Слово на Святую Пасху. Св. Иоанна Златоустого, архиепископа Константинопольского

The Jews celebrate the earthly Passover, rejecting the heavenly one; We, celebrating the heavenly Easter, left the earthly one. The Passover that took place among them was a reminder of the salvation of the firstborn of the Jews, when the firstborn of the Jews did not perish along with the Egyptians, being preserved mysteriously by the blood of the Passover sacrifice; The Passover that we celebrate is the reason for the salvation of all people, starting with the primordial (man), who is preserved and remains alive in all (of us). What was accomplished and temporary, being the image and likeness of the eternal, was prepared in order to shade the now shining truth; when the truth appeared, the image became inappropriate, just as when a king appears among his people, no one wants to leave the living king himself and prostrate himself before his image. It is clear from here how much the image pales before the truth: namely, the image is celebrated (regarding the preservation of) the short-term life of the Jewish firstborn, - the truth (regarding the preservation of) eternal life for all people. After all, getting rid of death for a while doesn’t mean much to someone who will die anyway after a while; but it means a lot to avoid death altogether. This happened to us, for whom the Passover—Christ—was sacrificed. And even the very name of the holiday, interpreted in accordance with the truth, has greater advantage. “Passover” in translation means “passing” - when the destroyer, beating the firstborn, passed (past) the house of the Jews. The destroyer has indeed passed us by, since he has left us completely forever, raised by Christ to eternal life. Thus, the establishment of the Old Testament Passover should be viewed spiritually and contemplated by faith in accordance with the apostolic interpretations. But it is natural for the faithful, of course, to strive to understand this image in its entirety, and, moreover, precisely from the side of its correspondence to reality, in order, in this way, to be able, as it were, with bodily eyes to contemplate what is in itself spiritual. He wants everything related to the law to have a close relationship to Christ, so that through the spiritual the physical becomes more apparent, and the invisible becomes visible, as in a painting. So. When God intended to bring the tenth plague on the Egyptians (and it consisted in the defeat of the firstborn), He said to Moses: “This month is the beginning of months for you (Ex. 12:2), - the first month for you of the months of the year,” and established the Passover sacrifice and the anointing with blood on the doors in a row, and from the anointing with it he promised the salvation of the firstborn. If we turn directly to reality, then what significance should be attached to the fact that the beginning of the year coincides with the time when the saving Easter took place? It is obvious that for us, the true Easter sacrifice is the beginning of eternal life. In fact, the year is a symbol of eternity, because, making a circle, it always revolves within itself and does not stop at any end. And the Father of the future age, Christ, the sacrifice made for us, making our entire previous life standing outside of time, gives through the font of rebirth the beginning of another life, in the likeness of His death and resurrection. Therefore, everyone, knowing the Passover sacrificed for him, should consider the beginning of his life to be the time from which Christ became a sacrifice for him. And He becomes a sacrifice for a person when that person recognizes and understands the life that began through that sacrifice; and having learned this, he will strive to get the beginning of a new life and no longer return to the old one, the end of which he has reached. If we die in death, it is said, because of sin, how shall we live again through it (Rom. 6:2)? This is the symbolic meaning of the beginning of the year. Further, the Lord commands to take a lamb to each house on the tenth day of the month, and, moreover, so that in each house as many people gather as are needed to eat the entire lamb without a trace; The lamb had to be slaughtered on the fourteenth day in the evening. So, for five days the victim remains with those to whom she must bring salvation, but at the end of the fifth day the sacrificial animal is slaughtered, death passes by, the saved one enjoys the unceasing light of both the moon, which shines all night, and the sun, which replaces the moon; this, precisely, happens on the fifteenth day. These five intervals indicate that all the time of the world is divided into five periods: from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to the coming of Christ, and the fifth is the period of the coming itself. At this time, salvation through the blessed sacrifice was prepared for every person, but had not yet been accomplished; in the fifth period of time, the true sacrifice was made, and the primordial man saved by it achieved unceasing light. And the fact that Easter was celebrated not at the very evening, but towards the evening, showed that not at the very end of the present time, but towards the end, Christ would suffer. This division of time is also confirmed by a parable in which the day is divided into five parts, since it is said that to the vineyard, that is, to do righteousness, some were called from the first hour, others from the third, others from the sixth, others from the ninth, and others from the eleventh. And just as this calling was different, so was the justification different: one under Adam, another under Noah, another under Abraham, and another under Moses; the last and most perfect thing is at the time of the coming of Christ, when, according to the parable of the Savior, the last receive the reward first. It is we, for whom Christ became the sacrifice, who are the first to receive regeneration in baptism, after Christ has risen and sent the Holy Spirit to renew us. This, precisely, is the mysteriously contemplated symbolic meaning of the sacrifice offered on the fourteenth day, and the luminous night and day that follows. The fact that the sacrificial animal in every house was eaten in full and the meat was not taken out shows that only one house receives salvation in Christ: this house is the Church, existing throughout the entire universe, previously alien to God, and now only having entered into kinship with Him, through the acceptance of those sent by the Lord Jesus; just like the dwelling of Rahab, the former harlot, having received the spies sent by Jesus, was the only one that survived the destruction of Jericho. And just as the multitude of Jewish houses has the meaning of one, so the churches located in cities and countries, being numerous in number, constitute only one Church: in them alone is Christ, perfect and indivisible everywhere. That is why the sacrificial offering in each house had to be perfect and not divided into separate parts. After all, Paul also says that we are all one in Christ, because there is one Lord, and one faith (Eph. 4:5). So, it is necessary to recognize that the law prefigured Christ by the indivisible unity of the sacrificial animal, prefiguring with it the unity of the Church. In Christ, in His sacrifice, we have salvation, and we recognize everything that happened before His coming as a preparation for this coming; and the work of saving all mankind from the very beginning was set up as if, before the eyes of everyone, the sacrifice of Christ was being performed all the time, offered for everyone. But this salvation belongs, as we know, to the Church alone, and no one outside the Church and faith can either be an accomplice to Christ or be saved. Knowing this, we understand that the salvation of the whole world is accomplished not by the works of the law, but in Christ, and we do not leave any basis for hope to godless heresies, but we place them beyond all hope, since they do not have the slightest communion with Christ, but vainly hide behind the saving name to the harm and deception of those who pay more attention to the name and appearance than to the truth. So, let no one tear away from Christ what was of old; Let no one think that any of those who lived before could be saved without Christ, and let no one call those who in our time distort and distort the truth, who create only a vain and false likeness of the Church, alien to Christ and the truth, Christians or maintain communication with them: and this is not possible, because the sacrifice is not taken out of the sacred house and is not offered for communication to those outside it. Let us now look at the lamb who typified the glory of the Lord. It was required that he be blameless, male, and one year old. First of all, he possessed integrity and perfection, because Christ alone is filled with all perfection and is completely blameless and does not need any justification from any side, from beginning to end, as He Himself says: so it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). That is why perfect and blameless animals were always used for all sacrifices, because they served as a prototype of Christ. And God commanded the priests to be completely perfect and undamaged in body, because they were all a prototype of the true Priest. Then, the Passover lamb must be male, because this sex by nature has primacy and advantage, just as among people a man has a bodily advantage over a woman. And Christ by nature and in reality is the Head and King, since, being a heavenly man, he was united with us as a brother by bodily nature, but stands above us, as the Lord, by the spiritual side, by His Divinity. Therefore, He alone is the groom, if we consider all of humanity as the bride; even John, the greatest of the prophets, was not a groom, as can be seen from his words about Christ and about himself: about Christ he said: having a bride, there is a groom, but about himself; said: The friend of the grooms standing and listening to him, rejoices with joy for the voice of the suitors: this is my joy being fulfilled (John 3:29). And all the apostles are not bridegrooms of the Church, although, without a doubt, they accepted by grace the likeness of Christ, becoming sons of Christ through the Spirit of Christ. But what does Blessed Paul say? For I have betrothed you to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). So, the Lord is truly the Head, Ruler and King, not only because He was God among people, but also according to the eternal Divinity, because by nature He is the King of every creation, not having received the kingdom by grace, but having it in truth and by birth from the Father. The lamb, then, was one year old; this meant that the Lord would be new on earth and completely unrelated to the decay that prevailed in people. Therefore, if someone calls the Lord a simple man and believes that Christ was of our nature, for that He will no longer be a perfect and blameless lamb, because none of the people is blameless, will not be a male lamb, because none of the people has an innate and complete bodily superiority in comparison with people of the same nature. And whoever classifies the Lord among the creatures and claims that He did not have a true Divinity, but received by grace, and the lamb that was sacrificed for him was not male, did not recognize the King by nature, but turns him into another, different both in nature and in essence. In the same way, if someone attributes to Christ anything characteristic of the old man, for example, he dares to assert that He is involved in sin, or is subject to the slavery of the law, or is necessarily subject to death, for such a one-year-old lamb can no longer serve as a prototype of Christ - for this reason the renewal brought by Christ has passed unnoticed. It remains to understand the symbolic meaning of the lamb and the goat. Namely, the lamb, in accordance with Isaiah, is a symbol of the meekness of Christ: like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent (Is. 53:7); according to the law, a goat is a sacrifice for sin: a goat, it is said, from goats for sin’s sake (Lev. 5:6). So, meek as a lamb, He allowed Himself to be brought and then was sacrificed for sin, like a goat, giving Himself out of humility for the salvation of people - which salvation we too may achieve through faith and love for the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered for us, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen 212. Full Collection created St. Chrysostom, vol. VIII, ed. 1902 St. Petersburg, countries. 924–929; in the Migne edition this word is classified as spuria. You might be interested in: