About the sinful wife who anointed the Lord with myrrh, and about the Pharisee

On Holy and Great Thursday Christ, treating himself to Zacchaeus, recently sufficiently attracted our souls. Where Christ is treated to food, reclines with people and takes advantage of our place and meal, there everything changes into a word of joy. What publican, or harlot, or unspeakable villain, seeing that the creator of heaven and earth comes to the publican, the giver of bread takes human bread in his hands, the giver of grapes blesses the drinking cups for all participants, does not recognize that through this a holiday and celebration is being made? This is truly a holiday, this is truly the joy of an angelic feast - to see that the Lord with slaves, God with people, the judge with the defendants partake of the common meal. For this reason, He came to earth without leaving heaven, and became a man, without ceasing to be God, so that, while sailing on the sea, He could retrieve from the depths of sin those overwhelmed by the sea of ​​life, and bypassing villages, cities, gorges, paths and lists, wandering at crossroads like sheep without a shepherd, return them to His flock. He is the one who seeks the lost sheep, leaving the ninety-nine and going in search of one. He sought one, not neglecting many, and not preferring one to many; He left the ninety-nine because he knew they were safe in the sheepfold; I looked for one everywhere so that it would not become food for the devil. A sheep without a shepherd is a ready meal for animals; and the soul that is not sealed is subject to the wiles of demons. Therefore, recently He snatched Zacchaeus, like a sheep, from the mouth of a wolf, added him to His sheepfold and awarded him a seal. Just as a shepherd, wanting to catch a lost sheep, leaves a tame animal so that it, freely grazing, can attract the stray one, so the Word of God left His flesh, which it received from the Virgin, like a sheep in the pasture, at Zacchaeus’s meal, so that, attracting him to cohabitation with a common treat, it could unnoticedly unite him with His flock. But, not understanding this, the Pharisees grumbled when they saw that He was eating with the tax collectors. They burst, like an old wineskin, because they could not hold on to the new wine of teaching, but we will follow the philanthropic shepherd. Having added the publican Zacchaeus to the apostolic flock, He also brought the sinful harlot, guilty of innumerable wickedness, into the spotless sheepfold, and pulled her out like a lamb from the jaws of the devil. So that you may know the love of Christ, and the foolishness of the Pharisees, and the sinner’s renunciation (of her past), I will offer you gospel sayings; If you listen attentively to the high reading, you will easily understand the interpretation. “One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat food with him; and He entered into the house of the Pharisee and lay down" ("And a certain Pharisee prayed to Jesus that he might eat with him: and he entered into the house of the Pharisees and lay down") (Luke 7:36). Oh, unspeakable grace! Oh, inexpressible love for humanity! And He eats with the Pharisee, and He does not reject tax collectors, and He receives harlots, and He converses with Samaritan women, and He honors the Canaanite woman with a word, and He gives the hem of a garment to the bleeding woman. Truly, He is a doctor, healing all kinds of suffering, in order to benefit everyone - the evil and the good, the ungrateful and the grateful. Therefore, now, being called by a Pharisee, He enters a house full of wickedness. Where the Pharisee is, there is a den of vice, a refuge for sin, a receptacle for arrogance. And although this was his home, the Lord does not deprive him of His arrival - and naturally. Just as the sun remains without harm to itself, sending its rays onto the dirt, on the contrary, it eliminates the abomination inherent there, not learning anything from it, so Christ, as the Sun of righteousness, accepts every criminal and unclean place, and destroys with the rays of His grace the stench of sin, not tolerating, according to His deity, any insult, belittlement, or desecration. Therefore, He easily agreed to the Pharisee’s call - quietly, silently, without exposing his life; firstly, to sanctify those called, the caller, family, luxurious dishes, then, (to) show by reclining, eating, eating bread, drinking that the incarnation was not a ghost. He agrees to the Pharisee’s call soon, since the harlot intended to come and show an image of warm and fiery repentance; by mourning her wickedness in the face of the scribes and Pharisees, she had to teach them how sinners who lament their sins need to propitiate God. “And behold, a woman of that city, who was a sinner” (“Behold a woman in the city, even a sinner”) (Luke 7:37). A sinful wife is the first snare of the devil, a reason for error, a teacher of crime, a helper who turns out to be an enemy, beauty by nature who turns out to be evil of her own free will, a mediator of death; she showed the beauty of the tree, and destroyed the whole paradise. “And behold, a woman of that city was a sinner,” burdened with much wickedness. I will tell you about the multitude of her former wickedness, so that you may know her great value. God, taking a bone from Adam's side, made it flesh, created Eve, whom he gave to help Adam, calling (her) wife. But after sin and violation of the law, expulsion from paradise and the punishment of death, He arranges a struggle between marriage and death, so that the (human) race does not perish completely, being exterminated by death, (so that) what it sows, it reaps, (and) what it cuts, it grows. And that after being exposed to death the grace of marriage was given, this is obvious from the fact that Adam was united with Eve after leaving paradise. It is written that after leaving paradise, Adam knew his wife (Gen. 4:1). Before sin there was virginity, keeping the raiment of nature unspotted; after the crime, after the judgment of death, marriage was introduced, so that by its abundance it would defeat the exhausting death, and by planting it would defeat the reaper. For the succession of the race and the growth of nature, the law of marriage was given: pleasure was sown in the male (field), the female was made affectionate; not so that they are incited to dissolute intercourse, but so that they are legally united for marriage. Hence, legal marriage is honorable before God, and that which is done for pleasure is subject to death: “Let marriage be honorable for all and the bed undefiled; But God judges fornicators and adulterers” (“marriage is honorable... and the bed is undefiled: but God judges the fornicator and the adulterer”) (Heb. 13:4). For childbearing, those who legally mingle with their husbands are innocent, such as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and the like; and those who incite young men to licentiousness, on the basis of voluptuousness, as those who destroy the church of God, are given over to destruction: “If anyone destroys the church of God, God will punish him” (“if anyone corrupts the church of God, God will corrupt him”) (1 Cor. 3:17). Our sinner was one of these. Trading in nature and rouging her cheeks with her outer color, trying to appear beautiful with the help of art, she enticed young men into debauchery and drew them into the abyss of fornication. I say this, not ridiculing her for what she did before, but praising her for what she has become, right away; I say what she was to show what she has become now; I speak about her sinful falls to show the correctness of repentance. She, who previously shamelessly used her body, when she caught some with her curls, softened others with tears, fooled others with ointments, called everyone everywhere into the abyss of debauchery - she (now) changes her shameful and voluptuous love to divine and heavenly. Since she saw that Jesus was talking with a Samaritan woman, allowing a Canaanite woman to come to Him, announcing the secret affair of a bleeding woman, eating with tax collectors, visiting the houses of the Pharisees, she reasoned with herself: “If He allows harlots and tax collectors and sinners to come to Him, then (and) I will exhaust the sea of ​​​​my sin while I am hurt by it excessively. I will not remain young, I will not remain beautiful; everything passes, everything disappears - flowers, lilies, and the beauty of the face. Why should I suffer for what I did? I am already thinking about the fire of Gehenna, my soul is already filled with remorse that I tried to appear beautiful to the destruction of the young men, ran through the city streets, squares, crossroads, catching them like a net with my feet and tongue. Oh, how much I seduced the young men when I brazenly moved my eyes, dressed up to ruin the audience, sometimes with braided braids I gave my head the appearance of a tower, sometimes I left the strands of hair hanging on my forehead, I blushed my cheeks and painted on my eyes, sometimes shed tears, plunging my soul into misfortune with flattery! What will happen to me now? Who will I find as a doctor for this endless suffering? If I tell people about myself, this confession will be useless for me. Hide the bad? But I cannot hide: from whom will I hide, being unable to hide? Where can I run away when I find a judge everywhere who, although he does not appear, everywhere exposes my wickedness? I have only one hope left for salvation, there is only one means of life ahead - to confess to Jesus and resort to Him. He, accepting publicans, does not reject the harlot; eating with the Pharisees, he does not avoid the tears of the sinner. I learned that He went to see Simon the Pharisee, an important and sinful man; I will run to Him! But, having come, what should I ask for? About eye health? But this mercy is short-lived. About the end of the disease? But happiness is not great: eternal death is more painful than real death. Leaving everything bodily, I will ask for healing of the soul. I will only find a solution to the evils that await me if I see the judge, if I anticipate the time of punishment. I will imitate Rahab the harlot; I will follow this chosen example of a woman. God wants nothing from us except a change of will.” Having discussed this piously and focusing on faith, she, using her former shamelessness as the basis of boldness, enters Jesus where He was reclining. And says nothing; didn't dare; she knew before that the observer of thoughts does not need words. And what would she say to someone who knew everything? What did you sin? That she became guilty of much wickedness? What, loving and being loved, served as pleasure for everyone? This was clear to God, not only at the time of execution, but also in the hidden thoughts of the soul. Knowing that He knows everything, and nothing can hide from Him, she holds her tongue and speaks with tears: “And standing behind him at His feet and weeping, she began to wet His feet with tears” (“standing at his feet... weeping, begin to wash his nose with tears”) (Luke 7:38). Although she did not speak with tongue, she revealed the contrition of her heart with inexpressible lamentation, triumphed over many sins, condemned her thoughts, vicious motives, unclean deeds, lawless conversations. There was nothing of her bad deeds that she did not mourn; she knew that whatever she confessed, she received forgiveness: “I said: “I confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You took away from me the guilt of my sin” (“Reh: Let me confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forsaken the wickedness of my heart”) (Ps. 31:5). And not only without speech did she speak with heartfelt lamentation, propitiating the Lord, but also with her appearance she depicted the beauty of repentance. She cried so that, like someone who laughed a lot, she could wash away her thin laughter with beautiful tears; she washed away the dirt from her cheeks with tears, so that whatever she had done wrong, she would also receive benefit from it; in whatever she had done wrong, she would thereby appease the legislator. Just as David washed the bed with his tears, which he had defiled with an unlawful marriage: “every night I wash my bed, with my tears I wet my bed” (“I will wash my bed every night, I will wet my bed with my tears”) (Ps. 6:7), - so she, who led many young men with her eyes into debauchery, washed away the indelible filth of sins with sources of tears, having prepared herself for yourself a font of repentance made of tears. Tears served as water for her, and she received remission from Christ invisibly. And not only imitating Abraham, but even surpassing him, she washed the feet of Christ. He washed with water, setting up a washbasin, and wiped with a towel; She washed the feet of Jesus, not drawing water, but shedding streams of tears. Out of precaution not to offend the holy feet with sinful tears, she wiped her feet like a towel, using her beautiful hair. And it was clear that the wife was trying to serve Jesus with everything and everyone. Above, the eyes, like springs, poured out streams of tears; below, the shower, like a washbasin, received the drops falling from the feet; hair was wiped off in the form of a towel; hands, holding a vessel with myrrh, anointed the divine feet, honoring the ointment with the ointment: “thy name is like ointment poured out” (“thy name poured out ointment”) (Song.1:2). You see how the sinner wife, who has no part in the divine law, surpassed the ungrateful Jewish mind. They (the Jews) threw stones at Him, and she pleased him with fragrant myrrh. The Jews, being unreasonable and unappreciative, repaid the benefactor with evil, honoring the cornerstone with stones, but she anointed the feet with myrrh, which because of her had to remain on the cross all day. And what do I say that she defeated the ungrateful Jewish people, when she surpassed the host of all the saints? She received grace that kings and rulers did not receive. “The kings of Tarshish and the islands will bring him tribute; the kings of Arabia and Sheba will bring gifts; and all the kings will worship him” (“The kings of Tharsia and the islands will bring gifts, ... and all the kings of the earth will worship him”) (Ps. 71.10–11). According to the prophet, they also gave gifts, but bowed from afar; none of them kissed Jesus' feet. How did the Magi come, taking the star of worship as their assistant? They brought gifts from afar, realizing the extent of their rank. “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). So let the woman boast that she has received the honor of all the earth; she touched the immaculate feet, the dust from which peoples and tribes will lick; she participated in the body of Christ with John. He reclined on his chest because he needed to extract divine teaching from there; and she held the legs that walked for us. Christ, not judging sin, but praising repentance, not punishing the past, but approving the future, consigns her former wickedness to oblivion, honors the wife and praises repentance, justifies tears and crowns the decision. The Pharisee, seeing the miracle, is amazed in his soul, and out of envy does not allow his wife to repent; so he condemns the one who honored the Lord, and humiliates the dignity of the venerable one, condemning His ignorance: “Seeing this, the Pharisee who invited Him said to himself: if He were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman was touching Him, for she was a sinner” (“seeing the Pharisee, who called upon him, said to himself... this one, even if he had been a prophet, would have known who and what kind of woman was touching him: for there is a sinner” (Luke 7:39). Oh, foolish, unreasonable and in every way a Pharisee! By saying this, you are not exposing your wife’s character, but blaming your work, saying that He does not know who this wife once was. You did not honor Him with an invitation, as God who knows everything. Noble accuser and slanderer! You speak to Him as to God, and (as) able to bless, (but) you condemn Him as a man, and (as) one who knows nothing more than us: “if He were a prophet.” And how much better than you, Pharisee, is the wife of Shechem, who did not know that He was a prophet, and at first glance prudently confessed Him as the Savior: “Lord! I see that you are a prophet” (“Lord, I see that you are a prophet”) (John 4:19). How amazing is this sinner, whose sin you see, but do not look at repentance; you even condemn the one whom the Judge justifies, you even reproach and blame the one whom God, having approved, crowns - (crowns) because, seeing God reclining with you in the form of a man, she recognized and honored (Him), and, opening her spiritual wounds, asked for mercy and oblivion of her past life. You honored with an invitation, (but) dishonored with reproach, saying: “If He were a prophet, He would know who and what kind of woman touches Him.” Madman! Since He did not rebuke your wickedness, you condemn Him for ignorance; since He came under your roof, burdened with much wickedness, you refuse Him knowledge; since He deigned to recline with you and agreed to take your food into your hands and did not reject it, do you consider Him one of the multitude? Were you worthy to show hospitality to God, or to offer a meal to someone preparing a meal in the desert? But, being a lover of mankind, He did not refuse to accept drink and bread even from your household. Why, Pharisee, do you blame the humane Master, who equally gives His goodness to everyone? Why do you strain out your wife’s mosquito, (and) swallow the camel of your wickedness? Do you want God to be long-suffering with you and strict with her? Why do you provoke the judge to the faults of others, (and) ask for forgiveness for your own? Why did you and Judas agree to tempt the Lord? You, as if pure from filth, reproach your wife for sin (and) condemn God in ignorance; He, as if loving the beggars, is indignant with the words: “Why waste this world? It could have been sold at a high price and given to the poor” (John 12:5). O foolish soul! Oh, ungrateful disposition! Do you, Judas, consider the service of Christ to be ruinous, and call what was done for the honor of God a waste? How much did we give for what we received? Let us think about Who created the world, how many rivers of mercy flow from Him - and God does not consider this abundance a loss for Himself; how many incense the earth produces, how many roses, lilies, storax, spikenard, stactium and the rest from which beautiful myrrh is prepared - and God does not consider this a waste for Himself; and you grumble that a small vessel of peace will be poured on the feet of Christ? Did He accept this for nothing so that you could grumble? He accepted the ointment and declared repentance; accepted the tears and stopped the source of sins. What kind of destruction is this if the woman through whom paradise was concluded and through whom Adam was cast out is saved? But this saddened Judas; It’s clear: her salvation saddened the devil. He knew that henceforth through her the (human) race would turn to repentance, and would be tormented and tormented, henceforth having no net with which to catch man; hence this prompted you to grumble: why this waste, it could be sold at a high price! Already sold, Judas? Are you, the beginning of evil, already thinking about betrayal? But Jesus does not expose his illness, you do not reveal the love of money, so that future betrayal does not linger. Christ says to everyone: “Why are you embarrassing a woman?” ("Why do you toil your wife") (Matthew 26:10)? Why are you blaspheming your wife, to add to her previous wickedness? The female sex has worked hard enough; Let no one hinder his salvation; Let no one ridicule the world-washed feet that walk the earth for her sake. The poor are with you; take Me also with them; For you I became poor, although I was rich, so that you through My poverty might become rich. You kill Me, and I do not blame; She buries Me, and you grumble: “Having poured this ointment on My body, she has prepared Me for burial” (“Having poured this ointment on my body, make it for my burial”) (Matthew 26:12). So, aren’t you ashamed of Judas that she, being a sinner, honors Me with peace, and you, being an apostle, dishonor Me by selling her? The wife prepares what pertains to the burial, (and) the disciple is put to death. (That) this woman is a sinner, I know; but she had nothing to give Me as a source of tears; the source propitiates the source, brings another propitiatory sacrifice to the poor teacher. You approve, fool, of the ointment, valuing it at three hundred denarii; but you approve not in order to praise her generosity, that she spent all her wealth, poorly collected, to buy peace, but in order to grumble to show that you, who have lost so much, have fallen under hated evil. It’s not much if you are annoyed at the loss of three hundred denarii, when you gave the Lord for thirty! “What will you give me, and I will betray Him to you?” (“Whatever do you want to give to me, and I will deliver it to you”) (Matthew 26:15)? Unhappy! The slave sells the Lord; the order is perverted: I buy you from sin with My blood, and you sell Me for thirty obols! If a person sells God (even if He is given to him for sale), then who is the buyer? How much will anyone buy God for? Why do you price it so cheap? Who sells God in the form of a man for thirty obols? (Are you selling) like a slave, like a barbarian? Consider how much (you sell) the living God inside and the visible man for? "What will you give me?" What do you want to receive? They have nothing equal to God. “They offered him thirty pieces of silver” (“And they offered him thirty pieces of silver”). Who sells a free doctor for thirty obols, a doctor who enlightens the blind and raises the lame to walk? I say this to educate your mind. “Why do you confuse a woman” because she honored a free man among the dead, and before death as a dead man, because she foretold the grace of burial and resurrection to the world? You will have the fruit of betrayal as a noose; and her memory will be unceasing, wherever the Gospel is preached (Matthew 26:13). As He said, so it was in reality: the ointment of Aaron and Eleazar ceased and its dignity was abolished, but her vessel continues forever, having an inexhaustible fragrance of memory. This is to Judas, and to the grumbling Pharisee Christ said this: “Simon! I have something to tell you” (“Simon, Imam tell you something”) (Luke 7:40). Oh, unspeakable grace! Oh, inexpressible love for humanity! God consults with man and proposes the task and rule of love for mankind in order to free him from depravity. “Simon! I have something to tell you,” which I did not say to any of the ancients - neither the patriarch, nor the prophet, nor the legislator. Then I demanded an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, asking for the truth; but since you cannot bear the truth, I will replace the law with grace and tell you an unspeakable secret. He says: “Say, Teacher” (“to the teacher, rtsy”). “One creditor had two debtors” (“Two debtors besta with one husband”). Look at the wisdom of God: He keeps silent about his wife so as not to spoil his answer. “One owed five hundred denarii, and another fifty” (“One owed five hundred denarii, and another ... fifty”). (Luke 7:41). The explanation is scary: our life is a record where thoughts, deeds, wandering eyes, and movements of the soul are invisibly written. But a humane judge frees you from fear by tearing up the manuscript of sin, and not only tearing it up, but also washing it with the waters of baptism, so that there is no memory left of the former spontaneous wickedness. “But since they did not have anything to pay, he forgave them both” (“To the one who has not... he will repay, he will give both”) (Luke 7:42). Do you see the philanthropic lender, how He lends and does not take it back, how He does not freeze the unappreciative, but extends His hand for them? “But since they did not have anything to pay, he forgave them both”; he let go because they did not have, (but) not because they did not want; not to have anything else, and not to desire anything else. For example, I will say: God does not require anything from us except repentance; therefore He wants us to always rejoice and resort to repentance. If, despite our desire to repent, the multitude of sins shows the weakness of our repentance, then we do not pay the debt not from unwillingness, but from lack. Therefore, He says: “but how they did not have anything to pay” to show that, seeing their desire to repay the debt through repentance, but the impossibility due to the multitude of sins, as a lover of mankind, he forgave them, not for the deed, but for the work, he freed them from the obligation of debt. “But since they had nothing to pay - without punishing, without torturing, without dishonoring - he forgave them both. Tell me, which of them will love him more? Simon answered: I think the one to whom I forgave more” (Luke 7:42–43). Look at the Pharisee's annoyance; he saw that he was imprisoned by the word of truth; afraid to give a definitive answer, “I think” – I decided. The Lord did not note his thought, but, grasping the answer, says: “you judged correctly” (“you judged rightly”). “And turning to the woman, he said to Simon: Do you see this woman? - a sinner rejected by you, saved by Me? “I came to your house—your house, not mine, full of slander—and you did not give water to my feet” (“And turning to my wife, Simon said: Have you seen this woman? You entered into your house, you did not give water to my nose.”) (Luke 7:43–44), on my feet, dusty for you, who took up labor to free those who labor (and) are burdened; you half-honored: what was above, you were amazed at, and what was below, you did not serve. You did not give water to My feet; and she, pouring out the fountains of tears, washed away the impurity of her sin. “You did not give Me a kiss (“You did not give me a kiss”) - oh, if only Judas had not committed treason with a kiss! - and she, since I came, has not ceased to kiss My feet” (“And this one, as soon as I breathed, did not stop kissing my nose”). “You did not anoint My head with oil” (“You did not anoint my head with oil” ) (Luke 7:45–46), because “let not the oil of... the sinner anoint my head” (Ps. 140:5), - how could you honor the head when you neglected the feet? - and she anointed her feet with myrrh, according to the prophecy: “Your name is like ointment poured out” (“thy name is poured out with ointment”) (Song. 1:2), poured out, (but) not poured out. Since the vessel of the Jewish mind was rotten, the ointment poured out from your vessel was poured out on my feet, so that through Me the grace of incense would penetrate to the pagans. “Therefore I tell you, her many sins are forgiven” (“For his sake, I say to you: her many sins are forgiven”) (Luke 7:47), - because you, having received Me in your home, did not honor Me with a kiss, did not serve as anointing; and she, having received forgiveness of much wickedness, honored Me by mixing, as it were, a double vessel, tears and peace.” So, let us please the wife who covered the wickedness of Eve, a sinner, a harlot, a mediator of blessings, who showed an image of repentance and revealed the law of love for mankind, who had the Judge himself as her defender, who conquered the cry of judgment with tears. No matter how many of you are present, be jealous of what you have heard, and take as an example not the harlot’s passion for pleasure, but her cry. Pleasure gave birth to crying, crying brings liberation. Wash your body not with water, but with tears, anoint yourself not with myrrh, but with chastity; dress not in silk, but in the imperishable robe of salvation, so that you may receive its glory, giving thanks to the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To him be glory and honor and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria.