Sunday, August 1, 2004
Dormition Fast (Tone 8) Procession of the Cross
Kellia: 1 Maccabees 4:26-40 Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 Gospel: St. Matthew 14:22-54
1 Maccabees 4:26-40, especially vss. 36, 37, 38:
"'Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it.' So all
the army assembled and they went up to Mount Zion. And they saw the sanctuary desolate, the
altar profaned, and the gates burned." The present reading begins with yet another battle and
another victory by a small Maccabean force pitted against the larger Seleucid army. Not able to
rest with a defeat (1 Mac. 4:1-25), the Seleucid Viceroy Lysias came himself with a larger army.
His approach was not from the west as in the previous clashes. Rather, the Seleucids circled
along the coast and advanced from the south, encamping just north of Hebron at Beth-zur. This
particular passage provides a classic example of Jewish prayer as offered by Judas Maccabeus
before the battle (1 Mac. 4:30-33). Its features are worthy of note, for the contours of this type of
prayer appear in our Orthodox Eucharistic prayers. The prayer begins by declaring God's
blessedness (vs. 30), and continues with an historic review of God's actions in the victories of
earlier battles, ones in which tiny forces overcame greatly superior enemies: David's defeat of
Goliath (1 Sam. 17) and the defeat of a Philistine garrison by Jonathan and his armor bearer (1
Sam. 14:1-17). The prayer concludes with petitions that God once again will assist those who
love Him so that "all that know Thy Name [might] praise Thee with hymns" (1 Mac. 4:33).
All records of the battle agree that the small Maccabean brigade prevailed against Lysias and his
large Seleucid army (cf. 1 Mac. 4:34-35 and also 2 Mac. 6:11-15). The victory allowed the Jews
to regain control of the Temple (1 Mac. 4:36-40) and reestablish worship there. However, the
victory was bittersweet, for it signaled the opening of a period of military, social, and religious
struggle for the ancient People of God from 163 BC to 70 AD, during which Mosaic worship and
political freedom seemed within their grasp, but then withered under Rome. Power politics is no
solution for the People of God as the Gospel proclaims (Mt. 4:8; Jn. 19:11). The Seleucid
empire itself repeatedly was under pressure by the Parthians in the east and by the rising influence
of Rome in the west. Hence, respite for the Jews was more the result of political distraction by
the mighty than enduring temporal strength. Furthermore, there were divisions among the Jews.
Out of the whirl of events in the region, and within Judea itself, a dynasty of Hasmonean rulers
temporarily rose to serve simultaneously as High Priests and as kings. This solution also failed
from famines, coups d'état, and palace intrigues, until, at last, an Idumean and a non-Jew seized
the throne, Herod the Great. In the bitter end, as foretold by the Lord Jesus (Mt. 24:1-2), and
following a Jewish attempt at liberation from Rome, the Temple itself was permanently
destroyed, ending all semblance of a Jewish state until 1948 AD.
Nonetheless, the Maccabeans, flush with a sweet victory - a triumph that the Church recognizes
as an act of God - "went up to Mount Zion" (1 Mac. 4:37). There they beheld a bitter sight, "the
sanctuary desolate, the altar profaned, and the gates burned" (vs. 38). Many times in history,
God's People have had to rebuild their sacred places of worship and, worse even, to forfeit them;
but the first view of a desecrated holy place always hits with shock and mourning. "They fell
face down on the ground and sounded the signal on the trumpets and cried out to Heaven" (vs.
40). There on Mount Zion, the Maccabeans tasted the bittersweet of victories in this world: there
was clean up, rebuilding, and, to God's glory, the reestablishment of "praise and beauty...before
Him, and holiness and majesty...in His sanctuary" (Ps. 95:6 LXX).
O gracious God, increase Thy mercy upon us, that with Thee as our Ruler and Guide, we may so
pass through things temporal, that we lose not finally the things eternal.
