Проповедь на Евангелие от Матфея о двух исцелённых слепцах

Our Lord Jesus Christ healed many blind people. He healed them both physically and mentally. The healing of spiritual blindness is the change of human unbelief to faith, the change of people's ignorance to their knowledge of the Divine Truth. These healed people include countless former blind people, whose souls the Lord gave sight. There were also many blind people healed by Christ through the eyes of the body. Some of them were healed by His word alone, others by His touch, others by approaching Him, and others by anointing from clay. After Christ raised the dead daughter of Jairus, He set out on a journey, and two blind men approached Him, shouting loudly: “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” The Lord entered the house with them and asked: “Do you believe that I can do what you ask Me to do?” “Yes, Lord,” they answered Him. Then Christ touched their eyes and said: “Let it be done to you according to your faith.” And the blind were healed (Matthew 9:27–31). The holy prophet Isaiah, as an Old Testament witness about Christ, predicted that the Lord was sent from the Father and the Spirit “to preach liberation to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind” (Is. 61:1). This gives rise to the following question: why did the prophet say that Christ preaches sight to the blind, and does not give them sight? The answer will be this: Christ came to earth not in order to simply open the eyes of the body, but mainly in order to open the spiritual eyes of every blind person who, being healed by the preaching of the Gospel, begins to see the only truth and salvation. Christ descended to earth out of His love for mankind in order to give us spiritual insight. Those who were healed by Him from inner blindness left unbelief and came to faith. In order for some to believe, miracles were needed, while for others only the word of Truth was enough. The blind men who are narrated in the present conception of the Gospel of Matthew received this insight even before they were healed physically. They heard about Christ and believed in Him before they were healed. That is why they followed Him and begged Him for mercy with all their voices. Perhaps it would be appropriate to say here that the blind were healed in the Capernaum house where Christ lived. As He Himself said: “And you, Capernaum, ascended to heaven...” It was there, in Capernaum, that this miraculous healing took place. We, who have heard this Gospel conception today, have a favorable opportunity to do everything possible in order to obtain the Light given by Christ. Having this Light, we will be able to avoid any darkness and move away from the one who patronizes and rejoices in all human sin, that is, from the devil. The light of Christ, like the sun, illuminates the soul of every repentant. He fills her with joy and chastity, peace and compassion, kindness and love. He adorns the soul with all virtues. Those who have not found this Light are not only in darkness, but are plunging deeper and deeper into this darkness. In these depths lie the deeds of darkness. There are all the fornicators and adulterers, vindictive and unmerciful people, rioters and predators and, in short, all those who, by their own choice, filled themselves with various kinds of evil. Can you tell me the signs by which we can distinguish a believer from an unbeliever, or one baptized into Christ from one who is not? Whatever your answer, their differences will not be in words, but in deeds and lifestyles. If a person claims to be baptized into Christ, but his deeds are dark, then he does not belong to those who have seen the Light. The Apostle Paul says that there are Christians who “profess to know God, when by their actions they deny Him. They are stubborn and untested in every good work” (See Titus 1:16). Such people profess faith only with their tongue, and they are like an ugly and unimaginable two-faced monster. Faith brings benefits when a person lives according to his conscience and strives for the sake of Christ, cleansing himself through confession and repentance. If a person consciously does not believe God and breaks the covenants made with Him, then his faith turns into unbelief. It is impossible for a person to be saved who deliberately avoids baptism, although at the same time he says that he supposedly believes in Christ. It is equally impossible for someone who consciously lives in unbelief to be saved, even though he is baptized. A believer, who keeps the commandments of Christ, walks daily with patience along His narrow path and complacently endures all the sorrows that meet him along this path. And someday the time comes when such a Christian rejoices in his salvation. Christ, in His love for mankind, has deigned us to dare to tell you these words, although we are vulnerable to the same passions. He allowed us this so that we would not continue to be slaves and performers of these passions and would not fall under condemnation. During this earthly life, each of us has the opportunity, with the help of repentance, not only to avoid the painful fruits of passions and sin, but also to counteract it, becoming like the Son of God, Who can make worthy out of the unworthy. He calls us all to become His children by grace and wants to make us heirs of the glory of His Kingdom.