The Stone Has Been Rolled Away

Sunday of the Ointment-bearing Women

Acts 6:1-7

Mark 15:43-16:8

God’s plan for mankind was set in motion long before Christ was born.  The Book of Revelation refers to him as the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. In the Book of Hebrews, Paul tells us that the Law was given as a shadow of the “Good Things to Come” - the Gospel. He tells us, “when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well”. And in last week’s Gospel, we see our Lord implementing some of those changes.

    At the Last Supper, He instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist.  Now, the Eucharist is the fulfillment of the Passover Meal. In fact, some have suggested that the Eucharist is the SAME Passover Meal that He began in the upper room, and that it won’t be completed until the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

    In doing so, He acted as High Priest. Then, the night of the Resurrection, He brought the apostles into that priesthood when He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. This priesthood is not only the fulfillment of the Levitical Priesthood, which offered a number of different sacrifices, but also the Priesthood of Melchizedek, who brought an offering of bread and wine to celebrate with Abraham.

    Today’s Epistle reading is found only twice in our Liturgies.  Besides today, it is read in the ordination of the Reader.  How does today related to that?

    The High Priest was a shadow of our Lord’s place in the ministerial economy of the New Covenant.  The levitical priesthood, as I’ve said, was a shadow of the Christian priesthood. They were descendents of Moses’s brother, Aaron, who was a member of the tribe of Levi.

    The rest of the tribe of Levi, the Levites, were the ministers who weren’t priests.  Originally, they were the ones who would carry the parts of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, but, eventually, their duties were to assist the priests, caring for the sacred vessels.  And, as we see in First Chronicles, “they shall stand every morning, thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening, and whenever burnt offerings are offered to the Lord on sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, continually before the Lord. Thus they shall keep charge of the tent of meeting and the sanctuary, and shall attend the sons of Aaron, their brethren, for the service of the house of the Lord.”  Liturgical singing was another duty.

    What we see in today’s Epistle Reading is the birth of the Diaconate, of which the Levites were the shadow.

    Though the diaconate may have faded from the picture for a long time, it has nevertheless given us some truly significant saints.  First of all, there was St. Stephen, mentioned in the reading, and St. Lawrence, a 3rd century martyr.  St Francis of Assisi was a deacon.  And, if you’ve ever been to the celebration of the Presanctified Liturgy, you know the Prayer of St. Ephrem, a Syrian deacon.

    So how does that relate to the ordination of a reader? Over the centuries, some diaconal duties have been assigned to what we now call Minor Orders, the first of which, in our rite, is Reader. 

    The Law was given as a shadow of the good things to come. 

• God instituted Matrimony when he gave Eve to Adam.  We see Christ validating Matrimony by attending the Wedding at Cana and performing His first public Miracle.
• God gave circumcision as a visible sign of entering the Kingdom of Israel. We see Christ receiving baptism, and then mandating it as the visible sacrament of receiving New Life and entry into His Kingdom.
• The Eucharist was foreshadowed in the Passover meal.
• What happens on the altar is no longer hidden; now we have the doors in the iconostas allowing us to see.  
• The priest no longer offers the flesh and blood of slain animals; rather, he re-presents the body and blood of the Lamb slain once for all.  
• Christ has fulfilled not only the shadow of the Levitical Priesthood by giving us the Christian Priesthood, he has fulfilled the shadow of the Levites by giving us the Diaconate.

Rejoice!  The understanding of these mysteries, previously hidden in a shadowy tomb, are now revealed to us. 

The Stone has been rolled away!!