Беседа 53

“Jesus called His disciples and said to them, “I have pity on the people, because they have been with Me for three days and have nothing to eat; I don’t want to let them go dumb, so that they don’t become weak on the road.” (Matthew 15:32) Explanation 15:32–16:12. The certainty of miraculous saturation. – Imperfection of the faith of the disciples. - Their wisdom. – Why didn’t Christ give a sign to the Jews who asked? – The seemingly small miracles of Christ surpassed the great ones in their power. – Strictness can be just as useful as leniency. – Real life is a change of joys and sorrows. “Nothing gives greater joy than virtue.” – The memory of good deeds serves as a great consolation at the hour of death. 1. And before Christ, intending to perform a similar miracle, first healed those suffering from bodily diseases; and now he does the same thing: he begins to perform miracles after healing the blind and lame. Why then did the disciples say: “Let the people go,” but now they didn’t say this, although three days had already passed? Or did they themselves already become better, or did they see that the people did not feel too hungry, praising God for the benefits shown to them? But look how Christ now not only begins to work miracles, but calls his disciples to do it. The people, having come to heal illnesses, did not dare to ask for bread; but Christ, being humane and caring, gives to those who do not demand, and says to the disciples: “I feel sorry for the people,... but I don’t want to let them go hungry.” But lest anyone say: they came with a supply of bread, Christ says: “They have been with Me for three days”; therefore, if they came with a reserve, the supply would be exhausted. That is why He performed the miracle not on the first or on the second day, but when everything had come out for them, so that, having sensed the need in advance, they would receive the miracle with greater delight. That’s why he says: “so that they don’t weaken on the road,” showing that it was far from the village and that they had nothing left. But if you don’t want to let them go hungry, why don’t you perform a sign? In order to arouse greater attention in them with the question and answer of the disciples, and to give them an opportunity to show their faith, approach Him and say: create the loaves. But even here they did not understand the purpose of the question. That is why afterwards, as Mark narrates, Christ said to them: Are your hearts so hardened? “Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, do you not hear” (Mark 8:17–18)? If this were not the case, then why tell the disciples and let them know that the people are worthy of good deeds, and add that He has mercy on them? Matthew says that afterwards He still reproached them, saying: “Why do you think to yourself, you of little faith, that you did not take the loaves? Do you still not understand and remember about the five loaves of bread for the five thousand [people], and how many boxes you collected? nor about seven loaves for four thousand, and how many baskets did you pick up” (Matthew 16:8–10)? This is what the evangelists agree among themselves. So what about the students? They are still crawling to the bottom and, although Christ tried in every possible way to imprint this miracle in their memory, both with a question and an answer, and with the fact that he made them distributors (of bread), and that the boxes remained, but they still remained imperfect, which is why they say to Him: “Where can we get so much bread in the desert” (Matthew 15:33)? Both before and now they all remember the desert; and although they say this without properly judging, the miracle itself is not questioned here. But lest anyone say, as I have already noticed before, that He received the loaves from some nearby village, then the very place is pointed out so that the miracle is beyond doubt. That is why He performs both the first and this miracle in the desert, far removed from the villages. But the disciples, not understanding any of this, said: “Where can we get so much bread in the desert?” They very unreasonably thought that He was telling them this with the intention of entrusting them with feeding the people themselves. And before this He said: “Give them something to eat” (Matthew 14:16), in order to give them a chance to ask Him about it. Now he doesn’t even say that - “you give them something to eat”; but what? “I feel sorry for the people... but I don’t want to let them go hungry.” With these words, He brings them even closer to the idea, encourages them even more strongly and makes them understand that they ask Him to feed the people. These words showed that He could not let them go hungry, and testified to His power. This is exactly what the word “I don’t want” meant. But since, despite this, they did not understand what Christ said and mentioned the people, and the place, and the desert (they said precisely: “Where can we get so much loaves in the desert to feed so many people?”), He himself directly admonishes them and says to them: “How many loaves do you have? And they said, “Seven, and a few fish” (Matthew 15:34). They no longer say: “But what is this for such a multitude?” (John 6:9), as they said before. So, although they did not suddenly understand everything, they still little by little acquired higher knowledge. And He himself, thereby stimulating their thoughts, asks in the same way as before, in order to remind them by the very image of the question of the previously performed miracle. You, having noticed their imperfections from this, cognize their wise minds, and marvel at their love for the truth, how in their writings they themselves do not hide their own shortcomings, and, moreover, great ones. Indeed, it is no small fault to so quickly forget a miracle that recently happened; For this the Lord reproaches them. 2. In addition, know their wisdom in another respect, namely: how little they cared about the belly, how they were accustomed to think a little about food. Being in the desert and staying in it for three days, they had only seven loaves. In all other respects, the Lord acts in the same way as before: he seats them on the ground and makes sure that the loaves in the hands of the disciples do not decrease. “He ordered,” it is said, “the people to lie down on the ground. And taking the seven loaves and fishes, he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples to the people” (Matthew 15:35–36). But what followed was not the same. “They all ate,” it says, “and were filled; and they took up the remaining pieces, seven baskets full, and those who did eat were four thousand, besides women and children” (Matthew 15:37–38). But why then were there twelve baskets left from the five thousand, and seven baskets left from the four thousand here? So, why and why was the remainder smaller, although there were fewer who ate? One can say that either the baskets were larger than the boxes, or if not, one must think that the Lord again, so that the similarity of the miracle does not lead them to oblivion, helps their memory with such a difference so that, remembering what was done differently, they remember both miracles. That is why in the first case the number of boxes with leftovers is equal to the number of disciples, and now the number of baskets is equal to the number of loaves. And in this He reveals the indescribable strength and freedom of power, showing that He can work miracles in one way or another. Truly, it was a matter of no small power that He kept the number both then and now: then there were five thousand, and now four thousand, but the remainder was neither more nor less, in the first case the number of boxes, and in the second the number of baskets, although the number of those who ate was different. And what follows is the same as before. Just as then, leaving the people, Christ entered the ship, so now. And John says the same thing (John 6:17). Since no miracle persuaded so many people to follow Him as the miracle of the loaves - they even wanted to not only follow Him, but also make Him king for it - then Christ, avoiding even the appearance of lust for power, retires after this miracle; and he does not leave on foot, but so that the people cannot follow, he enters the ship. “And having sent the people away,” says the evangelist, “He entered the boat and arrived in the region of Magdalene” (Matthew 15:39). “Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tempted Him, asking Him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them: in the evening you say: there will be a bucket, because the sky is red; and in the morning: today there is bad weather, because the sky is purple. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and went away” (Matthew 16:1–4). And Mark says that when they came to Him and asked, “he sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation require a sign” (Mark 8:12)? Although such a question should have aroused anger and indignation, the humane and merciful Lord is not angry, but regrets and grieves for them, as for the incurably sick, who, after so many proofs of His power, still tempted Him. They asked Him not in order to believe, but in order to catch. If they had come to believe, He would have given them a sign. The One who said to the wife: “It is not good” (Matthew 15:26) and then gave it, would have given it to them even more. But since they did not ask for a sign in order to believe, the Savior calls them in another place hypocrites, because they said one thing and thought another. If they believed, they would not have asked for a sign. And that they did not believe, this is clear from the fact that after the reproach and reproof, they no longer insisted on their request, and did not say: we do not know, and we want to learn. What sign did they ask from heaven? Stop the sun, or hold back the moon, or bring down lightning, or make a change in the air, or do something similar. How does Christ respond to this? “You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” Do you see meekness and forbearance? He not only refused, as before, did not say: “It will not be given to him” (Matthew 12:39), but he also indicates the reason why he does not give, although they did not ask in order to learn. What is the reason? Just as in the sky, He says, there is one sign of bad weather, another - buckets, and no one, seeing a sign of bad weather, will expect good weather, and in good weather there will be bad weather, so one should reason about Me. Another time of the present coming and another of the future. Now signs are needed on earth, but signs in heaven are postponed until a future time. Now I have come as a doctor, then I will appear as a judge; Now I have come to seek the lost, then I will come to demand an account. Therefore, now I have come secretly, then I will come with all solemnity: I will hide the sky, hide the sun, deprive the moon of light; then the heavenly powers will move, and the manifestation of My coming will be like lightning, which suddenly appears to everyone. But now is not the time for these signs: I have come to die and endure the most blasphemous suffering. Have you not heard that the prophet says: “He will not cry or lift up his voice, neither will he let it be heard in the streets” (Isaiah 42:2)? And another one: “He will come down like rain on a mown meadow 17”? (Ps. 71:6) 3. If you point to the signs that happened under Pharaoh, then those signs were useful then, because it was necessary to get rid of the enemy. But whoever comes to friends has no need for such signs. And why should I perform great signs when little ones have no faith? I call them small by appearance, because in terms of (internal) strength the latter are much greater than the former. In fact, what can compare with the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, the expulsion of demons, the healing of the body, in a word - with the restoration of everything? You notice how hardened the heart of the Jews is. Hearing that no sign would be given to them except the sign of the prophet Jonah, they did not question Him, although, knowing the prophet and everything that happened to him, and hearing about it again from Christ, they should have asked and found out what what was said meant? But I said that they do not ask for a sign with the desire to learn. That is why Christ, leaving them, went away. “Having crossed,” says the evangelist, “to the other side, His disciples forgot to take the loaves. Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:5–6). Why didn’t he say: beware of teaching? Obviously, he wants to remind them of his ex: he knew that they had forgotten. There was no apparent reason to denounce them directly; but, having taken the reason to reproach them from them, the reproof is not so sensitive for them. Why didn’t he reproach them then when they said: “Where can we get so much bread in the desert?” It seemed that it was opportune to say then; but he did not say so as not to let it be known that He wanted to do a miracle. Moreover, he did not want to denounce them, and he himself did not want to boast before the people. Now it was more decent to blame them, since even after the double miracle they did not come to their senses. That is why, after the second miracle, he reproaches them and brings out what they were thinking. What were they thinking? “What loaves,” says the evangelist, “we did not take” (Matthew 16:57). They were still concerned about Jewish purifications, and observed pickiness in food. For all this, Christ reproaches them with greater severity, saying: “Why do you think to yourself, you of little faith, that you did not take the loaves? Do you still not understand and understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, don't you see? Having ears, don't you hear? Do you still not understand and remember about the five loaves of bread for the five thousand [people], and how many boxes you collected? not about seven loaves of bread for four thousand, and how many baskets did you pick up?” (Matthew 16:8, 8:17–18, 16:9–10) Do you see the strong indignation? Nowhere else did He reproach them so much. Why does he do this? To again reject their prejudice regarding food. For some reason then He only said: “Do you still not understand and remember”? Here he says with strong reproach: “little faith”! And meekness is not appropriate everywhere. Just as he gave them complete freedom to speak, so he reproaches them; and he did both for their salvation. Look how strict and lenient He was. He almost apologizes to them for reproaching them with such force when he says: “Don’t remember about the five loaves... and how many boxes did you pick up? not about the seven loaves... and how many baskets did you pick up? For this purpose, it means the number of both those who ate and the remainder, in order to remind them of the past and make them more attentive to the future. But in order for you to find out what the reproach produced and how it awakened their sleepy mind, listen to what the evangelist says. Although the Lord did not say anything more, but reproachingly added only: “How do you not understand that I did not tell you about bread: beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? - but they, the evangelist further says, - then... They understood that He told them to beware not of the leaven of bread, but of the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” which He himself did not explain. Look how much good reproach has produced! She forced them to lag behind the Jewish fastidiousness, and made them attentive from the careless, and freed them from ambition and lack of faith, so that they ceased to come into fear and trembling when they happened to have little bread, and did not worry about how to satisfy their hunger, but despised all this. Likewise, we should not always indulge our subordinates, nor should we seek for our superiors to favor us. The human soul needs both of these medicines (both severity and leniency). That is why God controls the entire universe in such a way that sometimes he uses severity, and sometimes he uses leniency, and does not allow there to be either prosperity without sorrows, or disasters without joys. Just as in nature there is sometimes night, sometimes day, sometimes summer, sometimes winter, so with us there is sometimes sadness, sometimes joy, sometimes illness, sometimes health. So, do not marvel when you are sick, otherwise you will have to marvel when you are healthy; Do not be embarrassed when you are sad, otherwise you will have to worry when you are happy. Everything happens in the natural order. 4. And why are you surprised if this happened to you? Who doesn’t know that the same thing happened to the saints? And in order for you to understand this, let us depict the life that you think about, that it is all filled with pleasures and free from worries. Would you like to consider the life of Abraham from the very beginning? What was the first thing he heard? “Get out of your land, from your kindred” (Gen. 12:1). Do you see that the demand is very unpleasant? But look how much joyful things follow! And go “to the land that I will show you; and I will make you into a great nation” (Gen. 12:1–2). And what, when you came to the land, reached the pier, did your sorrows end? - Not at all: new sorrows follow again, more painful than the previous ones - hunger, wandering, the kidnapping of a wife; and then other joys awaited him - the defeat of Pharaoh, an honorable release with many gifts, and a return to home. And the rest of life is the same chain of joys and sorrows. The same thing happened to the apostles. That is why Paul says: “He who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction” (2 Cor. 1:4). But you will say: how does this come to me, who am always in sorrow? Don't be insensitive and ungrateful; It is not possible for anyone to always be in sorrow; nature (human) will not tolerate this. But since we always want to be in joy, we think that we are always in sadness. In addition, since we quickly forget joyful and pleasant things, but we always remember sad things, we say that we are always in sorrow. It is impossible for a person by nature to always be sad. If you like, let us consider a life spent in bliss, fun and luxury, and a life in need, in disasters and sorrows. We will show you that just as that one has its sorrows, so this one has its joys. But be calm. Imagine a man imprisoned in chains, and a still young orphaned king who received great wealth; Imagine also a worker who works all day and a person who spends all his time in bliss. Do you want us to first describe the boredom of a person devoted to bliss? Imagine how worried his thoughts must be when he seeks glory beyond his strength, when his servants despise him, when his inferiors insult him, when thousands blame him and condemn his extravagance; and it is impossible to retell what else usually happens to such rich people, such as: enmity, insults, accusations, losses, malicious intent of envious people who, when they cannot appropriate his wealth, lure the young man into various affairs, upset him in every possible way and cause him thousands of worries. Would you like me to describe to you the pleasures in the life of an employee? He is free from all things counted; even if someone offends him, he will not offend him, because he does not prefer himself to anyone; he is not afraid of losing his property; eats with pleasure, sleeps carefree. Some people do not drink Fasian wine with the same pleasure as he does when he comes to a spring and drinks spring water. But this is not the life of a rich man. And if this is not enough for you, then in order to gain an even greater victory over you, let’s compare the king with a prisoner, and you will see more than once that the prisoner enjoys pleasure, has fun and jumps, while the king, on the contrary, in a diadem and purple, is bored, has thousands of worries and is dying of fear. No one, no one, can live without sadness, as well as without any pleasure. Our nature would not have endured this, as I said before. If one rejoices more, and the other grieves more, then this happens from the person himself, who grieves due to cowardice, and not from the nature of things. If we want to always rejoice, then we have many occasions for this. If we establish ourselves in virtue, then nothing will sadden us: it inspires good hopes in those who have acquired it, makes them pleasing to God and respectable before people, and gives them indescribable joy. True, it takes a lot of work to establish yourself in virtue; but for that it pleases the conscience a lot, and produces so much inner pleasure that no word can express it. In fact, what seems pleasant to you in real life? Is it a luxurious table, is it physical health, is it fame and wealth? But all these pleasures will seem very bitter if you compare them with inner pleasure. Truly, there is nothing more pleasant than a blameless conscience and good hope. 5. And if you want to be sure of this, let us test a person close to death or an elderly person and, recalling to him the luxurious tables with which he enjoyed, the glory and honor, as well as the good deeds that he has ever done and accomplished, we will ask him: what pleases him more? And we will see that, remembering the first, he is ashamed and covers his face, and remembering the last, he admires and rejoices. So Hezekiah, when he was exhausted, remembered not about glory, not about the kingdom, not about luxurious tables, but about righteousness. “Oh, Lord! “, he says, “remember that I walked faithfully before You” (2 Kings 20:3). Look how Paul admires good works and says: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). You will say: what did he have to talk about? About many things, and more than this: about the honors bestowed on him, about the guards that he had, and about multiple services. Do you not hear that he says: “You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus,” that “if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me” (Gal. 4:14–15), and that “you laid down your head” for his soul (Rom. 16:4)? However, he does not speak about these honors, but about labors, about dangers and the crowns corresponding to them. And quite fair. This remains here, and this will follow us; for this we will give an account, and for this we will receive a reward. Or don’t you know how sins outrage the soul on the day of death, how they excite the heart? At these moments, the memory of good deeds, like a bucket during a storm, calms the troubled soul. If we remain awake, then this fear will be inseparable from us in life; when we remain insensitive, then he, without a doubt, will appear when we are separated from this life. So the prisoner especially grieves when he is taken out to trial; then he especially trembles when he approaches the judgment seat, when he must give an account. That is why there are many stories about horrors at the last end and terrible phenomena, the very sight of which is unbearable for the dying, so that those lying on the bed shake it with great force and look fearfully at those ahead, while the soul tries to stay in the body and does not want to be separated from it, horrified by the vision of approaching angels. If we tremble, looking at terrible people, then what will be our torment when we see approaching formidable angels and inexorable forces, when they drag our soul and tear it away from the body, when it weeps a lot, but in vain and to no avail? And the rich man mentioned in the Gospel cried a lot after his death; but this did him no good. Imprinting all this in our minds and always imagining that we will not suffer the same thing, let us keep the fear of death in fresh memory in order to avoid punishment for our sins and receive eternal blessings, of which may we all be worthy by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. In church text - “on the fleece”. You might be interested in: