a sanctification, and a stumbling block, and a rock of offense to both houses of Israel... and many of them will stumble, and fall, and be broken. In the present case, Jesus understood Himself to be under the stone. Those who fall on this stone are those of the Jews who, tempted by His humiliated state, did not accept His teaching. For such people, repentance was easy, and they endured only one punishment – the deprivation of blessings. But there were also people among those who did not believe in Christ, on whom the very stone had to fall in order to crush them, because they sinned not out of weakness and ignorance, but out of malice and violence; they were unrepentant, and therefore unworthy of pardon. One of these terrible falls followed with the destruction of Jerusalem" ("The Last Days of the Life of Jesus Christ").

The chief priests and Pharisees, embittered at Jesus for publicly denouncing them, would have been ready to take Him and immediately kill Him with their own hands, but they were afraid that the people would intercede for Him, considering Him if not as the Messiah, then as the Prophet.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

of the king's son

As Jesus continued to speak in parables, he said to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like the wedding feast that the king has made for his son. The guests were invited by the king to this feast in advance, and therefore could prepare themselves to come to him on the appointed day at his first call; However, they did not go when the king sent his servants to call them. Then the king again sent with him to say that everything was ready, that they were only to stop to begin the feast: come! But still they did not go; some went to their field, others engaged in trade, while others insulted and killed the slaves sent to them. Then the enraged king sent an army, destroyed the murderers and burned their city, but did not cancel the wedding feast, but sent his servants to the crossroads to invite to the feast all who were found, since the feast was ready, and those who were invited were unworthy to take part in it

62. The king goes out to the guests, sees among them a man who is not dressed in wedding clothes, and asks him: "Friend! How did you come here not in wedding clothes?" Then the king ordered his servants to bind his hands and feet and throw him out of the brightly lit royal chambers of the banquet into the outer darkness: let him weep there and gnash his teeth with vexation and cold!"