When an icon painter, or rather writer, makes an icon he follows Church Tradition. The icon is a vehicle for truth. In Tradition there can be no depiction of something which has not been seen or rec

orded. Any attempt to show something that never happened would be a fiction.

 

No one witnessed the Resurrection, and no account of the actual moment exists. What we have is knowledge of the empty tomb and the appearances of Christ afterwards.  The Orthodox Church has, therefore, not set much store on attempts to depict the Resurrection itself. There are icons of the myrrh bearing women, and of appearances of the risen Christ.

 

The normal depiction of the Anastasis, the Resurrection, is sometimes called the Harrowing of Hell, and shows Christ releasing the dead from Sheol, the place of the dead. His descent there forms part of the Nicene Creed, the symbol of our faith. It gets very little mention in the New Testament, although that does not mean that it did not happen, and there is a reference in the First Letter of St Peter, chapter3 v 19 “He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits”.  Some things were so well established that it was not necessary to dwell on them. The New Testament is a collection of writings; each one for a particular time and people. They were not meant as a complete record of the teachings of the Church, rather they were   writings which the Church valued as Apostolic. What matters is the teaching of the Church-Holy Tradition- and the New Testament writings were chosen within that Tradition.

This morning, James and John desire to be seated with Christ in His Glory. And our Lord, to test them, asks whether they are able to drink the cup that He drinks, and to be baptized with the baptism with which He is baptized. James and John answer, “We are able!” The response from Jesus, in a nutshell, is: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

 

Today is the last Sunday of Great Lent, and on Friday evening just five days from now, we will begin the celebration of Holy Week. Friday evening will open a ten day long procession to the cross, to the tomb, and to the resurrection.

 

And as we get ready, our Lord extends the same invitation to us as He extended to James and John. To all of us who wish to see His glory, who desire to be by His side at Pascha, Jesus first says to you and to me, “but are you able and willing to drink the cup that I drink from? Are you able to walk with me through Holy Week? Are you willing to be by my side, and to carry my cross with me?”

 

I hope your answer is yes. I hope that Pascha is not just a Sunday on which we show up, having given no thought to Christ on the days of Holy Week.

 

To help us prepare — to help us take up and drink from the Lord’s same cup — I wanted to share a list of 10 things to do during Holy Week. These are ten recommendations for how to be baptized with the same baptism with which our Lord is baptized.

 

(1) Go to as many services as you can. We offer a large number. Usually, at least two each day. And if you can’t go to every service, set aside time to read prayerfully through those you cannot attend. It is through worship that we return and unite ourselves to Christ. The services of Holy Week are not just memory exercises. Holy Week is a single unbroken Liturgy that over ten days invites us to participate in the saving lo