The meaning of the resurrection of Christ. The meaning and significance of the resurrection of Christ
On the third day after His death, on Sunday, early in the morning, when it was still dark and the soldiers were at their post at the sealed tomb, the Lord rose from the dead. The mystery of the resurrection, like the mystery of the incarnation, is incomprehensible. With our weak human mind, we understand this event in such a way that at the moment of resurrection the soul of the God-man returned to His body, which is why the body came to life and was transformed, becoming incorruptible and spiritualized. After this, the resurrected Christ left the cave without rolling away the stone or breaking the high priestly seal. The soldiers did not see what happened in the cave, and after the resurrection of Christ they continued to guard the empty tomb. Soon an earthquake occurred when the Angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, 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. The warriors, frightened by the Angel, fled.
Neither the myrrh-bearing wives nor the disciples of Christ knew anything about what had happened. Since the burial of Christ was carried out hastily, the myrrh-bearing wives agreed on the day after Easter, that is, in our opinion, on Sunday, to go to the tomb and finish anointing the Savior’s body with fragrant ointments. They did not even know about the Roman guard assigned to the coffin and the seal attached. When dawn began to appear, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Jacob, Salome and some other pious women went to the tomb with fragrant myrrh. Heading to the burial place, they were perplexed: “Who will roll away the stone from our tomb?”- because, as the Evangelist explains, the stone was great (). Mary Magdalene was the first to come to the tomb. Seeing the coffin empty, she ran back to the disciples Peter and John and informed them about the disappearance of the Teacher’s body. A little later, the other myrrh-bearers also came to the tomb. They saw a young man in the coffin, sitting on right side dressed in white clothes. The mysterious young man said to them: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He has risen. Go and tell His disciples that they will see Him in Galilee” (). Excited by the unexpected news, they hurried to the students.
Meanwhile, the apostles Peter and John, having heard from Mary about what had happened, ran to the cave: but, finding in it only the shrouds and the cloth that was on the head of Jesus, they returned home in bewilderment. After them, Mary Magdalene returned to the burial place of Christ and began to cry. At that time, she saw two angels in white robes in the tomb, sitting - one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. The angels asked her: "Why are you crying?"(). Having answered them, Mary turned back and saw Jesus Christ, but did not recognize Him. Thinking it was the gardener, she asked: “Mr! if you carried Him,(Jesus Christ), then tell me where put Him and I will take Him". Then the Lord said to her: “Mary”!
(). Hearing the voice and turning to Him, she recognized Christ and exclaimed: “Teacher!”
threw herself at His feet. But the Lord did not allow her to touch Him, but ordered her to go to the disciples and tell about the miracle of the resurrection. That same morning, the soldiers came to the high priests and informed them about the appearance of the Angel and the empty tomb. This news greatly excited the Jewish leaders: their anxious premonitions were fulfilled. Now, first of all, they had to make sure that the people did not believe in the resurrection of Christ. Having gathered a council, they gave the soldiers a lot of money, ordering them to spread a rumor that the disciples of Jesus stole His body at night, while the soldiers were sleeping. The soldiers did just that, and so the rumor about the theft of the Savior’s body then lingered among the people for a long time. A week after this, the Lord again appeared to the apostles, including St. Thomas, who was absent at the first appearance of the Savior. To dispel Thomas’s doubts regarding His resurrection, the Lord allowed him to touch His wounds, and the believing Thomas fell at His feet, exclaiming:
“My Lord and mine!”
(). As the evangelists further narrate, during the forty-day period after His resurrection, the Lord appeared to the apostles several more times, talked with them and gave them final instructions. Shortly before His ascension, the Lord appeared to more than five hundred believers.
As we know, the Old Testament time was a period of preparation of the Jewish people for the coming of the Messiah. For this reason, some events in the life of the Jewish people, and especially the predictions of the prophets, related to the coming of Jesus Christ and the onset of New Testament times. The Old Testament law, according to St. ap. Paul, was "a teacher to Christ" And "shadow of future blessings" (; ).
The most significant event in the history of the Jewish people there was their liberation from Egyptian slavery under the prophet Moses, one and a half thousand years before Christ. It was imprinted in the national Jewish holiday of Passover, which celebrated other events associated with the liberation from Egypt: the defeat by the Angel of the Egyptian firstborns and the pardon of the Jewish ones, on whose houses signs were made with the blood of the Passover lamb (Hence the word “Passover” - “to pass by”) ; the miracle of crossing the Red Sea and the death of the Egyptian army chasing the Jews; then - the Jewish people received the Law on Mount Sinai and established a covenant with God, after which the Jewish people began to be considered the people of God. Since then, Jews, celebrating Passover and following the customs of their ancestors, eat the Passover lamb with prayer and symbolic rituals.
In the significant coincidence of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with the feast of the Old Testament Easter, one should see God’s indication of the deep internal connection between these two events, which St. ap. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. Let us compare here the events of both Easters in parallel.
| Old Testament Passover | New Testament Passover |
| The slaughter of the immaculate Passover lamb and the salvation of the Jewish firstborns by its blood (). | The miraculous passage of the Jews through the Red Sea and deliverance from Egyptian slavery (). Sinai legislation on the 50th day after the exodus from Egypt and the conclusion of an alliance (covenant) with God (). which every Christian must endure. |
Deliverance from the remorse of the spiritual serpent - by the power of the Cross (). The promise of a new heaven and a new earth on which truth will dwell (). From this comparison of Easter events, we see how the events of the Old Testament Easter served as a prototype of the New Testament and heralded the great spiritual changes that were to occur in the life of mankind after the resurrection of the Messiah. That is why the apostles, celebrating the New Testament Easter, asserted: ().
“Our Easter, Christ sacrificed for us”
Prophecies about the Resurrection of Christ Many Old Testament prophecies testify to the resurrection of the Messiah. Among them we must mention those who predicted that the Messiah would be not only a man, but also God , and therefore will be immortal by His divine nature. See, for example: Psalms 2, 44 and 109, , , , . The resurrection of the Messiah is also indirectly evidenced by prophecies speaking about His everlasting kingdom
, for example: , , , , Ezek., , - because the eternal spiritual Kingdom presupposes an immortal King. Among the direct predictions about the resurrection of Christ, the clearest is the prophecy Isaiah
, occupying the entire 53rd chapter of his book. The Prophet Isaiah, who lived more than 700 years BC, having described the suffering of Christ in such detail as if he was standing at the very foot of the cross, ends his story with the following words:“He was assigned a grave with the evildoers, but He was buried with a rich man, because He committed no sin, and no lie was found in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to strike Him, and He gave Him over to torture; when His soul offers a sacrifice of propitiation, He will see long-lasting offspring, and the will of the Lord successfully will be fulfilled by His hand. He will look at the feat of His soul with contentment; through the knowledge of Him, He, the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify many and bear their sins on Himself. That's why ().
I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoil with the mighty.” Final words This prophecy directly says that the Messiah, after His saving suffering and death, will come to life and will be glorified by God the Father. The king also predicted the resurrection of Christ David in the 15th Psalm, in which David says on behalf of Christ:“I have always seen the Lord before me, for He is at the right hand (on the right hand) me; I will not hesitate. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad; even my flesh will rest in hope (to hope)(, see also ; ).
Thus, the prophets laid the foundation of faith in their people in the coming and resurrection of the Messiah. This is why the apostles were so successful in spreading faith in the risen Christ among the Jewish people, despite obstacles from the religious leaders of the Jewish people.
Spiritual Fruits
Resurrection of Christ
The spiritual resurrection in this life will serve as the foundation for the physical resurrection which, by the power of almighty God, will take place on the last day of this world. Then the souls of all the dead will return to their bodies, and all people will come to life, regardless of where and how they died. But the sight of the resurrected will reflect them internal state: some will look bright and joyful, others will look scary, like the walking dead. The Lord predicted the general resurrection in these words: the time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear a voice(voice) of the Son of God; and they will go those who did good into the resurrection of life, and those who did evil into the resurrection of condemnation.” ().
At the same time, the upcoming general resurrection of the dead must be distinguished from the temporary resurrections of the dead, which the Lord and his disciples performed, according to the Gospel and the book of the Acts of the Apostles. For example: the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus, who lay in the tomb for four days, and others. This was a temporary awakening from death, so that after a certain time those resurrected died again, like all people. But the general resurrection from the dead will be an eternal resurrection, in which the souls of people will forever be united with their incorruptible bodies. During the general resurrection, righteous people will rise transformed, spiritualized and immortal. The first to rise with such a renewed and spiritualized body was the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Apostle calls "The firstborn of the dead"(). "Then (at the general resurrection) the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” ().
The holiday of Christian Easter is celebrated so joyfully by Orthodox Christians because on Easter days, more than at any other time of the year, they feel the regenerating power of the resurrection of Christ - that power that overthrew the power of darkness, freed souls from hell, opened the doors to heaven, and defeated the bonds death, poured life and light into the souls of believers. It is also remarkable that Easter joy spreads to such a large number of people - not only to deeply believers, but also to those who are lukewarm and far from God. On Easter, the whole world and even, it seems, soulless nature rejoice at the victory of life over.
Easter service
There is no service brighter and more joyful than Orthodox Easter. The Easter service begins with a procession of the cross around the church, with lighted candles in the hands of all those gathered and with the singing: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the Angels are singing in heaven: grant us also on earth (worthy) to glorify Thee with a pure heart.” This procession resembles the procession of the myrrh-bearers in the early morning to the tomb of the Savior to anoint His most pure Body. Having gone around the temple, the procession stops in front of the closed main doors, and the priest begins Matins with the exclamation: “Glory to the Holy Ones, consubstantial, life-giving and indivisible Trinity...” Then, like the angel who announced the myrrh-bearing women about the resurrection of Christ, he sings three times, together with other clergy, Troparion of Easter: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death and giving life to those in the tombs.” The priests' singing is picked up by the choir. Then the senior priest recites the prophetic verses of the psalm: “May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered.” The final words of each verse are picked up joyfully by the singers: “Christ is risen.” Then the clergy repeat the beginning of the troparion: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,” and the singers end it: “And to those in the tombs he gave life.” At this time, the doors of the temple open, everyone enters the temple, and the great litany begins (short petitions with the singing of “Lord, have mercy,” followed by the solemn singing of the Easter canon: “Resurrection Day,” compiled by the monk. During the singing of the canon, the clergy repeatedly perform a full incense of the temple and greet the pilgrims with the words: “Christ is risen!” To which they loudly answer: “Truly he is risen!”
The Ordinary Hours are not read, they are replaced by the singing of Easter hymns. The Liturgy takes place immediately after Matins. Instead of ordinary psalms, special antiphons are sung: short prayers with verses; instead of “Holy God,” it is sung “Be baptized into Christ.” The Gospel reads about the eternal birth of the Son of God from God the Father and about the Divinity of Jesus Christ, God the Word (), which He proved by His glorious resurrection. When several priests serve, the Gospel is read in different languages as a sign that the apostles preached about the resurrection of Christ different peoples in their native languages. Instead of “It is worthy to eat,” the following worthy is sung (in Russian translation):
“The angel exclaimed to the blessed one: pure Virgin, rejoice! and again I say: rejoice! Your Son rose from the grave on the third day after death and raised the dead: people rejoice!”
“Glorify yourself, be glorified, New Jerusalem (Church), for the glory of the Lord has shone upon you: rejoice now and rejoice Zion! But You, Pure One, rejoice in the resurrection of the One born of You.”
Following the prayer behind the pulpit, artos is consecrated - special bread with the image of the Resurrection of Christ on it. At one of the subsequent services, the artos is crushed and distributed to believers in memory of the appearance of the risen Christ to the apostles Luke and Cleopas (who recognized Him after He broke bread). On the very first day of St. Easter is blessed by eggs, cheese and butter, as well as Easter cakes, which are used by believers to break their fast. On St. Easter believers greet each other with a fraternal kiss with the words: “Christ is risen” (they salute Christ) and exchange colored eggs, which serve as a symbol of the resurrection. On all days of Easter week, the royal doors remain open as a sign that by the resurrection of Christ all people have access to Heaven. Starting from the first day of St. Before Easter Vespers, the feast of the Holy Trinity (for 50 days), you should not bow to the ground.
Easter Canon in Russian translation
Song 1
Irmos: Sunday day. Let's enlighten ourselves, people! Easter! Lord's Easter! For from death to life and from earth to heaven Christ has brought us, singing the song of victory.
Let us clear our senses and see Christ shining with the impregnable light of the resurrection, and we will clearly hear “rejoice” from Him, singing the song of victory.
Let the heavens rejoice with dignity, let the earth rejoice. Let the whole world, visible and invisible, celebrate; for Christ has risen - eternal joy.
Song 3
Irmos: Come, let us drink a new drink, not miraculously produced from a barren stone, but from the source of incorruptibility - the tomb of Christ, on which we are established ().
Now everything was filled with light - the sky, the earth and the underworld; let all creation celebrate the rise of Christ, on whom we are established.
Yesterday I was buried with You, Christ, today I rise with You risen; Yesterday I crucified with You, glorify me with You, Savior, in Your Kingdom ().
Canto 4
Irmos: Let Habakkuk, who proclaimed God, stand with us on the Divine guard and show us a luminous Angel, clearly exclaiming: now is salvation for the world, because Christ has risen as omnipotent (; ).
Our Easter - Christ appeared male, like a (son) who opened the virgin womb; called the Lamb, as offered for food, - immaculate, as not involved in filth, and as the true God - called perfect ().
The crown we bless is Christ, like a one-year-old lamb, who voluntarily sacrificed himself for everyone on the cleansing Passover, and again He, the beautiful Sun of Truth, shone for us from the grave.
Godfather David jumped in delight in front of the prophetic ark; Let us, the holy people of God, seeing the fulfillment of the types, rejoice sacredly; for Christ has risen as omnipotent ().
Song 5
Irmos: Let us rise in the deep morning, and instead of peace we will bring a song to the Master, and we will see Christ - the Sun of Truth, enlightening everyone with life.
Seeing Your immeasurable mercy, O Christ, those held in the shackles of hell, joyfully hastened towards the light, glorifying the eternal Easter.
With lamps in our hands, let us go to meet Christ coming from the tomb as a bridegroom, and with the joyfully celebrating ranks (of Angels) we will celebrate God’s saving Easter.
Song 6
Irmos: You descended, Christ, into the underworld of the earth and crushed the eternal rivets containing the prisoners and on the third day, like Jonah from the whale, you came out of the tomb ().
Without damaging the enclosed (womb) of the Virgin in Your birth, Christ, You rose from the grave, keeping the seals intact, and opened the doors of heaven to us.
My Savior, living and, like God, unslain Sacrifice! Having voluntarily brought Yourself to the Father, You, rising from the grave, resurrected the ancestor Adam.
Song 7
Irmos: He who saved the youths from the oven, having become a man, suffers like a mortal, and with His suffering clothes mortals in the beauty of immortality, one of the fathers, blessed and glorified.
God-wise women hurried after You with fragrant ointments; but Whom they sought with tears as if dead, They worshiped Him with joy, as the living God, and announced the mystical Easter to Your disciples, O Christ.
We celebrate the killing of death, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another, eternal life, and in delight we glorify the Author of this, the one God of the fathers, blessed and glorified ().
In truth, this saving and luminous night is sacred and worthy of every celebration, the forerunner of the luminous day of resurrection, on which eternal Light in the flesh he shone forth from the grave for everyone.
Song 8
Irmos: This famous and sacred day, the only one, king and lord among Saturdays, is a holiday of holidays and a triumph of celebrations; On this day let us bless Christ forever.
Come, on the glorious day of resurrection, let us partake of the new fruit of the vine, the divine joy, the Kingdom of Christ, praising Him as God forever.
Raise your gaze, O Zion, and look around you: behold, your children have flocked to you - like God-bright lights from the west, north, sea and east - blessing Christ in you forever ().
Father Almighty, and the Word, and the Spirit, is one Being in three Persons, Most High and Divine! We were baptized into You and we will bless You forever.
Song 9
Irmos: Be enlightened, be enlightened, new Jerusalem; for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you; rejoice now and rejoice Zion. You, Pure One (Mother of God), rejoice over the uprising of the One born to you! ().
Oh, how divine, gracious and joyful is Your word, O Christ! You promised to be with us until the end of the century. Having this as a support for hope, we, the faithful, rejoice ().
O Easter, great and sacred, Christ! O wisdom, the Word of God and power! Make us worthy to commune with You more perfectly on the endless day of Your Kingdom ().
Notes
1 . The miracle of the resurrection of Christ from the dead is evidenced by the Holy Fire, which every year Easter night descends (lights up) in the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection of Christ, built on the site of the burial and resurrection of the Savior. The occurrence of this fire is inexplicable. When it appears, the Holy Fire does not burn and its flame can be passed over the face. Only after some time does the fire acquire its normal temperature. The Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (or his deputy), having received the Holy Fire, lights candles with it, which he immediately distributes to the numerous pilgrims gathered in the temple. The miraculous fire makes a great impression on everyone present in the temple and causes joy. It is also remarkable that the Holy Fire descends only for Orthodox Christians and always on Orthodox Easter. Representatives of other religions, who also serve in this temple, do not receive the Holy Fire.
2. Jewish Passover is celebrated on the 14th day lunar month Nissan. This day always falls in the spring, on the full moon. Christian Easter is closely related to Jewish Passover. The First Ecumenical Council, meeting in Nicaea in the year 325, decided to celebrate Christian Easter on Sunday during the period spring equinox, and definitely after Passover. Guided by this resolution of the Council and astronomical calculations, Alexandrian scientists developed a system for calculating the day of Orthodox Easter for each year. This is how “Easter” arose - a table of Easter days for many years to come. The sequence of Easter days is repeated every 532 years (indiction). According to Paschal, the earliest Orthodox Easter falls on March 22 according to the old style (April 4 according to the new style), and the latest is on April 25 according to the old style. style (May 8, new style). With the movement of Easter, the holidays of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (a week before Easter), the Ascension of the Lord (on the 40th day after Easter) and the Trinity (on the 50th day after Easter), which depend on it, also move. According to Easter, in 1992 Easter will be on April 26th; in 1993 - April 18; in 1994 – May 1st; in 1995 - April 23; in 1996 - April 14 (numbers are given according to the new style).
3. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was witnessed by Angels: , , ; Apostles: , ; His enemies: ; and, most of all, by that sea of miracles that have been and continue to be performed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yakov Krotov: Today our program will be dedicated to the resurrection of Christ and its significance in modern world, For modern man. Our guests are Shirinay Murzaevna Dosova, an employee of the Christian mission "Light in the East" and Evgeny Vladimirovich Sarapulov, a Christian psychologist, candidate of philosophical sciences.
The meaning of resurrection... You can, of course, pose the question in different ways, I will not pose the question, I will tell, share, repent, and you, honest mothers and honest fathers, will tell me. This is the situation, Auchan store, weekday. And suddenly I feel scared. I really say scary. Because in the corner where I’m standing, somehow there are no buyers, but somehow there are sellers, cleaners, literally about two dozen, quite a lot, and they all speak a language I don’t understand. I was afraid of this... I don’t know what I was more afraid of, that I was afraid or that I was more afraid of the fact that I was ashamed that I was afraid. What is it? I'll say this. It’s understandable if a person goes to Tbilisi and hears that everyone around him speaks incomprehensible language, he is not afraid, but rather pleasant, they will give him red wine, suluguni, and so on. The same person in his hometown of Moscow hears the speech of the same Orthodox Georgians around him and only gets scared by their Georgian speech. Because he has the feeling that some conquerors have come, and he has lost a roof over his head, the word that he understands has disappeared. And the word, like the Gospel of John, verse one of chapter one, in the beginning was the word. And the word is what makes us people capable of hearing God. And suddenly foreign language. If I may, I will ask this: is it shameful for a Christian to have such feelings towards completely harmless, weak, downtrodden, I suspect, poorly paid (may the Auchan store forgive me) people who are not from a good life, having, perhaps, , higher education, wash floors and sell food?
Shirinai Dosova: This is probably not about me. Because I was born in Uzbekistan, my mother was deported during Stalin’s repressions, and I remember my childhood. Because on one side there were Finns, on the other side there were Germans, on the other side there were Greeks, Estonians, even Bulgarians, we had one Chinese, the captain of the ship, he was thrown there. I heard different languages, different speech from a very young age. I have such an attitude towards other nations that speech is annoying, people are annoying... I grew up in a different culture and it’s probably easier for me in this sense. But I want to understand those people who are so immediately hateful towards others. Where does this even come from?
Yakov Krotov: Shirinai, I apologize, not to “those people,” but to me specifically. I use government time to figure out personal problems. The man calls for tolerance. I understand that this is completely obscene, and suddenly fear stirs. Is this racism or not?
Shirinai Dosova: I think it is both racist and not at the same time. On the one hand, they always put this kind of chosenness into us, now we are in a certain country, now we are almost the third Rome. On the other hand, we’ll probably go back to our first man Adam, where this enmity towards others arose, you see, this is some kind of very big ancient problem. Therefore, to understand yourself, to see in yourself where it comes from, you pose the question well, it is very important for us to understand ourselves.
Yakov Krotov: Enmity!... Is it normal for a person, isn’t this paranoia: you hear an unfamiliar language and immediately assume that maybe they are discussing you, maybe they are plotting against you? That is, if the principle of modern European justice, doubts are interpreted in favor of the suspect, the accused, then the human soul, excuse me, mine, I am also a person, is often built on a different principle: doubts are interpreted not in favor of the one who scares me. Then, like a bull, you stand and think, maybe there is danger. But if you really try to be Prince Myshkin, excuse me, Jesus, and think that the world is beautiful, everything is wonderful, the grass is green, the sun is shining, then, excuse me, won’t they eat you, or even more so your loved ones? This enmity that Shirinay mentioned, does it seem or is it a fact and how to deal with it in both cases?
Evgeny Sarapulov: Hello, dear radio listeners. I believe that hostility, aggressiveness, and suspicion are a natural manifestation of our essence, because if we have known good, we have known evil, then we have both. Someone said, like Hobbes or Becken, who begins with doubts ends with confidence. That is, if I doubt these people at Auchan, they are all so normal, it’s okay. So what if you doubt it? That is, if you are still trying to understand what is in front of you, normal or not, you will gain confidence that they are normal or not quite, not quite. So the person adapts to this situation. If he shows some kind of aggressiveness, and others say, you are not okay, I, as a psychologist, as a Christian psychologist, can say that this is normal, everything is normal. Because sooner or later, every person will develop suspicion towards ordinary, normal people, because when I experience some kind of aggression or some kind of penetration of destructive information into myself through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, communication with friends, then I catch myself thinking that I become more suspicious. I tell myself, it means that so much negativity has penetrated into me that now I need to deal with it. That is, it is impossible to completely control yourself, but in your situation, if this was really the case, you read a lot, you probably have read something.
Yakov Krotov: I am a Christian, why would I lie? Well, it moved and moved. I was very surprised because I thought that I was already kind of a cherub.
Shirinai Dosova: But what I was afraid of overtook me. If you treat people this way, then, in general, sooner or later you will bring the same thing upon yourself. We had a wonderful Empress Catherine the Second, she owned the following phrase: if you want to have friends, find something good, kind in a person and be sure to tell him about it. It seems to me that we need to reconsider our attitude towards people in general. Enemies, strangers, danger are seen everywhere, in fact, this is so, who can argue with that. From the human heart come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, an envious eye, blasphemy, pride, and madness. It initially lives in the heart and, probably, in everyone, because everyone is a sinner. And it was no accident that Christ did not entrust himself to man, for he knew what was in them. But, on the other hand, if you see this in people all the time, it will be so. What if, on the contrary, you see the good in a person? I managed, you know, there were the most dangerous situations and people stood on good side, and I knew why. Because I managed to find a dialogue with them, I managed to come to an agreement. I am absolutely convinced that a person, even someone who is hostile and dangerous to you, is not always, but still possible (I have these examples), you can turn to good and to the fact that this person will not do harm to you. But look at him as someone who can be reformed.
Yakov Krotov: Reference. The enumeration of everything that comes from the heart is not what Shirinai just said on her own, this is a quote from the Holy Scriptures, these are the words of the Savior.
Evgeny Sarapulov: I periodically watch how they sweep in our yard, these people are not native residents of Moscow, they came from somewhere Central Asia, at least in my yard, and from time to time I hear information that this is such a huge mass of guest workers, there are about two million of them...
Yakov Krotov: Evgeny Vladimirovich, I apologize...
Evgeny Sarapulov: I want to say that I periodically come up to them and say, thank you for sweeping this yard, it’s clean, it’s so nice, how good it is that you do it. And this unnecessary fear, some kind of unnecessary aggression that they want to instill in me, I defend myself against it, so to speak.
Yakov Krotov: Evgeny Vladimirovich... “not a native resident of Moscow.” Are you “native”?
Evgeny Sarapulov: No, I'm not native.
Yakov Krotov: In my opinion, even our mayor of Moscow is not a native. In general, every time I come across any Moscow xenophobia, I start asking whether my interlocutor is a native Moscow resident; I have the feeling that I am the only native of Moscow among many thousands of people. This is the right feeling, because the demographic influx began in the 70s and 80s. And even those people who have been in Moscow for half a century, 60 years, are usually not indigenous. So here the expression itself is already a source of hatred.
Shirinai, as it were, in the beginning there was a word. You can always reach an agreement. I’ll tell you what seems incompatible with Easter here. After all, what is Easter? Easter is a holiday of liberation from Egyptian slavery, first of all. You would have met Moses in Egypt. We would go to a resort in Hurghada and suddenly you see Moses, who is going to lead the Jews out of Egypt, to inflict Egyptian executions, so that there is this “passage”, that the angel of death kills Egyptian children, but passes by the Jewish ones. Hence one of the versions of the origin of the word “Pesach”: an angel passed by and did not touch. And you tell him, Moses, well, you killed an Egyptian, you are going to lead the people out of Egypt. We are people. You can come to an agreement with the pharaoh, with the bosses at the construction of the pyramids, but all these myths about the promised land, why do you need this, it’s some kind of glitch on your part, that you need to take it somewhere and create. And Moses will say, but the Lord promised. I think that the Easter holiday is, first of all, a holiday of finding a home, where there is no one above you with whom you need to negotiate, where salvation, peace and tranquility are achieved thanks to such fencing, here is a hut, but it is still ours. This may not be a solid house; on Easter they settled in huts to remember where they began, but it is their own hut. This means that with God there is heaven in a hut, but with the Egyptian authorities it is bad even in a pyramid.
Shirinai Dosova: But they came out of Egyptian slavery, but they did not end up in the same paradise as they thought. They came and had to fight there, on that very promised land. But it’s one thing to be in slavery, where you are nobody and nothing, and nothing, and another thing is when they had a goal, they had a task. Of course, they did not cope well with this task; after all, they were there to proclaim monotheism, to carry such a huge mission to the whole world. And what happened happened, they ended up there, having come to the promised land, those seven nations that were listed, those that would be enemies, because they had to fight there. Therefore, what kind of heaven in a hut is this? It doesn’t work out, heaven is in a hut. I think that this struggle between spirit and flesh, in fact, is what Easter is all about. When we accept Christ, is it heaven in a hut? Not at all, we are encountering war again, but of a different kind. We meet ourselves when the struggle between flesh and spirit occurs within us. Actually, this is the evidence of the victory of Easter, what Christ does in us. And this, is it possible to come to an agreement with others? Why are we given some kind of brains, if they move there, there is actually a language. We are people and we need to negotiate. But how can we negotiate if we are on different waves and we can’t hear each other? Easter is when enemies suddenly begin, strangers yesterday, to become family and friends. This is something when people want to meet each other halfway, understand each other, hear each other. This, of course, is the victory of Christ and in this victory of Christ is our joy, glory to you, Lord, that we can be different, that we can understand each other. And Christ is our peace. Although, you know, He says: I brought a sword. Where and what is this sword? The sword when we are at war with all the forces of evil within ourselves. If we win here, we will come to an agreement with others. I wish I could understand myself with myself. And this is the first, most important thing. And the rest, as they say, God will help.
Yakov Krotov: Elizaveta Gavrilovna from Moscow. Good evening, I ask you to.
Listener: Good evening, Yakov Gavrilovich. I listen to the program and want the whole world to understand. Now the woman spoke for Jesus Christ, truly, I join her, she speaks very well. But here it is written, again, in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 33, verse 10: “You are pregnant with hay and will give birth to straw. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.” Please answer me, who is this? Because this is really a question that for the whole world, so that there is no hay or straw.
Evgeny Sarapulov: You know, both hay and straw - all this is suitable for one or another creature on earth, so I am for both hay and straw. Thank you for your question. In general, what you read, of course, is the Bible in different contexts. But what is the point? No matter what a person turns into, even if he is straw, no longer wheat, there is nothing good for a person there, even in this state, but he is capable... Easter means, whether you are a drunkard, a drug addict, some kind of completely fallen person , thrown to the curb by the whole society, but you always have a chance and faith is always next to you, because no matter how you act, faith is next to you. Easter is evidence that you can believe again that you can become a person, you can believe that you can be a normal member of society, a normal family member, father, son, brother, sister. That's it, Elizaveta Gavrilovna.
Shirinai Dosova: I think, Elizaveta Gavrilovna, about hay and straw, pregnant with hay you will give birth to straw: if evil lives in the heart, it will definitely break out somehow and there will be even greater evil. Today I’m traveling on bus 316 from Ivanteevka to Moscow, I got into a conversation with the driver, he even asked me to sit in the first row. He says: for every screw there is a bolt. That is, if a person himself is hostile, evil, then there will definitely be this bolt that will screw you in, you will meet greater evil. Therefore, evil is never defeated by evil. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught differently. So he said something that is completely impossible: love your enemies, bless those who hate, pray for those who persecute, for those who curse. Do you think, Lord, what a height, who is this about? About us? How to love your enemies? Good people are hard to love. But the Lord entrusted us with this height. In this Easter, which Christ accomplished, the impossible is possible. And you will be surprised at yourself, your victories will be small, but they will amaze you that you will learn. For you there may be an enemy, for another it is not an enemy at all, but if you can cope with it, this is possible thanks to faith in the Lord, in the Savior.
Yakov Krotov: Victor from Moscow. Good evening, please.
Listener: Good evening. I would like to hear the opinion of your guests, Father Yakov. Resurrection on Easter, this can be said to be one of the key moments Christian religion, namely the fact of the resurrection of Christ. Why is this so? That is, what deep meaning? What would have happened, for example, if Christ had not been resurrected, like many martyrs, but had died, for example, for the faith? Probably not many religions have this fact of resurrection of a prophet or someone. In your opinion, what is the significance of this phenomenon? Thank you.
Evgeny Sarapulov: As far as I understand, Christianity differs from other religions in that Christ says that he is God, the living word who came here became flesh, and the God who was killed, who died and rose again. That is, such a paradox, a contradiction. Here main meaning Easter is that no matter how far you are from God, no matter how you reject him, no matter what you do in relation to him, resurrection means for you, in any state you can be resurrected to a small, medium or very large-scale universal good deed. Like this. In general, the meanings are very different. Our life, what is it like? I’m not just Eugene, I’m a father, I’m a psychologist, I’m a candidate of sciences, I’m a man, and so on. Easter is the same, it is very multifaceted in its meaning. So what is the meaning you want to hear.
Yakov Krotov: Evgeniy Vladimirovich and Shirinai, you are cunning. Because I ask the question, what should I do with the people I’m afraid of, and you turn everything around, distort it, and answer the question why you shouldn’t be afraid of me. I ask why other people are dangerous, and you explain why a person like me is dangerous to others and what to do about it.
Then I will say this about the question of resurrection. The first Easter, Easter, which is celebrated in memory of the liberation from Egypt, it creates the world. There is a huge hostile darkness all around. Egypt, Assyria, Rome, the Macedonians conquer and in the middle of it all a temple. Here is the holiday, here it is, Easter. Christian Easter sees the world completely differently. There is no temple, no hostility. It turns out that promised land- this is wonderful, but it was needed not in order to survive in a world of darkness, but in order to, as it were, explode and give birth to some kind of completely new world, in which there is no temple, but there is resurrection. What is this novelty, I’m even afraid to say. But I know one thing, that if for a pre-Christian person, a person before meeting Christ, the first question is why there is so much suffering around me, why am I suffering, and so on, then in a person after meeting Christ the main question is, how, Lord, could I cause there is so much suffering around us. And baptism is, first of all, a baptism of repentance. This is probably what we need, some kind of switch to turn in order to approach the mystery of Easter.
Pager message from Sergei Mitrofanov (Moscow): “Who changed the world more, Christ or Popov, who invented radio? Why wasn’t a single church built for Popov.”
Dear Sergey, I answer. How come it wasn't built? As is the invention, so is the temple. "Radio Liberty" - here the best monument invention of Popov, and this monument today speaks of Easter and salvation, so that Christ and Popov are united in our program.
Oleg from Moscow. Good evening, please.
Listener: Good evening. This year marks 20 years since something like representative bodies of government appeared in our country. I remember that the first thing intellectuals from the republics started with was that they began to say that such behavior, but then it primarily applied to Russians, when people come to another country and start speaking their own language, this is disrespect for the local population that indigenous people should have advantages. In my homeland of Kazakhstan, even the Constitution states that Kazakhstan is the state of a self-determined Kazakh nation. I don’t remember any liberals speaking out against this then. As for Christians, it says that there is neither a Greek nor a Jew. I don’t think you were on Radio Liberty at that time, but still, Christians, how should they feel about this? Shouldn't they stop the kind of statist xenophobia that is happening in these republics?
Yakov Krotov: Dear Oleg, liberals are, of course, against states in which the rights of any national minority, even if it is, say, two hundred Aramaic-speaking people, are somehow oppressed in terms of language. So in this sense, it is liberalism that protects the rights of minorities of all kinds. As for Christianity, yes, there is neither a Greek nor a Jew. And who is in Christ? There are Christians in Christ. And this is where the big problems begin, because Christianity is special language, neither Russian nor Church Slavonic, is the language of love. And you know, with this language of love, if you believe Christ, it is equally bad to live in any state, because the language of love...
Let's get back to our guests then. Shirinai Dosova, after all, the resurrection of Christ, how is this connected with love? That's what the listener asked. What does it mean to me, living today, because the Lord resurrected two thousand years ago? So Lazarus was resurrected, the Lord resurrected him, the prophets were taken alive to heaven according to legend. How is Jesus' resurrection then different from any other?
Shirinai Dosova: Of course, it’s different from anyone else. I will tell you something that has bothered me since childhood; I received this answer precisely after learning about the resurrection of Christ. When I was little, I was five years old, someone died in our village. All of us children ran in a herd to look, because all the adults were there. I saw a dead man. And what happened to him? They tell me that he died. Here's a child. For some reason, after this, and today, I am convinced that these thoughts come to every person on earth. Maybe we don't remember much or don't remember our childhood. But when I asked what would happen to him, they would put him in the ground, and when he would come again. Never. And this hit me like a blow to the head. Never. My father is Tajik. I asked my father what would happen after a person dies, then where he would be. He answered me, Allah knows. Mom is Ukrainian. You know, my grandparents couldn’t read or write, they were Orthodox, they prayed for us, they begged us all. But they didn’t answer me either. I remember that since childhood I learned numbers up to a thousand so that when I die, how long I will be gone. I counted everything on my fingers, I had a terrible feeling inside that a person would die, they would put him in the ground, and they would never come, a terrible injustice. I carried this throughout my life. And when I heard about Christ, and I heard from a man who went through camps for 12 years for his faith, I converted, probably my soul was already prepared, but I needed such a person. I remember he came to my house early in the morning, and left late in the evening and talked about Christ for ten hours, we didn’t even have time to drink tea. I then realized what it was when your soul was full. For me, Christ has risen (3034). Chapter 15: “Hell, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory?” Thank God that he has won this victory over death, and he gives us this hope of resurrection from the dead. Who is Christ? Christ is the firstborn from the dead. Here he is the God-man who was here on earth as a man, died on the cross, was resurrected, and he was the first as a man to go this way, to lost heaven he leads us. And we will rise again. What hope, what joy! I can’t explain what it is, it’s in the heart, in the soul, flowers, this happiness is such that you don’t live here in vain, that it’s not just some kind of meaninglessness, every day we are doing something, running somewhere , we are doing something, some kind of mouse fuss, but that all this has a meaning and purpose, and this purpose is in the death of Christ. He has risen and we will rise again, this is his promise to us.
Yakov Krotov: Efim from Moscow. Good evening, please.
Listener: Good evening. What I am about to say is, of course, known to you. The fact is that there were more than forty wars in the Soviet Union, I mean ethnic, including social, within the country. The Slavs fought against the Russians only during the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, but mostly we fought, I won’t list them, so the image of the enemy was created. Where can I get other people? Georgia, you see... Here is a simple example. I have a friend who is Azerbaijani and looks like an Italian. A young guy of about 14 approaches him, he has a geographical map and a school atlas in his hands. “Who are you?” asks my friend. He says I'm Italian, just in case. He has regions outlined on his map that are not ours, as he explained. “I was caught yesterday, the police took the knife away. But we beat and beat the Tajik so much that...” You see, this is ignorance plus this propaganda, and the way out of the situation is if a church, synagogue, mosque invites people of other faiths to their sermons, preferably in an understandable language, and explains to them that there is neither a Greek nor a Jew, there is no Muslim in this regard, everything people are brothers.
And this is my advice to Mr. Krotov. When you walk... I often go to these companies of, as they say, foreigners, it’s easy to smile. And if in a store, ask for something, smile, how they will treat you. Thank you.
Yakov Krotov: Thank you, Efim. Unfortunately, I am quite skeptical about calls to preach, explain, and oppose the propaganda of chauvinism with the propaganda of peacefulness. Why? Because my experience... I have a higher education, so what if a lustful person gets a higher education, he will be a lustful person with a higher education, a lustful person with a diploma. If a person is a fascist and receives a higher education, he will be a fascist with a diploma. That's all. One should not underestimate the education of the late Adolf Schickelgruber or Joseph Dzhugashvili, a graduate who understudied a little, but still, from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary.
If education helped, then I would propose to close the churches and everywhere only the encyclopedia of Diderot, d'Alembert and Voltaire - education, education and education. But we know that the tragedy of communism, the tragedy of the Gulag, the tragedy of Auschwitz is the tragedy of an educated society, a very well educated one, and not at all of the ignorant. And in modern Russia The flow of xenophobia does not come from only uneducated people, and at the top these are very well educated people, nevertheless, for them this education is a millstone that grinds reality into the torment of hatred.
In this connection, then, I will allow myself to ask Evgeny Vladimirovich. You are a psychologist and you are a Christian. If a person approaches you with such a problem, who is suddenly puzzled by the fact that he is afraid of others. Will you offer him, after all, what will you focus on, education, to reflect on the problem, to understand its origins, or to turn to Christ and look at all humanity through the eyes of Christ? How?
Evgeny Sarapulov: We need to approach it comprehensively, systematically, energetically. All these, of course, are clever words, but in reality, of course, a person first of all needs to turn to God, and after that God gives a person the ability to use his intellect, reason in such a way that... Now I’m even writing a doctorate, two higher I have, I am constantly engaged in science, self-education, and I can say unequivocally that a holy person, truly a saint, will never become so pleasant and interesting to others if he does not realize the potential with which he is endowed. Therefore, I would say to this person, let me bring you, if this is your first time here, say, in the city, to a temple, to a church, that is, to the nearest place, introduce you to the priest, if it is difficult for you to go there, and talk to him, pray to God. And after that, if you want, I will give you more professional advice. In general, a person should always be offered several opportunities. You can’t just say, pray to God and that’s it. Because if God created the world diverse and, by the way, educated person means a commonality of different things. Why educated people do such incredible things as fascism? Because they combine the wrong thing. A truly educated person knows how to combine the right things, different things, but by combining it all, it becomes a creative force. Hitler and Stalin united things that became destructive for the world as a whole.
Yakov Krotov: Don't feed the horse! Vasily from Vologda region. Good evening, please.
Listener: Good evening. The problem of a Christian's relationship with non-Christians and with the non-Christian world lies in the choice of methods of relationship for a Christian. You can be merciful, you can be militant, but the main thing is without violating the commandments. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. In my opinion, the main thing is whether you have the strength to have a merciful attitude towards those you fear. If you have the strength, then you need to be merciful; if you don’t have the strength, then you need to be firm and just move away from them, so as not to sin yourself.
Yakov Krotov: Thank you, Vasily. The Auchan store is large, there is somewhere to go, but for some reason you don’t want to. Shirinai, what advice would you give to a person who speaks like the Apostle Paul? You explained everything very well, it’s clear about the law of love, the law is clear, but there is no strength. What to do?
Shirinai Dosova: Whoever does not have something, let him ask God, who gives to everyone simply and without reproach. It seems to me that what each of us needs, here we hope, let’s call them in church, let’s talk to them, here are the leaders, here is the government, here should be programs. Everything is correct. I think that everyone also needs to do something personally to avoid this hostility. Start simply with own family, where we pour out all this anger on our loved ones, every house, there is a small war, and then it is transferred to the neighbors, to the street, to the city and the country. We are all at enmity with God, and this war does not stop. So Cain killed Abel. Here are the first people on earth, brothers, one kills the other. What does the Lord say to Cain? Sin lies at the gate, you must rule over it. We must somehow overcome this evil within ourselves.
Second point. This hatred, we just said, hate, because you can’t see it from the word. We don't see each other, we don't want to see each other. I think that's exactly the problem. And Christ... I want to read from the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 5, verse 10: “If, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by his life.” So the Scripture says that we were enemies of God, but we were reconciled through Jesus Christ and became friends. And when we become friends with God, we will be able to be friends with each other. I'm on the subway. Young people herding black, completely black. You know, I'm alone...
Yakov Krotov: In the sense of Afro-Russian?
Shirinai Dosova: Yes. Some are all instinctive things. Now I feel sorry for him, I understand how this will end. It's ten o'clock in the evening. I was with my niece. There were about ten of them, young guys, they had already started him at the station, then he jumped into the carriage, they followed him, I jumped into the same carriage. And I think what to do. I go up to them and say: “Guys, we are Orthodox, does our Lord Jesus Christ teach us to treat a different skin color this way.” - “No, he sells drugs.” They need to plead that they are not for this, but for a completely different reason. I start telling them, “Guys, the Lord doesn’t teach that way, we must...”. It is clear that at least something should be done in this situation. So a little bit, I see, the ardor has subsided, one is still standing firm. I walk up to this little black guy and say, where should you go? To "Domodedovskaya". "Let us take you out." You know, I’m happy because... I understand that you won’t save everyone like that, but do something that you can in the place where God put you and where you encounter such a situation. You don’t need a special embrasure, but if you can protect, if you can perform somewhere and another life depends on it, do it. I think this is where change begins. But Christ will help us with this, without Christ there is no way.
Yakov Krotov: I give a certificate for radio listeners. Shirinai Murzaevna is about a meter fifty-two, fifty-three meters high.
Shirinai Dosova: Meter fifty eight.
Yakov Krotov: Meter fifty-eight, I'm sorry. That is, of course, this company of ten young people and Shirinai is something, this is a spectacle. I am very ashamed, I would even be afraid, I would probably get out of the car myself at the first stop out of fear.
Tatyana Mikhailovna from Moscow. Good evening, please.
Listener: Happy upcoming holiday. It is clear that there are some disagreements between Orthodoxy and Catholic Church. I have no doubt that for the Lord both Catholics and any Christian are equally dear. I go to church, I am a believer. However, I ask a probably blasphemous question: why does this blessed fire descend on Orthodox Easter? You understand my question, why are Catholics being bypassed?
Yakov Krotov: The question is absolutely clear. The answer is simple: because all other faiths do not beg for this blessed fire, they do not need it, their faith lives without such external material signs. U orthodox faith into the Holy Fire and ascension appeared after a huge state-national tragedy in Byzantium - the fall of Constantinople, this is the 13th century. Back in 1948, our outstanding liturgist, the late Uspensky, reviewed sources about this whole story at the Moscow Theological Academy. This fire is a very late legend, a very late belief. It should not be ridiculed, but to see in it some kind of advantage for the Orthodox, and, by the way, for the Armenian Monophysites, who also go to the Church of the Holy Edicule on this day, it seems to me, means returning to paganism and putting the created above the Creator. Still, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and not the kindling of the Holy Fire. I am very afraid that this normal hierarchy of values will turn upside down, otherwise instead of “Christ is risen” we will say “the fire has been lit.” Then we turn out to be some kind of Zoroastrians. I’ll note in parentheses that for some reason it seems to me that we shouldn’t congratulate you on the upcoming Easter. It will happen in the first minute of the next day, Sunday, and that’s it! But Easter, the resurrection, it does not come, it is some kind of moment, without preparation, unexpected. Here is Christmas, it was born by the Mother of God, but the resurrection cannot be prepared and endured, it is an absolute miracle, like the creation of the universe.
And on the resurrection, on Easter, among other church ancient Byzantine hymns, it is sung, well, in Orthodox, in Russian it is sung a little incorrectly, it is sung as usual: “Rtsem, brethren (a pause is made) and those who hate us will be forgiven by the resurrection.” In the original Greek the meaning is: “To those who hate us, brethren.” That is, we will call those who hate us brothers, and we will forgive everyone through the resurrection.
Evgeny Vladimirovich, a very simple question to end the program. I have an enemy, I tell him: “brother,” I “forgive him by resurrection.” Sorry, what could be behind this other than chatter? I forgave him, what next? How is it shown?
Evgeny Sarapulov: You need to forgive your enemy so that, if necessary, put him in his place and severely punish him so that this forgiveness that I have for him, so that it does not develop into cruelty, into harshness and into murder, into violence. When I forgive, then I am in the right state. Because what should you do with your enemies? Is it really possible to allow enemies to seize our families, our homeland? Of course, we need to confront them. But by forgiving them in advance for what they do, we become able to use force correctly.
Yakov Krotov: Evgeniy Vladimirovich, I haven’t read the history of wars yet, I got stuck on the Gospel at the fifth chapter. It says that a man's enemies are those of his own household. Let's go to church on Easter, it's warm and at the same time frosty, candles, the smell of wax, Christ is risen, we'll say goodbye to the resurrection, wow, I'll come home, I'll be my father-in-law, I'll be my mother-in-law, I'll repel them, the enemies, with Christian piety and softness. Do you want that?
Evgeny Sarapulov: No. When I forgive them, if we have conflicts and problems with them, I will resolve these conflicts more constructively, if I had not forgiven them. I didn’t forgive, there was no solution to the conflicts. But if there is a conflict, it needs to be resolved with the right state, Easter, let’s say.
Yakov Krotov: Alla Mikhailovna from Moscow. Good evening, please.
Listener: Hello. I want to say that all of us, Russians, treat all peoples well. But they all have countries, all peoples - Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Tajiks. Such a massive influx as now, it already looks like an occupation.
Yakov Krotov: Thank you, Alla Mikhailovna. This is probably a rational view, but it contradicts Holy Scripture, which says that each country has its own angel and where the people will go is the will of God, the Jews can be thrown into Egypt and so on. It’s funny to talk about this in Russia, we are a young country, a thousand years ago there were only Ugric-Finns in this place, and yet the Lord created the Russians, gave the country, so what, are we going to complain or make room? This is from the point of view of faith. From a scientific point of view, the demographic crisis of both Western and of Eastern Europe leads to depopulation and simply soon there will be more pensioners than workers. Sorry, in this situation we should be happy when someone comes to the country, people come to work and they really work. And we should be grateful to God that in today’s world those processes of migration of peoples that have always existed do not stop.
From Moscow Vadim. Good evening, please.
Listener: Yakov Gavrilovich, why didn’t you remind the radio listener that during the war many Russians fled as a result of the retreat of the Red Army and found refuge in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and probably in Armenia?
Yakov Krotov: Vadim, I understand. I didn’t remind you because... Let’s remind you of Christ. Then I return to this issue again, we will forgive everyone through the resurrection. Here is a message on the pager (Tatiana): “Why don’t the Jews, who betrayed their Jesus, nailed him to the cross, ask him for forgiveness?”
When Evgeniy Vladimirovich speaks, he speaks from the position of a man who has a home, relatives, enemies, and friends. And when the Lord said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” By the way, it was not Jews who nailed him to the cross, but Syrian soldiers, and it was not Jews who betrayed Jesus, but the Romans who sentenced him to death, but in fact, people sentenced him, so they ask for forgiveness.
And Jesus is not going to, He cannot decide anything constructively, He died and before His death He forgave everyone.
Shirinai Dosova: And he teaches us this.
Yakov Krotov: How then to forgive? What does it mean that we will forgive everyone through the resurrection?
Shirinai Dosova: The enemy is hungry, He says, feed him; he is thirsty, give him something to drink; by doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. And there is another country of victory over hatred - this is love. And Christ, in fact, revealed it at Easter. We were talking about Holy Fire. This is the fire in your heart, when you love God with all your heart, with all your soul, then you will be able to love your neighbor, and then enemies become friends.
I would still like to read one quotation from Scripture: “You, who were once alienated and enemies by disposition to evil deeds, have now reconciled you in the body, in the flesh, by death, in order to present you holy, blameless, innocent before him.” This, in fact, is what Easter is, when the Lord makes us enemies by disposition to evil deeds, making us different, friends of God and each other. Therefore, what to do? WITH God's help to say, Lord, I want to love you and my neighbor as you teach. God will help.
Yakov Krotov: In conclusion I want to say. There are indeed many feats in the history of mankind: the feat of Gastello, Matrosov. And this is the feat of Christ. There is a difference? She is. The difference is this. When a simple person dies and goes into death, darkness increases in the world. When the Savior died and rose again, light shone in the world. And then we see the man who is our enemy in the light of the resurrection immortal life. It’s like an experienced photographer who sets the lighting in such a way that a seemingly ugly face turns out to be worthy of Leonardo da Vinci. This is what resurrection is - asking the Savior for insight in order to see that there are no enemies, but only friends of God who are placed with us in this world so that we return to God with them.
All major religions worlds, except four, are based on ordinary philosophical concepts. As for those four that are related to personalities, not philosophical systems, then Christianity is the only one of them where we are talking about the empty tomb of its founder. Abraham, the father of Judaism, died around 1900 BC, but speeches about him
resurrection never happened.
In his book Here Standing, Wilbur M. Smith writes: “No account of the Buddha mentions anything like a resurrection. Moreover, in the earliest account of his death, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, we read , that the death of the Buddha was like “a perfect departure leaving nothing behind.”
“Professor Childers notes that “neither in the Palin canon nor in the commentaries to it is there, as far as I know, a single hint that Sakya Muni lived after death or appeared to his disciples.” Muhammad died on June 8, 632 at the age of 61 years, in Medina, where his tomb is visited annually by thousands of devout Muslims. Millions of Jews, Buddhists and Muslims agree that the founders of their religions never rose from the dust of the earth."
Theodos Harnack believes that “the position towards such an event as the resurrection of Christ is in no way connected with Christian theology. Either Christ was resurrected - and “then Christianity is true, or He was not resurrected - and then Christianity has no meaning.”
Professor William Milligan emphasizes, “Speaking of evidence in favor of the Resurrection of our Lord, we can add to them the fact that this event, if it occurred, corresponds to the whole meaning of the earthly life of Christ.”
As Wilbur M. Smith concludes, “If our Lord has spoken more than once with certainty and in every detail, that after He went to Jerusalem He would be put to death, but on the third day He would rise from the dead, and if this prophecy was fulfilled , then all His words, as it always seemed to me, must be true."
This idea is developed by W. J. Sparrow-Simpson: “How far does the resurrection of Christ prove that He was the Son of God? First of all, He rose from the dead by His own authority. He had the power to lay down His life and the power to take it up again (Joais 10 18). Moreover, since Christ openly declared Himself to be the Son of God, His resurrection from the dead was the final confirmation of the truth of His words. recognized Him as His Son, as if saying: “You are My Son, now I speak about this publicly.”
Note also that Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost "is based entirely on the resurrection. The resurrection is not only its main theme, but also an integral, vital part of the doctrine itself. Indeed, Christianity emphasizes that the resurrection (1) explains the death of Jesus, (2 ) was prophetically predicted as the consummation of the earthly destiny of the Messiah, (3) confirmed by the apostles, (4) is the cause of the descent of the Holy Spirit, and thus the cause of otherwise inexplicable religious phenomena, (5) confirms that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and King Therefore, a whole series of arguments and conclusions make sense only if Christ
really resurrected. Without the resurrection, Jesus would have ceased to be the Messiah and King, the new descent of the Holy Spirit would have remained an inexplicable mystery, and the testimonies of the apostles would have been worthless. All that would be left of Christian teaching, there would be a prediction about the Messiah in Ps. 15, moreover, a prediction about the Messiah who has not yet appeared. Divine protection over Christ would remain, as evidenced by His works, but this protection would obviously concern only His life, which would end in exactly the same way as the life of any other prophet whom the people could no longer tolerate. Thus, the first preaching of Christianity is based on the image of Christ, defined by His resurrection."
Even Adolf Harnack, who rejects the Church’s belief in the resurrection, is forced to admit that “the firm faith of the disciples in Christ was based on their conviction that He did not remain in death, but was resurrected by God. After what they experienced next to Christ, they were convinced of His resurrection was final only after He appeared to them. The Resurrection became for them the same reliable event as the death of Christ, and formed the basis of their sermons about Him" ("History of Dogma").
“Belief in the resurrection,” notes H. P. Liddon, “is Foundation stone ark Christian faith. If you remove it, then the entire Christian teaching will be destroyed."
The resurrection of Christ has always been the central point of the teaching of the Church. Here's what Wilbur Smith writes about it:
“From the very first day of her divinely given life, the Christian church was united in its testimony of faith in the resurrection of Christ. We can safely call the resurrection one of the main foundations and convictions of the church; this theme so permeates all New Testament literature that if we remove all fragments from it , where we are talking about the resurrection, then the rest will simply be impossible to understand. The resurrection was close to the very first Christians; inscriptions on their tombs and drawings on the walls of caves speak about it. It entered deeply into Christian chants and became one of the most pressing themes in the apologetic writings of the first. four centuries Christianity and preaching both before and after the Nicene Assembly. The resurrection became one of the symbols of faith for the church; it was included in our apostolic creed and was included in all subsequent creeds of Christianity.
“All the evidence of the New Testament shows that the essence of the good news, the essence of the Gospel, is not that the believer should follow a given Teacher and try to imitate Him, but in Jesus and His resurrection. This principle cannot be removed from Christianity without radically changing it and without destroying its very essence."
“It is obvious,” Professor Milligan emphasizes, “that from the very beginning early years history of the Christian church, she not only believed in the Resurrection of the Lord, but also based her very existence on this belief."
"The empty tomb of Christ was the cradle of the church." This aphorism of the French theologian Pressanse is quoted by W. R. Nicoll.
W. J. Sparrow-Simpson notes that "if there was no resurrection historical event, then the power of death remained inviolable, and with it the consequences of sin; the meaning of the death of Christ remains unconfirmed and, therefore, believers continue to remain in sin in the same way as before they heard about Christ."
African theologian R.M. Cheyne Edgar in his work “The Gospel of the Risen Christ” writes the following:
"Here is a religious preacher, calmly basing all his assertions on his ability after death penalty rise again from the grave. We can safely assume that neither before nor after him anyone claimed anything like this. To say that the whole amazing story of the resurrection, which confirmed the divinity of Christ, was invented by mystics who studied prophecy, and then inserted into the gospel stories, is to unduly tempt our credulity. He who was ready to stake everything on His ability to emerge alive from the tomb stands before us as the most extraordinary of all teachers, in the radiance of His life, confirming Himself."
We find the following passage in the Dictionary of the Apostolic Church.
L. F. Strauss, the harshest and most merciless critic of the church when it comes to the resurrection, admits that it is “the touchstone not only of the life of Jesus, but of Christianity itself,” that it “touches the living of all Christianity” and “defines the whole view of Christianity" ("New Life of Jesus"). If Christ has risen, then His teaching is valid; if not, all of Christianity collapses. Thus, for centuries, since the time of Celsus, the resurrection has been the main target of attacks on the Christian faith."
“Christ Himself,” writes B.B. Warfield, “deliberately made people’s acceptance of all His teachings dependent on His resurrection. When the disciples asked Him for a sign, He pointed to the resurrection as the only and main proof of His words.”
In his Lectures in Defense of the Christian Faith, the famous Swiss theologian Frederic Godet speaks of “the importance of the resurrection of Christ, emphasizing that it was the main miracle that Christ pointed to as proof of His claims and His power.”
Michael Green speaks convincingly about the meaning of the resurrection:
“Christianity does not at all consider the resurrection to be one of the many foundations of faith. Without faith in the resurrection, Christianity could not exist at all. The Christian church would never have arisen, the movement of the followers of Christ with His execution would have hissed and gone out like dampened gunpowder. Christianity is either true or false. depending on the truth of the resurrection. Prove that there was no resurrection - and you will get rid of Christianity.
Christianity is a historical religion. She argues that God took the risk of participating in human history. All the facts of His participation are before you; examine them with the utmost passion, for they will stand up to any careful critical analysis..."
The famous English philosopher John Locke wrote: “The resurrection of our Savior... is indeed of lasting significance for Christianity, a significance so important that it determines whether He was or was not the Messiah. These two questions are inseparable from each other and essentially represent a single whole. From the first days of Christianity, he who believed in one believed in both, and he who did not believe in one denied the second."
As noted church historian Philip Schaff concludes, “the resurrection of Christ thus becomes absolutely the key issue on which the truth or falsity of the Christian religion depends. It is either greatest miracle, or the greatest delusion in the history of mankind."
These are the “Celebration of Celebrations” and the “Celebration of Celebrations.”
The bright holiday of the Resurrection of Christ is named Easter in internal correlation with the Old Testament holiday of Passover, which, in turn, was so named in memory of the event when, during the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, the angel who destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians, seeing the blood of the Passover sacrificial lamb on the doors of Jewish homes, passed by (Heb. " Pesach" - lit. "transition", trans. "deliverance"), leaving the firstborn of the Jews inviolable. In accordance with this Old Testament memory, the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, denoting the passage from death to life and from earth to heaven, received the name Easter.
The meaning of the Resurrection of Christ
With the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the Theanthropic feat of salvation and the re-creation of man was completed. The Resurrection was evidence that Jesus Christ is the true God and Lord, Redeemer and Savior. Christ died in the flesh, but His flesh was united into one Hypostasis, unfused, immutable, inseparable, inseparable from God the Word. Christ rose again, for death could not hold in its power the body and soul of Christ, which are in hypostatic unity with the Source of eternal life, with Him who, according to His Divinity, is the Resurrection and Life.
In the Economy of Salvation, the Resurrection of Christ is a manifestation of Divine omnipotence: Christ, after His death, descended into hell, “as He pleased,” overthrew death, “as God and Master.” He rose on three days and with Himself raised Adam and the entire human race from the bonds of hell and corruption. Having broken the gates (stronghold) of death, Christ showed the way to eternal life.
Jesus Christ rose again as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). Having risen, He sanctified, blessed and approved the general resurrection of all people who will rise from the earth on the general day of resurrection, just as an ear grows from a seed.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ testifies that He truly is the Son of God - “risen like God.” It revealed the glory of His Divinity, previously hidden under the veil of humiliation.
The body of Jesus Christ rose in glory. A great and saving new creative action takes place in Him. He in Himself renews our nature, which has fallen into decay.
Christ has risen, having conquered death. But even after His Resurrection, death in humanity temporarily continues to claim its victims. But it only melts down the vessels of our soul - the body - to be recreated on the day of resurrection in a new, spiritually renewed form. And since flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and corruption does not inherit incorruption, then our mental-physical life is only a grain for sowing, which must rot - in death - in order to produce an ear - new life. Our corruption in death is the path to incorruption. Just as Christ died in the flesh and came to life in the Spirit, so we are freed by Him from the law of sin and death according to the law of the Spirit and life in Him (Rom. 8:2).
Through His Resurrection, Christ made us conquerors of death, and by life in Christ we receive the first fruits of the immortality granted by His resurrection to our mortal nature: “Let no one fear death,” exclaims St. John Chrysostom, “for the death of the Savior will set us free.”
That is why the soul of a Christian is so enthusiastic on the day of Holy Easter: the saving and radiant night of the Resurrection of Christ is the herald of the future day of general resurrection. This is truly a great Easter, Easter, which opens the doors of heaven to us, for death passes away, incorruption and eternal life appear.
history of the holiday
Easter is the oldest holiday Christian Church. It was established and celebrated already in apostolic times. Probably a circle of holidays Ancient Church until the century was exhausted by Sunday. Hardly in the words of the ap. Paul: “Our Passover for us Christ was devoured; by the same token, let us celebrate not with kvass” (1 Cor. 5:7-8) one can see an indication of the Christian Easter as opposed to the Jewish one. Rather, such an indication can be seen in the care with which St. John the Theologian notes the coincidence of the death of Christ with the Jewish Passover (John 19:4; John 18:28. Compare John 13:1). The insistence with which Christian tradition has always attributed the institution of Great Lent to the apostles themselves allows us to look for at least its beginnings in that time. It is possible that the words of the Savior: “When the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they fast,” cited by Tertullian as a possible basis for Great Lent, were understood in this sense by the apostles themselves and encouraged them to annually sanctify fasting, which they generally loved (Acts 13 ,2), the day of the death of the Lord. Since this day fell on the Jewish Passover, when the observance of Jewish holidays ceased among Christians, the latter could easily come to the idea of sanctifying the day of the Jewish Passover with fasting in remembrance of the death of Christ. Easter of Christ originally existed in the form of such fasting, as can be seen from the testimony of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c.).
In this regard, an important passage from the letter of St. Irinea, bishop Lyonsky, to the Roman bishop. Victor, preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea. It sheds light on the original nature of the Easter holiday. The message was written regarding the disputes about the time of celebrating Easter, which began during the reign of St. Polycarpe, bishop Smyrna (+167), which caused a series of councils and continued with even greater force under St. Irenaeus (+ 202). The disputes concerned the question: to celebrate Easter together with the Jewish one (on the 14th - 15th day of the first spring lunar month) or on the first Sunday after this day.
Excerpt from the text of St. Irenea shows that the dispute about the time of Easter arose because by this time the nature of the holiday itself and the view of it gradually began to change. If earlier Easter was looked upon as a fast in honor of the death of the Savior, who died precisely on the day of the Jewish Passover, now they wanted to combine with it the joyful memory of the Resurrection of Christ, which could not be combined with fasting and was more suitable not for any day of the week, but for which fell on the Jewish Passover, and on Sunday.
In Rome, Easter of Christ began to acquire this character very early, while in Asia Minor church life did not move with such speed, and the original ancient view of Easter remained longer. Therefore, the bishops of the West and the East simply did not understand each other.
To this passage from St. Irenaeus Eusebius adds his story about the dispute regarding Easter at St. Polycarpe, when, during the latter’s visit to the Roman bishop. Anikita, their disagreement became clear both on this issue and on others, then “both of them did not argue much with each other regarding other subjects, but immediately agreed, but they did not want to argue about this issue, because neither Anikita could to persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed while living with John, the disciple of our Lord; Neither Polycarp convinced Anicetas to observe, for Anicetas said that he was obliged to preserve the customs of the presbyters who preceded him.”
After St. Polycarp's defender of Asia Minor practice regarding the time of Easter was Melito, bishop. Sardinian, who wrote “Two Books of Easter” (c. 170). Her (literary) opponents were Apollinaris, bishop. Hierapolis, Clement of Alexandria and St. Hippolytus, bishop Roman. Councils were held in Palestine, Rome, Pontus, Gaul and Greece in favor of Roman practice. Dad
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 and 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 initially 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, of whom most of 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 the One who raised from dead jesus Christ our Lord, who was delivered for our sins and rose 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
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