Беседа 27

John 3:12–13. If I told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man, who is in heaven, who came down from heaven. 1. One should not try to comprehend with reason the origin of the Only Begotten Son. – 2. The copper serpent as a prototype of Jesus Christ. - How God loved the world. – 3. Love of God: the excess of His goodness towards sinners and the ungrateful. – God, in order to save us, did not even spare his Only Begotten Son, but we spare our money. - Bad use made from wealth. – Our ingratitude to Jesus Christ in the person of the poor for all His benefits to us. - Against those who squander everything on luxury, despise the poor and do not care about their needs. 1. What I have said many times, I will say now, and I will not stop saying. What is it? That Jesus, intending to touch on high dogmas, often adapts to the weakness of his listeners and uses a form of teaching that is not always consistent with His greatness, but more adaptable to them. The teaching is lofty and important, and once expressed, it can sufficiently show its dignity, as long as we are able to hear it, but if simpler objects and those closer to the listener’s understanding are not often spoken about, then lofty objects cannot soon take possession of the mind of the bowed listener. That is why Christ spoke much more about simple subjects than lofty ones. But so that this does not cause harm in another respect, that is, so that it does not hold the student down, He addresses simple objects in no other way than by first expressing the reason why He speaks about them. This is what He did in the present case. Having spoken about baptism and birth taking place on earth by grace, then intending to begin to speak about his own birth, ineffable and incomprehensible, He still hesitates and does not begin. Then he expresses the reason why he does not start. What is this reason? The rudeness and weakness of the listeners. He hinted at it, saying: “If I told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” Thus, where He speaks of something simple and unimportant, it must be attributed to the weakness of the listeners. Some say that the expression: “earthly” here must be understood about the wind - as if He said: I showed you an example of earthly things, but you are not convinced by this: how can you understand more sublime objects? But if He here calls baptism earthly, do not be surprised. He calls it that either because it takes place on earth, or in comparison with His terrible birth. Our (in baptism) birth, although it is heavenly, but, in comparison with His true birth from the Being of the Father, it is earthly. And it is true that he did not say: you do not understand, but: you do not believe. Whoever finds it difficult and does not easily accept what is understandable to the mind can rightly be accused of unreason; but whoever does not accept that which cannot be comprehended by reason, but only by faith, deserves to be accused not of unreason, but of unbelief. Thus, not allowing Nicodemus to experience with his mind what was said, Christ continues to convict him of unbelief even more strongly. If our (spiritual) birth must be accepted by faith, then what do people deserve who experience with their minds the birth of the Only Begotten? But maybe someone will say: what was the point of saying this if the listeners did not want to believe? So that although they did not want to believe, people of subsequent times could accept it and benefit from it. Thus, striking Nicodemus with all his might, Christ finally shows that He knows not only this, but also much more and higher than this, which he expresses in the following words: “No one ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven, who is in heaven” (John 3:13). What, you say, is the connection of thoughts here? A very great and close connection with the previous one. Nicodemus said: “You are a teacher come from God” (John 3:2); This is what Christ now corrects, as if to say: do not think that I am the same teacher as were many of the prophets who were from the earth; I came from heaven. Not one of the prophets ascended there, but I always remain there. You see, even the most apparently lofty things are still too unworthy of His greatness. He not only exists in heaven, but everywhere, and fulfills everything. But He talks, still condescending to the weakness of the listener, in order to little by little raise him to the highest. Here He does not call His flesh the Son of man, but, so to speak, all of Himself according to the lower nature 24. And He usually called all of Himself, sometimes by divinity, sometimes by humanity. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Again, this seems to have no connection with the previous one; but (in fact) quite consistent with it. Having said that through baptism the greatest benefit was given to people, He also cites the reason for this, no less than the benefit itself - the cross; just as Paul, talking with the Corinthians, brings together these benefits in the following words: “Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1:13). These two blessings, more than any other, show the ineffable love of the Lord: He suffered for his enemies, and, having died for his enemies, granted complete forgiveness of sins in baptism. 2. But why didn’t He say directly: I will be crucified, but instead sent the listeners to the ancient prototype? By this He teaches them, firstly, that ancient events have a relationship with new ones, that they are not alien to these; secondly, that He did not go into suffering against His will, and moreover, that He Himself did not suffer any harm from it, and salvation was granted to many through that. Indeed, lest anyone say: how can those who believe in the Crucified One be saved when He himself was possessed by death? - here He leads us to ancient history. If the Jews were saved from death by looking at the copper image of the serpent, then, of course, the greater the benefit that believers in the Crucified One can receive. The Crucifixion took place not because of the weakness of the Crucified One and not because the Jews triumphed over him, but because “God loved the world” (John 3:16). That is why His animate church was crucified: “so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15). Do you see the reason for the cross and the salvation that came from it? Do you see the correspondence between the type and the truth? There the Jews are saved from death only temporarily; and here the believers are from eternal death. There, a hanged serpent heals snake bites; here the crucified Jesus heals the wounds of the spiritual serpent. There, the one who looks with bodily eyes receives healing; here the one who looks with the eyes of his soul is freed from all sins. There was hung a brass there, depicting the likeness of a serpent; here is the body of the Lord, formed by the Spirit. There the serpent bit, the serpent healed; so it is here: death destroyed, death saved. But the serpent who destroyed had poison, and the serpent who saved had no poison; the same thing again here: the death that destroyed had sin, like the serpent had poison, and the death of the Master was free from all sin, like the copper serpent from poison. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). This is the same thing that Paul says: “having taken away the power of the principalities and powers, he powerfully put them to shame, having triumphed over them in himself” (Col. 2:15). Just as a courageous fighter, lifting his opponent into the air and throwing him to the ground, wins a brilliant victory, so Christ overthrew the opposing forces, in view of the entire universe, and, having healed the vulnerable in the desert, being hanged on the cross, freed them from all beasts. But He did not say: it is fitting to be hanged, but rather to be lifted up. He used an expression that could be more favorable to the listener and that came closer to the prototype. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). These words mean the following: do not be surprised that I should be exalted for your salvation. This is what pleased the Father, and He loved you so much that He gave His Son for servants and ungrateful servants, which no one would do for a friend. Paul expresses this in the words: “hardly anyone will die for a righteous person” (Rom. 5:7). But the apostle spoke about this at greater length, because he talked with believers; and Christ - briefly, since His word was to Nicodemus; but His word is more expressive. Each of His sayings has a lot of expressiveness. In the words: “God so loved the world,” He shows the great power of love, since a great, infinite distance lies between God and the world. Immortal, beginningless, infinite majesty, He loved those who are from earth and dust, full of countless sins that offend Him at all times, ungrateful. The following words are also expressive: “that he gave his only begotten Son” - not a slave, he says, he gave, not an angel, not an archangel, and no one would show such care for a son as God does for ungrateful slaves. So, He depicts His suffering not quite clearly, but covertly; but he expresses the beneficial consequences of suffering clearly and openly, saying this: “so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” Since He said that He must be exalted, and thereby marked His death, so that the listener would not be confused by these words, would not begin to assume anything human about Him and would not consider His death to be the cessation of existence - look how He corrects this: He says that He whom the Father gives is the Son of God, the author of life, moreover, eternal life. And whoever could communicate life to others through his death could not remain forever in the (power of) death. If those who believe in the Crucified One do not perish, then even more so the Crucified One himself cannot perish. He who delivers others from destruction is all the more free from it himself. He who communicates life to others, all the more exudes life for himself. Do you see that faith is needed everywhere? He says that the cross is the source of life; but the mind could not easily accept this: the witnesses of this are the pagans, who still ridicule it to this day; and faith, which surpasses the weakness of reasoning, easily accepts and contains the same. Why did God love the world so much? Not for any other reason than by goodness alone. 3. Let us be ashamed of His love, let us be ashamed of His immeasurable love for mankind. He did not even spare his Only Begotten Son for us, but we save money, to our own detriment. He gave up His true Son for us; but we do not want to give even silver for His sake, or even for our own sake. How can we get forgiveness for this? If we see a person exposed to danger and death for us, then we prefer him to all others, we count him among our first friends, we give him everything we have - we say that it belongs to him more than to us, and for all this we do not think that we have rewarded him in a worthy manner. And we have no gratitude to Christ even to this extent. He laid down His soul for us, He shed His precious blood for us - for us, ungrateful, unkind; and we do not waste even money for our own benefit, but we despise Him in nakedness and pilgrimage, Him who died for us. Who will save us from future execution? If it were not God, but we ourselves, who punished ourselves, would we not pronounce a sentence on ourselves? Wouldn't we condemn ourselves to the fire of hell because we despise Him who laid down His life for us, while He was melting away from hunger? And what does it say about money? If we had a thousand souls within us, should we not lay down all our souls for Him? However, even in this way we would not have done anything worthy of His benefits. He who first does a good deed reveals obvious kindness in himself, and he who has received a good deed, no matter how he repays for it, gives only what is due and does not deserve gratitude, especially when the one who begins to do good deeds does good deeds to enemies; and whoever repays him, repays the benefactor with what he received from him, and again uses it himself. But this doesn’t bother us either; no, we are so ungrateful that we clothe slaves and mules and horses in gold jewelry, but we despise the Lord, who wanders naked, moving from door to door, standing at the crossroads and stretching out his hands to us, and often look at Him with stern eyes; but for this very reason He endures us. He hungers willingly to nourish you; wanders naked to give you the opportunity to receive the incorruptible robe. But despite this, you do not give away anything from your estate. Your clothes are either eaten away by moths, or become a burden for the chests and an unnecessary worry for the owners; and He who gave this and everything else wanders naked. But you say that you do not put your clothes in chests, but dress yourself in them and adorn yourself? Tell me, what good does it do you? Is it the one that the crowd will see you in the square? What then? There they will be surprised not at the one who is clothed in such clothes, but at the one who gives to the needy. So, if you want to be admired, dress others and you will receive thousands of praises. And then God will praise you along with people. Now no one will praise you; but everyone just hates you, seeing that you decorate your body but don’t care about your soul. Harlots also have body decoration, and they often dress in the most valuable and shiny clothes; but only virtuous people have the decoration of the soul. I talk about this often and will not stop talking, caring not so much for the poor as for your souls. They will have consolation, if not from us, then from some other side; even if there was no consolation for them, but they would die of hunger, and in that case there would be no greater harm for them. Did poverty and exhaustion from hunger hurt Lazarus at all? But no one will snatch you from Gehenna if you do not receive help from the poor; no, we will say the same as the rich man, given over to eternal torment and deprived of all consolation. But God forbid any of us ever hear such words; May we go into the bosom of Abraham, according to the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. 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