The Holy Prophet Jeremiah; Blessed Hieromartyr Clement Sheptytsky, Archimandrite of Univ.
Acts 4:23-31; John 5:24-30.
Read John 5:24-30
What do the Eleusinian Mysteries, Orphic Traditions, and Delphic Oracles have to do with the dead hearing the voice of the Son of God? Perhaps we could ask it another way: what do toddler tricycles have to do with spaceships? Preliminary points prepare people for perfection.
St. John wrote his gospel for the whole world — a religious world shaped by Hellenic language, culture, and mystery traditions. For the first hearers of Jesus’ words, the experience would have been both consummating and mind-boggling. “Consummating” because the training wheels of their minds had been prepared by the imperfect pagan oracles, who had pulled back the curtain on life beyond the grave. They had glimpsed faint outlines. Now, Christ’s voice about raising the dead fulfilled their pagan hearts’ longings for a true and authoritative witness from the beyond.
It was also “mind-boggling” because it shattered their shoddy idea of God. None of their gods had stooped to enflesh human frailty. Yet here, in their intimate hearing, was One whose warm voice could quicken their stone-cold dead — because He has life in Himself.
Christ was not only powerful but Goodness itself, unlike the capricious gods they knew. They had been taught that access to a better afterlife depended on secret knowledge, opaque rituals, and appeasing angry spirits. But Christ tied the promise of resurrection simply to doing good and hearing His voice.
Why did the ancient world fall in love with Jesus? Because whereas their old oracles and cults offered touches of mystery, Christ offered them to touch mercy.