The meaning of the resurrection of Christ for modern man. The Fifth Article of the Creed

Introduction

The theme of this control course work is "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ". This topic was chosen because the dogma of the Resurrection is fundamental in Christian teaching. The unimaginable fullness of God-inspired tradition cannot be perceived without faith in the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen; and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain. At the same time, we would also turn out to be false witnesses about God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if, that is, the dead do not rise; For if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not risen" (1 Corinthians 15:17).

The object of the study is to determine the meaning of the Resurrection in life Orthodox Christian, the subject is historical evidence of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Purpose: to reveal the meaning of the dogma of the Resurrection for understanding the meaning of the Christian faith.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks are set:

1. Resurrection of Christ in the sources;

2. Consider the feast of Passover in the New Testament tradition.

3. Consider the prophecies of the resurrection of Christ;

4. To study the dogmatic and theological significance of the resurrection of Christ.

The theoretical basis of this work are works on history, theology and philosophy.

The work consists of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion.

Significance of the Resurrection of Christ

The Resurrection of Christ is the essence of Christianity. First of all, the apostles preached about the Easter events as a perfect fact, which they were witnesses to. "If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is also in vain" (1 Cor. 15:14). "Jesus was betrayed for our sins and rose again for our justification." (Rom. 4:25) Sunday shows that the sacrifice of Christ was accepted by God and people are recognized as justified by faith in Him. All people up to this point, with the exception of some righteous people, fell into hell, and the devil reigned over the world. Jesus took the sins of all mankind upon himself and thereby destroyed the works of the devil, redeemed mankind from death.

The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event that has taken place in the world. It replaced the Jewish Sabbath. If there had been no Resurrection of Christ, then not only would there have been no Christianity. From the point of view of Christians, the denial of this event is simply not possible; it entails the loss of the meaning of life. But we can say for sure that it is already impossible to imagine the world without the Resurrection of Christ.

Many learned people questioned and criticized the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, as well as His teaching. They equated the gospel events, even the very person of Jesus Christ, with myth, deceit, error. But no one could prove one hundred percent that this was not the case. Such attacks in the direction of the Gospel only reveal the inviolability of the truth of the Resurrection and, in general, the entire Life of the Savior. Even the apostles themselves found it difficult to believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead, although He prepared them for this. Therefore, there were appearances to the disciples, confirming them in the faith. The New Testament describes ten such phenomena.

In our time, the visionary theory is intensively spreading. It seems to be telling us that the Apostles had something like a mass hallucination before their eyes. They long and tediously waited for a meeting with the Savior, therefore they were, as it were, in a state of illness, this state gave rise to a vision of Jesus Christ, which they later spoke about in Scripture.

“He was resurrected in the imagination of His disciples. Here, Renan will say, gave the world the idea of ​​the resurrection of Mary Magdalene. She was extravagant, with such epileptic manifestations, yes, in her imagination, at her suggestion, this fiction went around the world.”

In order to refute this theory, one does not have to be well versed in the dogmatic and psychological research of modern man, it is enough just to know that hallucinations, especially massive hallucinations, could visit people in a state of extreme excitement, unearthly bliss. They had to wait and wait for their Savior day and night. While the Gospel testifies to us that they were in a state of deep sadness, hopelessness. On the way to the tomb of the Lord, the myrrh-bearing women worry about who will roll away the heavy stone for them. And the students bitterly mourn the absence of their beloved teacher.

Even having appeared, Christ does not immediately receive recognition from the disciples. This comes from the fact that they do not have faith in the resurrection of the dead, for them a dead person remains forever inaccessible to seeing him alive. Mary Magdalene does not immediately recognize Christ, confusing Him with the gardener, but Thomas asks to put his fingers in the wounds of the Appearing One in order to verify the reality of what happened.

The apostles were able to see exactly the resurrected Christ, no matter how hard the rationalists tried to refute this fact, the Resurrection really happened in real time.

"Discussing the validity of the miracles of the Resurrection and Ascension, the physicist Balfour Stewart says: "Was the action preserved unchanged? famous forces nature in these cases, or was it sometimes overcome by a higher power? Undoubtedly, it was overcome, both at the Resurrection and at the Ascension. We are obliged to investigate the evidence of these great events, which is done in the most reliable way: The history that tells about these events has withstood the test so well that any assumption of their unreality will lead us to the greatest moral and spiritual confusion.

An interesting point is that Christ appears only to the Apostles. The Jews remain, as it were, on the sidelines, it would be possible to be in the presence of the high priests and point out to them in a visible way that they were wrong. Christ does not do this, according to the Holy Fathers, because for the Jews the appearance of the Risen Lord would be useless, they would have no meaning, while for the Apostles this event becomes a crowning event in their life path, it confirms their Faith. Prophecies come true, the words of Christ are confirmed.

In addition, also according to the Church Fathers, the Jews could invent a new way of killing.

The Resurrection of Christ produces a revolution in the minds of the Apostles, this revolution is the basis of their pastoral activity and missionary service. It is unlikely that 13 people who set out to get a fantasy idea of ​​\u200b\u200btheir early departed teacher could convert such a huge stream of people to the true faith.

Attempts to refute the fact of the Resurrection come to the point that they refute the very fact of the existence of Christ on earth. Not only the Resurrection, but also the earthly life of the Savior is fiction, and the Gospel has no more value for us than a book of fairy tales.

These denials are broken by the fact that not only the Apostles preached the gospel of the events of the life of Christ. There are also a lot of non-canonical (apocryphal) and historical sources confirming His presence on earth.

" For brevity, we confine ourselves to a list of other sources: Upifanius Africanus, Eusebius of Egypt, Sardonius Panidor, Hippolytus the Macedonian, Ammion of Alexandria, Sabelli the Greek, Isaac of Jerusalem, Constantine of Cyrus and others. These are only those who lived at the time of Christ, and were in Jerusalem or in its immediate vicinity and became an eyewitness of the Resurrection itself or irrefutable facts confirming it.

The testimonies of Jewish eyewitnesses are very important for us. Because for them, any opportunity to remain silent about the resurrection is good.

In general, the multiple criticism of the fact of the resurrection must run up against the wall of the "God-Man". If we remember who has the ability to die in pagan religions, then the answer will be obvious - the gods. Here we are faced with a contradiction: Jesus Christ is the God-man, he does not fit into the framework of the usual mythical narrative.

For us, in this fact, it is important that, resurrecting in human flesh, Christ gives us the opportunity of renewal, cleansing from sin, redemption of evil will. Although the flesh itself during the resurrection was no longer human in full measure, but was transformed, it did not lose its physical properties.

Christ transforms us for eternal life in union with God, in returning to the original state of the soul.

O The miracle of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is evidenced in our time by the Holy Fire, which annually descends on Easter night in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ, built on the site of the burial and resurrection of the Savior. The origin of this fire is inexplicable. When it appears, the blessed fire does not burn. Only after some time does the fire acquire its normal properties, characteristic of an ordinary flame. The Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, having accepted the Holy Fire, lights candles for them, which he immediately distributes to the numerous worshipers who have gathered in the temple. A wonderful fire makes an incredible impression on everyone, at its sight it becomes warm and joyful in the soul.

The resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ is a victory over sin, the fulfillment of the promise given by God to Adam. The Fall led to a perversion of human nature, morally distorted him. Such damage passed from the forefather Adam to all people. But after Christ rose from the dead, a spiritual rebirth of man took place. The grace of the Holy Spirit descended on the fiftieth day allows people to live a new life. How to resurrect spiritually with Christ. The doors to the Kingdom of Heaven are open and a person, having died a physical death, may not die with his soul.

The death penalty through crucifixion was the most terrible in the gospel time, death in this way was also a disgrace. The cross means death. But after the miracle of the resurrection, this is a sign of carnal death for sin, victory over sin and over death. A symbol of hope for the future resurrection of the dead. The sign of any Christian, his protection.

Veniamin Sergeevich Preobrazhensky, the future Saint Basil, Bishop of Kineshma, was ordained a priest in difficult times for the Orthodox Church - in 1920. Just a year later, he received a monastic haircut with the name Vasily in honor of St. Basil the Great. The saint paid special attention to worship, preaching, and missionary work, but it was precisely his missionary service that the Soviet authorities did not like, and therefore the saint had to spend the rest of his life either in exile or in prison. Saint Basil reposed in exile in the remote Siberian village of Birilyussy in August 1945.

In October 1985, the holy remains of the saint were found, and in July 1993 they were transferred to the Holy Vvedensky Convent in the city of Ivanovo. In August 1993, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia blessed the local veneration of Bishop Basil, and in 2000 the saint was canonized.

The execution on the cross, to which the Lord was condemned, originally appeared in the East and belongs to those terrible barbaric inventions for which the Eastern despots became famous. From the East, it passed to Rome and was used by the Romans decisively wherever the victorious eagles of the Roman legions appeared, until, finally, it was destroyed by Constantine the Great. The Jews did not have a cross execution: for some crimes, the law ordered criminals to be hung on a tree, but they were not nailed, and the corpses had to be removed for burial at eveningfall. In Rome itself, only slaves were crucified, who were almost not considered human beings. Roman citizens were not subject to this execution, and the famous orator of antiquity, Cicero, even demanded that the execution of the cross be carried out away from cities and highways, since the terrible sight of crucified criminals offended the gaze of a noble Roman. In the provinces, only robbers and disturbers of public peace were nailed to the cross. The crucifiers were usually warriors who, among the Romans, carried out all the executions. The offender himself had to carry his cross to the place of execution, while being ridiculed and beaten. There was usually no burial for the crucified. The bodies remained on the crosses until they became the prey of birds of prey and carnivores or decayed by themselves from the sun, rain and wind. Sometimes, however, relatives were allowed to bury them. In case of need (during the onset, for example, of a holiday or some kind of celebration), the life of those crucified according to the law could be shortened by a blow to the head or heart; sometimes their legs were broken, or a fire made of brushwood was made under the cross, and then the crucified one died from fire and smoke.

The shape of the crosses was quite varied. Simpler than the others and, apparently, more common was the cross, resembling the letter T (the so-called cross of St. Anthony), where the crossbar was nailed to the very top of the vertical pillar. Sometimes this crossbar was attached lower, leaving room at the top of the pillar for a tablet on which the guilt of the crucified was written in black letters on a chalk background. This is exactly the form the Savior's cross was, judging by the fact that a tablet was nailed to His cross, on which Pilate, instead of a full designation of guilt, simply wrote: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (John XIX, 19), which caused an angry protest of the Jewish high priests.

A small beam, the so-called “seat” (sedile), was attached perpendicularly to the middle of the cross, on which the crucified one sat, as it were, on horseback. This was done so that the body would not tear the hands with its weight and not be torn off the cross. For the same purpose, the body was often tied to a pole with ropes. As for the foot, which is necessarily required by our Old Believers, who recognize only the eight-pointed cross as worthy of veneration, the ancient writers do not mention it anywhere until the 6th century; later evidence is weak and perhaps the result of a misunderstanding. The crosses were made low, so that the legs of the crucified man were no more than three feet from the ground. Thus, the unfortunate victim could be beaten by anyone who was able to get it; she was completely defenseless and left to all sorts of manifestations of malice and hatred. She could hang for many hours, being cursed, insulted, even beaten by the crowd, who usually ran to look at this terrible spectacle.

Experiencing torments that became more and more unbearable as time passed, the unfortunate victims suffered so cruelly that they often had to beg and implore the spectators or their executioners, out of pity, to put an end to their suffering; often, with tears of heavy despair, they begged from their enemies for an invaluable boon - death. Indeed, death by crucifixion seems to have included everything that torture or death can be painful and terrible: dizziness, convulsions, thirst, hunger, insomnia, inflammation of wounds, tetanus, public disgrace, long-term suffering, the horror of foreboding death, gangrene of torn wounds. All these sufferings intensified to the extreme, very last degree, as far as a person could bear them, and only in the loss of consciousness did the sufferer receive relief. It is necessary to imagine an unnatural position of the body with outstretched, nailed hands, and the slightest movement was accompanied by a new, unbearable pain.

The weight of the hanging body more and more tore the ulcers of the hands, which became every minute more and more acute and burning; torn veins and stretched tendons beat and trembled with unceasing agony; wounds that were not closed from the air gradually became infected with Anton fire; the arteries, especially the head ones, swelled and caused suffering from the influx of blood; difficult, improper blood circulation caused unbearable agonizing languor in the heart, prolonged death anguish; to this was added the agony of a burning and desperate thirst; and all these bodily torments caused inner suffering and anxiety, which made the approach of death a welcome and unspeakable relief. And yet, in this terrible situation, the unfortunate could live up to three, and sometimes up to six or more days.

The torment of the crucified was equaled only by their dishonor. The name of the crusaders (crucifer) was an extreme expression of contempt. Especially among the Jews, the execution of the cross was considered the most shameful and disgusting, because the law of Moses read: cursed is everyone hanging on a tree(Deut. XXI, 23).

It was the custom among the Jews that a criminal condemned to death should not be deprived of his life soon after his condemnation. The herald several times publicly announced his name, guilt, witnesses to the crime and the type of execution assigned to him, calling anyone who could go to court and defend the unfortunate. And the Romans had a law issued by Tiberius, by virtue of which the death penalty was carried out no earlier than ten days after the sentence. But for Jesus Christ, although He was judged according to both Roman and Jewish laws, this rule was not applied. The postponement of execution extended only to ordinary criminals, and the troublemakers of public peace, the enemies of Moses and Caesar, to whom the slander presented the Savior, did not have the right to this mercy: their execution was the more legal, the sooner it was carried out. So, Jesus, after being condemned, was immediately handed over to the soldiers for the execution of the sentence.

Then They took off the purple robe from Him, clothed Him in His own garments, and led Him out to crucify Him.(Article 20).

On the neck of the Savior they hung a plaque with the designation of his guilt; a cross was placed on His shoulders, which He Himself had to carry to the place of execution, as custom required, and the sad procession set off, accompanied by a crowd of assembled spectators. The cross was not particularly large and massive, since the Romans practiced crucifixion so often that they did not spend much labor and effort on the construction of each cross, but, nevertheless, the physical strength of the Lord had already dried up, and He could not bear it. The excitement of the previous night, the mental anguish experienced by Him in the garden of Gethsemane, three tedious interrogations, beatings, insults, a feeling of furious, unreasonable hatred surrounding Him, and finally, this terrible Roman scourging - all this brought Him to a state of extreme exhaustion, and the Savior fell under the weight of His cross. In order not to slow down the processions, the soldiers were forced, contrary to custom, to lay a cross on another - on a certain Simon, a resident of the Libyan city of Cyrene, who was returning from the field and at the very exit from the city met with the guards leading Jesus Christ. Probably, he was one of the admirers of the Savior and, when meeting with Him, he discovered signs of compassion, which is why the soldiers paid attention to him.

Finally, they reached Golgotha ​​(Heb. Golgotha ​​means “forehead, skull”), or place of execution. This was the name of one of the mountainous north-western hills that surrounded Jerusalem, on which executions were carried out and which from then on was to become the most sacred place on earth. While the soldiers erected and strengthened crosses for Jesus Christ and for the two thieves condemned with Him, the Savior was offered, according to ancient custom, wine mixed with myrrh. Drinking this did not so much intoxicate as clouded consciousness and clouded reason, as a result of which suffering became less sensitive. To a certain extent it was an act of philanthropy, but the Lord rejected it. Voluntarily accepting suffering and death, He wanted to meet them with a clear conscience, in no way easing for Himself the horror of the torment on the Cross. They took off His clothes and then...

Our Divine Savior and Redeemer, Lord of creation and Lord of glory, was raised to the cross and nailed.

Then that terrible, painful agony of suffering on the Cross began, at the price of which our salvation was bought.

And perhaps the deep spiritual sorrow that the Savior experienced was even harder for Him than the terrible physical torment of crucifixion. We cannot, of course, know what was going on in the soul of the Divine Sufferer; in spite of our sinful rudeness, we cannot even approximately imagine the entire depth of His sorrow, but it is possible to indicate the reasons for it.

Lonely, abandoned by almost everyone, He saw Himself on the cross. He was abandoned even by His closest disciples, with the exception of John, who cowardly hid from the danger of being captured, and no one, absolutely no one, understood the cause for which He was dying. There was a hostile crowd all around; only the dull, indifferent faces of street onlookers with an expression of rude curiosity written on them, or the malicious smiles of the high priests, full of gloating joy, were visible. Yes, they could gloat - these people, who for so long accumulated anger in themselves against the One who did not want to recognize their authority and so often revealed their inner falsehood and hypocrisy before the crowd of listeners with His truthful denunciations. Now they could avenge all the humiliations and let Him feel their strength and power, which He did not want to reckon with. Long-cherished malice was not softened even by the mournful spectacle of suffering on the Cross and broke through into caustic, mocking remarks, exposing the terrifying, disgusting meanness of the soul, which can mock at the dying. " Saved others they said, laughing, but can't save himself… Let him now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe.”(vv. 31-32). Even the passers-by, who once followed Him in droves to hear His teaching, cursed Him (v. 29). And for these people He died! He did so much good to them, healed, encouraged, comforted so many, called so many to a new life, showed so much boundless, self-sacrificing love - and in gratitude for all this they crucified Him! Even now He suffered and died to gain forgiveness and Salvation for them - and they mocked Him! They rejected their Savior… How the great love of Jesus must have suffered from this misunderstanding, from the realization that these people, His brothers, His fellow tribesmen, are perishing, committing a terrible, unprecedented crime and do not even understand this in their wild ingratitude. How hard it was to see evil triumphant in the soul of these perished sons of Israel!

But the heaviest sorrow, the terrible depth of which is completely incomprehensible to us, was, of course, the feeling of sin, voluntarily taken upon Himself by our Savior and weighed down on Him. If on us, sinful people with a coarse soul and a lulled conscience, our sin often falls as an agonizing burden, barely endurable, often leading to despair, then what should the Lord have experienced with His sensitive conscience, with His divinely pure soul that did not know sin, for He did not sin (1 Pet. II, 22)! After all, to take upon Himself the sin of people did not mean at all simply to pay Divine justice with His blood and suffering for someone else’s, extraneous sin purely outwardly just as we sometimes pay the debts of our friends. No, it meant incomparably more: it meant accepting sin into one’s conscience, experiencing it as one’s own, feeling the full burden of responsibility for it, recognizing the terrible guilt for it before God, as if He Himself committed this sin. And what a sin! Let us not forget that Jesus Christ was, in the words of John the Baptist, Lamb of God take away the sins of the world(John I, 29). The sins of the whole world, of all mankind from the first day of its creation, of all the countless generations of people who have changed on earth over a number of long centuries; all evil in all its various and disgusting forms; all crimes, the most heinous and heinous, ever committed by man; all the dirt and dregs of life, not only the past, but also the present and the future - Jesus Christ took it all upon Himself and all He Himself lifted up our reshes on the tree with His body, so that we, having been delivered from sins, would live for righteousness.(1 Pet. II, 24). Along with sin, the Savior had to take upon Himself its inevitable consequences, the most terrible for the soul - alienation from God, God-forsakenness and the curse that hung over us as a punishment for sin: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree) (Gal. III, 13).

If we take into account all the horror of this curse and God-forsakenness, all the incredible weight of sin taken up by the Savior for the sake of our redemption, then this dying cry, full of anguish and torment inexpressible, will become clear to us to some extent: Eloi! Eloi! lamma sa wahfani? - which means: My God! My God! why did you leave me?(Article 34).

The sufferings of the Lord were so great that all nature was indignant. The sun could not endure this sight and disappeared; darkness covered the earth. The earth trembled with terror, and in the earthquake that followed, large stones covering many of the tombs were thrown down. The veil in the temple that separated the holy of holies from the sanctuary was torn in half.

But it may be asked: why were these sufferings necessary? Why did the cross become the symbol of Christianity - is it an instrument of flour? Why this sadness, with which the whole Christian religion is covered?

For many, the meaning of the cross and suffering is completely incomprehensible. The Apostle Paul once wrote: Slo in the cross there is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, there is the power of God... For both the Jews demand miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom; And we preach Christ crucified, for the Jews it is a stumbling block, but for the Greeks it is madness.” (1 Cor. I, 18:22-23). There is nothing surprising in this: for human wisdom, not illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit, this is how it should be. The mystery of the cross will always remain a mystery to her, for the wisdom of this world there is madness before God, and the foolishness of God wiser than men (1 Cor. I, 20, 25). The very names of the ancient sages disappeared in the distance of centuries, and the cross became a radiant symbol, around which the fate of man revolves. The cross is the soul of Christianity; without the cross there is no Christianity itself.

The Holy Church answers this question with the doctrine of redemption, which is the cardinal point of the Christian religion. In view of the importance of this doctrine, it is necessary to dwell on it in more detail.

Man came out of the hands of the Creator as a beautiful creature, endowed with all the perfections of the mind, heart and will. But, as a condition of freedom, its nature contained the possibility of sin, in the struggle against which a person had to independently develop his moral strength, guided by love for God and obedience to His will. For this, the first commandment was given, forbidding the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But when the evil spirit began to tempt the man, he presented him with brilliant prospects of this knowledge, and... the man was tempted. Instead of rejecting temptation in the name of love for God, in the name of obedience, he wanted to become equal with God himself! Pride and pride triumphed over love.

In transgressing the commandment of God, a person freely, without external coercion, opposed his own "I", his egoism - to God, instead of God, he considered himself the center of his life, his will - his law, himself - his god, and thus put himself in a hostile attitude towards God, became a true enemy of God. Man isolated himself from God, began to serve his "I" and became enslaved to the world, from which he began to seek happiness. The consequence of this alienation from God was a complete perversion of life, not only of the culprit himself - man, but of all nature. Due to the predominance of egoism, unity was lost: not only of man with God, but also of man with man. In this disunity, love disappeared, enmity appeared, and, as its highest and worst manifestation, murder. In the murder of Abel, for the first time, the blood of man watered the earth. Then life gets worse and worse. The clouds of evil hanging over her are gathering more and more. Depravity and moral savagery reach such a degree that it took a flood to destroy evil and wash the polluted land. But although almost the entire human race perished in the flood and only a few of the best were preserved, nevertheless the seed of evil remained in them and again put forth its poisonous shoots, which grew thicker as humanity multiplied. Life became unbearable. The only way out of this hell consisted in the return of a person to God, in the restoration of communication with Him. But on this path it was necessary to remove the greatest obstacle that sin serves. Gpex is exactly what it is main reason separation of man from God, it is by him that the great abyss between God and people is established and maintained.

First of all, sin in itself is the cause of the separation of God and man: sin is the removal of man from God by thought, feeling, desire, deed. In addition, sin leads to separation from God no less than this and those common state of mind bad conscience, which is in us a consequence of sin, is created by sin. The removal of the soul from God, or sin, is immediately reflected in the soul of a person, in his conscience with anxiety, a sense of fear, and guilt. A person is in the position of a slave who feels the master's scourge brought over him. Feelings of love and closeness to God are driven out by fear of God, and this fear kills the religious aspirations of the soul, its attraction to God, makes it run away from God, not think about God, drive the very thought of God, eternity, religion, until its complete disappearance or unbelief. to the denial of the existence of God. God is gradually expelled from the soul by fear of Him, fear of His terrible judgment and retribution; from the God of Love and the Father of people in the sinful consciousness of a person tormented by conscience, God becomes a terrible being, and from the bright image of God in the soul, shrouded in an impenetrable, gray haze of spiritual darkness and sin, there remains some kind of obscure, shapeless ghost, frightening already with its mystery, something unknown, unknowable. The ghost of a terrible God, born of spiritual darkness, stands as a barrier between people and God, weakens their desire for God and gives rise to despair.

This barrier between God and people can only be removed by a real atonement for sin. Sin must be expiated at the request of one of the basic principles of moral life, the principle of justice. The law of retribution cannot be canceled or violated due to the main property of the Divine Providence that governs the world - the property of justice.

The truth of God, offended by sin, must be satisfied.

No matter how deeply a person fell as a result of sin, he always felt the inexorable power of this law of truth; always recognized the need for satisfaction for sin. All religions, the most crude and most primitive, have sought to find a way to this satisfaction, and the very essence of any religion, expressed by the word religio (from religo), consists precisely in the actual or imaginary restoration of the connection between God and man. By sacrifices, religious rites and ceremonies, man sought to propitiate God, so that instead of an angry Judge, he would again find in Him loving Father. This basic aspiration has taken various, sometimes wild and monstrous forms in different religions.

The religion of India supposed to achieve reconciliation with God through self-torture and bringing a person to mental unconsciousness. The Eastern religions of Assyria and Babylon, in the name of this reconciliation, sanctified debauchery as a means of mortification of the flesh. Human sacrifices were practiced in many places. Babies were often thrown onto the red-hot hands of idols. And all this did not reach the goal. The man did not find peace. In this horror of human sacrifice, in these orgies of debauchery, one could find temporary intoxication; it was possible for a while to drown out the groan of despair in the soul, but all this did not give a person a cleansing of conscience and inner peace.

Mankind has been exhausted for a long time and in vain in search of peace of mind, atonement for sin. Redemption was not achieved through sacrifice, and nothing could overcome the slavish fear of God, the feeling of separation from Him and alienation. And this is quite natural: if the power of resistance to God, manifested by a person in the fall, according to the law of retribution, can be destroyed only by the equal power of obedience, self-devotion, sacrifice to God, then a person must present satisfaction to the truth of God with the same pure heart, in the same immaculate state. the spirit he rejected when he committed his first sin; he must be the perfect image of God, so that his sacrifice, with its moral significance, covers the power and significance of his crime. But the demand for such a sacrifice is beyond the strength of fallen man; he could fall, but he cannot restore himself; could bring evil into itself, but is powerless to destroy it. Hence his obedience to God after the fall is always inseparable from opposition to God; his love for God is inseparable from self-love; evil is grafted onto all good and pure movements of the soul and defiles the purest and most holy moments of the moral life. That is why man could not bring a sacrifice sufficient in his immaculate purity and moral worth to cover his sin and satisfy the truth of God. His sacrifices could not wash away sin, because they themselves were not alien to selfishness.

Only the Lord could do this. Only the Son of God could say: “My will is the will of the Heavenly Father,” and bring the purest sacrifice without any admixture of egoism, only the Son of God, by His personal incarnation in man, as the new Adam, and by His free self-sacrifice as a sacrifice to God for the sin of people, as a true high priest, could present complete satisfaction to the truth of God for the crime of man and, thus, destroy the enmity between him and God, bring down grace-filled powers from heaven for the rebirth of the deranged image of God in man. The holiness and sinlessness of Jesus Christ, His Divine nature imparted to the sacrifice on the Cross a significance so great and all-encompassing that this one redeeming sacrifice was not only completely sufficient to cover and make amends for all the crimes of the human race, but also infinitely surpassed them on the scales of Divine justice. “... e If by the crime of one, many died says the Apostle Paul, how much more the grace of God and the gift of the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abounds for many. And the gift is not like judgment for one sinner; for judgment for one crime to condemnation; but the gift of grace unto justification from many transgressions"(Rom. V, 15-16).

That is why, according to the wise plan of God, the suffering and death of the Lord Redeemer were needed. Through these sufferings, humanity finally gained peace of mind, reconciliation with God, bold access to God, who lives in the unapproachable light, the inexpressible great joy of filial closeness to God.

“... God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners. Much more therefore, now, being justified by His blood, let us be saved by Him from wrath. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”(Rom. V, 8-10).

“... God in Christ reconciled the world to Himself, not imputing their crimes to people, and gave us the word of reconciliation”(2 Cor. V, 19).

“... You, who were once alienated and enemies, by disposition to evil deeds, now reconciled in the body of His Flesh, by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and innocent before Himself”(Col. I, 21-22).

“... all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely, by His grace, through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God offered as a propitiation in His blood through faith, to show His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins…”(Rom. III, 23-25).

“…now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who made both one and destroyed the barrier that stood in the middle.(Eph. II, 13-14).

Jesus Christ sacrificed himself to take away the sins of many(Heb. IX:28) and remove our guilt, having destroyed by the teaching the handwriting that was about us, which was against us, and he took it out of the midst and nailed it to the cross(Col. II, 14). He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, so that we, having been delivered from sins, would live for righteousness.(I Pet. II, 24). This sacrifice covers all our sins, not only past, but also present and future.

We find this somewhat incomprehensible. That Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the past sins of mankind and suffered for those crimes that were committed before the moment of His death - this can be easily imagined. But what does His sacrifice have to do with our sins, and even with the future? After all, the Savior was crucified nineteen centuries ago, when we were not even in sight, and, consequently, our sins were not; how could he suffer for sins that did not yet exist, for crimes that did not yet exist? This thought, apparently, reduces the personal significance of the sacrifice on the cross for us and sometimes serves as the reason why we remain cold and indifferent when we remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ. A crafty voice whispers: “Let the ancient world bring the Savior to the cross with their crimes; let the responsibility also lie on him, but we have nothing to do with it; we are not to blame for these sufferings, for we did not yet exist.”

We are wrong.

God is Spirit eternal and unchanging. This means that there is no time for Him, or, more precisely, there is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Everything that we imagine only in the future, everything unknown, unknown to us, everything that has yet to happen - all this already exists in the Divine consciousness, in the Divine omniscience. Otherwise it can not be.

After all, what is time? Nothing but a sequence of events or changes in us or the world around us. Everything changes, everything flows. Night turns to day; old age follows youth. This gives us the opportunity to talk about what was and what is; to distinguish between the past and the present, "then" and "now". Without these changes, there would be no time. Suppose that the movement in the world has stopped, everything has frozen in absolute immobility - we can say, together with the apocalyptic angel, that there is no more time (Rev. X, 6). As philosophers express it, the category of time is our perception of various changes in their sequence. But this is true only in relation to us, to our limited reason, to our limited feelings. For God, however, there is no category of time, and the events of world life appear in the Divine consciousness not in sequential order one after another, but are given all at once, how many of them are contained in eternity. If we allowed a sequence here, then this would mean the mutability of the Divine consciousness, the Divine Mind. But God is immutable.

What follows from here?

It follows that our sins are committed within the time of our life only for the perception of our limited senses. For God, in His Divine foreknowledge, they always existed, nineteen centuries ago, when the Savior suffered, just as real as they do now. Consequently, the Lord also suffered for our present sins, and He accepted them into His loving soul. Together with the sins of the entire human race, our crimes weighed heavily on Him, increasing His pain on the Cross. Therefore, we cannot say that we are not to blame for His sufferings, for there is a share of our participation in them.

This must be said not only about our past and present sins, but also about future ones. Whenever and whatever sin we commit, God has already foreseen it and placed it on His Beloved Son. Thus, we voluntarily, although perhaps without realizing it, increase the sinful burden taken up by the Savior, and at the same time increase His suffering. If we firmly remembered this, remembered that with our sins we make our Redeemer suffer, then, perhaps, we would not sin with such ease and, before deciding to sin, we would think, at least from a feeling of compassion. But we rarely think about it, and the very idea that we are willing or unwilling crucifiers of the Lord seems strange to us. “I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One,” Pilate once said, washing his hands. We follow his example.

When we reflect on the circumstances of the Lord's death on the cross, our attention involuntarily focuses almost exclusively on the main active perpetrators of it. We are outraged by the betrayal of Judas; we are indignant at the hypocrisy and deceit of the Jewish high priests; the cruelty and ingratitude of the Jewish crowd seem disgusting to us; and these feelings and images obscure from us the idea that we are involved in this crime.

But let's look more impartially and more carefully. Why do we see the Lord suffering on the cross? Where is the reason for that? The answer is clear: the cause of these sufferings and death on the cross is the sins of mankind, including ours. The Savior suffered for us and for all people. We brought Him to the cross. The Jews are only an instrument of God's eternal predestination. Of course, they also bear heavy guilt; their malice, their hatred, their national self-deception, their blindness - all this makes them unanswerable before the judgment of the Truth of God, especially since they themselves wanted to sculpt the Blood of the Savior upon themselves; but be that as it may, this does not free us from moral responsibility for the suffering of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul is very clear about this. According to him, the one who once was enlightened and tasted the gift of heaven and became a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and fell away - he again crucifies the Son of God in himself and swears at Him (Heb. VI, 4, 6). When, having received the knowledge of the truth, we arbitrarily sin, then by this we trample the Son of God and do not revere as holy the Blood of the Covenant, with which we are sanctified, and offend the Spirit of grace (Heb. X, 29).

Never, never should a Christian forget these significant words of the apostle, full of deep and mournful meaning. All our vices, with a painful weight, fall on the divinely pure soul of the Savior, who must suffer them so that they can be forgiven us. Our sins are the stinging thorns of the crown of thorns, digging into the ulcerated forehead of the Lord, just as they once drank under the blows of Roman soldiers.

Our crimes are nails that we drive again into His gaping sores, burning with burning pain. Should we pay for His great, self-sacrificing love?

Jesus, having cried out loudly, gave up his spirit(Mk. XV, 37).

The Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, is dead. A life has ended, the like of which has not been and will not be in the world. The great, holy life is over; His struggle ended with His life, and His work ended with His struggle; with His work, redemption; with redemption, the foundation of a new world.

At this great moment of the death of the crucified Lord, there were no disciples of His, with the exception of John. They fled. Fear overcame their love for the Master. But there were women who were more faithful and devoted to Him, who had followed Him in Galilee before, cared for Him and served Him and the apostles with their property. The danger that threatened them from the hatred of the high priests and from the rudeness of the fanatical crowd did not overcome their attachment and did not force them to leave the cross.

“Look how diligent they are! - exclaims St. John Chrysostom. - They followed Him to serve Him, and did not leave Him even in the midst of danger; therefore they saw: they saw how he cried out, how he gave up his spirit, how the stones split and everything else. And they are the first to see Jesus, this so despised sex, the first to enjoy the contemplation of high blessings. In this, their courage is especially evident. The disciples ran away, and these were present. Do you see the courage of women? Do you see their fiery love? Do you see generosity in spending and determination to death itself? Let us, men, imitate women, so as not to leave Jesus in temptations.”

Indeed, the zeal of the holy myrrh-bearing women is great, their love for the Lord is fiery and constant. Free from any earthly passion, their heart lived and breathed in the Lord; all thoughts, desires and hopes were concentrated in Him, all their treasure was contained in Him. For the sake of their beloved Teacher, they willingly leave their homes, their relatives and friends, forget the weakness of their sex, do not fear the cruelty of the many enemies of the Lord, everywhere they steadily follow Him in His wandering life, not fearing the difficulties and inconveniences associated with these journeys, and patiently enduring all hardships.

It would not be surprising if the holy women, surrounding Jesus Christ with their cares and attention, followed Him in the days of His glory, when the rumor about Him thundered throughout Galilee and Judea, when thousands of crowds of people flocked to Him from all sides to hear His teaching and to see His miracles, when hundreds of sick people who received healing spoke with delight about His goodness and mercy, about His miraculous power, spreading the glory of His name everywhere. Then many followed Him, attracted by the noise of this glory, and there is nothing surprising in this: the human crowd is always beckoned by false lights of outward brilliance, and it loves to follow recognized idols. But to remain faithful to your Teacher in the difficult hours of His humiliation and disgrace, not to leave Him during the time of suffering, when any expression of sympathy could cause an explosion of insults and abuse from the unbridled crowd, driven to rage by the slander of the high priests, when the very pillar of faith, the Apostle Peter, shook and retreated before the danger of being recognized as a disciple of the Lord - this required great courage and boundless love. To remain faithful in such moments was the sign of a great and noble heart. And the love of the holy women withstood this test: they did not leave the cross. Until the very last moment, when a heavy stone, rolled to the doors of the coffin, forever closed expensive dust from them, they did not take their loving eyes off their Divine Teacher.

They were the last to leave the garden where the Lord was buried, and for that they were the first to receive the joyful news of the Resurrection, first from the radiant angel, then from the Savior Himself. Mary Magdalene, His most faithful and devoted disciple, was the first to be honored with inexpressible joy to see the risen Lord. By this manifestation, the Lord, as it were, recognized the holiness and greatness of female love.

It is interesting to note that neither in the Gospel nor in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles is there any mention of a single woman who would be against Christ or against His teachings. While on the part of men the Lord often met unbelief, ingratitude, ridicule, contempt, hatred, which, growing, turned into a whole sea of ​​malice that raged around the cross, on the part of women we see sincere devotion, touching care and self-sacrificing love. Even Gentiles like Claudia Procula, Pilate's wife, treat Him with deep respect.

Why is that?

“Because women are mentally less developed than men,” the followers of atheism will say, of course.

No, not because, but because women have a purer and more sensitive heart, and in their hearts they feel the truth and moral beauty of Christ's teaching. For a woman, mental, logical proofs are often not needed: she lives more by feeling and by feeling she perceives the truth. This way of knowing the truth often turns out to be more reliable, more true and faster in relation to Christianity, where there are so many questions that are opened not to an inquisitive, presumptuous mind, but to a pure, believing heart. For, as the apostle Paul says, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and the weak of the world... to shame the strong... For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reject the understanding of the prudent... and God turned the wisdom of this world into madness(1 Cor. I, 27, 19, 20). And with what delight and rapture the women listened to the words of the Divine Teacher. Let us recall, for example, Mary of Bethany, who forgot her duty as a hospitable hostess and chose the “good part” at the feet of the Savior in order to listen to His wondrous words. And how could it be for women not to heed the words of the Lord and not to give themselves with all their hearts to the new, great teaching, which elevated a woman to the same dignity with men, for in Christ bear male nor female(Gal. 3:28). All are equally equal before God, the Lord suffered and died equally for all, and all have the same right to the future bliss of eternal life. In the ancient pagan world, a woman did not know this equality and was always in a subordinate position, in oppression and contempt. “This so despised sex,” in the words of John Chrysostom, whose life was so full of sorrow and humiliation, could not but feel with a grateful heart that great blessing that the Christian religion opened before him in the bright prospects of joy, love and respect. That is why, from the very beginning of Christian history, we meet on its pages many names of women who, in the firmness and sincerity of their faith, in their zeal and zeal, in their asceticism, were not inferior to the great righteous. The names of the great martyrs, Paraskeva, ascetics like and many others tell us about the highest levels of Christian perfection and holiness that believing women have reached.

By the time Jesus gave up His spirit, the sun was already setting. Evening came and the Sabbath day approached. That Saturday was a great day(John XIX, 31), distinguished by a special brilliance and solemnity, because the celebration of Easter was connected with it. Apparently, this circumstance worried the high priests. People who did not consider it a desecration to start their holiday with the murder of the Messiah were seriously alarmed that the holiness of the next day, which began at sunset, would not be violated by the fact that the bodies hung on crosses. Therefore, having appeared before Pilate, the Jews asked to break the legs of the crucified in order to hasten their death and remove them from the crosses. Pilate allowed it, but the Lord had already died and His legs were not broken. This was no longer necessary. Meanwhile, a new petitioner appeared before Pilate, desiring permission to take down the body of Jesus from the cross and bury it.

It was Joseph of Arimathea.

Arimathea, the fatherland of Joseph, is ancient, Rama, the birthplace of the prophet Samuel, a city in the tribe of Benjamin, mentioned by the Evangelist Matthew (Matthew II, 18). Joseph was a wealthy man of high character and a blameless life. Great wealth made him a significant person, especially since at that time in Jerusalem everything could be bought for money, from the position of the last publican to the rank of high priest. In addition, Joseph was one of the most prominent members of the Sanhedrin and, along with other well-meaning advisers, probably formed the opposition to the party of Caiaphas. He was a secret disciple of Jesus Christ and did not participate in the last attempts of the Sanhedrin against the Savior, as well as in the trial of Him (Lk. XXIII, 51) - whether because, not seeing any means to save the Innocent, he did not want to be a witness to His condemnation, or because the cunning of the chief priests found a way to completely eliminate him from this matter. There is no doubt, however, that this forced inaction was hard for a noble heart, which is ashamed of cowardice, to leave an innocent without protection, even when there is no hope of saving him. And so, when everything was over and only the lifeless body of the Savior hung on the cross, grief and indignation inspired Joseph with courage. It was now too late to profess sympathy for Jesus Christ as a living prophet; it only remained to render Him the last duty of friendship and respect - to save from disgrace, at least, His mortal remains, for, otherwise, the Jews, no doubt, would have thrown the Most Pure Body into the common pit along with all the executed criminals.

Joseph dared to go in to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus(Article 43).

This determination was fraught with serious danger - not on the part of Pilate, from whom one could expect a favorable decision in favor of Jesus Christ, recognized by him as a righteous man, but on the part of the high priests, who saw in the slightest sign of respect for the Savior a betrayal of their plans, but an attempt to bury Him with honor could be looked at only as an indignation against the Sanhedrin, all the more dangerous because it was now undertaken by a famous member of the Sanhedrin, whose example could influence the people, already committed to the memory of Jesus.

However, Joseph did not stop before this danger and, despising fear, appeared in the Roman praetoria. His request was the first news to Pilate that Jesus Christ had already died. The hegemon was surprised at such a quick death and, having sent for the centurion, asked him whether death really followed, and whether there was fainting or lethargy. Having received a proper answer, Pilate ordered that the Body of the Lord be given to Joseph for burial. Although the Romans left the bodies of those crucified by them to be devoured by dogs and crows, the procurator did not want to refuse the venerable and prominent member of the Sanhedrin in his request, especially since he undoubtedly felt all the injustice of his sentence, wrested from him by the high priests against Jesus Christ. The very inattention to the enmity of the high priests, who had to look at the permission given to Joseph as a new shame for themselves, was, as it were, a sacrifice that Pilate brought to the memory of the Righteous.

Having received permission, Joseph, without wasting time, appeared on Golgotha ​​and removed the Body from the cross. Together with him, another secret follower of Jesus Christ, Nicodemus, a member of the supreme Jewish council, who once came to the Savior at night for a secret conversation, came to Golgotha ​​(John III, 1-21). Now he no longer hides full of love and compassion, brought truly royal gifts for burial - one hundred liters of a fragrant composition of myrrh and aloes. It was necessary to hurry, as Saturday was coming, when, according to the law of Moses, every orthodox Israeli had to leave all his affairs and be in complete peace. Therefore, all the ceremonies of the Jewish funeral rite could not be observed; but all that could be done, given the shortness of time, was done. The body of the Lord was washed with pure water, then sprinkled with incense and wrapped in a square wide robe (shroud). The head and face were wrapped in a narrow head towel. Both are tied with laces. Some of the fragrances were probably burned, as there are examples in the history of the Jewish funeral ritual.

Not far from the place of the crucifixion was a garden that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, and in its fence, in the rock, was carved, according to Jewish custom, a cave for burial. Joseph, in all likelihood, intended this tomb for himself and for his family, wanting to be buried close to the holy city, but no one had yet been laid in it. In spite of sacred meaning which the Jews attributed to their tombs and burial caves, in spite of the petty sensitivity with which they avoided all contact with the dead, Joseph did not hesitate for a moment to provide his Divine Teacher with this resting place. Jesus was laid there for the sake of Jewish Friday, because the tomb was close(John XIX, 42).

A huge stone (golal) was rolled to the entrance to the cave - a precaution in Judea is necessary, since there were many jackals, hyenas and other predatory animals and birds. They had hardly done all this when the sun went down behind the mountains of Jerusalem. Saturday began - the last Old Testament Saturday. A day later, the first Resurrection of the New Testament was to shine.

How gloomy, joyless was this day now for the disciples and friends of the Lord! Sorrow filled my whole soul, suppressed all other thoughts, did not allow me to come to my senses in order to comprehend in any way, to understand everything that had happened in its terrible unexpectedness. The future was shrouded in impenetrable darkness; The past was more embarrassing than comforting. The memory of the miracles of Jesus, of His former greatness, made the cross and His tomb even more terrible. Until now, His disciples have walked an uneven, narrow, often thorny path, but they have followed in the footsteps of the Teacher, clothed with the might of the Son of God, drawing everyone's attention to themselves, sharing His glory with Him, consoling themselves with majestic hopes in the future. And this path suddenly leads them to Golgotha, cut off by the cross of the Teacher, completely ending in His tomb!

The situation is sad, inconsolable!

The sorrow of the Lord's disciples would not have been so extreme if they had been less sure of His dignity. Then it could soon turn into a chill towards the One who so suddenly changed their hopes, subjecting Himself to death and their shame. Then only deceived pride would suffer.

But love and respect for the Savior did not diminish in the slightest in their grateful hearts. The souls of His disciples were united with Him by an eternal heavenly union. His tomb became a sanctuary for them, in which all their holy thoughts, all pure desires, all faith were enclosed.

And with this holy love was constantly mingled with the terrible thought: “He is dead! He is not what we revere Him! He is not the Messiah! He who was and is everything for us!..” (Works of Innokenty, Archbishop of Kherson).

It seemed that everything was over, evil triumphed. The most pure lips were closed, broadcasting with such power the words of eternal life; hands dropped lifelessly, once with love blessing those who came to Him and healed those who were afflicted; the great, loving heart that contained the whole world stopped beating. Everything was stamped with death. And under this cold breath of death, the hopes of the disciples to see their dear Rabbi in a halo of glory and messianic greatness faded.

With what hopeless sadness they confess: But we hoped that it was He who should redeem Israel.”(Luke XXIV, 21).

There seemed to be no light in the clouds of sorrow hanging over the heads of the disciples...

But now we already know: Saturday has passed, and the radiant joy of the Resurrection has shone upon mournful hearts! The Lord is risen, the buried truth is risen! And neither the stone, nor the seals of the coffin, nor the guard, nor all the power of hell could keep her in the dark cave. The light of the resurrection, like blinding lightning, pierced the clouds of evil. The Lord has risen and appeared again to the world!

What a great lesson for us - the lesson of hope!

How often in private and public life there are situations that seem hopeless. Especially often they have to be experienced by a Christian who has broken the connection with worldly aspirations and habits and has embarked on a narrow but direct path to Christ. The whole world is arming against him. " If you were from the world, - the Lord warns His followers, - then the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If I was persecuted, they will persecute you too... In the world you will have sorrow; but be of good cheer: I have conquered the world"(John XV, 19-20; XVI, 33). You are haunted by the injustice of the higher, the mockery and contempt of your comrades, the malice and envy of the lower. The serpentine stream of slander poisons your peace. You are called a holy fool, a hypocrite, a saint, a hypocrite. Around you you do not meet any friendly support, no words of participation. In the darkness that has enveloped you, not a single point of light is visible; there seems to be no way out! And it can take years!

But do not be discouraged: remember the lesson of the Holy Sepulcher. The truth can be silenced, buried, but only for a while. Sooner or later, she will rise again - this is a great, living force! And nothing in the world can defeat her. There is nothing stronger than God's truth. It does not shine with effects, does not need scenery, does not trumpet before itself, like a vain lie: it is a quiet, calm, but completely irresistible force.

Bands of hopeless darkness are also in public life. Sometimes lies and evil thicken to such an extent that it becomes difficult to breathe in this poisonous atmosphere. Hope fades, and the spirit of involuntary despondency approaches like a nightmare, like a heavy cloud. But remember the lesson of the Holy Sepulcher. It is unlikely that anyone will ever have to experience such a heavy mood of hopeless despondency as the disciples of the Savior in the weary hours after His burial; but the light that shone from the tomb dispelled the darkness of despondency, and deep sorrow was replaced by the joy of the Resurrection.

This constant miracle of the triumph of truth fills the entire history of Christianity.

At the time of the Lord's death, it was difficult, in human terms, to think that His work would continue and not die with Him. He left behind him eleven apostles to whom he entrusted this mission: “And go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."(Mk. XVI, 15). But who were they? What influence could they have? Were they noble people who could rely on the authority of their noble origin, which always has weight in the eyes of people? No, they belonged to the lowest class, the class of fishermen who supported their wretched existence by small-scale fishing in the waters of the Lake of Gennesaret; came from Galilee, which was considered the most rude and ignorant country. Were they educated, learned rabbis, lawyers, so that they could captivate people with the power of eloquence and the logic of conviction? No: the most inspired and thoughtful of them, John, at the time of his calling, according to John Chrysostom, was illiterate. Were they rich in order to impress with the brilliance of luxury the common people, always greedy for external effects? No: they had old, torn nets that needed mending, and even those they abandoned when they followed Christ. Were they strong, brave warriors to spread the teachings of Christ with the power of the sword, as the Mohammedans did much later, spreading Islam? No: they had two knives, and the Lord ordered them to be sheathed at the most critical moment.

Let us not forget, moreover, that they were frightened by the fanaticism of the Jewish crowd, shocked by the death of the Savior, and lost all hope for a better future.

And there were only eleven of them, after the election of Matthew - twelve.

And against them stood the whole vast pagan and Jewish world with its centuries-old culture, with its education and scholarship, with its colossal military and economic power, with its strong power of political organization. And this world they had to conquer.

Could it be hoped for?

And yet these timid people, who fled from fear of a crowd of hierarchical ministers, let's go and- faithful to the covenant of the Savior - preached everywhere, with the help of the Lord(Mk. XVI, 20). Under what conditions they had to preach - this is best explained by the Apostle Paul in the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of his missionary exploits: I… was in labors, immeasurably in wounds, more in dungeons, and many times near death. From the Jews five times was given me forty blows without one; three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent night and day in the depths of the sea; I have been many times in travels, in dangers on the rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers on the sea, in dangers between false brethren, in labor and in exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness"(2 Cor. XI, 23-27). And, despite all the obstacles, already during the life of the apostles, in almost all the countries known then, a solid foundation was laid for the Church of Christ.

And then the whole pagan world rose up to fight against Christianity. It was a furious, desperate struggle, a struggle for life and death. At the disposal of the then cruel state were many terrible weapons to fight the recalcitrant. Judgment and persecution, interrogations and torture, fire and red-hot iron, beatings and mutilations, deprivation of property, damp and gloomy dungeons, exile in the mines, this penal servitude of the ancient world, even the death penalty - all this rushed at the Christians in one fiery river at the wave of power state. Little of. The cruelty of the tormentors invented special terrible executions for Christians. They were doused with pitch and lit like torches. Whole crowds were taken out to the spectacles, and wild hungry animals tormented the defenseless for the amusement of an idle, cruel and bloodthirsty crowd. Everything has been tried.

But barely three centuries passed, and paganism collapsed irrevocably with all its political and military might, with its philosophy and culture. And Christianity celebrated a complete and brilliant victory by the edict of Constantine the Great. Is this not a miracle of Christian faith and hope?

Even the most end times before the second coming of the Savior, when hell mobilizes all the forces of evil to fight the Church, when faith becomes so impoverished that the Son of Man, having come, will hardly find it on earth, when on because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold when they betray one another and hate one another(Matt. XXIV, 12.10), - even these terrible times of universal darkness and malice will end in the triumph of truth, for the last, most violent enemy of the Church of Christ on earth, the Antichrist, whose coming, according to the work of Satan, will be with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of unrighteousness to those who perish(2 Thess. II, 9-10), will be defeated. And him The Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the appearance of His coming(2 Thess. II, 8). But the devil who deceived the nations will cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and he will be tormented day and night forever and ever(Rev. XX, 10).

If so, if the truth is invincible, then can a true Christian lose heart in the most difficult circumstances of life?

The Orthodox Church is currently in a severe crisis. The stubborn persecution raised against her, systematic and crafty, confuses and disturbs even the most steadfast and sincere Christians. The majority of the people are ready to plunge headlong into the swamp of materialistic ignorance and debauchery. The muddy waves of general disbelief seem to be about to overwhelm and extinguish the lonely lights of bright faith, still flickering here and there. Involuntarily, the heart of many shrinks, and the cold of dull doubt creeps into the soul. But remember the Holy Sepulcher - this living, speaking, triumphant, victorious Sepulcher - and not a vague hope, but a calm, completely irresistible confidence will fill your heart and strengthen your worried thought. The Church cannot perish, for the Lord created it, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her(Matt. XVI, 18). May the Lord lead us through the gaps and abysses of unbelief, through the cleansing fire of persecution. Such is His holy will, His wise Providence, “with the depth of wisdom, build all humanity and give everything useful to everyone.” So it is necessary. Causes and secret goals of unknown ways It is useless for us and should not be investigated. It is enough for us to know that the Lord is with us all days until the end of time. Amen(Matt. XXVIII, 20). May the Lord lead us through the sea of ​​malice and unbridled wickedness, where all that is holy perished, all the best that is in the soul and that only gives the right to the great and sacred title of “man”, let! We know that these waves, standing "everywhere and everywhere" and ready to engulf us, are dangerous only for the "pharaoh's charioteer" himself. This is the law of moral life, the law of history. The sowed evil, in the end, falls on the head of those who raised and educated it. Even if we personally are not destined to see this joyful moment of the triumph of truth, and the Lord will be pleased to call us out of this life before it comes. What a trouble! We know that this moment is inevitable, and if we do not see it here on earth, we will see it from there... And then, looking back at the abyss of life we ​​have passed, let us join the jubilant choir:

“Let us sing to the Lord: glorious be glorified!” If even formidable social disasters, ready to shake both the Church and the faith of Christ, should not embarrass the true Christian and lead him to despondency, then our personal, private life failures do not deserve attention at all. These are the little things that are not worth talking about. Moreover, all this is so changeable, impermanent: today - joy, tomorrow - grief, today - luck, tomorrow - failure, today - at the top of glory, tomorrow - under the yoke of shame and misfortune. Everything flows, everything changes. You just have to wait a little, and circumstances will change. Life will smile again, grief will be forgotten, the very memories of past misfortunes will be erased.

“When one is in sorrow,” says the Monk Macarius of Egypt, “or in the agitation of passions, one should not lose hope; because by despair sin is introduced into the soul even more and makes it whiter. And when someone has unceasing hope in God, evil, as it were, becomes thinner and becomes watery in him.

Let us conclude with the verses of one little, unknown poet:

You cry, you suffer, my dear sister!
Oh, believe me: suffering is not eternal!
One by one they will disperse. The clouds are dull ...
Be all you - prayer, be all - expectation;
Manage only to surrender to Christ in obedience,
Only manage to believe ... and the sobs will subside,
And everything will become clear and quiet ...
Oh my friend, my dear sister.

The night passed after the Sabbath, spent by the disciples of Jesus Christ and the women devoted to Him in peace, that is, in complete inactivity, as required by the law of Moses. On this day they could not do anything, but their hearts were restless, and the anxious, weary night did not alleviate their grief. It is unlikely that they closed their eyes, thinking with sadness how miserable and hasty were the funeral of their dear Rabbi and how little they corresponded to the dignity of the Great Prophet, “strong in deed and word.” The loving and yearning heart imperiously demanded that the last debt be paid to the Beloved Departed and that the unfulfilled ceremonies of the funeral rite be completed, having completed the full anointing of the Body, hastily begun by Joseph and Nicodemus. The fragrances and incense suits had already been bought, and the dawn had barely turned red, scattering the silvery twilight of the first Easter night, as the faithful disciples of Christ were already walking hastily through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the prepared aromas. Apparently, they did not know anything about the guard set by the high priests at the Holy Sepulcher, and that the entrance to the cave was sealed, but they were worried about another question: how to roll off the stone from the door of the Sepulcher? The huge goalal was too heavy, and to move it seemed to be an impossible task; for the weak female forces. Imagine their surprise when they saw that the stone had been rolled away!

With trembling and bewilderment, they entered the cave, and involuntary horror seized them: the stone bed where the dear Body lay was empty! The Lord was not in the cave!

Before they could figure out the mystery of the disappearance of the dead Body and recover from the amazement and pain of this new grief, they noticed on the right side a young man dressed in white clothes. From the lips of this young man for the first time came the great news, which sounded first in an empty cave and then repeated by millions of lips, changing the whole world life. You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene crucified; He is risen, He is not here. Here's the place where He was laid. myrrh-bearing women, going out, they ran from the tomb; they were seized with trepidation and horror, and they did not say anything to anyone, because they were afraid.

The news was really amazing, extraordinary, and they were so little prepared for it!

And meanwhile, this message formed the basis of all our faith! Only two words - He is risen - but what an enormous power they have! These two words turned the whole world upside down, overturned and destroyed paganism to its foundations and created a great Christian Church, strong not so much in numbers, not so much in material resources, how much by their faith and moral power.

Recognizing: all the great significance of the Resurrection of Christ, the apostle Paul directly says: “... if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain.”(1 Cor. XV, 14).

Without faith in the Risen Christ, there is no Christianity.

That is why all the opponents of our faith, starting with the pagan Celsus, the writer of the ancient world, and ending with modern non-believers of all stripes, with especially fierce persistence, try to shake the truth of the Resurrection and discredit those gospel narratives on which it is based.

Before proceeding to elucidate the great significance for us of the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, it is not useless to deal with the objections of these skeptics and, having analyzed at least the most common of them, clear the soil from the garbage of arbitrary fabrications and eliminate possible doubts.

Thus, first of all, they say that the resurrection of Christ cannot be understood in the very sense in which the Christian Church understands. Such an understanding presupposes death. Meanwhile, one might think that Christ did not die on the cross. He only fell into a deep faint, from which he later woke up in a cool cave.

“Well, what’s next?” we ask. Further, obviously, one must assume (again, only to assume, having no basis in the gospel text), that Christ got up from His bed, rolled away a huge stone from the doors of the tomb and left the cave ... And this with legs and arms pierced through and through! Is it possible! It should also be added that on the same day, as Saint Luke tells, the Lord, together with two disciples, made a journey to the village of Emmaus, which was 60 stadia (about 12 versts) from Jerusalem. All this is so impossible that the assumption of the Lord's swoon is reduced to the level of the most absurd fiction. “A man with pierced legs,” writes professor, doctor of medicine A. Shistov, “not only could not go to Emmaus on the third day, but, from a medical point of view, he could not stand on his feet until a month after he was taken down from the cross ”(A. Shistov. Thoughts on the God-man).

In addition, as the rationalists themselves rightly point out, the unfortunate sufferer, half-dead, crawling out of the tomb with difficulty, in need of the most attentive care and then nevertheless dying, could not impress his students as a triumphant conqueror over death and the grave.

Finally, one detail noted by St. John, an eyewitness to the last minutes of the Savior's life, leaves no doubt about the actual death of Jesus Christ. Soldiers, having come to Jesus and seeing Him dead, - narrates the Apostle John, - They did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who saw testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he speaks the truth so that you may believe(John XIX, 33-35).

The expressiveness with which John emphasizes the truth of his testimony does not allow one to doubt it, and the ancient fathers of the Church always referred to the fact indicated by him in their polemics with heretic docets, who recognized the death of Christ only imaginary. The fact is that, as can be judged on the basis of the words of the evangelist, the blow of the spear obviously tore the atrium, from where the leaked blood turned out to be mixed with serous fluid - a symptom of certain death, as many doctors say. In view of the absurdity of the considered theory, other voices are heard: yes, Christ died on the cross. There can be no doubt about this. But one can think that He did not resurrect, that soon after His death His body was stolen, and then a false rumor about His resurrection was spread. After all, it was not for nothing that the high priests affirmed this (Matt. XXVIII, 13-15).

But who could steal the Body of the Savior? Scribes? High priests? Pharisees? It cannot be, because at the first news of the imaginary resurrection of Christ, they, as interested in suppressing such rumors, would show everyone His corpse and this, no doubt, would put an end to all rumors, all rumors and assumptions. This is first. Secondly, from the Gospel of Matthew it is clear that the chief priests and scribes were even afraid of suspicion at their own expense in this matter.

Maybe the Roman guards kidnapped the Savior? No, and this cannot be said. First of all, they were not at all interested in this matter. And then, with the iron discipline that reigned in the Roman troops, with the terrible responsibility that the soldiers were subjected to in this case, they would never have decided on such a dangerous and risky undertaking.

It remains, therefore, to admit that the disciples of Christ themselves stole the Body of their Master and then spread the rumor about His resurrection.

But if neither the chief priests nor the soldiers could do this, then the apostles, all the more, could not dare to do this. People, seized with fear and horror, cowardly hiding from Gethsemane, in no case could, in a few hours, in the middle of the night, before the eyes of the Roman guard, penetrate into the depths of the cave and steal the Most Pure Body of Christ the Savior, and even being in a state of spiritual and bodily exhaustion.

Further, for preaching about the Resurrection of Christ, the apostles were persecuted, tortured, burned at the stake, and crucified on crosses. The question is, what was the reason for the disciples to resort to such deception? Then, how could this lie gain a foothold in the minds of people and, without revealing itself, hold out for whole centuries? Involuntarily you ask yourself, could these simple-hearted fishermen be such skillful actors as to proclaim a deliberate lie with the greatest aplomb and then, until the very end of their lives, never step out of their role? Didn't any of them protest against such a deception? No, sooner or later the lie had to be revealed, and such a gross deceit could not remain hidden for long.

If the apostles spread false rumors about the Resurrection of Christ, how could they be believed? How did the Mother of Christ and His brothers believe this? After all, the brothers during His lifetime did not believe in Him. Had the lie convinced them now? Moreover, such a fiction could have appeared only if the apostles were expecting the Resurrection of their Teacher. But the fact of the matter is that they did not even think about the Resurrection of Christ, and when the Lord warned them that He must be killed and then rise again, they did not even understand Him (Mk. IX, 10, 31-32) - that thought was so far from them.

Even if we assume that the disciples and apostles stole the remains of their Master, then we can say with confidence that such a plan of theirs would have been completely fruitless.

The world cannot be converted to a new faith by such deceptions and tricks done, moreover, by such people. In order to convince others, it is necessary that the preacher, first of all, himself be deeply convinced of the truth of his sermon. If he himself does not have this conviction, then he will never be able to captivate others with him.

So, these arguments of our religious opponents do not in the least shake our faith in the risen Christ.

Third objection. It is the most common and, it should be noted, the most false.

They say: Jesus Christ died and did not rise again. But some of His disciples, “thanks to their excited state”, saw the ghost of Christ and imagined that they saw the Teacher himself. Since then, there have been rumors about the Resurrection.

This assumption is in complete contradiction with the gospel narrative of the appearance of the Resurrected Savior. In the text of the Gospel we read the following: Jesus stood in the midst of them and said to them: Peace be with you. They, embarrassed and frightened, thought they saw a spirit. But He said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Look at my hands and at my feet; it is I myself; touch me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see with me. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. When they still did not believe for joy and wondered, He said to them: Do you have any food here? They gave Him a piece of baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it and ate before them.”(Luke XXIV, 36-43).

It can be seen from the above text that the thought of a ghost also flashed through the minds of the apostles when they saw the Lord who suddenly appeared. But the Savior Himself resolutely refuted this idea, offering them to touch Himself and demanding food. Of course, a ghost cannot eat or drink, and it is impossible to touch it with your hands. Rationalists, therefore, are here forced to reject one of two things: either the gospel narrative, or their own invention of ghosts. Let us add, in addition, that the disciples of Christ were by no means weak-nerved, hysterical, prone to hallucinations, as they are sometimes portrayed. On the contrary, they were stocky, healthy, sensible fishermen who were neither in the mood for nervous breakdown nor for waking hallucinations.

Leaving aside some other, even weaker objections, and summing up all the above, we must admit that neither the deceit nor the self-deception of the disciples could ever have led to such wondrous and lasting results. You inevitably come to the conclusion that the so-called natural explanations for the fact of the Resurrection of Christ require more faith than the gospel account of this event.

In the Gospel, moreover, we have such clear, positive, undoubted grounds for our faith in the Risen Lord that, without rejecting or completely distorting the Gospel text, we can in no way deny the reality of the fact of the Resurrection of the Lord.

First of all, the Savior Himself spoke of His Resurrection. He spoke not once, but several times. He spoke not in secret, not in parables, but directly, clearly, intelligibly.

Thus, while in Galilee, Jesus said to His disciples: The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”(Mt. XVII, 22-23; see: Mk. IX, 30-31).

After the apostle Peter confessed Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus began to reveal to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer much at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and rise again on the third day.(Matt. XVI, 21; see: Luke IX, 22).

After the Transfiguration, when the disciples descended from the mountain, Jesus rebuked them, saying, Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.(Matthew XVII, 9).

The angels also reminded the disciples of these words when, appearing to them after the resurrection of Christ, they said: “... what are you looking for alive among the dead? He is not here: He is risen; remember how He told you when He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise on the third day. And they remembered his words"(Luke XXIV, 5-8).

So, Christ repeatedly spoke about His Resurrection. What right do we have to distrust Him and question His words? Has he ever told a lie? Were some of His promises not fulfilled? Prophecies not fulfilled? On the contrary: all His predictions were literally fulfilled. Therefore, in this case, we have no right to doubt and must believe that Christ is risen, for He spoke about this, and His words were always fulfilled.

Further, we believe in the Resurrection of Christ because, after the actual death, we saw Him resurrected. If you carefully study the gospel text, then such visions or appearances of His different persons can be counted up to ten.

The first appearance was to Mary Magdalene (Mark XYI, 9; John XX, 11-18). Immediately afterwards the Lord appeared to other myrrh-bearing women (Matt. XXVIII, 9-10). The third appearance was to the Apostle Peter (Luke XXIV, 34; I Cor. XV, 5); The details of this phenomenon are completely unknown. The fourth was for two disciples on their way to Emmaus (Luke XXIV, 13-35). Fifth - ten disciples gathered together, and among them was not the Apostle Thomas (Jn. XX, 19-23). The sixth - to the same disciples together with Thomas (Jn. XX, 26-29). The seventh - to the seven apostles on Lake Tiberias, about which St. John tells in detail (John XXI, 1-23). The eighth is on a mountain in Galilee; more than five hundred disciples and eleven apostles with them (Matt. XXVIII, 17; 1 Cor. XV, 6). The ninth - to the apostle James. There is no mention of this phenomenon in the Gospels, but the Apostle Paul speaks of it (1 Cor. XV, 4). The tenth appearance was a farewell and ended with the Ascension of the Lord (Luke XXIV, 50-51).

In addition to these phenomena mentioned in the Gospel, there were undoubtedly others about which detailed information has not been preserved, for, according to the testimony of the book of Acts, the Lord after His Resurrection for forty days appeared to the disciples, speaking to them about the Kingdom of God (Acts I, 3 ).

If the Lord has appeared so many times in different places to different persons, how can we not believe the testimony of so many eyewitnesses? Were they all liars or exalted daydreamers? The assumption is absolutely incredible, and we cannot allow it to please unbelievers.

Without the Resurrection of Christ it is impossible to explain the change that took place in the soul of the apostles. After all, the apostles and disciples of Christ did not know until the last moment why the Divine Teacher came, did not understand His teachings, and warned Him against the suffering that awaited Him. And all the words of Christ were interpreted in an earthly, material sense. And suddenly, after some three days, no more, they understood everything, understood everything, comprehended the teachings of Christ as deeply as, perhaps, none of our contemporaries could comprehend. From weak, frightened people, they suddenly become bold, resolute, convinced preachers of a new doctrine, for the triumph of which they almost all gave their lives. It is clear that in this short period of time something extraordinary happened that shook them to the core and left an indelible stamp on their convictions. One has only to reject the Resurrection of Christ, and this turning point will be completely incomprehensible and inexplicable. With the recognition of this wonderful fact, everything will be simple, clear and accessible for us.

Without the fact of the Resurrection, the extraordinary enthusiasm of the apostolic community would not have had sufficient grounds, and in general the entire early history of Christianity would have been a series of impossibilities. The Resurrection of Christ forms the starting point for new life in the hearts of the disciples. It turns their sorrow into extraordinary joy. He inspires courageous determination in the fallen spirit and makes world teachers and preachers out of poor fishermen. Not a single fact has left such deep traces in history as this one. The whole history of subsequent centuries represents the development and spread of Christian ideas, and the message of the Resurrection is the central of them. Without recognition of this fact, the whole history would turn into a crude and absurd phantasmagoria, which is impossible to understand and explain. Indeed, if the news of the Resurrection was nothing more than a deception or a game of the imagination, then how could all mankind, at least the mankind of the cultural world, be under the hypnosis of this deception for whole centuries?

Nobody can explain this.

No, no matter what the opponents of Christianity say, we are nevertheless firmly convinced and joyful faith say: "Christ is Risen!" In this fact of the Resurrection of Christ is the triumph of our faith, the triumph of truth, the triumph of virtue, the triumph of life, the triumph of immortality.

The Risen Christ is the cornerstone of our faith. " Back from the past says the Apostle Paul, on the basis of the apostle and prophet I exist on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself "(Eph. II, 20). If Christ is risen, then He is not as mortal as we are. We can believe in His divinity and in the Divine origin of our faith. If He has not risen, then He is, of course, only a man, and not the incarnation of the Divine. If He has not risen, then we have the right to subject to the strongest doubt all His miracles, all that He said about Himself, all that He promised people. If He is risen, then this is a miracle of miracles, before which all other Gospel miracles pale, and even then there will be no difficulty in accepting them. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the preaching of the apostles, based on faith in the Risen Lord and spreading this faith throughout the world, would have been impossible. Did not all the apostles doubt that Christ is the Messiah until they were convinced of His Resurrection? Did not all of them, as the Savior foretold, scattered like “sheep without a shepherd”? Even after the Resurrection of the Lord, how difficult it was to convince some of them that He had really risen. And without this confidence, would they go out to the world preaching? And would the world, immersed in the darkness of paganism, turn to the Christian faith without this sermon? And what would they start preaching? How would they say: He who believes in the Son of God has eternal life (1 John V, 13), when the Son of God Himself would remain dead? How would they say: Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever(Heb. XIII, 8), when would everyone know that He was alive and then dead?

Thus, without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Sepulcher would also be the tomb of the Christian faith: because everyone who previously believed in Him would cease to believe; because no one would take the trouble to preach faith in Him; because, finally, this sermon in itself would not be worth trusting. But now the tomb of Jesus Christ has become a sanctuary, for the triumph of the Christian faith took place in it.

The Resurrection of Christ is the triumph not only of our faith, but of truth in general.

If Christ has not risen, then we are forced to admit something terrible, incredible, namely, that the Pharisees, scribes and high priests of the Jews were right, but the Son of Man was wrong. Why? Because, certifying His Divine dignity, Christ indicated that He would rise on the third day. " A wicked and adulterous generation- He said to the Pharisees, who demanded a sign, - looking for signs; and no sign will be given to him except the sign of Jonah the prophet; For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.(Mt. XII, 39-40).

With these words, the Lord quite definitely points to His Resurrection as a sign of His Divine mission, and, therefore, if He is resurrected, then His testimony is true, the prediction was justified - we can believe in Him and in His teaching. If He did not resurrect, then, then, in His answer to the Pharisees, He told a lie; it means that He Himself was mistaken, and the high priests were right, who recognized Him as a simple man and crucified Him as a deceiver because, being a man, he made Himself God (Jn. X, 33).

One has only to reject the Resurrection, one will also have to reject the Righteous, Holy God, one can no longer believe in the victory of truth and goodness, if Jesus Christ died a shameful death, died just like Judas, like a blasphemous robber.

How can there be any talk of victory in general over evil, over unrighteousness, when Christ has not risen?

If this all-perfect moral personality, without any stain or blemish, pure, infinitely great and strong in His selfless love, defeated by hatred, crushed by sinful and unworthy people, suffered the most miserable failure in His ideal aspirations; if this pure Being, who was in such sincere communion with the Ruler of the world as the Son with His Father and served Him alone, was condemned by an unjust judgment, tortured, disgraced, crucified and killed on the cross, and God did not show any compassion for Him, allowed Him to die ingloriously and did not glorify Him in the triumph of the Resurrection, then, therefore, there is no truth on earth, there is nothing pure and holy in this sinful, dirty and vulgar world of ours.

If Caiaphas and Judas won, then the very principle of truth is destroyed. Then good is powerless and can never overcome untruth. Then evil is the rightful king of life. Then something terrible happened on the cross: evil triumphed over embodied goodness, lies over Truth, vulgarity over Greatness, baseness over Purity, pride and hatred over Love and Unselfishness. Who, after all this, can still sincerely believe in the final victory of goodness and truth?

But if Christ is risen, then this means that truth and goodness turned out to be more powerful than evil. Then His Resurrection is a firm guarantee for the possibility of salvation for every moral person and for the final victory of truth on earth. Then one can believe that there is a just God, there is truth, there is goodness. Moreover, one can believe that The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father... and when He will reward everyone according to his deeds.

The Resurrection of Christ is, finally, the triumph of immortality. Here life triumphed over death, and together with the apostle we can say: Death, where is your sting? hell, where is your victory? (1 Cor. XV, 55). If Christ has not been resurrected, then we could argue that the law of death is invincible, and that death will never finally let anyone out of its jaws. We wouldn't have a single example complete victory over death, for even if we know the cases of the resurrection, for example, of Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, and others, then this victory was only temporary: death only temporarily yielded its victims, but then swallowed them up again. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the idea of ​​immortality would thus always remain in great doubt. But if one Son of Man has risen and is not consumed by death, then immortality is not a dream, not an idle fantasy; it means that it is possible in eternity as a real fact, and in this we have an undoubted guarantee of our immortality, the immortality of all the sons of men. We can believe that we too will be resurrected after Christ, which is why the Apostle Paul says: Christ is risen from the dead, the firstborn of the dead. As in Adam everyone dies, so in Christ everyone will come to life, each in his own order: the firstborn is Christ, then those of Christ, at His coming.(1 Cor. XV, 20, 22-23).

From this we must draw a further conclusion, which is of tremendous importance for us: if immortality exists, then all life acquires a deep meaning as a preparatory period for a future eternity. If there is no immortality, then life is nothing but strange, incomprehensible nonsense, absurdity. " For what- let's say the words of the apostle - and we are exposed to disasters every hour?.. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die!”(1 Cor. XV, 30, 32).

The gloomy fantasy of one unbelieving writer becomes understandable, resting on this fatal question: “for what?”

“I am in a coffin,” he writes, “worms are eating my body, and a mole is quietly digging its tunnel over my grave. Strange, meaningless silence...

Was it worth it to wander around the wide world for so many years in order, in the end, to get into this terrible place? Was it worth experiencing the huge amount of moral and physical torments that I had to re-experience throughout my life, in order to fall into the merciless hands of Death - this only real deity - which maliciously lowered me into the hopeless darkness of the grave? What goal, incomprehensible to us, is pursued by nature in this wild process of decomposition? Why have I and many other mortals tried to accumulate in my brain throughout my life this store of information, this wealth of knowledge? I have studied ten languages, I have gone through high school, I have worked on many questions of human knowledge, having expended a lot of nervous energy on all this. Now my corpse is in a coffin. Where did all this mass of labor expended by me go and what did it turn into? She was gone, dead forever.

A huge worm crawled into my left nostril and, with difficulty making its way through the swollen, decomposed mucous tissue, reached the nerve substance of the brain. I reached and began to penetrate deeper and deeper into it, gradually eating away those divine parts of my brain in which the treasures of the knowledge I had accumulated during my lifetime were stored ...

Is it worth being born into the world, is it worth living, is it worth working after all this?”

Of course, it is not worth it if there is no resurrection, there is no immortality.

And for those who do not believe in the future life, to all the painful questions - “for what? why?" - No answer.

Only darkness, gloom, horror ...

But Christ is risen, and for us everything becomes clear, transparent, understandable. In His resurrection, all questions about the goals and objectives of life are resolved. Life is no longer “a gift in vain, a random gift”, not an “empty and stupid joke”, but a great gift of the Creator to man, given so that he can achieve eternal, supreme bliss. Our activity, our service to our neighbors, is not the work of the Danaides who fill a bottomless barrel, not empty labors without any hope of making a person really happy, but participation in the work of Christ, which must end in the kingdom of God's love and glory. The very sufferings with which life is full no longer confuse us, for we begin to understand that these sufferings prepare us and our neighbors for a blissful life with God, that the future will not only make the sufferers forget the past, but will also make them bless this past as a path. to joy and happiness. Even death is not terrible, because for us it is only a transition to another life, brighter, more joyful, if, of course, we are worthy of it.

Christ has risen, and the gates of the Kingdom have been opened for us, tightly closed for man after his fall.

Christ is risen and entered ... into heaven itself, in order to appear now for us before the face of God(Heb. IX:24). We just have to follow Him.

Christ is risen and gave us a new life full of grace. Our business is to use these forces.

That is why for us there is so much deep, mysterious, joyful meaning in the troparion of Holy Pascha, which we will never stop repeating:

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and bestowing life on those in the tombs.”

Bishop Vasily Kineshma "Conversations on the Gospel of Mark"
Publishing House "Father's House", 2006.

For many centuries, the Christian Church has been celebrating the bright resurrection of Christ. It is surprising that this greatest event in the history of mankind does not have a fixed date for celebration once and for all. The dates of Easter vary from year to year. They are calculated so that Easter is celebrated after the full moon, does not coincide with the Jewish Passover, and falls strictly on Sunday. We are celebrating the Event, and therefore the numbers are not so important, the meaning is important. Over the course of two millennia, millions of sermons have been delivered revealing the meaning of Pascha, millions of songs have been sung about it, and a myriad of doxologies have been lifted up. Despite its venerable age, Easter has not become a “holiday with a beard”, it is always young and is celebrated as if for the first time. It's impossible to get used to it. The significance of Easter can hardly be overestimated, because it provides an answer to the most exciting questions:

• Will evil be punished and good rewarded?
• Will the time come to germinate in the souls of people one true faith, so that people become brothers in spirit and cease to be at enmity?
• Will the days of peace and prosperity come, if not for us, then for our descendants?
• Will the eternal spring of youth come for the withering old people?
• Do people with disabilities from childhood know the happiness of having a healthy and beautiful body?
• Will death, the queen of horrors, always reign supreme on earth?

We will consider the most important meanings of Christ's Resurrection.

1. The resurrection of Christ revealed the fullness of His divinity.

The apostle Paul writes about this at the beginning of his epistle to the Romans:

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an Apostle, chosen to the gospel of God, which God previously promised through His prophets, in the holy scriptures, about His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and was revealed to be the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, through resurrection from the dead, in Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and an apostleship, that in his name we may bring all nations under the faith” (Rom. 1:1-5)

Christ has always been God. Evangelist John testifies: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that came into being” (John 1:1-3). The letter to the Colossians states: "He is before all things, and by him all things are" (Col. 1:17). However, during the incarnation, the divine essence of Christ was hidden by the veil of human nature.

People saw in Him first of all a man. Jesus grew up and acquired life skills in the family of the carpenter Joseph. He needed food and drink and was weary from work. One day, during a violent storm, He fell fast asleep at the stern of the boat, and the noise of the wind and waves could not wake Him up. Only a deadly tired person can sleep like that.

Christ communicated with people, they could talk to Him without obstacles and even invite Him to visit. They asked Him for help, and He never refused them.

Christ morally suffered from the sinful behavior of people - he wept over their bitterness, was angry at their stubbornness, and hid from their enmity. Finally, He was rejected by His people and suffered the most cruel execution. For many, He was just a man, although they recognized him as an extraordinary Person.

True, the rays of the divine essence of Christ still shone through this carnal veil. They shone in His testimony of Himself. So, He declared His equality with God: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), said that “I came down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6 :38). He expected to worship Himself equal to God: “For the Father does not judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that everyone would honor the Son, as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:22-23).

He forgave people's sins, which was the exclusive prerogative of God, and after that people's lives changed in a visible way - they devoted themselves to piety.

The divine essence of Christ manifested itself on the Mount of Transfiguration, when His face and clothes shone brighter than a hundred suns.

Most of all, however, the resurrection became for believers the undeniable proof of the divinity of Christ. This is precisely what the skeptic Thomas clearly understood when he fell on his knees before Christ with the confession: "The Lord and my God"!

Why was it necessary for Christ to testify so vividly to his divinity? This is important for the formation of proper reverence for Him. Honoring Christ less than God is not just a humiliation of His dignity, but also one of the forms of idolatry forbidden by the third commandment of the Decalogue. It provokes the wrath of God and entails severe punishment. Only faith in Jesus Christ as God and Finisher of our salvation can be considered correct and capable of saving the soul.

Since Jesus is God, He could atone for our sins. By virtue of His Divinity, evil will be punished, and good will be rewarded, people will unite in one faith and love, times of all abundance will come, decrepit bodies will again become young and beautiful, death will no longer have power over the saved. “Fear not, earth: rejoice and be glad, for the Lord is great to do this” (Joel 2:21).

2. The resurrection of Christ brought justification to believers

“who was delivered for our sins and rose again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

We cannot get away from the deplorable fact of the general depravity of people. First of all, their conscience testifies to it. The famous satirist Mikhail Zhvanetsky quite seriously, without a hint of a joke, told the audience: “... conscience is an amazing substance of a person. After all, no one can say that his own conscience pleases him. Conscience only torments. You recall twenty, forty, sixty years ago episodes: either you took a mug from someone, or you deceived someone, or you lied to someone. And, most importantly, you blush in your sleep! You forgot the one who punched you in the face in response, but you remember the offended defenselessness ... And then your conscience torments you, your conscience will not forgive you the offense of the defenseless. Conscience, like a magnetic compass, is inside you and no matter how you move, it is motionless. In a person who overcomes conscience, the eyes become terrible, dead. According to a survey by the Ekho Moskvy radio station, 83% of listeners admitted that they had a conscience, and only 17% denied it. This means that most people have problems with conscience.

The sinfulness of man is evidenced by police reports and daily news, tabloid publications and cinema. Doctor of Philosophy Pavel Gurevich stated: “Man is destructive. Many executioner traits can be attributed to him: he tore the planet to pieces, destroyed many living species, staged destructive wars. Humanity, if judged as a whole, will look bad.”

But only the holy Bible speaks about the corruption of man absolutely objectively and honestly: “The [human] heart is deceitful above all things and extremely corrupted; who recognizes him? (Jer. 17:9). The heart cannot be trusted, it can deceive. It cannot be corrected, there is no healthy place in it. And yet, according to the Bible, it is the source of life. A corrupted heart harbors corrupted intentions and corrupted decisions flow from it. “He chases dust; a deceived heart has led him astray, and he cannot free his soul and say, “Is not deceit in my right hand?” (Is.44:20)

For the owners of such a heart, one fate is the hellish abyss. And everyone would have been there if not for the resurrection of Christ. It brought justification to those who believe in Him.

An acquittal is an announcement by a judge that a suspect is not guilty. The judge announces this on the basis of an objective examination of all the evidence in the case. But how can one justify a man whose guilt is known to the Judge of all judges in the smallest detail?

The justification of the sinner does not take place in a vacuum. It follows sincere repentance. When a person repents of sins and devotes his life to the Savior, his sins are forgiven, washed away by the pure blood of Christ and are not remembered by God. Through Christ's atoning sacrifice, "God's justice was more satisfied than if men would suffer forever in hell" (Watson).

However, in addition to forgiveness, a person is reborn from above and becomes a new creature: “Therefore, whoever is in Christ [he] is a new creature; the old has passed away, now everything is new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He has a new direction of life - to be closer to God, to be more useful and purer in soul. A person acquires a new status of God's child, instead of the old one - a slave of Satan. How not to justify such a person?

In addition, the repentant person is transferred from the power of God's just law to the power of grace. The law cursed all violators of its prescriptions. Grace does not curse, but disciplines and sanctifies. “For the grace of God has appeared, saving for all men, teaching us that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously and piously in this present age, looking forward to the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:11-13).

Someone will ask, “Do not those who believe in Christ sin? And if they sin, should they not be justly and severely condemned by God? Alas, believers sin out of weakness and are often condemned, but they are condemned not as people of this world, strangers to God, but as disobedient children - by infirmity, sickness and death (1 Corinthians 11:30). However, justification is not canceled in this case, for it is granted once and for all: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn. 5:24).

3. The Resurrection of Christ marked the beginning of Christ's Dominion over the lives of believers

“For to this end Christ also died, and rose again, and came to life, that he might have dominion both over the dead and over the living” (Rom. 14:9).

What amazing news! Christ lives to have dominion both over those who are on earth and over those already in eternity. As a master, Christ loves each of His subjects, knows the circumstances in which he lives, determines for him the time and place of dwelling, the level of well-being, controls not only health, but also the number of hairs on his head, measures the length of the thread of life. He sends him the necessary spiritual gifts and leads him through the fires and waters of trials. The Lord Christ will lead the redeemed into His eternal kingdom and give rewards for labor for His name. His subjects are not strangers to Him, but His property, paid for with great suffering. He doesn't leave his!

The civilization of the rulers is determined by their attitude towards the weakest.

An instructive example of Christ's dominion is seen in His attitude toward His disciples. We recall two of the most striking cases.

During the Last Supper in the chamber of Zion, the Lord of Lords girded himself with a towel and began to wash the feet of his slaves. This act violated any subordination: “He approaches Simon Peter, and he says to Him: Lord! Do you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him: What I am doing, you do not know now, but you will understand later. Peter says to Him, You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him: unless I wash you, you have no part with Me (John 13:6-8). History does not know such cases of a humble and loving relationship to subjects. Such is our Lord!

The second incident is told by the Evangelist Luke in chapter 24. Two disciples leave Jerusalem on the first day of the week. From the point of view of the demanding Lord, they should not be spared. They were deserters - leaving Jerusalem, leaving friends with whom they spent three years in the joint ministry. Their spiritual condition did not leave the slightest hope for a change for the better. Verse 15 in the interlinear translation of the New Testament from the Greek is very expressive: "and when they were talking and arguing." These two friends did not even understand each other! Verse 17 intensifies the tragedy of their condition: “And he said to them, What are these words that you pass along with each other? And they stopped gloomy. Deprived of peace and joy and mutual understanding, the disciples looked gloomy, like a grave crypt.

They did not believe the women's testimony: "Our women have amazed us." They did not believe the Scriptures and did not know how to think.

However, despite the grave condition, they still remained the property of the Lord, who returned them to the true path. And with what amazing tenderness He did it! He appeared before them not in the dazzling light of divine majesty, but as a simple traveler. He asked them to talk about their trouble and identified the main root of the problem - their half-belief, because of which there was no place in the heart and mind for the teaching of Scripture about the suffering and death of the Messiah. The Lord's speech melted their hearts and ignited in them the decision to return to their friends. Such is the dominion of Christ over the soul - unobtrusive, quiet and effective, causing a lively response in the human soul. What great happiness to belong to such a Lord!

4. The Resurrection of Christ Confounded the Kingdom of Darkness

“... having taken away the strength of principalities and authorities, he powerfully subjected them to shame, triumphing over them with Himself” (Col. 2:15).

Here we are talking about demons from whom the Lord "took away the power." This statement of St. Paul may seem strange to us. After all, the evil activity of the forces of darkness on the planet is visible to the naked eye - pride, debauchery, violence, murders are committed everywhere. If there is no devil, then who does his work? Wasn't Satan preventing Paul from visiting the church in Rome? Was it not he who afflicted the great apostle with a thorn in the flesh? Something is not noticeable that the gates of hell have lost their power!

In considering this issue, four points should be kept in mind. First, in relation to Christ, the powers of darkness are disgraced. He defeated them with His resurrection. They are powerless to undo the atoning death of the Son of God. They trembled before Him before His crucifixion, and they tremble even more after His resurrection.

Secondly, the resurrection of Christ took away the right of demons to intimidate believers with the consequences of sin: “You have sinned, so you will be punished. The wages of sin is death." There is nothing worse than the consciousness of a well-deserved death. John Bunyan, before his conversion, envied cats and dogs that were not in danger of eternal condemnation. However, because of the justifying resurrection of Christ, even the weakest believer knows that his sins are forgiven and atoned for. He, along with David, says: “The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life: whom shall I fear? If evildoers, my adversaries and enemies, attack me to devour my flesh, then they themselves will stumble and fall. If a regiment rises up against me, my heart will not be afraid; if war arises against me, then I will hope” (Ps. 26:1-3).c

Thirdly, the demons lost their power to control the saved. The Sovereign Lord freed them to serve Himself. Demons can't lay claim to them. Yes, they can harm them, but not own them!

Finally, the resurrection of Christ showed that lies and violence have a short age. The future is true. The evil triumph of the enemies lasted only three days. And then came their eternal shame. Knowing this, the saints fight evil not doomed, but believing in victory.

Let the fear of the almighty God, and not of the broken, disgraced Satan, fill us. Through faith in the Risen One, we can resist him in such a way that he will flee from us (James 4:7).

5. The Resurrection of Christ testifies to the inevitability of the Judgment of unrepentant people.

“Therefore, leaving the times of ignorance, God now commands people all everywhere to repent, for He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a Man whom He has ordained, giving proof to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31) .

Before Calvary, there was a time of ignorance about the true God, His holy requirements, and His plan of salvation. But after it, humanity is enlightened by the light of the gospel, and everyone has access to the knowledge that for the sake of faith in Jesus, a sinful person can be justified and even become a child of God. To do this, he must repent. Repentance is not a detailed enumeration of sins, but a conscious consecration of oneself to the service of Jesus Christ. Without this initiation, it turns into a simple shaking of the air - and nothing more.

If a person rejects the command to repent, he will be brought to God's just judgment on fallen angels and sinful people. Jesus Christ will be the final judge. At that judgment, the real history of mankind, and not the history of mankind invented by writers, will be revealed before our eyes. We will learn everything not only about the words and well-known accomplishments of politicians and diplomats, religious figures and ordinary people, but we will penetrate into their thoughts and secret deeds. All secrets will be revealed there!

Sinners who have rejected Christ on earth will desire to receive Him in eternity - which of them would want to go forever into the lake of fire? However, to their indescribable grief, they will hear from Him terrible words: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity” (Mat. 7:23). Thus the warning of the Savior will be fulfilled: “... whoever will deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven” (Mat. 10:33). Then it will become clear to everyone: Christ does not throw words into the wind. He does exactly what he promised.

How many will be condemned forever? Unfortunately, there will be many of these. Christ said: "...wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go through it" (Mat. 7:13). Don't be one of them, dear listener! Christ is God, who can forgive sins and renew life, He rose not to judge, but to justify, He wants to be the master of your life, to defeat Satan the tempter under your feet. Humble yourself before Him and call on Him for help. He promised to save the humble and contrite in spirit!

Jesus Christ died on the Cross! It seemed that sin, death and human meanness won and triumphed. But the Cross from the instrument of execution became the weapon of Christ's victory!

The Lord who accepted death, with His God-human soul, descended into hell and destroyed its doors, ruined his kingdom with His power. The dead heard the gospel message and those who wanted to believe Christ were spiritually renewed and came out of the dark depths into the bright world of the Heavenly Kingdom.

On the third day after the execution at Golgotha, Jesus Christ resurrected bodily. Life has conquered death! Truth and good proved to be more powerful than evil. Now Christ's Resurrection is a guarantee of the possibility of salvation for every repentant and loving person. Now we can believe that there is a God who loves us, there is truth, there is goodness. Moreover, we can believe that The Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father... and then He will reward everyone according to his deeds(Mt. 16; 27).

The Resurrection of Christ is the triumph of immortality. Life has triumphed over death. And, together with the apostle Paul, we can say: Death! where is your pity? hell! where is your victory?(1 Cor. 15; 55). If Christ has not been resurrected, we could argue that the law of death is invincible and that death will never let anyone out of its mouth. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the idea of ​​immortality would always remain in great doubt. But if Jesus Christ is Risen for eternal life, then immortality is not just a dream, not a fantasy. So it is possible. And this is an undoubted guarantee of our immortality - the immortality of all people. We have a firm basis to believe that we too will be resurrected after Christ. That is why the apostle Paul says: Christ has risen from the dead, the firstborn of those who have died... Just as in Adam everyone dies, so in Christ everyone will come to life, each in his own order: Christ the firstborn, then those of Christ, at His coming(1 Cor. 15; 20:22-23).

If immortality exists, then all life acquires a deep meaning, as a preparatory period for the future eternity.

Christ is risen! In His Resurrection, all questions about the goals and objectives of life are resolved. Life is no longer "a gift in vain, an accidental gift", not an "empty, stupid joke", but a great gift from the Creator, given to man so that he can achieve eternal, supreme bliss, true happiness. Our activity, our service to our neighbors, is not empty work without any hope of making a person really happy, but participation in the work of Christ, which must end in the Kingdom of God's Love and Glory. The very sufferings with which life is full no longer confuse us, for we begin to understand that these sufferings prepare us and our loved ones for a blissful life with God.

Even death is not terrible, because for us it is only a transition to another life, brighter, more joyful - in the event that, of course, we prepare for it.

Christ is Risen - and the gates of the Heavenly Kingdom opened for us, tightly closed for man after his fall.

Christ is Risen - and, therefore, evil and life catastrophes in our destinies are not the final sentence on earth. After all, Christ descended into hell so that those who were there would acquire a state of paradise and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Wherever Christ comes, life flourishes and conquers! This Christ-life can also win in our families. Christ wants it, but we need to want it too.

Christ is Risen so that our souls are spiritually resurrected on earth, so that the joyful resurrection of bodies becomes our future destiny.

Christ is Risen and gave us a new life, full of grace-filled forces. Now our business is to use these forces.

That is why for us there is so much deep, mysterious, joyful meaning in the troparion of Holy Pascha, which will always delight our hearts: "Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and the belly of those in the tombs(life) bestowing".

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In the Church, we not only remember the story that happened two thousand years ago. These exciting events there appear in a completely different light. Holidays have a deep spiritual significance in the life of the Church. The experience of the saints shows that the events taking place in the earthly Church have a direct and organic connection with the heavenly Church of God, the Church of Angels and saints. In these exceptional days, we are called to partake of grace and become accomplices in the event that is unfolding before us.

If we come unprepared to worship, without understanding anything, we are depriving ourselves

But in order for us to be able to partake of these events, preparation is necessary, we must know what exactly happened these days. If we come unprepared to worship, without understanding anything, we are depriving ourselves. Perhaps, when we see the Crucifixion or the Shroud, something will echo in our hearts, but true participation in what is happening is possible only if we properly prepare. And how to prepare properly? If these days we are focused and not distracted by a thousand things, if we attend all the services, if we pray, if we read, if we ask God in prayer that we also feel something, then by all means the All-Generous God and Father ours will give us what we ask. So that the feeling of Christ's suffering remains in us, so that we do not grumble when we encounter difficulties, so that we descend from heaven to earth and understand that this is our path in this world. If we want to follow Christ, we will go through two terrible things: first, the rejection of worldly success, and second, the voluntary acceptance of our suffering. We must understand this. We are not looking for worldly well-being and recognition, so we should not be tempted when the world repels us, when we are faced with pain, suffering, the need for sacrifice - all this is necessary so that we follow Christ, have a relationship of love with Him.

The event is centered on Christ Himself. Everything that Christ endured for us - spitting, beatings, mockery, the crown of thorns, gall - everything that the Church describes in such detail is not necessary for us to pity Christ, but in order to help us love Him. To show us how Christ loved us and to move our hearts to love Him. So that, by remaining in love with Him, we may be saved and live forever with Him. So, the passions of Christ are not the cause of sorrow, but of salvation. Similarly, the Cross of the Lord, with which Christ was put to death, became life-giving, became a sign of life, salvation and joy, and thus ceased to be an instrument of murder and damnation, which it was before. God Himself calls it the sign of the Son of Man.

When we look at the icon of the Crucifixion, we see that Christ is full of holy dignity: it is obvious that He went to suffering voluntarily, that He is the Lord of what is happening, and not a victim of fate and human malice. Christ is the King of Glory, celebrating in the Sacrament of man's salvation through suffering and the Cross, and bestowing resurrection. Of course, if someone looks at Christ and His suffering in a human way, he will feel pity. However, the Church presents to us the God-man Christ, who saved man. Christ is not a pitiful victim of human malice. He, as the Great Bishop, offered Himself to God, became a sacrifice and opened the gates of paradise to us. The Church, when depicting Christ, the Mother of God and the saints, presents us not only the circumstances and history of the event, but at the same time conveys what is implied, that is, what is not visible - the very essence. Yes, Christ on the Cross, He suffers and dies. But the Cross would have been a completely sad and human end if the Resurrection had not followed. Therefore, in the end, the Cross is pushed aside, and the Resurrection dominates. Every week the Church celebrates not the crucifixion, but the Resurrection. It is this that is the foundation and center of the Church. Based on the Resurrection, the Church lives her whole life. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection; it is he who determines the whole weekly holiday circle and everything else in the Church.

It is repeated as a holiday in the Church every Sunday. Not Christmas, not Baptism, not the Crucifixion, but the Resurrection is the foundation of the Church. If Christ has not risen, then, as the Apostle Paul says, our faith is in vain, our labors are in vain, because a person would remain a prisoner of death (see: 1 Cor 15, 17).

It is impossible to avoid the cup of suffering. The main thing is how we drink it - swearing or glorifying

So the Resurrection freed us from death, but what does that really mean for us? We say: “Behold, through the cross, joy has come to the whole world,” “having seen the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless one.” What does the resurrection of Christ mean for us, and what does it change in everyday life? The Resurrection of Christ means the Kingdom of God, means another life, so shall we walk in newness of life(Rom 6:4); as we sing in the canon of the Resurrection, new life has shone forth from the tomb. We, as children of the Church, must live this reality of the new life in Christ. We cannot live as if we are slaves of death and decay. Our life cannot be a life mired in the mustiness of hell. Of course, we will definitely experience many difficulties in life, a lot of sorrow and struggle. It is impossible to avoid this cup of suffering, no matter what we do. The main thing is what benefit we will derive from it, how we will drink it - cursing or glorifying.

Nothing remains but Christ remains forever

Although we live in the Church, we pray, we sing, we read, we often miss this one, because we have not been freed from the things of this world. We are still attached to this world, and we are occupied with human affairs. We have not surpassed the human, we have not grasped this spirit of Christians who said: we have no permanent city here, but we are looking for the future(Heb 13:14). There are people in whose hearts you can see the living presence of Christ. This does not make them insensitive and indifferent, they participate in the life of the world just like the rest, but with a different state of mind and having eternal life in themselves. The feeling of the eternal Kingdom of God does not allow us to choke, because we know that everything human is transient. Nothing remains, only Christ remains forever. If a person lives like this, then he perceives everything that happens with true dignity.

Christ opened the gates of hell, broke the locks and chains and everything that binds us, and freed us from sin. Slavery is everything that keeps us captive in this world. It's not that we despise this world, we use this world as not using it, as the apostle Paul says (see: 1 Cor 7, 31). That is, we use this world, but are not used by the world. We use all the joys, all the blessings that God gives us through this world, all that is good and gives joy, but we are not slaves of this world - Christ freed us from slavery. And only when we are freed from the shackles of this world can we truly enter into the joy of God.

Truly a tragedy for a Christian, instead of the joy of living under the heel of despondency from the ordinary hardships of human existence. God gives us such a gift, but we do not take it, we remain unhappy and small people. God offers us the freedom of the Resurrection, but we do not take it, we do not use it, although in it we will find the meaning of our life and feel free and joyful to the end.

Christ gives you the joy of the Resurrection, so that you breathe in the air of freedom, and you make of it carbon dioxide

Christ said: and no one will take your joy from you(Jn 16:22) — that is, no one can take away your joy from you; it is not the joy that the world gives, but the joy of Christ. If you do not experience pain, then you will not tear yourself away from this world in order to breathe in the oxygen of the presence of Christ. Christ gives you the joy of the Resurrection so that you breathe in the air of freedom, and you go and make carbon dioxide out of it. Christ made you a king's son, and you went and became a slave and tend pigs, because, although you were invited to Christ's supper, you did not want to accept His invitation. This is what is seen in the Church. We are invited to live in the palace of Christ, real princes, and sin makes us slaves, trifles make us unhappy, and we do not break these shackles to break out and say that we do not want this slavery. We do not want to live in the freedom of God, which will make our life joyful in this world as well.

The Resurrection of the Lord gives meaning to our whole life, and only thanks to the light of the Resurrection can we understand and endure what is happening around us, resist it and endure first of all ourselves, then our brothers, who grieve us with their weaknesses just as we grieve them. And one is meant to support the other: Nose and those burdens one another, and thus fulfill the law of Christ(Gal 6:2).