Отдел второй. Вступление Господа Иисуса Христа в дело открытого служения на спасение рода человеческого

IV. Preaching of John the Baptist in the desert. Baptism of Jesus Christ. His removal into the wilderness and temptation from the devil When in distant Nazareth the Savior’s divine-human maturity was coming to an end, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, in the same solitude, that “angel” had already matured, who, according to the prediction of the prophet Malachi, was to prepare the way for Him. The son of the righteous Zechariah and Elizabeth, John, having been brought up under the beneficial influence of his pious parents, from childhood showed a penchant for solitude and hermitage, and upon reaching manhood, he chose the surrounding deserts as his favorite abode. This spirit of hermitage found encouragement in the very state of the Jewish people at that time. It was truly a difficult time for the chosen people. Power-hungry Rome, which for a time had endured the illusory independence of Judea under the leadership of its kings, now finally laid the iron hand of its autocracy on it and, having deposed Herod’s son Archelaus, placed Judea under the authority of a purely Roman ruler, the so-called procurator, who in turn was under the command of another high dignitary, the prefect of Syria. Along with the establishment of Roman rule, Roman orders began to be introduced, which, as pagan, seemed to the Jews an intolerable violation of all the traditions most dear to them. A strong Roman detachment finally occupied the Antonia Tower, adjacent to the temple, and the menacing appearance of these pagans darkened the peace of mind of all visitors to the temple. Detachments of Roman soldiers stationed in individual cities burdened the people with billets and various extortions; taxes grew, and the system of collecting them through tax farmers or tax collectors introduced by the Romans contributed to the formation among the people of a whole class of shameless predators who profited from the misfortune of the people, caused irritation and opposition, and bands of rebels already appeared in places who, refusing to pay taxes to Caesar, elevated this refusal to the level of a sacred duty for every true Israeli and, rebelling against the Romans, thereby contributed more great anxiety and confusion among the civilian population of the country. It is not surprising that, given such a difficult state of the people, they showed a tendency to flee to the desert, so that there, sighing in freedom, they could ease their weary soul with a solitary conversation with God and a fiery prayer for the speedy coming of the Savior. And in the midst of this general languor, in one of the wildest deserts, the voice of a new great prophet was heard, the rumor of which quickly spread throughout the country. This was in the fifteenth year of the reign of the second Roman emperor Tiberius, during the administration of Judea by the procurator Pontius Pilate. Since the time of Malachi, prophecy has completely ceased among the chosen people, who for entire centuries were forced to draw religious and moral forces exclusively from law and tradition. The people became so accustomed to this state that they no longer expected the appearance of new prophets, but only expected the second appearance of Elijah, as the direct forerunner of the Messiah. And this Elijah seemed to appear now in the person of John. A strict Nazarene, John appeared in the desert not only in the spirit and strength of Elijah, but also resembled him in all his appearance and in his entire way of life. Like his great prototype, he wore a coarse robe made of camel hair, fastened with a leather belt, and ate the most meager gifts of the desert - wild honey, which was found in some places in inaccessible crevices of rocks, and locusts, that is, locusts dried in the sun (still used as food by the Bedouins, especially in hungry years). The appearance of such a prophet involuntarily should have drawn everyone's attention to him, especially since his preaching concerned the most vital issue - the time of the coming of the Messiah. “Repent,” preached John, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). And in response to this call, all those who were weary and burdened began to gather to John from everywhere, wanting in the preaching of the newly-minted prophet to find relief for their conscience from the burden of sins and doubts that weighed on it. The movement was so universal that even arrogant Pharisees and free-thinking Sadducees, violent warriors and predatory tax collectors came to John, and they all listened with emotion to the instructions and threatening denunciations from the stern prophet. The place of his preaching was the uninhabited expanse of the desert, which stretches south from Jericho and the fords of the Jordan to the shores of the Dead Sea. Robbers nested in the rocks overhanging the narrow passage leading from Jerusalem to Jericho; in the reeds bordering the waters of the Jordan, there were still wild animals and crocodiles; but this did not frighten the people, who flocked here in droves to listen to the unprecedented prophet. And the word of this prophet thundered like a hammer, breaking the flintiest heart, burning like a flame, penetrating into the innermost thoughts. With truly prophetic sharpness and directness, he denounced the tax collectors for their extortion, the soldiers for their violence, for dishonesty and discontent, the rich Sadducees and noble Pharisees for the callousness and deceit that made them vipers, the offspring of vipers. He addressed all the people with a warning that they were deeply mistaken when they placed all their hope for salvation on their descent from Abraham, as if they freed them from any further obligation to use special efforts to achieve salvation. God, who created Adam from the earth, can raise new children for Abraham from stones. Therefore, in order to be true sons of Abraham, worthy of inheriting the promises given to him, they must sincerely repent and “produce fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). And this was especially necessary now, when everything foreshadowed that the fulfillment of the times was approaching. The hour has come for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah. This sermon shocked the hearts of the listeners, who therefore willingly accepted the rite of baptism introduced by John, which served as a visible sign of internal repentance. This rite was unknown to the Old Testament and constituted a visible threshold to the New Testament. It is true that various washings and purifications were prescribed in the Mosaic Law, and water in ancient times served as a well-known symbol of cleansing power; but John gave baptism a deeper meaning, precisely in the sense of a symbol of internal cleansing and renewal of the entire moral being, and in this sense it was this baptism of repentance that was later transformed into the baptism of salvation. Amazed by all this, the people asked who this great prophet and preacher was: was it not Elijah, or even Christ? Even the Sanhedrin, amazed by the rumor about John’s preaching and actions, sent a special deputation to him with this very question. But John answered that he is not Christ, not Elijah and not a prophet, but simply “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (John 1:23), a simple predecessor and herald of Him whose boots he is not worthy to untie, who will baptize not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire and already holds a shovel in His hand to cleanse His threshing floor, to gather the wheat into the barn, but the straw, that is, not everyone. those who repented at His coming will be burned with unquenchable fire. Even residents of distant Galilee came to listen to John’s sermon and receive the baptism of repentance from him, and among them Jesus appeared, who at that time was “about thirty years old” (Luke 3:23) in age, in the full bloom of his sinless manhood. John was a relative to Him, but life circumstances completely separated them from each other. John spent his childhood in the house of his pious father, a priest who lived in one of the priestly cities (Utah), in the southern borders of the tribe of Judah, near Hebron; Jesus lived in complete isolation, in the carpenter's workshop of His betrothed father, in Galilee. When He first came to the banks of the Jordan, John the Baptist, according to his own statement, “did not know Him” (John 1:33); but His very appearance struck and captivated the soul of John. For others, he was an unyielding prophet: he boldly reproached kings and strictly denounced the Pharisees, but in the presence of this mysterious Galilean, the stern prophet of the desert was overcome by an incomprehensible fear. When Jesus asked John to baptize Him, the great prophet was embarrassed by such boundless humility of the One in whom he immediately recognized the expected Messiah, and reverently said to Him: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matthew 3:14). And to this expression of humility and reverence on the part of John, Jesus responded: “Leave it now; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Baptism from John was not actually a sacrament, but only a preparatory symbol of spiritual rebirth, and Jesus, as the head of the New Testament, had to go through this preparatory stage for His social activity in order to immediately outline the path that He would follow in His ministry. As a sinless man, He did not need any purification, as was the case with other people; therefore, this baptism meant for Him only “the fulfillment of righteousness,” as it was indicated by the will of the one who sent Him. After such an explanation, John baptized Him, and when Jesus came out of the water, “behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and descending on Him. And behold, a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16–17). Thus, in the baptism of Jesus, the participation of the entire Holy Trinity was solemnly manifested, in the name of the three Persons of Whose Christian baptism is performed as a sacrament. Having baptized Jesus and thus fulfilled the main goal of his ministry, John continued to preach repentance after that; and Jesus, overwhelmed in his human spirit with thoughts and feelings regarding the upcoming service, sought solitude for a time in order to be alone with God and prepare for the great work. From the waters of the Jordan He was led up by the spirit into the desert, where He remained for forty days. There He was tempted by the devil. Just as once in the Garden of Eden the devil tempted an innocent man, who had just been created sinless, and destroyed him, so the original misanthrope could not endure the presence of a sinless man now in the desert, and also tried to destroy Him. But if in the Garden of Eden that evil wickedness triumphed, now it had to suffer final defeat and shame: Christ defeated the devil and thereby gave us an invincible weapon against all his wiles. The insidious malice of the original misanthrope invented three forms of temptation, which especially affect the weak sides of the human being, namely, pleasing the flesh, conceit and love of power, and with these three temptations the devil approached Christ. Like his Old Testament prototypes, Moses and Elijah, who also withdrew into the desert for a while and underwent a forty-day fast there, Jesus Christ “didn’t eat anything during those days, but after they were over, he was finally hungry” (Luke 4:2). The tempter took advantage of this moment of human weakness. Having approached the sinless God-man, the tempter turned to Him with a crafty speech: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3). The pangs of hunger are felt all the more strongly if they are supported by the additional torment of a vivid imagination; and just before the eyes of Jesus lay stones that were surprisingly similar to bread and, according to legend, were precisely the petrified bread of the inhabitants of the Sodom pentagon, which had once incurred the terrible wrath of God. By pointing “to these stones,” the devil hoped to touch the sensory weakness of Jesus just as successfully as he once touched it in the first people in paradise. At the same time, this temptation was hidden behind many of the most crafty twists of thought. Israel also suffered much from famine in the desert, and there in their extreme need God fed them with manna, which was, as it were, angelic bread from heaven. Why shouldn’t the Son of God also provide Himself with food in the desert? After all, He can do this if He only wants to, and why does He hesitate? If an angel showed thirsty Hagar a source, if an angel showed food to hungry Elijah, then why should He even wait for the services of angels when such a service is not needed, and when, if only He wanted, the angels would happily serve Him? But the answer that followed immediately broke the tempter’s crafty logic. Referring to the same lesson that flowed from the most glorious sayings of the Old Testament, the Savior answered: “it is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). This answer dealt a decisive blow to the dominance of the flesh in man and showed that man is by no means an exclusively carnal being, but, on the contrary, a being who can always triumph over the infirmities of the flesh. Whoever thinks that we live only on bread makes caring for bread the main goal of his life, spends all his strength on obtaining it, and will become pitiful and rebellious when he is deprived of it even for a while; not seeking other more sublime food, he will inevitably languish with hunger even in the midst of it. But whoever realizes that a person does not live by bread alone will not lose because of it that which makes life most dear and sacred; having fulfilled his duty, he will trust in God for everything necessary for the body, with great zeal and diligence he will seek the bread of heaven and that living water, the one who drinks it will not thirst forever. Such an answer showed the tempter with whom he was dealing; therefore, with amazing dexterity, imitating the mood of the spirit discovered by Christ, he is already trying to tempt Him on this very boundless hope in God. “Then the devil takes Him to the holy city and places Him on the pinnacle of the church” (Matthew 4:5). From the side of his lower, bodily nature, Christ finds himself for a time, as it were, in the complete power of the devil, who disposes of His body with such arbitrariness - but the more the tempter suffers defeat from the spirit of Christ. It is not known which wing of the church is meant: perhaps the roof of the Royal Narthex on the southern side of the church, which precipitously looked into the deep valley of the Kidron from such a terrible height that, according to the description of I. Flavius, anyone who dared to look down was dizzy from the yawning abyss; or maybe the roof of Solomon's porch, from which, according to legend, St. Jacob, brother of the Lord. Both were equally suitable for the tempter’s goal - to arouse the pride of conceit in Jesus. If He is truly the Son of God, then why doesn’t He rush down from this dizzying height in order to immediately prove His divine dignity in front of the whole city and thereby assist His goal. As for His personal safety, as the Son of God He can fully count on the help of angels, for it is written: “He will command his angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone” (Matt. 4:6, Ps. 90:11–12). Wouldn't all this be an excellent proof of boundless trust in God and the fulfillment of prophecy? – The temptation was conceived subtly and deeply; in confirmation of it, the devil even referred to Holy Scripture. But this temptation turned out to be powerless in the face of a sinless man. To all the twists of crafty flattery, Christ calmly answered: “It is also written: Do not tempt the Lord your God” (Matthew 4:7). Having failed in the temptation of bodily weakness and spiritual pride, the devil made a last desperate attempt - to seduce Jesus with the specter of limitless autocracy over all the kingdoms of the earth. Having taken Him to a high mountain, the devil unfolded before the eyes of Jesus a magical picture of all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, and said to Him: “I will give all this to you if you fall and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). The devil knew that Christ, as the Savior of the world, faced a terrible field of humiliation and suffering, before which His human heart involuntarily had to tremble. Meanwhile, it is possible for Him to avoid all this and become exactly the formidable Messiah-conqueror and ruler of the whole world, which the majority of the Jewish people expected Him to be. Why shouldn’t He appear in this very last form - and all this will happen if only He bows to the tempter. But in this temptation, Satan’s audacity exceeded all limits, and Christ victoriously answered him: “Get away from Me, Satan; for it is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone” (Matthew 4:10). Thus, the founder of New Testament humanity inflicted the first defeat on the original misanthrope, showing him that the time of his kingdom had passed and the Kingdom of God’s grace was coming on earth. Although the devil subsequently made attempts to tempt Christ, now he had to leave Him for a while; “And behold, angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:11). V. Testimony of John the Baptist about himself and about Jesus Christ. The first followers of Jesus Christ. The first miracle of Christ at a wedding in the city of Cana The rumor about the baptism of an unknown Galilean by John, accompanied by extraordinary signs, alarmed even the Supreme Council of the Jews, namely the Sanhedrin. At this time, he was in extreme humiliation and powerlessness, since by the autocracy of Herod and his successors, and then by the Roman procurators, he was deprived of all independence and made an obedient instrument of shameful politics. The high priests were constantly replaced, and at present there were even two high priests - Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas, of whom the first was overthrown by the Romans, but continued to be considered unofficially as such, and the second was an official Roman protege and, as a relative of Annas, continued to share with him the benefits and honors of the high priesthood. Deprived of true high-priestly dignity, these high priests, and after them the majority of the members of the Sanhedrin, were exclusively occupied with petty intrigues and, not caring about the true needs of the religious and moral life of the people, indulged in a shamefully secular life and greedy profit at the expense of the simple-minded people. For such a Sanhedrin, the rumor about the appearance of the Messiah could not but be alarming, and it sent a deputation to John to ask him: who is he - Christ, Elijah, or just a prophet? John replied that he had come only to prepare the way for one who was higher than him. And the next day John had the opportunity to give more definite testimony. He saw Jesus Christ returning from the desert and, pointing to Him, publicly and solemnly testified that this was the Messiah, who was revealed to him with a special sign, that this was “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). At the same time, John had already clearly acted as an evangelist about the coming of the Messiah and announced to everyone about those extraordinary signs that took place at the baptism of Jesus and testified to him that “This is the Son of God” (John 1:34). John repeated the same testimony the next day, and it made a very strong impression on some of his followers. A circle of followers had already formed around John, who considered him their teacher. Most of them were young men, on whom the great revolutions taking place in spiritual life always respond most strongly. Two of them, struck by the extraordinary testimony of their great teacher about the mysterious newcomer from Galilee, decided to follow Him and get to know Him better. These were Andrew and John, young fishermen from Galilee. Not daring to openly declare their desire, they silently followed Christ as he passed by; but He suddenly turned around and asked them: “What do you need?” (John 1:38) This question confused the young men, and they only asked him: “Rabbi (and this title of deep respect and reverence showed what a strong impression He made on them), where do you live? "(John 1:38) - “Come and see” (John 1:39), He said to them. Like most of the people who had gathered to listen to the sermon of the desert prophet, Jesus probably lived in some hastily made hut or cave, and it was there that the young fishermen followed Him. There they stayed with Him all that day, and perhaps spent the night; and the conversation of that day clearly revealed to them who the Galilean who struck them was. They knew and felt in their hearts that the expectations and hopes of the chosen people, which had lasted for so many centuries, were now finally fulfilled, that they were in the co-presence of Him who is the aspiration of the nations - the true Son of David, the star from Jacob and the scepter of Israel. Having comprehended this great secret, Andrei first of all hastened to share joy with his brother Simon. He led him to Christ, and Jesus, looking at him with that royal look that read all the innermost secrets of the heart, immediately saw in this fisherman all the weakness, but at the same time the noble greatness of human nature and, defining his character and future purpose, said to him: “You are Simon, son of Jonah, you will be called Cephas, which means stone.” With this change of name, Christ forever determined the great destiny ahead of this fisherman in the future. And these three followers of Christ became the first members of the New Testament Church. The third day after returning from the desert was apparently spent by Jesus Christ in conversation with his new disciples. On the fourth day He wanted to go back to Galilee, but on the way he met another young fisherman, Philip from Bethsaida. Philip bore a Greek name, which may have been given to him by the name of the tetrarch Philip, since the custom of naming children after the names of reigning sovereigns was always widespread among the people. If so, then he was about thirty years old at that time. It is also possible that his Greek name indicated his close relationship with some Greek-speaking population living mixed with the Galileans on the shores of Lake Gennesaret, and this easily explains why it was to him, and not to any of the other apostles, that the Greeks turned, who in the last week of Christ’s life wanted to see Him. With one powerful word, “follow me” (John 1:43), Philip followed Christ and became His constant disciple. The next day a fifth member was added to this sacred society. Wanting to share his joy, Philip found his friend Nathanael. Nathanael in the list of apostles is generally and almost certainly identified with Bartholomew, because Bartholomew is more likely a patronymic than a name (“Bar-Tolmai is the son of Tolmai”); and, moreover, Nathanael is mentioned only in one other place under this name (John 21:2), while Bartholomew (about whom we would otherwise know nothing) is constantly placed next to Philip in the list of apostles. Living in Cana of Galilee, Bartholomew could easily meet a young fisherman from Gennesaret. The simple-minded Philip, apparently with particular pleasure, compared His low origins with the greatness of Christ's ministry. “We have found Him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote,” he said to his friend; namely, “Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth” (John 1:45). At first, Nathanael did not attach any importance to this testimony and even disdainfully remarked: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (In. 1:46) - but this prejudice immediately dissipated when Christ personally appeared, not only immediately identifying his sincere heart, saying: “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47), but also penetrated into his innermost thoughts, with which Nathanael was busy before under the fig tree. This omniscience of Jesus caused a complete change in Nathanael’s opinion, and he exclaimed enthusiastically: “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:49). And this confession of Nathanael was rewarded with a promise to him that subsequently he would see even more, and they all “from now on will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). As true Israelites well-read in the Holy Scriptures, these words should have reminded them of the miraculous vision of the ladder of their forefather Jacob. The one who in this vision stood at the top of the ladder has now descended to earth and is co-present with them as the Son of Man, and they were soon to be convinced of this from the deeds that He began to perform. In community with His followers, Jesus Christ returned to Galilee to first of all reveal the treasury of His saving works in His homeland. On the third day after His return, a marriage took place in the city of Cana, neighboring Nazareth, and since this family was not only in close, but even related relationships with the Most Holy One. Virgin Mary, both She and Jesus with His disciples were invited to the wedding feast. Marriage in the East was always arranged with exquisite ceremony, even in poor families. The bride was taken out of the house at dusk or even at night, and she was wrapped from head to toe in a wide and flowing veil, showered with flowers and generally dressed in the best dresses. Her arrival at the groom's house was announced with torches, songs and dances, drumming and flutes. She was accompanied by girls from her fellow village, and the groom came out to meet her with his young friends. The wedding feast for the more wealthy classes lasted up to seven days, and for the less wealthy, one or two days, which were spent in the most cordial and generous treatment of the invited guests. The last poor man tried to show himself to be rich, and a complete excess of food and drink was considered the main sign of generous hospitality. Therefore, it is easy to understand what a misfortune it was for the newlyweds when it suddenly turned out that they did not have enough wine. This incident could have overshadowed the entire wedding celebration and caused grief and despondency both to the entire family and especially to the newlywed couple, who would have considered this, as happens now in the East, not only an extreme and indelible dishonor for themselves, but also a bad omen. This circumstance had a very painful impact on the kind heart of the Most Rev. The Virgin Mary, who apparently occupied one of the main places at the wedding feast and even managed the household chores at it, and She modestly and quietly remarked to Her Divine Son: “They have no wine” (John 2:3). This remark was obviously subtle, but its meaning could not be misunderstood. No one knew as well as the Most Rev. Mary, Who is Her Son, but during the whole thirty years of patiently waiting for His announcement of Himself, She saw only how He grew up like other children and lived, it is true, in blessed humility and sinless wisdom, like a tender flower before God, but in all other respects He lived the same way as others live in youth, distinguished only by His perfect chastity. But now He was already thirty years old; the voice of the great prophet, whose glory thundered throughout all the people, proclaimed Him the promised Messiah; He was openly accompanied by his disciples, who recognized Him as their teacher and master. Now it was necessary to eliminate the difficulty and perform a truly good deed: it was necessary to avert dishonor from the modest couple, especially since the very shortage of wine probably occurred as a result of the arrival of an unexpectedly large number of His disciples. Has not His hour come? Who knows if He might not be able to do anything, if only to draw His attention to the difficulty that threatened to interrupt the triumph? And indeed She guessed with her Maternal feeling that the hour of self-revelation of Her Son had come. Although He temporarily rejected His participation in this matter, the faith and maternal love of Most Holy. Marie triumphed, and She, with complete confidence, ordered the servants to do what He told them. – In every house to the east, at the front door there are usually several waterpots containing cold spring water for the usual washing of feet after traveling and washing hands before meals. There were six such stone vessels in the house where the wedding feast took place. There was not much water left in them, and Jesus Christ ordered them to be filled to the top. Then, ordering the servants to draw this fresh water into small vessels, He ordered them to be carried to the guest who was chosen as the main manager of the feast. The steward tasted the water that had become wine, and, not knowing anything about what had happened, called the groom and cheerfully remarked to him that he acted contrary to any order in the treat: “every person serves good wine first, and when they get drunk, then the worst; but you have saved good wine until now” (John 2:10). Then everyone learned about the miracle that had happened, and the dishonor that threatened the newlywed couple turned into an unexpected and great blessing for them. “So Jesus began with miracles in Cana of Galilee, and showed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). This beginning clearly determined the nature and direction of the social activity of Jesus Christ. If John the Baptist preached a stern sermon about repentance, then this was only a preparatory stage for the activity of Christ, and after its completion a new, higher stage began, when all deeds were to show that Christ did not come to destroy or constrain the ordinary conditions of human life, but to sanctify and elevate them. Taking part in an innocent wedding feast, the Savior sanctified the sacrament of marriage established by God, which was subjected to various distortions and perversions among the pagans, and clearly showed that the evil that depressed ancient humanity does not lie in the flesh itself and its natural functions, but in the evil sinful will, which gives these natural functions a sinful and criminal character. In the Kingdom of God you can drink and eat, as long as all this does not go beyond the limits of legality. Here the transition took place from the Old Testament to the New, from law to grace. Dealing with a stiff-necked people and a criminal will, the Old Testament legislator, of necessity, had to act on them with strict prohibitions and harsh measures; Now the new Lawgiver, who had the power to establish the Kingdom of grace, capable of melting the coldest heart, could already soften the severity of these measures and act directly on the minds and hearts of people. After the end of the wedding celebration in Cana, the Savior, together with His disciples, went not to Nazareth, which, due to its alienation, did not provide adequate space for social activities, but to the lively and populous Capernaum, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Gennesaret and, therefore, in the best area of ​​Palestine. And this beautiful city henceforth became the almost permanent residence of the Savior, and the surrounding country, the most fertile basin of Lake Gennesaret, became the main place of His public ministry. Now this area, like all of Palestine, seems to be a desert, and only the ruins along the shores of the lake testify to the wealth and vibrancy for which the surrounding area of ​​this marvelous lake was once famous. The Jews had a proverb: “God created seven lakes in the land of Canaan, but He chose only one of them, Lake Gennesaret, for Himself.” And this proverb seemed to be justified now that its shores were chosen as the place of the Savior’s ministry. It was not only in its beauty, but also in its central position, as well as in its population and extraordinary animation, it was miraculously suitable for the beginning of that ministry, which was the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, that the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the country beyond Jordan, the pagan Galilee “shall see a great light”, and that on those who walk “in darkness and the shadow of death, the light will shine” ( Matthew 4:15–16). Christ was to be, even during his earthly life, “a light to enlighten the Gentiles,” as well as “the glory of his people Israel” (Luke 2:32). The most diverse peoples lived in the vicinity of the lake, because it was a “seaside route.” The cities there, according to Josephus, were very dense, and the numerous villages were so populous due to the fertility of the country that the smallest of them had more than 15,000 inhabitants. The population was vibrant, industrial, and cultivated every inch of its rich and beautiful soil. As many as four roads led to the shores of the lake. One led down the Jordan Valley, along the western side; the other, crossing the bridge at the southern end of the lake, walked through Perea to the fords of the Jordan, near Jericho; the third led through Sepphoris, the beautiful capital of Galilee, to the famous port of Akka on the Mediterranean coast, the fourth lay through the mountains of Zebulun to Nazareth and through the valley of Esdrilon to Samaria and Jerusalem. Large caravans passed through this area on their way from Egypt to Damascus, and the pagans, who lived in large numbers in Bethsaida Julian and Caesarea Philippi, were constantly to be met on the streets of Capernaum. At the time of Christ it was the most populous and lively industrial region of Palestine, and on the waters of its lake glided in all directions 4,000 ships of every kind - from the warships of the Romans to the clumsy fishing boats of Bethsaida and the gilded galleys of Herod's palace. Iturea, Samaria, Syria and Phenicia were immediately at hand - you just had to cross the lake, river or mountains. Tiberias, founded by Herod Antipas and named after the Roman emperor Tiberius, the capital of Galilee, grew with amazing speed; so that she subsequently transferred her name to the Lake of Galilee itself; and Christ could see its towered walls, its fortified castle, and the “golden palace” of Antipas, casting the shadows of its marble lions and sculptured columns far across the lake. Europe, Asia and Africa jointly endowed it with population, and in its marketplace one could meet people of all lights and nations. Along the entire western shore of Lake Gennesaret, Jews and pagans lived in a disorderly mixture, and the wild sons of the desert - Arabs and Bedouins - could be seen there next to the enterprising Phoenicians, the effeminate Syrians, the arrogant Romans and the flattering, treacherous and corrupt Greeks. From such an area the light of the Gospel could most conveniently spread not only throughout Palestine, but also throughout all the surrounding countries, which was the main reason for choosing it as the center of Christ's public ministry on earth. This time, Christ's stay in Capernaum was short-lived. The greatest Jewish holiday, Passover, was approaching, and Christ went with His disciples to Jerusalem in order to “reveal His glory” (John 2:11) in this center and stronghold of the Old Testament, as He showed it in an insignificant town in remote Galilee. You might be interested in: