Беседа 2

On the Evening Sacrifice - An Exposition of the Gospel of John (Prologue) 1. This time, brethren, we must talk about the evening sacrifice. We prayed, chanting, and praying, chanting: “Let my prayer be like incense before Thy face, the lifting of my hands like the evening sacrifice” (Ps. 141:2). In prayer we recognize the person here, in the raising of hands we recognize the cross. This is the sign that we depict on our foreheads, the sign by which we are saved. A sign ridiculed in order to become worthy of honor, despised in order to become glorious. God appears to pray, like man, for deliverance from danger. God comes to die, like man. And if people had known Him, they would never have “crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). This sacrifice, where the celebrant is at the same time the victim, delivers us with the shed blood of the Creator. He created us when he was bloodless, and redeemed us with blood. We were created by the One about whom it is said in the words: “In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God.” We were created by him. “Everything,” it goes on to say, “began to be through Him, and without Him nothing began to be.” This is who we were created by. Now listen by whom we are delivered. “In Him,” says the evangelist, “there was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:1-5). All this also relates to the Divine, to that which remains unchangeable, to that for the contemplation of which one must have a pre-purified heart. “The light,” he says, “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” But let darkness surround Him, so that there is no darkness. Darkness is sinners, non-believers. So, so that there would be no darkness, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. You see the Word, you see the Word - flesh, you see the Word before the flesh. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things came into being through Him.” Where's the blood? Here He is the culprit of your existence, but not yet your price. When did He become your Savior? When did the Word become flesh and dwelt among us? 2. But increase your attention. “The light,” he says, “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Since the darkness could not embrace the light, a testimony from the people was required for the people. People could not see the light of day. Perhaps they could bear the light of the lamp. Since they were less capable of perceiving the true light (diem), but still somehow endured the light of the lamp, “a man sent from God appeared, his name was John. He came for testimony, to testify of the Light” (John 1:6–7). Who is he? Where does it come from to testify to the light? Why was he not a light, but only a lamp? First find out what this lamp was. Do you want to hear about the lamp from the light and about the light from the lamp? “You,” says the Lord, “sent to John and “wanted to rejoice in his light for a little while.” “He was a lamp, burning and giving light” (John 5:33, 35). But what did that John who talks about the lamp see? “He was not the light, but was sent to testify of the Light” (John 1:8). What light? “There was the true Light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world” (John 1:9). If every person, therefore, John, He, who did not want to show the light of day in himself, showed his lamp, as if a witness for himself. But such was the lamp, which could only be lit by the light itself. Listen to John himself confessing. “And of His fullness,” he says, “we have received everything” (John 1:16). They recognized him, John, as Christ, but he recognizes himself as a man, they recognized him as Lord, but he confesses himself to be a slave. Well, lamp, you confess your humility, so that the breath of pride does not extinguish you, because “there was the true Light, which enlightens every person who comes into the world,” i.e. every living being capable of perceiving light, every person who has reason, through which he can be a partaker of the Word. 3. Where was that light that enlightens every person who has a rational soul and comes into the world? He “was in peace” (John 1:10). But the earth was at peace, the sun and moon were at peace. Listen, however, to your light, the light of human thought! – “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him” (John 1:10). So was He that one cannot think that there was not, as it were, a place for Him before the world ceased to be. God contains everything, but He Himself is not contained by anything (Deus enim habitando continent, non continentur). So, in a wondrous and indescribable way He dwelt in this world: “and the world came into being through Him, and the world did not know Him” (John 1:10). What kind of world is this that began to be through Him? “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and “all things came into being through Him” (John 1:10). What world has not known Him? There is a difference in the words: peace and peace, just as the word “house” can mean different things: a house as a building, and a house as those who live in it. When talking about a house as a building, they say: “a big house has been built,” “a beautiful house.” When talking about those who live in a house, they say: “a good house, God bless it,” or “a bad house, may God have mercy on it.” When it is said that the world began to be through Him, of course the world is like a dwelling together with those who live in it. And when it is said: “and the world did not know Him” (John 1:10), it means the living. 4. Why does He come, as if not knowing that His own will not accept Him? Listen, why does he come? “To those who received Him” (John 1:12)... They did not receive their own and received their own. The world did not believe in Him and the whole world believed. After all, when we say, for example: “the whole tree is covered with leaves,” does it really follow that there is no room for fruit on the tree? Both can be understood here, both are recognized - both that the tree is covered with leaves and that it is full of fruits. The tree is one in both: both in leaves and in fruits. So, those who believe in Him, His servants, who love Him, for whom He is glory and hope, do not grieve when you hear that your own did not accept Him, because through faith you also become His own. Who, of course, is our own here? We must assume that the Jews were once brought out of Egypt, miraculously crossed the Red Sea, wandered through the desert, got rid of their pursuing enemies, were fed with manna, freed from slavery, brought to the promised land and made happy by so many blessings. These are the ones who are our own, who did not accept Him and through this rejection became strangers to Him. They were an olive branch, but they became proud and became outcasts. The rest of the world was a wild olive, neglected due to the bitterness of its berries. The world was saturated with the bitterness of that wild olive, but because of humility it was grafted in, and the real branch was cut off due to pride (Rom. 11:17). Look at the branch proud and ready to break off. “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been slaves to anyone... If you were children of Abraham,” the Lord told them, “then you would do the works of Abraham... If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free. [You consider yourself free, but] everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:33–39). You see how much safer it is for a person to be the slave of another person than to be in slavery to sinful passion. Those Jews, due to pride, rejected the humble. And look how the wild branch is made worthy of grafting, look at the centurion not from among the Israelites, but from the pagans. "God! - he says, - I am not worthy for You to come under my roof... “Truly I tell you,” said the Lord, “I have not found such faith in Israel” (Matthew 8:8, 10). I did not find in my native branch what I found in the wild one. So the native branch is cut off through pride, and the wild one is grafted in through humility. Look at the branch that is grafted in and at the branch that is cut off: “I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” - this is the wild branch grafted in through humility. But here is a native branch, cut off by pride: “but the children of the kingdom,” says the Lord, “will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11–12). Why? Because his own did not accept Him. Why is a wild branch grafted? Because “to those who received Him...he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). 5. Be of good cheer in your heart, O human race; breathe the breath of life and blissful freedom. What do you hear, and what is promised to you? "Gave power". What kind of power? Perhaps the one of which people are proud, the power of life and death, the right of judgment over the guilty and the innocent? “He gave,” it is said, “the power to become children of God.” They were not previously children and became children, because He through Whom people are made children of God, being the Son of God, became the Son of Man, and the sons of men become children of God. He descends to what He was not. Raised you into something you weren't. Cheer up! Great things are promised to you and from the Great things are promised. It seems incredible and seemingly impossible for the sons of men to become sons of God. But something more impossible happened when the Son of God became the Son of Man. Be of good cheer, man, remove unbelief from your heart. Something more incredible than what was promised to you has already happened. You marvel that man will have eternal life; you are amazed that he can reach it. But marvel rather at the fact that God condescends to die for you. Why do you doubt the promise, having received such a guarantee? See how he (the evangelist) supports you, how he reinforces the promise of God. “To those,” he says, “who received Him... He gave the power to become children of God.” By what birth? Not according to the usual, not according to the old, corruptible or carnal. “Which,” it continues, “were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Are you marveling?! Don't believe me?! But “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14)... This is what “evening sacrifice” means, brethren (Ps. 140:2). Let's get closer to her! Let Him exalt with us, Who was offered as a sacrifice for us. Let the old life pass with the evening sacrifice and a new one appear, as if at dawn. You might be interested in: