Homily
The Three Holy Youths
St. Andrew Orthodox
Church -
Introduction. In the Name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen. Today is that most glorious Sunday of the
Forefathers, one of two pre-Nativity Sundays that commemorate the righteous who
lived before the coming of our Savior and prepared His way. On this Sunday we commemorate especially the
Holy Prophet Daniel, and last year at this time I preached to you on the
Prophet Daniel as a model for contemporary Christian man. This morning I have fixed my gaze upon those
noble companions of the Holy Prophet Daniel, those youths who defied youth and
the fiery furnace in their fidelity to God.
These youths made no excuses to avoid hoping in, clinging to, and loving
God above all.
The Three Holy Youths.
These noble young men were named Hananiah, Azariah, and
Mishael. They are often today known more
commonly by their Babylonian pagan names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three youths were taken away in exile
into
Now the
three holy youths were brought before an enraged King Nebuchadnezzar when it
was clear that they had no intention whatsoever of conforming their religious
conviction to political correctness.
Standing face to face Nebuchadnezzar asked if it was true that they
refused his edict, did not worship his gods or bow before his image, and
threatened them with being cast into the blazing furnace of fire. He ended his tirade against them by stating,
“And what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?” (Dan. 3:15). King Nebuchadnezzar did not know what he was
asking.
Courageously
the three holy youths asserted to the King that there was no necessity for them
to answer him, and that their God was able to rescue them if He so pleased, but
that under any circumstance and whether the Lord wished to rescue them or not
they would never worship his gods (which are no gods) nor bow before his image
(which was a vain idol). Furious
Nebuchadnezzar had all three cast into the burning furnace of fire. The furnace was so hot (since Nebuchadnezzar
had it heated seven times hotter than usual) that the flames from the top of
the furnace shot 49 cubits into the air and those who were responsible for
throwing the youths in were themselves slain by the flame even though they were
strong and valiant warriors.
What
happened next left King Nebuchadnezzar dumbfounded and truly astonished. Expecting that they would immediately be
consumed by the fire Nebuchadnezzar was mystified to see the three youths
walking around calmly in the midst of the flame, and there was a fourth with
them who appeared as a son of the gods in brilliance! Drawing near the opening of the furnace
Nebuchadnezzar called to the three youths, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
you servants of the Most High God (Nebuchadnezzar had it right now!), come
out!” Walking out of the flame the three
holy youths neither were harmed, nor did their clothes even smell of smoke, nor
had any of their hairs been singed. As a
result of this great deliverance King Nebuchadnezzar promoted the three youths
in his administration and issued a public decree honoring the One True God and
forbidding any in his kingdom from speaking against the Lord on pain of
execution by dismemberment! (Dan. 3:29).
Lessons from the Lives of the Three Holy Youths.
1. We ought to love God’s will more than any earthly
circumstances. The three
holy youths are a model to each of us of true Christians. They were truly wedded to the Lord. They fulfilled the calling of the Holy Gospel
we read this morning. These young men
were first and foremost faithful to the Lord.
They hoped in Him, believed in Him, trusted in Him, and loved Him more
than they hoped in, believed in, trusted in, or loved anything else. This is true Christianity. “All else is adultery and promiscuity” (St.
Nicolai Velimorovich). Just as in
earthly marriage the husband and wife are to be more devoted to and in love
with each other than with any other man or woman so it is with the true
antitype of earthly marriage: the spiritual marriage of the soul to
Christ. These youths made no excuses,
and there were certainly plenty at hand.
They had great confidence in God’s power to deliver but they were
absolutely content to receive from the Lord’s hands ANYTHING He wished to give
them. What they loved was God’s will,
not some outward earthly arrangement.
They trusted the Lord’s promises, and so should we. “And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
2. We ought to trust that in our greatest trials Christ
is nearest to us. Look at when
the Lord manifested His divine presence miraculously to the three young
men. It was not until they had fallen
into the midst of the flames. The Lord
gave them the opportunity to prove their love for Him and fidelity to Him, and
then, having shown it forth, the Lord appeared and sweetened their trial with
the dew of His divine presence. We ought
not fear our trials because these are the times when the greatest interaction
and union between our souls and Christ takes place! We must patiently wait for the Lord to show
Himself. We must endure the trial and
expect to be refreshed by the nearness of Christ. This is how the spiritual life works. In the midst of trial wait patiently and look
for Christ to show Himself to your soul.
3.
We ought to recognize that
nothing, absolutely nothing, can stop our prayer and worship. Do you know what the three holy youths were doing in
the flaming furnace? Protestant Old
Testaments do not tell you, because the longer version of St. Daniel’s prophecy
has been expunged. The Orthodox Old Testament
records what happened for our edification,
and if you have a copy of the Apocrypha you can read it in the book
entitled, “The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men.” First, St. Azariah offered a most beautiful
prayer. He began this prayer by blessing
God’s Name and saying, “For thou art just in all that thou hast done to us” (v.
2). What an example of humility! How many of us would begin our prayer at the
height of our trial by accusing God of injustice? “How can you let this happen
to me God?” we might say. Not the holy
youth Azariah. He knew that he did not
exist in relationship to God merely as an individual but as a part of the
people of God. His sufferings he
believed were because of sin and he didn’t set himself apart from the people. Yet even in the midst of the burning fire,
and even thought the punishment was just, Azariah offered up his prayer to the
Lord! The Holy Prophet Jonah offered his
prayer from the belly of the whale in the heart of the sea and he was
heard!
Following the prayer the three holy youths began to
chant a beautiful hymn of praise to the Lord.
This beautiful hymn is sung each day in Lenten Orthros. King Nebuchadnezzar attempted to lead these
pious young men into false worship, but nothing, not even the blazing furnace,
could stop them from praising God. That
which is most valuable to any human being, that which does us the greatest good
by far of anything we possess, is prayer and worship for these things deify
man. And the three holy youths teach us
that these most valuable possessions can never be taken away from us if we do
not wish to relinquish them. No one can
harm us except ourselves.
4.
We ought to see how the Lord
Jesus Christ appears when two or three unite together in prayer in His
Name. The
three holy youths in the fiery furnace has always been a Nativity image in the
Church since the youths ability to withstand the fire foreshadowed the Holy
Virgin’s ability to contain the fire of the Godhead in her pure womb. The three youths also manifest what takes
place in us when we make our communion in faith. The fiery furnace in which is the Son of God
is the Holy Chalice. As flames shot
forth 49 cubits into the air from the Babylonian furnace so flames shoot forth
from this chalice all the way to the heavens.
As some were slain by the flames of the fire when they approached it in
sin in Babylon so those who approach this chalice without fear of God, faith
and love, or in presumption and disobedience improperly prepared kill their own
precious souls. As Christ Himself was
united to the three holy youths and saved them in the Babylonian furnace so
here in the furnace of the chalice does Christ really and truly unite Himself
to us and save us. So we ought all
together to stand in awe during the administration of this holy chalice. Let no one sit down who does not need to
because of weakness of body. To sit down
during communion is to betray a selfish and ignorant spirit. Those who sit down do not know what is
happening to their brothers and sisters at the chalice. Those who receive communion and sit down
think to themselves “I have mine” and this infantile thinking is unworthy. As the three holy youths knew so well, we
stand together. Christ is in our midst. We stand before the holy flame. Our brothers and sisters are being deified
and preserved in the fire and do we sit? do we talk? Do we fiddle? Say the
Jesus Prayer and allow your heart to soar into the heavens in thanksgiving for
the most precious gift of the Holy Eucharist.
Only-Begotten
Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to His Unoriginate Father and to the
All-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit be all glory and praise forever. Amen.