Kyriaki – Sunday Sermonette

Issue No. 774

“May His Blood Be Upon Us, and Upon Our Children” (Matt. 27: 25)

«Tὸ αἶμα αὐτοῦ ἐφ᾽ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ τἐκνα ἡμῶν»

No man can remain indifferent before the passions, the sufferings of the Lord. So long as in the world there is pain, martyrdom and death, in the heart of each person a mystical Shakesperian drama shall be played out. But the dramas of humans are small before the divine drama, which, also, grants redemption.

I stress this. Outside of the Crucified [One], to whom we pay homage today, the life of man is either a comedy or a tragedy. The solution to the drama is only the Crucified [One].

What tongue shall be capable of describing the divine drama? We humble, slave servants of the Most High, worms that slither before the Crucified [One], shall endeavor to draw up again an aspect of the divine drama.

***

Noetically, intelligibly, mentally we are found in Jerusalem, outside of the preatorium of Pilate.

Still yet before morning, poisonous snakes came out of their holes, [real] beasts, monsters and wolves. They are the high-priests, the Pharisees and the mob. The city is shaking.  They seek the condemnation of Jesus. Pilate percieves his innocence. Inside him speaks Roman Law, [the just cause.]  He has researched, and the conclusion was one of innocence, that is that he was absolved of guilt: “I find no cause [of guilt] in him” (John 18:38). The gaze of Jesus is tranquil, his stance superb, the meekness of his character grandiose, [majestic], the brilliance of his personality or figure is irrepeatable, his silence revelatory, revealing. Jesus spoke not like Socrates did to the court of Athens, who was trying with his marvelous APOLOGY (Defense) to persuade the judges that he was innocent.

The ruler was amazed over the silence of Christ. And he also was amazed even more when his spouse, Claudia Procla, had sent him a message, saying: “Have nothing to do with that just man; for I suffered many things today in a dream on account of him” (ibid 27:19).

A battle took place in Pilate’s soul. But at the last moment, he buckles and he signs the condemnation of Jesus. He became afraid with the threats. But before he signed, “taking water he washed his hands before the mob saying: I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see for yourselves with respect to this matter: (ibid 27:24).

Pilate, what are you doing? You are playing with your conscience? Why,.. is it possible by washing your hands to exonerate yourself from this crime? Not the water of the cistern, but all the waters of rivers and lakes are not capable of washing it [your crime] away.

And the people, that is watching this scene, like rabid, maniacal dogs that do not know their master and bite, would shout: “His blood be upon us and upon our children” (ibid 27:25). Don’t pay attention to it, Pilate, do not become perturbed; we shall be responsible on this account: let his blood weigh down upon us as well as down upon our children.

***

They cursed their own selves, they cursed themselves. And the curse took force as much as never before. The crime of Calvary (Golgotha) did not remain unpunished.

Judas, the most guilty human person, in moments of regret shouted: ‘I have sinned by betraying the blood of an innocent man. …And (thus) departing he (went out and) hung himself (ibid 27: 4-5). That was the end of Judas.

Herod, who mocked Christ by giving him a reed, was dethroned the following year.

Pontios Pilate had no better end. He remained ruler for a year or two, but after the slanders and calumnies of the Israelites he fell from his office, was exiled to Switzerland, to the Alpine Penninsula Mountain range. And one day, escaping the attention of his holy wife, he went up on a rock, fell into a lake and committed suicide.

The High-priests, Annas and Kaiaphas, the relentless enemies of Christ, also had miserable ends. Annas was chopped into pieces and Caiaphas died in exile.

The priests of Jerusalem were slaughtered and their corpses filled the temple of Solomon.

Now the people, who, when Pilate asked “Shall I crucify your king?” responded “We have no king but Ceasar” (John 19:15), was punished. They wanted Ceasar. And Ceasar in 70 A.D., forty years after the Crucifixion, surrounded, laid siege upon Jerusalem so narrowly, that fearful starvation broke out. The historical science tells us, that one woman in Jerusalem slaughtered her little boy, cooked him and ate him! There then sprawled in the legions of Titus, slaughtered the priests, torched the temple of Solomon. They levelled, literally mowed-down everything. They passed over the ground with a grazer. Titus commanded a general slaughter. He was crucifying them for the span of three days! The supply of the wood in the forests became depleted, and only then did he stop. 1,600,000 corpses were of those that were deadened as well as of those that dying from starvation. A catastrophe never before seen. And of the 67,000 that remained, these were sold to slave merchants of Alexandria for a most demeaning price. Judas sold Christ for 33 pieces of silver; the Romans sold them for a dinariai, that is, for a drachma (in 1980, 100 Greek drachmas were worth one US dollar).

“Let his blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matthew 27:25). Certain people look for proofs, to determine whether the Gospel is true or not. And I answer them: Only the [existence of the] Hebrew race suffices to prove, that the Gospel is 100% true; it is a proof of its [the gospels] truth.

***

But, my beloved, the Jews are not the only ones guilty of the crime of Golgotha (Cavalry). We are too. And the whole world is too.

From the time that Christ was crucified 20 centuries have elapsed. If you would ask me, In what century was the most unjust blood spilled, I will without hesitation respond: The 20^th century, the century of rockets and of science, is the most criminal century of all.

Do you doubt it? Do you want me to tell you the crimes of the 20^th century? Two-three I will tell you.

In the beginning of the century 1,000,000 innocent Armenians, meek, harmless lambs, were slaughtered from the knife of the Turks. But “their blood upon them and upon their children”.

You want another crime: 1,500,000 Greeks were also slaughtered by the knife of that abominable people of the East, and no one was moved. There bones are still scattered from Trapezounta to Smyrna and throughout all of Asia Minor

Do you want another crime? The First World War. Oh my God, how many young people were murdered! “But the lawless Judas was not willing to come to his senses”. WWI could not even pass when WWII came. 2,500,000 Jews were burned like candles in the crematoriums and the furnaces of Hitler. “May his blood be upon us and upon our children”

The blood of millions of victims shakes Europe. It shall shake her for 100 years, and Turkey for still more years. Do you want proof? The famous Menteres was a 20 year old boy, when in Aidinio he cut out the tongues of 300 Greek scouts. What was his end? “And going out he hung himself” (Matt. 27:5).

God exists, justice exists. The criminals shall pay with interest upon interest on account of their crimes. The Crucified One exists, who is long-suffering, but the moment for payment is arriving.

God, my beloved, calls us too through the disasters and calamities and scourges of God, through earthquakes and other phenomena so that we might repent, before WWIII comes, Armaggedon of the Apocalypse (Revelation 16:16).

Today, Good Friday, who knows in how many points of the earth there is still war, bombs are falling and innocent people are being killed who are defending on account of their freedom! On such  a holy day blood is shed. And for the executioners of all those victims it can be said: “His blood be upon us and upon our children”.

Now what remains? As many of you who have a heart, as many who have feelings, sentiments, as many of you who have not become stones and rocks, kneel down and beg the Lord for as many of those who were slaughtered as innocent lambs: May God grant them rest, and receive us in sincere repentance saying: «Remember me, O Lord, when You enter into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Amen.

by the blessed + bishop Father Augustine Nicholas Kantiotes.