47. Слово в навечерие Рождества Христова (Изъяснение пророчеств о Мессии)

I will not burden your attention with a long speech. I intend to give you just a few words to guide you on how best to spend the evening of the upcoming holiday. At the hour of the Nativity of Christ, the whole heaven moved with amazement and joy, seeing the beginning of the fulfillment of eternal plans, prepared by revelations, institutions, prototypes, appearances, prophecies. Those preparing to solemnly celebrate this event could not better spend their last hours than reverently reflecting on how it was prepared. So, when the silence of the night comes and the subsided worries give freedom to your mind, immerse your thought in the depths of the Old Testament times and in the revelations that were then collect all the outline of the appearance of the Son of God on earth for our salvation. I will offer you something to help with this. Whether you stand at the entrance to the Nativity scene to look back, or at the imprisoned gates of Eden’s paradise to look forward, the picture will not change in essence. You will see how those who painted the face of the Savior ascended from the simplest features to more complex ones, from general ones to particular ones, from vast ones to the most detailed ones. The first feature is the saving seed of the woman, which had the power to erase the head of the serpent. Just as in the darkness of the night, somewhere in the distance, a light that appears somewhere in the distance gladdens a lost traveler with a trustworthy indication of the way, so this promise through a long series of centuries led savingly to those who did not have the city that was here, but were looking for the one to come (Heb. 13, 14). Heard by the first parents, it passed through the long-lived patriarchs, the flood and the confusion of tongues and was renewed in promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - all with the same words: “all people will be blessed in your seed, - all nations will be blessed in your seed,” - or “all the ends of the earth” (Gen. 12, 3, 18:18, 22, 26:4, 28, 14) - Soon afterwards, Patriarch Jacob sees the new sceptre-conciliator; further, the intercessor of the people, Moses, points out the Prophet with the commandment to listen to him; - Here is the sacrifice of a son by a father - in Isaac, the union of heaven with earth - in Jacob's ladder, salvation through the rejected and sold - in Joseph; further - the bush that burned but was not consumed, the pillar of cloud, the passage through the sea, the delight of the bitter waters of Marah with the tree, manna, the flow of water from the stone, the copper serpent, the entire structure of the tabernacle - what are they, if not “the shadow of good things to come” (Heb. 10:1) as the Apostle assures? Of course, despite such commonality and mystery of the features in the instructions of the future savior, a heart enlightened and warmed by faith was able to sense the power hidden in them, like Abraham, who through the transformative canopy saw the day of the Lord and rejoiced. But it was impossible not to desire the clearest interpretation of the mysterious and the most detailed outlines for the vast. And so, when for the people of God, who had already been formed into the kingdom and had managed to enter into glory under David and Solomon, there was a danger, lest concerns about the successful order of the affairs of temporary life would crowd out from memory the outline of the eternal order of the dispensation of salvation, prophet after prophet is erected, and feature by feature is attached to the image of the face and deeds of Christ the Savior; so that all the predictions taken together will constitute the complete Gospel prescribed in the Old Testament. Ask now, who is this who is coming to deliver us? - The prophets will answer you in a variety of ways: This is the Son of God, to whom God says: “Thou art my son, who today begat thee” (Ps. 2:7). This is the Lord, who sits at the right hand of the Lord, as it is written: “The Lord spoke to my Lord: sit at my right hand” (Ps. 109:1). This is the mighty God, born as a child, to be the Father of the age to come, as Isaiah foresees: “A child was born to us, a Son was given to us, and His rulership was on His frame, and His name is called: Great is the counsel of the Angel, wonderful, counselor, mighty God, Sovereign, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come” (Isa. 9:6). “This Father of the coming age will reign as a wise King” (Jer. 23:5); He will be given “all languages for his possession and for his possession all the ends of the earth.” His kingdom will be “the kingdom of all ages, and His dominion over every generation and generation” (Ps. 145:13). But this kingdom of His is not like other kingdoms established and expanded by the sword. The nations themselves will come and worship Him (Ps. 85:9). He will build a house and fill it with everything that nourishes, quenches thirst, gives strength and health. And he will send with high preaching: “Go, drink, eat” (Proverbs 9:5). “And all the nations said: Let us go, let us go up to the house of God, and they will show us the way, and we will walk in it” (Mic. 4:2) This path will be the New Testament, not according to the covenant which was first bequeathed to the house of Israel. In this covenant the Lord says: “I will give my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (Jer. 31, 33). “And I will give them another heart, and I will give them a new spirit, and I will pluck out the heart of stone from their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in my commandments and keep my excuses and do them. And I will be a people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19-20). But before all this is accomplished, He Himself must go through the path of humiliation, be born in obscurity, live among all kinds of opposition, suffer terrible passions and die, as Saint David and the prophet Isaiah depict. This one will bear our sins and grieve for us. He will be plagued for our sins and tormented for our iniquities.” It is “the Lord” who will betray “his sin for our sakes” (Ps. 21, Is. 53). And here is the whole story of the path He will take on earth! He will be born of a Virgin, who will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel, “who is said to be God among us” (Is. 7:14). – He will be born in Bethlehem, for from it “will come forth an elder, to be a Prince in Israel,” whose going forth “from the beginning of the days of the world” (Mic. 5:2). The kings of Arabia will come to him here with gifts (Ps. 71:10), they will come bearing gold, and Lebanon, and an honest stone (See Matt. 2:11). Then a voice will be heard in Rama, crying and crying and much crying. Rachel will weep for her children and will not want to be consoled, “as they are not” (Jer. 31:15). Next, this Son will be called out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1) and will settle in Nazareth, “for he will be called a Nazarite” (Judges 13:5); (Matthew 2:11). The time of His open action among people is approaching. And then an Angel will be sent before Him to prepare the way for Him, and all Israel will hear the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths right” (Is. 40:3; Mal. 3:1). Then suddenly the Lord Himself will come, for Him we seek, and the Angel of the covenant, for Him we desire. And the Spirit of the Lord rests on Him (Is. 11:2), - of which he will later testify, saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the sake of the anointing of me he sent me to preach good news to the poor... to preach the year of the Lord is pleasant” (Is. 61: 1-2). For the first time, the light of His preaching will shine for those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death in Galilee, near the Jordan and the Sea of ​​Tiberias, “in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali” (Matthew 4:13). Then for three and a half years (Dan.9), preaching the gospel, he will heal all kinds of diseases, heal the broken-hearted, preach release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind (Is.61:1). “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame will leap like a tree, and the tongue of those who perish will be clear” (Is. 35:5-6). Weak hands and weakened knees will be strengthened (Is. 35:3). “He will not break a broken reed, nor will he quench the smoking flax”; but for the glory of the name of God, zeal will consume his soul (Is. 42:3). In vain, however, he will “extend his hands all day long to people who do not repent and speak against words,” who do not walk the true path, but “follow their sins” (Is. 65:2). According to these prophetic suggestions, heeding, the daughters of Zion will rejoice and the daughters of Jerusalem will preach, seeing their meek King coming to him on the foal (Zechariah 9:9). And “out of the mouth of a baby and of those who piss” His praise will come (Ps. 8:3). But the kings of the earth and the princes will gather themselves against the Lord and against His Christ (Ps. 2:2). One of those who eat bread with him “will magnify his stumbling” (Ps. 40: 10), and sell him “for thirty pieces of silver” - the price of the valued (Zech. 11: 12). Then they will say against Him, and those who seek His soul will confer with the words: “God has forsaken Him; marry him and have him, for He is not a deliverer” (Ps. 70:10-11)… Thus the Shepherd will be taken, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. He will look at the right hand, and there will be no one who recognizes Him (Ps. 141:5). Unrighteous witnesses will arise, and unrighteousness will lie to itself (Ps. 26:12). “But he will not open his mouth. Like a sheep that is led to the slaughter, and like the lamb that shears it is silent, so it will not open its mouth” (Is. 53:7). Enemies will grind their teeth, but he will not resist and will not speak against him. “He will give his cloaks to be wounded and his cheeks to be bruised, and he will not turn away his face from the cold of spitting” (Is. 50:5). Through the tree they will put him to death (Jer. 11:19), they will dig up his hand and his nose, and they will count all his bones; They will divide his garments for themselves, and they will cast lots for his clothing (Ps. 21:18-20). They will give him gall for food and give him something to drink when he is thirsty (Ps. 68:22). All who see him will mock him and, shaking their heads, will say with their lips: “Trust in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him save him, as he wills him” (Ps. 21: 8-10). So Christ the Elder - the Holy of Holies - will die (Dan.9, 26). But the bone will not be broken by Him, although His ribs will be pierced (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:1; Zechariah 12:10). His soul will not be left in hell, and His flesh will not be allowed to see corruption (Ps. 15:10). On the third day He will rise and He will appear alive before everyone (Hos. 6:2). “Where are you, death, the sting, where are you, hell, victory?” (Hos. 13, 14). So the Lord will appear on earth and live with people. Then he will again turn to the heights: “God will rise up with a shout, the Lord will shout with a trumpet” (Ps. 46:6). The princes will lift up their gates and “the everlasting gates will be lifted up, and the King of glory will come in” (Ps. 23:7-9). And finally he said, “Lord of the Lord: sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps. 109:1). Here we will end the collection of prophecies, although the work of Christ the Savior did not end here and the insight extended until the end of the ages! So clearly and in detail the saints of God foresaw the entire path that the Lord had to take on earth during His thirty-three-year stay on it! And occupy yourself now with these thoughts in order to nourish them and kindle your faith. The mirror of the Gospel is prophecy, and the Gospel for prophecies is the body of the image contemplated in them. One inside the other – double identity! One might still suspect the image in the mirror - is it a ghost? But when the body standing in front of him is touched, then the mutual correspondence of both the image and the body gives rise to an unshakable conviction in the truth of the vision. And this is why prophetic predictions are truly a lamp shining in a dark place. This is not to say that they are dark. They are confidential, but clear and intelligible. Just as those who know the matter see the whole tree in a seed, so when they saw the baby Jesus, all those who sharpened their mental vision through prophetic light immediately perceived the Lord in Him. These are: Zechariah, Simeon, Anna the Prophetess, the Most Holy Theotokos and all those who hoped for deliverance. The unbelief of some does not detract from the power and significance of the legends that prepare for the appearance of the Lord. Unbelief is not due to a lack of power in the word, but from rudeness and hardening of souls. Both then and now there is one reason for unbelief - immersion in the flesh and the habit of carnal views of things. How clearly the light of Christ shines! - but they don’t see him. Who will plunge deep into water, and even muddy water, and see the sun, even if it shines with the brightest light?! This is where you arise (free yourself) first, seeking the truth, and you will clearly see the light that enlightens every person coming into the world! Amen. You might be interested in: