The text of today's sermon will be the Holy Gospel of Luke, chapter twenty-four, verse

After the Sabbath had passed, at dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord, who descended from heaven, came and rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb and sat on it; his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow; Frightened by him, the guards trembled and became as if they were dead; The angel, turning his speech to the women, said: Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified; He is not here - He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there. Here, I told you. And, hastily leaving the tomb, they ran with fear and great joy to tell His disciples. When they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them and said: Rejoice! And they came, grabbed His feet and worshiped Him.

Beloved in the Lord! I want to greet you with these wonderful, joyful and victorious Words of Anegla: “Christ is risen!” He is truly alive, risen and coming! “Tea resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century” is very clearly formulated in our creed.

During these days, all Christians of the Eastern Rite remembered this great and solemn moment of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior from the dead. This is truly the triumph of every Christian. This is the victory of life over death, holiness over sin. “And he devastated hell” - this is how St. solemnly proclaims. John Chrysostom. For truly heaven without Christ's presence becomes hell; and the abyss of hell, after the coming of the Son of God there, will truly become a real paradise. Our congratulatory form is the best proof for all skeptics, agnostics and atheists who do not believe in life after death and resurrection. Because the absence of the Son of God for every believer in Him is truly the most terrible emptiness in his life. This is precisely why the Son of God came, proving His great love for all sinners, regardless of the severity of their sins and crimes before the Face of God. What truly real torments of hell the Son of God experienced on the cross of Calvary! The disciples and the Virgin Mary cried looking at the suffering of Jesus. It would seem even holy heaven left the King of Glory. BUT, what is beyond the power of the human mind and its logic, God often accomplishes His mighty deeds! And the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the most magnificent evidence of this!

Let's become participants in that event. One can only imagine with what heart Mary Magdalene and Mary walked to the place where they buried the Son of God. In addition to sadness, the desire to give the last thing that belongs in memory of a dead person looked very regrettable. For most of us, even on a subconscious level, it also seems that death is the final point, after which there is nothing more. In science it is often defined as the completion of all living things, all natural biological processes. It seems to many that there is nothing further and nothing can happen. This is exactly how many philosophical and materialistic worldviews try to very simply solve the problem of the meaning of human existence. “Take everything you need from life. Do whatever your soul desires, for tomorrow we will die” - this is their main motto. “Life is short,” people say. But what the first witnesses of God’s Power saw simply stunned them. The place where Jesus was buried turned out to be empty. And the stone that was sealed to the tomb was in no way able to hold our Lord. For He is the resurrection and the life. There is no point in looking for the Living among the dead. These were the words of the Angel of God.

Resurrection is precisely what the human mind no longer wants to adequately perceive. But even without which, according to the Apostle Paul, our Christian faith and preaching are completely futile. When Paul preached in Athens, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles testifies, he was not received when it came to the resurrection. Belief in the afterlife was inherent in almost all myths of various peoples and cultures. All cultures and religions had ideas about the existence of the soul after its death.

But when we're talking about No one could say this with certainty about the personal resurrection of the body after death. Many people wonder what is the cause of death, why does it exist and what comes after it. Since the time of Jesus Christ, the Pharisees and Sadducees have argued about this. The latter did not want to believe in life after death and believed that only in this world was retribution for human sins and reward for a righteous life possible.

In the book of Genesis, God speaks about the fall of man. Although everything that God created was perfect. However, through disobedience to God, a person sins. When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he began to hide from God. In the tradition of St. Fathers, it is sometimes possible to trace the idea that in this way man separated himself from His Creator and created hell for himself. Because hell, first of all, is not just a place of physical torment for a person for his sins. This is the separation of man from God to one degree or another. Scripture tells us this: “ The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God created. And the serpent said to the woman: Did God truly say: You shall not eat from any tree in the garden? 2 And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees, 3 Only the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, Do not eat it or touch it, lest you die. 4 And the serpent said to the woman, No, you will not die, 5 but God knows that in the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes and desirable because it gave knowledge; and she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate. 7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of paradise. 9 And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him: where are you ? (Genesis 3:1 – 9) This passage shows the first question that God asked man. The Lord actually knew very well where Adam was. But did Adam know his spiritual position? Because the connection between God and man as it was before has ceased to exist. A person begins to make sacrifices to God as an attempt to cleanse his soul of vices and sins. This is the beginning of any religion, as a way to reach heaven and try for a person to turn to God. A religious and legal law arises, since a person is no longer even able to adequately evaluate his spiritual life and enslave his carnal desires. Humanity, in all its sins, wants to reach out and find God. However, the practice and experience of many people shows that it is simply impossible to unite with God on your own. Sin, which is so contrary to God, does not provide such an opportunity. But the merciful Lord never left a person alone. God still loves man and says to the prophet Ezekiel: “And you, son of man, tell the house of Israel: you say this: “Our trespasses and our sins are upon us, and we are consumed in them: how can we live?” 11 Tell them: As I live, says the Lord God, I do not want the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live. Turn yourselves, turn from your evil ways; Why should you die, O house of Israel? . This formulation of Ezekiel's prophecy speaks of God's mercy to the sinner, regardless of the degree of his sins. At this time, Israel is experiencing a deep crisis.

The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar practically destroys the Jewish state. However, God addressed and spoke about confession of sins, a return to serving only the One living God and to worshiping idols. When everything seemed destroyed and dead, the Lord showed Ezekiel a vision of the resurrection. The Word of God shows this picture: “ The hand of the Lord was upon me, and the Lord brought me out in the spirit and set me in the midst of a field, and it was full of bones, 2 and he led me around about them, and behold there were very many of them on the surface of the field, and behold they were very dry. 3 And he said to me: Son of man! will these bones live? I said: Lord God! You know it. 4 And he said to me: Prophesy against these bones and say to them: “Dry bones! listen to the word of the Lord!” 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will put breath into you, and you will live. 6 And I will cover you with sinews, and I will make flesh grow on you, and I will cover you with skin, and I will bring breath into you, and you will live, and you will know that I am the Lord. .”

The Lord’s speech to His servant is aimed at revealing the great Mystery of the resurrection from the dead, which should happen in the future. And this is not only a prophecy about the coming pious King and Shepherd David, who will reign forever (Our Lord Christ Jesus), but also about our resurrection. The Holy Gospel also teaches us about our resurrection together with Christ. No, you heard right - precisely about our resurrection with Him. St. Apostle Paul in his letter to the Colossians emphasizes the following: " So, if you are risen with Christ, That seek the things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; 2 Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ” (Colossians 3:1-3) Indeed, when it comes to the Easter holiday, many people go to church like never before; Everything in the house is arranged as it should be for a holiday. Many believers, unfortunately, despite all this, are more “Easter believers.” And yet, listening to the news about the forgiveness of their sins, about the wondrous resurrection of Christ, many people still cannot forgive each other for their mistakes, they could not learn to love each other, as the Lord teaches about this. And at the same time, nothing “highly”, that spiritual thing that is in Christ, His character, is never manifested in the lives of many Christians. Although people are welcomed on these days in a festive way, they continue to sin against their neighbor and the Lord.

And when the question of life and death can often be almost the main question of our lives, the Christian faith has the hope of the resurrection. Christianity is a teaching that says that not everything ends with a gravestone. The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians writes: “I do not want to leave you, brothers, in ignorance about the dead, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14) Every believer in Christ has hope and faith in the resurrection from the dead. “On this day the great Christ is called forth from the dead, to whom he was kissed. On this day He repelled the sting of death, crushed the gloomy gates of dreary hell, and granted freedom to souls. On this day, rising from the grave, He appeared to the people for whom He was born, died and was raised from the dead,” says St. Gregory the Theologian. Let our souls be comforted by these gospel words. Let us seek the Lord, for He is good and His mercy and holy love for all of us endure forever! May the Lord be with you all! In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Evgen Raspopov

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 monastic haircut with the name Vasily in honor of St. Basil the Great. The saint paid special attention to worship, preaching and missionary affairs, 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 discovered 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 Rus' blessed the local veneration of Bishop Vasily, and in 2000 the saint was canonized.

The execution of the cross, to which the Lord was condemned, originally appeared in the East and belongs to those terrible barbaric inventions for which eastern despots became famous. From the East it moved to Rome and was used by the Romans everywhere, wherever the victorious eagles of the Roman legions appeared, until it was finally destroyed by Constantine the Great. The Jews did not have the execution of the cross: for some crimes the law commanded that criminals be hanged on a tree, but they were not nailed down, and the corpses had to be removed for burial when evening came. In Rome itself, only slaves were crucified, who were almost not considered people. Roman citizens were not subject to this execution, and the famous orator of antiquity, Cicero, even demanded that the execution of the cross should be carried out far from cities and highways, since the terrible sight of crucified criminals offended the gaze of a noble Roman. In the provinces, only robbers and troublemakers were nailed to the cross. The crucifiers were usually soldiers who carried out all the executions among the Romans. The criminal himself had to carry his cross to the place of execution, while being subjected to ridicule and beatings. There was usually no burial for those crucified. The bodies remained on the crosses until they were taken birds of prey and carnivorous animals or did not decay by themselves from the sun, rain and wind. Sometimes, however, relatives were allowed to bury them. In case of need (at the onset of, for example, 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 of brushwood was lit under the cross, and then the crucified person died from the fire and smoke.

The shape of the crosses was quite varied. Simpler than others and, apparently, more common was a cross that resembled 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 space at the top of the pillar for a tablet on which the guilt of the crucified man was written in black letters on a chalk background. This was precisely the shape of the Savior’s cross, judging by the fact that a tablet was nailed to His cross, on which Pilate, instead of fully indicating his guilt, wrote simply: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (John XIX, 19), which caused an angry protest from the Jews. high priests.

Another small beam, the so-called “seat” (sedile), was attached perpendicularly to the middle of the cross, on which the crucified man sat as if astride. This was done so that the weight of the body would not tear its hands and would not tear itself away from the cross. For the same purpose, the body was often tied to a pole with ropes. As for the footstool, which is necessarily required by our Old Believers, who consider only those worthy of veneration eight-pointed cross, then ancient writers before the 6th century do not mention it anywhere; the evidence of later ones is weak and perhaps represents the fruit of a misunderstanding. The crosses were made low, so that the feet of the crucified person were no more than three feet from the ground. Thus, the unfortunate victim could be beaten by anyone who was able to reach him; she was completely defenseless and exposed to all sorts of manifestations of anger and hatred. She could hang for many hours, being subjected to curses, insults, and even beatings from the crowd that usually came running to look at this terrible spectacle.

Experiencing torments that became more and more intolerable as time passed, the unfortunate victims suffered so cruelly that they often had to beg and entreat 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 a priceless boon - death. Indeed, death by crucifixion apparently included everything that torture or death can be painful and terrible: dizziness, convulsions, thirst, hunger, insomnia, inflammation of wounds, tetanus, public shame, long-term suffering, the horror of premonition of death, gangrene of torn wound All these sufferings intensified to the extreme, the very last degree, as far as a person could endure them, and only in loss of consciousness did the sufferer receive relief. One must imagine the unnatural position of the body with arms outstretched, nailed down, and the slightest movement was accompanied by new, unbearable pain.

The weight of the hanging body increasingly tore apart the ulcers on the hands, which were constantly becoming sharper and more burning; torn veins and stretched tendons beat and trembled with continuous agony; wounds that were not closed from the air gradually became infected with Anton’s fire; the arteries, especially the head ones, became swollen and caused suffering from the flow of blood; obstructed, improper blood circulation caused an unbearable painful languor in the heart, a long-lasting melancholy; to this was added the torment of burning and despairing thirst; and all this bodily torment caused inner suffering and anxiety, which made the approach of death a welcome and indescribable relief. And yet, in this terrible situation, the unfortunates 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 crusaders (crucifer) was an extreme expression of contempt. Especially among the Jews, execution on the cross was considered the most shameful and disgusting, because the Law of Moses said: Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree(Deut. XXI, 23).

It was the custom among the Jews for a criminal sentenced to death to be deprived of his life not soon after his conviction. The herald several times publicly announced his name, guilt, witnesses to the crime and the type of execution assigned to him, calling everyone who could to go to court and defend the unfortunate man. 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 verdict. 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 disturbers of public peace, the enemies of Moses and Caesar, to whom slander presented the Savior, had no right to this mercy: their execution was the more legal the sooner it was carried out. So, after being condemned, Jesus was immediately handed over to the soldiers to carry out the sentence.

Then They took off the scarlet robe from Him, dressed Him in His own garments, and led Him out to crucify Him.(v. 20).

A plaque indicating his guilt was hung around the Savior’s neck; 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 He experienced back in the garden of Gethsemane, three tedious interrogations, beatings, insults, the feeling of frantic, causeless hatred surrounding Him, and finally this terrible Roman scourging - all this brought Him into a state of extreme exhaustion, and the Savior fell under the weight of His cross. In order not to slow down the procession, 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 the guards leading Jesus Christ. He was probably one of the admirers of the Savior and, upon meeting Him, showed 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 northwestern hills surrounding Jerusalem, on which executions were carried out and which from then on was to become the most sacred place on the ground. While the soldiers were erecting and strengthening crosses for Jesus Christ and for the two thieves condemned with Him, the Savior was offered, ancient custom, wine mixed with myrrh. The drink did not so much intoxicate as it clouded the consciousness and darkened the mind, as a result of which the suffering became less sensitive. To a certain extent, this was an act of humanity, but the Lord rejected it. By voluntarily accepting suffering and death, He wanted to meet them with a clear consciousness, without in any way easing for Himself the horror of the torment of the cross. They took off His clothes and then...

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

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

And perhaps the deep spiritual sorrow that the Savior experienced was even more difficult for Him than the terrible physical torment of the crucifixion. We cannot, of course, know what happened in the soul of the Divine Sufferer, we cannot, with our sinful rudeness, even approximately imagine the full depth of His grief, but it is possible to indicate the reasons for it.

Alone, abandoned by almost everyone, He saw Himself on the cross. Even His closest disciples abandoned Him, with the exception of John, cowardly hiding from the danger of being captured, and no one, absolutely no one, yet understood the cause for which He was dying. There was a hostile crowd all around; All that was visible were either the dull, indifferent faces of street onlookers with an expression of crude curiosity written on them, or the malicious smiles of the high priests, full of gloating. Yes, they could gloat - these people, who had been accumulating anger in themselves for so long against the One who did not want to recognize their authority and so often revealed to the crowd of listeners their inner falsity and hypocrisy with His truthful denunciations. Now they could take revenge for all the humiliation and make Him feel their strength and power, which He did not want to reckon with. The long-cherished anger was not softened even by the mournful spectacle of the sufferings of the cross and burst out in caustic, mocking remarks, exposing the terrifying, disgusting baseness of the soul that can mock the dying. " Saved others, they said, mocking, but he can’t save himself… Let him now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe.”(vv. 31-32). Even those passing by, who had once followed Him in crowds to listen to His teaching, reviled Him (v. 29). And for these people He died! He did so much good to them, healed so many, encouraged, consoled so many, called so many to new life, showed so much boundless, selfless love - and in gratitude for all this they crucified Him! Even now He suffered and died in order 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 consciousness that these people, His brothers, His fellow tribesmen, were dying, committing a terrible, unprecedented crime and did not even understand this in their wild ingratitude. How hard it was to see triumphant evil in the souls of these lost 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 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 with a painful weight, barely bearable, often leading to despair, then what must the Lord have experienced with His sensitive conscience, with His divinely pure soul, which knew no sin, for He did not create sin (1 Pet. II, 22)! After all, taking on the sin of people did not at all mean simply paying Divine justice with Our blood and suffering for someone else’s, extraneous sin in a purely external way, just as we sometimes pay off the debts of our friends. No, it meant incomparably more: it meant accepting sin into your conscience, experiencing it as your own, feeling the full weight of responsibility for it, recognizing the terrible guilt for it before God as if He Himself had 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 humanity from the first day of its creation, of all the countless generations of people who have come and gone on earth over a number of long centuries; all evil in all its various disgusting forms; all the crimes, the most heinous and vile, ever committed by man; all the dirt and dregs of life, not only past, but also present and future - Jesus Christ took upon Himself all this and all He Himself lifted up our husks in His body on the tree, 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, abandonment by God and the curse that hung over us as punishment for sin: Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become 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 abandonment of God, all the incredible weight of sin taken by the Savior for the sake of our redemption, then to some extent this dying cry, full of anguish and inexpressible torment, will become understandable to us: Eloi! Eloi! lamma sa wakhfani? - which means: My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?(v. 34).

The Lord's suffering was so great that all nature was indignant. The sun could not bear this sight and disappeared; darkness covered the earth. The earth shook with horror, and in the ensuing earthquake the large stones that had covered many of the tombs were thrown down. The curtain in the temple that separated the holy of holies from the sanctuary was torn in half.

But they will perhaps ask: why was this suffering necessary? Why did the cross become a symbol of Christianity - this instrument of torment? Why this sadness that permeates the entire Christian religion?

For many, the meaning of the cross and suffering is completely incomprehensible. The Apostle Paul wrote at one time: “ Slo in the cross there is foolishness for those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved - the power of God... For both the Jews demand miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom; But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks.” (1 Cor. I, 18. 22-23). This is not surprising: for human wisdom, not illuminated by the power of the Holy Spirit, this is as it should be. The mystery of the cross will always remain a mystery for her, because wisdom of this world there is madness before God, and God's foolishness is 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 a person 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 atonement, which constitutes the cardinal point of the Christian religion. In view of the importance of this teaching, it is necessary to dwell on it in more detail.

Man emerged from the hands of the Creator as a beautiful creation, endowed with all the perfections of mind, heart and will. But, as a condition of freedom, the possibility of sin was inherent in his nature, in the fight against which a person had to independently develop his moral powers, guided by love for God and obedience to His will. For this purpose, the first commandment was given, prohibiting eating 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 the 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! Pride and pride triumphed over love.

Transgressing the commandment of God, man 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 placed himself in hostile attitude towards God, became the 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 the complete perversion of life not only of the culprit himself - man, but also 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, human blood watered the earth. Then life becomes worse and more bleak. The clouds of evil hanging over her are thickening more and more. Depravity and moral savagery reach such a degree that a flood was required to destroy evil and wash the desecrated land. But although almost the entire human race perished in the flood and only a few of the best were saved, the seed of evil remained in them and again sent out its poisonous shoots, growing ever thicker as humanity multiplied. Life was becoming unbearable. The only way out of this hell was the return of man to God, the restoration of communication with Him. But on this path it was necessary to remove the greatest obstacle, which is sin. Grex is exactly what it is main reason the separation of man from God, it is through this that the great abyss between God and people is established and maintained.

First of all, sin in itself serves as 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, the general mental state of a bad conscience, which is a consequence of sin in us, is created by sin. The removal of the soul from God, or sin, is immediately reflected in a person’s soul, in his conscience, by anxiety, a feeling of fear, and guilt. A person is in the position of a slave who feels the master’s scourge raised above 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 away the very thought of God, eternity, religion, until it completely disappears or unbelief , to the denial of the existence of God. God is gradually driven out of 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 creature and from the bright image of God in the soul, shrouded in the impenetrable, gray mist of spiritual darkness and sin, some kind of unclear, formless ghost remains, 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 actual atonement for sin. Sin must be expiated at the request of one of the fundamental principles moral life, the beginning of justice. The law of retribution cannot be canceled or violated due to the main property of 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 crudest and most primitive, sought to find a way to satisfy this, and the very essence of any religion, expressed by the word religio (from religo), consists precisely in the real or imaginary restoration of the connection between God and man. Through sacrifices, religious rites and ceremonies, man sought to appease God, so that instead of an angry Judge, he could again find a loving Father in Him. This basic desire took various, sometimes wild and monstrous forms in different religions.

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

Humanity 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 man in the Fall, according to the law of retribution, can only be destroyed by the equal power of obedience, self-devotion, sacrifice to God, then man must present satisfaction to the truth of God with the same pure heart, in the same immaculate state spirit, which he rejected when committing his first sin; he must be the perfect image of God so that his sacrifice is his moral significance covered the power and significance of his crime. But the demand for such a sacrifice is beyond the strength of fallen man; he may have fallen, but he cannot restore himself; could bring evil into himself, but was powerless to destroy it. Hence his obedience to God after the fall is always inseparable from resistance 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 holiest moments of moral life. That is why man could not make sacrifices sufficient due to his impeccable purity and moral dignity in order to cover your sin and satisfy the righteousness of God. His victims 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 make the purest sacrifice without any admixture of selfishness, only the Son of God with His personal incarnation in man, like the new Adam, and with His free self-devotion as a sacrifice to God for the sin of people, like 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 from heaven grace-filled forces for the revival of the frustrated image of God in man. The holiness and sinlessness of Jesus Christ, His Divine nature gave the sacrifice of the cross a meaning so great and comprehensive that this one atoning sacrifice was not only completely sufficient to cover and atone 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 were put to death- says the Apostle Paul, - much more does the grace of God and the gift by the grace of one Man, Jesus Christ, abound for many. And the gift is not like judgment for one sinner; for judgment for one crime leads to condemnation; but the gift of grace leads to justification from many crimes.”(Rom. V, 15-16).

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

“...God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Much more therefore now, having been justified by His blood, we will be saved from wrath by Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will 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, He has now reconciled in the body of His flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and blameless before Him.”(Col. I, 21-22).

“...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God offered as a sacrifice of propitiation in His blood through faith, to demonstrate 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, having 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 the guilt from us, having destroyed the handwriting that was against us, which was against us, and He took it out of the way and nailed it to the cross.(Col. II, 14). He Himself bore our sins in His 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 sacrificed Himself 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 relation can His sacrifice have to our sins, and even to future ones? After all, the Savior was crucified nineteen centuries ago, when there was no trace of us, and, therefore, there were no our sins; 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 of the cross for us and sometimes serves as the reason why we remain cold and indifferent when remembering the suffering of Jesus Christ. A crafty voice whispers: “Let the ancient world, with its crimes, bring the Savior to the cross; let him bear the responsibility, but we have nothing to do with it; we are not to blame for this suffering, for we did not exist then.”

We are wrong.

God is the Spirit, eternal and unchangeable. This means that for Him there is no time, or, more precisely, there is no past or future. There is only the present. Everything that we imagine only in the future, everything that is unknown, unknown to us, that is yet to happen - all this already exists in the Divine consciousness, in the Divine omniscience. It cannot be otherwise.

After all, what is time? Nothing more than a sequence of events or changes in us or the world around us. Everything changes, everything flows. Night gives way to day; old age follows youth. This gives us the opportunity to talk about what was and what is; distinguish between past and present, “then” and “now”. Without these changes, there would be no time. Suppose that movement in the world has stopped, everything has frozen in absolute stillness, we can say, together with the apocalyptic angel, that there is no more time (Rev. X, 6). As philosophers say, 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, there is no category of time, and the events of world life appear in the Divine consciousness not in a sequential order one after another, but are given all at once, as many of them are contained in eternity. If we allowed consistency here, then this would mean the changeability of the Divine consciousness, the Divine Mind. But God is unchangeable.

What follows from this?

It follows that our sins were 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 now. Consequently, the Lord 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 torment on the cross. Therefore, we cannot say that we are not to blame for His suffering, for we also have our share in it.

This must be said not only about our past and present sins, but also about future ones. Whenever and whatever sin we committed, God already foresaw it and laid it on His Beloved Son. Thus, we arbitrarily, although perhaps without realizing it, increase the sinful burden lifted 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 so easily and, before deciding to sin, we would think about it, at least out of a sense 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 circumstances death on the cross Gentlemen, our attention involuntarily focuses almost exclusively on the main active culprits 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 seems disgusting to us; and these feelings and images obscure from us the idea that we are also involved in this crime.

But let’s look at it more impartially and more carefully. Why do we see the Lord suffering on the cross? Where is the reason for this? The answer is clear: the cause of this suffering 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 too bear a heavy blame; their malice, their hatred, their national self-delusion, their blindness - all this makes them irresponsible before the court of God's Truth, especially since they themselves wanted to sculpt the Blood of the Savior on themselves; but, be that as it may, this does not free us from moral responsibility for the suffering of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul speaks very clearly about this. According to him, the one who was once enlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and became a partaker of the Holy Spirit and fell away again crucifies the Son of God within himself and curses Him (Heb. VI, 4, 6). When, having received the knowledge of the truth, we sin willfully, then we trample on the Son of God and do not consider the Blood of the Testament, by which we are sanctified, as sacred, and we offend the Spirit of grace (Heb. X, 29).

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

Our crimes are nails that we drive again into His gaping sores, burning burning pain. Is this what we should pay for His great, selfless love?

Jesus cried out loudly and gave up the ghost(Mark XV, 37).

The Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, has died. A life the like of which has never existed and never will exist in the world has ended. The great, holy life has ended; with His life His struggle ended, and with His struggle His work ended; 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 His disciples, with the exception of John. They disappeared. Fear overcame their love for the Teacher. But there were more faithful and devoted women 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 affection and did not force them to leave the cross.

“Look at their zeal! - exclaims St. John Chrysostom. - They followed Him in order 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 the ghost, how the stones were disintegrated and everything else. And they are the first to see Jesus, this much despised sex is the first to enjoy the contemplation of high blessings. Their courage is especially evident in this. The disciples ran away, but these were present. Do you see the courage of the wives? Do you see their fiery love? Do you see generosity in costs and determination for death itself? Let us, husbands, imitate wives, so as not to leave Jesus in temptation.”

Indeed, the zeal of the holy myrrh-bearing women is great, their love for the Lord is fiery and constant. Free from all earthly attachments, their heart lived and breathed the Lord; in Him all thoughts, desires and hopes were concentrated, in Him lay all their treasure. 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 Lord’s many enemies, everywhere steadily follow Him in His wandering life, not fearing the difficulties and inconveniences associated with these journeys, and patiently enduring all the hardships.

It would not be surprising if the holy women, surrounding Jesus Christ with their care 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 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 this is not surprising: the human crowd is always attracted by the false lights of external splendor, and it loves to follow recognized idols. But to remain faithful to your Teacher in the difficult hours of His humiliation and shame, not to abandon Him during His 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, was shaken and retreated before the danger of being recognized as a disciple of the Lord - this required great courage and boundless love. To remain faithful at 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 against the door of the coffin blocked the dear ashes from them forever, 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 a radiant angel, then from the Savior Himself. Mary Magdalene, His most faithful and devoted disciple, was the first to receive the inexpressible joy of seeing the risen Lord. With this phenomenon, the Lord seemed to recognize the holiness and greatness of women's 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 was against Christ or against His teaching. While on the part of men the Lord often encountered unbelief, ingratitude, ridicule, contempt, hatred, which, growing, turned into a whole sea of ​​anger raging around the cross, on the part of women we see sincere devotion, touching care and selfless love. Even pagan women, like Claudia Procula, the wife of Pilate, treat Him with deep respect.

Why is this so?

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

No, not because, but because women have a purer and more sensitive heart, and with their hearts they feel the truth and moral beauty of Christ’s teaching. A woman often does not need mental, logical proof: she lives more by feeling and perceives the truth by feeling. This method of knowing the truth often turns out to be more reliable, more faithful and faster in relation to Christianity, where there are so many questions that are revealed not to an inquisitive, arrogant mind, but to a pure, believing heart. For, as the Apostle Paul says, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world... to shame the things that are mighty... For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will throw away the understanding of the wise... and God has turned the wisdom of this world into foolishness(1 Cor. I, 27, 19, 20). And with what delight and ecstasy 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 to listen to His wondrous speeches. And how could women not heed the words of the Lord and not surrender with all their souls to the new, great teaching, which raised women to equal dignity with men, for in Christ neither male nor female(Gal. 3:28). Everyone is equally equal before God, the Lord suffered and died equally for everyone, and everyone has 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 help but feel with a grateful heart the great benefit that the Christian religion opened up for him in the bright prospects of joy, love and respect. That's why from the very beginning Christian history We find 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 achieved.

When 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 its special splendor and solemnity, because the celebration of Easter was connected with it. Apparently, this circumstance worried the high priests. The people, who did not consider it a desecration to begin their holiday by killing the Messiah, were seriously alarmed lest the sanctity of the next day, which began at sunset, be violated by the fact that the bodies were hanging on crosses. Therefore, when they came to Pilate, the Jews asked to break the legs of the crucified people in order to speed up their death and remove them from the crosses. Pilate allowed, but the Lord had already died and His legs were not broken. This was no longer necessary. Meanwhile, a new petitioner appeared before Pilate, wanting 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 rich man of high character and immaculate life. His 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, together with other well-meaning advisers, probably formed an 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 (Luke XXIII, 51) - perhaps because, not seeing any means of saving the Innocent One, he did not want to be a witness to His condemnation, or because the cunning of the high priests found a means to completely remove him from this matter. There is no doubt, however, that this forced inaction was difficult for a noble heart, which is ashamed of cowardice, to leave an innocent unprotected, even when there is no hope of saving him. And so, when it was all 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 the living Prophet; all that remained was to show Him the last duty of friendship and respect - to save at least His mortal remains from shame, for, otherwise, the Jews, without a doubt, would have thrown the Most Pure Body into a common pit along with all the executed criminals.

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

This determination was coupled with serious danger- not on the part of Pilate, from whom one could expect a favorable decision in favor of Jesus Christ, whom he recognized 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, and could not look at an attempt to bury Him with honor otherwise than an indignation against the Sanhedrin, all the more dangerous because it was now being undertaken by a famous member of the Sanhedrin, whose example could influence a people already committed to the memory of Jesus.

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

Having received permission, Joseph, without wasting any time, appeared at Golgotha ​​and took the Body down 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 Calvary (John III, 1-21). Now he was no longer hiding and, full of love and compassion, brought truly royal gifts for burial - one hundred liters of an aromatic composition of myrrh and aloe. It was necessary to hurry, since the Sabbath was coming, when, according to the law of Moses, every faithful 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 everything that could be done, taking into account the shortness of time, was done. The body of the Lord was washed with clean water, then sprinkled with incense and entwined with a wide quadrangular cloth (shroud). A narrow head towel was wrapped around the head and face. Both are tied with laces. Some of the incense was probably burned, as there are examples of this in the history of Jewish funeral ritual.

Not far from the place of the crucifixion there was a garden that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, and in its enclosure, in the rock, a burial cave was carved, according to Jewish custom. 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 buried in it. Despite the sacred significance that the Jews ascribed to their tombs and burial caves, despite the petty sensitivity with which they avoided any contact with the dead, Joseph did not for a moment hesitate to provide his Divine Teacher with this resting place. They laid Jesus there for the sake of the Friday of Judea, because the tomb was close(John XIX, 42).

A huge stone (goalal) was rolled up at the entrance to the cave - a necessary precaution in Judea, since there were many jackals, hyenas and other predatory animals and birds there. They had barely accomplished all this when the sun set behind the mountains of Jerusalem. Saturday began - the last Old Testament Saturday. In a day, the first Resurrection of the New Testament was supposed to dawn.

How gloomy and joyless this day was now for the disciples and friends of the Lord! Grief filled my entire soul, suppressed all other thoughts, did not allow me to come to my senses in order to comprehend or understand everything that happened in its terrible surprise. The future was covered in impenetrable darkness; the past was more confusing than comforting. The memory of the miracles of Jesus, of His former greatness, made His cross and tomb even more terrible. Hitherto, His disciples had walked an uneven, narrow, often thorny path, but they followed in the footsteps of the Teacher, invested with the power 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, is interrupted by the cross of the Teacher, and completely ends with His tomb!

The situation is sad, inconsolable!

The grief of the Lord's disciples would not have been so excessive if they had been less confident of His dignity. Then it could soon turn into cooling towards the One who so suddenly betrayed their hopes, subjecting Himself to death and them to shame. Then only deceived pride would suffer.

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

And with this holy love the terrible thought was constantly mixed: “He died! He is not what we thought He was! He is not the Messiah! He, who was and is everything to us!..” (Works of Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson).

It seemed that everything was over, evil triumphed. The most pure lips closed, speaking with such power the words of eternal life; The hands that once lovingly blessed those who came to Him and healed the suffering fell lifeless; the great, loving heart that contained the whole world stopped beating. The stamp of death fell on everything. And under this cold breath of death, the hopes of the disciples to see their dear Rabbi in an aura of glory and messianic greatness faded.

With what hopeless sadness they admit: “ But we hoped that He was the One who was to deliver Israel.”(Luke XXIV, 21).

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

But now we already know: Saturday has passed, and the radiant joy of the Resurrection has shone upon sorrowful hearts! The Lord has risen, the buried truth has 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 resurrection, like blinding lightning, pierced the clouds of evil. The Lord has risen and appeared to the world again!

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

How often in private and public life there are situations that seem hopeless. They are especially often experienced by a Christian who has broken ties with worldly aspirations and habits and has embarked on a narrow but direct path to Christ. The whole world is arming itself 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 that I said to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too... In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world."(John XV, 19-20; XVI, 33). You are haunted by the injustice of your superiors, the mockery and contempt of your comrades, the anger and envy of your inferiors. A serpentine stream of slander poisons your peace. You are called a holy fool, a hypocrite, a saint, a hypocrite. Those around you do not find any friendly support or words of sympathy. In the darkness that has enveloped you, not a single point of light is visible; there seems to be no way out! And this can last for years!

But do not be discouraged: remember the lesson of the Holy Sepulchre. The truth can be suppressed, it can be buried, but only for a while. Sooner or later she will resurrect - 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 decorations, does not trumpet itself like a vain lie: it is a quiet, calm force, but completely irresistible.

There are stripes of pitchless darkness in public life. Sometimes lies and evil thicken to such an extent that it becomes difficult to breathe in this toxic atmosphere. Hope fades, and the spirit of involuntary despondency approaches like a nightmare, like a heavy cloud. But remember the lesson of Saint Sepulchre. It is unlikely that anyone will ever have to experience such a difficult mood of hopeless despondency as the disciples of the Savior in the agonizing 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 moment of the Lord's death, it was difficult, for human reasons, to think that His work would continue and would not die with Him. He left behind eleven apostles to whom he entrusted this mission: “And Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”(Mark XVI, 15). But who were they? How much influence could they have? Were they noble people who could rely on the authority of their noble origin, which always carries weight in the eyes of people? No, they belonged to the lowest class, the class of fishermen who supported their miserable existence by small-scale fishing in the waters of Lake 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 the testimony of John Chrysostom, was illiterate. Were they rich in order to impress the common people with the brilliance of luxury, always greedy for external effects? No: they had old, torn nets that needed repairing, and they abandoned even those when they followed Christ. Were they strong, brave warriors to spread the teachings of Christ by force 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 entire vast pagan and Jewish world with its centuries-old culture, with its education and learning, with its colossal military and economic power, with its strong power of political organization. And they had to conquer this world.

Was it possible to hope for this?

And yet these timid people, fleeing from fear of the crowd of bishop’s servants, let's go and- faithful to the Savior's covenant - preached everywhere, with the Lord's assistance(Mark XVI, 20). Under what conditions they had to preach - this is best explained by the Apostle Paul in his 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking about his missionary exploits: “ I... was in labor, immensely wounded, more often in prison, and many times at the point of death. Five times the Jews gave me forty stripes minus one; three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the depths of the sea; I have been on travels many times, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from pagans, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers at sea, in dangers between false brothers, 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 lifetime of the apostles, a solid foundation of the Church of Christ was laid in almost all the countries known at that time.

And then the entire pagan world rose up to fight Christianity. It was a fierce, desperate struggle, a struggle for life and death. The then cruel state had at its disposal many terrible weapons to combat the rebellious. Trial and persecution, interrogations and torture, fire and hot iron, beatings and mutilations, deprivation of property, damp and gloomy dungeons, exile to the mines, this hard labor ancient world, even the death penalty - all this, like one fiery river, rushed towards Christians at the behest of state power. Not only that. The cruelty of the torturers invented special terrible executions for Christians. They were doused with resin and lit like torches. Whole crowds of them were brought out to the spectacles, and wild, hungry animals tormented the defenseless for the amusement of the idle, cruel and bloodthirsty crowd. Everything has been tried.

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

Even the very last 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, when he comes, will hardly find it on earth, when By reason for the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold when they betray each other and hate each other(Matthew XXIV, 12.10) - even these terrible times of widespread darkness and malice will end in the triumph of truth, for the last, most fierce 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 unrighteous deception of those who are perishing.(2 Thess. II, 9-10), will be defeated. And him The Lord Jesus will kill with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the appearance of His coming(2 Thess. II, 8). And the devil, who deceived the nations, will cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and will be tormented day and night forever and ever.(Rev. XX, 10).

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

Currently Orthodox Church is going through a severe crisis. The persistent persecution brought against her, systematic and crafty, confuses and worries even the most persistent 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, it seems, are about to overwhelm and extinguish the lonely lights of bright faith, still flickering here and there. Involuntarily, many people’s hearts clench, and the coldness of sad doubt creeps into the soul. But remember the Holy Sepulcher - this living, speaking, triumphant, victorious Sepulcher - and not vague hope, but 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 failures and abysses of unbelief, through the cleansing fire of persecution. This is His holy will, His all-wise Providence, “with the depth of wisdom, love for mankind was built and given to everyone that was useful.” That's how it should be. The reasons and secret goals of His unknown ways are useless to us and should not be explored. It is enough for us to know that the Lord is with us all the days until the end of the age. Amen(Matt. XXVIII, 20). May the Lord lead us through the sea of ​​wickedness and unbridled wickedness, where everything that is holy, everything that is best in the soul and that only gives the right to the great and sacred title of “man” has perished, let it be! We know that these waves, standing “here and here” and ready to swallow us, are dangerous only for the “chariot of Pharaoh” himself. This is the law of moral life, the law of history. The evil sown ultimately falls on the heads of those who raised and raised it. Even if we personally are not destined to see this joyful moment of the triumph of truth, the Lord will be pleased to call us from this life before it comes. What a disaster! We know that this moment is inevitable, and if we don’t see it here on earth, then we will see it from there... And then, looking back at the past abyss of life, we will join the jubilant chorus:

“Let us sing to the Lord: gloriously thou art glorified!” If even formidable public disasters, ready to shake both the Church and the faith of Christ, should not confuse a true Christian and lead him to despondency, then our personal, private failures in life no longer deserve attention at all. These are little things that are not worth talking about. Moreover, all this is so changeable, impermanent: today - joy, tomorrow - grief, today - success, tomorrow - failure, today - at the height 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 someone is in sorrow,” says St. Macarius of Egypt, “or in troubled passions, one should not lose hope; because despair introduces sin even more into the soul and makes it white. And when someone has unceasing hope in God, the evil seems to thin out and become watery in him.”

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

You cry, you suffer, my dear sister!
Oh, believe me: suffering will not last forever!
One by one the sad clouds will dissipate...
Be all you are prayer, be all expectation;
Just be able to surrender to Christ in obedience,
Just be able 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. That day they could do nothing, but their hearts were restless, and the anxious, languid night did not ease their grief. It is unlikely that they closed their eyes, thinking with sadness about how wretched and hasty the funeral of their dear Rabbi was and how little they corresponded to the dignity of the Great Prophet, “strong in both deed and word.” A loving and yearning heart imperiously demanded to pay the last debt to the Beloved Deceased and to complete the unfulfilled ceremonies of the funeral rite, completing the complete anointing of the Body, hastily begun by Joseph and Nicodemus. The aromas and fragrant ointments had already been purchased, and the dawn had barely turned red, dispelling the silvery dusk of the first Easter night, when the faithful disciples of Christ were already hastily walking through the streets of Jerusalem, carrying the prepared aromas. They apparently knew nothing about the guard posted by the high priests at the Holy Sepulcher and the fact that the entrance to the cave was sealed, but they were worried about another question: how to roll away the stone from the door of the Sepulcher? The huge goal was too heavy, and moving it seemed to be an impossible task; for weak feminine forces. Imagine their surprise when they saw that the stone had been rolled away!

With trepidation 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 understand the mystery of the disappearance of the dead Body and recover from the amazement and pain of this new grief, they noticed right side a young man dressed in white clothes. From the lips of this young man, for the first time, great news was heard, sounded first in an empty cave and then repeated by millions of lips, changing the entire life of the world. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, crucified; He has risen, He is not here. This is the place where He was laid. Myrrh-Bearing Women, going out, they ran from the tomb; they were seized with trepidation and horror, and did not say anything to anyone, because they were afraid.

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

Meanwhile, this message formed the basis of our entire faith! Only two words - He has risen - but what enormous power they contain! These two words turned the whole world upside down, overturned and destroyed paganism to the ground and created the great Christian Church, strong not so much in numbers, not so much in material means, but in its faith and moral power.

Recognizing 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 infidels of all stripes, are trying with especially fierce persistence to shake the truth of the Resurrection and discredit the gospel stories on which it is based.

Before moving on to clarifying the great significance for us of the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, it is not useful to deal with the objections of these skeptics and, having examined at least the most popular ones, clear the ground from the debris of arbitrary fabrications and eliminate possible doubts.

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

“Well, what next?” we ask. Then, obviously, we must assume (again, just assume, without any basis in the Gospel text) that Christ got up from His bed, rolled away the huge stone from the door of the tomb and left the cave... And this with his legs and arms pierced through! Is it possible! To this it should be added that on the same day, as Saint Luke narrates, the Lord, together with two disciples, traveled 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 fainting is reduced to the level of the most absurd invention. “A man with broken legs,” writes professor, doctor of medicine A. Shistov, “not only could not walk 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 about the God-Man).

In addition, as the rationalists themselves rightly note, the unfortunate sufferer, half-dead, with difficulty crawled out of the tomb, in need of the most attentive care and then nevertheless died, could not have impressed the students as a triumphant conqueror over death and the grave.

Finally, one detail noted by Saint John, an eyewitness to the last minutes of the Savior’s life, leaves no doubt about the actual death of Jesus Christ. The soldiers came to Jesus and saw Him dead,” the Apostle John narrates, “ They did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers pierced His ribs with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. And he who saw it bore witness, 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 he indicated in their polemics with the heretical Docetes, who recognized the death of Christ only as imaginary. The fact is that, as can be judged based on the words of the evangelist, the blow of the spear apparently tore the atrium, from where the flowing blood turned out to be mixed with serous fluid, is a symptom of undoubted death, as many doctors say. Due to 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 might think that He was not resurrected, that soon after His death His body was stolen, and then a false rumor about His resurrection was spread. It was not without reason that the high priests affirmed this (Matthew XXVIII, 13-15).

But who could have stolen 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 this kind of rumors, would have shown His corpse to everyone and with this, undoubtedly, would have put an end to all rumors, all rumors and assumptions. This is, firstly. Secondly, from the Gospel of Matthew it is clear that the high priests and scribes were even afraid of suspicion about themselves in this matter.

Maybe the Roman guards kidnapped the Savior? No, this cannot be said either. 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 to which the soldiers were subjected 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 Teacher and then spread rumors about His resurrection.

But if neither the high priests nor the soldiers could do this, then the apostles were even less able to dare to do this. People, overwhelmed with fear and horror, cowardly hiding from Gethsemane, in no case could a few hours later, in the middle of the night, in front of the eyes of the Roman guards, penetrate into the depths of the cave and steal the Most Pure Body of Christ the Savior, and even being in a state of mental and physical exhaustion.

Further, for preaching about the Resurrection of Christ, the apostles were persecuted, tortured, burned at the stake, and crucified on crosses. The question arises, 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, last for centuries? You can’t help but ask yourself, could these simple-minded fishermen really be such skillful actors as to proclaim a deliberate lie with the greatest aplomb and then never break out of their role until the very end of their lives? Did not one of them protest against such deception? No, the lie had to be revealed sooner or later, and such a gross deception could not remain hidden for long.

If the apostles spread false rumors about the Resurrection of Christ, then how could they be believed? How did the Mother of Christ and His brothers believe this? After all, during His lifetime His brothers did not believe in Him. Has the lie now convinced them? In addition, such an invention could only appear if the apostles were awaiting 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 had to be killed and then rise again, they did not even understand Him (Mark IX, 10, 31-32) - this thought was so far from them.

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

The world cannot be converted to a new faith by such deceptions and tricks perpetrated, moreover, by such people. To convince others, it is necessary that the preacher, first of all, be deeply convinced of the truth of his sermon. If he himself does not have this conviction, then he will never be able to attract 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 was not resurrected. 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 account of the appearance of the Risen 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, confused and frightened, thought that 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 look at Me; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. When they still did not believe for joy and were amazed, He said to them: Do you have any food here? They gave Him some of the baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it and ate before them."(Luke XXIV, 36-43).

From the above text it is clear that the thought of a ghost flashed into the minds of the apostles when they saw the Lord suddenly appear. But the Savior Himself decisively refuted this idea, inviting them to touch Himself and demanding food. Of course, a ghost cannot drink or eat, and it is impossible to touch it with your hands. Rationalists are thus forced here to reject one of two things: either the gospel narrative or their own fiction about ghosts. Let us add, in addition, that the disciples of Christ were not at all faint-hearted, hysterical, prone to hallucinations, as they are sometimes tried to portray. On the contrary, they were stocky, healthy, clear-headed fishermen who were not prone to nervous breakdowns or to hallucinate in reality.

Leaving aside some other, even weaker objections, and summing up all of the above, we must admit that neither the deception nor the self-deception of the disciples could ever lead to such wonderful and lasting consequences. One inevitably comes to the conclusion that the so-called natural explanations of 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 completely rejecting or distorting the Gospel text, we cannot in any way deny the reality of the fact of the Resurrection of the Lord.

First of all, the Savior Himself spoke about His Resurrection. He spoke not just once, but several times. He spoke not covertly, 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.”(Matt. XVII, 22-23; see: Mark 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 many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day rise again(Matt. XVI, 21; see: Luke IX, 22).

After the Transfiguration, when the disciples came down from the mountain, Jesus rebuked them, saying: Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead.(Matt. XVII, 9).

The angels also reminded the disciples of these words when, appearing to them after the resurrection of Christ, they said: “... Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here: He has risen; remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. 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 spoken a lie? Have any of His promises come to pass? Did the prophecies fail? On the contrary: all His predictions were fulfilled literally. Therefore, in this case, we have no right to doubt and must believe that Christ has risen, for He spoke about this, and His words have always been fulfilled.

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

The first appearance was to Mary Magdalene (Mark XYI, 9; John XX, 11-18). Immediately then 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 to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke XXIV, 13-35). Fifth - to ten disciples gathered together, and among them was not the Apostle Thomas (John XX, 19-23). Sixth - to the same disciples together with Thomas (John XX, 26-29). The seventh - to the seven apostles on Lake Tiberias, 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 (Matthew XXVIII, 17; 1 Cor. XV, 6). Ninth - to the Apostle James. There is no mention of this phenomenon in the Gospels, but the Apostle Paul speaks about it (1 Cop. XV, 4). The tenth appearance was a farewell one 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 book of Acts, the Lord, after His Resurrection, appeared to the disciples for forty days, telling them about the Kingdom of God (Acts I, 3 ).

If the Lord appeared so many times in different places to different persons, then how can we not believe the testimony of so many eyewitnesses? Were they all deceivers or exalted dreamers daydreaming? The assumption is completely incredible, and we cannot allow it to please non-believers.

Without the Resurrection of Christ, it is impossible to explain the turning point that occurred in the souls of the apostles. After all, the apostles and disciples of Christ until the last moment did not know why the Divine Teacher came, did not understand His teaching, and warned Him against the suffering awaiting 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, comprehended everything, comprehended the teachings of Christ as deeply as perhaps none of our contemporaries were able to comprehend. From weak, frightened people, they suddenly become brave, decisive, convinced preachers of a new teaching, 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 mark on their beliefs. 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 a sufficient basis, and in general the entire initial history of Christianity would have represented a series of impossibilities. The Resurrection of Christ forms the starting point for new life in the hearts of the disciples. It transforms their sadness 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 entire history of subsequent centuries represents the development and spread of Christian ideas, and the central one is the message of the Resurrection. Without recognizing this fact, the whole story 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 trick of the imagination, then how could all of humanity, at least the humanity of the cultural world, be hypnotized by this deception for entire centuries?

Nobody can explain this.

No, no matter what the opponents of Christianity say, we will still say with firm conviction and joyful faith: “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. " Nazdani formerly, says the Apostle Paul, - on the foundation of the apostle and prophet I am the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself.”(Eph. II, 20). If Christ has 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 was not resurrected, then He is, of course, only a man, and not the embodiment of the Divine. If He was not resurrected, then we have the right to strongly doubt all His miracles, everything that He said about Himself, everything that He promised people. If He rose again, then this is a miracle of miracles, before which all other gospel miracles pale, and 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. Didn't all the apostles doubt that Christ was the Messiah until they were convinced of His Resurrection? Were they not all, as the Savior predicted, 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. Without this confidence, would they have gone out to preach worldwide? 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 is 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 Tomb would have been at the same time the tomb of the Christian faith: because everyone who had previously believed in Him would have ceased to believe; because no one would take the trouble to preach faith in Him; because, finally, this sermon in itself would not be worthy of trust. 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 also of truth in general.

If Christ was not resurrected, 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. " An evil 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 the prophet Jonah; For just 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.(Matthew 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 was resurrected, then His testimony is true, the prediction was justified - we can believe in Him and in His teaching. If He was not resurrected, then it means that in His answer to the Pharisees He told a lie; this means that He Himself was mistaken, and the high priests who recognized Him were right a simple person and those who crucified Him as a deceiver because, being a man, He made Himself God (John X, 33).

Once you reject the Resurrection, you will also have to reject the Righteous, Holy God; you 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 talk about victory in general over evil, over unrighteousness, when Christ has not been resurrected?

If this all-perfect moral personality, without any spot or blemish, pure, infinitely great and strong in His selfless love, is defeated by hatred, suppressed by sinful and unworthy people, suffered the most pathetic failure in His ideal aspirations; if this purest Being, who was in such sincere communion with the Master of the world as the Son with His Father and who served Him alone, was condemned by an unjust court, 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 it means 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 was destroyed. Then good is powerless and will never be able to overcome untruth. Then evil is the rightful king of life. Then something terrible happened on the cross: evil triumphed over embodied good, lies over Truth, vulgarity over Greatness, baseness over Purity, self-love and hatred over Love and Selflessness. Who, after all this, can still sincerely believe in the final victory of goodness and truth?

But if Christ was resurrected, this means that truth and good 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 you 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 has triumphed over death, and we, together with the apostle, can say: “ Death, where is your sting? hell, where is your victory? (1 Cor. XV, 55). If Christ was not resurrected, then we could argue that the law of death is invincible, and that death will never ultimately release anyone from its jaws. We would not have a single example of a complete victory over death, for even if we know cases of resurrection, for example, Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain and others, then this victory was only temporary: death only yielded its victims for a while, but then again swallowed them up. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the idea of ​​immortality would thus always remain in great doubt. But if the Son of Man alone has risen and is not consumed by death, then it means that immortality is not a dream, not an idle fantasy; This 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 sons of men. We can believe that we too will be resurrected after Christ, which is why the Apostle Paul states: “ Christ rose from the dead, the firstborn of the dead. Just as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will live, each in his own order: Christ the firstborn, then those who belong to Christ at His coming.”(1 Cor. XV, 20, 22-23).

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

The gloomy fantasy of one unbelieving writer, who was stuck with this fatal question: “for what?” becomes understandable.

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

Was it worth it to wander around the world for so many years in order to finally end up in this terrible place? Was it worth experiencing the enormous amount of moral and physical torment that I had to endure throughout my life in order to end up in the merciless hands of Death - this only real deity - which gloatingly lowered me into the hopeless darkness of the grave? What goal, incomprehensible to us, does nature pursue 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 studied ten languages, I went through high school, I worked on many questions of human knowledge, expending a lot of nervous energy on all this. Now my corpse is in a coffin. Where did all this mass of labor I spent go and what did it turn into? She disappeared, died irretrievably.

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 it 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 life were stored...

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

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

And for those who do not believe in the future life, all the painful questions - “for what?” For what?" - no answer.

Only darkness, despondency, horror...

But Christ has 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 “vain gift, a random gift,” not an “empty and stupid joke,” but a great gift from the Creator to man, given so that he can achieve eternal, highest bliss. Our activity, our service to our neighbors is not the work of the Danaids, filling a bottomless barrel, not empty labors without any hope of making a person truly happy, but participation in the work of Christ, which must end in the kingdom of love and glory of God. The very sufferings that life is full of 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 sufferers forget the past, but will also make them bless this past as a path to joy and happiness. Even death is not scary, 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, tightly closed for man after his fall, have opened for us.

Christ is risen and entered... into heaven itself, to appear now for us before the face of God(Heb. ix. 24). All we have to do is follow Him.

Christ has risen and given us a new life full of grace-filled powers. Our job 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 giving life to those in the tombs.”

Bishop Vasily Kineshemsky “Conversations on the Gospel of Mark”
Publishing house “Father's House”, 2006.

Introduction

The topic of this test is “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” This topic was chosen because the dogma of the Resurrection is fundamental to Christian teaching. The unimaginable fullness of the 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 is not risen; and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. Moreover, we would also turn out to be false witnesses about God, because we testified that He raised Christ, Whom He did not raise, unless, that is, the dead are raised; for if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not raised" (1 Cor. 15:17).

The object of the study is to determine the meaning of the Resurrection in the life of an Orthodox Christian, and the subject is historical evidence of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Goal: 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. The Resurrection of Christ in the sources;

2. Consider the holiday of Easter in the New Testament tradition.

3. Consider the prophecies about the resurrection of Christ;

4. Study the dogmatic and theological significance of the resurrection of Christ.

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

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

The meaning 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 complete fact, which they witnessed. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is also in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). “Jesus was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification.” (Rom. 4:25) Sunday shows that Christ's sacrifice was accepted by God and people were declared 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 upon himself the sins of all mankind and thereby destroyed the works of the devil and redeemed mankind from death.

The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event that happened in the world. It replaced the Jewish Sabbath. If there had been no Resurrection of Christ, then not only would there not have been Christianity. From the point of view of Christians, denying this event is simply not possible; it entails a loss of the meaning of life. But we can say for sure that it is no longer possible to imagine a 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 events of the Gospel, even the very person of Jesus Christ, to myth, deception, and error. But no one could prove one hundred percent that this did not happen. Such attacks on 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, appearances to the disciples took place, confirming them in the faith. The New Testament describes ten such phenomena.

In our time, visionary theory is spreading rapidly. It seems to tell us that the Apostles had something like a mass hallucination before their eyes. They waited long and tediously to meet the Savior, so 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. So, Renan will say, Mary Magdalene gave the world the idea of ​​resurrection. She was extravagant, with such epileptic manifestations, yes, it was in her imagination, at her suggestion, that this fiction went around the world.”

In order to refute this theory, you do not need to be well versed in dogmatic and psychological research. modern man, it is enough just to know that hallucinations, especially massive ones, 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 and 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 deceased person forever remains inaccessible to the living. Mary Magdalene does not immediately recognize Christ, confusing Him with the gardener, but Thomas asks to put his fingers into the wounds of the One who appeared in order to verify the reality of what happened.

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

“Discussing the reliability of the miracles of the Resurrection and Ascension, the physicist Balfour Stewart says: “Did the action of the known forces of nature remain unchanged in these cases or was it sometimes overcome by a higher power? It undoubtedly prevailed, 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 telling about these events has stood the test so well that any assumption about 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 seem to remain on the sidelines; one could be in front of the high priests and show them in a visible way that they are 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 not have any meaning, while for the Apostles this event becomes the crowning event of 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 method of murder.

The Resurrection of Christ produces a revolution in the consciousness 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 ​​their early departed teacher, would be able to convert such a huge stream of people to the true faith.

Attempts to refute the fact of the Resurrection end up denying the very fact of Christ’s existence 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 refutations are broken by the fact that it was not only the Apostles who preached the events of the life of Christ. There are also a lot of non-canonical (apocryphal) and historical sources confirming His stay on earth.

" For brevity, we will limit ourselves to only a list of other sources: Upifanius Africanus, Eusebius of Egypt, Sardonius Panidorus, 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, who were in Jerusalem or in the immediate vicinity of it and became eyewitnesses of the Resurrection itself or irrefutable facts confirming it."

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

In general, multiple criticisms of the fact of the resurrection must run into the wall of the “God-Man.” If you remember who tends 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.

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

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

ABOUT The miracle of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is testified in our time by the Holy Fire, which descends annually 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 appearance of this fire is inexplicable. When it appears, the Holy 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 received the Holy Fire, lights candles with it, which he immediately distributes to the numerous pilgrims gathered in the temple. The wonderful fire makes an incredible impression on everyone; at the sight of it, the soul becomes warm and joyful.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is victory over sin, the fulfillment of the promise given by God to Adam. The Fall led to a perversion of human nature and morally distorted him. Such damage was passed down 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 descending on the fiftieth day allows people to live a new life. How to rise spiritually with Christ. The doors to the Kingdom of Heaven are open and man, having died physical death, may not die with his soul.

The death penalty through crucifixion was the most terrible in the time of the Gospel; 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.

For many centuries christian church celebrates the bright Christ's resurrection. It is surprising that this greatest event in the history of mankind does not have a once and for all established date for celebration. Easter dates 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 a Sunday. We are celebrating an Event, and therefore the numbers are not so important, the meaning is important. Over two millennia, millions of sermons have been preached revealing the meaning of Easter, millions of songs about it have been sung, and countless hymns have been offered. Despite its venerable age, Easter has not become a “holiday with a beard”; it is always young and celebrated as if for the first time. It's impossible to get used to it. The importance of Easter is difficult to overestimate, because it provides answers to the most exciting questions:

• Will evil be punished and good rewarded?
• Will the time come for one true faith to grow in the souls of people, so that people become brothers in spirit and stop fighting?
• Will there come, if not for us, then for our descendants, days of peace and prosperity?
• Will the eternal spring of youth come for fading old people?
• Will disabled people from childhood experience the happiness of having a healthy and beautiful body?
• Will death, the queen of horrors, always reign supreme on earth?

We will look at 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 letter to the Romans:

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

Christ has always been God. The 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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The book of Colossians states, “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). However, at the incarnation, the divine essence of Christ was hidden by the veil of human nature.

People saw Him first and foremost as a man. Jesus grew up and learned life skills in the family of Joseph, a carpenter. He needed food and drink and was tired from work. One day, during a strong 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 deathly tired person can sleep like this.

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 suffered morally from the sinful behavior of people - he cried about 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, through this fleshly curtain the rays of the divine essence of Christ still shone through. They shone in His testimony of Himself. Thus, 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 equal worship of Himself with God: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who 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 visibly changed - they devoted themselves to piety.

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

However, most of all, the resurrection became for believers indisputable proof of the divine nature of Christ. This is precisely what the skeptic Thomas clearly understood when he fell to his knees before Christ with the confession: “My Lord and God”!

Why was it necessary for Christ to testify so clearly to his Divinity? This is important for developing proper respect for Him. To honor Christ less than God is not just a humiliation of His dignity, but also one of the forms of idolatry prohibited 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 the Author of our salvation can be considered correct and capable of saving the soul.

Because 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, O earth: rejoice and be glad, for the Lord is great to do this” (Joel 2:21).

2. The Resurrection of Christ Brings Justification to Believers

“Who was delivered up for our sins and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

We cannot escape the sad fact of the universal 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 his listeners: “... conscience is an amazing human substance. After all, no one can say that his own conscience pleases him. Conscience only torments. You remember episodes from twenty, forty, sixty years ago: 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 have forgotten 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 for offending the defenseless. Conscience, like a magnetic compass, is located inside you and no matter how you move, it is motionless. A person who overcomes conscience has eyes that become scary and dead.” According to a survey by the Ekho Moskvy radio station, 83% of listeners admitted that they have a conscience and only 17% deny 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 apart, destroyed many living species, and organized destructive wars. Humanity, if judged as a whole, will look bad."

But only the Holy Bible speaks about the depravity of man absolutely objectively and honestly: “The heart [of man] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who will recognize him? (Jer.17:9). The heart cannot be trusted; it can deceive. It cannot be corrected; there is no healthy place in it. Meanwhile, according to the Bible, it is the source of life. A corrupt heart harbors corrupt plans and from it flow corrupt decisions. “He chases dust; his deceived heart has led him astray, and he cannot free his soul and say: “Is there not deceit in my right hand?” (Isa.44:20)

For the owners of such a heart, there is only one fate - the abyss of hell. And everyone would have ended up there if not for the resurrection of Christ. It brought justification to those who believed in Him.

An acquittal is a judge's declaration that a suspect is not guilty of a crime. The judge makes this announcement based on an objective consideration of all the evidence in the case. But how can you justify a person whose guilt is known to the Judge of all judges in the smallest detail?

The justification of a sinner does not happen out of nowhere. It follows sincere repentance. When a person repents of his sins and devotes his life to the Savior, his sins are forgiven, washed with the most pure blood of Christ and are not remembered by God. Because of Christ's atoning sacrifice, "the justice of God was more satisfied than if men had suffered forever in hell" (Watson).

However, in addition to forgiveness, a person is reborn from above and becomes a new creation: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; The old has passed away, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). He has a new direction in life - to be closer to God, to be more useful and purer in soul. A person acquires a new status as a child of God, instead of the old one - a slave of Satan. How can one not justify such a person?

In addition, a repentant person is transferred from under the authority of God’s just law to the authority of grace. The law cursed all violators of its regulations. Grace does not curse, but disciplines and sanctifies. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:11-13).

Someone will ask: “Don’t those who believe in Christ sin? And if they sin, shouldn’t they be justly and severely judged by God?” Alas, believers sin out of weakness and are often condemned, but they are condemned not as people of this world, alien to God, but as disobedient children - through weakness, illness and death (1 Cor. 11:30). However, justification is in no way canceled, 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” (John. 5:24).

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

“For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9).

What amazing news! Christ lives to rule both over those on earth and over those already in eternity. As a ruler, Christ loves each of His subjects, knows the circumstances in which he lives, determines for him the time and place of residence, the level of well-being, controls not only health, but also the number of hairs on his head, and 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 introduce the redeemed into His eternal kingdom and reward them for their labor for His name. His subjects are not strangers to Him, but His property, paid for with great suffering. He doesn't abandon his own!

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

An instructive example of Christ's sovereignty is seen in His dealings with His disciples. Let us recall the two most striking cases.

During the Last Supper in the Upper Room of Zion, the Lord of Lords girded himself with a towel and began to wash the feet of his slaves. This act violated all subordination: “He came up to Simon Peter, and he said to Him: Lord! Should you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not know now, but you will understand later.” Peter says to Him: You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him: If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me (John 13:6-8). History doesn't know similar cases humble and loving relationship to his 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 have no mercy. They were deserters—they left Jerusalem, leaving behind friends with whom they had spent three years serving together. Their spiritual state 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 rendered very expressively: “and while they were talking and arguing.” These two friends had no understanding even among themselves! Verse 17 intensifies the tragedy of their condition: “And he said to them: What are these words with which you exchange with each other as you go? And they stopped gloomy." Deprived of peace and joy and mutual understanding, the students looked gloomy, like a grave crypt.

They did not believe the testimony of the women: “Our women amazed us.” They did not believe the Scriptures and did not know how to think.

However, despite their difficult 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 tell about their trouble and identified the main root of the problem - their half-belief, due to 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 sparked in them the decision to return to their friends. This is the dominion of Christ over the soul - unobtrusive, quiet and effective, evoking a living response in the human soul. What a great happiness to belong to such a Lord!

4. The Resurrection of Christ Shamed the Kingdom of Darkness

“...having taken away the strength of the principalities and powers, He powerfully brought them to shame, having triumphed over them in Himself” (Col. 2:15).

Here we are talking about demons from whom the Lord “took away their 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, and murder are committed everywhere. If there is no devil, then who does his work? Wasn't it Satan who prevented Paul from visiting the church in Rome? Was it not he who oppressed the great apostle with a thorn in the flesh? Something is not noticeable for the gates of hell to lose their power!

There are four points to keep in mind when considering this issue. First, in relation to Christ, the powers of darkness are disgraced. He defeated them by His resurrection. They are powerless to undo the atoning death of the Son of God. They trembled before Him before His crucifixion and trembled 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, which means you will be punished. The wages of sin is death.” There is nothing worse than the consciousness of well-deserved death. John Bunyan, before his conversion, was envious of cats and dogs, which did not face eternal damnation. However, because of Christ's justifying resurrection, even the weakest believer knows that his sins are forgiven and atoned for. He says with David: “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 opponents and my enemies come upon me to devour my flesh, then they themselves will stumble and fall. If a regiment takes up arms against me, my heart will not fear; if war arises against me, then I will hope” (Ps. 27:1-3).c

Third, demons have lost their power to control the saved. The Sovereign Lord freed them to serve Himself. Demons cannot 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 life. The future lies in the truth. The evil triumph of the enemies lasted only three days. And then came their eternal shame. Knowing this, the saints fight evil not doomedly, but believing in victory.

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

5. The Resurrection of Christ confirms the inevitability of the Judgment of unrepentant people.

“Therefore, leaving the times of ignorance, God now commands people everywhere to repent, for He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed, having given 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 claims 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 listing of sins, but a conscious dedication of oneself to the service of Jesus Christ. Without this dedication, it turns into a simple hot air - and nothing more.

If a person rejects the command to repent, he will be brought to God's just judgment fallen angels and sinful people. The chief judge will be Jesus Christ. At that trial, the real, and not the fictional history of mankind, will be revealed before our eyes. We will learn everything not only about the words and well-known achievements of politicians and diplomats, religious figures and ordinary people, but let us penetrate into their thoughts and secret affairs. Everything secret will be revealed there!

Sinners who rejected Christ on earth will want to accept Him in eternity - which of them will want to go to the lake of fire forever and ever? However, to their indescribable grief, they will hear from Him terrible words: “I never knew you; Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). This is how the Savior’s warning will be fulfilled: “...whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:33). Then it will become clear to everyone: Christ does not throw words to the wind. He does exactly what he promised.

How many will be condemned forever? Unfortunately, there will be a lot of these. Christ said: “...wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it” (Matt. 7:13). Don't be one of them, dear listener! Christ is God, able to forgive sins and renew life, He rose not to judge, but to justify, He wants to be the ruler 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!

This week, many were surprised by the news that a quarter of Britons who call themselves Christians do not believe in the resurrection of Christ (BBC data). For those of you planning to celebrate Easter this Sunday, these numbers may come as a shock...

For anyone reading this blog, I offer nine important things to know about the Resurrection.

1. Belief in the Resurrection is a core doctrine of the Christian faith.. If you do not believe in the Resurrection, you do not have a personal relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.

“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

“And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is in vain: you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17).

2. The Resurrection gives hope for eternal life to everyone who has died in Christ. The Bible teaches that since Jesus is now alive as a result of the resurrection, all who have a personal relationship with Him have the hope of eternal life with Him after death.

“But Christ has risen from the dead, the firstborn of those who have fallen asleep. For as death came through man, so also came the resurrection of the dead through man” (1 Cor. 20-22).

Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:2-3).

3. The disciples of Christ, who later became His apostles, at first did not understand the meaning of the resurrection. Jesus spoke to His disciples (His followers during His earthly ministry) about the resurrection, but they did not understand this truth until He was resurrected.

“When they came down from the mountain, He commanded that they should not tell anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. And they kept this word, asking each other what it meant to be raised from the dead” (Mark 9:9-10).

“Then some of His disciples said to one another: What is it that He says to us: Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me, and: I am going to the Father?” (John 16:17).

4. Jewish Religious Leaders Feared the Possibility of the Resurrection. These religious leaders did not accept the teachings of Jesus because it threatened their power and undermined their religious system. They feared the risen Messiah and Savior.

“They went and set a guard at the tomb, and put a seal on the stone” (Matt. 27:62-66).

5. The resurrection of Christ became a source of great joy for the disciples and the foundation of their faith. When Jesus spoke to His disciples about His resurrection, He predicted that their grief over His death would then be replaced by a joy that no one could take away from them. The Apostle John recalled these words in his Gospel in order to call the reader to faith in Jesus.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will mourn and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy... So now you also have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:20-22).

6. The Resurrection of Christ was witnessed by eyewitnesses. Paul lists many who saw the risen Jesus.

“I remind you, brethren, of the gospel which I preached to you, which you received, in which you stood, and by which you are saved, if you keep what was taught, as I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I originally taught you what I myself accepted, that is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve; then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, and some have died; then he appeared to Jacob, and also to all the Apostles; and last of all he appeared to me, as to a certain monster” (1 Cor. 15:1-8).

7. The Resurrection Demonstrated that Jesus is the Son of God. Paul saw the Resurrection as proof of the divinity and Sonship of Jesus (Rom. 1:3-4).

“...about His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and was revealed to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, through the resurrection from the dead, in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:3-4).

8. The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our salvation. Jesus went to the cross because of our sins because a sacrifice was needed on which God's wrath would be poured out. And the resurrection of Christ became the basis of our justification and salvation.

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“... it will also be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our sins and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:24-25.

9. The Resurrection of Christ gives us the power to live a life that glorifies God.. The power of the Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead—as indicated by the fact of the Resurrection—is the same power that resides within us, giving hope for real change in our lives so that we can live a life that glorifies God.

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11).

“...and how exceedingly great is the greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens...” (Eph. 1:19-23; cf. Eph. 3 :20-21).

“...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).

Voice of Truth based on Pastor Kevin's blog