On the parable of the one who fell into thieves

We listened, brothers, in the Gospel to the parable of our Lord Jesus Christ about how “a certain man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was caught by robbers, who took off his clothes, wounded him and left, leaving him barely alive” (Luke 10:30). A priest and a Levite, who were passing along the same road, looked at him and passed by. And a Samaritan, coming there and seeing him, took pity on him; Taking wine and oil, he mixed them and poured them on the wounded man, bandaged his wounds, put him on his donkey, took him to the inn and gave the innkeeper two denarii, with the words: “Take care of him; and if you spend any more, when I return, I will repay it to you” (Luke 10:35). Let us consider this parable so that, having understood it with our hearts and minds, we may know the mysteries of God. Man is Adam, Jerusalem is the heavenly order of life and wisdom, Jericho is the world; and so, to the extent that Adam, before disobedience, possessed heavenly wisdom and led a life equal to the angels, he had free entry into the heavenly city of Jerusalem, and, remaining in the commandments of God, was not defeated by anyone, and did not suffer wounds from anyone. When he disobeyed God and did not keep His commandments, but succumbed to the deception of the serpent, then he descended to Jericho, that is, to this earth, and began to do earthly things. After all, the name Jerusalem is translated by the word “ascension”, while Jericho means “flood”. Consequently, the descent from Jerusalem to Jericho is tantamount to a transition from heavenly life to life according to the slander of the devil. Meanwhile, those who keep God’s commandments live in heaven, as the apostle says: “But our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). So (Adam) descended from glory to disgrace, from the paradise of sweetness to the earth overgrown with thorns, from life to death. “On the day that you eat from the tree,” (God) said, “you will die” (Gen. 2:17), that is, sin, because sin - disobedience to God - is the death of the soul. (Adam) withdrew from the truth that was in paradise, from the holiness inherent in heaven, and came to Jericho, that is, he fell into disobedience, into sinful death. Here he is further exposed to attack by robbers, that is, the devil and all his nasty forces. The road is real life: while walking along it, Adam was attacked by robbers and was robbed by them. What did he lose thanks to them? Garments of obedience, friendship with angels, unfading glory, fellowship with Christ, heavenly pleasures, heavenly life. This is what clothes he was deprived of. Instead, they endowed him with wounds, that is, sins: fornication, adultery, idolatry, sorcery, murder, envy, enmity, anger and all other types of vice. With these deeds they ulcerate a person, causing decay and damage in him. That all this is so, David confirms, depicting in his face what Adam suffered, and, speaking of these wounds: “My wounds stink, they fester because of my madness” (Psalm 37:6). And every sin causes such wounds and ulcers. So, he was wounded due to disobedience, suffered blows due to iniquities, as the prophet says: “My heart is wounded and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread” (Psalm 101:5), that is, to keep the commandment of God. The robbers left that man half-dead, it is said (later in the parable), not because they didn’t want to kill him, of course, but because God did not allow this. “I do not want,” He says, “the death of a sinner” (Ezek. 33:11), but his repentance. And where did they leave him? On the path, that is, in this life: this age is called a path, because all people pass through it. A priest, they say, found him on the way, looked at him, and passed by. By the priest we mean blessed Moses and Aaron, which is confirmed by the following words of David: and “Moses and Aaron are between priests and Samuel among those who call on His name" (Psalm 98:6). So this wondrous and glorious Moses, who struck the Egyptians with ten plagues, cut and dried up the Red Sea and led his people through it, sweetened the waters of Meppah, talked with God through the cloud, performed many miracles, passing along the path of this life and seeing a man lying wounded, passed by him and did not help him. Levite" (Luke 10:32), i.e. the face of the prophets. And they, succeeding Moses and following the same path in life, finding the man Adam wounded, did not help him. Neither Moses, through the law given through him, nor the prophets healed Adam’s wounds with their miracles. None of them raised him, no one gave him life, no one freed him from death, no one bandaged his sinful wounds: after all, they themselves were in the power of sin. If, thanks to their righteous life, they became dear to God, but due to the fact that they were connected with Adam by the unity of the flesh and came from a dead root, they, nevertheless, as mere branches, were not able to extract their root from the abyss of sin. “But a certain Samaritan” (Luke 10:33), says (the parable), zealous in his work, kind in his heart, compassionate towards his fellow slaves, having come to that place and seeing the wounded man, he had compassion on him and, with the help of wine and oil, bound up his wounds, that is, his sins. Our Lord Jesus Christ appears in the person and image of a Samaritan. But one of the listeners will object: what is this? Do you call the Lord a Samaritan? Yes, I call Him a Samaritan, meaning, of course, not His divine nature, but the manifestation of His love for mankind. Just as the Samaritan, in his bodily nature, was no different from other people, and yet in his kindness of heart he turned out to be unlike them, but much better, so the Lord, although in relation to the body he seemed to be the same Man as the prophets and patriarchs, by virtue of His birth from Mary, but in His Divine power turned out to be more powerful than everyone else. Equal in His human nature, He was not equal with them in His eternal glory. Those, due to their characteristic callousness of heart, calmly passed by the wounded man; the Samaritan turned out to be more compassionate, pious and merciful. So Christ, after the patriarchs and prophets left helpless man who had fallen through disobedience, alone showed mercy and compassion, according to the words of the prophet: “The Lord is generous and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy” (Psalm 103:8), and also: for You, Lord, are gracious. And just as the Samaritan did not belong to the Jewish people, but came from another country, so Christ did not belong to this world, but came from heaven. He was a stranger on earth; being God, He became Man for our sake; being the Lord, he took upon himself the image of a slave. He took pity on us, came down from heaven to earth, saw humanity beaten, robbed, wounded by debauchery, idolatry, fornication, murder - he saw and took pity on His creation and prepared wine and oil for it, that is, by mixing both, He made medicine and gave it to man. What does this mixing of wine and oil mean? This means that the Lord, having united the Divinity with humanity, uniting mercy with salvation, saved man. By mixing wine with oil, that is, by uniting the Holy Spirit with His blood, He revived man. When the blood of the Lord flowed from His side onto the ground, it washed away the handwriting of our sins. But what does it mean: “he bound up his wounds” (Luke 10:34)? This means: He bound the devil and set man free; tied up the shuttle (of the enemy) and saved the wrecked ship; He bound and enslaved the forces of the evil one and freed man. However, another explanation can be suggested here, but listen to which one. Mixing wine with oil: oil means a word of consolation, while a libation of wine, which contains something astringent, indicates a teaching that gathers together a scattered soul, according to the word of the apostle: “reprove, rebuke, exhort” (2 Tim. 4:2). The Samaritan put the wounded man on his donkey; this means: Christ, having taken our flesh onto His Divine shoulders, lifted it up to His Father in heaven. He did not bring gold, not silver, not valuable stones with Him to heaven, but He lifted man in the image of His creation from earth to heaven, to this great, amazing and capacious inn, to this universal Church. And he handed it over to the innkeeper - Blessed Paul, the pillar of Christians, the faithful innkeeper, giving two denarii to him, and in his person to the bishops, teachers and ministers of each individual Church. He gave two denarii - the old and the new testament - and, having given, said: “Take care of him; and if you spend any more, when I return, I will repay it to you” (Luke 10:35). And these words must be understood this way: take care, he says, about the pagan people whom I handed over to you in the Church. Since these people are exhausted from the wounds of sin, then you heal them by applying a softening plaster to their wounds - prophetic words and gospel teaching, healing them with instructions and admonitions of the Old and New Testaments, convincing them to abandon sin and abandon the devil's delusion. If even after this they remain incorrigible, convince them with your deeds, persuade them with harsh reproofs: be an example and a good example for them - in word, deed, conversion, faith, love, purity, so that they follow your image and imitate your good life. And if you do this and add something of your own in word and deed, then everything that you spend in excess, I will return to you when I return. That is: at My second coming I will give you a reward worthy of your labors. Relying on these His promises, Paul says: “I will willingly spend and exhaust myself for YOUR souls” (2 Cor. 12:15), meaning his preaching among the pagans and serving the word. He organized and established the Church of God, healing all people with spiritual instructions and giving to everyone what was useful to him; He guides our souls to eternal life. “I have become all things to all,” he says, “so that at least I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). He is an excellent innkeeper, an innkeeper of the Church, he accepts everyone and cares for everyone, he does not push away the fornicator, the drunkard, or the scolder, and does not turn away from the robber, does not neglect the servant of idols, and does not drive away anyone else who is unclean and wicked, but accepts everyone. Like a doctor, he washes wounds, cleanses us with the bath of rebirth and accompanies his departure with stern, wine-like words, so that we are not overcome by sins and vices committed out of ignorance. And after this comes consolation, like oil that softens our souls: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). So, to the extent that we are disciples of Paul, let us keep the commandments of Christ, so that we do not lose the heavenly Jerusalem and the city of the living God. And may we, after healing our physical and spiritual wounds, be worthy to appear before Christ in health and perfect faith - whole and undamaged, successful in every good deed, and enjoy in heaven the promised benefits, grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father with the All-Holy Spirit, 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”