Our Christ…. For Every Man

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Hint shall not perish but have eternal life" (Jn. 3: 16).

This is the essence of the Christian call:

To declare God’s love for man.

To declare that redemption is absolutely necessary.

To affirm that our Christ is the Christ of the whole world.

Christ of the Jews and the Gentiles:

The Jews have led a ghetto existence isolated from others throughout the various stages of their history. When the Word was incarnate and Christ came among us, the Jews tried to surround and isolate Him and to make Him their King who would free them from the bondage of the Romans. But Christ assaulted their emotions and their minds when He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world "(Jn. 18: 36). He tried to raise their hearts, minds and hopes to God, heaven and immortality, but they totally rejected this. And when they despaired of Christ’s becoming an earthly king (Jn. 6: 15) , they crucified Him on the cross.

All throughout Jesus’ time on earth, He tried to open up the heart of the Jews to the world. He showed His love to the Gentiles and the Samaritans just as He loved the Jews and came to save them from themselves and from their racial prejudice. The following are some examples of the world view of the Lord Jesus Christ:

His coming with the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph to the land of Egypt, which offered the Holy Family a safe refuge just as it did to many prophets and apostles. The Lord blessed the land of Egypt from north to south and from east to west, thereby fulfilling the promise, “blessed is Egypt My people "(Is. 19: 25) , as well as the prophecy, “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt" (Is. 19: 1). When He came to Egypt, the idols fell out of fear of Him.

The Most Important Events of the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt:

1 Bethlehem: Killing of Infants (Mt. 2: 16).

2Pharos: Opening of the city gates.

3El Farma (Pelozion) (between Arish and Port Said).

4Basta (Zagazeeg). A spring of water and the idols.

falling.

5Al Mahma Mostorud. A spring of water in which the.

Child was bathed.

6Belbeis Raising the child of a widow from the dead.

7Minya Ginah Samanoud (near Mehalla el Kobra).

8Sakha (near Kafr el Sheikh). The imprint of Christ’s.

heel on a rock.

9The wilderness of Shaheet Wadi al Natrun. The.

monasteries of Wadi al Natrun.

10Ain Shams Mataria. The tree of the Virgin Mary.

11Babylon Old Cairo. The cave at Abi Serga.

12Maadi The church of the Virgin (the Bible that was found floating on the waters of the Nile open onto Isaiah 19).

13East of Bahnasa Between Beni Mazar and.

Bahnasa.

14Gabal al Teir Samalout. The imprint of the Lord’s.

hand on a rock.

15 Al Ashmounein (west of Malawi). The city idols.

town fall and the martyrdom of Wadamoun the.

Armanti.

16Dairout Om Nakhla (west ofMalawi). The trees and palm trees bow down.

17Beir al Sahaba Anesna (east of Malawi).

A spring of water from which the Child Jesus drank.

18 Kom Maria Deir Abu Henes (east of Malawi). The.

Holy Family rested on the kom (mound).

19Phillipus Dairout al Sharif.

20Old Koussia The city idols fall.

21Meira Meir.

22Gabal Quosquam The Monastery of the Virgin (Al.

Muharraq). The structure of the ancient church of.

the Virgin.

23Return to Nazareth of Galilee (Mt. 2: 22,23).

Other evidence that Christ is for every man is:

He said to Nicodemus, an elder of the Jews, in a long conversation, that He had come for the sake of all the world, to save it and redeem it, so that man is born anew of water and the Spirit (Jn. 3: 1 - 13). And here we repeat the golden verse, For God so loved the world... "(Jn. 16).

At His birth, He sent the good news to the Jews through the angels, and to the Gentiles through the star and the Magi (Mt. 2: 1 - 15).

He worked a miracle for the centurion and praised his faith, rebuking the people of Israel, “ / have not found anyone in Israel of such great faith "(Mt. 8: 5 - 13).

Although when He first sent His disciples out, He told them, "Do not go into the ways of the Gentiles, and do not enter the city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt. 10: 5,6) , at the appropriate time, He went with them to Samaria where He saved the Samaritan woman and ministered to the Samaritans who believed in Him (Jn. 4).

When He sent forth His disciples, He told them:

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Mt. 24: 14).

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28: 19).

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mk. 16: 15).

"Then the disciple went out and preached everywhere" (Mk. 16: 20).

We should not forget the healing of the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15: 22 - 28) and His praise of her great faith, “Woman, you have great faith "(Mt 15: 28). He rebuked the Jews who considered the Gentiles no better than" dogs "(Mt 15: 26).

He broadened His disciples’ horizons to include the whole world in His farewell address (Jn. 14: 16) and in His intercessory prayer for all who would believe in Him. His commission to His disciples included the whole world; “ / Is You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world "(Jn. 17: 18, Jn. 20: 21).

When He arose and appeared to His disciples, they asked Him about the time when the kingdom of Israel would be restored. He asked them instead to raise their thoughts to heaven, to being filled with the Holy Spirit, and to witnessing in “Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth "(Acts 1: 6,8).

Our Christ is not racist and does not approve of racial supremacy; He does not address His promises to a specific people. He is simply the Christ of the whole world!

Christ of the Simple and the Wise:

We find the philosopher and the simple man among the followers of Christ; we find Paul who studied at the feet of Gamaliel, who learned the philosophy of the Jews and the Gentiles, just as we find Peter, the simple fisherman and the faithful servant.

Although Christianity contains the most refined thought and has the answer to all the questions philosophy poses, it is a simple religion. Simple faith in the Savior is the way to eternity. The Lord advised the wise of this age to abandon their human wisdom so that they could obtain divine wisdom from above, a wisdom that enlightens their minds and leads them in the path of salvation. “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling - block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength "(ICor. 1: 21 - 25). The word" foolishness” means what seems to us to be foolish, and the word “weakness” means what we think is weak. These are all providential matters for God in His providence arranged everything so that the Jews and the Romans would crucify Him and thus bring about Redemption. For Christ did not die because of the power of the Jews, but rather He died of His own free will out of love for us in order to redeem us and pay our debt.

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are "(ICor. 1: 27,28) so that “no one may boast before Him" (ICor. 1: 29). but so that we would boast of Christ who became for us “wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption "(ICor. 1: 30).

That is why St. James exhorts us to abandon human wisdom and to ask for the wisdom of God “who gives generously to all without finding fault "(Jas. 1: 5). For the wisdom of God “is first of all pure; then peace - loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere" (Jas. 3: 17). Human wisdom, on the other hand, can be appealed to by Satan so that it becomes “earthly, unspiritual, of the devil "(Jas. 3: 15) for it “does not come down from heaven" (Jas. 3: 15).

So let us read what we wish, think what we please, or study all the philosophical, scientific, and humanistic subjects of the world, but let us not forget the necessity of an enlightened mind in order to benefit from this knowledge and to find the answer to the questions of men. If they ask us: what is behind existence, death, matter or time, we find the answer: it is God, who must exist, the Giver of life, Infinite and unlimited. If Darwin asks, where did the first cell come from, we can answer that it was made by God. And when man is puzzled by the immense gap between man and monkey, we can reply that it is God who made all things, who created man in His own image and likeness and gave him a rational soul that animals that resemble us don’t have. He is the Creator of all, but He put a rational soul and a divine breath of God into the clay we were made of, and this soul He will reclaim with the body after we become a spiritual body at the resurrection. Man was created to be immortal, responsible for his behavior with a life that does not end with physical death. In this he is inherently different from animals because "the life of every creature is its blood" (Lev. 17: 14) , for the animal consists of body and soul only, without mind or spirit.

Christ of the Poor and the Rich:

The Lord Jesus came to our passing world as a small child, born of a poor mother and with a carpenter for a father. The Holy Bible says, ‘ for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich "(2Cor. 8: 9). He practiced the trade of carpentry, a very simple trade in those days.

Even after Christ began His ministry and became famous, He continued to lead a life of poverty so that the women "helped to support them out of their own means" (Lk. 8: 3).

Jesus went around with His disciples, most of whom were poor fishermen, without purse or funds and the one who kept the purse was a thief (Jn. 12: 6).

The Lord Jesus did not deprive the rich from following Him, but all He asked of them was to be "rich in good deeds" (1Tim. 6: 18) , that they should not rely on their riches (1Tim. 6: 17) , or be harsh on their laborers (Jas. 5: 4).

Thus Christianity became the religion of all, rich and poor, with the condition that all should feel that they are loving brothers with equal membership in the one body.

James the apostle rebuked the cruel rich, "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes, (from being stored in closets) Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters (whose wages you have lowered) have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self - indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter” (Jas. 5: 1 - 5).

St. Paul gives the rich good advice and says to Timothy his disciple in his first epistle to him;

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with man grieves” (1 Tim. 6: 10).

"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good; to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1Tim. 6: 17 - 19).

"For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (Him. 6: 7,8).

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction" (1Tim. 6: 9).

“be content with what you have "(Heb. 13: 5).

That is why we pray using a Bible verse, "so that we, in all things at ail times, having all we need, will abound in every good work" (The Liturgy of St. Basil based on 2Cor. 9: 8) (See also Phil. 4: 11).

This is Christianity and this is our Christ, who lived in humility and simplicity. He did not reject the righteous rich who do not sell the kingdom for the treasures of this world (Mt. 6: 19 - 21).

The Christ of All Races:

The Lord Jesus Christ, who came to save the world, calls all the races and nationalities to salvation, the white, yellow, and black. With all His strength, He rejects the racial discrimination or Apartheid that was prevalent in South Africa and elsewhere.

In Christianity, man is a divine creature because he was created in the image of God and in His likeness. That is why men everywhere on earth are equal regardless of the color of their skin or the blood that runs in their veins. The essence of man is a rational soul and the divine breath of God and that applies to all humanity. The physical differences are due to environmental and genetic factors that do not add to or detract from the dignity of each individual.

In heaven, we will find all races "every nation, tribe, people and language" (Rev. 7: 9). That is why Christ’s disciples went to all the races, nations, and peoples and told them the good news of salvation, "in the whole world" (Mt. 24: 14). Some of them were forced to sell themselves to one of the citizens of a country in order to gain entrance to it. Then this blessed “slave” freed the citizens of this country from the bondage of sin.

Christianity has never condoned ‘slavery’ but has done the following:

Encouraged the masters to free their slaves.

Asked the masters to treat their slaves as beloved brothers, with gentleness and mercy (Eph. 6: 5,9, Col. 3: 22;4: 1).

Commanded slaves to attain inner freedom when they believe in Christ and become truly free from the bondage of sin, which is more important.

Encouraged them if possible to attain civil freedom, but without resorting to violence.

We have the story of Philemon, the master, and Onesimus. the slave, in which the slave stole from his master and fled. The penalty for this in those days was death, but Onesimus met St. Paul who freed him on the inside by the grace of God and sent him back to his master Philemon (who was a disciple of St. Paul’s) with a letter that is full of human dignity, sacrificial love, brotherhood among men, and a forgiving spirit. He told Philemon.

"I am sending him - who is my very heart - back to you. , no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord... welcome him as you would welcome me" (Philo. 1: 11 - 17).

Thus the master and the slave are equal members of the body of Christ, the church.

Christ of the whole man:

The Lord Jesus did not come to save a part of the human being and neglect another. He did not come to save the spirit and destroy the body, taking the divine breath and leaving the clay. Rather He made man into a unified whole and a harmonious entity. Both spirit and body are involved in sinning and when man repents, he does so with all his being. In the Kingdom, man will reign with his rational spirit and with his body of light.

- Thus Christ has become for us;

- Food for the spirit,.

- Enlightenment for the mind,.

- Control for the self,.

- Health for the body,.

- Success for relationships.

The Human Being:

The individual who perseveres in prayers, who fills himself with the word of God, with spiritual readings, with hymns and the liturgy, with educational meetings, fasting, and the life of the church with its various occasions, satisfies his spirit.

When he studies the Bible and becomes wise with the wisdom of God’s word, when he perseveres in reading the books of the Bible, the word of God becomes a lamp to his path and his mind is enlightened.

When through grace he strives, controlling himself in all things, controlling his senses, inclinations, friendships, reading, and what he watches; when he controls his instincts, softens his reactions, he controls himself.

When he is temperate where his body is concerned, giving it the food, rest and sleep it needs without either severity or indulgence, when he protects it from what could harm the temple of God such as smoking, drugs, alcohol, and impurity, the body is healthy.

When the love of God is poured into his heart through the Holy Spirit who is given to us and when this love spreads to those around him, when he deals with all with understanding, cooperation, giving, and tolerance, he is socially successful.

The well - rounded personality is a gift of God to His children and they witness to their Christ through it, becoming the light of the world and the salt of the earth..

Child of the manger,.

As we celebrate Your earthly birth,.

We confess that You are.

Above time,.

Everywhere,.

And for everyone.