As the Paschal Season comes to an end at sunset on Wednesday, here are some additional photos of Holy Week and Pascha. We received eight people into the Church on Holy Saturday and two children into the Church on May 11th. Congratulations to Gabriel, Zachariah, Herman, Mary, Moisha, Daniel, Theodora, Nicholas, George, and Veronica! May God grant them many years! In the last five months, we have received 35 people into the Orthodox Church at St. Sava. Glory to God! Photo credit: Katya Pridgen and Melissa Wei (fb)

Opening the Eyes of the Blind I want to ask you a question. There’s a word that you’ve heard in the Bible some, and I want to see if you know what it means. The word is “messiah”. What does this word mean? 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 Okay, it is referring to Jesus. 𝙄𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩. Yes, so, it is a Hebrew word that means Christ so that is correct. 𝙎𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 It does refer to the Savior. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙣𝙚. Yes, particularly, the anointed. So, “messiah” means anointed, and anointing is something you do with oil. You anoint a person or a thing to set it apart as very special. And the Messiah is a King who is anointed with oil; that is, He is set apart from all the other kings because He is not like other kings. How is this King different from all the other kings? 𝙃𝙚'𝙨 𝙂𝙤𝙙. That’s right! He’s the King of kings so that’s how He’s different (Revelation 17:14; 19:16). He’s above all the other kings. Now, the Old Testament talks about this Person, the Messiah Who is going to come, this special King Who is going to come, and it says there are going to be some ways where you can recognize Him when He shows up because whenever the holy writers of Scripture were talking about this Man, the Messiah Who is going to come, no one knew, well, what does He look like? Is He tall? Is He short? 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙡 Is He fat? Is He bald? Is He muscular? 𝙃𝙚’𝙨 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝 Well said. You see that icon up there with the Lord Jesus Christ with the really big hands? His hands are really big because He’s got the whole world in His hands so yes, indeed, but the Bible tells us there are going to be certain ways that we’re going to be able to recognize this Messiah when He shows up. And one of the ways we’re going to be able to recognize Him is that He is going to open the eyes of the blind, and this is very important. For anyone wondering who this Messiah will be, whoever it is who opens the eyes of the blind. Pay attention to this guy, and we see the Lord Jesus Christ in His whole ministry. Well, what does He do a whole lot? 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙃𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚. 𝙇𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙝. He does indeed, and there are many times when the Lord Jesus Christ opens the eyes of blind people. Now, in most of these cases, these were people who, at one time in their life, could see, and at some point in their lives, they lost their eyesight. The Lord Jesus Christ gave them their eyesight back, but today, the Lord Jesus Christ does something that no one ever heard of before. What is it that the Lord Jesus Christ does today? 𝙃𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙣. 𝙃𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤, 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣, 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙚. 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚, 𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚. 𝙎𝙤, 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙜𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠? Yes, He gives their sight back. This is one of the things that the Old Testament Scriptures said that the Messiah would do: He’s going to open the eyes of the blind, and today, we see Him opening the eyes of the blind (Isaiah 35:5-6; John 9:1-38). And we see, with Him opening the eyes of the blind, everyone believes in Him, right? 𝙔𝙚𝙨 𝙉𝙤 Wait, wait what? Not everyone believes in Him? What’s going on? 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙤. 𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙟𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙪𝙨? Some people are envious, yes. 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙣-𝙅𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙢, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙅𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙢. For some, yes. 𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙮, “𝙉𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩. 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩. 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚.” Right, right 𝙀𝙜𝙮𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙨 – 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙜𝙤𝙙𝙨. That’s true, but these people are supposed to know the Scriptures. These people are supposed to know that the Messiah is going to open the eyes of the blind, and here is a man opening the eyes of the blind, and they say, “No, no, it’s not Him. Nope, nope, not it. Not Him.” But the Lord Jesus Christ talked about something quite a few times. He said, “Okay, if you don’t believe Me. Can you at least believe the works that I do?” (John 10:38). Does the Lord Jesus Christ ever do anything that hurts anyone? 𝙉𝙤 Alright, does the Lord Jesus Christ ever kill anyone? 𝙉𝙤! He doesn’t hit anyone. He doesn’t hurt anyone, okay? The things that He does makes people well. The things that He does sets people free from demons. The things that the Lord Jesus Christ does raises the dead. He does all of these things, and the Lord Jesus Christ said this, “You will know a tree by its fruit” (Matthew 7:15-20). That is, a person, what they do, it could be a person, it could be a group of people, whatever, but what they do, are these good things, or are they bad things? So, we should trust Him. We see what He does. We should trust Him as the Messiah. We should trust Him as the promised King, and we should trust Him with everything in our lives. So, whenever you are having a hard time, whenever you need help, you should go to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, “Lord Jesus Christ, help me. You opened the eyes of the blind. You healed people. You raised the dead. Have mercy on me and help me.” I want you to do this, and I want you to get in the habit of doing this, of talking to the Lord Jesus, of asking Him for His help because you will get it. 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙝𝙮, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚. Well, God bless you. So, you should pray for the people in your class, that they’ll come to know Jesus, and you reflect Jesus. You show kindness. You show love. You show mercy. You show hey, this is what a person who believes in Jesus, this is what we act like, okay? And that will be a good thing. 𝙎𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙙, 𝙨𝙤 𝙬𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙣. 𝙒𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙. Right, and Jesus is stronger than the devil, and so He is going to help us with whatever we need. 𝙃𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩. And He loves us so let’s take our troubles to the Lord Jesus. Let’s pray to Him always. Let’s rely on Him for everything, and to Him is due all glory, honor, and worship together with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages, Amen. https://stsavaoca.org/2025/05/25/opening-the-eyes-of-the-blind-fr-photius-avant-childrens-sermon/ (fb)