43. Слово в неделю Ваий

(Spoken at the Chudov Monastery on March 22; printed in the Christian Reading of 1837 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848) All this happened, that what was spoken by the Prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Cry, O daughter of Zion: Behold, thy King cometh to thee, meek, and always upon the donkey and the lot, the son of the horseman. Matthew 21:4–5. How pleasant it is to see the image of the sun in a clear stream, where, although not as strong as in the heavens, it shines with a light more approachable to the viewer: it is so pleasant in the pure springs of Israel, that is, in the prophetic words flowing from the Spirit of God, with a spiritual eye, that is, with a God-thinking mind, to contemplate the image of the Sun of righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, presented, although not in such full light as in the Gospel, however in such features in which an attentive contemplator can conveniently discern His Divine properties, miraculous actions, deep and saving mysteries. The holy Evangelist Matthew himself considered it not superfluous for the Gospel to show the glory and mystery of the present day in the image of the Prophet Zechariah. Let us read the exact words of the Prophet, somewhat abbreviated by the Evangelist. “Rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion, preach to the daughters of Jerusalem: behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and to save, he who is meek, and always on the yoke and the young stallion” (Zechariah 9:9). Two subjects can be considered here: the wondrous event of prophecy, and the new prophecy of the event. If the event of Zechariah’s prophecy had not yet been revealed: from this very prophecy one can note that they are promised a wondrous event. Who would have expected that any king would enter the royal city in a solemn procession on a young foal born from a donkey? And if someone appeared in this form with the name of the king: could one think that he would be received with sincere joy and solemn exclamations, and not with ridicule or disdain 234? Since ancient times, victorious kings rode on horses; peaceful nobles, according to the simplicity of ancient customs, traveled, however, on donkeys; But on a donkey born from a “under-the-jugular” one, that is, from a working, heavy-bearing donkey 235, and, moreover, on a young donkey, untrained, not weaned from its mother, was it typical for a king to sit, was it likely 236? How did Zechariah come to the idea of ​​predicting the solemn procession and meeting of the King, “mounted on a young horse and stallion”? How could such a prediction come true? Both could not be otherwise than in an extraordinary way, arranged by God. Due to this extraordinary nature of the predicted action, the Jews themselves have recognized from ancient times to the present that Zechariah’s prophecy about the meek King refers to the Messiah, or otherwise to Christ, although the poor do not recognize Him in the meek Jesus. But if in the very prophecy of Zechariah one can already discern the extraordinary nature of the event he proclaimed: then a careful examination of the event itself can even more reveal the miraculous and directly Divine. When which king should solemnly enter the royal city: this solemnity is drawn up through preliminary orders and preparations. But we see nothing of the kind from our Lord until the very day, almost until the very hour, of His royal entry into Jerusalem 237. Yesterday He supped in Bethany, where He raised Lazarus; and when anointing His feet with myrrh, he spoke of preliminary orders not for His accession, but for His burial. There were quite a few people there, but “not only for Jesus’ sake, but also for Lazarus’s sake” (John 12:9). Today in the morning He goes to Jerusalem, accompanied by the disciples, just as on other days. “You went ahead,” writes Saint Luke, “ascending to Jerusalem” (Luke 19:28). There are no preparations. No one thinks about His accession. “But His disciples did not understand these before” (John 12:16). Suddenly it begins, and suddenly it happens. "And be it". Not reaching Bethphage, not far from Jerusalem itself, He gives an unexpected 238 command: “And it came to pass, as I drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, to the mount called Olives, that he sent two of his disciples, saying: go straight ahead, and in the midst of the entry you will find a lot tied to no one else anywhere” ( Luke 19:29–30), - according to another Evangelist in more detail: “the donkey is tied, and the lot with him” (Matthew 21:2). Notice carefully how truly Divine our Divine King acts. He sees the prophecy; sees the imminent moment when it must be fulfilled: but there are still no tools for its fulfillment. He looks not with His bodily eye, but with His omniscience: and what is needed is immediately found. “Abiye will find a donkey tied and drawing lots with him.” It’s wonderful how this weapon was found, but it’s no less wonderful how it was taken. “Having abandoned himself, he will bring Me” (Matthew 21:2), He says to the two disciples. God! - those sent could say, - how can this be done - to turn away someone else’s donkey, unknown to the messengers, and lead him where the owner does not know? Indeed, this could have made it difficult for the Apostles; truly, the apparent unrealizability of what was commanded could be accompanied by disobedience of those sent, if in another case the difficulty they encountered was accompanied by flight 239 and renunciation of the Lord; and then the matter would have collapsed, and the prophecy would not have been fulfilled. But here too, the Divine knowledge of our King foresaw the readiness of those sent, and His Divine power over the hearts strengthened them against all doubt. The same knowledge foresaw the question of the owner of the donkey: “Why does she give up?” The same power over hearts previously gave to this, apparently not the least convincing for a stranger, but in fact it turned out to be an irresistible answer: “The Lord demands” (Luke 19:31). And the messengers took and brought the donkey, not knowing whose it was; and the owner of the donkey gave it away, not knowing to whom or for what. Meanwhile, many people, not royally summoned, but “coming at the feast” (John 12:12) not according to the voice of the herald, but according to the glory of the resurrection of Lazarus, go out to meet Jesus; and, overwhelmed by sudden delight, instead of the prepared decorations, he spreads vestments for him, instead of royal signs and weapons, he takes up tree branches; precedes, follows, exclaims to the meek King, without any royal pomp, calmly carried by a donkey, which no human hand has taught until this moment to bear any burden. How did all these accidents happen? “Truly, all this has come to pass, so that what was spoken by the prophet might come true.” The impossible came true, so that it could be clearly seen that He is at work, with whom “every word fails” (Luke 1:37). We see the wondrous event of Zechariah’s prophecy. Let us sharpen our gaze and see in the event itself a new prophecy of an even more wondrous event. In fact, what does the Lord’s royal entry into Jerusalem mean? Why such a wonderful prediction 240? Why are there so many miracles? What is the intention of such extraordinary orders 241? What is the consequence of these Divine actions? What is the fruit of such a majestic, but so fleeting appearance of the King of Zion? Like lightning, the kingdom of heaven opens over Jerusalem, and like lightning, it is swallowed up by the dark region. The people are just gathering to go to meet the “righteous and saving” King; unrighteousness is already plotting the destruction of both Him and Lazarus, who glorified Him: “If the Bishop conferred, they would kill Lazarus” (John 12:10). Even the youths, out of the fullness of their pure hearts, exclaim in church: the rulers and wise men, “The bishops and scribes are already indignant” (Matthew 21:15), and from an excess of malice they cannot hide their indignation. Today the daughters of Zion say: “Behold, your King is coming to you” (Matthew 21:5): and in a few days the same daughter of Zion, that is, the people of Jerusalem will say: “They are not the king’s imams” (John 19:15), and this King himself will renounce the visible ghost of the kingdom: “My kingdom,” He will say, “is not of this world” ( John 18:36). Today: “Hosanna to the son of David” (Matthew 21:9), and soon after this: “Crucify Him” (John 19:15)! What a brilliant, but disappearing spectacle! You have already said, they will object to me that “this all happened, that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled.” I said that this was so wonderfully predicted so that the word of God could be recognized in the prediction; and it was fulfilled so wonderfully that the work of God could be recognized in the event. But why did the word of God precede and the work of God follow? When God, Who “spoke,” (Psalm 33:9), “and behold all good things” (Gen. 1:31), sends His word, that His very work might then be fulfilled: it is necessary that some substantial and solid good should come from this, and not just one momentary ghost. Otherwise, why is God's work being accepted? Why does the word of God come, and why does it descend even to such apparently insignificant details as the age of a donkey? But perhaps these refined 243 questions are already beginning to seem daring, but have not yet achieved the desired outcome. At the very least, don't you notice that in the glory of the present day there must be some secret hidden, although we have not yet come to its discovery? Do you already have a riddle, although you have not yet guessed its solution? Having reached this point, so as not to go beyond the limits of your probability, I fall silent. Let him speak for me, and solve the riddle for you, and reveal to you the secret, Saint Chrysostom. “Here,” he says, explaining the mystery of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, “the Church is revealed through the lot, and new people, formerly unclean, while Jesus is everywhere, made clean. And see that the likeness is maintained everywhere. The disciples forsake the donkeys: from the Apostle both they (that is, the Jews) and we (that is, Christians from paganism) are called. From the Apostle we are led, since our well-being has moved towards zeal 244. For this reason, the donkey appears, following the casting of lots. Whenever Christ sits in tongues, then the Jews will also come, jealous of them. And when Paul revealed this, he said, “For the blindness of Israel has come in part, until the fulfillment of tongues comes, and thus all Israel will be saved.” As if the prophecy was not, it is clearly from those who spoke. The prophet would not have been careful, with such fear, to denigrate the age of the speech, were it not for this. These things are not only explained by the spoken ones, but because the Apostles will bring them with convenience. Just as here no one here resisted the speech of those who wanted to take it: so also about the pagans, no one could rebuke those who received them before the Apostle. He does not give everything to the naked stallion, but to the robe of the Apostle. Having already received lots from them, they already give up all of theirs, as Paul said: I will depend on sweetness and will depend on your souls. Look at the obedience of the stallion, how he is not trained, and is not skilled in the reins, and does not gallop, but walks orderly. And this is a prophecy of the future, showing the submission of the tongue and their sudden conversion to decency. For all of them have made a word saying: She who has renounced will bring Me: so that the unchaste one may be in good order, and the unclean one will be clean” (On Matt. Conversations 66). Saint Chrysostom is here. Let us repeat the teaching of this sacrament 245 of Christ so that, if possible, we make it more intelligible. The Lord's entry into Jerusalem is not a simple manifestation of the present, but more than a prophecy and foreshadowing of His future reign. His kingdom is not this Jerusalem, which will soon be destroyed, or the land of Judea, which will soon be enslaved and devastated, but the Church, which “the gates of hell will not prevail against” (Matthew 16:18). The donkey and the lot on which He sits for His royal procession signify the two kinds of people over whom He came to reign spiritually—Jews and Gentiles. The donkey under the yoke is an image of the Jews, who for a long time bore the yoke of the law on their necks, “a yoke that,” as the best of them admits, “neither our fathers nor we were able to bear with strength” (Acts 15:10), and which therefore had to be changed to the good yoke of Christ, and His light burden. The unlearned lot signifies the pagans, untamed by teaching, ignorant of the law. The Apostles without hindrance take the donkey and the lot: that is, the Apostles, despite the obstacles, punish the kingdom of Christ for the Jews and pagans. The Lord sits on the lot; the donkey will follow him: that is, first the pagans, for the most part, repent of the kingdom of Christ, and when the predestined of the pagans enter the fullness of the Church, then the lagging Jews will turn and comprehend them. The untrained lot decently bears the King: that is, the previously ignorant and self-willed pagans are soon formed by the teachings and commandments of Christ. Robes are spread over the King: that is, the perfect followers of Christ give everything they have to Him. Children accept and glorify the King: that is, hearts, childlike in simplicity and sincerity, accept Christ by faith and glorify Him with love. Christians, sons of the kingdom of Christ! If we see the glory, or penetrate the mystery of a real triumph, we will not allow it to pass by us, as a spectacle foreign to us; for in this case we would remain outsiders and strangers to the kingdom of Christ. Does the Lord send any of us to what kind of ministry? Let us be obedient without trial, like the Apostles. Does it require anything from us? Let us hand over everything to Him unquestioningly, just as an unknown person, in the name of the Lord, gave up his property, let us hand him over voluntarily, even if it was with the deprivation of what we needed, as those who spread out their vestments did. Has anyone hitherto walked in the will of his heart? Bow down from now on under the yoke of Christ. Does anyone think that he has formed himself by fulfilling the moral law? Follow Christ, “if you want to be perfect” (Matthew 19:21). Let us all cry with a childish, sincere heart: “Hosanna to the son of David!” “We will this, that he may reign over us” (Luke 13:14) forever. Amen. According to Euro collection and Christ. Thu: with laughter and contempt? According to the European collection: thin working breed,... According to the Hebrew collection: apparently not a king, but perhaps a cattle feeder for training, or a youth for playing, could sit down. According to the European collection: orders: a day is appointed in advance for this; this is announced to the people; order is prescribed; previous and subsequent ones are assigned; decorations are being prepared. On the contrary, look at the meek King Jesus on the day of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. According to Euro collection and Christ. Read: strange... According to the European collection: Will they treat us like thieves? And Your enemies, who seek to catch You both in word and in deed, will they not seize this opportunity in order to accuse You as sending a thieves? Truly, this was possible and probable; This could have made it difficult for the Apostles; their fear could be accompanied by disobedience, if in another case it was accompanied by flight... According to the European collection: what follows: Why such a wonderful event? According to Euro collection and Christ. Read: who glorified so much... According to the European collection: survey.... According to the Hebrew collection, Christ. Thurs. and in collection 1844: “I’m jealous.” According to the Hebrew collection, Christ. Thurs. and in collection 1844: secret place. You might be interested in: