Я хочу обратить ваше внимание на ряд пунктов в этом рассказе. Первый относится к хулению Святого Духа. Для того чтобы подорвать авторитет Христа, для того чтобы погубить Его всеконечно, враги Христа стали распространять слух, будто Он силой зла творит мнимое добро, будто Он улавливает людей чудесами, которые исходят не от Бога, а от сатаны, обманывает людей видимым добром, для того чтобы окончательно их погубить; поработить себе и через Себя — смерти и окончательному проклятию и разрушению. Христос резко и определенно высказывается на эту тему, произносит строгое осуждение такому их отношению к Себе.

Но почему? Неужели фарисеи, книжники, противники Христа не могли в Нем просто ошибаться? Нет! Они не могли своим внутренним опытом не видеть, что во Христе качествует и действует добро, что Он сострадательно, любовно относится ко всем, кто Его окружает; они не могли не знать, что каждое слово Его проповеди созвучно тому Ветхому Завету, в который они верят, что даже тогда, когда Он как будто нарушает то или другое правило, Он их не нарушает, а исполняет правила более совершенные.

Вы, наверное, помните слова Христовы: не человек для субботу, но суббота для человека (Мк 2:27). Закон дан для того, чтобы человек рос, чтобы человек жил, чтобы он мог творчески действовать, чтобы он мог строить жизнь; и поэтому подчинять человека закону так, чтобы закон убивал — неправильно, греховно, богопротивно. Буква убивает, дух животворит, — говорится в другом месте Писания (2 Кор 3:6). Дух, — то есть смысл, который вложен в закон, смысл того, что говорится, и намерение, которое вложено в него, является духом этого закона. Фарисеи и книжники, которые обличали Христа, будто Он духом нечистым творит добро, этим же утверждали, что Его проповедь будто бы является делом зла. Но они знали — внутренним своим опытом и ученостью своей — что Он никаким образом не идет против учения Священного Писания, Богооткровенного Писания. И поэтому, отвергая Христа, они хулили того Святого Духа, Который внушил Писания Ветхого Завета, Который выдвигал пророков и Который сейчас говорил устами Спасителя Христа.

Нам надо понять, что эта тема относится не только к проповеди Самого Христа, это относится к каждому из нас, как грозное, строгое предупреждение.

Апостол Павел в этом отношении выразился удивительно смело. Он говорит, что радуется проповеди Евангелия, даже если она лицемерна: хотя тот, кто лицемерит, будет осужден, слово истины, которое он проповедует, дойдет до души каждого человека, способного его принять (см. Флп 1:15-18).

И вот мы должны над собой задуматься. Очень часто бывает: потому что мы человека не уважаем, потому что он не принадлежит нашей среде, потому что он в чем-нибудь является нашим соперником или противником, — идейным противником, не вещественным, не шкурным — мы легко готовы видеть в нем зло, готовы отрицать то добро, которое он творит, и то живое, доброе слово, которое он произносит. Так отнеслись ученики Христа к человеку, который Его именем творил чудеса, но не был с ними. Они ему запретили, потому что он не ходит за нами (Мк 9:38). Да, многие люди «с нами не ходят», но ходят с Богом. И поэтому нам следует быть осторожными и не спешить осуждать людей за то, что они «не наши», тем более — не спешить считать, что то, что они говорят, не от Святого Духа, неправда, потому только, что они «не из нашей» группы людей. Мы грешим против Святого Духа гораздо более тонко, чем если бы мы просто отрицали, что Христос — Сын Божий. Этого мы, конечно, не делаем. Но как бережно должны мы относиться к тому, что слышим от нашего ближнего, когда мы слышим правду, звучащую в его словах, несмотря на то, что он не является нашим товарищем, нашим со-ратником!..

ГЛАВА ЧЕТВЕРТАЯ

And again he began to teach by the sea; and a great multitude gathered to him, so that he went into the boat and sat on the sea, and all the people were on the land by the sea. And he taught them many parables (Mark 4:1-2).

Beginning the analysis of the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, which contains several parables with which Christ addressed His listeners, I would like to pose the following question: why does Christ speak in parables? Why does He allow the idea that some people will listen and not hear, see and not see? And why do His disciples have a special position in this regard? Everything seems to open up to them. If they themselves do not understand, then the Savior Christ explains to them...

First, it is necessary to clearly imagine that a parable is not just an illustration in a book, in which a child can see what he does not yet know how to read. A parable is a multifaceted story, a story in which there are many shades, different meanings; Its content can be understood by each person to the extent of his sensitivity, his understanding, his ability to catch the intentions of the speaker. In this regard, the understanding of parables depends on what you yourself have grown up to, on the experience that has developed in you. An ancient proverb said: Like is known by like... If a word is heard in a parable, or if a concept of which you have even a vague idea is overlooked, you suddenly grasp the meaning of this parable, at least in this respect. This parable is already the beginning of further development in you, as if, as it is said in the parable of the sower (we will now move on to it), the seed has fallen into the soil, which is all your inner experience – mental, heart, and worldly, and begins to germinate. In this regard, the parable is very important.

After all, imagine who surrounded the Savior Christ. There was always an innumerable crowd of people around Him – very motley, diverse. There were people there who had already matured to a considerable extent to understand what Christ said: they had both inner experience and a deep mental understanding of their experience and life. There were people in whom the question had already matured, it was clear to their minds, their hearts were torn, but did not yet find an answer; In the parable, they could find this answer. These people are already ripe for hearing the parable and understanding it. There were other people who were gradually just becoming aware of some question, or some inner experience disturbed them. They seemed to feel that they had to understand something, and could not grasp what it was. (We all know this condition). And Christ shows a parable, and suddenly in this parable they recognize their question, and their perplexity, and their search, and, perhaps, they find a full or partial answer to what they have gradually formed, but have not yet matured. And some people around Christ did not experience anything like this, and therefore, when it came to a parable or even to Christ's direct answer to this or that question put to Him, they probably shrugged their shoulders: "What is this strange question? And what is this ridiculous, incomprehensible answer?" This happens to us all the time. We hear someone's words, but we are so busy with our own thoughts or experiences that we cannot catch what the person is saying to us. Or we see something, we see it quite clearly, but we don't want to see, our vision is kind of blurred. And, as it is said in this parable, when we hear, we do not hear, when we see, we do not see. It is not true that the parable is told in such a way that we do not understand: it is said in such a way that those who have matured, for whom understanding is a necessity, for whom understanding will be a source of growth, a new step into the depths, will understand.

And those who could, at best, understand, but only with their heads, without in any way correlating what they have understood with their deep life, nevertheless do not need to understand, because such a head-to-head understanding only destroys. I remember my father once said to me: "Think more about what you will read, because your memory will always work faster than your mind." The point here is precisely that a person should not burden himself with some kind of head understanding that has nothing to do with his inner experience. It is better for him not to understand anything and to be perplexed either about his stupidity, about the closeness of his heart and mind, or simply about the fact that there is such a secret in front of him that he cannot penetrate, to which he needs to mature in a completely different way.

Speaking of parables in general, I would like to draw your attention to one more thing: Christ's love for nature. This is a very important trait in Him. A very large number of Christ's parables are based on the contemplation of nature, on how He sees it. If it is possible to use such a comparison about God who became man, He sees it as an artist. He catches depth, beauty, purity in it; whereas we very often look at nature only from our own (utilitarian) point of view. I don't remember who said that an artist would look at a field and think, "What a beauty!" and a peasant would look at a field and say, "A rich harvest!" We look at each other and see only what our heart is capable of responding to. One person sees the beauty of another, his (or her) face, or the whole appearance — and sees only this external beauty. Another, peering into this beauty, sees the inner structure of a person behind it. Sometimes he sees that behind this beauty lies a terrible, seductive ugliness; And sometimes it is seen that this beauty is the radiance of inner light. And so Christ looks at nature in this way. He is a man, but a man without sin. He does not look at nature from the point of view of a farmer and not from the point of view of someone who wants to possess nature, to rule over it. He looks at it as an expression of the wisdom of God, which created such beauty, put into it such a deep, subtle meaning.

In our time, it is very important to return to Christ's relationship to nature, to its beauty, to its meaning in itself, not only in relation to us. When we look at it, it is important not to think about what benefit we can get from it, or what danger lies in it. We can look upon nature as something brought into being by God, not only in order to manifest perfect beauty, but so that in due time, freed from the burden of sin which man has placed upon nature, it may become part of the divine kingdom, when God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). There is a passage in the Apostle Paul where he says that all creation groans in anticipation of the revelation of the children of God (see Romans 8:19-22). All of nature, all of the earth, all of heaven, all of creation groans, waiting for the moment when man will return to God and be able to lead all created things into the depths of God, when man will be able, having become a deified being himself, that is, a being in whom God lives and who is rooted in God, to bring all created things into the depths of Divine life, just as a shepherd leads a flock. This is our calling.