And then comes a very mysterious word: Whoever has, to him will be given; but he that hath not, that which hath shall be taken away from him, v. 25. What does that mean? If he has nothing, then what can be taken away from him? In the Gospel of Luke there is an explanation that seems to me very significant and important: "From him who does not have, even that which he thinks he has will be taken away" (Luke 8:18). And this is very important. We often think of ourselves with a sense of self-righteousness: everything is good, everything is fine, everything is fine. And then, when we come to the judgment of God, it will turn out that nothing of the kind happened, that we only imagined... I imagined that I was good; In fact, I threw some crumbs from my table to others, but I never shared my bread with them. I thought I was hospitable, but I only received my friends, and then only until I got tired of them, when I wanted to see someone else, or stay with my family, or just sit quietly and read. And so on; Such examples can be given endlessly. We may imagine that we are hospitable, friendly, generous, we may even imagine that we are wise, that we have such knowledge of life that we can generously share, and everything may turn out to be just a complete illusion. And here we must remember that before the judgment comes, before the result is summed up in our lives, we need to pose a question about ourselves: what is real in me and what is imaginary? What is the fantasy that I have about myself, and what is really in me?

In the evening of the same day he said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side." And they sent the people away, and took him with them, as he was in the boat; There were other boats with Him. And a great storm arose; The waves were hitting the boat, so that it was already filling with water. And He slept at the stern at the head. They woke Him up and said to Him: "Teacher! Is there no need of Thee that we are perishing? And having risen, He rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be still, cease. And the wind subsided, and there was a great silence. And he said to them, Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith? And they were afraid with great fear, and said among themselves, Who is this, that both the wind and the sea obey him? (4:35-41).

The picture is so vivid and striking. Christ and His disciples sail on the sea. A storm arose - such that professional fishermen could not cope with it: Peter, Andrew, James, John. Water fills the boat; and Christ, as if offending them by His rest, does not simply sleep in the stern, but sleeps on the head, that is, on the pillow. Does He not care that they are perishing?..

Can we not see in this image the question that so many people put before us: Is your God really so indifferent to our fate? can we really live, perish, and He does not care?..

Christ, the God who became man, sleeps peacefully with a pillow under His head, while His disciples struggle with the sea, trying to save their lives. And the disciples approach Him not only with fear, but with a kind of indignation: "Teacher, do You really not need that we are perishing? And Christ stands up, and His answer to them is: "Why are you so afraid? Do you have no faith? Do you not believe that God will not abandon you? Do you not yet believe, after all that you have seen, after all the miracles that I have performed, that I can help you?.." And turning to the wind and to the waves, He commanded them to be still. This is a picture not only about the storm on the Sea of Tiberias, which almost killed the disciples; Here we are talking about us, as it were. We swim across the sea of life, that is, we go through a life that is full of storms, difficulties, and problems. And sometimes we wish that these problems would just be solved, that God would stand up and command the problems to calm down, the sea to calm down, the wind to die down, and then it would be so good to sail on the azure sea. But this is not our calling. Our vocation is to go forward with faith, invincible, unwavering faith through all the difficulties, all the horrors that may present themselves to us. The apostles went through these horrors later. If we turn to the Apostle Paul, this is what he says in his Epistle to the Corinthians: "But we, as co-helpers, beseech you, that the grace of God may not be received by you in vain. For it is said, In the time of favor I heard thee, and in the day of salvation I helped thee. Behold, now is the time of favor, behold, now is the day of salvation (this is a passage from the 49th chapter of the prophet Isaiah, verse eight).

Our mouths are open to you, Corinthians, our hearts are enlarged. You are not cramped in us; but your hearts are cramped (2 Corinthians 6:1-12).

This is what the Apostle Paul says, who not only experienced this, but also fulfilled it. Nothing stopped him from preaching that God in Christ is indeed the Savior, and that we can trust Him, that we can go through all the most terrible trials, and that in spite of all trials, we can win—win in ourselves, win for others, and pay for this honor with our suffering, if necessary, with our blood, like the Savior Christ.

Notes

1. The introduction was published in the journal "Alpha and Omega". 1995. № 3(6). Pp. 17-22.

2. The text retains the features of the author's style. (Editor's note)

3. Author's highlights (here and below).

4. The Holy Scriptures are quoted from the edition: The Bible. Moscow, Moscow Patriarchate Publ., 1988.

5. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) of Moscow and All Russia; † 1970