The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (10:32-45)
At that time, Jesus took His twelve Disciples, and began to tell them what was to happen to Him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Him, and said to Him, “Teacher, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire” And Jesus said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” And they said to Him, “Grant us to sit, one at Thy right hand and one at Thy left, in Thy glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to Him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to Him and said to them, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be servant of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
“O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk. But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to condemn my brother or sister. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.” This is the prayer, attributed to St. Ephrem, that we Orthodox pray all of Lent. And today, on the last Sunday of Lent, we are offered two different stories, both about people who struggled with lust for power and idle talk, and who eventually learned humility and love.
Let me begin with the story from our Gospel reading. In today’s reading from St. Mark Jesus tells his disciples, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit upon Him, and kill Him; and after three days He will rise.” Now, as regularly happened, the disciples hear what they want to hear. Two weeks ago, Jesus began to teach these same things to the disciples, and we heard Peter rebuke his master, unable to accept that Jesus’ path to glory lead through suffering and death.
Today we get to hear two disciples make the opposite mistake. James and John hear these same teachings and seem miss the suffering and death part. They hear Jesus claim to be the Son of Man, the promised Messiah, and want to get some special reward for following him all the way. They figure they got in early, they were loyal, and they should end up in a special position. With this in mind, James and John approach Jesus and ask to be seated with him in His glory, “one on Your right hand and the other on Your left.” Interestingly, when Matthew tells this same story, he places their request in the mouth of their mother. St. John Chrysostum suggests that “the request was theirs, and being ashamed, they put forward their mother.” I like this suggestion that James and John kind of knew they shouldn’t be asking this, but went ahead anyway. Or had their mom do it for them.
Jesus doesn’t say no right away, but being the good and patient teacher, he responds by asking if they can “drink the cup” that He will drink. This is their test. It’s like he’s asking, “Have you been listening? Have you heard what I’m telling you is just about to happen to me? Do you think you can do that with me?” And they fail this test, saying, “Sure we can, no problem.” The cup of which he speaks, of course, is the cross. It’s not that many days from now when Jesus will pray that his might Father this cup from him. We are told this cup makes “his soul very sorrowful, even unto death.” That which grieves the Son of God, James and John take here very lightly.
Jesus doesn’t even really scold them. Maybe the request is just so over the top that Jesus just decides its best to move on. Instead of scolding them for their pride, he in some way consoles them, telling them that they indeed will eventually drink the same cup, but it is not their time yet. “To sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to grant,” he says, “but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Of course, Jesus’ glory is the cross and the seats on his right and on his left will be taken by a pair of thieves. Neither James nor John are ready to drink of this cup. John will make it close, standing at the foot of the cross; James will flee and hide.
Perhaps to assure us that James and John were not alone in their misunderstanding, that all of the disciples were equally foolhardy, Mark tells us that the disciples “began to be greatly displeased with James and John.” So if James and John are displaying lust for power, then here we have a clear display of idle talk among the disciples.
It is not a pretty picture that is painted for us in this reading, so thank God the Church has another story to tell us this morning. This is the story of Fr. Zosimas and St. Mary of Egypt, quite simply one of the most compelling stories in the Orthodox Church.
The story begins with Fr. Zosimas in a place not completely unlike that of James, John, and the other disciples. Fr. Zosimas has been living the life of a monastic since his youth and he doesn’t hesitate to tell people about it. His biographer, St. Sophronius, tells us that: “Zosimas used to relate how, as soon as he was taken from his mother's breast, he was handed over to the monastery where he went through his training as an ascetic till he reached the age of 53.” He would go around telling people this about himself. And more than that, we are told that, “he began to be tormented with the thought that he was perfect in everything and needed no instruction from anyone, saying to himself mentally, ‘Is there a monk on earth who can be of use to me and show me a kind of asceticism that I have not accomplished? Is there a man to be found in the desert who has surpassed me?’” Notice, his biographer is not telling us that he is accomplished. His biographer is telling us that Fr. Zosimas thinks that he very accomplished. And he spends his time telling people about his accomplishments and thinking to himself about how perfect he is.
But an angel is sent to answer his seemingly rhetorical question, and tells him that indeed there is a monastery near the River Jordan where Fr. Zosimas might learn a thing or two. And to his credit, Fr. Zosimas listened to the angel and headed off to find this monastery.
It turned out that the monks at this new monastery were indeed “proficient in both action and contemplation” and Fr. Zosima was greatly inspired. When it came time for Lent, he learned the monks of this monastery spent their Lenten season alone in the wilderness. Their rule demanded that they take whatever they felt they might need for the journey and then spend their days alone in the wilderness. They were told that if they even caught sight of one another, they should move to a different part of the country. And then, when they would return, they we banned from talking about their experience. Their struggle was to be judged by God alone and they were not to “please men and fast before the eyes of all.” Fr. Sophronius tells us that it is for this practice that Fr. Zosima was sent to this particular monastery. And see how it so perfectly fit Fr. Zosima’s sins, his own lust for personal glory and idle talk were futile in this situation.
And so, it is not suprising that Fr. Zosimas struggles with this rule. We are told that in spite of the specific rule to speak with no one, Fr. Zosimas harbored in his heart a secret desire “of finding some father who might be living there and who might be able to satisfy his thirst and longing.” And so he sets out looking for this ideal teacher. And after 20 days alone in the desert, Fr. Zosimas finds a woman living alone in the desert, old, naked, skin burnt dark. He does not know what to think of her, but when she greets him by name he instantly recognizes her sanctity. He throws himself on the ground and begs for her blessing. He gives her his cloak and the two begin to talk. Fr. Zosima asks St. Mary to tell him her story. But where Fr. Zosima had always been so quick to tell people his life story, St. Mary is humble and resists for quite some time. But she finally relents, and it is then that Fr. Zosimas is granted the spirit of humility.
Mary had spent her early life as a true slave to sin. She would labor and beg alms in order to support her sinful lifestyle. On a whim, she fell in with a group of religious pilgrims heading to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life Giving Cross. She joined their pilgrimage with the specific intention of leading the pilgrims into sin for her own amusement. When they arrived at their destination, the pilgrims all went to enter the Church of the Holy Cross. It was there a mysterious force refused her entrance. At that moment, when she was told no, she found herself suddenly seized by a desire to see the True Cross. Seeing an icon of the Mother of God hanging outside the Church, she prayed in earnest for the first time in her life. She related to Fr. Zosima: “And so it was I saw the lifegiving Cross. I saw too the Mysteries of God and how the Lord accepts repentance. Throwing myself on the ground, I worshipped that holy earth and kissed it with trembling. Then I came out of the church and went to her who had promised to be my security, to the place where I had sealed my vow. And bending my knees before the Virgin Mother of God, I addressed to her such words as these: ‘O loving Lady, thou hast shown me thy great love for all men. Glory to God Who receives the repentance of sinners through thee. What more can I recollect or say, I who am so sinful? It is time for me, O Lady to fulfill my vow, according to thy witness. Now lead me by the hand along the path of repentance!’” The Virgin Mary had instructed St. Mary to go here and live beyond the Jordan. And here she had stayed for 47 years.
As they spent time together St. Mary continued to amaze Fr. Zosimas. She cited scripture even though she had never read it; she floated above the ground as she prayed; she knew the rules of Fr. Zosimas’ monastery even though she had never visited it. Fr. Zosimas considered it a strict rule that he and his fellow monks spent forty days in the wilderness alone; St. Mary had lived alone in this desert for 47 years. As he finally departed, St. Mary made one request. On the following year, would Fr. Zosimas bring her communion? He agrees and does this the following year. And shortly thereafter she dies. When Fr. Zosimas goes to bury her, he does not have tools with him and is unable. A desert lion comes and helps him dig the grave.
Fr. Zosimas had lived a life of strict asceticism, but this unlearned lay woman proved herself worthy of becoming his teacher. In many details, St. Mary is described as having returned to the Edenic state. She is living naked in the wilderness, sustaining herself on fruits and herbs. As she leaves after their first meeting, Fr. Zosimas witnesses her speaking directly with the Lord. And when she passes away, it is a lion that comes to dig her grave. Thus, we begin Lent with the story of a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, cast out of a garden because of their pride. And then we end Lent with this story of another man and woman, this time Sts. Zosimas and Mary, showing us the path back to paradise, the path of repentance, repentance that teaches us humility and love.
His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH has been inspired by the story of St. Mary of Egypt when thinking and writing about how we should deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Two of his recent letters remind us that these monks so long ago separated themselves from the Eucharist for all of Lent, leaving behind a few clergy in the monastery to conduct the services. This is an exact image of what we are doing today, except we are not experienced ascetics. And so we need our crutches – we are praying together on Zoom and on Facebook live. Experienced ascetics might be able to go into the desert and pray for days on end by themselves, but we need the help of the choirs and icons and candles and incense and most of all our communities. I’m really enjoying checking in with everybody in our little community and hearing about all the different services we’ve attended during our weekly Zoom coffee hours.
This is a great labor we are being called to take on, but we aren’t the only ones being asked to go above and beyond the call of duty. We are all so grateful for the hard work that our nurses and doctors and other first responders are doing to combat this new and strange foe. And how about the workers at your local carry-out restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, and delivery workers. Did any of them know when they signed up that they would one day be serving on the front lines of what is likely the most defining battle of this decade? Please remember to be patient with them, offer them a smile – or maybe a wink or a thumbs up if you’re wearing a mask – and most of all thank them for being there to provide you those essential services.
Like Sts. Mary and Zosimas we find ourselves in a desert. You might call it a social desert. And I am so proud of our little community here in Davenport as, like St. Mary, I watch you work to transform this strange new desert into a paradise. Earlier this Lent - it seems like ages ago, now - we helped a local friend pay his bills so that his family’s water would not be shut off on him and his family. This friend has since lost some of his work during this crisis, one of his jobs was at a sit down restaurant that has closed, but when I last checked he repeated his gratitude to you and thinks he is currently is in a good place.
We have also raised money to buy water for Humility Homes and Services, who are currently seeing an increased need for their services. Additionally, their work has been made more complicated because they are unable to use their normal facilities with the increased CDC and HUD requirements. This show of love and support from our little community is very welcome in this difficult time.
What a wonder it is to see this fruit springing up in this desert! We have always been a community concerned with the care of our neighbors, but to see such an increased fervor from you in this time of increased trial is truly inspiring to me. Your love is actively transforming this desert into a paradise.
We are told that after his experience with St. Mary in the desert, Fr. Zosimas returned to the monastery, instituted many of the reforms she had suggested, and is remembered today as St. Zosimas. And St. James and St. John may not have ended up at the right and left hand of Jesus on that terrible day, but they did ultimately follow their Lord. We are told that St. James spread the Gospel as far as Spain before returning home to Jerusalem and his own martyrdom. And St. John went on to write the fourth Gospel and multiple epistles before he was ultimately exiled to die on the island of Patmos.
Next week, our Lenten journey will be over and Holy Week will begin. Most of us will be physically standing in our homes, but our hearts will nonetheless arrive along with the other disciples in Bethany, just a couple miles from Jerusalem, at the graveside of our Lord’s beloved friend Lazarus. And with the cry of “Lazarus come forth!” Jesus will show himself to Lord and Master of all, even of Death and Hades. May that same Lord and King grant us the humility, patience, and love we need to survive the coming weeks and months, and most of all to help us not to judge our brothers and sisters, for he alone is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.