To the words: “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him” (Matthew 12:14)

No matter how many of you are disciples of Elijah, who did not despise the poor widow’s meal, stay with us. An equally modest verbal meal, with only bread, is prepared for us; The millstone did not grind Him, the hands did not soften and the fire did not complete, but the virgin arable land produced Him, like a flower, the cross grew without plow and seed, the Father completed, and the twelve apostolic kettles gathered fruit. Mary gave birth to this bread, the church received it; We eat Him daily, and He does not fail. I would like to be silent, offering you this bread at my humble meal; but the machinations of the God-fighting Jews against the Savior force even the stones to speak. What we heard from what we just read: “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him” (“And the Pharisees... went out and took counsel against Jesus, how they would destroy Him”) (Matthew 12:14). And what is the reason for which they take counsel to destroy the Lord? That He healed a man on the Sabbath day, and on the day of rest made a useless and useless person fit for work. dry hand. Oh, the foolishness of the Jews, who cannot understand what is needed for Adam’s right hand, which touched the tree in paradise and was dried up by crime, to be recreated again by its Creator! Or what was needed for the right hand, stained by the devil through the shedding of blood for godless idols, to be again stretched to heaven by its pure Creator! But they are sad when a person receives a benefit and his soul is saved; They teach about the Sabbath rest, but do not know the miracles of Jesus. Why, Pharisees, did you not grieve, or did you not have such concern, about Manasseh, when he sawed Isaiah, when he sacrificed your sons and daughters to demons, and turned the houses of God into idolatrous shrines? Why did you not enter into such a meeting against Herod when he unjustly killed babies and orphaned mothers; when it was possible to see that babies, like unripe ears of corn, not having even a grain of hardness of heart, not even grown to the first tuft of hair, were stretched out with one blow of the sword, killed by Herod, as if by a strong gust of hail, during the most tender milk feeding; when in the streets and alleys of the city the screams and moans of men and women together were heard - there, distraught fathers, (here) mothers with loose hair, terribly mourning the unjust beating of their immature children; when Bethlehem was stained with children's blood and the new wine of unripe grapes mixed with the hot tears of parents; when the faces of the fathers were distorted from the cry, and the insides of the mothers were torn from grief, the milk sources of the breasts dried up prematurely; when in the mother's breasts the breath, constricting, randomly escaped through the nostrils; when the eyes of fathers and mothers were like springs of water, and poured silvery drops of noisily flowing tears onto the ground from their cheeks; when, out of intense madness, women tore out their hair and, in bitter despair, exposed those that needed to be hidden? But since you reason completely differently, you do it completely differently: you release murderers and those responsible in death, but punish the innocent and righteous, when the law says: “Thou shalt not kill the innocent and the righteous” (“let not the innocent and the righteous be killed”) (Ex. 23:7). Oh, the disorderly order, and the lawless law that the devil makes, is written by demons, but the Jews observe to this day! What law is this - to save the life of murderers, but to destroy this one who gives life to the murdered? For Barabbas, captured in rebellion and murder, they demanded release from Pilate, and for Jesus, who revived those killed by the devil, they demanded crucifixion: “The Pharisees, going out, had a meeting against Him, how to destroy Him.” Oh, the decision is unreasonable, and the advice is full of recklessness! The source of blessings poured out blessings to them like a river; and they, drawing grace, spewed murderous advice into their hearts. Those who had wounds, being healed, were freed from suffering; and they, having no bodily wounds, suffered, wounded by envy. Their hungry ones ate in the desert until they were full; and they, with an abundance of faith, perished from unbelief. Water turned into wine; and they, without tasting the wine, got carried away, intoxicated with envy. They saw that the blood flow of the bleeding woman had stopped; and they poured out slander until they exhausted themselves. Those possessed by them came to their right mind, freed from demons; and they, driven by envy, went mad worse than the possessed. Their blind men, having no eyes, were enlightened; and their eyes darkened. The deaf, as we have just heard, had their hearing opened; and in the convolutions of their hearts they were pondering murderous plans. The sea, having stopped its waves, was preparing for the Lord to walk on it; and their hearts foamed through their lips with waves of deadly thoughts. The cruelest winds gave way to a soft breeze; and they, pressed by a storm of envy, made noise with the storm of the cross. Oh, envy is the root of death, the cunning disease of the heart, the sharpest nail! What sharpest nail pricks as much as envy wounds the heart in which it exists? What disease destroys the beauty of the face as much as envy dries up love, the fragrant color of the soul? Water extinguishes fire, and countless sources of teachers do not stop envy; one whetstone clears an iron arrow, and five stones of David aroused even greater envy in Saul. They say the lizard is green, but it is not greener than the envious. Just as a worm dries out the heart of a tree, gnawing it piece by piece, so envy, eating piece by piece, destroys the heart that is possessed by it. And no matter how much we talk, beloved, about envy, we would not even begin to talk about its baseness; (this) even the language of orators, the word of philosophers, the speech of teachers cannot express. The fullness of the law is the love of the Word, and the fullness of murder is the baseness of envy. Oh, envy, tarred, hellish, disastrous ship! Your owner is the devil, your helmsman is the serpent, Cain is the chief oarsman. The devil gave you disaster as a pledge; the serpent, being the helmsman, led Adam to a mortal shipwreck; Cain is the senior oarsman, because through you, envy, he was the first to commit murder. From the beginning, your mast (serves) as the paradise tree of disobedience, the gear as ropes of sins, the sailors as envious people, the shipbuilders as demons, the oars as cunning, the rudder as hypocrisy. O ship, bearer of countless evils! If you ask about hypocrisy, that’s where it is; if it’s about deceit, that’s where it’s born. There lives envy, enmity, quarrel, deception, grumpiness, cursing, slander, blasphemy, and whatever we say and whatever we omit - all this is carried by the hellish ship of envy. The flood was not able to destroy this ship of envy, but Jesus sank it by the power of the Spirit, the source of baptism. This ship also had iron anchors, but they melted into the nails of Christ; this ship also had a mast, but the devil cut out a cross from it; this ship also had gear, but Judas hanged himself with it. The Jews who entered this ship, stumbled upon a rock, were shipwrecked in their faith. Therefore, to this day the Jews are swimming in the depths of ignorance. However, those of them who are able to grab hold of the Christ-bearing vessel are saved; the rest die the bitter death of unbelief. Oh, that, being in the depths, they would rush into the whale towards Jonah! Perhaps, having learned from him (Jonah) piety about Christ from life with him, they would have been thrown out by a whale in Nineveh. And now, having closed the eyes of their hearts, they do not resort to him, (although) they see the brilliance of piety in the midst of the earth and shining faith, nor to the preacher of repentance, John, in order to live. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him.” And the Pharisees went away - from where? Not from envy, but from the law. If they had not deviated from the law, they would not have offended the Lawgiver. And the Pharisees went away - from where? From the law that says: “Thou shalt not kill the innocent and the righteous.” And the Pharisees went away - from where? From the commandment of God, which enlightens the eyes of the heart: the commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him.” And the Pharisees went away - from where? From the commandment, from the law, from life. Whoever plots the death of another is the first to lose the light of life. “And the Pharisees went out and had a conference.” The writer did not say whose “meeting” (“advice”) to move our minds to research. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him” - whose (conference)? It is clear that the devil, murderers from time immemorial. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him.” How, how? Stone, sword, fire, or water? Their advisor, the devil, repeating the original tree with which he killed Adam, resorts again to him and advises him to crucify Jesus Christ on the tree. He did not know that this tree had to destroy the ancient crime of the tree, and bring life to people. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him.” Oh, the most evil advice, sown by envy, and exposed by envy! Oh, vain advice! They do not know that God is not destroyed. They destroy the meager lamp of the body, (but) cannot extinguish the unquenchable lamp of the Divinity itself. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him.” Oh, an amazing thing, and a new secret! Jesus came to seek and save the lost, but these seek to destroy the finder of the lost. For what guilt, tell us, Jews, do you take counsel against Him? But they are ashamed to speak; We will divulge this shame to them everywhere. “Why,” they say, “resurrects the dead? Why does he heal the sick? Why does he speak well? Why does he do well? Why does he teach well? For all these guilts they conspire to destroy Him. As soon as the children came out with the fronds, announcing His victory with the fronds, and with a good omen in the words: “Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9), they were wounded by envy, (as if) struck by arrows; praises to those who are envied are arrows for the envious. They come up to Jesus and say to Him: “Do you hear what they say?” (“Have you heard what these people say?”) (Matthew 21:16). And they did not know that what was written prophetically was being fulfilled: “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have made praise” (“Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings You have made praise”) (Ps. 8:3). When Jezebel wrote fictitious writings against Naboth, you willingly bore it; when Pilate writes meaningful letters on a tablet, you are indignant and prevent him from writing. What are they saying? “Do not write that the King of the Jews” (John 19:21), that is: “Do not write the truth, let no one take advantage of (it), let no one be perfect in godliness.” They were not at all so indignant against dancers who write dramatic actions; even now there are few who will not listen to demonic singing. They do not grieve regarding them, but are tormented regarding the divine teachings that are written down. And there is nothing worse than that the idle talk of Philistion is written, but the glorious deeds of Jesus, by which we are raised to heaven, are not written. Even if one of the teachers were ignorant of the word, however, when God speaks, wouldn’t it be better for his words to be written than the demonic mythologies of the Hellenes? It is useful for young men to be brought up in the sayings of theologian-teachers, even if unskilled, (but) euphonious, having an impeccable spirit; and not reach the point of insane debauchery by engaging in the teachings of demons. "Don't write." Why? What is the harm for you? What possessions does the scripture of truth deprive you of? Some people are not annoyed with their hand when the writer is diligent; and they hit themselves in the chest. Although the Pharisees said this to Pilate and prevented him from writing the letters of truth, he, being a pagan, told them: “What I wrote, I wrote” (“even pisah, pisah”) (John 19:22). And this instruction is suitable for us, so that when the heretics advise us to renounce glory, we can tell them: what they wrote, they wrote. “The Pharisees went out and had a council against Him, how to destroy Him. But Jesus, having learned, departed from there" ("When Jesus knew, ... went from there") (Matthew 12:14). Having learned, he did not learn from anyone else, but knew from himself, because he was a knower of the heart, and is the One about whom the Evangelist John says: "and did not need anyone to testify about a man" ("as he did not require, but whoever testifies to him about a man") (John. 2:25). “Jesus, having learned, departed from there,” not out of fear of death, but waiting for the time of the cross. He first needed to raise the dead, heal the sick, feed many hungry, confirm many in the faith, and then enter into a glorious death, or better, into the palace. He first needed to set up the mysterious tree of the cross, and then, with a burning spirit, go down to those in hell. from there." Where deceit is not revealed, there He hastens; where murder is arranged, from there He withdraws; where love is intertwined, there the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit abide. Let us therefore, beloved, weave this triple love, not with a deceitful tongue, but with active hands, so that Emmanuel, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever, may be with us. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: