The ministry of Jesus Christ took place in a specific historical situation. The theological dimension of this seemingly self-evident circumstance cannot be ignored. Let us pay attention to two aspects.

First, historicity, "intertwined" with a certain historical moment is an integral component of the life of any human personality. And this means the Incarnation of God, the life of the Son of God as a Man. It is no accident that the name of Pontius Pilate has been repeated by all mankind for two thousand years when he pronounces the Christian symbol of faith. As the Christian Orthodox Catechism teaches, "in order to signify the time when He was crucified."

Secondly, we are talking about a specific timely moment in Holy History after its Old Testament stage. The meaning of the Old Testament was that the soil was being prepared, the people were preparing to accept God in their midst. Within the framework of the course of the Old Testament, we have already touched upon such an important concept as "the people of God" – a concept without which it is absolutely impossible to discuss either Holy History as a whole, or the history of Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture in particular.

In order for this new stage of Holy History, the New Testament, to begin, it was necessary "to present to the Lord a prepared people" (Luke 1:17).

Were the people prepared to receive the Messiah? And what is meant by the concept of such "preparedness" or "readiness"? And should we ask such questions only in relation to the particular people of God as the people of Israel were aware of themselves at the time of Jesus Christ's life? Or are these questions always relevant for the people of God, right up to the present day, when the Christian Church recognizes herself as such a people?

As for the last question, we have already partially answered it a little above. And this answer should be obvious: the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, and above all the Gospels, would not have been the living Word, that is, the Word addressed to the modern Church, if those commandments and exhortations, as well as the accusatory criticism with which Jesus addressed the Israelites of that time, applied only to them. Everything that is written in the New Testament, as well as in the Old, both in a joyful missionary and in an accusatory-critical way, is the Word of the Living God to His people, in whatever form this people appears in the arena of human history, whether it is the Old Testament people of Israel or the modern Christian Church.

Speaking about the readiness of the then (as well as today) people of God to receive the Messiah, it is necessary to answer both yes and no. Yes, the people were ready. Otherwise, there would be no one who would heed the call of the Savior to follow Him and who would then form the original Church, irresistibly and impetuously preaching the Good News throughout the entire universe. Let us not forget that all the apostles of Christ without exception, as well as His Most Holy Mother, the Most Pure Virgin Mary, like Him Himself, were faithful sons of their Jewish people, and it could not be otherwise. The very emergence of the Church as a new religious movement was, first of all, a logical continuation, a careful inheritance (as it happens only when it comes to one's own, very dear own property), and a talented rethinking of the rich sacred-historical memory and the enormous spiritual, theological and liturgical potential that were accumulated by the people of Israel in the time before the Coming of Christ – no matter what we say about the original forms of early Christian worship and about the the first steps of the original Christian theology. And in general, to say that the people of Israel were not ready to meet Christ would mean that God as a teacher "made a mistake" by sending His Son at the wrong time.

However, we also know something else:

He came to his own, and his own did not receive Him (John 1:11).

The novelty of the message with which the Savior addressed His people, for the sake of which, in fact, He came, at the same time shocked many so much that it had no place in the firmly established system of religious values, the source of which was believed to be God Himself, who gave the Law in the early times of the Old Testament. With a spiritually honest and sober reading of the New Testament, we can see that the main field in which Christ met with misunderstanding and rejection was (and, we should add, still is) everything that concerns the life of the people of God themselves in their religious capacity. It is here, in this field, that the main clash takes place: Christ, for His part, angrily, sharply, and sometimes introducing religious temptation[9], denounces, argues and criticizes. But his opponents – the religious leaders of their faithful people – for their part, do not agree to give up an inch. Neither prostitutes, nor publicans, nor robbers, nor any other sinners, whose crimes against the commandments of God are obvious to all,[10] did not arouse in Him such harsh criticism as He brings down on the principles of the organization of church life and the norms of piety.

So, someone turned out to be ready to accept Christ, and someone became more and more stagnant in his rejection. However, in order to understand this question a little deeper, it is necessary to make a brief excursion into the prehistory, which is partly familiar to us from Biblical history and the Introduction to the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.

II. Israel in New Testament Times