18 HE GOES BEFORE YOU TO GALILEE, Jan 12 2025

Ephesians 4.7 – 13

Matthew 4.12 – 17

Dear faithful, you remember that the LORD said to His disciples: ‘After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.’ [Mat 26.32] And, when the Myrrhbearing women entered His Tomb, the Angel said to them: ‘He has risen! He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.’ (Mar 16.5-7)

In our Gospel this morning, we see Christ, having risen from the Jordan and triumphed over the devil in the wilderness, coming to Galilee. But, illumined by the Light of His Holy Pascha, we see Him this morning going before us into Galilee in His Church, in His crucified Body risen from the dead, having triumphed over the devil in His Holy Resurrection. And we see Him settling, as it says, in Capernaum, which, it says, is beyond the Sea.

Capernaum was a village only relatively recently built, after the return of the exiles from Babylon. The name means, ‘Village of Consolation.’ It is situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee near the place where the Jordan flows into the Sea.

Geography is theology in Holy Scripture. The geography of Capernaum evokes Ezekiel’s vision of the snow-melt River that issued from the east gate of the Temple that was in the city on top of a Mountain. In the Light that shines from the New Testament, from Christ, the True Light coming into the world, that River is easily seen to be the LORD Jesus Christ, not to mention that its identity as the LORD Himself is explicitly given in Isaiah [55.10 & 66.12] and in Ben Sirach [24.23-34]. And the Temple on the Mountain we know from the Church is the Theotokos.

The River flows, it says, from the East Gate of the Temple into the desert and into Galilee, all the way to the outlet of the sea [Eze 47.1-12], which we recognize at once as an image of the Tomb of the LORD’s Holy Pascha.

In the Radiant Light that emanates from the LORD’s Tomb (Lk 23.54), we recognize Capernaum, the Village of Comfort, as the Church. It is situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee as the Church is situated on this side of the LORD’s Tomb, in this world. Capernaum is situated where the waters of the Jordan flow into the ‘outlet’ of the Sea. And in the Church that opens onto Eden, the waters of this life, sanctified by the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Church’s Baptismal Font, filled with the Living Waters of Christ’s Holy Spirit, flow into the outlet of the Sea, the Tomb of the Savior’s Holy Resurrection, and out into the unfathomable Sea of God’s compassion in the ‘deep, beyond all things.’ (Jer 17.9 LXX)

Dear faithful, we were those sitting in darkness, in the region and shadow of death on whom a great Light has dawned. The risen LORD Jesus Christ is that Light, and He has gone before us to Galilee, and He has come to dwell among us in Capernaum, in His Church, the Village of Consolation, having triumphed over the devil in the wilderness on this side, and in hell on the other side!

This morning, we stand in the Church on 38th and 54th. We are standing mystically in Capernaum, the Village of Consolation. Here is where the Great Light of the LORD’s Compassion dawns on the whole earth. Here is where the Great Light of the First Day of the New Creation dawns on the Sabbath [epefwsken], the Last Day of this creation, from the LORD’s crucified Body that has risen, as a Great Light, from the darkness of the Tomb! (Lk 23.54)

It’s our epistle this morning that confirms our Paschal reading of this morning’s Gospel, its theology uncovered by the Angel’s word to the Myrrhbearing Women at the Tomb of the LORD’s Resurrection: ‘Lo, He goes before you into Galilee! There you will see Him as He told you!’

St Paul writes: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ St Paul is quoting from the 68th Psalm, the source of the Paschal hymn: ‘Let God arise! Let His enemies be scattered! Let those who hate Him flee from before His face! As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish, as wax melts before the fire, so the sinners will perish before the Face of God! But let the righteous rejoice!’

Our Gospel this morning reveals that the ‘Immanuel’ of the Christmas hymn, the ‘God who is with us,’ is the risen LORD Jesus. And He is with us here and now in this world, because He has settled in Capernaum on the western shore of the Sea. He ‘is in our midst’ because He dwells with us here in this world in His Church on this side of the grave, having destroyed death by His death and having opened Eden to all. In the Church, the Edenic mountain rises up to the Heavens before us, beckoning us to descend into the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Church’s Baptismal Font, and to the better and changeless Path that ascends to God.

Remember what He told His disciples in His Resurrection, before He ascended into Heaven. He said that He would not leave us orphan. And indeed, He sent down His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, upon all those gathered in the Upper Room and the Church that before was barren became Capernaum, the Village of Consolation, newly built here in the world on this, the western shore of the Sea, as the Door that carries us through the ‘outlet of the sea,’ the LORD’s Tomb, and out into the deep, beyond all things, in His Holy Resurrection as communicants of Christ (He 3.14) and partakers of His divine nature (2 Pt 1.4).

Dear faithful, we read in the Psalms: ‘As a lump of earth is crushed upon the ground, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.’ [Psa 141:7] But, the LORD says to His prophet: ‘I will bring my people again through the depths of the sea.’ [Ps 67.22 LXX] And, sure enough! We read in St Matthew, ‘Going throughout the whole of Galilee [as Ezekiel’s snow-melt River], He preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, and He healed every disease and every malady among the people.’ (Mt 1.23)

Here we see in our Gospel this morning an icon of the LORD going throughout the whole world in His Body, the Church, to ‘gather’ all those who love Him and who seek after Him, who have been ‘scattered’ and brought low because of their iniquities and have drawn near the gates of death [Ps 106.17-18 LXX].

We see in the Winter Pascha’s Feasts of Light, as we call them – Christmas, Theophany, the Meeting of the LORD – how the LORD has drawn so very near to us that He became a partaker of our flesh and blood [Heb 2.14-15], even to the point of death on the Cross. [Phil 2.5-11] And we see in our Gospel this morning that it was from this moment when He settled in Capernaum, in His Holy Church, the Village of Consolation here on this side of the grave on the western shore of the Sea, in the mystery of Pentecost, that Jesus begins to proclaim: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’

Do you hear? The LORD has come to dwell among us in His Holy Church. God is with us who are sitting in the region and shadow of death. As He comes to the tomb of Lazarus at the end of Great Lent, so He comes to each one of us, His lost sheep, and He is heard even now, in His Holy Church, crying out to each one of us: ‘[You who are lying in the region and shadow of death; you who have been brought low because of your iniquities and have drawn near the gates of death], come forth!’ Enter Eden, for it has been opened to all. Become a communicant of My Body and Blood, for it is the Fruit of the Tree of Life, and eating of it, you shall not die as Adam, but live. So flee the corruption that is in this world through lust and become partakers of my divine nature! (2 Pt 1.4)

Dear faithful: this New Exodus of the Gospel is the Path of Great Lent we are now preparing to step onto! How do we answer the LORD’s call to repent, to ‘come forth’? Let’s begin preparing ourselves mentally for the Great Fast. Let’s ‘repent,’ let’s turn our mind to the East, to Christ, away from the west, away from the darkness of this world. By anchoring our inner man on Christ, by incorporating our worldly life into the divine Life of the Church, we can begin even now to take up our cross to follow Our LORD Jesus Christ into the wilderness of our soul and into the tomb of our heart all the way to the outlet of the Sea in the Joy of the LORD’s Dread, Most Fearsome and Most Holy Resurrection! Amen!