Chapter VIII, Articles 11-21

The spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, the Pharisees and Sadducees, always looked very attentively at the currents of thought and phenomena of the spiritual life of the people. This was necessary in order to maintain their influence and to keep all such phenomena under control, not allowing anyone to wrest domination over their minds. It is clear that they could not ignore the Lord and His preaching. But observing His activity and teaching, they inevitably had to experience a strange split of thought, a kind of inner bewilderment: on the one hand, the miracles of the Lord, the extraordinary influence of His preaching, testified with irresistible evidence that this was not an ordinary man and that the Divine power was at work in Him.

The manifestations of this power were so clear, the charm of the Lord's personality and the holiness of His life so striking, that many not only of the people, but probably of the Pharisees as well, were ready to recognize Him as the Messiah. But, on the other hand, His life, the methods of His activity, the very foundations of His teaching - all this radically contradicted the centuries-old Jewish ideas about the Messiah.

We already know that in the coming Messiah the Jews expected to meet a powerful political figure, a formidable conqueror, a brilliant king, like Solomon or David, who would liberate his people from the hated Roman yoke and restore the glory of their former reigns. But in the face of the Lord, with His humility and meekness, with His forgiveness and love, in the conditions of His wandering life, full of deprivation and self-denial, it was difficult to see anything even remotely resembling this brilliant image created by the imagination of Israel. Involuntarily and persistently, the question was raised: Who is this?

It was absolutely impossible to leave this issue unresolved, to simply brush it aside. The Pharisees watched every prophet, every more or less outstanding personality in the religious field, and had to determine in one way or another their attitude to such a great phenomenon as the preaching of the Lord and the religious upsurge aroused by it among the people, especially since their opinion on this subject was undoubtedly demanded by their friends and adherents. Who is it? Friend or foe? Should He be supported or fought against Him and His influence, dispelling the impression He made among the people?

How should we relate to Him? Follow Him? But He demands complete self-denial, demands that His followers give themselves to Him completely and abandon everything. And yet this means leaving a quiet, comfortable life, the honor with which the Pharisees were spoiled, the considerable income received from worshipers, dinners, treats, honorable receptions, magnificent clothes - in a word, everything that gave them the position of recognized teachers of "leaders. And to exchange all this for a poor, half-starved existence of eternal wanderers who have no home. And in them? For what? What will they receive as a reward for this feat and for these deprivations? Will the reward be great enough to condemn oneself to poverty and give up the comforts of life?

Don't go?.. To remain in their former positions and, from the height of their legalistic truth and the traditions of old age, to contemplate in majestic solitude the rapidly unfolding events and the growing enthusiasm of the crowd?..

What if this is really the Messiah?! What a shame it is for them, the leaders of the people, not to recognize the longed-for and long-awaited Deliverer, not to join Him, or to remain at the tail end of the nascent movement, and to yield to the wretched ignoramuses and Galilean fishermen around Him the first places to which they have every right by virtue of their knowledge, piety, and learning! Not to have a prominent place in the brilliant court of the Messiah and in the glory of His future kingdom is terrible to think about!

But, on the other hand, what a risk! You can lose everything and gain nothing... At all costs it is necessary to find out for sure who this is: the Messiah or not, in order to act with certainty and not to make a mistake in calculations. He must be forced to break the mysterious silence with which He surrounds His person and His work, without openly declaring Himself to be the Messiah, and at the same time manifesting a power that cannot be assumed in an ordinary person. And if this is really the Messiah, then we must be convinced of this.

The Pharisees experienced a kind of stock market fever with its gambling excitement and anguished nervous anticipation: to win or lose. The impatience with which they demanded from the Lord signs that would finally resolve their perplexities becomes understandable. How long will You keep us perplexed? - they asked Him one day, - if You are the Christ, tell us plainly (Jn. X, 24).

But were there not such signs? Did not the Lord's miracles speak eloquently and convincingly about Him? He Himself looked upon them as a testimony: the works which I do in the name of My Father, they bear witness of Me (Jn. X, 25).

But the Pharisees demanded a sign from heaven, an extraordinary sign, perhaps similar to that which the prophet Isaiah gave to King Hezekiah, when he caused the sun to turn back ten steps (2 Kings 2:10). XX, 11). The healings of various diseases, which represented the usual miracles in the Lord's work, were not convincing enough for them. For they had risked so much, and had to have an undoubted guarantee of a future reward, for the sake of which they were perhaps not averse to agreeing to suffer a little, if, of course, they would gain more in reward than they would lose.

It is understandable why the Lord rejected their demands and refused to give a sign. These merchants in the matter of salvation, who did not understand the spirit of His teaching at all, could never be His sincere followers. He never promised His disciples earthly blessings, and it is not for material gain that one should follow Him.

The happiness of unity with God, love for the Redeemer, holiness and purity of the soul as the fruit of a virtuous life, in accordance with His commandments – these are the motives that should act in the Christian, determining his decisions, and which were alien to the callous selfish soul of the Pharisee. Christianity should be accepted and loved for its own sake, and not for the sake of extraneous rewards and external benefits. It in itself represents the precious pearl of the parable, for the sake of which everything must be sacrificed (Matt. XIII, 46).