Grace and Prayer for the Dead

Recently, someone ask me whether I thought Orthodoxy was a grace-filled religion. What prompted this was that she thought the fact that we pray for the dead implied that God's grace was somehow insufficient for the dead and thus they needed our prayers. I realized that her and my understanding of God's grace might have some differences, so I wants to say a few words about this.

Ephesians 1:3-4 says:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

So God has all these spiritual blessings in the heavenly places that He wants to give us, and He wants to give them to us "in Christ". This "in Christ" is VERY significant.

Paul over and over in his letters says that the Church is the "body of Christ":

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (Eph 5:23)

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (1 Cor 12:12)

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:27)

Now, we have to ask what is the significance that the Church is the body of Christ and that His blessings are in Christ. I won't talk about all the significance. I just want to focus on one little aspect: God really wants to use the Church as the distribution center of His blessings. For some reason in his infinite wisdom, God has chosen to limit himself, so to speak, to use His Church as the primary instrument of dispensing his grace. This is not an absolute limitation. God can always do whatever He wants, but what He really wants is to use the church. When a child in African dies from starvation, this is not the fault of God's ability; rather, it is the fault of the Church not adequately engaging in its mission to be God's grace distribution organism.

This does not mean that God does not sometimes act out of the ordinary and help people directly--mystically meeting some need without the cooperation of other humans. He does this too. But He has a strong preference, and in order to help the Church realize the importance of its mission, He limits His direct mystical involvement. Remember, it is all about relationship: love God by loving people. If God always directly poured out His grace, we would never learn the "by loving people" part.

So, each day when I pray for my friends and family, I am consciously trying to participate in this mission. Just as a body has many organs, and each organ has a different function, so in the Church, each person has a different function at different times. For example, if I am standing next to you, I can function as an ear. If I am not next to you, I can at least function as an intercessor that God would motivate someone standing next to you to be an ear.

God is happy when I cooperate with Him because He sees His abundant grace getting distributed. I am happy because I get to cooperate with God and through it I also grow in intimacy with Him. I already am His body, but the more I act like His body, the more I will feel like His body.

Now, some people might agree with everything I have just said, but we still have two differences "in the implementation":

1. Some think that when someone dies, God magically makes them perfect in every way. I don't think this is the case. If I had a heart of prejudice here on earth, I will still have a heart of prejudice after I die. But God does not want me to stay in that state forever. He wants me to keep growing and will provide a perfect environment so that I can keep growing. He will wipe away my tears, take away sorrow. And by His grace will be able, hopefully more quickly than on earth, to be able to walk out of prejudice. I will never be perfect because only God is perfect, and He is infinite. As a finite creature, I can only ever be "in the process of growing in Christlikeness". The main difference in the afterlife is that the environment is perfect so I am guaranteed to make progress even if I was relatively stuck on earth.
2. Remember I said that everything is about relationship. Well, I don't think the relationship thing stops when someone dies. Hebrews 11:39-40 says of the Old Testament saints, "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." What does that mean? For one thing, it means that I can help Moses along his journey toward Christlike perfect. Isn't that cool? But I never really had a relationship with Moses, so I don't spend a lot of time praying that he become more Christlike. However, I did have a relationship with my deceased dad and brother and piano teacher. And so I continue to pray for them. That the incipient virtues they had in this life would grow more mature. I don't spend hours every day praying for friends and family who have died, probably less than a minute each day, but what I don't want to do is to completely forget them. I don't want my love for them to grow cold. I am not standing next to them, so I cannot be an ear, but I can still pray for them.

When someone says, "You think God's grace is not sufficient so you have to keep praying for people after they die or they won't make it", I realize just how poorly I have communicated my convictions. We agree that I am praying for people who died, but we definitely don't agree on my motive:

• God's grace IS sufficient, and He offers me the privilege to partner with Him in distributing that grace.
• I am not primarily praying for those who "won't make it". No amount of prayer will change a person's eternal destiny. My goal is NOT to pray someone out of Purgatory or the Lake of Fire. I can't do the first for the simple reason that Purgatory does not exist; I can't do the second since its too late to change the result of the Final Judgment. "For it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgement." (Hebrews 9:27). Once someone has died, it's too late to change the result of the judgment.

So, I start with the assumption that my deceased friends and family will pass the Final Judgment, and then in the only way I can with them not physically present, I accompany them through prayer in the rest of their journey toward Christlikeness. If my assumption is false, and someone for whom I pray will not pass the judgment, well ... I still do not think that my prayers are in vain. I think my prayers will still bring them a little comfort--just for a second. That second of prayer might be the only relief they receive in their otherwise eternal state of suffering. I think giving them a second of comfort is worth my effort.

I hope that this has been helpful to clarify my understanding. I would like to recommend a book that C. S. Lewis wrote. He used a work of fiction to help illustrate the historic Christian understanding of the afterlife. It is much different from what I was taught in my upbringing, and in my opinion, it much more authentically honors our free will and the image of God that we bear. Please read The Great Divorce.

On the Theotokos

Before I was received into the Orthodox Catholic Church, I did not spend much time thinking about Mary, the Mother of God. A lot has changed since then. I will share a little how my thinking about her has changed. I divide these contemplations into two categories: dogma (non-negotiable beliefs) and theologoumena (theological opinions).

The Dogmas

As a pious Orthodox, I have two dogmatic beliefs about Mary: 1) that it is appropriate to venerate her with the title Theotokos, or "Mother of God" and 2) that she retained her virginity for her whole life. These two dogma come from the proceedings of two different ecumenical councils.

If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema. (Third Ecumenical Council)

If anyone shall not confess that the Word of God has two nativities, the one from all eternity of the Father, without time and without body; the other in these last days, coming down from heaven and being made flesh of the holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and always a virgin, and born of her:  let him be anathema. (Fifth Ecumenical Council)

The "always a virgin" needs to be unpacked a little bit. Mary's virginity has three aspects: she miraculously conceived Jesus as a virgin, she miraculously delivered Jesus as a virgin (i.e., her hymen stayed intact despite giving birth), and she maintained her virginity throughout the rest of her married and widowed life.

Interestingly, the ever virginity of the Mary was such a historically established fact that even the early reformers did not question it. It was only in the 19th century as Protestants further and further distanced themselves from the historic Church that people began not only not to consider it a dogma but actually to disagree with it. Here are some quotes from early reformers:

It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a virgin. ... Christ, we believe, came forth from a womb left perfectly intact. (Weimer's The Works of Luther, English translation by Pelikan, Concordia, St. Louis, v. 11, pp. 319-320; v. 6. p. 510.) 

I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin. (Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Berlin, 1905, v. 1, p. 424.) 

[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called 'first-born'; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation. (Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, sec. 39 (Geneva, 1562), vol. 1 / From Calvin's Commentaries, tr. William Pringle, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949, p.107) 

I believe... he [Jesus Christ] was born of the blessed Virgin, who, as well after as she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin. (A. C. Coulter, John Wesley, New York: Oxford University Press, 1964, 495)

The Theologoumena

When the apostles reflected on their experience and tried to make sense of it and interpret it, they turned to the Old Testament. They followed Jesus’ example of assuming that the Old Testament was actually foreshadowing and predicting events in Jesus life: "And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." (Luke 24:27). And they passed on their oral theological reflections to their successors, the bishops. Later on this apostolic oral tradition was inscribed in the catechetical writings of the Fathers and hymnography of Church. Interestingly, because of her importance in the plan of salvation, the Fathers recorded not just the Old Testament foreshadowing and prophecies about Christ, but also about the Theotokos. For example, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, pointed out this analogy: In the same way that Jesus is the Second Adam, the Theotokos is the Second Eve. He wrote the following:

That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done away with, by which that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled,—was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a man. For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed His word; so did the latter, by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should sustain (portaret) God, being obedient to His word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness (advocata) of the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti) receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.vii.xx.html)

Because of the enormity of the patristic writings and ancient hymnography, I can only hope to give you a sampling. Also, for the sake of brevity, I will only quote the Scripture to which the hymn or writing alludes rather than the hymn or patristic writing itself. For convenience, I have broken the allusions into five categories: types/prophecies emphasizing virginal conception, types/prophecies emphasizing virginal delivery, type/prophecies emphasizing perpetual virginity after delivery, containment analogies, queen mother analogy, and miscellaneous analogies. Lastly, because most Fathers used the LXX, I will quote the Orthodox Study Bible, which has an English translation of the LXX.

Types/Prophecies emphasizing virginal conception

We start with the most widely recognized prophecy among Evangelicals:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

The Fathers often saw mountains in the Old Testament as types of the Theotokos. Here are three. In the first,  In the second,  And in the third, again the mountain is extremely fe

You saw while a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and ground them to powder. (Daniel 2:34)

Here, the stone Christ is cut out of the mountain Theotokos "without hands", meaning conception without the normal implements.

God will come from Teman,
The Holy One from the mount of shaded leafy trees. (Habakkuk 3:3)

Here, the Holy One Christ comes from the mount Theotokos who is so fertile (of shaded leafy trees) that she can conceive even without semen.

The mountain of God is a fertile mountain,
A mountain richly curdled with milk, a fat mountain.
Why do you think about other mountains richly curdled with milk?
This is the mountain God consented to dwell in;
Truly the Lord will lodge in it to the end. (Psalm 67:16-17)

Here, again the Theotokos is a very fertile mountain, in whose womb the Lord God consented to dwell and lodge.

Now it came to pass on the next day, Moses entered the tabernacle of testimony, and behold, Aaron's rod for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds, and had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.  (Numbers 17:23)

Here, Aaron's dry (and thus barren) rod that yielded ripe almonds is a type of the Theotokos who yielded Christ even though she was "barren" because of virginity.

So Gideon said to God, “If You save Israel by my hand as You said, then look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You said.” And it was so. And he rose early the next morning and wrung the fleece and from the fleece dropped enough dew to fill a pan full of water. (Judges 6:36-38)

“And He shall come down like rain on the fleece,
Like raindrops falling on the earth.” (Psalm 71:6)

Here, the Fathers understood the Psalm to be referring to Christ. And Christ miraculously filled the womb of the Theotokos in the same way that the fleece miraculously become full of dew.

So when He made an end of speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)

Here in the same way that God wrote on the tablets of stone without using normal implements of carving, He also inscribed the incarnate Word of God onto the womb of the Theotokos without using normal implements of conception.

Types/Prophecies emphasizing virginal delivery

The Old Testament has example of experiences not having the expected effect on the participants. They are understood types and prophecies of the Theotokos' virginal delivery.

Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he saw the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. (Exodus 3:2)

Here God appeared as an unconsuming fire in a bush in the same way that our God Christ took up residence in the womb of the Theotokos and did not damage it in any way.

He made the inside of the furnace to be as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it, so the fire did not touch them at all, or cause them pain, or trouble them ... Then the governors, the commanders, the viceroys, and the court officials gathered together and beheld the men, that the fire had no power over their bodies; neither had it singed their hair, nor scorched their clothes, nor was the smell of fire on them. (Daniel 3:50, 94)

Here just as God protected the three Hebrew young men in the furnace so that they experienced no pain, no scorching of any part of them, and not even the smell of smoke, so He protected the womb of the Theotokos when God, who is a consuming fire, entered her so that the delivery was painless and undamaging. Incidentally, I see an analogy here that I have not yet read in a Church Father: Just as the resurrection of the Second Adam Jesus makes Him be the firstfruit of them that sleep, so the painless delivery of the Second Eve made her be the firstfruit of the overturning of the curse of Genesis 3:16: "I will greatly multiply your pain and your groaning, and in pain you shall bring forth children."

So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. (Exodus 14:22)

Here, just as the Israelites contrary to nature did not get wet when they walked through the Red Sea, so also the Theotokos contrary to nature had no evidence of giving birth after bearing God.

Types/Prophecies emphasizing her perpetual virginity even after delivery

Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary that faces toward the east, but it was shut. So the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it, because the Lord God of Israel will enter by it; therefore, it shall be shut. As for the prince, he will sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. He will go in by way of the gate chamber and go out the same way. (Ezekiel 44:1-3)

This is a very important prophecy in the Fathers. It has multiple components:

• At the Annuncation God entered the womb of the Theotokos, and at birth He exited all through the same canal.
• Christ God, the prince of peace, sat in the womb of the Theotokos and was nourished by her blood just as the prince will eat bread in the sanctuary.
• Because God passed through that canal, it was sealed shut so that no other man could pass through it, either through intercourse or parturition.
• Another epithet for the Theotokos is the "East Gate that was Shut".

Returning to the theme of crossing the Red Sea ....

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were trying to flee. But the Lord shook off the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all of Pharaoh's army that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. (Exodus 14:27-28)

Here, just as the Egyptians could not pass through the sea after the Israelites did, so also no other person could pass through the womb of the Theotokos after God did.

Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance; (Hebrews 9:6-7)

Just as only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, so only our Great High Priest could into the womb of the Theotokos.

Containment Analogies

The next set of Old Testament allusions are what I call containment analogies. There are these types of Christ in the Old Testament that are coupled with another object, often containing or surrounding it. The Father saw this other object as types of the Theotokos since her womb contained God.

Moses then said to Aaron, “Take a golden pot, put one full omer of the manna in it, and lay it up before God to be kept for your generations. (Exodus 16:33)

Just as the golden pot contained manna, the Theotokos contained Christ, the Bread that came down from heaven.

You shall also make a golden table of pure gold; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height ... and you shall set the bread [MT bread of the presence] on the table before Me continually. (Exodus 25:23,30)

Just as the golden table contained the bread of the presence, so also the Theotokos contained the bread of life. And in the Orthodox temple, she is the altar on which the bread and wine mystically become the real presence of the body and blood of Christ.

You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold which shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, branches, and bowls, and its stem and corolla shall be of one piece ... You shall make its seven lamps, and you will lay the lamps upon them. From this one presence they will shine outward. (Exodus 25:31, 37)

Just as the lampstand contained seven lamps, so also the Theotokos contained the Light of the World in her womb.

Besides this, God caused every tree beautiful to the sight and good for food to grow from the ground. Also, in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of learning the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

Just as Paradise contained the tree of life, so also the Theotokos contained the way, truth, and life in her womb.

Then one of the seraphim was sent to me. He had a live coal in his hand, which he took with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips. Your lawlessness is taken away, and your sin is cleansed.” (Isaiah 6:6-7)

Just as the live coal was carried in a pair of tongs so also our God who is a consuming fire was carried in the womb of the Theotokos.

“Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming to you, and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. (Zechariah 2:14)

Just as the Lord will dwell in the daughter of Zion, so also God will dwell in the Theotokos who is the pre-eminent daughter of Zion.

The Queen Mother / Bride Unwedded analogy

There is a cultural phenomenon in ancient Israelite society that is often overlooked by those who wish to downplay the role of the Theotokos. This is that the queen mother sat on a throne beside her son the king, had influence over her son, and actually sometimes acted in the role of intercessor between him and his subjects. We see this illustrated most clearly here in the interaction between Bathsheba and Solomon:

Now Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon and bowed down before her. She said, “Have you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. I have something to say to you.” She said, “Speak.” Then Adonijah said, “You know the kingdom was mine, and all Israel turned their face to me as king. But then the kingdom was taken back, and it was given to my brother; for it was from the Lord to be given to Solomon. Now I ask one petition of you. Do not turn away your face.” Bathsheba said to him, “Speak.” Then he said to her, “Speak to King Solomon, for he will not turn his face from you; and let him give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife.” So Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak for you to the king.” So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her and kissed her tenderly. He then sat down on his throne, and a throne was placed for the king's mother; and she was seated at his right hand. Then she said to him, “I desire one small petition of you. Do not turn away your face.” The king said to her, “Ask it, mother, for I will not refuse you.” So she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife.” (3 Kingdoms 2:13-21)

Obviously, the next couple verses that I don't quote show that in this instance due to Solomon's fallenness, he did not honor his words to his mother and in fact did refuse her. However, this pericope still illustrates the cultural phenomenon with which the early Jewish Christians would have been familiar and naturally applied to the Theotokos. And this explains the reason that the interaction between Jesus, the Theotokos, and the servants in John 2:3-5 is quite culturally normal:

And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Many people recognize that Psalm 44 is a "Messianic" psalm. This is very truth, and it is also true that there are some important females roles in the psalm that cannot be overlooked. The exact identification of roles is hard to pin down, but the Fathers especially see the Theotokos in two places:

There are daughters of kings in Your honor;
The queen stood at Your right hand in apparel interwoven with gold,
And adorned and embroidered with various colors.
Listen, O daughter, behold and incline your ear,
And forget your people and your father's house;
For the King desired your beauty,
For He is your Lord. (10-12)

Here, she is at Jesus' right hand, the place of intercession (see both the passage above and Romans 8:34). The King of the Universe saw in the Virgin Mary a person of great spiritual beauty, and one whom He knew would respond, "Let it be to me according to your word." There are great spiritual mysteries at work in the life of the Theotokos that cannot be delineated clearly. She is dogmatically the Mother of God the Son, but that makes her in another sense the unwedded bride of God the Father. It is best just to silently be in awe at such a mystery. The other verse that clearly points to the Theotokos is this:

They shall remember your name from generation to generation;
Therefore, peoples shall give thanks to you
Forever and unto ages of ages. (18)

Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Theotokos applied this verse to herself: "For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed." (Luke 1:48) And the historic Church definitely remembers her name from generation to generation and will give thanks to her forever and unto ages of ages, both for the role she played in supplying God with human flesh at a point of time in history and for the role of intercession that she plays now.

Another Scripture illustrating the role of the Theotokos as the Queen of Heaven is Revelation 12. I am not competent to unfold its mysteries, but please read the whole chapter on your own and recognize that identifying the woman with the physical nation of Israel is not the only, nor in my opinion, the most natural interpretation. Rather, I see the woman as the Theotokos, the mother of God, and who is simultaneously the Mother of the Church: "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (verse 17).

Other analogies

Then there are countless other analogies that are hard to categorize.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall be on guard for His heel. (Genesis 3:15)

The Theotokos is one whose seed both bruised the head of the serpent and whose foot was bruised by the serpent.

There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his root. (Isaiah 11:1)

The Theotokos is the Rod of Jesse from which blossomed the flower of Jesse.

So Noah went out, along with his wife and his sons and their wives. Every animal, every bird, and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth, according to their kind, went out of the ark. (Genesis 8:18-19)

Just as Noah’s Ark contained the seed of a second world, so also the Theotokos contained the founder of a new holy nation, the Church.

Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. So behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac....” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “The Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” So he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:12-13, 16-17)

The Theotokos is Jacob’s ladder by which God descended to become a man, and she became the house of God while an embryo.

You shall also make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. Then you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimonies I will give you. There I will make Myself known to you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of testimony, about everything I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. (Exodus 25:17-22)

“Arise, O Lord, into Your rest,
You and the ark of Your holiness;” (Psalm 131:8)

The Theotokos is the Mercy Seat upon the Ark of the covenant, which is the throne of God where he sat for nine months. In the Orthodox temple we do not have golden cherubim above our altar; instead, we have an icon of the Theotokos.

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of testimony, and the tabernacle was filled with the Lord's glory. But Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of testimony because the cloud overshadowed it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:28-29)

And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

The Theotokos is the Tabernacle of testimony with overshadowing cloud just like God overshadowed her at the Annunciation.

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord Sabaoth, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you reproached today. 25Today the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will kill you and take your head from you. And this day I will give your carcass and the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel. 26Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and the Lord will deliver you into our hands.” (1 Kingdoms 17:24-26)

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38)

The Theotokos is our champion leader like David was against Goliath. As the Second Eve she leads the human race in obedient and courageous response to God, which enabled God to take on human nature leading to the destruction of our enemy.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

The Theotokos is the fountain that springs forth living water of Christ. This is beautifully illustrated by the below icon:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)

The womb of the Theotokos is the field in which was hidden the great treasure Christ, and it is the oyster in which the pearl of great price matured.

What Luke Actually Says About Her

I want to close with an enumeration of what Luke actually says about the Theotokos. I think this is important because all too often only remember the details that are important to us. It's easy to claim that the Bible says little about Mary. It's harder to take to heart everything that it does say:

• Highly favored one (1:28). 
• The Lord is with you (1:28)
• Blessed are you among women (1:28)
• You have found favor with God (1:30)
• Blessed are you among women (1:42)
• Blessed is the fruit of your womb (1:42)
• The mother of my Lord (1:43)
• Henceforth all generations will call me blessed (1:48)
• Blessed is the womb that bore Jesus and the breasts which nursed him (11:27)

Some would interpret Jesus as negating this last statement. I disagree for two reasons:

First, Luke 1:42 - 45 says twice that Mary is blessed and 1:48 says that she will be called blessed by all generations. I believe that the blessed fruit of her womb--the incarnate Word of God--by which this blessedness was communicated to her, recognized the blessing He bestowed. Of all people Jesus "rose up and called her blessed" (Proverbs 31:28).

Second, it is important to remember that we are all reading a translation, and no translator is exempt from bias. Given two equally valid translations, we all choose the one consistent with our theological bias. I am using the NKJ. It says "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Jesus corrects the woman in the crowd not by denouncing, demeaning, and denigrating his mother but by emphasizing her as an example of faith. People are blessed in God's eyes when they, like Mary did so well, hear the word of God and keep it. The Greek word "menounge", here rendered as "more than that" is rendered as "yes, indeed" in Romans 10:18 and "yet indeed" at the beginning of Philippians 3:8. This word corrects not by negating but by amplifying. Jesus' goal always is to encourage people to love God and people. If he were teaching people to love his mother less, he would not be achieving his goal. But if he is setting up his mother as an esteemed model of one who loves God AND furthermore extends the offer of similar intimacy to those who similarly emulate her example, I can see how he would be achieving his goal.

Many Bodies of the Saints Who Had Fallen Asleep Were Raised

During Holy Week, we have a lot of public reading of Scripture. For example, over the course of the morning, afternoon, and evening services yesterday on Great and Holy Friday, all of these were read out loud: http://oca.org/readings/daily/2014/04/18

Right after Jesus died, "the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." (Matt 27:52-53, ESV). What struck me as I was listening to this passage was the order of events. This remarkable occurrence happened not at the point of Jesus' resurrection, but at the point of His death. In other words, as soon as Jesus died, He descended into Hades and began liberating the captives. And as a sign of this reality, some saints were even anticipatorily raised from the dead!

The Church unpacks this mysterious undertaking in many places in her Holy Tradition. First, in a few passages from her Scriptures:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison .... (1 Peter 3:18 - 19, ESV)

And

Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Eph 4:8-10, ESV)

Also, the Church further elaborates in her hymnography . For example, this verse from the Paschal Canon:

You went down to the nether regions of earth,
and You broke apart the bars that forever
were closed on those who were held there, O Christ.
From the sepulcher,
as did Jonah from the whale,
You arose on the third day.

And the paschal troparion that we will tirelessly repeat tonight (our Pascha service starts at 11 p.m. and goes until the wee hours of Sunday morning) as we triumphantly process around the church:

Christ is risen from the dead,
by death trampling down upon death,
and to those in the tombs He has granted life.

And then with masterful rhetoric the Church also captures the exchange in a Paschal sermon of one of her saints, St. John Chrysostom :

No one need lament poverty,
for the kingdom is seen as universal.
No one need grieve over sins;
forgiveness has dawned from the tomb.
No one need fear death;
the Savior's death has freed us from it.
While its captive He stifled it.
He despoiled Hades as He descended into it;
it was angered when it tasted His flesh.
Foreseeing this, Isaiah proclaimed: "Hades," he said, "was angered when he met You below." (Is 14:9 LXX)
It was angered because it was abolished
It was angered because it was mocked
It was angered because it was slain.
It was angered because it was shackled.
It received a body and encountered God.
It took earth and came face-to-face with heaven.
It took what I saw and fell by what if could not see.
Death, where is your sting?
Hades, where is your victory?

So as we can see, even though Jesus was physically dead, He was quite active for those three days in the tomb. Since this activity took place in the unseen realms of the netherworld, it would be really easy to project inactivity onto Him. But in the mysterious raising from the dead of these saints, we catch a glimpse into Jesus' hidden activity. Amen!

My Two Favorite Prayers

I was reminded today of my two favorite prayers, one a morning prayer and the other a prayer before going to bed. The reason they are close to my heart is that they were helpful in my transition from Confessional Calvinism to Orthodoxy. I always have been acutely aware of my brokenness and my dire need for God's mercy. Many years ago, this is what attracted me to Confessional Calvinism. It provided a model (TULIP) for explaining the data in my experience (namely, total depravity) and for providing foundation of hope (namely, perseverance of the saints). When I was on the threshold of Orthodoxy, renouncing TULIP was actually much harder for me than accepting the Orthodox veneration of the Theotokos. I had lingering suspicions about this emphasis on free will in Orthodoxy because it threatened what I perceived was the only hope of my salvation: the sovereign grace of God.

However, when I ran across these two prayers--both prescribed to be prayed every day--my heart was finally set at peace. These two prayers epitomized the sentiment of my prayers as a Confessional Calvinist, and yet--to my surprise--they were not just compatible with the free will of Orthodoxy but actually prescribed to be prayed every day as part of the process of transforming my mind.

Feast with me on this morning prayer:

My most merciful and all-merciful God, Lord Jesus Christ, through Thy great love Thou didst come down and take flesh to save all. And again, O Saviour, save me by Thy grace, I pray Thee, for if Thou shouldst save me for my works, this would not be grace or a gift, but rather a duty. Indeed, in Thy infinite compassion and unspeakable mercy, Thou O my Christ hast said: Whoever believes in Me shall live and never see death. If faith in Thee saves the desperate, save me, for Thou art my God and Creator. Impute my faith instead of deeds, O my God, for Thou wilt find no deeds which could justify me, but may my faith suffice for all my deeds. May it answer for and acquit me, and may it make me a partaker of Thy eternal glory. And may satan not seize me, O Word, and boast that he has torn me from Thy hand and fold. O Christ, my Saviour, whether I will or not, save me. Make haste, quick, quick, for I perish. Thou art my God from my mother's womb. Grant me, O Lord, to love Thee now as once I loved sin, and also to work for Thee without idleness, as I worked before for deceptive satan. But supremely shall I work for Thee, my Lord and God, Jesus Christ, all the days of my life, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. (http://www.orthodox.cn/liturgical/prayerbook/daily/morning.htm#15)

And this evening prayer, whose very wording was reminiscent of my prayers as a Confessional Calvinist ("May my brokenness not overcome your grace."):

O Lord, Lover of men, is this bed to be my coffin, or wilt Thou enlighten my wretched soul with another day? Here the coffin lies before me, and here death confronts me. I fear, O Lord, Thy Judgment and the endless torments, yet I cease not to do evil. My Lord God, I continually anger Thee, and Thy immaculate Mother, and all the Heavenly Powers, and my holy Guardian Angel. I know, O Lord, that I am unworthy of Thy love, but deserve condemnation and every torment. But, whether I want it or not, save me, O Lord. For to save a good man is no great thing, and to have mercy on the pure is nothing wonderful, for they are worthy of Thy mercy. But show the wonder of Thy mercy on me, a sinner. In this reveal Thy love for men, lest my wickedness prevail over Thy unutterable goodness and mercy. And order my life as Thou wilt. (http://www.orthodox.cn/liturgical/prayerbook/daily/beforesleep.htm#19)

Amen!