The Jews were tempted by His humiliation in Jesus Christ, and they demanded of Him such a sign that would clearly indicate His divine dignity as the Messiah. The miracles that Christ performed out of His love for suffering people, through the prayers of individuals, were not enough for them. They hypocritically, like enemies, ask for a sign, and therefore He calls them "a wicked and adulterous generation" (Matt. 12:39; cf. Luke 11:29) in the sense that they are unfaithful to God, and this unfaithfulness was pointed out by the prophets, who presented the idolatry of the Jews in the form of adultery of God, adultery (see Isa. 57:3; Ezek. 16:15, 23-27). The Lord says that such a sign will not be given to them and points only to the greatest miracle in the past, which became a prototype of the new: the preservation of the prophet Jonah in the belly of the whale for three days; in the same way, after three days of bodily death, Christ will be resurrected. In fact, Christ stayed in the tomb for one day and two nights, but in the East it was always customary to consider a part of the day or night as a whole (examples: 1 Sam. 30:12; Gen. 42:17-18; 2 Chron. 10:5-12, etc.). The Ninevites, the inhabitants of the city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom on the banks of the Tigris, north of Babylon, who repented as a result of the preaching of the prophet Jonah, will condemn the Jews at the upcoming General Judgment for not heeding the preaching of their Messiah and not wanting to repent in their stubbornness. The Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba, who came to Solomon (1 Kings 10) from Arabia, will also condemn the Jews, since she came from afar to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and the Jews did not want to listen to the Incarnate Wisdom of God Itself, Who is "greater than Solomon." Further, the Lord tells a parable about an unclean spirit that went out of a man and returned to him with others who were even more evil than himself. With this parable, the Lord clearly explains that even though He made the Jews believe in Himself by some amazing miracle, their moral depravity is so strong that after a while their unbelief will arise with even greater strength and stubbornness. Unbelief and depravity in them are the same evil spirit from the parable of the demoniac man. If a person remains negligent, idle, inattentive to himself, then the evil spirit and passions, once expelled from him, return to him with much greater force.

A woman glorifies the Mother of Christ

One woman was so struck by the Lord's conversation that she could not restrain her delight and publicly glorified the Lord and His Most-Pure Mother, Who was with His named brethren, only outside the house (see Matt. 12:46 and Mark 3:31). According to tradition, this woman was the servant of Martha (Luke 10:38), Markela, and therefore at the feast of the Mother of God this passage is always added to the Gospel about the Lord's visit to Mary and Martha and is read as one Gospel." Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the breasts that nourished thee" (Luke 11:27), or in other words: blessed is she who gave birth to and brought up such a teacher. Here begins the glorification of the Mother of God in the fulfillment of Her own prophecy: "From now on all will bless Me." The holy Evangelist Matthew points out that it was at this very time that the Mother of the Lord and His imaginary brothers stood outside the house and sent word to Him that they were unable to squeeze in because of the multitude around Him. The Lord always had tender feelings for His Mother, and even when He was crucified, He worried about Her and entrusted Her to the care of His beloved disciple, the Apostle John. But at that moment, in preaching to the people, He showed everyone that doing the will of the Father in Heaven is higher than His kindred feelings: "Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother" (Matt. 12:50; cf. Mark 3:35; cf. Luke 8:21). Comparing the narratives of all four Gospels, we can see that the mother of all these "brothers" of Jesus was Mary of Cleopas, whom St. John calls "the sister of His mother" (John 19:25), Mary of Cleopas was considered a cousin of the Mother of the Lord, since the Mother of God was the only daughter of Joachim and Anna. According to one legend, that Mary was the wife of Cleopas, who was the father of Jesus' "brothers". In other words, these "brothers" were the children of Joseph the Betrothed from his first marriage. Bringing the two legends into agreement, it is quite possible to assume that the "brothers" were both the children of Joseph and (according to the law of kinship) the wife of his brother, who died childless, or a close relative of Mary of Cleopas. In any case, among the Jews, "brothers" were called not only brothers, but also cousins, second cousins, and close relatives in general.

The Teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Parables

About the Sower; Of the tares; About the invisibly growing seed; On the mustard seed; About leaven; About the treasure hidden in the field; About the pearl of great price; The word parable is a translation of two Greek words: "paravoli" and "parimia". Parimia in literal translation means "a short saying expressing the rule of life" (such, for example, are the Proverbs of Solomon); Paravoli is a story that has a hidden meaning and expresses the highest spiritual truths in images taken from everyday life. The Gospel parable is, in fact, paravolia. The parables set forth in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and in parallel passages by two other synoptics, Mark and Luke, were pronounced by the Lord in front of such a multitude of people that the Lord Jesus Christ had to enter the boat in order to get away from the crowd besieging Him, and from the boat to address the people standing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret ("sea"). Chrysostom explains: "The Lord spoke in parables in order to make His word more expressive, to imprint it more deeply in the memory of those who heard, and to present the deeds themselves to the eyes." The Lord's parables are allegorical teachings, images and examples borrowed by the Lord from the everyday life of the Jewish people and from the surrounding nature.To the disciples' question: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" the Lord answered: "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them" (Matt. 13:10-11; cf. Mark 4:10-11 and Luke 8:9-10). The disciples of the Lord, as future heralds of the Gospel, were given knowledge of Divine truths through a special grace-filled enlightenment of the mind, although not in full perfection before the descent of the Holy Spirit. All the rest, lacking such knowledge, were not ready to accept and understand these truths, which was the reason for the moral coarseness and false idea of the Messiah and His Kingdom, spread by the scribes and Pharisees. Isaiah prophesied about this (6:9-10). If these morally corrupt and spiritually coarse people are shown the truth as it is, without putting it into something understandable to them, then they will not see it when they see it, and when they hear it, they will not hear it. Only clothed in a flowing veil, combined with ideas about well-known objects, does it, the truth, become accessible to perception and understanding: non-violently, but by itself, the coarse thought rises from the visible to the invisible, from the external to the highest spiritual meaning. Though Asaph said this of himself, yet as a prophet he was a type of the Messiah, as is evident from the following words of the same verse: "I will speak divination of old," which, in fact, befits only the Omniscient Messiah, and not mortal man. The hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God are known, of course, only to the hypostatic Wisdom of God.

The Parable of the Sower

In the parable of the Sower, the Lord means Himself by the Sower, by the seed the Word of God preached by Him, and by the soil on which the seed falls, the hearts of those who hear. The Lord vividly reminded them of their native fields, through which the road passes, in some places overgrown with thorny bushes, sometimes stony, covered only with a thin layer of earth. Sowing is a beautiful image of preaching the Word of God, which, falling on the heart, according to its condition, remains barren or bears fruit, greater or less." Whoever has, to him will be given, and he will abound; but whoever does not have even that which he has will be taken away from him," the Lord repeats repeatedly in various parts of the Gospel (for Matt. 13:12, 25:29; Luke 19:26, etc.). The meaning of this proverb is that the rich with diligence becomes richer and richer, and the poor with laziness loses even the latter. In a spiritual sense, this means: you, Apostles, with the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God already granted to you, can penetrate deeper and deeper into these mysteries, understand them more and more perfectly. The people would have lost even that scanty knowledge of these mysteries which had been preserved in them, if in the revelation of such mysteries they had not been given to help them by a flowing speech, much more suitable for the people. St. Chrysostom explains it this way: "To him who desires and strives to acquire the gifts of grace, God Himself grants everything; but if there is neither desire nor effort in anyone, even that which he thinks he has will not profit him.' He whose mind is darkened, and whose heart is hardened in sin, so that he does not understand the Word of God, this Word, lies on the surface of the mind and heart, without taking root, like a seed on the road, open to all who pass by, and the evil one, Satan or the demon, easily kidnaps him, making what he hears fruitless. The stony ground is represented by those who are carried away by the preaching of the Gospel as pleasant news, sometimes even sincerely and sincerely, finding pleasure in preaching, but in their hearts they are cold, hard, and motionless as a stone. Such people are unable to change their way of life for the sake of the requirements of the Gospel teaching, to abandon their favorite sins, which have become habitual, and to struggle with temptations, enduring sorrows and deprivations for the truth of the Gospel teaching. In the struggle with temptations, they are offended, lose heart, and betray their faith and the gospel. Thorny ground refers to the hearts of people who are entangled in passions: for wealth, for pleasure, for the blessings of this world in general.By good and fruitful land are meant people with a kind and pure heart, who, having heard the Word of God, are firmly determined to make it the guide of their lives and to produce the fruits of virtue. "The kinds of virtue are different, as are those who excel in spiritual wisdom" (Blessed Theophylact)

The Parable of the Tares

The "kingdom of heaven" is an earthly church founded by the Heavenly Founder and leading people to heaven. It is "like a man who sowed good seed in his field." "When all men were asleep"—that is, at night, when things can be done secretly from all—here is an indication of the deceit of the enemy, "his [man's] enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and departed." Weeds are weeds, which, while small, are similar in their shoots to wheat, and when they have already grown and begin to differ from wheat, then pulling them out is fraught with danger for the roots of wheat. The teaching of Christ is sown throughout the world, but the devil also sows evil among people with his temptations. In the vast field of the world all live together: both the worthy sons of the Heavenly Father (the wheat) and the sons of the evil one (the tares). The Lord tolerates the latter, leaving them until the "harvest", that is, until the Last Judgment, when the inhabitants – the Angels of God – will gather the "tares" and throw them into the fiery furnace for eternal hellish torment. The Lord will command that the "wheat" be gathered into His garner, that is, into His Heavenly Kingdom, where the righteous will shine like the sun.

Притча о невидимо растущем семени

Царство Небесное подобно семени, которое, брошенное однажды в землю, неприметно растет само собой. Внутренний процесс этого неуловим и необъясним; как вырастает из крошечного семени целое растение, — никто не знает. Точно также неуловимо и необъяснимо религиозное преображение души человеческой, совершаемое силой благодати Божьей.

Притча о зерне горчичном

На Востоке горчичное растение может достигать размеров громадных, хотя зерно его так мало, что у евреев была даже поговорка: "Мал, как горчичное семечко". Смысл притчи в том, что, хотя начало Царствия Божья, по-видимому, мало и не славно, но сила, сокрытая в нем, побеждает все препятствия и способна преобразовать его в царство великое и всемирное. Златоуст говорит: "Сей притчей, Господь хотел показать образ распространения евангельской проповеди. Хотя ученики Его были бессильнее всех, всех более уничиженные, но поскольку в них была заключена великая сокровенная сила, то она (проповедь), распространилась на всю вселенную". Церковь Христова, малая вначале, неприметная для мира, распространилась так на земле, что множество народов, как птицы небесные в ветвях горчичного дерева, укрываются под ее сенью. Точно также бывает и в душе каждого человека: веяние благодати Божьей, едва приметное поначалу, все более и более охватывает душу, которая становится постепенно вместилищем различных добродетелей.

Притча о закваске