Crucified with Christ

(21st Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 8:5-15)

St. Paul, writing to the Church in Galatia, says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” This is a particularly appropriate text for us, as last week, on Wednesday, new life was granted to four new members of the household of God, four new members of the Body of Christ. Remember the significance of your baptism and chrismation, as St. Paul writes: When we are baptized, we are buried with Christ in His death, and raised to new life in Him. Our entry into the water of the font, being submerged in it, is likened to being buried in the grave; and, as Christ rose from the grave, and so conquering death and entering into life without end, we also, raised with Him, enter into life without end. After being baptized, each of us can say what St. Paul said: “Christ lives in me.” The challenge for each of us thereafter is to make this a reality – to show forth the life of Christ in our own lives.

Do others see Christ in you? If not, why not? This is a part of the challenge, this is a part of the struggle we face as Orthodox Christians: To turn away from the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to walk instead in the way that God has established for us. We have Christ living in us – but when we sin, we hide His face beneath the filth of our sins. He cannot be seen, because we live in the flesh, and not in the Spirit, Who will lead us into all truth, and will do in and through us good works, if we will let go of our attachments to this world, and the pleasures, momentary and temporary as they are, of our sins. As long as we do not do our part to be transformed, as long as we neglect the way of life that is ours for the taking – of prayer, and fasting, and giving, and struggling against our passions, struggling to acquire the virtues – humility, chastity, self-control, generosity, and, above all, love – His life will be hidden and unseen in us.

This is what St. Paul means when he says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” It means he has lived the way of the Orthodox life: he has struggled to live as Christ lived in our midst, without sin, doing the will of our Father in heaven. There is a connection between the Passion of our Lord in His death, and our striving to be dead to sins – for we suffer when we pursue righteousness. It isn’t easy to turn down that delicious food (“just a little taste, just one more bite”). It isn’t easy to say, “Lord, have mercy” or “Lord, forgive them” when someone has done something we don’t like, and would respond with angry words or actions against them. It isn’t easy to look at someone else and say, “My sins are worse than theirs.” Yet each time we do so, we put our flesh to death – and so we are also crucified with Christ, when we actively struggle against our sins.

It is not possible for us to do this on our own. We need help. The good news is, help is there! We receive the Holy Spirit when we are chrismated; and He will help us, if we let Him. When we pray, we draw near to God, and that helps make us different persons. When we fast, we teach our flesh that it cannot always have what it wants, and we strengthen ourselves for the labor of purity and righteousness. When we give, we set ourselves free from attachments to this world. And when we receive the holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have Him living in us in a most profound and wonderful way – and we are empowered by Him to live His life.

Brothers and sisters: We have been given a marvelous gift – the life of Christ in us. We were washed clean of our sins in baptism; but have fouled ourselves once more by our sins. Let us repent of our sins, and confess them to God, that we might be made clean once more by His grace. Let us rejoice in the life of Christ in us; and let us commit ourselves to the Orthodox way of life, that we might be transformed into His likeness, and show Him forth, in holiness and love, for all the world to see. Let us prepare ourselves to receive Him, and His most holy Body and Blood, that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He, in us – to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls.