Отдел четвертый. Дела и учение Иисуса Христа от второй до третьей Пасхи

X. In Jerusalem. Healing the paralytic at the sheep's bath. Clashes with the Pharisees over the disciples' plucking of ears of corn on the Sabbath. Healing the Withered Arm Since the ministry of Jesus Christ had hitherto been predominantly carried out in remote Galilee, few in Jerusalem still knew about Him, and the Savior could arrive in the capital of Judaism without arousing special popular attention to Himself. But rumors of His extraordinary activity reached Jerusalem, and among the representatives of the dying Judaism involuntarily aroused anxiety and suspicion, which clearly emerged this time. Heading to the church, the Savior passed by one of the ponds that served as a source of water supply for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is precisely the famous sheep bath - Bethesda, which, as recent excavations show, was located not far from the north-western corner of the church fence. It was a pool about 24 fathoms long and 7 fathoms wide, divided in half by a stone wall two arshins thick. Sheep intended for sacrifice usually bathed in it, but the water was also famous for its healing properties. From time to time, an extraordinary movement of water occurred in it, “for the Angel of the Lord from time to time went into the pool and disturbed the water,” giving it wonderful healing properties; “And whoever first entered into it after the disturbance of the water was healed, no matter what disease he was suffering from” (John 5:4). It is not surprising that this wonderful property attracted to the pond “a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered, waiting for the movement of the water” (John 5:3), who stayed here under the cover of five separate sheds built by private benefactors of the unfortunate. Among the many sufferers here there was one poor man who had been weakened by paralysis for about thirty-eight years. He lived in the very vestibule of this pond, but it was useless, since he himself was helpless and the movement of the water occurred at irregular intervals, then others, happier and less weak, each time managed to rush into the pond before him, before the favorable moment was lost. Christ looked at this man with heartfelt compassion. It was clear that the spirit of the unfortunate sufferer was no less relaxed than his limbs, and his whole wasting life was one continuous despair. The Savior intended to make a gift for the great holiday to the poor man, to whom He had no opportunity to give either gold or silver. He wanted to help a sufferer whom no one wanted to help before. “Do you want to be healthy?” (John 5:6) He asked him. At first, these words hardly brought the unfortunate man out of his sad stupor: he apparently did not even look at the questioner. But thinking perhaps, with a momentary glimmer of hope, that this was some stranger who, out of the kindness of his heart, wanted to help him be the first to get into the water when it was indignant again, he simply told in response the bitter story of his long and futile wait. Jesus meant quicker and more effective help. “Get up,” He said, “take up your bed and walk!” (John 5:8). This was said in a tone that could not be disobeyed. The gaze of the speaker, His voice and commanding tone, like an electric current, ran through the exhausted limbs and broken body, weakened by the suffering and sin of a lifetime. After thirty-eight years of relaxation, he instantly stood up, picked up his bed and walked. In joyful amazement, he looked around to see his unknown benefactor, but the crowd was large, and Christ, trying to avoid rude excitement among the people, calmly left. The unexpected appearance among the crowd of a man who was well known to everyone as a helpless paralytic, and now walked cheerfully along the street, involuntarily should have drawn everyone's attention to him, and a crowd of people surrounded him, asking how he suddenly recovered. But among the crowd there were also strict lawyers, who were interested not in the very case of the poor man’s recovery, but in the fact that he violated one of the most sacred provisions of the Mosaic Law - namely, the Sabbath. “Today is the Sabbath,” these lawyers told him, “you must not take a bed” (John 5:10). Sabbath was one of the most favorite hobbyhorses of modern Pharisaism, and since the spirit of the Mosaic legislation was increasingly suppressed in this sect by the letter of dead ritualism, the Sabbath lost in it its former sublime character - spiritual and bodily rest from labor and its dedication to serving God. Petty observance of peace came to the fore, and it was furnished with such absurd inventions of idle hypocrisy, so that this blessed day of rest turned into a day of painful slavery and all kinds of oppression. With the most precise detail it was determined what to do and what not to do on Saturday, how many steps to take, how much space to move, how much to eat, how much to write, what medicines to take, and so on. But most of all, rules were developed regarding the carrying of a burden on the Sabbath day. Based on the saying of the prophet Jeremiah: “Take care of your souls and do not carry burdens on the Sabbath day” (Jer. 17:21), the rabbis came up with a whole code that precisely defined which burdens could and could not be carried on the Sabbath day. Since the Sabbath day began on Friday evening and was announced by the sound of a trumpet, then, according to the teachings of the rabbis, every true Israeli had to immediately throw off all burdens. “On Friday, before the start of the Sabbath, one decree said that no one should leave the house with a needle or a feather, so as not to forget to put them away when the Sabbath begins. Everyone should carefully search their pockets at this time so that nothing remains there that is forbidden to go out with on the Sabbath day.” Not only was it forbidden to carry actual loads that constituted a burden, according to the interpretation of the Pharisaic rabbis, it was forbidden to even wear boots with nails or patches on the Sabbath, since both nails and a patch constitute a “burden.” Hence, the rabbis were completely forbidden to wear boots with patches, so that, through forgetfulness, they would not violate the sanctity of Sabbath, which, in their opinion, was observed by the entire universe, so that the Angel of the Lord himself never disturbed the waters in Bethesda on Saturdays. With such views, it is not surprising that the scribes and Pharisees were not slow to notice to the paralytic what lawlessness he was committing, carrying such a “burden” as his miserable bed. But the lucky man had no time for these petty casuists, and he boldly answered them: “He who healed me said to me: take up your bed and walk” (John 5:11). Struck by bewilderment as to who this daring Sabbath-breaker could be, the lawyers, again not paying any attention to the miraculous healing, ask him: “Who is the man who said to you: take up your bed and walk?” (John 5:12), that is, he made an illegal command, for which he can be subjected to trial and punishment. The personality of Jesus Christ was apparently still so little known on the outskirts of Jerusalem, or this man treated Him with such dull indifference when He first spoke to him, that in reality he did not know who his benefactor was. But he found out soon afterwards. The narrative reveals one attractive feature in him. Some time later we meet him in the church, where he came to give thanks to God for the unexpected and miraculous renewal of his bleak life. There the Savior also saw him, Who turned to him with a simple but important warning: “Behold, you have recovered; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). Obviously, this man bore a grave punishment for his grave sins, for which he received forgiveness along with healing. But he turned out to be unworthy of such a great benefit. Having learned who his benefactor was, he, in order to shield himself from the guilt of violating the Sabbath, “went and announced to the Jews that the one who healed him was Jesus” (John 5:15). This was all His enemies needed. They had already felt the danger for them of the power with which the Prophet of Nazareth violated their rights, as was the case when expelling the merchants from the church, and only His quick departure to Galilee deprived them of the opportunity to persecute Him at the same time, as they did with John the Baptist. Having now learned of His appearance again in Jerusalem and feeling what a bold blow He was inflicting on their favorite idol of the Sabbath, they did not fail to subject Him to a public interrogation as to what right He had to violate the Sabbath with such deeds. But at the same time they had to listen to the Savior’s answer, which, with its irresistible power of evidence, plunged them into helpless confusion. To a stern question, Christ answered the Jews: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). These words contain the whole spirit of Christ's teaching regarding the Sabbath. When God finished creating the world, His Sabbath was not rest in the sense of a complete cessation of activity. He works continuously, precisely by his providence and grace, supporting the entire creation and restoring it from fall to a new spiritual life. And the Heavenly Father did this good deed throughout all eternity, including Sabbath days and years. And since the Word of God is a constant participant in the activity of God Himself, then It, having become incarnate on earth and taking on human form, also does this great work and can use the Sabbath for Him. Hence the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), and in general the Sabbath was established for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Such arguments, spoken with powerful persuasiveness, led the Jews into extreme confusion and indignation, and they, not being able to put forward arguments corresponding to their strength, resorted to a simpler means: “And the Jews began to persecute Jesus, and sought to kill Him because He did such things on the Sabbath. And the Jews sought even more to kill Him because He not only violated the Sabbath, but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:16,18). Meanwhile, the Savior took advantage of this opportunity to point out to them His messianic dignity, and as a warning pointed out to them how, in their blindness, they lost sight of the fact that so recently such a great prophet as John the Baptist testified about Him, and this testimony was in complete agreement with Moses and all Scripture. But the hatred of the Prophet of Nazareth that had sunk into the hearts of the Jewish leaders did not give them the opportunity to penetrate into the deep meaning of these arguments, and they only began to follow Him with greater insistence in order to find cases of new violations of their fathers’ regulations and to be able to act more boldly against Christ. The opportunity soon presented itself. The Savior left Jerusalem immediately after the end of Passover and went with His disciples towards Galilee, along a road winding among fields of barley, which by this time was producing the first fruits, the firstfruits of which were sacrificed on the second day of Passover. The law allowed people to pick ears of corn along the way to satisfy their hunger, and the disciples, taking advantage of this right, actually picked the ears of corn, rubbed them in their hands and ate them. And it was Saturday. The vigilant enemies immediately seized upon this new case of Sabbath violation with malevolent joy. According to the interpretation of learned rabbis, plucking ears of corn was equated to harvesting, rubbing them with hands was equated to threshing, and stoning was prescribed for carrying out such work. In their opinion it was a terrible crime. There have been cases in history where true Jews agreed to starve rather than break the Sabbath. One Jewish pilot, despite threats of death, refused to touch the helm during a terrible storm after the sun had set and the Sabbath had arrived. But these pitiful Galileans and their Teacher could not tolerate several hours of simple hunger and brazenly violated the sanctity of the Sabbath! Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Pharisees immediately surrounded the Savior, pointing with gloating at the apostles: “look what they are doing,” with a contemptuous nod at the disciples, “they are doing on Saturday what they should not do!” (Mark 2:24) But the Savior, with truly divine insight, seeing the deceit of the hypocrite interrogators, immediately defended His disciples and, again declaring Himself the Lord of the Sabbath, pointed out in their justification examples from biblical history that clarified the true meaning of the Sabbath. “Have you not read,” Christ turned to the Pharisees and learned scribes, thereby exposing them in their ignorance of St. Scripture, the knowledge of which they boasted before the people, “What did David do when he had need and was hungry, he and those who were with him? How did he enter the house of God (on the Sabbath day) and eat the showbread, which neither he nor those with him were to eat, but only the priests?” (Luke 6:3–4). If David, their great king, their favorite, their saint, so openly and blatantly violated the letter of the law and yet was not subject to censure solely because of need, then why blame the disciples for an innocent act in order to satisfy their hunger? And then, if their own rabbis determined that “there is no Sabbath in the church,” that the priests could chop wood on the Sabbath, light a fire and place freshly baked showbread on the table, kill sacrificial animals, circumcise children and thus in every possible way violate the rules of Sabbath accepted by them and blindly followed - violate by permission of the law itself (Num. 26:9); If it is possible to break the Sabbath for the sake of the church, then is it not possible to break it for the sake of Him who is greater than the church? And the Christ whom they persecute is precisely greater than the church, and like the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. It would be better for them, instead of observing such trifles of equality, to remember the great saying of the prophet that mercy is better than sacrifice (Hos. 6:6), love for mankind is higher than soulless ritualism. In order to further demonstrate to the Pharisees the unfoundedness of their anger against the imaginary violators of the Sabbath, the Savior on the same day took advantage of a new opportunity that presented itself to Him in the synagogue of the nearest town. In the synagogue there was a man, according to legend a mason, who was injured in an accident, from which his hand withered; he begged Christ to heal him in order to get rid of the bitter need to beg. Everyone knew about his presence, as well as obviously about his purpose, and therefore the main places were occupied by the scribes and Pharisees, whose evil gazes were fixed on Christ in anticipation of what He would do, in order to then accuse Him. He did not leave them bewildered for long. First, He told the man with the withered hand to come out and stand in the middle. And then He left the question which was already on their minds to the decision of their own consciences, only putting it in such a way as to show them its true meaning: “Should He, asked He, to do good on the Sabbath, or to do evil? to save the soul (as I do), or to destroy it (as you plan in your heart)?” (Mark 3:4). There was only one possible answer to this question, but they obviously had not gathered here to seek or tell the truth. Their only goal was to monitor what He would do, in order to base a public accusation before the Sanhedrin on this, or at least brand Him with the shameful stain of a Sabbath-breaker. Therefore, they answered the question put to him with an inviolable, evasive silence. But Christ did not want to allow them to escape the verdict of their own conscience, and therefore, to justify Himself, He cited an example from their usual practice, which made it completely impossible for them to answer this question. “Which of you, He asked, having one sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take it and pull it out? How much better is a man than a sheep? (Matthew 12:11–12). The argument was irresistible, and the example itself could not be denied, and yet the angry silence of the co-questioners remained unbroken. He looked at them angrily; holy indignation burned in His heart, shone on His face, enlivened His movements, sounded in His voice when He slowly ran His eyes over all these faces elongated with malicious stubbornness, denouncing them of anger and baseness, ignorance and pride; and then, suppressing this bitter and strong feeling, He turned to doing a work of mercy and said to the sick man: “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13), and to the great amazement of everyone present, he stretched it out, and it became as healthy as another. And thus Christ again defeated His enemies, and not only with verbal arguments, but also with a deed of great mercy, which served to the new glory of the Messiah. XI. Ministry in Galilee and around Lake Galilee. Election of the twelve apostles. The Sermon on the Mount and the essence of New Testament legislation All these events showed that in Judea there was no opportunity for the unhindered preaching of the Gospel, and Christ again withdrew to Galilee, to the shores of His beloved Lake Gennesaret, and there, far from the ardent fanaticism of the blind adherents of the outdated covenant, He began a detailed exposition of the beginnings of the New Testament - in contrast to them from the beginnings of the Old Testament. But in order for the new sermon not to remain a voice crying in the wilderness, it was necessary to formally form a selected circle of followers who, having renounced the entire past, had to devote themselves entirely to the new and serve as the grain from which the tree of New Testament humanity was to grow. Christ did this first of all. At this time, people were constantly following the Savior, eager to listen to His divine word and take advantage of His miracles. Tired of preaching, the Savior withdrew into solitude and spent the night in prayer on one of the mountains, preparing for the great event of the next day. And so, when the day dawned, Christ called to Himself the most devoted followers and from them chose twelve disciples, who from that time were to become not just followers of Christ, as they had been until then, but His Apostles, that is, messengers who took upon themselves the responsibility not only to accept, but also to spread the new teaching. He chose them twelve in number, so that the chosen people of the New Testament, like the people of the Old Testament, would also have twelve spiritual ancestors or patriarchs. All these chosen ones were pure Israelites, not pagans or proselytes, since it was through the descendants of Abraham that the blessing of the New Testament was to be extended to the pagans, and, moreover, not from the tribe of Levi or the Aaronic priesthood, since Christ founded a completely new priesthood. During the election itself, the Savior, of course, took into account the spiritual qualities of those chosen. He chose not the rich, enlightened or powerful of this world, but the simplest people, whose entire dignity lay in their pure soul, uncorrupted by any false influences, and an immaculate heart, which provided convenient soil for sowing the new gospel. Here are the names of these New Testament patriarchs of humanity: Peter and Andrew - sons of Jonah; James and John are the sons of Zebedee; and Philip - all five from the small fishing village of Bethsaida. Then come Nathanael or Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, Jacob Alpheus (or Small), Judas - the brother of this Jacob, Simon the Zealot, originally from Cana, and Judas Iscariot, that is, originally from the Jewish town of Kariota. From this glorious society of the Apostles, three - James the Lesser, Judas (brother) Jacob and Simon the Zealot are almost unknown to us. The Gospels say nothing about their identity, and only ev. John, when describing the Last Supper, mentions “Judas not Iscariot,” who, along with others, addressed a well-known question to the Savior (John 14:22). Simon is known only by his nickname, Zealot. “Zealot” or “Cananite” are names identical in meaning and show that he once belonged to the number of violent and frantic followers of Judah Giskalsky. The Greek names of Philip and Andrew, as well as the fact that it was Philip who was approached by the Greeks who wanted to see the Savior before the end of His earthly ministry, and that he conveyed this request to Andrew, perhaps indicate some of their connections with the Hellenists; but apart from their original calling, almost nothing more is reported about them; the same is true of Nathanael and Matthew. About Thomas, also called Dedides, i.e. “twin,” which is only the Greek translation of his Hebrew name, there are several interesting facts that show him to be a man of peculiar character, ingenuous and simple-minded, but at the same time ardent and generous; ready to die, but tight on faith. Judas, a man from Kariot, perhaps the only Jew in the societies of the Apostles, is usually placed last on the list of Apostles, obviously as a person who was far inferior to others in his legal capacity for the high position of apostleship and who subsequently proved this with a terrible crime. Of the entire community of the Apostles, three, namely Peter, James and John, were awarded the highest honor of belonging to the closest circle of the most chosen friends and followers of Christ. They alone were allowed to be present with Him at the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, during the transfiguration and dying prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Nothing more is known about Jacob, except that he was awarded the high honor of being the first martyr from the company of the apostles. He and his brother John, although they were fishermen, were apparently in better material circumstances than their comrades. Zebedee, their father, not only had his own boat, but also kept hired workers; and John accidentally mentions in his Gospel that he was known to the high priest. This is explained by the fact that he often visited Jerusalem and there was engaged in the sale of fish, which were delivered there from Lake Galilee. He was still quite a young man, and the purity of his believing heart was precisely the reason that he became a special favorite of his Divine Teacher, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). But the most prominent member among this chosen trinity was St. Peter, who by his very nature deserved the name given to him twice as a stone or rock (Cephas - Peter), on which the confession of Christ by God was based. In his person, Christ acquired his most devoted student and follower, who stopped at nothing just to declare his love and his boundless devotion to the Teacher. His very renunciation of Christ at the terrible moment of the betrayal of Judas was only a reason for the deepest repentance, which even more and finally strengthened in him the feeling of love and devotion to the One whom he first confessed to be Christ, the Son of the Living God. The election of the twelve apostles marks one of the decisive moments in the public ministry of Christ. Hitherto He had not yet made an open proclamation of the New Testament in abolition of the Old, although in some cases He already showed the purpose of His ministry. Now the time has come for the open proclamation of the truths of the New Testament, and the Savior, having around Him devoted disciples and followers who accepted the readiness to be guides and proclaimers of the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven among mankind, was not slow in revealing before them and before the gathered people all the secrets and treasures of the Kingdom of God that He founded on earth. He did this in detail in the famous Sermon on the Mount, which contained, as it were, a complete exposition of the New Testament law, in contrast to the Old Testament. The Savior pronounced it on the mountain (as a result of which it received its name), and the legend, more precisely determining the location, points to the mountain known as the “Horns of Hatti,” located about two hours from Tiberias. This mountain, with its two humps or spurs rising sixty feet above the valley separating them, corresponds very closely to the details of the Gospel narrative. It is located not far from Lake Galilee and does not present any difficulty in climbing to its top, and, not reaching the very top, there is also a platform on which it was convenient for the listeners to gather and sit down. Christ Himself, according to the custom of the teachers of His time, probably sat on some rocky eminence, which made it possible for His divine voice to be heard over the assembled crowd, in front of which, at the very feet of the Teacher, sat the newly elected Apostles. It was a significant meeting of the nascent Church of Christ. It was somewhat similar to the meeting of the Old Testament church before Mount Sinai; but there not only people, but also all nature trembled from the terrible co-presence of the invisible Divinity; here people crowded at the very feet of the God made man, pouring out words of love and mercy in the midst of nature, which itself seemed to delight in the gospel and rejoiced in anticipation of its own deliverance from the curse that weighed on it for the sake of man. If we assume that the sermon began early in the morning, then the sun, with its indirect rays, gilded the entire surrounding area with its rich spring attire, and a wondrous sight opened up from the mountain: on the right sparkled the mirror surface of a delightful lake with awakening life in the coastal cities and villages surrounding it, and to the north the gigantic Hermon rose majestically in the morning darkness, the snowy peak of which glowed with multi-colored lights in bright rays of the rising sun, and all nature seemed to freeze in reverent silence to listen to the sermon about the beginnings of the Kingdom of God on earth. Christ began His preaching by identifying those who could become members of the new Kingdom and take advantage of the right to blessedness provided in it. In the old Mosaic Law, belonging to the chosen Kingdom of Jehovah was determined by the bodily and generally external properties and signs of people - their descent from Abraham and the circumcision of them, and these only properties gave the right to those advantages that constituted the only belonging to the Kingdom of Jehovah. In the new Kingdom, external properties have no meaning and everything is determined by the internal dignity of a person, which serves as the source of bliss. In this sense, first of all, “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, one must realize one’s spiritual poverty, one’s distance from original spiritual perfection, feel the desire to again achieve this perfection, and then it is precisely a person who becomes worthy of the highest help that will assist him in achieving this great goal. Here a completely new beginning of life was proclaimed, different from the one that guided humanity in the ancient world, when spiritual pride led to the consciousness of its spiritual wealth, and yet this wealth not only was not true wealth, but, being the most pitiful beggary (as it became clear especially later - Acts 12), at the same time served as an obstacle to the acquisition of that true spiritual wealth that was proclaimed by Christ and His Apostles. But once a person realizes his spiritual poverty and understands how far he is from his destiny, he will involuntarily grieve over such unworthiness: and “blessed are those who mourn; for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), that is, they will be the first to receive that “comfort” that all true believers in Israel expected (Luke 2:25). Having realized his unworthiness and cleansed from sin, a person becomes meek and humble, and “blessed are the meek; for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). The ancient world was ruled by the proud and persistent, who made the earth their heritage through violence, fire and sword; now the time has come for the virtue of humility, which was despised in ancient times, to reign, and to it belongs the inheritance of the earth. With the general dominance in antiquity of the beginnings of violence, truth or justice often remained unsatisfied and there were many “hungering and thirsting for truth.” They were then the most miserable of men; but now they are “blessed; for they will be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6), since the new Kingdom will be the embodiment of righteousness. When truth reigns, mercy must also reign, for mercy and truth are like two sisters in the field of virtue; and therefore “blessed are the merciful; for they themselves will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). But in order to achieve these virtues, a person must first of all cleanse his heart from everything sinful, dark and base, and then he will be rewarded with a bliss unthinkable in the Old Testament: “blessed are the pure in heart; for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Having reached this degree of perfection, a person will lose any reason and ability to enmity with his neighbors, recognizes his brotherhood with all people and will strive to establish universal peace on earth. Therefore, “blessed are the peacemakers; for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9), that is, participants in that sonship, the highest representative of which was the preaching Son of God, who came to reconcile heaven with earth, man with God. The work of establishing peace and truth on earth, which for millennia has been the scene of all kinds of violence, fratricide and untruth, of course must meet resistance from representatives of the old kingdom, and they will persecute and expel new preachers: but “blessed are those who were persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). “Blessed are you,” Christ concluded, when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for My sake. Rejoice and be glad; for great is your reward in heaven: so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11–12). The last words already referred exclusively to the Apostles, as prophets of the New Testament, and Christ then addressed them with a further explanation of their purpose and position in the world. “You are the salt of the earth,” He told them. If the salt loses its strength (as was noticed with the salt blocks at the Dead Sea), then how will you make it salty? It is no longer good for anything except throwing it out to be trampled upon by people” (Matthew 5:13) (as was exactly what was done with unusable salt at the church, where it was thrown out and scattered along the slopes of the church mountain instead of sand, so that in wet weather it would be more convenient for the priests and people to walk). But the Apostles are more than the salt of the earth. They are the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), which hitherto was mired in the darkness of religious and moral error, and therefore they must stand in full view of everyone, like that city standing on the top of the mountain (Safed, clearly visible from the Mount of Beatitudes due to its high position at 2,650 feet above sea level), which due to this very position cannot hide from anyone’s gaze. Likewise, “having lit a candle, they do not put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to everyone in the house. So let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:15–16). This teaching could not help but amaze the listeners with its extraordinary sublimity, and to them, accustomed to the lifeless, hackneyed teaching of the rabbis, it could easily seem completely new, as if destroying the old law of Moses, on which the entire life of the chosen people had hitherto rested. Christ also caught the shadow of this bewilderment on their face and decided to finally dispel it. “Do not think, He said, that I came to destroy the law or the prophets (as the highest heralds and expounders of the law); I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). The law must be preserved in all its power until it is all fulfilled, so that the violator of at least one of its commandments “will be called least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19), and on the contrary, a person who keeps the law and teaches other people to observe it will also be exalted in this kingdom. But “I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Zealous for the observance of the law and boasting of righteousness, these national teachers essentially perverted the entire inner meaning of the law. In the ritual details they invented, they observed extraordinary severity, such as. in keeping the laws of the Sabbath and cleanliness. In the latter respect, the most ardent fanatics of Pharisaism even reached the monstrous conclusion that a person who touched the scrolls of St. Scripture, was made unclean, since they say the parchment or skin on which it was written could belong to an unclean animal, or was equated to a corpse, contact with which, according to the law, desecrated a person. And at the same time, these teachers brazenly trampled upon all true righteousness, which consists in observing the sublime moral principles of the law. In order to express His thoughts more clearly, Christ presented a whole series of comparisons of the Old Testament law as interpreted by the scribes and Pharisees with the sublime principles of the New Testament Kingdom. “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Thou shalt not kill; whoever kills will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21). The scribes and Pharisees interpreted this law in its literal, narrow sense of murder; but in the New Kingdom this law received a broader and deeper meaning and extends its effect even to sudden and vain anger, which can become a source of hostility with its disastrous consequences, and to all sorts of contemptuous expressions degrading human dignity, such as cancer or crazy. In the New Kingdom, this law no longer punishes only the hand that commits murder, but also the heart that harbors any enmity that could bear disastrous fruit. As a result of this, even a gift offered on the altar to God cannot be accepted until the heart is completely freed from all evil. – Then “you have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery” (Matthew 5:27). The rabbis also understood this law in the sense of literal adultery, in addition to which all sorts of liberties were allowed to please the flesh. According to the law of the New Kingdom, sin was again punished at its source - in the heart, and they condemned the very thought of anything illegal, the very desire of the flesh, the very look at a woman with lust, since the person who looked at her like that “has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). - “It is also said: if a man divorces his wife, let him give her a divorce decree” (Matthew 5:31). Pharisee righteousness used this law with the most shameless arbitrariness - to please the flesh. Divorce was allowed under the widest conditions. “If anyone, the scribes taught, sees a woman more beautiful than his wife, then he can let his wife go and marry this woman,” and this rule was based on the text of the Mosaic Law! Even such a strict lawyer as the famous Shammai was of the opinion that if a wife goes out into the street without the usual eastern veil over her face, then she can be divorced on this basis. The school of another famous lawyer, Hillel, in its interpretation went as far as to monstrously expand this principle, namely by admitting that if a wife poorly prepares her husband’s dinner, oversalts it or overcooks it, then he can divorce her, as if she were stricken with some kind of bodily leprosy. As a result, the ease of divorce among the Jews assumed such proportions that it was an object of embarrassment and disgust even in the eyes of the pagan peoples surrounding them; Meanwhile, the rabbis proudly explained this licentiousness as a special advantage, supposedly granted only to Israel, and not to other nations. A woman thus divorced was immediately given the right to remarry, and this right was clearly expressed to her in the divorce document, which was signed by the witnesses to the dissolution of the marriage. Such domination of the flesh could not have a place in the New Kingdom, and Christ interpreted the Mosaic Law in its new sublime sense: “But I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for the guilt of fornication, gives her reason to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32). - “Again you have heard that it was said to the ancients: Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows before the Lord” (Matthew 5:33). Here, too, Pharisaic righteousness found an opportunity to break the law under the guise of its strict observance. They interpreted the last expression in the sense that only the oath is obligatory, which was accompanied by a special sacrifice before the Lord, and so on. it was possible to break any oath taken without this condition; and some even interpreted that any oath could be broken if only the Lord was not mentioned. From here, the Jews, with their trading and the deception associated with it, developed the terrible evil of making oaths, calling both heaven and earth, Jerusalem and their own heads as witnesses - all the more terrible because all these oaths were not observed by the majority. Therefore, it was necessary to stop this evil. The oath itself, in its inner essence, was a witness to the decline of morality and the sense of truth among people, since if a person were as immaculate and innocent as God created him, there would be no need for an oath, which implies fear for breaking a given word. Since in the New Kingdom the beginning of the primitive purity of the heart was restored, all sorts of elaborate oaths turned out to be unnecessary. “But I tell you: do not swear at all. But let your word be: yes, yes, no, no; and what is beyond this is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:34,37), since the stronger the oath, the greater the possibility of breaking it at the suggestion of the primordial father of lies. – There must be others in the New Testament Kingdom and the beginning of mutual relations in general. “You have heard that it was said: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Matthew 5:38). In the ancient world, human relations were dominated by the law of equal retribution for insults, resulting from the feeling of vengeance inherent in lower human nature. To compensate equal for equal was considered both fair and worthy of a person. This law, out of condescension in the weakness of human nature, was also recognized in the Mosaic legislation. “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” (Ex. 21:24,25). Stricter scribes understood this law in its literal precision, but others found it possible to translate this retribution into money, and developed a whole system of monetary penalties for insults and self-harm. Damage to an arm, leg or eye was assessed according to their known cost in obtaining a livelihood. The beating was variously valued from half a shekel to five or more shekels, depending on the importance and dignity of the person; a blow on the cheek cost two hundred zuzim, and on both cheeks twice that. For tearing out a piece of hair, for spitting, for taking away outer clothing, for uncovering a woman’s head, up to four hundred zuzim were charged. This ugly trade in human dignity assumed terrible proportions among the Jewish people, and simple justice demanded the suppression of such evil. But the New Kingdom, as based on the principles set out above, was supposed to introduce something else and indicate a completely different way of retribution for the evil caused. “It is said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer clothing too. And whoever forces you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:38–41). According to the New Testament law, not only is the cruel law of equal retribution denied, but also a completely different view of the relationship between good and evil is proclaimed. In the ancient world, the kingdom belonged to sin and evil had a victorious character, so that all good, in order to maintain its existence, had to resist evil, fight it by external and internal means, and protect itself from its destructive influence. This is how God acted, who, in order to preserve good in the world, once destroyed the corrupted human race that had submitted to evil with a flood, and in his subsequent life he chose special individuals and an entire people, whom he protected from triumphant evil both by separating them from the environment of the sinful world, and by special laws that made these chosen ones more capable of preserving good and protecting them from the invasion of evil. The relationship between good and evil in the new kingdom was to be established completely differently. Here evil lost its victory and hell lost its deadly sting, and on the contrary, all good, having received special help from above, became victorious, and the kingdom of goodness and grace began. Hence, there was no longer any need for good to resort to external means of resistance to evil, which presuppose the consciousness of internal weakness. Good, as a triumphant principle, could now rely entirely on its own internal strength given to it, against which all evil had to be broken. Even if evil temporarily triumphs over good and oppresses it; but this triumph will only be external, illusory, and it won’t be long before the suppressed and defeated good from the outside will show its inner victorious power and not only triumph over evil, but also turn it into good. Thus, a highly enlightened people, even when subjected to enslavement by a savage horde, soon shows its inner superiority and forces the victors themselves to recognize themselves as defeated; or else: a huge ice floe brought from the pole brings cold into the warmest countries, but this cold is only temporary and it disappears under the sultry rays of the southern sun, from which even the ice floe melts. But such a common principle, for its full implementation, presupposes a society completely imbued with the spirit of the new kingdom, when goodness will truly become an element of social life. Until humanity has reached this degree of perfection, the commandment of non-resistance to evil has meaning only in the sense of limiting the egoistic feeling of retribution inherent in human nature for harm or evil caused; so where it is not personal rights that are violated, but justice itself is violated, resistance to evil is not only completely legal, but also necessary. Christ Himself expressed humble reproach for the blow inflicted on His cheek by the servant of the high priest (John 18:22, 23), and the apostle. Paul protested with even greater insistence against a similar insult to himself (Acts 23:3), thereby showing that violation of justice cannot be allowed without damaging the highest law of justice in human relations. By protecting himself from injustice, a person protects not only himself personally, but also the truth itself, which it is his sacred duty to protect. Hence, every society, given the current imperfect state of its spiritual and moral life, has the right and must protect the principles underlying its life, can and must punish criminals or perpetrators of evil, and thus maintain the kingdom of good in the world until it itself acquires unconditional dominance, when such external protection becomes unnecessary. That good should not remain in a passive position in relation to evil and, on the contrary, should strive to defeat it with its inner strength, this is clarified in the following comparison of the Mosaic Law and Rabbinic righteousness with the New Testament law. “You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43). Ancient humanity, in its forced resistance to all-conquering evil, completely obscured the idea of ​​all-human brotherhood in its consciousness and, limiting it to the closest circle of “neighbors,” only treated these latter with love, considering everyone else enemies, whom it was considered impossible to include in the all-human fraternal union. This was the case even among the most enlightened pagan peoples (Greeks), who only considered themselves worthy of the human title, denying others any human dignity and treating them with contempt and hatred, as barbarians. The Mosaic legislation stood above all others in this regard and sought to introduce into the consciousness of the people the idea of ​​universal brotherhood, granting certain rights to foreigners if they settled among the chosen people. There was no saying in it: “hate your enemy” - this is only a rabbinic interpretation or addition to the commandment to love your neighbors; but the very possibility of such an increase showed what general idea lay at the basis of the international relations of the chosen people. Christ now preached a completely new truth, unheard of in the ancient world, which was supposed to completely change the hitherto existing view. “But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Here not only simple non-resistance to evil is preached, but also an active effort on the part of moral nature is required in the matter of pacifying mutual human relations. People are at enmity with each other due to forgetting the great truth that they are all “sons of one heavenly Father,” and this truth will not be generally recognized and understood by everyone until people divide themselves into neighbors and enemies and consider themselves to have the right to treat some with feelings of love and others with feelings of hatred. Let the members of the New Testament Kingdom be the first to show that such division is unnatural and disastrous for humanity, since it supports discord and enmity between people, and then the enemies themselves will come to the conviction of the groundlessness of enmity and all of humanity will become one indivisible brotherhood. Such a requirement may seem impossible to a person. But let him remember that, as created in the image and likeness of God, by his very nature he is capable of endless improvement. In the Fall, he lost a significant part of his godlikeness and became a slave of corruption; now he is given new power to restore this lost godlikeness, and let him strive for it. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). After setting out these general principles of New Testament legislation, the Savior added several specific instructions that already followed from these basic principles. Members of the new kingdom should be merciful and compassionate towards the poor, but alms should be given not with publicity and self-exposure, but modestly and secretly. One should pray not with hypocrisy, for everyone to see, but in holy solitude. Fasting must be maintained not as a self-praising virtue, but as a secret self-denial. All these works of piety must be done solely out of love for God, in simplicity of heart, not seeking earthly reward, but laying up for ourselves imperishable treasures in heaven. Service to God itself must be sincere, complete and undivided. The cares and anxieties of life should not amuse or disturb him. God, to whom it is offered, is also the Father, and He who always feeds the birds of the air, which neither sow nor reap, and clothes the flowers of the field with more than royal beauty, will not leave His children without food and clothing when they seek first of all His righteousness. Finally, Christ inspired that he who listens to these words and fulfills them is like a prudent man who, building a house for himself, laid its foundation on a rock, as a result of which his house withstood the most powerful pressures of storms and bad weather; but he who hears and does not do them “will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand; and the rain fell, and the rivers overflowed, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and its fall was great” (Matthew 7:26–27). This entire sermon, majestic and marvelous in its divine wisdom, made a deep impression on the listeners. “The people marveled at His teaching: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees” (Matthew 7:28–29). XII. Healing of the leper and the centurion's servant. Resurrection of the son of the Nain widow. Embassy of John the Baptist. Forgiveness of a sinner in the house of Simon the Pharisee When Jesus Christ came down from the mountain, a multitude of people followed Him, as if they did not want to part with such a wondrous Teacher, who poured out the sweet words of the gospel. And the truth of the teaching was soon confirmed by a number of great events, which should have shown the people even more who this great and sweet Teacher is. From the mountain, Christ headed to one of the coastal towns, and upon entering it, an extremely sad sight suddenly presented itself to His eyes. A leper appeared before Him, falling first to his knees with a desperate prayer and then prostrating himself with a heartfelt cry, asking for his healing from a terrible and disgusting disease. On the part of the unfortunate man, extraordinary faith in the young Prophet of Nazareth was required in order to recognize in Him the power to heal the disease, which, according to everyone’s belief, once it penetrated the blood, constantly intensified and was incurable. All the hopes of life were expressed in the passionate plea of ​​the unfortunate man: “Lord, if you want, you can cleanse me!” (Matthew 8:2). And an infinitely merciful answer was heard to His faith: “I want to, be cleansed” (Matthew 8:3). All the miracles of Christ were at the same time revelations. When required by the circumstances of the case, He sometimes did not immediately answer the prayer of the sufferer. But there was not a single case when He slowed down even for a moment when a leper cried out to Him. Leprosy was considered a sign of sin, and Christ wanted to teach us that the sinner's heartfelt prayer for cleansing always finds speedy satisfaction. When David, the prototype of all truly repentant, cried out with true contrition: “I have sinned before the Lord,” the prophet Nathan immediately brought him the merciful gospel from God: “The Lord has taken away your sin from you; you will not die” (2 Samuel 12:13). The Savior stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and he was immediately cleansed. At the same time, the Savior forbade the healed person to disclose this event, since touching the leper, as prohibited by law, could again cause a storm of indignation on the part of soulless lawyers, for whom the dead letter of the law was more valuable than any love for mankind. Instead, he had to go and show himself to the priests and bring the prescribed gift to receive formal evidence of his cleansing. But the healed man was too happy about his happiness to hide it in his heart, and did not fulfill the order of silence, publicizing his healing everywhere. As soon as the Savior arrived in the city of Capernaum, where His temporary residence was located, a deputation of Jewish elders, probably official members of the main synagogue, came to meet Him with a request from the centurion, whose faithful and beloved slave was seized by a dangerous attack of illness. It might seem strange that the Jewish elders took such close interest in a man who, Roman or not, was in any case undoubtedly a pagan and only perhaps a “stranger of the gates.” The elders, however, explained that he not only loved their people (an extremely unusual trait in a pagan, since, generally speaking, everyone treated the Jews with special disgust), but even at his own expense built them a synagogue, which, in its beauty and majesty, was considered the main synagogue in Capernaum. Their very appeal to Jesus shows that this event dates back to the early period of His ministry, when everyone still looked at Him with amazement and hope, and there was still no mortal hostility that marked the following days. Christ immediately answered their request: “I will come, He said, and heal him” (Matthew 8:7). But on the road they met other messengers from the humble and pious centurion, who through them asked Him not to enter under the unworthy roof of a pagan, but to heal the suffering servant with a simple miraculous word, as He healed the courtier’s son. Just as a centurion, although a subordinate man, always has servants ready to carry out his orders, so could not Christ command the invisible servants to fulfill His will, without undertaking this work on Himself? The Savior was amazed by such a remarkable faith, greater than which He had never encountered even in Israel. On the wild olive tree He found what He did not find on the garden olive tree; and from this circumstance He drew a teaching that struck the ears of the Jews with such coldness and unpleasantness: when many of the true sons of the kingdom are cast out into utter darkness, many will come from the east and west and lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 8:11). Those sent, returning to the house, found that the healing word had its effect and the sick servant recovered. But these amazing events were followed by an even more amazing miracle. One of the following days, the Savior, going around the neighboring cities with a sermon, came, by the way, to Nain. Now it is a dirty and miserable village, lying on the northwestern slope of Mount Little Hermon, forty-three miles from Capernaum. This name (it still holds) means “beautiful,” and the position of the town near Endor fully justifies it: it nestles picturesquely on the hilly slopes of a majestic mountain, in view of Tabor and the heights of Zebulun. Having set out, as is always done in the east, early, in the cool of the morning, Jesus Christ could arrive in this town shortly after noon, and at the very entrance a sad sight presented itself. The body of the deceased young man was taken out of the gate for burial outside the city wall. This spectacle was more sad than usual, and therefore it was probably accompanied by a more desperate and uncontrollable cry than ordinary mourning for the dead. This young man was “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow” (Luke 7:12). The sight of this terrible sorrow resonated irresistibly in the infinitely loving heart of the Savior. Taking pity on the unfortunate mother and telling her: “don’t cry” (Luke 7:12), He approached the bed, or rather the open coffin, in which the dead young man lay and, again not paying attention to the purely ritual decree, touched him. Seeing this, everyone instantly froze in anticipation. The porters involuntarily stopped, overcome with fear. And then, among the grief-stricken relatives and the silent crowd surrounding them, the calm voice of Christ was heard: “young man, I say to you: get up” (Luke 7:14). This voice penetrated into the unknown and mysterious region of death and shook its very kingdom. The dead man stood up and began to speak; and the Savior “gave the young man to his mother” (Luke 7:15). At the sight of this, everyone was overcome with fear. The people remembered Elijah and the widow of Sarepta, Elisha and the woman from nearby Sonam. They, the greatest of the prophets, also returned to single women their dead only sons. But they did this with effort and intense prayer, languishing in prayer and prostrating themselves over the corpse (1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings. 4:35); Meanwhile, Jesus performed this miracle calmly, unexpectedly, instantly, with His own Name, with His own authority, with His one word. And the people involuntarily thought after this that “a great Prophet arose among them, and God visited His people” (Luke 7:15). About this time the Savior received a brief but emotional message from John the Baptist. At that time he was languishing in prison, and rumors about the preaching and extraordinary deeds of Jesus could not help but reach him. He could only rejoice in these deeds of Him, of whom he more than once gave the most solemn testimony as the consolation of Israel. But his own plight did not quite correspond to bright expectations, and some of his disciples began to express doubts to him regarding the truth of his testimony. To assure them, he sent several of them to the Savior with the question: “Are you the one who should come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 7:20). The disciples found Jesus Christ among the extraordinary works of His Divine mercy, and He directly pointed out these works of His. To strengthen the dejected spirit of the great prophet, the Savior ordered his disciples to go and tell John what they had seen and heard, namely, that “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor are preached to.” And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (Luke 7:22-23), Christ added, expressing by this that true faith in the Messiah should not waver from the failure to fulfill any personal desires on His part, as could be the case with John himself, who could not help but harbor a secret desire for some miracle on the part of the Messiah witnessed by him in freeing him from a heavy prison sentence. And when John’s disciples departed, the Savior, turning to the people, pronounced to John the highest praise that a person could receive. “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen a greater man than John the Baptist; but, added Christ, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he” (Luke 7:28), that is, despite the greatness of John as a prophet of the Old Testament, every direct listener of Christ who sincerely accepts faith in Him has more rights to enter the New Kingdom than even this great prophet, who was, as it were, a new Elijah, who foreshadowed the coming of the New Kingdom. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 11:15) the Savior solemnly concluded His sublime conversation about John. Since by this time it had become clear that even in those cities that were primarily the place of teaching and activity of the Savior, the people did not always reveal true faith in the coming Messiah and apparently did not want to part with their false idea of ​​the conquering Messiah, so they cared not so much about the Kingdom of Heaven as they burned with vengeance towards their Roman enslavers and nurtured in their hearts a proud dream of the time when Rome itself bows before the expected Messiah, then the Savior uttered a stern warning. “Then He began to rebuke the cities in which His powers were most manifested, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the powers that were demonstrated in you had been demonstrated in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you: it will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon, those wicked pagan cities of neighboring Phenicia, on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who have ascended to heaven, will be cast down to hell: for if the powers that were manifested in you had been manifested in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you” (Matthew 11:20–24). In these words, Christ acted not only as a prophet, but also as a Judge, whose sentence was to be carried out (as it actually was) in all its terrible accuracy. Most of these cities have not been left unturned, and their very location is forgotten or the subject of dispute. But Christ found consolation in the fact that if the revelation or divine wisdom He proclaimed remained hidden for those who imagine themselves wise and reasonable, then it is open to infants, that is, to the lowest members of the human family in mental and social position, who hitherto bore all the burdens of contempt in the world. And now the Savior turned to them with a loving appeal: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). Now there was enough evidence for everyone that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah Christ. But He had not yet been anointed, and this anointing had to take place now. If Christ was born in a manger and made the main self-revelation about His messianic dignity to a wretched and sinful Samaritan woman, then it is not surprising that His anointing was not performed by the high priest in the solemn atmosphere of the church, but under the simplest circumstances, capable of causing confusion in an unenlightened soul. In one of the coastal towns, the Savior received an invitation to the house of a Pharisee who bore the name Simon, which was very common at that time. The invitation was made in the spirit of Pharisaic insincerity - simply with the aim of being curious about this Teacher from the despised Nazareth, so that even the usual rules of hospitality, which required the host to greet the guest with a kiss, wash his feet and provide all the necessary amenities, were not observed. The table was set, and all the invited guests reclined at it, as was the custom at that time among the Jews, imitating the Greeks and Romans. During feasts, the doors of the house in the east were not closed, so that any stranger could enter it - if not take part in the feast, then at least stand and look at the feasters. But this time, among others, one person took it upon herself to invade this venerable house, whose presence was not only undesirable, but positively disgusting to the owner. One unfortunate, vicious, fallen woman, known in that area for her bad life, having learned that Jesus was reclining in the house of a Pharisee, dared to push through the crowd of other visitors with an alabaster vessel of ointment. She found Whom she was looking for, and humbly, standing behind Christ, listened to His words. Involuntarily thinking about Him and about her terrible fall - thinking about the immaculate, sinless purity of the holy young Prophet and about her own shameful and sinful life - she began to cry, and her tears dripped onto the bare feet of Christ, to which she bowed lower and lower, trying to hide her embarrassment and shame. The Pharisee would have recoil in horror from one touch, and not just from the tears of such a person; he would begin to wash himself in seven waters from the resulting defilement and with a curse would drive away the impudently intruding sinner. But this woman felt in her heart that Jesus would not do this to her; she felt that the deepest compassion is characteristic of the highest sinlessness; she saw that where the rigid decency would repel a sinner like her, there the perfect holiness of the Savior would be accepted. It is very likely that she heard the infinitely loving and merciful words spoken by Christ, perhaps on the same day: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Not being rejected, she became even more encouraged, and convinced that, no matter how others looked at her, the Savior in any case did not despise her, she moved even closer to Him and, kneeling down, with her long flowing hair began to wipe her feet, wet with her tears, cover them with kisses and finally, breaking an alabaster vase, began to anoint them with the precious and fragrant myrrh. The sight of a woman with loose hair, the shame of her humiliation, the agony of her repentance, the rapidly dripping tears, the sacrifice of incense, which served as one of the means of her shameful craft - all this could arouse some sympathy in the stony heart. But Simon the Pharisee looked at all this with cold disapproval and disgust. The irresistible impulse of a plea for mercy on the part of a despairing and broken-hearted woman did not move him. He was even disgusted that Jesus allowed the unfortunate creature to kiss and anoint his feet, although he had not yet addressed her with a single word of approval. If He were a Prophet (the Pharisee involuntarily thought), He should know what kind of woman this is; and if He had known this, He should have pushed her away with contempt and indignation, as Simon himself would certainly have done. If He had given even a sign, Simon would have been very glad to immediately free his house from such filth. The Pharisee did not express these thoughts out loud, but the Savior saw his heart and knew his thoughts, although he did not immediately reproach him for them and did not immediately expose his cold heartlessness and soulless cruelty. To attract general attention to his words, He turned to the owner: “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, Teacher,” he answered with some tension. “One creditor had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. But since they did not have anything to pay, he forgave them both. Tell me, which of them loved him more?” (Luke 7:40–42). Simon apparently did not have the slightest thought that the question had anything to do with himself, just as it had once happened with David when he pronounced a frank judgment regarding the parable of the prophet Nathan. “I think,” he said, “the one who was more forgiven.” - “You have judged correctly” (Lk. 7:43), Christ answered him, and then made a moralizing application of this little allegory, stern in its very gentleness and condescension, clothed in that poetically sublime form that the Savior often used in His teaching and which for those who heard Him sounded like the poetry of the prophets. Simon did not seem to see what this story was leading to, but the repentant sinner, with the more sensitive sensitivity of a contrite heart, probably saw it. But what excitement must have gripped her when Christ, as if he had not noticed her until then, now suddenly turned completely to her and, drawing the attention of all those present to her, who was timidly sitting on the floor and covering her embarrassed face with both hands and her loose hair, said loudly to the surprised Pharisee: “Simon, do you see this woman? I came to your house, and you did not give me water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You did not give Me a kiss, but she, since I came, has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you: her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:44-47). And then, turning no longer to Simon, but to the poor sinner, the Savior, with the authority of God’s Anointed One, added words of mercy: “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 7:48). All this made such a strong impression that the Pharisees did not dare to express any protest against such a claim to the right to forgive sins and only whispered among themselves, expressing mutual amazement: “Who is this that forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49). But the Savior penetrated into their secret thoughts, and in order not to give them a reason for further quarrels, once again turning to the sinner, he said to her: “Your faith has saved you: go in peace” (Luke 7:50). XIII. A new way of teaching is in parables. Parables about the Sower, about the mustard seed, about the wheat and the tares. Taming the storm on the lake. Healing of the Gadarene demoniac The incident in the house of Simon the Pharisee amply demonstrated that simple ordinary teaching is not enough to awaken the dormant conscience of the people and understand the great truths of the New Kingdom. What was needed was a form that would amaze and amaze the listeners with its fascination, clarity and expressiveness - precisely the form that struck Simon the Pharisee with such surprise, exposing his false, inhumane attitude towards the repentant sinner. Since such a form apparently struck all the listeners, Christ used it to further clarify the teaching He preached. From here He began a series of famous parables, which mark the period of the highest development of Christ’s preaching. The parable (mashal) was not unknown to the Jews, since already in the Old Testament there were attempts to clarify certain truths in a similar way (Judg. 9:7; Exod. 5:1; Ezek. 13:11 et seq.), and by this time it was in constant use by the rabbis. Its main feature is the presentation of moral or religious truth in a more vivid form than is possible with a simple presentation, and for this purpose the teacher uses the most ordinary and well-known phenomena from nature or everyday life, phenomena, comparison with which clearly depicts the truth being presented before the eyes of the listeners and indelibly imprints it in their memory. In its essence, a parable is close to a fable, insofar as it allows for the possibility of fictitious events; but it differs from it in that it constantly adheres to plausibility and does not allow the assignment to one or another of the characters depicted in it of such properties that are alien to them by nature. Being extremely simple, she is at the same time always distinguished by a serious and sublime character, and from the simplest phenomena extracts the deepest truths that can be indelibly imprinted on the minds of listeners. All the surrounding life provided inexhaustible material for parables; Christ, who with truly divine wisdom embodied in them the truths of the Kingdom of Heaven. A sower on a nearby hillside, tares in a field, an ordinary sprout of a mustard seed, leaven in dough, a treasure accidentally found by a plowman, and many other things of this kind served as an occasion for Him to present in the most fascinating form the deepest truths that the human mind is capable of perceiving. If other teachers also used the parable form of edification, not without success, then only with Christ this form received that truly divine and sublime character, which made the parable one of the most powerful tools for introducing the greatest truths of the Kingdom of God into the heart of humanity. When the Savior left the house of Simon the Pharisee, many people followed Him, eager to listen to His divine teaching. Christ headed to the shore of the lake. The crowd was large and pressed Him close to the water, not allowing His voice to be heard freely. Therefore, He, as before, entered the boat and from its elevated stern, as if from some kind of pulpit, addressed the people crowding along the shore with teachings, namely parables. The first of these wondrous tributary teachings was the parable of the Sower, depicting the very beginning of planting the word of God in the heart of man. In a country like Galilee, nothing could be more well-known and understandable than those images and pictures that are presented in this parable; and the sower himself could be right there in front of everyone, sowing a newly plowed field on a nearby slope that went down to the lake. Of the seeds he scattered, as the listeners well knew, “some fell along the road, and birds flew in and devoured them. Some fell on rocky places" (Matt. 13:3–6), where there was not much land; and since the earth was not deep, it soon sprang up, but without the proper root, it soon withered and withered under the scorching rays of the sun. “Something fell among the thorns (of which both then and now there are many growing in Palestine), and the thorns grew and choked it. Some (finally) fell on good soil and brought forth fruit: some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold” (Matthew 13:7–8). Having finished this parable, the Savior significantly added: “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13:9). The addition was not unnecessary, because many of the listeners, even having ears to hear, did not have sufficient intelligence to understand the parable. Despite its extraordinary simplicity and clarity, even the disciples did not understand its meaning and upon the Savior’s return to the house of St. Peter in Capernaum did not fail to ask her for clarification. This very request showed that the parable made a strong impression on them, touched upon a thought in them that required satisfaction. And the Savior was not slow to give the Apostles, as the future successors of His work, a detailed explanation of this parable. When asked why He spoke to the people in parables, the Savior answered that this is the only form of edification that can successfully teach the people, “who seeing does not see, and hearing does not hear, and does not understand” (Matthew 13:13), for, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “the heart of these people has become coarse, and with their ears they hear with difficulty, and they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and not They will hear with their ears, but will not understand with their heart” (Matthew 13:15). Let at least these external images be imprinted in the memory of people, so that if they are in a more favorable mood, they can serve as a means for them to penetrate into their inner meaning, which they have not yet been given the ability to understand. Only selected disciples were given “to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 13:11), and to them, as the heralds of these secrets, the Savior could offer an explanation of the external images of the parable. By the sower of the seed is meant the divine Preacher of the word of God Himself, and by the seed are His listeners. Some of the listeners are like the seed that fell along the road and was pecked by birds and trampled by passers-by. These are people with an insensitive and unresponsive heart, in which the Word of God does not find any basis for its vegetation and from which it is either immediately stolen by the spirit of malice, or is lost and perishes on the rocky road of everyday worries. Others of the listeners are like sown on rocky places, on which there is not much soil, but not enough to allow it to take root completely. These people perceive the Word of God with lively joy, but it does not take root in their hearts and they, under the influence of persecution and everyday adversity, reject it with the same ease, and it withers and dries up in their soul. And what was sown among thorns means the one who receives the word and gives it the opportunity to grow in his heart; but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth over time choke the word of God in them, and it becomes unfruitful (Matthew 13:22). Finally, what was sown on good soil signifies one who hears the word and understands, who is also fruitful, so that some bear fruit a hundredfold, some sixty, and others thirty (Matthew 13:23). In order to further reveal to the disciples the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Savior offered them several more parables, representing the development of the main idea. In the parable of the sower, the very planting of the seed of the Kingdom of God and the different fate of this seed in different hearts were explained. The Savior then explained the power of the seed to grow in a receptive soul. The Kingdom of God in this case is like a mustard seed, which, being one of the smallest seeds, when it grows, is larger than all the grains, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air fly and take refuge in its branches (Matthew 13:32). Or else it is like leaven, which a woman put in three measures of flour until it was all leavened (Matthew 13:33). Just as the mustard seed, by its very inner nature, grows into a great tree, or the leaven necessarily leavens the whole dough, so the New Testament Kingdom, despite its humble beginnings, was to spread its branches throughout the whole world and permeate it with its inner spirit. To establish it will not require any external, violent coups or fierce wars, as many of the listeners might have imagined. No, the Savior taught that the Kingdom of Heaven will triumph by the power of truth contained in its very being, and with this power - the power of faith and love - it will revive the world. But its growth will not happen without the tricks of the primordial enemy, who will not fail to use all the machinations of his wickedness to delay or stop the growth of this Kingdom. In this case, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field” (Matthew 13:24), in which, however, his enemy during the night sowed tares among the wheat in order to choke out the good seed with them. Noticing this, the servants invited their master to weed out the tares that had come up; but the master said to them: “No; by picking out the tares, you can pull up the wheat along with them. Therefore, leave both to grow until the harvest” (Matthew 13:29–30), when the reapers already have the opportunity to gather the tares without harming the wheat, at the command of the master they will tie them into bundles and burn them, and the wheat will be taken into the granary. The meaning of this parable, at the request of the disciples, as well as the first, was explained by the Savior Himself. In the church He founded, next to the wheat, there will also be tares, like the planting of the ancient enemy; but only the divine Judge at the last judgment can pronounce His impartial verdict on the fate of both, since during the present age everyone is given the full opportunity to repent and be reborn from the tares into good wheat. “For those,” says the bl. Augustine, who are tares today may become wheat tomorrow.” To explain this truth, the Savior said that “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the sea and capturing fish of all kinds; when it was full, they pulled it ashore and, sitting down, collected the good things into vessels, and threw the bad things out. So it will be at the end of the age: Angels will come out and separate the wicked from among the righteous; and they will throw them into the fiery furnace: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:47–50). The whole day passed in these wonderfully fascinating conversations. The people were all going to listen to the divine Preacher, but the Savior felt extreme fatigue and was overcome by an irresistible desire to retire and rest. The best way to do this was to retire to the opposite, less populated shore of Perea, and the Savior ordered His disciples to sail there. But before the boat pushed off from the shore, three from the crowd of listeners expressed a desire to become His permanent disciples and followers. The first of them was a scribe. Self-confidently thinking that his learning and social position made him the most desirable member of the Apostolic brotherhood, he boldly exclaimed: “Teacher! I will follow You wherever You go” (Matthew 8:19). But he was wrong. Christ foresaw his selfish heart, which expected to play a role in the Kingdom of Heaven, as he played it in the kingdom of earth, and simply answered him that in vain he counted on any earthly benefits by joining the ranks of Christ’s followers. “Foxes,” He said, “have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20) - so it is better for the scribe to remain in his former position until his arrogant heart is cleansed and he fully understands the mystery of the Kingdom of God. The second was already partly a disciple of the Savior, but he wished to fully become His follower, with the only condition that he first go and bury his father. “Follow Me,” came the decisive answer of Christ, and let the dead bury their dead” (Matthew 8:22); that is, leave the world and worldly affairs to their own care. Whoever wants to follow Christ must leave even his father and mother. He must leave the spiritually dead to care for their bodily dead. A similar answer was given to the third seeker of His discipleship. He also asked for a delay, wishing not to immediately join Christ during His journey, but first to say goodbye to his family and friends. To this there followed an answer that became a proverb for all subsequent times: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). “Whom, according to the wonderful saying of Bl. Augustine, the East is calling, he must turn his thoughts away from the fading West.” It was precisely this lofty thought that encouraged and strengthened themselves those great saints and ascetics of the Church who renounced all family attachments and for the sake of Christ left all worldly ties. Finally, when this delay had passed, the disciples could hoist the sail of their boat and set off. But even now Jesus was, so to speak, persecuted by His followers, because, as He reports. Mark, “there were other boats with Him” (Mark 4:36). The latter, however, since they are not mentioned upon arrival on the other side, in all likelihood soon fell behind, frightened by the signs of an approaching storm. In any case, the Savior, among his devoted disciples, could rest calmly in the boat, and as soon as they sailed from the shore, He bowed his tired head to the leather head at the stern and fell asleep in the sound sleep of a man weary with labors - the calm sleep of those who are in complete peace with God and their conscience. But even this much-needed sleep was soon destined to be interrupted by a violent awakening. One of those terrible and furious storms that are so common in this deep basin of the earth’s surface suddenly arose on the lake. Whirlwinds instantly swirled in the air, and the lake began to sway violently. The danger was terrible, the boat was tossed every now and then, engulfed by stumpy waves. Christ, lying on the open deck at the stern, was doused with splashes, but He slept calmly. His fatigue was so great that even a storm could not disturb His sleep; and so far no one has dared to wake Him up. But the waves had already completely begun to flood the boat, which began to fill with water and sink. Then, with cries of despair and horror, the disciples began to wake Him up: “Lord! Mentor! Mentor! “Save us, we are perishing”! (Matthew 8:25) Also desperate cries, mixed with the howl of the storm and the roar of the diverging waves, vaguely struck His half-awakened ears. In such circumstances, when one has to unexpectedly, without any preparation, look into the face of a terrible danger, a person is fully recognized: here not only courage is shown, but also the greatness, the purity of his entire nature. The hurricane, which broke the tested courage and rendered all the art of the stern fishermen in vain, did not for a moment disturb the deep inner peace of the Son of Man. Without the slightest embarrassment, without any fear, Jesus, simply rising from the drenched stern of the helplessly struggling and half-drowning boat and without making any further movement, calmed the storm of their souls with calm words: “Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). And then, rising completely and standing on the elevated stern in all the calm of natural grandeur, He looked into the darkness of the hurricane, tearing His clothes and tousling His hair, and among the roar of the indignant elements His voice was heard: “Be silent, stop! And the wind died down, and there was great silence” (Mark 4:39). And when the reflection of the quietly twinkling stars of the clearing sky sparkled on the pacified surface of the water, not only the disciples, but also the boatmen spoke in fearful whispers to each other: “Who is this, that both the wind and the sea obey Him?” (Mark 4:41). And this miraculous event was, as it were, an addition to the parables about the kingdom of heaven just set out. From it, the disciples and all believers should have understood that the Kingdom of Heaven or the Church of Christ is like a ship tossed by the fierce waves of the sea of ​​life. Waves can at times overwhelm the ship of the Church and threaten it with destruction; but those in it need not fear it. Christ is with them, and while He is with them, no forces of hell will overcome them. At dawn the boat arrived in Perea, on the coast of the Gagarin country. But even there the Savior could not find the desired peace. As soon as He and his disciples came ashore, two unfortunates possessed by demonic power ran out to meet Him from the rocky burial caves. In ancient times there were no shelters or hospitals for this kind of sick, and such demoniacs, as unfit for public life, were simply kicked out from among people or humbled by measures that were as invalid as they were cruel. Under such circumstances, the unfortunate, in case of incurability, could find refuge only in the caves on the rocky slopes of the hills that abound in Palestine and which the Jews used to bury the dead. It is clear that the dirty and wild environment of such shelters with the inseparable fears and ghosts in them could only intensify the illness, and especially with one of these unfortunate people, who had long been possessed by the illness, nothing could be done. They tried to bind him, but in fits of rage he displayed the supernatural strength often seen in such forms of mental excitement, and he always managed to throw off his shackles or break his chains. Now he was completely abandoned in the deserted and wild gorges, which day and night were resounding with his wild cries as he wandered through them - dangerous to himself and others, frantic and hitting the stones. Another demoniac, apparently less possessed by the disease, appeared together with his companion and again withdrew; but the first one boldly went to meet Jesus Christ, and, feeling in Him the appearance of a Savior and Deliverer for himself from the power of darkness that had overcome him, he fell before Him and worshiped. And then, as if on behalf of unclean spirits, with a loud and frightened cry, he begged the Savior not to torment him ahead of time. The merciful Lord, wanting to save the unfortunate man from the yoke of the forces of darkness that weighed on him, asked what his name was. “Legion” (Mark 5:9) - the demonic force answered for him, suppressing all personal self-awareness in him. The presence of the Roman troops introduced him to this name for the multitude, and since, according to his consciousness, there were six thousand evil spirits in it (there were 6,000 warriors in the legion), he answered with this Latin word, which was well known to every Jew. Seeing the end of their dominion over the unfortunate one, the demons began to ask Christ that, by driving them out, He would allow them to enter into a large herd of pigs grazing right there on the mountain, kept by the Gadarenes for food, stationed somewhere nearby by the Roman legion, and perhaps for the inhabitants themselves, who in this remote country did not strictly observe the law of Moses. In order to clearly demonstrate to the demoniac the healing that had been accomplished over him, the Savior allowed them. “The demons came out of man and entered pigs; and the herd rushed down a steep slope into the lake and were drowned” (Mark 5:13). Amazed by this extraordinary event, the shepherds “ran and told it in the city and in the villages” (Mark 5:14), and people came running from everywhere to look at the extraordinary visitor to their forgotten country. Then they saw that an amazing change had taken place in the demoniac who terrified everyone. The miraculous Visitor healed him, and he was as calm as a child. Someone's compassionate hand threw a cloak over his naked and dirty body, and he sat at the feet of Jesus Christ, being in a completely sane mind. And at the sight of this they were “horrified” (Luke 8:35). But they were more horrified not by such a great miracle, but by the fact that in performing it they suffered a terrible loss. As many as two thousand pigs perished among them, and since pigs were dearer to them than man and everything that could be expected from the divine Visitor, they with shameful unanimity asked Christ to withdraw from them. Christ Himself taught his disciples not to give holy things to dogs and not to throw pearls before swine, “lest they trample it under their feet and turn and tear them to pieces” (Matthew 7:6). Therefore, He decided to immediately leave the inhospitable country, but in order not to completely deprive it of the gospel of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, He made the healed man a preacher of the glory of God in this country. “Go home,” the Savior told him, to your own, and tell them what the Lord has done and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). And thus the possessed Gadarene became the first evangelist of the Kingdom of God in this country, known as the Decapolis, and his preaching was confirmed by the amazing miracle that was performed on him personally. XIV. Healing of a bleeding woman and resurrection of Jairus' daughter. The departure of the twelve Apostles to preach. Martyrdom of John the Baptist Upon returning from Piraeus, the Savior again began to teach and perform works of mercy in the cities and villages of Galilee, and again many people gathered around Him. But then one leader of the synagogue, that is, the chief elder of the parish, who enjoyed great respect among the Jews, approached Him in extreme excitement. It is very possible that this ruler of the synagogue was among the members of the deputation that asked Jesus on behalf of the proselyte centurion by whom the synagogue itself was built. If so, then he knew from experience the power of the One to Whom he was now turning. Throwing himself at His feet, in a voice broken from attacks of grief, he told Him that his little daughter, his only daughter, was now dying, perhaps already dead, but if only He would go and lay His hand on her, she would live. With tenderness, which was never deaf to the cry of the mourners, Jesus Christ immediately stood up and went with him, accompanied not only by His disciples, but also by a large crowd surrounding Him, witnessing this scene. As He walked, the people eagerly pressed towards Him and crowded around Him. But among the crowd (which undoubtedly included some of the Pharisees and disciples of John with whom He spoke, as well as the publicans and sinners who persistently followed Him) there was one person who was not interested in seeing what He would do for the ruler of the synagogue. This was a woman who had suffered for twelve years from a serious illness, which crushed her to the point of torment, especially because among the people such an illness was considered a direct consequence of sinful habits. In vain she exhausted her condition, seeking relief from the help of many and various doctors, but all this only caused even more harm to her health, and now, as a last, desperate resort, she wanted to experience what could be obtained without any costs from the divine Physician. Perhaps because she no longer had anything else to offer for the reward that, in her ignorance, she considered necessary; perhaps because, in her feminine modesty, she was afraid to discover the disease from which she suffered - but for whatever reason - she decided, so to speak, to steal the desired healing from Him. And so, with desperate strength and persistence, she made her way through the close crowd so that she could touch Him; and then actually touched His garment secretly. Instantly feeling that she had achieved what she wanted and was healed, she hastened to hide unnoticed in the crowd. But this was invisible only to others, and not to Christ. Feeling the healing power come out of Him, He stopped and asked, “Who touched My clothes?” (Mark 5:30) Not understanding what was going on, St. Peter replied that in such close quarters it was difficult to say who exactly touched; but the Savior wanted to find a response with this question from the one who, taking advantage of the great blessing of God. Doctor, wanted to hide from Him. And then His gaze stopped right on her, and she, trembling with fear, came out of the crowd and, throwing herself at His feet, told Him the whole truth. Wanting to make amends, she now forgot all her feminine modesty. She undoubtedly feared His wrath, because the law clearly stated that touching a woman of blood made a person unclean until the evening. But here touching Him cleansed her, and it was not her touch that defiled Him. Far from any indignation, the Savior said to her: “Daughter (and in this affectionate word forgiveness already sounded for her), your faith has saved you; Go in peace, and be well from your illness!” (Mark 5:34) This incident was bound to cause some delay, and for Jairus every moment was precious. But he was not the only sufferer who sought the Savior’s mercy, and since he did not express complaints, it is obvious that grief did not make him selfish. But just then a messenger arrived to him with a brief message: “your daughter is dead,” to which he, apparently with a tinge of displeasure and irony, added: “do not trouble the Teacher” (Luke 8:49). The announcement was not addressed to Jesus, but He heard it and, compassionately wanting to save the unfortunate father from useless torment, told him the memorable words: “Do not be afraid, only believe!” (Luke 8:50). They soon came to his house and saw there the confusion of hired mourners and flute players, who, with commercial noise and din, beating themselves on the chest, insulted only the silence of sincere grief and the silent greatness of death. These feigned cries disturbed the soul of Christ; stopping first at the door to forbid the crowd to follow Him, He entered the house with only three of the Apostles closest to Him - Peter, James and John. Here, first of all, He ordered the idle cries to stop; but when His statement that “the maiden is not dead, but sleeps” (Mark 5:39) was met with rude ridicule, He indignantly drove out the hired mourners. When silence was restored, He, taking with Him the parents of the girl and the three most chosen Apostles, quietly entered the room where the terrible silence of death reigned. Then, taking the cold hand of the deceased, He uttered two trembling words: talifa kumi, which means: maiden, I say to you, stand up (Mark 5:41), and the soul returned to her, the maiden immediately stood up and began to walk (Mark 5:42). The parents were struck with terrible amazement, but Christ calmly told them to give her something to eat (Mark 5:43). If He, as usual, added that they should not say anything about what had happened, this is obviously not with the purpose of leaving the event itself in obscurity - which would be completely impossible with so many witnesses to the entire course of the matter - but because those who have received immeasurable mercies from the hand of God rather remember them with reverent thanksgiving, when they keep them as a secret treasure in the depths of their hearts. No matter how great and amazing the events of these days were, they were marked by another amazing act of omnipotence. When Jesus left the house of Jairus, two blind men followed Him with cries hitherto unheard of: “Have mercy on us, Jesus, Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27). The Savior wanted to test their faith, and, not paying attention to the blind men and their cries, he headed to the house in Capernaum in which he usually lived, and only when the blind men relentlessly followed Him into the house did He turn to them with a testing question: “Do you believe that I can do this?” They say to Him: “Yes, Lord!” Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened (Matthew 9:28–30). The Savior, as in many other cases, commanded them not to disclose what had happened, but to cherish gratitude to the Lord in the depths of their hearts; but their joy begged to come out, and they did not fulfill this command. Having now left most of Palestine, the Savior became convinced that the chosen people spiritually, not having proper teachers and shepherds who would be able to enlighten their minds and prepare them to accept the approaching Kingdom of Heaven, “were exhausted and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.” Pointing to this circumstance, He told the disciples how much the harvest is, but the laborers are few. As a result, He commanded to pray to the Lord of the harvest, so that He would prepare from them worthy workers in it, and then sent them two by two to all directions of the country, so that they would teach the people, confirm His teaching and do good deeds in His name. Before their departure, the Savior gave them instructions on how to act and act during this preaching journey. Now they had to limit their activities to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and not extend it to the Samaritans and pagans. The subject of their preaching should be the nearness of the Kingdom of Heaven, and they should reinforce it with works of miracles and charity. They should not take anything with them, no bags for food, no money in their belts, no change of clothes, no traveling shoes instead of ordinary sandals made of palm bark; and they should not even stock up on a walking staff if they did not already have one. Their mission, like all the greatest and most fruitful missions known to the world, was to be distinguished by complete simplicity and supported by its own funds. The open hospitality of the East, which so often served as a means of spreading new teachings, should have provided sufficient content for them. Upon entering the city, they should go to the house in which they could hope for a warm welcome, and greet it with the most ancient and highly valued goodwill - “peace to this house” (Matthew 10:12, Luke 10:5). If the house is worthy, then the goodwill will take effect; if not, then it will return to them. If they are rejected, they must shake off the dust from their feet, as evidence that they spoke the truth and symbolically cleared themselves of all responsibility for that judgment, which was to fall more severely on the willful and obdurate haters of the light than on the darkest regions of the pagan world, in which the light never shone or only shone faintly. Having outlined to his disciples the duty of firmness in faith, meek courtesy, and selfless simplicity as the first conditions for the success of missionary activity, Christ then began to strengthen them against the inevitable trials and persecutions in the work of their ministry. They needed and had to act not only with the meekness of a dove, but with the wisdom of a serpent, because He sent them out like sheep among wolves. He warned them that they would have to endure a lot during this, and especially their future apostolic activity, since they would be handed over to courts and scourged in synagogues, brought to trial by rulers and kings; but, despite this, they should not worry about how or what to say, because at that hour it will be given to them from above what to say. The teachings of the world will be turned by the evil passions of men into a war cry of rage and hatred, and they will have to flee from city to city in the face of their pursuing enemies. But let them endure to the end, because they will not have time to go around the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Finally, He encouraged them by reminding them of what He Himself had endured and what opposition He had encountered. Let them not be afraid. The God who cares for even the little birds as they fall to the ground, who even their very hairs are numbered, the God who holds in the hand of His destiny not merely life and death, but eternal life and eternal death, and Who therefore must be feared more than the wolves of the earth, is with them; He will recognize those whom His Son has recognized, and He will reject those whom He has rejected. They were sent into a world of struggle and hostility, which would flare up with even greater bitterness because of the world they had rejected. Even those closest and dearest to them will stand against them on the side of the world. But those who want to be His true followers must give up everything for His sake, must take up their cross and follow Him. But then, to console them, He said that they should be as He was in the world; that those who receive them will also receive Him; that to lose your life for His sake means more than to find it; that a cup of cold water given to the youngest and least of His little ones will not remain without due reward in the Kingdom of Heaven. Having dismissed the disciples, the Savior Himself continued His usual preaching, going around cities and villages and doing good deeds for the benefit of suffering humanity. But at this very time an event took place that was a harbinger of a terrible uprising of the forces of evil to fight against the preachers of the Kingdom of Heaven - it was the great Forerunner, the greatest of all born of women, the most glorious prophet, John the Baptist, who was vilely killed. For his fearless preaching and denunciation, he had long languished in a dark prison; but even there he did not stop thundering with his accusatory word, directing it especially against Herod Antipas, under whose authority after the death of Herod the Great Galilee fell. He was an insignificant, but disgustingly vicious and depraved prince who, to the temptation of the entire people, openly lived in an adulterous relationship with the wife of his brother Philip, who was as dissolute as himself. Despite all the outrageousness of such a marriage, no one dared to raise words of reproach against him; everything fell silent and servilely groveled before the criminal royal couple. Only the voice of John the Baptist did not cease, who, like his great Old Testament prototype - Elijah, did not cease to crush the new Ahab and Jezebel with his strong prophetic word of reproof. “You should not,” the prophet Antipas said directly and fearlessly, “have your brother’s wife” (Mark 6:18). Herod Antipas himself felt a well-deserved remorse in his heart and secretly revered the prophet; but Herodias, stubborn in crime and vice, became enraged and looked for a way to destroy the accuser. Not daring to ask for this openly, she resorted to cunning and, at the first opportunity, carried out her bloodthirsty plan. The opportunity soon presented itself. The Herodian kings, imitating the magnificent example of their great prototypes, the Roman emperors, loved to give magnificent feasts and celebrate brilliant anniversaries. By the way, they adopted the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays, and Antipas, on the occasion of his birthday, gave a feast to his nobles, military leaders and all the nobility of Galilee in one of his magnificent castles. The wealth of the Herods, the luxurious architecture of their numerous palaces, their penchant for extraordinary splendor - all this makes it likely that the feast was a great one, with all the luxury of wealth and royal pomp, and in general was obviously one of those feasts that were an imitation of the depraved customs of the times of the Roman Empire and combined Roman gluttony with Greek debauchery. But Herodias insidiously gave the king another unexpected and delightful pleasure, the sight of which could probably lead his guests to admiration. At that time, dancers and dancers were in great fashion. The passion for these often indecent and outrageous performances naturally penetrated into the Sadducean and semi-pagan court of the Edomite usurpers, and Herod the Great even established a special ballet theater in his palace. A luxurious feast of that time was not considered complete unless it ended with some majestic dance. This time, a similar final dance was performed by his stepdaughter Salome, daughter of Herodias. Being in the full bloom of her young and brilliant beauty, with this unexpected dance she brought the half-intoxicated guests into indescribable delight, and Herod himself, delighted with her, suggested that as a reward for the pleasure she had received, she should ask from him whatever she wanted, at least half of his kingdom. The girl happily ran to her mother to ask for her advice, and the bloodthirsty Herodias hissed maliciously: “the heads of John the Baptist” (Mark 6:24). Apparently already set up by her mother against the prophet, Salome, with satanic composure, turned to Herod with this bloodthirsty request. Antipas was struck by such a surprise and was saddened, because he highly revered the prophet; but false shame before the guests, who heard his unreasonable promise, overpowered his conscience, and he sent an executioner to the castle of Maher, where John the Baptist was languishing, with orders to bring his head. Thus the greatest of those born of wives fell victim to the bloodthirsty malice of a woman for his preaching. The head of the prophet was brought and became the subject of mockery by Herodias, and his body was buried by his disciples. For the ill-fated Herod Antipas, this terrible event became a source of constant fear and remorse. Hearing about the preaching of Jesus Christ, he even wondered if John the Baptist, who had been beheaded by him, had risen in order to take terrible revenge on him. Therefore, he wanted to see Christ in order to be convinced that his fears were wrong, but he managed to achieve this only much later, since now the Savior avoided meeting him, as if wanting to make him fully experience the remorse of his conscience, outraged by the terrible crime. XV. Return of the disciples from the sermon. The miraculous feeding of five thousand people with five loaves. Christ's walk on the waters and His conversation in the Capernaum synagogue about the sacrament of communion Meanwhile, the apostles went around the cities and villages assigned to them, preaching the Gospel everywhere and confirming their preaching with healings, expulsion of bass and other extraordinary deeds. Their preaching was accompanied by significant success, and now, having returned to their Teacher, they joyfully told Him about it. But the Savior was depressed by great sorrow over the fate of John the Baptist, and therefore He hastened to retire to a deserted place, away from the lively and seething life of Capernaum, so that there he could rest his soul alone and talk with his disciples. Having got into the boat, He ordered his disciples to sail towards Bethsaida - not the one from which Peter and the other apostles were and which, being close to Capernaum, did not represent a “desert place,” but to another Bethsaida, located at the north-eastern corner of the lake, a little further from the place where the Jordan flows into it. Like its western counterpart, it was at first a small village, but not long before Philip, tetrarch of Iturea, expanded and beautified it, calling it Bethsaida Juliana. The additional name was given to her in honor of Julia, the beautiful but vicious daughter of Emperor Augustus. The boat with Christ and the apostles headed there, whose weary and burdened hearts sought peace. But no matter how quiet their departure was, it did not go unnoticed, and they soon learned about it. The secluded and deserted shore to which they headed was only ten miles along the lake from Capernaum. The boat, delayed by an apparently unfavorable wind, moved slowly forward not far from the shore, and when it reached its destination, it turned out that the purpose for which they had actually set out here had not been achieved at all. Some of the people got ahead of them and were already crowding around the pier when the boat touched the flinty shore, and in the distance they could even see a crowd of Easter pilgrims heading to Jerusalem, since the Easter holiday was already nearby. Attracted by the growing glory of the great prophet, they turned away from the straight path and joined other listeners. Christ was touched by compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 6:34). Coming ashore, He and His disciples climbed the mountainside and waited there for all the people to gather. Then, coming down to the people, He taught them, preached about the Kingdom of Heaven and healed the sick. The day was approaching evening, and the sun had already begun to hide behind the western hills, and the people still remained here, as if chained by the healing voice and holy teaching of Christ. Evening would soon come, and after a short eastern twilight the wandering crowd of people, in their enthusiasm neglecting even the essential needs of life, would find themselves in darkness, hungry and far from any human habitation. The disciples began to worry that this day would not end with some unfortunate incident, which would give a new reason for attacks from the already bitter enemies of their Teacher. But Christ, with His compassion, had already forestalled their fears and Himself reported the difficulty to Philip. A small meeting took place. To buy even a piece of bread for such a mass of people would require at least two hundred denarii; but even if they had such a sum in their common treasury, still now there was neither the time nor the opportunity to make the necessary purchases. Andrei mentioned at the same time that one boy here had five barley loaves and two fish, but obviously such a supply was so small that it was not worth mentioning. “Tell them to lie down” (John 6:10), Christ calmly answered. Surprised and expecting something extraordinary, the Apostles ordered the people to sit down as if for dinner on the rich greenery that covered the slopes of the hills at this pleasant spring time. And the Savior, standing in the midst of His guests, rejoicing at the work of mercy, which was intended to be accomplished, raising His eyes to heaven, gave thanks, blessed the loaves, broke them into pieces and handed them over to His disciples, so that they would distribute them to the people; He also divided the two fish among everyone. It was a modest but sufficient, and for hungry wanderers, even a delicious dinner. And when everyone was satisfied, Christ, in order not only to show His disciples what had actually happened, but also to give them a visual instruction that the wastefulness of even miraculous power is completely alien to the divine economy, commanded them to collect the remaining pieces so that nothing would be lost. Thanks to the correct disposition of the people, it was clear that about five thousand people were fed here, not counting women and children, and yet after all this twelve baskets were filled with what was left of them uneaten. This miracle made a deep impression. It just corresponded to the current expectation of the Messiah, and the people began to interpret among themselves that this was undoubtedly “That Prophet who should come into the world” (John 6:14), - “The Reconciler” (Gen. 49:10) of the blessing of Jacob, the star and scepter of the vision of Balaam, a prophet like Moses who must be obeyed, perhaps Elijah, the promised the dying testament of the ancient prophecy may be Jeremiah, who came to reveal the hidden location of the ark, the Urim and the sacred fire. Christ noticed this undisguised excitement, as well as the danger that popular enthusiasm could turn into violence and hasten His death by open rebellion against the Roman government in an attempt to make Him king. He also saw that His disciples were not alien to this worldly and dangerous excitement. It was therefore necessary to act decisively. Using His authority, He forced the disciples to get into a boat and go ahead of Him across the lake towards Capernaum or western Bethsaida. Even some coercion was necessary, because they naturally did not want to leave Him among the enthusiastic people on this deserted shore and, on the contrary, they would like to be present here, because, as it seemed to them, something great was about to happen to Him. On the other hand, it was easier for Him to let the people go when the latter saw that even His closest friends and disciples had been sent away by Him. Thus, in the gathering darkness, He managed to meekly and gradually persuade the people to leave Him, and when all but the most enthusiastic had gone to their homes or caravans, He suddenly abandoned the rest and quickly went away from them to the top of the mountain to pray there alone. He felt that a terrible and solemn turning point was approaching in His life on earth, and through communication with His heavenly Father, He wanted to strengthen His soul for the difficult task of tomorrow and the grave adversities of many subsequent weeks. And earlier He had spent a night in the silence of the mountain in solitary prayer, but that was before the election of the beloved Apostles and before the good omens of His initial and happy ministry. Completely different were the feelings with which the Great High Priest climbed the rocky ledges to this majestic mountain altar, which in the church of the night seemed to lift Him closer to the stars of God. The murder of His beloved forerunner brought the thought of His own impending death closer to His consciousness. The storm that began to howl over the mountains, the wind that howled through the gorges, the lake that raged with foaming waters before him, the boat, which, as He could see in the moonlight breaking through the clouds here and there, was tossed by fierce waves - all this was strikingly consistent with His present mood. But here, on a deserted mountain top, on this stormy night, He could receive reinforcement, peace and unspeakable bliss, because there He was alone with God. Hour after hour passed. The fourth watch of the night was already approaching; the disciples' boat was only halfway through its journey; it was dark; a contrary wind and raging waves made their way difficult; they worked until exhaustion on the oars, and yet now there was no One with them who could calm them down and save them, because Christ remained on the shore. He was alone on land, and they were wavering in the dangerous elements; but He saw and pitied them all the time. And finally, being in the last extremity, they saw some kind of brilliance in the darkness: some terrible figure with flowing clothes was moving towards them, stepping along the crests of the ramparts, but as if intending to pass by them. At the sight of this they cried out in horror, thinking that it was a ghost wandering the waves. But in the midst of the storm and darkness, a divine voice sounded to them, which said: “It is I - do not be afraid!” (Mark 6:50). This voice calmed their fears, and they immediately wanted to take Him into the boat; but Peter, impetuous in his love, is the same one who, in the bitter consciousness of his unworthiness, once shouted “get away from me” (Lk. 5:8), - now cannot even wait for His approach, and exclaims enthusiastically: “Lord! If it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” "Go!" (Matthew 14:28,29) was the answer. And Peter threw himself from the boat into the boiling waves. When his gaze was fixed on the Lord, the wind vainly tore his hair and the waves splashed his clothes - everything was nothing to him; but when, with his faith wavering, he looked at the furious waves and the dark abyss below him, he began to drown, and in a voice of despair (no longer at all similar to his former confident tone) he fearfully cried out: “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30). And Christ did not leave him without help. He immediately extended his hand and supported his drowning disciple, with a meek reproach: “You of little faith! Why did you doubt? (Matt. 14:31) And then the embarrassed Apostle entered the boat with his Lord; the wind quickly died down, and they soon approached the moonlit shore and arrived at the pier where they should have been; and everyone - both the disciples and the boatmen - was filled with more and more astonishment, and some of them, addressing Him with the title that only Nathanael had previously applied to Him, exclaimed: “Truly You are the Son of God!” (Matthew 14:33). When the Savior had already begun His usual activity on the Galilee shore of the lake, many of the people continued to wait for Him near Bethsaida Julia, thinking that He was somewhere there on the mountain in solitude. Hearing that He had been near Capernaum for a long time and knowing that the disciples set off alone in a boat, the people were extremely amazed at this, and upon arriving at Capernaum many turned to Him with a bewildered question: “Rabbi, when did you come here?” (John 6:25). The Savior did not answer this question of idle curiosity and even pointed out to those who asked the base motives that attracted them to Him. He rebuked them for following Him not from any lofty or spiritual motives, “not because they saw miracles, but because they ate bread and were filled” (John 6:26). And then He addressed them with admonition: “Do not strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for the Father God has set His seal on Him” (John 6:27). At first they seemed touched and ashamed. He correctly read the thoughts of their hearts, and they asked Him: “What should we do to do the works of God?” - “Behold, it is the work of God that they believe in Him Whom He sent.” - “What sign will You give so that we can see and believe You? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat” (John 6:28–31, Ps. 77:24). The conclusion was obvious. Moses gave them manna from heaven. Until now, Jesus, they hinted, had given them only barley loaves from the ground. If He is the true Messiah, then shouldn’t He, in accordance with all the legends of this people, endow them with wealth and glory, and in general all the earthly blessings that the popular imagination expected from the crudely understood Messiah? But the Savior did not fail to correct the false opinion and raise their minds to a higher level of understanding. He answered them that it was not Moses, but God who gave them manna, and it was only a type of the heavenly bread that the Father of the Son of Man would now give them. Their minds were still captivated by material goods, and they began to ask for this heavenly bread with the same zeal with which the Samaritan woman asked for water, which quenches every thirst. "God! always give us such bread!” (John 6:34) Jesus said to them: “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:35); and then He began to explain to them that He came to do the will of the Father, and His will is that whoever believes in His Son should have eternal life. Then again an angry murmur was heard, this time not from the ignorant people, but from His old opponents, the leaders of the Jews: “What does He say: I came down from heaven? How can He say: I am the bread that came down from heaven? Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? "(John 6:41–42). But the Savior answered the complainers, as always, with a stronger, more complete and clear proclamation of the very truth that they rejected. This is what He did with Nicodemus, this is what He taught the Samaritan woman, and this is what He answered to the elders of the church who brought Him to justice for breaking the Sabbath. But the timid rabbi and the misguided woman were faithful and sincere enough to probe deeper into His words and humbly seek their meaning, and thus come to the truth. These listeners are a different matter. Providence honored them with edification from the lips of the Son of God Himself, who revealed to them the great mystery of redemption, but they rejected this great benefit. Then the Savior, with irresistible directness and clarity, revealed to them that He is the source of eternal life, which was sent from heaven. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). These words, on the one hand, indicated the upcoming great work of redemption of sinful humanity by offering the flesh of the Son of Man for the life of the world, and on the other hand, the sacrament of communion was pre-established, which was to serve as a means of introducing subsequent generations of believers to the redemptive feat of Christ. But for the Jews, completely suppressed by vain thoughts about the earthly greatness of the Messiah, these great secrets of the Kingdom of God remained inaccessible; they were only perplexed by such sayings and said indignantly: “How can He give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). And Christ confirmed this truth with even more expressive words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:53–56). Due to its unusualness and depth, this great revelation about the New Testament way of introducing humanity to the Divine seemed strange not only to the Jews, as they were blinded by prejudice and unbelief, but also to some of the closest followers of Christ. “Many of His disciples, hearing this, said: What strange words! who can listen to this? (John 6:60). New testimonies of Christ were in vain in order to dispel the seed of doubt and unbelief that was arising in them. They were not convinced, and “from that time on many of His disciples departed from Him and walked with Him no more” (John 6:66). This was a sad omen for the cause of the Savior of the world. With a sorrowful feeling, He turned to His twelve Apostles with a searching question: “Do you also want to leave?” (John 6:67). But the faith of the Apostles had already taken deep roots, and to this question Simon Peter, on behalf of the entire host of the Apostles, answered Him: “Lord! who should we go to? You have the verbs of eternal life. And we believed and knew that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” (John 6:68,69). This was a glorious confession, but under the present sad circumstances it did not cause any particular joy and only gave the Savior a reason to reveal to his beloved disciples the terrible secret that not all of them confessed Him this way. “Have I not chosen twelve of you? but one of you is the devil” (John 6:70). This was the first warning to that ill-fated member of the apostolic society, who already carried in his soul a spark of a hellish plan and “wanted to betray Him”... (John 6:71) You might be interested in: