Беседа 29

John 3:22. After this Jesus came with His disciples to the land of Judea and lived there with them and baptized. 1. The sublimity of truth and the baseness of lies. – Why Jesus Christ himself did not perform baptism, but only His disciples. – 2. The disciples of John the Baptist were jealous of the disciples of Jesus Christ. – 3. How the church becomes the bride of Jesus Christ. – Disasters and losses caused by vanity. - How to free yourself from this vice. 1. There is nothing brighter and stronger than the truth, just as there is nothing more powerless than a lie, even if it is covered with countless veils. Lies are easy to catch and refute; and truth openly offers itself to all who wish to see its beauty. She does not like to hide, is not afraid of danger, does not tremble at slander, does not seek national glory, is not subject to anything else human; it stands above everything, subject, of course, to thousands of slander, but remaining irresistible; She protects those who come running to her like a strong wall, with the greatness of her strength; does not tolerate hidden shelters, but offers openly to everyone everything that is in it. Christ also showed this when he said to Pilate: “I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where Jews always meet, and I did not say anything in secret” (John 18:20). He said it then, and now He has done it. “After this,” it is said, “Jesus came with His disciples to the land of Judea and lived there with them and baptized.” On holidays He came to the city to offer teaching among the people and do good to them with miracles; At the end of the holidays, he often went to Jordan, because many people flocked there too. He always visited crowded places, not out of a desire to show Himself off, or out of curiosity, but with the goal of bringing benefit to a greater number of people. Since the evangelist further says that it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples, it is clear that here he says the same thing, that is, only His disciples baptized. Why, you say, did He not baptize himself? Even before, John said: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16); but He had not yet given the Holy Spirit, and therefore, of course, He did not baptize. But the disciples did this, wanting to lead many to the saving teaching. Why, when the disciples of Jesus began to baptize, did John not stop doing this, and he continued to baptize and do this until his very imprisonment? The words: For “John also baptized in Aenon,” and the following: “For John was not yet imprisoned” (John 3:23–24) precisely show that he did not then cease to baptize. Why, you say, did he still baptize? After all, he, having stopped baptizing at the same time as the disciples of Jesus began, would, of course, thereby show their advantage? So why did he continue to baptize? In order not to arouse more envy and rivalry in your students. If John did not convince them to follow Christ, despite the fact that he cried out a thousand times, always yielded primacy to Him and recognized himself as less than Him, then if he had stopped baptizing, he would have aroused rivalry in them all the more. Therefore, Christ especially began to preach when John was killed. And I think that John’s death was allowed and followed so quickly so that the attention of all the people would turn to Christ and opinions would no longer be divided between one and the other. However, even while baptizing, John did not cease to exhort and show the great and high dignity of Jesus. He baptized not for anything else, but only “that they might believe in him who should come after him” (Acts 19:4). So, preaching this, how would he show the dignity of the disciples of Christ if he stopped baptizing? Then they would have thought that he did it out of envy or annoyance. And as he continued to preach, he proved their venerability even more strongly. He did not gain glory for himself, but he sent his listeners to Christ, and he contributed to Him no less than His disciples, even more, because his testimony was not suspicious, and he had more glory with everyone than they did. The evangelist also pointed to this, saying: “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around Jordan came out to him” (Matthew 3:5). And even while the disciples were baptizing, people did not stop coming to him. And if anyone wanted to know whether the baptism of the disciples (Jesus) had any advantage over the baptism of John, we would say that there was none. Both baptisms equally did not have the grace of the Spirit, and the purpose of both was only to bring those baptized to Christ. The disciples of Jesus, not wanting to constantly go (to different places) to gather those who wanted to believe, as his brother did with Simon and with Nathanael Philip, established baptism so that through it they could easily lead everyone to Christ and pave the way to faith in Him. And that neither one nor the other baptism had any advantage over the other, this is clear from the following circumstances. Which ones? “Then John’s disciples had a dispute with the Jews about cleansing” (John 3:25). The disciples of John were always jealous of the disciples of Christ, even of Christ himself; when they saw that they were baptizing, they began to tell those being baptized that their baptism contained something more than the baptism of Christ’s disciples, and, taking one of the baptized, they tried to convince him of this, but they did not convince him. And that they themselves came to him, and he did not look for them, listen to how the evangelist hints at this. He does not say that one Jew began to compete with them, but: “Then John’s disciples had a dispute with the Jews about purification.” 2. But notice also the modesty of the evangelist. He does not use reproachful words, but, as much as possible, mitigates the guilt (of John’s disciples), saying simply: “there was a dispute.” And that this competition occurred out of envy is clear from subsequent circumstances, set out by the evangelist also without reproach. “And they came,” he says, “to John and said to him: Rabbi! He who was with you at the Jordan and about whom you testified, behold He baptizes, and everyone comes to Him” (John 3:26), i.e. to the One whom you baptized; This they express with the words: “To whom you testified.” They seemed to say this: The one whom you made famous and glorious, He dares to do the same thing that you do. But they did not say: whom you baptized - in that case they would have been forced to remember both the voice that came from above and the descent of the Spirit - but what do they say? “He who was with you at the Jordan and about whom you testified,” that is, who was among your disciples, who had nothing more in himself than we have, He, having separated from you, baptizes. But it was not only with this that they thought to arouse John, but also with the fact that their glory finally began to be eclipsed: everyone, they say, is coming to Him. From this it is clear that they did not defeat even the Jew with whom they had a contest. And they said this because they were still imperfect and still unclean from covetousness. What about John? Fearing that they, having separated from himself, would do something worse, he does not reproach them much; what does he say? “A man cannot take upon himself anything unless it is given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). If here he still does not speak very highly of Christ, do not be surprised at this; He could not suddenly teach students, imbued with such feelings, everything the first time. He first wants to strike them with fear and show that, while they are at enmity against Him, they are at enmity not against anyone else, but against God himself. Thus, what Gamaliel also said: “You cannot destroy it; Beware, lest you also turn out to be enemies of God” (Acts 5:39), as John secretly expresses here. By saying: no one can take “unless it is given to him from heaven,” he shows that they are striving for the impossible and therefore turn out to be fighters against God. So what? Didn’t Fevda’s accomplices take it from themselves? But they took it, and immediately they were scattered and perished. The works of Christ are not like that. In this way, John quietly calms them down, showing that the one who eclipses their glory is not man, but God. Therefore, if His deeds are glorious and everyone goes to Him, one should not be surprised: such are divine deeds, and the one who performs them is God; otherwise He could never have accomplished such great things. Human affairs are understandable and fragile, they soon collapse and perish. But these things are not like that; therefore, they are not human works. And look how the words: “of whom you testified,” which John’s disciples thought to turn to the humiliation of Christ, John turns against them. Having first shown that Christ was glorified not through his testimony, he then stops their mouths in this way: “a man cannot,” he says, “take upon himself anything unless it is given to him from heaven.” What does it mean? If, i.e. If you fully adhere to my testimony and recognize it as true, then know that by this very testimony you should prefer not me to Him, but Him to me. What did I testify to? I call you to witness this. That’s why he adds: “You yourselves are my witnesses of what I said: I am not the Christ, but I was sent before Him” (John 3:28). So, if you, holding on to my testimony, bring this to my attention and say: “To whom you testified,” then know that He is not only not humbled by accepting testimony from me, but is even more exalted from this. In other words, that testimony was not mine, but God’s. Thus, if you consider me a person worthy of trust, then by the way I also said that “I was sent before Him.” Do you see how little by little he shows them that that testimony is divine? The meaning of his words is this: I am a servant, and I speak the words of Him who sent me, not flattering Him out of human partiality, but serving His Father, who sent me. I did not please Him with my testimony, but said what I was sent to say. So don’t consider me great therefore; in this His greatness is revealed. He himself is the Lord of all these things. Explaining this, John adds: “he who has a bride is the groom, and the friend of the groom, standing and listening to him, rejoices with joy, hearing the voice of the groom” (John 3:29). But why does he, who said before: “I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals” (John 1:27), now calls himself His friend? He says this without extolling himself or boasting, but wanting to show that this is what he is striving for, that this is not happening against his will and not to his chagrin, but in accordance with his desire and diligence, and that this is what he directed all his actions towards. He very wisely expressed this by the name of a friend, because the groom’s servants in such circumstances are not as happy and merry as his friends. So, by calling himself a friend, this does not mean his equality with Christ - no - but he wants to express his joy, and at the same time he condescends to the weakness of his disciples. He also pointed to his ministry, saying: “I was sent before Him.” But since they thought that he was upset by this, he called himself a friend of the Bridegroom, thus showing that he not only was not upset by this, but was also very happy. I, he says, came to this matter, and therefore I am so far from being upset by these circumstances that then I would be most upset when this did not happen. I would then grieve if the bride did not come to the Groom; and not now that our wishes have been fulfilled. If the Groom's affairs are successful, then we are happy. What we wished for came true, and the bride recognized the Groom. And you yourself testify that everyone goes to Him. This is what I tried to do, this is what I directed all my actions towards. Thus, now seeing this fulfilled, I rejoice, am glad and triumphant. 3. But what do the following words mean: “he who stands and listens to him rejoices with joy, hearing the voice of the groom”? Here he passes from the parable to the real subject; Having mentioned the Bride and Groom, he shows how the introduction of the bride takes place: namely, by voice and teaching. This is how the Church combines with God. That is why Paul says: “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). So, this voice makes me happy. But he also used the expression: standing not without a purpose, but with the purpose of showing that his work is over, that after presenting the bride to the Groom, he can only stand and listen, that he is a minister and performer and that his good hope and joy has been fulfilled. Showing this, he adds: “this is my joy being fulfilled” (John 3:29), i.e. the work that had to be done has been done by me, and we can do nothing more. Then, in order to stop the intensification of sorrowful feelings (in his students) not only for the present time, but also for the future, he reveals to them future events and confirms them both by what has already been said and by what has already been done. To do this, he adds the following words: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), i.e. our works have stopped and are already over, but His works begin to grow. What you are afraid of is not only to come, but will increase in the future; this will show our affairs in full light. That is why I came and rejoice that His works have prospered so much, and that for the sake of which everything we have done has been accomplished. Do you see how calmly and with what wisdom he tamed their passion, extinguished their envy and proved the impossibility of their enterprise - which is what weakens evil in particular? But this was arranged even during the life and baptism of John so that they, having such a high witness in him, could no longer justify themselves in any way if they did not believe. He did not come to express this of his own accord, and he did not say it only because strangers asked him: his disciples themselves asked him and listened to him. If he spoke on his own behalf, they might still not believe; but, hearing his answers to their own questions, they already had a verdict against themselves. Likewise, the Jews, precisely because they sent a deliberate embassy to him, heard his answers and yet did not believe him - that is why they deprived themselves of any justification. What do we learn from here? Because the cause of all evil is vanity. It made John's disciples jealous; it aroused their envy again, when they had calmed down a little. Therefore, having come to Jesus, they say to Him: “Why...don’t your disciples fast?” (Matthew 9:14). Let us, beloved, flee from this passion. And if we avoid it, we will get rid of Gehenna. It is she who kindles the fire most; she extends her power everywhere and tormentingly possesses every age and every rank; it has overthrown entire churches; it harms civil affairs; it ruins entire houses, cities, peoples, tribes. And why are you surprised by this? It penetrates into deserts and shows great power there. Often those who abandoned great acquisitions and all the deception of the world, had no fellowship with anyone, were overcome by the strongest carnal desires, and those, being captivated by empty glory, lost everything. For this passion, the Pharisee, who worked a lot, was placed lower than the tax collector, who did not work at all, but committed many sins. It is not difficult to condemn this passion (everyone agrees about it). But we must try to overcome it. How to overcome? Let us oppose glory to glory. Just as we despise earthly wealth when we look at heavenly wealth, and do not value this life when we think about a much better life, so we can despise the glory of the present world when we think about a much higher glory, about true glory. The glory here is an empty and vain glory, having only a name, without action, but that glory, heavenly, is the true glory, in which not people are glorified, but angels and archangels and the Lord of the archangels himself, or better yet, people along with Him. If you look at that spectacle, if you recognize the crowns there, if you turn to that glorification, then earthly things will never take possession of you; you will not consider the present great and you will not look for the transitory. And in the royal chambers, not one of the squires who stand before the king will leave the service of the one who is clothed with a diadem and sits on the throne in order to be occupied with the cry of crows and the buzzing of flying flies and mosquitoes. And people's praise is no better than that. So, knowing the low value of human things, let us collect everything into safe treasuries and seek constant and unchangeable glory, which may we all be worthy of, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit, 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: