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Since Bethlehem was no more than two hours' journey from Jerusalem; then Joseph and Mary, after the expiration of the time specified for the purification of the mother in labor, without any difficulty went to the Temple of Jerusalem in order to personally perform the rites of purification there and together present to God, as they said then, the son of Mary. For the law demanded: sanctify to God every firstborn son (Ex. 13:1–2), and the firstborn had to redeem themselves from personal service to God at the church with a small amount of money (Num. 18:15–16). So, to contribute this amount at the presentation of their son, and at the same time to make a sacrifice of purification, was the only purpose of their journey. The sacrifice of purification consisted either of a one-year-old sheep, or, in the case of poverty of the bringer, of a pair of turtle doves or young pigeons. Joseph and Mary could not make the first sacrifice. In the courtyard of the church there was a certain place where women in labor who came for purification were sprinkled with water of purification from the priest. No one, not even the priest himself, could have known that there was any extraordinary child in Mary’s arms; everyone who saw Mary with the baby standing next to Joseph could consider him the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Joseph and Mary left it to God himself to reveal in due time the true dignity and purpose of the baby they brought with them. The rumor about the vision of the shepherds did not reach Jerusalem. Therefore, Joseph and Mary did not at all expect that anyone in Jerusalem would recognize their Baby as the King of Israel. But as soon as they entered the courtyard of the church, one venerable old man, who had been waiting for them for a long time, came out to meet them - with joyful impatience: it was Simeon, a man in his meek piety and spirit, a true Israeli, who was respected by his fellow citizens, but who, it seems, was neither the head, nor even the lowest member of the great Sanhedrin 16. Simeon lived in times when the desire of every pious Israeli, “that the joy of Israel, the divine King, would come quickly and bring prosperity to the people,” rose to the point of impatience. And Simeon often expressed this impatience in prayers. He was honored with divine inspiration. And meanwhile, amid the decline of morals and unrest, he strengthened himself with sweet hopes, which were inspired by ancient prophecies, and having already reached a deep old age, he did not yet see anything that would show the proximity of the days of the Messiah, except perhaps the approach to the end of the weeks of Daniel: - for the exaltation of his holy desires, as a reward for his fiery prayers - God gives him the revelation that he will not see death until he sees the Christ of the Lord. He often went to the church, but this time he had a special attraction to go there. So he sees Joseph and Mary entering the courtyard: a divine wave suddenly points him to them and puts the thought into his mind: this baby is the same King, the Messiah, whom you are waiting for. Therefore, the elder takes Him in his arms; Mary yields in amazement to the inspired elder, perhaps known to her; He holds Him for some time in his arms: then, completely devoted to the joy of the long-desired spectacle, he then raises his eyes to heaven, then, lowering them on the baby, says in a solemn manner: now, Lord, your servant will die in peace: because with his own eyes he saw the Savior, whom you gave to the whole world. I saw the light of tongues, I saw the glory of Israel - and I have already lived enough. But Maria had to learn something new about the fate of her son on this occasion: something very important and hitherto still covered in deep darkness, which could only be explained later by the events themselves. Elder Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary, that is, he called them blessed for having received such honor in serving the Messiah. But then, turning in particular to Mary, handing over the baby to her, he said to her: “This baby will be the cause of the destruction and salvation of many from among the people of Israel: not everyone will understand His dignity in this form; not everyone will open their heart to His word; He will be a stone of temptation, a subject of contradictions, and on Him, as a touchstone, it will turn out who had what in his heart in relation to God and the Messiah. Even you yourself, Mary, will have a weapon penetrate your heart.” This word was already a weapon! The keen gaze of the old man, illuminated with such light for the last time on earth, penetrated sharper than iron into Mary’s soul. At the same time, an elderly widow who was in the church, possessing the gift of prophecy, named Anna, famous for her piety, approached the baby; approaches and, having comprehended in spirit, Whom he sees in front of him, brings thanks to the Lord for the fulfillment of ancient promises in the hearing of Joseph and Mary; Anna had several familiar faces in the city who, like her, looked forward to the joy of Israel: she later joyfully told them that the desired Messiah had already been born, and that she herself had seen Him in the church. Without a doubt, it was impossible to say this to everyone. God Himself did not indiscriminately communicate this secret to people at this time: because the widespread and careless dissemination of the rumor about the birth of the Messiah should have led to persecution against them too early for the mother and the baby. The people who hitherto knew the secret of the birth of the Messiah were either completely unknown (shepherds) or completely famous, reverent people. In the mouths of the former, this news could not have received too much importance: the latter knew how to act with caution and only then communicated the precious news when they knew that it would not in any way be turned into evil. Meanwhile, it already partly served in favor of the Messiah that among the pious Israelites here and there it was repeated and told about the extraordinary baby Who was seen in the church and about Whom Simeon and Anna prophesied - people so famous in Jerusalem. Having fulfilled the requirements of the law, Joseph and Mary had no need to stay any longer in Jerusalem: but where should they go? Is it to Bethlehem or Nazareth? Bethlehem has now become much more important to them than Nazareth; Jesus was born in it, this is the city of the Messiah: he must appear from Bethlehem, at least in the opinion of the Jews. So they settled down again in Bethlehem 17, but no longer in the cave. Everyone will understand how important the miraculous events in Jerusalem were for Joseph and Mary. There is no doubt that they, like other Jews, imagined the opening of the kingdom of the Messiah not without great upheavals: however, they assumed together that all these upheavals would finally be resolved in favor of the entire Jewish people; in their opinion, only the pagans could have been worse off from this. But Simeon undermined this idea: according to him, this Messiah will also be the cause of destruction for many in Israel, as well as the cause of prosperity. In vain do all the people flatter themselves to be part of the benefits that the Messiah brought with him; - no, as for the rights to these benefits, they will be given not without regard to the thoughts of the heart, i.e., dispositions of the heart, morals, virtue. The Jews hope to be alone in the kingdom of the Messiah: so much the worse for them; they are deceived. The kingdom of the Messiah will be as much a light to the Gentiles as it will be a glory to Israel. Obviously, this concept of the kingdom of the Messiah embraced the history of its development much more fully; it added a lot of new things to those concepts about the kingdom of the Messiah, which are presented in the song of Zechariah, in the gospel of the angel to the Virgin Mary; it presented the attentive Mary with many new questions, new subjects for reflection. But what should have occupied her most was the words of the elder, actually addressed to her: a weapon will pierce your very soul. Mary had hitherto known about herself only that she was the most blessed of wives, that all generations would please her: now she learned the bitter truth, which seemed to contradict all her previous ideas about herself and her fate. Of course, she sought a lot of ways to solve this riddle: but if the whole plan of the appearance of the kingdom of the Messiah were revealed to her, she would find so much extraordinary in it that her view of herself would not be explained: it was necessary to leave this explanation to time. Meanwhile, it was very useful for Mary, even necessary, to know that in any way, only her soul must endure a lot of cruel grief for her son. So later the Savior, when he was preparing for suffering, considered it necessary to notify his disciples about this: I tell you: before it will not be, but even when it is, you have faith that I am (John 13:19; 14:29), although the disciples also did not yet understand the words of their teacher. This need to warn Joseph and Mary about the fate of their Son and partly their own in the present case is all the more obvious because soon after their arrival in Bethlehem a bloody scene of Herod’s suspicion was to open in this city, the reason for which was hidden in the news that reached him that the Messiah was born in Judea, and a definite indication of the place of birth of the Messiah made by members of the Sanhedrin. While Joseph and Mary, having returned from Jerusalem, remained in Bethlehem, the so-called magicians 18, who were especially involved in the science of the stars, arrived in the capital of Judea from the eastern countries; people who were rarely seen in Jerusalem, except perhaps when they traveled to worship the God of the Jews, who was then honored among foreign nations. It is not without reason that one can assume that the ancient prophecies of the Jews were partly known to them. In addition to the fact that these prophecies had much in common with the then widespread expectations of the great universal Monarch 19, Eastern scientists seem to have known something from the prophecy of Daniel, who lived for a long time in their country, which very clearly determined the time of the appearance of the Messiah and which could make them all the more capable of the closest understanding of the divine. Their mere arrival in Jerusalem attracted everyone's attention; but even more so - their direct, undisguised question: where was the Messiah, the king of the Jews, born? We, they said, deliberately came here to worship this King, to whom heaven entrusts dominion over the whole world. And how they knew this, the Magi explained by the appearance of stars in their country. This explanation is not entirely intelligible to us now; However, for the Magi this phenomenon of the star was so decisive that they went to Jerusalem alone on it. Whether this newborn king was from the then dominant dynasty in Judea or not, it seems that the Magi did not pay attention to this. They only assumed that when an extraordinary phenomenon announced the birth of this King to strangers, then of course everyone knew more about Him, especially in the Jewish capital, and that the highest ranks of this state had long been solemnly celebrating His birthday. But they didn’t find anything here. To their great surprise, they saw that in the Jewish capital they still knew nothing about Him (the information about the Messiah disseminated by Anna concerned only a few, and of these few the Magi might not have met a single one). A resident of Jerusalem, on the one hand, found it very strange that strangers brought him news of an important event that happened in his fatherland: it would seem that this event should have been announced for the first time in the capital of the state and by some own prophet. But what made him most difficult was the thought of what unfavorable effect this news would have on public peace under such a suspicious sovereign as Herod was. In fact, there was great unrest at court. The rumor about the Messiah spread not from some small town, but from respectable strangers, learned men: Herod could not help but hear about the King, whom the Jewish people were waiting for. Whether he believed or did not believe the ancient predictions related to this subject, he could not completely reject them: they were already so deeply rooted in the religion of the Jews and even in the concepts of the good of their fatherland that it was impossible to be a Jew without these expectations. To deprive Herod of peace, it was enough that the people had been feeding on this hope for so long, and therefore were too inclined to accept everything that could promise the fulfillment of this hope. When the people think (fairly or unfairly - the point is not) that they have the Messiah - this alone made Herod afraid of important and unpleasant upheavals for his house. Yes, he ascended to the throne of Judaism in such a way, ruled it for more than 30 years, that he could not rely on the disposition of his subjects, even some part of them: he never considered his throne and life safe even on the part of his children. Finally, he knew the strong desire for freedom in his subjects and the fanatical jealousy of some parties, which, with one name: the Messiah, not just at His actual appearance, are ready for open indignation. According to such ideas, a suspicious tyrant, such as Herod, soon decided what to do in this case, so as not to lose the interests of his house: if there is such a baby who is appointed by a star, or prophecy, or whatever it is, to be the king of the Jews - to immediately destroy him. It was enough for Herod to assimilate religion to such an extent that he could only believe the legends of the eastern sages and the predictions of the sacred books, and not so much that he considered it an obligation to comply with the will and wave of heaven; this is proven by the history of his present mode of action. Herod assembles the entire Sanhedrin 20: this supreme court had already experienced enough of his cruel tyranny, and now Herod’s old age and troubles in his family made him even more suspicious. At this meeting, he proposes to him and especially to theologians and interpreters the question: in what place should that great King be born, for whom the people are waiting? It was not difficult to guess what prompts the sovereign to such a question, and for what purpose he proposes it. The birth of the Messiah was important to him because it could be harmful to his home. The Sanhedrin, no matter how important the news brought by strangers seemed to be, in itself without any relation to Herod, did not want to enter into a further discussion about him, but considered it most appropriate in response to the king’s question to point to one ancient divine saying, which contained a prophecy that showed that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Herod believed; he already had one sign to find the newborn king. He would also need to find out the time of birth: who should he ask? It’s best from the Magi themselves, who claimed that they came to Judea to ask about the birthplace of the Messiah, because by the appearance of the stars they knew the time of His birth. So they need to find out when this star appeared to them. After this, it will no longer be difficult to find out in such a small place as Bethlehem who this Messiah is: it is worth finding out which of the male children was born there on such and such a night. But so that such an accurate study of the time of the appearance of the star would not arouse any suspicion among the people and not provide an opportunity to hide the baby, Herod commands the foreign wise men, who did not yet know where to turn to see the newborn, to appear before him for a secret interview; asks again about the motives for their journey and tries to find out when they saw the celestial phenomenon. The language in which he spoke to them about this subject could not give the aliens any suspicion. Herod was a model of hypocrisy. It seemed that he was greatly disturbed by the fact that such an important person as the Messiah had not yet been shown any honor by his compatriots. “There are, of course, examples,” he told them, of people whom the Divinity chose to fulfill its most important purposes, appearing in the world without any noise or rumor, but only later revealing themselves in all their glory: however, nevertheless, we have a duty, as soon as we have discovered even the slightest trace of the appearance of such people, to seek them out and receive them with due honors. Now, if you have been rewarded with divine revelation regarding the birth of such an important person as the Messiah, then of course you will be happy in your further search for Him. I can show you the place of His birth: there you will find the Child; precisely in one village, two hours away from Jerusalem, in Bethlehem. You can go there and ask about the Child. But when you find Him, continued the crafty Herod, then immediately notify me about it. I consider it my duty to go to this place myself and give due honor to the Person who appeared in the world under such a great omen.” Having received such news, the Magi set off on their way to Bethlehem. They still had no other sign that they would find their baby there, except for the king’s instructions, which, however, relied on a divine saying: but they had just left the city (it was either at midnight or in the morning), when that heavenly light appeared to them again, which they had already seen once in the east: they recognized their star and the star now became their guide; she went before them to Bethlehem: she entered Bethlehem with them; stopped: at the top where the boy was. With a joy that excluded all doubt, and with a reverence that was proportionate to the expectations that prompted them to such a journey, the strangers entered the house and found mother and baby there. What could have led others into doubt here—squalor—was barely noticed by them: so strong, so vivid was the impression that the secondary appearance of the heavenly sign made on them. Without asking anything, without investigating whether they had come where they needed to, suddenly, in the presence of their mother, they bow before the Baby lying before them (this is the honor that subjects in the East give to their sovereigns), in whom they see the divine King, and in a feeling of gratitude for being worthy of finding such a coveted sight, they take out from their treasures gifts from the most precious products of their land: they offer him incense and myrrh with gold - gifts with which people in the east usually appear before their kings, and without which even a mediocre subject cannot appear before the throne of his sovereign. There is a great distance between this congratulation, accompanied by such significant gifts, and the humiliated state in which they found the baby and mother: but these strangers did not come to see the pomp of the court, otherwise they would have remained with Herod; they wanted to see the blessed child, the future great King. And the confidence that they had found Him in this town, in this house, overcame every petty thought. They could understand that Providence, which revealed His birth to them in such an extraordinary way, could have its own reasons for choosing such a small, insignificant town for His birth. Moreover, this is not unheard of: a child of noble birth, even royal children, sometimes hide for a long time in obscurity, and then, at a certain age, appear on stage. Having bowed to Jesus, they intended to take the return journey to Jerusalem to notify the king of their discovery. But an extraordinary dream prompted them to change this intention; they were told not to return to Herod. As a result of this command, they chose a different path to return to their fatherland. They may have guessed the intention and reasons for such a divine order based on all the circumstances of their stay in Jerusalem and especially some of Herod’s character traits. Flight to Egypt and the massacre of the Bethlehem infants At the same time, Joseph received orders to flee with his mother and the Child from his fatherland to the neighboring country - Egypt. Now it is revealed how well-timed Simeon’s warning was for them that this Child would be the subject of controversy. Joseph, from the conversation of the Magi or from the angel himself, could have learned what danger they were in danger of remaining longer in Judea. And having become accustomed to obeying all the orders of God, although he did not understand their reason and purpose, especially having become attentive to the wonderful destinies of the Baby, Whom he was the guardian, he could no longer be hindered by any inconvenience in fulfilling the command announced to him by the angel. But, it should be noted, apparently there were no insurmountable difficulties in this regard: Egypt was not far from Judea, from Bethlehem to its nearest borders it was about 40 hours of travel. Many Jews lived in Egypt, and this country was often in ancient times a refuge for the Jews, even for royalty. The gifts of the Magi brought them the money they needed for the journey. Finally, trust in God, in the Baby himself, whose life they saved and who, as they could already see from many events, was so dear in the eyes of God, completed the victory over all other fears and concerns. And Joseph immediately, on the night, as the Evangelist Matthew says, probably the same night in which the dream took place, went to Egypt with his mother and baby. What's in Jerusalem? everything was in motion there - from the king to the last subject: the king was the most impatient of all: he was waiting from hour to hour for news from the Magi about the success of their journey. At the same time, others were more or less occupied with such expectations: some with fear - for Herod; who with joy and calm trust in Providence, which, they thought, would not leave what everyone had long desired to hide in the unknown: who - with curiosity - to see the end of such a universal movement. But no one's expectations were fulfilled. The king, irritated by this even more against the one whom he had previously considered his rival, or at least a rival of his house in the rights to the throne, gave the command to exterminate all male infants, starting from two years old, in Bethlehem and its environs: this command was carried out so quickly that the parents did not have time to hide their children from the destruction of the tyrant. Those who had previously heard about Jesus from undoubted witnesses who saw him himself - now it was difficult even to decide whether this Jesus was alive or not? - because Joseph's departure from Bethlehem was very hasty and completely unexpected. Later tradition fills the entire time of Jesus’ flight into Egypt and His stay there with miracles. Eusebius and Athanasius say that the entry of Jesus into Egypt was marked by the fall of idols here and see in this the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isaiah (19:1). Sozomen says that in Hermopolis one tree, which stood at the very gates of the city and was honored by the pagans for its size, bowed down to the ground before Jesus when he entered the city, and from that time the branches, bark, and branches of this tree gave healing from all sorts of diseases until the time of Julian, who ordered it to be cut down (Lib. 5. p. 21) 21 . The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ tells 1) that in the first city of Egypt, into which Joseph, the Child and his mother entered, all the inhabitants felt some shock and came to ask their priest what the reason was: that the idol answered them: “an unknown God has arrived here, Who is the true God,” and he himself fell; that the son of this priest, possessed by spirits, received liberation from them by unintentionally touching his head with one of the shrouds of Jesus, the spirits came out of him in the form of corvids and snakes; 2) as if fearing bad consequences from the inhabitants of this city for being the reason for the fall of their idol, the holy travelers accidentally fell in with a gang of robbers, who, however, were themselves frightened by the noise that accompanied Joseph and Jesus; 3) in another city, Mary healed a demon-possessed woman; 4) in another city, by sorcerers, a bride deprived of her tongue receives her tongue from frequently and tightly pressing the baby to herself; 5) in a new city, one woman is freed from the evil spirit that entered her in the form of a serpent - through one approach of the Baby to her; and from the fragrant water, with which this woman then washed Him, one leper girl received healing, who went with the holy family; 6) the same thing - in another city - is received by the son of the chief of this city; 7) in another city, one recently married man is allowed the reasons that prevented him from enjoying the rights of marriage; 8) in another city, their brother was returned to three sisters, who, due to the envy of some people, was turned into a mule through sorcery; the baby was just placed on him and he became a man and then entered into marriage with the girl who accompanied her healer; 9) in the desert they meet two thieves, one of whom showed so much respect for Jesus that he gave a significant amount of money to the other - if only he did not rob Joseph and his family - for which Mary asked him from the Lord for forgiveness of sins, and Jesus said that both of these thieves would hang on the sides of His cross on their crosses; 10) one idol city turned into mounds of sand; 11) at the sycamore (wild fig tree) Jesus produced a spring in which Mary washed His shirt, and from the slop a balm began to be born in this country. In conclusion, the history of Jesus’ journey notes that “Joseph with his mother and the Child came to Memphis; saw Pharaoh here; We were only in Egypt for three years; Jesus performed many miracles here, which, however, are not recorded either in the Infancy Gospel or in the Perfect Gospel.” But everything that is told here has no reliability - partly because it seems inconsistent with the then state of Jesus; partly because it contains a lot of absurdities. If Jesus did not want to hide his miraculous power then, then why did he have to flee to Egypt? He could have defended himself in Judea with the same power. Just as He destroyed the city of idols there: He could have done the same here with His enemies. So, the entire time of Jesus’ journey to Egypt and his stay there remains completely unknown to us: even we cannot determine with accuracy how long He stayed there. Return of I. Christ from Egypt and life in Nazareth We only know that as soon as Joseph heard that Herod, the persecutor of Jesus, had died, he left Egypt and went to his homeland. He intended to establish himself by living in Judea, and precisely, as it seems, in Bethlehem. But having learned that Judea fell after Herod into the hands of his son Archelaus - a sovereign whom he had reason to fear more than the other sons of Herod - Antipas or Philip, who ruled in other regions of the kingdom of Judea, in accordance with divine inspiration, he retired to Nazareth of Galilee, where he had previously lived with Mary. Thus, the baby Jesus was removed from Jerusalem for a long time; Even those who had heard so many extraordinary things about His birth could now know nothing more about Him. Jesus should not have appeared publicly as the Messiah until he had reached full manhood: an early acquaintance with Him could only give more reasons for petty doubts than bring benefits. You can clearly see from the inhabitants of Nazareth how much the fact that they knew Him so much incited them against Jesus - they knew Him as a baby, they knew him as a boy, they knew him as a young man, they knew him as a carpenter’s son, they knew him as a brother and relative of ordinary people. One might think that this prejudice would have spread even further if those who in Jerusalem rejoiced at His birth as the birth of the Messiah, now saw Him every day, knew Him in adolescence and youth - and (excluding the predispositions of the spirit) after so much time did not notice anything in Him that corresponded to their expectations. Could they have become more able to recognize His divine dignity in Him - in the thirtieth year of His life - when for so many years they had not noticed traces of it in Him? No. The Jew in Jerusalem, always looking for miracles and signs, with such a long acquaintance with Jesus, was just as little able as a resident of Nazareth to preserve those great hopes that were connected with Him when Simeon and Anna spoke about Him and the foreign wise men were looking for Him. Finally, the reliable history of the infancy of Jesus is concluded by the remark of the evangelist: Jesus excelled in wisdom and stature and grace among God and man. In the powers of His spirit, what He was supposed to be according to His purpose was more and more manifested: the fullness of the Divinity that dwelt in Him, in proportion to the weakness and poverty of the vessel of humanity, was not suddenly completely revealed in Him. Everything that was divine was seen during His public ministry in His life, teaching and deeds was already in Him even when He was an infant, child, and youth: but due to the inability of His powers to manifest the fullness of the Divinity, it remained more or less hidden. But the more the strength of his soul and body strengthened, the closer He approached the most perfect age of man, the more clearly He revealed the Divinity in Himself. So the sun, in the morning and at noon and in the evening, is always equal to itself in brilliance and warmth. But differently it shines and warms our earth in the morning, differently at noon and differently in the evening. The gradual unfolding of His powers was especially revealed in His mind and knowledge, and all His words, actions and movements were distinguished by some divine dignity and beauty; why is this child, this young man, attracting the love of everyone. But Jesus excelled in wisdom and stature among God and man. We said: this is the reliable history of the infancy of Jesus Christ; but later fictions and legends follow much further, filling the entire life of Jesus Christ from his residence in Nazareth to his journey to Jerusalem in the 12th year of his life with miracles. Epiphanius in one place seems to agree to allow something like this - so that no heretic could say that Christ descended on Jesus at baptism. But Chrysostom quite directly declares himself against these legends. One must also distinguish from the reliable history of the infancy of Jesus Christ the later invention of conjectural ideas of the development of forces in Jesus Christ, which, however, are not limited to His infancy, but embrace the entire period of His life before entering into public ministry. Consideration of the issue of the time of birth of I. Christ While revealing the story of the infancy of Jesus Christ, we said nothing about the time of His birth. How should one think about the calculation accepted today? The year of birth of Jesus Christ can be determined 1) by the chronological instructions of the evangelists relating to the very event of the birth of Jesus Christ; 2) can be determined by the time of the baptism of Jesus Christ and finally 3) by the time of His death. 1) In the history of the birth of Jesus Christ, the evangelists present the following chronological indications: a) Jesus Christ was born under Herod, b) shortly before his death, which can be seen from the fact that after the journey of Jesus Christ to Egypt, Herod soon died, c) it can serve as an indication of the time that Herod ordered the death of infants two years old and less, which means that he assumed that the baby Messiah was no more than two years old. 2) In the history of the baptism of Jesus Christ, chronological indications can be: a) the very entry of John into ministry, which, according to the Evangelist Luke, was in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius, is 787. from the creation of Rome; b) the designation of the years at which Jesus was baptized: and he was about thirty years old, beginning, notes Luke (3:23); c) John’s legend about the time of the embassy to John the Baptist with the question of why he baptizes (1:25). This embassy took place at the time when, after baptism, the Savior retired into the desert, and not long after John entered into his ministry. If it is said that John entered into ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius, and if this embassy was not long after he entered into ministry, then from here we can determine the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. 3) You can find chronological signs in the history of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. The key to determining this time is found in the weeks of Daniel. The beginning of the weeks falls on the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes - 455 BC. or counting according to the Roman numeral in the 299th year from the creation of Rome. According to the correct explanation of the weeks, the death of Jesus Christ is believed to be in the middle of the 70th week, the beginning of the ministry in the middle of the 69th week. Determining in this way the year of Jesus Christ's entry into public ministry, we will find that it was 483 from the beginning of weeks and the next. from the creation of Rome in 782, and assuming that the Savior was baptized at the beginning of the 30th year of his life, we obtain the year of His birth as 753 from the creation of Rome. Here are several number systems that can be used to determine the year of birth of Jesus Christ. The latter path is obviously not satisfactory for everyone, because it is not history that must be verified by prophecy, but prophecy by history. Consequently, for us, the first two notations may be more reliable, especially since they converge with each other. In the first reckoning, the matter depends on determining the year of Herod's death. It is clearly stated in the history of Josephus; but this will have to take us several years from the accepted reckoning; Flavius, as he himself says, wrote the history of Herod, guided by the notes of Nicholas of Damascus, a colleague and contemporary of Herod, and following them he claims that Herod was declared king of the Jews in 714, but took actual possession 3 years later, in 717. After that, Herod reigned for 34, and only 37 years. So, assuming that Joseph follows the Jewish reckoning, that is, he begins the year from the month of Nizan, we will find that Herod died in 750, after the month of Nizan. This is confirmed by the eclipse of the sun that occurred shortly before the death of Herod before Easter, which Flavius ​​mentions and which, according to the calculations of modern astronomers, should have taken place in the year 750. Other chronological observations about the reign of the sons of Herod agree with this reckoning of time. Josephus says that Archelaus ruled Judea for 9 years, then was exiled, as Dion says, in 759 from the creation of Rome. If Archelaus ruled for 9 years, then Herod died in 750. Philip, according to the legend of the same Josephus, died in the 37th year of his reign in the 20th year of Tiberius, and this is the year 786, it follows again that Herod died in the year 750, and this should have been in the spring. If Herod died in 750, it means that the Savior was born in 749, if not earlier, but there is no need to assume earlier, because the events of the infancy of Jesus Christ could have taken place at this time. If the Savior was born around the year 750, then when Ev. Luke notes that John entered into his ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius, and this will be the 781st from the creation of Rome, then subtracting 30 years from here, we get a number close to 750. The time of birth of Jesus Christ is determined by the instructions of the closest church fathers. But their counting falls on the year 751, or close to it, and in itself it is clear that it is based not on historical documents, but on hermeneutical principles. Irenaeus, a 2nd century writer, believed the birth of Jesus Christ to be in 751. Tertullian tries to prove the same. The Easterners say differently: Clement of Alexandria believes in 752. Eusebius tries to confirm this, and Epiphanius agrees with them. And these two calculations, apparently disagreeing, are essentially one. The whole difference comes from the fact that both writers do not begin counting from the same month and date. Irenaeus and Tertullian begin from December 25, and Eusebius and Epiphanius from Genvar, even some from May. And this indication of the Church Fathers for the year 751 may have depended on consideration of the words of Ev. Luke, who places John's entry into ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius. However, it should be noted that Luke’s words about the time of the baptism of Jesus Christ are vague: as if thirty years, starting, he says. What should we attribute starting to, to the year of the life of Jesus Christ or to His ministry? It seems that beginning cannot be attributed to the 30th year of the life of Jesus Christ. This is not said in any language. It is likely that some people have guessed that something is missing here, i.e., starting teaching or ministry. Now let's turn again to history. Jesus Christ began to reveal His consciousness of His high Divine dignity and the universal significance of His ministry not suddenly upon entering the ministry, but gradually, from the years of his youth. The incident in the Temple of Jerusalem assures us of this, when He, being 12 years old, expressed how He understood His purpose; and when they thought to subject him to family relations, He said that He needed to be where His Father was, in His house. All efforts to explain the inner formation of His soul are vain and fruitless. Who can penetrate into the depths of the soul of Jesus, when it is so difficult to explain the inner movements of ordinary people, any deep? The assumption that Jesus Christ was educated in contemporary Jewish schools is contrary to Scripture and the Divinity of Jesus Christ - blasphemous. One has only to compare those points of His teaching in which they think to see similarities with the teaching that existed in the schools of that time, and we see how different they are, how weak the theory and practice of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes are in comparison with the teaching of the Gospel. The teaching of the Pharisees, with its practical petty decrees, lulling the spirit with fruitless speculation, is completely contrary to the spirit of the teaching of Christ. Moreover, we see that those of the Pharisees who came to Him to listen to His teaching did not come as one from among themselves, but listened to His teaching as new and realized it was so high that they directly expressed their inability to understand it, trace. their teaching was not His teaching. As for the teaching of the Sadducees, which arose from the desire to clear the law from the Pharisees' traditions that burdened it, although in this negative respect it seems similar, this similarity is only external. We know that among the Sadducees the moral teaching was completely separated, torn off from the teaching about the Divinity and the nature of man; whereas in the teachings of Jesus Christ, religious and moral teachings are in necessary connection and in perfect harmony with human nature, satisfying its necessary needs. There is also no doubt that the Sadducees interrupted the very history of revelation and accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses; on the contrary, according to the teaching of Jesus Christ, all Old Testament teaching is one whole preparatory teaching. The teaching of the Sadducees about the disinterested fulfillment of the law has nothing in common with the teaching of the Savior, because Jesus Christ does not destroy the thought of retribution; it is necessary according to the law of our nature, written in conscience. The moral direction of the Essenes gave some reason for them to produce the moral teaching of Jesus Christ. Let us note in advance that the Essenes, in addition to the moral nature, borrowed their teaching from the Law of Moses, therefore the similarity between it and the teaching of Jesus Christ should be necessary, for Jesus Christ did not destroy the moral law and prescribed the most consistent with human nature. And in another case, upon careful examination, we will find everything that is consistent between one and the other teaching to be different. Eg. The Essenes completely forbade swearing, but Jesus Christ did not rebel against the oath when it was absolutely necessary. The same should be said regarding the doctrine of slavery... They find similarities in the fact that both Jesus Christ and the Essenes healed. But Josephus notes that the Essenes healed with herbs, stones and learned this art from books. And Jesus Christ healed with Divine power, the means of which was one word, or the touch of a hand. And that proud and self-satisfied spirit that dominated the Essenes is completely opposite to the basic principle of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Thus, comparing the teaching of Jesus Christ with the teaching revealed in modern schools, we will see a complete difference between them. And if we see in the Gospel the name of Jesus Christ - Rabbi, which is given to Him even by His enemies, it is not in the sense that He came out with a teacher’s degree from some school, but by this name He was called as the head of a well-known society. On the contrary, we know that they reproached Him for lack of learning, and they said with surprise: Isn’t this the son of Tekton? What is the message of this book without studying (Matthew 13:55; John 7:15)? In general, all His speeches surprised us with the unusual nature of the subjects, which were completely different from the subjects of school teaching. In a word, the teaching of Jesus Christ is a revelation of Him in Himself and through Himself, and just as His miraculous power cannot be produced from any other source other than His Divinity, so His teaching is an independent revelation of the Divinity in His mind and word. But the entry of Jesus Christ into public ministry was preceded by the entry into his ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, his lifestyle and moral character About four centuries had already passed since the time of the last prophets after the captivity of Babylon, when a man appeared in Judea whose way of life and his teaching involuntarily resembled the ancient prophets: this was the same John, the son of Zechariah, whose birth a few months preceded the birth of Jesus and who, even before his birth, was predestined to be His forerunner in His public ministry. They knew nothing about his private life, except that he early began to show himself a special strength of spirit (Luke 1:80) and that instead of devoting himself to the priestly rank, following the example of his father, he retired into the desert; doomed at his very birth to the vows of the Nazarite, he extended the severity of his life even further: one long outer robe made of camel hair and a rough leather belt made up his entire adornment; wild honey and a kind of locust, which was considered pure, constituted his food. This was a man about whom one could say: neither poisonous nor drunk. But external virtues were only evidence of internal ones: he was all ablaze with love for God, the powerful forces of his spirit were set in motion by one thought about God; Unentertained by anything earthly, he put all his desires, hopes, and aspirations in Him Alone: ​​hence, he had an insurmountable zeal for God; the consciousness of his purpose, so closely connected with the work of God himself, made him ready to face all dangers for fidelity to his service; further - in solitude, not taught by human cunning, he developed a completely open and direct character: he loved to call every moral act what it is, never hiding the truth; finally, always practicing feats of self-mortification, he generally got used to being strict. Hence his words were always short and strong; more full of reproof than condescension. In a word, in terms of lifestyle, qualities of spirit, and service, this was the second Elijah. His purpose was to go before the Messiah preaching repentance. It would seem that such a task requires a more meek and friendly person; a sinner is always reluctant to admit his sins when they come upon him with force. But what could be done with the people of Judah at this time, when they were not thinking at all about what they should have been thinking about? How could the voice of a meek preacher be heard in the noise of passions that fought among themselves in a small state and focused all their attention on one earthly thing? Jesus could only appear after John. Changes that took place in the situation of the Jewish country during the 30 years of the private life of I. Christ During the 30 years of the private life of Jesus Christ, significant changes took place in the situation of the country of Judea, which should have been reflected in the disposition of the people's minds. Herod's son, Archelaus, raised together with his brother Antipas in Rome, received his father's post, despite the complaints of the Jews, to rule Judea, Idumea and Samaria with significant cities: Caesarea, Sebaste, Joppa and Jerusalem - but with the rank of Ethnarch 22. The reign of Archelaus lasted no more than 9 years. In 759 from the creation of Rome, for a tyrannical act towards the Samaritans, he was deprived of the throne and property and exiled to Gaul to the city of Vienna, where he died. After that, Palestine came under the control of the Procurators, or, as they are called in the New Testament, hegemons. The Romans called procurators in the provinces directly dependent on the Emperors or the Senate, officials assigned to assist the governors who managed the income of the imperial treasury and resolved matters related to this. In small provinces or in countries that were assigned to a large province, but were governed separately, these procurators completely took the place of governors, and in this case they controlled the army stationed in their district, and were in charge of justice, even in criminal cases. Usually, however, the highest supervision over such management was given to the governor, and he had the right to investigate complaints against the procurator. – Such procurators were entrusted with the administration of Palestine after Archelaus, when Judea and Samaria were assigned to Syria. Their usual residence was in Caesarea, a coastal city. The first of these procurators in Judea is known to be Coponius, a Roman horseman. But the Gospel mentions only the 6th of the procurators, Pontius Pilate. He was sent in the year 25 after the Nativity of Christ; ruled Judea for about 10 years and with his arbitrary orders repeatedly stirred up turmoil in Jerusalem, which sometimes ended in bloodshed. In general, these procurators did not have sufficient knowledge of the country and morals, and meanwhile, being in the fight against the Jewish nationality and stubbornness, for the most part they were in a difficult situation, often irritated by the national character of the Jews. But it also happened many times that selfish, cruel, and ambitious people came to Judea. It happened that they entered into agreements with the atamans of gangs of robbers, allowing them to practice their craft for a certain percentage. They drained the country methodically and often brought irritation with their corrupt justice. Their autocracy and self-interest did not leave the high priestly dignity alone: ​​the deposition and elevation of high priests was a very common matter. Fifteen years earlier, when, after the removal of Archelaus from the throne, the Romans decided to give Judea its own procurator, following the example of other provinces, indignation suddenly broke out among the Jews. The Jew should have said: “You are a descendant of Abraham; to serve foreign dominion means to fall away from God and to be a slave of men” - and under religious pretext he was ready to fight against all dangers. A certain Judas from Galilee declared himself the head of such and such a way of thinking, of such and such a movement. And although he perished, and all who stuck to him were scattered (Acts 5:37); However, his spirit was still so strong later that the Jewish historian considers him to be an adherent of strong religious parties and places him among the main causes of subsequent unrest that shook Judea and finally destroyed Jerusalem. Here and there they talked quite loudly about Judas, what he preached, what he planned; His two sons were still alive, imbued with his outrageous thoughts and trying to spread them. On the other hand, there were defenders of Roman rule in Judea (Herodians). Hence, despite the external calm of the state, there was no internal peace; everything was occupied with the current political state of the people. Neither the civil government nor the highest spiritual leaders paid attention to his moral state; there were no faithful overseers of morals, let alone correctors. The highest church positions were occupied by people who either were already known from the bad side and whose spiritual power was therefore insignificant in the eyes of the party leaders, or who themselves were hanging on by a thread, afraid of becoming friends with the party, from which they could hope or fear something. True, there was a whole sect of zealots of ancient piety, who received their name from this zeal. But limiting themselves to observing only the inviolability of the form of the ancient religion, the Zealots were able to go against everything sacred in themselves, and in the last times of the Jewish state they themselves became the first culprits of all atrocities. Preaching and activity of John the Baptist So, when the minds and hearts of everyone were in such irritation, when the spirit of parties, the struggle of interests, the strength of passions drowned out the voice of conscience and faith in people, what strength should be given to the voice of that person who was to appear to them with a demand to change their entire previous way of thinking, to abandon all evil habits, to leave earthly things for a while, because the preacher of heavenly things was approaching? John was needed for this. Shortly before the appearance of Jesus Christ, when John was about 30 years old, he received a command in his desert to begin his ministry. John was not given any assistant, but he saw that he could not find anyone so faithful, so purely understanding of the duties of his ministry, a collaborator. So, without clinging to any party, without turning to anyone, relying only on his divine calling, like the ancient prophets, he began to preach in the Judean desert: repent. The Judean desert was not completely uninhabited. This was the name of that part of Judea that was adjacent to the Dead Sea and Jordan, abounded mostly in pastures and in ancient times contained up to six cities and several villages 23, although it was called a desert 24. John may have had reasons why he did not go directly to Jerusalem with his preaching, but began it where he had lived until then. How many obstacles the priests could oppose to him at the very beginning of his ministry! What excitement he could create in the city! At the very least, could there have been a reason for the ruler to suspect himself of something outrageous - when people from all over the world began to gather to his capital 25 . On the contrary, in the remote steppes and mountains of Judea and near the Jordan, he could correct his ministry without any hesitation; listeners - he could hope - would gather here too: his sermon concerned the person whom everyone wanted to see as soon as possible. So it was heard in the desert of Judea: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For a long time already in Judea, on the throne of David, they wanted to see the Divine King, to whom the people of Judah would owe glory before all other nations, with whom they would rule over the whole world. No matter how far John’s thought was from promising them such a King, they could find it in John’s words. The kingdom of heaven - these words were already so clear to every Jew that John did not need to explain what he meant by them. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God in the mouths of the Jews of that time meant: the times of the Messiah. Everyone knew that this was the kingdom of the son of man, which was about to appear when the four kingdoms, seen by Daniel in terrible images, were taken, in which the saints of the Most High would participate: who else, thought the Jews, if not the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Dan. 7:13, 18)? John had no intention of entering into a dispute with the scientists of his people, what should be understood by this kingdom? What benefits should we expect from the Messiah? He directly offered a condition for participation in its benefits, a unique and unexpected condition: repent. This meant: “whoever is not better than he is now in his moral state cannot participate in the kingdom of the Messiah. The measure of enjoying the blessings of the Messiah is each one’s own piety.” It was strange for the Jew to combine such a concept of the kingdom of heaven as he had with this demand. If he also deeply understood the meaning of the words: the kingdom of heaven, as the preacher himself understood, for whom the kingdom of heaven was a truly heavenly kingdom, then it would not be difficult for him to understand the necessity of this requirement. However, the appearance of a man who glorified himself in advance with his life, with a sermon about the nearness of the kingdom of the Messiah, no matter what conditions were associated with entry into it, with the general expectation of the Messiah that the Jews had at that time, could not go unnoticed for long. Moreover, there were people among the Jews who expected moral transformation from the Messiah. In general, no one wanted to be excluded from participating in the benefits of the Messiah. Everyone imagined the opening of the kingdom of the Messiah with terrible upheavals; therefore, to neglect the preaching of the prophet for many meant exposing themselves to the danger of perishing in these upheavals. Who knows the will of heaven, thought the Jews. “So soon people came to John in the desert, who themselves wanted to hear from him the news about the Messiah and confessed their sins to him. And John performed baptism over all those who thus declared themselves adherents of the Messiah he proclaimed. Over time, the number of people flocking to John increased, and he even chose some as his permanent companions and collaborators 26 . John was no longer limited to his desert alone, he walked throughout the entire region of Jordan (Luke 3:3) and not only the inhabitants of these places came to him, but also from Jerusalem and other Jewish cities in large numbers. It goes without saying, however, that not everyone who came to John had the same disposition towards him and his preaching. A simple class of people who did not belong to the more corrupt and dominant religious sects of that time, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were always closer to the state of spirit required by John, who did not only know how to reason about the law, who were not blinded by the deeds of their own truth; especially those who were more familiar with the life of the Essenes (and John himself lived and initially preached in the same corner of the Judean land where the Essenes were - with great convenience they could accept the preaching of John and the greater number of those who were baptized were from them. And all the people who heard and the publican justified God by being baptized with the baptism of John (Luke 7:29). This is not how the followers of those sects looked at John. It seemed to the Pharisee that he has nothing to repent of, that he is already holy enough to be worthy of the kingdom of the Messiah. The Sadducee laughed at both the holiness of the Pharisee and the spirituality of John's teaching; he imagined that one descent from Abraham was enough, it was enough just to be a Jew in order to receive, on an equal basis with every repentant, participation in the benefits that the Messiah would bring with him. Similar ideas belonged to those of the followers of these two sects who were distinguished by their special information in the law (scribes Luke 7:30). They were deceived by their own learning; through it they thought better to determine who could and who could not be accepted by the Messiah; they also had places in the Sanhedrin, and John did not have any certificate from there for the right to preach, did not present his teaching there. - So the Pharisees and Sadducees, both learned and unlearned, were generally too cold to the preaching of John: The Pharisees and women of the law rejected the light of God for themselves, not being baptized by it (John; Luke 7:30); They may have thought themselves to oblige the Messiah more than to be obligated to Him. But could John look at them with coldness? He saw how they sometimes came to him with others, listened to his sermon and returned with nothing. Their example, the example of people, some of whom were considered saints (Pharisees), others generally belonged to the class of rich and powerful, could have a harmful influence on the common people; John rebelled against them with denunciation, threatened them with the wrath of God, and demanded conversion immediately 27. And his jealousy apparently did not remain unsuccessful. Seeing that so many people were going over to John’s side and fearing to be left alone, the more timid began to ask John for baptism. John, however, penetrated their hearts and did not spare them even when they humbly bowed their heads and awaited the laying on of his hand. “Spawn of vipers! He said to them, that is, the child of the evil one, who told you that in this way you will escape the punitive judgment of God, that is, if you are only baptized outwardly? If you really want to be saved, then you must certainly testify with all your deeds that you repent. And do not think of basing your hopes on the fact that you are children of Abraham. The Kingdom of the Messiah is not limited to the family of Abraham; and without you there will be participants in it. And these stones on which you stand in this river, if God wants, can become children of Abraham. Look, I tell you again: do not hesitate to convert: destruction is near to the disobedient; ax at the root." The last lesson was the rule for all who were baptized by him: the kingdom of the Messiah, into which John introduced, was to be the kingdom of true converts. The external sign of entry into this kingdom - cleansing with water - was supposed to mean cleansing from all the sins of the previous life. Repent, he says to everyone who wanted to be participants in the glory of the Messiah, and after repentance he said to them: bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. But what are these fruits worthy of repentance? Naturally, a question from the Jews presented itself to John. What feelings, what disposition of heart does the Messiah especially like? What does he need from us? those who were baptized asked him. Are the prayers long, the vows strict, the sacrifices rich, the purifications frequent? What should we do? (Luke 3:10). John answered, as the forerunner of the teacher of love: “Nothing is required of you except sincere love for your brother. This is what the Messiah likes: if you have two clothes, give one to the one who has not; If you have an extra piece of bread, give it to the hungry. Don’t forget your brother in need: share what you can. This is what the Messiah demands. The kingdom of the Messiah is the kingdom of love." To some, such rules seemed incompatible with their real title, so they began to doubt whether they would need to abandon it completely. These were publicans and warriors. Publicans or tax collectors, as required by their rank, had to sometimes not only not share with those who did not have their surplus, but also, with some severity, take their last property to satisfy legal requirements. Warriors were even obliged to shed the blood of their neighbor. Both of them did not stop to ask John whether, for the sake of the Messiah, for the sake of fulfilling those rules, they would need to completely leave their real titles. But John, distinguishing rights from abuses, answered first: “You do not need to leave your title. It does not harm you that the collection of taxes puts you in close communication with the Romans. This is what can harm you if you demand more than proper tribute.” John was the last to answer: “You don’t need to leave your title either. The Messiah does not require this: just do not be inhuman; spare where you can; do not shed blood for greed, do not destroy with slander, but be content with your salary.” This is how John acted and taught in Judea. In front of him there were always those who were disposed and those who were not disposed towards him. Consequently, there was always an opportunity to repeat both his denunciations and his instructions. He was always equal to himself: neither out of pleasure nor out of fear did he deviate in any way from the duties of his title. Only with all the uniformity of his life, his actions and his teachings were the judgments about his face not uniform. The common people saw in him many of the highest qualities that they could have desired in the Messiah himself: zeal for universal correction, holy life, the power of teaching, the power of his spirit over the heart. Perhaps at the same time rumors began to spread about the extraordinary events surrounding his birth. The people were perplexed as to whom they should consider John. Some were already beginning to think that he himself was the Messiah, Whom he pretended to be only a preacher (Luke 3:15). Those who occupied the highest places in the church and civil ranks, especially the leaders of the Pharisaic sect and the scribes, gave a completely opposite opinion about him. It was too painful for their pride that he took upon himself such a task for which they considered only themselves capable, that he did not enter into any advice with them, did not value their respect at all, did not even hold them up in any case as a model of piety; Moreover, he even vilifies them mercilessly. Could they calmly look at this? And when they turned their gaze to him, darkened by passions, how could they see in him a prophet like Elijah or Jeremiah? They based their judgment on the fact that he did not perform any miracles. They were pointed out to him his unusually harsh life; “What do you think,” answered the Pharisees and their brothers, “this only proves that he is possessed by an unclean spirit” (Matthew 11:18). In general, his actions and words accurately reflected what was predicted by the prophets about the Forerunner of the Messiah. Not to mention the example of the prophet Elijah, whom he resembled both in his zeal and in his appearance - he repeated in his speeches the admonitions, predictions about the Messiah, and the threats of judgment that were found among the prophets who prescribed his actions. Did he talk about the coming wrath? - God already threatened with this through Malachi: and behold, I will send you Elijah (the Tishbite), before the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and enlightened one, who will arrange the heart of a father towards his son and the heart of a man towards his sincere one - yea, not having come, I will smite the earth to the end (Mal. 4, 5 and 6). John said: create fruit worthy of repentance... otherwise the ax is to the root, - that is, not only will the branches be cut off, but the very root will be cut off and the whole fruitless tree will be thrown into the fire. – We also meet this very image in the speech of Malachi: for behold, the day comes burning like a furnace, and I will be burned, and all... who do wickedness will be like a stalk: and I will burn for the day of the Lord that is coming, says the Lord Almighty, and from them there will not remain a root, nor a branch below (Mal. 4:1). John said: I baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is strong unto me. How vividly these words reminded John and Jesus Christ in the prophecy of Malachi: Behold, I send my angel (John), and he will look upon the way before me. Suddenly the Lord will come to his church, and you are looking for him.... John said: He has a spade in his hand, and he will cut off his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Malachi also spoke about this cleansing and separation of the elect: behold, he comes... and who can endure the day of His coming? and who can stand in His vision? before that it enters like the fire of a furnace, and like the soap of the bleachers. And he sits, boiling and purifying like silver and like gold. And the sons of Levi will purify, and I will be poured out like gold and like silver (3:2, 3), but for the wicked it will be a burning stalk of fire (4:1). All this relates more to the second appearance of the Messiah; but the first appearance alone was not enough to give a complete idea of ​​the coming Messiah. While John was subjected to such controversy; As he has already made clear the true essence of the kingdom of which he was a preacher, the Messiah himself appears from the unknown. It was revealed to John even before he entered into his ministry that the Messiah, just like others, would come to him to be baptized, that his baptism would be accompanied by a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit, that this phenomenon should be revealed to him not in some instantaneous action, but to have a deliberate duration (John 1:33). But he still did not know who this Messiah would be. If we assume that his father and mother died soon, since they were already very old when John was born, then the secret of the birth of the Messiah could have disappeared from John with them; He himself then led a solitary life and had no relations with distant Nazareth relatives. He himself always showed that he really is not the Messiah. He preached repentance - he promised forgiveness of sins, as soon as someone believed in the Messiah, Whom he was waiting for: but who this Lamb was, who had to take upon himself the sins of the whole world, was not yet known. One day, when John, according to his custom, stood on the Jordan, received those who came to him to be baptized, Jesus of Nazareth appears among them; there was nothing special about his appearance. Of course, no one thought that this was the Messiah. But as soon as He approached John, the secret voice of the same Spirit, which made him rejoice in Jesus even in his mother’s womb, said to him: “This is the One for whom you are waiting.” John is amazed: he knows his calling; knows that the Messiah must also be baptized by him. But he does not dare to lay hands on the Master: “Should I baptize the Messiah,” he says to Jesus, “I must ask for your baptism. But Jesus, with the greatness of the Son of God, with the humility of the son of man, knowing what He does and why he does it, what he immerses in water, what he wants to receive from the water, who needs this baptism and why it is needed - “leave, says John, until now your human considerations. You must do what you are commanded, and I will do what I owe you.” Θεόν ). John obeyed. Jesus enters the river, plunges, then quickly 28 comes out of the water, prays and the heavens open to Him, the Spirit of God descends on Him in bodily form, like a dove, and dwells on Him. At the same time, a voice is heard from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased!” "This was the solemn initiation of Jesus into His worldwide ministry. All the circumstances accompanying it were a means to completely convince John and others that Jesus was truly the Messiah for whom they were waiting. The present event was the basis of that faith in Jesus, which honored in him the Son of God. John said afterwards: I did not know Him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me: on whom you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him; He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and testified that this is the Son of God (John 1:33). What was the sign of the Spirit that descended on Jesus? Not a communication to Him of what He did not have, but, if we dare to put it this way, a transfusion from the Divine being of Jesus to His humanity, visible even to outside spectators. He Himself sent down the Spirit from heaven, because God; and he himself received Him on earth, as long as man,” says Athanasius the Great 29. The image of a dove meant the divine meekness of the teacher, reminiscent of a dove that brought to the forefather of the world renewed by the flood the branch of peace between heaven and earth. How many were honored with a vision of this divine phenomenon is not clear from the gospel history. It says about one John that he saw. The ancient interpreters of the Holy Scriptures agree more with the opinion that the appearance of the Spirit in the form of a dove was not for John alone. But the vision of the open heavens was revealed to Stephen alone in the presence of many witnesses. The events of Jordan were of considerable importance for John’s ministry. John, always alien to the desire to assimilate for himself what he was not called to, now joyfully changed the sermon about the coming to the sermon about the coming; Now, with even greater zeal, he began to preach repentance and the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus hid himself after his baptism: but John believed that once having appeared with such solemn signs of his divine embassy, ​​He could not help but reveal himself again. His jealousy attracted the attention of the Sanhedrin. There had long been people there who were unfavorable to John. Considering it indecent to give free rein to a case in which he was the chief judge by his silence. The Supreme Council sent trusted people to ask John on behalf of the Sanhedrin - who does he pretend to be? The trusted ones were the priests and Levites of the Pharisee sect. They had formal orders to interrogate him about who he was. They hoped to find him with the people. They might have thought that John would not give any definite answer: then it would be possible to tell the people how pitifully they were deceived in their expectations; it will be easy to refute the divinity of his baptism. If he declares himself to be a prophet or the Messiah himself, then one can still demand proof of his messengership; - and he will not be able to do this, since he does not perform miracles. John was at that time in Bethabara, by the Jordan; preached and baptized there. Those sent from the Sanhedrin appear to him and so begin their interrogation. Pharisees. We have an order on behalf of the Sanhedrin to ask you, who do you say you are? Since around this time everyone is waiting for the Messiah, and the people, as it seems, are not unwilling to accept you for him, it would be desirable for you to more clearly announce to the Sanhedrin about your identity, your calling. John. From my words one could already see that I am not the Messiah. Why have such lofty thoughts about me? 30. (John knew the character of the most important members of the Sanhedrin, he could not trust them completely, and therefore limited himself to only a short answer, according to his custom, he hinted more than he expressed, he denied their assumptions more than revealed his secrets). Pharisees. The prophetic spirit promised that Elijah would come again: so are you not Elijah? John. No (in the sense in which they asked, i.e., not the resurrected Elijah). Pharisees. So are you not a prophet (Jeremiah) 31? Pharisees. So, you want to send us to the Sanhedrin with nothing? Tell yourself who you are. John. Who I am, the prophet tells you about this. I am a voice crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, straighten His paths. Let every debt be filled, valleys, mountains and hills leveled; Make curved paths straight, make unequal paths smooth. Then the salvation of God will appear to all people (the glory of Jehovah - the Messiah). This answer made it very clear that John, although he did not call himself either Elijah or Jeremiah, nevertheless considered and declared himself to be the forerunner of the Messiah. But the Pharisees did not want to recognize him as such a person, considering it necessary for the Messiah to appear specifically to Elijah or Jeremiah, and therefore they asked him again: why do you baptize if you are not Christ, nor Elijah, nor a prophet? John. Soon the One by whom I am authorized to do so will appear. He is already among you; He comes after me: nevertheless He takes precedence over me. He is so tall, so much higher than me, that I am not worthy to correct the last position of a slave from Him, simply to say, I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals. It is to this Divine person that I refer. The Pharisees could not be entirely satisfied with John’s last answer, since it did not correspond to their expectations: however, they had no reason to pester him any longer demanding an explanation. It was necessary to wait for the One to whom John referred. The messengers went with John's answer to Jerusalem. And the next day after this interrogation, the Lord Jesus actually appeared at the place where John had baptized. This was forty days after His baptism. These forty days He spent in the desert. And perhaps on the same day when such a test was done to John, he himself was subjected to temptation - but not from men. The history of the temptation of Jesus Christ expresses those main principles that guided Him in His ministry, as once accepted forever, which are as important for His followers as for Himself, and which, however, were opposite to the prevailing ideas about the Messiah among the Jews. The first temptation was when, after a forty-day fast, He felt hungry and could not find ordinary food in the desert, the tempter presented Him with the following: if you are truly the Son of God, then it costs you nothing to avoid this difficulty in a miraculous way: you can turn these stones into bread. Jesus rejected this tempting thought with the words of the law: “A man cannot live by bread alone, but by everything that comes from the mouth of God.” To understand the meaning of this answer correctly, it is necessary to imagine the words of Deuteronomy in their original connection (Deut. 8:3). It says there: God quenched the hunger of the Jews in the desert with manna, so that they would understand from here that the creative power of God can preserve human life in other ways than ordinary nutrition. The Jews, who wanted to have bread and meat, as in Egypt, had to learn from here devotion to the will of God, which was pleased to replace the lack of ordinary food with other nutritional means. If we apply this general thought to the particular circumstances in which Jesus then found himself, then the answer receives the following meaning: He completely surrenders to the order of his Father taking care of Him. He has no desire to renounce the feeling of his human weakness and dependence, does not want to create any miracles specifically to satisfy his own human will, no miracles where natural ways to satisfy the need are sufficient, even if this is not the case as sensual nature would require. He relies on the omnipotence of God and surrenders to the will of God with selflessness. He acted according to the same principle when He gave himself up to those who sought to seize Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Similar tempting thoughts were offered to Him when He was already hanging on the cross: If you are the son of God... Then He is elevated to the roof of the church and the tempter says to Him: If you are the Son of God, then look down; as the Son of God you can rely on miraculous help, in any case - and adds the words of Psalm 90:12-13. The angels will protect you in all your ways, but not when you dash your foot against a stone... The Savior answered this with other words of Scripture, which determine the correct application of the previous ones. Thus, the Angels will preserve, but do not tempt the Lord your God (Deut. 6:16). You should not do anything with the intention of tempting, so to speak, the omnipotence of God, to force His omnipotence to perform some kind of miracle where you, having used natural means, may not need any miraculous help. This answer contains the following thoughts: a pious person, of course, can rely on God’s help in everything, but only when he correctly uses the means God offers him and follows the path that God shows him by calling and circumstances. And the Messiah should not, in trusting in the miraculous help of God, plunge into such dangers that He, acting carefully, could avoid. This is His beginning: not to perform miracles without sufficient prompting on the part of those receiving them, - not to perform miracles that do not correspond to wise goals, not to perform miracles with the sole purpose of demonstrating miraculous power and thereby making a strong sensory impression, without paying attention to the moral and religious acceptability of witnesses to the miracle. Christ acted according to this principle when he did not arbitrarily indulge in dangers, but used the method of caution to avoid danger; when he, with devotion to the will of his Father, went towards only such dangers as were inevitable in His calling and from which He could not evade without betraying his duties; He acted according to the same principle when He refused to perform miracles for the sensual Pharisees. In the third temptation, the tempter offered the easiest way to achieve world dominion, which belonged to the Messiah, but not in a form that was consistent with the divine goals and the dignity of Jesus Christ. He promised Him all the kingdoms of the earth so that they would remain earthly; he demanded that the Messiah, bowing before the ruler of the world, thus recognize his power and strength in the world, not expelling him, but using his right according to his species; so that the kingdom of the Messiah would not be a kingdom of God, like every kingdom of man, over which the prince of darkness, who had not yet been expelled, reigned. The kingdom of the Messiah in this sense, as given to him by most modern Jews, would indeed be the kind of kingdom that the tempter proposed to establish - without a struggle with sin, without suffering; and it could have settled without any delay. It was necessary to give in to the dreams of the people, inflamed by passions, and such a kingdom was ready to open. The people, the Jewish government, would willingly give their hand to such a Messiah. “But it is not such a kingdom that the Lord came to establish on earth, but the true kingdom of God, a pure, spiritual kingdom, where everything should serve God, where sin and the culprit of sin should not have a place - therefore, not by such means, but only by the power of God and complete devotion to the will of the Heavenly Father, even if it had to extend even to suffering and death itself, not being carried away by the dream of an instant transformation of everything, but patiently waiting for it to finally embrace the whole world, all nations. So, having rejected the tempter’s offer, the Lord pointed to his goal and his law: worship the Lord your God and serve that One. For the same reason, He rejected every time the challenge of the people who wanted to proclaim Him their king; moderated the impatience of his disciples to quickly see His kingdom revealed; destroyed the sensual dreams of the people of his followers and finally betrayed himself entirely for the cause of God on the cross. After what happened in Jesus at His baptism, He needed to retire for a while. Such a change of state occurred in Him that He needed complete freedom from everything external in order to bring into His consciousness everything that was felt new in Him. Anyone who has been in similar states can partly understand the needs of Jesus. To whom God has given, after fervent prayer, to feel something new, bright, joyful within themselves; Anyone who has ever been imbued with the feeling of God’s grace-filled visit throughout his whole being knows from himself how precious peace and solitary reflection are after such moments. There is something here that may partly serve to explain to us the state of Jesus after baptism. Although the Divine being of Jesus, in an incomprehensible way united in Him with humanity, only gradually revealed itself more and more in Him, and the enlightenment of humanity by the Divine, although with every moment reached a higher and higher degree, however, as this was an ordinary change in Him, it can be said that it now remained unnoticeable for His inner consciousness, just as the growth of our body, or our spiritual powers, which we usually recognize only by comparing certain longer periods with each other, and not every minute it happens. The instantaneous manifestation of the entire Divinity in the meager vessel of human nature was impossible. But there were states in the life of Jesus in which that ordinary course of revelation seemed to accelerate, Divine light and powers poured into His human consciousness to the highest degree, the union of His humanity with the Divine became incomparably more palpable in the God-man - His Divine nature was more clearly declared. One of these states, and perhaps the highest of all that followed, was the state of Jesus after baptism. Weary of this condition, Jesus withdrew into the desert (Mark 1:12). He was in the desert and was baptized by John, but chose an even more secluded, completely uninhabited place, where only wild animals could be found (Mark 1:13) 32 . But the highest providence, which had at its disposal all even the smallest circumstances of His life, was preparing a new type of activity for him here. Jesus, who came into the world for this purpose in order to destroy the works of the devil - in order to free humanity from the dominion of evil brought into the world by the devil, at his very entry into the service of humanity, had to experience a struggle with the culprit of all evil, the devil. With this experience, he had to set an example for all his followers, point out weapons, and inspire courage against our primordial enemy. Partly a consequence of the previous state, partly as a preparation for the new field into which he was entering, it was that Jesus, upon retiring into his solitude, completely forgot about food. Entirely occupied with his internal state, He did not leave any attention to the external. But at the end of 40 days - when his inner preoccupation with himself and the great work ahead of him ended - He leaves the heavenly sphere in which he had hitherto lived in spirit, and again enters into his earthly human relationships - then He felt hunger within himself. This was the opportunity for the tempter to approach Him 33 . It cannot be thought that he tried to find out from Jesus who He is in himself; he only wanted to arouse Him to such actions that were incompatible either with His dignity as the Messiah, or even with the ordinary moral dignity of man. First, he wants to instill in Him that unworthy thought that in vain He does not use His strength for His earthly needs, He allows Himself to endure hunger - the Messiah: if anyone should be blissful, it is the Messiah. But Jesus points out to him that the word of God, which He heard at baptism, is more valuable to Him than any other satisfaction of His needs. The devil, however, advises Him not to again undertake such a difficult path to achieve his goal. In short: come with me to Jerusalem. The devil took Him and placed Him on the wing of the church. You see, he says to Jesus, the people below, throw yourself out of here, the Angels will save you, and you are the Messiah, the people will recognize you as their Messiah. The Lord said that this means tempting the Lord. Well, without tempting the Lord you can become the Messiah. Let's go to this high mountain. And from there, showing Him the surrounding kingdoms, he said: everything you see and what you don’t see is all yours if you bow to me. Then Jesus, no longer allowing the insolence of the tempter, said to him: get away from me, Satan 34 . The tempter promises all the kingdoms of the earth: Jesus receives all power in heaven and on earth at the end of his earthly career - in a different way. To what time does this forty-day feat of the Savior date back? Did he directly follow baptism, as apparently should be assumed on the basis of Mat. 4:1; especially Mark 1:12: And the Spirit brought Him up into the wilderness and Luk. 4:1: Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness - or later, to the time of His stay in Judea after the solemn entry into His ministry at the Passover in Jerusalem; John 3:22: After these Jesus and His disciples came to the land of the Jews, and lived there with them and were baptized 35. Those who accept the latter chronology think that the testimony given by John the Baptist (John 1:19 et seq.) to those sent from the Sanhedrin was communicated on the eve of the baptism of the Lord Jesus. And when it says further in Art. 29: in the morning John saw Jesus coming to himself: then this word: coming indicates baptism: He went to be baptized. If this is so, then one will really need to agree that the Lord did not immediately after baptism retire into the desert and spend 40 days there. For immediately after the said morning on the next day (v. 35 and 36) The Lord called some of the Apostles to Himself, and then the chronological indications in John are interrupted, and all these indications, by their continuous concatenation, do not make it possible to place the 40-day temptation here. The whole week is listed here almost day by day, see another article. 43 and 11:1. But there seems to be more wit in the considerations here than thoroughness. Couldn’t the words: coming to him, also refer to another circumstance other than baptism? Moreover, John answered those sent from the Sanhedrin who questioned him: He stands in the midst of you, but you do not know Him. You don’t know, therefore John already knew. And this should be after baptism. They also say that the first testimony before those sent from the Sanhedrin Art. 19–28 indefinite: opposite the second one in front of the disciples - 29 et seq. clearly identifies the Messiah in Jesus. This also means that this second testimony was after baptism, and the first before baptism. After this victory over the devil, Angels appeared to Jesus to serve: they already anticipated His final triumph over the enemy with joy. But leaving the heavenly retinue, the God-Man comes out of the desert alone with the consciousness of what has happened to Him and in Him, and with complete devotion to the will of the Father, wherever it leads Him. The order of the gospel story after the baptism of Jesus Christ is determined by the Gospel of John and Luke. The first clearly indicates the time of the events described, pointing to the well-known Jewish holidays. The second, as he himself said at the beginning, set himself the goal of consistently presenting the history of the Gospel events. But Luke, together with the first two Evangelists, begins his narratives from the time when John was imprisoned. But the Evangelist John goes back to an earlier time. Luke sets out the events - before the suffering of the Savior - only those that took place in Galilee, and John mainly describes the deeds committed by the Savior in Judea. With this in mind, it is necessary 1) to give space to John's narrative in advance - until he moves on to the period of the Savior's activity in Galilee, which begins after John's imprisonment and the intensification of hatred against the Savior in Judea; 2) we must constantly keep in mind that the Savior, as the Messiah, always considered Judea to be the main place of His action, and Jerusalem in it: and only the obstacles He encountered here forced Him to transfer His preaching to Galilee: Jerusalem, Jerusalem! as many as you desire, etc. (Matthew 23:37; see also John 4:1–3; 43, 44). And despite this, He soon departs again for Judea (5:1). And only the open persecution against Him here (5:16, 18) forced Him to leave there. After this removal, the activity of the Savior in Galilee is described by Luke and the first two Evangelists - this year of the Lord is pleasant for Galilee. Following the Evangelist Luke in the description of the Galilean activity of the Savior, it is necessary to combine with him the narratives of the other Evangelists, according to their relevance. Calling of Andrew, John and others to apostolic ministry The Lord gathers his first community from among the simple Galileans, who were more strongly influenced by the words of John the Baptist. When He rejected the tempting offer in the desert - to win over the people to His side with a sudden, amazing miracle, which could make a strong impression at first glance, but not bring about the internal rebirth that was necessary for the members of His kingdom; - when, even more so, he rejected another proposal from the tempter - to share with Him power over the world, meaning to establish the kingdom of truly God on earth: then He already decided to gather around Him a few people, but sincerely devoted to the cause of God, who could then act on others, for this purpose to form them especially; in order to bring them closer to themselves in front of others and educate them as preachers of the kingdom of God. It was necessary to start not with everyone, but with a few. He did not distract John from his preparatory ministry, but leaving him to act according to his calling, he used some of his disciples for his work. This was no less by the desire of John than by the election of Jesus. Two of John's disciples, apparently, were personal witnesses to how John answered the questions asked of him by the Sanhedrin (one of them described this event). It was noticeable that the teacher’s word made a strong impression on them: the mighty one who was before me is coming—He is already standing in the midst of you. The next day after that, seeing Jesus coming to him, the preacher of repentance openly pointed out to his disciples: this is the One about whom he spoke to those sent, who was to complete the work he had begun - for which He was called into His ministry - on whom he saw the Spirit descending and resting, who is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and is truly the Son of God. – On the third day, again, seeing Jesus coming, John repeated his confession. This repeated testimony of John resolved the confusion of the best of his disciples, whether they should remain with their mentor or follow the One for whom he was working. But at the same time, the reverent thought of the Messiah, the Son of God, kept them from openly declaring their desire to follow Him. They timidly followed the retreating Jesus, and only the Divine goodness with which He addressed them gave them freedom of action and forever united them with the Divine Mentor. “What are you looking for?” He asked them with meekness, and when they expressed a desire to get to know Him better, to see Him in His dwelling - perhaps even in the desert where He spent 40 days - the Lord willingly allowed them to come to Him. The conversation, which lasted four hours, revealed to them that they had found what they had long desired. The hour in which they were honored to be received and which was for them the beginning of a new life became memorable for them forever. The joy that they had found what everyone had long wanted was so great that they immediately tried to tell it to their brothers and friends. But the Lord accepted everyone not according to human calculations and desires, but according to Divine insight into the hearts of people seeking Him, and according to their disposition and ability for future service. Two of Jesus' first chosen followers were Andrew and John. They had brothers... By accepting each one, the Lord made it clear that he knew their secret past and future. And this aroused and elevated their faith. The first Easter during the public ministry of Jesus Christ. Meaning Jerusalem, the ancient capital of Judah, was more worthy than all other cities of the honor of being the scene of the Messiah's activities and an open school for His teaching. The second church, restored at great expense by Herod, the union here of the highest members of the spiritual class, the splendor of the Divine service gave it even in these times almost as much splendor as it had under the first kings. Especially on holidays, crowds gathered there from all over Judea, Galilee and other distant countries where Jews had just settled. Thus it still seemed to be the capital of the ancient Mosaic religion, and its Hierarchy always endeavored to defend itself against the incursions of foreign power—in the temple through the priests, in the synagogues through the rabbis, in the Sanhedrin through its spiritual and temporal ranks, of which the high priest was for the most part the head. Jerusalem, it seemed, was just waiting for the King - the Messiah, who would not only restore his lost rights, but also give him new, most brilliant ones, and make him the capital of the world. Journey of I. Christ to Jerusalem for the holiday of Easter The Easter holiday was approaching, and every pious Jew considered it his duty to spend it in Jerusalem. Jesus also went to Jerusalem. He walked like a simple Galilean - with his compatriots, of whom not many knew Him yet, since He did not openly do or teach anything - and with disciples, from whom in appearance it was impossible to distinguish Him. But in his soul He carried the great intention to begin the transformation of the church, for which he came to earth: this time He wanted, by the power of his power, to put an end to some too obvious riots that were committed with impunity, even under the auspices of the clergy, in the place most sacred to the people - the church. True, He never had the intention of restoring only pure Judaism: the spirit of religion that He brought with Him was so new and strong that the old wineskins could not have held it back; therefore, the temple of Jerusalem, as a place actually built according to the needs and requirements of the Jewish religion, He could leave intact, without any improvements and transformations, until the hand of a pagan burned it and destroyed it to the ground: however, on the other hand, it had considerable importance in the circle of objects of His attention. He had long ago called it the house of his Father: this meant that the God who had been worshiped here hitherto was the God of the religion that He came to give to the human race. So the church was not completely alien to Him; on the contrary, in his institutions He spoke a lot about Himself. At His coming, he had to speak with all his stones that the glory promised to him had come. Not to pay attention to him would mean to neglect the entire Jewish religion, to forget one of the main character traits of the Messiah, as the people imagined Him. It should have seemed all the more important to Jesus that for simple souls it served as a breeding ground for holy sensations, and for those who did not know the true God - as a means of arousing purer concepts of religion. “This was already enough for Jesus, when entering into his ministry, to turn his first gaze to the temple of Jerusalem. Expulsion of traders from the church; teaching and deeds of I. Christ in Jerusalem What should have appeared before His eyes here? Near the objects of reverent veneration there is an idol of greed, in the church there is a market, or even worse - a den of robbers. Before the entrance to the first courtyard (the courtyard of women), which surrounded the temple building on the western side, there was a large, stone-paved, uncovered area, surrounded by a number of pillars, where those exposed to uncleanness from touching the corpse of a pagan were admitted, hence the name court of the pagans. It was separated from the wives' courtyard by a lattice and was lower than it by four steps; There was an inscription above the entrance of this lattice, so that no foreigner would dare to pass further. Here, every day, wine, oil, incense, salt and other things necessary for sacrifice were sold, such as pigeons, sheep, calves, which had all the necessary qualities for sacrifice. Since many Israelis, namely foreigners, did not have the opportunity to bring any animal with them for sacrifice in the church, they bought it here. Hence the place was called shops (cchaninioth). During the holidays, the number of people selling, buying and being bought here especially increased. The need for animals was so great at that time that in one Passover around these times up to 255,500 Passover lambs were counted. – In addition to this sale, foreign coins were exchanged for native ones and large ones were exchanged for small coins. “Both sellers and money changers should be located under the mountain of the church: it would be both convenient for buyers and calm for the church. But the priests, for greater benefits, allowed trade and exchange here too. This could not have happened without noise, obscene in a holy place; the sanctity of the place did not make the sellers more conscientious; all sorts of injustices were committed here. Because of this, the religious feeling of everyone passing through this place into the further courtyards of the church was involuntarily upset by the ugly picture and the disorderly noise: and what’s even worse, this noise even penetrated to where the Divine service was being performed. Every pagan received an equally unfavorable concept of the Jewish Temple, for whom it was impossible to penetrate into those parts of it where its sacred splendor still partially remained in all its grandeur. He could only know the Church of Judah by this courtyard, which was filled with disgusting disorder. Jesus knew this, and on his first visit to Jerusalem - after taking office as the Messiah - he decided to rebel with all his power against these riots in the church. 18 years ago He said here that this house is His Father’s. He had to be looked after. When He came to Jerusalem and went to the church, then, at the entrance to the ugly courtyard, he collected several pieces of rope from the ground, and with this scourge in his hand he began to demand that all merchants and money changers immediately leave the holy place. They still resist him, but Jesus did not spare the money changers, overturned their tables, drove out the animals and the sellers themselves. It was not so much the effect of His scourge as the Divine power with which He rebelled against them, not being afraid of either the power of the priests or the large number of the merchants themselves, but rather the action of their own consciousness, excited by the same power, forced them to hastily get out of here, and the courtyard began to clear. Looking at this impartially, it was impossible to deny the moral greatness of Jesus’ action. He alone rebelled against the disorder that had been tolerated and protected for so many years even by those who presented themselves as the strictest zealots of the law. The sanctity of the church, which had long been trampled upon, demanded this. But the Lord made it clear to the Jews that this action should be attributed not only to pious zeal, with which, for example, in former times some kings cleansed the church from idolatry. His relationship to this church is much closer - this is the house of His Father. And after John had already announced the One who was coming after him, who was incomparably stronger than him, one should have expected Him here. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek, and the Angel of the Covenant whom you desire, will come to his church (Mal. 3:1). What they did not do to accept the Lord, it remained for Him to do - and after preaching repentance among the people, to bring cleansing to the very church, desecrated by his untruths. This is the beginning of the cleansing actions of the Son of God on earth. But the priests, offended by such a reproachful zeal for them, and even more by the rights declared by the Lord and the independence of His action from them, did not want to understand His act in this way and approached Him with the question: what sign will you prove that you have the power to do this? To those who had the testimony of John about Jesus, to those who saw with their own eyes how the rights established by long-term abuse were ceded to His divine voice - what were new miracles needed for? Wasn’t it clear that the Lord of the church came to the church, that this question stems not from the desire to recognize Him as the Messiah, if He proves His Divine messenger, but from the desire to eliminate outside influence from oneself, to retain the age-old property, as expressed in the parable. Here already hid the beginning of the God-killing forge that subsequently developed. This prophet was superfluous for them: they want to remain in the former order of things, with their former power, and are ready to free themselves, by any means, from a strong accuser. All this was already hidden in the question of the Jews. The Lord, in his answer, expressed the idea that just as their way of thinking does not hinder His activity, so He allows them to do whatever pleases their soul. The end of this will be that they will not only bring this church to final ruin with their iniquities, but will also raise their hands against Him who is the pain of the church. However, this will not hinder the accomplishment of His great work. Their celebration will last no longer than three days. “Destroy this church - in three days I will rebuild it.” The Jews took His words to the church in the proper sense and asked Him a question that Jesus left unanswered, perhaps for intentionally transforming the meaning of His words. However, they remembered these words of the Lord later and, having distorted them, turned them into an accusation against Him. This is how the Lord entered into His ministry! Even then He saw His end and announced it to everyone in the church. But what could have had the greatest influence on His followers was the freedom with which He rebelled against the trampling of the shrine, which was carried out on days that were especially sacred in the eyes of the Jewish hierarchy. From here it was clear to everyone that whoever wants to follow Him has no need to be embarrassed by the opinion of the spiritual rulers about Him: they, unfortunately, have reasons to be dissatisfied with Him, because they do not want to part with their passions. However, Jesus, as if to soften the formidable appearance in which he revealed himself to Jerusalem with his zeal for the house of God, marked the subsequent time of his stay in this city with several striking and at the same time beneficial miracles, which attracted people even more to Him and forced them to pay more attention to the Divine power that Jesus was revealing in himself through them. The rumor that John called Him the Messiah spread more and more among the people: miracles led to its confirmation. And indeed, many began to believe that they had found their Messiah in Him. “But not everyone had the kind of disposition that the Lord required from those who wanted to follow Him. For the most part, they were accustomed to connecting dreams of earthly well-being with the thought of the Messiah and based them on their imaginary rights. And the Lord, penetrating the way of thinking of his new followers, did not allow them close to himself, giving them time to separate sincere faith from false and self-deluded ones. Destroying their dreams, the Lord Himself then spoke in his instructions most of all about the need for spiritual rebirth, which begins with repentance. The Evangelist John conveys to us one such conversation between Him and the teacher of Israel from the Pharisees, a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was so impartial that he accepted the miracles of Jesus Christ as evidence of the Divine power operating in Him, and considered Him a God-enlightened man. But what further to say about Him and about His calling, that is, whether to recognize Him as the Messiah, it seems that he had not yet decided for himself, but only wanted to find out more about it. This desire was all the stronger because the expectation of the kingdom of the Messiah, excited by the preaching of John the Baptist and reaching the Sanhedrin itself, greatly occupied Nicodemus. To resolve this issue, he decided to turn to Jesus himself, because he trusted His words completely. Nicodemus went to Him at night because he wanted to hide his disposition towards Him from his suspicious companions. We can assume that Nicodemus shared ordinary Jewish ideas about the kingdom of the Messiah. He expected a quick, visible, external appearance of Him in earthly glory, although He could have had more purified, spiritual concepts about His properties. As a strict guardian of the law, he was of course confident that he would have a share in this kingdom; he only needed to know what to think about the upcoming appearance of the Messiah. Having appeared to the Lord and greeted Him as a teacher who had attested with his miracles his mission from God, he expected to hear from His lips something more definite about His calling and relation to the kingdom of the Messiah. But instead of addressing the issue that was hidden in the words of Nicodemus, the Lord deliberately gave the conversation a different turn; He inclined his speech to the fact that Nicodemus and everyone who was of the same mind with him especially needed to know in order to better understand both the Lord Himself and His kingdom. Then we will come to know Christ more closely when we become more familiar with our spiritual needs. They had to be aroused in Nicodemus. The Lord directly expresses to Nicodemus a new and unexpected truth, completely opposite to his way of thinking, that not everyone who thinks to be close to the Messiah can be a member of His kingdom: “Whoever is not born again cannot enter the kingdom of God.” We cannot say whether the Lord wanted to convey with these words that faith alone, which is based on miracles, is not enough, or whether he wanted to destroy the prejudice in Nicodemus that he had the right to participate in the kingdom of the Messiah by virtue of his descent from Abraham. In any case, both of these opinions, which we can assume in Nicodemus, were based on a way of thinking that was too preoccupied with externals and was very far from those holy dispositions that constitute the essence of life according to the spirit of Christ. And probably the Lord’s words were directed against the very source of these ideas. He wanted the teacher of Israel, occupied with his dead knowledge of the letter of Scripture, to bring him to the consciousness that a new direction of the heart is needed, a decisive revolution in the soul, a new birth from above is necessary in order to have participation in the kingdom of the Messiah. This is the point from which his view of the kingdom of the Messiah could and should have changed. Nicodemus, hearing about the coming of the kingdom of God, imagined it as an external, visible kingdom: the Lord points out to him the need for an internal, spiritual entry into this kingdom, since it, as an internal one, must first be founded in the heart. The image of rebirth (or birth again) used by the Lord, although it was not unusual and completely incomprehensible for Nicodemus; he would understand it very well if it were a question of a pagan who accepts circumcision and undertakes to perform all Jewish rites: he becomes like a newborn child, entering this new sphere; but what made it difficult for him was that in the words of the Lord this image does not mean an external, but some kind of internal change, which the teacher of Israel did not even imagine. That is why he could not understand the Savior’s words at first. And it is not surprising: the secrets of inner spiritual experience are always inaccessible to the dead scientific knowledge of Scripture. This vague idea, born in him at the words of the Savior, he expresses in bewilderment: how can a person be born, old? Can food enter its mother’s womb for the second time and be born? But the Lord does not deviate from what was said, but confirms his word, only explaining it a little: Amen, amen, I say to you: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Previously, the Lord said nothing about the effective cause of rebirth. Now He defines it. This is the Spirit of God; He gives birth to new life in those who completely surrender to Him, and the moral revolution arising from this new beginning of life is completely opposite to the dominant direction that man follows, as a member of the whole human race, infected with sin. When the Lord, pointing to the main figure in the revival, speaks of baptism with water, then this points Nicodemus to the baptism that His disciples performed at that time and which led to the rebirth in spirit of all who sincerely approached Him. After this brief explanation, the Lord expresses the general position on which the need for rebirth is based: between the natural life of man, which all humanity lives, and the new life flowing from the source of the Divine, there is a significant difference and even opposition, so that one cannot, according to the natural order, pass into the other. That which is born of the flesh is flesh: that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. But since the thought of a new birth to Divine life still seemed strange to Nicodemus, the Lord uses a sensory image to present the subject more clearly. Just like the movement of the wind, no one can assign a limit; you hear and feel its breeze, but you cannot pursue it to its beginning, from where it comes, or follow it to the place where it ceases; just as a person feels the power of the wind with his senses, standing in the middle of two limits that are not tangible with the senses, so it happens with the breath of the Spirit of God in those in whom rebirth takes place. There is something inexplicable and incomprehensible in the inner life of such a person, which everyone can know only from their own experience, which can be understood only by actions. Now the Lord’s thoughts begin to become clearer to Nicodemus. But since he is accustomed to looking at Divine objects from the outside, like a Jew, the words of the Lord still seem to him something unheard of, and full of amazement he exclaims: how can this be? The Lord uses this bewilderment to bring him to the consciousness of the insufficiency of his knowledge of Divine subjects and the need for higher enlightenment, in order to humble the pride of the scientist and attract him more to Himself. “You are an Israeli teacher and you don’t know this? You don’t know that without which all religion remains something dead! But if you do not believe Me in what every person living on earth can experience in his heart: how will you believe Me when I tell you about what is above the sphere of human experience, above the limits of the human mind, when I reveal God’s secret advice about the salvation of man, which the human mind cannot comprehend? This is already a transition to the subject with which the soul of Nicodemus was mainly occupied when he came to Jesus - to the question of the kingdom of the Messiah, how it should open, and why it opens this way, and not the way the Jews expected it. The Lord thereby hints at Nicodemus’s very desire to learn more closely the circumstances of the appearance of the Messiah and the opening of His kingdom, which He, from his external point of view, did not at all consider so incomprehensible, deep, and comprehensive. After such preparation, it was natural to expect something else in the Lord’s words that would also be extraordinary and would not agree with general Jewish concepts. Of course, the Lord does not want to talk about his exaltation and glory: for this was completely in accordance with the ideas of the Jews. On the contrary, for an ordinary Jew, who was so attached to the external, nothing could seem so strange as the thought of a suffering Messiah, who appears not in the blaze of earthly glory, but through suffering must accomplish the salvation of people. This has always been and will be a temptation for the Jew. This is the truth that the Lord reveals to Nicodemus, but he hints more than clearly expresses it; He wants the teacher of Israel to come to his senses, in a manner known from ancient times or as a prototype, to explain it to himself; he compares the son of man lifted up from the earth with the sign of the serpent raised up in the eyes of the people. The suffering Messiah is the Savior of the world: this is as strange as the fact that the erected sign of the serpent served to heal those wounded by the serpent. And yet it was so, and it was not without intention that God arranged it this way. This conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, which of course the Lord’s disciples also witnessed, made an even deeper impression on the heart of the teacher of Israel, and he gradually began to show more and more open respect for Him (John 7:50; 19:49). Jesus did not demand from him in the present case a decisive adherence to Himself; however, it affected him so strongly that afterward he himself had to leave everything for the sake of the Gospel. And the previous way of thinking of Nicodemus, as he appears to us in this conversation, justifies the way Jesus acted in Jerusalem in relation to all those who then expressed faith in Him (John 2:24). The activity of the Savior in Judea When the days of the holiday ended, the people began to disperse from Jerusalem; Jesus also left this city. But he did not go to Galilee, but remained in Judea, where before this John had worked for a long time in His favor. John now retired to Lake Gennesaret, he baptized near Salem. And while the zealous Forerunner prepared for Jesus the inhabitants of these places, Jesus collected what was prepared for him here - in Judea. And this seemed all the more necessary because the close influence on this country from the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees in general, who were unfavorable to either John or Jesus, did not ensure the preservation of the fruits of John’s preaching and baptism if they were left unattended by Jesus for a long time. So He settled down to spend quite some time here together and with His disciples; And He Himself was engaged in teaching, and His disciples baptized those who believed in Him. His actions were successful. His company soon became much more numerous than John's; Meanwhile, John's also was prepared for Him. A hostile spirit, fearing their combined action, sought to create a division between them: however, the power of God defeated this cunning of the evil one. One day, John's disciples were having some kind of dispute with the Jews regarding the importance of their baptism. These latter probably refuted it by the fact that the baptism of Jesus gains His disciples incomparably more than their baptism to John. For John's disciples, who had high respect for their teacher, this news was too painful. They considered Jesus himself to owe his glory to the testimony of John. And not having anything to respond to the reproach of the Jews, they decided to approach their teacher, present to him how his honor could suffer from Jesus, and encourage him to take some measures against this. But John was far from sharing these thoughts with them, his words show (John 3:27–30): “It is not in the power of man,” he said, to appropriate to himself more than what has been given to him from above (i.e. that is, how is it not in my power to become higher than the place that God Himself has assigned to me; I cannot cross the line that is separated from me; so Christ could not have attracted the hearts of all to Himself if God had not brought them to Him, if God had not revealed to people in Him what I cannot tell). But you yourself must testify to me that this success of Jesus is completely consistent with what I have always told you. I never presented myself as the Messiah, but only as a messenger before Him, who should prepare the way for Him. My goal has been achieved; The height of my joy was fulfilled. I brought the bride (church) to her groom (Messiah), to whom she belongs, from whom alone she will find complete peace. He must increase, but I must decrease.” In these last words one can see a foreboding that the end of his earthly career is not far off. Indeed, when he crossed to the other side of the Jordan, to Perea, where Herod reigned, Antipas; there he was captured as an exposer of his iniquity. So, although this incident did nothing harmful to Jesus, the constant growth of His company did not cease to torment His ill-wishers. Imprisonment of John the Baptist At this time it happened that John was imprisoned. The reason for this was the following circumstances. John baptized in Perea, where Herod Antipas ruled as tetrarch; Herod's capital was Tiberias in Galilee. Having inherited from his father suspicion of everyone, he observed all the movements taking place in his tetrarchy and within its borders. It was enough for him to hear that John had a large crowd of followers in his regions to consider him a dangerous person. He tried to lure him to his court in order to investigate for himself what kind of person he was, and if his suspicions were justified, then to protect himself from him. But to Herod’s surprise it was not at all what he had guessed. This John, to whom, despite his hair-hair clothing and strict lifestyle, was attributed secret goals of sedition, was a strict moral teacher who had enough spirit to proclaim the same truths that he preached to the people before the king and his family. As free in Herod's palace as in the desert, he began to reproach Herod to his face for the fact that, having violated both the Divine laws and the rights of hospitality, he had stolen his wife from his brother Herod Philip and was living with her now. With the same zeal he denounced other vices that prevailed at his court. Perhaps Herod himself did not show himself so irritated by these denunciations: he even showed the disposition to listen to him, respected him (Mark 6:20). But Herodias, out of ambition, deciding to leave her first husband, was so offended by these denunciations of John that she used all her power over Herod to condemn John to death. This time she only managed to do what Herod imprisoned John in the fortress of Machera. Herod did not intend to do anything more with him, partly because the Galileans considered him a prophet and were so disposed towards him that Herod, for fear of indignation, did not dare to deal with him too harshly (Matthew 14:5), partly because he himself was afraid of incurring heavenly execution by persecuting such a holy, God-pleasing man (Matthew 6:20). These reasons kept Herod in an indecisive state in relation to John for a long time and perhaps would have finally prompted him to completely release John if Herodias had not taken advantage of one case of Herod’s carelessness in killing John, as we will see later. “Herod allowed him to enjoy the community of his disciples while imprisoned. Removal of I. Christ to Galilee After John's imprisonment (John 8:23, 24), Jesus no longer remained in Judea. Shortly before this, He learned that the Pharisees, His most vigilant overseers, worried about the constantly increasing number of His disciples, had now turned all their attention from John to Him. This prompted Jesus to leave Judea and go to Galilee. John's conclusion was all the less able to deter Him from this determination because it was the result of special reasons. Moreover, Herod either had not heard anything about Jesus at that time, or had not yet paid his attention to Him. – And so, accompanied by his disciples, Jesus went to Galilee, taking the path through Samaria. A strict Israelite would not have gone this way, he would have bypassed this wicked region through Perea, on the right side of the Jordan: but the Lord was always a stranger to such superstitious rules. The summer months have already passed, and part of the autumn has passed. There was a time of sowing, which began from half of October and lasted until half of December. At this time the Lord came to the fruitful valleys of Shechem. Tired of the journey, He stopped at Jacob's well. He was alone; The disciples were sent to the city to buy food supplies, of course, not without the intention of teaching them to overcome the aversion that the Jews had for the Samaritans. At that time, a poor woman came from a nearby city to fetch water from a well. The Lord, because of His tormenting thirst, asking her for a drink, starts a conversation with her, and just as He always took advantage of every moment, every opportunity for His Divine service, so now He is trying to impart to this woman the seed of Divine truth, as much as possible, taking into account her disposition of heart and the degree of her education. He hides this truth under an image that now presented itself and which was so close to her real situation and to her more sensual character that he could arouse in her a desire for that great good that He hinted about and which he intended to communicate to her - although she did not yet understand what this good should consist of. Indeed, how curious it must be for her to hear about water, which everyone can have and which will only multiply more every day, so that the one who has this water will no longer need to take as much labor as now, in order to acquire it, he will not need to go for it several times every day, to scoop it up. This is how the Lord described the new Divine life, the source of which lies in Himself, which alone can quench the thirst of the spirit, calm all its needs, which in every person who accepts it becomes an ever-flowing source of peace and joy; so he hinted at it under the image of a living spring, which always flows with a living spring, so that the one who has this spring will never suffer thirst and will not want to drink other water. Having aroused in the woman the desire to have such wonderful water, about which she could not yet say what kind of water it was, the Lord interrupts his speech and does not enter into an explanation of what she, in her sensory state, could not understand; He gives his conversation a different direction - and on the one hand, he turns the woman’s gaze to her own life: since self-knowledge and self-knowledge alone could make her capable of a correct understanding of Divine truths; and on the other hand, he reveals to her the Prophet in Himself, showing that He also knows such circumstances of her life, which He, as a stranger, could not know in the usual way: he demands that she bring her husband, and thereby reveals that she had many husbands. From this word His words should have received much more weight in her eyes; and she will not ignore even what seemed mysterious to her, but assuming a higher hidden meaning in it, at least she will retain it in her memory for the time being. From this same thing, she now turns to Him as a Prophet, offers Him her religious questions and asks Him for their permission. What was closer than asking the Prophet of Judah how he would resolve the dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans - a dispute that was reminiscent of the very place where they were now talking, a look at Mount Garizin? “Our fathers,” says the Samaritan woman, worshiped (God) on this mountain: and you say that the place where they should worship is in Jerusalem? Therefore, the question is: who thinks more correctly? – The Lord in his answer distinguishes between the past and the present. Previously, the Jews were right, because the Samaritans were not a people chosen by God, but only those who had partially adopted His law; therefore, they should, like all the proselytes of Judaism, belong to the temple of Jerusalem. Having no communication with Jerusalem, establishing a special Divine service in opposition to the law, not accepting the Prophets whom God sent to instruct his people, and thus violating the organic connection between the times of the law and the Messiah, to whom the law and the Prophets led, the Samaritans themselves did not know to whom they bowed. On the contrary, the Jews, taking advantage of the ongoing revelation through the Prophets, honor God as He Himself taught them. From them must come salvation for everyone. So until now the Jews have been more right than the Samaritans, but now, the Lord continued, the time is coming when neither the Samaritan nor the Jewish image of God will no longer have power. Now it's time to stop these disputes. The worship of God in spirit and truth is revealed to people: for the Heavenly Father requires such worshipers. God is spirit and those who bow to Him must bow in spirit and in truth. The Lord contrasts the hitherto external service, tied to a certain time and place, with worship that is not bound by either place or time, comes from the Spirit and embraces the entire life of the spirit. God, as a spirit, can only be correctly comprehended by the spirit. And only this worship in spirit can be worship in truth, that is, true. Worship in the spirit can only be that which comes from the truth accepted by the spirit, which has become the life of the spirit (not some spontaneous, mystical worship, but flowing from the true gospel teaching). The Lord has already planted the seeds of such a new worship in the hearts of his disciples, through whom it should be spread everywhere (comes “and now is”). At the conclusion of his conversation, the Lord directly told the Samaritan woman that He was the very Messiah whom the Samaritans and Jews were waiting for. The woman hurries to the city to tell her friends the good news about an extraordinary event. Crowds of people went out of the city to Jesus. Meanwhile, the disciples returned with their purchase and found their teacher at the end of his conversation with the Samaritan woman. Although the conversation with the woman with whom He was deeply engaged seemed strange to them and aroused their curiosity; but no one dared to ask about the reason or the subject of the conversation. They were also surprised that the Lord did not touch the food they brought. Busy with his great work, He forgot earthly needs. His Spirit contemplated the actions of Divine truth in the soul of a woman, in the inhabitants of the city, the country, the whole world. He had in mind the worldwide spread of the teachings of which he now offered the poor woman the rudiments. He already saw before him the harvest from the seeds that he was now throwing into the bowels of the earth. Therefore, to the surprise of the disciples, the Lord answered: “I have other food that you do not know (that which gives food to my spirit makes Me forget about bodily food). My food will fulfill the will of him who sent Me, and I do His work (sowing the seed from which the kingdom of God should spread throughout all mankind).” And then he depicts to them in a parable comparison what he wanted to say about the work of God that had begun among the Samaritans. Perhaps, looking on the one hand at the farmers scattered across the fields who were sowing, or at the sunrise of grain in the fields, and on the other hand, at the crowds coming out to Him from the city at the call of the woman, the Lord said, you say that no earlier than in 4 months there will be a harvest. In relation to nature this is true; but it is different now in spiritual matters. When the time has come, as soon as more seed is sown, the harvest begins. Lift your eyes (pointing to the crowds of Samaritans coming out) and see how these fields are already ready for the harvest. But together, contemplating in spirit that He will leave the earth before the full harvest begins, that He will have to leave His disciples to finish this harvest, the Lord foretells to them prophetically that they will have this real harvest, which He will enjoy with them (the sower and the reaper will rejoice); they will reap what is sown. Thus, the Lord already hinted to them about his departure from them and about his imminent death, which was preceded by the even closer death of His Forerunner. The Lord stayed here for two more days at the request of the Samaritans, and then went to Galilee. A few remarks on the then state of Galilee Despite, however, the favor that the inhabitants of the Samaritan city showed Him, Jesus hurried to Galilee. He always considered Himself called to preach primarily among the Jews. So, leaving Shechem, He went to his own country - Galilee (John 4:43; Mark 1:14; Matt. 4:12; Luke 4:14). Galilee from that time became the usual place of His activities; Here He spent time on small trips to its various districts and cities. Some observations about the then state of Galilee can help us explain why the Lord chose this predominantly country as the place of his public ministry. Galilee, according to the Jewish historian, contained up to 204 cities and villages 36. There were up to 4 million inhabitants 37. Even if we reduce the usual number of inhabitants, which he believes in every smallest village, to precisely 15,000 38, still Galilee, despite its small extent, was then a very populous country. Its inhabitants were not all Jews; There were many foreigners among them, of Phoenician, Arab and even Egyptian origin. They came to this country a long time ago, some during the time of Assyrian rule; others were settled by Syrian kings. The excellent fertility of this country, as well as the convenience for trade, attracted others later. Many of these immigrants had already accepted the Jewish religion. Under the scepter of one sovereign, the Galileans formed one people of people of different religions, different nations; The Israelites among them, even if they were not more numerous, under the sovereign who adhered to the Jewish faith, were in a sense the dominant people, although neither the faith of the sovereign nor the ancient rights that the Jews had over this country exclusively in relation to all other peoples gave them any advantages over other settlers. So Galilee can be considered in relation to religion both as a Jewish country and as a pagan country: in this latter sense it was called the Galilee of tongues 39 . The mixing of the Israelites with the pagans in Galilee and their distance from the capital of their faith left them for the most part ignorant of their faith. These were people sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Their own Jews looked at them with contempt. A prophet does not come from Galilee; can anything good come from the city of Galilee? These were universal sayings among pure Jews. The Galileans were not rich teachers; but the Jewish teachers did not convey to them all their errors. True, they shared with other Jews some prejudices regarding the Messiah; but their prejudices, as prejudices of ignorance, could be smoothed out more easily than the prejudices of false enlightenment. The appearance of the Messiah among them should have attracted them to Him all the more, since they had previously stood at a lower level in the opinion of their Jewish compatriots. For other inhabitants of Galilee - the pagans, Jesus also could not go unnoticed, although neither Himself nor His disciples actually addressed them with teaching. Because both He and His disciples healed their sick in great numbers. Thus, even among these people, the conversion and preaching of Jesus could not remain without fruit. Jesus' disciples were all from Galilee. It was more convenient for His other followers here to accompany Him on His travels and, leaving their homes, to collect the seeds of His teaching, which He threw here and here: since the fertility of the country in general ensured them at the expense of their maintenance. These considerations explain to us the reasons why the Savior chose Galileo as the place of his primary conversion during his public ministry. The Savior's preaching and activity in Galilee, the healing of a nobleman's son, a sermon in Nazareth, by the Sea of ​​Galilee, a miraculous fishing The Evangelist John, speaking about the Lord’s arrival in Galilee, notes: for Jesus himself bears witness, as a prophet in his own country has no honor. With these words he wants to explain why the Lord did not stay in Nazareth. When He now entered His country, in frequent villages of Galilee He began to come across people who had been in Jerusalem on the last holiday and had seen His first actions there. Word quickly began to spread about Him. Everyone rejoiced at their compatriot, the Galilean; everyone thought that He would now force the Jews to agree that a prophet was coming from Galilee; They hoped that in his own country He would show even more miracles. – Of course, there was a lot wrong in such ideas about Jesus: He never thought of performing miracles to please his compatriots, to elevate them before the Jews; to perform miracles to maintain one’s glory – even less so. The main goal of His miracles has always been the moral good of people, the awakening of faith in Him as the Messiah; where He did not see this, there He abstained from all signs and wonders. - But it cannot be denied, at least, that these ideas about Jesus were nevertheless combined with respect for Himself, as the messenger of God. Jesus then resumed in Galilee the sermon that had stopped on the occasion of John’s imprisonment: the time of expectation and predestination of God was fulfilled, the Kingdom of God was approaching, the days of the Messiah had come. But whoever wants to be a participant in His blessings must first be cleansed by repentance and listen with faith to the new grace-filled teaching that the Messiah proclaims (Mark 1:15). This sermon, hitherto heard only in deserts, at springs, and in general in places with abundant water, where it was possible to be baptized, was brought by Jesus into the synagogues of Galilee and proclaimed in the cities (Luke 4:15). In synagogues, readings from the books of the Old Testament were usually offered. Jewish teachers, or rabbis, could add explanations of what they read, or were engaged in interviews with the assembled listeners about other religious subjects. Jesus took advantage of these occasions to spread his teachings. He Himself stood up to read from the scriptures in the synagogues, He Himself interpreted what He read, He Himself applied it to the subject of His own ministry. Sometimes it happened in this way that something read or some passage from the prophet pointed so directly and clearly to Him that no explanation was needed. While preaching, he did not neglect to confirm it with miracles; and just as he never squandered them without a purpose, so on the other hand he did not refuse them when he saw even the slightest acceptability of the truths that he preached. At the beginning of this journey, He came to Cana, where He had relatives and where He had already performed the first miracle. The disposition of the city residents, it seems, did not quite correspond to the desires of Jesus: they expected only miracles from Him 40, but did not think of believing in Him as the Messiah. “But among the inhabitants of Cana, a certain courtier from Capernaum appeared to Jesus. He was not one of those who, seeing or hearing about the extraordinary power of Jesus, wanted only to make it an object of cold observation or vain curiosity, or to use it to fulfill their whimsical desires: but neither was he one of those who felt a heartfelt attraction to Jesus and came to Him with complete faith. He stood in the middle between both (there were many of them): it was not an internal attraction that brought him to Jesus, but an external necessity; his son was sick; He expected Jesus to heal him. In such cases, Jesus did not deny giving His Divine help, although He tried in every possible way to make them feel that they needed to have a purer, more elevated disposition towards Him. He listened to the courtier’s request and, without yet giving him an answer to it, fixed a testing gaze into the depths of the petitioner’s spirit, in an instant weighed his dignity, and then, beyond all expectation, answered like this: you are the kind of people who will not believe unless you see signs and wonders (although he turned to Jesus, but not out of sincere confidence that He is able to do this and that He is the true messenger of God). “It was too difficult for a parent who feared every minute of losing his son to endure this strict analysis of his internal dispositions. Yes, as a courtier, perhaps he did not expect such a reception. However, the gaze of omniscience cast upon him convinced him that the life of his son was definitely in the power of Jesus. Therefore, instead of being offended by His remark, he began to ask Him even more fervently to help his son. “Lord,” he said, “come before he dies.” This seemed to express: I feel the justice of your remark: but now is not the time to denounce; Afterwards, reprove as you want, but now help. Jesus did more than the nobleman asked, and the nobleman showed more faith than could have been expected from him at first. The official asked Jesus to come from Cana to Capernaum to heal his son, because he was there. Jesus only said to him: “Go, your son is well,” and the nobleman believed in Jesus not only himself, but also his whole house. Some consider this courtier to be one and the same person with Chuza (Luke 8:3) or with Manael (Acts 13:1). But both are just guesses, nothing more. Few, perhaps only the disciples of Jesus, understood in this case His Divine art of arousing and kindling the spark of faith, but it was then known to everyone that the son of the courtier truly became healthy from the hour in which it was said to his father: Look, your son is healthy. Rumor was soon to spread this incident throughout the entire environs of Cana and Capernaum. The courtier of Capernaum was known to everyone there, and Jesus was glorified everywhere (Luke 4:15). But after visiting other cities of Galilee, He comes to Nazareth 41. The miracle of Capernaum was heard there too (Luke 4:23). Rumors also reached here about other grace-filled actions of Jesus (18–22). But they were either not believed, or were not given such importance as to be considered the works of the Messiah. They themselves wanted to see something wonderful from Him; however, even in this case they were not able to accept Him as others accepted Him. The prejudices sown in them by the long stay of Jesus in Nazareth - in a wretched form - were too strong in them. It was in this disposition that Jesus found the hearts of his compatriots at the time when, having appeared in Nazareth, he entered their synagogue and began to teach. And what should we expect from here? Jesus offered a reading from the Prophet for the first conversation. According to the special intention of God, a place from Isaiah 61:1-2 was revealed to Him, where the Prophet foreshadows the favorable summer of the Lord, the true summer of redemption (jubilee), times of joy and consolation for the people of God with the coming of the Messiah. But the same Prophet also predicted that the anointed one of God would preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, would heal, but to the brokenhearted, would preach liberation to the captives, that is, those held in the bonds of sin and the devil, would bring sight to the blind, who themselves recognize their blindness, would set free those who were tormented, under the yoke of the prince of darkness, but who themselves would wish for it. Meanwhile, His listeners were not among those who were aware of their blindness and desired healing from it. Therefore, His word, with all its power, could not produce a saving effect on them. They were only amazed that Jesus, known to them from infancy, could speak so eloquently, they agreed that now the time had come, foretold by the Prophet; John's preaching, the preaching of Jesus Himself, were accepted with eagerness everywhere. When, by direct application of the words of the Prophet to the face of Jesus Himself, it was necessary to recognize Him as the Messiah, then doubts were aroused in them: could the one whom we know as his mother, brothers and sisters, whom we are accustomed to consider the son of a carpenter, do such things? Not having a heartfelt disposition for the spiritual blessings indicated by the Prophet, and therefore not valuing them, they undoubtedly demanded from Jesus, if not in words, then at least in thoughts, the miracles that He performed in Capernaum and in other places who, by faith, resorted to Him for help. But to perform miracles where there was no acceptability of faith, only to satisfy gross sensual curiosity - the Lord could not do this. “It’s true,” He said, you can say that I myself am not trying to attract your favor in any way, I’m not doing what you want: - but this is not the first time it has been justified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So it was with Elijah, so it was with Elisha. And just as Elijah and Elisha, when the Israelites had no faith in them, showed their benefits to strangers: so I have to do. This speech, which placed the inhabitants of Nazareth lower than the pagans who accepted the prophets with faith, drove them completely mad; they drove Jesus out of the synagogue, out of the city, they wanted to throw him off the mountain on which their city was located: but Jesus closed Himself from them with His Divine power and withdrew. His disciples were not with Him then, or at least not all of them: Jesus, perhaps, deliberately removed them from being witnesses to the trouble inflicted on Him by his compatriots, which could have a strong effect on their soul. He went from Nazareth to the Sea of ​​Galilee in order to find them there, to choose for himself one place for permanent shelter, in case of need, to accept his disciples into the closest union with Him, to begin their special education, corresponding to their purpose, and with them to travel again through Galilee. The shores of the Sea of ​​Galilee were dotted with villages whose inhabitants were engaged in fishing. Jesus, having appeared here, as well as in other places, began to teach the people. Many here have probably heard John preach before; more likely, everyone knew something about Jesus. So Jesus was accompanied by a large crowd of people. Everyone crowded around Jesus: some wanted to hear what He said, some asked Him for some help, some wanted to satisfy their curiosity. Finally He reached the place where Simon and John and their brothers were fishing. Seeing Simon's boat, He hastily entered it in order to free himself a little from the crowded conditions and worries of the people, who, despite the affection they showed for Him, did not understand Him properly; Having sailed a little from the shore, Jesus began from the boat to continue his instructions to the people. This contrast of fate - in one place they drove Him away from themselves, in another they crowded in order to get closer to Him - the more strikingly it was revealed, the greater the danger it threatened Jesus with. On the one hand, it seemed that the work of Jesus could be stopped at the very beginning by the hatred and envy of His enemies; on the other hand, that the very attachment of the people to Him will lead Him to consequences that He did not at all desire. Both caused Him to now become more involved in the education of disciples, future teachers of the world; Moreover, He sees that during His life He will need to send them with the gospel to the cities of Judea, that He alone will not have time to do so much, but they were still very little prepared for this service. So Jesus decided to make some of his disciples his constant companions, to make them witnesses of all his actions, so that from a review of the complete picture of His life and ministry they could more clearly comprehend His deep goals, more correctly understand the kingdom of the Messiah, and then testify about Him with greater conviction and preach His teaching. This intention was then partially fulfilled. Having finished his instructions to the people, Jesus turns to Simon and asks what the fishing was like in His absence? Jesus knows that they didn’t catch anything, and their nets were washed, but He needed to draw the attention of His disciple to this, in order to then show how without Him they could not have success even in their ordinary pursuits, how in vain were their fears of upsetting their family affairs by following him, and how all their losses could be generously rewarded by His one word. Simon replied that he and his comrades worked all night, but did not catch anything. Jesus tells him to sail to the depths of the lake and cast his nets there. Simon did not expect any success from this, but he obeyed, and so what? Beyond his expectations, so many fish were pulled out at one time that two whole boats could be loaded with them. Simon was not surprised, but horrified by such a miracle. The fishing was not at night, but during the day, it was in the depths of the lake and was so great that the nets were torn; but the fish did not leave. When they landed on the shore, Simon threw himself on his knees before Jesus and, in the consciousness of his unworthiness to again be His companion, expressed a desire to leave Him: “I am a sinner, I cannot deal with You, Divine Wonderworker.” But Jesus encouraged him, ordered him to follow him and, applying himself to the event that had happened, said: “From now on you will catch people” - the same command and promise applied to Simon’s brother, then to their other comrades who participated in the last miraculous catch - James and John. Obedient to the voice of Jesus, they pulled their boats ashore and said goodbye to their lake. The last two brothers had a father here, but they left him too. Preaching and activity of the Savior in Capernaum Jesus took them on their way to Capernaum. He intended to make this city his place of residence during his free time from traveling - he wanted to replace Nazareth with it. This part of Galilee was distinguished from all others by its rich soil, abundance of all kinds of fruits, beneficial climate, excellent spring, this was an important convenience for the people gathering to Jesus. In addition, Capernaum lay on the border of two separate possessions: it was actually located in Galilee, where Herod ruled, but very close to Capernaum was Bethsaida, which was in the region of Philip, Herod’s brother, who ruled Ituria and the Trachonite region and where Jesus could have retired if he had encountered danger from Herod (Matt. 14:13; John 6:1). But there were, without a doubt, other more important reasons for the Knower of Hearts, why He chose this city and not another as the place of his permanent residence, which we do not know. We only know that from now on Jesus called Capernaum his city, that here they asked him for a denarius, as well as from the other inhabitants of the city (Matthew 7:24; 9:1). The transition of Jesus from Nazareth to Capernaum is an event that the first three evangelists speak about in particular detail, as an event connected with many circumstances in the life of Jesus Christ. And indeed, the first day of Jesus’ stay here, while this city, according to the word of the Evangelist, became His own to Jesus Christ, shows that the events were worth a special detailed description. We have already spoken about the first election of four disciples as permanent companions and followers, who hitherto, perhaps, had become attached to Him for a short time and were content with this. On Saturday, shortly before the exodus from Nazareth, the Savior appears in the local synagogue and, according to custom, begins to preach. The subject of the sermon was probably the same truths that He proclaimed everywhere at that time: the nearness of the kingdom of God, etc. His preaching, despite the sameness of the subject, always varied in its application to his listeners, whose inner state was completely open to His gaze. And this has always given His teaching special strength; whoever did not want to deliberately resist the attraction of grace emanating from His lips, he involuntarily felt himself captivated by it. This was not the teaching of scribes and lawyers, a dead, cold teaching that said nothing to the moral sense of man. The life and power of God were hidden in the teachings of Jesus. While He was teaching in this way in the synagogue of Capernaum, suddenly a terrible cry was heard: What do you care about us, Jesus of Nazareth! It was the voice of an unclean spirit living in one of Jesus’ listeners. For a long time the enemy of God was silent; preaching about the kingdom of God threatened the destruction of his kingdom; Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer; What do you, he shouted through the lips of his victim, have to do with us? You have come to destroy us. I know You, who You are, Holy One of God! These words showed that the spirit in some way wanted to persuade Jesus so that He would not drive him out of his area so much. Like a slave who ran away from his master and met him where he did not expect, he uses all sorts of tricks to evade the punishment awaiting him. “But his testimony was not accepted.” Jesus told him to leave his home... And the powerless spirit, not daring to speak, let out a final cry - a cry of anger and despair - not daring to remain in the person any longer, it shakes him terribly and leaves him barely alive. “The whole congregation was horrified and soon this event became the main event throughout Galilee. The Savior deigned to partake of the Saturday supper in Simon’s house. As if wishing to more clearly express his disposition towards him and tie him more tightly to himself, to resolve the ties that still tied him somewhat to his home and family, to instill in his family itself a greater readiness for separation from Simon, immediately upon arriving at Simon’s house, He healed his mother-in-law, who was overcome by a severe fever, from illness. In the evening of the same day, after the end of the Sabbath rest hours, a large number of people with the sick gathered at the door of Simonov’s house, following rumors of an incident in the synagogue. Perhaps those who had not seen the light of the sun for a long time, or who in the morning had not yet thought of living until the evening, were all now looking forward to mercy from Jesus. There were both those possessed by ordinary diseases and those possessed by demons. The merciful Lord came out to them from the house and, moving from one sick person to another, laid His hand on each and gave them healing, forbidding only those possessed by spirits, as before, to proclaim Him as the Messiah. This is how the Lord marked his entry into Capernaum! - Oh, how generously His good deeds were poured out on everyone, when the anger and unbelief of people did not stop Him, did not hamper Him! How inexhaustible in love He appeared then! In the morning, the inhabitants of Capernaum again gathered at Simon's house. But the Divine miracle worker was no longer here. Early in the morning He left the city completely and, preparing to travel through Galilee to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom there too, prayed in solitude. We have already noticed that He did not choose Capernaum for permanent residence. Having made it a gathering place for the people, He could arouse the suspicion of the ruler of Galilee against Himself, - nourish among the people plans that were inconsistent with His true goals - and had to deprive many of personal help and excitement. Thus, when Simon and the other disciples appeared to Him during His prayer with the idea of ​​how the people were waiting for Him in Capernaum, they only received the command, along with the others, to go with Him to preach the gospel in Galilee. And the requests of the inhabitants of Capernaum did not change the Savior’s resolve. The will of the Father and the good of all people governed all His steps. Where exactly the Savior was preaching during this journey, the Evangelists do not notice and do not report any details about His actions, except for the healing of one leper, whom the Lord healed with word and touch and, after healing, ordered him to make a legal sacrifice for himself and appear for examination by the priests. But the glory of the name of Jesus had already spread not only throughout Galilee, but also penetrated into Syria, gathering crowds to Him and leading behind Him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from the other side of the Jordan River. Many miracles, the power of teaching and the news of preaching could always arouse the curiosity of the Jews and pay attention to the teacher and the miracle worker (Jews are looking for signs): but especially now, with the expectations of the Messiah. The disciples who accompanied Jesus could now understand what their purpose meant: to be fishers of men. Galilee was before them like a sea boiling with fish, in which this time they found so many fish that they only had to cast a net to catch plenty of them. But the Lord saw that this was not suddenly destined to happen and that first the fishermen themselves must be educated, they must be introduced to the spirit of their teaching, the secrets of the kingdom must be explained to them. Everyone around Him generally had such an idea about the Messiah and His kingdom that it was necessary to cleanse it in advance, correct it, pay attention to what they had not paid attention to before, and weaken some expectations that were too strong and did not at all agree with the truth. They did not yet know that in the kingdom of the Messiah everyone must be transformed, and whoever thinks to be closer to Him than others is most likely far from Him. - That is why the Savior, speaking about the approach of the kingdom of heaven, then did not directly say anything about the Messiah himself, allowing Himself to be revealed later, after the people had been properly prepared for it. That is why He, when He cast out unclean spirits from people possessed by them, who were the first and only one to begin to call Him the Messiah, forbade them to do so. That is why, during this journey, he forbade those being healed to divulge about the miraculous liberation from illnesses and did not allow them to walk with Him, as for example. leper (Mark 1:43–44; Luke 5:14), whom he even ordered to appear to the priests. That is why He began to retire from the people more often and, surrendering himself to the will of the Father, to talk with Him more often in prayer (Luke 5:16). That is why He soon allowed other leaders, respected by the people, to openly fight with Him, whose rules, however, were worth the harshest denunciations. When the Lord returned to Capernaum, scribes and Pharisees had already gathered here from Galilee, from Judea, from Jerusalem itself to look at His actions, to listen to His instructions, not in order to conform to them in their actions, but to find out where His intentions were heading, whether there was anything in them that disagreed with their opinions and rules, contrary to their honor and respect among the people. They watched Jesus when, after Easter, He remained in Judea for about eight months preaching there and, gaining more and more followers of Himself, baptized them through His disciples (John 4:1–3). And then, when He retired to Galilee, they did not let Him out of sight, especially after the rumor about His miracles became universal. Moreover, Easter time was approaching. One could expect Jesus to go to Jerusalem, just like last time. And just as He appeared in the church then with demands that were unusual for the teachers of that time, one could expect something similar now, especially given the disposition of the people toward Him. Scribes and Pharisees visited His house, were present at the gatherings of the people to Him, at His instructions. The Lord did not hinder them in this: but tried to instill in them, as those who were familiar with the Scripture and who had taken upon themselves the leadership of the people in matters of faith and piety, more correct concepts about Himself. Healing the paralytic and conversation with the Pharisees on this matter One day, when He was in one house in the presence of them giving instructions to the people, the ceiling suddenly opened and a paralyzed man (paralyzed) descended on a bed in the middle, who could not move a single member and who, due to the multitude of people, could not be carried through the doors of the house. It was an amazing meeting of hot faith with cold disbelief in the Lord. Perhaps, noticing the confused state of the sick man who appeared before Him as before His judge and healer, or actually for the Pharisees and scribes who were here, He turns to the paralytic not with the usual word of healing from illness, but tells him in advance: “Be of good courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” Such words amazed some of the scribes. To hear: get up, take up your bed - this still seemed tolerable to them. But to hear such a verdict about sins seemed to them no less than blasphemy. However, they did not dare, or did not yet have time to explain their thoughts, when the Lord, penetrating into their hearts, Himself revealed them to everyone and gave His judgment about them. “And I agree,” He said, that it is easier to say: get up, take up your bed, and that only God can forgive sins. But for this reason I said in advance to the paralytic: your sins are forgiven, so that you know what the Son of Man is in himself and how far His power can extend even on earth (not when He is in heaven) - and now I will add obvious proof that I am not attributing to myself anything unnecessary. At the same time, turning to the paralytic, the Lord says: “Take up your bed and walk.” If the Savior had said this earlier and only this one thing, then quite a few similar miracles could have been indicated before, and this miracle would not have shown Jesus as an extraordinary miracle worker. But after the Lord uttered such words in front of everyone that would really have been blasphemy in the mouth of any miracle worker until that time, He not only did not stop, but commanded the paralytic to rise from his bed, and His words poured life-giving power into the deadness of the sick man, who owned nothing; - the sick man stood up, had so much strength that he could carry his bed himself and walk with it through the crowd like a wall of standing people; was there need for a clearer instruction as to whom He should be taken, and a stronger proof of the truth of His words? Forgive sins? There were so many messengers of God among the Jewish people, and not one of them took upon himself such a great task. John baptized with a baptism of repentance, but did not give forgiveness of sins. In the church, sins were cleansed - to a certain extent - by offering sacrifices. The Lord, bearing within himself the cleansing of human sins both by his Divine right and by the decisive intention to atone for sin with his own blood, could, and only one could, without calling on the mercy of the Father and without using any ordinary cleansing agent, say: your sins are forgiven... The scribes and teachers of the law should have come to their senses through this conversation and miracle as to whom they should recognize Jesus. General amazement accompanied this action and the cunning anger had to fall silent. But the Lord, dealing with people arrogant in their righteousness, wanted to imagine even more clearly to what extent this matter of forgiveness of sins concerns His ministry, and for whom exactly this might be necessary. Subsequent events, partly by His own intention, partly as if by themselves, gave Him a reason to reveal this in due clarity. Matthew's call to apostolic ministry and conversations with the Pharisees Soon after the incident described, the Lord happened to pass by Lake Gennesaret again; here He also called a fisher of men, but no longer from the shameless title of fishermen, but the publican Matthew. You need to know what a publican meant in the eyes of a strict Pharisee in order to judge the intention of such an election, and precisely at the present time. Collecting taxes from the Jewish people in favor of the pagan emperor, often using cruel measures, often resorting to violence and oppression of the poor in order to enrich themselves, publicans were the most despicable people in the eyes of the religious Jew, although not all of them were really so low in morality. Τελώνης meant the same as άμάριωλος. By calling Matthew to be one of His closest followers, the Lord wanted to show precisely that He came to call sinners to repentance, and that just as among the so-called sinners there are those who are no worse than those who consider themselves righteous, blameless in anything, so among these imaginary righteous there are quite a few sinners in the closest sense of the word. Matthew, by his quick determination to follow the call of the Lord, had already shown that he was no less worthy of the Divine calling than the other disciples: but he was not satisfied with this. As if in gratitude for the Lord’s merciful condescension to him, he boldly asked Him, along with other disciples, to join him for a meal, to which he invited many of his brethren in rank. The Lord, seeing his love and knowing that his example could serve as encouragement for other tax collectors, did not refuse the invitation; He wanted the Pharisees to understand His action. But they were not able to see it as they should. Instead of appreciating the love of the Son of Man in this, they turned to His disciples and, as if wanting to set them up against Him, they said with reproach and with a feeling of insult to themselves: What is it, your teacher eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners, leaving you aside? “Yes,” Jesus answered them instead of his disciples; but to whom should the doctor provide his benefits, the healthy or the sick? You consider yourself strong: why is it strange to you that the Son of Man does not address you? But you, skilled in the law, should not forget the words of God from the prophet: I want mercy, not sacrifice, and not look with contempt at these unfortunate ones, rejected by your arrogance. “And don’t you see that this arrogance and this lack of love for your brothers are already sins that, imperceptibly for yourself, put you on an equal footing with these sinners before the Holy God and should prompt you to seek help from the Doctor who came to you sick? God refuses sacrifice for mercy; and you refuse mercy to maintain imaginary righteousness! “I did not come to earth for such righteous people, but for contrite sinners.” If these righteous people want to be close to Me, then they must also recognize themselves as sinners. Ashamed of such an answer, they want to take revenge on both the teacher and the students by blaming the weakness of His rules, making it appear that with such condescension towards sinners they themselves do not differ from them either in special abstinence or prayers. Fasting and prayer are the first means to cleansing from sins and achieving holiness. But these means mean too little to them. To reinforce their words even more, the Pharisees invite to their side the disciples of John who happened there and, pointing to the example of John, respected by Jesus, and to their own example - to the example of the people whom He humiliates, they propose a question to Him: why do not your disciples fast and pray, like us, or like the disciples of John? The Lord answered this question: and there is nothing strange in this. Firstly, it is necessary to distinguish the state of those and other disciples, and secondly, to know to what extent and in what form this requirement agrees with the other principles of My teaching - Fasting is an expression of grief; in grief even food does not come to mind; its beginning is hidden in the feeling of grief over the deprivation of something. My disciples have no reason to mourn as long as I am with them; just as the friends of the groom invited to the wedding have no reason to grieve as long as the groom is with them. John's disciples can and must fast now, because their groom is not with them (he is in prison). The Pharisees, who did not want to stand either on the side of John or on the side of Jesus, always have a reason to fast, although their fast does not have the meaning in the eyes of God that they want to give it. It’s a different matter when the same time comes for my students. But even then, when the time of trouble begins for my students, even then this institution, as an external one, must be completely consistent with other external institutions and with new internal principles. To then follow the example of John’s disciples, that is, to change only one part of the rule of life, would mean sewing a new patch to an old robe and thereby enlarging the hole. But to follow the example of the Pharisees, that is, to retain all the old forms, would mean pouring new wine into the old wineskin and suddenly losing both the wine and the skins. So, everything has its time and its measure. The spirit of Christianity must form new forms for itself. Thus, the instructions of the Pharisees, who treated Jesus with their own rules, were rejected here too and only served the Lord’s disciples for a more precise consideration of their relations with both the Pharisees and the disciples of John, from among whom some themselves came. And the scribes and Pharisees learned from here that the Lord was by no means inclined to subordinate Himself to their opinions and rules, that He wanted to act with complete independence. Journey of I. Christ to Jerusalem for Easter Despite such apparent disagreement in rules and opinions with the respected teachers of the people, the Lord, knowing that His hour had not yet come, went to Jerusalem when the time came to go there for the Passover holiday. In addition to the fact that here He could become known to the inhabitants of those cities that He Himself did not visit, and even to the inhabitants of distant countries who came to the holiday, where His Father’s house was, in the presence of those who considered themselves His guardians and stewards, He considered it necessary to more clearly announce Himself, so that no one would remain ignorant of Him, and if anyone wants to be more sure of Him, he should indicate the ways to achieve this. – This included the question of the law and rules that the Pharisees supported. In conversations with them in Galilee, the Lord pointed out the need to change the forms of the old law with new teaching. Healing of the paralytic at the Sheep's font; conversation between I. Christ and the Pharisees By chance, in Jerusalem itself, the Lord chose to heal one sick person who had already suffered for 38 years (John 5), which he performed deliberately on Saturday. Having freed him from illness, the Lord himself ordered him to take up his bed and go. The strict guardians of the external requirements of the law and the traditions of the elders, having learned about this, instead of paying attention to Divine healing, stood up for disturbing the Sabbath rest. In their eyes, this was a crime worthy of death, especially since it was committed among a crowd of people, at a festival. But neither the verdict of the court, nor the hand of a secret traitor could strike Him before He Himself betrayed Himself to people. Therefore, without fearing the plans of His enemies, the Lord Himself appears to them and declares on what the basis was His failure to observe inactive rest on the Sabbath. Saturday is a memorial of God's rest at the end of creation. But this peace is not inaction. The activity of the Creator does not cease: but the observance of the world from its creation until now is nothing other than His creation, renewed with every moment, begun by the Father through the Son (following your Spirit and they will be created), the renewal of the spiritual nature of man is also creation (create a pure heart in me...) - So God, the Creator of the world, and having rested in peace, continues to this day. If my Father is still working and does not leave his work on Saturday, then I also do it, not being constrained by any rules about rest. The teachers of the people, prejudiced against Him, saw in His words a new crime: He puts Himself on an equal footing with God, they said, and were ready to admit this as blasphemy against God (as well as previously arrogating to himself the right to forgive the sins of people). The Lord responds to this: “On the contrary, it would be blasphemy against God not to give the Son the same honor that belongs to the Father, since He has power and authority equal to Him.” The Son of God, by his very essence, cannot create anything of Himself if he does not see the Father creating, that is, nothing that disagrees with the will of the Father. In Him one cannot assume errors of ignorance, as in other messengers of God, obscurity, incompleteness of knowledge: because the Father loves the Son so much that he does not hide his actions from Him, but shows them to his Son. And because what the Father does, the Son also creates and can create without prejudice. But to understand this inscrutable relationship of the Son to the Father, which did not cease even when the Son was on earth, not in the bosom of the Father, there was no acceptability among the Lord’s listeners. Therefore, the Lord moves on to what is closer to their minds. They all expected that the kingdom of the Messiah would be revealed by resurrection and judgment, and they attributed this not to the Messiah himself, but to God. Wanting to show that the Son exactly does the same thing as the Father, the Lord dwells on these works of God, which at the same time proved that He is the true Messiah. “You all think that the resurrection of the dead and judgment are the work of the Father. But He also gave the Son the power to give life to whomever He wants. But the Father left all judgment to the Son.” “In this the will of the Father is clearly revealed, that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father; otherwise he is subject to the judgment of the Son who does not honor Him (this also applies to the real judges of My words and actions). He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” Having thus refuted the blasphemous accusation of the Jews of unjustly appropriating Divine rights for themselves (just as he had previously defended the Divine power to forgive people’s sins), the Lord deigned to reveal in even more detail what was briefly said about the resurrection and judgment granted to Him. “I spoke about the resurrection. Both its beginning and its universal revelation depend on Me. It begins with My sermon, with My word: whoever listens to it and accepts it with faith towards the one who sent Me, this very word resurrects him to spiritual life. And this life is eternal, not interrupted by the boundaries of temporary life. – But the Son has the power to restore life to the dead flesh of man. This resurrection already lies in its seed in that spiritual resurrection. And now the time will come when, according to the voice of the Son of God, all the dead will rise from their graves. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself.” “I also said about the trial. So. When everyone is raised from the dead, both good and evil, then the Son, leaving the good who accepted His word with faith (v. 24: not subject to judgment), will turn His judgment against the evil. - And again, both the right of judgment and its execution, the Son does not anticipate for Himself from the Father, but has according to His will, the Father gave Him the power to carry out judgment: because He is the Son of man, the same Son of man whom Daniel saw receiving from the Ancient of days power, and honor, and the kingdom (Dan. 7:13). And the Son will carry out this judgment not according to his own arbitrariness, but according to justice, in accordance with the judgment of the Father. I have already said that He Himself cannot do anything of His own accord and does not seek His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. There was no need to ask who this Son was; The Lord said that all this was provided to Him (I cannot do anything... I do not seek My will... v. 30). Having already revealed Himself so much, the Lord did not want to leave His listeners in the dark about how they themselves could verify the truth of His words. Do you need evidence that I, in all justice, appropriate to myself the title of Son of God? I could testify to this with Myself: but for you this testimony is not true, does not have the proper power. So be it. I have another witness, whose testimony has all power.” “I do not refer to John, who testified of Me as the Son of God (John 1:34): because I do not accept testimony from man. “But for you, this testimony has all the power and can be saving.” You yourself sent to him. And John was truly the lamp of God, burning and shining, a prophet with a fiery spirit of zeal and the light of truth. Only you did not take advantage of his light as you should have: you admired him at the hour of his illumination and did not follow his preaching about repentance, his indications of the One coming after him.” “My witness greater than John is He My Father Himself (and who can more accurately testify to someone’s origin than the father himself)? In what is His testimony revealed? In the works that I do, that is, in miracles that are undoubted and which no one who falsely arrogates to himself the honor of God can perform. If I unfairly called Myself the Son of God, I could not perform miracles by the power of God. And it is not My fault if you do not believe this testimony. If there were His testimony in another form, for example. in a voice (as in Isaiah), in a vision (as in Ezekiel), in an inner word - (as in the Old Testament): you would not have received it. You have never heard His voice before, you have never seen His face, and His word does not abide in you, because it abides only where there is faith in the Word - and it is not in you.” “There is also evidence that I can refer to, which you also trust - this is the testimony of Scripture - the Law and the Prophets. And if you do not find confirmation of My words in the words of this witness (that I am the Son of God), then the fault is again in you, and not in Me and not in the ambiguity of the testimony. You yourselves do not want to come to Me in order to have life; you have no disposition towards the Divine; you neglect Me, because I do not seek human glory, but do everything for the glory of the Father; I do not satisfy your expectations of the Messiah for the outward splendor of the Messiah; Meanwhile, you, having interpreted the Scripture according to your passions, have become accustomed to imagining the Messiah not as such, but as the same as yourself. But if you search the Scripture without hindrance, it will itself convict you before God. Moses, in whom you trust, wrote directly about Me, and it is he, and not I, who will accuse you before My Father.” The Evangelist tells us nothing here about the consequences of this conversation. But from what follows we see that on the next Easter the Lord could not go to Jerusalem, and even after 1.5 years after this conversation, the Pharisees of Jerusalem still remembered this and sought the life of Jesus (John 7:21-23. Here we speak directly about a single thing - about the healing of the whole person on the Sabbath, that is, both in body and soul 5:14). And so from that time on, the Pharisees of Jerusalem began to persecute Jesus as their most dangerous enemy. From this we can conclude that the Lord, soon after that conversation, was forced to leave Jerusalem, which was hostile to Him. But the seed of the Divine teaching, without a doubt, did not remain completely without fruit at that time. More attentive and impartial listeners of the Lord, such as was Nicodemus, received in these instructions new light to the understanding of the Divine face of the Savior. In the next two Sabbaths, the question of the importance of the Sabbath and the inviolability of its peace, which had not yet been revealed much in the present case, regarding the new bickering of the Pharisees, was revealed much more fully and explained more decisively. The first time was due to the fact that the disciples of the Lord, on the way from Jerusalem, passing through a sown field, out of hunger and having no other food with them, pulled out ears of corn from it and, rubbing them with their hands, ate. Another time - on the occasion of the complete healing of one withered arm in the synagogue, however, without any intermediary action, with just one word. The last incident was already in Galilee. In defense of the actions of His disciples and His healing of the withered hand, the Lord pointed out to the Pharisees, who observed all His steps, examples of violation of some rules of the law by holy men in case of extreme cases. Thus, David, persecuted by Saul, asked Abiathar for showbread and ate it with his companions (1 Sam. 21:1). He pointed out how they themselves violate the peace of the Sabbath by allowing an animal that has fallen into it to be taken out of a pit, and even the priests in the church cannot literally fulfill the commandment of rest, because they make sacrifices, and even worse ones against ordinary days. And here, the Lord added, there is more than a church. Consequently, the disciples, obeying this greater thing, do not thereby offend the church, the dead dwelling of the Almighty, and His transient, temporary laws. At the same time, the Lord said, we should never forget the words of God from the prophet: I want mercy, not sacrifice - mercy, benefit to a withered man is higher than observing idle rest; We must not forget that the Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Saturday, like any other time, is for doing good and not for doing evil, which will include the very omission of a good deed that can be done for the good of one’s neighbor. Finally, the Lord also referred to what he pointed out in Jerusalem, that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Without any instruction, the Pharisees were so irritated by the last action of the Lord that they immediately turned to the Herodians and began to consult on how to destroy Jesus. The Herodians were, in all likelihood, courtiers and adherents of Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, who valued politics and their connections with the Roman government more than religion. The Herodians and Pharisees, according to their principles, could not agree with each other: but malice united them. The Lord, knowing about these intentions, recognized it as necessary to evade them this time. He retired to the sea. But how did you leave? Not as a man timidly saving his life from persecution by legitimate authorities, but as a Tsar surrounded by his people. He left, apparently, only because it was unpleasant for Him to remain here with people who had no favors towards Him. A multitude of people followed Him to the sea (Mark 3:7, 8) from Galilee, from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from half Jordan, and from Tire and Sidon - a great multitude. Everyone flocked to Him as to their father, mentor and healer. Those possessed by certain illnesses even rushed at Him just to touch Him (v. 10). When they walked along the shore, there was a danger from this very cramped space and attacks from the sick of being thrown into the sea, and the Lord demanded a boat for himself in order to continue his instructions to the people from it. One measure that the Lord also used, it seems, to avoid unfavorable movements on the part of the people against His enemies and to remove from Himself even the slightest shadow of suspicion of any plans, was that He forbade those being healed to proclaim in the ears of the people that they recognize Him as the Son of God (Matt. and Mark.). The Evangelist Matthew, having completed his story thus far, stopped to notice in such an action of the Lord Jesus the fulfillment of what Isaiah predicted about Him: 18. Behold My servant, whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom is all the delight of My soul. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim righteousness to the nations. 19. He will not contradict, nor cry out, and no one will hear His voice at the crossroads. 20. He will not break a bruised reed and he will not extinguish the smoking flax until he brings about victory in judgment. 21. And the nations will trust in His name. This whole passage reads in Isaiah like this: 1) This is My servant, whom I have taken, My chosen one, in whom I am well pleased. I put My Spirit on Him: He will bring justification (the law) to the nations. 2) There will be no noise from Him, He will not raise dust, no one will hear His voice in the street. 3) He will not break a bruised reed, nor will He quench the smoking flax; and justification (the law, the teaching of piety) will bring it into the (light) of truth, that is, it will establish it as truth). 4) He will not slow down or speed up, (until) he establishes justification on earth (see above) and in His law the islands (distant nations) will place their hope. 5) Thus says the Lord Jehovah, who created the heavens and spread it out, who established the earth and its products: giving breath to the people who live on it and spirit to those who walk on it. 6) I, Jehovah, have called you in righteousness; I will take your hand and keep you safe. And I will give you as a covenant to (My people) and as a light to the nations. 7) So that you open the eyes of the blind, bring out the prisoners from prison and those sitting in darkness from custody. Indeed, it was impossible to better depict the meekness of the Divine Teacher towards unbelievers and merciful attentiveness to everyone, even a weak disposition towards faith, as the prophet depicted this. He, Whom the voice of God the Father from heaven testified at baptism, calling Him His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased, on Whom the Spirit descended in the form of a meek dove, from the very moment of His entry into Divine service, forced to fight against prejudices and human passions, quietly, without noise, not by the power of His power, but by the light of truth, He defeated and destroyed them. If any cane on which people had previously leaned could still hold on for some time, although damaged, He still left it to serve as a support for the time being. If any lamp still produced light, albeit dim, He let it burn as long as it could. And from the servants of the church He only demanded its cleansing; and the teachers of the law, he did not completely reject (everything they say to you, do it). When human passions, irritated by His light, rebelled against Him, He moved away from them, without striking the guilty with any executions. He left Nazareth without any reprimand, He soon departed from Jerusalem, without disturbing anyone’s peace, and now they did not hear His voice on the street: He went to the sea and forbade those healed to disclose about Himself that He was the Son of God. In whomever he noticed even a weak beginning of conversion and faith, he raised him up, encouraged him, and gradually raised him to a higher state: this is what He did with the Samaritan woman, with the Capernaum courtier, with the paralytic. This is what He constantly did with His disciples. Election of the Twelve Apostles Meanwhile, every day it became more necessary for the Lord to separate from the crowd of followers a part of the chosen ones in order to spread his actions through them in a larger circle, and to better prepare them themselves for further service. On the one hand, the growing disposition towards Him of the common people, on the other, the growing hatred of the enemies, although they were allowed according to Divine foreknowledge and never went beyond the line given to them, they never restrained the Divine freedom of our Redeemer to lay down his soul for us without any extraneous necessity, solely out of his love for us - nevertheless, according to the very plans of the Divine Ascetic, they should have revealed their consequences not in the long term. time. And so now, having evaded the persecution of the Pharisees for a while, the Lord set out to lay the foundation for the closest union of several disciples with Himself. Getting started with this, the Lord one evening deliberately withdraws from everyone to a secluded mountain to pray. – Who knows what the Lord’s Prayer embraced at this time? One may, however, think that, laying the foundation for the building of the New Testament Church, our Divine Intercessor called upon the blessing of His Father for his work, asking her for strength against the kingdom of darkness (and the gates of hell will not prevail, she saw Satan fall from heaven: behold, Satan asks that he sow you like wheat, and I pray for you, Simon). The Son of Man, perhaps, asked His heavenly Father to strengthen Himself for the final feat set before Him: for in the morning, by the will of the Father and by His good will, He had to bring closer to Himself and from now on always have before Him a sharp instrument of death - Judas Iscariot. And there was communion in the prayer of God (Luke 6:12). In the morning, calling His disciples to Himself on the mountain, He chose 12 of them so that they would be constantly with Him and so that later they could testify that they themselves had seen, heard, and touched (Mark 3:14). These were, as it were, the leaders of the new, future 12 tribes of the new Israel (Apoc. 21:14). Then he goes with them to the people and offers them an extensive conversation. Since they belong to the composition of this new Israel not by earthly origin, but by spiritual origin; then the Lord deigned to indicate in this conversation some features of the sons of the new Israel, for the most part referring to the rules and examples of the then Israeli piety and contrasting the features that were unworthy in it with the truly good and elevating the good itself to the highest degree of perfection. The attitude of the Savior’s words to the chosen disciples was not exceptional: but since now they were almost the only members of the new kingdom here, since subsequently they were to occupy the highest place in it and had a special relationship to this kingdom, like the Apostles, the Savior’s words necessarily concerned them more than others. Not rich in imaginary personal righteousness (the Pharisees), but aware of their spiritual poverty, crying over their sins, seeking the only truth of God (Rom. 3:21), and detaching their hearts from all earthly attachments; on the other hand, lenient (πραείς) to the weaknesses of others, ready to help one’s neighbor in need (έλεήμονες), to promote the spread of peace and harmony everywhere (είρηνοποιόυντες), - finally, firm in their faith and virtue to the point of sacrificing to everyone - that’s who the Lord recognized as the sons of his kingdom. Seeing in the Apostles chosen by Him the beginnings of these perfections (in Luke the speech is addressed to the Apostles, and in Matt. 5:12), he joyfully called them blessed, but at the same time pointing out their high purpose in the world, he aroused them to strict attentiveness in all their words and deeds (you are the salt of the earth: if salt overcomes... you are the light of the world, no one burns a lamp and puts it under a bushel). He considered the Divine Law to be the rule of life for the sons of His kingdom, in its original purity and deep inner meaning, and not reinterpreted by the Pharisees and scribes. In vain did the Pharisees insist that he was destroying the law; no, he came not to break it, but to fulfill it. Revealing this principle, the Lord deliberately exposed and corrected several errors introduced into the moral teaching of that time by teachers of the law, who either limited or expanded the meaning of its instructions according to the will of their passions. Thus, He presented the true meaning of the sixth, seventh, and third commandments, rejected the incorrect interpretation of the law on the permissibility of divorce and the right of revenge, and rejected the false conclusion from some of the laws of Moses - about hatred of enemies. Thus, the Lord showed how the law should be understood and what dispositions a son of the kingdom of heaven should nurture within himself. Not only a mortal blow, but also any lack of love, not only an actual violation of chastity and purity, but also an unclean desire, not only perjury, but also every kind of untruthfulness, against which one is protected by an oath, not only an obvious violation of justice in relation to another, but also the inhuman pursuit of one’s right - all this is inconsistent with the law that the Messiah establishes for his kingdom. The main and distinctive feature of the members of His kingdom is love for everyone without distinction, even enemies, and as in this, there and in everything, perfect likeness to the Heavenly Father. The example of outward piety of the Pharisees (almsgiving, prayer, fasting) had no less influence on general life than the law. The Lord gave instructions to His followers on how they should look at this: to give alms, perform prayers, fast - but not in the Pharisees’ way (he gave His model for prayer, in which he outlined the main objects of a Christian’s constant desires and requests) and not to be attached to earthly treasures, which the Pharisees did not consider a sin (Luke 16:13-14), and generally not to bind oneself to everyday concerns; - however, while avoiding vices, do not condemn people who are subject to them, but on the other hand, do not allow the sacred to be trampled under foot. In conclusion, the Lord demanded that in every need we certainly turn to God in prayer, - in relation to our neighbors, we always adhere to the rule that our love for them should not be weaker than the love for ourselves, - we always train ourselves to follow the narrow path, beware of false teachers and fulfill what we know. Having established these rules of life for his followers, the Lord laid the essential differences between their righteousness and the righteousness of the Pharisees and a solid foundation for the internal formation of his chosen society. But not only for that time and for famous persons, they were supposed to serve as law and guidance for all His followers in general, since they were based on the eternal laws of Divine holiness and on the fundamental principles of morality established by the Creator in human nature. The chosen ones had never studied anywhere before, except that some had been among John’s disciples for some time: such were Andrew and John. The Lord chose those who proved their love and affection for Him, trusting, like children, not infected with the dreams of false enlightenment, and provided Himself with their education, and taught them not only in word, but also in deed, alone and before the people, in the house and on the road, on land and at sea: what was dark for others, he explained to them: he had them as constant witnesses of his life and deeds, gradually erased the prejudices brought from the teaching Judean, did not eliminate all cases of error from them, but turned them into a lesson for themselves, allowed them to reason with each other about subjects close to their knowledge, but did not leave them to notice that He knew not only their conversations among themselves, but also the secret thoughts of men, moderated their heart movements and brought them into agreement with their duties. In a word, he cleansed and enlightened their minds and hearts, preparing them for the complete outpouring of the Spirit of truth and sanctification in them. At first they were in relation to the Lord as disciples; at the end of his career, He already called them his friends (John 15:14–15), because he did not hide anything from them; finally brothers. Healing of a Roman Centurion's Servant Soon the Lord comes to his city with the newly elected Apostles. Here an extraordinary meeting awaited them, which surprised the Lord Himself, during which the Apostles heard from Him a word important for their subsequent ministry. The Roman centurion, who had his stay here, had his beloved servant sick. Although he was a pagan by origin, he also respected the Jewish religion: he built a synagogue for the Jews in Capernaum. Perhaps he himself was a proselyte, although of a lower degree. The rumor about the miracles of the Lord reached him too: he did not doubt them and, recognizing the Divine power in them, was in awe of the miracle worker. Wanting to help his servant, but not having any ordinary means to do so, he was not deprived only of hope in the all-healing power of Jesus, but on the other hand, he considered himself too unworthy for himself, a pagan, to personally ask Him to his house for such a matter. Not knowing the Lord, he judged Him according to the other Jews, who abhorred any contact with the pagans. Finally, seeing the danger, he decided to ask for His help through the elders of the Jews. Already the Lord went to the call, like a centurion, in a feeling of his unworthiness and faith in the power of the Lord, again asked through his friends the Divine healer not to bother himself any more - he believes that even one word from Him is enough to restore the sick, just as a word is enough for him to order his subordinates to do this or that... No one has ever shown before the Lord such a sense of faith in His Divine power - and this one was a pagan. The Lord fulfilled the believer’s request and at the same time said in the hearing of the Apostles: I have never seen such faith in any of the Israelites, and I will reveal to you: many will come from the East and West (that is, not local, native, pure Jews) and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, - and the sons of the kingdom are Jews, so to speak, his natural heirs, they will be cast out into utter darkness... Resurrection of the Son of the Widow of Jain Immediately after this, during their journey through Galilee, in the eyes of the Apostles, another most miraculous, extraordinary incident took place, which suddenly revealed the Divine greatness of the Savior: in the presence of the people, He resurrected a young man, the son of a widow, who was already being carried to the grave. Elisha also raised the dead man, but after how many, so to speak, methods of imparting life to him! Jesus, with one word and the touch of his hand on the young man’s bed, brought him back from that world. In this, the Lord showed, so to speak, an exemplary experience of the fulfillment of his great word spoken last Easter in Jerusalem: the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and will live. No one could help but see this as extraordinary and something especially important; the rumor about this miracle-working increased the concept of Jesus, widespread among the people by his previous miracles and teachings: a great prophet has arisen among us, God visit his people. Rumors about the events of Galilee penetrated both Judea and its surroundings. Question from the disciples of John the Baptist However, one should not think that this rumor and expectation contained too much for the Lord. The crowd of people, accustomed in this matter to be guided by the concept of the Pharisees and scribes, even if in their affection for Jesus they could lag behind them, they could not easily part with those flattering expectations that they associated with the appearance of the Messiah. And such expectations did not agree at all with the thoughts of the Lord. Meanwhile, among the Pharisees, whose opinions and rules the Lord personally refuted so many times, such a glorious incident could not soon find faith. Moreover, even from John they came to Jesus with the question: are you the one who is coming, or someone else? The disciples of the Forerunner asked the Messiah whether they were in vain considering Him to be the Messiah? We think that this was not the Forerunner’s question. The one who heard in the desert the command from God to preach repentance to people in anticipation of the Messiah, the one who pointed out to his disciples the Messiah in Jesus and said that he himself did not know Him before, but recognized Him as the Messiah, because the sign of the Messiah indicated to John (the Spirit who descended and rested) was revealed in Him, who heard the voice of the Father about Him and subsequently testified that, seeing the increasing glory of Jesus, he rejoices as a friend Him and the Forerunner (John 3:29), of course, did not send his disciples to Jesus with such a question for himself. If he himself had hesitated, then he should not have sought the resolution of his doubt from Jesus. Otherwise, this would mean for John to ask Jesus: was it right for me to call myself your forerunner, when it was not You who put this thought into me, but I myself was the first to recognize You as the Messiah. Words: or some other tea? show that John's disciples did not doubt about John, but only about Jesus. John, as the Forerunner, in their opinion, could have remained the Forerunner even if Jesus had not been the Messiah; The Messiah could still come. Such reasoning cannot be attributed to John himself. If he had doubted Jesus, he would have doubted his calling and would have completely renounced the title of Forerunner of any Messiah. For John had one testimony for both of these things—God’s instruction. There is, however, another assumption, by which John’s embassy is explained not out of his unbelief, or hesitation in faith, but out of his impatience rather to see the kingdom of the Messiah solemnly opened and at the same time to be freed from bonds more quickly. But again it is incredible that John harbored such feelings and thoughts. He himself called the Messiah the Lamb, he himself realized that he (John) had to be malitised. Therefore, one cannot expect him to share the popular opinion about the external triumphal opening of the kingdom of the Messiah, with which the fate of His Forerunner must also change. So obviously this was not John's question. Nevertheless, John himself from prison called these disciples who had come to Jesus to him, and sent them to Him with that question. John chose this path as the best to dispel misunderstandings regarding Jesus. And it is quite likely that these doubts were aroused in them by the Pharisees, who, even in Judea, were trying to rebel John against Jesus and in Galilee were deliberately using the voice of John’s disciples to reproach Jesus’ disciples for their lack of fasting (which the Lord pointed out in his speech in this case, Matt. 11:16-19). The Lord did not refuse to answer their question: the answer was in pointing to his deeds, miracles, both before and now deliberately performed with them, and to the words of the prophet, who assimilated these deeds to the appearance of the Messiah. A sure testimony of prophecy and experience. Having presented him, the Lord only remarked: blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. But when John’s disciples left, the Lord, turning to the people, began to speak strongly as a warning against criticism against John himself for inconstancy, directing his speech especially against the Pharisees (Luke 7:30, 33, 34), who rejected John, who rejected Jesus, reproaching them for being unfaithful to their principles in judging about one and the other, thereby justifying the path of God’s Wisdom, which was worthy the kingdom of the Messiah is not theirs - the righteous, but the publicans and sinners. When you came out in droves from your cities and villages to the voice crying in the wilderness, whom did you go to see there? Is it a reed shaken by the wind (or a fickle, dreamy man, carried away by every wind of doctrine, or by every impulse of the mental spirit? Of course not: John was not known to you from this side)? Who did you go to see? Is it a person dressed in expensive clothes, luxurious and ready to indulge the luxury of others? Of course not. John, the desert dweller, was not known to you from this side either; on the contrary, you knew his way of life was the strictest. John was known as a prophet who assured himself that he spoke at the inspiration of God, and lived as the ancient prophets lived. So, did you go see the prophet? And sure enough, you weren’t wrong about it. He was a prophet and even more than (any Old Testament) prophet. God Himself said about him in Malachi: Behold, I send My messenger before you, who will prepare your way before You. In this dignity and purpose he is greater than all the ancient prophets. However, the Lord added, defining his relationship to John, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. Comparing John, as the Forerunner and herald of the kingdom of the Messiah, with the position of those who have already entered this kingdom, one cannot help but say that the very last member of this kingdom already stands above John, just as the New Testament is above the Old Testament, which prepared for it. So what? When John announced the sermon about the approach of the kingdom of God and that this kingdom must be entered through the gates of repentance, when they learned about him that this is the strong prophet on whom the law and the prophets stopped and, according to the prediction of Malachi, the one whose appearance should soon be followed by judgment (Malach. 4: 4-5) for the Jewish people; hear: judgment; - then tax collectors and sinners, so to speak, rushed with violence and are still rushing into the open gates of this kingdom, anticipating the path of one another through exploits and labors, and no one spares himself, just to get a part in this kingdom. But the Pharisees did not go then, and now they do not go, they rejected God’s advice about themselves. And what strange people! What to compare them to? They are like those wayward children who, having gone out into the street with others, are not happy with either their cheerful singing or their sad singing. They (the Pharisees) did not go to John: they called him demoniac and cited the severity of his life as proof. They do not even come to the Son of Man, calling him eater and drinker, friend of publicans and sinners. But the children of wisdom 42 (opposite to these stubborn ones), the Savior added, justified the wisdom of God in its orders. They knew how to take advantage of both the severity of John - in repentance, and the merciful condescension of the Son of Man - in reconciliation with God. Then the Lord, with a sorrowful heart, spoke woe to those stubborn cities (Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum - exalted because the Lord lived and acted in them), in which, despite the many signs revealed by Him, despite His frequent visits and preaching, He saw few attentive, true children of wisdom. Woe awaits you, a judgment more severe than that which befell Tire, Sidon and Sodom! - But at the same time, he blessed the Heavenly Father, who, with his wise and good ways, attracted and attracts to Him simple and meek souls, surrendering to the Divine attraction with infantile meekness. They see before them the greatness of the Divine work, comprehend the Divine greatness of the teaching proclaimed by the Son of God and, without further ado, without worrying about how to announce this Divine greatness with the wretched appearance of the Messiah, whom they expected in glory, they joyfully leave everything and follow Jesus. True, these are still babies, but the grace of God is powerful to grow them into perfect men. I confess to you, Father Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid this from the wise and prudent and revealed it as a child. – And finally, to assure these followers that they were not mistaken in their choice, and in addition to the answer 43 to the question of John’s disciples: Are you the one to come..., perhaps not entirely intelligible to the people, the Lord directly and innocently confessed: everything has been handed over to Me by My Father - everything that the Messiah must do. People may be tempted by His wretched appearance, they may not believe Him; but they do not know Him: but whoever is the Son in himself, only the Father knows. Those who do not want to think about the Son in this way, considering it offensive to the Father, to the Highest Being, do not themselves know the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son, and he can be revealed to him if the Son wills. The Lord concluded this solemn announcement with an appeal to everyone around Him, and with them to all the people, to the entire human race, with a condescending, friendly invitation, as if begging: come to Me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Not like strict teachers of the law, tormenting the conscience with their rules, burdening the hearts with many petty instructions that do not give any consolation, no inner peace, no strength to fulfill what is prescribed - not like these proud teachers of the law, arrogantly pushing away sinners who have felt the depth of their sinful state, instead of entering into their favor and encouraging, the Lord calls, as the already declared friend of the publicans and sinners, calls to Him all who feel their poverty. So that they do not doubt His acceptance, He calls Himself meek and humble; He does not reject anyone because of their sinful poverty, they condescend to the needs of everyone who comes to Him, and does not begin by prescribing new rules, but in advance removes the burden from his heart and calms him down, gives him peace in communication with Him: I will give you rest. Although He also demands obedience, which, in relation to the previous law, He calls a yoke; but this obedience, with all that extends much further and deeper than the prescriptions of the law, is much easier, more joyful, because it is heard by itself from that new Divine life, which He Himself communicates to sinners who come to Him with repentance, because this obedience is accomplished with new forces of life and in the spirit of love. Come to Me, says the Savior, all who are weary and burdened (groaning under the yoke of the law, or tormented by the feeling of their sins), whose souls hurt, like David when he said: I will take away my sin before Me, - I will calm you (I will ease you from your yoke and from your illness). Take My yoke upon yourself and accept My teaching (be My followers and disciples). Do not be afraid: I am meek and lowly in heart, and therefore you will find rest for your soul in Me. My yoke is good; The burden that I lay is light. Jesus Christ in the house of Simon the Pharisee As if to compare how much closer these sinners rejected by the Pharisees really are to the path of God than the imaginary righteous, the deep difference in the internal state of both was soon experimentally revealed in the eyes of the disciples (Luke 36-50). One of the Pharisees, Simon, who had some disposition to preach the Gospel, but who did not yet recognize Jesus as the extraordinary messenger of God, probably according to custom, invited Him (with his disciples, of course) to his place for a meal. There were also strangers here, of course also from the Pharisees (v. 49). But while the Lord was reclining here with the others, a woman from the so-called sinners entered the house of the Pharisees, with tears of repentance, with sincere contrition for her sins, with a strong desire to express before the Lord the feeling of her love for Him and, probably, gratitude for His word, which awakened her soul from a sinful sleep. She was not content to nourish these feelings only within herself; shame and fear did not keep her from expressing them even in the presence of these “righteous”; she came with an alabaster of myrrh in her hands in order to pour this myrrh on her Savior. She anointed His head with it, but the feeling of her own unworthiness stopped her at the feet of the Divine Savior. Her head bowed to them, at His feet, tears more precious than the world flowed down on them, she wiped them with the hair of her head and anointed them with the world... This striking scene continued for some time. For the Pharisee, perhaps, it did not seem strange that the Lord allows a woman to prostrate herself before Him in such humiliation: he would have allowed this too. But it is strange for him that the Lord allows himself to be touched by a well-known sinner. If He does not know her from this side, at least the prophetic spirit should have told Him who this sinner is. But while the Pharisee drew such conclusions from this that Jesus was hardly a Prophet, the Lord turned His speech to him and showed that no one’s heart, even the Pharisee’s, is hidden from Him, that He had already weighed both the feelings of the repentant sinner and the feelings of the “righteous man” and found an advantage on the side of the repentant. In the parable story about two debtors, one of whom owed 500 denarii, and the other 50, He revealed the principles by which He acts. All are sinners before Him, all are debtors to Him - one more, another less, with the difference that one feels his sinfulness more, the other less. All-redeeming love - the Lord inclines more towards those who are more deeply imbued with the consciousness of their sinfulness. Then He depicted the coldness with which he was received in the Pharisee’s house, and the ardent love that the sinner’s wife, tormented by grief over her sins, did not cease to express to Him from the moment she crossed the threshold. The Lord showed that, seeing in her soul a change and the beginning of new, holy dispositions that should be revealed in a new, God-pleasing life, He prefers this woman, although previously defiled by sins, but now embraced by a fiery desire to get rid of sins and imbued with love, He prefers this woman to a cold Pharisee, occupied with an arrogant opinion of his righteousness and, despite all the outward observance of the law, who does not have in himself the true beginning of a life pleasing to God, love. “Many sins are forgiven her,” said the Lord, because she loved much. And whoever is forgiven little, know that there is little love in him.” Love gives a price to both moral and religious action. It was love, love for God, expressed in the tears of a woman who felt the severity of the insult she had inflicted on God, that led the sinner to faith. Love gave birth to faith or trust in God, from whom alone she expected deliverance from sins. Faith led her to Christ as a deliverer, and for her part she was nourished by the same love. Others present rebelled against Jesus for the remission of sins to the woman, but Simon was already silent: it is clear that the Savior’s remark, although not direct, had a profound effect on his conscience... (Isn’t this the same Simon in whose house the Lord was once again anointed by Mary not long before his suffering? Matt. 26:6). From here it was clearly visible how wisdom is still justified from her children. On the other hand, to justify the same wisdom, the stubbornness of its enemies, growing and intensifying every day, began to reach terrible degrees. Some of the Pharisees, namely those from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22), began to openly spread rumors among the people of Galilee about Jesus similar to what they said in their anger about John. Healing the demon-possessed, blind and dumb and denouncing the blasphemy of the Pharisees against the Holy Spirit They brought to the Lord one who was blind and deaf and, moreover, possessed by an evil spirit (Matthew 12:22–37). The sick man was a pitiful image of those bitter enemies of the Lord who had eyes to see His works, but did not see the power of God in them; had ears to hear His teaching, but did not want to be taught by it; had a heart, but gave it to the enemy of God. – The merciful Lord healed this unfortunate man; he began to see and speak, and the evil spirit left him. The common people, seeing in one miracle the confluence of three healings, asked themselves in amazement: after all such miracles, shouldn’t they really recognize the Divine Wonderworker as the promised Messiah, the son of David? This was a new experience of the triumph of the Lord’s miracles over the people. What about the Pharisees? Hearing such a judgment about Jesus, the Pharisees of Jerusalem considered it their duty to immediately stop him, spreading such an evil thought that Jesus healed the demoniac not by the power of God, but according to an agreement with Beelzebub, in order to lead people into deception and, having won them over in their favor, separate them from God and deliver them into the hands of an evil spirit. But there were also those here who, although they were also incapable of understanding the power of God in this matter, had not yet reached such a degree of resistance and enmity; They did not only consider this miracle sufficient to confirm the name of the Messiah for Jesus; they wanted to see a sign from heaven - some voice from above, or a heavenly phenomenon that would testify to His Divine messenger (about them Matt. 12:38-45). Not to mention how wicked the thought of the first Pharisees was - they tried to undermine with it one of the decisive proofs of the Divine messenger of Jesus - His works, which He pointed to in Jerusalem (John 5:6). Having accepted this idea, it was necessary to exclude from the number of miracles all healings of the demoniac, who first began to call Him the Messiah, and then it was no longer possible to perform other miraculous actions by the power of God. No one can perform miracles at the same time both by the power of God and the power of the spirit of delusion. The Lord immediately suppressed this hellish, destructive thought. He said to the Pharisees themselves: 1, evil is overcome by good, not by evil. If now I cast out demons, I destroy evil; then of course the force of good. Another case of pretense, a deliberate deal with the spirit of evil, because the Lord did not assert his power over people with a single word or a single action, but pursued him everywhere. Rather, it would be possible to allow discord between them, disagreement; but in this case it would be necessary to admit a terrible lack of understanding on both sides, what danger lies ahead from this division. No kingdom, no city, no house can last long if the internal division of its members opens up within them. 2, I am not the only one casting out demons, but some from among you—people from the school of the Pharisees who apparently do not belong to My society; this was what Mark indicated (9:38). It is evident that during the appearance of the Son of God on earth, according to the Divine structure, the power of the Spirit of God in a certain form was communicated to the worthy disciples of the Lord who did not outwardly belong to the society. Nevertheless, it was distributed from the same treasury from which the gifts of miracles were given to the Apostles, and an internal connection between the disciples of the Lord and those miracle workers (exorcists) existed. If I cast out demons by the power of Beelzebub, how can you prove that your sons do not cast them out by the same power? If they cast out by the power of God, then so do I. If I cast out demons by the power of God, then this should serve as proof to you that the times of the kingdom of God have come (does this justify the thought of the people: is that food Christ?). Why? “You see how many victims I snatch with My hand from the hand of Satan. It was impossible to do this without first tying up the strong one. And so it is now obvious that the time is when the kingdom of God will take the place of the kingdom of darkness. And after this it remains for Me to declare: whoever is not with Me is against Me (it is obvious in what relation the Lord placed Himself to the kingdom of God: from the thought of it he goes directly to Himself). He who does not gather with Me scatters (what belongs to Me). This should especially apply to the leaders of the people (“gathers”). I take not only their open opposition as enmity against Me, but also their very indecision. There is nothing average here. since the Pharisees revealed more than indecision, deliberate resistance to the word and signs, and it did not come from ignorance, or from error, not from simple bewilderment, how to reconcile the wretched appearance of Christ and His humble actions with the concept of the Messiah, but from the fact that they deliberately reinterpreted His Divine actions, turned the truth of God into the works of the devil, then the Lord added a warning to the words To my own: therefore I say to you: every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men: but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven to men. And if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Here Jesus Christ speaks of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, as the whole desire of the soul to counteract any influence and action of the Holy Spirit with full consciousness that it is acting precisely against Him. The blasphemy of the Pharisees in the present case does not yet seem to have developed to such a terrible degree: but at the beginning it belonged to the same state and could be revealed to such a degree. That the blasphemy of the Pharisees really was not yet like this can be seen from the fact that in 1, the Lord further (vv. 33-35) proves to the Pharisees that such words and deeds against their will expose their deep inner damage, the evil in their hearts. And from here it is clear that that blasphemy was not committed by them with full awareness of their action. 2, that the very crucifixion of the Lord is attributed to “ignorance”, of course not excusable, but such that upon conversion could be forgiven. Note this: such blasphemy can only be the fruit of the most depraved soul; to pronounce it, you must have a heart full of evil. You, who consider yourselves righteous, are the spawn of vipers here. For every idle word a person will give an answer on the day of judgment: what can be said about such blasphemy? When the Lord thus exposed the machinations of the Pharisees and revealed to everyone the dispositions of their evil hearts; He was told that His mother and brothers wanted to see Him, but could not come to Him because of the crowd. The Pharisees themselves assured them that He was in a frenzy (Mark 3:21), and, fearing more formidable reproaches, and on the other hand, wanting to point out to His mother and brothers, among whom there were still unbelievers, to show the people how inconsistent with their opinion of Jesus as the Messiah, the fame of His origin, the poverty of His relatives, the very unbelief of some of them, they deliberately disposed them now to go to the house where Jesus was. The Blessed Virgin went solely out of maternal love for her Son, especially since this was after some separation from Him. The brothers went with her to take Him home. But the Lord repelled this insidious trick of his enemies. What should I point to my mother and brothers? The Son of Man has a mother and brothers. For the Messiah, these listeners and believers, who accept and carry the word of life within themselves, are for Him both mother and brothers. After that, the Lord gave an answer to those who wanted new signs from Him from heaven. They wait in vain for such signs. No other sign will be given to them except the sign of the prophet Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in the depths of the sea, but remained alive and with his preaching to Nineveh turned its inhabitants to repentance. Thus, the Lord added, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. And His greatest miracle of resurrection will be a decisive sign for all those who still need these signs. Now such signs could bring crowds to Jesus, but more carried away by the external splendor of this kind of miracles, without internal conversion. Then, with the opening of the preaching of repentance through the Apostles and no longer seeing the Messiah in earthly form, they can more quickly become confident in the Divine Embassy of the Risen One, understand His kingdom spiritually, and turn to Him internally. And for the stubborn, this sign will be a sign of judgment, just as Jonah came to Nineveh with the threat of judgment. “And the Lord saw that for an adulterous and sinful race this would rather be a sign of judgment than of mercy, and therefore he exposed his stubbornness. He compared the Jews with the Queen of Sheba, with the Ninevites, and found the chosen people lower than the pagans, despite the fact that here was One who was greater than both Solomon and Jonah. Concluding this denunciation with a threat, the Lord accurately depicted the state of the unfortunate people after they rejected this sign. In the parable, He presented a man possessed by an unclean spirit, who was given help, but who did not come to his senses, but behaved as if he was again preparing to be the dwelling place of the same spirit (Matthew 12:43–45). What happened? The expelled spirit returned to him with seven others, even stronger. The parable, obviously, was borrowed from the very incident (healing of a deaf-mute demoniac), on the occasion of which this conversation began, and represented the state of the blinded people (Jewish) seven times worse than the present, when they reject the last sign, by which the bonds of the devil will be broken, the prince of peace will be cast out. Such a long, such persistent struggle with the Pharisees showed that although, according to their education, it would be more appropriate to expect from them a readiness to accept the preaching of the Gospel: but in fact, their spiritual feelings were so corrupted that, seeing the works of the Lord, they could not see the power of God in them, hearing His teaching they could not understand its truth. How many disputes there were with them over the Sabbath rest! How persistently they denied the right to forgive sins! how they judged all the actions of Jesus (eating and drinking; Beelzebub will cast out demons)! Did the miracle of resurrecting the dead have even the slightest effect on them? In short, did they meet Jesus at least once without entering into an argument with Him? After this, revealing to them new secrets of the kingdom of heaven would only mean aggravating their condemnation. The Lord didn't want this. And He Himself taught: do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and you will be torn apart as you spin. Teachings of I. Christ in parables Not everything could be communicated directly to the common people, who were more disposed towards Him, but in general were still strongly imbued with many prejudiced opinions regarding the kingdom of the Messiah. Not suddenly, not in that short remainder of the time that the Son of Man was given to spend on earth, it was possible to destroy them and replace them with true concepts (what it took to educate the chosen disciples!). On the contrary, one could rather fear harmful misunderstandings and reinterpretations of His words about a subject so important. Moreover, the Pharisees had their agents among the people. The Lord already had a society to which He could entrust his secrets: these were the Apostles. They were chosen by Him for this purpose - they had complete trust in the Lord, - they were devoted to Him with all their souls, - by their close relationship with Him they were somewhat prepared for this. But in order not to leave both the Pharisees and the people completely without excitement and guidance, the Lord does not want to deprive them of general moral instructions, which, despite the many teachers among the Jewish people, were too infrequent, having been superseded by the refined studies of rabbinic learning - His love does not dare to completely hide from them its very secrets, it came up with in its wisdom another means of communicating them in a measure accessible to the people: this is in parables. Yes, the parables of the Lord are nothing more than a beautiful fabric; conceived and composed by His love and wisdom, partly to cover the truth for the time being, so that it would not blind anyone’s weak eyes, partly to arouse attention to what is hidden under this mysterious veil. Some darkness drew them to Jesus for permission. This type of teaching could be very useful for the Lord’s disciples themselves in the explanations they received from Him regarding His parables. High truths, clothed in images of visible nature, or examples of human life after explanation, through comparison with these images became more understandable, took deeper root in memory, were repeated more often, and had a more vivid effect on the imagination and heart. This image of teaching was not only akin to the general character of duality in the nature of man and in his words and deeds, but also with the entire Old Testament structure: the entire Old Testament seemed to be one great parable of the New. The Jews had a special taste and love for the parable, like other eastern peoples. Finally, the Lord Himself has already repeatedly used a parable to depict his lessons, for example. in the sermon on the mount, in the denunciation of the Pharisees (Matthew 11:16; Luke 7:36; Mark 3:23). And so from here on, the Lord, beginning the secret guidance and instruction of his Apostles, decided to tell outsiders about the secrets of his kingdom only in parables. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven here meant Divine plans regarding the structure and fate of the New Testament Church. However, sometimes moral truths were also clothed in parables (Matthew 12:44, 45). In the first parable, uttered as a result of such an intention in the presence of the people standing on the shore of the Sea of ​​Gennesaret, the Lord depicted the mystery of his kingdom, that not everyone who hears the sermon about this kingdom will be its participants, and if not all, then who and why, of the participants themselves, will all stand on the same level. The Lord had already said once that the sons of the kingdom would also be cast out: but this was said, it seems, only to the Apostles. And this was an important question. Many could in vain flatter themselves with hope, being carefree. Meanwhile, it was indeed extremely difficult for the Jews to hear this truth in all its nakedness. And so the Lord offered instruction about this in the parable of the seed and the fourfold earth. The farmer sowed the seed. The seed was all the same, but the land on which it was sown was not the same, and therefore, for various reasons, three shares of the seed died and only the fourth bore fruit, and that was not the same. In this the Lord depicted the effect of his preaching among the Jews - present and future. In some she did not find any favor with herself, such as. in the Pharisees; was accepted by others and now still held on, but either was not deeply rooted in them, or did not occupy the whole heart with itself: soon persecution of the followers of Christ should come from their compatriots, such followers will not want to endure for preaching the Gospel and will leave the word of the kingdom; and if persecution does not touch them, then the cares of everyday life will suppress the teaching of God in them, they will not work on their soul and cleanse it from passions. Very many belonged here, now turning from the people to Christ. After all this, there remain a few in whom the word of the kingdom will be alive and active, and then in different degrees. However, the Lord did not hide the fact that there is another sower and another seed. In a new parable, He showed that among the good seed, man’s enemy also sows tares, which look like wheat, but cannot be wheat. The owner of the field leaves both to grow until the harvest, so that, having uprooted the tares earlier, he would not uproot the wheat with them (Matthew 12:22-30 and 36-46). The Lord inspired that in His kingdom this separation of good from evil - judgment - would not soon occur. Then, in two short parables, he depicted this gradual, not yet suddenly revealed growth of His kingdom; at the beginning, imperceptible and insignificant in appearance, it will achieve its strength gradually and will finally envelop the whole world - this is a mustard seed, this is leaven (this parable is given in addition to Matthew and in Luke later and in another connection Luke 13:18-21). The first parable - about the mustard seed - points more to the external action of the kingdom of Christ, the last - about the leaven - to the internal. (The Evangelist Mark reveals the idea of ​​the last parable even more separately (4:26). These are the secrets of the kingdom, communicated to the people in parables and without explanation; it is given only among students and only for the first two. When the disciples asked the Lord for permission to this parable (about the seed), He, having given them an explanation, added direct instructions about their Apostolic ministry also in parables, but already familiar ones (Mark 4:21-25, - lamp; Luke 8:16-18). The fruit of the word in them must be revealed in their own preaching, and here the measure of each one’s zeal will be the measure of the communication of the word itself to each one. Having concluded this with the appeal: having ears to hear, let him hear, the Lord continued his instructions also in parables (in this form they were given to the Apostles, of course, so that they could take root deeper and occupy their attention). The first two contained a thought so important for the Apostolic ministry that each of them must be ready to sacrifice everything in order to have a share in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord revealed this idea in two parables, which differ only in that one refers to people who, without prior searching, suddenly encountered a sermon about the kingdom of heaven, the other refers to people who have been searching for this heavenly treasure for a long time (Jews and pagans). For both of them, there is one lesson - not to value anything for the kingdom of Christ. The first parable is about a treasure accidentally found in a field, the second is about a pearl that takes a long time to find. The Evangelist did not offer an explanation for them, and perhaps the Lord himself did not, because they could be understood by the Apostles, since they had already decided to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Gospel. In a new parable, the Lord gave the Apostles notice that their preaching should gather into the bowels of one church people from all nations, who will be sorted out at the end of the world and will be sorted not according to their origin, but according to their moral - good or bad - properties. This parable is similar to the second one spoken to the people; but here, in addition, the unity of the church and the heterogeneity of its members by origin were expressed. This parable of the net, reminiscent of the story of the calling of Simon and Andrew. The Lord attached an explanation to it, but only regarding the final judgment. Here is the Lord’s first conversation about the mysteries of the kingdom of God, explaining to us the essence of the private instructions to His Apostles in parables! Concluding it, the Lord asked them again: did they understand everything? And having received an affirmative answer from them, the Lord made it clear with a new parable that, now knowing the hidden teaching about the kingdom of heaven for the people, they became scribes, but not those scribes who know only the old, but scribes in the new meaning of this word, who also know new Divine mysteries: because a thrifty owner, who always has 44 from last year and from this year to perform this or that sacrifice and offering, never finds it difficult to fulfill the requirement law; This is also what they should do in their ministry, revealing to the people in their time the secrets of the kingdom of God known to them and explaining them from the old and from the new teaching. Old, known to the listener, they can become closer to his way of thinking: new, unknown, expand the area of ​​his knowledge; apply the old, general principles of the revelation of spiritual life to new cases, to a new service, to the new kingdom of God; extract new from the old and use everything for the kingdom of God. In addition to these oral instructions, the Lord taught them by His very deeds, preparing them for the most extensive service. He did not honor everyone who wanted to be close to Him with the power of attorney that He gave to His chosen Apostles; but in turn, He wanted them to be completely devoted to Him, to rely on Him in everything, to be attentive, so to speak, to all His beckons. His Journey to the Gadarenes Soon after that terrible denunciation of the blasphemous Pharisees and the revelation of the new teaching about the kingdom of God, precisely in the evening of the day when the parables were proposed (Mark 4:35), the Lord, taking the Apostles with him, set out to cross to the other side of the Lake of Gennesaret, to the borders of Gadara, where most of the pagans already lived (Joseph, Antiqn. 17:11, 4), in Decapolis (Mark 5:1–20). This was the first journey of the Lord to the pagans noticed by the Evangelists. The external disposition of the inhabitants of those places where the Lord had hitherto been was such that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head, He did not have what God had not denied to the beast and the bird, His safe roof. How long ago did He arrive with the Apostles from a journey; They had not yet had time to taste the bread when the Lord entered into a conversation with the Pharisees; then came instructions in parables. And after that, a real journey. Just before the departure of the Savior and the disciples to the other side, one Jewish scribe came to them and began to ask Jesus to allow him to join His company. Perhaps the word of the Lord about the kingdom of heaven, even in its tributary form, aroused this determination in him, but he was not yet so cleared of attachment to everything earthly as not to look for anything other than this kingdom; he dreamed of finding in Jesus the Messiah such as most of the Jews then expected. Therefore, the Lord did not accept him among his scribes, pointing out his current position. We set off - it was at night; Other ships also went with them (Mark 4:36). The Lord, tired from the labors of the past day, fell asleep. Having no place to lay his head on earth, he found shelter at the stern of the boat, among the community of his close disciples. The troubled circumstances of that day, of course, occupied the souls of the Apostles a lot. This was compounded by a terrible storm on the lake. Temptation after temptation! The Lord little by little accustomed them to the labors and dangers of their service and to trust in His love and omnipotence. The other boats were in no less danger, or were scattered by the wind (that there were strangers, this is indicated by Matthew - 8:27: men ...). The waves grew so strong that they threatened to flood their boat; the Lord was sleeping in a deep sleep - they decided to wake Jesus. Mentor, mentor, we are perishing! The Lord, awakening from sleep, immediately made them notice how unworthy this cowardice and lack of faith was: how could they think that He who had performed so many miracles before them would perish? If He does not perish, then they have nothing to fear. And then, without teaching them how to skillfully rule against the waves, without showing them any other ordinary ways to save themselves from destruction, with His omnipotent word He forbade the wind to disturb the sea and commanded the sea to immediately calm down (both are suddenly tamed so that after a strong wind the sea itself could not suddenly calm down). To the amazement of the Apostles, to the amazement of other witnesses of this miracle, suddenly there was deep silence on the sea. Good admonition to the Apostles for the future. With Jesus there is nothing to be afraid of, even if He seems to be sleeping and not giving help for a long time. Coming ashore not far from Gadara, they met here two demoniacs, one of whom was especially terrible. He had no clothes on. There were no chains holding him. He lived in burial caves near the shore: he disturbed those passing by, and during fits he beat himself against the stones. The demoniacs recognized the Lord as soon as He entered this earth and ran to Him. The Lord asked one of them, what is the name of the spirit living in him? He answered: legion, because there are many of us. And then all of them, recognizing His power, asked not to send them into the abyss, but to allow them to enter the herd of pigs grazing here. The Lord allowed, the herd - two thousand heads - rushed into the lake and drowned. When the rumor about this incident reached the inhabitants of the city through the shepherds, they immediately asked the Lord to leave them. The Lord fulfilled this request, but left the very man who was possessed by a legion of spirits as a herald of God’s mercy. Yes! In other cases, the Lord Himself demanded from His followers that they, leaving home, family, everything, follow Him: now He forbids the healed one. In other cases he commands silence about healing: now he commands preaching. What did all this mean? Why did the Lord take the journey here? Is it really only for the healing of two demoniacs - in order to deprive the city of 2000 animals? What does this difference in mode of action mean in relation to a healed demoniac? And this event is a parable, that is, it has the meaning of a parable, although its historical authenticity is undoubted. Is not this healing of a man possessed by a legion of spirits in a semi-pagan country worthwhile in accordance with the history of the healing of that demon-possessed deaf and dumb man in Capernaum, which happened, perhaps, no more than the previous day? If the demon-possessed, deaf, dumb, and blind man of Capernaum was accepted by the Lord as a symbol of the stubborn Jews, his healing as a symbol of the healing actions of the Lord among the Jews, then the demon-possessed Gadarene, healed the day after Capernaum, seems to be considered as a symbol of the future conversion from the realm of Satan to the pagans, among whom He Himself will not preach, but will send them preachers. Isn’t that how the prophet Jeremiah had to put his belt in the ground near the Euphrates River and then go there again to find out what happened to his belt (Jeremiah 13)? Having accepted the parable as a form for communicating secrets to the people, the Lord, by the same actions of His, could give for a time a special meaning, in addition to the historical. It also agrees with the fact that the healing of these two demoniacs is separated only by parables about the kingdom of heaven, where it was also given to understand about preaching among the pagans. That is why, perhaps, the Lord did not command the healed one to remain silent, but to preach; it is no longer between the Jews, but between the Gentiles. The Gadarene demoniac is an image of the pagan world; it contains not seven, but a whole legion of spirits; but even those, as soon as Jesus approaches them, surrender their region to Him and go into the abyss. A harbinger for the disciples. But without limiting ourselves to this, we note that in this experience of healing a demoniac, which aroused the displeasure of the inhabitants of the Gadarenes, in the very words of the demons: that you came to torment us ahead of time, one can see an experimental refutation of the idea that the Lord cast out spirits in agreement with them. The extermination of an entire herd justified the demoniac’s assurance that there was a legion of demons in it, and this again confirmed the idea of ​​the independent opposition of the Lord of the dark region and His great power. Meanwhile, given the fame that the possessed Gadarene enjoyed, rumors of this incident could have reached as far as Galilee. The loss of the flock was compensated by the gift of the preacher; a miracle of a formidable appearance gave strength to the word of the one honored with the mercy of God. The very destruction of the herd can stand along with other grave actions of Providence, such as. pestilences. One can even say that the Son of Man had a need to reveal to people His formidable character. Having appeared on earth not for judgment, he did not exercise this during his earthly life; He especially did not want to allow this among his compatriots: thus He chose a pagan country, chose an animal hated by the Jews, took advantage of the opportunity of meeting with a demoniac to justify the threat to the Pharisees about punishing them for their persistence, uttered regarding their blasphemy against the same action - healing the demoniac, and proclaimed in comparison with the situation of a person possessed by many strong spirits (Matthew 12:43-45). Healing the Bleeding Woman and Resurrection of Jairus' Daughter While the Lord traveled to the borders of the Gadarenes, the people who had gathered in Capernaum did not leave the city, but waited for His return. The arch-synagogue Jairus, whose daughter was sick, had a special need for Him. When the Lord returned to Capernaum, Jairus turned to Him with a request to save his daughter, who was desperately ill, from death. We know that this was not the first time that the Lord showed mercy in Capernaum; - he showed mercy to the courtier by healing his son; being in Cana, he healed the centurion's servant. Thus, quite significant persons have already enjoyed His favors. Providence arranged that the arch-synagogue also needed Him. But was he the same in faith as others to whom the Lord showed mercy? This can be judged by his request: “My daughter,” he said, “is at the point of death, but when you come, lay your hand on her, so that she may be saved” (Mark 5:23). From these words it is clear that his faith was lower than the centurion’s faith, since the centurion, asking the Lord, considered one word sufficient to heal his servant; He is not on the same level with the courtier, although both of them considered His personal presence necessary, since Jesus at the time when the courtier asked Him was known only from one miracle performed in Cana, but when He asked the arch-synagogue, He became famous for many miracles; the courtier was a pagan, and the arch-synagogue was a Jew; Therefore, more faith should have been expected from Jairus. But the Lord, who, according to Isaiah, will not break a bruised reed or quench smoking flax, tried to turn a small spark of faith into a flame. Despite the weakness of faith, the Lord did not refuse to go and, leaving everyone, goes; On His way the people press in; all the sick try to touch His clothes; Along with the others, the bleeding woman touches and, having received healing, thinks to hide. Jesus, instead of rushing to the sick woman, stops, turns to the people and asks: who touched Me, for I feel the power that came from Me, - he searches with his eyes and - here the woman, convinced that she cannot hide from Him, falls at His feet and declares the whole truth. Jesus approves of her faith and says: Be of good cheer, daughter, your faith will save you. What was all this for? Was He really seeking glory, Who forbade the possessed from disclosing about Himself? The Savior did this in order to strengthen Jairus’ faith. By this He seemed to be saying to Jairus: Do you see this woman? She suffered from bleeding for 12 years, squandered all her property on doctors and received no benefit from all this, but now she was healed by just touching My vestments. She was healed by the faith with which she touched the hem of My garment. Look at this and be confirmed in your faith. In fact, as soon as the Lord uttered these words, they came with the news to Jairus that his daughter had died. But Jesus encourages him, saying: Do not be afraid, but believe that I can raise her. Comes to the house; the house is filled with confusion. Such a sight could be dangerous for faith. The Lord assures that the girl is not dead, but is sleeping; They laugh at Him; He drives everyone out and, left alone with his parents and some of the disciples, takes the girl by the hand and exclaims: “Girl, arise,” and the girl has risen: the parents, in amazement, receive, together with their daughter, the commandment to remain silent. The purpose of silence was the danger from the Pharisees and the reckless movements of the people. And it is these private, temporary circumstances that alone can explain why the Lord either announced Himself publicly or went into hiding; here he ordered silence, but the healing of the bleeding woman was announced publicly, and when he was on the other side of Lake Gennesaret and healed the demoniac, he himself ordered to preach about Himself. Sending the Apostles to Preach All this is explained from the particular circumstances and persons among whom He acted. Everywhere He is applied to the private needs of people. All this could undoubtedly be useful for the apostles; from this they themselves could learn how to apply themselves to the people among whom they would act. The Lord saw the need to acquaint them with the responsibilities and difficulties of their ministry. He sufficiently showed them how they should conform to the dispositions of people in order to act more successfully. But the experienced application was more useful for them. Of course, they were not yet fully capable of apostolic service; there was still a lot that was incomprehensible to them; but now their preaching should be limited to little more than the announcement that the kingdom of God is at hand, with which both John and Jesus began their preaching. To reinforce this sermon, the Lord provided them with the power to heal illnesses. This was a symbolic sign that the Savior had already come. Let us remember that when John’s disciples came with a question, the Savior pointed to his miracles. Having provided the apostles with this power of miracles, the Lord demanded that they put aside all concern for preparations for the journey; they don’t need a bag, or other clothes, or money; they will find everything from those to whom they preach. And they don’t need to have extra things with them, because He sent them no further than to the cities of His compatriots and, moreover, only to those in which He Himself had not been. Among the pagans, among the Samaritans, they could not yet act. Sending them out, the Lord gave them instructions. They are told that they must lavish Divine gifts freely. Just as He Himself did not use anything, so He wanted the disciples to act. Just as God acts without accepting anything from people, so they too must perform God’s service. Then, when entering a village, do not directly preach to everyone you meet, but inquire who is worthy; When you find it, stay with him and spread the sermon from here. The Lord promises grace and peace to everyone who benefits them, and threatens those who reject them with a judgment worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Where the apostles were at the sermon and for how long is not determined; but the time of separation could not be long, the Savior did not send everyone to one place, but in pairs, so they could act in six places, which he himself did not pass through, and there were not many such places left not only in Galilee, but also in Judea. It is even likely that they were assigned an urgent time to return, since we see that they returned at the same time and if the time had not been assigned, they would have come one earlier, the other later. Feeding five thousand people with five loaves The apostles returned to Jesus before Easter (third). Probably, in their absence, John's disciples came to Him with the news of the death of their teacher. At the same time, the rumor began to spread that John had risen in Jesus (from this it is clear that John had already died). Herod himself, the ruler of Galilee, believed or did not believe her, but wanted to get to know Jesus better. Meanwhile, the people, leaving from all cities for the approaching holiday in Jerusalem, spreading the sermon about Jesus and, after the death of John, intensifying their attention and respect for Jesus, gathered to Him day by day in greater numbers. The Lord Himself did not intend to go to Jerusalem: His time had not come (John 7:6, 8). And so now the Lord, based on rumors about Herod’s desire and to calm his disciples, decided to go with them to a secluded place - Bethsaida, which lies on the other side of the Lake of Galilee. This city in the Gibeonite region did not belong to Herod Antipas, but to his brother Philip (Luke 9:10). We crossed the lake. The people followed Him along the shore. Seeing that the deviation was in vain, the Lord turned to the people with the teaching about the kingdom of heaven and mercifully healed the sick. The day had already passed, but the people did not leave Him, meanwhile they remained without food. The Lord took pity: and five loaves and two fish satisfied five thousand listeners from His generous blessing, and each of the apostles collected another basket of leftovers. This was reminiscent of the manna in the wilderness and other similar miracles of the Old Testament. The people, in amazement at such a miracle, recognize Him as the prophet promised by Moses and want to make Jesus king. But he retires alone to the mountain and prays there, and orders his disciples alone to go back to the other side. Thus, the people are left without the fulfillment of their desires. Walking of I. Christ on the waves of the sea Meanwhile, the disciples at sea were exposed to a fierce storm at night. The Lord has not forgotten them; leaving prayer, he went to help them; reached the sea: He stepped on the waves and His feet did not drown. The disciples, seeing Him walking, considered only His voice to be a ghost: it is I, do not be afraid - he encouraged them, - this time they are not as cowardly as in the previous storm - Peter, with the permission of the Lord, himself entered the sea to meet the approaching Lord, but did not withstand the voluntary test. Defeated by lack of faith, he almost drowned, but received help from the Savior. The Lord entered the ship; immediately it landed on the shore and the Lord thus arrived again in Capernaum. So many great miracles crowded into this short period of time! They were for the disciples a reinforcement of their faith in the Lord in those troubled times, and served as preparation for new truths that the disciples and outsiders were to hear from Him. His conversation about the true bread of life The next day, the people, not finding the miracle worker and His disciples in the place where the miracle of saturation was performed, returned to Capernaum. The Lord was then already in the synagogue of Capernaum. – Having met Him here, the witnesses of yesterday’s miracle were perplexed as to how He arrived here, knowing that He did not go with the disciples and wanted to know this from Him. This was the occasion for the Savior’s great conversation about the true bread of life, which He gives people for food. The time of suffering was approaching. From the coming Easter there was only one year left until His death, which He was preparing to bring for the world. The Lord wanted to prepare the disciples for this in advance. While the people were already thinking of making Him king, that is, declaring Him the Messiah: the Messiah hastens to reveal that He has another task and a different future ahead of Him. The circle of people among whom the Lord spoke this conversation consisted for the most part of people who had returned from that shore and ate wonderful bread (v. 26). There were also apostles among them. In the first, one could generally notice a lack of purity in disposition and an inclination more towards the sensual than the spiritual - because many left the Lord; however, considering the further course of the conversation, one cannot take everyone for completely rude people, incapable of understanding anything other than the sensual: a) (v. 34) they ask the Lord to always give them the bread that comes down from heaven, probably meaning by this the teaching: b) from v. 60, 64, 66 it is clear that there were many disciples of the Lord here, who had hitherto accompanied Him with the people. – The thought of yesterday’s intention to proclaim Jesus Christ as the king – the Messiah did not leave them completely even now, but was expressed in the very desire to know how He arrived in Capernaum. This thought showed them a disposition towards Jesus, but how worthy it was of Jesus, they themselves did not know and did not think about it. To the question: how did you end up here? The Lord did not want to give an answer, to satisfy vain curiosity. He wanted to draw the attention of those who asked Him better to the reason for their disposition to show such affection for Him? What makes them seek Him, take part in Him? Opening their eyes to themselves, he says: the point is not how I am here, but why you need to know this, why you take such part in Me. You are looking for Me because I fed you yesterday. (They recognize the Messiah by the similarity of yesterday's miracle to their expectations. - Many were, perhaps, from the poor). It is not the power of God with which five loaves of bread are multiplied to feed five thousand people, but this very satiation and hope for such miraculous benefits, sensual dreams about the Messiah and His kingdom now attract you to Me. But this is not enough. Try not to eat perishable food. It is necessary that you feel hunger for other food and try to satisfy it; strived for eternal life and sought such food that gives eternal life - and turning into you into the juice and blood of your being, would transform your entire being into its eternal being. Here's something to think about. And if you feel such hunger and want such food, then the Son of Man is ready to give it to you. In order to reveal to you the source of this life, the Father gave Him to perform these external miracles: they are the seal of the Father - and only a seal, a testimony, and not the very thing that the Father would like to give you. Having heard this demand, the Jews asked: what should we do to make our deeds pleasing to God? They, perhaps, thought whether the Lord would impose some commandments on them, like other teachers of the law. The Lord answered: no other work is required of you except that you believe in Him Whom the Father has sent. Your present affection is not yet the fruit of faith, but, as I have already explained to you, the fruit of other dispositions. So what is needed from you is faith that I am sent from God, and complete devotion to Me. Whether they were the same eyewitnesses of the miracle with whom the Lord had spoken hitherto, but sensual people, whom one such miracle could easily inflame to the desire of the same and others - or other visitors to the synagogue who were not with Him on the other side of the lake - only having heard this demand for faith and faith alone, they themselves began to demand new even greater miracles and even directly pointed out that Moses, who prefigured the Messiah, had been telling his manna to the people, bread from heaven. They considered themselves entitled to expect an even greater miracle from the Messiah himself. To this demand the Lord said: why point to Moses here? It was not Moses who gave this bread, but the Father. And what He gave to the people then was not the true bread of heaven. “But now,” added the Lord, the same Lord gives you true bread from heaven. – The bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And this is exactly the bread that the Father now gives. Well, the Jews answered, give us always such bread, asking for more than that, which they themselves did not clearly understand, like the Samaritan woman, asking for living water. Do you want it? – This bread of life is I Myself. Of course, you can eat this bread only by faith. So you see, you come again to the same conclusion that in order to receive life you need to believe in Me: you yourself want to eat the bread of life: and this bread of life - which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world - I Myself, and you can eat It by faith. The Jews did not think to come to such a conclusion. Without confirmation by new miracles, they did not want to recognize such high dignity in Jesus. In Galilee they said that Joseph and Mary were his parents. How can one reconcile with this the idea of ​​His origin from heaven? The basis for such doubt was that they lacked spiritual attraction to Jesus at all, as the Lord noted at the beginning of this conversation. A true desire for eternal life and bliss in God was not aroused in them. The Jews still did not answer Him at all to these words of His: I am the bread of life, but the Lord, making it clear that He knew their secret thoughts, continued: I knew that you were not inclined to believe this and had already noticed this to you. So what? Now it is not my fault that I cannot make you participants in eternal life, that is, My kingdom. In whomever a spiritual attraction is aroused, the Father brings him to Me, and whoever comes to Me, I will not allow him to perish: I strictly fulfill the will of My Father. Hearing this, the Jews began to clearly grumble that Jesus called Himself the bread that came down from heaven. Do not grumble, answered the Lord. You have not yet been brought to Me by the Father. It is written in the prophets that everyone will be taught by God. You are not yet among those taught by God. And whoever is attracted by the Father and comes to Me, I will definitely give life to him - I will resurrect Him on the last day (therefore I have the right to call Myself the bread that came down from heaven, the Bread of God). However, this is not how it should be understood, as if anyone can draw his instructions from the Father without the Son. No: no one has seen the Father except the Son, and only the Son can communicate true knowledge of the Father. The word that the Father teaches through the Son is miracles. After this, the Lord begins to reveal again that since only through Him can one enter into communion with the Father, into the communion of eternal life, it follows that He is the bread of eternal life. Those who ate the manna, He said, all died. But I am the living bread that gives eternal life. Therefore, whoever eats this bread will live forever. Hitherto, the Lord understood by the name of bread His teaching, which brings eternal life to the believer, as He revealed before in Jerusalem (John 5:24): listen to My word and believe in him who sent Me to have eternal life. Now he adds something special, more consistent with the concept of the bread of heaven: and the bread that I will give, my flesh is, which I will give for the life of the world. This is the bread that He Himself is preparing to give to believers, the bread He brought - (to whom? Of course - the Father) for the life of the whole world: whereas about the former bread He said: My Father gives you the true bread (v. 32). Here, on the one hand, He represents His flesh, His humanity, offered as an atoning sacrifice for the world: on the other hand, as food that gives eternal life to believers: just as in the tabernacle and church there was showbread, which was offered as a sacrifice to God and which was then provided as food to the priests. The Jews enter into a dispute among themselves (not with Jesus): how can you give your flesh to people to eat? The Lord expresses even more clearly what is said about His flesh. “There is nothing to doubt this and nothing to reinterpret. It is exactly as I said: the bread of life is my flesh. Therefore, whoever wants to have eternal life must eat of My flesh and My blood. If he does not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, he will not have life in himself. And how he who eats My flesh and My blood becomes a partaker of eternal life, this is explained by the fact that he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. That is, his being dissolves with Mine and is imbued with Him. And I have life in Me from the Father. And My life passes into him. He does not die, I will resurrect him on the last day. My flesh must not remain dead in him. So, the Lord concludes, this is the true bread that came down from heaven and gives life - My flesh.” It is not enough that the Jews, little familiar with the manner of the Lord’s instructions, many even of His disciples were tempted, referring His words to the physical consumption of His real flesh and blood, which they saw before them. Some directly told Him how strange it was to hear such words, others kept these thoughts secret. The Lord, understanding their secrets of the heart, added in addition to His conversation: “What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? That is, there is nothing to be tempted by these words. The Son of Man will ascend into heaven, where he was before (like bread that came down from heaven): then it will not be possible to eat this My flesh, which you see (but glorified, spiritual). By this, every temptation is eliminated, if only you had faith for this. The Spirit gives life, but the flesh (he didn’t say Mine) does not benefit the least. (Don't be carnal; rise to the spiritual). My words are spirit and life. Despite this explanation, many of Jesus' disciples left Him after this conversation. Apparently, they were from among those whom the Lord did not consider brought to Him from the Father. But what was given to Him from the Father (through prayer Luke 6:12) remained with Him. The Lord, tempting them, asked if they also wanted to leave Him? “Where will we go,” said Peter, if we leave You? No, we will not depart from You: with You are the words of eternal life. We believe and know for sure that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So, the Lord said with the intention of drawing their attention to themselves: but there is a devil among you too. – Speaking about his approaching suffering, the Lord also saw who would be to blame for His death. Whether the traitor was already hiding his deicide plan, or the Lord saw only the seed of it in the soul of Judas, in any case, this remark was a warning for him, which he could use to change his disposition, like a thief, seeing the danger of being discovered, throws away the stolen goods. – It is also noteworthy that the first secret of denouncing the traitor coincides with the falling away of many other disciples from the Lord on the occasion of this conversation. His conversation with the Pharisees about the traditions of the elders It was before Easter. At the holiday of Easter and then Pentecost, we do not see the Savior in Jerusalem. He comes here only during the Feast of Tabernacles and this was the last great festival that He celebrated with His people. And to this day we see Him mostly in the northern reaches of Galilee. But the Pharisees of Jerusalem 45 never abandoned their observation of Him. Not seeing Him in Jerusalem, they came to Galilee. Having met Him together with his disciples, they renewed their previous condemnation of His disciples for not observing the traditions of the elders. This happened when the disciples started eating without washing their hands. – According to the rules of Pharisaic piety, before eating and after eating, one must certainly wash one’s hands. The Talmud defines what measure of water is sufficient for this, how to wash, when exactly, in what order, if the number of those present exceeds five or does not exceed it. (Those who belonged to the Essene sect were immersed in water before the table. Josephus). These rules were considered so important that the Sanhedrin subjected them to excommunication for non-compliance. Pointing to the action of the disciples, the Pharisees, of course, wanted to present the Savior with the rule about washing their hands in connection with other traditions and, raising the accusation from a private action to disrespect for traditions in general, perhaps they wanted to hear His own opinion about the importance of tradition. At least that’s what the Lord’s answer leads to. According to the concepts of the Talmud, the traditions of the elders are more important than the words of the prophets, even better than the words of the law, because the law contains important and unimportant things, but the words of the elders are all important. They must be followed unquestioningly. - There is a parable in the Talmud: the king sent two of his friends to one region with commands and wrote about one of them like this: if he does not show you my ring, do not believe him; and about the other: even if he did not show you my ring, believe him. These are prophets and elders. About the prophets it is written: if a prophet arises in you... and gives you a sign or a miracle (Deut. 13:1), and about the elders: and do according to the word that they tell you from the place, whatever the Lord God chooses (17:10). The question was proposed in the presence of the people. The Lord, not paying attention to this particular case, began to speak about the importance of traditions: “among your traditions there are those that are contrary to the law of God.” At the same time, the Lord pointed to the rule of the elders about the Corvan, as a result of which the Jews, under the pretext of piety, allowed themselves to violate the first of the commandments of the Decalogue, which relates to their neighbors (Honor your father - feed from the Hebrew). Having pointed out this contradiction to the law, the Lord concluded his answer with a general remark about the nature of the Pharisees’ piety, adding to them the words of the prophet Isaiah about people who honor God only with their lips, but not with their hearts. Then, adapting to the occasion, extracting from here the general idea that true purity should be sought not in observing any external rules, but in cleansing the heart from everything contrary to the law of God, he proposed it to the people in the form of a short parable: what does not go into the mouth defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a person, and having said this he added: listen and understand. (The image of the parable is borrowed from the subject of the conversation and, perhaps, is actually an answer to the objection of the Pharisees; since, according to their concepts, a person who eats food with unwashed hands was exposed to uncleanness by the very eating). The Pharisees could not be satisfied with the indication of the contradiction of traditions with the law of God, even more so since the Lord directly called their piety hypocrisy. A new incident to the displeasure of Jesus was His last saying, which they could extend to food laws in general. But the Lord did not continue the conversation further and left the people. The disciples, protected by the Lord, noticed this insult in the Pharisees. And still, perhaps, maintaining respect for their previous rules and knowing what importance all the Jerusalem scribes themselves had among the people, they brought to the attention of their mentor that the Pharisees were tempted by His words. But He continued to speak in a parable form, making it clear to His disciples that there was no need to worry about this. They already knew the parable of the good seed and the tares sowed among them by the enemy. Recalling this parable, the Lord said: every plant that was not planted by My Father, but by the enemy - the devil - will be uprooted. The judgment of God awaits these imaginary leaders of the people. Leave them alone: ​​they are blind - leaders of the blind, who can lead their leaders to destruction. What, however, did the mysterious saying mean: not entering the mouth? Does it destroy the Mosaic laws about the difference in food and about permissible and impermissible foods, or not? If it destroys, then how can it be reconciled with the respect for the law on the basis of which the Lord rejected the tradition of the Corvan? If it doesn’t destroy, then how should we understand it? The disciples did not know how to resolve this; turned to the Lord. Peter asked to explain this parable to them. The Lord, expressing surprise at their lack of understanding, said that food itself, as an external thing, cannot produce internal, moral impurity. (However, this does not mean that every type of food is indifferent to a person. Since there are Divine laws for this, then until they are abolished, eating food that is contrary to the law will defile a person, since it comes from a heart that does not respect the law and pleases the flesh). The other half of the parable says that the source of moral impurity lies in the heart of man and that, therefore, those who want to maintain purity before God must cleanse their hearts. The Lord did not touch upon the laws on permissible and impermissible types of food, which were to cease along with the abolition of the entire Old Testament structure upon the establishment of the New Covenant between God and people, and the establishment of the spiritual law in the hearts of the new Israel. But nevertheless, he revealed to his students that those laws, both external, are now far lower than the internal ones. Healing of the Canaanite Woman's Daughter Soon the Lord moved from here to the northwestern borders of Galilee to Tire and Sidon, and here, on the borders of the pagan world, from among the tribe rejected by God, the Canaanites showed the disciples a woman worthy of taking a place in His kingdom. The Lord did not Himself preach to the pagan peoples, nor did He allow His disciples to do this when they first sent them out to preach; however, He did not leave His disciples to show the heroes of the faith among them: we already know the centurion of Capernaum. The Canaanite woman is now similar to him in faith. She asked the Lord, calling Him the Son of David, i.e. the Messiah, for the healing of her daughter, possessed by an evil spirit. The Lord, having retired here in order to spend some time in obscurity, did not answer her for a long time, so that the apostles had already interceded for her. The Lord refused them too; but this refusal only served to reveal her faith and humility in all its strength, and the Lord cast out the spirit from her daughter, who was in his house. The words in the mouth of the Meek Teacher seem cruel: it is not good to take away the bread of a child and damage it with a dog. - But this is an allegorical speech, which meant nothing more than that in the present order of affairs, those outside Him cannot enjoy the benefits that the Messiah brought with Him, that they are still outside His kingdom, not children of God. And although these words seem so harsh, the woman could certainly notice love in the very tone with which the refusal was made; why, she did not give up, but, recognizing herself, in humility, truly unworthy of the same rights with the children in the kingdom of the Messiah, she asked for a place not at a meal with Him in His kingdom, but only for grains. Healing the deaf and tongue-tied Unable to hide here either, the Lord moves with his disciples to the northeastern borders of Galilee to Lake Gennesaret. But wherever he comes, everyone already knows Him, and as soon as they recognize Him, they bring the sick to Him: He cannot let them go without healing. The people long to hear His words: He cannot remain silent. Thus, everywhere they gathered around Him, and He could only change His location more often and keep the rumors about His miracles among the people. His healings themselves take on a special character. They brought to Him a deaf man, tongue-tied. He did not suddenly heal him with a word or laying on of his hand, as in other cases. But first he took him aside from the people; then, probably in the presence of only those who brought him (Mark 7:36), he put His fingers into his ears and, spitting, touched his tongue, and cried out to His Father in heaven, saying: Ephphatha. And when the sick man began to hear and speak with this word, the Lord forbade it to be disclosed. Feeding four thousand people with seven loaves At the conclusion of His stay, after many instructions, which the people listened to from Him with all diligence, without leaving Him for several days, the Lord also offered them a bodily treat. Seven loaves and several fish, multiplied by His blessing, fed up to four thousand people, except women and children, and the disciples collected more surpluses according to the number of seven loaves divided. Review of the Savior's preaching and activity in Galilee After performing this miracle, the Lord immediately left this place and went across the lake to the other shore, to the boundaries of Magdala. Here, met with a tempting demand from the Pharisees and Sadducees, He stayed (as can be seen from Mark 8:10,13) very briefly. He entered the sea again. After some time in the desert (as indicated by the disciples’ thought that they did not take the loaves), he appears in Bethsaida. The Pharisees' demand was that He show them a sign from heaven as evidence of His messengership from God. They did not want to consider the signs and wonders He performed on earth to be sufficient for this. But the Lord noticed to them that if they had observed with the same attentiveness everything that happens through Him and around Him, with which they notice all the changes in the atmosphere and, by the signs of the times, were able to judge the proximity of the kingdom of the Messiah and the judgment of the corrupt race, then they would not have needed any new signs, neither heavenly nor earthly. However, the Lord added, there will be a sign for this generation—the sign of the prophet Jonah. And to the disciples, while departing from here, on the occasion of this question, he said mysteriously: beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, pointing out their teaching and hypocrisy (Matthew 16:12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1). In Bethsaida he healed a blind man, but just like before he was deaf after several extraordinary techniques and forbade anyone to disclose Himself. And Himself, having thus circumnavigated the northern borders of Galilee and returned to the sea, from where (precisely from Capernaum) he began his journey, again sets off into the interior of Caesarea Philippi. This journey, with other events connected with it, constitutes the conclusion of the solemn actions of the Lord in Galilee and is described by all three evangelists. Between these events is the main transfiguration of the Lord. Having been baptized by John in the Judean desert, having solemnly entered into His ministry in Jerusalem, on the first Easter holiday after baptism, then spending about eight months in Judea, the Lord chose Galilee as the main place of His action, and now another year of His action here was ending. During this time, we see Him once in Jerusalem, but in His heart He repeatedly had the desire to gather His children, like a kokosh gathers its chicks, and only the enmity of the rulers of the Jews against Him stopped Him hitherto. Meanwhile, in Galilee, He spent all the time preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven to the people, healing ailments of all kinds and educating His apostles. Starting with John’s brief sermon: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near, He developed it into an extensive and comprehensive teaching for all nations; explained the requirements for those wishing to enter this kingdom and be its members (discourse on the mount), showed the relationship of the law of this kingdom to the law of the Jews and the traditions of the elders and revealed the hypocrisy and empty holiness of the former supposedly holy leaders of the Jewish people, explained the attitude of John's ministry and his own ministry to this kingdom, prefigured the opening of this kingdom on earth, its fate, the fight against enemies and triumph, denounced unbelief, He called for faith in the Son of Man and His Divine power and strength and mysteriously pointed to His death, saving for the whole world. Arousing and strengthening faith, he performed miracles: he healed all kinds of bodily illnesses, cast out spirits from those possessed by demons, resurrected a dead young man and a dead maiden, once He tamed the sea and the winds, on another occasion He walked on the waters as if on dry land, twice fed thousands of people with meager bread. Having brought especially 12 of His followers closer to Himself, by His holy example He formed and prepared them for great service after Himself, called them His apostles, revealed and explained to them the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, corrected their previous errors and wrong movements of the heart, imparted to them the power of miracles and gave them an exemplary experience of their future service. This is what He did in Galilee. The inhabitants of Galilee and other Jews began to move, They gathered to Him to hear His instructions, brought their sick to Him, followed Him on His travels. Everywhere they spoke of Him as a great prophet; those possessed by spirits and many sick people confessed Him as the Son of God, the Messiah, and once several thousand near Lake Gennesaret were ready to proclaim Him their king, but at the same time the scribes and Pharisees, especially those of Jerusalem, tried to humiliate Him among the people, His life, His miracles, His disciples; they tempted Him with questions and demands for signs; sought His life with the help of the Herodians. On the other hand, the Lord’s disciples, although they still did not understand much in His actions and even words, especially because they were infected with Jewish prejudices, were attached to Him with all their souls, learned to obey Him unquestioningly, and more or less began to recognize the Divine dignity of their mentor, considering Him the promised Messiah. This is the position in which we find the Lord at the end of His Galilean career. Confession of the Apostles about I. Christ When He went to Caesarea, paying attention to this situation, He asked His disciples, who do the people take Him, the Son of Man, for? He proposed this question not out of ignorance (see similar Mark 8:19-20; John 6:6), but in order to take advantage of this opportunity to discover their own concept of His face and communicate some new truths. The answer to this was not difficult. The apostles, dealing closely with the people who followed the Lord and themselves preaching the Gospel throughout the cities of Judea, could hear different reviews and opinions about Jesus. The disciples answered that some take Him for John the Baptist, risen from the dead; others - for Elijah, others - for Jeremiah, others - for one of the ancient prophets (Luke 9:8-19). From these reviews it was revealed that the appearance of Jesus was generally recognized as extraordinary, but not as it really was. Whether from the new or from the ancients, only this, they thought, was nothing more than the resurrected, or at least spiritually inspired, former prophet acting in Jesus - the forerunner of the Messiah, not the Messiah himself. Where the Messiah will come from, we do not know, but this we know where He comes from. The Messiah will come in glory, and not in this form: this is the reasoning of the people. - (About Jeremiah, see 2 Macc. 2:7, 8; 15:14; of the other prophets, they also expected Isaiah. 3 Ezra. 2:18. Herod, of course, with his party recognized Jesus as John the Baptist. Elijah expected before the coming of the Messiah, establishing themselves on the words of Malachi; there were not so many who recognized Jesus as the Messiah so that they could be pointed out as these individual parties). -Who do you recognize Me as? – the Lord asked them further. - Peter answered this first of all: You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God. – In this answer, in addition to the significant difference in judgment about the ministry of Jesus (He was not the forerunner, but the Messiah himself), the knowledge of His Divine origin was clearly expressed, different from ordinary Jewish concepts about the person of the Messiah. “Son of the living God” - the Son of God, Whom, in His own words, no one could know except God the Father, now saw Himself comprehended by the faith of a loving disciple. The opinions of “flesh and blood”, people immersed in earthly things and his own prejudices did not take possession of his soul: he did not consult with them when he asked himself, by whom was he called and whom did he serve? He heeded the voice of the Father in the deeds and words of His Son, faithfully followed this revelation of the Father about the Son and was already blessed by faith in Him. And the Lord said to him: Blessed are you, Simon, because flesh and blood did not reveal to you (about Me), but My heavenly Father.” As a reward for this, He pronounces his new name in His kingdom. I will also tell you: you are Peter - I will not find a better name for you than by borrowing it from that very truth that is spoken by your lips to everyone, which is the main stone of My Church. I will build My Church and the gates (all the power) of hell will not overcome it; I will build, I will protect and at the same time I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (which is the same church). So, despite the fact that the preaching of the Gospel is still so little understood and accepted, the kingdom of heaven will open, the church will be built and will not be destroyed; its basis will be the truth spoken by the mouth of Peter: only he who has faith in Christ as the Son of the living God will belong to this kingdom; the creator of this kingdom will be the Son himself, the Messiah, and its first guardian, the keeper of the keys, having the power to open and close the entrance to it, will be Peter. I. Christ reveals to his disciples about his suffering and death The faith of Peter was the faith of the other apostles, and what was given to one was received by the others. However, even now the Lord did not command that this confession of the Messiah be disclosed to the people in order to avoid enterprises that disagree with His holy intentions. Instead, he openly announced to them for the first time about his suffering and death in Jerusalem, as a necessary condition for the opening of this kingdom. He indicated from whom He should expect death - from the elders, bishops and scribes: these are all members of the Sanhedrin. Therefore, His death should be public, not secret. But the Lord added that after three days or on the third day he will rise again. Until now, when the Lord spoke about this to disciples or people, he spoke mysteriously. Ok pointed this out during his first visit to the Temple of Jerusalem upon entering into his ministry (destroy this temple), - in a speech to the Pharisees, who demanded from him a sign from heaven (the sign of the prophet Jonah), - in a conversation with the people in the synagogue (about His flesh and blood). John the Baptist also called him the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. But all this did not prepare the disciples to hear such a direct announcement of the suffering and death of the One Whom they now confessed to be the Messiah. They believed, along with other Jews, that Christ abides forever (John 12:34). In particular, Peter, more ardent and lively than others and now exalted by the Lord more than others, now considered the right to tell Him that even if there was something unpleasant in the disposition of His enemies, such fears were nevertheless excessive. Taking especially his Mentor, he began to say to Him: this will not happen to You, Lord, and his words seemed to be able to find support for themselves in the power of signs and wonders, which were extraordinary and which His enemies only demanded. Peter, by revelation of the Father, knew and was not mistaken in what was revealed to him; but he did not know and could easily have been mistaken in what was not revealed to him. He reasoned like a human being. Thus, in the words of Peter, the second of the tempting proposals in the Jordanian desert was repeated: if you are the Son of God, look down... The Lord rejected this temptation with the same strength and unusualness with which He reflected the words of the tempter in the desert: follow me, Satan. You think humanly, He added, and not Godly. Don’t you think that all this is foreseen and arranged by My Father Himself, although it must be accomplished without any restriction on the freedom of people. But since the necessity of suffering and death, due to the circumstances of the time and the very nature of the matter, was supposed to extend to the followers of Christ, if not always in the actual sense, then always in the spiritual, meanwhile the thought of suffering and death could seem strange and incompatible with the idea of ​​the kingdom of Christ and not only to Peter; then the Lord, abandoning speech about Himself, and turning to the Apostles and strangers around Him, announced out loud to everyone: whoever wants to follow Him, let him deny Himself and take up his cross and then follow Him. Whoever is ashamed of this, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in His glory and the Father’s and the Holy. angels. In these words, the Lord added a new feature to the prophetic image of His suffering (the cross); on the other hand, to strengthen those who would follow Him, He announced His new appearance in glory on earth. Having added that the kingdom of God will soon open on earth, He said: some of those standing here will not yet taste death 46 before they see the kingdom of God in power (now it is not yet in power). All this only serves more to confirm what the Lord said about Himself, that he needed to suffer and die. It was impossible not to believe this, but it was not easy to abandon the general popular opinion about the Messiah, with which such suffering was completely incongruous. So this conversation must have fallen deeply on the hearts of especially the apostles closest to the Lord, who with great ardor and love shared an impatient desire to see Jesus in glory, in the revelation of His kingdom on earth. So that this conversation would have an even stronger effect on their hearts, the Lord left them to themselves for several days, without helping them in resolving their perplexities, He allowed them to experience within themselves the long struggle of faith in Him as the Son of God, and their previous concepts about the Messiah with the thought of His suffering and death. Finally, six days after this conversation, He takes three of his apostles with him to one mountain, without announcing to anyone for what purpose. The chosen ones were Peter and two brothers - James and John - the first in the rank of apostle: Peter, the first of the apostles, who openly confessed Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and who most vividly took to heart the words of the Lord about His sufferings, James and John, whom the Lord called the sons of thunder, ready to drink the cup of suffering for His name (when the Lord declared that everyone who wants to follow Him would certainly take up his cross). On the mountain the Lord began to pray; Probably the apostles were also told that they were called here for the same thing (similar in the Garden of Gethsemane and the words of St. Luke reinforce this guess (9:28). And here is a prayer before the word About the Exodus, who wants to end it in Jerusalem. Only this is a preview of the feat of Gethsemane). However, they could not remain in this feat for as long as Jesus, and fell asleep. Suddenly it is not the light of the sun's rays that awakens them, but the light of the glory that clothes Jesus. They left him alone to pray, and they saw with Him two more men also in the light of glory - Moses and Elijah. Their facial features were not known to them. The face of Jesus himself changed, but the reflection of the glory of the Lord could enlighten their physical and spiritual eyes enough to recognize their Lord, Christ, the Messiah and with Him the maker of the law - Moses and the representative of the prophets and the forerunner of the Messiah - Elijah. The vision was not instantaneous and they comprehended not only what was visible, but were introduced, at least for a short time, into the secret conversation of Christ with the strangers of that world. Earthly witnesses to this phenomenon and conversation heard with amazement the confirmation of the Lord’s words about suffering, so to speak, from the lips of the law and the prophets. This whole event was so extraordinary for them that Peter, always the first in word and in deed, in the confusion of all his sensations and thoughts, embarrassed by the danger awaiting the Lord in Jerusalem, and not wanting to lose the bliss that he now felt, offers the Lord to arrange three tabernacles for Him and for the inhabitants of heaven, truly not knowing what he is saying. In only one thing he was true to himself - in love for the Lord, Whom he saw in glory, with whom he did not want to part, in love complete to the point of forgetting about himself (neither himself, nor the Apostles - not a single tabernacle). But this phenomenon was still a preparation for a new, most glorious one. When Moses and Elijah were already preparing to leave the Lord with His disciples, a cloud suddenly overshadowed them, not such a dark cloud in which God descended to Sinai, carrying with Him the law into which Moses then entered - a bright cloud - and a voice from the cloud heard by John on the Jordan when the Lord entered into ministry and now repeated before the approaching conclusion of this ministry. But now the Heavenly Father has complemented Him, listen, that is, here you have instead of the law and the prophets who are moving away. The apostles fell on their faces in fear and no longer saw how the cloud disappeared, how the celestials departed. They had already come to their senses when Jesus, approaching them as they lay prostrate, raised them up with His hand, just as Daniel’s husband had once appeared to him (Dan. 10:8–9). So, what did the eye-witnesses of the glory of Jesus now hear? They heard how the Father, about whom Jesus spoke so often, Himself testified about Him: This is My beloved Son, - and yet they heard together that His exodus awaited Him in Jerusalem. So the Son of Man is already preparing for his exodus in Jerusalem! Coming down from the mountain, both the Lord and the apostles entered, so to speak, into their previous relationships, and the Lord did not command His disciples to reveal the secrets of the vision until His resurrection from the dead. The apostles - Peter, James and John again - were perplexed: what does it mean to rise from the dead? However, they did not ask the Lord about this, perhaps fearing that they would be inattentive before Him. And busy with anticipation of the imminent appearance of the kingdom of Christ (which was soon, as the Lord said, to be revealed in power), they turned their attention to Elijah, whom they saw on the mountain. The scribes said that Elijah must come before the Messiah and arrange everything; should the present appearance of Elijah be considered as promised, or should we expect something else? That's what kept the students busy. The Lord answered them this question, proposed deliberately with a reference to the scribes, with words that destroyed the ordinary Jewish ideas both about the kingdom of the Messiah and about the phenomena that preceded it. He made them understand that neither the appearance of Elijah should be given the same meaning as the Jews usually give it, nor should they expect any other sensory phenomenon, but everything should be understood spiritually. Elijah definitely had to come before Him - this is based on the prophecy of Malachi; he had to arrange everything for the Messiah. The scribes are right about this. But they are wrong when they understand this about the carnal appearance and action of Elijah. Elijah had indeed already come in John: they just did with Him as they wanted, however, also in accordance with the predictions of Scripture 47 (Mark 9:12–13). Neither will they recognize the Son of Man, but they will do to Him according to their own will. But He will suffer like His forerunner. Under the Mount of Transfiguration, a completely different kind of phenomenon awaited them. They saw: a large crowd of people had gathered; Among her are the other apostles (left by them here) in a dispute with the scribes: the dispute, apparently, occurred due to the fact that the apostles could not heal one demoniac, who, it seems, was brought to them: they wanted to act by the power of the name of Jesus alone; but this time, due to the weakness of their faith, such an action was unsuccessful. They should have taken more effective measures for this: to properly prepare themselves by fasting and prayer so that the name of Jesus would have all its power in their mouths. But they didn't do this. Meanwhile, the scribes apparently turned this into a reproach and proof of the powerlessness of Jesus Himself 48 and managed to outrage some by this. That's what was under the mountain! The people, as soon as they saw Jesus coming from the mountain, rushed to meet Him, greeting Him. The dispute with the scribes still continued. Coming closer, the Lord asked not his disciples, but the scribes: what are you arguing with them about? But they apparently had no answer prepared. The father of the demoniac began to answer for them: having explained his son’s illness and his seizures, he brought him to His disciples, but the disciples could not heal him. (The father now does not yet ask for help from Jesus: it is clear that now he did not think of receiving help from Him either). Having heard this and turning all his attention to the cause of this powerlessness and to the perpetrators of confusion and temptation, the Lord said with strict reproof: O unfaithful and corrupt generation! As long as I am with you, as long as I will endure you. Everyone knew for themselves who this reproach applied to. Then he ordered the demoniac to be brought before Him. In front of Him, he hit the ground, and he lay there, emitting foam. The Lord did not suddenly begin to heal. To make the miraculous power more obvious to everyone, He asks his father how long this has been happening to him. He answered that from childhood, described the dangers associated with these attacks and concluded with these words: “if you can, have mercy on us, help us.” To this, the Lord, wanting to encourage and arouse faith in the father, said: “if you can have any faith, all things are possible to him who believes.” He did not say: “Everything is possible for me,” but he answered in such a way that in proportion to his faith, His help could be strong. Excited by the reproof of unbelief, the Lord’s attentiveness to the sick and this promise, the father now began to ask with tears: I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. (I believe, but I myself feel that I still do not have the kind of faith that would be necessary - but help my unbelief). Having heeded the humble prayer, the Lord commanded the spirit to get out of the young man possessed by him and, after a terrible shock, returned the sick man healthy. Privately afterwards, His disciples asked Him why they could not cast out the demon? The Lord explained that this happened on the one hand from unbelief, on the other from a lack of fasting and prayer. (Fasting is needed to strengthen prayer). The Savior's conversation with his disciples regarding their dispute over primacy Having removed himself from this national assembly, the Lord continued to make his way in the unknown. Spending more time with his disciples, from time to time He repeated to them that the Son of Man would be delivered into the hands of men and they would kill Him, and after He was killed on the third day He would rise again. The disciples still did not understand this. Hearing about the sad future, they were sad, but did not dare to ask Himself what it meant and what it was needed for. They were going to Capernaum. On the way, a question arose between the apostles: which of them is greater in the kingdom of heaven - the Messiah 49? What was the reason for this issue and who decided it how is not clear. But as for the first circumstance, considering the previous one, we can believe that the beginning of the question was the distinction shown by the Lord to some of the apostles and especially the recent awarding of three: Peter, James and John - solitary prayer with Himself. The reasoning turned into an argument: apparently, some wanted to show off their own merits immoderately. The Lord, perhaps due to the presence of strangers, did not enter into their conversation and did not stop them in order to subsequently give even stronger instruction to those who boast of their virtues and thereby lead others to sin. Meanwhile, as soon as they arrived in Capernaum, the tribute collectors in favor of the Temple of Jerusalem approached Peter with the question: will your Teacher give the next part from Him for the benefit of the church, since He has been living in Capernaum for a long time? The demand was expressed in the form of a question or with temptation, or at least with uncertainty of success. One might think that Jesus, declaring Himself to be the Messiah, as he said in places among the people, and calling himself the Son of God, did not recognize Himself as obligated to pay this tribute. Peter did not delve into this, but perhaps reasoning that the Lord fulfills the requirement of the law in other cases or fearing unpleasant consequences in case of refusal, he immediately promised half a didrachm from Jesus. But before he had time to enter the house and announce this to Jesus, the Lord warned him with a question: what do you think, Simon (he no longer calls Peter: it was not Peter who promised), from whom do the kings of the earth take tribute or taxes? - From your own sons or from strangers? that is, did you promise for Me that I would give half a didrachm to the church collectors along with others? But whose church is this? Is it not My Father? How long ago have you heard Him call Me His Son? And My Father will demand tribute from Me? What does this mean? However, so as not to tempt others, go and take a tribute from My Father’s treasury in favor of His house. I am so generous that I allow you to take some for yourself from the same place. Go to the lake; throw the hook; and in the first fish you catch you will find a denarius, which will be enough for a tribute from both of us. After this, left without strangers, the Lord turned to the subject that occupied the disciples on the way. He wanted to hear them admit it themselves. The guilty were ashamed to answer, they understood that the Lord also knew this, as well as the fact that Peter, without His knowledge, made an indecent promise: finally, the Lord, having already shown an example of self-abasement in agreeing to the demand for tribute that was not due from him, wanted to reveal to them even more strikingly the need for this trait in the character of His followers, themselves. Taking the child and placing him between them (it was, according to legend, Ignatius the God-Bearer) he said: you all need to become children in spirit in order to be true members of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Messiah - just as simple and unpretentious; and whoever wants to be greater than others must lower himself to the age of this baby (who is an adolescent: the more someone is filled with childish feelings, the less he thinks about himself and his dignity, the more he is). Otherwise: whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all (Mark 10:35). The humility of the Son of Man did not allow us to add in the lesson on humility an example of the only humility in Himself. - Then, with tender love, hugging the child, he added: And I also kiss the one who receives this child in My name, as My messenger, just like the one who receives you - Peter or Andrew, Philip or Thomas. It's not about the person of the messenger, but about the name of the sender. This is how My Father looks at everyone. Why should you seek primacy for one over the other? When the Lord thus concluded the importance of the messenger only in the name of the sender, John, one of the first apostles, said that he, together with another (probably) recently met a man who cast out demons in the name of Jesus, but did not belong to their society and they forbade him to do this in advance. Childishly sincere confession! The Lord answered: do not forbid: for no one who has performed a miracle in My name can quickly slander Me. Why do you, acting by the power of the same name, look at each other so indifferently? He does not walk with you, but do you know what kind of union he is in with Me? I will assure you that whoever has been given such power by God, although he can completely retreat from Me like others (now in union with Me, for example, Judas), at least cannot soon become such an apostate: this very power of miracles will keep him with Me. Meanwhile, he is also useful to you: he can spread the glory of My name to your benefit. He who is not against you is for you. Therefore, I repeat, whoever will not only accept you, no matter who you are, but even if he only gives you a cup of cold water to drink in My name, because you are Christ’s: truly I tell you, he will not lose his reward. His teaching on the need to protect oneself from temptations Having revealed the idea of ​​the need for self-abasement and having resolved the question proposed by John, the Lord proceeds to explain how one must be careful not to lead anyone into temptation, even the least member of the kingdom of Christ: perhaps this was still a continuation of the denunciation of the dispute that was on the way, which could not do without the temptation to sin in some. Just as every disposition and readiness to accept a messenger in My name is dear to Me, even if he is a child, I also declare: woe to him who would try to take away from Me, to seduce any of the members of My kingdom, even if he were the least among the believers. Such an act cannot even be compared with such a serious crime, for which, having tied a large millstone around the neck of the criminal (which can only be set in motion by a donkey), they are thrown into the sea. If only one could undergo this, it would be easy. Woe to the world (everything that has even the slightest bit of worldliness in it) from temptations. And although temptations must come, woe to the man through whom temptation comes (Matthew 18:6–14; Mark 9:49–50). To limit the contagious destructiveness of temptation, the Lord offers two instructions; everyone be attentive and strict to himself; As soon as anyone notices the effect of temptation in himself, move away from that which seduces, no matter the cost. (If an arm or a leg offends you, cut them off; if an eye, pluck it out): otherwise you will be in danger of being thrown into fiery Gehenna. Of course, such donations are sick. But, the Lord continues, every sacrifice will be salted with salt. It is impossible without this; you have to endure the fire of illness; if you don’t want it there, then here it is. Just as in the church every sacrifice prepared for God is salted with salt, so every person who internally sacrifices himself to God must be internally salted: otherwise he will rot in his passions. Those who themselves are appointed to be the salt of the world should especially watch this. “Salt is good, but even if it’s salt, it won’t taste good, what will it be used for salting?” “So, the Lord concluded this instruction, have, retain the power of salt in yourself - for yourself and for others, and applying this instruction to the case itself,” he added: have peace among yourself. Why argue, irritate each other and thereby arouse the temptation of enmity? Another instruction pertained specifically to caution in relation to strangers: when there is a danger of your sin becoming a temptation for others: then do not neglect anything, do not count on it: with such and such I can do this, it means nothing. How little is he when his angel is given the opportunity to always see the face of the Heavenly Father? Is he little when the Son of Man Himself came to seek and save him before he perished? And he concluded this instruction with the parable of the lost sheep and the found one. Here is a series of actions and instructions that make up the conclusion of the Galilean race of Jesus Christ. Starting from the departure through Caesarea and the question of whom men say that I should be, to the teaching about guarding from temptations and the parable about the recovery of the lost by the Son of Man, everything is connected by a close internal union (18, 15–20, 21–35). To this, Evangelist Matthew also adds a teaching about how one should act in relation to those causing offense - in the case when the offender does not want to admit his guilt, and in the case when he recognizes it and asks for forgiveness. In the first case, several gradually strengthened measures are proposed to bring the offender to reason; in the latter there is boundless forgiveness. Whether this was spoken by the Lord at the same time is difficult to decide. If we take into account what was said by the Savior above and what happened between the apostles: apparently a connection can be found between both. However, neither St. Luke, nor St. The mark of this conversation is not conveyed in this case. It partly explains when the apostles should exercise their right to knit and decide and depicts the third high trait in the spirit of a follower of Christ, in his relations with his neighbor (the first, as stated above, is self-abasement, the second is strict attentiveness, so as not to offend anyone). Therefore, the internal connection of the instructions is not interrupted, but whether they also have an external – historical one – is not clear from the Evangelist’s brief remark about the dispute between the apostles. However, leaving the field of Galilee, we must note that not all the events that happened there are known to us. What happened in Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum - that could cause such severe threats from the mouth of the Lord (Luke 10:13-15) - we do not know. The Lord's last journey to Jerusalem from Galilee Leaving Galilee with the intention of sacrificing Himself for the people in Jerusalem and every day approaching this great feat, in the continuation of His path the Lord constantly had in mind to arrange the work of His kingdom, to open it after His death. He announced a new invitation to this kingdom to all who were not worthy of hearing the first one, lovingly received all those who converted, denounced the proud and stubborn, instructed the apostles what they should be and how they should act, gradually opened the veil of the future before them and made it clear to everyone that He Himself was freely going to Jerusalem to meet His enemies. Leaving Galilee and taking the last journey to Jerusalem, the Lord again wanted to be in Samaria, as He was there after the first Passover of His ministry. But this time He was not received at all as well as then. Then He walked from Jerusalem, now to Jerusalem: this was the reason for the arousal of popular prejudices and passions against Him. And two of His apostles were ready to punish the unfavorable inhabitants with heavenly fire, like Elijah. But the Lord, having enlightened them with instructions about the difference between the time and spirit of Elijah and the present time and the spirit operating in it, stopped the hot outburst of their jealousy. This action, showing the meekness of the Divine Shepherd Mentor, as if deliberately became the head of those events that were supposed to conclude with the death of the God-man. Sending 70 disciples to preach In order to influence the Jewish people once again by preaching about the approach of the kingdom of God, the Lord, having chosen 70 more disciples (70 elders under Moses: just as the number of 12 apostles corresponds to the number of 12 leaders of the tribes), sent them before Him to all the cities that He Himself intended to pass through. Those chosen to be part of this new brotherhood were not to be constrained in any way or restrained in fulfilling the assignment entrusted to them. One asked to bury his father first, the other to say goodbye to his family: “The Lord did not allow it.” Upon departure, repeating to them almost all the same instructions as the 12, he spoke with greater clarity and detail about the dangers awaiting them and the 12 apostles especially in the future and gave corresponding instructions and consolations. Warning against inappropriate acts of jealousy (like those described above), he threatened vengeance on the disobedient and inattentive cities by the judgment of God, which was soon to be revealed (Luke 10:13–15). However, in this case, 70 apostles returned to Jesus with good news. They told with childish pleasure how evil spirits also obeyed them. For His part, the Lord, having revealed the cause of Satan’s weakness and given them power over all the power of the enemy, tried to direct their joy to such objects that are more worthy of joy, namely, that their names are entered in the book of life in heaven by the Heavenly Father, that they, precisely they, have been given to know Him and the Father in Him, and in this knowledge eternal life has been granted (John 17:3). And He Himself, rejoicing in spirit about this, thanked the Father for revealing this to the babies. Conversation between the Savior and the lawyer Entering the cities where the apostles preached, the Lord again began to meet with the Pharisees, received questions from them and gave answers, denounced their guile and hypocrisy, vanity and greed. What do I need to do to be saved? A lawyer asked Him in one place. The Lord asked in response: what does the law require of you? The lawyer answered: love for God and neighbor. (So ​​subsequently the Lord reduced the entire law into two commandments). The answer was correct and the Lord demanded that he only care about fulfilling these commandments. The vain lawyer, wanting to show that he not only knows the law, but also fulfills it, and at the same time, probably at the direction of the Lord, paying special attention to the last of these requirements, proposed another question: who should be considered under the name of neighbor? - The Lord answered this with the parable of the Samaritan, which revealed that the natural feeling that persists in everyone (even the Samaritan) indicates in everyone who requires help, our neighbor - without distinction of faith, title and origin. Having retreated for a while to the whole, where two sisters Martha and Mary knew him lived, here he made it clear that calm attention to His word was more valuable to Him than all the most diligent efforts to better receive Him as a guest. And in the company of His disciples, on the question of one of them, probably from among those who returned, 70, he repeated the pattern of prayer that He had previously given with instructions on the disposition in which one should pray (Luke 11:1-13). We do not repeat His responses to the blasphemy of the Pharisees, who attributed the power to cast out demons to the spirit of darkness and approached the Lord demanding signs (Matthew 12). The Savior's accusatory speeches against the Pharisees One Pharisee invited Him to his place for a meal - however, not out of sincere affection, but with the intention of noticing something in His actions that was contrary to their rules. The Lord, as if not seeing anything insidious in this invitation, came. But he immediately noticed that the Savior began the meal without washing his hands. Then the Lord turned to them to denounce their vainness. He denounced their concern for the outward appearance with neglect of the inner, and pointed out to them the best means of cleansing sins, not by ablution, but by almsgiving. – I reproached them for the pettiness with which they counted tithes to the church even from garden plants and neglected high moral requirements. - He condemned their vanity, with which they demanded honor and respect from the people, and compared them to painted tombs, which people walk on without thinking that they are tombs, and become dirty. – Such harsh denunciations concerning an entire sect silenced the guilty, prompting the lawyer present here to remark: (i.e., the teacher of law and tradition. Pharisee in the most particular sense means only a person who follows well-known rules in his life. But not every Pharisee was a teacher). Teacher, by saying this, you offend us too. By condemning the rules of life of the Pharisees, you also condemn us, their teachers, who consider ourselves successors to the prophets. The Lord did not deny that the actions of the lawyers are just as illegal as those who follow them. He denounced the severity with which they prescribed rules without fulfilling them themselves: and the vanity with which they decorated the tombs of the prophets, their predecessors in the teaching of the people, while in their inner state, in the malice that they now breathed against Jesus and His disciples, it was more fair to honor them as the successors of those false prophets and wicked people who once killed the prophets. Finally, threatening them with the wrath of God because, having taken for themselves the keys of understanding the word of God, they neither use it themselves as a true guide to the kingdom of God, nor lead others through it. His conversations with his disciples and people Meanwhile, the Pharisees and lawyers, who called the Lord to the house of their meeting for temptation, had to hear such reproaches and accusations and, in turn, tried to use every word of Him in order to turn it into craftiness: a multitude of people gathered at the house of the Pharisee. Leaving the Pharisees, the Lord turned to His disciples and the people and continued His instructions in connection with the previous conversation. He remarked to His disciples once again how they should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy, which is all the more dangerous the more deceptive it is (this imaginary disposition of them towards the words and teachings of the Lord) - and in consolation he said that with all the efforts of the Pharisees to hide the truth preached to them, it will triumph (Luke 12:1-3. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, neither secret, which would not be known). – These imaginary zealots of truth must be fought to the death; death for the truth will be rewarded with glory from God; and to testify to the truth of the Gospel he promised to give them a mouth and wisdom. While He was engaged in this conversation with his disciples, someone came to Him asking him to take part in the division of his property with his brothers. The Lord never assumed the rights of a civil court; and in the present case, He did not fulfill this request, but paying attention to how selfishness divides the hearts of even half-blooded people, He began to speak sharply about the recklessness of people who are trying to increase their wealth by all means and proposed a parable about the crazy rich man. Then, turning to the subject of the previous conversation with the disciples and connecting it with the teaching contained in this parable, he continued to reveal to the apostles how inappropriate all worries and worries about everyday needs were in the soul of such followers as the apostles were. He exhorted them to strive for the blessings of heaven, the kingdom of God, and not to weaken, even if this kingdom did not suddenly open. To do this, he offered them a parable about slaves waiting for the return of their master and ready to receive him both in the second and third watch of the night, and also a parable about a man who secretly, unexpectedly for the owner, undermines his house (an image of the suddenness of the Lord’s appearance with judgment). The speech thus inconspicuously inclined to remove the Lord from the eyes of people for an indefinite period. The disciples understood that by the name of the master (in the first parable) one should mean the Lord Himself, but who should be understood by the name of slaves? Are they the disciples or all the surrounding people? And next. Who does the rule of vigilance apply to? Peter asked the Lord about this. He, of course, thought about some temporary removal of the Savior, after which the kingdom of Christ should solemnly open. The Lord, without saying anything about His removal, answered the question about what concerned them and all those generally left by Him: the duty to wait for one’s master is the duty of every faithful servant (then he will withdraw from everyone, not only from the people, but also from the disciples) and especially much will be asked of those to whom much has been given. Then, in order to strengthen the attentiveness in His disciples to the special title entrusted to them, He draws the disciples’ attention to the purpose of His coming and to the zeal with which He Himself sacrifices everything to Him and speaks of the need for that struggle, the bloody and fiery struggle that He had only hinted at before. However, he did not leave his comments to the people about being attentive to the present time and advised them to put up with Himself while there was still time (parable). Repentance is needed. There is no point in consoling ourselves that God’s judgment has not yet befallen us. (Then the Savior was told about the beaten Galileans; another case was also known about those crushed by the tower of Siloam). If you do not repent, you will all perish as well. And having told the parable of the fig tree, which, after three years of barrenness, only at the insistence of the gardener, was left for another summer in Vertograd, for the fourth summer, he made it clear that now the time of God’s judgment is definitely coming for them, if they do not turn to Him with all their souls in this fourth summer of His preaching. After this long conversation, now with the Pharisees and lawyers, now with the disciples, now with the people, we find the Lord in the synagogue. The same community surrounded Him here too. The people accompanied Him everywhere and took an active part in Him, although they did not lag completely behind their former leaders. Despite the fact that it was Saturday, the Lord, in the presence of the leader of the synagogue himself, healed one woman who had been in a crouched position for eighteen years. The leader of the synagogue, not daring to publicly reproach the act of Jesus, addressed the people with reproach for the fact that, contrary to the law, they came to be treated on Saturday; the people rejoiced at such a glorious work of Jesus. The Lord turned his own actions and rules against the superstitious holiness of the arch-synagogue: doesn’t each of you on Saturday untie his ox or donkey from the manger and lead him to water?.. Meanwhile, seeing in the participation of the people, although hesitant, the grain of the disposition that is needed for His kingdom, He pointed out to His disciples in parables that this grain, which now costs nothing to destroy for some bird, when a person plants it in the ground, will produce from itself such a tree, under the shadow of which all the birds of the air can hide. In another parable, He expressed the same idea under the image of leaven, which in a small form can leaven a large measure of flour. Thus, from a small society of such people, the kingdom of God will spread throughout the entire earth. As we continued our further journey, the Lord had another opportunity to explain to the disciples and people that indeed only a few of the Jews would be worthy to enter this kingdom. Someone asked Him: Are there really few who are being saved? The Lord did not answer this decisively - yes or no, but noticed that many would look for Him, but it would be too late. The doors will close. The feast will begin without them. So, no matter how narrow the path, you must hurry. Otherwise, you may be late for your neighbors. The first will be last, the last will be first. The pagans will enter, the sons of the kingdom will be driven out. The Pharisees already found such hints unbearable. Taking advantage of rumors, true or false, that Herod, the ruler of Galilee, was seeking to kill Jesus, they offered Jesus, as a favor, to leave the region to Herod. But the Lord, in His response to this proposal, made it clear to the Pharisees that 1) there is nothing in His actions for which Herod had the right to rebel against Him: He does only good deeds; 2) a certain time is appointed and predetermined for His ministry, which no one can shorten or extend; 3) if the Son of Man must become a victim of human malice, then nowhere else than in Jerusalem - in a city that the Pharisees and others consider holy and in which, however, the blood of all the former prophets was shed. "ABOUT! Jerusalem, Jerusalem! added the Lord. How many times have I wanted to gather your children, like a bird gathering its chicks under its wings, but you did not want to” - and indicated the fate awaiting him - behold, your house is left empty. Everything that I brought with Me to earth is not for you now. You will not see me until the time comes when you exclaim: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Thus, the first of the nations called into the kingdom of Christ will be the last to be converted (at the end of the ages)! We find a new series of instructions of Jesus Christ in parables, proposed for the most part to explain the same topic, incomprehensible to many, that the kingdom of God can bypass many of those who consider themselves its legitimate heirs, because they do not have the qualities necessary for this (Luke 14, Chapter 17, Chapter 10). The Lord was called to the house of a Pharisee on Saturday for supper. The meeting consisted of the Pharisee's brethren. Jesus was received in the same way as on other occasions, insincerely, but with temptation. There was one sick person here, and they thought that Jesus would not ignore him as usual. This is exactly what happened. But the Lord eliminated any objection on the part of the Pharisees by remarking that, according to the rules of their holiness, it is permissible to remove a useful domestic animal from destruction on the Sabbath, especially a human. In the assembly, Pharisaic pride and vanity were revealed in everything. None of the guests wanted to give up their place to another, whom they considered themselves inferior. With the same pride they considered themselves worthy of the first place in the kingdom of the Messiah. On the other hand, these meetings served only to treat the congregation; The Pharisees tried to repay each other with such treats, but forgot that with greater benefit all these costs could have been used to feed the poor. This lack of humility and love of poverty, revealed in ordinary life, prevented them from being close to the kingdom of God. – In the present case, the Lord chose this as the subject of His instructions in the circle of the Pharisees. Despite such denunciations, when, concluding the instructions, the Lord pointed to the only reward for virtue, to the reward in the resurrection of the righteous, one of the interlocutors, sitting at the Pharisee’s meal, could not resist saying: blessed is he who eats bread in the kingdom of God, and perhaps he dreamed of enjoying this bliss - not among the last. The Lord then clearly revealed that in vain everyone flatters himself to achieve these blessings without difficulty. On the contrary, whoever thinks too easily to receive them can very easily be deceived in this. The kingdom of God requires a willingness to renounce acquisitions, especially worldly pleasures. He revealed these thoughts to them in the parable of those invited to the wedding, none of whom, however, was worthy to taste the rich supper, and it went to poor and insignificant people, those whom the Pharisees so despise, whom they can never see at their meals. The Lord revealed this truth about the need for complete self-denial to the people in clear demands, which were all the more necessary because as much as the Pharisees were armed against Him, so much the common people were ready to blindly act according to their own concepts for the Messiah. Whoever does not renounce all blood attachment for the sake of the Gospel and does not agree to bear his cross for Jesus cannot be His disciple. And according to the usual rules, when envisioning some kind of construction, they calculate what is needed for this; When undertaking a war, they calculate their strength so that, having started a task, they will not give up on it. This is what needs to be done in the present case. Let everyone consider for himself whether he is capable of those sacrifices that are required for the kingdom of the Messiah. And He only recognizes him as His disciple who is ready for this. His disciples should be the salt of the world. If the salt loses its strength, then where should it go if not thrown out? - Concluding this instruction, the Lord added: he who has ears to hear, let him hear. But in response to these words of His, it was not the Pharisees and scribes who came to Him, but publicans and sinners. For the former, such a demand was unacceptable: the latter willingly abandoned what the Lord demanded. The pride of the Pharisees prevented them from even properly appreciating the sympathy and heartfelt joy with which the Lord received all converts from this despicable class of people; and as before the merciful Lord revealed to them in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin how He views every converted sinner; so with particular clarity He revealed this idea in the third parable about the prodigal son, where the younger son represented tax collectors, the eldest, busy with his righteousness, represented the Pharisees. In addition to these instructions, the Lord also revealed to His disciples (however, the Pharisees also heard this) what benefits a person can derive from distributing his property to the poor, which the Pharisees were so reluctant to agree to and what the Pharisees who converted from tax collectors (like Zacchaeus) set as their first duty. He taught to imitate in prudence that bailiff, who, fearing to be removed from the management of the property entrusted to him, secured his comfortable maintenance for the future by writing down on some of his master's debtors a debt less than half of what they owed him, so that they would subsequently reward him. And those who wish to be sons of the kingdom, He said, should in the same way transfer their property in advance into the right hands - into the hands of the poor, through whom God Himself accepts your alms, and not leave them in the hands of the world to which they themselves previously belonged. This will not be unfaithfulness on your part in relation to the one who gave you part of his wealth, to the world to which these riches belong, but on the contrary, loyalty in relation to the true ruler and Lord, on whom the world with all its wealth depends. And only by such faithfulness in something alien, taken from the world, can you earn trust from the Master in entrusting you with your own goods, the blessings of the kingdom of God and, gradually strengthening this power of attorney, achieve over time greater and greater gifts in this kingdom. Having passed into the kingdom of God, one can no longer remain a member of the kingdom of the world: one cannot serve God and mammon. The Pharisees, hearing such instructions against greed, only laughed and wanted to show that righteousness was enough for them to inherit blessedness with their rights to the kingdom of God. But the Lord exposed their evil heart: before people you may seem righteous, but God knows your hearts. You value dearly your legal righteousness. But everything that is lofty among people, everything that they put for themselves instead of God, is an abomination before God. I challenge you to the very law on which you rely. Its external obligation, its temporary form (the law and the prophets) passed away with the time of John. But the inner, eternal remains even now. Just as he who divorces his wife and marries another (without sufficient reason) violates the law not only in its modern form, but also in himself, so does he who departs from union with God and makes himself God or his own righteousness. And just as one who marries a divorced woman sins: so are you guilty before God when you strive to maintain your union with the former Old Testament forms, legal institutions, which you knew how to turn into a source of self-interest. And what consequences should be expected by someone who lived only for himself, not thinking of acquiring a better future beyond the grave with his wealth, the Lord depicted this with striking force in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The hard-hearted son of Abraham is not accepted into his bosom. And even Lazarus, accepted into the shelters of heaven, did not come to cool the fire, which burned mercilessly. The only admonition for the suffering brothers remained Moses and the prophets. The Lord concluded this extensive conversation with a reminder to His disciples (Matthew 18) about caution regarding temptations and about forgiveness of all insults inflicted upon them, if only the offender asks him. The apostles, for their part, to strengthen themselves in strictly following His commandments, asked to add faith to them. The Lord, approving of this arrangement and wishing to further increase their zeal for it, repeated in a few words His previous remark about the power of faith. Meanwhile, warning against Pharisee self-praise, he made it clear that even though they fulfilled everything commanded, they still cannot and should not consider themselves anything other than inexorable slaves. Healing of ten lepers At the beginning of the last journey, the Lord met His disciples with an unfavorable attitude towards Himself in some village of Samaria. As if to atone for this guilt, one of the Samaritans now appears before the Lord and the disciples much more gratefully than the nine Jews. The Lord passed between Samaria and Galilee. Here ten lepers met Him. The Lord, seeing them, ordered them to go and appear to the priests. On the way they were cleared of leprosy. But of these ten, only one Samaritan came to give thanks to his Healer and fell at the feet of Jesus. The Lord drew the disciples’ attention to this difference in disposition for their future preaching and released the Samaritan with the promise of salvation for his faith; the foreigner’s disposition placed him close to the kingdom of Christ. The Savior's teaching about His coming to judgment Therefore, when the Pharisees asked Him: When will the kingdom of God come? He answered that it will come for everyone when the necessary disposition towards him is born in him. In vain they now await its glorious and solemn opening. Everyone should look for ways to it in their hearts. However, at the same time, He spoke to His disciples about His appearance at the judgment of the disobedient, which was to follow after His rejection by His family. These will be difficult times for the followers of Christ, when they wish that one of those days that they now spend with the Son of Man would return to them. And they will be confused by false rumors: here is Christ, here is Christ. But this time He must appear on earth differently than now. He will appear like lightning, not in earthly form, but in heavenly judgment, and like lightning he will appear from one end of the sky to the other - wherever the disobedient race is scattered, over which judgment must be carried out. This day of judgment will find people careless, as it was in the times of Noah and Lot: and whoever values ​​his salvation must sacrifice everything and hastily remove himself from the midst of those doomed to destruction. Then no one can guarantee his safety if he remains among them. (Who will be on the roof, - on the field, - two on one bed...). The disciples asked where exactly would it be? The Lord answered: where the corpse is, there the eagles will also gather: that is, wherever there are those subject to such a judgment. With this indication of menacing days, the Lord saw the need to reinforce the disciples with the promise that such a painful state would not last long for them. God will protect his chosen ones soon, but they must pray for it incessantly. And he told them a parable about how incessant requests force even unjust people to fulfill the wishes of the petitioners against their will. And noticing that the elect themselves express excessive confidence in their righteousness - in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector - he repeated the lesson once spoken to the Pharisees: everyone who is exalted will humble himself, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:17, 11; 18:14). The Savior's Teaching on Divorce After repeated tempting questions, the Pharisees asked Him for permission to another controversial question among them: is divorce permissible? The two main rabbinical schools, Hillel and Shammai, resolved this issue differently. The first allowed divorce for any fault, even the least important one. The latter was constrained by such arbitrariness. The Lord contrasted both with His decision, based on the original, natural law of marriage. There should be no divorce, except for infidelity. What God has joined together, man should not separate. - They objected to him: how did Moses allow it? This, He answered, was due to the inability of the people of his time to observe that original law. Such an answer, given the weakness of the then concepts about the indissolubility of the marriage union, seemed too strict even for the disciples of the Lord, and at home they asked again (Mark 10) whether they had understood Him correctly - and having received an affirmative answer, in which the Lord allowed only one reason for divorce - infidelity on one side, they noted that if so, then it was better not to marry. “The Lord, however, answered that it is impossible to oblige everyone to this. But whoever, either by nature or by people, has become incapable of marriage or by free determination to live and act for the kingdom of God, receives the gift of chastity from the grace of God, he is obliged to be faithful to it. His conversation with the rich young man At the same time, mothers brought their children to Him so that He would bless them. The disciples, for some unknown reason, did not want to allow them to see Him. The Lord stopped them and noticed that anyone who wants to be worthy of the kingdom of God must be a child in spirit. Finally, another man comes to the Lord, strictly fulfilling the commandments of God, despite the fact that he was invested with a high rank (chief άρχων) and possessed great wealth in his young years, and was zealous about achieving the highest spiritual perfection in order to achieve eternal life. What, apparently, was more desirable from one who comes to the Lord? It seemed that he could enter His kingdom not in the same way as others were usually called - without repentance. The students themselves took a great part in it (see their last questions). But the Lord, with two remarks, revealed to everyone how close this young man’s heart was not yet to the path of God. Firstly, He noticed to him that, having not recognized the Divine person in Jesus, he, according to his legal severity, should not have lavished upon earthly teachers such titles, which in their own meaning can only belong to the One God. Secondly, he showed him that he lacked complete love for his neighbor when he demanded that he part with his wealth and distribute it to the poor - and this demand so confused the young man that he, leaving the Lord, walked away from Him, grieving. “For his part, the Lord did not demand anything special from him here against the others. The commandment of self-sacrifice and renunciation of everything for the sake of the Gospel was a commandment for everyone. When the young man left, the Lord noticed to his disciples how inconvenient it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, meaning here by the name of wealth not only money and property, but everything in general that a person values ​​as his property, except God. – The disciples, taking His words in such a strict sense, involuntarily asked: who can be saved if every earthly attachment deprives the kingdom of God? The Lord answered; What is impossible for man is possible for God. A person who is unable to renounce everything on his own can achieve this through the grace of God. Each of the students involuntarily turned to himself after this. On the one hand, it seemed that he had already sacrificed a lot, everything for the Lord: he left his relatives, his home, his acquisitions. But on the other hand, at the same time, everyone felt within themselves that they did not yet have such purity and detachment as the Lord requires. What should they expect? Will not the same thing happen to them as to the young men? The Lord, leaving the final purification of His chosen ones to the Holy Spirit, as a consolation promised them, as His first and chosen followers, a reign (on twelve thrones) with Himself, when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory. But to this he added that everyone who sacrifices his affections for the kingdom of God will receive a reward in due time. And to explain how unconditionally the goodness of God is poured out on all those who follow her calling, he proposed a parable about those who were called to the helicopter city to do work at different times of the day and who received equal reward at the end of the day from the generous Master. since what is impossible for everyone is accomplished by the power of God for everyone. The Savior's visit to the Temple of Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles Let us now review those incidents that may relate to the Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem; let us turn to a consideration of what happened in Jerusalem when the Savior appeared there in the last year of his ministry. This is stated in the Evangelist John in the 7th chapter. What John describes to us originally happened during the Feast of Tabernacles - six months before the last Passover, six months before the death of the Savior. A visit to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles, revealing to the disciples all the malice of the Jews against Jesus, was supposed to show how close His exodus really was. This was the last great holiday that He intended to spend with His people. Whereas outside of Jerusalem, the people for the most part showed a strong disposition towards Jesus Christ, and His very enemies were forced to act against Him only by cunning: in Jerusalem, even the voice of those favored towards Him became insignificant due to the influence of the main government place on the opinions of the people, and His enemies could use even measures of violence against Him with impunity. This resulted in a strange confusion of concepts about Jesus in Jerusalem during the holiday and even a struggle of opinions about Him. Otherwise e.g. He was judged by the well-meaning strangers of Galilee, otherwise by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, otherwise by His personal enemies, who clearly rebelled against Him here. And these judgments sometimes came into open contradiction with each other. Moreover, they still remembered that a year and a half ago, when He was in Jerusalem at Easter, He allowed Himself to heal a paralytic, and under this pretext they were still looking to put Him to death as a lawbreaker. Avoiding persecution until His hour came, the Lord did not solemnly come to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Unnoticed by anyone, He suddenly appeared in the church at halfway through the seven-day holiday and began to teach. Meanwhile, the people who had gathered here from other countries and cities were already waiting for Him. And there was a lot of talk about Him: some said that He was good, and others said: no, but he deceives the people. However, they clearly did not dare to express their opinions, fearing the Jews. (The apostles, who came to Jerusalem before the Lord, could have been eyewitnesses of this). Not everyone who wanted to appear as a teacher in a church, or in a school that was located in the church buildings. According to the rabbinic rules, one had to be in the rank of Talmid (student) for several years in advance, then in the rank of Haber (comrade) under some rabbi, in order to thus receive power, as they said then, έξουσίαν λαμβάνειν. And Haber could explain the sayings of others, and when he became a rabbi himself, then he could teach himself. “The Jews, knowing that Jesus did not study in any school or with any rabbi, marveled at how He could teach in the church. (The message of Scripture means learning in general and rabbinical in the nature of learning, especially the ability to explain Scripture). In response to such thoughts, the Lord said that He does not assimilate His teaching and the right of teaching to Himself, but it is from Him who sent Him. That His teaching is not one’s own invention can be known to anyone who wants to do the will of God from inner experience. That the right of teaching is not self-appropriated is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that He does not seek glory for Himself, but for Him who sent Him: trace. You can trust him. And penetrating into their thoughts, knowing that they want to oppose His words with the violation of the law of God - in their opinion, in the healing of the paralytic - he turns this reproach against themselves, pointing out, as the closest proof of this opposition to the law, that they are seeking His life. Caught in their own nets, the Jews object to Him with impudence and indignation: “Aren’t You a devil?” who wants to kill you? - However, the Lord continued to further reveal the injustice with which they represented the healing of the paralytic on the Sabbath as a violation of the peace of the Sabbath and concluded: do not judge by appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Look at what intention this action – healing – came from? Hearing such a conversation between Jesus and the Jews and seeing how those who had previously ardently stood up for the violation of the Sabbath and sought the life of its violator were now abandoning their thoughts, some Jerusalemites already thought that the leaders of the Jews themselves had changed their minds about Jesus and recognized Him as Christ. For their part, they themselves would be ready to recognize Him as such: but doesn’t everyone know, they thought, where He comes from? (To a resident of the capital of faith and people - Nazareth gives the Messiah!). But this is not how the Messiah should appear. Their heart was on the side of Jesus, but their minds, or more precisely, prejudices, incorrect interpretations of the teachings of the prophets about the Messiah and insufficient understanding of the Savior Himself, were against Him. (The prophets spoke about the lack of knowledge of the eternal origin of the Messiah as the Son of God: the people attributed this to the temporary, not thinking how to reconcile with this the idea that the Messiah should be the son of David and born in Bethlehem?). Seeing the sincerity of the disposition in some of these doubters, the Lord did not leave them to hesitate in bewilderment, but together gave them a touchstone to test this disposition. He said: Do you think you already know Me when you know who I am and where I come from? But knowing Me this way does not mean knowing Me completely. How many of you know my other fatherland? The One who sent Me? Now, if you knew Him as you should, then you could say that you know Me too. With this the Lord concluded his instructions on the first day of His appearance in Jerusalem. These words had a different effect: some of His listeners, who, with their enlightenment and high opinion of them among the people, did not easily admit such ignorance of the most essential and were reluctant to give up primacy to Jesus (perhaps the same ones who sought His life before), having heard again such announcements of Jesus about themselves, tried to seize Him and probably present Him to the Sanhedrin. But the Lord hid from them. - At the same time, others, knowing about all the miracles that He had performed hitherto, were ready to give full faith to His words about Himself and said: can one expect more miracles from the Messiah? Thus, the popular rumors about Jesus, excited at the beginning of the holiday, after the appearance of Jesus Himself, intensified even more, so that the members of the Sanhedrin recognized it as necessary to take their own measures worthy of them to tame them; They instructed certain people to seize Jesus not now, but sometime during the festival. Having learned about this, the Lord, in a threat of insane anger, announced to his persecutors: I still need to be with you and I will go to the one who sent Me. You will seek Me (in need, in adversity the desire for the Deliverer, the Messiah will be aroused): but where I will be (then) you cannot come there. Interpreting these words in their own way in order to derive a new accusation from them, the Jews, blinded by unbelief and malice, said with mocking impudence: Doesn’t He want to go into the Hellenic dispersion (to the pagans) and teach the Hellenes - that we cannot find Him? We have no success for Him! (Perhaps the reason for such an interpretation of the words of Jesus was taken by evil enemies both from His generally meek treatment of the pagans, and from His travels around the outskirts of pagan Galilee, which He recently completed). Things remained in this state of affairs until the last, most solemn day of the holiday. This holiday, reminiscent of the tranquility of the people in the land of promise from the labors of wandering, was a holiday in the place of the law, since then they were most occupied with reading it, and for the prophet Zechariah (14, 16) it symbolically meant the time of gathering in Jerusalem of all nations to worship the true God. On the last day of this holiday, according to custom, a symbolic libation of water was made from the source of Siloam (this water is indicated in the same chapter of Zechariah v. 8 and in Ezekiel), which flowed under the mountain of the church, while singing from the prophet Isaiah; If you are thirsty, come to the water (chap. 12:9). Probably by applying the meaning of the holiday and action to this meaning, the Lord, appearing on this day again in the assembly of the people, said: if anyone thirsts, come to Me and drink. And comparing Himself with a church from under which water flows, he applies this comparison to those who believe in Him. Just as He pours out living water, so those who believe in His name, having received the Spirit, will not only have this water within themselves, in their hearts, but will also pour it out to others, spreading the light of the knowledge of God everywhere. (From v. 46 it is clear that the sermon was extensive). The Divine Voice fell silent. Judgments and disputes about Jesus began again. Some saw Him as a prophet, others as the Messiah himself, but at the same time, some said that the Messiah, as the son of David, should be expected not from Galilee, but from Judea, namely from Bethlehem, others said that there were not even prophets from Galilee (v. 52). There were even those who expressed a desire to seize Him. But the servants of the church, on whom this was entrusted by the Sanhedrin, returned, at the end of the holiday, without success, declaring that they could not take Him, because no man had ever spoken like this man. Finally, in the Sanhedrin itself, when deliberating on this case, there appeared a division, which should have even more armed His enemies against Jesus. Having listened with indignation to the report of the messengers, they answered them: have you really been deceived? Did any of the rulers or the Pharisees believe in Him? One people believes in Him. But these people are ignorant of the law - they are cursed. At this time, Nicodemus dared to notice to the members of the Sanhedrin that they were acting unfairly by concluding their judgment about a person whose affairs they did not know well and had not listened to. - Why should we look for it? There was no prophet from Galilee, others answered him, forgetting in the darkness of their minds that Elijah, Jonah, and maybe even Nahum were from there. And they remarked to him with ridicule: aren’t you yourself from Galilee, standing up for the Galilean like that? Thus, without entering into further investigation of the matter, they decided to excommunicate from the synagogue everyone who recognized Jesus as the Messiah (9:22). Despite this, the next day the Lord again came to the church and there, in one of the vestibules, again wanting to draw all the attention of the people to Himself after resolving the issue of the sinful wife brought to Him, he proclaimed aloud to the people: I am the light of the world. Whoever comes to Me will not walk in darkness. This was, as it were, an encouragement for anyone embarrassed by the determination of the Sanhedrin to leave this gloomy cathedral without fear of being subjected to destruction. The light of the tongues, which Israel had hitherto been, has been darkened: a new sun is rising both for the sons of Israel and for the Gentiles who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. The Pharisees dare to object to Him that His testimony about Himself is not true because He testifies about Himself. It’s not true, answered the Lord, My testimony can be true even in this case: because who, besides Me, on earth knows well where I came from and where I’m going? You don’t know this - you judge Me only by the flesh, by appearance, by how you see. It would be better for you not to judge Me or about Me, just as I do not judge you. - However, this does not mean that I am afraid that My judgment may be as erroneous as yours. No, my judgment is true: for I do not judge alone, the Father judges with Me. If you want to judge Me, then it would be fitting for you to listen to My witnesses. Your law requires two or three witnesses: I present two to you. The first witness is I Myself (here the Divine nature of Jesus is clearly distinguished, testifying to what is accomplished through His human nature), the second is My Father. Where is this Your witness, they asked Him, “Your Father?” Of course, you would not ask Me about this, answered the Lord, if you understood Me correctly. If you had a bright spiritual eye, you would see the Father in Me: but you do not have this. And therefore you know neither Me nor the Father. He said this in the very church whose rulers ordered to seize Him, but no one dared to seize Him. After this conversation, perhaps preparing to leave Jerusalem again as unsafe until a certain time, or at least saying goodbye to the multitude of people who were already beginning to disperse with the end of the holiday, and intending to speak with many for the last time, He appeared at the place of the general public meeting in the church (8:59), on the Sabbath day (9:14) and repeated the previous threat out loud to everyone: look, I am leaving - you will look for Me, but you will not find - you will die in sin yours. (This is the sin of unrepentant deicide). And without Me, do not hope to come where I am going (to the Heavenly Father). The impudent Jews twisted the meaning of His words. Will He kill Himself - that we cannot come to where He will go after this? Of course, then we will not follow Him - to death. No, not this, answered the Savior, but this is the reason that you cannot come where I am going. I am from above, and you are from below. This distance is immeasurable. It would also be possible for you to have access to the heavenly things - through faith, but there is no faith in you. And that is why I said that you will die in your sin; you will not come where I am going. Who are You, who calls Yourself from the highest? The Jews asked Him with contemptuous mockery. I told you what I told you about Myself from the beginning (on my first visit to Jerusalem in the church itself, I called this church the house of My Father; traces of Myself, the Son of God). But I would have to talk a lot about you and judge you if I began to say about you everything that I think and know about you. Let's leave it at that. He who sent Me is true: He will tell you both about Me and about you (through the Spirit, who, having come, will convict about righteousness and about sin). You will learn from Him that I do not speak from Myself, but I say what I have heard, what I know from Him. - I will say even more definitely: when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that it is I, that I am the very One for whom I declared myself, and that I do nothing of Myself: but as My Father taught Me, so I speak. This apparently farewell conversation made a strong impression on many hitherto indecisive people. Fearing that they would actually lose Him forever, they declared that they believed in Him. It is clear from everything that they were attracted to Jesus not by faith in the true deliverer of the human race from sins, but by the hope of finding in Him a strong, earthly king. This singularity and fearlessness of Jesus, with which He spoke and acted in the capital itself, deceived them. The Lord was apparently ready to accept them as His followers. I just recognized that it was necessary to give them decent instruction. If you want, He told them, to be My true disciples (He saw that there was no sincere desire here), then remain in My word, that is, obey Me, do not go beyond the limits of My instructions, internally, with your soul, unite with My word. And then you will know the truth, because My word is the truth: the truth will set you free (that is, then your complete deliverance, or your redemption, will come). How to release? the converts then asked Him. Are we slaves? We are Abraham's seed. We have never been slaves to anyone. These words stung some of the Zealots so painfully that they were ready to rebel against Jesus, in whom they had recently believed. “Is it true that you were not slaves? - the Lord answered them. Yes, everyone who commits sin is already a slave, a slave of sin. So you are slaves, slaves of sin. And from this slavery I want to free you. You are Abraham's seed, but Abraham had not only Isaac, but also Ishmael, the son of a slave. In your present state - the state of slavery, you are no more significant than the son of Abraham by a slave, and this son was expelled from his father's house; and you are threatened with the same thing. I don't want the same thing to happen to you. Therefore, I, as a true Son in My Father’s house, having the right to give freedom, and I offer you, I promise you, to give you freedom, so that you, as free ones, as true children of Abraham and God, can always remain in My Father’s house. Noticing the increasing frenzy, He continued: You call yourselves the seed of Abraham, but look, do you have the same dispositions as Abraham? The son usually bears the imprint of the father. In Me, in My words and actions, you can recognize My Father. But in your words, intentions and actions, can you find your father? I speak to you the words of the Father; but My word does not fit into you; you are ready to kill Me: doesn’t this show that your dispositions come from a completely different source than My words? Do your children show a different father in you? Why, the Jews objected to Him: our father Abraham. “If indeed,” the Lord answered them, you were children of Abraham, that is, not only according to the flesh, then you would do the works of Abraham. But you seek to kill Me, the man who told you the truth, which you heard from God: “Abraham did not do this.” From this it is clear that your deeds show you to be the children of another father. The Jews saw that the Lord was not talking about carnal descent from Abraham. Fine. However, our spiritual birth is not tainted by anything. By faith in God we come from God, we are not born from fornication. No, said the Lord. It cannot be said that your father was God. If you were His children, then you would love Me - you would understand My language - at least you could willingly listen to My words: because I come from the same Father. But you don't have it. And since you show resistance to the truth, not only unintentionally, but also intentionally, this state of your spirit exposes you as the children of an opponent of the truth, the devil, who does not stand in the truth. Your murderous plans against Me serve as new proof of your descent from him: he is a murderer from the beginning. So one of two things: or I do not speak the truth, but who will convict Me of untruth? - or you are not from God. Otherwise we would understand each other. The Jews could no longer respond to such a clear conclusion except curses. You are a Samaritan (you are a heretic), there is a demon in you! No, there is no demon in Me, the Lord meekly objected. And your review only reveals new evidence that you are not from God. I honor God, but you do not want to give honor, but also dishonor the One who honors God. However, I do not seek My dishonor from you. For Me there is Someone to seek and judge you. And the Lord abandoned the tone of reproof, and began to speak to them about the great promise of blessed immortality to everyone who will keep His word, which they received from Him with faith (v. 31). “Whoever keeps My word,” He said, turning to the beginning of his conversation with the new believers, will never taste death.” But those who were irritated against Him were apparently even less able to accept such words: now we have learned that the demon is in You. Abraham died; the prophets died, and you are ready not only to attribute immortality to yourself, but also to everyone who keeps your word. What are you doing? With Divine majesty Jesus answered: I do not give Myself away for what I am not: but I cannot deny that I am. I do not assign any glory to Myself, but My glory is from the Father, from the very One whom you call your God. But even if I put Myself in relation to Him on an equal footing with you, then I would be an opponent of the truth, just like you. So I can say that (not only I am higher than the prophets and Abraham himself, but) Abraham, whom you call your Father, rejoiced to see My day (My times). And I will add: he saw My day (he saw what other holy men so much wanted to see, but did not see), and he rejoiced. In the stubbornness of unbelief, mockingly rejecting these words about Abraham’s joy in seeing the day of Christ, they were ready to say to Him: would You Yourself be glad to see Abraham? But where can You see him when You are not yet fifty years old! To these words of malice and blasphemy, the Son of God answered: “I am before Abraham was,” and, hardened in their unbelief, His imaginary followers raised stones to beat Him as a blasphemer. From all these interviews with the Jews in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles and shortly after it, with the people, with the enemies and with those who expressed disposition to the faith, it is revealed how strong His opponents were here and how they could increase even more in number and strength. Even those who expressed a disposition towards the faith went over to their side. Those who remained faithful in their souls were powerless, despicable in the eyes of nobles and people proud of their outward holiness - they remained ignorant and, in their humility and a more open view of themselves, now, after the Savior’s instructions, they really no longer considered themselves ignorant, although not in the sense in which the Pharisees revered them. Healing a Man Born Blind Having withdrawn from those who raised their hands against Him, without any harm, the Lord wanted this day, the day of the last meeting with Him for many (leaving Jerusalem), to remain in their memory not just by His words; He marked it with an action that, while retaining all the qualities of the miraculous, at the same time had a symbolic character. Passing from the church, His disciples together with Him paid special attention to one blind man who was blind from birth. We don’t know what exactly gave rise to such a question, which they did on this occasion, they only asked the Lord: who is to blame for his blindness, whether he himself and therefore God, according to foreknowledge, struck him with blindness, or his parents? Neither one nor the other, answered the Lord. But the glory of God must appear over this blind man. And foreseeing what the action He intended would lead to, but at the same time realizing His duty to act while His day lasts, He revealed to His disciples this secret of His thoughts, adding: “As long as I am in the world, until then am I the light of the world.” The action that He took was supposed to serve to enlighten the bodily and spiritual eyes of the one born blind and to open the spiritual eyes of many spiritually blind souls, ready to recognize their blindness. Then, turning to the man born blind, he made clay from spitting, anointed the eyes of the blind man with it, and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. (This method of healing was associated with the violation of the superstitious rest of the Sabbath). The man born blind returned from Siloam seeing. But when he came to the place where the Lord remained with His disciples, then He was no longer here, so the healed man knew only from rumors from others the name of the healer, and did not know who He was and where to find Him. Immediately the rumors began. Those who knew this man born blind, some recognized him as their former acquaintance, others denied him. They began to ask him how he regained his sight. He retold everything as it happened. They asked where is your healer? Answered: I don’t know! - This is important! They took him to the Pharisees. New interrogations began. The man born blind answered the same. The Pharisees first noticed the violation of the Sabbath. Hence the immediate conclusion about the man who allegedly healed the blind: this man is not from God. But at the same time, others began to object: how could a sinful man create a miracle? A strife ensued. Without explaining anything by argument, they turned to the man born blind: how he thinks about Jesus. He replied that he recognized Him as a prophet. “Oh,” the Pharisees objected. This is a deal! This blind man has never been blind. Call your parents! - the parents appeared. But 1.’s parents also recognized him as their son, 2., confirmed that he was born blind. When he received his sight, they refused to testify to this, not because they did not know it, but out of fear from the Jews. Seeing that the parents’ testimony did not agree with their thoughts, they turned again to the man born blind, they wanted to intimidate him, confuse him and undermine his opinion, and confuse his testimony. Give glory to God! (spell). We know without a doubt (while you only think that He is a prophet) that this man is a sinner. (Admit that this was not the case). And they began to interrogate him again: how He opened your eyes, thinking to find something in the words that could be reinterpreted - and presented as contradictory to His own testimony. The healed one, penetrating their secret intentions and not wanting to please them against the truth, did not repeat his answer to them, but only ironically remarked: do you really want to be His disciples, why are you asking so closely about His actions? With hatred they rejected this idea: we are the disciples of Moses, that Moses with whom God spoke, and you are the disciple of this one, about whom we do not know where He comes from. This is what is strange, the healed man continued in the same tone, that you do not know where He is from, who healed Me. Without God, such a miracle could not have been accomplished. (So ​​the blind man saw more than the sighted, not knowing anything about Jesus except His name!). But the more the Jews were denounced by the ingenuous words of the man born blind, the more reproachfully they rebelled against him: you were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? and they drove him out (either from the house of the judgment seat only, or they cast him out of the synagogue - they excommunicated him - the latter in importance, which is attributed to this circumstance in v. 35, is more likely). Having deviated from the people at the time when all this was being done, the Lord now appears, at the end of all this, to the healed man and the Pharisees, in order to strengthen and reward one for the firmness with which he withstood the first temptation for Him and to raise him to the level of higher knowledge and faith, and to convict others of their own judgment and tell them once again before all the people who they are and who He is for the people. Before them was a man who had been blind in body and soul for a long time, but now saw with both physical and mental eyes; and there were many people who had good physical vision, but did not see at all with their spiritual eyes, and yet dreamed of seeing with them as well as with those. By His words and actions, He involuntarily revealed the difference between the two and led them to the point that they were separated from each other and each quickly went in its own direction. Drawing attention to this position of His and the attitude of those around Him, He said: I came into this world for judgment, so that those who consider themselves not to see may see, and those who consider themselves to see to be blind. One word of Mine reveals the truth, as in court, and the secrets of the heart are revealed before everyone and before everyone’s own conscience. With one action I drive away blindness from the eyes of those who sincerely acknowledge it; and at the same time, those who dream of seeing a lot become even more blind from the very fact that others’ eyes are brightened. And some begin to see where they should go, while others completely lose their way and lead others away from the path of truth. Conversation by I. Christ about the true shepherd Who are these unfortunate blind people? Do you not also mean us by the name of blind people? - the Pharisees who were present ask Him with insult. Yes! and you have nothing to be offended by this name. I would rather have you recognize yourself as such: then you would not have sin: but that’s the trouble with what you say - what you see, therefore the sin remains on you. (Here is the key to the explanation and 3 v. 9 of John). And yet these are the leaders of the people! But the people also need to know who their leaders are and who their true shepherd is! The blindness of the Pharisees was all the more harmful because they were leaders of the people. In fact, what should one expect from the people under such leaders? Seeing everything before Him, the Lord accurately depicted Who He is, who these imaginary leaders are, where His flock is, and what awaits it in the future? Let us collect the features of these images, scattered from the Evangelist: a thief or robber does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs over the other side. 1, he calls the sheep, but the sheep do not follow him, but run away from him, because they do not know someone else’s voice v. 5. He comes only to steal, kill and destroy Art. 10. – Opposite the shepherd 1, enters by the door, 2, the doorkeeper opens for him and 3, the sheep listen to his voice, 4 and he calls his sheep by name and brings them in; 5, and when he has brought out his sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice v. 2–4. And if this shepherd himself is the owner of the flock, then when he sees the wolf coming, he will not spare himself to lay down his life for the sheep. 11. Only one hireling, and not a shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, when he sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs, does not care about the sheep, allows the wolf to plunder the flock and scatter it. 12, 13. – So, in this parable there are two complete images, two actually explained by the Savior: thieves and the true shepherd. The Lord attributes the features of the shepherd to Himself, but instead of directly applying the first, second and third features of this image, He uses a new comparison: He compares Himself to the door of the courtyard. With this new comparison, the features of the shepherd’s activity necessarily become passive: I am the door to the sheep, He says. Having said this, obviously, it was no longer possible for Him to say about Himself what He said about the shepherd, that he enters by the door. But he says: whoever enters by Me will be saved, that is, he will find salvation for himself behind the fence from the pernicious world. Here the Lord, instead of His entrance into the courtyard, points to the entrance of the sheep themselves into the courtyard through Him; will go in and out (only the ability to open the door when necessary corresponds to the shepherd’s calling to the sheep) and will find pasture (passing through the door to the pasture replaces the act itself). Perhaps the intention to eliminate the thought of His ever-present personal presence with His flock, as visible as now, prompted the Lord to choose to explain the parable of the shepherd such a new image, in which, of necessity, everything had to be understood spiritually. - Or, more likely, He explained the parable this way because He had already completed the first three features of a shepherd in relation to the Jewish people, and He now stood only as an open door for them - as if it had taken on a different meaning. – Applying the last feature to Himself in the image of a shepherd, the Lord expresses it this way: I am the good Shepherd and I know Mine, and Mine know Me. As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep. The internal union in which the Lord consists with those called by Him according to the power of His own union with His Father prompts Him to protect His own to the point of declaring His life for them. Under the image of thieves climbing over the fence of the courtyard and killing sheep, the Savior depicted, as He Himself declared this, all those who came (to the sheepfold) before Him. The very word: essence (v. 8) already shows that the Lord understands the people of His time; according to the features of their actions depicted in the parable, these should be people who, bypassing the correct path into the sheepfold, enter - or better yet - break into it predatoryly, that is, bypassing Christ they appropriate the title of teachers and do not want to lead them in the path of Christ, but only then come to destroy the flock of Christ. Having explained his parable in this way, the Lord spends a few more moments 1) on the thought of the flock itself, which should receive a new increase, and 2) on the thought of sacrificing his life for his sheep. In His farewell conversation with the people, He reveals that He also has other sheep that He must bring into His court. Through His apostles He will give them His voice, call them out of the Hellenic dispersion (at which the Jews recently laughed) and they will come and form one flock with the chosen ones from Israel. This reminds us of the psalm about Jerusalem: Ps. 86, 1. Its foundations are on the Mount of Saints. 2. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the villages of Jacob. 3. Great things are proclaimed about You, City of God: 4. “I will number Egypt and Babylon (two nations hostile to the people of B.) Behold, the Philistines and Tire and Ethiopia were born there.” 5. They will talk about Zion: he and he were born in it, The Most High Himself strengthens it. 6. The Lord will write in the census of nations: 7. And all My fountains sing and rejoice in You. With his last thought, the Lord reminded the Jews of his departure. But at the same time, with particular force, it brings out the fact that in 1, He freely gives His life and in 2, He will accept it. The Father Himself does not force Him to do this. The Father does not stop the boundless revelation of love in the Son, but allows the work of love to be purely a work of boundless love. But according to the will of the same Father (v. 18). He has the power to take His life again (and of course he will use this power). With this the Lord concluded his conversations on the last great holiday that He celebrated with His people. What important truths are revealed in them! Because of these words, a quarrel arose among the Jews. His conversation with the Jews in the church on the feast of the renewal of the church Although the Evangelist John, concluding the description of these conversations at the Feast of Tabernacles and shortly after it, does not say that the Savior soon left Jerusalem, the necessity of such an assumption is based on the fact that 1) during the few months remaining before the Feast of the Renewal of the Church, it was not safe for Him to remain here after such revelations of malice as He saw during the Feast of Tabernacles; 2) on the Feast of Renewal, telling some of the Jews that they were not among His sheep (10:26), He recalled to them what had been said about this before: and this was said on the Feast of Tabernacles, or shortly after it (10:8). If the Savior had remained longer in Jerusalem, it is incredible that He would not have had repeated conversations with them and could not have pointed out such a thought as is contained in these words, closer to an example in His own words. 3) Why did the Jews approach Him with a question precisely on the feast of the renewal of the church, if He was constantly in Jerusalem? If we assume, on the contrary, that He only appeared again in Jerusalem, then it is clear why this question did not appear earlier. 4) Ev. John (10:40) says that after what happened at the feast of renewal, Jesus went again beyond the 50 Jordan, to the place where John had previously baptized. What does the word mean here: again? When was Jesus here before, precisely in Perea - no further? If we understand that the Savior was beyond the Jordan before the Feast of Tabernacles, then it was in passing and, moreover, for a long time. On the contrary, doesn’t this word indicate that the Savior, after the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, crossed over to the other side of the Jordan, just as he subsequently did after the Feast of the Renewal of the Church? Only Ev. John did not consider it necessary to mention this in either case, but said it here only so that the place of His present residence is related to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in chapter 11. 5) If the Savior had been in Jerusalem for a long time, the first three Evangelists could not have failed to say at least a few words about it. After a long departure from Jerusalem - when the bright holiday of the renewal of the temple came (in December), established in memory of its cleansing from pagan desecration under Antiochus Epiphanes - the Lord again came to Jerusalem and appeared in the temple, precisely in Solomon's porch (the lowest of the porches surrounding the temple building). The duration of the absence, the words spoken on the last visit to Jerusalem: I am leaving you and you will not find Me, many rumors about miracles previously performed by Jesus - all this together increased the impatience to see Jesus again and learn from Him more precisely for whom one should take Him. These people were not sincerely inclined to believe in Him, but they could not remain indifferent to His appearance. And they were very happy when they met Jesus again in the church on the feast of the church. They surrounded Him and asked: How long will He keep them in bewilderment? and asked to tell them directly: Is it Christ, is He the Messiah? Knowing the hearts of these people, the Lord answered that the reason for their perplexity was not in Him, but in their unbelief and that He had ceased to consider them His sheep; - having said this, he depicted with deliberate force what He is ready to do for those who believe in Him and are faithful to Him, saying that no one will snatch them from His hands, or that everything is the same from the hands of His Father, adding: I and the Father are one. At these words, forgetting everything, the Jews still grabbed stones to beat Him as a blasphemer. “But the Lord this time, not as before, did not withdraw, but stopped them with His Divine power. He revealed to them that the scripture itself calls the people to whom the word of God was gods, without a trace. not everyone who says about himself that he is the son of God is necessarily a blasphemer. We must pay attention to such a person and to the deeds by which he confirms his right to be called the son of God. If you no longer believe Me, the Lord added, then at least believe My works; they show that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. Jealousy cooled: however, they still sought to capture Him in order to present Him to the Sanhedrin. “But the Lord evaded them.” He went to the other side of the Jordan and wanted to spend the last few days in the place where His forerunner initially acted and where He Himself may have been indicated by Him (John 1:28). The effect of John's preaching in this place has not yet been erased. And she, although late, bore her fruits. Here many believed in Jesus. Soon (John 11:8), however, special circumstances called the Lord back to Judea. Near Jerusalem, at a distance of no more than 3/4 of an hour's journey, in a village called Bethany, one of the family loved by the Lord and visited by Him from time to time (Luke 10), namely Lazarus, who had two sisters known to us Martha and Mary, became very ill. Since the Lord was now no more than one day away from them, 51 the sisters, seeing the danger, sent to notify Him that Lazarus, whom He loved, was sick, of course with the intention of receiving benefits from Him. Having received this news, the Lord only answered the sisters that this disease does not lead to death, but that it should serve the manifestation of the glory of God, namely, so that the glory of the Son of Man would be revealed. The answer, apparently, was one after which there was nothing more for either the sisters or the disciples who heard Him to fear for the life of Lazarus. What should the sisters have thought about this comforting answer, when perhaps on the very evening when it was given, Lazarus died? Both Martha and Mary recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. What a temptation it was for their faith! Probably for some time they were sure that the words of the Lord should not be in vain and therefore they waited to see if Lazarus’ life would somehow return. But time was running out: there were no signs of life in the deceased, and he even probably began to change. Therefore, they decided to bury him according to custom. Meanwhile, the Lord remained in the same place where the news of Lazarus’ illness reached him, and two days after that he began to tell his disciples about His intention to go again to Judea. The disciples were embarrassed to hear of such an intention after the recent troubles in Jerusalem. The Lord set one thing against their ideas, that His day is not yet over, and that there is a trace. His way there and theirs with Him is safe. Then, explaining the reason for the journey, he added: Our friend Lazarus fell asleep, but seeing that the disciples did not understand Him, he said directly that he had died and added: I am glad that he died without Me: this is better for you, precisely for your faith; let's go to him. I will wake him up in front of you (showing that death is like a dream). The feeling of joy at the death of a friend would be inappropriate if it were not hidden in the intention of something greater. - In these words: I rejoice for you, the purpose is revealed for which the Lord did not help a sick friend during the illness itself, and for what He wanted to perform such an important miracle, which He soon performed over Lazarus. The state of faith in the disciples, after the Jews had already wanted to stone Him twice, required reinforcement now and even more for the upcoming great temptations. But did they share the joy of the Lord? No. When they learned that Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, had died, that Jesus had allowed him to die, not allowing him to see the glory of His kingdom, and they remembered His answer about Lazarus’ illness: then the Savior’s demand to go with Him to Judea involuntarily seemed to them a challenge to go to His death; at least that's how they looked at it. They are used to always acting with caution. However, with their hearts they were ready to follow Jesus. And when they saw that His intention was unyielding, then in the struggle of their feelings with the fears of prudence, although they did not dare to say anything to the Lord Himself, they said to their fellow disciples: let us go and die with Him, not only not thinking about the resurrection of Lazarus, but not thinking about preserving our own life and the life of our Teacher. In Bethany they were met by Martha, always busy working around the house; As soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to Him from the house, even from the village. It was clear from this that her faith and love for Jesus had not yet disappeared even after Jesus’ word about Lazarus’ illness apparently did not come true (meanwhile Mary, immersed in her sadness, not noticing what was happening around her, remained at home). As soon as Martha saw Jesus, this glance at Him suddenly aroused in her soul the thought of the deprivation of her brother and the thought of the power of Jesus to preserve His life, which He, however, did not want to provide. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she said with sorrow. But even now, Martha added, as if embarrassed by what she had said: but even now, if you ask God for anything, God will give it to you. (Why does Martha say this? Hardly in the hope of the resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus. She does not trust Him when the Lord has already promised him 11:24. The same thing is shown by the expression: whatever you ask of God. How rarely did the Lord perform His miracles with prayer to God visible to people!). The Lord gradually strengthening Martha’s faith says to her: “Your brother will rise again.” Of course, she added with a dissatisfied look, he will rise again when we all rise again (but, as if she wanted to finish: all this hope does not fully compensate for his deprivation). Meanwhile, the Lord meant here the resurrection of Lazarus before the general resurrection. He only wanted to properly prepare Martha for this, who, in the cares of her home, did not always know how to leave enough time for the pursuits of the heart and the subjects of faith, like her sister. So, paying attention to what was most important for her in this case, the Lord pointed her to Himself as the source of all life and the power of resurrection for everyone. He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live (and Lazarus, My friend, was one of the believers): this is the basis for faith in the resurrection and Lazarus. And everyone who lives or believes (Martha herself, etc.) in Me will not die forever, that is, forever. Having said this, he asked her: Do you believe this? Martha could find no better way than to say that she believed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, thinking that this was all, and not finding herself any more capable of continuing the conversation with the Lord. Following this, she hurried to her sister and told her: the Teacher is asking you, although He did not ask her at all. Mary was immersed in her grief; only love for Him, whose words she was accustomed to accept with calm devotion, was strong to tear her out of her position. She hurried to Jesus, who was still outside the village. Her first words were the same as Martha’s. It was clear how much they had been occupied with this thought until now. But these words, spoken with tears by Mary, who fell at the feet of Jesus, were full of a deeper feeling than in the mouth of Martha. There was no reproach in them; but grief and devotion were expressed more fully than with Martha. And Mary, having uttered them, could say nothing more. Her tears troubled the spirit and the Lord Himself. All human suffering was close to His soul, especially the people He loved. Tears involuntarily appeared in His eyes. Sympathy did not overcome the thought that soon these tears would turn into joy. This sight touched many of the Jews who came from Mary's house. But here, as elsewhere, they were true to themselves - some were amazed at Jesus’ love for Lazarus, seeing His tears, - others, insidiously recalling the healing of the man born blind, pointed out that since Jesus did not give help to Lazarus in his time, it is impossible to think that He opened the eyes of the man born blind. Meanwhile, the Lord went to the tomb of Lazarus - they thought that they would cry there, but in fact, there to turn tears into joy. He immediately orders the stone to be taken away from the cave where the deceased is buried, rejects the objection of the caring Martha with a reproach for lack of faith; solemnly brings thanks to His Father for hearing His prayer and explains why He brings this thanksgiving to everyone; then, with a loud voice, proving, as it were, the tension of Divine power, he calls the deceased out of the cave. The deceased comes out in what he was supposed to wear. The miracle also amazed those who had not previously believed in Jesus. Thus the glory of the Son of Man was revealed, the mourning sisters were comforted and the faith of the disciples was strengthened! It has been solemnly proven that Jesus is definitely the resurrection and life of all the dead and living, trace. Messiah. But what consequences did this event entail? Despite the fact that it did not take place in Jerusalem, it soon became known there from eyewitnesses. The passions of the leaders of the Jews were already irritated against Jesus to the highest degree. The time for a new crowded gathering of people in Jerusalem was approaching - Easter. They thought that the rumor about the resurrection of Lazarus, which anyone could verify due to the proximity of Bethany to Jerusalem, would arouse all the people in favor of Jesus. But they did not want to reason that if Lazarus was really resurrected by Jesus, then it was necessary to recognize Jesus as the Divine Messenger. So in Jerusalem this event occupied the entire attention of the members of the Sanhedrin. A meeting was scheduled. They knew how to hide passions here with a plausible guise. No matter how vicious someone is, he never wants to seem completely vicious in the eyes of others. And the Pharisees, the main party in the Sanhedrin, did not know the art of playing the role of holy people and caring for the benefit of the people. Then, perhaps, they were afraid of opposition from those well disposed towards Jesus (John. 7:50), if they bring a case directly against Him. The meetings began. They began to say how dangerous it is to turn the suspicion of the Romans against an entire people with such lively participation, as the simple people point to Jesus, especially in such a matter as the expectation of the Messiah. If the Romans find out what the people expect from their Messiah, whom they see in Jesus, they will come here with their legions and destroy the remnants of our rights. They did not want to claim that the hope for the coming of the Messiah was a false hope: they believed that when He really came, then the Jews and Romans had nothing to fear, but they did not want to see the Messiah in Jesus; however, there was no direct talk about this in the Sanhedrin: as if it was an extraneous issue. And the danger that they were currently depicting from the Romans, they created and increased for themselves in their imagination. The Lord never brought the people who were close to Him to the point of revolting in His defense; He never harbored hopes in anyone for such a kingdom that could be dangerous for Roman rule. Finally, the whole meeting was concluded by the High Priest with his verdict (“Bishop since that year”, not that Caiaphas was a Bishop that year, and another person the next, and thus alternated among themselves: but that Caiaphas was a Bishop in this memorable year), who was from the Sadducean sect (Acts 5:17) and in the very direction of his sect was very far from of cherishing something sacred. “You know nothing,” he said, of course addressing the side that somewhat supported Jesus and may have insisted that the Sanhedrin make sure in advance that Jesus is definitely not the Messiah, “you know nothing (in politics) and will not think that it is better for us that one person should die for the people than that the whole people should perish. (In this form, Caiaphas’ decision is presented by John, obviously because it became known to him from those present in the Sanhedrin and persons disposed towards Jesus, such as, for example, Nicodemus, Joseph. Talking about this, they could not keep silent about the fact that they opposed the general opinion, but were reflected by the words of the high priest, which were accepted by everyone. How faithful the Evangelist is to his sources!). His voice was also accepted by the supreme government of the people of God - they decided to kill the Son of God, but had not yet decided how and when exactly to carry this out; In general, they didn’t want to put it off for long. This is what the resurrection of Lazarus led to - not in itself, but due to the continuously increasing malice of the enemies of Jesus. Being in itself the most extraordinary of the Savior’s miracles and containing a number of His most glorious deeds, it seemed to evoke a completely opposite definition of the Sanhedrin, corresponding to its greatness. The Bethany Cave gave up its dead man so that another cave would hide its devastator. Thomas, having said to his fellow disciples: let us go and we will die with Him, with our Teacher, was not mistaken, at least in the reasoning of his Teacher. Jesus Himself, going to the tomb of Lazarus, wept, it seems, not only about the dead man whom he wanted to resurrect, but also about the malice of the people who were soon preparing the tomb for Him, just as He later wept about Jerusalem, approaching Jerusalem like a meek king. He saw what was coming before him, and when he went to Judea, then he could say: the power of the imam to lay down my life for my sheep, and when, having given up his spirit, he shook the earth and raised the dead, then: the power of the imam is accepted. – What prompted Him to surrender into the hands of His enemies? The fact that by the Father Himself and by His love He was appointed to be the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Whether the determination of the Sanhedrin was known to the disciples is not clear. But the Lord, until His hour came, no longer began to openly walk through Judea the same way as in recent times through Galilee. He secretly went from Bethany, which was too close to Jerusalem, to the city of Ephraim or Ephraim, which lay in the desert north of the capital at a distance (according to the Gospel, about eight miles, according to Jerome, about twenty). Neither the time of His stay here nor the actions are known. Conversation between I. Christ and his disciples before his final entry into Jerusalem Before the Easter holiday, when Jews flocked to Jerusalem from everywhere, the Lord intended to go there with his disciples, apparently not directly from Ephraim, but taking a few to the east, through Jericho, in order to connect with crowds or caravans of other worshipers going to Jerusalem; since he intended this time to solemnly enter this city. The disciples, imagining the danger of appearing in Jerusalem after so many had been armed there against Jesus, walked in fear and anxiety (Mark 10:32). The Lord Himself walked ahead. Soon they joined up with other travelers to Jerusalem. The name of Jesus, known to everyone, began to move fans. This may have eclipsed the fear of danger in the minds of the disciples and even fueled their own dreams of the kingdom of the Messiah. Then the Lord, having recalled his closest disciples, namely 12, from the others, began to tell them as a warning what exactly awaited him now in Jerusalem. He told them that he would be delivered into the hands of his enemies, into the hands of the Sanhedrin itself, that the Sanhedrin (high priests and scribes) would condemn him to death, but they themselves would not put Him to death, but would deliver Him into the hands of the pagans, i.e. to the Roman authorities over Judea. But the pagans will not suddenly carry out the sentence of the Sanhedrin on him, but will mock Him in advance, will scourge Him, spit on Him and then kill Him. All this, the Lord added, must be accomplished in fulfillment of the prophecies: and in conclusion, the Son of Man will rise from the dead on the third day (less than Lazarus, he will be in the tomb). 52 No matter how much the disciples were prepared for sad expectations by the last two visits to Jerusalem, Jesus’ words about his suffering and death still remained mysterious to them. The main bewilderment was who would dare to subject Him to torture; this was already visible: but how can these sufferings be reconciled with the thought of the Messiah, for whom the disciples recognized Jesus? Few could know the necessity of their service to the Messiah with undoubted certainty, although they had not yet comprehended the inner connection between the glory of the Messiah and His sufferings. Only Peter, James and John, awarded the vision of the glory of the Lord transfigured, heard from that world, from the lips of Moses and Elijah, about His exodus in Jerusalem, and the voice heard from behind the cloud still thundered loudly in their ears: This is My beloved Son. Listen to him. And so these three apostles, of course, were more ready than others to accept these words. It seems that this was the case. Two of them, James and John, despite such a clear and detailed prediction of suffering, then, together with the Mother, approached the Lord with a request that when His kingdom opens, the glory of which they anticipated during His transfiguration, He would allow them to take thrones near Him, one on the right side, the other on the left. The idea of ​​thrones was given to them by the Lord’s own words, spoken not long ago regarding Peter’s question: “Behold, we have forsaken everything, so what will happen to us?” But the desire for primacy over others was their own desire, probably strengthened by their mother Salome, who accompanied the Lord from Galilee. Their request was especially offensive to Peter. But on their side they had the fact that the Lord showed special love for John, and that in return they themselves had a fiery love for Him and were zealous for His glory, although not always according to His spirit: meanwhile, Peter once had the misfortune of being called Satan by the Lord, and forgetting the dignity of his Lord, subjected Him to a common tribute. - Be that as it may, this desire lacked humility, the correct concept of the kingdom of Christ. Hearing their request, the Lord first of all said: can they drink the cup that He Himself intends to drink and be baptized with the baptism with which He Himself is baptized? – The students answered with determination that they could. (Their answer shows that at this time, before the onset of the Lord’s suffering, they did not completely reject the thought of the Messiah’s suffering in order to enter into His glory. It was a different matter later, when troubled circumstances transformed everything in their souls). “Okay,” answered the Lord, this is what you will receive. What I now have in my hands, that is what I give to you; but it is not in My power to appoint thrones. - However, this is not all over. Having learned about the petition of the sons of Zebedee, the other apostles expressed displeasure against them. Then the Lord, calling everyone to Himself, declared to them that in His kingdom there should not be such predominance and domination as is seen in earthly kingdoms, that the highest with Him is not the one whom everyone serves, but the one who himself serves everyone, that only by this measure of humility and love can one approach Him, be at His right hand and His left; since He Himself came to earth not in order to demand services from people, but to serve people, and, the Lord added, (remembering what He had previously told the sons of Zebedee about the cup of suffering and the baptism of fire), to give His soul for the deliverance (λύτροτ) of many. In a word, the same thing happened here as happened recently in Galilee. There after the first experimental knowledge of the kingdom of glory, here before its expected full revelation. Healing of Blind Bartimaeus Accompanied by crowds, the Lord and His disciples had to pass through Jericho, which was about six hours from Jerusalem. When they approached this city, a voice was heard: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me! It was the voice of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. The petitioner directly appealed to the great title of the passing Jesus: Son of David, Messiah. The people, reasoning about the greatness of the Messiah in their own way, completely different from how He was now speaking to His disciples, forbade the blind beggar to bother Him with his annoying request. However, he did not stop shouting: Son of David, have pity on me. Finally Jesus stopped, ordered him to be brought to Himself and, asking what he needed, gave him insight. Another experience of His condescension in the same city He showed, to the surprise of many, to one of the publicans, although rich, but in the opinion of the whole city a sinful man - Zacchaeus. The Lord purposely called him from the fig tree, from where he looked at the passing Messiah - so that he could be in his house. Zacchaeus was so pleased with such mercy that for the great Visitor he promised to give half of his property to the poor, and to repay any damage done to another fourfold. This was enough to justify why the Lord honored the house of this publican. Drawing attention to this, the Lord said: now is salvation for this house. And why not? Isn’t Zacchaeus the son of Abraham and unworthy (due to his love for the poor) to be the son of Abraham? But this is why the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost (he sought Zacchaeus from the fig tree and spoke to him of salvation in the house). Having revealed the correct view of His act to those who were indignant at Him, and noticing that the closer they are to Jerusalem, the more the thoughts of the people and His disciples are carried away by the idea of ​​​​the opening of His kingdom, the Lord also wanted to give His disciples admonition and, so that it could occupy them more, he deliberately clothed it with a parable. In that parable, he revealed the following thoughts to cool their dreams: that in Jerusalem He would encounter obstacles to the opening of His kingdom; that therefore He will have to leave this city and appear there later in order to overthrow the resistance of His enemies and solemnly open His kingdom; that meanwhile, the apostles should not remain inactive and wait in idleness for the kingdom of the Messiah, when it will open by itself, without any of their labor or assistance, but must work actively for the benefit of this kingdom. This parable, more clearly than others related to it, indicates the Lord’s departure from the earth, His glorification in heaven and His return with judgment over His people for the full revelation of His kingdom. It depicts a rich man going to a distant country, to the court of a strong sovereign, in order to receive from him the right to rule his country and returning from there with the title of king. By the image of this man, the Savior obviously meant Himself, His taking from earth to the kingdom in heaven, coming with judgment over the Jews who rejected Him, who did not want Him to reign over them. To reveal the idea of ​​the need for the apostles’ own activity and, moreover, a long one, the parable said that that rich man, going to the court, distributed a mina to each of his ten slaves for use in circulation; upon his return, depending on the amount of profit, he distributed to each a corresponding number of cities for administration, and deprived one, who had not made any use of his mina, of everything. Events in Bethany before the Lord's entry into Jerusalem On the way from Jericho to Jerusalem, the Lord had to pass by Bethany. Here He paused: meanwhile, crowds of admirers came to Jerusalem and announced there that the hoped-for Messiah was approaching. That day was in all likelihood Saturday: therefore the people remained at peace, since Bethany was located from Jerusalem further than the Sabbath journey (1000 steps). It was six days before Easter. In Bethany, He took supper in the house of Simon, once a leper. Martha, as usual, was busy preparing it. Lazarus, who had risen from the grave, was at the meal. (Why did the Evangelist mention him? Was it to say that he was completely healthy, or to point out this as a feature and simply notice the respect in which this guest from another world enjoyed?) While one sister of Lazarus served the Lord with her orders relating to the meal, the other, Mary, perhaps not having time to thank the Lord for returning her brother to life in due time due to the haste of Jesus’ departure from Bethany, wanted to reward this is an omission now. It was the custom of the Jews to wash their guests’ feet before supper and anoint their heads and feet with perfume; Mary wanted to do this now in honor of her Benefactor. Not expecting what it would cost, she brought a vessel with ointment from nard, the best and most precious, and pouring it on the head and feet of the Lord, as a sign of her humiliation before Him, she wiped them with her hair. Not everyone saw it the same way. It seemed to the disciples that it would be better to sell it for the benefit of the poor. The recent example of Zacchaeus and their constant disposition to help those in need was sufficient motivation for this. But one of these students had another thought with this assumption. This disciple, who carried with him a small cash box from his society, thought to get his hands on the ointment for sale and use the money to distribute to the poor. Caring for the poor was just an excuse: but in fact, he hoped to use something from this amount himself. The Lord, however, defended Mary, rejecting the most plausible reason that the other disciples had, and constantly trying to instill in them the idea of ​​His distance from them, saying that the poor are always with them, but He is not always with them, and added that He accepts this anointing from Mary as a preparatory rite for burial. If they do not spare big expenses for the burial, then there is nothing to regret now. For Me, of course, you will not be so calculating. Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem At the end of the Sabbath rest, people began to come from Jerusalem to Bethany. In Jerusalem, many have already gathered for the holiday with the intention of preparing in the remaining days for its celebration with well-known purifications and rituals. This time, everyone was drawn here by the desire not only to see Jesus, but also to Lazarus and to be convinced on the spot of his resurrection. In the morning new crowds came here from Jerusalem. Finally, the Lord decided to go there Himself. Under such circumstances, His entry into Jerusalem must necessarily have had many peculiarities in contrast to previous examples. The people learned with delight about the intention of the resurrector Lazarev and were ready to accompany Him solemnly, worthy of the Messiah according to their concept. However, the Lord, if he did not want or did not have anything like that in mind, he could easily have avoided such a solemn entrance. He could have entered Jerusalem secretly, with only His disciples, or without them, without even going to Jerusalem in such a dangerous state of affairs. No, He considered it necessary and it cannot even be said that He only took advantage of these circumstances as if they were accidental. On the contrary, this already followed from His previous actions. There was something similar to this in Jericho. Even more, He showed the intentionality of this action in the fact that, despite the closeness of Bethany’s distance from Jerusalem, He ordered the two disciples to go ahead of Him and, while descending from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, in the village of Bethphage, prepare for Him a donkey and a colt. The disciples laid their clothes on them. Jesus sat on a young donkey, which had not yet been used for any work. Obviously, this was in accordance with the prophecy, which in this very form represented the appearance of the Messiah to Jerusalem and, in general, in Him a peaceful and meek king, who deliberately chose this animal for Himself as a symbol of peace, and not as a symbol of warfare (Zechariah 9:9-10). In this position, He became visible to everyone - and this further increased the delight of the people. In a word, all this action on the part of the Savior was the answer for many to the question: Is He the Messiah? After this, there was no doubt that He wanted to show Himself to the people like this. But at the same time, I wanted to be the Messiah not in the popular sense. Therefore, He willingly accepted all joyful expressions of feelings, although His wretched appearance greatly tempered the heat of impatient delight. The people, seeing that the Lord sat on a donkey, took this as a sign of a solemn procession to Jerusalem: loud exclamations began to fill the air: Hosanna, that is, salvation to Him, the Son of David. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest (from Ps. 117:25, which was used at the Passover supper and contained other references to the times of the Messiah). The Pharisees, who intervened in the crowd of people, advised the Lord to stop these shouts with a ban! But the Lord rejected this demand. “I tell you,” He said, “that if these people remain silent, the stones will speak.” By this He meant that the present event contained so much loftiness, so much joy for all mankind, that the coldest, most callous people could not help but feel the impulse to solemn joy. But how little He Himself fed on this popular delight, His tears testified to this when He saw Jerusalem. What sorrow was His heart, full of love and compassion, full of sympathy for human sorrows, when Jerusalem appeared before His eyes, in which He so often called the people to repentance and which must leave the destruction awaiting it for its corruption: “Oh, if only you knew now what serves for your salvation!” He cried out with tears to Jerusalem. “But now it is hidden from your eyes.” While this city thought to triumph with its king, to see itself above all its enemies, the Tsar himself announces to it groaning, ruin, and extermination from its enemies. These walls of the now prosperous city will then be surrounded by troops, trenches, and then destroyed, so that not one stone will be left upon another. These cheerful, triumphant crowds will not then rejoice as they do now: even children will be exterminated! - What is all this for? Was there any need for a more hospitable welcome than Jerusalem was now giving to Jesus the Messiah? “The Lord saw that although the people rejoiced, they rejoiced until they themselves did not know why. And the leaders of the people, completely far from this joy, breathed other feelings towards Him. He already saw that soon this “hosanna” would turn into “crucify Him” and the King of Israel would be hanged on the cross. And tears flowed from His eyes. Entering Jerusalem amid the exclamations of all the people, He who wanted on this day to reveal Himself as the long-desired King entered the church. By entering the church, He revealed His public ministry: He now came here as if to demand an account from the former stewards of His Father’s house, to see what they had done as a result of His first demand, how they had fulfilled their ministry up to this time, and then to determine finally what they should expect for this. The church was then not so much a place of teaching as a judgment seat for His overseers. In the church the Lord again found the same sellers, the same multitude of animals, the same noise and deception, and again drove out the violators of reverence and insulters of the sacred (whether on the same day, as in Matthew, or on the next day, as in Mark, this action will not change in its meaning). At the same time, as a meek and saving King, He did not leave a single sick person without consolation and joy; whoever was in the church and demanded His help, gave healing to everyone by His Divine power. The solemn exclamations did not cease in the church itself; Children took over from the elders and even infants greeted their Savior: Hosanna to the son of David. Everyone was happy: some of the Lord’s enemies were pained to hear these simple-minded expressions of joy. The leaders of the church and people arrogant with their learning suggested to Him that He at least calm down the children who, without meaning, themselves, without knowing what, are screaming and babbling... No, the Lord answered, these are not meaningless screams, but this is an echo of a pure heart, to which you should listen. You who know the Scriptures know what the Psalmist says: from the mouth of a child and of those who piss, you brought praise. The glory of God is so vividly perceptible even for infants that even a child sings an unartificial song to God, but even more so sincere and heartfelt - and with these feelings he shames the opponents of God. The witnesses to this incident, of course, expected more from the events of this day: the complete opening of the kingdom of the Messiah on this day. But the Lord, with this solemn introduction, only fulfilled what was predicted about Him by the prophets and, without abandoning His humble appearance, departed from Jerusalem in the evening. The enemies took heart. Others were waiting to see what would happen next. During the few days that the Son of Man still had on earth, He came to Jerusalem in the morning and worked with the people in the church, and devoted the rest of the time to His disciples, with whom He usually went to Bethany for the night - to see His friends. In the morning, He was going to Jerusalem with his disciples; he felt hungry: he wanted to satisfy it with the fruits of a fig tree, which was visible in the distance. The tree was covered with leaves: therefore one could expect fruit from it even now around Easter 53. But the Lord came up and found nothing but the same leaves that he had seen from afar and placed a curse on her, from which she immediately began to dry up. The action would be inexplicable if it did not contain another meaning, if the curse did not fall on another object truly worthy of the wrath of the Lord. And indeed, so that the disciples would not consider this act to be a consequence of His personal displeasure and impatience alone, the Lord repeated to them the previous instruction that whenever they asked God for anything, they would ask not only with faith, but also in complete reconciliation with all their offenders and enemies. Then, He said, not only such a miracle as the drying up of the fig tree will not be impossible for you, but also something more significant. What does this curse of the innocent fig tree mean? Its correct meaning is revealed by the Lord's parable about the fig tree (Luke 13:6). The fig tree, which had only leaves, was accepted by the Lord as a symbol of the Jewish people, whose piety is all contained in the mere pomp of rituals, which does not produce anything worth attention. So this tree, not corresponding to its purpose, not bearing fruit, finally perishes: so the chosen people, as no longer corresponding to its purpose, must be struck by judgment. This defeat was prepared from afar: now its crisis is coming. In a word, this action of the curse of the fig tree was a parable of God’s judgment on the people of Judah, which the Lord, as assurance of His words, offered in deeds, and not only in words. It then remained unexplained because the secret hidden under it could be too difficult for the students, but would later be revealed. Whether the leaders of the people were worth such a trial will be shown by the following events. Parables of the Lord spoken to denounce the Pharisees and the people The Sanhedrin, having already decided to kill Him, only wanted to somehow give this matter a semblance of justice, looking for an opportunity to accuse Him from a religious or political point of view; wanted to extract something from His words that could give rise to accusations of ecclesiastical wrongdoing or to suspect Him of political principles. Seeing the Lord again in the church, the Sanhedrin immediately, through its appointed members, proposed the question: by what right does He take upon Himself such matters? (One might think that this question related not only to what was done in the church, but to everything that related to His actions as the Messiah). The Lord knew their secret goals and instead of answering them, he offered them a question that was difficult for their insidious policy. Who authorized John to act as he did? Was his calling simply human or divine? If they had said the latter, they should have feared the unfavorable conclusions that could be drawn from their consciousness. But they were afraid to reject this, so as not to arm the common people against themselves, who honored John as a prophet. So they gave an evasive answer: we don’t know, and the Lord considered it fair to answer their question in the same tone. Meanwhile, it was worth answering them sincerely; then, in one way or another, they could be brought to an answer to the question they themselves proposed. Having avoided answering, the Lord drew attention to the very question of why the Sanhedrin is making these interrogations, now to one or the other, now to John, now to Jesus. As if he really wants to know the messengers of God, and does not choose prophets to his liking. He revealed this in a parable, which He Himself explained. One owner had a vineyard, into which He invited his two sons to work; one of them did not promise, but then repented and went; the other promised, but did not go. Which of them did the will of the father? asked the Lord. First, they answered Him. Then the Lord said, “Truly I say to you, publicans and sinners will go before you into the kingdom of God.” John’s sermon: “repent” with a calling into the kingdom of God - announced to all both the imaginary righteous and those recognized by all as sinners: the latter went to his call, although those rejected by all barely considered themselves sons of the kingdom; others, who in words had always been his first servants, were the first to refuse to take part in it in deed. Why this question now? Will the righteous Pharisees, having learned the decisive answer, follow the Son of Man? Having repented, do they recognize themselves as sinners? Not at all; they asked in order to find a pretext for killing Him. With the same tributary speech, the Lord continued to reveal that because of this their stubbornness and evil resistance, not only they, but also the entire people, are being deprived of the honor of first entering the kingdom of the Messiah. A new parable, spoken not only to the Pharisees, but also to the people (Luke 20:9-19), was now borrowed from the helicopter city, to which the Master did not send to work, but having given it to only workers, he sent only to them to collect income, he sent not once, but two and three times; but the evil guards beat some, killed others, and threw stones at others. Then he sent his Son: but they decided to put his Son to death in order to forcibly take possession of the property of their Master; and so they took Him, took Him out of the helicopter city and killed Him. There was no need to explain this parable. Those to whom she belonged understood themselves who these guards were. It was also impossible not to see that the Lord, refusing to answer the question about His right to act as the Messiah, took upon Himself the title of the Son of that Master and thereby distinguished Himself from all the servants who were sent before Him. Only to reinforce the idea of ​​​​the rejection of the chosen people for their stubborn resistance, the Lord quoted the words of the prophet, the psalmist, who long ago predicted how wonderful it would be that those who build them would reject the stone that should have been at the head of the corner, and added that other workers would be found for the grapes of the Lord. Using a comparison taken from the psalm, He revealed the same thought under the image used in the psalm: He who falls on this stone will be crushed, and he who falls on it will erase it (The first contrition is repentance and, as a result, turning to the kingdom of the Messiah, the second contrition is the judgment of God, similar to that seen by Daniel, which occurred from the blow of a stone at the feet of the body (Dan. 2:45 ff. Isa. 8:14–15). But the fault seemed to lie with the leaders of the people alone? The Lord gave an answer to this in the following parable, in which he clearly revealed how all the Jews, invited to the marriage, refused the invitation in a rude and hostile manner; they do not consider it a shame to repeat their refusals to repeated invitations; they don’t even want to hear them, they show obvious contempt for them. The only difference between them is that some, immersed in earthly things, indifferently ignore the preaching of a kingdom that does not satisfy their sensual needs; and others, the hostile Pharisees and their party, clearly curse and even kill the servants of the king who invited them to the supper, i.e., the messengers of God, through whom they were called to the kingdom. Hence the judgment over the people and the city, that is, the extermination of the killers of the prophets and the Lord Himself and the destruction of Jerusalem. And since the citizens of the devastated city can no longer be invited to the wedding supper - to the kingdom of the Messiah - then, after the destruction of the city, the King sends His servants to the crossroads, where many passing people meet. All this was a prophetic indication that after the destruction of Jerusalem and the rejection of the ancient chosen people, new members of the kingdom of God should be chosen from all the peoples who had hitherto remained outside the calling. However, in order not to give rise to the idea that now, at the very least, all sorts of people can take a place at the supper, the Lord supplemented His parable with new circumstances, the meaning of which is briefly expressed in this saying: many are called, but few are chosen. Many, by their external calling, will be members of the kingdom of God - in its external manifestation (the visible church), but will not be elected to actual members of the kingdom of God, due to the lack of the necessary dispositions in them. These are people who came to the wedding supper and sat there in the same dress in which they were captured on the way - without changing their hearts and lives. Answers to questions from the Pharisees and Sadducees This whole conversation, which contained parables containing not so much a teaching as a supreme sentence, still secret to everyone, known to the Lord, presented a clear account of the curse of the fig tree and flowed from the very meeting of the Lord in Jerusalem; it began with the tempting question of the Sanhedrin: by what right do you do this? Not having caught a favorable answer to the accusation of the Lord from the religious side, the Pharisees began to look for other questions - from the political side. The Pharisees and those belonging to the party of Herod Antipas, who were most concerned about maintaining political calm, so as not to give the Romans any reason for unfavorable suspicions, united with each other and together agreed to propose to Jesus a question that would, of necessity, force Him to say something contrary to their religious or political principles. As if wanting to make Him their judge in the dispute, they asked Him: since He speaks the truth, regardless of the importance of the person, would he now decide whether tribute is rightfully paid to Caesar? If He had in any way denied the rightness of this duty; then this would give a reason to present Him to the Roman authorities as a politically dangerous person who would incline the people to apostasy. On the other hand, if He recognized this duty in all its strength, then it would be possible to draw the conclusion from His words that He insults the dignity of the people of God, refuses the right of the Messiah (according to the concept of the people) to grant the Jews dominion over all nations. - But the Lord, before answering, demanded a denarius: whose image and whose name are written on this coin? They could not hide that this was the image and name of Caesar. If this coin is Roman, then you depend on the Romans; when this is the case, then we must obey them - give them tribute; if such a coin was now in circulation among them, then this was an active recognition of political dependence on the Roman Empire; from here the need to fulfill all duties based on this dependence naturally opened up. Drawing such a conclusion, the Lord said nothing more than: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” In these words He made it clear that 1) He does not interfere in their civil affairs, whereas they most expected this from the Messiah; 2) the obligation to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s does not contradict the obligation to render what is God’s to God, but is still based on it; 3) that God must be rendered exactly what is God’s: the whole man, created in the image of God, belongs to God, is God’s, and must be dedicated to Him; on the retribution of God to God, not only is the obligation to render Caesar's to Caesar affirmed (since this obligation also stems from the relationships approved by God), but it also determines the proper boundaries of this obligation. When the Pharisees were brought into silence by such an answer, the opposing party of the Sadducees (from the same Sanhedrin), rejoicing at their shame, immediately asked Him a question from their side regarding the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which they rejected on the basis of the absurd consequences they had drawn. Just as the Lord acted in His denunciations against the Pharisees, so He acted in the present case, uprooting the very root of the opinion they refuted. They pointed to the example of one woman who, according to the law of life, happened to be the wife of seven brothers. He showed the Sadducees that their error stems from the fact that they 1) do not understand Holy Scripture, and 2) do not understand the omnipotence of God. If they had correctly understood at least those books that they admit - not only their letter, but also their spirit: then they would have noticed the necessary connection between the religious teachings contained in them and the belief in the eternal personal existence of man. If we understood the omnipotence of God, we would not assume that the future existence of man is completely similar in its forms and relationships to the present, but would agree that God can bestow on the existence of man a transfigured, glorified form. Then He reveals that the future life must be consistent with the life of the higher spirits. Confirming the first thought, He points to expressions often found in the books of Moses: God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How could God enter into such close relations with people and famous people, give them such high importance and dignity that he was called their God, if these people were only transitory phenomena, and not beings destined for eternity. Since the Lord repelled these temptations, some well-disposed people themselves took His side, and one of them, although he did not recognize Him as the Messiah, but recognized Him as a witness of the truth, asked Him a question not so much in order to find out His thoughts, but in order to testify to their agreement with Him on a matter of no small moral importance. “Teacher,” he asked, “what is the great commandment?” Jesus answered: it all lies in two main commandments: love God above all else, and your neighbor as yourself. The first is a great commandment, the second is a similar commandment. The scribe confirmed this and added that love is higher than any sacrifice. It was clear that this scribe understood what true piety consisted of. The Lord said to him with love: you are not far from the kingdom of God. It is not that this man, by his deeds, has earned participation in the kingdom of the Son of Man, but by working in such a spirit, he can, sooner than others, recognize the necessity of the Redeemer and thus become a member of His kingdom, into which all who labor and are burdened are called. Between these conversations they touched upon the question of the face of the Messiah Himself. The Lord Himself asked the Pharisees who were around him: how is it that David, by the inspiration of the Spirit, calls the Messiah the son of David and at the same time His Lord? Probably this question was proposed by the Lord with the intention of reinforcing from Scripture His teaching about the highest, Divine nature of the Messiah, rejected by blind zealots of the letter - as during the Feast of Tabernacles - and the renewal of the church. But the question remained unanswered. Just as they did not want to answer regarding John, so as not to inevitably contradict themselves, so they did not want to give an answer to the question about the Messiah Himself. The Lord's accusatory speech against the Pharisees and church priests Just as the Lord shunned the vanity of the Pharisees, He did not leave a single opportunity to show His disciples that sincere disposition alone gives value to deeds of piety; it can give great dignity to everyone: without it nothing great can exist. He made this clear now, drawing attention to the offerings of the rich to the poor widow in the corvan of the church. After all this, the Lord left the church with a formidable denunciation against the Pharisees and priests of the church, the perpetrators of the corruption of the people - and with threats of the coming judgment of God. Ending His earthly career, He says that He will continue to act among them through His messengers; but the Pharisees will persecute them too, just like the previous witnesses of the truth, so that by this they will complete the measure of the iniquities of their fathers - and then God’s judgment will be revealed on the wickedness of Jerusalem. Pointing to the future, He solemnly said: Behold, I am sending to you (once again) prophets, wise men and scribes, and some you will kill and crucify (Simeon, brother of the Lord, Evs. 10:32), others you will scourge in your synagogues and drive from city to city. This will complete the measure of the iniquities of your fathers and all the blood of the righteous, shed in ancient times, will fall on you (the limits of vengeance are the first and last persons according to the books of the Old Testament, innocently killed). The Lord concluded this accusatory speech with words filled with deep sorrow for Jerusalem, justified and justified until now from the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and having to be fully justified only with the final judgment: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to you! How many times have I wanted to gather your chicks under My wings, but you did not want to. Now I am leaving your house empty - I am leaving - you will not see Me until you exclaim: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Here He no doubt indicated the final revelation of His royal majesty. This threat fell especially hard on the hearts of the disciples who believed in its fulfillment, but felt sorry for Jerusalem and did not understand how to reconcile this with their ideas about the kingdom of the Messiah. When they left the church and the Lord heard from His disciples a remark about the splendor of the church, which was especially visible from the Mount of Olives, where they were going, then He revealed to them that of all this splendor and splendor nothing would remain in the coming destruction. The disciples wanted to know something more detailed about this, and when they were left alone with Him on the Mount of Olives, they asked Him the question of the time when this terrible revolution would follow. And since those who had not yet seen the opening of the kingdom of the Messiah, as they wished and expected, did not see any signs of the end of the order of things that existed and which, according to the concepts of the Jews, had to completely change with the advent of the kingdom of the Messiah, they asked together: by what signs can one determine when His kingdom will open and the end of the world will come? His conversation with his disciples about the destruction of Jerusalem and His coming to judgment Neither the needs of the disciples nor their present condition required that the entire course of the matter connected with the manifestation of His kingdom be revealed to them. Therefore, the Lord revealed the future to them only to the extent that it was necessary to destroy their false opinions and to warn against the temptations of the coming times, and through them to warn other believers. “He will go to His Father; instead of Him, other people will appear here and here under His name. Don't believe it; This is not how he should appear on earth now. - Wars will begin - and this is not the end of the world. Wars will spread everywhere, plagues, famines, earthquakes will come: all this is still the beginning of diseases (be patient). The fate of the Lord’s disciples (whoever they may be) will be especially difficult: murder, hatred, betrayal, temptation - everything threatens them. Truth and love even between them will become scarce. All this will mean the approach of death. But it will come when the Gospel is preached to all creation (Matthew 24:4–14). Having depicted a number of formidable phenomena in such terms, the Lord focused especially on the upcoming appearance of God’s terrible judgment, on what will happen to Jerusalem. “As for Jerusalem,” He said, the nearness of its destruction is undeniable when, according to the word of St. Daniel, the abomination of desolation will appear in the holy place. Then, whoever wants to be saved from destruction, flee immediately from Judea. Those who remain here will be subjected to such sorrow as they have not experienced since the beginning of the world. Then there will be their false messiahs, but don’t believe them. The Son of Man will appear as lightning, not in any specific place or form, but as the judgment of God (Matthew 24:15–28). He will appear in full revelation of His glory when the world ends (29–31). Now the signs of the onset of one or another era are noticed in the events themselves, and just as, looking at a fig tree by the softness of its branches and the appearance of its leaves, one can judge the proximity of summer, so by the indicated signs of those events one can judge the proximity of one or another phenomenon. As for Jerusalem, the Lord was pleased to say even more definitely that this generation will not pass away until everything that has now been said about Jerusalem is fulfilled. My words are more immutable than heaven and earth. – But it is impossible to determine either the day or the hour when exactly this will happen (32–36). Having dwelled on this, the Lord tried with special force to reveal to the disciples how necessary vigilance, activity, and fidelity were on their part under such circumstances. So watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. You remain the masters of the house without Me: the master of the house is always vigilant, because every hour he may fear that a thief will come and undermine his house. Or better - your position, after My removal, is the position of slaves to whom the master entrusted the house during his absence. What will it be like for a slave if his master finds him randomly squandering his property: and how, on the contrary, blessed is the steward of the house, if the master does not hear complaints from anyone about him, everyone will be happy with him (42-51). You have to be active in your own time. When the Son of Man comes, then it will be too late to worry about what needs to be prepared for His coming. Do not be like the virgins, be like the wise virgins (25:1-12). We should not neglect even a small talent. It is punished not only for loss, but also for not using it in business, for not increasing even a single talent (13-30). In conclusion, the Lord added that when He comes in His glory, then He will not leave without reward a single good deed in His name, no matter how low and insignificant the people to whom it was done. He Himself accepts every good deed in their person, and on the other hand He will not leave without judgment punishment those who, due to arrogance and hardness of heart, would not want to know any human needs, thinking only about satisfying their needs. For the former, the reward will be eternal bliss; for the latter, the punishment is eternal torment with the devil in fiery Gehenna (31–46). The desire of the Greeks to see I. Christ and His prayer to God the Father Among the numerous crowds of visitors to Jerusalem who gathered for the holiday, there were also pagans who professed faith in the true God and at certain times came to the temple to make sacrifices and prayers, probably proselytes of the gates. The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and His other actions forced them to pay special attention to Him. In His word their soul could find satisfaction. They wanted to know Him personally, but did not dare to contact Him directly and asked one of the disciples (Philip) to introduce them to their Mentor. In this experience, the Lord saw an omen of the great consequences that should occur for humanity from His suffering in relation to the moral transformation of the human race, to the spread of the Church of God. “The time has come for the glorification of the Son of Man,” He said. The Son of Man is glorified in heaven, He is raised to glory by His sufferings, He is glorified on earth, acquiring His followers among the pagans through His actions.” From here he moves on to the idea of ​​the necessity of His death in order for glorification to truly take place. Just as a seed remains alone until it is thrown into the ground, but when it dies, it bears great fruit: so is Divine life. All the spiritual benefits that He brought with Him, as long as He remains in His present earthly image, are contained only in Him alone. But when this earthly shell, in which the Divine life is contained, is revealed, then this life can be more conveniently communicated to many. Here was the idea that just as He enters into glory through suffering, so His disciples should not expect some earthly glorious kingdom for themselves, but only in the same way can they rise to the dignity destined for them, as He Himself is - through suffering and self-sacrifice. Whoever values ​​his earthly life for the highest good and wants to keep it with him forever will lose it; and whoever puts his life at nothing for the kingdom of God will become a participant in true eternal life. Having indicated these consequences, the Lord added: whoever serves Me, follow Me. And where I am, there will my servant also be. But with the imagination of the glory that would follow suffering, confusion and sorrow involuntarily arose in the soul of the God-man. Jesus the righteous must suffer! But He did not ask the Heavenly Father to deliver Him from this mortal struggle. With full consciousness He looked at this hour of struggle, as a necessary transition to the end of His work, and all His feelings and desires were concentrated in one thing, so that His suffering would serve the glory of His Father. And when the Lord uttered this prayer of secret sacrifice, those who had a heart capable of receiving the saint heard a voice from heaven, which sealed this prayer; I have glorified My name through You and will again be glorified through You. Already the entire earthly life of Jesus up to this time has served to glorify the name of God; and His sufferings and their consequences should even more serve to glorify God the Father - the very foundation of the kingdom of God. He Himself had no need for this voice, therefore He said: “This voice was not for Me, but for the people,” and explained how God would still be glorified through Him; His death is not the destruction of His work, but His triumph. In the accomplishment of His work lies the sentence of condemnation for the world - for everything that is not from God. The kingdom of evil is shaking. Satan is cast down from his throne of dominion over the human race: the pagans themselves begin to turn from the realm of Satan to God, and when I ascend from the earth, He added, then I will draw everyone to Me. Finally, the Lord concluded His public activity with warning words to the people: “Remember while there is still time; The Divine light will not remain between you for long: use this short time to position yourself to accept the light of God with faith; try to become sons of light, so that, having become alienated from the light, you do not plunge forever into darkness and uncontrollably go to your destruction.” Consideration of the issue of Judas's motivation to betray his Master to the Jews Now we must turn to the dark works of darkness, from which the Savior of the Jews warned - to the evil councils of the Jews against Jesus. Here the first attention should be paid to the disciple who served as an instrument for the fulfillment of the evil intentions of the Jews. What motive did this unfortunate disciple have when he handed over his Master to be sacrificed to the Jews? This question is not easy to resolve. How, in fact, could a disciple, numbered among the apostles, who could daily experience the impressions of the Divine power operating in Jesus Christ, a witness of the works of His power, who had so many experiences of His love, decide to take such a terrible step, such wickedness? Without a doubt, he joined the company of disciples, not having at the beginning the intention of betraying Jesus, but with the same sincere affection as the other apostles. Of course, the Lord also saw in him capable of being worthy of an apostle: otherwise He would not have allowed him into close communication with Himself, and would not have treated him like the other apostles. This does not exclude the possibility that there were, however, bad traits in the character of Judas as well as good ones, and, without a doubt, the Lord saw these seeds of evil as much as the beginnings of good: only the struggle between evil and good had not yet been resolved and one could hope that good would prevail over evil. The question arises: what was the prevailing evil disposition in Judas, from which the betrayal arose? Looking for historical indications for resolving this issue, it is natural to first of all pay attention to the love of money; The Evangelist John notes that Judas had with him a cash box in which a small fund of the Lord’s disciples was kept and that he was not faithful in fulfilling his duty, but used the amount secretly for his own enrichment. This remark is well consistent with the fact that, according to the unanimous testimony of the first three Evangelists, Judas agreed to betray his Teacher to the Sanhedrin for a certain sum. Based on this consideration, we could conclude that this greed of self-interest increased in him to such an extent that in order to satisfy it he was not afraid of such an atrocity. But it is difficult to agree with this assumption. If in Judas greed had prevailed over everything to such an extent, then it seems incredible that the Lord would accept such a person as one of His disciples. Penetrating so deeply into the innermost feelings of everyone and knowing how to use everyone for something in which someone can be more useful: how did He allow such a person to manage the cash register? And if Judas betrayed his Teacher to the Jews solely out of love of money, then it is difficult to explain why he was satisfied with such a small amount as thirty sakleys, or pieces of silver. One might think that the Sanhedrin, having in mind to capture whoever it wanted before the start of Easter, would not have been stingy in giving more if Judas had demanded it. Is it possible to assume that the Sanhedrin was stingy, either because it had in mind other ways to capture the Lord, not agreeing to give Judas more, or was counting on the nature of the actions of the Lord Himself, that He would not use any crowd of people for His protection. Be that as it may, such a small amount could not be the only motivation for such an action by Judas. And whether the amount was small or large, in any case it must be assumed that the person who enjoyed closeness to his teacher and at least considered Him the Messiah for some time, for quite some time should have been in different internal relations to Him than before, or than the other disciples. Thus, it may turn out that love of money was not the main motivation for betrayal. And did Judas really foresee the outcome of the matter? His unnatural death, this laying on of hands on himself when he saw that Jesus was condemned to death, apparently gives the right to conclude that Judas did not count on this. There is an assumption that Judas intended to speed up the course of the matter: by putting Jesus in a dangerous position, he thought to force Him to immediately declare Himself the Messiah King or to use Divine power to triumph over all obstacles. And because the matter took a completely different turn, Judas, seeing that the One to whom his heart was once devoted had been condemned, fell into such despair. This type of action cannot but be called criminal. The goal does not sanctify immoral means. And is it possible to treat the affairs of God this way! What to think about this assumption? If Judas had followed such views, albeit illegal, then of course the Lord Himself would not have allowed him to be carried away by such a dream to the point of blindness. Also: having made such an assumption, it is impossible to agree that the Lord, noticing Judas’s intention to leave the supper, told him such words as are given by the Evangelist. They would be directly taken as approval: if you do it, do it soon. It seems necessary to admit that Judas, like the other apostles, came to the Lord with earthly views, with sensual hopes. But then, soon becoming disillusioned with them, he generally lost interest in the business that he had become interested in at the beginning. Even a year before His death, the Lord, after a famous conversation in the synagogue of Capernaum, when many left Him, noticed to the disciples that there was a devil among them, meaning Judas. Of course, Peter was also told: follow me, Satan; You do not think that the essence of God is human, but human (Matthew 16:2-3). But Peter's heart easily inclined to repentance. Judas's heart was hard. Separated from the society of Jesus, connected with him only by earthly interests, Judas had long ceased to be His disciple and was only waiting for an opportunity to plausibly leave Him behind. The Lord tolerated him with Him, partly in the intention of influencing his soul, partly because He foresaw His fate connected with his person (Jesus knew from time immemorial who his betrayer was. John 6:64). It remains to consider the events of the last time of the Lord’s ministry. From the time the resurrection of Lazarus began to attract the attention of the people, the intention of the Sanhedrin - to destroy Jesus - was firmly established. They only disagreed on how to implement it: they wanted to determine it, depending on the circumstances. It was still unknown then whether He would come to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, contrary to the expectations of the Sanhedrin, Jesus not only appeared in Jerusalem publicly, in view of enemies threatening Him with death, but also entered it with such solemnity as never before. The dominant party of the Pharisees was already repenting that they had allowed the matter to go so far: “look, the Pharisees said to each other, all your conferences lead to nothing, all the people have become attached to Him, what now remains to be done (John 12:19)”? And they began to think about how to take Jesus by cunning and kill him (Matthew 26:4): it is unknown whether by the hand of a secret traitor, of which there were many at that time: or then a plan had already been drawn up - by cunning to capture Him into their own hands and put Him to a shameful death under a legal pretext. But it had already been decided that it would not be done on the holiday itself, but either after the holiday or before it. The latter was more liked and was chosen by everyone when one of the Lord’s disciples, Judas Iscariot, offered them his services (Matthew 26:14–16; Luke 22:3–6). They agreed on a price with him and he promised them to betray his Mentor and Lord. While the other disciples did not know any of this, all this was revealed to the Lord and He calmly waited for His hour to come. He foresaw that he would leave His disciples before the expected holiday came and therefore wanted to give special meaning to His last supper with them, to put it in line with the Passover Jewish supper or, better, to replace the Old Testament supper with the Christian New Testament supper. On the thirteenth day of Nizan He was probably in Bethany in order to fully devote his last hours to His disciples. But on the morning of that day he sent Peter and John to Jerusalem to announce to the owner of that house where the Lord intended to celebrate this last supper about this intention and to prepare what was needed for Easter. Sending two of His most faithful disciples, He did not announce to them the name of his master, probably so that Judas would not recognize him and hand him over to the high priests. The Lord needed this supper to be celebrated in undisturbed silence. Before evening, the Lord comes to this house with all His disciples, and when the time has come, he opens the supper, probably according to the usual Easter rituals. “I greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before My suffering,” were His first words. I will no longer eat it until the true Passover comes with the full revelation of the kingdom of God (until they pass away, πληρωϑή, i.e. το πάσχα (Luke 22:15–16). Then, as usual, giving thanks to His Father, who delivered His people from the work of Egypt with a strong hand and a high arm - over a cup of wine - he gave this cup to the disciples, ordered them to share it among themselves, and again noted that He would not drink from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes (Luke 17-18). By Easter the kingdom of the Messiah must be revealed. The thought of the nearness of the revelation of the kingdom again aroused impatient dreams in the disciples; again a question and dispute arose between them about who is greater between them? The Lord reminded them of His instructions about the difference between His kingdom and all earthly kingdoms. But so that the disciples would not fall into the other extreme, into despondency, he added: “Because you remained with Me in My temptations, I bequeath to you a kingdom, just as My Father bequeathed a kingdom to Me.” And combining the thought of the “New Passover” supper, which He Himself revealed before this, with the thought of the thrones that they desired, he again promised them both, only without a doubt in the same sense as before. May you eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:24–30). To strengthen the instruction by example, the Lord changed from being a recliner to serving (Luke 22:27). After the first cup, the Jews followed by washing their hands in preparation for eating the lamb. A ritual not prescribed by law, based on concepts of desecration. The Lord refuted this superstitious opinion before: he hardly followed the custom in the present case. Instead, in accordance with His purpose: to teach a lesson in humility to His disciples, He offered to wash not their hands, but their feet, and getting up from supper, taking off His outer clothing and girding with a towel, poured water into the laver prepared for washing the hands, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel. Seeing the Divine Mentor in such a position was strange for everyone, painful, and incompatible with the feeling of respect and reverence with which they were accustomed to looking at Him. However, with such respect, no one dared to object to the fulfillment of His will. Only the fiery, determined Peter could not suppress this excitement within himself. And even when the Lord, after the first denial, pointed out to him that he did not yet understand the meaning of this action, but would understand it later, his resistance was not yet defeated. After this, the Lord made a stronger remark against Peter’s self-will: “If I do not wash you, you will have no part with Me”; this expresses the demand for complete renunciation of one’s will, surrendering oneself to the will of Christ, as a necessary condition for true spiritual communion with Him; Peter, frightened by such a threat, says: “If so, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head (i.e., everything). This is not necessary, the Lord objected, just as it is not necessary for someone who has washed himself in the bathhouse to return to his home to wash himself again, but only to wash his feet in order to wipe off the dust clinging to them. (In whom the main and essential things have already been cleansed - his heart by faith and complete devotion to the word of truth, he has no need for new cleansing from the impurities of sin.) So you too are clean. But since this could not be said about Judas, he added: but not all. Having completed this work of humility, the Lord again reclined at supper with His disciples and explained to them the intention of this act. “If I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, so should you also wash one another’s feet... and blessed are you when you do this.” But the thought of Judas again forced Him to add: blessed are you, but I’m not talking about all of you. I know who I chose. – However, in this case, the word of Scripture is not violated, but fulfilled; It is said: He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me. Jesus repeated such hints with the intention that the disciples would not waver in their faith when one of them became an instrument of betrayal, and would not think that their Teacher Himself was being deceived in them. The Lord explained this reason, perhaps in order to awaken the conscience of Judas. But when the Son of Man imagined to Himself how one of these very disciples, who enjoyed His special love, would deny Him and become an instrument of His enemies, this thought also troubled His spirit. He said more clearly: one of you will betray Me (John 13:21). This discovery left everyone in amazement: how could there be a traitor from among them? Who is this traitor? The Lord continued: However, the Son of Man departs, as it is written about Him. - But, He added, woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed: it would have been better for that man not to have been born (Matthew 26:21-24). The disciples became despondent, looked at each other, everyone asked: was it me? The Lord was silent. But when Peter gave a sign to John to ask the Lord about this, John, who occupied such a place that he could lean on the Savior’s chest and speak quietly with Him: then the Lord answered him (also quietly): this is the one whose turn it is now to receive from Me a piece of lamb (and not bread, as in the glorious translation of the Gospel of John), dipped in a dish, and gave it to Judas. Confused by Jesus’ secret conversation with John, Judas himself insolently asked: “Isn’t it me?” The Lord answered: you said. – After this, they should have expected that Judas’s conscience would awaken and restrain him from fulfilling his hellish intention; or he should have rather left this society and taken the last step towards crime. He rose from his place and the Lord only told him as a parting word: whatever you are doing, do it quickly. These words were not a command; on the contrary, they could produce a beneficial revolution in a soul capable of receiving the best impressions. But since Judas once decided on a task, since this task constantly occupied him and his intention was already almost complete, the Lord only discovered that He Himself was already ready for everything that should happen. When Judas withdrew to announce to the Sanhedrin how he had contrived to deliver Jesus into his hands, the death of Jesus was already decided. In this sense, after the removal of Judas 54, Jesus solemnly said: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” Now the Son of Man brings His life to the glory of God the Father, and God the Father will not abandon Him, He will glorify Him. If God was glorified in Him; then God will glorify Him also in Himself (in Himself έν έαυτώ) and will soon glorify Him” (John 13:31–32). Establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist Concluding this Easter supper, the Lord again noted that He strongly desired to celebrate this last Easter supper with His disciples - and now He will no longer drink from the fruit of the vine until He drinks new wine in the kingdom of His Father. Then, as a guarantee of the establishment of the New Testament, which was to be concluded by the shedding of the Redeemer’s own blood, as a guarantee of His constant communication with His disciples and with all believers, the Lord offered a new wonderful supper. He took the round bread, gave thanks to the Father over it and, breaking it into pieces, distributed these particles to the disciples, saying: Take, eat: this is My body. Then, also blessing, he handed over a cup of wine, saying: drink of it, all of you, this is My blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission of sins. And having taught, he commanded: do this in remembrance of Me. The apostles now partook of true meat and true beer, which give the one who partakes eternal life in communion with the Son of God, and which the Lord promised to give to everyone while talking in the synagogue of Capernaum. Of course, now, as then, the depth of this mystery remained incomprehensible to their minds, still not free from Jewish concepts. But the Lord left the revelation of this to the future tense. Meanwhile, having given them in communion the guarantee of His everlasting union with them, He resumed His conversation with them, speaking as the establisher of the New Testament, bidding farewell to them as a Father with his children. Farewell conversation of the Lord with the disciples “My children,” He said, “I will be with you a little longer and then you will look for Me. But as I said to the Jews: Where I go, you cannot go; I say so to you now (although not in the same sense). Establishing the New Testament, (saying goodbye), I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. The Lord called this commandment a new, characteristic commandment of the New Testament, the establishment of which included the supper established by Him, and which He was preparing to conclude with His sufferings. Although in the Old Testament there was a commandment - to love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself; but this commandment became new from the time the Lord showed in Himself an example of love sacrificing itself for the salvation of the brethren; she must be the soul of the new society, the new church. “Therefore everyone will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” What struck the disciples most and what made a deeper impression on them were His words about His separation from them. Peter asked Him in confusion: “Where are You going, Lord?” Jesus, in response, explained to him some of His words: “Where I am going, you cannot go there now, but later, the Lord added, you will go, indicating by this that he will one day receive the strength to imitate Him in suffering, which he does not yet have. Brave, ready for quick self-sacrifice, Peter was dissatisfied with this consolation in the future. Not realizing his powerlessness, he wanted to follow Him now, thinking that he had the strength to do so: “I will give my life for You, Lord,” he said. Then the Lord predicted that he would deny Him three times before the alector proclaimed, that is, before midnight. The heart knower knew this weak side of Peter, knew what would happen in a few hours with this burning jealousy: “Will you lay down your life for Me? and now? “There is little time left until midnight: and by this time you will have time to deny Me three times.” But, Jesus continued, now is a special time - temptations are not like they were before - the time of the dark area is coming. Satan asks to sift you like wheat, that is, he would like not only to kill Me, but also to scatter your society in different directions and thereby destroy My entire work. “However, the Savior added, I prayed for you, Simon, and I entrust you, brethren, if you (after renunciation) turn, establish it. Yes, now, I repeat, is a special time. - When I sent you without a bag and without a scrip and without boots, did you lack anything? “No, nothing!” “But now, whoever has a bag, take it, and also a bag (for supplies that used to be found everywhere); and whoever does not have it, sell your clothes and buy a knife. (The Lord did not speak about a change in the way of acting, but wanted to express by this a change in the attitude towards the disciples of other people: before, everything was provided to them by those to whom they preached; now they themselves will need to take care of clothing and food, and even the safety of life. This reason lay in the opinion of Him no longer as a Messiah, but as a villain). “I tell you,” the Lord added, “this word of Scripture must also be fulfilled in Me: I am numbered among the evildoers.” What is predicted about Me is coming to an end. The disciples did not understand this tributary speech and the Savior stopped it. He chose the other side in order to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen and to put them in the proper position so that they could somehow resist the coming temptation. “Do not be embarrassed,” He said, “believe in God and in Me.” First of all, it was necessary that they preserve their faith and trust in Him, as one who came from the Father, during a terrible revolution. “I am not going to another place, but to the Father, and to prepare a place for you too.” If it were not so, I would have told you. Why don't I take you? it is not because the Father has no mansions. No, he has many abodes. I'm going to prepare them for you, as a friend does for friends. And when I have prepared, I will come for you and take you with Me, so that you will be where I am. - I will prepare, that is, I will give the time and way, through My service, through My faithfulness, to prepare for the inheritance of the kingdom. “So now you know where I am going, and how you can come to Me,” the Lord added, wanting them to express what was in their hearts in order to resolve their perplexities. But since the apostles were always far from the thought of the death of the Messiah and rather thought about some miraculous taking from the earth, rather than about what the Lord understood, Thomas, more accustomed than others to stick to the obvious, could not resist saying: no, Lord, we do not know where You are going and therefore how can we know the way to You? In His answer, the Lord changes the relationship of these concepts, making it clear that it is not a question of a sensual encounter with Him, but of a spiritual approach to Him and union with Him and the Father. “If you knew the way, you would know where I am going. And you should know the way. If we understood Him, our leader, better, we would understand everything else more correctly. I am the way, the truth and the belly. Any other path is not true. Truth and life are in Me. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” “Now you know Him and see Him,” Jesus added, forcing with these words to turn a more attentive gaze to Him. But Thomas was not one of the apostles to whom this still had to be explained. Taking advantage of the frankness of the Lord, who speaks so tenderly, another of the disciples, Philip, with the same simplicity declares his only desire - to see the Father. It is noticeable that He was thinking specifically about the Heavenly Father. Only he wanted to see Him sensually. This was enough for bliss. “Lord, show us the Father!” - this is no longer a question, but a child’s request: Philip himself did not understand what he was asking, but he wanted to reveal his heartfelt desire to the Lord. The Lord, with a gentle reproach, less severe than to Thomas, looks at Philip and says to the disciple: for so long, Philip, I have been with you - (and Philip joined Him at the beginning of Jesus' ministry) - for so long - and you still do not know Me! Then, turning his speech not to Philip alone, but to everyone, he continues: believe Me, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, and if this is not enough, believe Me according to My works themselves. These things will not stop with His removal. Whoever believes in Him can do even greater things. They already had this power, but this power was small compared to the power of Jesus. Jesus, offering them consolation, says that from the Father, to whom He is going, He will ask for the power to perform miracles greater than those He Himself performed, such as the conversion of entire nations. This is not enough. If they faithfully follow His commandments, then when He is with the Father in heaven, through Him they can ask the Father for everything. The Lord promised them to send another Helper, already known to them, who would never leave them like Jesus. I myself, He tells them, will come to you. I will not leave you orphans. A little more time - and the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me again. Do not be afraid: I live and you will live. This is what He told them about His appearance after the resurrection. “Now there are many things in My words that are incomprehensible to you: but on that day (unspecified time in the sacred language) you will understand that I am in the Father and the Father in Me and I in you.” There will be a time when this inner union with Me and with the Father will open in you and you will feel it differently than you do now. (It opened on the day of Pentecost.) “Jesus added to every soul that loves Me, I will let Him know Myself. This way you won't be alone." Here one listener could not resist asking Him: Why, Lord, won’t You reveal Yourself to the world? Why don’t You want to reveal Yourself to everyone as the Messiah? Should the Messiah appear before his disciples alone? You need everyone to see you! What was the response to this speech? How many times has the Lord repeated to both disciples and non-disciples that He is the Messiah not according to Jewish concepts. It remained for the coming events and the Comforter Spirit to destroy this image of the Messiah created in the disciples of Jesus. The Lord did not now refute this thought, but repeated what he had said before only with even greater force: “I and the Father can only come to the one who loves Me.” To this, the Lord also noted that the word that the disciples heard (now) was not based on His own will. This is the word of Him who sent Him. This means that this is certainly how it should be. - And he concluded: I just needed to tell you this. And the Comforter Spirit will reveal everything to you more fully; He will also remember to you what I said. After this, as if wanting to end the conversation, He returns to its beginning in order to reinforce them again with a farewell greeting. “I leave peace to you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, about which you think so much.” Not that world, not those false soothing dreams that are taken from the world, which are based on the worldly concept of the Messiah and His kingdom. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And just as in the beginning it was said that His glorification from the Father would soon await Him, so now, turning to this, the Lord wants to incite them with His very love so that they do not grieve. “You have heard that I said to you: I am coming and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said: I am going to the Father. For My Father is greater than Me. Glorification awaits Me with Him. Get up, let's get out of here." The disciples stood up... But the gloomy predictions weighed heavily on them. They don't walk, they draw closer to Jesus. They want to see more of Him. And Jesus begins to speak to them again. There was still a lot left to talk about with them. He especially draws attention to two subjects: firstly, to the fact that the relationship in which they had hitherto existed, while He apparently remained with them, must continue in the future with the only difference that instead of an external union with Him, they will be united by an internal union. Secondly, he calls them from now on to be an active organ in the spread of His kingdom, which is possible for them only with this constant internal communication with Him. To make this clearer to them, He uses the parable of the grapes. The Father is the vinedresser, Jesus is the vine, the disciples are the branches. Just as from a vine the fruitful sap spreads through all the branches, and the branches can bear fruit only by this participation in the productive force flowing into them: so His disciples can only receive Divine life from inseparable communication with Him, which will make them capable of everything that needs to be done for the kingdom of God. Just as a branch, broken off from a vine, deprived of its fruitful power, dries up: so His disciples can blossom only in continuous communion with Him. But just as the participation of the branches in the fruitful sap flowing to them from the vine should be revealed in an abundance of fruits, so the disciples should express their participation in the Divine life by acting in favor of the kingdom of God. Just as a vinedresser prunes those branches that, without bearing fruit, only waste the vitality of the vine, so those who do not manifest the power of Divine life in action must be excluded from the kingdom of God; and in which its lack already testifies that they are not truly imbued with Divine life, no traces. Their communication with Christ is only visible. But just as fruitful branches constantly need the care of the vinedresser - they must be pruned, cleared of bad growths, of everything that hinders the development of vitality in them: so the disciples, who are in direct communion with Christ and have accepted His Divine life into themselves, still need to be cleansed from everything alien that remains with them from their previous concepts, which prevents the revelation in them Divine life and does not allow it to manifest itself in activities corresponding to it. Only by this action in communication with Him can they testify that they are truly His disciples. – Their constant communication with Him should be revealed in the observance of His commandments, which He again concludes in one commandment of love, the same love for each other that He has for them, giving His life for them. - Since He has now revealed to them all the advice of the Father about the salvation of the world and calls them with full consciousness to devote themselves to being instruments in the fulfillment of this will of the Father; then he ceases to consider them slaves and calls them his friends. United by love, they must wage a common struggle against a world alienated from the kingdom of God. He predicts to them the persecution awaiting them. Their struggle with everything existing on earth is open before them, which Christianity must open and wage. But in this struggle He promised them the help of the Holy Spirit. Everything that is needed to spread the church of God, He will accomplish all this through them. The Lord briefly concludes His actions in the world that the Holy Spirit will bring the world to the consciousness of its sins and will reveal in this the reason for its unbelief: then He will force the world to admit that Jesus did not die as a sinner for His sins, but that He died as a Holy One, and as a Holy One ascended to His Father in heaven; in His death and subsequent ascension to heaven, His holiness was fully revealed - will finally prove to the world that his prince is condemned, weakened, overthrown from his throne; in the place of his kingdom the kingdom of God will be established. (This is the whole essence of Christianity: - in the consciousness of sin, - in the recognition of the Lord Christ as the Redeemer from sin, and in triumph over the enemy - the source of all evil). But there was still a lot left to tell the disciples, things that they did not quite understand at the time: meanwhile, the Lord soon intended to leave them. Therefore, He promises that everything He said will be revealed and explained, everything they need will be communicated to them by the Holy Spirit, Whom He will send down to them from the Father. He will not announce anything new to them, but will only reveal the full meaning of His teaching, He will glorify Him in them. From the communication of the Spirit He passes again to His own communication with them. “A little more time and you will not see Me; and then a little more - and you will see Me again: because I am going to the Father (that is, this is the way for Me to glorify the Father). The bewilderment of the disciples, who tried to comprehend the meaning of His words from their sensual point of view, gave reason to reveal this more. He compared their present sorrow with the torment of a wife preceding birth: after this transitory sorrow, a new spiritual birth will open in them. Now they are overwhelmed with sorrow, but He will see them again, and they will be filled with joy, and their joy will be everlasting. Then they will no longer have a need for His sensory presence to ask for an explanation of something dark for them, as they now have a need to ask Him, because then the Father Himself will give them everything that they ask in the name of Jesus Christ (that is, not personally through someone, but internally through the revelation of God). Hitherto they have not asked the Father for anything in the name of Christ: then they will ask and receive everything. Then He will not speak secretly about the Father, as before, but will clearly tell them everything about the Father. He did not even say that He Himself would ask the Father for them: they can be confident in the Father’s love for them and can turn to Him with prayer in the name of Christ: “I have come from the Father, the Lord concluded, and have come into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father.” After all this, the faith of the disciples was somewhat strengthened; they were aware of the powerful power of the words of their Mentor: it seemed to them that they now understood Him more correctly, although this was only a consequence of the living impression on them of the words of the Lord, and not a clear consciousness of their justice and understanding of them: but nevertheless, deceiving themselves, they presented to Jesus: now You speak directly and do not speak any parables (these words themselves are already a clear consequence of a misunderstanding). Now we believe that You came from God. But the Lord told them not to trust this momentary sensation too much; this faith of theirs will soon fall under the strong oppression of other sensations. They will leave Him alone - this is the One in whom they now believe, as they themselves say. “But I am not alone,” added the Lord, “the Father is with me.” And how everything He said to them tended to reveal to them a source of consolation in the upcoming struggle with the world; So He concluded his conversation with these words, which briefly summed it all up: “I have spoken these things to you, so that you may have peace in Me (in fellowship with Me). In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart, I have overcome the world.” The Lord ended His last conversation with his disciples with prayer: with the same prayer He prepared Himself for separation from them and for His final feat. What He spoke about with the disciples for the last time was the content of His prayer. Seeing that he has already accomplished His work on earth, glorifying the Father among men with His teaching and miracles, He now asks the Heavenly Father to take Him to heaven and glorify Him. The purpose of such a desire was not selfish; it consisted of a) glorifying the same Father (to complete His efforts to glorify the Father) and b) communicating to people a blessed life in God. “Glorify Your Son, that Your Son, clothed with heavenly glory, may glorify You. Grant to Him that, just as He received from You power over all mankind, so He may grant eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” But since this eternal life can be achieved only by the knowledge of the True God, Who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, the Son of God asks the Heavenly Father to spread this blessed knowledge of God throughout the entire human race and thus bring all people to a blessed life. Therefore, firstly, He prays for those who have already been brought by Him to this knowledge of God, who through Him Himself have come to know the Father, and who should be instruments in spreading the knowledge of God among people. Preparing to depart from the world and leave the disciples alone in it, He entrusts them to the protection of the Heavenly Father, to whom they are dedicated by Him, asks that the communion of Divine life with Him, which He established the first fruits, be preserved in them - He entrusts them to the protection of the Heavenly Father, since He leaves them in the world amidst the struggle. This is not what He asks of the Heavenly Father, that He should take them from the world, just as He did - this would contradict their purpose, which was indicated by the Heavenly Father Himself when He gave them to His Son: their purpose is that through them the world itself, through the knowledge of God revealed through Jesus Christ, would be transformed and changed. He prays only for this, that the Heavenly Father would preserve them from the inner temptations of evil, that they would inwardly remain alien to the world, as sanctified by the truth preached by Him, so that His holy life, which He is ready to give up for them, would be the basis of their sanctification. “And for them I will sacred myself, so that they too will be sacred indeed.” But the prayer of the Son of God expands and includes all those who will be brought to faith by the preaching of His disciples. The Redeemer of the world asks that they all be united with each other in the communion of Divine life, themselves being internally united through Christ with God the Father; so that by this transfigured, already heavenly life on earth they would testify to Him, their Redeemer, so that by this they would testify to the glory of the inner life given to them through Christ; so that by this they testify to the love of the Father, which is given to them to know through Christ. Then He asks the Heavenly Father to lead all those brought to Him, since they are already united with Him here and have seen His glory, to where the Son Himself now ascends, accepting them into perfect communion with Himself and to the contemplation of the Divine glory. The Lord concluded this prayer with these words: “Righteous (Holy) Father! The world did not know You (people immersed in sins cannot know the Holy One): but I knew You (as the Holy One, as the Son of the Father), and these knew Me as Your Messenger (they separated from the world, which alienates itself from the Holy God), and I showed them Your name (I revealed You the Holy One and not only the Holy God, but also the Holy Father, Whom they can call Their Father and be His children): and I will also reveal (that which has already been communicated to them as a seed must be revealed in them with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and they will know You, the Holy Father, even more clearly, they will be even more worthy to be called Your children): so that having known You, being in communion with Me, they could feel more and more how You love Me, and how You love them in Me, My disciples. So this prayer embraces the whole work of the Lord until its complete completion at the end of time. Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane After supper, Jesus and his eleven disciples retire to the gardens lying on the Mount of Olives - to Gethsemane, where he had previously had the custom of spending the night. Eight soon left Him here, Jesus sent them away; three went into the depths of the gardens - Peter, James and John: Jesus took them with Him so that they could be with Him. Jesus, hitherto so courageous, now seems to fall under the burden of sorrow. How long ago did I say: now the Son of Man is glorified - take heart, I have overcome the world. Now I am ready to pray to the Father: may this cup pass by from Him. What was it that oppressed the spirit of Jesus so much and what changed His condition so quickly? Of course, there was more than one feeling of bodily suffering that awaited Him before death, although death for a righteous person should not be harder than for a sinner. They say that the criminal himself seeks punishment to calm his conscience. Even ordinary people could withstand bodily suffering without worry. - But He died as a sinner, bearing the sins of everyone, as one who must bear on Himself all the wrath of God’s justice, therefore, as completely deprived of Divine help and reinforcement. Now these moments were coming in which He had to feel abandoned by God. This was the reason for such a rapid change in His inner disposition. This confusion was already preceded by similar states earlier (John 12:27) and at the last supper (13:21). Gloomy feelings overwhelm the soul of the purest Righteous One. He breaks away from the disciples and turns again to prayer. His prayer reached such intensity that not sweat, but blood came out of the pores of His body and fell in drops. In it the secret sacrifice of the Son to the Father took place, which was then to be performed openly in front of everyone. Through prayer He surrendered all of Himself to the will of the Father, and that which His soul was terrified of, from that time on became for Him the inevitability of obedience. An angel appeared to comfort the Son of Man. Meanwhile, the disciples indulge in peace; in vain He abandoned prayer three times and, coming to the disciples, reminded them of vigil and prayer, that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak: therefore, Divine help is needed to defeat temptations. For the last time He said to them: sleep, perhaps: now I will no longer come to wake you up, call you to prayer and vigil. But you will be woken up willy-nilly. Now the time of My suffering has come. Those who must take Me are already coming. At this time, a traitor comes with the guards of the church, taken from the high priests and with a detachment of the Roman cohort, and insidiously kisses the Teacher: but they did not see his sign, or he was not known to the guards; Jesus Himself comes out and announces Himself. But the Divine greatness, the heavenly calm with which He betrayed Himself, recalling the miracles He performed, gave such an impression to the Jewish guards, who had previously refused to seize Him and who did not know whom they should take, that they fell to the ground. Jesus is captured. Peter wants to defend himself: he takes up a knife taken from the supper and has already struck one, but Jesus forbids (not 12 apostles, but 12 legions of angels could protect Him). The soldiers want to capture the disciples, but Jesus stops them and says that it was in vain that they came against Him with weapons; the students run away. The young man left his clothes in the hands of the soldiers when they wanted to grab him. Jesus before Annas, then before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin There was no formal trial for Jesus here. He was brought here only to please the curiosity of the old high priest. Annas was soon sent to Caiaphas; Jesus was accompanied by Peter and John. Here they ask Jesus about the disciples and the teaching. But knowing with what intention they are asking, knowing that it is already necessary to condemn Him, Jesus answers that this question is unnecessary for Him; they can know His teaching from those who have heard, For this the servant strikes Him on the cheek. Is this a legitimate court proceeding? Meanwhile, they began to look for witnesses, but false ones. There were also two true witnesses: but how little were they still able to testify about Jesus! Peter here denies Jesus (according to John, who describes how he himself was here), first on the issue of the gatekeeper (John 18:16), then on the issue of the servant (Luke 22:58; Matt. 26:71; Mark 14:69) and finally one of the relatives of Malchi (John 18:26). At this time the rooster crowed (Mark 14:30, 42). Then Jesus looked at the place where the faithful disciple stood, and Peter wept bitterly. - How did Peter succumb to temptation so quickly? “If he had been in obvious danger, he might have been more courageous.” But then, in all likelihood, Peter would have been captured. The Lord allowed him to fall in order to preserve him for future activities. It was still early in the morning (Luke 22:66). Meanwhile, false witnesses have been prepared. The Lord refused Himself to testify to the teaching; they presented people who claimed that they had heard Him preach this and that. – The first false testimonies do not help anything. Two accusers appear of Jesus' intention to destroy the church - such a crime as the destruction of religion is criminal in the eyes of the Jews: but here too the truth was perverted. Jesus says nothing against such false witnesses. The Chairman of the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas calls Him to account. Jesus remains silent. Then they left this measure too. Caiaphas approaches Him solemnly with a long-thought-out question. Jesus' positive response to this should seal His fate. “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?” To this question Jesus answered: I am (you said), and since the Jews were certainly expecting the Messiah in the manifestation of glory, he added even clearer evidence of His Divine dignity, pointed to His glorious coming, as St. Daniel predicted. The only consequence of this was that the high priest tore his vestments, and the Sanhedrin pronounced a unanimous condemnation of Jesus to death as a blasphemer. But since the high priests themselves could not kill Jesus, they decided to send Him to the Roman procurator; Meanwhile, they handed Him over as an outcast to be reproached by the people. This accusation could have been important for the Romans, precisely from the political side, without which the Jews could not imagine the Messiah. Anything else was one-sided - Jewish, and Pilate should have paid attention to this, and the testimony about the church was not important for Pilate, who insulted the church. Where is the legal proceedings of the court? What did you make of the question of doctrine? Was it allowed, as the defendant indicated? What kind of impudence is it for a minister to beat the defendant arbitrarily in the eyes of the court? The trial of Jesus in the praetorium is described by all the Evangelists, each with their own additions (excluding Mark); Matthew talks about the dream of Pilate's wife; Luke - about the sending of Jesus to Herod; John conveys Pilate's questions to Jesus, and Jesus' answers in detail. The procurator lived in Herod's palace, a magnificent building. In front of this building was βήμα, on which Pilate sat when he spoke to the Jews; During the trial of Jesus, he spoke to Jesus in the palace. It should be noted that Pilate was an enemy of the Jews and took every opportunity to insult them. But just as he had already used violence and injustice against them many times, on the other hand he himself was afraid of them, afraid of their denunciations, from which he actually lost his place, and for his safety it did not cost him anything to make any sacrifice. Pilate first asks about Jesus' guilt. It is very likely that he already knew Jesus through rumors. The high priests seemed not to expect such a question and answer with displeasure. Pilate invites them to judge Jesus according to their laws. They answer that He is worthy of death, but they are not allowed to put him to death. Therefore, Pilate begins to investigate the case of Jesus. He calls Him to his praetorium and asks: Is He the King of the Jews? Jesus asks him: are you saying this on your own behalf (that is, in what sense do you take the word here: king, in the Roman, i.e. political, or Jewish, purely religious sense, in the sense of the Messiah)? My enemies want to betray Me to you because I want to be a king in the first sense, but this is unfair. I call Myself a king, i.e., the Messiah of the Jews, but this is not a crime, and this is not subject to your investigation. This is what Jesus' question means; Are you talking about yourself? He wanted to reveal to Pilate the meaning of these words: king of the Jews. In judging His person it was necessary to distinguish between the Roman and Jewish meanings of these words. Pilate replied that he was not a Jew; that he is not familiar with all Jewish concepts, that he understands the word king for king in its own, political meaning. Jesus declared that if he wanted to understand him this way, then it was unfair. My kingdom is not of this world. Pilate did not understand such a spiritual meaning of the word: king. So are you a king? He asked Jesus, thereby encouraging him to abandon his ideas, on which, as it seemed to him, Jesus’ entire concept of his royal dignity was based. Just like a King, answered Jesus, and I cannot renounce this. This is why I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. And he who is of the truth will listen to Me. The last remark obviously tended to attract Pilate into His kingdom, if he was a friend of the truth. But what is truth? - asked Pilate. The question does not show a mocker, but a person who does not have a satisfactory answer to this question and is desperate to find it. And the pagan undertakes to defend the Jewish Messiah before the Jewish officials: he declares that he finds no guilt in Jesus! When they came, they did not receive Him. Pilate, seeing the stubbornness of the high priests, proposes to at least grant Jesus freedom, as it is usually given to some villain at Easter. In this way, the ruling of the Sanhedrin could remain in force, and the accused could remain alive. And in order to somehow satisfy their hatred of Jesus, Pilate decided to scourge Him. But the people shouted, according to the instructions of the chief priests: release not Jesus, but Barabbas. When Pilate was wondering what to do in this case, his wife sent him to him (Proclus among the saints among the Greeks, October 27, but we do not have this name). She just now saw a dream in which she takes a strong part in the Righteous One. He asks, without naming the Righteous One, that He would not be condemned, which is clearly what Pilate did (Matthew 27:19). Pilate became even more determined to give freedom to Jesus. The thought of condemning some God to death could disturb even a pagan. But the high priests also began to attack more strongly. They began to directly blame Jesus for the disturbances. He corrupts the people, they said, and forbids Caesar to give tribute. That is, they began to draw consequences from their first accusation (Luke 23:2). In insisting on this accusation, they mentioned that Jesus came with this teaching from Galilee. Pilate was afraid of the importance of such conclusions and at the same time rejoiced at the opportunity to avoid such an unpleasant matter. “I have no business interfering in the affairs of Galilee,” he answered. It has its own ruler, Herod. But he did not understand that Jesus was not born in the domain of Herod, that he was not found guilty and was not presented to him. Herod had long wanted to see Jesus, whom he had heard about as a Wonderworker. I thought now that I would see something miraculous from Him, but I was deceived and considered this to be Jesus’ inability to perform miracles and only scolded Him, putting Him in a purple robe as an impostor King-Messiah, and turned Jesus to Pilate. In order to satisfy some of the hatred of the high priests for Jesus, he makes another proposal: to punish, I will punish Him, but He is not worth death and then gives it to the soldiers for scourging. They scourge Him and mock Him. Jesus is wearing a scarlet robe, a crown of thorns instead of a royal crown, and a cane in his hand instead of a scepter. They worship him. Rough warriors, fueled by the rage of the people, are capable of such cruelties. Pilate then presents Him in such an exhausted form to the people in order to touch them. Here is a man, he says. Is it possible to think that He would pretend to be a king? But the crowd is already starting to shout: this is not enough - crucify, crucify Him. Once again Pilate invites them to take and crucify Him themselves, without him: he did not find guilt in Him. But they are not happy with this. You crucify Him, because we ourselves do not have the right to do this. And He is worth it because He calls Himself the Son of God. He is a blasphemer. In these cries of the people another side of the same accusation was revealed. But for Pilate this was amazing news, and made Pilate even more hesitant to agree to the demand. In fact, in Jesus, despite these torments and abuses, the greatness of the Son of God was visible. Moreover, no one accused Him of anything more than of such actions that could more attract Him to Him than turn Him away from Him. Condemnation of Jesus to crucifixion Pilate, having heard that Jesus is accused of calling Himself the Son of God, interrogates Him again in his palace. Where are you from? This meant, are you really of higher origin? The Savior did not answer. He saw that even if He declared Himself more clearly to Pilate, Pilate would not withstand the temptation and would not remain faithful to his duties towards Jesus as the Son of God, although he would hear from Him his own testimony to this. He does not want to aggravate Pilate's condemnation. The Roman is amazed at the silence of Jesus; It’s strange to him that He doesn’t take advantage of this opportunity to defend Himself. Pilate reminds Jesus of his power. But the defendant replies that this power is not yet so high that He can fear it. I would not have been in your hands if God had not been pleased to betray Me through the Jews. Your power is given to you in moderation. However, the defendant adds, explaining His judgment against His judge - there is more sin on those who betrayed Me to you than on you yourself. Pilate had enough tolerance for the truth not to be offended by this remark. He desires even more to free Jesus. But he's not solid. It was heard: if you let this one go, then you will prove yourself unfaithful to the emperor - and Pilate fell. In fact, it was not at all difficult for the suspicious Tiberius to fool the ears of treason against the house of the Jewish procurator. Pilate was so frightened by this that he now sits down in his judgment seat and, having tried to bring the people to pity, introduces Jesus to them with the words: here is your king. But when they do not listen to him, he betrays Jesus to be crucified, only washing his hands in front of the people as a sign of his innocence in the blood of the righteous, which the embittered Jews take upon themselves, promising to pass it on to their children as a dear inheritance. So Pilate was not deterred by the fear of trampling on the truth. He did not see the danger for his government, from which he was appointed. He saw the danger to his dominion and faint-heartedly surrendered to the power of the raging ones. He did not even wait until the time of his decision. It was not the consciousness of the duty of loyalty of a statesman, even if erroneous in relation to the present subject, but fear for himself, for his place, that forced Pilate to betray truth and justice. What kind of trial was this? As usually happened with those condemned to death, the Lord Himself had to carry the instrument of His execution to the place. But He was so exhausted by the cruel physical and mental suffering He endured that He fell under the weight of the cross, so that the rude soldiers, who had hitherto mocked Him, showed compassion and forced one Jew, Simon, who was passing by, to take up the cross and carry it to the appointed place. But despite all the severity of His suffering, His compassion for the erring and blinded people, whose fate He foresaw, over whom the judgments of God were soon to break out for all their previous iniquities and especially for the present terrible atrocity, was deeply touching. When the sight of His suffering brought some of the women of Jerusalem to tears, He said to them: “Weep not for Me, but weep for yourself and for your children,” and then he predicted to them about the grave sorrows that actually befell Jerusalem during its siege: for, He added, if this is done with damp wood, what will happen to dry wood? (If a sinless person is subjected to such suffering, then what can be said about sinners. Sl. Ezek. 20:47; 21:3). When He came to the place of execution, He was offered, as usual to those condemned to death, wine mixed with myrrh, which fogged the person and made him less capable of feeling pain. But having tasted it, He did not want to drink in order to suffer suffering while maintaining full consciousness. He was naked; His tunic, not sewn, but entirely woven (as usual among the Galileans, according to the testimony of Isidora Pelusiot. Er. 1:74) was taken by the soldiers, and He Himself was raised to the cross and fixed on it, that is, His hands and feet were nailed to the tree. Hanging a body nailed in this way, according to the testimony of writers during whom such execution was still in use, constituted the most terrible torment compared to other types of execution. When the Lord was confirmed on the cross, the senseless crowd and malicious enemies were not happy with any ridicule and abuse of the Divine Messiah, especially when they saw the inscription above His head: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. But He cried out to His Father not for revenge on those who repaid Him with evil for good, but with Divine love he prayed: Father! forgive them. They do not know what they are doing (some are blinded by passion, others by ignorance). Two criminals were crucified with Him - not identical in their heartfelt dispositions. While one, hardened in his sin, mocked Him, along with the others, the other rejected all kinds of ridicule. Who this criminal was before his execution and what he did to deserve it is unknown: but it seems that the feeling of his sins and guilt before God had already been revealed in him and this made him more capable than others of accepting higher impressions. The more he realized that his suffering was deserved, the more deeply he was affected by the view of Him Who he saw before him innocently suffering and in the very struggle triumphing over suffering and praying for his enemies. This testifies, on the one hand, to the manifestation of the Divine glory that was revealed in the very death of the Lord, and on the other, to the degree of development of spiritual acceptability in the crucified criminal: his faith preceded the faith of the apostles: he rejected the Jewish prejudice, recognizing the Messiah in the suffering one. “Remember me,” said this virtuous thief, “when you come in Your kingdom.” He heeded this cry with love, coming to His glory through suffering and revealing in His suffering redemption for sinners: “Today,” He said, “you will be with Me in Paradise.” But the sorrow of the soul, aggravated by the consciousness of the sins of the whole world, laid upon the Redeemer of the world, was not always so easily resolved by the consciousness of the glory awaiting Him. Approaching the last, solemn moment of peace, for the last time He had to feel more deeply the entire horror of this state - a sinner alienated from God. Plunging into this sea of ​​sorrows, He exclaimed: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His cry echoed even in the souls of the insensitive Jews who surrounded Him. Exhausted by the inner flame, the Lord asks for a cooling drink for the last time; He is given a sponge soaked in vinegar. Dying, He transfers His Mother to the disciple, who was closer to Him in his love and devotion than His own brothers, John. Then he utters a great solemn word, the greatest and fullest of meaning that has ever been uttered on earth, the word: “it is finished” (the work that He had to do) and betrayed to His Father His Soul, which had been separated from the body. Just as the birth of the Savior was accompanied by extraordinary phenomena in nature, so was His death. Then a star appeared, which guided the wise men of the east with its light to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Now - deep darkness covered the entire earth for three whole hours before His death and an earthquake after His death. At the same time, the rocks in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which served as the tombs of the dead, cracked and destroyed the buried, and the veil of the church was torn. The first evening after the burial of Jesus Christ The Society of Jesus, having lost Him, fell into the most pitiful situation. Even then, as soon as a detachment of soldiers came for Him to Gethsemane, His disciples abandoned Him and fled in different directions. During the suffering of Jesus, many were probably not even in Jerusalem. Of the two who followed Jesus to the place of His trial, one directly cried about the betrayal, the other, a witness of the last minutes of Jesus, doubly grieved with His inconsolable Mother. Should we talk about the unfortunate traitor, who soon felt remorse for his actions and committed suicide? Behold, the heirs of the twelve thrones in the kingdom of their Jesus, having to judge the twelve tribes of Israel! How far this thought was now from them! They were now occupied by one feeling, the feeling of being deprived of Jesus and with Him - everything - a feeling that was all the more distressing because it was involuntarily combined with strong reproaches of conscience. Everyone now saw that they had lost everything in Jesus. All their dreams about the glorious kingdom of the Messiah were crushed like a stone. They had no time for them anymore; they did not know how to get out of their predicament. Faith in Jesus along with His glory was eclipsed in them, and at the same time they lost those wonderful powers that this faith gave them. They had no courage in spirit, no power of miracles in their hands, no benefits from strong patrons, or treasures with which they could buy themselves safety. The Teacher took everything with Him to the grave. They have nothing to expect from their compatriots except the same fate. Having been in close contact with their Divine Mentor for so long, they cultivated in their hearts a sincere love for Him. And how could you not love Him? How ardently He Himself loved them! How condescending he was towards them! What saving instructions he gave them! How He protected them from the attacks of His enemies (Matthew 12:2, 3ff.)! How he cared for them even before His unhappy end (Luke 22:36, 31, 32. John 13:18,19; 18:8, 9–11)! Who has so much love to repay Him for love, and wouldn’t it mean to be more insensitive than a stone if you were cold towards Him? If for anyone His heart was completely open, then for His disciples: to them all mysteries were revealed. He, their Lord, treated them as friends! And now there is no Jesus. And let them also have the consolation of being able to look reproachfully at their behavior in relation to Jesus. Let at least everyone be able to say to Him in their hearts: I was faithful to You, Divine Mentor, until Your last hour, sharing everything with You; and only some necessary force snatched You from our hands. On the contrary, conscience told everyone: you were not worthy of Him staying with you forever. In fresh memory were the griefs inflicted on Him on the last evening of His stay with them: when He predicted to one of them that He would deny Him three times the next night; then everyone said: no, this cannot be (Matthew 26:35). And what were they like when they took Jesus? They were ready to leave their last garments in the hands of His pursuers, just to get rid of them (Mark 14:51). The more He brought any of them closer to Himself at that time in order to share with him his grave forebodings, the less he turned out to be capable of this. He asks them to pray with Him - they are asleep. He wants to instill in them the danger of the coming time - they do not understand Him (Luke 22). He tells them about the suffering that he will undergo in a few hours - they argue about which of them will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Finally, was it not from among them that the traitor who destroyed Him was from among them? Thus, in the disciples of Jesus, every consoling idea, every bright hope was absorbed by the sad feeling of deprivation of their Mentor - especially in the first hours after the terrible events on Golgotha ​​(Mark 16:10). The time has come for them, about which Jesus predicted to them at the last supper: you will mourn and lament, but the world will rejoice (John 16:20); You will seek Me and cannot come where I go (13:33). Little by little they began to get together, but they didn’t feel any better in society than they did apart. Other people close to Jesus could not help but share their sorrow, especially the Holy Mother of Jesus, who saw His agony on the cross, and had to groan in her soul over the illnesses of her beloved Son. The word of Simeon was fulfilled over her: the weapon passed through her soul. Every drop of Jesus' blood fell on Her heart and burned it. The reproach and disgrace to which He was subjected, numbered among the villains, was all the more sensitive for Her because even before His birth She knew Him as the Son of God, even then she had a presentiment that all the tribes would please Her for Him. The Compassionate Son Himself, completely immersed in a sea of ​​illnesses, found a means to remove His Mother from being a witness to His last torments: but this still did little to ease the burden of Her grief. The mother of the two apostles James and Jude and Salome, the mother of the other two apostles James and John of Zebedee, were probably with the Blessed Virgin in the Jerusalem residence of John (John 19, τά ϊδια), and of course wept together. Outside spectators of the suffering of Jesus returned from the disgrace, beating their breasts: what kind of torment did the hearts of women, tied to Jesus by bonds of blood, His love, rich in hopes, have to endure? Finally, fiery, simple-hearted, who loved Jesus as her Lord and Healer, Mary Magdalene, who was at the cross of Jesus along with His Mother (John, 19) and after Her removal, more than others, showed concern 55 for the Divine Sufferer; - the sisters of Lazarus, who returned their brother to themselves and, to their regret, saw that this incident was the first reason for the decisive judgment of the Sanhedrin about Jesus; Joseph and Nicodemus, who had hitherto hidden their connection with Jesus and seemed to have met Him only in order to pay their last debt to Him, abandoned by everyone, in a word, everyone who knew Jesus to a greater or lesser extent was now occupied with the same feelings that the apostles were filled with. Thus the friends of Jesus greeted the great day of the Sabbath of the feast and gave themselves up to sacred rest. And the One for whom they all mourned? For His flesh it was now like a blessed Saturday, a day of rest. Throughout His time on earth, He languished with the desire to be baptized on the cross (Luke 12:50). Now stained with His blood, He willingly came down from the cross and rested on the stone bed that had been prepared for Him, by some strange coincidence, at the same time, the anger of his enemies and the gratitude of his friends. All of Jerusalem and its strangers calmed down. Only the enemies of Jesus did not find peace. It was as if His power was still terrible for them, although He was already lying in the tomb. The cause of concern was Jesus' prediction of His resurrection, which they apparently remembered more firmly than His disciples. The Lord, depicting His suffering and death to His disciples, repeatedly said to their consolation that He would rise again (Matthew 17:9) and precisely on the third day after His death (Matthew 16:21; 20:19; Mark 9:31). Although such predictions actually belonged to the disciples, the disciples were not forbidden to pass them on to others. In addition, the Lord Himself, in some cases, in the hearing of the Pharisees, pointed to His resurrection as the last and decisive sign for all those who were tempted by His face and teaching (Matthew 12:39, 40; 16:4; John 11:19). There is no doubt that the enemies of Jesus did not believe in the reality of this prediction; They suspected only one trick in Him; they feared that His disciples would use it, and then all their efforts to destroy the Prophet of Galilee would remain in vain. The members of the Sanhedrin entered into a meeting on how to take measures against the effects of this trick. Saturday prevented everyone from gathering for a meeting, but did not prevent the most important of them from entering into a private agreement among themselves on such a matter, which did not tolerate any delay. At the council it is necessary to ask the Chamber of Guards to store the coffin until the third day. True, they also had their own guard at the church (Luke 22:52), but in order to give more importance to their orders, they decided to ask the procurator for it. At the same time, Pilate should have received an explanation as to why they were so zealously trying to destroy Jesus, and a hint of caution in the event of any attempts on the part of the remaining community of Jesus. So, as soon as Saturday arrived, several of the ordained priests went to Pilate and offered him the following petition on behalf of the Sanhedrin: we remembered that this deceiver, whom there is no need to name, while still alive said: after three days I will rise again. You can guarantee for Him that He will not rise again. But He left behind Him a society of followers who would not refuse to take advantage of His lessons, and they could steal His body and spread the rumor among the people that He had risen from the dead. And this will not be without dangerous consequences. There will be people who will believe, and then we won’t have long to wait for some disturbances in the name of the risen Messiah. So, to get the job done, we came to ask you to order that your guards be placed at the tomb of Jesus. Pilate, hardly convinced by their ideas, but more likely in order to get rid of the annoying petitioners, did not want to contradict their wishes. It even seemed strange to him that the Sanhedrin was sending him for this. The guards who were present at the execution of Jesus had not yet been released. “You have a guard,” he answered the messengers: “go, guard as you know.” And the guard was immediately assigned to the tomb; the stone blocking the passage into the cave is attached with a rope and a seal is placed on the ends of the rope. It seemed that this was another Daniel in the den of lions under the seal of Darius: one should have expected such permission from the seal. And the consequences showed that the guards placed at the tomb of Jesus would be more appropriately called the bodyguards of the sleeping king, rather than the guardians of the seal of His tomb. While they were placing guards at the tomb that kept the body of Jesus, He, with His spirit, was already in the region of souls who had departed from the earthly world, and there, when the glory of His Divinity was revealed in Him more clearly than ever on earth, He gathered and raised into freedom all those who hoped for Him on earth. And through the action of Jesus, Who came to lead all things, Who even on earth labored to give the human race the most effective means to rise into a better order of being, into complete well-being, the first nucleus of glorified humanity was formed here, to which the sons of the kingdom of Jesus on earth should subsequently cleave. The world of the departed people, in the time of Jesus Christ, was known as hell. Whether we imagine Him as a container (something existing outside the souls) or as a state (as something internal) of departed people, we cannot help but distinguish different positions in it according to the degree and quality of the internal development of the departing souls. Some have not yet begun it here, others have more or less completed it, some have done it correctly, in accordance with their purpose, others have done it incorrectly, contrary to their purpose. In the present case, we cannot say anything true or decisive about the first and last state of souls. Let us turn our gaze only to the average, and precisely at those who developed their powers - or, more correctly, through development, purified them - in accordance with those decrees and with the help of those means that God established in His times for the education of people to a higher and better existence - let us turn our gaze to the righteous of the Old Testament. Since all these decrees and means did not have a final effect, no matter how many souls were revealed and purified through the application of their power, no matter how many benefits were imparted through them, the traces of sin were never erased and its darkness, sorrow and struggle, although already powerless, were not destroyed. Hence, naturally, the views of those souls on the Divine, to the contemplation of Whom they were closer at the present period of their existence, were imperfect. But where there is even a small trace of sin, there is access to the devil; sin is its seal. The more power of sin remains in the soul, the greater the rights of the devil over it; there are souls that they keep, as it were, in rivets, to which access to higher help is blocked, as it were, by copper gates, established in iron chains. They fight against sin, strive to free themselves from it: in the state of the soul beyond the grave, self-consciousness reaches the highest degree and this makes even more intolerable the feeling within themselves of the dominion of evil, which they would not like to submit to, but do not have the strength to get out of its power. Jesus had to release these prisoners of hell into freedom. He was preceded, as on earth, by John with his gospel. Finally Jesus Himself appeared; through the removal of the robe of flesh, the glory of His Divinity was reflected more clearly in Him. The world of souls was shaken by the coming of a new spirit, who announced to them that with His suffering He, the innocent, paid for their sin; there is no more enmity between them and God; God is their Father. He dispersed and scattered in every soul everything that still resisted this thought. He renewed weary souls with the abundant outpouring of His Divine powers. And when he completed the work of reconciliation and sanctification in each soul, he triumphantly transferred everyone to a new, higher, better region - to where from now on all those who bear the stamp of His justification will live. Thus arose that solemn meeting, that church of the firstborn, written in heaven and the spirits of the righteous, who had reached perfection, that city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, to which the apostles later called all earthly beings, a purified city, a holy church, glorious Jerusalem (Heb. 12:23, 24). There is no doubt that the effect of the gospel was reflected on those souls who, during their stay on earth, participated in the covenant with God, but were not faithful to it, as well as on those who stood outside the private covenant of God with the Jewish people. This includes the words of Peter about Jesus preaching to the spirits who were once disobedient to the long-suffering of God that awaited them in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark (1 Peter 3:20). The same apostle believes that the purpose of this gospel is that those who have died, having been judged according to man (καϑ άνϑρμ πους) in the flesh, should live according to God in the spirit. But the apostle kept silent about the fruits of these actions. Finally, the departure of Jesus Christ to hell was a most sensitive phenomenon for the prince of this world who ruled in it, who, not observing his authority, placed himself there at a distance from God. It was a time of judgment and condemnation for him; its principalities and powers are weakened and put to shame (Col. 2:15). According to his instructions, Judas betrayed the Savior; he prayed to sow the apostles like wheat; He came out with all his strength to fight against Jesus and forced Him, with a strong cry and tears, to send up prayers and supplications to the One who could save Him from death, tearing from His lips the terrible words: My God, My God, you have forsaken Me! But this was all done. After him, like lightning, Satan slept from heaven and, for having wounded the heel of the Savior of the world, he was left for his life to lick his finger and crawl on his belly. Oh, if Jesus' friends on earth knew what he was doing now in hell! How quickly their sadness would change to joy! And they think only about the deceased, about His remains, about irrevocable loss. Jesus breaks down the strongholds of hell; and His disciples fearfully gather in a dark refuge from the Jews and lock the doors behind them, they do not even know that the tomb of Jesus is already guarded by guards; at the end of the holiday, apparently, they are thinking of leaving Jerusalem completely (the Emmaus travelers give such an idea) and returning to their homes, which they had left in the hope of finding the Messiah in Jesus. Jesus gives life to the dead, His friends are preparing to pour more alabaster of peace on His dead remains. One of the Mary Magdalenes - John among the women - due to her special affection for Jesus, as soon as the Sabbath hours of rest are over, she goes to buy aromas so that in the morning, as early as possible, she can go to the tomb of Jesus to anoint His body. Joseph and Nicodemus, it seemed to her, due to the short time before Saturday, did not have time to do everything that was necessary in order to show their last respect to their beloved Mentor. At least her heart demanded it. Other women, the sister of the Mother of God and the Mother of John, Joanna and some others expressed a desire to participate in this (Luke 24:10). The intention of the myrrh-bearers expressed a lot of love and zeal for Jesus, but not a lot of faith. As they interacted with Jesus during His stay in Galilee, they heard from Him about His future sufferings, and about His death and resurrection (Luke 24:6, 7). Seeing the fulfillment of the first predictions, one had to believe the latter. And it is worthy of note that Mary, the mother of Jesus, without any doubt, most filled with love for Him, did not take part in the common enterprise of the other wives; putting together in her heart all the words of Jesus and about Jesus, being more attentive to the great and wonderful incidents of His life from the manger to the tomb, She, of course, learned more than others to believe His highest promises, and although not openly before everyone, she confessed in the depths of her spirit: “It cannot be that my Jesus has died forever.” Even if we are allowed to venture one more guess, John, who has now replaced Jesus for her and is therefore especially close to her, probably received from her that quick readiness to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, which we see later. Indeed, how natural it was for Jesus, who was reclining on the breasts of Jesus at the last supper, to now speak with His Mother about His last conversation, which cut deeper into His heart; - and in this conversation the Lord often said: children! I will not leave you orphans; I'll come to you. Not much more - and the world will no longer see Me: but you will see Me; for I live, and you will live... I go to prepare a place for you, and when I have prepared it, I will come again and take you to Myself... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you: I am going away from you and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said: I am going to the Father; for My Father is greater than Me. Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me... You now have sorrow: but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice. So Lazarus, who had recently risen, could remind and reinforce thoughts about the resurrection of the Lord who raised him. Resurrection of Jesus Christ The resurrection of the Lord was not precisely determined in time. The Lord sometimes said that He would be in the heart of the earth for three days, sometimes I would rise for three days, sometimes I would rise again on the third day. Track. For this reason, the disciples could not yet suddenly become convinced of the reality of His resurrection - at the very beginning of the third day. It is known in what position the disciples of Christ remained after the high priests of the Jews killed Jesus. Fear dispelled them, so that at the cross of Jesus only John was found, whom the Lord, for his faithful love, adopted as the son of His Mother. None of His apostles came to the burial of Jesus. Only one secret disciple of Jesus, Joseph, a member of the council, who once defended Him before his fellow members, dared to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus for burial. Joseph was joined by Nicodemus, to whom the Lord Himself, in one of His conversations with him, at the beginning of His ministry, said mysterious words relating to His death: just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. - Both together, wrapping the ulcerated body in a shroud with a lot of incense, they laid it in Joseph’s new tomb. There were also several women who had come with Jesus from Galilee. Less fearful for themselves, or more faithful to the feeling of their love for the Lord, they relentlessly remained at the cross, and when the burial took place, they sat opposite the tomb until the very moment when the stone closed the entrance to the cave where the body of Jesus was laid. Those who buried Jesus, apparently, were sure that the deceased would not rise again. This is why Joseph and Nicodemus performed the burial of Jesus with such care, despite the short time: on their part, this was the last debt of gratitude to the Divine Mentor, from whom each heard several truths that were still remembered in their hearts. The women of Galilee also had the zeal to bring their share of aromas to the tomb of Jesus and thereby testified that they did not find it possible to fulfill the duty of zeal before the day when the resurrection was to be expected. – The apostles, even two days later, when they had enough time to gather their thoughts and remember the words of the Lord about His resurrection, were with difficulty convinced of this, although not all of them with the same tenacity. And it was not easy to be sure of this. There have never been such experiments before. The dead were resurrected, but not by themselves, but with the assistance of great righteous people. And who would be found at this time who could again put life into the dead body of the greatest righteous man they knew? They did not understand the Scriptures. They were darkened by sorrow. The enemies of Jesus, no less than His friends, were sure that everything ended with the death of Jesus; They considered the very idea of ​​resurrection to be a deception. The third day has come after His death: enough for assurance of reality. He has risen. The event happened unseen. And could the transformation of the visible into the invisible, the sensory into the spiritual, be accomplished visibly? When it happened is unknown. To find out about this incident, messengers were needed. The messengers of His resurrection appear: an Angel descends to earth and opens the entrance to the cave not for the Risen One, but for visitors to the tomb. A strong earthquake is felt in Jerusalem. But which of the inhabitants of Jerusalem thought that this earthquake marked the end of the gloomy obscurity in which they were on earth regarding Jesus, after the previous earthquake had announced to the world about His death? The guards surrounding the tomb of Jesus, who alone could testify to the cause of the terrible phenomenon, were themselves detained by fear at the tomb until the clearest evidence. Thus, this first message of the resurrection, common to all, should have brought fear to all, both friends and enemies of Jesus. Despite the fact that Jesus’ friends go to the tomb with aromas. Mary Magdalene warns others and sees the tomb open. Confused, she runs to the apostles: she thinks that the body of the Lord has been taken away. This new vague news, which actually belonged to the apostles, caused one bewilderment; at least it awakened the dormant spirit due to despondency, aroused questions, guesses, and research that could lead to the truth. Two of the apostles: one always distinguished by decisiveness of character, the other by the tenderness of love for Jesus, leaving all guesses, rush to the tomb and, in order to make sure of what Mary said, look for means to explain it. And while Mary notifies the apostles, and the apostles run to the tomb, the other myrrh-bearing women, having reached the tomb before their arrival, enter the cave, do not find the body of Jesus, but an Angel appears to it. The luminous angel announces to them directly and clearly that Jesus has risen, as He Himself predicted long before His death, back in Galilee. Here is the third, or better yet, the first definite news about the resurrection of the Lord. The myrrh-bearers no longer needed identification. The vision of the Angel made such a strong impression that they could not doubt the reality of what he announced. At the direction of the Angel, they hasten to convey this message to the apostles, but in such horror that they did not reveal anything to those they met along the way, to whom this message applied (Mark 16:8). At the same time, the news of the resurrection of Jesus reached the ears of Jesus’ enemies through the guard. Another unbelief, unbelief, armed against the truth in everything - this news was met by the Jews. That before the appearance of the Lord Himself the guards left, this is evident from the fact that Mary, as soon as she saw the Angels, began to ask them about the body of the Lord. If there were also guards here, then of course she would have treated them with the same question. Thus, Peter and John, followed by Magdalene, reach the tomb - not yet knowing about what was announced from the Angel. John, inspired by love, precedes Peter at the tomb; Mary, exhausted by both grief and the first journey, comes running for Peter. John, having entered the cave, also did not see the body of Jesus there; Peter was more decisive: he dared to go inside the cave, followed by John, but both together did not notice anything else, except for the shrouds and the cloth: the shrouds lay in one place, the folded cloth in another. Spiritual vision was not for them: neither one nor the other saw the Angel. Despite the fact that it was enough for John to see these monuments of Jesus’ presence in the tomb to be convinced of His rebellion (John 20:8, 9). Here is the first believer in the resurrection of Jesus Christ after the myrrh-bearers, who were told about it by an Angel. What led to John's faith? With all the attentiveness of love, John took into his heart the words of Jesus, and especially the words of the last conversation, in which the Lord repeatedly spoke about His life after death and appearance to His disciples, were deeply imprinted in his spirit. Preserving the swaddling clothes and the payment in the tomb, and not in a disorderly manner, eliminated any thought about the theft of Jesus’ body. What need do the kidnappers have to remove the veils? How can they do this in front of guards? And who should kidnap? Enemies of Jesus? But they cared about this in order to preserve Him. Friends? The apostles were all together and they were all in fear, without leaving the house, having closed its doors from the Jews. There must be something different here. John's deep, inner, self-absorbed spirit now helped him to reconcile these phenomena with the previous words of the Lord. There was still a lack of a clear disclosure of this subject from Scripture, from which his spirit often drew instructions for itself. But these considerations also made the idea of ​​the resurrection of the Lord correct for John. At least John's heart believed in her. Maybe the same Angel put it in him, or at least reinforced this thought, imperceptibly for him. What about Peter? And he did not agree with Mary Magdalene’s guess that the Lord’s body was stolen. But the feelings of deprivation of the Lord and his guilt before Him were so gloomy that the thought of resurrection could not sparkle with joy in his soul. He left the coffin in the same bewilderment with which he ran to it. Of course, he also asked Joseph if he knew where Jesus’ body had gone and could not learn anything from him. Both apostles directed their path to the rest of their brethren. There they had already proclaimed the resurrection of the Lord - the myrrh-bearing women from the words of the Angel. But the myrrh-bearers were not trusted. Peter and John arrived. They asked them what they saw when they were at the tomb of Jesus. They learned that they had not seen a single Angel. Faith in the words of the myrrh-bearers was completely lost. John could not tell others anything about the resurrection of the Lord, except that he himself believed in it. But for him, the testimony of the myrrh-bearers, among whom was his mother Salome, was an important reinforcement (Mark 16:1). Obviously, such evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not enough. The Lord wanted to appear to His disciples in Galilee. But His disciples were not yet able to believe that this command came from Him: they did not want to go there; therefore the Lord decided to appear in Jerusalem. Appearance of the Risen One to Mary Magdalene, St. Peter and the two disciples on their way to Emmaus Mary Magdalene, remaining at the tomb, after the removal of Peter and John, fell into the tomb in tears; sees two Angels. Sadness occupied her soul so deeply that this vision did not trouble her at all; she answered their question about what she was crying about, as if they were ordinary people. But at this time, as the Angels had to explain to her where the Lord was, the Lord Himself appeared behind her and repeated the same question to her; What is she crying about, what is she looking for? Mary did not recognize Him either by appearance or by voice. She recognized Him as the gardener and asked: was it He who carried the body of Jesus out of the tomb, and if He, would he indicate where to get Him and give her the sacred remains. Then Jesus called her by name in a voice that was previously familiar to her, with the intention of making Himself known to her, and Mary with the word: Teacher! she threw herself at the feet of Jesus and hugged them, as if never wanting to be separated from Him again. But Jesus told her that this would not be the last time she saw Him. However, He soon intends to completely return to His Father and therefore tells her to quickly announce His resurrection to the apostles. Do not touch Me, lest I sigh to My Father. Go therefore to My brethren, and say unto them: I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. In fact, quick reinforcements were needed here. The disciples began to disperse from Jerusalem; Since Jesus was gone, and considering their calling to be ended along with this, after the solemn days of the holiday had ended, they went to their places. So the two went to Emmaus. Perhaps it was for the same impulse that Thomas left the company of the disciples of Jesus. Mary comes to those who remain; filled with joy after such sorrow, she without words was a living witness of the resurrection. But it seemed strange that only women had visions. Mary, ecstatic, was not accepted, although she should have been accepted, as the messenger of the resurrection of the Lord. Perhaps it was John who so vividly and thoroughly depicted this appearance of the Lord. John was convinced of the resurrection by her words. It is incredible that Peter, who had once been the first to confess Jesus as the Son of God and now heard from the myrrh-bearing women that the Angel especially ordered to notify him of the resurrection of the Lord, is incredible that after this Peter remained in the same bewilderment - which is inconsistent with his character, always decisive. On the contrary, it is very likely that he himself began to believe in the resurrection of the Lord. Only in him this faith produced more confusion than joy. If it were possible to have the same access to the Risen Lord as before, he would now find Him and begin to pray for forgiveness of his betrayal. But that's not the case anymore. The Lord sends messengers and appears in an extraordinary way, as He wants and to whom He wants. And now Peter sees that the Lord seems to be leaving him aside - he was not the first to appear. The Lord, having already consoled one grieving soul, now consoles Peter too - with a special appearance to him. The circumstances of this phenomenon are unknown. But it is known that it had a strong effect on the faith of the other disciples. The other apostles and disciples were definitely established on Peter. This phenomenon was no longer for the woman. After the Lord appeared to him, many no longer doubted the resurrection (Luke 24:34). But on the other side there were still unbelievers (Mark 16:13). And not all believers had a clear understanding of His present state. Moreover, the Lord needed to give new food for their spirit after troubled days, in accordance with their future purpose, and generally strengthen His previous connections with them. For this, the Lord intends to appear to them all together. Then, with a wavering of faith, the grace of the Holy Spirit had to recede from them: it had to be returned until it was completely poured out on the day of Pentecost (and was returned by a breath). But first, the Lord wants to return some of those who left Jerusalem to His flock. One of them was a relative of the Lord, Cleopas (Mary, the wife of Cleopas, is called the sister of the Mother of God John 19:25). Another, unknown who. They both walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a village 60 stadia distant from Jerusalem. They left Jerusalem before the appearance of the Lord to Mary Magdalene became known. On the way they had a conversation about events that had recently happened in Jerusalem. The shameful death of Jesus destroyed their hopes of seeing Him as the Restorer of Israel. The Lord, partly changing his appearance (Mark 16:12), partly holding back their eyes (Luke 24:16), came to them and began a conversation with them, in which he argued that the Messiah, the restorer of Israel, had to suffer, according to Scripture; that only this could bring Him into glory. This method of persuasion led to the fact that if they considered Jesus to be the Messiah, then His death should not seem to them the destruction of His entire work; that we must expect His glorification promised by Scripture in the resurrection. Jesus' conversation was long (for the journey was not short), and consisted of revealing the meaning of the prophecy passages about the Messiah, His suffering and resurrection. The Evangelist does not say exactly what places the Lord cited. Of course, the same ones that the disciples and apostles later cited: Peter and Paul in their speeches and epistles. It was sweet for the disciples to hear these words. Their hearts burned. The companion wanted to go further when they had already reached their place. But they restrained Him and sat Him down for the evening meal. At this time He made Himself clearly known to them during the breaking of bread; Perhaps the disciples saw the wounds on His hands, but He suddenly became invisible. This further confirmed to them that they had indeed seen an extraordinary living person and immediately returned to Jerusalem to the Apostles. His appearance to all the disciples together; James and Thomas; on Lake Gennesaret; to the full assembly of the apostles in Galilee This method of persuasion in His resurrection, in which the necessity of glorification only through the resurrection is first revealed, and then the very fulfillment of this glorification in the person of Jesus is shown, is completely different from the one used for Mary Magdalene and subsequently for Thomas - from one sensory discovery of His former, familiar, earthly appearance. At the same time as the Emmaus travelers were telling the apostles and other brothers who were with them about the appearance of the Lord and were reclining with them, the Lord Himself entered their meeting, despite the fact that the doors were locked, for fear of the Jews. Bewilderment, horror and joy - everything was mixed up. The Lord calms with greetings of peace; He assures of the certainty of His resurrection by signs on His hands, feet and side, and by eating from the meal. Then He reveals the necessity of His suffering and glorification through the resurrection - from the Scriptures, just as He opened the minds of the Emmaus travelers to understand the Scriptures. Having thus confirmed His apostles in the reality of His resurrection, except for Thomas, the Lord leaves them, but, leaving, again repeats to them His: peace be with you, reminding them of their calling. He Himself has already performed His ministry on earth, and now transfers His work to them. To do this, he imparted to them part of the forces needed for their future service, those very forces that now with His last feat He especially deserved to the human race and which they themselves could not receive from anyone, as from Him, the Redeemer of the human race, and gave them the right to use them with the same autocracy with which He Himself would use them. This concluded the great day of the resurrection of Christ. The apostles now learned that their Lord is the Lord of life and death, that His assurances about Himself are all undoubted: such a miracle had never been heard before, that someone would resurrect himself; what traces. Their previous treatment of Jesus has not lost its meaning: they are again His apostles. But when the Risen One, after His appearance, left them, did not remain with them as it was before, they should have understood from this that from that time on they should be in a special relationship with Him: and His very appearance was more spiritual than carnal (since the flesh itself was spiritualized) also inspired. Thus, little by little, they had to move from the previous visible, sensory treatment with Him to one, purely spiritual, invisible conversion, which was supposed to come for them with the time of His ascension. Probably on the same day the appearance to Jacob followed (1 Cor. 15:7). The apostles spent the remaining days of the Easter holiday and the following Saturday in Jerusalem and were probably already preparing to leave this city to go to Galilee, where the Lord called them through the first messenger of His resurrection. But since there remained one among them who was unsure of His rebellion, the Lord first wants to free him from the heavy burden of unbelief, so that it would be easier for him to go there. Seeing the Lord before him, with His wounds, who had come only to confirm him in His resurrection, Thomas, in joy and reverence, forgot his desire to touch the Divine wounds with his own hands and could only confess: My Lord and my God. And the Lord in his person, meaning all who from his time would turn to His church and join the number of His followers, no longer having the opportunity to personally deal with them, said to Thomas: blessed are those who have not seen and believed - not only those who have not seen His resurrection, but also those who have not seen Him at all, but will believe in Him. When the apostles returned to Galilee, which they had left for so long with the Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem, here the Lord initially appeared to them on Lake Gennesaret under the same circumstances in which, three years ago, four of them: Peter and Andrew, James and John, were called to apostolic service, leaving their home and their ordinary occupations. Peter, or more strictly speaking Simon-Peter (as he is mostly called in this story) and two sons of Zebedee - James and John, and with them Thomas, Naphael and two other unknown disciples went to Lake Gennesaret to fish. Just like then, catching them was unsuccessful: nothing was caught. In the morning, someone from the shore asked them if they had anything edible (not bread, but what is added to the bread at the table - here is fish)? The students answered: no. Then the one standing on the shore advised them to throw their nets on the right side of the boat and promised success. The success was extraordinary; seven could not pull out the nets from the multitude of fish (later they counted 22 large fish for each brother, excluding one). This success of catching probably reminded John of their previous miraculous catch: He guessed that the Lord Himself was on the shore and immediately communicated this guess to others. Simon Peter barely heard this before he threw himself into the water in order to quickly get closer to Jesus, or so that He would not move away from them. The others also arrived here immediately. And on the shore it was no longer they who offered Him a treat or a meal from their catch, but He Himself; distributes bread and fish to them - if fishing predicted the action of their preaching to the disciples, then bringing fishing to the feet of Jesus was a harbinger of what their action in this ministry should consist of and what successes they should expect; and the Jesus meal meant a reward from Him in His kingdom or a supper in the kingdom of heaven. This supper was so reminiscent of the last supper in Jerusalem before the suffering. But she also had a special relationship to those events. Then the Lord, saying goodbye to His disciples, told them: where I am going, you cannot come there; Simon asked Him: Lord! where are you going? But the Lord answered: where I am going, you cannot go now, but later you will follow Me. Peter objected: Why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You. And after the supper, on the occasion of such a remark from the Savior, even the following words escaped him: that even if everyone is offended because of Jesus, he will never be offended. And he did follow Jesus; but only to the first courtyard of the bishop and only in order to deny His Lord three times there. It was clear that he had gone to the wrong place. Having now experienced too early by bitter experience how weak human strength is, he no longer thought of saying: I love him more than these, but answered humbly that He Himself, the Knower of the Heart, knows that he loves Him. Prove your love by your love and care for My flock, said the Lord. Feed my sheep as a good shepherd should. (This reminded me of the parable of the good shepherd). He repeated his question two more times, as if not trusting the firmness of his words after his three-fold denial, and when Peter made it clear that he was saddened by this lack of trust, that he had already made amends for his act with repentance, the Lord, repeating each time the same order, finally added that if he now faithfully shepherds his flock, then he should be ready to lay down his soul for Him, and even indicated the very type of death by which he, as the shepherd of God flock, will glorify God, in this influx of form: when you were young, you girded yourself and went where you wanted: but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not want. You asked to follow Me, where I was going, when I went to the cross; and you were jealous to follow Me: I did not take you then: you were still young in the spirit of your faith. But now I tell you that when you come to a mature spiritual age, then even if you don’t want to, they will gird you and lead you on My path: then the Spirit itself will draw you to the cross. The prediction also concealed the fact that Peter would not wait until the revelation of the Kingdom of Christ in glory, as he probably expected then. It is not known whether the Lord had the intention of saying something else to Peter secretly, or only by rising from the meal and forcing several Peters to follow him, in order to lead him on his path with this symbolic action, or simply by this expressing the demand that he follow the Lord in suffering. Only when he followed Jesus, at His command, and noticed that John was also following Him, in his ardor he could not resist asking: You told me that I should follow You, that is, to suffering and death, and should this also follow You? (or, will he wait for the full revelation of Your kingdom in glory)? What do you need to know, answered the Savior. You follow Me, and then the Lord disappeared. Another appearance in Galilee was in the full assembly of the apostles. At first some did not recognize Him here, probably not being there at the first appearance. Having informed them in Jerusalem, near His cross, on which He nailed the handwriting of our sins, the power to forgive the sins of people; here, on the border of the Jewish and pagan worlds, he proclaims the command to go to all nations with the preaching of the Gospel. Perhaps on the same mountain (Matthew 17:1; 28:16), on which, among the three chosen apostles, He appeared during His life in the transfiguration of glory and, according to the expression of Apostle. Peter, the witness of his majesty, received honor and glory from God the Father (2 Peter 1:16, 17), resolving the silence about this manifestation of magnificent glory, commanded by Himself until the time of His resurrection (Matthew 17:9), He announced to them that He now enters into all the rights given to Him as the Redeemer of the human race in heaven and on earth. He is no longer just the king of the Jews, but also the king of heaven and earth. So from now on, what they did among the Jews, they must do everywhere, among all nations. Here they preached repentance, here they baptized believers in the Messiah: the same should now be done in the whole world. But until now they were baptizing into the coming Messiah, now in the name of the Trisagion God Himself. Hitherto preaching repentance, they were not engaged in actually revealing the teachings they heard from the lips of the Savior: now He Himself leaves the earth; they must proclaim to the world what they have heard from Him and thus replace His ministry with their own. And in order to encourage them to such service, He told them that He Himself would remain with them, in His church forever - as long as this world stands, until the kingdom of God is fully revealed on earth; and to those who accepted their preaching with faith and entered His church through baptism, he promised salvation and the power of miracles, which the apostles had for the glory of the kingdom of God and for the benefit of their brethren (Mark 16:17, 18). But the beginning of this ministry of the apostles, just like before the ministry of the Lord Himself, must be revealed from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). So, having called them to Galilee for a while, the Lord again returns them to Jerusalem. Here they must receive from the Father what Jesus promised them, which John the Baptist pointed out (he baptizes you with the Holy Spirit), as the advantage of the title of Jesus over his title (Acts 1:4,5). No other way than from the same city into which Jesus entered as King, from the city of God the call to His universal kingdom was to be revealed. Not otherwise than there His messengers to all the nations of the earth must be confirmed and empowered by the enlightenment and sanctification of the Holy Spirit for their service. Out of Zion will come the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. But the Lord had already announced to His disciples at the last supper that the Comforter would not come unless He went first to His Father (John 16:7). So this return to Jerusalem and the promise to send down the Holy Spirit to the disciples in a few days indicated to the disciples that there were even fewer days left in which they could see Jesus as they had seen Him before. The Ascension of the Lord into Heaven Almost forty days have already passed since the resurrection of Christ. And this mysterious Pentecost was to consist of His ministry on earth as the Messiah, just as it was revealed by the mysterious Pentecost. That one led Him into the feat, this one completed Him. And just as Moses and Elijah, who appeared to Him on the mount of transfiguration, at one time prepared for the vision of God with the same forty days: so the Son of man, even on the first morning of His resurrection, announced to the myrrh-bearing woman: “I have not sighed to My Father: - (but already) I have ascended to My Father,” after the end of the four decades, he had to ascend into heaven in order to see, as a man, Him Whom and before this no one had seen or known as He, the Son of God (John 6:46). On the other hand, this time was enough to assure those who needed to be confirmed by the Lord that He had indeed risen by the power of His Divinity from the dead and triumphed over death, and in order to gradually transfer them from their previous relationship to Him, as those who had partaken of flesh and blood, to new ones, as to the King of glory, and to give them immediate preparatory orders regarding their action. So, at the end of forty days, when the disciples were all in Jerusalem, He takes them with Him from Jerusalem and leads them to the Mount of Olives, where He, in the presence of the same chosen disciples who saw Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, fought diligently in the feat and anticipated the cup of suffering. His disciples, already knowing from Him that in a few days the Holy Spirit would be sent down to them and that from that time they should begin preaching about Jesus the Messiah, asked Him: is it not at this time that His kingdom should open on earth as they imagined it? The Lord answered them that it was not their business to know the times and dates of the future. They are called to bear witness to the former. And when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon them, then they must testify about their Lord, starting from Jerusalem in Judea, in Samaria and to the last city of the earth. These were the Savior's last words to His disciples. A phenomenon similar to that seen by Elisha over Elijah now took place before their eyes, but incomparably in a most glorious form. Not a chariot of fire, a symbol still earthly and signifying the purification of human nature, but a cloud of glory, which previously was only a chariot for God, lifted from the Olivet from the eyes of the disciples the glorified flesh of Jesus, Who, departing, raised His hands (a rite of priestly blessing), blessed His disciples (like Elijah Elisha with mercy, like Moses the leaders of the twelve tribes). And only the apostles heard from the Angels, in addition to the Lord’s answer and for their consolation, what they had heard before from Himself, that He would one day descend again to earth as He now ascends, but when this would happen, they did not know. The Lord's fourty-day treatment of them after the resurrection had already prepared them so much for this phenomenon that they greeted it with joy and returned to Jerusalem, glorifying God. Now they no longer deserved to be reproached either for the lack of love for Him, which they heard from His lips at the last Easter supper: “If they loved Me, they would have rejoiced because I said: I go to the Father: for My Father is greater than I” (John 14:26), - nor for the lack of trust in Him, for which He reproached them at the same time, saying: I go to Him who sent Me. None of you ask Me where are you going? Because I told you this, your heart was filled with sorrow. But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go: for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you (16:5–7). In their present state, they were more worthy of the image in which the Lord presented them in His high priestly prayer (17:6-19): I declared Your Name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world... and they kept Your Word. Now we have understood that everything that You have given Me is from You. For the words that You gave Me, I delivered to them; and they received and truly understood that I came from You and believed that You sent Me. Otherwise ev. Luke would characterize him with more specific features. Therefore, the assumption of those who consider Simeon the son of Hillel, the father of Gamaliel, the representative of the Sanhedrin, is hardly fair That this assumption, by which it is accepted that Joseph and Mary, having left Jerusalem, decided to stay in Bethlehem, is not an arbitrary assumption, based on nothing, we offer the following reasons: 1) only such an assumption explains the fact that the Magi found the baby in Bethlehem; they could not come and worship Him even before the journey of Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem: this is revealed from the circumstances of their history: a) the time from the birth to the bringing of Jesus Christ to the church is not enough for their journey to Judea; the assumption that the star appeared to them before the birth of Jesus is incredible. They ask positively in Jerusalem: where was the Messiah born, and not where should He be born? b) is confirmed by consideration of the history of the journey to Jerusalem of Joseph and Mary: in the excited state of the whole of Jerusalem and its king, it was dangerous to appear there with the Baby of Bethlehem; Simeon and Anna - probably in this case they would not have spoken so publicly (in the church) about Him; in particular, Anna would not have had the need to talk about Him to all those seeking deliverance, when everyone had already learned from the Magi that the Messiah had been born; – 2) from the 2nd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, v. 20–22 it is clear that Joseph considered it his duty, upon his return from Egypt, to settle in Judea (or Bethlehem) - that this posed no small difficulty for him; that only one appearance of an angel disposed him to go to Galilee (or Nazareth) Where did the Magi come from? from the east, that is, either from Persia or Babylon. Initially, under the name of magicians, a tribe was known among the Medes, engaged in performing sacred rites and preserving scientific information, like the Levites among the Israelites. From the Medes the caste of magicians passed to the Persians, and these Persian magicians enjoyed enormous fame in the ancient world. They were servants of the deity, mentors of the people, soothsayers and sorcerers. Median magicians, who have long been engaged in observing the stars and finding secrets revealed through them, as well as through dreams. Zaroaster in the last half of the 7th century before Christ. transformed, dividing them into three classes, or at least defining these classes more precisely. (Gerbeds are students; Lyubeds are teachers; Destur Lyubeds are perfect teachers). This class or caste of magicians is also known among the Chaldeans, who were generally called Chaldean or Babylonian sages, and among the Greeks and Romans - simply Chaldeans or magicians. They have long made astronomical observations at the Tower of Babel. They predicted natural events and destinies using the stars, and also engaged in fortune telling by the flight of birds and by examining the entrails of animals. Tacitus: pluribus persvasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum litteris continer eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret oriens profectique iudaea verum potirentur (Histor. Lib. 5. cap. 13. cf. Suetonius Vita Vespasiani cap. 4) Πάντας τούς άρχιερέις καί γραμματείς τού λαού Palladius (in vita Chrysosotomi) writes that there was a church in Hermopolis from the time of the appearance of Jesus Christ: ή Διοσκόρου πόλις. Hermopolis is called the city of Dioscorus because it belonged to his bishopric Jos. Flav. Antiqu. 17, 13:2. Therefore the name: βασιλεύς in Matt. 2:22, must be taken not in the proper sense, but in the sense of a prince, ruler Iis. Nav. 15, 61 and 62. Joseph. de Bell. Judaic. III, 10. 7 Deserts were generally called places that were sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, not occupied by cities or inhabitants, and more suitable for pastures. Matt. 14:15 ; Onion. 15:4; Heb. midbar. 1 Sam. 25:2; 2 Kings 3:8. Court. 1 However, the time of the opening of John’s sermon did not present so many difficulties on the part of the civil authorities for John and then Jesus to enter into their ministry, as was the case during the time of Herod the Great. Roman procurators were usually very cold towards everything that related to the Jewish religion Such were Andrew and John the Theologian, who later became Apostles of Jesus Christ. 1:35, 40 Although we do not find the experience of such accusatory speeches of John, the speech that we read in Matt. 3:7–12 Abie - that is, before others who were baptized with him could come out The Jews of this time believed in the transmigration of souls Luke. 9:8. Joseph about the war. book VII. Ch. 6. § 3. – From 2 Mac. 15:13–14. 4 Esdras 2:16–18. (Sn. Mat. 16:14) it is clear that they also expected the appearance of the prophet Jeremiah. Snes: John. 7:40, 41 This desert was, according to tradition, between Jerusalem and Jericho After the hunger, give him (the devil) guilt to attack. Zlatousty Other explanations for the story of the temptation of Jesus Christ: 1) everything appeared to Jesus only in a vision - in a dream or in a waking state. 2) It was all the work of a Jewish priest, who first wanted to find out from Jesus whether He really was the Messiah, and then offered Him his services under the condition of submission to the Sanhedrin. 3) This parable in which Jesus depicted his thoughts that appeared to Him at the time when He was preparing for his ministry: on the one hand, a life devoted to God, dedicated to his holy calling, but filled with sorrows and suffering, and on the other, a sensual life, the foundation of the earthly kingdom in the taste of the Jews. Jesus chose the first, rejected the last. 4) This is a moral parable, invented by Jesus himself to reveal to the disciples their own responsibilities in relation to His kingdom; namely: a) not to use miracles for personal gain, even to satisfy one’s own needs, but only for the cause of the entire church; b) do nothing for the sake of vanity, or do nothing in the hope of God’s help, which can happen naturally, and in no case enter into an alliance with evil so that good can come out. Other circumstances of temptation are only decoration of the parable, setting up the idea for greater clarity, images, and sometimes sayings. Satan is a Jewish way of thinking about the Messiah, unclean, sensual. – But against the first explanation it seems: a) such an ecstatic state is completely alien to the ordinary physique in which we always find Jesus in the history of the Gospel; b) the words έν τώ πνεύματι (Luke 4:1) do not give the right to present the entire history of temptations as a vision. Evangelist Luke uses the same words in chapter 2, verse 27, and they do not mean spiritual vision there; and other Evangelists completely abandon these words: έν πνεύματι and express Luke’s thought differently, and not in favor of an explanation of spiritual vision; c) the words found in the history of temptation προσέρχεσϑαι, παραλαμβάνειν, άνάγειν, (Luke 4:5) ϊστασϑαι - show the direction of actions that are completely external; d) Evangelists in other cases are able to distinguish what happens in a vision from what actually happens (Matthew 1:20, 24; 2:12, 19. Acts 16:9, 10:10, next 9:10, etc.) e) finally, if we take everything for a dream, then in addition to what is said against this kind of explanation, we should also notice what should add to the Evangelist before entering the story of temptations: κ ατ όναρ. – Against the second, it can be noted that a) in the Evangelist Matthew (4:11), the action of the devil is contrasted with the appearance and ministry of Angels; the latter are real beings; hence the first one. b) It is unnatural that the tempter first wants, by demanding miracles, to find out whether Jesus is truly the Messiah, and then, having not received any satisfaction to his demand, when he should have left Him completely, he promises, on the contrary, to serve Him, to give Him universal dominion; The Jews expected this from the Messiah, and it was not the Messiah who should have expected this from the Jews. c) When was this temptation? How could Jesus attract the attention of the Sanhedrin before he began to teach and perform miracles? From the words of John (1:19ff.) there was no way to know that Jesus was the Messiah. And the rumor about the events that marked the baptism of Jesus, if there was any, could rather have led the tempter to Jesus at the beginning of His departure than at the end. Against the third, it must be said: a) that the appearance and action in Jesus of such tempting thoughts, not from outside, but born in Him and already developed, then tempting Him, is inconsistent with the concept of Jesus as sinless and holy; b) the parable in any case harmed Jesus - whether the disciples understood it or not. If they understood, then seeing how their teacher tried to cover up his evil thoughts with the slander of the devil, they should have received unfavorable impressions of His holiness and sincerity. If they didn’t understand, then they had to believe that there is a devil, that he has extraordinary power, and so on. Finally, against the third and fourth in general, it should be noted: a) that such a parable would be unprecedented in its kind; Nowhere in the parables does He depict His inner states, He does not envelop the lessons in such a historical story, in which He himself would be the main character; b) in other cases, the Evangelists present Jesus himself speaking parables to them; but here they present it as a fact. Therefore, if we assume that the whole story of temptation is nothing more than a parable, then we will have to agree that the Apostles themselves did not understand it. In particular, against the fourth explanation, we note that it was by no means indecent for the Evangelists to begin the story of the Messianic period of the life of Jesus with a myth. Παραλαμβάνει Mat. 4:5, means to take someone as a companion to go somewhere together (Matt. 17:1). Church wing πτερύγων τόυ ίερόυ can also mean a height, the roof of some building that belonged to the church, for example. the so-called porticus regis, located on the southern edge of the church mountain and separated from the city by a terrible ditch. However, admitting the temptation of Jesus as an external, real event, we must note that the power of the devil’s first proposal lay precisely in instilling in Jesus the idea that the Messiah can use his Divine powers for his own personal purposes: the second in instilling in Jesus the thought of vanity with his Divine dignity, the third in instilling the desire to dominate over everything. This is what Hengstenberg thinks in his commentary on John 3 Reumer. in litter. Anzeig. 1836 No. 22, S. 212 De bell. lud. L.III c. 2 et 22 Winer I, 452. About Galilee and its inhabitants according to Strabov. Also in Isaiah 8:23. Gelil heiggoiim, i.e. district of languages ​​Γαλιλαία τών αλλοφύλων (1 Maccab. 5:15). There were especially many pagans or foreigners in the Upper or Northern Galilee The guess is based on the fact that only one miracle was performed in this city, and that was in favor of a foreigner, as John reproached. 4:48, refers to more than one king's husband From Cana to Nazareth it is an hour's journey (Norov 2, 186), and according to Robinson it is 1.5 hours (3, 443). But Robinson thinks that the settlement now recognized by Cana is not the real Cana, but kefr-kanna. He recognizes the Cana of the Gospel as kana-el-jelil, 3 hours' journey from Nazareth (Robins. 3, 445). Gengstenberg (Comment. zu Johan. 2, 1) admits that kefr-kanna is the only Kana whose historical existence is reliably known to us, and therefore we must adhere to it The Evangelist Matthew, apparently, means the Apostles by the name of these children, since along with this speech he cites the words of the Lord, in which He thanks the Heavenly Father for revealing the secret of the kingdom to infants v. 25. Matt. 11:25 : answering the speech (no new question) In Jewish schools there were often questions about what fruits, for example. must be used in well-known sacred rites, this year or the past. Light foot Horae Hebr. ad Math. 12 Οί άπό τού Ίερουσαλήμ - the expression indicates not only the place from which they came, but also their permanent residence. See Heb. 13:24. Acts 17 The expression: they will not see death shows that one cannot look for the fulfillment of this prediction in the Transfiguration of the Lord. It is necessary to look for events more distant in time, but not further than the limits of human life Where is it said about John's suffering? Of course - in the story of Elijah. His fate is a prophecy about the fate of John. Let us note that Achaab and Jezebel, on the one hand, and, on the other, Herod and Herodias, correspond to each other in the persecution of the prophets of God. Just as the first ones did not have time to do it to Elijah, since he left Israel, the last ones did it to John. And the image of Herod (Mark 6:20) goes to the character of Ahab The Lord points to this in the words: Oh, an unfaithful and corrupt generation, which should not be attributed to the apostles alone, but of course most of all to the scribes and to the people drawn to their side, among whom one can partly believe the father of this unfortunate man himself. Ev. Mark speaks only of reproaching the apostles for their lack of prayer and fasting. And there are no examples of such strong reproaches to the apostles before the people. Meanwhile, in relation to the scribes and Pharisees, this expression: Oh, an unfaithful and corrupt generation - has been used more than once (Matthew 11 chapter 15 chapter). If the words: “unfaithful generation” actually referred to the apostles, then they would not have asked later why they did not cast out the spirit Was there really something noted in the order of numbering the apostles among the first Evangelists and in the book of Acts - their division into three classes? - Apparently the real question of who is greater does not allow this Reland, by the words of the Evangelist πέραν τοΰ Ίορδάνου, means trajectum ad Jordanem the same one that John. 1:28, calls according to Heb. Vifavara. However, πέραν without a member is nothing more than a pretext, and not a country or place opposed to something This is revealed, among other things, from the consideration that when the Lord, having received the news of Lazarus’s illness, stayed in place for two days and then went to Bethany, he had already found Lazarus dead for four days. But this is mainly based on the known distance of one place from another. John's location in Perea could not be far from the Jordan. And from the Jordan, in the place where John baptized, it is not far from Bethany Matthew and Mark, using almost the same words, convey this prediction of the Lord about their suffering, death and resurrection. Luke says nothing about what He will suffer from His countrymen, but only about suffering from the Gentiles There are two kinds of fig trees in Palestine. In addition to summer ones, there are winter ones, from which fruits are collected in the spring. Therefore, although Easter was not the time of figs, there were figs on such fig trees. This explains the remark in Mark 11 Judas left before the Last Supper was established. This is clear from John's account. Judas received only ψωμίον, by which he was indicated as a traitor, and abi left (John 13:30). Assuming this, we must also assume that it is established between those speeches that John conveys and, of course, at the beginning Magdalene’s special participation in the sufferings of the Lord can be seen from the fact that in the Evangelists she is always listed first among the other wives who were on Calvary, except for John. 19, where the Blessed Mother of God is mentioned You might be interested in: