In response to what is said in the Gospel {*Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and Min's publications classified as Spuria.

What did the Jews say about the Savior: “how He knows the Scriptures without having studied” (John 7:15)? And to the words of the Savior: “But about that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36) 1. Here again I invite you to enjoy the gospel streams, here again I invite you to draw with me this pure and bright moisture, following the words of the prophet: “in joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation” (Is. 12:3)! There are many sources, but there is one salvation, one source of all good things - our Lord Jesus Christ, who exudes all wisdom and all knowledge. And it’s surprising that the Jews actually found it strange that He knew books without studying? This is exactly what we were read about today - that when the Savior offered His divine teaching, the Jews were surprised and said: “how does He know the Scriptures without studying”? They ask about books when it comes to the source of the word, or better to say about God himself - the Word; they inquire where Christ knows the books, who gave the law and inspired the prophets, from whom flows all knowledge, and teaching, and counsel, and understanding, because “all wisdom is from the Lord” (Sirach 1:1). They ask about the books from (the Source) the word from which all the prophets drew inspiration and from which all theologians received everything that became the property of their souls. Moses received it, all the prophets drew from Him, all the apostles used this source, as John testifies to this: “and from His fullness we have all received” (John 1:16). Do you demand (the study of) books from God, as if books gave birth to reason, and the art of writing was not invented by reason? Does wisdom come from books? On the contrary, books owe their origin to reason: just as it was not art that produced matter, but substance that served as the reason for the development of art, so it was not books that gave birth to reason, but reason that created the art of writing itself. Not books first, and then reason, but reason first, and thanks to it, books appeared. First of all, what is a gift from God, and then what is the fruit of art. It was not the eye that created visible objects, but the eye serves to understand what is contemplated by it; It was not the hands that gave the craft, but the hands worked to develop the craft; Running did not develop the legs, but people owe the ability to run to their legs. It was not books that endowed man with reason, but reason that invented the art of books. So, why do you demand fruit from Him to whom the root itself belongs? What, “He knows the Scriptures without having studied”? Are you not surprised that He raises the dead, but what amazes you is that He knows books without studying, by nature? The first inventors of writing did not learn their invention from anyone, but made it themselves, but they were nevertheless just people; and to raise the dead is beyond human strength. So what? Do you not pay attention to the great things, but doubt the small things? Of course, Christ is the source of all wisdom and all understanding: nothing is hidden from Him. He is the inventor of everything, precisely the inventor: not something that someone else did, but He just discovered, but He Himself is both the author of wisdom and the inventor of everything that we owe to wisdom. Nothing is hidden from Him - neither the past, nor the present, nor the future: He is the source of everything. 2. But if,” says the heretic (after all, even among the wheat, tares appear), “if He is the source of wisdom and, of course, knowledge, then how about that last day, when the resurrection of the dead and the coming of the Savior takes place, does He say that “no one knows about it, not the angels of heaven, not the Son, but only My Father alone” (Matthew 24:36)? What kind of source of wisdom is this if the future is hidden from it? I would really like you not to distort the meaning of speech and not to go into the convolutions of words, but to delve into the direct meaning of what is said. Why do you say: if He is the source and treasury of wisdom, then how is it that He does not know? I know that this saying contains a very deep thought, but I will try to explain it briefly. It is necessary to conform not to the power of the word, but to the ability of the listeners. The Apostle says about Christ: we are guided “to know the mystery of God the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3). If everything is in Him, then how can anything be hidden from Him? But they will say, what does the Savior’s answer mean then, that “about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone”? But let us ask the heretic: which is greater – that day or the Father? Can anyone who knows the Father not know that day? “No one knows the Father except the Son” (Matthew 11:27). So, He knows the Father, the source of wisdom is with Him, but He does not know the last day? But perhaps, they say, He knows the Father, but does not know what is in the Father? But if there is something in the Father that is unknown to the Son, then in the Son, in turn, would there be something hidden from the Father? Where can you see this? This is a direct conclusion from the words of the Savior himself: “As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father” (John 10:15). And in relation to people, He put it simply: “I know those who are mine, and those who are mine know me” (John 10:14). There is no equality of knowledge here: where nature is unequal, knowledge is also unequal. Man can know God, but not what is in God; we all know the Father, but not as the Son knows Him. “Let them know You, the only true God” (John 17:3). We all know, but not as He does. It is another thing for a fruit to know the root, another for the root to know the fruit, and those who consume it receive a completely different concept of the fruit. In the above words of the Savior, however, it is precisely the complete and perfect equality of mutual knowledge of the Father and the Son that is indicated: “As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father.” This means that if there is something hidden from the Father in the Son, then something hidden from the Son can be admitted in the Father. Will you not be ashamed here too, heretic, and will you insist that the Son does not know? In this case, the Holy Spirit, whom you deny, you yourself elevate above the Son in terms of knowledge. After all, this is what Paul says about the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). The Holy Spirit knows the depths, but the Son does not know the day? But if he knows, then why did He say: I don’t know? Both the conclusions of reason and the evidence of Scripture confirm that He is the source of knowledge and wisdom. Why does He refuse what he owns, and declares that he does not have knowledge of the knowledge of which he himself serves as the source? After all, He said that no one knows that day. We must, brothers, pay attention to the sense in which the Savior used these words and examine: what exactly did He want to say, about what, to whom and when? It is not enough to take the word as it is and explain it in this form: its meaning must be adjusted to the intention of the speaker. Not everything that the Savior said corresponded to His dignity, but something else is explained by our weakness. He spoke differently to believers, differently to unbelievers. I remember that I have already used this thought in a conversation with you, but nothing prevents me from using it now and going the same way in revealing the true meaning of the saying that occupies us. These words of the Savior were addressed to the Jews - to the Jews, who were as far from the height of knowledge of God as the earth is from heaven, according to the word of God, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Is. 55:9). So, He dealt with unbelievers, and since they considered Him to be some kind of adversary to God, advocating against the divine wisdom and the law of Moses, He leaves His own dignity in the shadow everywhere, and attributes everything to the Father in order to show the Jews that they are not opposing Him, but are rebelling against God Himself. And so, turning to the Jews, He took into account their prejudices and adapted His words to their understanding - not in the sense that the divine word was changed in accordance with our morals, but in the sense that He, like a doctor, chose medicines corresponding to the disease. But the Jews went so far as to deny not only His deity, but also His humanity. Just think how far they were from the idea that He was the Son of God, if they did not want to consider Him a real person! They precisely said: “He is possessed by a demon” (John 10:20), and they considered the Son of God to be possessed. And so, on the one hand, the Jews were hostile against Him, and on the other, His own disciples, as people, were curious about the future, because people always enjoy guessing about the future and striving for it. This is also observed in ordinary life: if someone happens to learn one day earlier what will be known to all people the next day, then He rejoices, as if he had made some important discovery and as if he had surpassed everyone in knowledge. So, people enjoy fortune telling about the future. And the Savior, of course, saw how this passion flared up in the apostles and to what extent their curiosity about the future consumed them, and therefore he decisively abandoned what he had in order to show this idle curiosity. When will You restore the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6)? - the apostles ask him. And He, curbing human frivolity, which wants to penetrate into the future and talk about the divine, answers: “It is not your business to know times or seasons” (Acts 1:7); the knowledge of this is beyond the power of man. Do not inquire about the future in detail in advance, but simply expect and believe in the future; prepare yourself for the future coming of the Judge; What you care about here is not finding out when this day will come, not about what it has in store for you. In response to questions like these, typical of idle curiosity: when will this day come? when will the resurrection happen? - the prophet answered indignantly: “Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord! Why is this day of the Lord to you” (Amos 5:18). That is: why do you strive to see this day of the Lord? “The great day of the Lord is near... then even the bravest will cry out bitterly! The day of wrath is this day, a day of tribulation and distress” (Zeph. 1:14–15). Arouses fear in them to curb their weakness. Since they sought to know the future, beyond the limits of knowledge accessible to man, the Savior answered them: “It is not your business to know times or dates.” But so that they do not think that he is doing this out of envy, He also counts Himself among the ignorant, in order to thereby soften human ignorance to some extent. And the angels, He says, do not know. And what is higher than the angels? And the Son does not know. And above the Son? When you hear about the Son, pay attention to the sense in which this name is used, because He is called the Son both in divinity and in humanity. And you can be convinced that Scripture calls the Savior the Son both when it comes to His flesh and His economy, if you remember what is said elsewhere: “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Blood means not deity, but humanity; This means that His humanity is also called the Son here. When we say: the Son of God suffered, we mean both that which suffered in him and that which remained impassive. And when we say this: God’s only begotten Son was crucified on the cross, we must separate the dispassionate from the one who experienced suffering. After all, it is very common among us people that what concerns personality and man in general is understood by us in one particular sense or another. If we say that so-and-so died, then we, of course, imagine what is dead - his body, of course - and what is immortal - his soul; and although, obviously, the concept of death is not applicable to a person in the full sense of the word, we express, however, that a person dies. We do not feel the need to stipulate that, strictly speaking, only his body died. In speech, we use the name of death without strict analysis; the most precise definition of its meaning in each individual case is left to our thoughts. So the Savior, speaking about the saints, follows this general usage: “they will hand you over to judgment courts, ... and they will lead you to rulers and kings for Me” (Matthew 10:17–18) and they will kill you. Here He speaks about death in general, but in His teaching he defines this concept more precisely: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). This is what the Savior does in other cases. This is exactly how He expressed himself in the case when he said that “about that day no one knows,” not even the Son, who has omniscience: according to humanity, I do not know - this is how these words of His must be understood. Of course, the Son, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and understanding are hidden, cannot fail to know the last day; He who knows the Father cannot but know something to the same extent as the Father knows Him. This means that the solution to the question is that the name Son refers both to His divine dignity and to the service He assumed upon Himself. In this case, of course, He, who leads everything by the power of deity, turns out to be ignorant of humanity. 3. Here are His own words: “If I testify about Myself, then My testimony is not true” (John 5:31). But these words also belong to Him: “If I testify of Myself, My testimony is true” (John 8:14). One thing: if it is true, then how can it not be true? If untrue, then how to call it true? The words are a complete contradiction, but the thoughts are consistent. Jesus entered the church and taught; the Creator of the church, the Lord of service, entered the church; He taught in the church to fulfill the prophecy that said: “The Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant, whom you desire, will suddenly come into his church” ( Mal. 3:1 ). And he calls Him Lord and angel. Oh, divine mystery! O glorious prophetic mystery! “Suddenly He will come to His church,” i.e. to the church of God. The church is called His own, so that they would not think that the dominion of the Father is one thing, and the kingdom of the Son another. The church of the Father, which Solomon erected to God, the prophet calls this very church the church of the Savior: “the Lord will suddenly come” to His church. The church of the Father is also the church of the Son; The church of the Son is the church of the Father. Therefore, the Savior himself, when he drove the Jews out of the church with a scourge made by Him from ropes, said: “Take this from here, and do not make My Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:16). And another time he himself said: take it from here: “My house is a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46). My Father's house is also my house. Or, for example, the evangelist says: “he came to his own, and his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). This was said about the Jews; since He enlightened them with the law and guided them through the prophets, they were one of the Savior’s own. And when his mother looked for Him and asked: “Child! what have You done to us” (Luke 2:48), why do you force us to look for You? - He answered: “Or did you not know that I must be involved in the things that belong to My Father” (Luke 2:49)? So, He entered the church and began to teach, and another prophecy was fulfilled: “I am the same who said: “Here am I!” (Isa. 52:6). He taught, and this did not serve to humiliate His dignity, because He taught out of love for mankind. When you hear what He taught, do not imagine Him as one of the ordinary teachers. And if this word - taught - seduces you, then it means you do not know His dignity and are not surprised by His teaching, although, of course, you heard these words: “Blessed are You, Lord! teach me Your statutes” (Ps. 119:12). Jesus "entering the church". You will not find Him descending anywhere. He ascended from Jericho to Jerusalem, ascended the mountain. Where God is, there is ascension. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You and whose heart has the paths directed towards You" (Ps. 84:6). Where there is virtue, there is ascent; where there is vice, there is descent: “lest I go down to the grave” (Ps. 29:4). “And the Jews marveled, saying: How does he know the Scriptures without having studied?” And I, along with Moses, answer: “You are my God; I will exalt you.” You, I will praise Your name" (Is. 25:1)! He denounces the unbelief of the Jews, exposes the disobedience of the people, shows Himself to be the source of wisdom and all knowledge and says: “My teaching is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 7:16), showing everywhere that they resist the God they confess, not accepting Him who is a stone for them. stumbling. Since they believed in God, but rejected Jesus with doubt, He is silent about His own dignity and opposes the authority of the Father, showing that whoever fights against Christ rebels against God. Do you consider this a pretense on His part and empty words, and not proof? But the deeds themselves refute you. According to your - oh, Jew - reasoning, which humiliates Christ and belittles His works, He is not from God, destroys the law and fights against piety in the name of His ungodly teaching; and you yourself fight according to the law, defend the divine teaching and defend God? According to your own consciousness, you imagine yourself serving God, pushing away the glory of Christ and protecting the kingdom of the law. Let's see what the case itself says - where does God's judgment lean - in your favor or in our favor? You claim that you are defending God and fighting His enemy, who is destroying the teachings of God. Let us see how God treats those who present themselves as defenders of the law, and the followers of a person who tramples the law. I will talk about events that are known to everyone. If any city accepts an impostor instead of a king, he exposes himself to danger, even if he did not support his claims: since he accepted the impostor, he must share with him the punishment that threatens the impostor. And if any city closes its gates to the impostor, he is considered worthy of surprise and gains the favor of the king for the fact that in times of danger he remained faithful to the king, stood the test with firmness and did not exchange the rightful sovereign for the impostor. You, Jew, did this very thing, in your own words: you did not accept the impostor, as you impiously call Christ, who rebelled against the law of Moses, but rejected him, maintaining the inviolability of the kingdom of God; and the Church opened the gates to the Savior, in your opinion an impostor, but according to her confession, the King of glory. What, what kind of judgment did the Truth pronounce on those who did not accept the King? One city, Jerusalem, did not accept him, and was there any stone left upon another? This one city closed its gates to the King of Glory and, allegedly not accepting the impostor, was destroyed; and the churches of God, having received salvation everywhere, blossom and expand and ascend from glory to glory. And further: while the impostor is alive, his friends, who supported him in danger, prosper, and his enemies live under fear of danger; but when the impostor dies, the situation changes: his enemies are encouraged, and his friends are in danger. What followed after the condemnation of the Savior to death and His departure to the Father? What were the consequences of His death, as you claim, or His resurrection, as I believe? If the enemies of the king - or the enemies of this impostor, in other words - prosper, He is truly an impostor; if your enemies are in shame and exile, and your friends are free and in glory, the deed speaks for itself, when the words are unconvincing for you: this is how God exalted the kingdom of Christ, this is how he scattered those who opposed His kingdom! God could, of course, destroy those who rejected His Son; could destroy the enemies of the King, who sent the King of Glory as an impostor; but he did not destroy them, but only scattered them. If he had destroyed them, they would have had the following justification: if only we had remained on earth and could have believed; when faith in Him would spread throughout the earth, and we would turn to Him along with the entire universe. His enemies could then say: we saw only twelve disciples around Him and therefore did not pay attention to Him; and if we saw that kings bow before Him, then we would believe in Him without any excuses. Why did You hasten to destroy us before repentance and prevented our correction with Your punishment? So that no one has reason to say: We know the Crucified One, but we have not seen the Worshiped One, He did not destroy them, but only scattered them. The prophet David asked for this for them: “Do not kill them, lest my people forget; scatter them with Thy strength” (Ps. 59:12). Look, here they are at the door of Christ selling scarves and towels. The Lord placed them at the door so that they could be witnesses of the worship given to Him; They stand at the church porch as if they were Joseph’s brothers. In fact, just as Joseph’s brothers, seeing the high dignity of their brother, did not dare to approach him as their own, but were afraid of him, so these now - look - tremble at the dignity of the Church, with which it has been endowed by God and the Lord and Savior of all; look how confused and perplexed they are at the sight of him crucified in glory. Compare suffering and glory. He spent three hours on the cross, from the sixth to the ninth; and the time of glory continues forever and ever - without end. Look how humiliation has passed like a shadow; look with what glory the truth has flourished: from the sixth hour to the ninth there is humiliation, from century to century there is glory, and there is no end to the glorification of Christ, His glory is limitless. Everyone strains their voices - prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, bishops - and cannot exhaust the seas of His divinity. The sea receives rivers and absorbs them, but is not consumed by them; so all those who praise Christ are overshadowed by His glory, but cannot rise to it. The audacity of those who fight against God is terrible, but great is the honor of one who is humiliated for the cause of salvation and glorified according to his divine dignity. Think: only three painful hours had to be endured, during which His divine glory would not be exhausted for all eternity. Pay attention to the place of the cross. Wasn’t only one inch of land occupied by the tree of the cross? Yes, its base was measured by the measure of a foot. Such was the measure of humiliation. Compare with it the breadth of the heavenly realm - after all, the sermon about Christ spread over it and literally flooded it all, as if from sea abysses. The Jews stood at the cross and laughed at His passions, or rather, they themselves were ridiculed by them: they saw the crucified one and had no idea about what was being glorified. This is what the prophet Zechariah meant when he said: then the Lord God will come and “a great mourning will arise in Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:11). “And they will look on Him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10; John 19:37), i.e. on the one who was pierced with nails. He did not say: they will look at the One who was nailed, but at the one who was nailed. What does it mean: to whom? Obviously, of course, the cross on which the Savior was nailed. The (second glorious) coming of the Savior will be preceded by the appearance of the royal sign glorified by the angels - the banner, as they usually say: His cross will appear over the earth, shading the sun, darkening the moon, as the Savior said: “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven” (Matthew 24:30). And in order for what Zechariah said to be fulfilled, the Savior applied his own words to what happened: “They will look at Him, whom they have pierced.” The sign of the Son of God will appear in heaven, and then the nations will mourn: “The tribe of the house of David is special, and their wives are special; the tribe of the house of Nathan is special, and their wives are special” (Zechariah 12:12–13). Why did he use here not the name of the tribe, but the name of the kingdom? Why is David's tribe crying? After all, it was called not David’s, but Judah’s. Since the Son of David according to the flesh was not recognized in His Divine dignity by His neighbors by carnal origin, misfortune first of all falls on those who were closest in kinship, but were alienated in practice. "The Tribe of the House of Nathan". Who is Nathan? There was Nathan the prophet, there was Nathan the son of David (2 Sam. 5:14). The prophet Nathan convicted David of his sin, and another Nathan was born from him. Read the story of the sons of David and you will find there that one of David’s sons was called Nathan. From this Nathan, the evangelist Luke, outlining the genealogy of Mary, produces Joseph (Luke 3:31). This is the deep meaning and this is how carefully you need to delve into it. Read the Gospels, as the Savior said: “search the Scriptures” (John 5:39). And He did not simply say “read”, but “search”, delve into, because simple reading does not give proper knowledge: great care is required in order to delve into the Scriptures properly. 4. “So shall be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). He will appear in the form of the tree of the cross, but will shine with rays of light. When the cross appears, the sun will darken and disappear - it will not disappear, but will be drowned in the radiance of His glory; the moon will darken and the stars will go out, or better yet, they will fall, as it is written: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky” (Matthew 24:29), and then this terrible and glorious sign will appear. At the sight of Him, the Jews will curse, and the faithful will glorify. Then each of the faithful individually will respond to the infidels. Then Isaiah will tell us: “Here is He our God! ...we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad” (Isa. 25:9); then the appearance of the cross will expose daring unbelief and strengthen the Church; then the opponents will be put to shame and the followers will be glorified; then all creation will worship the Son of God - both those who believed and those who did not believe, but the former with triumph, the latter with shame. Thus, in the royal paintings the royal bodyguards are depicted in glory and next to them are captive barbarians, defeated at the feet of the king; the barbarian prostrates himself before the king, and the subject also prostrates himself, but then one boldly stands before the king, glorifying his ruler, and the other, forced under his feet, bows before the king, but does not receive a reward for his worship, because he did not come here of his own free will, but under compulsion; and it thus turns out that the top row bows to the king, and the bottom row falls in front of him - and these are two different things: it is one thing to bow, and another to fall in front of someone. The same thing will happen at the coming of the great King: in the picture of His glory the face of believers will appear, triumphant along with the face of the angels, with singing and praise; and immediately the unbelievers will be prostrate at the feet of the great King; those will be free and brave, and those will be bound and depressed. The faithful do not need bonds, because they are already bound by love: for them love replaces bonds; and whoever was not bound by love was bound by coercion. And the faithful boldly approach the King of glory, but the unfaithful and opponents of the word of truth will be drawn to His throne in iron shackles; those will be in the face of those who worship - above, and these in the face of those who are cast down - in the dust. Just like in the picture: the worshipers are depicted on top, and the captives falling on their faces in the lower part; Likewise, in the kingdom of Christ, the faithful will meet Him in the clouds, and the unfaithful will be cast into the dust before Him. So in the psalm those who worship are distinguished from those who fall down. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the tribes of the heathen will bow before You, for the Lord is the kingdom, and He is Ruler over the nations” (Ps. 21:28-29), says the psalmist, when talking about those who bow to God; and about those who were cast down before Him he added: “All who go down into the dust will bow before Him” (Ps. 21:30). But why does the face of the faithful appear at the top? Therefore, it is obvious that the faithful will not stand on the ground, but will surround the great Judge in the air, as His entourage. After all, the throne of God will not be established on earth: the earth will only be His footstool, so that all the defendants will be below, and above only the Judge and with Him His friends. It is precisely this, wanting to show - that the faithful will stand not on the ground, but on high - the apostle says: “we... will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). 5. This came to mind about the audacity of the atheists who dared to say about the Savior: “He is possessed by a demon” (John 10:20). How can one not exclaim on this occasion together with David: “How many good things You have,” Lord (Ps. 30:20)! How can You bear such words from the lips of a slave? How do you allow the earth to carry it? Why don’t you punish those who rebel against You, won’t you destroy them with one wave, won’t you exterminate them with a command, won’t you even utter a threat against them? Wasn’t this prophetic word spoken about You: “He rebukes the sea, and it dries up” (Nahum. 1:4)? Such defiance, such blasphemy! The Savior answers this: “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). That is why David, calling Him not for judgment at the time of the second coming, but for salvation, said: “thou who sits on the Cherubim, reveal Thyself... raise up Thy power, and come to save us” (Ps. 79:2-3), - to save, and not to judge. His first coming was for salvation, and His second was for judgment. If you want, you will find the Savior in Him, and if you don’t want, you will recognize the Judge in Him. Hurry up and try to win the friendship of the King. Let's use the lesson of worldly wisdom. Have you ever observed how people rejoice and triumph when one of their friends rises to power? Doesn’t everyone rejoice when an acquaintance occupies a high position, and doesn’t he already expect to enjoy the fruits of friendship? But people often deceive such calculations, break friendships and, having achieved power, neglect their former friends. But Christ does not hide the truth: be His friend - and you will always remain so. It often happens, brothers, that a high rank puffs up people, changes their way of thinking, spoils relationships and - one might say - directly degenerates a person. An example in this regard is Saul. God, knowing that he, having become a king, will change, directly tells him: I have anointed you, and they will ask you (to reign over the people), and they will give you power, and you will become a king. “When these signs come to pass upon you, ... the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you ... and you will become a different person” (1 Samuel 10:1, 7, 6), i.e. under the influence of power you will change. Of course, not all people change: the faithful will remain as he was, and only the empty person reveals his true character in such cases. Therefore, the faithful are given this instruction: if they make you a boss, be like one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, earthly, human friendship is unreliable; sometimes she passes the test, sometimes she deceives those who placed their hopes in her. And the friendship of Christ is unchanging and unshakable: and in the full splendor of His glory He will not reject you who worshiped Him on earth, but just as today He accepts your friendship, so then He will testify about it with the words: “Come, you blessed of My Father” (Matthew 25:34)! It often happens here that a person who has received a benefit from someone and then rises to prominence forgets about the one to whom he is indebted; and if he does not forget, then he tries to hide the previous good deed, because he does not want to humiliate himself before the benefactor; remains faithful to friendship, but keeps silent about good deeds. This is not what the Savior does: He preserves friendship and does not hide good deeds. “For I was hungry, and you gave Me food,” He says (Matthew 25:35). This is how brilliantly friendship with the Savior is manifested, this is how the good deed done to Him is justified: He does not deny your former friendship with you, glorifies your love, professes your affection, crowns your zeal. Let us try to have Him as our friend, and not as our Judge. Of course, He is a Judge, and a impartial Judge; but try in advance to gain His favor, to make Him your friend, and not your Judge. You know, of course, that worldly leaders talk differently with close people than with strangers? You too should resort to mediation; talk first with the martyrs, ask the apostles: I beg you, place a Judge towards me; may He show me mercy at the trial when He examines my affairs; Convince Him: He will listen to you. I know that He respects you; I myself do not have access to the King, but you take advantage of His favor. But the apostles and martyrs will answer you: don’t you know our God? Although He gives mercy freely, He also wants to receive something from us. Give to the poor, and He Himself will thank you through their lips; give into the hands of the poor - and you will receive reward; give to Christ: He takes not out of greed, but out of love for mankind, to help the poor. Then, God does not receive your money directly, but through the mediation of the poor, and takes it not by trading in the truth, but by correcting our sins through repentance. In fact, He takes money from you not in order to sell you the truth and condemn another unjustly, but in order to free you with alms from the accusation that weighs on you, as Daniel said: “Atone for your sins with righteousness and for your iniquities with mercy towards the poor” (Dan. 4:24). Bring your money for your soul: for a man's ransom is his own wealth. I say this, exalting the dignity of Christ and our Master, Whom the whole universe accepts, Whom the Church is now honored, and only one synagogue is deprived of, because it is scattered. The empty sound is the name (synagogue); or rather, cutting off, because through unbelief she is cut off from Christ. Paul also calls the synagogue this way, saying: “Beware of circumcision” (Phil. 3:2). And we, of course, are circumcision. Those who called the Savior mad are cut off from glory, and those who confessed Him as king are clothed with glory. I’ll also offer you one example from ancient history and end the conversation. There was once a righteous man - Gideon, attested in Scripture, whom Paul named among the righteous men, saying: “about Gideon, ... about Samson and Jephthah” (Heb. 11:32). He, who was adorned with all the virtues in his life, found himself in extreme need during the war, collected ears of corn and threshed them in some kind of trough in order to prepare food for himself for reinforcement. Suddenly an angel appeared to him and said: Be strong and take courage, “The Lord is with you” (Judges 6:11, 12)! Hunger does not weaken virtue; on the contrary, under the pressure of adversity it acquires more brilliance. "The Lord is with you"! Peace be with you! And Gideon says to him: “If the Lord is with us, then why has all this befallen us” (Judges 6:13)? He says this not in the form of a murmur against God, but considering himself unworthy to have God with him. If, he says, we were worthy of God, then such disasters would not befall us. Sometimes incorrect, i.e. those who in words present themselves as faithful, but in their souls are inclined in the opposite direction, say: where is the God of Christians? Why doesn't He hear the monks? How does He allow wars? Why does it not avert confusion? This is not what Gideon wanted to say, but: if the Lord were with us, then how would such calamities befall us? Of course, He is not with us: after all, we are unworthy of Him. The angel answers: The Lord is with you; God will give victory into your hands; start a war. To this Gideon says: I will believe that the Lord is with me if you give me a true sign. Here, he says, I will put a sheep's skin, and if the dew falls on this skin, and the whole earth remains dry, then I will know that God is with me. He asked for such a sign. The fur was laid. At night - by the will of God and His providence - dew fell on the fur, and the whole earth around was dry. Early in the morning, Gideon took the bottle and squeezed it out: it contained a whole measure of water. Then Gideon says again: I will believe that the Lord is with me if He grants my desire and gives a sign. I will put this skin, and if there is dew on the whole earth, and this skin remains dry, then I will receive complete confidence that the Lord is with me. One sign was not enough for you, are you asking for a new one? Have you not read: “Do not tempt the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:16)? I do not ask for two signs, he says: I ask for one; both of these signs are one. At the same time, he expressed himself this way: if the Lord gives me a true sign, i.e. contemplation of future truth. Then he put the skin on again: and dew fell on the whole earth, but the skin was not wetted. After this experience, he boldly went to war and defeated his opponents. What does this mysterious phenomenon mean with irrigation? This fur is a prototype of the coming of the Savior - the first and second. The first concerned Jerusalem alone and went unnoticed by the whole earth. Of course, just as a fur is nothing in comparison with the whole earth, so Jerusalem is nothing in comparison with all nations - a pitiful quantity. That is why the Savior said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), only to one people. And then the grace of the Lord spread and the synagogue and those people had to reject it, while the whole earth accepted it, which was typified by the second phenomenon: at first the skin was irrigated, but the earth was dry, and then the earth turned out to be wet, but the skin remained dry. Thus, the Jewish people once seemed to have absorbed all piety and did not share it with other nations, and then, when all nations took advantage of the blessing of salvation, Israel remained alien to it, dry. But so that what I have said does not seem like a human invention, it is necessary to confirm this explanation with prophetic testimony. Prophesying about the Savior, David said: “God! grant to Thy king justice, and to Thy king's son righteousness, that he may judge Thy people and Thy poor in judgment righteously" (Ps. 72:1-2). And a little lower he continues: “And they will fear You as long as the sun and the moon remain, throughout generations of generations” (Ps. 71:5). Then pointing to His coming, he says: “He will come down like rain on a mown meadow, like drops watering the earth” (Ps. 72:6); and immediately adds: “he will possess from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Ps. 72:8). May the Lord grant us to be watered together with the whole earth and to bear fruit, through the prayers and intercession of our father and mentor, who can seal both our true word and your love, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith”