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“Not as My will, but as Yours,” - with these words He showed Himself in contrast to Adam, who rejected the will of his Creator and fulfilled the will of his enemy, and therefore was given over to the mouth of his enemy. The Lord rejected the will of the flesh in order to confirm the will of the Creator of the flesh, knowing that all bliss depends on the will of His Father. “Not my will be done, but yours.” Did He have a will contrary to the will of His Father? But why does he say: “Not my will be done, but yours”? And in another place he says: “I did not come to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (cf. John 6:38). The will of the Father is this: “of those whom He has given Me, I will not destroy any” (cf. John 18:9). It is clear that His will is different. And Isaiah says: “The Lord wanted to humble Him and defeat Him” (cf. Is. 53:10). And he also says: “because He gave His soul to death” (cf. Is. 53:12), showing that such was His will. How can we understand this? After all, he showed two wills: one (the will) of the Lord, the other His own, although, of course, the action (of them) is one. But when the Lord wanted to convince His listeners that He was not in forcible submission to any other force, it seemed to those who were mistaken that He had a different will [St. Ephraim here shows that Christ did not have a will opposing the will of the Father]. Likewise, standing at the tomb of Lazarus, he said: “I thank You because You have heard Me and listen to Me, but for the sake of this people I do (this) so that they may believe that You sent Me” (cf. John 11:41-42), namely, so that, having heard about Him, they would know that He is from God. The same should be said about all such sayings of Christ. In order to show that He is from the Father, He gave all this and imputed it to the Father, and for the sake of the honor of His Father He revealed Himself as if in need of this, although He did everything according to His will. There was no necessity that would force the Lord to condescend to humiliation, so that those who say that He was defeated by the powers of darkness would be put to shame. After all, the forces of darkness shouted with a great voice and said: “You are the Son of God” (Mark 3:11), and begged Him not to send them to Gehenna. How did those who begged Him to free them from Gehenna defeat Him? “And His sweat was like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). Sweated to heal the sick Adam. “By the sweat of your face,” he says, “you will eat your bread” (Gen. 3:19). And in the garden he prayed to bring Adam back into the garden. “I have called you,” he says, “to watch with Me, lest I be betrayed; since now I surrender, then “sleep the rest (later) and rest” (cf. Matt. 26:45). Judah is the beginning of the kingdom (Gen. 49:10), and Judah is the destroyer of the kingdom. When Judas betrayed the Lord to the Romans with an insidious kiss, then along with Him he handed over to the Romans the duty to avenge Him. The wicked Judas came to exhaust the great abyss (of his fall), and this is the Lord, showing that He is good and the source of mercy, meekly revealed, saying: “Judas! Have you come to betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (cf. Luke 22:48). This teaches that the Son of God could not be betrayed to them. “Why did you come, friend?” (cf. Matthew 26:50). Enmity is called friendship. The Lord turns His face to him, the treacherous disciple approached the Teacher of truth to kiss Him. He took out of him the Spirit, which he breathed into him, because he did not want the ravenous wolf to continue to remain among His sheep. For he said: “what he had was taken away from him” (cf. Matt. 13:12). The Lord said to them: “Who are you looking for?” (cf. John 18:4) - because they thought that He could not free himself from their hands. “They said to Him: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them: Here am I. While Judas stood with them, they retreated back and fell to the ground” (cf. John 18:5,6). They bowed down before Him against their will in order to find out that He voluntarily gave Himself into their hands. But, undaunted by the power that overthrew them, they stretched out their unclean hands and took their Purifier. Simon cut off the ear of one of them, but the merciful Lord, in His goodness, took him (Simon) and again strengthened him in his high place in the likeness of a man who, through his crimes, fell into a deep abyss. “Return your sword to its original place” (cf. Matt. 26:52). He, whose word is a sword, does not need a sword, and He who returned the severed ear to its place could also untie the bound members. But in order to show the power of His omnipotence not only on one of them, He showed it on the others as well, when they retreated back and fell to the ground. And so that not only the one whose ear was healed would benefit from mercy, but he protected everyone who held Him with mercy, so that they would know Whom they had come to take. After all, only by the grace of the One who, out of mercy, returned the healed ear to its place, could those who were prostrate on the earth rise. But as soon as he showed something of His power, all those who came with the intention of taking Him again lay prostrate. In a mysterious sense, Simon drew the sword in order for the word of Moses to be confirmed: “every soul that does not listen to that prophet will die” (cf. Deut. 18:19). Since the Lord was the end of righteousness and the beginning of mercy, he sheathed his sword and returned righteousness to its place and in mercy began to heal the wound caused by the sword. He restored the ear to its place, for he made up for the lack of truth with works of mercy. However, the one whose ear was healed paid for his healing with hatred instead of love. Likewise, those who fell prostrate to the ground and were raised by His power, repaid Him with bonds for the help they received. “They tied him up,” he says, “and led him away” (cf. John 18:12,13). The prince of the disciples (Simon Peter) fell into defeat and temptation in order to become a physician to the wounded. And since criminals, perhaps, may be ashamed to repent, the Lord, through Simon the criminal, prompted them to turn to Him, Who is above all criminals. Simon denied by night and confessed by day (John 21:4–10). He denied himself by the fire (John 18:17–18), and confessed by the fire. Where he was rejected, (there) the earth was a witness; where he confessed, (there) the sea and the earth, according to their nature, appeared as witnesses. Since he retreated and denied with his tongue, he subjected himself to the yoke and gave his muscles to the cross, so that he humbly asked to be crucified with his head turned down. “From now on you will see the Son of Man walking in bright clouds with the angels of heaven. Then the high priest touched the edges of his robe with his hand and tore his outer garment” (cf. Matt. 26:64–65), because it was crushed by the power of the new wine (Matthew 9:17). But let us also say that everything that God wanted to do through His Only Begotten, He foreshadowed in creation and, moreover, prefigured it in His righteous ones. In the month of Arekk (March), flowers break through their depths and come out, and, leaving their depths naked and empty, they themselves become the crown of others. In the same way, in the month of Arekk, the high priest destroyed his priesthood and left it naked and empty, and the priesthood passed on and settled on our Savior. Christ silenced their lips, but they aroused the noise and confusion of the witnesses against him. The Lord spoke because they asked Him, and caused their clothes to be torn. “And they took Him and led Him to the judgment seat, and delivered Him into the hands of Pilate, and they themselves did not enter into the courtyard, so as not to be defiled, (but) first to eat the lamb in holiness” (cf. John 18:28). O Pharisees! so you heard: “behold the Lamb of God, He takes away the sins of the world by His slaughter” (cf. John 1:29); So, why was it necessary (for you) to sacrifice also the Lamb of our salvation on the same day when the Lamb of your salvation was slain? The Lord became the defender of the truth and came and was silent before Pilate, because the Truth was subjected to violence. Just as others gain victory through defense, so the Lord, through His silence, emerged victorious, because the tribute that His Divine silence deserved was the victory of true teaching. While offering teaching, he spoke, but at the trial he was silent. He did not remain silent about what he exalted us with, and did not fight against those who insulted us. The words of His slanderers were bought as a crown on His head. He was silent, so that during His silence they would shout more loudly, and from all these shouts His crown would become more decorated. After all, if he had spoken, he would have silenced with His truth the gathering that was working to make His crown. They condemned Him because He spoke the truth, but He was not condemned because the condemnation became His victory. So, nothing forced Him to answer them by convincing them (of His rightness). He Himself wanted to die, and the answers would be an obstacle to His death. He was silent, for if he had spoken, then his falsity could not stand before His truth. “Take Him from us, take Him from us” (cf. John 19:15), they shouted to Pilate. He, having rejected (this) two and three times, became a prophet of the Kingdom of the Lord, saying: “Shall I crucify your king?” (John 19:15). The sacrament of blood, which was sprinkled on their doors, turned away the deadly Angel and destroyer from them. They turned their blasphemies to this true Lamb and, rejecting Him, demanded for themselves Barabbas, the murderer. Because they clothed the Lord in purple clothing, He took over the kingdom of Israel. When they exposed Him again, He made it clear that He was leaving them death. Further, they dressed Him in purple, because just as they slandered Him for the tax, saying: “This one forbids giving taxes to Caesar” (cf. Luke 23:2), and because of the purple they wanted to kill Him, saying: “Behold, He is taking the kingdom for Himself.” Since they were preparing death for Him, they (in these words) prophesied like Caiaphas. And with the “crown of thorns,” built to mock Him, the opposite happened, and their unbelief was turned into good, since through it (the crown) the enemy was defeated, for with His crown the Lord destroyed the curses of the first Adam: “thorns and thistles will grow for you” (cf. Gen. 3:18). “And they spit on His face” (cf. Matt. 27:30), Who breathed into them the Holy Spirit. “They gave a reed into His hand” (cf. Matt. 27:29), for the Lord was the rod that supported the world, which had grown old and leaned on Him. And just as the sentences of judges are sealed and made immutable with a reed, so the Lord wrote (His sentence) with a reed and cast them out of His house. “When Judas saw that the Lord was condemned, he, overwhelmed with grief, went and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the priests and said: I have sinned by betraying righteous blood. They say to him: what do we care about that? see for yourself. And he threw the silver into the church and went and hanged himself and died” (cf. Matthew 27:3-5). Judas left to become the messenger of the errors that he followed. He thought to himself: “I will free myself from many censures and hide from ignominy,” and thus throwing away the bit, as if there was nothing left for him after the transition from this world, he threw a noose over himself and died. And so that mercy would not be disgraced in his punishment, there was not one of the sons of peace and truth who would kill him, but he hanged himself on a rope to show that on the last day human evil will destroy and destroy itself in the same way. So, who will avenge the blood of Him who came in the likeness of a man, if not the one who, clothed in the likeness of a man (that is, the devil who entered Judas), betrayed Him, not because he could defeat Him and betray Him, but because He Himself wanted to betray Himself? And the Lord did not at all kill anger, but wanted it to destroy itself by its own deeds. So, the devil killed the immortal who was clothed in human form, and deserved God’s retribution, so that through God’s retribution the one who was called god would perish and be put to death [i.e. devil, revered as god in idols]. The one who shoots an arrow at the enemy breaks the arrow and throws the bow into the fire, when it (the arrow), being reflected, beats the one who fired it. So Satan, seeing that the death of the Son became the victory of the world, and His Cross was the liberator of creation, entered Judas, his vessel, and he went and hanged himself with a rope. And that “his belly was divided” (Acts 1:18), this indicates the one who supported Judas when he put the rope on himself. And just as the rope broke, he fell and was broken in half. Others say that Judas closed the doors (of the house) and locked (them) from the inside, and while he was rotting and his belly was split, no one could open the doors of the house to see what was inside (him). “It is not permissible to take this silver into the treasury” (cf. Matt. 27: 6). They were afraid of the saying of Scripture and wanted to prevent its fulfillment. However, silver, as soon as it was brought to the church, became sacred through this. “And they bought a burial place with it” (cf. Matt. 27:7), it happened well, since they did it for the sake of God [so that the prophecy of Scripture would be fulfilled], for there was a great mystery in this. If they gave this silver from the sanctuary, then why could it not be accepted back into the same treasury? Why was it not permissible to add this money to the money from which it was given? If they weren’t given from here, they could have said it clearly. And was this silver really more unclean than other silver? Was it more unclean than the sword of Goliath, which, wrapped in linen, was placed at the side of the altar, than the gold of the Egyptians (Ex. 11:2), than the gold that David took from all the kingdoms and dedicated to God, than that crown of pearls, which he put on his head and sang in the spirit (Ps. 20:4), than those oath gifts brought by the Philistines, which were (laid) there forever? Didn’t Nebuchadnezzar also take away all the liturgical vessels and put them in the church of his gods? Even the Ark of the Covenant (the Philistines) brought it into the house of Dagon. Who can make something unclean holy and sanctified? And if for the reason that they bought the field with this silver, that He made Himself God, then it was necessary to cover the altar with it. However, this was not what was in their hearts, but they wanted to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy. “And when He took up the wood of the cross and went, they met and took a certain man of Cyrene,” that is, from the pagans, “and laid the wood of the cross on him” (cf. Luke 23:26). It is good that they themselves, of their own free will, gave the tree of the Cross to the pagans, because they rebelliously rejected the coming that brings all good things. This coming, rejected out of envy, they handed over to the pagans. Out of envy they rejected Him, and to their envy He was accepted by the pagans, and He Himself accepted them, so that through those who accepted Him (the pagans) he could put envy into the souls of those who rejected Him. And that He Himself carried the wood of His Cross, this clearly signifies His victory. And that he was not led to death by force of others, he testified to this with the following words: “I have power over My soul to lay down and to receive again” (cf. John 10:18). And that someone else bore His Cross, this happened so that it would be clear that He, in Whom there was no sin, ascended the Cross for the sake of the people who cast Him out from among them. “If they do this to a green tree” (Luke 23:31). Through (this) comparison, the Lord called His Divinity a “green tree,” and those who accepted His gifts, a dry tree. In addition, he said “a green tree” because it bears fruit, as he says in another place: “For which of My good deeds do you stone Me?” (cf. John 10:32). And if I endure such things, in Whom you have not found any sin in which you would have an excuse to destroy Me, for “which of you will convict Me of sin?” (cf. John 8:46), - then how much more will you endure? Or he said: “a green tree,” because he performed miracles, but he calls the righteous who did not perform miraculous deeds dry wood. Also, if they so hated and destroyed the green tree, whose fruits they ate and whose leaves they enjoyed, then what will they do with the dry tree that did not (give) sprouts and did not open its buds, that is, with simple righteous people who did not perform signs? When they elevated Him to the Cross, they crucified two more thieves with Him, “so that what was said would be fulfilled: He was numbered with the lawless” (cf. Mark 15:28). One (of them), although we do not know whether he was circumcised or not, in his words turned out to be like one who was circumcised; the other, although we (also) do not know whether he was uncircumcised or not, with his words became like the uncircumcised. One said: “if you are the Christ” (Luke 23:39), that is, the King, according to the words of the circumcised crucifiers; the other said: “Remember me in Your Kingdom” (cf. Luke 23:42); just as the uncircumcised wrote: “This is Christ, the King of the Jews” (cf. Mark 15:26). The uncircumcised confessed that Christ was the King of the Jews, and not their king, but the Jews recognized Caesar, the prince of other nations, as their king. The people who recognized the kingdom as transitory disappeared along with it; whoever confessed the True King, according to the promise of this Kingdom, entered the paradise of joy. By Caesar, whom they recognized as their king, their city was destroyed, but the pagans, who confessed the Kingdom of the Lord, inherited the resurrection and life of their body. “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). The Lord did not deign to come down from the Cross, as this one asked, because he wanted to exalt the one who was on the right side of the Cross and believed in the Crucified One; after all, through miracles you can easily make anyone your disciple. But something more powerful happened: it was the truth of the Lord that forced the despiser to worship Him. Therefore, the apostle said: “The weakness of God is stronger than men” (cf. 1 Cor. 1:25). Through the weakness of the Cross, the Lord subjugated all nations to Himself. Stretch out your muscles to the Cross, so that the muscles of the Crucified Lord will also stretch out to you. For whoever does not stretch out his hands to His Cross will not bring his hands closer to His table, for from His table those who, having been invited by the hungry, came to Him full, will be excluded. Do not allow yourself to be filled and do not approach the Son’s meal in such a way that He does not command you to leave the table while you are hungry. Since Satan removed one of Christ’s disciples (Judas Iscariot) from the truth, Christ, jealous of Satan, kidnapped one of his disciples (the robber), and to the one who was nailed to the cross by force for his crimes, he granted freedom for his faith, although he remained nailed to the cross. Just as Satan achieved that the one chosen by grace became, by his own will, rejected and despised and prepared a rope for him instead of a throne, so Christ gave the thief a paradise of desire instead of a cross. Since it was indecent for those hands that a person, in transgression of the commandment, stretched out to the tree of knowledge, immediately stretched out to receive the gifts of that God, whom he despised in the tree of life, therefore the Lord took the man and tied him on the cross in order to kill the death that killed him, and (so that) in this way he achieved his longed-for life. Therefore he says: “You will be with Me in a sweet paradise” (cf. Luke 23:43). “Remember me, O Lord, in Your Kingdom.” Since with the eyes of my faith (I saw) the honor of the Lord in the place of shame and instead of humiliation I saw glory, I said: “Remember me,” for despite what is now revealed on the nails and the cross, I have not forgotten Your Kingdom and glory, which will appear at the end (of the world) and is now not yet revealed. When the Lord saw that his faith was greater than the faith of many, and that he was not thinking about his torment, but about the forgiveness of sins, he exalted him above many. And since in his prayers he did not ask for a quick reward for his faith, since he seemed small and insignificant to himself, for he was a thief, therefore the Lord hastened His distant gifts and gave a near promise, saying: “today,” and not at the end of the world. So, He showed His abundant mercy, according to which, at the same hour when He accepted faith from the thief, in return for it He freely gave him immeasurable gifts, Freely poured out His treasures before him, immediately transferred him to His paradise and there placed him introduced (into paradise) over His treasures. “You will be with Me in the paradise of desire.” So, paradise was opened by a thief, and not by any of the righteous. Paradise, closed by the righteous Adam after he became a criminal, (and) was opened by the criminal who won. Since the Jews chose the thief and rejected Christ, God chose the thief and rejected them. But where is it (said): “If anyone does not receive My flesh, he does not have life” (cf. John 6:53)? The word of the apostle: “all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death” (Rom. 6:3), explains that the thief received the sprinkling of remission of sins through the sacrament of water and Blood flowing from the side of Christ. “With Me,” he says, “you will be in the paradise of desire.” “And they gave Him vinegar and gall to drink” (cf. Matt. 27:34). Because He made them glad with His sweet wine, they gave Him vinegar, but for gall, His great generosity made the bitterness of the pagans sweet. His robe was not torn, because it was the image of His Divinity, Which is not divided, for it is not complex. That His garment was divided into four parts (John 19:23), this signifies the Gospel going out into four parts of the world. Divide His body among yourselves in the name of love for Him who divided His garments among the crucifiers for the sake of love for you. Accept and consume all of you, all of Him, so that He alone may take and consume the death of you all. Open the doors of your heart to the One who opened the doors of His Kingdom to you. Mary sees the Lord in the one who reclined on His chest, and John sees the Lord in the One who gave birth to Him from the womb, and therefore entrusted Her to him before the other disciples. Since the darkened mind of the crucifiers did not know what kind of sun was nailed to the tree of the Cross, the sun that enlightened their eyes darkened, and when their bodily eyes were darkened, their minds gradually began to be enlightened. “Alas, alas for us, He was the Son of God” (cf. Matt. 27:54). Do you notice that while the darkness was thickening in their outer eyes, the darkness (and) in their inner thoughts did not disappear, for darkness is natural for the darkened [the darkness did not suddenly disappear from their inner eyes, Saint Ephraim just said that their mind gradually began to be enlightened]. This darkness taught them what the darkness of that Sun, which they nailed to the Cross, consisted of. When the sun of righteousness appeared, cleansing the lepers and opening the eyes of the blind, then with the help of this light the blind (could not) recognize that the King of the city of Jerusalem had come. When the natural sun darkened for them, it became clear to them through this darkness that destruction had come for their city. “The judgment has come,” he says, “for the destruction of Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:2 and 9:26). Thus, since this city did not accept the One who created it, it remained to see its destruction. But in the future, of course, this is not what you will see, O Jew, because you have already seen your city destroyed and devastated. So, since your city is destroyed and devastated, then from (this) destroyed and devastated city know who it is who planted the Church. And from the fact that the children of the city are scattered and scattered among all nations, learn who it is who gathered and united all nations in the bosom of the Church. If the womb of a married woman, deprived of seed (the synagogue), does not convince you, then let the womb of a barren woman, who, having become pregnant, bears children (the Church), convince you. But if you do not see the destruction of the first, then you will hardly see the fruit and generation of the second. If you see that one humiliated and widowed, then won’t you also see this one married and multiplied with children? What do you think when you read the following scripture: “She who is desolate has more children than she who has a husband?” (cf. Is.54:1; Gal.4:27). And if the meaning of the Scriptures is not clear to you, then why do you tire your eyes with the labor of reading them? The bat is like you. Since you were unable to endure the brilliant rays of the sun, you rejected the day in order to fly during the night, which is similar to you. If you cannot look at the hidden light of Scripture, then refuse to bother reading it every day. For a bat, night serves instead of day, but instead of God, depicted in the prophets, you have a calf made by artists. Honor either the One whom the prophets proclaimed, or the one whom your fathers poured out. Also, Joshua, the son of Nun, said: “Choose now for yourself whom to honor, God or those gods” (cf. Joshua 24:15–16). Your heart has chosen their gods. Instead of Scripture and prophets, you have pagan rage; instead of psalms, you have dance songs. What we threw away from ourselves we gave to you, and what you threw away came to us. If we are all not promised one Kingdom of Heaven, then one Gehenna is enough for all of you. “God, My God, why has He forsaken Me?” (cf. Matthew 27:46). The Lord was defeated by death, which forced Him to remain silent until He ascended to the Cross; on the contrary, Christ conquered death when he was elevated to the Cross. While death bound One on the Cross, many who were bound in the underworld were freed by the bonds of One. The words of the true Lord: “Either, Or, why did you leave Me,” were in agreement with the truth; the scoffers, in their deceitfulness, added the following: “let’s see if Elijah comes to bring Him down” (from the Cross) (cf. Matt. 27:49). Because they laughed at this first voice, saying: “Why does not Elijah come to bring Him down (from the cross)?” - then again he called out in a different voice, which the dead heard and obeyed, in order to show that if the dead, who could not hear Him, heard Him, then how much more could the living hear Him. However, when he called to His Father, why did not the dead answer Him instead of His Father? But if the Father heard Him through the dead, then let the living see (in this) an indication and encouragement to listen to Him. So, since, having turned aside, they departed from the truth of His first voice, the power of His second voice corrected them. Since the first voice turned out to be a reproach in their mouth and mockery and derision in their words, the second voice became grief in their mouth and the beating of their hands on their chest. Since the first naked was rejected, he released another, which exacted retribution from His rejecters. That Elijah would come to them, this they believed, according to the testimony of Scripture, but that Elijah could come to Christ, this seemed to them worthy of ridicule. Since the prophets predicted their dispersion and the destruction of the city, contrary to this, they testified to their relatives that Elijah would not come to them. When they nailed His hands with nails, the spit that His hand made to open the eyes of the blind denounced the nailers. After all, His hand, which could open the eyes of the blind so that they could see Him, could, of course, blind the crucifiers, so that they would not see Him. And the waves, compressed (once) by His firm feet, which (now) were subjected to tight bonds, so that, being bound by His feet, they submitted (to Him), prevailing over those who crucified Him; after all, those legs that could walk on the crest of the waves without plunging (into them) could also trample on the backs of the enemies, so that they would not lead Him to the Cross. But when His body was hung on the tree (of the Cross), in which the treasures of the life of the pagans were (contained), then (the Lord) looked upon the land of the pagans, which had received these treasures. Joseph also said: “Bring out my bones from here” (Gen. 50:25), because while this holy treasure remained in that unclean country, the Lord showed mercy to it. For the same reason, the Jews were returned from the land of Babylon. And if this should be said about the saints, then how much more about their Lord. The hands that freed us from the bonds of death were nailed. The hands that destroyed our bonds and bound those who bound us were nailed. It is wonderful that the dead put to death the Living One, and the Dead One brought the dead to life. They increased their fury and increased it to the highest degree, and He increased His magnificent gifts and brought them down even to hell. Here is the Dead One, Whom death stole and put to death and, according to the testimony of Scripture, brought into the tomb, and Who rose again and exposed the cave of His captivity. Death kidnapped Him, killed Him and carried Him away while He slept, but then, awakening, He came out and kidnapped His predator. Here is the Crucified One, Who crucified those who raised Him to the Cross, and here is the Captive, Who captured the one who (previously) made Him a captive. The cross of Your death became the source of life for our mortality; all who drank from Your fountain produced fruits similar to Your drinking. Death ate the life that was hidden in mortal bodies, and did not know that life was eaten under (the guise of) the same Body (in the sacrament of the Eucharist)? Hungry death hastened to devour Him, but hastened to release Him from its power. Since death entered through the hearing of Eve, life entered through the hearing of Mary, and since man fell into debt through the tree, Christ came and destroyed them through the tree. The Jews tried to eliminate His miracles one after another. “He who opened the eyes of the blind,” they say, “could not have made it so that he would not die?” (cf. John 11:37). And when he (Lazarus) also called to life, they again said: “He brought this one to life, but he cannot give life to himself” (cf. Matt. 27:42). To the extent that they weakened the previous miracles, Christ showed them such greater (previous) miracles: instead of a blind man, a four-day-old man who had died, and instead of this dead man, a crowd of dead men, whom he brought out of their tombs. When they ridiculed new miracles, saying, “Why can’t He do this?” - then they became witnesses to the previous miracles that He did. For they say: “He who opened the eyes of the blind,” and again they testify: “He saved others.” So, (the Lord) derived a double benefit from them: firstly, that he discovered their secret mockery when they said “he cannot do it”; secondly, that they were witnesses for Him that He could do it. “He saved others,” they say, “but he cannot save himself.” Thus, laughing at Him, they exalted Him. Although the words “he cannot come down from the Cross” showed that He was weak, however, by saying “he saved others,” they testified that He is the Life-Giver. And so Elisha, in his death, revived the dead and resurrected him, in order to commemorate the image of Him who, by His death, opened the tombs and brought out the dead so that they could serve as a reproach for His murderers. So, the mockers, saying: “He saved others, but cannot save himself,” were themselves ridiculed by the bones of Elisha, which, although they revived others, did not want to revive themselves. They did not want to revive themselves because they were not dead. After all, if they were dead, they could not revive others. This means that since these dead bones called others to life, they themselves did not need to taste life, contaminated with all kinds of evil, because in heaven they had the life and peace of the living. If the body of the dead, which did not touch the bones of Elisha through love and feeling, drew from them a new life that conquered death, then how much more will believers receive the life of immortality from the body of the Son? So, Who commanded death to return the soul at His command, He could also command the Cross to release Him to freedom. But so that in this they would not be justified [so that they would not be justified by the fact that the Lord did not descend from the Cross and thus did not testify to them of His Divinity, for this He performed similar miracles: he cut the rocks and raised the dead], commanded the rocks and sat down, and commanded death, and it did not prevent the righteous from coming out of the tombs at His voice. In the voice of the Lord, hell received warning to prepare for His subsequent voice, which would completely abolish it. If they thought that because of the weakness of the Son, the body with which He was clothed suffered, then they were like the Philistines, who believed that because of the weakness of God they could treat His ark with contempt and enmity. And if they say that the Philistines received the punishment of vengeance, then all the more must this be said about the crucifiers. After all, the Philistines were delivered from their wounds and remained in their land, but the sorrows of the circumcised, who in fact were not circumcised, are renewed day after day, since they neither had the opportunity to stay in their city, nor can they return to it. If they reproach us for the sake of the Body, which they killed and buried, then these reproaches prepare shame for themselves, because this Body came to life and was resurrected, and sits at the right hand of God. Moses broke the boards, carved by God, on which He wrote the holy names (words or commandments) (and) for the sake of which the glorious ark was built, and their fragments were no longer united, and their parts did not grow together like parts of the body, and they were not given either life, or renewal, or anything that happens even to the bodies of sinners. However, so that they do not object that the Holy One never dwelt in the womb, (for this) Jeremiah denounces them, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you” (Jer. 1:5). And if, further, they use the Cross as a reason for ridicule, then, behold, the serpents in the desert expose them, since (here) the faithful were healed by the cursed serpent, while the Jews dare to call the cross a sign of curse. And they honored the ram at the tree (Gen. 22:13), the image of the true Lamb on the Cross of Glory, Who, instead of the bound Isaac, freed the bound world. Since the people were cursed, he saved them through the cursed, but the pagans were saved by the Life-Giver of all. Since they were given over to the cursed serpent, which Moses had prostrated before them, they honored and worshiped the copper serpent, which destroyed souls for the salvation of bodies. Whoever did not want to look at the outstretched serpent died from his wounds. Perhaps they were unworthy to look at God, and therefore they looked at a snake similar to themselves and were healed. And since God knew that the people (Jewish) would not believe in the Son, He admonished him through the serpent in order to shame the crucifiers, since that people (in the desert) honored the image of our Savior. The sanctuary was burned and the church was destroyed, which serves as a type of Christ, because His body was like the building of the church, and the Babylonians were like crucifiers. If you object that God did this because of their sins, then I will ask: what sin did the church and the altar, as well as Daniel and his comrades? Just as this happened for the propitiation of truth, since as a result of this reward the promised gifts appeared, so exactly the truth was propitiated through the body ascended to the Cross, as well as through the destruction of the church. “He has mercy on His servants,” he says (cf. Ps. 134:14). The first praise of the Creator is that he created the creatures; the other is that He revealed Himself to His creatures. Just as he knew them, he wanted to be known from them. From Him came the name of the Godhead, who revealed Himself through Moses (Ex. 4:16), so that the Egyptians would know the God of all. From the same God came the Word and, revealing Himself, dwelt in the flesh, so that creatures might know the God of all. So, in the name of the Deity [i.e. which was applied to Moses] the Divinity of the Son was proclaimed, and in the name of the Son the patronymic of God was revealed. The Egyptians did not listen to Moses, and were punished with his rod, but they believed in the Son and were saved by His Cross. The rod of Moses, a prototype of the cross, forewarned the nations: the Egyptians - in the signs of plagues, and the Amalekites knew the effect of the cross in battle. Since they had been rude until then, they were admonished by the type of the cross; when the cross was revealed to them, they turned out to be enlightened by his teaching and instruction and wise. So, God honored the Israelites and attracted (them) with the image of the cross. When He appeared, whose signs they were honored, they made Him a sign of all kinds of reproaches, so that, resisting (Him) and stubbornly, they would drive Him out. Since Israel, attracted and delighted by abundant mercies, was fully studied, it “became fat and fat and stubborn” (cf. Deut. 32:15). From their childhood they were consoled by the prototypes of the cross, but finally in their old age (the Lord) imprisoned them among the pagans. “Whoever,” he says, “is pampered, will be given into slavery” (cf. Proverbs 29:21). The true meaning of the types was revealed to them and was perverted by them, although from a long time ago they had been accustomed to know Him by His many likenesses. They did not recognize the body whose shadow covered them in the desert. Through the tree, His likeness, their water became sweet, and through the serpent, His sign, they were saved from the bites of snakes, and there the Sabbath and circumcision were condemned, since they could not save them. And so, they turned away from that face, the image of which was constantly drawn before them. He seemed alien to them in terms of the features of His true appearance, with which He shone like indelible beauty. All the prophets showed only the likeness of His features, since the image of the rod was not as perfect as the sign of the cross, and the beauty of the tree that made the water sweet was not as perfect as the beauty of that tree with which the pagans were made sweet and meek. Wherever the likeness of Christ as a man [the Son of God, incarnate in the face of Christ, represented in types], passed, (there) all creations were shocked by Him and were thrown into confusion: the sea by His rod, the wounds of the serpents by His sign, the bitterness of the water by His prototype. And wherever the Truth appeared, (everywhere) those who were covered with impurity were suddenly rejected. Here is a source that unenviably brings bliss to those who drink without envying each other. The water flowed out and spread everywhere, so that no one would look with envy at another's drinking. You might be interested in: