Беседа 10

John 1:11. He came to his own, and his own did not receive Him. 1. God does not force or constrain our free will. – 2. What does it mean: “came to his own”? – That those who did not want to accept Jesus Christ are sufficiently punished by this very act and the consequences of this refusal. - The beneficial effect of baptism. – 3. That it is entirely up to us to maintain the purity of our baptism. – Punishment for those who desecrate the clothes received at baptism. Faith and purity of life are necessary for salvation. – What kind of clothing should those who are called to the royal wedding feast wear? 1. God, the Lover of Mankind and Benefactor, creates everything and arranges everything so, beloved, that we shine with virtue. And wanting us to be pious, He, without any violence or coercion, but only through persuasion and beneficence, calls and attracts everyone who wants it to Himself. Therefore, when He came, some accepted Him, and others did not accept Him. He does not want anyone to be His slave against their will or under compulsion; but wants everyone to serve Him freely and voluntarily and to know the sweetness of serving Him. People, having a need for service, bind them with the law of slavery and against their will; and God, having no need for anything, no needs similar to ours, creates everything only for the sake of our salvation and in this makes us our own masters. Therefore, He does not subject those who do not want to any violence or coercion; He has only our benefit in mind. And being drawn into service against your will is the same as not serving at all. Why, you say, does He punish those who do not want to obey Him? Why does He threaten those who do not listen to His commands with Gehenna? This is because, being of great good, He has great concern for us even when we do not obey Him, and does not retreat even when we move away and run from Him. And since we deviated from the original path of beneficence, that is, we did not want to follow the path of conviction and prosperity, He led us along a different path - punishment and torment - a path, of course, very difficult, but inevitable. When the first path is neglected, then, of necessity, another must be followed. And legislators lay down many and cruel punishments for criminals; however, for this we do not condemn them, but on the contrary, we respect them even more for their decisions on punishments, since, without having any need on our part, often without even knowing who will subsequently use the help of their decisions, they take care of the improvement of our life by giving honor to virtuous people, and taming vicious people who disturb the peace with punishments. If we honor and love such legislators, then shouldn’t we much more reverence God and love Him for such great care for us? And the difference between the care of those and God’s providence for us is limitless. Truly, the riches of His goodness are inexpressible and exceed all understanding. Note: He “came to his own,” not out of any need of his own (because, as I said, the Divine does not need anything), but for the benefit of his own. Despite the fact that “their own... did not accept”, they rejected the One who came to them for their own benefit; Moreover, having driven Him out of the vineyard, they killed Him (Luke 20:15). And with all this, He did not prevent them from repenting, but gave them the opportunity, if only they themselves wanted, and after that lawlessness, to cleanse all their sins by faith in Him and become equal to those who did nothing of the kind and were more dear to Him than others. And that I say this not without reason and not in jest, all the circumstances of blessed Paul also provide clear evidence. He persecuted Christ after His crucifixion, and killed His witness Stephen with the hands of many others; but when he repented, condemned his previous sins, resorted to the One whom he persecuted, He immediately numbered him among His friends and, moreover, the first, made him - a persecutor, blasphemer and insulter - a preacher and teacher of the whole universe. He himself was not ashamed to preach about this, admiring the love of God for mankind, and in his writings, as if on a pillar, he depicted his former insolences, revealed them to everyone, considering it better to put his former life on display in front of everyone, in order to show the greatness of God’s gift all the more clearly, rather than to hide the ineffable and inscrutable love of the Lord for mankind, not wanting to reveal his own error to everyone. For this purpose, here and there he mentions persecutions, slander and his militias against the Church; at one point he says: “I... not worthy to be called an Apostle, because he persecuted the church of God” (1 Cor. 15:9); in another: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first” (1 Tim. 1:15); in the third: “You have heard about my former way of life in Judaism, that I cruelly persecuted the Church of God and devastated it” (Gal. 1:13). 2. Thus, Paul, as if in some kind of reward to Christ for his long-suffering towards him, showing whom, what hostile and hostile person (the Lord) saved, with great boldness announces the battle that he initially raised against Christ with all his zeal. At the same time, he inspires good hopes in those who despair of themselves. Christ, he says, had mercy on him for this reason, so that in him he would be the first to show all the long-suffering and abundant riches of His goodness, as an example to those who could after that believe in Him for eternal life, even if their sins exceeded all hope of forgiveness. It is precisely by pointing to this that the evangelist says: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Where did He who fills everything and exists everywhere come from? What place has He who holds everything in His hand and has dominion over everything deprived of His presence? He did not leave any place (how is this possible?). And this happened due to His condescension towards us. Since He, being in the world, did not seem to be in the world, because He was unknown, but finally revealed Himself, deigning to put on our flesh, the evangelist calls this very appearance and condescension His coming. It is worthy of surprise that the disciple is not ashamed of the humiliation of his Teacher, but boldly describes the insult inflicted on Him: and this is not an unimportant proof of his truth-loving spirit. However, if one is ashamed, then one should be ashamed for those who inflicted it, and not for the One who suffered the insult. He became even more famous because even after such an insult he takes such care of His offenders; and they turned out to be ungrateful and despicable before everyone, because they rejected, as an enemy and adversary, the One who came to them with such benefits. And not only did they harm themselves, but also because they did not receive what those who accepted Him achieved. What did the latter get? “And to those who received Him, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). But why don’t you, blessed one, tell us about the punishment of those who did not accept Him, but only say that they were “their own” and did not accept the One who came “to their own”? And what they will suffer for this, what punishment they will be subjected to, you did not add. Perhaps through this you would frighten them more and with a threat you would soften the rudeness of their arrogance. Why did you keep silent about this? But what other punishment, says the evangelist, could be greater than that they, having the opportunity to become children of God, do not become such, but voluntarily deprive themselves of such nobility and honor? However, their punishment will not be limited to the fact that they will not receive any benefit; An unquenchable fire will still overtake them, which the Evangelist subsequently reveals more clearly. Now he speaks of the unspeakable blessings bestowed upon those who accepted the Lord, and briefly depicts these blessings in the following words: “And to those who received Him, he... gave the power to become children of God.” Even if they were slaves or free, Hellenes or barbarians, or Scythians, even unwise or wise, wives or husbands, children or elders, common or noble, rich or poor, rulers or commoners, all, says the evangelist, are awarded the same honor. Faith and the grace of the Spirit, having eliminated the inequality of worldly merits, gave them all one look, imprinted on all of them one image - the royal one. What can compare with such philanthropy? The Only Begotten Son of God did not hesitate to number among his children - publicans, wise men, slaves, and the most unimportant people, many with damaged members of the body and with many shortcomings. Such is the power of faith in Him, such is the greatness of grace! Just as fire, having penetrated into the earth, in which there is metal, immediately produces gold from it, so an even better baptism makes those washed by it from mortal ones into gold, when the Spirit, in the likeness of fire, penetrates into our souls and, burning into them the “image of the earthly,” wears out, as if from a crucible, the “image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:49), a new, bright, shining image. But why did the evangelist not say: he created them as children of God, but says: “he gave power to become children of God”? To show how much care is needed to preserve throughout life in purity and integrity the image of adoption that is imprinted on us at baptism; and together - to show that no one can take away such power from us if we do not deprive ourselves of it first. If those who receive authority from people in any house have almost the same power as those who gave it to them, then much more will we, having received such honor from God, unless we do anything unworthy of this authority, will be stronger than everyone, because He who gave us such dignity is higher and more perfect than everyone. He also wants to show (the evangelist) that grace comes only to those who themselves desire and care about acquiring it. Such people belong to the realm of becoming children. But if people themselves do not first have a desire, then the gift does not come, and grace does not produce anything in them. 3. So, the evangelist, rejecting coercion everywhere and showing the free will and independence of man, expressed the same thing now. And in these very mysteries, one thing belongs to God - to bestow grace, and another to man - to show faith. But then a lot more care is required from a person: in order to maintain purity, it is not enough for us to just be baptized and believe; but if we want to acquire perfect lordship, we must lead a life worthy of it. And God left this to us ourselves. Our mysterious rebirth and cleansing from all previous sins takes place in baptism; but to remain clean in the future and not allow any filth to come to us again - this depends on our will and care. That is why (the evangelist) reminds us of the very method of (spiritual) birth and, by comparing it with carnal birth, shows its superiority, saying: “who were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). And he said this so that we, having learned the insignificance and humiliation of our first birth from blood and carnal lust, having comprehended on the contrary the importance and dignity of the second birth by grace, would have a high concept of it, a concept worthy of this gift from the One who gives birth to us in this way, and then, on our part, show great care for it. We must fear no less, lest by subsequent negligence and vices we defile this beautiful robe, and be thrown out of the bridal chamber, like the five foolish virgins, or like the one who did not have a wedding robe. And this man was also among the guests and was invited; but, as after the invitation and such an honor, he showed disrespect to the one who invited him, then listen to what he is subjected to a fate that is disastrous and worthy of many tears. Having come to participate in the bright feast, he is not only expelled from the feast, but bound hand and foot, he is taken into pitch darkness, where he indulges in eternal and incessant weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, beloved, let us not consider faith alone sufficient for salvation. If we do not imagine a pure life, but appear in clothes inappropriate for our blessed calling, then nothing will save us from the same suffering that that unfortunate one suffered. In fact, isn’t it strange that when God and the King himself does not disdain simple, ignorant and worthless people, but brings them from the crossroads to His table, we show ourselves such insensibility that even in such honor we do not become better, but even by calling we remain in the same evil, and thus trample on the ineffable love of the One who called? He did not call us to this spiritual and terrible communion of the sacraments so that we would approach them with the same atrocity, but so that, having put off shameful clothes, we would put on such as are appropriate for those treated in the royal palaces. If we do not want to act worthy of such a calling, then this depends on us, and not on the One who honored us so much. It is not He who expels us from the wondrous host of those who are called, but we expel ourselves. He did everything on His part: arranged a wedding feast, prepared a meal, sent invites, received those who came, and rendered every other honor; but we, with our unclean clothes, that is, sinful deeds, offended Him and those present at the wedding feast and the entire marriage, and therefore we are rightly expelled. Thus, respecting the wedding feast and those invited, the King expels the impudent and shameless from here. And if He had left those dressed in such clothes, then through this He would have disrespected the others who were called. But God forbid anyone, neither us nor any other people, should experience such wrath of the Caller. This is why this is written, before it comes true, so that, admonished by the threats of Scripture, we would not bring ourselves in practice to such dishonor and punishment, but, being content with only such words (of Scripture), everyone came to that call in bright clothing, which we all will receive, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: