Third Sunday of the Great Fast: Veneration of the Holy Cross. Octoechos Tone 7; Our Venerable Father and Confessor Theophanes of Sigriana (817); Our Holy Father Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome (604).
Great Fast Day 21. The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated today.
Hebrews 4:14-5:6; Mark 8:34-9:1.
Read Hebrews 4:14-5:6
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Do we change God? “Every high priest chosen from among men… can deal gently” with us because “he himself is beset with weakness… bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well.” God is neither “beset with weakness” nor “his own sins.” So, how is that an example of how we get God’s sympathy?
On the contrary, today’s reading quotes two psalms which reveal Christ in divine royal and priestly terms, judging all peoples and rulers. In Matthew 22:44 Jesus uses one of these psalms to point out that this one whom David calls “Lord” must be the son of someone even higher than God’s anointed human king.
Yet, Jesus, the Son of God, our great high priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. How?
He in “every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning.” The temptation part answers our question of how previous high priests could be an encouraging example. But how can Christ ever truly identify with us in our plight if He has not sinned like us? Well, who really knows the full onslaught of temptation, the one who gives in early saying that it is so strong or the one who endures it to the end? No other human can say they know temptation better than Jesus does.
We don’t change God. God changes us. In Jesus Christ, humanity—previously only sinful [outside Paradise]—became sinless and eternally united with divinity. As we “then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,” we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can become by grace what God is by nature. “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession,” and resist sin.