Our Journey to the Empty Tomb
Great Lent 2025 — Our Journey to the Empty Tomb
by: Most Rev. Kurt Burnette
Our wonderful church is called the Church of the Resurrection by people outside our church because of the enthusiasm with which we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ every year—the special music that we sing only once a year, the moving lyrics of our hymns during Holy Week and on the Great Easter Sunday or Pascha. We even celebrate Easter for fifty days, all the way till Pentecost. No one celebrates the Resurrection with our joy and energy. Then every week for the rest of the year, we dedicate one day each week, Sunday, to the Resurrection. Fifty days or so isn’t enough for us, we also spend almost three months, eleven weeks, beforehand preparing for Christ’s happy victory over sin and death.
Like Jesus, we begin our journey to Jerusalem in the ancient city of Jericho. Jericho is over eight hundred feet below sea level in the burning desert where the Dead Sea is located and Sodom and Gomorrah. From Jericho, it is a steep climb up mountain passes, more than thirty three hundred feet elevation to the sacred city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion. In Jericho, Jesus’ namesake Joshua made his entrance into the Promised Land and began his sweep of military conquests. In Jericho begins his march of conquest by calling Zacchaeus to salvation. Zacchaeus is an unpopular outsider in his own society and probably a laughing stock as well. “Come down immediately,” Jesus calls out to him before the astonished crowd, “Today I will eat at your house.”
In our fallen state, the Father of Lies uses every trick and dodge to turn us away from God’s love. Even the Great Fast he uses to erode our friendship with God, by appealing to our pride. So for the next Sunday we are transported to the temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus Himself was tempted by Satan, and we view the scene of the Publican (Tax Collector) and the Pharisee. The Pharisee was not a bad man, but he got exactly what he asked for from God — nothing. The collaborator, the tax collector for the Romans, got what he asked for also: justification in the eyes of God, because he asked for it in humility. Fasting and long prayers are good things and benefit us immensely, but only with humility.
The story of the Prodigal Son reminds us of why Jesus came to earth in the first place. Without God’s law, we wander from home and end up in a pigsty. When Jesus was born, the Father came running down to earth to meet us, even though we had not yet come to our senses. Even this story of joy and resurrection ends with a warning against pride and self justification.
Meatfare Sunday is called meatfare because, in our tradition, it is the last day to eat meat before Easter. It is an ancient noble tradition to give up meat for such a long time, and in our day so many athletes and body builders are vegetarians we know it won’t hurt us if we eat a variety of other foods. On this Sunday though, St. Paul admonishes us, “But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” The pagans had, and still have, many strange ideas about the supernatural properties of food. We fast only for self-discipline, not because food made by the good God is evil, nor because our own flesh is evil. Food and our bodies were made by a loving God, and His holy Word says, “He saw that it was good.”
On the last Sunday before Lent, to remind us again why Jesus came, why we had to be saved, we hear with dread and awe the description by Our Lord Himself of the Last Judgment. Just as the Prophet Daniel foresaw it centuries before Christ, the Son of Man will be seated on a throne of fire. As it says in the Apocalypse, anyone whose name was not written in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death. We have no need to be afraid of the God who loves us, because Jesus told us how to prepare for the Judgment: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit prisoners, and welcome strangers.
In recent years, we had the opportunity to feed the hungry and so on by helping our friends and relatives in Transcarpathia, which is the poorest part of Ukraine, to help with the flood of refugees from the war. With so much international aid, our financial assistance is not as significant now, but you can still help the priests there who are struggling to feed their families by sending Liturgy stipends. You get the double blessing of helping the poor and benefitting from prayers offered for you and your loved ones or deceased family and friends. The priests also help the poor in their neighborhoods where no one is a stranger.
Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” Indeed the truth is our salvation, and the foundation of all evil is lying and deceit. Therefore, for the first Sunday of Lent, we thank God for His life giving revelation to us. We worship Him in Spirit and in Truth because He has revealed Himself to us. All of our truths are tied up in this Sunday of Holy Icons, namely that we were made by a loving God in His own image and likeness, and that He took on flesh as a Man, like us in all things but sin. That He did not abandon us in our sins, but walked among us, as his dear friend St. John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands.”
On the second Sunday, we hear the words from Scripture, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” These words proclaim the majesty and authority of Jesus as He takes the throne of David, and He uses that power to cure a paralyzed man, but also forgives his sins, something only God can do.
On the third Sunday we bring out the cross on the tetrapod. This year, the Holy Father has declared a Jubilee Year of Mercy. The ancient Jubilee Year was the year for forgiveness of debts and return of mortgaged land. Pope Francis asked for us to display a cross prominently in the Cathedral this year to remind us that our mercy came at a price, even death on a cross.
We remember St. John of the Ladder to affirm the great value of prayer and fasting. However, if you read his book, he teaches us, “Don’t be distracted by sins.” Ask yourself, what is behind the sin? Studying our sins can teach us, perhaps with a good teacher, in what ways our love of God is deficient or flawed. Only by pulling out the weeds by the roots can we ever clean up the garden in our soul. St. John’s book of wisdom lays bare the roots of the weeds.
The last Sunday during the Great Fast, we are thrilled to read about the miraculous rescue of St. Mary of Egypt. Having dedicated her life to sin, and not only to sin, but to corrupting the innocent, God reached down into the mire and pulled her out and cleaned her off. Not by our own works are we saved, but by the free gift of God through Jesus Christ. Even after death, her body was guarded by a lion, a symbol of Judah the tribe of Jesus. Jesus will go to any lengths to save us from our own bad choices and guard us from the evil one.
And so with humility, we travel the road with our beloved Savior from Jericho in the scorching desert, up the mountain passes to the sacred city of Jerusalem, in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies, to be with our Lord in his suffering and humiliation, and to witness his victory over sin and death.