It is vexed!

The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom rallies excitement among Orthodox Christians every Easter. While it is tempting to be swept up in the grandeur of a winning team after fighting the good fight with long hours of fasting and prayer, it is Christ's victory, not our own, that we celebrate. St. John uses the parable of the workers found in Matthew's Gospel to remind us that the "Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first." We are called to "rejoice together – rich and poor, sober and slothful" – a poignant reminder for those who quibble over divisions among us today. 

The 2021 Holy Saturday episode of Doulos explores the imagery and poetry of St. John Chrysostom's Paschal Homily through an interview with Andrea Bakas, founder of the Los Angeles Bible Lecture Series. She takes a deeper look at the scriptural content woven into this powerful and enduring sermon. Andrea also explores the rich meaning of the Greek word, epikranthi, used as the basis for her new podcast which releases Pascha Sunday, 2021, VEXED!

See the full episode transcript.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

​Hollie Benton
You are listening to Doulos, a podcast of the Ephesus School Network. Doulos explores servant leadership as an Orthodox Christian. I'm Hollie Benton, your host and executive director of the Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative. Andrea Bakas joins me on today's episode. Andrea has had a lifelong interest in religious studies and attended Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, focusing her studies on Scripture and scriptural interpretation. She is the founder of the Los Angeles Bible Lecture Series, and is a member of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox parish in Los Angeles. She is a nurse practitioner in orthopedic surgery and holds master's degrees in nursing and public health. I'm very excited to announce that she will be releasing her own podcast tomorrow Pascha Sunday in 2021 on the Ephesus School Network entitled "Vexed!" In the spirit of "vexed!" we'll be taking a deeper look at St John Chrysostom Paschal homily, which Orthodox Christians hear at every Pascha or Easter service. Welcome Andrea! I'm so excited to be interviewing you today and congratulations on the upcoming release of your podcast "Vexed!"
 
Andrea Bakas
Thank you so much Hollie. I'm so happy to be here with you.
 
Hollie Benton 
Clearly St John Chrysostom's Paschal homily inspired the name of your podcast "Vexed!" depending on the translation Orthodox Christians at every Pascha rally around the reading of St. John Chrysostom homily, exclaiming at the appropriate times "Vexed!" or "embittered".  Remind our listeners of the context and say a little bit more about what this word means, “it is vexed”.
 
Andrea Bakas   
Yes, well, we hear this sermon read to us at the end of Paschal service Saturday midnight service, and Chrysostom's writing is so rich with poetry, and he uses his sermon to share Paul's teaching about Pascha, that the crucified Jesus is proclaimed as Victor by his Father, raised by him, and granted power and authority over the living and the dead, the totality of all things. It's apocalyptic imagery. Chrysostom writes about Christ having conquered death, and he wrote his text in Greek, and as a way to express Christ's victory. He writes, that Christ, essentially party-crashes Hades. And he uses the word "epikranthi", which, in its original meaning means "to make bitter", as in to make the stomach bitter, as in when you eat something that doesn't agree with you. And so it's just wonderful imagery. For those who love literature, and the world of words, it's just really delightful. in the older English, this word "epikranthi" was translated as "vexed", and now we have other translations that translate that epikranthi as embittered, or angered, but I prefer "vexed". From my youth I, the little black Holy Week service book I've had since I was a child uses that word vexed and so it has kind of a sentimental value to me, and I just, I prefer the way it lands and its meaning.
 
Hollie Benton 
Let's take our listeners through a deeper dive into the Paschal sermon. St. John Chrysostom begins, "whoever is a devout lover of God. Let him enjoy this beautiful bright festival, and whoever is a grateful servant, let him rejoice and enter into the joy of his Lord". Until I prepared for this podcast I think those lines never hit me in such a way. Have I been a grateful servant? I have to pause, take a gulp, because I stand in question about my own devotion and love for God. I'm not sure I realized before how these words went right past me, I suspect most of us hardly notice them because we so quickly assume that we are devout and we love God we're standing there, aren't we? The sermons addressed to us, the wise and devoted servants who love God, right?
 
Andrea Bakas 
What occurs for me, is that Chrysostom very cleverly plays to our vanities. He acknowledges us, you know, lovers of God, grateful servants, you know, these are the ways we like to see ourselves. In keeping with the tradition of the Bible which Chrysostom knew well, in knowing some of the prophetic texts, for example like the book of Amos, the way that that book is crafted the text attacks your enemies first, so it calls out you know all those people that you think are wicked and lambastes them but then you realize as you get to the end of that book that you are also included in that judgment in that criticism and similarly, I feel like Chrysostom picks up on that and so soon in the homily, he'll let us know. He will take the opportunity to correct our understanding and take our focus away from ourselves very shortly in the sermon.
 
Hollie Benton 
So St John continues with his homily: "If any be weary with fasting, let him now receive his penny. If any have toiled from the first hour, let him receive his due reward. If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the feast, and he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt, for he too shall sustain no loss and if any have delayed to the ninth hour, let him not hesitate, but let him come too. And he that arrived, only at the 11th hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last, even as the first." St. John Chrysostom is drawing from the parable we find in Matthew 20. It's a powerful story so I'd like to go ahead and read it now so that our listeners can readily connect to this parable in Matthew to what we hear in St John's Paschal homily: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard and going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to them, he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right, I will give you.' So they went, going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same, and about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing and he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, 'because no one has hired us', He said to them, 'you go into the vineyard too'. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to a steward, 'call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first', and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius and on receiving it they grumbled at the householder saying 'these last worked only an hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat'. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend. I am doing you know wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."
 
Andrea Bakas
Wow, It's something isn't it? It is the shock and the insult that we feel, frankly you know we live in a world where we're very concerned about justice, we're very interested in what is just and making sure that what we earn, you know what we merit, gives us a particular right over someone else who didn't merit as much. It's such a shocking teaching because we're so unused to it in our modern era.
 
Hollie Benton
Oh yes as children we learn early on, it's not fair.
 
Andrea Bakas
Yes, exactly, exactly right. It's so brilliant this teaching, because it is the voice of the senior who really steals the show in this story, right, it's the senior who has the last word, the senior who has the authority, the master of the table, the head of the table who says "Wait a second, hold on here. Let's come back to basics. It's my table, you have nothing to say about what goes on at my table." That's what St. John Chrysostom captures in his homily.
 
Hollie Benton 
The homily continues: "Yea, to this one he gives and upon that one He bestows He accepts the work, and He greets the endeavor, the deed He honors, and the intention He commends. Let us all then enter into the joy of our Lord, the first and last receiving like your reward. You rich and poor rejoice together. Ye sober, and ye slothful, celebrate the day, ye that have kept the fast and ye that have not, rejoice today! For the table is richly laden. Feast ye royally on it. The calf is a fatted one, let no one go away hungry.  This section is just so powerful, Andrea. Everything that would divide us, rich and poor, sober and slothful, those who have fasted as pious Orthodox Christians and those who have disregarded the fast, those Democrats those Republicans those liberals those conservatives, vaccinators anti vaccinators, Black Lives, Blue Lives.  But look, the table is fully laden. The Lord has provided. Are you going to stand there hungry? Are you going to come sit and join us at the table? But to come to the Lord, one table of mercy, we must sit with our enemies. Those who oppose us, those who argue with us, those who don't agree with us, and by doing so partaking of the mercy of the table that the Lord provides to us. I'm also reminded of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, just like he is sitting there sulking, I feel like we must look to ourselves. The father prepares the fatted calf and lays out a full banquet for the prodigal son. Are we going to stand back lurking in the corner, satisfied with our own self-righteousness and despise who we consider our sinful brother, or are we going to join in the feast, nourished by the generous and rich mercy that God our Father provides to all of us?
 
Andrea Bakas
Well yes, I mean well said. I would add that, what strikes me about this section of the sermon is how it hits the ear, in that if you're honest and you're human, it's offensive, it's offensive to our efforts, it's offensive to our sense of self. When we hear these words, it's usually about two in the morning, you know, Saturday midnight service you're tired, you maybe have fasted all week long you've made a good effort to attend all the services, you've endured a week of peanut butter and boiled dandelion greens all week long. Holy Week, frankly, you feel like you're due something, you want that pat on the back for all your efforts, you want to be recognized. Chrysostom, not only is not giving you that, but he's insulting you or me I should say, by telling me that my efforts don't merit. That this is not about my efforts more than that, you know, if you wanted to put a visual on it, he's saying that the man who took an easy stroll around the block, and then one who ran the marathon 26 long miles are the same in the eyes of the master of the table. Both are invited to the table. At that point at two in the morning, I'm not thinking about my neighbors, my brothers or my enemies, I'm thinking about myself. I'm thinking about my fatigue and me being put upon, and Chrysostom is mocking me, in a sense, but he's also teaching me this is what's so brilliant. This is the old-fashioned teacher. If you were lucky enough like I have been to have that old-fashioned teacher who just, you know, may not have been nice to you, but in their kind of irritability, spent their efforts to teach you something, so that you would have that knowledge. And so it didn't matter how nice they were, how supportive they were, they were teaching you something and Chrysostom in the same vein is also teaching us. You know, with an open ear if you put your own ego aside you can hear that he is delivering the biblical instruction, he's reminding us that the Lord's table is not ours. It's the Lord's table, and it's His victory, but this is good news right because He's providing. It's not you, you don't really have to do anything but witness it. He's providing for everyone, no matter who you are, what you believe, or what you've done. It is His victory that we are celebrating, and so we can all sort of relax in that. That we're paying honor where honor is due, and we're simply there to take our seat and witness that in celebration of Him.
 
Hollie Benton
The homily continues "Partake ye all the cup of faith, enjoy ye all the riches of His goodness. Let no one grieve at his poverty for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again, for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it. He spoiled Hades when he descended there too. He vexed it even as it tasted of his flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he cried, thou O Hades has been vexed by encountering him below. It is vexed for it has even done away with. It is vexed for it is made a mockery. It is vexed, for it is destroyed. It is vexed for it is annihilated. It is vexed, for it is now made captive. It took a body, and lo it discovered God, it took Earth and behold it encountered heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.” Andrea, what's going on here with this powerful imagery?
 
Andrea Bakas
Well, a way to understand this, is that it's a celebration of the Conqueror. If you remember, some ancient Roman history. In the Roman era when the Roman armies would conclude their foreign wars and they would have defeated their enemies. The emperor would parade in his chariot and his regalia, through the city, and they would have all their enemies in tow and their plunder from their foreign wars and this was a big display and a big occasion and everybody would be gathered and to be glorifying and clapping for the Emperor and for Rome and their conquests and you know they're showing off their victory right, it was a display of their glory. And this is in a sense, what's happening here, except that, that imagery is Chrysostom rather is using that imagery and turning it on its head. He is speaking about Christ's victory, instead of the Emperor, it's usurping the power of the Emperor. So Christ's victory. The imagery is directed toward Christ and His victory. He is the slain Conqueror. The imagery is powerful because it's an impossibility, that by definition an emperor who is slain is defeated. It makes no sense to us in human terms. Not so in the Bible, and this is the proposition. This is the biblical proposition. And this is what Chrysostom is talking about. He's using the imagery of the Roman conqueror vanquishing his enemies. But he's talking about Christ as the Victor. God has raised His son from death and made Him ruler over it. If you wanted to bring it closer to home and kind of a modern example it might be a silly example but it's the way that we have, you know Super Bowl celebrations every year, you know when your team wins the Super Bowl, and there's a parade in the city, the team has victors you know they have the big parade of the Super Bowl winners and the fans and everyone waving at them and cheering them on. It's something like that, a parallel for the imagery here.
 
Hollie Benton
Finally, St. John Chrysostom ends his homily with "Oh Death, where is thy sting. Oh, Hades Where is thy victory, Christ is risen, and thou art annihilated, Christ is risen and the angels rejoice, Christ is risen and life is liberated, Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of the dead for Christ, having risen from the dead is become the first fruits of those that have fallen asleep. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen."
 
Andrea Bakas 
Chrysostom's poetry is his but the content comes from Paul. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 15 specific. In that chapter, as with the entire book, he has to straighten out the Corinthians misunderstanding of his teaching. They're so preoccupied with death and resurrection, not so much the Lord's, but their own. In his letter to the Corinthians he's correcting them. And in chapter 15 He reminds them that it is Christ's victory, not ours, Christ is risen, unto power over death, not unto life, but unto power. But this doesn't mean that we don't die. Paul's teaching which Chrysostom's so compactly is expressing, is that in the Bible the victory over death, the last enemy will take place at the Lord's coming, which is ahead of us. It's a teaching in which we were asked to put our trust in this crucified Christ since we still die, we don't get carried off with Him, we don't change, life doesn't change the way things function don't change, but we are asked to endorse to put our trust in Paul's teaching that Christ is going to come again. And when He comes again, He will be in His glory in victory over death.
 
Hollie Benton 
It's been a joy to dig more deeply into St John Chrysostom's Paschal homily. We might take it easily for granted but it's so rich with imagery and poetry.
 
Andrea Bakas 
Those who are hearing this may well have already heard this in the context of the service, but it's worth studying again, I spent many, many years, I think like most of us going through the motions really asleep to the sermon, you know, figuratively and literally because you're so tired. You're not really processing a whole lot at two in the morning but it's such a wonderful magical work of poetry simply from that perspective, if you're a lover of words and literature, it's really, really rich and wonderful and worth reading again at home with your own family. It's also an invitation. It's an opportunity to get curious because that's essentially what I did when I reread it. I didn't understand it. And as I dug into it. It took me back to the biblical text where the content comes from. It was a very interesting journey to go in and discover those texts and say oh, that's what Paul is saying and that's where this word comes from. For example, my study of the word “epikranthi” I found some very interesting connections I was unaware of. Not only did Chrysostom, take his understanding from Paul's letters but the word "epikranthi" it is used in what we call the Old Testament in the book of Ruth very heavily, and also in the book of Revelation. It took me down the road of studying that text, the book of Ruth, and the book of Revelation, and so there's a lot of richness to be had in discovering those connections. It's like a tree with very, very deep roots, taking the time to go and explore where these things come from because Chrysostom didn't make this up, didn't come like a lightning bolt from the cloud. He knew his Bible. And this was his text his source of inspiration, he was formatted by that, and that's how he came up with this incredible sermon.
 
Hollie Benton
Andrea, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for this interview. I'm so excited for the release of your upcoming podcast "Vexed!" Our listeners can find it on ephesusschool.org. And again, "Vexed" will be released on Pascha Sunday, 2021. Christ is risen.
 
Andrea Bakas
And truly has risen. Thank you, Hollie.
 
Transcribed by https://otter.ai