But let us interrupt the conversation about what should be devoted to fewer speeches and more admiration. Where there is obedience to the living God and humility before Him, there is purity. The Lord heals His obedient and humble servants from every earthly passion and lust. Therefore, let us devote ourselves to the cleansing of our conscience, our soul, our heart, and our mind, so that we too may be vouchsafed the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit; so that the earth would finally cease to sow its seed in our inner man, and the Holy Spirit would beget within us a new life and a new man, like our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him is due honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the Trinity, One-in-Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Nativity of Christ (II). The Gospel of the Heavenly Bread in Straw

Luke, 5 rec., 11:1-20.

In those days the land was owned by Caesar Augustus. His one-man rule on earth was an image of God's one-man rule in both universes: spiritual and material. The many-headed serpent of power, which has been poisoning the peoples of the earth since the Fall, has remained with only one head. All known peoples and tribes of the earth submitted to the power of Augustus, directly or indirectly, or only by paying him their tribute, or by recognizing the Roman gods and Roman officials. The struggle for power subsided for some time, and autocracy over the world was completely in the hands of Caesar Augustus. There was neither man nor god above him. For he himself was proclaimed a god, and people made sacrifices to his image: slain animals and smoking. Since the beginning of the world, no mortal man has attained greater power than Caesar Augustus, who, having no rivals, possessed the whole world. And, truly, since the beginning of the world, man, created by the living God, has not sunk to such a low of insignificance and despair as when he began to deify the Roman Caesar, a man with all the infirmities and weaknesses of man, short-lived as a willow, with a stomach, intestines, liver and kidneys, which in a few decades will turn into worm-like stench and breathless dust; and finally, a man whose statues throughout the empire have outlived him, his power, and his empire.

In those days of external peace and inner despair, our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Savior of the human race and the Renewer of all creation.

Why was it necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ to be born into an unknown nation, Israel? And in an unknown village, Bethlehem? And from an unknown Virgin, Mary? Was it wise that the Savior of the world should have been born in such humiliation, lived, suffered, died, and rose again, and only half a century after His coming into the world did the great Roman Empire hear of His name? Would He not have achieved success more quickly and easily if He had been born in the capital of the world, in the magnificent city of Rome, in the palace of Caesar? And if the eastern star shone over Rome? And what if the angels of God would sing a song of peace and goodwill over the gilded roof of the imperial palace, so that the greatest nobles of this world would hear them and, having heard, would immediately turn to Christ as to the God-Man and Savior? And what if the Child Christ on the Palatine had converted all the sons of the nobles to His Gospel? What if He had preached His glorious sermon on the Beatitudes in the Roman Forum and thereby softened the hearts of all the citizens of the two-million city of Rome? If, decree after decree, decree after decree, the new faith had been established, and the Kingdom of Heaven had been established on earth, and Christ had reigned not on the throne of some shepherd king David, but on the throne of the most powerful Caesar Augustus?

What can be said to all this? We say that all this is ridiculous madness. May the Lord forgive us for uttering all these foolish words, but we did it with a good intention, for the admonition of those to whom such madness may come into their minds and hearts when contemplating the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to destroy this madness - which is no more difficult to do than to blow the ashes from burning coals - we will immediately remind you that God created the first man out of great love and based his being on two principles: freedom and humble obedience. Freedom consisted in the fact that man could dispose of the whole Paradise at will, eat of every fruit of paradise and control the animals as he wished. Humble obedience to God was to be a constant regulator of human freedom. For God alone is perfect in freedom and has no need of any regulator, since He does not know how to sin and cannot sin. Humble obedience made up for man's imperfection in wisdom and love, so that he was completely perfect as a creature with the freedom granted to him by God and with voluntary humble obedience to God. Adam tried his freedom in Paradise on millions of creatures and things – was this not proof of God's infinite love? And Adam had to test his humble obedience with the help of a single commandment of God and on a single object in Paradise, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Is not this also proof of God's infinite love for mankind and condescension? But as soon as Eve and Adam approached the tree of trial, they sinned: their humility turned to pride, their faith to doubt, and their obedience to disobedience. And so the perfect creation of God lost the balance of mind, heart, and will, for it thought evil and desired evil; and thereby it pushed away the leading hand of God and fell into the deadly embrace of Satan. Here is the key and explanation of all events in the history of mankind; and here is the key and explanation of why our Lord Jesus Christ was not born in Rome as the son of Caesar Augustus, and why He did not impose His saving teaching on people by imperial decree and power. When the child breaks free from its mother's arms and falls into the abyss, what mother will dress in silk and erect a marble staircase to descend into the abyss and save her child?

God could surround the tree of temptation in Paradise with a flame of fire, so that Adam and Eve could never approach it. But where then would be the freedom of God's wondrous creation, man, the lesser god? Where is its difference from other, not free, creations?

In the same way, God could have caused the Savior to be born in Rome, to be called the son of Caesar, and to impose a new faith on the human race by decree (which means with fire and sword, like Muhammad). But again, where would there be freedom for the wondrous creation of God, man, a small god?

God could have chosen an even shorter path. He could not have sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, but only sent a whole army of His holy angels, so that they might dazzle people with their brilliance and sound the trumpet to the ends of the earth; and people would fall to their knees in fear and trembling, they would know the true God, and they would reject the dark idolatry. But again, where would be the joy of human freedom and the joy of humble obedience to the Creator? Where is the rational human soul? Where is love and where is sonship?

Our Lord Jesus Christ had to clearly reveal four things that the lost and darkened man consigned to oblivion, namely: man's filial humble obedience to God; God's Father's love for man; the lost royal freedom of man; and, finally, the royal power of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ showed filial humble obedience by His decision to be born as a Man in the flesh, for the humiliated human flesh was for Him a more humiliating cave than the cave of Bethlehem. In addition, He showed His humble obedience by being born in a very humble environment and in miserable living conditions: in a little-known people, in an even lesser-known village, and from a Mother completely unknown to the world. The new Adam had to heal the old Adam of disobedience and pride. The remedy was obedience and humility. That is why the Lord appeared to people not from proud Rome, but from Bethlehem, and not from the house of Augustus, which deified itself, but from the penitent and humble house of David.

Our Lord Jesus Christ showed God's fatherly love for man, suffering with people and for people. How could the Lord have manifested God's love through such suffering, if He had been born in Rome, in the imperial palace? Whoever commands and rules by decrees considers suffering to be humiliation.

Our Lord Jesus Christ showed the royal freedom of man over nature, over his bodily and spiritual nature, as well as over all surrounding physical nature, by His patient fasting, by His fearlessness in the face of all life's dangers and sorrows - and by His Divine miracles, which revealed His complete power over nature.