatory praise given to Peter, and we don’t find that in Mark. This passage is often used in the West as an argument for the supremacy of Peter and thus the pope. We just need to offer some brief remarks here. Obviously the passage in its context does not give Peter total supremacy. It does recognize Peter’s place of spokesperson; he speaks for the disciples. And it also recognizes that, within the disciples, as we already know, there are various roles. The inner circle is Peter, James, and John. The beloved disciple is John; the betrayer is Judas. They’re not just a nameless group, a faceless group, a group without personality. And Peter, as the Twelve are, is kind of, you know, the guy in charge.

But we also know that Peter did not place himself above the others. How do we know this? In the book of Acts, when the first council is called, who presides? James does. So Peter automatically recognizes the order of the Church in the sense that a bishop in a locality is that bishop who presides and that any bishop must come underneath that bishop’s authority, when entering his area. Nevertheless, this does become for the Roman West sort of the prooftext that Peter is chief.

How does the Orthodox Church respond to the supremacy claims of the West? Well, rather simply. We say we are okay with Peter occupying—and his successor—a place of honor, and we still maintain that, that the bishop of Rome would be the first among equals. If you will, in a gathering of bishops, we would say the greater honor would be given to the successor to Peter, and they would sort of be like, in our common parlance, the chairman of the board—but they still would only have one vote. What we would afford to the bishop of Rome is the right of appeal, which is historical, that when the churches disagreed over something, often an appeal was made to Rome: “What does Rome say?” And Rome would weigh in. That’s about as far as we’d take it. Any questions, and we’ll move on?

All right. The last section in this chapter is verses 31-38, and in this last bit we find Jesus’ first prophecy of his passion. Lois, would you read this last section, verses 31-38, for us?

Lois: Yes.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke his word openly, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but when he turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

When he had called the people to himself with his disciples also, he said to them, “Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes into glory, before his Father with the holy angels.”

Fr. Evan: Thank you. So a couple of notes for you as you look through this is there’s this idea in the first verse that it’s necessary that the Son of Man suffer. I don’t know if “must” is a good translation, because— does the Son of Man have to? No, but it’s necessary.

The other thing we can note is the use of the word psihi, which can mean soul or life; it means both things. Your soul is your life and your life is your soul. But when you speak in the Greek used here—

Q1: Where are you seeing that word?

Fr. Evan: It appears all throughout the passage. It says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” 36. Some translations will have “life” there. Does anybody have “life” there instead of “soul”? You do in your bible, right? How about you, Arlen? Verse 36.

Arlen: Well, yeah, it says “soul,” but on the margin it says “soul, life.”

Fr. Evan: Yeah, so the word psihi means soul or life. And you noted before that I’ve told you that this is a feminine noun, i psihi. So if you think of God the Father, o Patros, that’s masculine. So whether you’re a male or a female, your soul is indicated being feminine. Why? Why does a soul have to be feminine? Yeah, it’s impregnated, it’s activated by the Father. So when we mess with the language, if we say “God, our mother,” there’s a theological problem here. We have to maintain the correct language, and it’s good for you to know that the soul is feminine in the text. So that’s just some notes there in terms of the translation.

Now, in the passage itself, there is kind of a sense where we’ve got to identify what’s happening in terms of we start the passage, and who is Jesus teaching?

Q2: His disciples.

Fr. Evan: Yeah, just the disciples. “And he began to teach them,” and the “them” is the disciples. It says in verse 32, “He spoke this word openly.” Okay, what does that mean? Well, remember, the reality of who Christ is is kind of a secret. This indicates that the openness to who Christ is is going to be connected to his suffering and death. We’ve been talking about this theme all along with Mark. So in verse 32, it’s kind of indicating that. This reality, of who Christ is, can be spoken of openly only when we connect it with the cross.

“But when he had turned around and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying”—because Peter has this problem. “And when he had called”—now in verse 34—“the people”—but the Greek is “the crowd.” So the message of who he is starts with the disciples, and then it moves out to the crowd. I just want you to notice that transition. Any questions so far?

Q2: In this one here it says, “He was stating the matter plainly.” Because I think that in the past, when he talked, they could not understand him. But now he’s doing it very plainly so that they can understand what he’s been talking about.

Fr. Evan: Yeah, you could definitely translate this as plainness. The reality is that who Jesus is has been confusing; they don’t seem to get it. So he’s trying to come straightforward here: This is what’s going on.

Now, we understand by now that this prophecy that we read about at the end of this chapter is the opportunity for Mark to couch the Person of Jesus Christ into his theme. What’s Mark’s theme? True understanding of the Messiah cannot be separated from his suffering, the cross, and the resurrection. We beat this drum several times. At the same time, what happens in here is Peter’s rejection of the idea: what does this represent? It represents really all of us. We can’t accept the reality, the reality of a suffering Messiah. And so, if you will, that reality, when processed by a human understanding, breaks down. How can God die? How can God suffer? And so you reject it: it’s just not possible.

We can also say that such thinking is, as Jesus states, evil, even satanic. Why? Why is it evil? Why is it satanic? Why is what Peter is saying evil? What does it do?

Q1: It’s denying what’s going to happen.

Fr. Evan: Not so much. Why is it evil to say what Peter said? What’s the path Jesus is going on?

Q1: The cross.

Fr. Evan: He’s going to the cross, so what is Peter denying?

All: The cross!

Fr. Evan: The cross. That’s why it’s satanic and evil. What Peter is saying could lead one away from believing that suffering is a Christian path. So Jesus has to say, “No, no, no, that’s evil. That’s satanic. If you think that way, that the Christian path is devoid of suffering, devoid of the cross, that’s evil. No, doesn’t work that way.”

I actually don’t do this very often, but I really like the notes from 34-37 that the OSB, the Orthodox Study Bible, offers. It says this:

After Peter’s confession, Jesus injects a new solemn tone into his mystery by speaking about suffering and by teaching the people and the disciples the cost of discipleship: self-denial, carrying one’s cross, which is a symbol of suffering, and obedience to Christ.

This is what Peter’s rejecting, and that’s why it’s evil.

By saying, “Let him deny himself and take up his cross, Jesus means his followers should separate themselves from their sins and from the inclination of their hearts towards evil, crucifying the flesh with its passions and its desires.

Does that make sense to you? So, verse 35, to save one’s life means to base one’s earthly life on self. If you want to save your life, you base it on your own desires. This is the opposite of self-denial and ultimately results in the loss of eternal life. How many types of life are there? There’s biological life and there’s spiritual life. How many types of birth are there? Two: biological birth and spiritual birth. How many types of death are there? Two! There’s physical death and spiritual death. Are you following me? Biological life occurs at birth; spiritual birth occurs when? Baptism. Physical death occurs when you die, and spiritual death occurs when you reject God.

So what we have here is the two ways. Jesus is saying to lose one’s life, to die, if you will, to your physical desires and to the earthly desires, is to accept suffering and sacrifice for the sake of Christ and his kingdom, and to take up spiritual life. There is a cost, which ultimately brings salvation. Discipleship is costly. It requires giving up all claim to everything the world holds dear. These are good notes right here. I like the notes that they put in. Any questions about this passage?

Q1: Why don’t you say life begins at conception?

Fr. Evan: Well, biological life does, but spiritual life…

Q1: But you agreed that it was when we were born.

Fr. Evan: Oh! I see what you’re saying. Well, yeah, you can say biological life begins at conception. No problem there.

Q1: Just wanted to clear the air.

Fr. Evan: [Laughter] Okay, duly noted. Thank you.

Q2: This has become quite a controversy.

Fr. Evan: When life begins? Oh, well a controversy for the world but not for the Church. There’s lots of confusion in the world, but not in the Church.

All right. Onto chapter nine. I can’t believe it! I’m going to give you an outline for chapter nine. Chapter nine, verse one, transitional verse. Chapter nine, verse two through verse eight, the account of the Transfiguration. Chapter nine, verse nine through verse 13, Elijah’s coming. And then chapter nine, verse 14 through 29, faith and the healing of a possessed boy. Verses 30 through 32 will be the second prophecy of Jesus of his passion. And verses 33 through 50, I’m going to give it one large title, and then I’m going to break it down into subsections. So the Orthodox Study Bible calls it “The Way of Discipleship,” and it classifies all of those verses that way. There are subsections, though. Verses 33 through verse 37 are misunderstandings and the dispute over who’s first. Verse 38 through verse 41 is a question: Who’s in and who’s out? Verse 42 through verse 48 is about obstacles and stumbling-blocks. And then the chapter ends with some sayings about salt, verses 49 through 50. So those four subsections make up that larger section of “The Way of Discipleship.”

Okay, so verse one is a transition. It takes us from eight to nine. “And he said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.’ ” Now who’s he talking to? His disciples. And who are those that will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power? Peter, James, and John, because they’re about to be taken up the mountain and shown the kingdom of God. Got it? They’re going to go up and see.

All right, starting in verse two through verse eight, we have the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is accounted for us in all three synoptics, not in John, and Peter alludes to it in one of his epistles. Okay. So, Trish, why don’t you read for us verses two through verse eight?

Trish:

Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up on a high mountain, apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining exceedingly white like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And the cloud came and overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son. Hear him.” Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one any more, but only Jesus with themselves.

Fr. Evan: Thank you. We’re going to take a lot of time to go through this passage, because it’s very important. I don’t know that there’s much in the Greek that requires explanation, except I do want to point out a couple of things. What do we call the feast?

All: Transfiguration.

Fr. Evan: Mmm. We like to call it that, but that’s not what we call it. Say it, Mercy.

Mercy: Metamorphosis?

Fr. Evan: We call it the Metamorphosis. Why? Because that’s what the Greek calls it. The Greek says metamorphothi. Well, we have the word in English, “metamorphosis.” It’s sort of like: Why do we call it Christmas? It’s not Christmas; that’s Christ’s mass. What’s the feast? Nativity. It’s not Easter, because it’s not a pagan feast; it’s Pascha, like the Passover. So it would be good to start using the right term. This is the Metamorphosis. Why is it the Metamorphosis? He’s changed! Yeah, he goes from one thing to another. When you use the word “metamorphosis,” yeah, “transfiguration” has that same meaning in a sense, but when we have a nice word in the text that we can use in English, let’s use it. So that’s one note I would make.

The other is that at the end what’s interesting is that when the Father’s voice comes out and is heard from the cloud, he uses— He says, “And there came a cloud overshadowing them, and there came a voice out from the cloud, ‘This is the Son of mine, the Beloved, akouete; listen to him.’ ” But it’s a command. “You have to listen.”

All right. Let’s talk about this passage. Lots to say, obviously. This event, the Metamorphosis of Christ, is an account that we find in the New Testament, which the Church extracts and makes it one of the Great Feasts of the liturgical year. How many of these feasts are there? Twelve. And this is a little bit of a trick question: there are actually 13. Did you know that? Why do I say that? See, we always know: the Twelve Feasts, the Great Feasts—but the Church is always so clever.

Q1: The Feast of feasts.

Fr. Evan: The Feasts of feasts is? Pascha! So in a sense, all the feasts are encompassed by the Feast of feasts, so it’s not one of the twelve. In other words, you can’t put the resurrection shoulder-to-shoulder with the others, can you? Doesn’t that already seem wrong? No, it kind of stands above, and it overshadows all feasts. So in your head, because we’re human, there are 13, but one of them stands outside, and that is Pascha, the Feast of feasts. That’s the celebration of our Lord’s victory.

Now, what are the other twelve, if you will? When do we celebrate Pascha?

Q1: In the spring.

Fr. Evan: In the spring, and when do we also celebrate it?

All: Every Sunday.

Fr. Evan: Every Sunday! Every Sunday is a mini-Pascha. That’s why— I had a beautiful couple in with me yesterday who’s not Orthodox, and they said to me, “Why do you do what you do on Sunday? Why don’t you just have a sermon and some music?” And I said, “What is the point of Christian celebration on Sunday?” And they didn’t have an answer; they said, “We don’t know.” I said, “Isn’t it the resurrection?” And they said, “Is it?” And I said, “Let’s look at the text.” What does the Scriptures lift up as the point of worship on the first day of the week? The empty tomb. The resurrection. So if as a Christian you’re worshiping on a Sunday, and that Sunday worship is not focused on the resurrection, then you’re not worshiping according to the biblical standard.

So every Sunday, I think you said, Trish, is a day to celebrate the resurrection. It’s a mini-Pascha. That’s why the first reading on a Sunday morning is one of the accounts of the resurrection. So literal is the Church, where does the priest stand when he reads that gospel?

Q1: Next to the tomb.

Fr. Evan: Next to the tomb, wearing white, just like the angel, who was at the foot and the head of the tomb and announced, “He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him,” from Mark.

So every Sunday the Church commemorates that eternal event of the Lord’s resurrection. But on top of that, the Church has an order to the liturgical year. We know that the start of the liturgical year: September 1. Lots of cycles going on in the Church. What is the first feast that comes in the liturgical year? Now, keep in mind that when we think of the twelve, four of them will be related to Mary, eight of them to Christ. But the four that are related to Mary really have something to do, ultimately, with Christ. So the first one, September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos: that’s the first of the twelve that we come across. The next, September 14, is the Exaltation of the Cross. November 21, the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple. And then December 25, the Nativity of Christ. Good so far?

January 6, Baptism of Christ; we also call that Theophany or Epiphany. More ancient phrase: Feast of Lights, for that feast. February 2, 40 days after the Nativity, what happens? Presentation: Presentation of the Lord at the Temple, Jesus at the Temple. March 25, nine months before the Nativity: Annunciation. All right. The Sunday before Pascha: Palm Sunday. We call it the Entry into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday. 40 days after Pascha: Ascension. Notice these don’t have dates; they’re indicated by how they are related to Pascha, so the week prior, Palm Sunday; 40 days after, the Ascension. 50 days after Pascha: Pentecost. August 6: Transfiguration? Metamorphosis! August 15: Dormition, Falling-Asleep of the Theotokos. Those are your Twelve Feasts.

Typically, iconographically, where are they depicted? Above the main icon screen. If your icon screen has panels for it, you would see the twelve up there. We don’t have those panels. Therefore, sometimes they’re found around the nave.

Why this type of calendar? What do you automatically notice? Why do we orient ourselves this way? Simple answer; don’t think too hard. Biblically it makes sense. What do we do, though? What’s very practical about it? What are we doing?

Q2: Life of Christ.

Fr. Evan: Life of Christ! Simple! It’s right there in front of your face. Don’t get too confused. [Laughter] We orient ourselves this way because, by doing so, we go through the life of Christ every year. That’s all we’re doing. Time is oriented around the Lord’s life.

So this feast, the Metamorphosis, comes after Pentecost on August 6. It is also in the midst of what celebration? Dormition Fast. So it’s kind of an odd thing. It comes in the midst of the Dormition Fast, but it also is not a day in which we fast, per se. The fast—although it comes in the midst of the fast, we take the fast away and we feast. Now, this is just for Arlen to make him happy, but the origin of this feast comes from the Armenian Orthodox. They were the first to take this event and put it within a calendar year and say, “We should celebrate this day.” It very quickly spread from the Armenians to the Greeks.

Q1: Does the West celebrate it?

Fr. Evan: Not until the 15th century did the West even recognize the feast, but not so much still. If you look at commentary, it’s very brief. Sort of like January 6 for the West is the celebration of the wise men. So historically, thank you, Arlen, and your people. [Laughter]

Arlen: We are important in some way!

Fr. Evan: He was there, yeah! [Laughter] Like many feasts of the Church, the feast was placed on a previous nature feast. When is the Nativity celebrated? The Nativity, December 25. What nature feast was going on at that time?

Q1: Saturnalia or something.

Fr. Evan: So what happens? Well, winter solstice. The days are getting shorter, shorter, shorter, and then? They get longer, longer, and longer. So on that darkest night, the longest night, people would light bonfires and they would celebrate what? The return of light. And what did the Church say? “Ah! We know which Light is returning: Christ, the Light.” So they celebrate there. It’s funny, sometimes people say, “Ah, Christmas is a bunch of hooey. The Christians invented that.” Yeah. I mean, in the sense of: we placed the celebration of that event there. We knew what we were doing.

Same thing here. There was a feast of the harvest, of the fruits of God, so that naturally fit for the Transfiguration. So that’s why still Greeks will often bring what to church on this day? Grapes. Because what do we do with the grape? We turn it into wine; we metamorphosize it. So the Church saw that and they just naturally placed it there. Some wisdom, and a little marketing. [Laughter] Not a bad thing.

Okay. We’ve got to talk about— Before we go through the passage, we’ve got to talk about themes that are found in this feast. First thing I want to cover is Moses—whom Arlen knew. [Laughter] He told my kids he knew— You told my kids you knew Moses, didn’t you? [Laughter]

Arlen: Oh, yeah!

Fr. Evan: And then Maria believed you! “Did you know, Baba, Mr. Sarian knew Moses!” [Laughter]

All right. In this feast, there is no doubt that when the Church views it, we make comparisons between what’s happening in Christ and Moses. I mean, obviously, Moses is in the passage. Plainly, he’s there. He dialogues with Jesus. But there’s a comparison that we can make between Moses and Christ on several levels. Is Christ the new Moses?

Q2: No.

Fr. Evan: He is! He is the new Moses. He supersedes Moses. I’ll ask you to do it this way: Is he the new Elijah?

Q1: Yes!

Fr. Evan: Yes! In Christ, the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. So he is the new Moses. I’ll take you back to our study of Matthew. Where does Jesus go to deliver his sermon in chapter five? On the mountain. And what does he do in that sermon? He reinterprets the Law. He says, “You have heard it said: Thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you…” In other words, who delivered to them that commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”? Moses did! What does Jesus do?

Q1: He gives you a better one!

Fr. Evan: “I’m going to do it one better. I’m the new Moses, who can interpret the Law.” In other words, “I gave the Law to Moses, now, being the Law-giver, I’m going to give it to you directly.” First we see through the veil of Moses, but now we’re going to see directly.

So Christ is a new Moses. Is he a new Joseph? Yeah. I mean, again and again. So Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament archetype. That doesn’t mean that Moses isn’t a real person; he just fulfills the archetype that Moses was. What did Moses do? What’s the big thing he did?

Q2: The Ten Commandments.

Fr. Evan: Well… Led the people out of bondage, that was the big thing he did, the exodus. That’s something that the Israelites have never forgotten. He was sent by God to deliver them from bondage. That’s called the—

Q1: Savior!

Fr. Evan: No, that’s called the—

Q3: Exodus!

Fr. Evan: Passover?

All: Oh!

Fr. Evan: The Passover! It’s the deliverance of God’s people from bondage. And in that Passover, what happened? Well, he couldn’t get Pharaoh to let the people go, so there’s one last curse, and what is it? Death. And how is death avoided? Blood on the lintel of the door, the only place that’s wooden. Remember, you’re living in a wattle, mud-and-wattle hut, there’s not a lot of wood. The little bit of wood you had, you probably used to create that doorway, the lintel. So where did the blood have to go? On the lintel? And what kind of blood? Lamb. And what kind of lamb? Perfect, spotless lamb was on there. And then the Angel of Death passes over.

Obviously, the typology is there for what’s going to happen in Christ. The new Lamb will shed his blood on the wood, and those who believe in him and take that blood upon themselves will have the Angel of Death pass over them. But he also takes them, and he passes them through the wilderness, and they go off into the place where things die, and they make it through and enter into the promised land. What’s the promised land? The kingdom of God. All of that is there.

Jesus is sent to deliver God’s people from bondage? Whom are we in bondage to? Sin—and? Death. And he’s going to deliver us from both of those things. He’s going to overcome sin by being sinless, and he’s going to overcome death by being resurrected.

Well, so what if he does that? What about us? Don’t we have to do it? So we say in the hymn, he is the firstborn among the dead. We say in the apolytikion of Pascha, “By death, he has trampled down death.” So he kind of sets the path, and then we do the same. We follow.

All right, how else is Christ the fulfillment of the archetype Moses? What else does he do that Moses does? Moses goes into the wilderness for how long? 40 years. How long does he go on the mountain? 40 days. Is there any 40 in Jesus? Yeah! He goes into the wilderness for 40 days. And in the wilderness, what does Jesus do? He prepares himself through prayer and fasting to battle—Satan. And does he win? Yeah. Okay. The Israelites go into the wilderness, and their 40 years is a battle, isn’t it? And eventually it’s victorious, and they go into the promised land.

Q2: In the meantime, a lot were lost because of their sin.

Fr. Evan: Right, because of their sin, they perished in there. What else is similar? Moses, as I said earlier, delivers the law of God to the people of Israel? Does Jesus do the same? Yes. Does Moses mediate? Yeah! They’ve got a problem, Moses goes to God, says, “Here’s the deal,” and God says, “Okay, Moses. I’ll cut you a deal.” Then Moses goes back, and there’s this mediation. There’s one mediator between God and man, and he is Jesus Christ. So does Jesus mediate? That’s what a priest does, a high priest. He mediates on behalf of the people. We talked about him delivering to the promised land. Does Moses die outside the promised land? Yes! Does Jesus? Yes. Does he get crucified inside Jerusalem? No, they take him outside the gates and crucify him there, outside. All of those things, obviously, connect Jesus to the archetype of Moses.

Q1: Moses delivered the food of God to the people.

Fr. Evan: We could keep going. Yeah, there’s the deliverance of the food. Now, does the Church miss this? No, because when we herald the coming of the feast—we do that in the vespers—the first reading is from Exodus. If you go to Exodus 24—you don’t have to go; I’ll just go there for you—this is the reading. Moses is on Mount Sinai, chapter 24, verse 12: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Come up to me on the mountain.’ ” What does Jesus say to the disciples? Come up; we’re going up the mountain. “ ‘And wait there, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.’ ” What does the Lord say up there on the mountain? “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” So the mouthpiece for God isn’t going to be stone; it’s going to be his Son!

“So Moses rose up with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God, and he said to the elders, ‘Tarry here for us until we come to you again. And behold: Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a cause, let him go to them.’ ” So the other disciples that are left behind, just like here. “Then Moses went up on the mountain—” and what covers them? Cloud! Is there a cloud in this one? “The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it six days.” “Now after six days Jesus went up a mountain…” “And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.”

Okay, so the Church reads this passage to make the obvious connection to the people who are celebrating the feast between Jesus and Moses.

Q1: Oh, Moses came down and was shining.

Fr. Evan: Yeah, all of that’s there. He had to put a veil upon his face so people could look upon him. The Church doesn’t miss any of this.

Q2: There’s another point, too. I think Moses wanted to see the glory of God; God didn’t allow him to.

Fr. Evan: Couldn’t, right.

Q2: He saw his back. And until the Metamorphosis, then you could see the glory of God.

Fr. Evan: Yeah, his face. And the hymn’s going to point that out.

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, and your disciples beheld your glory in as much as they could bear. So to us sinners also now, let that same eternal light shine forth. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Christ our God, have mercy on us.

So the hymn picks all those things up, that now we see what Moses couldn’t himself see. If you will, Moses got to see it, too, at the Transfiguration.

So there’s an obvious connection there between Moses and Jesus. The next— Before we get to Elijah, let’s talk about a mountain. A second theme to the Transfiguration is that of a mountain. How are mountains used in the Old Testament?

Q3: As a place of worship.

Fr. Evan: Yep, place of worship. What else?

Q4: As a place of theophany.

Fr. Evan: A place of theophany. Let’s think of some examples. Go back to the patriarchs. Start with the story of the flood. Noah, right? And where does the ark come to rest? On a mountain. Go to Abraham. Does he go up a mountain? To sacrifice his son, and what happens there? God supplies a ram and speaks to him. Go forward: who else? Moses on the mountain. Who else? Elijah! A lot of mountains, a lot of revelations, as you said, theophanies, worship. Altars are set up on mountains. So God reveals himself to Moses on Mount Sinai, and as you were indicating, on that mountain, Arlen, God reveals to Moses his backside. But he also reveals to Moses his law, and to some degree his identity—he gives him a name.

Q1: “I am who I am.”

Fr. Evan: Yeah. He also displays some of his glory. The people see the fire up on the mountaintop.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the commandments that are revealed. He delivers his law, his name, his identity, his glory, but I want to talk a little bit about the law and the commandments. The reason I want to talk about them is because they’re often maligned. There’s the law and the commandments, but now we have Jesus. But that would be a disservice, because in Jesus we follow the law and the commandments: they’re fulfilled.

What is, in a basic way, the law and the commandments? What are they? No wrong answers, just what are they? Rules of life. Okay, what else? Ways to live. What else?

Q3: Is it like a type of asceticism for the whole community?

Fr. Evan: Yeah, a type of asceticism, a type of aseticism.

Q5: A path to salvation.

Fr. Evan: A path to salvation.

Q1: A government.

Fr. Evan: A government! Okay. Anything else? I think we could say they’re a parameter; they’re a boundary. On this side there’s life; on that side there’s destruction and death. So they’re a parameter. Anything else? They’re holy. They’re good. It’s a delight to live in the commandments of God, right? Joyful, yeah. There’s joy in them.

Q2: And Jesus said, “If you love me, you’ll obey my commandments.”

Fr. Evan: Yeah, there’s an element of love and relationship. It’s like this: I say to people, “I don’t go home because I have to; I go home because I want to. I love my wife, so it’s a joy for me to go home and live under that parameter, that I am yoked to her and she to me, and there are no others.” The world says, “That’s crazy!” [Laughter] And yet, in the world, you do not have joy. I have joy, because I have lived according to that commandment, that I shall have none other but her. So there’s joy and life and happiness and there’s love in keeping the commandments. And if we’re in a relationship, it’s just naturally what we would do. If you’re not in a relationship with Jesus, you will not keep the commandments, but if you’re in a relationship with him, you will. And the more you’re in a relationship with him, the more you will keep those commandments.

Q1: It pulls you together.

Fr. Evan: It pulls you together, yeah! Now, are there promises to the commandments? Yes! What happens if we keep them? Let’s talk about that. What happens if we keep the commandments of God? Abundant life. What else?

Q4: We’d be like a tree planted by abundant waters.

Fr. Evan: Yeah! We’d be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water. We’ll grow, we’ll mature, we’ll leaf out and branch out. What else?

Q2: If we honor the commandments, that means we love God.

Fr. Evan: Okay, and? I mean, what happens if we love God? We keep them, but what do we receive?

Q3: Salvation.

Fr. Evan: Salvation, eternal life, what else?

Q5: God’s love.

Fr. Evan: God’s love back. Well, the way that the text says it is that we receive his abiding presence. That’s one of the biggest promises. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I and my Father will come and make our abode in you.” That’s a big thing! What would that be like, to have God abiding in us? Big way to do that is to keep the commandments; then God abides in us. What else do we get? These are all really good answers. I don’t know that we’ve covered them all, but it’s a big list!

Does any of this sound bad? No!

Q2: No, it sounds good.

Fr. Evan: It sounds really good. In Paul, is any of this bad? Remember, there’s this big distinction that seems to be in Paul between what? The law and faith and all. Is there a problem in Paul with the law and the commandments? No, there isn’t. Misinformation has crept into the interpretation of Scripture and led some Christians to believe that Paul has a problem with the commandments!

Q2: As far as he says that the law is a tutor leading us to Christ.

Fr. Evan: Yes! So it’s not bad! How is it not bad?

Q2: The law doesn’t save, but it leads us to Christ.

Fr. Evan: No, but Christ does. Yeah. But Christ does not do away with them, not an iota, not a dot shall pass away. We have to keep them all. In fact, a very curious thing happens with Christ’s explanation of the commandments. In one place he says to the Jews, “You tithe mint, dill, and cumin, but neglect the weightier matters of the law, mercy and justice.” And then what does he say? “This you ought to have done, without neglecting the other.” In the law and in the commandments, is there anything that says you must tithe—

Q2: Yes.

Fr. Evan: —mint, dill, and cumin? No! That was something that the Midrash had added. In other words, they went beyond even the commandment of the law. They went beyond it. And what Jesus was saying was, “I don’t have a problem with that. You just can’t neglect the other.” In other words, what Jesus is saying is that “in keeping the commandments, you’re fastidious. Good. Not a problem. Just don’t miss—” It’s sort of like a Christian saying, “Well, I fast every Wednesday and Friday. I go to church every Sunday and I receive the Eucharist—and I beat my wife.” [Laughter] Or “I gossip” or “I drink” or “I lie” or “I cheat” or “I steal” or “I’m unmerciful” or “I’m unforgiving.” Jesus says, “No, no, no. You can’t do the one and neglect the other. You need to do both.” So there’s nowhere where Jesus says, “Ah, forget it. You don’t need to do it.”

This is exactly the argument that the early Christian apologists are having with the Gnostics, because they say, “Well, see, now none of that applies to us. We just believe in Jesus and we’re good. Gnosticism is alive and well. I’ve had people sit across from me and say, “Yes, I’ve cheated on my wife, but I am still saved.” And I’ll say, “Are you still cheating on your wife?” and they’ll say, “Yes! I’m still in a relationship with that woman.” “You’re not saved.” “How can you say that to me?” “What are you talking about? ‘Neither adulterers nor murderers nor sodomites…’ ” Doesn’t the Lord in the Scripture give the list?

Q2: Pretty clear.

Fr. Evan: Pretty clear! So the commandments have to be kept. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What does he give him? Gives him a list, doesn’t he? And the young man says, “I’ve done them! What do I still lack?” And the Lord gives him another commandment: “Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me.” So the commandments of God that are delivered on the mountain are not external to man. They are meant to abide in man’s heart and to transform it. The law of God gives commandments that point to an authentic life, a righteous life, a good life. And it’s the very disobedience of these commandments that leads to death and decay. That’s the story of the fall.

The story of the fall is very simple: give you a commandment, obey it. And then what do we do? We don’t. And because we don’t, we are unclothed, we’re ashamed, and we hide. And then God says, “Let me go find that guy. Where’d he go? What are you doing?” And when he finds us, what do we do? “Not my fault! Somebody else. It was Miles! He made me do this.” [Laughter] I’m in the car this morning with one of my daughters—I won’t say who. [Laughter] And she was upset. I said, “What’s the problem?” “Well, Mama blah-blah-blah-blah.” And I said, “So it’s Mama’s fault?” “Yes!” [Laughter] I said, “You really think it is?” “Yeah!” Right? I mean, she’s not doing anything unusual. It’s not like you’re like: “Oh, wow. I can’t believe your daughter said that.” She’s just saying what we’ve all said since the time we were in the garden of Eden. “Not my fault! I’m not the reason for the problem! I didn’t mess up; someone else did.”

So as a result, what does God have to do? He has to cast us out, and then when we’re cast out what happens? We start to struggle. Outside of God’s presence, there’s going to be a struggle. So my daughter who was saying it was Mom’s fault hast cast— Now she’s cast out, and she’s going to have to struggle; she’s going to have to fight. And where is the struggle? With herself. “The kingdom of God is taken by force.” What does that mean? We have to fight and wage against our fallenness. So now we’ve got to fight, and so we fight, and what happens in the fight, in the struggle—what happens?

Q1: We get sometimes tired of fighting.

Fr. Evan: Yeah! We can get tired of the fight. We say, “This fight’s a joke!” And we become the thief on the left. “It’s not worth it! I’m not supposed to be here. Get me out of here, God. We want some sort of magical thing to happen.” So that’s one thing. What else happens in the struggle, and the fight?

Q1: Metamorphosis.

Fr. Evan: It can be a metamorphosis, right? We can be changed. We can realize that in the fight and in the struggle that the problem really is in our hearts, that something could happen. Isn’t this what the whole retreat Dr. Philip Mamalakis was talking about? He was just talking about this struggle. And what do we want to do with this struggle?

Q2: Try to get away.

Fr. Evan: We want to get away! We want to get off the cross. We don’t want to stay there. But if we get off the cross, then there’s no resurrection. So we have to stay. So there’s some endurance, long-suffering, patience. If we stay on the cross, then we might experience a metamorphosis.

Q3: The saying goes: You either become better or bitter.

Fr. Evan: Ooh, I like that. Either become better or bitter. Yeah, that’s true. We become better or bitter. We either face and square up to the reality or we scoot out from under it. All right, we’re going to take up the Metamorphosis of Christ—not next week because I’ll be away at the APC conference in San Diego, but the following week.