Prayers

[Prayers] [bsummary]

Lessons by our Holy Fathers

[Lessons by our Holy Fathers] [twocolumns]

Orthodox Destinations

[Orthodox Destinations] [bleft]

I gave my back to the smiters and My cheeks to them...

"I gave my back to the smiters and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6).

Brethren, this is the prophecy and now hear the exact fulfillment of that prophecy: "And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified" (St. Matthew 27:26). Is not this what the prophet foretold: "I gave My back to the smiters"? Listen further: "One of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand" (St. John 18:22). And again: "They struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, 'Prophesy, who is it that smote You?' " (St. Luke 22:64). Is not this what the prophet foretold? "I gave My cheeks to them that smite " ? Listen even further: "…And they mocked Him" (St. Matthew 27-29), "And they smote Him on the head with a reed and did spit upon Him" (St. Mark 15:19); is not this what the prophet foretold: "I hid not My face from shame and spitting." 

Observe, brethren, how clear is the prophecy, clear from word to word. Observe with horror, how the discerning man of God sees more clearly through the walls of several hundred years than the ordinary eye, which sees the bottom of clear and shallow water! That God, by His irresistible power, opens the spirit of mortal man to see, by the spirit, the events in the distance as clearly as the physical eyes see the events close by. How then does the All-seeing God Himself, see through the marrow of our bones, through the fog of our thoughts, and through all the secrets of our hearts? Because He is present at our thoughts even before they are born and present at our desires before they are conceived. 

He is the one undeceived and undeceivable witness of all events, external and internal, in the heights and in the depths, in the width and in the length. And He witnesses to our spirit truthfully, that which our soul desires to know for the sake of our good benefit and for the salvation of our soul.

O, All-seeing and All-wonderful Witness to all the secrets in heaven and on earth, the Creator and our Good Provider, You alone see the weakness of all of us. Help us, O help us, to learn that which is necessary for the sake of our eternal salvation.