About the thief, and about the betrayal (by Judas) of our Savior Jesus Christ

1. Oh, what is the strength of our faith! Oh, what power is the prayer of a Christ-loving people offered for a sinful priest! And what I have said should not strike you as unusual: I learned to speak to you this way from the divine Paul, who clearly in his epistles asks his disciples: pray “for me also, that the word may be given to me - with my mouth I may openly proclaim with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19). And if Paul, a chosen vessel, a heavenly man, a preacher of grace, needed the prayers of his disciples, how much more do I, a sinner known to all of you, need it! But however, the tax collector once, having abandoned his bad occupation, became a disciple of Christ; I also know a harlot who brought tears of repentance to the feet of the Savior and washed away the well-known filth of debauchery; I also know that prudent robber who captured such a beautiful and great booty: after all, this time paradise became his prey! I also feel that I am holding on to this very anchor. We have such a merciful Lord, Who, as soon as he accepts a pure prayer from us, immediately sends His mercy. He gave the law; but the law, being only a shadow of future benefits, and not the very truth of things, did not possess the power of light. He sent a host of prophets, like an embassy, ​​but they, like mortal people, exclaimed, saying: “I am dust and ashes” (Gen. 18:27). The angel, remaining unchanged, could not incarnate. And so, “not an angel,” he says, “not an intercessor, but the Lord himself saved them” 1 (Is. 63:9). Look: the whole universe is crying out to Him in helplessness: “Lord! Bow down your heavens and come down” (Ps. 143:5)! If You, he says, do not come down to us, we cannot ascend to You through anyone else. God heard this request and did not ignore it, but bowed the heavens and descended to earth, not leaving the heavens empty. He was conceived in a virgin womb, more spacious than all creation. Whom the patriarch's tent could not contain, He was enclosed within the virgin womb. He incarnated as He Himself knew, and not as the heretics interpret it, not understanding their own and measuring the divine. Born as he pleased. He who repaired the tree of paradise ascended a tree and cried out: I alone trampled the winepress, and there was no one with me (Isa. 63:3), no angel (neither ambassador, nor archangel), nor prophet, nor king, nor any of the righteous are with Me; only one with Me, but he did not crush death with Me, but only with Me inherited paradise; He was with Me on the tree, but he did not help Me in the fight against death. “The Lord,” he says, “breaks down battles,” the Lord is His name (Judith. 16:2), but only the thief confessed. Oh, an extraordinary and strange thing! The thief is with Christ, and the disciple Judas is with the devil; the light became darkness, and the darkness turned into light; the lamb became a wolf, and the wolf a lamb! The thief, hanging on hands pierced with nails, with with faith he greets the Master, saying: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42), and the disciple, bringing a greeting with his lips, prepared a sword in his heart; joy sounded from his lips, but there was deceit in his heart when he said: “Rejoice, Rabbi!” (Matthew 26:49) Then he kisses Him, and, turning, tells the Jews not in words, but with a sign: having bound Him, lead him. O lawless Judas, where do you order to lead Him who says: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1)? 2. But I see that your love is increasingly inflamed, and your body is suppressed; I wanted to end the word here, but since your attentive listening encourages me to prolong the speech, we will return to what follows in order. “Rejoice,” he says, “Rabbi!” The Merciful Master, overcoming the injustice of the traitor with patience, answered beautifully: “friend, why have you come” (Matthew 26:50)! I greet you, Judas, but not in order to answer you with the love that you have rejected, but in order to deprive you of the grace that I gave you: after all, an unworthy vessel cannot contain the heavenly ointment. What am I saying about Judas? Peter, who received the keys of the kingdom, seeing the King of glory crucified, threw the keys and ran away, and the robber, accustomed to opening the doors of human dwellings, himself stole the keys to heaven. Peter, saying: “Even though I had to die with You, I will not deny You” (Matthew 26:35), denied three times, and the thief, who did not promise in words, but in fact died along with the resurrection, said: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom!” The robber was not afraid of the leaders and the authorities, and Peter could not bear the threat of the servant. The thief exclaimed: “Lord,” and Peter: “I do not know this man” (Mark 14:71), who a little earlier called him the Son of God. Peter, who walked on the sea, denied Him who walked on the sea; and the robber, who did not wander the seas, but near the gates of the rich, said: “Lord!” “Can you drink the cup that I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized”? The sons of Zebedee answered “we can” (Matthew 20:22), but ran away from the cup - after all, it was a cup - when the time came to drink it, and the thief stole the cup of salvation from their hands, saying: “I will accept the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Psalm 115:4). Thomas, this inquisitive researcher of the incomprehensible mystery, said to the other disciples: “Let us go and we will die.” with him” (John 11:16), and when he saw Him crucified, he fled. He sees him crucified - and runs, he sees him resurrected - and says with doubt: “unless... I put my finger into the wound of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). But the merciful God, who came for the sake of one sheep, did not neglect even one sheep, but took it on his shoulder and said: “Reach out your hand and put it in my side” (John 20:27). I withstood the spear of a warrior; can I not endure the hand of an apostle? But, oh, thief, stealer of good (my speech to you), you learned to rob, but you were not taught to believe, you did not belong to the number of disciples: how do you call on the Creator, saying: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom”? Well said, piously believed. You have often been exposed to danger, committing robbery, you have stolen many treasures from the rich, but you have never found such a pearl as Christ. You are not an apostle, and you did not hear what the lawgiver said: you will see your life hanging (Deut. 28:66): how then did you taste life from the tree? You also did not hear what Isaiah said: from the wound of His suffering, the passions of people will receive healing (Is. 53:5): how did you find healing for the passions? Truly,” says the robber, “I see all creation shaken and trembling, and I recognize the Lord of creation hanging on the tree. If He were not the Creator of the universe, the sun, seeing Him naked, would not have hidden its rays out of reverence and would not have covered the enemies of God with darkness. If He had not been the Creator of heaven and earth, the sky would not have been clothed in darkness as a veil, seeing Him crucified on the cross. If He had not been the Lord of the whole earth, then its foundations would not have been shaken when the blood from His side watered it. If He had not been the Lord of life and death, death, having approached Him, would not have been struck and the tombs of the saints would not have been opened. If He had not been the Lord of the church, the church, seeing Him crucified, would not have torn its veil. If it were not for the One who does not want the death of sinners, He would not pray for sinners, saying: “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). His death arranged everything. He descends into hell and comes out with everyone else. That is why I exclaim, saying: “Remember me, Lord”! Not as a slave I ask: remember me when you feel good, but: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom.” And what does the Lord have to do with him? “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43)! Let those diligent interrogators of the incomprehensible birth explain how He said to the thief: “Today you will be with Me in paradise”? First let them explain this, and then let them ask about His ineffable birth, about which the prophet proclaimed: “Who will explain His generation? for He is cut off from the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8)? The fathers spread this faith, so they glorified the Incomprehensible One, believing and not doing what they shouldn’t do out of curiosity. “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” He said it, and it came true. But, merciful Lord, how is it that all the righteous are outside of heaven, and You bring the thief into heaven? Yes, I will first bring the thief into paradise in order to convince the world that I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Glory to Christ himself forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.