The Humiliation of Hell

[@tom4705]

Please pray for me, a horrible sinner who betrayed his own conscience.

[@anthonyally4390]

God's mercies are new every morning ☦️🕊️😇 Lamentations 3:23 humbly receive His Grace in Christ Jesus and be renewed ⚡♾️

[@normadaly7506]

Even the smallest sin is disgraceful. We never have anything to boast about..... We're totally foolish, hopeless, faithless and oh so weak.... All of us. Just keep to daily prayers and meditations. Cry out to Him immediately ur feel beyond endurance like they did in psalms. I'm so glad I know to do that. ☦️❤️🙏

[@American-Jello]

I will pray for you. You pray for me too, my friend. ☦️🙏

[@icxc777]

God forgives and I forgive

[@Michael_H02251]

The Love of God is greater than all your sins.

[@aleksandarstojkovic607]

Greetings from an Orthodox from Serbia. Father Josiah, it is a great pleasure and comfort hearing and seeing a true Christ's servant. Thank you and please pray for Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo

[@areyoutheregoditsmedave]

Satan trembles! Christ defeats death by death! ☦️

[@captainhands3558]

I relapsed this week and drank alcohol after two years, during lent, during holy week, pray for me. I haven't drank since but I am ashamed.

[@anthonyally4390]

Thank God for His Grace power cleansing us now and forever as we enter confession ☦️🛐🕊️

[@elpo203]

Acts 2:24 But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches. Do not fear my friend, Christ will rise!! He has defeated death by death, overcoming it for our sake. I know the emotions you must feel but do not be sad! God is walking with you he is cheering for your victory, he knows what temptations are like and he has overcome them to help us know that through him we can overcome our sins. God sees your regret and knows the difficulties all he wants is you to turn to him so that through his strength he can strengthen you and save you from the tricks of the devil. God bless you so much I will pray for you everyday this Holy Week!❤

[@orthodox1717]

We fall, we get back up. Repent and confess. God loves us.

[@neveralone7212]

Do not fall into Satan's trap of shaming you. Repent, confess, put your faith in God's plentiful mercy

[@vasilii6417]

An Orthodox Priest giving a lecture once said that Jesus called Lazarus by name because the Word of the Lord is so powerful that if He just said "Come out!", all of the dead would rise...... Also Lazarus lived thirty years after he was raised from the dead. He left Bethany and lived on the island of Cyprus. He became the Bishop of Kition, which is now called Larnaca. The Most Holy Theotokos visited him while he was there.

[@xmc7189]

Wow thanks for sharing this amazing part our Holy Tradition

[@olgathehandmaid]

She also was the first to sew Bishop's vestments for him!

[@ivanmyskowski49]

THIS IS AMAZING. I recently converted to orthodoxy and am a catechumen. This message is so encouraging in the wake of the new challenges that come with being orthodox. Glory to God!

[@orthodox1717]

Glory be to God!

[@dr.dannygentry7823]

Welcome home! I was baptized into the Orthodox Church recently, and it has been the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. My only regret is that it took me this long to get here.

[@neveralone7212]

​@@dr.dannygentry7823 no regrets. Orthodoxy is to fully surrender and believe solely in God's work and infinite wisdom including His timing for bringing you home. Glory to Him!

[@Athonite]

Thank you for your ministry. I am an isloated person and your work has helped me.

[@motzoh]

And now today! we sang at the Great and Holy Saturday vesperal DL, "Today hell cries out groaning: I should not have accepted the Man born of Mary. He came and destroyed my power. He shattered the gates of brass. As God, He raised the souls that I had held captive. Glory to Thy cross and resurrection, O Lord." Kali anastasi, thank God for His great mercy and freeing us from the fear of hades!

[@anthonyally4390]

Hallelujah, Glory to God now and forever ☦️🔥♾️

[@saint5203]

Glory be to God

[@johnnycharles702]

Thank you, Father for taking the time during this busy season for Priests to post this. It was food for my soul. Side note my dog goes nuts every time your security system chimes 😂.

[@stevendouglas3781]

Hell begging Lazarus to obey the command of The Lord is an amazing image.

[@liamcroatt171]

I feel that I need much prayer currently, and so I thought I'd ask here. I'm sick and have been growing sicker. I'm dependent on others, yet I want to be married and be the caretaker and provider for my wife, my children. I don't want this illness to reverse that role for my spouse, and so I've become very bold in my pursuit to find some way to make a proper living and some way to have physical endurance for the sake of whosoever I marry. But I'm emotionally exhausted for now because of a flairup of symptoms, and I've become completely dependent on God because my own strength, while not gone yet, is no longer enough on its own. Please, offer your prayers for me. I've prayed for holiness, and it seems that our Lord has thought it fitting to grant it through suffering. I'm an Eastern Catholic.

[@panagenesis2695]

Thank you for the message, Father. Have a Good Holy Week and Happy Pascha.☦

[@Kyriakyriaki-onlyaservant]

Dear Fr. Josaiah, Thank you for your inspiratiion and love. A blessed Pascha to you and your family. 🙏❤️☦️ Kyriaki & Michael

[@morkoan70]

Thank you dear Abouna for expounding the gospel and it’s word.

[@jsz1962]

Thank you, Father.

[@normadaly7506]

Thank you father

[@makingsmokesince76]

Thank you Father for this heartening word.

[@muscularchristian2.0]

Beautiful message 🙌

[@androsphelos]

Glory to God

[@JamesCrocker-m3s]

Are you trying to say that Sheol or Abrahams bosom with a place of discomfort because I always understood that the story of the other Lazarus was there and he was in comfort and relaxing. I’m a little confused now anyways, I love your preaching.

[@prayunceasingly2029]

I guess Lazarus will raise from the dead twice?

[@voievod9260]

Yes

[@SuperGogetem]

Hades must have had a large separation between the good and evil since scripture tells us that the leper Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham and that there was a large gulf between them and the rich man.

[@franciscolaureano7703]

True. I think Father should have addressed that. Its clear from scripture that there is a difference

[@voievod9260]

No, Hades was not a place of torment and punishment, it was more of a waiting place. Christ's parable is just that, Abraham's bosom and hell came into existance after Christ's Ressurection. My parish priest told me that Jesus's parable doesn't necesarly meant that the plot was real. We will only know for real when we die.

[@SuperGogetem]

@@voievod9260 You make a good point.

[@voievod9260]

@@SuperGogetem Christ is Risen brother ! Are you Orthodox?

[@SuperGogetem]

@@voievod9260 Yes, indeed. Truly, He is Risen!

[@johnnyfrantz6333]

I am 4 mins in. New to orthodoxy. Antiochian. If all of humanity up to Christ were in Hades then why would King David remove his mourning garments while praying for his new child (from Bathsheba) once the child has died and out on his regular garments for ruling and by way of explanation say “he cannot come to me but I will go to him”? Why would David or any other Hebrew of faith believe that he was confined to Hades for some unnamed length? I’m not sure that this is theologically sound.

[@HomoEucharistica]

The Hebrews believed (and still believe) that all people's souls go to Sheol, or "Hades", until the day of the resurrection. This Sheol had two chambers, the place of torment and the bosom of Abraham, as described in the parable of a rich man and Lazarus.

[@agiasf7330]

How about Jairus' daughter & the son of the widow of Nain, whom the Lord resurrected, before he resurrected Lazarus? Is Hades so pleased with itself, because, unlike them, Lazarus was a friend of the Lord? And is it humiliated because he was dead 4 days, whereas Jairus' daughter was probably dead for only minutes, before she was resurrected? The widow of Nain's son was probably dead less than 24 hours, as the custom was to bury within a day, as decomposition sets in quickly in hot countries, like Palestine. If not these, what's the difference?

[@karimdelakarim]

​@Gigi Ghiba was Jesus not a J£w to?

[@eikon7001]

Are you certain the soul would immediately descend to Hades? It may pass through places and ‘arrive’ on the third day (there are teachings about such). If that’s the case the other two only had NDEs, so to speak, and were not brought out of that realm where Lazarus would have been on the fourth day-that the others had not reached yet.

[@campomambo]

I once recall being told that it was Jewish tradition that the soul does not fully depart from the body to the grave/hades until after the third day. It is Orthodox tradition that the funeral takes place on the third day, since we do not practice embalming. Even in warm climates like the middle east the body is still not decayed to the point where it "stinks" by the third day. Orthodox tradition regarding when the soul departs for the place of its repose is a bit more complicated than saying it happens on the third day or 40th day or something, but there is continuity with the pre-Chistian Jewish tradition that the soul's descent to the grave is not immediate.

[@myronplatte8354]

Yes, the fact that it was four days is significant, because the soul stays near the body for about three days. No resurrection past that limit had ever occurred before, therefore no soul had ever been called out of hell. I may be saying something inaccurate here, but that’s the best I can do.

[@alexcarson2065]

Does anyone know how Satan didn't know Jesus was Jesus when he entered into Hades, when they were so familiar with his voice? I know there is a theory of "divine deception" but the idea of God as a deceiver seems to open things up to an incredible amount of issues.

[@sweetstephylu]

+++ The demons and Satan DID know_ example Luke 8:28 “what have you to do with me Son of the Most High God” BUT they simply didn’t fully understand in regards to the God-Man’s Power and great Glory _ rest assured there was no deception on God’s part☦️Christ is Risen /Truly He is Risen

[@alexcarson2065]

@@sweetstephylu Yeah I'm not sure what Gregory of Nyssa was thinking with that one, but I'm glad the priests and people I've talked to about it reject his theory

[@cyberpunkworld]

One cannot blasphemy in Zen. Yet they can and sometimes they do consider other paths as inferior. I'm not making that error!!

[@marcovolpe8262]

I disagree a lil bit Nothing wrong with working hard for something then achieve it.. thank god and be proud of your self.

[@codymarkley8372]

Or thank God for opening all the doors to our achievements. It's all his work. He just laid them before us.

[@olgathehandmaid]

Our colloquial use of the word "pride" like to be "proud" of the people around us that we love is really meant to be "joy"... it's not true pride in that way. Don't get caught up on the language. Be humble, think nothing of yourself or your achievements, but only know that Christ does Good through you and let your joy have its place!