Becoming like Angels

“But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:35)

The Sadducees, the Jewish sect that did not believe in the resurrection from the dead, were baiting our Lord Jesus, taunting Him with their limited understanding of life. For them this lifetime is all there is, and they assumed any existence beyond the grave would be a repetition of this lifetime. Jesus attacked their presumption. After this life “those considered worthy…can no longer die, for they are like the angels.” In anticipation of that blessed and glorious time which is no longer time but eternity, the children of the resurrection will join in harmony with the angels—though not as actual angels, for they are created and remain forever different from human nature.

The angels and God’s children, for angels are also God’s children, will praise and glorify the Holy Trinity continually. They shall sing the song that is incorporated in the Divine Liturgy: Holy God, Holy Mighty, and Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. This very ancient hymn is already mentioned in the council of Chalcedon, 451 AD. God is One, He is All-powerful, and He is Immortal. More than a hymn, it is an ongoing meditation. We never can exhaust the meaning of each phrase.

God is One, but isn’t He Three? How can that be? At Chalcedon, the Church fathers defined what it meant, yet it separated the Greek or Byzantine Church of Constantinople from what we call the Monophysite Church, a separation that lasts to this day. God is Mighty, and yet we continually struggle with Satan and evil. God is Immortal; nevertheless, we die, although we are made in God’s image.

These mysteries will be revealed in time; however, by singing this song with the angels, we are projecting ourselves beyond the limits of time. It’s a hymn of anticipation that we are already blending in harmony with the angels while remaining held fast by the limits of time. We are not yet there on the other side of death’s doors—still we project our voices beyond the sounds that we make, so that the angels will hear us and God will bless us for our intentions. We are explaining the spiritual truth that we are turning away from living for earthly pleasures that are passing as we experience them, and we are starting already to live like the angels without the earthly needs that we cherish in our limited state of ignorance, not comprehending much of what lies ahead other than it’s a promise from the Promise Keeper whose Name we carry as the definition of who we are, what we are, and what we believe in.

With all this in mind, we are better prepared to receive the Word of God, Jesus Christ the living Word who comes to us through the reading of the epistle and the holy gospel. If you notice athletes warming up before the game by bending, stretching and exercising their muscles and wouldn’t think of dashing from the locker room to the kickoff or toss-up without proper preparation, so too the hymn along with the angels is a preliminary for opening up the ears of the souls to grasp the hidden mystery revealed by the wise St. Paul, and the Holy Spirit speaking through the precious phrases of the holy gospel. Actually, we are better able to understand the gospel than the angels, our choir partners, because the incarnation of the Son of God was on our behalf, and not the angels. We, the image-bearers of God’s seal, know about glory, and we know the consequences of having abused that purity in which we were made; therefore, the gospel and the journey of Jesus to earth and back to the throne of the Father was on our behalf.