Not Having to Learn the Hard Way
When we are mature enough and humble enough and curious enough to let the past teach us how to live without having to learn the hard way!
For several years, our society has struggled with the chaos of “identity politics.” Our whole society has been gripped by the challenges of “microaggressions,” gender dysphoria, and the “cancel culture” of being a heretic of the current faddish madness trying to pass itself off as “progress” and “fairness” and “compassion.”
Of course, it isn’t any of these virtues.
But the truth is identity issues aren’t anything new. Prejudice and tribalism are as old as humanity itself. Jesus Christ was born into a world where particular identities were so toxic that they would get you ostracized from “polite society.”
In our lesson today, St. Paul tells the Galatians of a radical new way of looking at humanity meant to heal us from the toxic tribalism that plagued the Roman Empire then and still plagues us today!
Look at our lesson today in Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5:
Brethren, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
So, St. Paul is trying to get these Galatians, most of whom were not raised in Jewish homes, to not buy into the heresy that they had to be Jewish before they could be Christian. It’s kind of like the false notion that you have to be Greek, or Russian, or Serbian, or Romanian, or (fill in the blank of your favorite ethnicity) before you can become Orthodox. That notion has always been, and will forever be, false.
And yet…
St. Paul refuses to call the Jewish practices of the Law, which had become second nature to the Jews, bad. St. Paul insists that the Law, the ritual rules and regulations, were our “custodians” until Christ came.
This means that the “rules and regulations” are vital to our maturity and development and always will be. There is a great benefit in the humble honesty of realizing you need boundaries not just to keep you safe (that’s too small a motivation to produce anything else but slavery) but to train your inner self to recognize the dangers in life when they come. Most of the biggest mistakes in my life have come when I was asleep to the “cliffs” of my intoxicated actions, devoid of the wisdom of maturity. I bet you can see that in your life as well.
So, the purpose of the “rules and regs” is to train you, form you, and teach you to recognize when your passions are out of control. They serve as the “custodians” until we grow up enough to value our relationship with Jesus ABOVE our immediate desires! And that “grown-up” place isn’t some “magic moment” when “poof” “I’m saved” as much as it is a day-by-day choosing, from my freedom, to realize the treasure the Faith gives me in giving me, Jesus! That treasure is nothing less than actually “putting on” Christ at my baptism, becoming “Abraham’s offspring” and “heirs” of the promise of new life in Christ. The Treasure is when rules become wisdom, and my motivation to follow them flows from that stronger motivation of love rather than my ego’s desire to be “correct.”
That’s why St. Paul also said there was no more “slave nor free” and even “neither male nor female.” Not because those identities were disappearing but because the limitations of these categories are all transcended by us being “one in Christ Jesus.” The categories matter, but only because they invite us to cherish our distinctions do we learn from them how to do the hard work of being together. The “Being together” is the true purpose of all our differences.
Katherine, the Great Martyr of Alexandria, was born well and was considered beautiful physically and spiritually. The tyrant who ruled Alexandria was named Maximinus. He wished to have her for his own, but Katherine refused to submit. He tried to bring his best philosophers to argue against her steadfast faith in Christ, but her eloquence and humility put all those philosophers to shame. She was martyred for her faith in 305, and her holy relics remain in St. Katherine’s monastery in the Sinai.
Today, don’t despise or dismiss the wisdom of the rules and regulations.” You do so at your peril. Embrace them as valuable tools to show you the dangers of undisciplined desires. Then, don’t stop! Keep growing up until you realize the unspeakable joy of a Normal Orthodoxy that leads you to have a Normal Orthodox Life!
P.S. Let us praise the most auspicious bride of Christ, the divine Katherine, protectress of Sinai, our aid and our help. For, she brilliantly silenced the eloquence of the impious by the sword of the spirit, and now, crowned as a martyr, she asks great mercy for all.
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV
