Resurrection truth. Gospel synopsis (sequence of Gospel events) Events after the resurrection of Christ

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Question #1487

What is the chronological sequence of the gospel events from the crucifixion to the resurrection of the Lord?

Kirill , Jerusalem, Israel
09/06/2004

Hello, dear father Oleg!
A few more questions about the contradictions that have arisen at first glance:
1. What were the last words Jesus Christ said on the cross?
A. “My God, my God! Why did you leave me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
B. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and having said this, he gave up his spirit. (Luke 23:46)
V. “Said: “It is done!”. And bowing his head, he gave up the spirit” (John 19:30).

2.Who's a day Sunday first come to the tomb of Jesus Christ?
A. One Mary Magdalene (John 20:1).
B. Two Marys (Matthew 28:11).
C. Two Marys and Solomia (Mark 16:1).
D. Four women, and take off more (Luke 24:10).

3. What did the women who came see?
A. Earthquake. The angel rolls away the stone (Matthew 28:2-4).
B. The stone has already been rolled away. One young angel sits on a rock (Mark 16:4).
B. The stone is rolled away. Two young angels sit (Luke 24:4).
D. The stone is rolled away. Nobody here. They saw nothing (John 20:1-2).

4. What were the first words and from whom did the women hear?
A. Angel who rolled away the stone: “Christ is risen. Let the apostles go to Galilee, where Jesus Christ is waiting for them” (Matthew, 28:5-7; Mark, 16:6-7).
B. Two men spoke about the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:6-7).
C. Christ Mary: “Why are you crying?” (John 20:13)

5. What did the women do after that?
A. They ran and met Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:8).
B. Mary spoke to Jesus Christ (John 20:14).
C. Mary told the apostles about the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:9).
D. Jesus was not seen, the apostles were not told (Mark 16:8).

Father Oleg Molenko's answer:

There is no contradiction among the Evangelists. There are different accounts of the same event by different eyewitnesses.
1. It is known that the Lord Jesus Christ uttered seven sayings being crucified on the cross. Of these seven sayings, different Evangelists give different ones. The last saying before death (the departure of the soul from the body) leads Luke: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." The fact that it is the latter indicates the very meaning of it and the further words of the Evangelist: “And having said this, he gave up his spirit,” which clearly indicate that it was after these words that the Lord gave up his spirit, i.e. died.
The Evangelist John cited the Lord's word "It is finished!" which points not to death, but to the accomplishment of the great work of redeeming people. John omits the words "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit", since they are already in the Gospel of Luke, and immediately tells about the death of the Lord, adding a detail about the bowing of His head. It is important to note that the Gospel of Luke was written before John. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark were also written earlier. The words "My God, my God! Why did you leave Me?" were spoken by Jesus before the above words. These words were taken by some of those present as a call to Elijah. After these words, one of the soldiers wet his lip with vinegar and applied it with a cane to the mouth of Jesus. After the mention of drinking vinegar, both Matthew and Mark say that the Lord exclaimed loudly and gave up his spirit, but what exactly He exclaimed is not given. Luke made up for this. Thus, the sequence of the sayings you cited is clear: 1 - "My God ...", 2 - "It is finished", 3 - "Father, into the hands ...".

2. St. John Chrysostom well explained the sequence of women visiting the Holy Sepulcher by the four Evangelists. He noted that each Evangelist pointed to a different time of one period: from darkness to the rising of the sun, that the named and other women did not come to the tomb together, but who was able to reach when, and that some of them were at the tomb several times. These circumstances explain the whole picture of the events of the morning of the resurrection, eliminating the apparent contradictions in the narrations of the Evangelists. There are no contradictions, but only different fragments of a single event that had the character of a process. The Evangelist Mark tells about the journey of the wives of the mitron-bearers to the tomb and about what happened to them there in in general terms, according to Matthew, but with some very significant, for brevity, features that supplement the legend of Matthew. In terms of time, the sequence of visits is as follows: Mary Magdalene visited the tomb first, together with the Most Holy Theotokos Mary: John 20, 1-2: "On the very first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, when it was still dark, and sees that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. So, she runs and comes to Simon Peter and to another disciple whom Jesus loved ...". John the Theologian omits the mention of the Mother of Jesus, for the testimony of the Mother who lost her Son about His resurrection is not reliable. His appearance could easily be attributed to the imagination of the Mother, disturbed by fierce grief. That is why the main figure in John is Mary Magdalene. But we must understand that the Mother of Jesus could not stay away from the march of the myrrh-bearing wives to the tomb and rushed there first, taking Mary Magdalene as her companion. Matthew confirms this, saying that Mary Magdalene and another Mary came to the tomb only to look at the tomb, and not to anoint the body of Jesus with myrrh. Holy Mother of God, unlike other women, she was sure that Her Son would rise according to the promise of the prophets and Himself. She went to the tomb to verify this fact, and not at all to anoint the dead man with the world. Mary Magdalene, on her first visit with the Mother of God, saw nothing but a rolled stone and an empty coffin. With this news, she ran to Peter and John and said to them: "They took the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." We see that she does not say "I don't know" in her own person, but "I don't know" in the plural. This confirms that she was not alone on the coffin for the first time. Then she went back to the tomb after Peter and John. This is not directly stated, but it is clear that upon the return of the disciples to her, she continued to stand alone at the tomb and cry about the absence of the body of Jesus: John 20, 11. Since the decision to go to the tomb and anoint the body of Jesus with fragrances was taken jointly by all in the evening (Luke 23:56), Mary Magdalene knew about this and joined the group of women going to the tomb, already having a notice of the resurrection from two angels and from communion with the resurrected Jesus, whom she at first mistook for a gardener. She hid this from the rest of the women, in the hope that they themselves would see the Angels or confirmation of the resurrection of the Lord, which happened. She already had the bitter experience of distrusting her words when she ran to the disciples at the word of the Lord and announced that she had seen Him.

3, 4, 5. The first thing that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Mother of God) saw was a rolled away stone and an empty coffin. Angels appeared or became visible at different times to the women who came to the tomb in different ways and in different amount. So Mark mentions one angel, and Luke mentions two. To explain this, I note that there were several angels here, and some of the wives saw one outside, others two inside, others one inside; therefore, the speeches of the Angels, which are essentially similar, are transmitted somewhat differently: some Angels spoke this way, others differently, but they spoke about the same thing and in agreement, differing only in particular features, or more precisely, pointing to certain particular features of the event. The whole coffin and the whole circumference of the coffin was filled with the faces of angels invisibly. There were not only two or three Angels, but thousands, and they did not always appear to the wives the same or the same two. Now one appeared, then another, then two together; now in this place, now in another; now with such a speech, now with another.
In fact, one must understand that the Evangelists in this case, as in many others, do not describe the events in full, but set forth certain aspects of the event, certain details, and it is very possible that there are still details not mentioned by them. , so that even a detailed history of the event does not come out of the totality of their legends. Setting out one such primary particular, another another, a third another, etc., they, no doubt, do not disagree with each other, but only complement each other. For example, pointing to a local earthquake near the tomb, the Evangelist Matthew explains by this the reason that the stone fell off the tomb and knocked out the guards. The women who approached in a group did not see the earthquake and the falling off of the door stone by the Angel, but only saw the Angel sitting on the stone and speaking to them.
The above and similar understanding explains your points 4 and 5.

In. 13 :1 Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, showed by deed that, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And during the supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Simon Iscariot to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 arose from the supper, removed from himself outer garment and, taking a towel, girded himself. 5 Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples and wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. 6 He comes to Simon Peter, and he says to him: Lord! Do you wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not know now, but you will understand later. 8 Peter says to him, You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him: unless I wash you, you have no part with me. 9 Simon Peter says to him, Lord! not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. 10 Jesus says to him, He who has been washed needs only to wash his feet, for he is all clean; and you are clean, but not all. 11 For he knew his betrayer, therefore he said, You are not all pure. 12 And when he had washed their feet and put on his clothes, he lay down again and said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for I am exactly that. 14 So if I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you must also wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do what I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know this, blessed are you when you do it. 18 I am not talking about all of you; I know who I chose. But let the Scripture come true: he who eats bread with me lifted up his heel against me. 19 Now I tell you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe that it is I. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whom I send receives me; but he who receives me receives the one who sent me. 21 And having said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me. 22 Then the disciples looked at each other, wondering who He was talking about. 23 And one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at the breast of Jesus. 24 Simon Peter made a sign to him to ask who it was that he was talking about. 25 He fell on the breast of Jesus and said to him: Lord! who is this? 26 Jesus answered: the one to whom I, having dipped a piece of bread, will give. And, having dipped a piece, he gave it to Judas Simonov Iscariot. 27 And after this piece, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him: whatever you do, do it quickly. 28 But none of those reclining understood why He said this to him. 29 And as Judas had a box, some thought that Jesus was saying to him, Buy what we need for the feast, or to give something to the poor. 30 He took the piece and immediately went out; but it was night. 31 When he came out, Jesus said: |[ Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, then God will also glorify Him in Himself, and soon will glorify Him. 33 Children! It won't be long for me to be with you. You will seek Me, and as I said to the Jews, that where I go you cannot come, so I tell you now. 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; as I have loved you, let you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. 36 Simon Peter said to him, Lord! where are you going? Jesus answered him: where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but later you will follow me. 37 Peter said to him, Lord! why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for You. 38 Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you deny me three times. 14 :1 Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, and believe in me. 2 There are many mansions in my Father's house. And if it were not so, I would say to you: I am going to prepare a place for you. 3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that you too may be where I am. 4 And where I am going, you know, and you know the way. 5 Thomas said to him, Lord! we don't know where you're going; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And henceforth you know Him and have seen Him. 8 Philip said to him, Lord! show us the Father, and it is enough for us. 9 Jesus said to him, How long have I been with you, and you don't know me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, show us the Father? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak of Myself; The Father who is in Me, He does the works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if not, then believe Me according to the very works. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater than these he will do, because I go to my Father. 13 And if you ask the Father anything in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. 15 If you love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter to be with you forever, 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 A little while longer, and the world will no longer see me; and you will see Me, for I live and you will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he loves me; and whoever loves me, he will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and show myself to him. 22 Judas - not Iscariot - says to him: Lord! what is it that You want to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world? 23 Jesus answered and said to him, Whoever loves me will keep my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 He who does not love me does not keep my words; but the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me. 25 These things I said to you while I was with you. 26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, I give to you. |[ Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 You heard that I said to you, I am coming from you and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said: I am going to the Father; for my Father is greater than me. 29 And behold, I spoke to you before it happened, that you might believe when it happened. 30 It's been a little while for me to talk to you; for the prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me. 31 But so that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded Me, so I do: Arise, let's go from here. 15 :1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch I have that does not bear fruit, He cuts off; and every one that bears fruit he cleanses, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already cleansed through the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit of its own accord unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. 5 I am the vine, and you are the branches; whoever abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me will be cast out like a branch and wither; and such branches are collected and thrown into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done to you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will continue in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and continue in his love. 11 I have said this to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than a man laying down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends because I have told you all that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another. 18 If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. 19 If you were of the world, 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. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If I was persecuted, you will be persecuted; if they keep my word, they will keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them works that no one else had done, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But let the word that is written in their law be fulfilled: They hated me in vain. 26 When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me; 27 and also you will testify, because you are with me first. 16 :1 These things I have said to you, so that you will not be offended. 2 They will drive you out of the synagogues; even the time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God. 3 They will do this, because they know neither the Father nor Me. 4 But I have told you this so that when that time comes you will remember what I told you about; I did not tell you this at first, because I was with you. 5 And now I am going to the One who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, Where are you going? 6 But because I told you this, your heart was filled with sorrow. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you, 8 and when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 of sin, that they do not believe in me; 10 righteousness, that I go to my Father, and you will see me no more; 11 about judgment, that the prince of this world is condemned. 12 I have much more to say to you; but now you cannot contain. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak of himself, but he will speak what he hears, and he will announce the future to you. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. 16 Soon you will not see Me, and soon you will see Me again, for I am going to the Father. 17 Then some of his disciples said one to another, What is it that he says to us: you will soon see me, and soon you will see me again, and: I go to the Father? 18 So they said, What is it that He says, “soon”? We don't know what he's saying. 19 When Jesus understood that they wanted to ask him, he said to them, “Are you asking one another, because I said, you will not see me soon, and you will soon see me again?” 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she is in pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers sorrow for joy, because a man was born into the world. 22 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; 23 and on that day you will not ask me anything. |[ Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name; ask and you shall receive, so that your joy may be full. 25 Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will directly tell you about the Father. 26 On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you: 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you loved me and believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father. 29 His disciples said to him, Behold, now you speak plainly, and you speak no parable. 30 Now we see that You know everything and have no need for anyone to ask You. Therefore we believe that You came from God. 31 Jesus answered them, Do you believe now? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, and it has already come, that you will scatter each one to your own side and leave me alone; but I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, that you may have peace in me. In the world you will have sorrow; but take heart: I have conquered the world. 17 :1 After these words Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father! the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee, 2 for thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give to all that thou hast given him eternal life. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified you on earth, I have completed the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world was. 6 I have revealed Your name to the people whom You have given Me from the world; they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. 7 Now they have understood that all that You have given Me is from You, 8 for the words which You have given Me I have delivered to them, and they have accepted, and have truly understood that I came from You, and have believed that You sent Me. 9 I pray for them; I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours. 10 And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine; and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father! keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12 When I was with them in peace, I kept them in your name; those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, may the Scripture be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I say this in the world, that they may have my joy complete in themselves. 14 I gave them your word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from evil. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them with thy truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. 19 And for them I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth. 20 I do not only pray for them, but also for those who believe in Me, according to their word, 21 so that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe. that you sent me. 22 And the glory that You gave Me, I gave them: that they may be one, even as We are one. 23 I am in them, and you are in me; let them be perfected in one, and let the world know that you sent me and loved them as you loved me. 24 Father! whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father! and the world did not know you; but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. 26 And I have made known to them your name, and will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Since ancient times, peoples have built tombstones and monuments over the remains of great people, only about one coffin it is said: “He is not here, has He risen, has Christ risen?”

This great and joyful event took place early in the morning on the first day after the Sabbath. Leaving guards at the tomb and placing a seal on the stone, the Jewish leaders triumphed. But this victory was illusory: neither the seal of the Sanhedrin nor its guards could keep the Conqueror of death in the coffin. And the seal of the Sanhedrin remained on the stone, and vigilant guards stood at the tomb, but the Body of Christ was no longer in the grave cave. Of course, the warriors did not, they could know. They diligently continued to guard the empty cave. Deep night silence reigned in the garden. Dawn was approaching... Suddenly, a strong earthquake shook the garden, and at that time, the frightened soldiers saw the Heavenly Messenger at the entrance to the tomb.

The appearance of the Angel was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. He rolled away a huge stone from the door of the coffin and sat on it, shining with an unearthly light. The warriors were trembling and fainted from fear. When they came to their senses, they fled from the garden and hurried to Jerusalem to those who appointed them to guard the tomb of Jesus.

And at this time, from Bethany, in the predawn twilight, the disciples of Christ hurried to the lonely tomb near Golgotha. After spending the whole night in tears, they now walked with fragrant substances to pay their last debt to their beloved Master. They were disturbed by the thought of a heavy stone - who will roll it away from the coffin? But they went, obeying the dictates of the heart. The myrrh-bearing women did not know anything about the fact that guards were placed at the tomb.

When the disciples of Christ entered the garden of Joseph, they stopped in perplexity - a huge stone had already been rolled away, and the entrance to the tomb was open. Mary Magdalene was the first to see the empty tomb and immediately ran to the apostles Peter and John with the sad news. Meanwhile, the rest of the women timidly entered the tomb cave. In horror, they suddenly saw a young man in white clothes sitting at the coffin. "Don't be horrified the angel told them. - You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene crucified; He is risen, He is not here. This is the place where He was laid... Go, tell His disciples and Peter...”.

With trepidation, the women ran out of the cave and hurried to Jerusalem.

Appearance of Mary Magdalene and other myrrhbearers. ; ;

From the moment Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, His disciples fled in different directions and hid.” fear for the sake of the Jews» in safe places in the city of Jerusalem. Mary Magdalene knew where the apostles Peter and John were, and, weeping, hurried to them for help. “They took the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they laid Him”- said weeping Mary to the surprised apostles.

Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb to see what had happened to the Body of their Master. John ran faster than Peter and was the first to be at the tomb, but he did not dare to enter it alone. Then Peter came running and together they entered the cave. Mary Magdalene was right. The body of the Lord Jesus was not in the tomb. There were only one burial shroud, stacked on a stone slab. Full of bewilderment and sadness, the apostles left the tomb and headed back to the city.

At the tomb of the Savior, only weeping Mary remained. Suddenly she saw in the coffin two bright angels and then she felt someone standing behind her. She turned around and saw the Savior, but did not recognize Him. Mary thought it was the gardener and asked him: "Sir, if you carried out the body of my Master, tell me where you put it, and I will take it." "Maria?"- she heard the familiar voice of Jesus and in an instant understood everything.

"Rabbi?" she exclaimed and threw herself at the feet of the Savior. But Christ said to her: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father ... and your Father, and to my God and your God."

Soon the phenomena began to repeat. The rest of the women came and told the apostles that the resurrected Lord also appeared to them when they were returning from the tomb to Jerusalem. But even this testimony was accepted by the apostles with distrust.

The reaction of the Sanhedrin.

In the meantime, when the Zion chamber was filled with joy and bewilderment, the palace of Caiaphas was deeply alarmed by the terrible news for the high priests, which the guard from the tomb of Jesus brought early in the morning.

Again the chief priests became agitated. The Galilean Teacher did not give them rest even now. They urgently gathered for a meeting at which they assessed all the terrifying consequences for them of the event that took place at the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.

After the meeting, the chief priests called for the guard, gave each soldier a large sum of money and said to them: “Tell everyone that His disciples, having come at night, stole Him while you were sleeping. And if a rumor about this reaches the ruler (Pilate), then we will clap for you in front of him and save you from trouble. ].

The warriors took the money and did as the chief priests taught them. This false rumor is so ingrained in the Jewish people that many of them believe it to this day.

Thus, the enemies of Christ tried to obscure the cause of God with a crude interweaving of lies and deceit, but proved powerless against the truth.

Appearance to two disciples on the way to Emmaus.

Although the disciples of Christ were excited by the stories of the myrrh-bearing women about the appearance of the risen Lord to them, they still did not believe their testimony. Sorrow and doubt seized their sad souls.

The first Sunday was coming to an end. Evening came. At this time, two disciples of Christ, Cleopas and (probably) Luke, hurried from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. On the way, they sadly remembered their beloved Teacher and those mournful events that took place in Jerusalem in last days. It was all over, their faith in Jesus as the Messiah was crumbling, their hope was gone. At that moment, a traveler approached them and began to walk with them. It was Christ, but the disciples did not recognize Him. The stranger asked them: “What are you talking about as you walk, and why are you sad?” The students were surprised by this question. All Jerusalem is now talking about the crucifixion of the Prophet of Galilee, and this Stranger probably did not even hear about it. Then they began to tell their Companion about what happened in these last days in Jerusalem with Jesus of Nazareth, whom all the people recognized as the Great Prophet. Three days ago the chief priests and elders condemned Him and executed Him. “But we (His disciples) hoped,” they added sadly and hopelessly, “that He is the One who should deliver Israel; but with all that, today is the third day since He died. True, some women confused us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find the Body of the Teacher; they also saw angels who told them that Christ was alive. Some of ours were also today in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and did not find the Body in the tomb, but did not see Christ Himself alive. ].

Then the mysterious Traveler said to them: “O foolish and slow of heart, why don’t you believe everything that the prophets foretold? Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory?” Then the resurrected Lord began to interpret to the disciples the prophecies about the Messiah. As they talked, they approached Emmaus. The Mysterious Wayfarer pretended to want to go further, but Cleopas and Luke begged Him to spend the night in their house: "Stay with us, because the day has already declined to evening."

Christ agreed. When they lay down at the table to refresh themselves with food, Christ took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to the disciples, as He always did before a meal. At that moment, the spiritual eyes of the apostles were opened, and they understood and learned that their mysterious Companion is the resurrected Lord Himself.

But the Lord became invisible to them. Struck by the appearance, the apostles joyfully said to each other: “Did not our hearts burn within us when He spoke to us on the road and when He opened the Scriptures to us”. After that, they could not stay in Emmaus and sleep peacefully.

We must immediately return to Jerusalem in order to inform our fellow apostles of the great joy that their Teacher has risen.

Exultant, they hurried back to Jerusalem. Cleopas and Luke found ten apostles gathered together in Zion's upper room. They happily told the disciples about the incident on the road and how they recognized the resurrected Lord in the breaking of bread. In turn, the apostles told the Emmaus travelers the no less joyful news that the risen Christ had appeared to Peter.

Appearance to all the apostles except Thomas. ;

The Upper Room of Zion was overflowing with joy. Doubt left the apostles, faith and hope returned to their hearts. And among the joyful exclamations, thanksgiving prayers and brotherly embraces, a quiet and so familiar voice rang out: "Peace to you!" And all those present saw the resurrected Lord in the midst of the upper room. The disciples were confused and frightened, thinking that a spirit had appeared to them, for they carefully closed the doors to the upper room with locks.

Seeing the bewilderment of His disciples, Christ said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Look at my hands and at my feet; it is I myself; touch me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see with Me.” The Lord allowed the disciples to approach Him and touch His Body, but the apostles did not immediately believe their touch, but only rejoiced and were surprised. To finally convince His disciples that He is not a spirit, but true man with Soul and Body, Christ asked them for some food. He was served a piece of baked fish and honeycomb. He took the food and began to eat in front of His disciples.

It is amazing how deep the apostles' disbelief was in the possibility of the resurrection of their Teacher! And after that, skeptics still dare to assert that the apostles so blindly believed that their Teacher would rise again, so passionately wanted to see Him risen, that they brought their imagination to a painful state and therefore saw not the risen Jesus, but only a ghost created by their dreams. Is it possible to attribute to the apostles a morbid imagination when they did not believe either the testimony of the myrrh-bearing women, or even their own eyes.

Having proved to the apostles that it was not a spirit standing before them, but their resurrected Teacher with Soul and Body, Christ said to them: “This is what I told you while I was still with you... Thus it is written(in the Law of Moses) and so it was fitting for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.”

But this joyful event should not remain only in the Zion Room. The whole world needs to hear about it. Apostles need to bring light Christ's Resurrection to all peoples.

"As the Father sent me, Christ said to the apostles, “So I am sending you.” But by sending the apostles to preach, the Lord gives them the power of the Holy Spirit and power over human souls. He breathed and said to the apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit. To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, on that they will remain.

This story of the evangelists ended the fifth appearance of Christ on the first day of His glorious resurrection. During the fifth apparition, Thomas was not among the apostles. When he arrived at the Zion Upper Room, the apostles joyfully told him about the appearance of the resurrected Teacher to all of them. But the Apostle Thomas did not believe them. To their warm assurances, he replied:

“Unless I see the nail marks in His hands, and put my finger into the nail marks, and put my hand into His side, will I not believe?”

Appearance to the Eleven Apostles

This happened on the eighth day after the resurrection of the Savior. On this day, all the apostles gathered in the Zion room for prayer. Among them was the Apostle Thomas, who did not believe the testimony of all the disciples about the resurrection of Christ. And here again he suddenly appeared among His disciples with the words: "Peace to you?" Then, turning to Thomas with affectionate reproach, the Lord said: “Put your finger here and see my hands; give me your hand and put it in my side; and do not be an unbeliever, but a believer". The sudden appearance of Christ and the words spoken by Him to Thomas shook the doubting disciple to the depths of his soul, and he exclaimed: "My Lord and mine?"

Then Christ, directing His thought to the future and referring to all those who, following the example of Thomas, would doubt and reject the authentic testimonies of the apostles, said to Thomas: “You believed because you saw Me, blessed are those who have not seen and believed.”

Christ does not force anyone to believe in Him, He desires the free will of the human heart. The Lord did not appear to Pilate, or Anna, or Caiaphas, or to any other of His tormentors, for their evil will would resist the evidence of the phenomenon, as long as it would be possible (“and the dead will rise, they will not believe”), and when it would become already unthinkable, they would have submitted in fear, without love and reconciliation.

Thomas, when he said, “If I don’t see it, I won’t believe it,” he almost believed, almost imbued with faith in the resurrection. His words were dictated by the desire to see the Teacher as soon as possible. That is why he speaks of "Fomin's good disbelief."

The apparition on the Tiberian lake.

Fulfilling the command of the Teacher, the apostles after the feast of Pascha returned to their native Galilee and began to engage in their usual fishery. Once Peter invited his friends John, James, Thomas and Nathanael to go fishing at night. When it got dark, they all got into Peter's boat and sailed to a good fishing spot. But no matter how hard the students worked, no matter how they used all their professional skills, that night they did not catch anything. It was already dawn when the apostles, wet and tired, were about to swim to the shore. Suddenly they heard the voice of a Man standing on the shore of the lake. It was Christ, but His disciples did not recognize Him. The stranger asked them for some fish: "Children,- he said, - do you have any food?" They answered the Questioner that they had nothing. Then the Stranger advised them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. The disciples did this and to their amazement, the nets were filled with large fish.

Everyone was busy fishing, and John, peering at the Stranger standing on the shore, said to Peter: "It's the Lord". Hearing these words, impulsive Peter, without hesitation, jumped into the water and swam to the shore. Behind him pulled a boat, dragging full nets. When the disciples came ashore, they saw a bonfire and fish and bread lying on it.

“Bring the fish you have now caught,” the Lord said to the disciples. When the nets were pulled out, Christ invited the apostles to have lunch. Everyone ate in silence. No one dared to ask Him who He was. But everyone knew that it was the Lord.

After a while, Christ broke the silence and, turning to Peter, asked him: “Simon of Jonas, do you love Me more than they do?”

"Yes, Lord, Peter replied. - You know I love you". "Feed My Lambs" Christ told him. But the Lord did not leave Peter alone. He asked him for the second and third time: “Do you love me?” And then the apostle understood what was at stake. He remembered his threefold renunciation of the Lord and exclaimed in repentance: “Lord! You know everything; You know I love you". Then the Lord restores Peter to his apostolic dignity and predicts his future, life path and martyrdom: “Truly, truly, I say to you: when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old... another will gird you and lead you where you do not want to.”

Indeed, the Apostle Peter subsequently suffered a lot for Christ and was crucified upside down on the cross.

Appearance of Christ on a mountain in Galilee.

When all the apostles gathered together, the Lord commanded them to go to one of the mountains of Galilee and wait for Him there. According to legend, the apostles gathered on the Mount of Beatitudes, where many followers of Christ came with them. More than five hundred people gathered (). Everyone, probably, listened with deep attention to the apostles - eyewitnesses, who told the people in detail about the appearances of the resurrected Lord to them. Suddenly everyone saw the resurrected Teacher coming towards them. The apostles bowed to the ground to the Lord, and some of those present began to doubt, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. Approaching the disciples, the Savior commanded them to go on a worldwide sermon. He told His followers: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you all the days to the end of the age. Amen".

This was already the eighth appearance of the Lord to His followers. The ninth appearance of the risen Christ was to the Apostle James. The Apostle Paul () tells us about him.

Ascension of the Lord. ;

For forty days, the Risen Lord appeared to His disciples many times and talked with them about the Kingdom of God. In these bright days, full of unusual phenomena, joyful words and tremulous expectation, the Savior sought to show the disciples that He was not a spirit, that His Body had risen, having ascended, however, to the highest level of spiritual corporality. It was not a return to the former life, but a complete transformation of the body, which no longer knew the obstacles and limitations inherent in gross matter.

During all these days the Lord revealed to His followers the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, reminded them of His teaching and prepared them for the worldwide preaching.

And then came the day of parting - the fortieth day after the resurrection of Christ. At that time, all the apostles were in Jerusalem, where they gathered for the feast of Pentecost. While they were in the Zion Upper Room in prayer and unanimity, Christ suddenly appeared to them. While talking with the apostles, the Lord led them out of Jerusalem, and they all went together to the Mount of Olives. Having reached the top of the mountain, the Lord began to say goodbye to the apostles, commanding them not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them. “John baptized with water, and you,” the Savior told them, “in a few days will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” For a moment, old hopes returned to some students: “At this time, O Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set in his own power, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Then Christ raised his hands and began to bless his beloved disciples, and “when he blessed them, he began to depart from them and ascended into heaven”. For a long time the disciples of Christ stood on the top of the mountain and looked at the sky, where their beloved Teacher had gone from them.

Suddenly, two angels appeared to them. Addressing the apostles, they said: "Men of Galilee! why are you standing and looking at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

With joy the disciples returned to the Upper Room of Zion, where they were always in unanimity, glorifying and blessing God. It was the first Christian community, the nucleus of the future glorious Church of Christ.

Once, when the congregation was large, about one hundred and twenty people, at the suggestion of the Apostle Peter, all unanimously elected, instead of the fallen Judas the traitor, Matthias and numbered him among the eleven apostles.

The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.

The day of Pentecost has arrived. This great Old Testament feast was established in memory of the Sinai legislation. The apostles, together with the Mother of God and other disciples of Christ, were unanimously in the Zion upper room. It was three o'clock in the afternoon (nine o'clock in the morning). Suddenly, all those present heard a noise from the sky, as if from a rushing strong wind. The noise grew louder and louder until it filled the entire house where they were. And over each of the apostles they saw, as it were, tongues of fire, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to praise God on different languages who were not previously known.

At that time, there were many pilgrims in Jerusalem, among whom there were many foreign Jews who came to the homeland of the fathers for the feast of Passover and spent time in Jerusalem until the feast of Pentecost. Hearing the noise, a huge crowd of people gathered near the house where the disciples of Christ were. The people marveled at these sounds, incomprehensible to them, coming from heavenly heights and filling the house. But they were even more surprised when the apostles, leaving the upper room, began to speak to each of them in their own language.

People were amazed and asked each other: “Are they not all Galileans? How do we hear each of our own language? There were, however, those who said: "It was they who drank wine and became intoxicated."

Then the apostle Peter turned to all those gathered with a fiery speech: “Men of Judah and all who live in Jerusalem! These people are not drunk, as you think, but in what you see and hear, the prediction of the prophet Joel about the descent of the Spirit of God on all flesh comes true. This Spirit of Truth was sent down upon His followers by Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God whom you condemned and crucified. But she could not keep the Source of life in the coffin.

Christ is risen, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. ]. Concluding his sermon on Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter said: "Know therefore, all the house of Israel, that you have made this Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord and Christ."

The gracious preaching of Peter had such an effect on the hearts of the listeners that many believed in Jesus Christ and were baptized. This was the "first catch of the fisherman" by Peter and his apostle friends.

In addition to those mentioned in the "official" list of the Apostle Paul, there are many other references to the appearances of Christ in the New Testament. Taken together, the various appearances of the Resurrected Christ have long posed difficulties for scholars trying to reconcile messages and establish a definite chronological order for them, as well as their exact location.

Where did Christ appear? In the Galilee, in Jerusalem, or both? Various answers have been offered to this question. Evangelists are indeed not unanimous in their records. According to the accounts of the three Gospels, the Resurrected Christ appeared to women on the first day of the week in Jerusalem (Mt. 28:9-10; Mk. 16:9; Jn. 20:11-18), and then on eleven (Mk. 16:14 and .; Luke 24:33ff.; John 20:19ff.). However, the Gospel of Matthew speaks only of the appearance of eleven in Galilee. The Gospel of Luke speaks only of appearances in Jerusalem, while John mentions the appearance of eleven in Jerusalem along with the appearance of seven disciples in Galilee (Matt. 28, 16 ff.; Lk. 2, 33 ff.; John 20, 19 and ff and 21, 1 ff). Where actually did Christ first appear to the eleven?

Even those most convinced of the irrefutability of the Gospels as records of events preceding and following the death of Christ present varying degrees of uncertainty as to the time and place of the apparitions. They seek to place these phenomena in sequence after the Resurrection, but can only guess at their location. This is due to differences in the records of the Gospels and it is understandable that there can be uncertainty among interpreters. The number, order, and circumstances of the phenomena remain an open question. However, we must always remember that these discrepancies "come from the variety of testimonies that evangelicals include in their gospels without trying to reconcile the differences," as Georges Barrois notes.

Some interpreters are inclined to accept the historical preference for Galilee. When the tomb was found empty, the disciples, though secretly, still remained in Jerusalem. They were frightened and confused, and decided to move to Galilee in the hope that the risen Christ would meet them there (Mark 16:7; Matt. 28:10). One of the adherents of this line of interpretation argues that it was in Galilee that Jesus called the first disciples, taught them and included them in the messianic community. From there, the disciples were sent to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God. They followed Jesus to Jerusalem, but after His death, already aware of the empty tomb, they left Jerusalem for Galilee. And there, in a Galilean atmosphere, the Risen Christ “desired to renew in them the decision of the first meeting” and “to complete His revelation.” When they reached Galilee, their home, they were given the opportunity to see the Lord, and with the appearance of their Master, they were finally convinced why the tomb was found empty.

This is a fairly plausible reconstruction of the movement of students. However, the Gospels also say that Jesus appeared in Jerusalem. It would have been unnatural for the disciples, who were Galileans, to return to their home from Jerusalem after celebrating the Old Testament Passover. Being pious Jews, they should have, according to C. Mole, later returned to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. During the Passover they saw Christ in Jerusalem, and He appeared to them again after their return to Galilee. The predictions of Christ given after the Last Supper - "I will preface(προάξω) you in Galilee"(Mk. 14, 28) - as well as the words "young men" at the tomb, who commanded the women to tell the apostles that the Risen Jesus "precedes you(προάγει ὑμᾶς) in Galilee"(Mark 16:7), according to Mole, means only that "when you return to Galilee (and you will naturally return), you will find that He has preceded you."

Both lines of interpretation that we have outlined regarding the movement of the disciples after the Resurrection agree that the disciples knew about the empty tomb even before they went from Jerusalem to Galilee, but differ on the question of “where” and “when” Christ appeared to His students. A third attempt to reconstruct events after the Crucifixion suggests that the eleven learned of the empty tomb later. Proponents of this hypothesis believe that the disciples heard the women's story about the empty tomb only after they returned to Jerusalem from Galilee to celebrate Pentecost, the final feast of the Passover period. In Galilee, they experienced a kind of “unexpected revelation” with Jesus that led them to be convinced of His Resurrection. Later, after returning to Jerusalem, they heard the report of the empty tomb and decided that it fit well with their new belief in the Resurrection. This view, indeed, is based only in some sense on the testimonies of the Gospels. Of the points of view we have considered, the first two show great interest in the data of the Gospels and treat these data more responsibly. The main point of the gospel testimony refutes the hypothesis that the disciples believed in the Resurrection of Jesus before they knew about the discovery of an empty tomb. The appearance of Christ to the eleven dispels their perplexity as to why it was empty.

We must also mention here another line of interpretation which is based on "symbolic geography". Some interpreters see a "theological symbol" or "symbolic Galilee" in the announcement to the disciples that Christ will precede them in Galilee (Mark 14:28 and 16:7). In general, in the Gospel of Mark, geographical indications are symbolically rich. Galilee is seen as a symbol of the pagan world into which Christ will lead His disciples. The mission of the Church is in the Gentile world, and there the disciples will see Christ. This "symbolic geography" showed extreme skepticism towards the historical references of the Gospels and did not find much support.

Somewhat similar, but better grounded, exegetical approaches see certain theological perspectives in the evidence with which each evangelist confirms the order and place of the phenomena. Yes, ev. Luke, who records apparitions only in and around Jerusalem, reflects his interest in the holy city. His gospel begins in Jerusalem (1, 5 et seq.) and ends in the same city (chapter 24). The Galilean apparitions would not fit into the "theological geography" of his gospel, and so, for theological rather than historical reasons, Luke simply omits the apparitions in Galilee and focuses on those in Palestine. On the other hand, for Matthew, Jerusalem did not have the same paramount importance, because its leaders took part in the crucifixion of Jesus. Accordingly, St. Matthew records only that He appeared to the eleven in Galilee, and from Galilee the good news will spread throughout the world (28:16-20). According to this theory, Matthew also followed theological rather than historical logic.

All of these theories have their interesting points, although none of them can completely solve the problem when all the gospel evidence is taken into account. The most we can say is that the bulk of the evidence leads us to conclude that the disciples did know about the empty tomb prior to their return to Galilee, that they were most likely still in Jerusalem on the first day. Easter, and both the phenomena in Jerusalem and the phenomena in Galilee can be perceived as historical. To quote Mole again, one might say: "The apparitions in Jerusalem and Galilee do not represent different conceptions of the Christian mission, but merely the conception of Jesus, who appears where His friends happened to be."

Since different inferences can be drawn from the discrepancies in the data presented to us, we must first of all avoid trying to reconcile our sources. The Evangelists did not try to harmonize all their messages, nor did the early Church, even though there were apologetic grounds for doing so. The Church preferred to preserve and transmit differing testimonies. Any agreement, in order to be consistent, will inevitably exclude some important elements and deprive such evidence of divine-human fullness, so that we will have a human document based only on human logic. The complexity of the Resurrection experience, only partially understood by the participants, would be reduced to a well-defined sequence of events in the post-Resurrection period, preventing us from experiencing everything that happened and fully participating in the joy of the Resurrection. The reports we have of post-Resurrection phenomena point to the uncertainty and fear of its participants, an argument that certainly disproves the theory that they were created later. These narratives include the earliest traditions, which, despite their differences, agree with each other and confirm the truth of what they report. And early Christian preaching would have been incomprehensible without the various testimonies that the apostles carried to many people, as well as without various encounters with the Resurrected Christ.

The discrepancies in the gospel reports regarding the appearances of Christ after His Resurrection are especially interesting in light of the very fact that they are precisely discrepancies. However, it is the general characteristics of these various phenomena that are most striking, and these common points in the reports have also attracted considerable attention from scholars and interpreters. The first common aspect we notice is the initiative and freedom of Christ. He comes unexpectedly, He is present and can be seen, but He is no longer an inhabitant of the earth. In all these appearances we see the Resurrected Jesus transcending the limitations of time and space—there are no natural barriers to His movements.

The second common aspect of these phenomena is that Jesus is recognizable, but only after some moment of doubt. Doubt is clearly mentioned in Mt. 28, 17: “And when they saw Him, they bowed down; others doubted (ἐδίστασαν) ». Does this mean that some of the eleven could not believe what they saw? We should note that the evangelist does not use the expression "did not believe" or "refused to believe", but a word that has the connotation of hesitation, doubt, vacillation (διστάζω). Ev. Matthew also uses this term in his account of Jesus walking on the water (14:22-33). When Peter, who was also walking on the water, became afraid because of the strong wind and began to drown, Jesus gave him his hand and supported him, saying: "Untrustworthy, why did you doubt (ἐδίστασας) ?» (14, 31) From the context of this story, it is clear that Peter's doubt cannot be interpreted as a denial of faith in the formal sense, but rather as faith combined with doubt. Peter walked on the waters to Jesus, but he hesitated, staggered, meeting with danger.

Any disciple of Jesus could experience this doubt. During the apparition, some of the eleven were confused, and at this moment of crisis in their lives, they experienced hesitation or vacillation. Indeed, in the Jerusalem Bible, the phrase Matt. 28, 17 "but some doubted" translated as "though some hesitated". One scholar in this verse, after analyzing the meaning of the word for doubt, suggested that Matthew presented the appearance of Christ as a "church" event, indicating the difficulties and challenges of discipleship. This does not mean that doubt does not historically belong to the phenomena after the Resurrection, but rather emphasizes the essence of the entire paragraph - that the commandment of the Lord about the teaching of all peoples (Matt. 28, 19) “cannot be fulfilled only by human forces. This is possible only because Christ is always with his Church.

In two other passages, speaking about the coming of Christ to the disciples after the Resurrection, the same doubt is implied. To the women who took hold of His feet and worshiped Him, Jesus said: "Do not be afraid"(Matthew 28:10). Doubt is also implied in Jn. 20, 19-21. Here Jesus shows the disciples His hands and side, presumably for two reasons: firstly, to convince them of the Resurrection, and secondly, to dispel their doubt expressed by the apostle Thomas.

This experience of doubt belongs to the earliest tradition of the gospel messages. The doubt of the disciples could also emphasize that they were not victims of illusion and that in the apparitions faith was not forced upon those who testified to them. Like the empty tomb, the apparitions did not automatically lead the disciples to the full conviction that the deceased had risen, yet they did awaken faith. Everyone to whom Christ appeared believed and became a witness. Doubt prevented recognition, but when it was overcome, the disciples experienced joy and comfort in realizing that Jesus was among them. It is only after this recognition that they are informed of their mission. This is the third general characteristics phenomena. The disciples would not have been sent to the ministry if they were not fully convinced that Jesus of Nazareth and the Risen Christ are one and the same person. Their mission was to announce what they saw and heard.

The last common characteristic of the apparitions is that Christ always appeared to friends. Wherever His friends happened to be, in Jerusalem or in Galilee, Jesus appeared to them, not to the high priest or Pilate. The only exception was His appearance to Paul when the latter was actively persecuting the Church. The Apostle Peter recalls this characterization of Christ's appearances in his sermon to Cornelius' household in Caesarea: “And we are witnesses of all that He did in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree. God raised Him up on the third day and gave Him to appear - not to all the people, but to the witnesses chosen by God, to us, who ate and drank with Him after His Resurrection from the dead.(Acts 10:39-41).

The renowned Alexandrian theologian and scholar, Origen once posed the question, "Why did He appear only to friends?" and suggested in reply that not everyone could bear such encounters with the glorified Christ. But perhaps in the last discourse of Christ, as presented in Jn. 14:18-21, there is a more complete answer: “I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you. It won't be long before the world sees me; but you see me, because I live and you will live ... He who has my commandments and keeps them, the same is he who loves me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and show Myself to him.”

Jesus speaks of love and keeping His word as conditions for those to whom He will appear. The Eastern Fathers interpreted this passage as referring to the phenomena after the Resurrection. This is the meaning of the words "not yet" and "because I live and you will live."

The appearances of Christ after His Resurrection are neither apocalyptic visions nor revelations of the supernatural world. Nor should they be treated as dreams, for they did not occur during sleep or even at night. When Christ appears, He is alone, He unites with Himself those who were with Him and speaks to them each time with His own voice - the voice of the Risen Lord, which cannot be confused with any other. When the disciples speak to Him, their hearts burn (Luke 24:32). What He speaks is clear, imbued with the spirit of Him Who became "life-giving spirit"(1 Cor. 15:45). The Church keeps and protects these words, meditates on them and transmits them. They belong to its very foundation, for with these words the disciples are called and sent on a mission to build the Church (Matthew 28:16-20; John 20:19-23). The disciples were called to testify of the Resurrection to all nations, to baptize, to forgive sins and bring them into fellowship with the Risen Christ.

In this case, these appearances are the culmination of the miracles performed by Jesus in His public ministry, for miracles were also performed not to force people to accept Jesus as the Messiah, but to reveal the power of the Kingdom of God. The post-Resurrection manifestations represent the revelation and presence of the Risen Christ revealing Himself in His coming and going.

(9 votes : 4.7 out of 5 )

Conversation of Abbot Abraham (Reidman) about the great event of the Resurrection of Christ.

Our conversation will be quite lengthy, and, probably, a significant part of it will be occupied not by my explanation of the event of the Resurrection of Christ, but by reading the Gospel. I will use a book called Synopsis. This is a compilation of all the gospel texts, which are arranged in chronological order and printed in columns (since the evangelists described the same event with different details). In Russian, "Synopsis", as far as I know, is published for the first time. This book is very useful for those who want to get acquainted with the gospel history: we read the Gospel and get some idea of ​​the chronological sequence of events. Although this arrangement of gospel episodes is only a version. We can hardly say with certainty about certain events that everything happened exactly as the author of the Synopsis says, in this case there can only be an opinion. And when I comment on the course of these events and, to some extent, their significance, it is obvious that I, too, will express only a certain opinion. The opinion, although based on the teachings of the holy fathers and corresponding to the patristic spirit, is nevertheless not as authoritative as the reasoning of this or that ascetic, say about or any other evangelical commentator. I wanted to consider the story of the Resurrection of Christ precisely from the point of view of historical sequence in order to get a picture of all the events at once, which is why I decided to conduct a conversation using the Synopsis.

Even if we simply read the Gospel texts about the Resurrection, without any reasoning or commentary, it would already be extremely interesting. After all, we usually read the four Gospels in turn: we read, for example, the Gospel of Matthew, and in particular the story of the Resurrection of Christ, and then we begin to read about all the events from the beginning, in the presentation, say, of the Evangelist Mark, and again we gradually reach the story of the Resurrection . It turns out that all these gospel narratives with various interesting, complementary details and, perhaps, even different views on what is happening turn out to be separate for us, and it is difficult for us to form a complete picture of everything described. Reading the "Synopsis" will, of course, be interesting and useful for everyone.

As a preface, I would like to say the following. The event of the Resurrection of Christ is so extraordinary that it is incomprehensible to the human mind. We accept it, we believe it, but it cannot be said that we fully realized it and felt it with all our being, that we are confident in its reality just as in the reality of any episode from our Everyday life. If we accepted the event of the Resurrection just as simply, without prejudice, and it would become for us the reality of our life, then, of course, it would turn it all upside down, change our inner state (I’m talking now specifically about those who came to the monastery and want to renounce the world). We honestly must admit to ourselves that even we monastics do not fully comprehend the significance of this event, do not fully accept it. If we succeeded in doing this, it would mean that a revolution has taken place in our soul, that we have become truly believing people, living according to our faith. A deep awareness of what has happened would indicate that we are at least already approaching perfection. We, on the other hand, accept this or that event, the teaching only to the extent that it does not prevent us from living in peace. We accept and at the same time partly reject. If we talk about people who are outside the Church, then they do not fully accept the Resurrection of Christ, because this would oblige them to a lot. And the person involuntarily feels it. All arguments and proofs in favor of the fact that Christianity is a religion too unusual, making impossible demands on people, are used only to justify its rejection. No matter how unusual and demanding this religion may be, but if what the Gospel tells about, and especially the story of the Resurrection of Christ, is true, we should have to accept it. We would have to agree with the Gospel, despite all the difficulties and even, perhaps, the impossibility of fulfilling it, or at least admit our failure. However, in reality, people, as a rule, simply do not want to accept the obvious truth and think in a way that is convenient and beneficial for them. In the vast majority of cases, with rare exceptions, human beliefs proceed from the principle of convenience in life. Of course, not only material, but even mental, that is, we think in a way that is beneficial to us. The gospel teaching, especially the story of the Resurrection of Christ, requires us to completely renounce this.

We accept the Gospel even though sometimes we reach despair, seeing, as it seems to us, the impracticability of its requirements - the Lord's commandments. We accept it because we believe in the miracles performed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are especially struck by the miracle of the Resurrection. We accept it because our conscience itself speaks of the correspondence of the Gospel to what it seeks and compels. “The human soul is by nature a Christian,” he said, referring to precisely that mysterious phenomenon that despite all the seemingly impossibility of fulfilling the Gospel, its incomprehensibility, even strangeness, it still finds a response in our soul, which confirms that his teaching is the truth. Therefore, the story of the Resurrection of Christ must be taken not as an artistic narrative, but as a chronicle.

When we read books, we are accustomed to trusting them only to a certain extent. Even if only at school we read fiction according to the program, we all developed the habit of misperceiving it. Encountering in the book any very serious, significant thoughts, clothed, however, in an artistic form and taught to us under the guise of fiction, we are accustomed to distinguishing fiction from the ideas contained in it (if we draw an analogy, then how to extract a nut kernel suitable for food from the shell). This is how we treat literature. And this vicious approach, developed by the fact that for the most part we read literature, let's say, with many fictions (I will not speak lies), prevents us from accepting the Gospel with an open mind, which can be compared more with scientific and historical literature than with the usual us.

Let us finally turn to the gospel narrative itself. The compiler of the "Synopsis" indicates first the topic, and then the place where the event took place, and this will help us orient ourselves.

So, the first event of the Resurrection: "Jerusalem and surroundings, Sunday, April 9, 30." It must be borne in mind that our official chronology differs from the true one. In fact, the Savior was born four years earlier than the day that is considered the Nativity of Christ. The mistake was made by a certain Western scholar Dionysius the Small, who lived in the 6th century. At that time, the level of historical science was very modest, especially in the West, which, in terms of its cultural development, lagged far behind the Orthodox Byzantine East. There was a mistake, and now it is believed that the Nativity of Christ took place two thousand and two years ago, but in fact you need to add another three or four years. Therefore, the Synopsis says: “Sunday, April 9, 30,” although from all the traditions about the Lord it is reliably known that the Savior suffered at the age of thirty-three and a half years. The dates of the sufferings of the Savior and His Resurrection are known absolutely exactly. We remember these events not on the dates when they actually happened, but on others, taking into account, in addition to dates, the days of the week. For example, we remember the Crucifixion on Friday, the Resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week: the celebration is always transferred from specific numbers to certain days of the week. In addition, there is a rule that the Easter celebrated by the Orthodox does not coincide with the Jewish Easter, it must always be later. Jewish Passover is calculated according to lunar calendar, and Orthodox - both lunar and solar at the same time. This complex calculation, which I have now outlined in an extremely schematic and primitive way, leads to the fact that we celebrate Easter not on the days when this event actually took place. We mark it in such a way that the very time of its fulfillment would have a certain pastoral meaning, so that other weak Christians would not be tempted and think that we, so to speak, share the same faith with the Jews. In this regard, the celebration of Easter and the remembrance of all the events associated with Easter days take place every year on different dates.

Here is how the Evangelist Matthew narrates about the Resurrection of Christ: “After the Sabbath, at the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and another Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord, who descended from heaven, approached, 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. After the Sabbath, when it was still getting light, the myrrh-bearing women came ... We cannot establish exactly which of the women arrived first, and which later: whether Mary Magdalene arrived earlier than the others, or together with everyone (then everyone left, but she remained ). There are many different opinions, each of which has a right to exist. We cannot restore the picture of events with absolute accuracy, but it is important that the women showed a truly strange, extraordinary courage and even some imprudence, since they were drawn more by the feelings of the heart than by reason. After all, if they were going to the tomb, they should have thought in advance who would help them roll the stone from the doors of the tomb, but they did not. They only wanted to fulfill their duty to the Teacher and, of course, did not think at all that they would see Him Risen, otherwise they would not have brought peace with them.

“Mary Magdalene and another Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord, who descended from heaven, having come, rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb ”(). A stone is a huge block that leaned against the mouth of a cave (or of natural origin, only a few, maybe processed, or artificial, carved in rocks, which are extremely numerous in Judea), asserting itself in such a way that it leaned on it and tightly closed it . That is, they specially carved a certain niche so that it was possible to roll a stone, but it was no longer possible to take it away. In general, even for several men, it was easier to attach it than to take it away. Therefore, it is completely strange and incomprehensible why the women went to the tomb, not at all thinking that it would be impossible for them to roll off the stone. In addition, they should have known or at least guessed (and rumors spread quickly in Jerusalem) that there was a guard at the tomb, but they neglected this. Both common sense and ordinary human fear were neglected. Pay attention: the apostles sat in fear with the door closed, and the women, not afraid of anything, when it was still light, went to the tomb, neglecting the impossibility of doing what they wanted, not even guessing how they would do it, and not being afraid of the guards at coffin. And so, the angel rolled away the stone - and there was an earthquake. Of course, not only because the stone was rolled away, but also because this spiritual phenomenon itself was unusually great and glorious. The angel sat on a stone, and “his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow” (). That is, the face and, perhaps, the hands were fiery, like sparkling lightning, and this alone should have frightened. "And his clothes are as white as snow." In order to imagine what the evangelists might have had in mind when they spoke such words, one must remember that snow falls extremely rarely in the southern countries, once, I think, in ten or fifteen years, as a rule, only for a few days. And usually the Jews see snow only on the top of Mount Hermon, which is spoken of in the psalm: “Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name” (). Maybe my remark will not be entirely appropriate now, but this mountain is the only place in Israel where skiing is possible, there is no snow anywhere else. Therefore, in this case, the white color of clothing, which the Evangelist Matthew speaks of, was supposed to be completely dazzling, similar to the whiteness of the purest snow on the top of a mountain. That is, it must be borne in mind that we are not talking about snow familiar to us, which we always see and which is usually polluted and therefore does not have much beauty, but about completely clean, brightly sparkling snow. With the help of such a comparison, the evangelist conveys a certain unearthly feeling from this supernatural light - not only the face and, perhaps, the hands of an angel, but his clothes also had an extraordinary appearance.

“Frightened of him, the guards trembled and became like dead people” (). These words, of course, do not mean that the warriors actually became "as dead"; it is clear that from this supernatural vision they simply experienced a strong shock. According to the way this event is sometimes depicted on the icons, they either fell on their faces, as if paralyzed, or simply numb with fear and did not react at all to either the appearance of the angel or the conversation of women with him, and nothing at all, except for this feeling of shock, felt nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing. It can be recalled that when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the Apostle Paul, even before his conversion, reproaching him for persecuting him, the apostle also became blind and became completely unable to move independently. Of course, one thing is the appearance of the Lord Himself, and the other is only His angel, but nevertheless it made such an impression on the soldiers that they lost the ability to control themselves.

“The angel, turning his speech to the women, said: do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified” (). The angel calms not warriors, as sinful and unrepentant people, but women. And they also, of course, experienced fear, but since they were worthy, sincere people, the angel immediately pacifies them: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified.” He speaks very simple words to them. Personally, when I read the gospel story about the Resurrection of Christ, it always strikes me that the angel addressed the women with very simple, short words, but they contained at the same time a sublime, vital truth; any detailed explanations and arguments were completely inappropriate. The most powerful evidence was the following words: “He is not here - He is risen, as He said. Come, look at the place where the Lord lay" (). There can be no greater proof than this. Mary Magdalene, and another Mary, and some other women, called in church tradition"myrrh-bearers", stood at the Cross of the Lord and saw how the Lord died, how the soldier pierced His ribs, how Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed His body from the Cross, wrapped it in a shroud and carried it to the tomb - they saw the Savior dead. And suddenly an angel (not some kind of person, because a person could, of course, not be believed, but the angel himself) shows them the place where the Lord lay: “He is not here - He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." The fact that they saw the bed of this tomb empty was, without any reasoning or abstract thoughts, the strongest proof of the Resurrection. "He is not here - He is risen." The meaning of the word "resurrected" is now completely clear to us, but then it was unclear. I don’t know what meaning it has in Hebrew, but in Slavonic “resurrected” means resurrected. Now this word has acquired a narrower meaning, connected specifically with the event of the Resurrection of the Savior, and earlier it correlated with the rite of baptism: when it was said about baptism, immersion was meant, and when it was about resurrection, it meant revolt. Man, immersed in water, then rose from it. Therefore also the baptism by which we are all baptized and which church rules should be done not through dousing, as it unfortunately happens for some objective and subjective reasons, but through immersion, is for us the image of the Resurrection. That is, the prediction of the Savior about His own resurrection could be unclear to the apostles also for the reason that they did not quite understand what it meant. The word "resurrected" did not then have such a narrow and precise meaning as it does now. And only after the gospel of the angel, the meaning of this “resurrection”, or “uprising”, of the Savior (He, so to speak, “plunged” into death, into the tomb, and then rose), became clear to the myrrh-bearing women, and later to other disciples of the Lord.

“And go quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead,” that is, he has risen from the dead, “and will go ahead of you in Galilee; you will see him there. Here, I told you "(). Thus ends the angel's brief announcement of the Resurrection of Christ. By Galilee, different commentators mean different places. Some believe that Galilee itself was meant, while others argue that they meant "Little Galilee" - the area beyond the Mount of Olives, so called because pilgrims from Galilee stopped there, who came to Jerusalem for any holidays. But this is not important: the Savior could appear to them in Galilee itself, as He appeared to them on Lake Tiberias, and in Lesser Galilee, as it was immediately before the Ascension.

“And, coming out of the tomb hastily, they ran with fear and great joy to tell His disciples” (). Joy filled their hearts. If, despite the arguments of common sense, they nevertheless could not resist and came to the cave, not even knowing who would roll the stone away from the doors of the tomb for them, then now they could not resist all the more and not only hurried out of the tomb, but also ran then running. This suggests that they could not even control themselves, that they experienced unusually strong feelings. And these feelings are also depicted by the evangelist, albeit briefly: "With fear and great joy." Of course, there could not have been fear, because something great and incomprehensible had happened. The appearance of an angel has just happened - this alone is capable of shocking a person, all the more so the gospel of the Resurrection could not leave the myrrh-bearers calm. In the souls of these pious women, two feelings, as if contradictory and incompatible, acted simultaneously: fear and joy. I note, among other things, that such a state is an undoubted sign of a correct feeling of grace. When a person during prayer feels that he is approaching the Lord, that his mind is somewhat in contact with the Divine, then he experiences exactly both - both fear and joy (the feeling of one fear or one joy would be suspicious). Although, of course, this is not about the fear that we have of someone who can harm us. Fear in the sense of a reverent feeling, a feeling that before a person is something completely superior to his mind, something Great and Incomprehensible, Boundless and Glorious - I mean Divine properties.

“When they went to tell His disciples ...” (). It is quite possible to admit such an ordinary human guess that they simply were not able to continuously run such a long distance. They could run for some time, then, tired, walk, then run again, as people usually do in such situations.

“... And behold, Jesus met them and said: rejoice!” "Rejoice!" is a common greeting at the time. If now we wish each other health and say: “Hello!” or “Hello!”, then in ancient times the appeal was different: “Rejoice!”. As if it were an ordinary greeting, but in this case it acquired, one might say, an infinite meaning. After all, those who only recently, maybe half an hour ago, went to the tomb with the most mournful, sad feelings, seeing the Savior, could not help but rejoice in a completely supernatural great joy. I don't even have enough epithets to describe how they felt. On Easter days, especially on the first day of Easter, when we greet each other with the words: “Christ is Risen!” and we answer: “Truly He is risen!”, we only from one, perhaps, and insufficiently deep awareness of this event, experience the strongest joy and, as it were, spiritual relief. We are even attacked by some negligence and laziness, which is probably natural after fatigue from Great Lent and long services. Holy Week and what is of no importance: the Lord still condescends with His grace, and a person feels joy, despite the fact that he does little spiritual work. What joy should have been for those who first heard the news of the Resurrection of Christ, who for the first time announced it to people - what joy should the myrrh-bearing women have had?!

“And they, having approached, took hold of His feet and bowed down to Him” (). They used to treat their Teacher with reverent respect, but now, when they saw the Savior risen from the dead, if they didn’t say anything, they probably thought the same way as the Apostle Thomas, who, after the assurance, said to the Lord: “My Lord and my God !" (). Of course, it can also be assumed that the myrrh-bearing women, wanting to reliably verify the authenticity of the Savior's Resurrection, wanted to touch His body and therefore, falling on their faces, grabbed hold of His feet. Now, as they say, it is easy for us to talk about this; although we are not direct witnesses of the Gospel events, but at the same time, since all of them are already in the past for us, we consider them in their entirety. And the myrrh-bearing women were, one might say, within this temporal movement, and therefore, after the deepest disappointment, plunging into terrible disbelief and despair after the death of the Savior and His burial, they themselves had to resurrect spiritually, rise from their inner devastation. They did not need any words, they needed only simple, but in the most precise sense of the word, tangible evidence. They needed to touch the Savior, to see that this was not a ghost, not only His soul that appeared, not a vision, even if it was supernatural, but the Lord Himself. That is why they seized hold of His feet, as if wishing to ascertain and, through this sense of touch, establish themselves in their renewed faith in the Resurrection of Christ. This sense of touch was more effective, stronger than any arguments and reasoning.

“Then Jesus said to them: do not be afraid” (). The Lord reassures them again, apparently because they still had some kind of fear: they saw Him dead, they saw how He was buried, and suddenly He stands before them alive. In addition, they could be seized with fear and because of the fear that this is only a vision, and not a person, and in general fear because they see such an incomprehensible event: the resurrection from the dead of their Teacher. Therefore, they needed some appeasement, and now the Savior Himself, following the angel, reassures them: "Do not be afraid." From now on, you should not be afraid, but you should rejoice. Of course, there should be reverent fear, but fear combined with some kind of embarrassment and disbelief is already inappropriate, it must be discarded.

“Then Jesus said to them: Do not be afraid; go tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (). Again, now Himself, He commands them what He had previously commanded through the angel. It was probably appropriate that an angel first appear to the women, as if preparing them for the correct perception of the appearance of the resurrected Savior, so that they would not be embarrassed, not overly shocked, and only then the Lord Himself appeared. Here He calls His disciples brothers. Perhaps, of course, He adopts them to God the Father, this opinion is true, but for us it is important that He calms them down, because all of them, not only Peter, felt faint-hearted, apostates, because they all ran away. At first, Peter showed greater courage than the other disciples, but then he sinned more seriously, refusing three times; the rest fled at once, still in the Garden of Gethsemane. And now the extraordinary love of the Savior, reaching out to the disciples, appeases them with these words: “Go, tell my brothers ...” There is no reproach, no reproof, since the sorrow experienced by the disciples was so great that it was already inappropriate to rebuke them: conscience is enough they were tormented and they needed not rooting, but appeasement.

The compiler of the "Synopsis" gives a parallel description of the same events from the Gospel of Mark. “After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Jacob and Salome bought perfumes to go and anoint Him. And very early, on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb, at sunrise ”(). What does "after the Sabbath" mean? Apparently, this happened on Saturday evening, because, according to our Divine Service Rule, the day ends in the evening (vespers is a service related to the next day), and this was borrowed, as I think, from the Old Testament Church. So, "after the Sabbath", that is, on Saturday evening, they bought fragrances - apparently, at that time it was already allowed to disturb the Sabbath rest, engage in trade and do some ordinary things. And already early in the morning “on the first day of the week they come to the tomb, at sunrise ...” Sunday is not the seventh day of the week for the Jews, as we are used to, but the first. On the seventh day, as in ancient times it was revered, so to this day Saturday is revered. “And they say among themselves: who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” (). Driven by their feelings, the myrrh-bearing women neglected common sense. All the disciples of the Savior, men who could roll off a block, were afraid, and women did not at all think that it was impossible for them. When they were already approaching the coffin, then it suddenly occurred to them: “And who will roll away the stone for us? Because we can't do that!" And yet they continued on their way.

“And looking, they see that the stone has been rolled away; and he was very great ”(). The Evangelist makes a note that it was not just a stone, but a huge block.

“And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe; and were horrified" (). Evangelist Matthew says that the angel was sitting on a rolled off stone, and Mark was inside the tomb, on the right side. However, comparing the gospel narratives, we can assume that there were several appearances of angels. First, the myrrh-bearing women saw one angel on the stone, and then, entering the tomb, another. In addition, we know that angels have the ability to move in space in a way that is completely unusual for us humans, and the same angel could first appear to them on a coffin stone, and then inside a coffin. "On the right side" - I think these words mean that he was sitting on the bed of the Savior. In general, now there is almost nothing left of the coffin itself, except for the stone bed, everything was destroyed in the 11th century by the fanatical Caliph Hakim, who wanted to destroy Christian shrines. Subsequently, on the site of the tomb cave, the Crusaders erected Kuvukliya, but the location of the bed inside it, of course, was preserved. Entering the chapel, we see that it is located just on the right side. From this we can conclude that the angel was sitting on the coffin bed, that is, on that stone ledge where the body of the Savior was laid. And this in itself is already a kind of silent proof, which, however, is more powerful than any of the most convincing and wise words. After all, the angel sat in the place where the body of the Savior was supposed to lie, and his very presence was already proof of the Resurrection of Christ.

“And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe; and were horrified" (). By the expression "white clothes" we must understand something relative, it was not just the usual whiteness that any fabric can get after processing. This is about something special. One may recall that when the Evangelist Mark spoke about the Transfiguration of the Savior on Tabor, he said that “His clothes were white as snow, as whitewash cannot whiten on earth.” This is exactly what whiteness is about here. It could be compared with the usual one encountered in life, and at the same time the evangelist makes a note that in fact this white color was not earthly, not the kind in which a bleacher can dye cloth on the ground using ordinary means.

“And they were horrified. He says to them: do not be terrified ”(). The angel calms women who see such terrible, unusual visions, following, perhaps, one after another. We must constantly remember that the gospel itself does not come from ordinary people who say something amazing, but from those who, by their appearance and appearance, shock the human imagination. Fear and trembling from one vision is replaced by the myrrh-bearing horror from another, and therefore they hear such unusual words from the angel.

“You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, crucified; He is risen, He is not here. This is the place where He was laid” (). This is the strongest evidence and without any arguments.

“But go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is ahead of you in Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you. In this phrase, a new detail is reported. Once again I repeat that we do not know whether this is the same appearance of an angel or another, following the previous one, since their description approximately coincides. There are some new words here, perhaps simply omitted by Matthew, or perhaps additionally spoken by the angel to the myrrh-bearing women already at the second vision: “Tell His disciples and Peter.” Peter is mentioned especially because, after his threefold denial of the Lord, he was most worried about what had happened. Therefore, the Lord comforts him in advance through an angel commanding: “Tell his disciples and Peter,” that is, tell him separately. At the same time, despite his threefold renunciation, the Apostle Peter even after him showed the greatest firmness, and all the disciples, feeling this inner "core" of his, grouped around him. And the Savior during the Last Supper, as it is said in the Gospel of Luke, predicted that Peter, after his repentance, would convert all his brothers.

“But go and tell His disciples and Peter that He is ahead of you in Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you. The angel reminds them of the Savior's prediction, that He spoke about this event in advance.

“And going out, they fled from the tomb; they were seized with trepidation and horror, and they did not say anything to anyone, because they were afraid ”(). It is clear from the previous and other Gospels that they did not inform anyone outside of the Resurrection, but only their closest disciples. But this does not mean that they did not fulfill the command of the angel. They simply trembled (and trembling must be understood here quite literally), downright shaking with fear, realizing that none of the outsiders could believe this, and therefore could not tell anyone. Yes, and the disciples did not believe at first, as we will see from the story of the Evangelist Luke.

“And they didn’t say anything to anyone, because they were afraid” (). It is clear that they were not afraid of any persecution, but only that this incredible event is simply unacceptable for a person, especially a prejudiced one.

This is how the evangelist Mark goes on to describe the later appearances of the Lord to his disciples. “Rising early on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he cast out seven demons” (). This exile did not take place after the Resurrection, but, apparently, even when she had just come to the Savior, after which miracle she became His disciple.

“She went and announced to those who were with Him, weeping and wailing; but when they heard that He was alive and she saw Him, they did not believe ”(). This narration corresponds with the narration of the Gospel of John, to which we will move a little later, and where it is said that at first, near the tomb itself, the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene. The place of this phenomenon is three to four meters from the entrance to Kuvuklia. Now it belongs to the Catholics and is highlighted on the floor with inlay, in my opinion, there is even an altar there. When you stand at this place, of course, you experience some excitement, knowing that it was here that the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene.

Now let's move on to Luke's story. In order to make it clearer, I will begin with a story about the burial of the Savior. “The women who came with Jesus from Galilee also followed, and looked at the tomb, and how His Body was supposed to be; when they returned, they prepared spices and ointments; and on the Sabbath they remained at rest according to the commandment. On the very first day of the week, very early, carrying the prepared aromas, they came to the tomb, and with them some others ”(). By "some others" they apparently mean those women who were not present at the crucifixion. “But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And when they entered, they did not find the Body of the Lord Jesus. When they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men appeared before them in shining clothes ”(). Here the appearance of the angel and subsequent events are spoken of more briefly than in the Gospel of Mark. However, there is a new detail: it has already been said about two angels. I am inclined to assume that there were still several angelic phenomena, although I will not now compare their descriptions, say where different episodes are described, and where - only various details of the same phenomenon.

So, the description of the vision of two angels made by Luke coincides with the description of the Evangelist John, who also speaks of two angels. There is also a detail in the Gospel of Luke concerning them. appearance: "in shining garments". Not only did the appearance of the angel, as Matthew says, that is, his face, was like lightning, but the clothes also shone, one might assume, as snow shines in the sun. You know, it happens: in sunny weather, a person cannot even look at the snow that has not yet been polluted - it hurts his eyes.

“And when they were in fear and bowed their faces to the ground ...” (). The fact that they bowed down is not surprising, because the very appearance of the angels is terrifying, and besides, this dazzling light emanating from the face of the angels and their shining clothes made them involuntarily lower their eyes in order to save their eyesight - this was a natural human reaction.

“And when they were in fear and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them: why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here: He is risen; remember how He told you when he was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day ”(). Here the speech of the angels is also brief, but still more detailed than in the Gospel of Mark, so one might think that this was a different phenomenon.

"What are you looking for the living among the dead?" (). Often we just skim through the Gospel text with our eyes, not realizing, not fully understanding its meaning. Our inattention and coldness when reading the Gospel is especially evident from the attitude towards this particular narrative. "What are you looking for the living among the dead?" The women came. They were saddened in every way you can imagine. They didn’t even think about who would roll off the stone for them from the entrance to the coffin, about the fact that there were guards there (perhaps they already didn’t care). Overwhelmed by the strongest mournful feelings. And suddenly the angels say to them: “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” They say that about the One they thought He was dead! These words, of course, should have surprised them, shocked them, and forced them to take a fresh look at everything that was happening.

“He is not here: He is risen; remember how he told you when he was still in Galilee ”(). There is no doubt that, having entered the tomb, seeing two angels there and not finding the body of the Risen Savior, they, thanks to the very appearance of the angels, their words, the sight of an empty tomb, were filled with faith in the reality of the angelic gospel.

“He is not here: He is risen; remember how He told you when He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners, and be crucified, and rise on the third day. And they remembered his words; and returning from the tomb, they proclaimed all this to the eleven and to all the rest. They were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and others with them, who told the apostles about this. And they showed themselves, ”the Evangelist Luke repeats what Mark said,“ their words were empty to them, and they did not believe them ”(). The disciples were so shocked by the mournful events of the last days of Passion Week: the betrayal of Judas, the crucifixion, death and burial of the Savior, they were so disappointed and lost faith in everything that they did not believe the myrrh-bearing women. It seemed to them that, either succumbing, as is typical of women, to imagination, or accepting the appearance of a ghost as the truth, or perhaps for the sake of their consolation, they lie, and the disciples neglected their words. And perhaps they didn’t have any arguments or thoughts about the fact that these women were lying, but they simply couldn’t accept this event as easily as we perceive it now, knowing all gospel story entirely. They say that it was not difficult for the disciples to believe, but for us, who were not present there at that time, it was difficult. In fact, we see that the disciples with great difficulty, with a terrible struggle, perceived the news of the Resurrection of the Savior. Yes, we come to faith from unbelief, we acquire faith in the Resurrection of Christ, in the Lord in general, renouncing our former godless views. But it must be borne in mind that the disciples also had the deepest disillusionment and disbelief imaginable, resulting from precisely this terrible world tribulation; and from terrible unbelief to joyful faith in the Resurrection of Christ they passed with labor, struggle and torment. Therefore, there is no need to justify ourselves by the fact that it is hard for us, but it was easy for them. In fact, I think it was much more difficult for them to regain the faith they had lost just a few days earlier. It must be borne in mind that when a person wholeheartedly surrenders to something, believes, is inspired by something, and then suddenly becomes disappointed, then the second time it is much harder, almost impossible, to acquire the same enthusiasm. This must be remembered. The Gospel narrative itself leads us to such a psychological reasoning regarding the mental state of the disciples.

“And their words seemed to them empty, and they did not believe them. But Peter, getting up, ran to the tomb and, bending down, saw only the sheets lying, and went back, marveling at what had happened in himself ”(). Peter showed his usual vehemence. If we carefully read the Gospel, we see that Peter both appropriately and inappropriately showed some kind of haste, impulsiveness. He was the first to confess Jesus as the Son of the Living God, and after a few minutes, having shown inappropriate pity, he tried to keep Him from the Suffering on the Cross, for which he was rebuked by the Savior with such cruel, terrible words: “Get away from Me, Satan” (;). At the word of the Savior, he first threw the net and received a wonderful catch of fish, and then left this net full of fish and followed the Lord; his brother and friends followed him: the apostles James and John Zebedee. Other examples of the impulsiveness of the Apostle Peter could be cited. In this case, he also could not resist and, despite the fear, being driven by some inexplicable feeling (probably not even curiosity, but the desire to make sure what had happened), he simply ran. Pay attention: he didn’t go (and it would be strange if a person who rushed to make sure of something on his own would calmly go), but ran; when he saw the tomb empty, he was amazed and turned back, still not understanding what had happened. Apparently, some time had to pass before the Resurrected Savior would also appear to the Apostle Peter, who had not yet changed inwardly and was not able to perceive this correctly. One way or another, the Providence of God has not yet shown him the Risen Lord.

The Evangelist John speaks in more detail about how Peter and John ran to the tomb and how they saw the tomb empty. “On the very first day of the week, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb early, when it was still dark, and sees that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. So, he runs and comes to Simon Peter and to another disciple whom Jesus loved "(). Apparently, the Apostle John, who wrote his Gospel after the other disciples, tried to tell about such details that were missed by other Evangelists. Here he talks in more detail about what happened in the time interval after the women saw the tomb empty and before the appearance of the angels. Or maybe Mary Magdalene came to the tomb twice?! First alone, and then with myrrh-bearing women? Once again I say that the exact order of how everything happened is almost impossible to establish. However, there is no reason for disbelief in this, on the contrary: the disciples of the Savior told what they knew about the events either directly themselves or from the words of eyewitnesses, without distorting anything, without juggling and without trying to reduce everything to some kind of uniformity. Whoever heard about what happened, who perceived it from what point of view, having their own character, their own view of things, they told me so. And for two thousand years of existence Christian Church no one dared to reduce the descriptions of these events into one continuous, logically consistent narrative. It is precisely this disagreement in trifles and unity in the main that are signs that the witnesses were sincere and honest. Imagine: if in court two people tell everything in exactly the same way, then this will arouse suspicion in the judge, and if they mostly talk alike, but some minor details diverge, then one can think that these people did not agree in advance. The same should be true of discrepancies in the gospel narratives.

“So he runs and comes to Simon Peter and to another disciple whom Jesus loved, and says to them: They took the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they laid Him. Immediately Peter and another disciple came out and went to the tomb. The reaction of Mary Magdalene is understandable. She saw that the Lord was not there. Not only was He betrayed, unjustly condemned, crucified, that He was mocked, but His body was taken away somewhere! Although later the Jews spread slander, allegedly the disciples stole the body of the Savior, but how could they steal it if they themselves were at first amazed that they did not find it? How could they steal the body, leaving the linen and burial clothes in the coffin, that is, carrying away, as they say in church hymns, “a naked dead man”? Who needs a naked dead? Yes, if someone tried to commit such a terrible deed, then who would have had time to take off the funeral sheets when people were in fear and were afraid of persecution? If someone had done it, they would have done it very hastily. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that with such cruel wounds, the burial sheets should have dried to the body of a deceased person from gore and ichor. We ourselves know this from our own experience: when we cut a finger and bandage it, then with pain we tear off the bandage from the wound, on which there are always traces of blood, and until the wound is completely healed, bandaging the finger can be quite painful. But here the wound could not heal, and it was not alone - there were many, huge and terrible. Therefore, it was simply impossible to remove the sheets so easily and fold them neatly.

So they ran together. “Immediately Peter and another disciple went out and went to the tomb” (). Peter and John, as we can guess from reading the gospel narratives, were friends, and therefore they supported each other, it is possible that John consoled Peter, who was deeply worried about his threefold denial. Indeed, of all the disciples, John was the only one who, despite his youth, showed extraordinary courage and remained faithful to the Teacher to the end. And so, being together at that time, they ran together to the tomb. But John, as a young man, naturally ran faster. “They both ran together; but the other disciple ran faster than Peter, and came first to the tomb. And, bending down, he saw the sheets lying; but did not enter the tomb "(). Whether from amazement or from fear, he did not dare to enter the coffin, but only looked inside it and, surprised that there were only sheets in it, without a body, he remained standing in a stupor. Peter, however, acted as he always did, impetuously: he, without hesitation, immediately entered the tomb. “After him comes Simon Peter, and enters the tomb, and sees only sheets lying” (). It is interesting that when the Evangelists speak about the disciples of the Savior, they speak about the character of one or another of them in exactly the same way. For example, both the Evangelist John and the Evangelist Luke talk about Martha in such a way that one can conclude that she was practical and thrifty. Luke tells how Martha rebuked the Lord because of Mary, saying, “Behold, Lord, You have left me alone. Why don't you tell her to help me?" And John, reporting on the resurrection of the righteous Lazarus, describes how, after the Savior’s command to roll away the stone, Martha again said: “Lord! He is already four days old and stinks, ”that is, even then she showed her practical attitude to life. Also, when they talk about Peter, both - both the Evangelist John and the Evangelist Luke - speak of his impetuosity, that he sometimes committed rash, drastic actions - such was his mental make-up. For example, John tells how at the Last Supper the apostle Peter did not want the Lord to wash his feet. "God! Will you wash my feet? It will never happen again,” he exclaimed. When the Savior replied that if this did not happen, Peter would not have a part with Him, then the apostle says the exact opposite: “Lord! Not only the legs, but also the arms and the head!” Yes, and Matthew also tells how Peter began to object to the Savior: “Lord! Let this not happen to You!”, to which the Savior said: “Get away from Me, Satan!” So, people, of course, told differently, experienced events, as is typical for all of us, a little differently. Two people cannot perceive the same object in exactly the same way - this is scientific fact. If their descriptions are exactly the same, then this is either some kind of natural phenomenon, or, most likely, a juggling. But at the same time we see amazing coincidences in the Gospels. For example, both Luke and John say that Peter ran to see the tomb. But John also adds that he entered the tomb first, that is, without stopping, he immediately ran inside. These are the exact coincidences in the description of events, although the Evangelists, perhaps, did not specifically think about this. It's just that John, Luke, and Matthew personally knew Peter and described him the way they remembered and perceived him. And Peter, both in Matthew and in Luke, Mark and John, is depicted in exactly the same way: impulsive and simple in character, sometimes committing rash acts, both good and reckless. For example, three Evangelists tell how the Apostle Peter exclaimed on Tabor: “Lord! It’s good for us to be here, let’s make three canopies [that is, three tents, as we would say] – for You, Elijah and Moses.” Also a completely strange, thoughtless statement, perhaps even seeming stupid to us. What can be tents?! Why are they here?! But he didn't think about it. These words broke out of his soul: he wanted to be with the Lord, and he, without thinking about how possible it was, said what he thought. And in the case of visiting the tomb of the Savior, this trait of his character is also manifested: in the way he immediately, without hesitation, entered the tomb. John stopped in indecision, and Peter, with his usual impetuosity, immediately went inside and began to examine what was there. “After him, Simon Peter comes, and enters the tomb, and sees only linen sheets lying, and the cloth that was on His head, not lying with linen sheets, but especially entwined in another place” (). We see that Peter carefully examined everything, without thinking about anything: it is necessary, it is not necessary, it can be done or not. After all, it is known that the Jews were forbidden to touch the dead, and the person who buried the deceased was considered defiled and needed ritual purification. But Peter had no such thoughts. Maybe John just thought about it, why he did not dare to enter the tomb, but Peter immediately did what he wanted. Moreover, he examined everything inside the coffin in detail, so that he also saw neatly folded sheets.

“Then another disciple also entered, who had previously come to the tomb, and saw, and believed” (). I think that he believed, of course, not in the Resurrection of the Savior, but in the fact that the tomb is empty, there is no body. After all, this was already something amazing. There is no need to wonder why the myrrh-bearing women, seeing the empty tomb, believed in the very Resurrection of the Savior, and the disciples only in the reality of the disappearance of His body. The myrrh-bearing women were told about the Resurrection by angels, and Peter and John were told about what had happened by Mary Magdalene, who herself did not yet know about the Resurrection of the Lord.

We see that “the swaddling clothes were lying down, and the kerchief that was on His head, not lying with the swaddling clothes, but especially twisted in another place,” that is, everything was, one might say, neatly folded. Who did it? Did the Savior Himself remove the bandages from Himself and fold them, or did the angels? One way or another, it was clear that everything was done without any haste, and this surprised the apostle even more. Who will, as the hymn says, steal the "naked dead"? If anyone wants to kidnap the deceased, he will do it quickly. Why, then, neatly fold the boards? When a person, having no time, was buried hastily, the funeral clothes consisted of a board, or sir, which was placed on the head, and a shroud, that is, a fabric that covered the body in front and behind. The Jews did not have coffins. The person who was buried calmly, performing the entire rite in full, was wrapped in swaddling clothes, like swaddling a baby. This is how Lazarus was entwined, which is why the Savior said: “Untie him, leave him to go,” after which, so to speak, he was undressed, and he went. The Savior, since there was very little time, was buried only in a shroud, and His face was covered with a special cloth. And so, this board was folded separately: the shroud lay separately and the boards lay separately. Who are these thieves who took the body and neatly folded the tissues?! Who steals so “quietly”, and, moreover, in full view of the guards, who were at the very coffin?! Therefore, the slander of the Jews regarding the theft of the body of the Savior is completely absurd.

“For they did not yet know from the Scriptures that He was to be raised from the dead. So the disciples returned to their homes again. And Mary stood at the tomb and wept. And, when she was crying, she leaned into the tomb and saw two angels sitting in a white robe, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay ”(). Whether this was a separate vision of Mary Magdalene or other myrrh-bearing women were already present, we do not know. It can be assumed that first angels appeared to Mary, and then the Resurrected Savior Himself, but she did not dare to tell anyone about this. When both the angels and the Lord appeared to the other myrrh-bearing women, then they all together announced this to the disciples.

“And he sees two angels sitting in a white robe, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they say to her: wife! Why are you crying? He says to them: they carried away my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid Him ”(). Also thoughtless, coming from the heart, words. She sees that the Lord does not exist, and simply asks, perhaps not realizing that these are angels, but mistaking them for some kind of people. Why did they appear in the tomb? Mary did not think about this, as she was consumed by her terrible grief, aggravated, as it seemed to her, by the theft of the body of the Savior.

“Having said this, she turned back and saw Jesus standing; but did not know that it was Jesus. She did not recognize the Lord, either because He was transformed after His Resurrection, or because in general it is difficult for a person who is convinced of the death of his close relative or friend to see him in a living person, no matter how impossible it is to recognize him, since he believes that it no longer exists and never will. Or maybe some miraculous, supernatural action took place here, that is, her eyes were held back and therefore she did not immediately recognize the Lord.

“Jesus says to her: Wife! Why are you crying? who are you looking for? She, thinking that this is a gardener, says to Him: sir! if you endured it, tell me where you put it, and I will take it” (). It seems to me that in these words one can see the extraordinary grief of Mary Magdalene. And again, as is typical of women who are guided more by feelings than by reason, she says absolutely strange words: "Tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him." How could she alone take His body? This is unthinkable, just as impossible as it would be impossible for the myrrh-bearing women to roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb, although the women did not think about it. And here Mary says this, being drawn by the feeling of the heart, and not guided by reason. "If you carried it, tell me where you put it, and I'll take it." There is no fear in her, no reasoning about how she will do it, but there is only one desire: to serve her Master for the last time.

“Jesus says to her: Mary! She turned and said to Him: Rabbi! - which means: Teacher! (). The Lord called her by name, and it is possible that through this short word of the Savior, grace-filled power touched her heart and she felt that this was Her very Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom she considered dead and even whose body she was afraid to never see again, about Whom she thought that she was separated from Him forever. Or maybe He addressed her with some special intonation, well known to her, because for several years she was constantly with Him, serving Him, like many other pious women. One way or another, but after this one word "Mary" she recognized the Savior. “Converting” (apparently, either turning to Him, or raising her head and looking), she realized that her beloved Teacher was in front of her, and exclaimed: “Rabbi!”, which means “Teacher.”

“Jesus says to her: do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father” (). What does it mean? This does not mean at all that the Savior forbids her to touch Himself, despite the fact that he allowed other myrrh-bearing women and the Apostle Thomas to do this, to whom, like other disciples, he even commanded: “Touch Me.” But, apparently, in a fit of feelings, Mary either hugged the Lord, or grabbed hold of His legs and did not want to let them go. Therefore, the Savior, as it were, reassures her: “Do not touch Me, because it is really Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. This is not a ghost, not a soul, this is Myself, so there is no need to make sure with excessive inquisitiveness that this is really My flesh. “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father” (). In other words, "I am still here, I am truly with the body on earth."

“And go to my brothers and tell them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (). “Go to my brothers,” again the Savior calls His disciples brothers in order to show them that He forgives them for their cowardly behavior, everything that happened recently, during His arrest. “I ascend to My Father and your Father” - that is, you are My brothers, which means that God is the Father and Mine and yours, I adopted you to God. “And to my God and your God…” As a Man I call the Father God, and as the Son of God I adopt you to the Father and make you My brothers.

“Mary Magdalene goes and announces to the disciples that she saw the Lord and that He said this to her” (). We can recall that Mark also tells about the appearance of the Savior, first to Mary Magdalene: “Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he cast out seven demons. She went and told those who were with Him, weeping and weeping; but when they heard that He was alive and she saw Him, they did not believe ”().

Now let's go back to Matthew's story. "Bribing the guards. Jerusalem and environs. Sunday, April 9, 30". “When they [that is, the myrrh-bearing women] were walking, some of the guards, entering the city, announced to the high priests about everything that had happened” (). Of course, the soldiers hardly saw the Resurrected Savior, but they could see the appearance of an angel and, perhaps, hear his good news about the Resurrection of the Lord.

“And these, having assembled with the elders and held a consultation, gave enough money to the soldiers, and said: say that His disciples, having come at night, stole Him while we were sleeping; and if word of this reaches the ruler, we will convince him, and we will save you from trouble. They, having taken the money, did as they were taught; and this word has spread among the Jews to this day. Pay attention to the following words of the Evangelist Matthew: “If a rumor about this reaches the ruler, we will convince him and save you from trouble.” It must be borne in mind that there was an iron discipline in the Roman army. For example, if during a battle one of a dozen warriors fled from the battlefield, then all the other members of this ten were executed; if a dozen fled, they executed a hundred, and if a legion fled, having shown cowardice during the battle, then an execution was carried out by lot - every tenth was executed. Naturally, such strict discipline made the Roman army invincible. If I'm not mistaken, there is even such an expression: "Roman discipline." How could the soldiers, while on duty, allow someone to secretly steal the body, why didn’t they prevent it? Maybe they themselves were afraid of the students? If there was a theft, then they had left their post, but given the Roman discipline, this was unthinkable. After all, there is an opinion that for leaving the post during the protection of any object, the guard was punished extremely cruelly: the clothes of the guilty were set on fire and he himself was thrown alive into this “bonfire”! Therefore, the soldiers could not have shown frivolity while on duty. If the news of the abduction of the deceased had reached Pontius Pilate and he would have believed in the theft, he would definitely have to execute them. True, the Jews promised the guards that everything would be settled. Being cunning people, they probably assumed that they would either give Pilate money, or give him a present, or influence him in some other way: “Don't be afraid, we'll sort everything out. Just say what we ask, and we'll take care of the rest." In fact, they could promise, and subsequently do nothing, because for them the main thing was to spread rumors. Or perhaps the Jews really were interested in the fact that no investigation was carried out and it was not proved that the soldiers lied, and therefore they settled everything.

How incredible it is that the Savior was stolen, we see from the previous story. The disciples themselves were perplexed about where the body of the Lord could be. Besides, if they were locked up in fear, how could they come to the tomb where the guards were? Women, perhaps assuming that they would not be treated as cruelly as men, but, according to custom, much more condescendingly, dared to do this, while the men sat at closed doors. If we take into account the strict Roman discipline and the fact that the disciples were afraid of persecution not only from the Romans, but from all Jews in general, then how can one assume that they committed such a daring act?! Perhaps they were not touched only because they considered it completely senseless and thought that the disciples of the Savior would disperse by themselves and all this would stop very quickly.

Now let's move on to the description of the appearance of the Risen Lord to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, which happened on the same Sunday, April 9 (in general, all these events took place within one day, from morning to late evening). So, Mark speaks of this phenomenon very briefly: “After this, he appeared in a different form to two of them on the road, when they were going to the village” (). And the Evangelist Luke tells about the same in more detail: “On the same day, two of them went to a village, sixty stages from Jerusalem, called Emmaus; and talked among themselves about all these events. And while they were talking and reasoning among themselves, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not recognize Him” (). How were their eyes “held”? We can only guess whether this was a supernatural act or, as I said about Mary Magdalene, they simply could not assume that the Person Who was walking with them was the Savior Himself risen from the dead, in other words, the dead man revived.

“But he said to them: what are you talking about as you walk, and why are you sad? One of them, by the name of Cleopas, answered Him, “Are You one of those who have come to Jerusalem not aware of what has happened in it these days?” (). According to Tradition, the second traveler, although his name is not mentioned here, was the Evangelist Luke himself. “And he said to them: about what? They said to him: what happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; how the chief priests and our rulers betrayed him to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we hoped that it was He who should redeem Israel; but with all that, it is already the third day since this happened. But even some of our women amazed us: they were early at the tomb and did not find His Body and, having come, they said that they also saw the appearance of angels, who say that He is alive. And some of ours went to the tomb and found it just as the women said, but they did not see Him ”(). Look: in half a day, the news of the events spread among all the disciples, and these two travelers - Cleopas and, presumably, Luke already knew about everything that had happened. Although they had not yet seen the Lord Himself, they knew both about the appearance of angels and that the disciples saw the tomb empty. From this one can understand how vividly the students reacted to everything, how they were interested in everything that was happening, how much they were worried. It cannot be said that for them everything was already in the past, that nothing particularly worried them, and if something shocked, it was rather only memories. No, they were worried and could not calm down. Their spiritual struggle had an extraordinary, incomprehensible force for us, they experienced the strongest mental anguish.

“Then He said to them: O foolish and slow of heart to believe everything that the prophets foretold! Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer and enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses, out of all the prophets, He explained to them what was said about Him in all the Scriptures. And they drew near to the village into which they were going; and He showed them the appearance that he wanted to go further ”(). Of course, the Lord did this so that their will would be revealed, so that they would keep Him.

“But they held Him back, saying, stay with us, for the day has already turned towards evening. And He entered and stayed with them. And when he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Of course, you know that in those days you ate food in a reclining position. And behold, he lay down with them. Their food was probably rather modest, because the savings that the Savior's disciples accumulated thanks to donations during His sermon were probably already drying up. (You can recall, for example, the story of the Evangelist John about how the apostles were forced to fish themselves in order for them to have food.) Therefore, there was bread at the meal, maybe something else. “And as he was reclining with them, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. But He became invisible to them ”(). Why did they recognize Him at that moment? There are two main assumptions. Firstly, probably, their hearts were touched by a supernatural Divine action, and secondly, while breaking bread, the Savior, perhaps, said some prayer well known to the apostles, which he always used to say. By this circumstance, which had become habitual for them over several years of constant stay with the Lord, they realized that before them was the Risen Jesus from the dead. But then the Savior became invisible. There are no big contradictions between these two versions, they can be combined.

“And they said to one another, Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us on the road, and as He opened the Scriptures to us?” (). An amazing detail, very understandable, especially for those who are at least theoretically familiar with the blessed sensations experienced by people engaged in mental activity - the Jesus Prayer. “Did not our hearts burn within us…” These words mean that at the time when the disciples were talking with the Lord, grace so enveloped their hearts that it seemed to them that they were on fire, as if some kind of immaterial fire ignited them from within. But after all, we also, when we go even a little deeper into prayer (maybe not everyone is fully aware of this), we feel a certain warmth in our hearts. Various ascetics of piety write a lot about this. When praying deeply and extremely attentively, we can indeed experience the same thing that the apostles experienced at that time - our heart will seem to burn, enveloped in fire. One ascetic even had such a vision in a dream: he saw his heart engulfed in flames.

So, the Evangelist Mark briefly continues: “They returned and announced to the rest; but they did not believe them ”(). And Luke says a little more in detail: “And, having risen at the same hour, they returned to Jerusalem and found together the eleven apostles and those who were with them, who said that the Lord had truly risen and had appeared to Simon. And they told about what happened on the way, and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of bread ”(). Maybe some other disciples did not believe Luke and Cleopas, or perhaps they all accepted the appearance of the Resurrected Savior to Peter on faith, but for some reason did not want to believe what the Emmaus travelers saw (for example, it might seem doubtful to them that the Savior suddenly become invisible. Although Luke’s account does not say that their words were not taken for granted, but, based on psychological considerations, we must understand that it was extremely difficult to believe such extraordinary things, and therefore the disciples of the Savior, of course, hesitated. They believed in something, not in something, or at some point faith in them appeared, and at some point it disappeared - that is, not in one person, but in a whole society of students, albeit a relatively small one, there was a spiritual struggle. Probably, there were some disputes, objections. We see that many of the apostles did not have faith at first, and Thomas generally categorically said that he would not believe until he put his hand into the wounds of the Savior. This means that after the Resurrection of the Lord, and especially on the very first day, there was no complete unanimity among the disciples. Today we are sometimes accused of believing in something unprecedented, accepting, like frivolous children, something impossible, a fairy tale, a myth. However, we see how hard faith was given to the first disciples of the Savior, and this should dispose us to a sincere, unbiased perception of the news of the Resurrection of Christ.

Mark continues: “Finally, he appeared to the eleven themselves, who were reclining at the supper, and reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, that they did not believe those who saw Him resurrected” (). Luke tells how it all happened, again in more detail. If we trust the sequence of events in which they are described in his Gospel, then this happened immediately after the story of the Emmaus travelers. In the "Synopsis" this chapter is called: "The appearance of the Risen Lord to the disciples without Thomas, Jerusalem, Sunday, April 9, 30." “While they were talking about this, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them: Peace be with you. They, embarrassed and frightened, thought that they saw a spirit ”(). Look, they just told about the appearance of the Resurrected Christ to Peter, quite recently Luke and Cleopas themselves received bread from the hands of the Savior (after all, the fact that He broke bread and gave them was also not accidental: taking bread and, perhaps, touching His fingers and palms, they were convinced that this was not a ghost, not a spirit, but a person clothed in flesh), and then - again doubt, a continuation of the internal struggle.

“They, embarrassed and frightened, thought they saw a spirit. But He said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? (). Interestingly, the Greek text does not say "why such thoughts enter" but "why such thoughts rise up in your hearts." This is more in line with the teaching of the Gospel that “evil thoughts proceed from the heart” (): they do not enter, but they come out.

“Look at my hands and at my feet; it is I myself; touch me and see; for the spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see with me” (). It remains unclear from the narrative whether the disciples touched the Lord or not. But judging by the fact that the myrrh-bearing women did this, and Mary Magdalene did not even want to let Him out of her arms, one must think that the apostles, although more restrained, also showed understandable curiosity and touched the Body of the Savior. But since men are more rational people and maintain a sober mind even when, perhaps, this is inappropriate, the Savior, wanting to finally ascertain them, offers a new proof, no longer just touch, but something more. “Look at my hands and at my feet; it is I myself; touch me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see with Me. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet. When they still did not believe for joy and marveled [because it is difficult to contain all this], He said to them: Do you have any food here? They gave Him a piece of baked fish and honeycomb ”(). The disciples offered the Savior the simplest cheap food, which, in fact, was the only thing they could have: baked fish (meaning either usually baked, maybe even without oil, or fried) and honeycomb. Pay attention to such an interesting detail. Usually, when honey is eaten in combs, wax remains, and when a person eats fish, there are always leftovers - bones. And now, the wax and bones lying after the Savior's meal showed that He really ate food; touching its remnants, one could be convinced that He was truly clothed in flesh, that this was a genuine person, and not just his soul.

“They gave Him a piece of baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it and ate before them. I think that when the Savior had already left them, the disciples (although they did not believe it), looking at the remnants of food, again and again returned to the idea that the Resurrection actually happened, despite all the improbability of this event.

“And he said to them, This is what I told you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. The Savior “opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures” only after, by His very appearance and the accompanying life proofs – the touch of His Body and the eating of food – certifies them of the authenticity of His Resurrection. After all, what is the use of an abstract perception of something, if the person himself was not a witness to it? Or did He “open their minds to understand the Scriptures” only after they were convinced of the authenticity of His Resurrection, because they then acquired some faith? When they had faith, then it was already possible to explain the Scriptures.

“And he said to them: Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead on the third day, and to be preached in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins in all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. And I will send the promise of my Father upon you; but remain in the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high.” The meaning of the words of the Savior, apparently, is this: you are witnesses not because you understand the Scriptures, but because in the most crude way, with the help of the sense of touch, you were convinced of the authenticity of My Resurrection.

And here is the story of the same event of the Evangelist John: “On the same first day of the week in the evening, when the doors of the house where His disciples gathered were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle, and said to them: Peace be with you! Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord ”(). The compiler of the Synopsis suggests that these are different descriptions of the same event. Indeed, they are similar, only the Evangelist John adds that this happened already in the evening. And it is not surprising, because when the disciples invited the Lord to eat food with them back in Emmaus, the day was already leaning towards evening. Then they had to return to Jerusalem, which means that the evening was already relatively late. Therefore, in our Orthodox worship, this event, the appearance of the Risen Savior to His disciples, is traditionally remembered during Paschal Vespers, a very touching service at which the Gospel of John is read.

“Jesus said to them a second time: Peace be with you! as the Father sent me, so I send you. Having said this, he blew, and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit. To whom you forgive sins, they will be forgiven; on whom you leave, they will remain on that ”(). With this breath, our Lord Jesus Christ restores the disciples in the apostolic service, restores to them the grace that they lost due to their cowardice during His sufferings. Obviously, the power to forgive sins could only be given to people who were indulgent and sympathetic to human infirmities. The disciples, having shown their own weakness in flight and even in renunciation, should have already been able not to abuse this gift, that is, they should have had that indulgence that a person needs in order to lead weak, sinful people to salvation. Therefore, the Lord will grant them the grace to “bind and loosen” only when they have humbled themselves through their own fall.

It is necessary to pay attention to the words of the Savior, "Peace be with you." At that moment they were of particular importance, because there was a terrible torment in the souls of the disciples, one might say, the Gethsemane night was still going on. World sorrow took possession of their hearts, they experienced such incomprehensible mental suffering, which we cannot even imagine. Perhaps, only some ascetics, tested by God's Providence in the fight against sin, to some extent feel what the apostles felt then. Therefore, when the Lord, appearing to them, said: “Peace be with you!” or: “Rejoice!”, then quite ordinary greetings acquired a particularly deep meaning. Although, of course, not only the words themselves pacified the souls of the disciples, but also the grace that came from the lips of the Savior.

“Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came” (). This concludes the narrative of the events of the first day - Sunday, April 9, 30.

We now turn to the story of the Lord's appearance to the disciples in the presence of Thomas. This also happened in Jerusalem, on Sunday, April 16, 30. “The other disciples said to him [i.e. Thomas]: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: If I do not see the wounds from the nails on His hands, and I do not put my finger in the wounds from the nails, and I do not put my hand in His side, I will not believe ”(). Thomas showed, so to speak, categorical disbelief: “Whatever you tell me about the appearance of the Resurrected Savior and the angels, after all that has happened, I will not accept this until I touch His wounds with my own hands.” In other words: “I will believe when I not only see the Savior appearing to me, but also touch Him myself. Only touch can finally convince me. What if it's just someone who looks like him? Or maybe it's a vision? Of course, we can only guess what the apostle Thomas thought. However, he wanted not only to see or hear the Lord, but also to touch, and precisely His wounds, in order to make sure that in front of him was the same Jesus who was crucified and pierced with a spear in the ribs. Pay attention to the fact that the Apostle Thomas knew about the piercing of the Savior with a spear after His death on the Cross, although he was not present at the Crucifixion. This means that the disciples communicated with each other and told about everything that happened in the last days. As we see from the story of the Emmaus travelers to the Savior and from the words of Thomas, news of this quickly spread and became known to everyone.

“After eight days His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came while the doors were locked, stood in the midst of them and said: Peace be with you!” (). When I spoke about the appearance of the Lord to the disciples for the first time, I left out one detail from the Gospel of John. Luke does not indicate this, but John notices that the Savior appeared behind closed doors. It is clear that this must have caused some embarrassment in the apostles. How can a person clothed in flesh pass through a locked door? Therefore, they needed even more certification, through eating food. And now, for the assurance of Thomas, the Savior also appeared behind closed doors. The fear of the disciples had not yet passed, they were afraid of persecution from the Jews and therefore locked themselves up, letting only those they knew well.

“Jesus came when the doors were closed, stood in the midst of them and said: Peace be with you! Then he says to Thomas: put your finger here and see my hands; give me your hand and put it in my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” ().

“Then he says to Thomas: put your finger here and see my hands; give me your hand and put it in my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (). The gospel does not tell us whether Thomas did it or not. However, the evangelists in general often did not tell about the events to the end, since it was self-evident that everything was done, because it was the order of the Savior Himself. For example, the apostle Peter was ordered to catch a fish with a fishing rod, find a gold coin in her mouth and donate it to the temple. It does not say whether Peter did it or not, but of course it is implied that he did it. Same here, I think. If we compare Thomas' previous categorical expression of his unbelief with his current exclamation, it becomes clear that although the Gospel does not directly say that Thomas touched the wounds of the Savior, it still means that he dared to commit this daring act. Note that the nail wounds were so large that a finger could fit into them. This is quite consistent with what happened at the Crucifixion. And Thomas could put his hand into the ribs. Indeed, the tip of the spear of the Roman soldiers was such that they could put their palm into the wound from the blow male hand without bending it in any way. The spear at that time was a terrible weapon, which the Roman soldiers owned to perfection. It is known from Tradition that the Savior was perforated on the right side, but in such a way that the spear, having passed through the insides of the body, pierced the heart of the Lord. With Roman soldiers, this blow was well trained, because usually left-hand side their breasts were covered with a shield, and the right remained more vulnerable, and therefore they learned to deliver a fatal blow to the heart of the enemy from the right side. Just this disastrous skill was used when the soldiers were convinced of the death of the Savior: He was inflicted, as we would now say, "a control blow." This was done by the soldiers in order to report to the authorities about the authenticity of His death and no longer verify it. The wound turned out to be so big that Foma was able to put his hand into it. I think that although he may have been scared, he could not help but do it. His extraordinary desire to see for himself, the thirst to know the truth made him commit such a daring act.

“Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” (). He sees a Man in front of him - and calls Him God. If the words “Son of God” in Nathanael’s confession: “You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel” (), could also suggest some kind of figurative meaning, then the words of Thomas, spoken at the moment: “My Lord and my God”, - no more ambiguity is allowed. That is, Thomas, having shown though sincere, but still disbelief, received a certificate so strong that he understood: Jesus, Risen from the dead, is not just a prophet or a righteous man adopted by God, but God Himself.

“Jesus says to him: you believed because you saw me; blessed are those who have not seen and believed" (). The Lord praises those who believed without showing such incredible curiosity now, praises them for the fact that, although they did not see it themselves, they accepted the truth from other people's words. However, we must understand that together with Thomas, we all, so to speak, put our hand into the ribs of the Savior. Thomas was the same person as we are, he had the same experiences and doubts as we do, we are no different from him. Therefore, since the Apostle Thomas believed, then we, although we did not see, must also believe. If we are strongly overcome by doubts, let us remember Thomas, that he dared to put his very hand into the ribs of the Lord, into His terrible wound.

Now let's move on to the next event. Further in the "Synopsis" we read: "The appearance of the Lord at the Sea of ​​Tiberias. Restoration of Peter in apostolic dignity. Exact date this event is unknown, but, of course, it happened in the same year, on one of the forty days from Easter to Ascension. “After that, Jesus again appeared to His disciples at the Sea of ​​Tiberias. He appeared like this: Simon Peter was together, and Thomas, called the Twin, and Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples ”(). The Savior told the disciples to meet Him in Galilee, and apparently the apostles traveled there, firmly believing the Lord that at one time or another He would definitely appear to them, although they did not know exactly when this should happen. At some point, they needed to buy food for themselves, and they probably didn’t have any money by that time, but from the crafts they knew only one thing - fishing.

“Simon Peter says to them, I am going to fish. They say to him: we go with you. We went and immediately got into the boat, and caught nothing that night. [It is believed that night fishing should be more successful than daytime fishing, at least some types of fish are caught better at night.] And when it was already morning, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus says to them: children! do you have any food? They answered Him: no "(). Note the extraordinary, tender, and meek love of the Savior. He addresses them with such affectionate words: “Children! Do you have any food? They answered Him, "No." The Lord pretended to be in need of food, and the disciples may have thought that He was asking them for something to eat. Of course, the Lord, as the Omniscient, Himself knew about everything, but He needed the apostles, having given such an answer, to fully realize that they had nothing.

“He said to them, cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will catch it. They threw, and could no longer pull out the nets from the multitude of fish ”(). The Savior repeats the miracle that He performed during the call to the apostolic service of Peter, Andrew, James and John. He repeats to remind them that He is the One who once called them - Jesus, risen from the dead.

And “then the disciple whom Jesus loved [that is, John the Theologian, who showed insight and sensitivity of the heart], says to Peter…”. He speaks precisely to Peter because he was his closest friend, with whom, being always there, he shared everything, with whom they constantly cared for each other. “He says to Peter: This is the Lord. But Simon Peter, hearing that it was the Lord, girded himself with a garment, for he was naked, and threw himself into the sea. Fishing took place at night, the place was probably deserted, and so that during this, although unsuccessful, fishing, nothing would interfere with him, Peter worked naked. After the words of John, he also did not begin to dress, but only girded himself, in order to cover his nakedness a little. Of course, he could not resist and, showing his usual impetuosity, without waiting for the rest of the students to come in a boat with a net full of fish, he rushed into the lake and reached the shore. By the way, here it is appropriate to recall the episode with the miraculous procession of the Savior on the water, when Peter asked the Lord to come to Him, and then, fearing a strong wind, he began to drown. If we compare these two events, we can conclude that he began to drown not from lack of skill in swimming, but because the storm was so great and terrible that even a person who feels himself in the water element should have died quite easily. Yes, perhaps, and it would be strange to think that the fishermen did not know how to swim, because from their youth they spent their whole lives on the water.

“And the other disciples sailed in a boat, for they were not far from the land, about two hundred cubits, dragging a net with fish. When they came to the ground, they saw a decomposed fire and fish and bread lying on it ”(). It turns out that fishing had no practical significance, that it served only to certify the disciples. In some way incomprehensible to us, the Lord had already prepared both fish and bread in order to feed the apostles in the same way as He fed the Jews with manna in the wilderness. Maybe He miraculously created food out of nothing, or maybe He transferred it from another place, as quails were transferred for the Israelites, and then He Himself kindled a fire and prepared everything, taking care of the disciples as a father or mother takes care of their children.

“Jesus says to them: bring the fish that you have now caught” (). He said so, of course, not because the fish that was baked at that time on the fire was not enough (it would be strange if the Savior did not have enough fish to feed everyone), but so that they would be convinced by the very sight of this catch the reality of a miracle. Then Peter also, not neglecting the opportunity to help his comrades, went and began to pull out the net. “Simon Peter went and dragged out to the ground a net filled with large fish, of which there were one hundred and fifty-three; and with such a multitude, the network did not break ”(). Why is the number so accurate? Some see this as some kind of allegory, and I will not categorically deny its possibility. However, let us remember that during the story of the cases of the miraculous multiplication of bread by the Savior and the feeding of thousands of people, the evangelists indicate how many were hungry, and how many loaves and fish were, and how much was accumulated from their remnants (ukruh, as it is said in Slavonic). All this was calculated not for the sake of some kind of allegory, but in order for the students, so to speak, to feel it all with their own hands and understand the reality of the event, as if they could feel the greatness of the miracle. The same thing happened now. “One hundred and fifty-three fish, and besides, the net did not break,” remarks the Evangelist John, who himself was a fisherman and for whom such a circumstance was surprising. In his opinion, the network had to break through, and the fact that this did not happen was also a miracle in itself. “Jesus says to them: Come, have dinner. Of the disciples, none dared to ask him: who are you?, knowing that this is the Lord ”(). Why is there such detail? Perhaps there was some change in the appearance of the Savior, or perhaps the evangelist, making such a remark, wants to show us that it was obvious to everyone that it was Jesus Himself. Because of this miracle, and perhaps because they recognized Him, no one asked who he was, no one demanded any identification. Here, unlike the case with the appearance of the Savior to the Emmaus travelers, when Luke and Cleopas did not immediately understand that the Lord Himself was in front of them, He revealed himself to the disciples as soon as they pulled the fish ashore. No one else doubted and no one questioned anything.

“Jesus says to them: Come, have dinner. None of the disciples dared to ask Him: who are You?, knowing that it is the Lord. Jesus comes, takes the bread and gives them, also the fish. This is the third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead. Perhaps the Savior Himself shared a meal with them, and if not, then all the same, just like fishing, it was intended to assure the disciples. After all, taking fish and bread and distributing them to the apostles, the Lord could, as usual, accidentally touch them with His hands, and if this did not happen, then the disciples, receiving food from His hands and eating it, felt its materiality. and therefore they could no longer doubt the authenticity of His resurrection and appearance in the flesh. “This is the third time Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead. When they were eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter: Simon of Jonas! do you love me more than they do?" () In these words, there was probably some kind of reproach, because earlier Peter thought that he loved the Lord more than the other apostles. In addition, this was said in front of several disciples, and, it seems to me, Peter should have been embarrassed by this hint that one cannot consider oneself better than others in anything. He believed that he was better, said that if everyone renounces, then he will never, and it was he who renounced. The rest, although fainthearted, at least did not renounce, and he showed self-confidence, a sense of superiority and fell below the others. The Lord, not wanting to fully blame him, not wanting to hurt him, only gives him a hint of this. “Simon of Jonas, do you love me more than they do? Peter says to Him: Yes, Lord! You know I love you" (). He no longer says: “Yes, I love You, indeed, more than they do!” – but only confirms that he loves Him. “Jesus says to him: feed my lambs. Another time he says to him: Simon Jonin! do you love me? Peter says to Him: Yes, Lord! You know I love you. Jesus says to him, feed my sheep. Says to him for the third time: Simon Jonin! do you love me? Peter was sad because he asked him for the third time, do you love Me? and said to Him: Lord! You know everything, You know that I love You. Jesus says to him: feed my sheep. With such a threefold question about love and the command to “feed the sheep,” the Savior, without any reproof or reproach, again elevates Peter to his former apostolic dignity, which he lost during the threefold renunciation. He does not subject him to punishment for the reason that the greatest mental anguish of the student was already the most severe punishment, much more terrible than any external one. “Peter was sad because he asked him for the third time, do you love Me? and said to Him: Lord, You know everything, You know that I love You. He was saddened because the two-fold question could somehow still be considered an accident, and in the three-fold one there was already a certain unspoken reproach, a call to humility. However, in response, Peter speaks very simple words, showing (to us, of course, and not to the Savior) his entire inner state: “Lord, You know everything [that is, You know what is inside my soul, in my heart], You know that I Love you". Jesus tells him, "Feed my sheep." And then He predicts to Peter his suffering death, that later he will show firmness, courage and suffer for the Lord, although recently, having promised to die for the Savior, he showed cowardice. “Truly, truly, I say to you: when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you wanted to, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you, and lead you where you do not want to. He said this [adds the Evangelist John], making it clear by what death Peter will glorify God. And having said this, he said to him: follow me. From the Tradition it is known by what death the Apostle Peter glorified God: he was crucified upside down, because he himself did not want to be crucified like the Savior, considering himself unworthy even in this to be compared with Him. Thus, he showed extraordinary, inhuman courage, devotion to the Lord and love for Him. This became possible for him, of course, because he had the grace of God, but we must not forget that grace comes and is kept through humility. Everything that happens to us at different periods of our lives happened to all the apostles at the same time: they first humbled themselves, realizing their weakness, and only then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on them. Not only because of their virtues, but also because of their humility, they became able to receive Him into themselves.

And we experience the same thing at different times in our lives, it happens to us depending on our internal circumstances. A person who has truly humbled himself, who has realized his weakness to the highest degree, is able to withstand any temptations, although he is saved, of course, not by humility itself, but by the grace of God, which he attracts to himself through him. “And having said this, he said to him, Follow me. Peter, turning, sees the disciple, whom Jesus loved, who, at the supper, bowed to His breast, and said: “Lord! who will betray you? Seeing him, Peter says to Jesus: Lord! what is he?” (). Some, out of inexperience, believe that Peter, as it were, reproaches John the Theologian for following them, showing something like envy, but this is unthinkable. We see that the apostles Peter and John were friendly, and therefore Peter, on the contrary, wished that John would go with him, next to the Lord. But the Savior requires unquestioning obedience. “Jesus says to him: If I want him to stay until I come, what is it to you? you follow me" (). In other words: "Do not think about him, in this case, friendship should not prevent you from serving the Lord." Indeed, we see that circumstances separated the apostles Peter and John. According to legend, John stayed with the Mother of God until Her Dormition in Jerusalem and did not go out to preach, while Peter, on the contrary, preached a lot, first in Jerusalem, and after being expelled from it, already outside of Palestine. “And this word passed among the brethren, that that disciple would not die, but Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but: if I want him to remain until I come, what is it to you?” (). Since the Evangelist John outlived all the apostles and reached a ripe old age, he was forced to dissuade his disciples from the fact that he would never die. It seemed so to his disciples, perhaps because they believed that the end of the world was about to come and the apostle would live until the second Christ's coming. John, who personally heard the Lord, wanted to reassure them in this regard, wanted to eliminate the wrong opinion about the end of the world (as if it should come during his lifetime), and therefore he dwells on these words separately, explaining what they really meant. deed.

The next chapter of the "Synopsis" is called: "The blessing of the apostles to preach throughout the world." Location: Mountain in Galilee. Date: 30 (exact date unknown). Here is how the Evangelist Matthew tells about this: “The eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus commanded them, and when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, while others doubted. And Jesus drew near and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen" (). The Synopsis says: “A mountain in Galilee,” but there is an assumption that in fact we are talking about a small Galilee. The inhabitants of Jerusalem called the Mount of Olives so, because it was on it that the Galileans stopped when they came to worship in the holy city of Jerusalem. Of course, we cannot categorically state this, but it is obvious that such an opinion corresponds to the narration of the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles that the Lord ascended precisely from the Mount of Olives, after uttering approximately the same words. This confirms the assumption that it is not the real Galilee that is meant, but the so-called Little Galilee on the outskirts of Jerusalem. We see that even now, just before the Ascension of the Savior, some disciples still doubted that the Lord Jesus Christ was before them - it was so difficult for them to comprehend this seemingly simple, but so incredible truth! The Lord said, "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." How to understand these words? The Lord is with us by His divinity as the omnipresent Son of God. He penetrates into our souls and hearts by His divine action, and we clearly feel His presence. However, in the Body, as a Man, He is no longer with us, but is “at the right hand of the Father”; The Evangelist Mark speaks of this: “And so the Lord, after speaking with them, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went and preached everywhere with the Lord's assistance and the reinforcement of the word with subsequent signs. Amen" (). Thus, by the Body the Lord is at the right hand of God, and by His Divine action He is with us. If we live according to the gospel, if, in particular, we pray correctly, we clearly and really feel His presence, sometimes, perhaps, closer than the presence of any person nearby.

Although, perhaps, this does not quite relate to the topic of our conversation, which is dedicated exclusively to the very event of the Resurrection of Christ, but I think that it will not be useless to tell a little about the meaning of the Savior's commandment regarding preaching. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ...” It is said “in the name”, and not “in the names”, and at the same time three names are used: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” . This means that here, in the shortest form, the secret of consubstantiality is revealed to us. Holy Trinity. "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." The Savior no longer sets forth His teaching in detail, because it had to be resurrected in the memory of the disciples by the action of the Holy Spirit. But we must pay attention to the following: baptism does not save in itself, but only on the condition that everything commanded is kept. Some try to baptize someone at any cost and believe that baptism will definitely save this person, the Lord will take care of him, regardless of his life. Unfortunately, we are also doing the wrong thing when we commemorate in the service of people who, although baptized, do not live. church life. This baptism will not only do them no good, but it will be condemnation. And the saint believes that commemoration at the service, especially at the liturgy, although baptized people who have fallen away from the Church, does not benefit them, but harms them. Similarly, communion of an unworthy person serves him not for salvation, but for condemnation.

So, baptism does not save in itself, but only on the condition of observing everything that the Savior taught. Although, on the other hand, without the grace of baptism, we, of course, are not at all capable of fulfilling the commandments of God, because even with its assistance, this does not always work out for us properly, because of our weakness and craftiness. The signs of true faith are indicated by the apostle Mark: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned. Those who believe will be accompanied by these signs: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will take up snakes, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them; lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” We must not justify ourselves by saying this only to the apostles. If we were true believers, then similar signs would be performed on us. We know that throughout the many centuries of the existence of the Christian Church there have always been people who, although they lived centuries later, even millennia after this promise of the Savior and the preaching of the apostles, such as Father or, nevertheless performed equally great signs. Hence, these signs are only a sign of true faith. Of course, I'm not saying this so that we consciously strive to perform miracles, so that one of us tries to take snakes. No, but we should at least just humble ourselves and realize our weakness, our wretchedness. After all, those who showed such great signs also did not want miracles, but only wanted to acquire the true faith, while miracles were an accompanying phenomenon.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that the words of the Savior have approximately the same meaning in the Gospel of Mark as in the Gospel of Matthew. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned ”(). This means that if you are baptized, but do not begin to believe, baptism will not help you (of course, this means not only mental faith, but also living faith).

The end of the story of the Resurrection is taken in the “Synopsis” from the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: “For I initially taught you what I myself received, that is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was risen on the third day, according to the Scriptures, that Cephas appeared, then the twelve; then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, of whom most are still alive, and some have died; then he appeared to James, also to all the apostles, and after all he appeared to me, as to some kind of monster ”(). From this story we see that the Savior appeared to many people. The myrrh-bearing women are not mentioned here, there were maybe about ten of them, but it is said that at first the Lord appeared to the twelve apostles, and then to more than five hundred brothers “at one time”. It is not entirely clear what is meant by the expression "at the same time": either in general the period from the Resurrection to the Ascension, or the fact that all these people were together at that moment. "Of whom most are still alive." At the time when the Apostle Paul wrote this epistle, most of the disciples were still alive, that is, there were a lot of direct witnesses of the Resurrection. “And some have died. Then he appeared to James, and also to all the apostles. What is meant by "all the apostles" when the twelve were just mentioned? - We are talking about seventy. Thus, if we add up even the approximate numbers of all those who have personally seen the Lord, we get quite big number: twelve and seventy apostles, about ten myrrh-bearing women, five hundred brothers - a total of about six hundred people. The resurrected Savior was seen not by one, not by two people, but by about six hundred! This is a lot. After that, not to believe means to show a completely rude and unjustified arbitrariness: I don’t want to accept, that’s all. This is similar to the renunciation of the testimony of the resurrection of Christ by soldiers who were bribed for some pennies.

Further in the "Synopsis" we read: "The Ascension of the Lord. Mount of Olives near Bethany. Thursday, May 18, 30. Pay attention: everything is known absolutely exactly about the suffering and resurrection of the Savior - the dates, the month, the historical figures associated with these events - and yet people do not want to believe. Yes, it's unfathomable, can't fit in human mind, but at the same time, since there are eyewitness accounts and evidence, the fact itself must be recognized, even if it was incredible. “And so the Lord, after speaking with them, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went and preached everywhere, with the Lord's assistance and the reinforcement of the word with subsequent signs. Amen "(), - narrates the evangelist Mark. Luke adds: “And he brought them out of the city as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And when he blessed them, he began to move away from them and ascend to heaven. They worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they always stayed in the temple, glorifying and blessing God. Amen" (). The Lord ascended into Heaven with His Body. What does it mean? This is not a manifestation of anger and not a refusal to save the world, no. But since the world did not accept His teachings, He ascended to heaven and provided an opportunity - a "historical pause" - for repentance to those who still want to respond to the preaching, if not of Himself, then of His disciples. In the Ascension of the Savior, on the contrary, His special mercy towards us is manifested, and not a renunciation of the world, as it may appear to someone with a superficial glance. An analogy can be drawn with the event of the healing of the Gadarene possessed. After the Lord healed him, the inhabitants of Gadarene, either fearing to lose their property, or because of resentment due to the death of their flock, begged the Savior to leave them. The Lord really left them, but left them a healed possessed man, who preached in Decapolis about the miracle that had happened. Thus, instead of just wrath and the punishment they deserved, the Savior showed only His love to the Gadarene inhabitants. Likewise in this case. The Savior was not accepted by mankind both in the person of the Jewish people and in the person of the Gentiles (after all, both Pontius Pilate and the soldiers rejected Him and unjustly executed Him), but instead of Himself, He left His disciples, so that they would already preach to people who refused Him and call them to repentance.

Now let's move on to the narration of the Acts of the Apostles. “I wrote the first book to you, Theophilus, about everything that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day on which He ascended, giving the Holy Spirit a command to the apostles, whom He chose, to whom He showed Himself alive, according to His suffering, with many faithful proofs, appearing to them for 40 days and speaking about the Kingdom of God ”(). “With many correct proofs…” Of course, we are not talking about logical proofs, but, so to speak, about vital, tangible ones. “And having gathered them together, He commanded them: Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but you, a few days after this, will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Wherefore they came together and asked Him, saying, “Are you not at this time, O Lord, restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (). The disciples, who had not yet been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, which would come upon them only ten days after the Ascension, on Pentecost, thought humanly, thinking that it was the earthly dominion of the descendant of the prophet David that would be established over the people of Israel, and perhaps over all of humanity. the eternal King, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior leads them away from this narrow, wrong thought. “He said to them: It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set in His own power [that is, because of repentance, these terms can be increased, but because of negligence and depravity they are shortened], but you will receive power when it comes to you the Holy Spirit; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. Having said this, He arose before their eyes, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And when they looked at the sky at the time of His ascension, suddenly two men in white clothes appeared to them and said: Men of Galilee! why are you standing and looking at the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go up into heaven. This was undoubtedly an amazing sight: suddenly, in front of everyone's eyes, the Lord began to rise and a cloud embraced Him. Of course, it was not an ordinary cloud, but a cloud of grace, like that, which dawned on Tabor the apostles and from which a voice was heard heavenly god Father. A similar cloud even now delighted the Lord Jesus Christ, and the disciples, probably for a long time, more than one hour, stood in that place and looked at the sky. The shaking of their whole being was so strong that angels had to appear to calm them and command them to leave from there.

So, from now on, the Lord abides by His flesh in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father, although, of course, this must be understood figuratively. God has no form and is an infinite Being, completely indescribable, Who cannot be imagined (and the very word "imagination" already indicates the presence of some kind of image). Therefore, the expression "sit down at the right hand of God" (like the one sitting on the right side of the King) is only a designation of the power and greatness that the Lord assumed by humanity.

However, this does not mean that if our Lord Jesus Christ is in a heavenly world incomprehensible to us, then His human flesh has somehow changed, He has ceased to be fully Human. Of course, His place of residence is located somewhere above, and not in physical space. For us, this is an incomprehensible mystery, but it was slightly revealed to those who reached such a high spiritual state that they were taken up to heaven, saw the Lord, communicated with Him, or even touched Him. Although this is the rarest phenomenon, which few of the saints are honored with, it happens that the Savior appears to some of His disciples even now, such as, for example, the reverend. During the liturgy, when the deacon is supposed to say: “And forever and ever…”, waving his orarion at the people, the ascetic turned to the people and suddenly saw the Savior standing in the air in a host of angels. The Lord blessed all the brethren in the temple, and especially Father Seraphim, and this so shocked the monk that he seemed to be petrified and could no longer continue the service. He was led into the altar, where for about two hours he stood either turning pale or blushing, completely immersed in himself, and only then was he able to tell his spiritual leaders about this phenomenon. A similar phenomenon was to the elder, who, instead of the image of the Savior on the icon, saw the living Lord Himself. He said that he was filled with such grace that if this vision had lasted another moment, he would have died, human nature would not have endured this. The same happened with the blessed Niphon. Thus, we must believe that the Lord truly dwells in heaven with His pure Flesh.

The conclusion of the story about the Resurrection and Ascension is taken from the Gospel of John: “Jesus did many things before His disciples and other miracles, which are not written in this book. But this is written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So that you not only believe, but also, "believing, have life in His name." Or, as the Greek literally says, "had life in His name." This reminds us, and especially those who practice the Jesus Prayer, of how we should live - constantly abiding "in His name." When we sin, we seem to go beyond His name, and when we live righteously, we are “in His name” – inside the Lord Himself. “This disciple testifies of this, and wrote this, and we know that his testimony is true. Jesus created many other things, but if we could write about them in detail, then I think the world itself would not contain the books that were written. Indeed, the evangelists wrote very briefly, they only mentioned some miracles, saying only that the Lord healed many sick, lame and blind people. I think that many details of those appearances of the Savior that were to His disciples after His Resurrection are also omitted. For example, the apostle Paul says: “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,” and apart from such a brief mention, nothing more is said about this phenomenon. If it was even a single one, the details of it would also be interesting. And if this refers to individual appearances to five hundred brothers during the entire period from the Resurrection to the Ascension, then imagine how many different interesting stories could be, even more so if these events were described in detail!

“There are many other things that Jesus did; but if I wrote about it in detail, then I think the world itself could not contain the books written ”(). Even if we attribute these words of the Apostle John the Theologian only to the event of the Resurrection, they would still be true. The closer they are to the truth, if we mean the whole life of the Savior, all the countless, incomprehensible, but, nevertheless, real miracles that He performed during His preaching.

Question: According to your interpretation of the Savior's words: "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father," it turns out that these words were spoken as a consolation. I heard the opinion that they were a prohibition for Mary Magdalene, because there was something sensual in her arms. She did not understand who was in front of her.

Answer: But why did Mary Magdalene have something sensual, while other myrrh-bearing women did not?! Does she only have one? And only she was forbidden to touch the Savior?! However, the Evangelist John, on the contrary, tells in detail that it was she who was the first or one of the first to see the resurrected Lord, and shows her touching and completely pure feelings. Could she have something unclean? Perhaps she had some kind of unbelief, but the other apostles had it too. For this, the Savior allowed them to touch Him in order to strengthen faith in them.

Question: I was very surprised by your interpretation, I thought that these words of the Lord were a reprimand.

Answer: Why should they be reprimanded? Perhaps you thought that the words of the Apostle Peter only expressed envy towards the Apostle John the Theologian: “Why is he following us, let him leave us?”

There are, of course, some other, allegorical, interpretations that draw an analogy between Mary Magdalene and Eve, but I did not use any allegorical interpretations because the purpose of my conversation was to talk about the Resurrection of Christ; I tried to interpret this real event literally.

Question: Blessed Theophylact says that "the other Mary" or "Mary of Jacob" is the Mother of God Herself.

Answer: Yes, there is such a version. This refers to Jacob, the son of Joseph the Betrothed. But since this opinion is based only on conjecture, I think that it, although contained in the Synaxar, is still unlikely. One can recall the honorary of Easter: “The angel cried out for the Gracious: Pure Virgin, rejoice, and again the river, rejoice. Your Son is risen three days from the tomb. From these words it follows that the angel announced Mother of God about the Resurrection separately. Although, on the other hand, he could announce, of course, at the same time as other myrrh-bearing women…