A Warning to the Fruitless
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy
In Holy Week, we live hour by hour so we remember exactly what the Lord did in His final week.
On Monday, we remember the day that the Lord was in Bethany. He woke up and was hungry. From afar, He saw a fig tree that appeared to be full of fruit because of the amount of beautiful leaves that were on it. As He approached the tree, He noticed that were no fruits. The tree falsely appeared to be full of fruit but it was merely an appearance of goodness.
The Lord then cursed the tree. For three years, He was with the disciples pouring blessings of healing – raising the dead, curing the sick, giving sight to the blind, cleansing lepers and expelling demons – but to the fig tree, He cursed. The next day as He was passing by the same tree with His disciples, Peter remembers what the Lord says and exclaims, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away!” (Mark 11:21). For the first time, something living had died at the hands of our Lord.
This was an important event that opens our eyes to the nature of our Lord. The Lord is telling us that the worst sin is hypocrisy. Its underlying sin is arrogance but hypocrisy is the manifestation.
Hypocrisy is to pretend you are good when are not, to hold an inner life that is vastly different to your outward appearance. To appear holy, to appear blessed, but when the Lord looks to your heart, it is withering away like the fig tree with no fruits.
He speaks firmly to the Pharisees and the Scribes to draw their attention, to overcome their pride and hypocrisy. What is the issue of pride?
Pride repels repentance. The hypocrite cannot see their need to repent. They are satisfied with their outward appearance. It is a disease that can manifest upon those living in the church for many years. Their pride sustains them and they carry on living with no cause to repent.
As St Macarius was passing away, there were two monks with him who asked him to give them lessons to live by. His advice was to live your life as a beginner. This is how you remain protected from pride. As we grow, in service, in knowledge, we think we are doing better and we leave ourselves exposed to attacks of pride. The label of “beginner” protects us.
St Yostus implemented this same principle all his life, so that others would not see his goodness and there was not even a hint of hypocrisy within him. One night he knocked on the door of another monk. The other monk awoke from sleep in haste to see what was wrong. St Yostus asked him what time it was. The other monk responded, “Father, you wake me in the middle of the night to ask me what time it is? It is after midnight, what difference does the time make?” He turned around angry, and as he was about to get into bed, he saw scorpions on his bed. St Yostus protected him from the scorpions by asking a silly question so that he would not receive any credit. He preferred to appeared crazy before others than have them think of him as a saint.
This is how the saints protected themselves. The ones that were focused on the opinion of God over the opinions of people. They did what they needed to do protect themselves from the sin of hypocrisy.
As St Moses the Black grew in repentance and spirituality, he was given the gifts of healing and prophecy. Word spread throughout surrounding countries and people began to travel to the desert to ask for his prayers. Some overseas travellers found a tall, dark monk in the desert as they were traveling to the monastery to see St Moses. They asked him if he knew St Moses and the monk responded, “why would you travel all this way to see him? The stories you hear are false, do not waste your time, he is no saint.” They continued walking to the monastery disturbed by what they heard. When they arrived at the monastery, they asked about the monk they had encountered. When asked to describe his appearance, the monks of the monastery were quickly able to identify that the monk they had seen in the desert was, in fact, St Moses. He didn’t like to be described as a saint, he wanted God to reveal what was within his heart.
St Seraphim of Sarov was a Russian hermit and is very well known till today. He was falsely accused of wrong doing. There was a court case before the Russian Synod of bishops and he was asked to defend himself. His disciples implored him to answer but he opened not his mouth, he insisted upon this. The Synod had no choice but to excommunicate him. He left joyful and continued in prayer and fasting. Many miracles were performed while he was in excommunication. This was extremely embarrassing for the Synod that had found him guilty. His excommunication was reverted and he was canonised a saint after his passing.
The saints hid their sainthood to prevent them from falling into hypocrisy. While we are not at the level of the saints to show we are bad but we must protect ourselves too. We must not try to convince people that we are good. If we do good, this does need to be broadcasted. Many times, the church is given huge gifts or donations and no one knows where they came from.
As a safeguard;
- Never speak in a way that glorifies yourself
- Never speak of yourself in a way that will cause others to conclude that you are good or a high achiever
- Always give thanks to God.
How will we be saved if we accept glory of earth?
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. – Matthew 6:2-4.
Do not be angry. Turn accusation into correction. Apologise often, even if you didn’t do anything wrong. Blame yourself, and you will live happy.
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