Глава 14

1–31. Continuation of Christ’s farewell conversation with his disciples: about Christ’s removal to the Father, about faith and love, prayer, the Holy Spirit and peace. Chapter 14 contains the first consolatory speech (John 13:31–38 is, in fact, the introduction to it). In this speech, Christ strengthens the shaky courage of the disciples, promising them a place in the abodes of His Father, where they will again be together with Christ. At the same time, the Lord resolves some misunderstandings expressed to Him by the apostles Thomas and Philip (verses 1–11). Then, in order to calm the disciples, He promises them to beg the Father to send the Holy Spirit of the Comforter to the disciples and, at the same time, says that He Himself will return to the disciples, and explains the bewilderment of the Apostle Jude James. Finally, He assures the disciples that the Holy Spirit will make clear to them everything that is currently unclear and confusing to them (verses 12–31). John 14:1. Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, and believe in Me. The apostles were extremely embarrassed by the short conversation between the Lord and Peter (John 13:36–38). “Even if Peter denies,” they thought with fear, “then what awaits them!” (St. John Chrysostom). In addition, as can be seen from the Gospel of Luke, the Lord told all of them several words that were unclear to them about some kind of struggle awaiting them (Luke 22:35–37). That is why the Lord begins His speech in a consoling tone: “Let not your heart be troubled...”. As before, they, the apostles, must believe in God and, believing in God, believe in Him Whom God sent, i.e. in Christ. From childhood, the apostles, like Jews, had already been instilled with faith in God, and this faith should serve as a fulcrum for their faith in Christ, now somewhat shaken under the influence of His last words about His departure. Thanks to this “double” faith, the apostles will overcome their fear of the upcoming decisive events. John 14:2. In My Father's house there are many mansions. But if it were not so, I would have told you: I am going to prepare a place for you. John 14:3. And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be. Continuing to reassure the apostles, like children grieving at separation from their beloved father, Christ reveals to them that he will soon see them again. Now He goes to prepare a place for them in His Father's house. "In the Father's House". The Kingdom of Heaven, which Christ here calls the house of His Father, is depicted as a vast royal palace in which the eastern monarch lives with his many sons, each of the sons having a separate room for himself. “And if it were not so, I would have told you.” According to the Russian Synodal edition, by placing a colon at the end of this phrase, subsequent words do not retain any independent meaning, constituting only the end of the previous phrase. With this reading, however, the expression of verse 3 seems completely unclear: “and when I go.” After all, according to the synodal reading, the Lord did not tell the disciples that He would go, but “would have said” if there were no monasteries for the disciples yet. On the contrary, if you put a period after the words “I would tell you” (as done in the Slavic text), then the meaning of the first words of the 3rd verse is completely clear and the connection of the 3rd verse with the 2nd is quite natural. With this reading, the following thought is obtained: “If it were not so, i.e. if in fact there were no mansions in heaven, then I, to Whom everything in heaven is well known (John 3:11-13), would tell you about this and would not deceive you with unrealizable dreams. But these abodes undoubtedly exist, and I even go to heaven so that you can choose the best ones.” “I’ll prepare a place for you.” The Lord, as the Apostle Paul puts it, appeared as our forerunner in heaven (Heb. 6:20), opened the way for us to the Kingdom of Heaven. "I'll come again." What coming of Christ is being talked about here? Is it about the last thing that will take place before the end of the world, or about the mysterious, spiritual coming, in the Holy Spirit? It seems that neither one nor the other can be understood here. The Lord could not speak here about coming to judgment because this coming, as Christ Himself knew, was extremely far away, and moreover, the apostles could hardly be comforted by the thought of meeting with the Lord in the distant future after they had been resurrected; For Martha, at least, the thought that she would see her brother “after” the resurrection of the dead did not have a calming effect (John 11:24–25). It is also impossible to understand here the coming of the Lord in the Holy Spirit-Comforter, because the Lord had not yet informed the apostles about His sending. How could they be consoled by something they could not yet understand? More plausible is the opinion that the Lord is speaking here about His resurrection, after which He will come again to the disciples: the Lord spoke about His resurrection to the disciples before (Matthew 17:9; Mark 9:9, etc.). But with this understanding, the following expression remains incomprehensible: “and I will take you to Myself...” After the resurrection, the disciples were not immediately taken to Christ. Therefore, it is more correct to believe that the Lord here is not talking about His coming to the disciples only after His resurrection, but in general about the fact that He will appear to the disciples at the moment of their death and take their souls to eternal rest. That is why Saint Stephen, dying, said: “Lord Jesus! receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59; cf. 2 Cor. 5:8; 1 Thess. 4:17). John 14:4. And where I am going, you know, and you know the way. According to some codes, this verse reads like this: “And where I am going, you know the way to that place” (Loisy). With these words, the Lord reminds the disciples of His previous speeches about the path to heavenly glory (John 12:23, 30–33, etc.), which passes precisely through the paths of suffering. John 14:5. Thomas said to Him: Lord! we don’t know where you’re going; and how can we know the way? The Apostle Thomas, who is the type of person who is prudent and slow in faith, who wants to have accurate information in everything, and in the present case wants to know in detail, firstly, where Christ is leading, and, secondly, the path that Christ will go. By saying “we don’t know,” Thomas obviously expresses here the desire of the apostles in general, and not just his own. The apostles, apparently, still had not given up the idea that the Lord was talking about some kind of journey to another country. John 14:6. Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:7. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Christ does not answer Thomas's question directly. He only uses this question as an occasion to remind the apostles of the teaching about His purpose (on the question that Thomas proposed to Him, He spoke a lot above), Christ is Himself the path to truth and life, or, in other words, to the Father God. Some interpreters, for example, Silchenkov, consider the expressions “truth” and “life” to be epithets that Christ applies to Himself: “Christ is truth itself - outside of Him everything is false. He is life itself—there is no life outside of Him.” But such an interpretation contradicts the further words of Christ: “no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Why would Christ begin to talk to the apostles about going to the Father as something necessary for them, if in Christ they had everything without the Father? No, Christ speaks of the Father as the true goal of all human aspirations. People strive for eternal glory, in which the Father abides, and Christ is the path leading to this high goal. "If you knew Me..." If the apostles had recognized Christ in His true relationship to the Father, with whom He is in the closest unity in essence, then they would have recognized the Father. It is clear that the Lord recognizes such knowledge as possible for the apostles and thereby considers the argument expressed by Thomas (“we do not know... how can we know...") to be completely unfounded: no, they could know! “And from now on you know...”. But, having expressed some reproach towards the apostles, the Lord immediately consoles them. Even if they do not have complete knowledge of Christ, even if they love Him more as the Teacher-Messiah, nevertheless, such knowledge is something positive, it will lead them to full knowledge, the foundation for which has already been laid (this is indicated by the expression “from now on”). Some (for example, Goltsman) see in the last words of Christ only an “optimistic assumption that does not correspond to reality”: the apostles did not actually have such knowledge and did not see the Son of God in Christ, and therefore did not know the Father either... But one cannot agree with such an opinion due to the fact that the Lord directly says further that He “revealed” the name of the Father to the apostles (John 17:6), and this discovery began a long time ago. John 14:8. Philip said to Him: Lord! show us the Father, and it is enough for us. The Apostle Philip was a rather indecisive person and inclined to be guided by other people's opinions (John 6:7, 12:22). It was as if he was constantly looking for outside support for himself. This property of his character can explain the fact that he asks Christ to “show” him and the other apostles the “Father,” i.e. asks for the same Epiphany that, for example, Moses received on Mount (Ex. 33:18). Then they will be completely calm about the fate of Christ. John 14:9. Jesus said to him: I have been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, show us the Father? With a sad feeling, the Lord admonishes His disciple. Whoever contemplates the Father in the Son with his spirit, any external Theophany is useless for him (cf. John 1:18). If Philip knew Jesus, he would understand that seeing Him is like seeing the Father. John 14:10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; The Father abiding in Me, He does the works. Christ, saying that he who saw Him saw the Father, of course, meant faith by vision. “Seeing” the Father in Christ is the same as “believing” that the Son abides in the Father, acts in His name, and that the Father abides in the Son in a very real way, imparting His power to Him. Thus, the Father is seen only by faith; not a single mortal has seen God in the ordinary way. Only one Only Begotten Son of God told us about the Father (John 1:18). Therefore, the Lord’s question to Philip (“don’t you believe?”) contains a call to faith. And the Lord bases this call on the same thing that he indicated before to the Jews (John 5:19, 7:16, 8:23, 38), namely, on the fact that His teaching and deeds all come from the Father, behind Him in all His activities stands the invisible Father (John 7:17, 8:28). "My works", i.e. all the miracles that I perform. John 14:11. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; but if not so, then believe Me by the very works. Christ now calls all his disciples to believe in the reality of such a relationship between Christ and the Father—not just Philip. “If not so”, i.e. if you consider My teaching about Myself insufficient, then believe My miracles, which testify to My presence in the Father. The Lord thus recognizes the need for miracles given the certain weakness of faith of the listeners of His teaching, but this, of course, is necessary only at the first level of the existence of the Church, then such certificates will not be required. John 14:12. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me will do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I go to My Father. Returning now to His task - to console and encourage the apostles remaining in a world alien and hostile to them - the Lord's first consolation (verses 12-14) is for them the fact that they will continue His work and at the same time accompany their preaching with miracles even greater than those that Christ performed. This does not mean, of course, that the apostles will have more miraculous power than Christ has, but indicates the result of the signs that they will perform. Thanks to the special new conditions of the time, conditions that did not exist in the days of Christ, their preaching and miracles will have extraordinary success. Even if these are miracles and occur not in the sphere of appearance, but in the hidden depths of the human spirit, in any case, they will be accompanied by extremely great consequences. In order to perform such miracles, two conditions are needed: 1) the apostles must firmly believe in Christ (“he who believes in Me”) and 2) Christ now needs to go to His Father in order to send from the Father an abundance of miraculous powers (“for I go to My Father”). John 14:13. And if you ask the Father anything in My name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. However, the apostles will perform miraculous deeds only when they make a request to God in the name of Christ. But what does “in my name” mean? Some consider this expression to be equivalent to the expression of the Apostle Paul “in Christ,” seeing in this a designation of the mood in which the person praying is (Lutardt), others see here simply an indication of the person praying’s belonging to the Church of Christ (P. Christ). More probable is the interpretation already found in St. John Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact and accepted by some of the newest interpreters. This interpretation, based on the main meaning that this expression has in the New Testament and in the Seventy, understands it in the sense of “when using” or “when calling on the name of Christ” (Heitmuller). The connection that undoubtedly exists between verses 12 and 13 forces us to agree with this understanding: verse 12 talks about the miracles that the apostles will perform, and here it indicates how they will perform these miracles. Indeed, we see that the apostles, while performing miracles, called on the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6). It is clear that prayer, which consists of invoking the name of Jesus, must always agree with His will (1 John 5:14). “I’ll do that.” The fulfiller of the request is not the Father, but Christ. By saying this, Christ expresses the consciousness of His closest unity with God in essence - a consciousness that permeated all the speeches of Christ. Because of this, a Christian treats both the Father and Christ in his prayers with the same feeling to the point of identity. John 14:14. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. The thought expressed in the previous verse, in view of its special importance for the apostles, in view of its especially comforting meaning, Christ repeats, as if fixing it in the minds of the disciples. John 14:15. If you love Me, keep My commandments. The second comfort (verses 15–17) is the promise of the Comforter. Christ precedes this consolation with an exhortation to keep His commandments (cf. verses 21, 23, 24). This is necessary as a condition on the part of the apostles so that they can be worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit. One may also believe that the Lord speaks here, as above (verses 13-14), as a King establishing His Kingdom, the laws of which must be obeyed by His subjects. John 14:16. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, John 14:17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; and you know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you. When the apostles fulfill their duty, then Christ (“and I”) will fulfill His work in relation to them. He will pray to the Father, and the Father will send them another Comforter to remain with them forever. "Comforter" - in Greek Paraklitos (παράκλητος). Initially, this word meant a person called to help, a defender (but not in the sense of an ordinary lawyer, but in the sense of a friend who goes to ask the judge for his friend accused of some crime). But then, especially among the Jews, to whom this word came from the Greek language in the form “Peracletus,” it began to mean a comforter, an adviser, showing a person in a difficult situation how best to get out of this situation. The fathers and teachers of the Eastern Church give this exact meaning of “comforter” to this term. Until now, Christ Himself was such an adviser and friend of the disciples, although He is not called the Comforter in the Gospel. But now, in place of Christ moving away from the apostles, another Comforter, or adviser, friend will come to them. From the comparison here of Christ and the other Comforter, both the ancients and most of the newest interpreters (Kestlin, Hoffmann, Weiss, etc.) conclude that this contains the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as an independent person. Other interpreters (de-Vette, Schenkel) are confused, however, by the fact that in chapters 15–16 the return of Christ is depicted as coinciding with the coming of the Comforter Spirit. But this confusion is unfounded, because a similar relationship exists between the Father and the Logos: the Father abides in the Son, and the Son reveals the will of the Father, which does not prevent all interpreters from recognizing the Son as a separate person. So Christ will act through the Comforter Spirit and come in Him to the apostles. The Apostle Paul therefore considers it possible to identify the indwelling of the Spirit of God in believers with the indwelling of Christ Himself (Rom. 8:9-10). "Spirit of Truth". Some (for example, Schantz) see in this an indication only of the activity of the Spirit in relation to the apostles, whom He will teach all truth. But here the very essence of the Spirit is rather defined: He is truth itself, as one in essence with the Father and the Son. However, by calling the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, and Himself directly the truth (verse 6), the Lord wants to say by this that this Spirit is His Spirit (St. Cyril of Alexandria). Clarifying the meaning of the Spirit of truth, the Lord adds that the world, which is in unbelief and error, cannot perceive Him either through the senses (“does not see”) or through internal enlightenment (“does not know”). On the contrary, the apostles, who have correct Christian ideas (“you know”), already know the Spirit, who now abides with them. “And it will be in you” - here, according to some authoritative critics (Goltzman), instead of ἔσται (“it will be”), one should read ἐστίν (“and it is in you”). Thus, according to this reading, the Lord speaks with special force (for this purpose two synonymous verbs “abide” and “exist”) are used that this Spirit is already in the disciples. But with such a reading, it seems unnecessary to send the Spirit to the apostles in the future, after Christ’s removal from them. Moreover, the conjunctions used here in the Greek text also contain the basis for believing the difference between the verbs used here. Namely, with the verb “abides” (μένει) there is a pronoun with the preposition παρά - “at”, and with the verb “will” there is a pronoun with the preposition ἐν - “in”. It follows that of the two possible readings, it is better to accept the one that exists in our text and in the 8th edition of Tischendorf, i.e. reading "will" (ἔσται). The Lord obviously wanted to say that the Spirit who will be sent to the apostles is partly and now already somewhat close to them due to the fact, of course, that they stand close to Christ, in whom the gifts of the Spirit abound in abundance (John 3:34). But the Spirit now dwells only with the disciples, and over time He will already dwell in them, as a life-giving and renewing force. John 14:18. I will not leave you orphans; I'll come to you. This is where the third consolation begins (verses 18–21), consisting in the promise of a meeting between Christ and the apostles. The Lord will leave His disciples as orphans for a short time, He will come to them - He will come, first of all, after His resurrection (John 20:19, 26), and then in those phenomena of the inner life of the apostles, in which the apostles, in fact, saw the Son of God before their spiritual eyes (see Gal.2:20). Some (the fathers of the Western Church and the newest interpreters, for example, Tsang) understand this passage as a prophecy about the second coming of Christ to judge the world; one cannot agree with such an interpretation, because at the second coming the Lord will come to the world in general, and not just to His disciples. Bishop Michael’s explanation is more likely that this refers to the coming of Christ in the Holy Spirit, but this assumption is not entirely suitable, because with it the special character of the third consolation, which distinguishes it from the second, is lost. John 14:19. A little more and the world will no longer see Me; and you will see Me, for I live, and you will live. "Peace", i.e. those who do not believe in Christ will soon lose the opportunity to see Christ, because the world looks only with sensual eyes, and Christ will withdraw from the world of sensually observed phenomena. On the contrary, believers whose spiritual eyes are opened to observe supersensible phenomena will see Christ or will continue to see Him, despite the fact that He moves away from them. The reason for this is that Christ, as truly living (ζῶ), lives continuously, eternally, and death cannot interrupt His life. Moreover, He also gives to His disciples the kind of life that is in Him (καὶ ὑμεῖς ζήσετε). John 14:20. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. "On That Day". The Lord with this expression designates not just one day, but the entire period of activity of the apostles under the new conditions in which they found themselves after the resurrection of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It is impossible to see here, like Goltsman, an indication of the entire history of the existence of the Church of Christ until the end of the world, because in this case the special relationship of this consolation to the apostles is lost, and yet it was meant mainly for them, and not for the believers of all subsequent eras. “You will know that I am in the Father...”. Knowledge here means experiential or based on experience. The apostles will receive this knowledge from the appearances of Christ after the resurrection (John 20:21; Acts 1:3), from the testimony or testimony of the Angels who appeared immediately after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and, finally, from the own inner experience of the apostles, who felt after the resurrection of Christ that there was the closest communion between Christ and the Father and between them and Christ. John 14:21. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself. Somewhat expanding here the circle of persons who can be worthy, like the apostles, of His appearances, Christ says that in order to be worthy of such an appearance, one must keep the commandments of Christ. In such observance of the commandments, a person shows his love for Christ, and for this love he will be loved both by the Father and by Christ, Who will appear to such a person. “Those who truly love cannot remain without a date for long” (Archbishop Innocent). John 14:22. Judas - not Iscariot - says to Him: Lord! What is it that You want to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world? Here the Lord's speech is again interrupted. Apostle Judas, whom the evangelist distinguishes from Judas Iscariot mentioned in John 13:30, does not understand why Christ wants to appear only to the apostles. It is very likely that Judas saw in the previous words of Christ an indication of His second coming, which the disciples expected in a short time, and therefore it seemed strange to him that Christ at this second coming, which He Himself portrayed as coming in glory (Matthew 25:31), would appear only to those who believe in Him. About the Apostle Jude (James), see comments on Matthew 10:3. Some (for example, Silchenkov) see here an indication not of the apostle, but of the Lord’s brother Judas (“Farewell conversation,” p. 191), but one cannot agree with this opinion, because in the entire conversation the Lord addresses only the apostles whom He chose (John 15:16, 19), and the brothers of the Lord before His resurrection “did not believe in Him” (John 7:5). John 14:23. Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him. John 14:24. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; The word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me. In response to Judas, the Lord says that the appearance of Him and the Father can only be received by those who love Christ and keep His word. Meanwhile, the world, of course, does not have such love - how can the Lord appear to it? “We will come to him...”. Like travelers, the Father and Son come from heaven to find shelter under the roof of a person who loves Christ. The Lord borrows this image from those places in the Old Testament where the theocratic idea of ​​God’s presence in His people was portrayed in this way (Exodus 25:8, 29:45; Lev.26:11–12, Ezek.37:26–27). “He who does not love Me...” The idea expressed positively in the previous verse is here repeated negatively in order to determine more precisely what Christ meant by “peace” in the 22nd verse. The world is all that does not love Christ and does not keep His words or accept His teachings (cf. John 12:48). It should be noted that in John, both in the Gospel and in the Epistles, all people are divided into only two categories: some love Christ and keep His commandments, others do not love and do not keep His commandments. There is no middle ground between one and the other, and this is how it should be, because Christ, according to John’s conviction, is the true Light, the Sun, and the sun can either be seen or not seen, there cannot be any average relationship to the sun! And, of course, sighted people see, others - blind - do not see. Unbelievers, therefore, according to John, must be considered blind in the spiritual sense. When the Father and Son “come” to the unbeliever, Christ does not say this. It can be assumed that He meant here the descent or coming in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come, and at the same time the indwelling of both the Father and the Son will begin in those who have received Him. John 14:25. I told you these things while I was with you. John 14:26. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you. In the conclusion (verses 25–31) to the first speech, the Lord first of all says that He personally ends the teaching of the apostles at this point, because He considers His stay among them to be over (“said” - past perfect tense). He provides further consolation and admonition to the apostles to the Comforter Spirit, whom the Father will send to them. "In My Name" (ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου). This expression here, as in verse 13, is understood differently. Some say that the Lord speaks of sending the Spirit “to continue His work,” others translate “in My place,” but it is most natural to retain the same meaning for this expression as it has in verse 13, i.e. will send “when you call on My name.” "Teach you everything." The Lord distinguishes between “this” and “all.” “These things,” He Himself said (verse 25), “all things” will be explained to them by the Comforter Spirit. The Lord offered them much in fragmentary form and not in a sufficiently clear form (cf. John 2:22, 7:17, 13:7, 36), and the Spirit will complement the teaching of Christ and illuminate in it what remained incomprehensible to the disciples. However, this will not be a simple reminder and explanation of only what students already know. No, the Spirit will awaken creative thought in the apostles, which will be expressed in various literary works (Gospels, Epistles). Here one can also see the basis for the subsequent activity of the divinely inspired apostles in the field of church structure. The Holy Spirit in all areas of Christian thought and life will help the Church to follow the path that Christ Himself showed Her. John 14:27. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. With the words “go in peace,” often in the Old Testament pious and even simple people who knew decency addressed those with whom they parted (1 Samuel 1:17, 20:42, 29:7). Such farewell was also the custom among the Jews during the time of Christ (Mark 5:34; Luke 7:50; James 2:16). And the Lord, parting with His disciples, says goodbye in the usual way. But at the same time he adds that in His mouth this greeting is not a simple wish, which is often not fulfilled when ordinary people pronounce it, but a real gift of peace, and, moreover, the kind that reigned in His own soul (“My peace”). Just as He was the ruler of life and gave it to whomever He wanted (cf. John 5:21), so He is also the ruler of the world, which He now provides to His apostles as the most necessary treasure for them. With this peace they will not be afraid in the world even after the removal of Christ. John 14:28. You have heard that I said to you: I am leaving you and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said: I am going to the Father; for My Father is greater than Me. But all the disciples are sad. The Lord sees that they don’t even seem to be listening to Him, and therefore says half-questioningly: “Have you heard...”, i.e. What is this? Didn't you hear me say that I would come to you again? Why lose heart? “If you loved Me...”. To encourage the disciples during the upcoming separation, the Lord turns to their love, which, it seemed, they should have, but which, as if now, does not give its voice at all in their souls. The love of the apostles for Christ, if it were true love, would have prompted them to willingly agree to a short separation from Christ in order to give Him the opportunity to ascend to the Heavenly Father and receive the glorification due to Him: a lover always sacrifices his interests for the benefit of his beloved. “My Father is greater than I.” Some fathers and teachers of the Church (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius of Alexandria, Blessed Augustine) see in these words a comparison of the state of Christ as the God-man with the glory in which God the Father continually dwells. The latter, from a human point of view, is, of course, higher than the state of the Son in His earthly life. Others (for example, St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, St. John of Damascus) see here the revelation of the thought of the origin of the Son from the Father, who is “the wine and the beginning of Him who is born of Him.” The second interpretation is inappropriate here, because the words of Christ in this case cease to indicate the reason why the disciples should rejoice at the removal of Christ to the Father: if the Son is always less than the Father, then what significance does it have that He goes to the Father? Does it really matter - He remains smaller (Silchenkov, p. 212)? Thus, it remains to accept the first interpretation. Indeed, the death of Christ is not only a mournful, but also a joyful event, for it marks the beginning of the departure of Christ the God-Man to God the Father and His complete glorification among humanity (Znamensky, p. 318). The state of humiliation ends, and the state of glorification begins, which are compared with each other not directly, but “through a comparison of the bearers of these states themselves” (Silchenkov, p. 212). John 14:29. And behold, I told you about it before it happened, so that you might believe when it happens. John 14:30 . It’s not long for me to talk to you; For the prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me. John 14:31. But so that the world may know that I love the Father and, as the Father commanded Me, so I do: get up, let’s go from here. Everything said so far to the disciples was aimed at giving them support to survive the difficult trials that awaited them. Let them then remember what the Lord told them: for them these trials will not seem particularly difficult, because the Lord has already prepared the disciples for them. The Lord could continue to speak to them, but time is running out. The ruler of this sinful and hostile world to Christ is coming - Satan - in the person of the traitor, leading with him a detachment of soldiers (cf. John 13: 2, 27). Since this word could increase the horror of the disciples even more, the Lord, to calm them down, says that Satan, who has such great power over the world, actually has no power over Him: in Christ there is no fulcrum for the actions of Satan - there is no sin. The Lord could drive Satan away from Himself, but He does not want to do this. Out of love for the Father, whose will is for Christ to die for people, He Himself goes to meet the Lord of death, who brings death to Him too. “Get up, let’s get out of here.” This is only an invitation to which the students, apparently, did not agree and remained in their places. There is no reason to assume (like Bishop Michael) that the following speech was spoken on the road; on the contrary, the removal from the upper room is spoken of only in John 18:1. 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