Беседа в 13-ю неделю. О причине отступления человеков от Бога

“He who believes in the Son (of God) will have eternal life: but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). This is how God’s unfaithful Word defines it. This definition of the Word of God is accomplished in particular over people, and also over entire nations. It happened with particular clarity over the people of Israel, who were initially chosen as God's people, but later became a predominantly rejected people. In the depths of the Israeli people, the God-Man became human and accomplished the salvation of mankind; He did not address any other people with His divine preaching; He poured out all His blessings exclusively on the chosen people; the chosen people rejected the God-man. In vain for fifteen centuries the divinely inspired legislator of Israel announced terrible executions to him if he disobeyed God. In vain, for a whole millennium, the royal prophet of Israel preached to Israel the admonition to accept the Redeemer given by God to humanity: “accept the punishment - accept the Son 135 - lest the Lord be angry, and perish from the path of the righteous, when His wrath is soon kindled” (Ps. 2:12). Moses was read in vain every Saturday, the psalms of David were chanted in vain at every service, the threat of the holy lawgiver and the admonition of the holy king were repeated in vain: the Jews rejected the Savior and stretched out their deicide hands against the incarnate God. They ranked the All-Perfect God among the category of criminals and condemned him to execution as a criminal, as a criminal among criminals. After the terrible atrocity, which has no parallel among all human atrocities, the wrath of God was not slow to flare up: it flared up soon, as the Holy Spirit predicted. Usually, punishments for people arise from their very violation of the Law of God, from their very error. This is what happened to the Jews. They, being completely occupied with their earthly significance, given for a time, dreaming of extraordinary earthly prosperity, for the sake of this significance and prosperity, for the sake of one vain dream about them, they rejected the Messiah. It is obvious that the opinion of temporary significance and the dream of the most extensive civil development constituted the most gross and absurd delusion. What was promised in a spiritual meaning, the Jews expected for themselves in a material, temporary, humiliating meaning for God, fruitless for man. They, the chosen people, were destined to be an object of attention and contemplation for all other peoples who had strayed into stupid, ridiculous and pitiful idolatry. The blessing of God, expressed in the wonderful victories of the Israelites, which no other people achieved, expressed in their earthly prosperity, which no other people enjoyed, was an irresistible testimony to the peoples of the universe, immersed in sensuality and capable of being influenced by sensory evidence alone, that the God revered by the Jews is the one true God. It was precisely the impression exhibited here that, as experience showed, those nations were subjected to who looked intelligently and insightfully at the Jews (Judith 5:5-24). The very time of God’s election of the Israelites to be the people of God coincides with the time of the general deviation of nations into idolatry. Through the contemplation of the special Providence and omnipotence of God, which obviously and tangibly appeared over the chosen people, all the peoples of the earth prepared for the unquestioning acceptance of the Redeemer - the God-man, who was to be born among the chosen people, to be its Head and King, together with the Head, King and Savior of all lost humanity. The God-man, as the all-perfect and all-powerful God, brought with him into a distressed world an all-abundant blessing, a gift of incalculable price and measure, a gift worthy of the infinite and all-perfect God. The fruit of such a blessing from God could no longer be temporary and material blessings, which, having been given and received, are certainly taken away by death, and often before death by various vicissitudes of earthly life. The fruit of the blessing of God delivered by the God-man to humanity was the reconciliation of people with God (Luke 2:14), the assimilation of the nature of God to human nature (2 Pet. 1:4) through the assimilation of human nature to the nature of God, the nature of the Creator of the nature of creation. The fruit of this blessing is the adoption of men to God: the Son of God, having accepted humanity, became the Son of Man and makes His brethren, the sons of men, sons of God. The fruit of this blessing is the inalienable, eternal bliss of people, beyond comprehension, beyond any desire; people conceived in iniquities, born in sins, instead of descending into the underground dungeons of hell for eternal torment, ascend to heaven, to paradise, surround, together with the cherubim and seraphim, the Throne of God, on which sits that Man who, being God, wanted, out of his incomprehensible love for humanity, to be a man 136. Before these eternal, heavenly, divine gifts, what do short-term, earthly, perishable blessings mean? Less than nothing. Their meaning is negative, and a person, if he gives them a positive meaning, for their sake must lose eternal blessings - must be subjected to the calamity to which the Jews were subjected. The Jews were given temporary blessings, like a shadow, as a prototype of true, eternal blessings; they wanted to remain in the shadow and rejected that essential good that from Heaven cast a rough shadow onto coarsened humanity in order to attract humanity to Heaven. For this reason, the God-man commands humanity to renounce temporal blessings. This is not enough: He demands that humanity recognize itself as fallen and lost, that it recognize the earth as the place of its temporary exile and punishment, the threshold of the prisons of hell and eternal torment; He demands that humanity rush to God and eternity, leaving the earth without attention, like a short-term hotel or prison, doomed to destruction; He demands that people diligently submit to all the sorrows of temporary life, by this submission they actively confess their fall and the need for a Redeemer, give glory to the justice of God that punishes them, and become worthy of God’s mercy. The Jews did not like this teaching. The word of the cross seemed like a temptation to seekers and admirers of earthly prosperity. They considered their earthly position to be precious, the only asset worthy of any sacrifice. To justify their behavior regarding the Divine Messenger, they cited the desire to preserve this position intact (John 11:49–50). Eternity and spiritual blessings were forgotten by them. In their blindness and delusion, pursuing the idea of ​​earthly prosperity, of world domination, supposedly promised by the Word of God to the people of Israel, the Jews rebelled against the powerful Romans, the rulers of the universe of that time. The consequence of the outrage was war. The war ended with the defeat of the rebels, the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, the death of countless Jews, the captivity and scattering of those who survived the sword across the face of the earth 137 . For fifteen centuries, as we said above, the legislator of the Israelites, the God-seer Moses, predicted a terrible execution for them for destroying their covenant with God. Fifteen centuries before the event, the seer depicts the event in a picturesque, terrible picture, with extraordinary accuracy and detail; depicts the event as clearly as if it had already happened before his eyes. When the Israelites were preparing to enter the borders of the Promised Land, to form a people and a state, then, in view of this Promised Land, the inspired legislator uttered a formidable prediction to Israel about the fate that would finally befall them in the Promised Land: “The Lord will bring upon you,” says Moses, “a tongue from afar, from the ends of the earth, like the aspiration of an eagle: a tongue, you cannot understand the verb, a tongue He is cold-faced; he will not be surprised at the face of an old man, and he will not have mercy on a young woman” (Deut. 28:49–50). Moses correctly depicts the Romans, who did not yet exist at that time, but already existed in the predestination of God; Their military character is correctly depicted, likened to the swiftness, rapacity and strength of an eagle, recognized by the Romans themselves, who crowned their banners with eagles. “The tongue is cold in face,” this unborn people, Moses continues to foretell to Israel, “will girdle up the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your land, for it will not leave you wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor your herds of oxen nor the pastures of your sheep, until it destroys you. And he will crush you in all your cities, until your high and strong walls, in which you trusted, are destroyed, throughout all your land: and he will embitter you in all your cities, whatever the Lord your God has given you” (Deut. 28:51-52). The prophecy was fulfilled exactly: the Romans took and destroyed the Jewish fortresses, one after another, devastated the country, then approached Jerusalem. Jerusalem was surrounded over a large area by centuries-old olive gardens. The Romans cut down the gardens for the construction of battering machines and for other needs of the camp - thus turning the magnificent area into a bare desert. After a long siege, they took the city, burned the famous church, destroyed buildings and walls, and left no stone unturned. Moses depicts the terrible misfortune of the besieged during the siege as follows: “Take away the children of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, which the Lord your God has given you, in your distress and in your sorrow, with which your enemy will insult you” (Deut. 28:53). All this happened to Israel, who fulfilled the measure of their iniquities by committing deicide. “The young woman in you,” Moses never ceases to utter terrible predictions, “and is very young, even though her foot does not usually walk on the earth for the sake of youth and youth, she will envy with her eye her husband who is in her bosom, and her son and her daughter, and her blond that came from her loins, and she will give birth to her child: he will endure the battle secretly, poverty for the sake of everyone in his cramped conditions and sorrow, with which your enemy will insult you in all your cities” (Deut. 28:56–57). Josephus Flavius, a Jewish priest who described the war and took part in it, says that a certain young and rich wife named Mary, who arrived in Jerusalem for the Easter holiday from across the Jordan, could no longer leave it, because the Romans suddenly surrounded it on all sides. The rebels who filled the city robbed her, even taking away her food supplies. Driven to extremes and despair, Mary kills the baby - her son, prepares a terrible meal, and eats it. The rebels, attracted by the smell of food, broke into her home; drawing their swords, they demanded that Mary give them the food she had prepared. “I saved part of my dish for you too,” Maria told them, presenting the leftovers that she had not consumed. The villains were horrified by the unexpected sight, ran out of Mary’s home, and spread throughout the city about what they had seen. Famine raged in the besieged city; contagious diseases joined famine. More than a million Jews died violently during the siege; about one hundred thousand were captured. The prisoners were put on ships, transported to Egypt, and there, in the markets of crowded Alexandria, they were sold into slavery at the lowest price. And with this action the Romans fulfilled the prophecy of Moses. Israel, having just completed a difficult, forty-year journey through the Arabian desert from Egypt to the land of Canaan, is foreshadowed by the legislator: “And the Lord God will bring you back to Egypt in ships, and on the way there will be rivers that you will not see in this, and you will be sold there to your enemy for male and female slaves, and there will be no buyer” (Deut. 28:68). Two thousand five hundred captive Jews died in Caesarea from fire, from animals, from the sword of gladiators at a popular festival given by Titus, the leader of the victors, following the capture of Jerusalem. At another festival that followed the first, in Verita, a significant number of Jews were also killed. Their leaders, Simeon and John, accompanied by seven hundred famous citizens, were led in triumph into Rome and condemned to death as rebels. Other Jews, scattered throughout the then known world, were subjected to strict supervision, suspicion, oppression, and persecution. “The Lord your God will scatter you,” Moses continues his wonderful prophecy, “into all the nations, from the ends of the earth even to the ends of it... But even in the nations he will not give you rest, the foot of your foot will be lower than the foot of your feet: and the Lord will give you there a sad heart and a fading hair and a fading soul... You will fear in the days and in the night, and you will not have faith in your life. In the morning you said: what will the evening be like? and in the evening you speak; what will the morning be like? because of the fear of your heart, which you fear, and because of the visions of your eyes, which you see” (Deut. 28:64–67). This prophecy was fulfilled with amazing accuracy over the numerous descendants of Jacob, scattered across the face of the universe, and is being fulfilled to this day. All nations looked and look at the Jews with distrust; their position constantly fluctuates according to the varied views of different governments on them; They were often subjected to severe persecution, and often died in the thousands. Their country is struck by the wrath of God. It was the Promised Land, a land so abundant that the Holy Scriptures call it flowing with honey and milk. In a small space, millions of inhabitants lived in it, not only eating luxuriously, but also selling excess earthly products to neighboring nations (1 Kings 5:9; Acts 12:20). Subsequently, the soil of the Promised Land changed and lost its blessed fertility. Where millions once lived, now tens of thousands live, living on very little. All travelers who visited Palestine unanimously testify to this. Let us again listen to the prophesying Moses, again we will listen to the calculation of the plagues intended for the chosen people who rejected the election of God! “A stranger,” that is, a foreigner,” says Moses, “who will come from a distant land, and will see the plagues of the land - once the Promised Land - its ailments, even as the Lord sent the messenger to the bug and the burnt salt: all the land thereof will not be planted, nor will it vegetate; Has the Lord created this earth? And they say, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God, which their father commanded” (Deut. 29:22–25). Several times the Israelites abandoned God and deviated into idolatry. For these temporary deviations they were subjected to temporary punishments, the longest of which was their seventy-year captivity in Babylon. By rejecting the Messiah and committing deicide, they finally destroyed the covenant with God. For a terrible crime they suffer a terrible punishment. They carry out execution for two thousand years and stubbornly remain in irreconcilable hostility towards the God-Man. This enmity supports and stamps their rejection. The behavior of the Jews regarding the Redeemer is worthy of bitter, inconsolable crying! Their blindness, their stubbornness, their bitterness are worthy of the greatest attention! The reasons for this blindness, bitterness, and stubbornness are worthy of careful study. How deeply has man fallen! What delusion he is capable of! What delusion and sinful infatuation he is capable of, what crimes he is capable of! The behavior of the Jews regarding the Redeemer, belonging to this people, undoubtedly belongs to all humanity 138; all the more so it deserves attention, deep reflection and research. God who became man performed the most amazing signs before the eyes of people: he healed incurable ailments, raised the dead, commanded the waters, winds, earth, sky - and people did not believe in Him; they rejected Him; they saw in Him their enemy, they saw in Him an adversary to God, a trampler of God’s law! Why could such incredible blindness, such incomprehensible darkness, such senseless stubbornness and bitterness occur? We answer: from an immoral life. “The Light came into the world,” the Savior says about Himself, “and men loved darkness rather than Light; for they were besotted with evil deeds. “Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed, for they are evil; but he who does the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be revealed, for they are done in God” (John 3:19–21). The Lord confirmed Himself to the Jews with a strong, irresistible word, and they responded with blasphemies. He presented undeniable evidence of His Divinity; in response, they took up stones to kill Him. He urged them to abandon the search for glory from men, in which the search for glory from the one God is impossible, in which man is incapable of faith (John 5:44); He persuaded them to give alms and to abandon the love of money, in which it was impossible to serve God; in response, the Pharisees mocked the Lord; for their sin-loving hearts the teaching about virtue already seemed strange and wild (Luke 16:13–14). “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” said the Lord, calling its inhabitants Jerusalem, “having beaten the prophets and stoned those who were sent to you, because your fellow children desired, as your chicks gather kokosh under the wing, and you did not desire” (Matthew 23:37). Among the many means of admonishing the Jews is the parable spoken by the Lord to the Jewish bishops and elders, which we heard today in the Gospel. In this parable, the Lord stated that a terrible execution awaits the Jews for their planned deicide 139 . “A certain man was a housekeeper,” said the Lord, “who planted vines and fenced them as a stronghold, and a grinder in them, and made a pillar, and went forth and was a worker, and went away” (Matthew 21:33). A home-loving man, or householder, is God, the Creator and Possessor of the visible and invisible world; He is called man to depict his inexpressible love for mankind, due to which He first created man in His image and likeness, and then He Himself deigned to become a man, without ceasing to be God. The grapes are His Church, planted by Him among humanity, fenced, like a stronghold, by His Providence; the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). The Old Testament sacrifices in which the blood of animals were shed are called the grindstone, and the God-given law is the pillar. God entrusted His Church to the people of Israel, especially to their leaders, who were the high priests in the time of Christ. Having thus ordered, the Householder departed: by this action it is depicted that the Church, entrusted to the Israelites, remained under their jurisdiction for a long time. “When the time of fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the laborer to receive His fruits: and when the laborer ate of His servants, he killed one, killed one, and stoned one with a stone. He sent more slaves, more numerous than the first: and he did the same to them” (Matthew 21:34–36). The Lord calls the prophets who were sent to Israel at different times the servants of the householder. “Follow,” the parable tells, “he sent His Son to them, saying: They will be put to shame by My Son” (Matthew 21:37). These words show that there is no comparison between the message of the prophets and the message of the Son. The message of the Son is so much higher than the message of the prophets that the Jews, who did not listen and beat the prophets and their brethren, should have expressed unquestioning submission before the God incarnate. But “the worker, having seen the Son, decided in himself: this is the heir, come, let us kill him, and keep his inheritance. And when he did eat him, he brought him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Matthew 21:38–39). In these words, the Lord, the Knower of the Heart, reveals the secret reason for the planned deicide: the bishops’ fear of losing their power, their significance in the Church, their earthly advantages, combined with the power and significance of the Church. The Lord directly tells the Jewish bishops what they will do with Him, and they, as a matter of fact, took the Lord out of the city and put him to death there. The parable remained unclear to them; The Lord, having said it, added a question to it: “When the Lord of the grapes comes, what will he do to those who work? saying to Him, “He will destroy the wicked with evil; and he will give the grapes to other workers, who will reward him with the fruit in their own season” (Matthew 21:40–41). Then the Lord openly announced to them that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from them, and it will be given to the tongue that creates its fruits” (Matthew 21:43). The people who replaced the Israelites were made up of many nations and are called Christians and the new Israel, and the Church, which hitherto was called Vertograd, is called the Kingdom of God: in the bosom of the Old Testament Church there was only a prototype of salvation - in the bosom of the New Testament salvation itself is abundantly and abundantly taught. The new Israel included those of the Jews who believed in Christ, “that remnant according to the election of Grace” (Rom. 11:5), consisting of the Jews who believed in the Lord, headed by the twelve apostles. Before the redemption of mankind by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Jews constituted a chosen people; they shunned and abhorred communication with other nations, communication prohibited by the Law of Moses. They recognized, according to the instructions of the law, all humanity as outcasts, and communication with them was desecration of themselves. After the redemption of mankind by the Lord, the advantage of the Jews over other nations, their difference from other nations, was destroyed. The price of redemption for every person is the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is no difference,” says the apostle, “but between Jews and Greeks: for he is the God of all, who is rich in all who call on Him. “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:12–13). “If you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved. For he believes in the truth in his heart, but he confesses with his lips for salvation” (Rom. 10:9-10). The cornerstone on which the spiritual living building is erected, the Kingdom of God, the New Testament Church, the people of God, sanctified, holy, new Israel, this cornerstone is our Lord Jesus Christ. The royal prophet and forefather of the God-man according to the flesh said: “the stone that was built carelessly, this became the head of the corner” (Ps. 118:22). The Lord, at the end of the parable, reminded the Jewish bishops of this saying of the psalmist: “Have they not said in the Scriptures: the stone that was built carelessly, this became the cornerstone. This came from the Lord, and it is wonderful in your eyes. And he who falls on this stone will be crushed; The creators or workers - the bishops and scribes - neglected the Lord; but the wisdom of God arranged it in such a way that the God-Man, by His free death and resurrection, before the eyes of His enemies and adversaries, became the firmest, unshakable and most extensive foundation of the New Testament Church, which was formed in the middle of Jerusalem itself and from Jerusalem embraced the universe. The corner, as explained by church teachers, is the union of two hitherto ununited peoples, Jewish and pagan: they united together in Christ and formed the Church, the foundation and head of which is Christ (1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 5:23). Those who believed in Christ, when they saw that the Roman army was surrounding Jerusalem, then, according to the will of the Lord (Luke 21:20), left the city, doomed to destruction. There was every possibility for such an exit, because the Romans, having surrounded Jerusalem for the first time, retreated from it and withdrew from Judea; They soon returned, began a regular and stubborn siege, and carried out that execution on the deicides, which the deicides themselves had called upon themselves and their descendants (Matthew 27:25). The Jews, having stumbled over a spiritual stone, were crushed, and the wrath of God that fell on them ground them to dust, which depicts the destruction of their state, the death of countless numbers from among their people, the captivity and scattering throughout the universe of those who survived violent death (Matthew 21:43; Luke 21:24). But these executions in time mean nothing compared to the executions of the enemies of God in eternity. The Holy Apostle Paul, turning to pagan Christians and pointing out to them the disastrous falling away of the Jews, says: “Even if Netia were broken off from the branches, you are a wonderful olive tree, you are clinging to them, and you are a partaker of the root and ointment of the olive tree; you do not boast on the branches... do not be arrogant, but be afraid. If God does not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. See therefore the goodness and mercilessness of God: on those who have fallen away there will be mercilessness, but on you the goodness of God, if you continue in goodness; otherwise, you too will be cut off” (Rom. 11:17-22). Let's pay attention to this warning! Let's pay attention to the terrible threat combined with a warning! The reason for the Jews' renunciation of the Savior was their immoral life, both private and public, which represented a constant violation and trampling of the Law of God; Let us reject the reason for the retreat, so as not to fall into the retreat itself. “How many times,” said Saint Tikhon of Voronezh, “a sinner deigns to sin to which he is addicted, so many times does he renounce Christ in his heart; The number of times he commits sin in deed, the number of times he makes a sacrifice to the idol.” A constant life of sin is a constant renunciation of Christ, even if it were not pronounced with the tongue and lips. But alas! it is already being pronounced, it began to be pronounced a long time ago. The lips and tongue cannot help but show secret heartfelt retreat and renunciation: they seem to involuntarily express it. A renunciation of Christ is pronounced and is pronounced by various heretical teachings, which cover up the rejection of Christ by heresy 140 by preserving for the heresy a Christian name that does not belong to it; it is pronounced and is pronounced by various teachings that have flowed out of the fallen human mind, posing as light and eliminating the true light - Christ; it is pronounced and is pronounced not only by a depraved life, but also by a life inattentive to God’s commandments. “The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 18:9), and only with its help can one see the Redeemer; only he who does righteousness is able to accept the Redeemer (Acts 10:35) and remain in communion with the Redeemer (John 15:10). The apostasy of the new Israel from the Savior by the end of time will take on extensive development, as the apostle foretold: “The apostasy will come first,” and then, as a consequence and fruit of the apostasy, “the man of lawlessness will be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3), who will dare to call himself the promised Messiah, will demand divine worship for himself and will receive it from those who have prepared themselves to receive the Antichrist, open and secret. apostasy from Christ. The apostasy will be so extensive that because of “the increase of iniquity the love of many will be cut short” (Matthew 24:12). This means: sinful temptations and examples will multiply so much that they will drag countless people into a sinful life. Faith in Christ will barely exist, as the Lord Himself declared: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). Material temporary pursuits and pleasures will attract the full attention of mankind. “As it was in the days of Noah,” says the Gospel, “so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: I ate, I ate, I married, I encroached; before that day Noah went into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed everything. In the same way it was in the days of Lot: yadyahu, piyahu, kupovahu, sellahu, soot, and zdahu” (Luke 17:26-28). Abundant earthly prosperity and enormous earthly enterprises, as obvious to everyone, are presented by the Word of God as a sign of the last times and mature sinfulness of mankind, mostly hidden and incomprehensible with a superficial and inexperienced look at humanity. Humanity never wants to declare itself a follower of evil, even if it is drowned in evil: it constantly strives to show itself as virtuous. When it most allows itself to commit iniquity, then it is most concerned to justify itself in the eyes of people (Luke 16:15); then he is most hypocritical; then, with shamelessness and audacity, he begins to proclaim his perfection and virtue (John 9:28). Attachment to matter and material success can conveniently embrace a person completely, embrace his mind, his heart, steal from him all his time and all his strength: because of my fall, “my soul clung to the earth” (Ps. 119:25) from my youth instead of it remaining in grief. Such attachment distracts a person from the Word of God, from thoughts about death and eternity, distracts him from faith in God and from the knowledge of God, and kills him with eternal death. “If anyone loves the world,” the Holy Spirit of God declares this to everyone without exception, that is, earthly life with its prosperity and pleasure, “there is no love for the Fathers,” i.e. God, “in him” (1 John 2:15). “The people of this world are enmity with God: whoever desires to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “You cannot work for God and mammon,” i.e. God and earthly prosperity (Matthew 6:24). Serving mammon, especially when all the powers of the soul are sacrificed to this service, is a retreat from serving God and a sure sign of a descent into the deepest, inexorable abyss of sinfulness. Just as the old Israel sacrificed the spiritual dignity offered to it by the Redeemer, to earthly advantage and vain hopes for abundant earthly prosperity, so the new Israel, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, will reject its spiritual dignity, already bestowed by the Redeemer, for the sake of earthly, soon-perishing prosperity, success assumed only in a flattering dream, and will humiliate the Holy Spirit before your fallen, false mind (2 Thess. 2). The old Israel was deceived by the dream of higher earthly success, and the new Israel is deceived by a similar dream and a similar aspiration. Temporal and eternal disasters befell the old Israel for rejecting the Redeemer: these disasters are a weak image of the terrible disasters that should be the punishment of the new Israel for its crime. He will be subjected to cruel punishment, temporary and eternal, and will not escape it, “about the careless salvation that began to be spoken of by the Lord, who heard the message in us, bearing witness with God with signs and wonders, and with various powers, and with the divided Holy Spirit” (Heb. 2:3-4). What should we do, they will ask here, so as not to fall away from the Redeemer and not be subject to the wrath of God? “For this reason,” the holy Apostle Paul answers this question, “it is fitting for us to give more attention to what we hear, lest we fall away” (Heb. 2:1). This means: we must spend our lives with special attention to the New Testament, which God was pleased to enter into with us, uniting us with Himself with the holy sacraments, declaring to us His all-holy and perfect will in the Gospel, crowning the faithful sons of the New Testament with the clear and tangible gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us remember death and the judgment of God, to which we will immediately be subjected after separation from the body; Let us remember the blessed or sorrowful eternity that should be our lot according to the dictum of God’s judgment. With constant remembrance of death, of God's judgment, of a blessed or disastrous eternity, the heart's attitude towards earthly life changes: a person begins to look at himself as a wanderer on earth; a pledge of coldness and indifference appears in his heart towards earthly objects; all his attention turns to the study and fulfillment of the Gospel commandments. Just as a traveler, lost in a dense forest during a dark night, tries to get to his home by the sound of a bell or trumpet, so a true Christian, by paying attention to the teachings of Christ, strengthens himself to leave the realm of the false mind, born and nourished by life according to the flesh. “I praised Your justification in the place of my coming; I remembered Your name in the night, O Lord, and kept Your law” (Ps. 119:54-55), - this is how the holy prophet David confessed to God, who, both in the royal palace and in the glory of a never-vanquished hero, recognized himself as a stranger on earth, and the earth as a place of sojourn, a place of wandering and exile. Do not think that through such a view we become weak, unprofitable members of society. No! With such a view, we fulfill our duties towards humanity with special zeal, with self-sacrifice. It's natural! Then the goal of our activity is the sole benefit of humanity, and not the acquisition of earthly advantages. On the contrary, when, having forgotten eternity and God, we live on earth for only earthly acquisitions, then unconsciously, inconspicuously and incomprehensibly to ourselves, with the trampling of conscience, duty, with the trampling of the commands of the great God, we sacrifice the well-being of our neighbor, the benefit of humanity, and our own eternal destiny as a sacrifice to our pride and self-delusion. The Lord is patient with us (2 Pet. 3:9): this is obvious. “Do not thirst for our Lord’s long-suffering, salvation” (2 Peter 3:15), says the Apostle, that is, know that the reason and purpose of this long-suffering is God’s good will towards us, so that we are not carried away by the all-encompassing stream of evil, so that under the guidance of the Word of God we work out our salvation. Most people, intoxicated by the false and seductive teaching of the rejected spirits (1 Tim. 4:1), overcome by the action of this teaching in them, have despised the Word of God, do not know and do not want to know it. It is necessary, urgently necessary, to pay attention to the Word of God, justified by the very events of the time and mood hostile to it, “let us not fall away!” This attention is needed, this attention is needed so as not to be irrevocably deprived of salvation, which has not yet been taken away from people by the wondrous mercy and wondrous patience of our God, who represents the opportunity to be saved by the meager remnant of those who believe in Him. Amen. St. Simeon the New Theologian says: “What is the intention of looking at the incarnation of God the Word, preached in all Divine Scripture and read from us, but not cognized? Exactly, so that by sharing our nature, He may create us as partakers of His own: For for this sake the Son of God became the Son of man, so that He may create us as sons of God, who by nature was He, to this by grace raising our race.” Dobrot., part I, ch. 108 Historical information in this teaching is borrowed from: Fleury. Church history, vol. 1, book. 1 Thus said the Lord, appearing to the great Pachomius The explanation of the parable is most borrowed from the “Blagovestnik” and its explanation by His Eminence Nicephorus, Archbishop of Astrakhan That heresy includes the rejection of Christ, the holy Apostle Peter said in his Second Epistle: “There will be lying teachers among you, who will bring heresies of destruction, and the Lords who redeemed them will be swept away” (2 Pet. 2:1). Every heresy is a rejection of the Redeemer. The most iconoclastic heresy, which outwardly rejects only the icon of Christ, in essence rejects the incarnation of Christ, and therefore rejects the Redeemer and redemption. Rejection of the Christian sacraments, without an obvious rejection of Christ, is, in essence, a rejection of Christ: when the sacraments are rejected, essential communion with Christ ceases and is destroyed. You might be interested in: