The Jesus Prayer Part 8 - Christ and King Cyrus

Ezra 1:1-2 (KJV)
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

John 2:19-22
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

This will be my third post on what it means to say that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. The first mention of an anointed in the Old Testament was the priesthood of Aaron and the second is of the kings of Israel being anointed to rule over God's people. King Cyrus is a type of how the two roles are brought together and fulfilled in one person. Historically, he is the one who gave the decree allowing the Jews to return home from their exile and rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

The prophecy spoken by Jeremiah that is referenced in Ezra and 2 Chronicles is that of "Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof." Isaiah prophecies in chapter 44 that Jerusalem will be inhabited and the decayed places will be raised up. In Chapter 45, the Lord says through the prophet that Cyrus is His anointed and that "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.".

This theme of rebuilding God's city and temple, freeing His people from bondage, and gathering them together unto Himself is found throughout the Old Testament. In the Psalms we find statements about building up Zion and Jerusalem like "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.", "For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.", "When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.", and "The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel." Amos prophecies "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.", and Zechariah prophecies "And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.". Notice how Zechariah prophecies that the one who "shall sit and rule upon his throne" as king is the same person as the "priest upon his throne".

All of this is fulfilled in Jesus by His death and resurrection. It is the Temple of His Body that is crucified and then raised up. Jesus said that if He is raised up (on the cross), that He would draw all people unto Himself. It is also the basis for our worship, that is the worship that He established that is in Spirit and in truth.

It is said in Luke 1:74 "That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear", the last enemy being destroyed of course is death, which was defeated in His crucifixion and resurrection in glory. The service that we have been freed to offer to God is the worship in Spirit and in truth that Jesus spoke of to the samaritan woman at the well. With circumcision being the sign of God's people, Paul writes that we as Christians are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and elsewhere that this circumcision is "made without hands" where we are "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.". We are to continue in being united with Him through the celebration of Holy Communion where we gather on sunday, the day of the week on which our Lord was raised from the dead, in order to proclaim the sacrifice of His death until He returns as often as we "eat of this bread" and "drink of this cup".

By being united to Jesus through His Church, we become God's people, ransomed by His blood on the cross and freed from death by His glorious resurrection. Jesus gave His apostles the promise that through them and on Peter our Lord would build His Church over which the gates of hell would never prevail. Paul describes the Church as being "God's building" which the apostles all labor together to build up, trusting in God to give the increase. The Church is the Body of Christ, over which Christ Himself is the Head. There are many members, being all joined together, which no member can say to another "I don't need you", that all work together to form the Body. Being united to Christ, we are individually members of Him and the Body of His Church. Being "bought with a price", our bodies become temples of God and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is why we are taught to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God as our "reasonable service" (worship according to the Word spoken of in John 1:1-14).

Being united to Christ through His death and resurrection, may I learn to better glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are God's, so that I may offer myself up to God as a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, which is my reasonable service to Him.

The Jesus Prayer Part 7 - Christ the King

Zech 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Matt 21:7-9
And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

This post I'm going to talk a little bit about the Christ as King. The two kings that are found anointed in the Old Testament are first Saul and then David. They were anointed for the purpose of ruling over God's people, which at the time was the undivided kingdom of Israel. The promise was given that God gives great deliverance to His king and mercy to His anointed, and that it would be to David and to his seed forever more.

Throughout the Old Testament, even though Israel had a king to rule over them, it was always God who was their true King, and it was by God's authority that the king ruled. This is why even after David had been anointed as king and Saul was still alive, David would not rise up against Saul.  It was not until after Saul had died in battle that David took the throne. The Psalms are full of verses proclaiming that God is king over all the earth, His throne is forever, and that His dominion endures throughtout all generations.

Jesus, being the Seed of David as traced through Matthew's geneology, and being the Word made flesh who was with God in the beginning and was God, is heir to the kingdom and ruler over all. He fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah in His entrance into Jerusalem that we celebrate on Palm Sunday, and of all the accusations that were made against Him, It was only for being "King of the Jews" that was written on the cross as his reason for being crucified.

He is King over God's people and over all of creation. Psalm 2 says that He would receive the heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Psalm 22 says that He is Governor among all nations, and Zechariah says that He will be king over all the earth. This is fulfilled in Jesus being the name to which every knee shall bow, and also in the grafting of the gentiles into the Church as His kingdom. Ephesians says that it is in Him, through the cross, that we are fellow citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God. It is because of this all encompassing authority of God that we are commanded to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching to observe what we have been commanded to keep.

So how do we become citizens of God's kingdom? We become citizens of His kingdom here on earth by being baptized into Christ by the power of His death and resurrection identifying us as believers and disciples. Being given the promise of citizenship in His eternal kingdom, we are to persevere in faith in order to attain to the resurrection.

There are a number of instructions given as guidance on how to do this. Jesus says that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom but those who do the will of His Father. We are to humble ourselves as little children. We are to take care how we hear, to have our hearts be like the good soil into which the seed of the message of the Gospel takes root and grows producing much fruit in us. We are to trade in all that we have in order to receive it as the pearl of great price. We are to forgive others knowing the depths of which God's forgiveness has been extended to us. We are to receive the invitation given to us and to come prepared like in the parable of the wedding feast. We are to recognize and honor the image and likeness of God in human beings just as the sheep on christ's right hand. We are to cut off our hand and pluck out our eye, that means severing attachments to things of the world that come between us and God and to prefer God above all things. We are to wisely invest the talents given to us by God in order to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

And as Christ said that the violent take the kingdom by force, we must actively seek God and press toward Him and be conformed to Christ. This means we have to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, which requires every bit of effort that we are capable of putting forward in the struggle to walk by faith. There will come times when we will fail and fall in our struggles, but we are not to despair. We are to trust in God and, as Peter did when he started sinking in the water, reach our hand out and yell "save me" when we find ourselves placing our focus on the storm around us instead of on Christ in Whom we are saved.

May god give me the strength to walk according to His kingdom in which He reigns and is clothed with majesty.

The Jesus Prayer Part 6 - Christ as The Great High Priest

1sam 2:10 (KJV)
The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Acts 17:3
Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

Why do we call Jesus "Christ"? What does it mean to be the Christ? The word "Christ" means "anointed". In the Old Testament, there are only a handfull of people that are called "anointed". The first to be found is Aaron and his sons who were anointed to serve as high priest in the Tabernacle and then the Temple. Next, we find kings Saul and then David who were anointed to rule over God's people. Finally, a reference is made to Cyrus, the king of Persia who ended the captivity by allowing the Jews to return home and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, as being the Lord's anointed. Instead of one really long post covering how Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of these three types, I will break it down into sections covering each.

The anointed high priest in the Old Testament was Aaron. He was anointed by first being washed in water and then anointed in oil. His purpose as high priest was to serve in the Tabernacle at the altars (one for offering incense and one for burnt offerings).

Just as the Lord ordered Aaron to be washed and anointed before serving as the high priest, Jesus also began his earthly ministry in the same way. He went John the Baptist to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness, and after he had come up out of the water, the Holy Spirit was seen descending on Him from above. This is such an important mark the beginning of His ministry, that the Gospel of Mark begins with this event and moves forward from there, and mentions nothing of what Jesus said or did before then.

After having been washed and anointed, Aaron was then dedicated to serving in the Tabernacle and offering the sacrafices on behalf of the people. The New Testament in general proclaims that Jesus offered Himself as the one offering on behalf of all the people as the Great High Priest, but nowhere is this so firmly stated as it is in the book of Hebrews. If I could, I would just copy and paste the entire book here because I can come nowhere close to getting the point across as Hebrews does, but that would make for too long of a post, so I do suggest reading it. We are taught how it behoved the eternal Word of God to become made like unto the brethren where in His Person He fully joined the human and divine natures. He did this both to be a merciful and faithful high priest and to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Being tempted as we are in all ways without sinning, he knows the pain and suffering that we endure on account of our sin and the sins of others. Being without sin Himself, He is holy, undefiled, and doesn't have to offer daily sacrifices for Himself. This makes Him able to offer up Himself once as the Sacrifice without spot or blemish, and this one single offering of Himself is able to be made for all of mankind. The offering that was made was the offering up of Himself on the cross in order to endure our death so that we could be raised up in His resurrection and receive His eternal life.

Seeing then that we have such a Great High Priest, let us hold fast our profession, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross in order to reconcile us to Himself.

September 11, 2001

Ps 112:6-7 (KJV)
Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.

Prov 10:7 (KJV)
The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.

On sept 11, 2001, two jets crashed into the twin towers in New York city, one into the Pentagon, and another was hijacked but failed to reach its inteded target, crashing in a field in Pennsylvania. Many were killed in the plane crashes and the detruction of the buildings that were destroyed, and gave their lives in response to the tragedies that had occurred. Police, firmen, and paramedics scrambled to the scenes of the devastation while our nation's entire military was immediately put on high alert.

Just as Paul expressed in writing a prayer for the departed Onesiphorous, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day", and the thief on the cross asked of Christ "Lord, remember me when thou comest ino thy kingdom", we Orthodox ask the Lord to remember those departed this life. We do this out of faith in the Lord and out of love for the departed. Here is the litany for the departed as found on the OCF* web site:


Priest: Have mercy upon us, O God, according to Thy great mercy, we beseech Thee: hear us, and have mercy.

People: Lord, have mercy. (three times)

Priest: Furthermore we pray for the repose of the soul(s) of the servant(s) of God (name-s of the deceased), departed from this life, and that Thou wilt pardon all his (or her or their) sins, both voluntary and involuntary.

People: Lord, have mercy. (three times)

Priest: That the Lord God will establish his (or her or their) soul(s) where the just repose.

People: Lord, have mercy. (three times)

Priest: The mercies of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the remission of his (or her or their) sins, we ask of Christ, or King Immortal and our God.

People: Grant this, O Lord.

Priest: Let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy. (one time)

Priest: O God of spirits, and of all flesh, Who hast trampled down death by death, and overthrown the Devil, and hast bestowed life upon Thy world: do Thou Thyself, O Lord, grant rest to the soul(s) of Thy departed servant(s), (name-s of the deceased), in a place of brightness, a place of verdure, a place of repose, whence all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled away. As the gracious God, Who lovest mankind, pardon every transgression which he (or she or they) has (or have) committed, whether by word, or deed, or thought. For Thou alone art without sin, and Thy righteousness is to all eternity, and Thy word is truth. For Thou art the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Repose of Thy departed servant(s) (name-s of the deceased). O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting, and Thine All-Holy, and Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

People: Amen.


May the Lord God remember those who died in the attacks and in response to those attacks, and may their memory be eternal.

*http://www.ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/liturgy/liturgy.html

The Jesus Prayer Part 5 - Jesus

Matt 1:21
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Is 43:11
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

Jesus is the name above every name to which every knee shall bow. What exactly is in a name? Well, in ancient times and especially in scripture, everything. For example, Adam means man (as in mankind, not male) because he is the single human from which our entire race originates, and means "red earth" because he was formed from the earth. "Jesus" is rooted in the name "Joshua" and comes from a combination of "Lord" and "to save".

That word for "save" in the Old Testament is usually translated as "save" but can also be found translated as "defend" and "victory". In most places it is used, it generally refers to some sort of military victory. The watchword given in 2 Maccabee 13:15 was "Victory is of God", which in hebrew would have been where we get the name "Jesus" from. The wars found in the Old Testament were not wars between people, but between the true God and other gods. The struggles of God's people against other gods and their victory coming from God and as a result of their faithfulness to Him are types to be fulfilled in Christ's victory over sin and death and our participation in that victory by being faithful to Him. It can also be found used in the Old testament in reference to saving the poor and needy from those that oppress them.

In the New testament, the word used in Matthew 1:21 to say that Jesus will "save" people from their sins literally means "to be made whole" and can be found translated as "save", "heal", and "make whole". The wide application of this word is used to describe both, the range of the effects of sin (which I hope to go into more detail in a later post in this series of posts on the Jesus prayer), and the complete undoing of sin accomplished by Christ crucified and raised from the dead. It is used to describe the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, the expelling of demons, the healing of leprosy, the raising of the dead, the giving of sight to the blind, when Peter and John healed the man in the temple, pulling Peter out of the water, and the forgiveness of sins. It is even used when Jesus is mocked on the cross being told to "Save thyself, and come down from the cross.".

The salvation that Christ offers "from their sins" is accomplished by the power of His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead and is ultimately fulfilled in the general resurrection when Christ shall return. It is a gift of God offered to us because we are not capable of saving ourselves and God does not desire the destruction of His creation. Paul begins the 15th chapter of 2 Corinthians (dealing with the resurrection) by saying that we are saved if we keep in memory that which he preached. It is written in Romans 6 that we are united in Christ's death and raised to newness of life through our baptism into Christ. This is why it is written elsewhere that we are saved "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" and Peter writes that "baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ".

Baptism is our entrance into our life in Christ, but not the end. That is why we are instructed to "run with patience the race that is set before us" and "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.". This is why in the face of adversity and knowledge of our failures we must "call on the name of the Lord" to be saved. We must also continually hold fast to our confession of the Lord Jesus and and the belief in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead. We are told to "save" ourselves (1 Timothy 4:16) by following Christ, and that by drawing others closer to Christ, we can "save" them and "hide a multitude of sins" (1 Corinthians 7:16, 9:22, James 5:20, Jude 1:23) by bringing them closer to Christ, Who is the only salvation.

May God give me the endurance to run the race set before me and to hold fast to the confession of the Lord Jesus and that Victory is of God.