Day of AuthorityPascha Monday

Holy Pascha Week• Monday: Day of Authority - Isa 5:1-9 

– Fig tree– Cleansing the Temple

• Tuesday: Day of Opposition - Isa 30:25-30– Christ vs. Scribes and Pharisees

• Wednesday: Day of Conspiracy - Isa 59:1-17– Judas– “Wednesday of Job”

• Thursday: Day of Covenant - Ezk 20:39-44– Last Supper– Day of farewell

• Friday: Day of Crucifixion - Isa 12:2-13:10

Pascha Monday: Day of Authority

• “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matt 21)

• Daytime readings: – His care and authority in the Temple

• Evening readings:– His warnings to the leaders

Readings of Pascha Monday• 1st Hour (Matins ) - His authority in His

Temple– Gen 1:1-2:3 – God’s authority in the creation– Isa 5:1-9 – Song of the vineyard– Homily of St. Shenouda: “Brethren, if we wish to

escape God’s punishment, and find mercy…”– Ps 71: Blessed be the LORD God, the God of

Israel, Who only does wondrous things!– Mk 11:12-24 – “Then Jesus went into the temple

and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.”

Readings of Pascha Monday• 3rd Hour – Cleansing the Temple

– Isa 5 :  ”Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people; He has stretched out His hand against them and stricken them…”

– Mk 11:11-19 – “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

Readings of Pascha Monday• 6th Hour – His zeal for His House

– Exo 32 – “Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”

– Jn 2:12-17 – “Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

Readings of Pascha Monday• 9th Hour – His Divine authority

– Gen 2 – God placed Adam in the garden and gave him His authority over all its inhabitants

– Matt 21: 23-27 - “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”

• He did not answer them, because they are blind leading the blind, and they will not believe in him regardless of what he says.

Readings of Pascha Monday• 11th Hour – The Jews resist Him

– Isa 50 – “For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother has been put away.”

– Jn 8 - “Now we know that You have a demon!... Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.”

Song of the Vineyard• Read: Isa 5:1-9

God’s Care For His Vineyard• Story of divine love:

– God loved man– Man met love with dryness

• Vine: all the people– “For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is

the place of His inheritance; He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness. He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye.” (Deut 32: 9, 10)

What did God present to His people?

• “on a very fruitful hill” (Is. 5: 1)– Canaan, land of milk and honey– Famine is not due to the nature of the land – A fruit of the people’s sins.– Fruitful hill: fruitful heart– He lifted their hearts up to

heaven

What did God present to His people?

• “He dug it up” (Is. 5: 2)– “made a hedge round it” (Septuagint)– Hedge: law– St. John Chrysostom: “The Law is a wall

destined for security”– St. Ambrose: “The wall is the divine care to

protect the vine against the attacks of the spiritual beast.”

– St. Jerome: “It is the guard by the angels.”

What did God present to His people?

• “And cleared out its stones.” (5: 2)– Pagan worship– Nature of violence and hardness of hearts– “I will take the stony heart out of

their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11: 19)

– New heart (instead of stony one) through baptism.

What did God present to His people?

• “Planted it with the choicest vine,” (Is. 5: 2)– Best kind of vine– Chosen people– Given a covenant with God– “I had planted you a noble vine, a seed

of highest quality; How then have you turned before Me, into the degenerate plant of an alien vine? “ (Jeremiah 2: 21)

What did God present to His people?

• “He built a tower in its midst,” (Is. 5: 3)– Guardian to guard it against the attacks of

thieves and wild beasts. – Prophets, priests and all the spiritual

leaderships– NT: Altar of God (heart) – one offers his

prayers, fasts, gifts, and all his life, as a burnt offering

What did God present to His people?

• “And also made a winepress in it,” (Is. 5: 2)– the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ– “has trodden the winepress alone; and from

the people no one was with (Him)” (Is. 63: 3).

What did God present to His people?

• St. Irenaeus:– God planted the vine of mankind, when He first

created Adam, and elected the fathers. Then He presented it to the hands of vinedressers, when He set the Mosaic ordinance; and fenced around it by presenting special instructions to worship Him; built a tower through selecting Jerusalem; and dug a vine press, as He set a container for the prophetical spirit. He sent prophets prior to the Babylonian captivity, then more prophets during and after it, seeking fruits.

What did God present to His people?

• Fruitful hill – good (fruitful) heart• Hedge: law• Cleared out its stones: removed stony

hearts• Choicest vine: chosen people, a covenant• Tower: Prophets, priests and spiritual

leaderships• Winepress: the cross of our Lord Jesus

Christ

What did the vine present?• The Lord expected to reap:

– love for His love; – repentance and atonement in response

to His forgiveness of sins.

• But He got instead stony hearts that does not produce fruits worthy of repentance. – “There is none who does good, no not one.”

(Psalm 53: 3)• St. Cyril of Jerusalem: I yearned, for the

vine to produce wine, but it gave thorns. You can see the crown that adorns My head!

A Tribunal of God For His Vine• “What more could have been done to

my vineyard?” (Is. 5: 4)• What more could God have done for us?!

– He created us from nothing; – brought us forth according to His likeness;

delivered to us the earth with all that is on it;– set the stars for our sake; – when our nature got corrupted, He sent us His

Law and prophets; – finally He came by Himself!

Chastisements• In the hope that the vine would respond…• “take away its hedge... and break

down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.” (Is. 5: 5)– He would forsake the sinners, and deny them

the heavenly guard, – let them feel their weakness,

with no hedge or wall, prone to the wild beasts

– hoping for their return to God to ask for His refuge.

Chastisements• St. Clement of Alexandria:

– “These things, namely, breaking down the wall, and allowing enemies to enter, are realized through divine consent, in order to turn everything to the good; [divine care is a punitive art.]

Chastisements• “I will lay it waste; it shall not be

pruned or dug.” (Is. 5: 6)– Desolation!– “Your house is left to you desolate.” (Matt 23: 38)– pruning and digging: to make it more productive– compassionate chastisement– Refraining from pruning and digging: refrain from

chastisement, which is the severest of punishment: completely ignored, and counted unworthy even of being chastised.

– St. John Chrysostom: “when a physician stops administering the bitter medication, or using the scalpel, that would mean that the condition of the patient turned utterly hopeless.”

Chastisements• “There shall come up briers and

thorns.” (Is. 5: 6)– Loss of peace of mind, to carry inside troubles

and worries– Result of separation from God– “As they did not like to retain God in their

knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” (Romans 1: 28)

Chastisements• “I will also command the clouds, that

they rain no rain on it.” (Is. 5: 6)– Rain: gift of the Holy Spirit– lose the dwelling of the Holy Spirit– not bearing the fruits of the Spirit. – in place of “truth” he would produce “blood

shed” – in place of “justice” he would produce

“oppression” and “weeping”

Chastisements• St. Augustine proclaimed that he has

been like a small bird in its nest. In the pride of his heart, he sought to fly on his own, studying the Holy Bible with the spirit of criticism; to end up falling down on the ground; and would have been trampled over by pedestrians, if not for God’s care, that rescued him and took him back to the nest of faith, until he eventually develops wings, by which he can fly.

What did God present to His people?

• Fruitful hill – good (fruitful) heart• Hedge: law• Cleared out its stones: removed stony

hearts• Choicest vine: chosen people, a covenant• Tower: Prophets, priests and spiritual

leaderships• Winepress: the cross of our Lord Jesus

Christ

Chastisements• “take away its hedge... and break down

its wall, and it shall be trampled down.” – He would forsake the sinners, and deny them the

heavenly guard

• “lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug.”– Desolation! Refrain from chastisement

• “briers and thorns.” – Loss of peace of mind

• “no rain”– lose the dwelling of the Holy Spirit– not bearing the fruits of the Spirit.