Слово на Святую Пасху. Св. Иоанна Златоустого

The Jews have images, but we have the truth, because it is said: the law of good things to come was in shadow (Heb. 10:1), and: the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). And what the Jews had was not alien to Christ, but related to Him as a type and shadow; fulfillment and clear contemplation of things was preserved until His personal coming, when they directly saw Him as the King. Just like someone painting a picture first outlines the shadows and then paints the picture; at the same time, the shadow image appears to be different, but in fact it is the same outline that lies under the paints. Consider with me, with the help of shadows, what is true, and pay attention to what the images show, and ascend from the small to the great, and do not be burdened exclusively by the earth, when you remember the liberation of one people from the tormentor, the temporary salvation of youths, and the migration from one land to another. At this time, we must remember the great, the Divine gifts, truly the gifts of God - remember for those who celebrate the great eternal holiday, liberation from opposing demons, warring against good, distracting from the kingdom of God, not for a short time, but for eternity, transmigration from earth to heaven in the present life and to an eternal inheritance after the future resurrection. Egypt oppressed the Jews, who were actually free by descent from their ancestors, placing on them the yoke of slavery and forcing them to make bricks and build cities. This is a symbol of the world torment that overcomes the human race, which has fallen away from Divine bliss and freedom, working diligently on earthly affairs and preparing perishable dwellings, because people have nothing solid and permanent, all the works of human hands are perishable, being destroyed over time. God wants to liberate from this slavery, pitying His creation, exhausted from labor, as once, seeing the misfortune of the children of Israel, He frees them through resettlement. Those who voluntarily fell away from Him must turn to God voluntarily. Slaves who have the law are sent to call through the law to justice, and through justice to show the way to God, and to inflict still minor punishments on the opposing forces, without leading them to complete destruction, but only in parts, and not yet completely destroying the wicked from their midst. This is exactly how it was before the coming of the Lord, who appeared after His servants. They were images and symbols of Him. Moses was sent to the Jews with his brother Aaron, calling them to serve God, scourging the Egyptians in turn with executions for the enslaved and oppressed people. But when this happened, Israel was still in Egypt, the king of the Egyptians could still resist God. There were nine executions, but the end of the matter was not yet over. It was necessary to send the final plague, the death of the firstborn, and Israel goes out with it. Then a lamb is sacrificed, the entrances to Jewish houses are smeared with blood, and the firstborn escape the penalty of death through the blood sign. The Jews eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They leave Egypt; they are pursued by Pharaoh and other Egyptians; approaching the Red Sea. It receives hordes of Jews, separated by a Divine miracle from the rod of Moses, but drowns the Egyptian force that entered it. The Lamb for you is Christ at the exodus from the world; He resettles you, raising you to heaven, and revives you for eternal life. By resettling the man descended from David, He also resettles those who follow him obediently and submissively, no longer fearing Pharaoh and no longer remaining in slavery to earthly worldly suffering, through that insignificant and acute pleasure, the image of which Israel had when eating meat with onions and garlic in Egypt. Such is worldly pleasure, consisting of a very cleverly intertwined game of worries and carnal, animal satiety. And when you leave worldly life, then there is the beginning of true life, just as for those Easter formed the beginning of the months. Now is the beginning of life, when you part with worldly earthly life; now you find some true life, spiritual life. Christ is sacrificed, so that you know that His sacrifice was made for you. Then it will come true for you that you are led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent (Isa. 53:7). And meekness in him preserves the prototype of the lamb, and the desire for heights and reluctance to remain in the valleys makes it possible for the kid to climb to the heights; goats jump and climb to places that are difficult to pass and very elevated. Heaven has been a high and inaccessible place for man since the day when man fell, violating the Divine commandment, becoming a slave of the flesh and deprived of the Holy Spirit. There the Divine sacrifice made for you is now elevating you, elevating you there. He died with you so that you could live in Him. The Blood of the Lamb is saving for you if you approach it with faith, if you anoint your feelings and thoughts, through which death enters after sin, with faith, as if with blood, just as Israel anointed the entrances with blood. After all, if passion does not enter you through the eyes, hearing, smell, taste and touch, and then through reason, then death will not take possession of you, but you, bearing in your body the mortification of Jesus, will have both life appearing in your body, and death, which originates from the primordial Adam, will pass by you, just as the death of the firstborn passed by the houses of the Jews. Therefore, the name of this holiday “Easter” means passing by. Your sheep is blameless, because Jesus is blameless. He, it is said, shall not commit iniquity; flattery will be found in His mouth (Isa. 53:9). Perfect male gender. The fulfillment of righteousness belongs only to the true King. A one-year-old lamb is an image of the eternal Christ, because a year is a symbol of eternity; making the same circle in every century and having in itself all the turns, it is the image of the new man, in which our old human nature is replaced by a new one, because it is said, put on the new man (Eph. 4:24). Having clothed yourself with the perfection and integrity of the Lamb, you will be the lamb of God; and you yourself, having presented your body as a living, holy, pleasing sacrifice to God, will be guided to eternal life. Do you see that your Passover cannot in any way be compared with the Jewish Passover, which had only some resemblance to it, was only a shadow of it? Israel, of course, grew up in infancy, making such sacrifices and believing that with them he pleased God, and imagining that through them he received salvation, but completely forgetting that this was only an image of the only truly saving sacrifice. Therefore, God says to them through Jeremiah: There are no commandments for you regarding sacrifices (Jer. 7:22). Of course, God has no lies, and having given a commandment, He cannot say that He did not give it. But the fact is that the performance of the sacrifice contained a prophetic meaning and foreshadowed Christ. God, having commanded to sacrifice a lamb, pointed to Christ, who was to be sacrificed, and everything that related to the lamb prefigured Christ. You have already seen some of this, and consider others in order, if possible. In every Jewish house (is brought) one of the best lamb, and no part of the meat is taken away from the house where it was slaughtered. In every church and in every soul, the whole of Christ is everywhere, and nowhere is there only a part of Him. Therefore, just as there were many lambs in all the houses one by one, so here in every soul there is one and the same Christ. The lamb is kept in the house for five days, from the tenth to the fourteenth, then it is sacrificed by the Jewish synagogue on the fourteenth day in the evening. Five periods of time are designated by these five days from Adam to the end: one until Noah, another until Abraham, a third until Moses, a fourth from Moses until the coming of Christ, and the fifth is the present time after His coming. In the evening a sacrifice is made, because at the end of the century Israel with the entire synagogue agreed against Christ. From the very beginning, the sacrifice of Christ was always understood in the suffering of the righteous, starting from the righteous, starting from the righteous Abel, and Christ was the sufferer in all: it was accomplished when the Divine Lamb who came in Himself suffered. And even on the fourteenth day of the same month He suffered, and gave up His spirit towards evening; The separation of the lamb for sacrifice from the tenth day (while its slaughter took place on the fourteenth day in the evening) was an image of the fact that at first there was an exercise in suffering, and in the end there was suffering itself. Then, consider with me the new and strange commandment of God about eating the lamb: do not eat the meat of the lamb raw (Ex. 12:8-9). Who eats raw meat? Let it be said not to eat boiled food, so as not to waste time, because time was in a hurry. What does it mean - not to eat raw, but baked by fire? After all, no one prohibits something that never happens. But, as has been said, things are signified by images. He who has vain faith eats raw sacred food; devoted to pleasures - boiled, relaxing, as if boiled in water, firm faith with a carefree life; but those baked on fire are eaten by those who have a hot and ebullient spirit. Further, it is commanded to eat the head with the legs and entrails. The mention of the head should remind you of Christ - that He, as God, pre-existing, is the Head of the invisible and spiritual Church; your feet should remind you that in the last times He came to earth as a man; and the use of the entrails of the lamb as applied to Christ had the meaning that He, having power and righteousness hidden in the flesh, brings benefit and salvation to those who taste Him not only through external and visible qualities, but through internal and hidden qualities. The lamb's meat is eaten at night, and is not left for the day, in remembrance of the suffering of Christ during the darkness of the world, after which the day will shine and the life of Christ will appear - as it is said: the day is drawing near (Rom. 13:12). The bones of the lamb are not broken; and the soldiers did not break the legs of Christ, as they did of those crucified with Him, according to the testimony of the Evangelist (John 9:13). Bitter herbs eaten with the lamb indicated the bitterness of sorrows; unleavened bread - for simplicity and purity, as the Apostle says, that is, for a new virtue, pure from former depravity. It remains now to reveal the spiritual meaning of the sudden appearance of those eating Easter - so that you too can imitate it, because the spiritual appearance is in close correspondence with the physical. Not with a simple belt, but with a saving deed, you must gird your thighs; not your physical thighs with a belt, but your spiritual thighs with the preparation of your soul. To put shoes on your feet means, according to the Apostle, readiness to preach the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). Hold a staff in your hands, not a wooden one, but one that affirms your faith. Try to imitate as much as possible the entire appearance of them as they prepared to set off, as they were in a hurry to leave Egypt, as if they were in a hurry to get away from the world and corruption. Be diligent, but not at all careless, in the spiritual eating of Easter. Zeal in this case is wonderful, because it testifies not to the gluttony of those who hastily eat meat, but to the love of God of those who hasten from the world to God. Eating unleavened bread for seven days is purity throughout life. Whoever has leavened bread left is exposed to destruction, because the wickedness of the old man is destructive and cannot in any way be combined with the righteousness and holiness of the new man. And you see that with such leaven present, the death of a person is quite fair; when understanding leaven in the sense of ordinary bread leaven, it may seem that God is unfairly burdening people (by prohibiting leavened bread). Truth is revealed in images, but it shines and is known in truth, just as the anointing with blood itself, which seems unworthy of God, ceases to be so when the image is considered in accordance with the truth. It seems not proper for God to use a sign of blood to recognize Jewish houses, but it is entirely in accordance with Him to recognize us and save us by faith in the blood of Christ. But is it not equally indecent to understand circumcision in the simple sense that God commanded everyone who intended to eat the Passover to be circumcised, if he was not circumcised, and then proceed to eat? If you understand circumcision in a spiritual sense, then its mystery will be explained to you, and you will glorify God. Circumcision applied to the reproductive organs. From birth, you, a man, had a veil: this is precisely what you must throw away in order to see the truth with an open face, and not consider it from under the earthly bodily cover. And when you become free from the carnal body, then, as a spirit, you will come to Christ, and... clinging to the Lord, you will be one spirit, participating in the holy and saving communion, which was indicated by eating meat. Be circumcised and put off the body together with Christ, according to the words of Paul, that you were circumcised quickly with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ (Col. 2:11). Thus, cutting off all covetousness, ambition, love of pleasure, feed on Divine food, which leads to heaven, frees you from evil authorities, delivers you from hard work, giving you a glorious and blessed way to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen 216. Full Collection created St. Chrysostom, in Russian. transl., ed. 1902, vol. VIII, pp. 939–943. In the Migne edition, the real word of Chrysostom is classified as spuria. You might be interested in: