Yesterday was the final Sunday “after Pentecost,” when we read the last of the Sunday lections from Saint Luke’s Gospel. And though we often think of Zacchaeus Sunday as pointing forward, toward Pre-Lent and Lent, it also sums up the entire Church year that has gone before: Christ has come so that the Good News of salvation can be preached throughout the world and so that sinners like Zacchaeus can be saved. Just as Jesus once passed through Jericho, so now he passes throughout the world wherever the Gospel is preached. And his end goal is the salvation of sinners: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” All of the feasts, all of the works of the Lord—from Pascha to Pentecost, Transfiguration to Exaltation, Nativity to Theophany—culminate in the salvation of sinners and their transformation into saints.
Home / Work of the Church / Reflections in Christ / Metropolitan Tikhon /