Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel.
Day 39 of the Great Fast. Leave-taking of the Annunciation.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 65:8-16; Vespers – Genesis 46:1-7; Proverbs 23:15-24:5.
Read Genesis 46:1-7
There is an old board game, Cold War: CIA vs. KGB, with a character named Master Spy. His peculiarity was that he gave the contest over to the non-victor in the struggle. In other words, Master Spy succeeds by losing. The idea behind his character was to create confusion and to subvert the enemy’s intuition. The very nature of competition says, “Push harder, dominate, take the territory.” But Master Spy succeeds by losing. This is a small metaphor for the way God operates in salvation history, although far more intelligent and holy. God is the real mastermind, and again and again, He succeeds by losing. God triumphs by losing. God lifts up by casting down. God gives life through death.
We see it happening in today’s Genesis reading, where Jacob and his family must go down before they can go up. They go down into Egypt, not because God has failed, but because God is moving through a back channel. At Beersheba, Jacob offers sacrifice, and it is there that God tells him not to be afraid to go down into Egypt, promising to go with him and to make of him a great nation there. Yes, it is a descent, but it is preceded by sacrificial prayer and an obedient heart.That is the logic of Holy Week. Christ does not save the world through a triumph, through legions, through spectacle, through force. He comes to Jerusalem to die. He goes down into betrayal, , into the cross, into death itself. But it is precisely there that He defeats the enemy and empties death from within.
That is why Holy Week corrects our instincts. We think God must save the world through victory, not through weakness. But God goes through weakness, Jacob goes down before Israel goes up, Christ goes down before He goes up, and every good life knows the same secret: in God’s hands, going down is the first step to going up, to resurrection itself.