Hebrews 12:1-10; John 1:43-51
Our Lenten
journey, and our entire Chrisitan vocation, is not an escapist distraction from
living faithfully in our bodies or in our world. Quite the opposite, the icons call us to
embrace the struggle to find healing for every dimension of our personal and
collective brokenness. The God-Man makes us participants
in His salvation such that even our deepest struggles may become points of
entrance into the blessedness of His Kingdom.
During this season of Lent, we must pray, fast, give, forgive, and confess
and repent of the ways in which we have refused to embrace our calling to
become ever more beautiful living icons of Christ. Embracing this struggle is necessary for us
to gain the spiritual clarity to see that every human person bears the divine
image as much as we do. If we are
approaching this season with any measure of integrity, the ways in which we
have fallen short of our high calling will quickly become apparent to us. The more we struggle against our slavery to self-centered
desires, the more obvious their hold upon us will become. If you have been surprised during the first
week of the Great Fast how your passions have reared their ugly heads, that is
likely a sign that your Lenten journey is off to a good start.
We must not despair when we catch
a glimpse of our brokenness, however, because our goal is not mere psychological
adjustment, moral progress, or any type of success according to conventional
standards. It not the kind of pagan virtue
rejected by the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia, whom we commemorate this
day. As first-rate Roman soldiers who
were also Christians, they refused to worship the gods of Rome, even though
that meant standing in a freezing lake all night and then having their legs
broken as they departed this life. They refused
to place earthly glory, political favor, and even life itself in this world
before obedience to the command given in today’s epistle reading: “[L]et us run with perseverance the
race that is set before us, looking to Jesus: the Pioneer and Perfecter of our
faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” They did not wear earthly crowns but were
instead crowned as martyrs who experienced what the Savior promised to Nathanael
in today’s gospel reading: “[Y]ou will see heaven opened, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
As those who bear the divine image and likeness, our calling is to die
to all that would keep us from sharing fully in the eternal life of the God-Man. Though doing so is truly an eternal goal, we participate
already in a foretaste of such blessedness when we follow the martyrs’ example of
refusing to worship the false gods of this world and instead take up our
crosses as we reorient the desires of our hearts and our bodily actions toward
the new day of His Kingdom.
Even as the
icons proclaim the truth of our Lord’s incarnation through materials like paint
and wood, they call us to manifest His holiness in our own bodies. They remind us to make our daily physical actions
tangible signs of Christ’s salvation. In
fasting, we limit our self-indulgence in food in order to gain strength to purify
and redirect our desires toward God and away from gratifying bodily pleasures. In almsgiving, we limit our trust in
possessions in order to grow in love for our neighbors, in whom we encounter
the Lord. In prayer, we limit our
obsession with our thoughts and usual distractions to become more fully present
to God as we open our hearts to Him. As
experience teaches anyone who fasts, gives, and prays with integrity, even our
smallest efforts to practice these disciplines reveal that there is much within
us that would rather remain in the darkness of corruption.
Nonetheless, we
must remember that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and called to
become radiant with the glory of our Lord’s resurrection. Literally no aspect of our humanity is
excluded from the vocation to shine with God’s gracious divine energies. No
matter how difficult the struggle with our passions may be, we must not become
practical iconoclasts by refusing the calling to become more beautiful living
icons of Christ in any aspect of our existence, regardless of what it may be. Instead, we must open even the dark, ugly, and
distorted dimensions of our lives to the healing light of Christ as we call out
for His mercy from the depths of our hearts. The more we are aware of the
darkness of our souls, the more we must persist in lifting up our hearts to receive
His light.
The Savior entered
fully into death through His Cross in order to overcome the corruption of the
first Adam. He rose and ascended in
glory in order to make us radiant with His holiness. He has made the Holy Forty
Martyrs of Sebastia and all the Saints participants in the new day of His
Kingdom. As we celebrate the historical restoration of
icons today, let us continue the Lenten journey in ways that will enable us to
become more beautiful living icons of God, for that is what it means to become
truly human. Let us refuse to worship at
the pagan altars of pride, power, and pleasure, no matter how attractively they
are marketed to us today or how noble they may seem. Instead, let us humbly embrace the
disciplines of this season as ways to prepare to “see heaven opened, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” We must live accordingly each day of our
lives, if we are to “lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely;
and…run with perseverance the race that is set before us…”
