Give me that stranger
When Joseph saw the sun hiding its own rays and the veil of the Temple being rented in two at Savior’s death, he presented himself to Pilate and implored him saying·
give me that stranger , who from childhood as a stranger, became strange to this world·give me that stranger , whom people of his race filled with hate,
kill as a stranger·
give me that stranger , whose strange death, looks strange to my eyes·
give me that stranger , whom Hebrews because of envy , estranged Him
from the world·
give me that stranger , to hide Him in the tomb, for as a stranger
has nowhere to lay His head·
give me that stranger , who knows how to take in the poor and the
strangers ·
give me that stranger , whom His Mother saw dead and cried out ·
O!!! My Son and my God !!! , though my heart is broken, and pain
pierces my soul seeing you dead , yet I take courage hoping in your
resurrection, and I magnify You·
So, with these words the prominent beseeching Pilate, he was
granted the Savior’s Body, and he wrapped it in the linen with spices and laid
in the tomb with fear and due respect Him who grants to all , life eternal and
the great mercy .
We sing this marvelous Troparion as a doxastikon, at the procession of
the Epitaphios, along with the Doxology, in the service, before the dismissal
of Great Saturday’s service.
We don’t know whether the author of this Troparion, when he was writing
that real diamond and gold of our hymnology, if he could actually realize,
think, imagine how many times it would be sung, it is sung and it will be·
How many
eyes would be filled with tears ·
How many
teardrops would run down·
How many
souls would be moved·
How many
people would love Christ more ·
How many
people would realize the divine magnitude through it·
Saint John
the Theologian and Evangelist says:...
...He
came to His own, and His own did not receive Him... (John, 1, 11) ...
Through
the word of the Lord, all were made ....
....all
things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made ....(
John 1,3). ...
He....
spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created ....(
psalm 148, 5).
For
all things are Your servants...we admit in the Troparia…
And yet
.....earth showed its malice· we, the people, showed our cruelty ·
He came to His own, on earth that He made, and the earth showed Him
from the very beginning what is awaiting Him.
Jesus had nothing to call His own, only the Cross afterwards· He was born in
a cave ... for there was no room for them in the inn ...·
There was no room for the Creator of the universe to be born· there was a
place for Herod, for Herodias, for dances, for feasts, for revelries and songs,
for iniquities and for criminals , and yet for the Maker of all visible and
invisible, there was not even a small room· He was a stranger·
There was only one place that the Hebrews gave Him willingly: that is
Golgotha, where they crucified Him.
He,
who made the leading light, the sun, and the stars , Who enlightens and
hallows everyone who comes into the world, ...the true Light ..., was
born and He encountered the light of this world for the first time, in a
cave·
He was
laid in a foreign, strange place, in a manger made for animals ·
He was
swaddled in borrowed swaddling clothes·
The cave
was alien· and yet in that foreign place the
inviroment was not tranquil and peacful, neither the days He spent there
.
And still, later on He is the One who will make us His fellow diners,
...A feast given by the hospital Master, and immortal meal…
Herod's mania breaks out· Christ is exiled, not only in a foreign
country, but most of all in a hostile one· in Egypt· a stranger a foreigner there, a refugee. When
He returns, they settle in an unfamiliar city· Nazareth ·
He
spends His childhood in a strange city, in a hostile inviroment.
He had no
place to be called His, and later, when His Disciples were asking Him :...Lord,
where do you stay? ... He was answering...come and see.... and
...the Son of man, has nowhere to lay His head...
He was
poorer than the birds of the sky.
He never got anything to be His, He didn’t even have the money to pay
taxes to the Romans, and for that reason, Peter performed that strange fishing.
He was crossing the lake on Peter’s boat, and on other boats belonging to
others · He entered Jerusalem, sitted on a borrowed colt· in a room that
was not His, on the upper dome , He kept the Passover· He was buried
into a grave, into a place that was not His.
Jews could have their own private tombs · but He didn’t· He was buried into an other’s grave, the one
that was prepared for Joseph from Arimathea .
A
Joseph was protecting Him, Joseph the Betrothed of the MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS AND
EVER VIRGIN MARY .
Another Joseph buries Him, the one from Arimathea·
And
another Joseph prefigures Him, which is to say Joseph the blessed and noble. (
son of patriarch Jacob ).
He had always been the great STRANGER, but never ESTRANGED from us.
He
embraced all people, ...He passed along benefitting and healing all
infirmities...· He was calling the babes embracing them....
...let the little children come to Me, and don’t forbid them....
He started
preaching in the Temple, when He was twelve years old· He was sitting
among the presbyters answering to their questions and queries.
He was walking along with those walking to Emmaus, in another form, as a
stranger to them ·
Where there was pain, tears and unjustice in people He was involving
Himself showing compassion and sympathizing with them....
......don’t cry....
.....Jesus wept...
He
looked for those misled· He went to seek the publicans, He ate with
them. He who is more resplendent than the sun, tolerated the sinners
condescendingly. He accepts the mourning of the woman of Canaan, the
Tax-collector’s sigh, the widow’s coin, the prodigal son’s return, the
confession of the criminal, Peter’s tears, whom He rescued some times back with
His own hand, extending His divine hand over the waves. He rescued him at that
time from a human wreck, that of the body. And afterwards, He delivered him
from a spiritual wreck, that of the soul, using the rooster’s crow and His
glance ·
He
came as the great benefactor, yet He remained the great stranger.
His era
did not accept Him, priests and scribes , law and society crucified Him ·
He
was judged and was convicted unjustly, by unjust people. He who is the only
Just, who will come to judge justly all those just and unjust ones.
We
witnessed Him being born in a strange way... Now that we have seen a strange
birth... and the next verse of Salutations exhorts us, to become strangers to
the world.... like sojourners and staying here for short.
For us, all the things of the world should be strange, so that the
Creator would be the only one familiar to us. But we have upset that balance as
well. We have made all the wordly things familiar to us and we estranged and
alienated ourselves from our Maker.
He arrived as a stranger, He lived as a stranger, He remained a stranger,
as a stranger He walked, as a stranger He led His life....
Since the
very first day, to the very last one on the Cross...
and two
strangers , but also familiar to Him and daring disciples, they took the most
immaculate Body down from the Cross, they did the Apokathelosis, giving a rest
to that haggard and full of wounds God-man’s Body...
That is the scene that the Holy hymnographer has in mind, and he depicts
it in his hymn, eternalizing that magnificent picture.
Joseph armed himself with courage, a sacred courage as the Holy Evangelist
says: ....taking courage , he went in to Pilate and asked for ...
O!!!
blessed courage!!!
O !!!
intension dear to God !!!
O !!
fullness of love !!!
O !!!
divine thought !!!
O !!!
steps of eternity !!!
O !!!
glorious voice!!!
O !!!
blessed hands!!!
O!!!
hallowed feet!!!
O !!!
burning heart !!!
O !!!
godly strength !!!
O !!!
cherubic eyes !!!
O !!!
seraphical palms!!!
O !!!
angelic power!!!
Being
young in the spirit, though old aged in the body, he throws back the social
post ,
he
preserves the values, he arms himself with bravery ,
he obtains
faith instead of a spear ,
love
instead of a shield ,
braveness
instead of a sword,
and he
paces forth. Though he has instable feet and trembling knees because of age,
the elder goes straight ahead to meet Pilate and attain the permission to unnail
Lord’s Body.
Taking courage he went in to Pilate, and asked for the Boby of
Jesus, moving and softening that hard heart of the ruler with these
words:....
Give me that stranger, what do you need the body of the one that you convicted
unjustly?
give me
that stranger, who from childhood, since he was a child was a stranger among
His own people, among the people that He sanctified.
give me
that stranger, who is a stranger to you and to Hebrews, whom the people of His
own race killed, with the consent of yours, as if He was a rejectable stranger·
give me
that stranger , whose strangeness I am amazed to see ·
give me
that stranger to you, whom Hebrews estranged as a stranger from His own people ·
give me
that stranger , to bury and hide in a tomb as a stranger. Him, who knows how to
take in and embrace with love the strangers ·
give me
that stranger, who as a stranger, doesn’t have a place to lay His head ·
give me
that stranger , whom seeing His PURE and MOST UNDEFILED Mother, with a painful
and bleeding heart, and a deeply sorrowful soul, cries out in tears :..my
sweetest Child, why do you suffer and endure all these for the salvation of
man, my heart griefs seeing your crucifixion, yet the world rejoices, but I take
courage hopping in your resurrection. I magnify Your Passion, I praise in hymn
your Burial with your Resurrection crying aloud, Long suffering Lord, glory be
to you....
And with these words, he defeats the tough ruler and he grands him the
Body. He rushes like a thirsty deer to Golgotha, renewed in the spirit, in the
likeness of a cherubic appearance, in order to be there in time before sun
sets, and pay the least tribute of honor and respect, as the last expression of
the humane race, which accepts the divine Passion.
The movements are... dear to God, in fear and trembling...
....let
all mortal flesh keep quiet, giving no though to things of the earth....
the eyes are lowered, the tears are streaming down, the breathing becomes slow
and quiet, following the rhythm of the movements, stable hands , but also shaky
due to the noble and sacred ministry, the strength is archangelic, the morale
high. A divine decision and purpose, a heavenly work, Burial of the Master, the
tomb will cover the life of all. And he rolls a stone to protect the Stone of
live.
He uses
mixture of myrrh and aloe. Together with Nicodemus they bury Jesus, as the
custom of the Jews is to bury, so that He will descent to Hades’ chambers, to
brake the power of death, to shatter the copper gates and the iron bars and
arose those who where captured there from the ages.
The Great
Stranger, but our Savior.
Stranger
to the Jews, Savior of all believers and of those who will belive in Him.
He
remained a Stranger troughout the centuries, and unfortunately, even
today and for most of us, he is still a stranger, since we don’t know His
voice.
We
don’t accept Him as a Good Shepherd, but we flee from Him....
He rose
from the dead, breaking the bonds of death, and yet as if we are His enemies we
scatter away. But may we listen to the voice of the good Shepherd and may He put
us in the spiritual sheepfold, which is unapproachable to wolves.
Τhat Troparion is known as :
When Joseph saw the sun...
or ...Give
me that stranger ...
It is the
Troparion which is sung less times in the services than any other else, despite
its beauty and importance, and the depth of its meanings· in the
parishes it is never sung · it is only sung in the Holy Monasteries, at the
process of Epitaphios.
It is a poem of the scholar Georgios the Acropolite, written in the
12th century. He composed its melody as well, and then he handed it to the
Church almost at the same date when the Lamentations entered into the
liturgical worship.
We wish
that the meanings of that hymn will touch our souls and our hearts, and may we
consentrate on the Lord steadfastly , so that He will not be a Stranger to us,
but our Lord, our Savior and Redeemer. Through the intercessions of our
MOST-BLESSED, GLORIOUS SOVEREIGHN LADY THEOTOKOS and EVER-VIRGIN MARY,
and may we all through Her supplications become familiar to Christ. Amen. May
it be so.
In the
mission, Easter of 2021 .
Christ is
risen..
Truly the
Lord is risen,
evloghite .
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