462. Слово в неделю вторую по Пятидесятнице, при посещении города Можайска

And Jesus went through all Galilee, teaching in their congregations, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every disease and every disease among the people. (Matthew 4:23). Jesus goes through all of Galilee, going to all the places in the region to do various spiritual and physical benefits to people. It is not the disciples who gather to the Teacher because they need Him, but the Teacher who goes everywhere to gather the disciples. Those who are not sick seek the Doctor in order to receive healing from Him: The Physician seeks the sick in order to give them healing. Truly, as He Himself said, “The Son of man did not come and let Him be served, but He served” (Matthew 20:28). If He, the Lord of all, serves His servants with such care: how much more should we, His servants, serve each other in whatever way we can for the sake of the Lord. ABOUT! if even this small journey in this area, in which we reached before you, brothers, - oh! if it were not an idle journey, but by the grace of God, a service useful to you and pleasing to the Lord, who set an example for this. Under the guidance of His own word, let us now say something about the “Gospels and Kingdoms” preached from Him, for the healing of our souls. “And Jesus went through all Galilee, teaching the hosts, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom.” Since the Holy Evangelist Matthew does not retell here the words with which the Lord preached, some may be perplexed and ask: what kind of sermon was that? What does “Gospel of the Kingdom” mean? When carefully examining the Gospel narrative, it is not difficult to make sure that the Evangelist speaks in the words we have cited about the Gospel of the kingdom, briefly, without explaining what it consisted of, believing this to be already known from his narrative; for, indeed, he had already written above the very words with which the Lord preached the Gospel of the kingdom. “From there Jesus began to preach and say: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near” (Matthew 4:17). From this it is clear that the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by Jesus Christ had two objects: firstly, to announce the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven; secondly, to encourage repentance. Again, bewilderment appears, again the question arises: what is the “kingdom of heaven”? What is the “approach” of the kingdom of heaven? In order to resolve this, it must be brought to mind that the Jews to whom the Lord spoke about this were people little capable of a direct understanding of spiritual things, but more inclined towards the sensual. I say this without disparaging the people of God: for other peoples, contemporary to them, were even deeper immersed in sensuality. But such was the nature of the time of the Old Testament, and the age of the human race at that time, that God Himself was pleased to act on human hearts most with the promise of sensual blessings, such as: long life, many children, a land flowing with honey and milk, and the presentation of spiritual knowledge and spiritual worship of God in sensual images and rituals. Having seen the tangible fulfillment of the promises of God in the strong kingdom of David and in the peaceful kingdom of Solomon, then being captured, and, after returning from captivity, left without kings, among enemies, the Jews could not imagine any bliss as vividly as the bliss of having their own kingdom, their own king. Therefore, in order to talk about salvation and bliss in an understandable and entertaining way for them, it was necessary to talk to them about the kingdom. But as they saw, they understood only the bliss of the earthly kingdom, and they expected the earthly kingdom for bliss: then, correcting and elevating their concept, the Divine Preacher spoke to them about the “kingdom of heaven.” So, “the kingdom of heaven” means the same thing, which is what we otherwise call spiritual salvation and bliss. What the Divine Teacher said in these words: “For the kingdom of heaven is drawing near,” one of His most zealous disciples said the same thing in the following words: “Today... salvation is near to us” (Rom. 13:11). The “approach” of the kingdom of heaven, preached by our Lord, meant nothing more than the approach of the King of this kingdom, His appearance on earth; Also, for the Apostle, “next ... salvation” means the primary proximity of the Savior, with His saving actions. Is it, for example, as for the Apostles, the kingdom of heaven and salvation for Abraham were close, when not only our King and Savior had not yet appeared on earth, but neither the law nor the Prophets imagined even shadows and fortune-telling about Him? Therefore, when from such a distance of time Abraham “saw” the “day of Christ” with the eyes of faith, and saw so clearly that he “rejoiced” (John 8:56), this faith was so respected that he was given the great name of “father of those who believe” (Gen. 17:5) 956. In contrast to how close the kingdom of heaven and salvation was, for example, for the Apostle Paul, when he saw in the open heaven Lord, and with His own voice is turned from the path of destruction to the path of salvation. “Draw near... the kingdom of heaven,” cries the Divine Preacher: the bliss, the loss of which you mourn, and which you long to return, is not the same that you had in Jerusalem and in David, and again you think to have in the kingdom and the king of the earth; you yourself do not understand what your heart lacks, and what it strives for with a strong but dark desire; true bliss is that which you possessed and which you lost in paradise and in Adam through the Fall; and this bliss, which the world did not have and did not know for so long because “everyone ... sin, and are deprived of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), this kingdom, not earthly, but heavenly, which has not been seen on earth, because since then, "sin came into the world, and death through sin, royal death ... and on those who have not sinned in the likeness of the crime of Adam" (Rom. 5:12, 14), this "salvation", of which the law of Moses represented one shadow, about which so much the Prophets have been searching and testing for a long time (1 Peter 1:10), it is now ready to be revealed in truth and power; The Heavenly King already calls and gathers the sons of the kingdom, having passed through the cross and death, in the resurrection He receives all power in heaven and on earth, and, having ascended into heaven, He already “seats” with Him “in heaven” (Eph. 1:20) such people who still walk in body on earth, but whose life in spirit is in heaven. “Draw near... the kingdom of heaven.” From this approach of the kingdom of heaven, the Divine Mentor draws the conclusion that one must repent. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near.” To repent means to change your former thoughts as sinful, to abandon your former desires as foolish and vain, your former deeds as condemnable and destructive, and to accept new thoughts, and consequently desires and deeds. Truly, the Jews had to repent when the kingdom of heaven was approaching, when the Savior of the world appeared among them. They thought about the kingdom of earth, but the kingdom of heaven is announced to them: they must change their thoughts from earth to heaven. They, like blessings, desired abundance and wealth, power and glory among nations, and they are preached that blessed are the poor in spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who were exiled for the sake of righteousness: it is necessary to change desires from sensual and passionate to spiritual and dispassionate. They lightly and outwardly performed the accepted rites of piety, but abandoned “the teaching of the law, judgment and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23), and boasting of the law, “in transgressing the law,” as the Apostle denounces them, “they dishonored God” (Rom. 2:23): it was necessary to change deeds that were hypocritically plausible, or clearly lawless, to deeds that were inwardly good and pure, and begin a new life, by which God would be glorified in souls and bodies. This is how we should understand the Lord’s sermon about the approach of the kingdom of heaven, in relation to its original listeners – the Jews. But are we, brethren, among the listeners of this Divine sermon? Isn’t the Lord calling to us now in the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near”? The Jews for the most part did not heed the preaching of the Lord, and the old Jerusalem, “not yet understanding... the time of His visitation” (Luke 19:44), collapsed at the very foundation of the kingdom of heaven. And you “be careful what you hear” (Luke 8:18). Earthly days come and pass, and the eternal kingdom of heaven becomes closer and closer. The kingdom of grace and salvation has approached and opened long ago through the saving preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, through His saving death on the cross and resurrection for us, through the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, through the spread of the Christian faith to all ends of the universe - through which we, in holy baptism, became sons and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. A new, more solemn revelation of the kingdom of heaven is approaching, as a kingdom of glory and bliss. The signs of the times foretold by the Lord indicate this great event from day to day closer. “He will rise,” He said, “language against tongue, and kingdom against kingdom: and there will be plagues and destruction, and cowardice in place. But all this began with sickness” (Matthew 24:7–8). How many times has this beginning of the last times already appeared! How menacing this sign was, by the way, in this very region, in our days! “For the increase of iniquity,” the Lord also said, “the love of many will dry out” (Matthew 24:12). Oh, how iniquity increases! Oh, how beloved love dries up. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world” (Matthew 24:14), He also predicted; and it is preached and preached. What's next? And “then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). When? I don't know; “neither the angels” in heaven know (Matthew 24:36): but I know, and you have been told, and now you are reminded, that death will come exactly at such an hour as the present one, in which they do not know and do not believe that this will be the hour of death, which, like a fish net, will capture those living on earth; I know, and it is not difficult for anyone to understand, that if the time one thousand eight hundred years before ours was already called “the end of summer,” then our days, of course, hang even lower at the end of centuries, above the abyss of eternity; I know that the One who preached in Judea and Galilee that “the kingdom of heaven is drawing near,” reaffirms in the Revelation of John: “the time is near,” and even swears: “to her! I am coming quickly” (Rev. 22:10, 20). Let us repent, brethren, and bear fruit worthy of repentance, until the last, decisive hour for everyone or for everyone in particular, that is, the hour of the expected coming of Christ and the great judgment, or the hour of death, after which nothing further is visible as judgment - until this great hour has come upon us careless, like the flood of Noah’s contemporaries, like the fire and bogeyman of Lot’s fellow citizens. Let us repent not for the day on which we clear our conscience before the altar minister, but for the entire subsequent period of our lives. Let us repent, and let us not only abandon evil deeds, as unbelievers sometimes do, avoiding condemnation from men, but let us also cleanse our hearts from passions and lusts, and correct our thoughts, so that we may be acceptable to Him who searches our hearts and wombs. Let us not support ourselves in our sins by the fact that there are many sinners like us, or all of them are sinners; Perhaps those who seem to us outwardly to be similar sinners to us have achieved a lot in inner heartfelt repentance and in secret virtues; Moreover, no matter what the number, “the Lord will consume all those who do iniquity” (Ps. 100:8)! But may He save us from this terrible lot, and through true repentance may He lead us into the kingdom of heaven, so that we may bliss in Him and glorify Him forever. Amen. “But your name will be Abraham, like the father of many tongues who set you down” - AV. You might be interested in: