In the Gospel reading today, taken from St. Luke 18:18-27, Jesus Christ tells the rich man that he “lacks one thing,” that is, he should sell all his possession and follow God. The rich man “lacks this one thing” because the most important “thing” in his life is money and not God. It was his greatest weakness, which he could not get a handle on. In other words, it was his “Achilles heel!” It was his area of weakness. We could even say that was the area of his life that he gave more importance than God.

In the Gospel reading today, we hear our Lord Jesus Christ saying these words: “The Law and Prophets were until John. Since then the Kingdom of God has been preached and many are pressing into it.” (Luke 16:14-15) The Kingdom of God that Christ is referring to is the heavenly kingdom; that is, heaven, which we as Orthodox Christians are generally familiar with. However, the Kingdom of God is also here and now. It is the Orthodox Church. The late Fr. Alexander Schmemann always referred to the life of the Church (liturgy, praying, fasting, fellowship etc.) as heaven itself. In other words, when experiencing the life of the Church, we are in fact experiencing heaven; not only is it a taste of heaven; but heaven itself has come down to earth in all its glory. This is a reality for us, because every Sunday (and other days) we receive Christ Himself, first, through His Body and Blood, and second, through the preaching of Word. [The Word of God (Greek: Logos) has two meanings: 1) Jesus Christ himself 2) the Scriptures, Gospels, General and Pauline Epistles, Revelations…from here on referred to as the Bible.] When Christ speaks of the preaching of the Kingdom of God, He is referring to the experience of hearing the preaching of the Word of God within the life of the Church, which is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

In the Gospel reading today, we hear of King David entering the Holy Place with some of the men that were in his army. Due to his hunger, David ate the show bread and gave some to his companions. What we see is something very practical. David and his friends were hungry and so they grabbed and ate what they could get their hands on. We could all relate to this in some way or the other. Further, we advocate for David and his friends even if it seems as though they broke the religious rules. However, there is a spiritual aspect to this Bible passage, which needs further exploration.

In today’s Gospel Reading Jesus tells his disciples to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Leaven is typically yeast, which is added to dough to make it rise. Without it, dough would stay flat. It is obvious that Christ is using figurative language in order to explain a point. In other words, Christ has no interest in the cooking habits of the Pharisees and Sadducees. So then, what does Christ mean? Leaven makes the dough to rise. Yeast is an active organism that brings the dough to life—making it come alive. Similarly, the law, the rules and regulations of Judaism, were the “yeast” of Pharisees and Sadducees. It is what made them come alive, rather than the living God Himself. A relationship with Jehovah-God was not the priority for these spiritual rulers of Israel. It was rather following and keeping all the rules and laws. The law, which was suppose to aid the Jewish person in becoming closer to God, eventually became a form of legalism. God’s expectation in giving the law was for the Jewish people to use it as an “aid” or sort of “support system” to get closer to Him, change their lives, and avoid sin. But what occurred was the law became their God.