Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Venerable Alypios the Iconographer of the Kiev Caves
Kellia: Joshua 3:14-4:7, 19-24 Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:15-21 Gospel: St. Mark 1:16-22
Joshua 3:14-17; 4:1-7, 19-24, especially vss. 6, 7:
"....when your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' Then you shall
tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord;
when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off." In the Mystery of Holy
Baptism, we pray to the Lord "that there may be sent down into [this water] the grace of
redemption, the blessing of Jordan." The memorable crossing of the People of Israel through the
Jordan River into the Promised Land, as described in today's reading from the Book of Joshua,
forms part of the tapestry of historical images that illumine what the Church intends in praying
that God will send down "the blessing of Jordan" into the Baptismal water.
Foremost, we should understand that the entrance of Israel into the land was a solemn and holy
act, a movement of the entire consecrated People of God, a passage very similar in devotion to
the sacred processions of whole congregations today on Great and Holy Friday and on Pascha.
Observe that the priests were "bearing the ark of the covenant before the people" (vs. 14). In
addition, note that it was when their feet "were dipped in the brink of the water" that the flow of
the Jordan was held back by God, both above and below the route of the march across the
riverbed (vs. 16). The ark of the covenant, of course, served, like the holy icons, as a tangible,
visual reminder of the presence of the living God leading, sheltering, and blessing His People.
The crossing of the Jordan river into the Promised Land was a movement of the entire People of
God. The whole nation traversed the river that day. The miracle marked them as the People
designated by God to occupy the land and was linked to the multiple water baptisms that were
used in Judaism as preparatory rites for the admission of Gentile converts into Israel.
Likewise, a similar expression of union with the whole People of God in the pilgrimage toward
the Kingdom of God occurs in the unrepeatable Mystery of Holy Baptism, being highlighted by
the triple procession around the Font in today's Orthodox Christian rite. Note that passage
through the Jordan into the land of Canaan by the ancient People of God signaled even the
renaming of the land. Thereafter it would be called after the common, blood ancestor of all the
tribes - Israel. Also, let us not forget that the Lord Jesus, "the only sinless One," deliberately
united Himself with God's People, even with our sins, by His Baptism in the Jordan.
The reader should not miss the fact that the passage through the Jordan was very much like the
nation's earlier passage through the Red Sea, a point explicitly stated in today's reading (vs.
4:23). Whereas the earlier transit from "Pihahiroth in front of Baalzephon" across to the Sinai
peninsula (Ex. 14:9) had ended their slavery permanently, the Jordan crossing was fraught only
with the promise of inheritance. It must be emphasized that it was only promise, for all the
battles to take the land from the Canaanites lay ahead. Still, the People entered the Holy Land.
Both realities appear in the Baptismal Mystery, for it states that our Lord delivers the newly
Baptized "from the bondage of the enemy [and receives] him into [the] heavenly kingdom."
Finally, Israel's crossing, aided by God's miraculous stemming of the river's normal flow, served
as a testimony to "all the peoples of the earth [that they] may know that the hand of the Lord is
mighty" (Josh. 4:24). The Israelites were told to memorialize the event for future generations,
but the crossing also serves as an evangelical event for all those, like Rahab, whose hearts will
embrace the proclamation of the loving and gracious God Who provides for His People.
O our God, Thou hast revealed Thyself upon earth, and dwelt among men. As Thou didst hallow
the streams of Jordan, sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, save Thy People.
