Jesus heals the sick man and says to the spirit He casts out, "... Be silent and come out of it" (1:25). Then it tells about the healing of many: "And He healed many who were afflicted with various diseases; cast out many demons, and did not allow the demons to say that they knew that He was the Christ" (1:34). Then, while healing the leper, Jesus says to him: "... Look, don't say anything to anyone..." (1:44). And in restoring the life of Jairus's dead daughter, the Savior "strictly commanded them, that no one should know about it" (5:43). Telling about the healing of the deaf-mute, the Evangelist again emphasizes: "And he commanded them not to tell anyone. But no matter how much He rebuked them, they divulged even more" (7:36). And finally, the healing of a blind man who utters a wonderful phrase: "I see people. They are like trees, but they walk" (8:24). (Our translation — G.C.) This passage is very poorly rendered in the Synodal translation: "I see people passing by like trees." It is not clear what we are talking about. The blind man is actually accustomed to feeling his way around the trees with his hands. And finally, now he sees people: "They are like trees, but they walk." This is yet another testimony to the stunning truthfulness and freshness of the Gospel text, uncombed and unadorned. Telling about this healing, the Evangelist again says: "And he sent him home, saying, 'Do not go into the village, and do not tell anyone in the village' (8:26).

And so, right up to the moment when Peter exclaimed, "You are the Christ" (8:29), Jesus forbids those who witness His miracles to tell about them. Why?

The Savior comes into this world in secret. Therefore, His preaching is usually related to what we call the Messianic mystery. Yes, He heals people, because He can't help healing. He resurrects the dead because he cannot help but lend a helping hand to those who are in trouble. But He forbids divulging this, for then people will begin to strive for Him, not because He is the Incarnate Truth, but because He is a miracle worker. And then they will reach out to Him only to get some kind of self-interest, benefit. This is what the Savior fears most of all.

We know from the two-thousand-year experience of the Church that faith ends at the moment when a person wants to have something out of it: health, success in life, an apartment, a job, or something else. The Frank Tales of a Pilgrim speaks of three paths that lead to God. The first is the path of a slave who works out of fear of hellish torments. This path of fear is completely denied by the Gospel, although in the Middle Ages people turned to Christ precisely because they feared the future. The second path is the path of the mercenary, who hopes to earn a reward from God by his honest work. This is exactly the path that people can follow if they see in the Savior not their friend and Brother, sharing all the sorrows and joys of this life, but an almighty miracle worker. Finally, the third path is the one that the wanderer chooses for himself in Frank Stories. This is the path of love, when the question does not arise: what will this love give? When one thing is clear: it is impossible to be outside of Christ. Life without Him is unbearable. You can only be with Christ.

A brilliant answer to this question is given by the Evangelist Mark: from the first lines of the narrative we see Jesus surrounded by His disciples. His mission, His ministry, His way loses all meaning if He is alone. The Gospel of Mark is a gospel in which Jesus, the apostles, and the disciples walk together all the time. Such is the path of the Christian, the path of the disciple who does not ask why he is here with his Master. He simply has no other way: he is with Christ, because he cannot be without Him.

When Peter exclaims, "Thou art the Christ," the mystery of the Messiah ceases to be a mystery. Let us pay attention once again: at the beginning of the Gospel we hear the words about the Son of God, at the end the centurion exclaims: "Truly this man was the Son of God" (15:39). In the middle of the Gospel of Mark, the Apostle Peter says, "You are the Christ," and we already know that He is the Christ. As we read the first chapters of the Gospel, we learn to talk to Him and listen to Him. We follow Jesus through a very difficult path of realizing that His mission is connected with the Cross, with a shameful death. The second part of the Gospel is devoted to this: three times on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus tells His disciples about His death, about the punishment to which He will be subjected, about the shame that He will have to endure. It is very difficult for them to take all this into their hearts, although they already have experience of personal communication with Him.

This is how we are: as we read the first eight chapters, it would seem that we are also accumulating experience with the Savior. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for everything that follows to enter Our consciousness. We always wish that Good Friday was not the day it has been for many centuries – the day of the funeral service. We all want to see some kind of force in Christianity. And the Gospel of Mark shows us that Christianity is simply life in Christ. In the Gospel there is no system, no theory, and no special teaching. He has Christ in him.

In the Gospel of Mark, I repeat, there is nothing that is not already in Matthew or Luke. To be more precise, Mark has only one text that is not found in the other Gospels, and that is Jesus' precious little parable of the seed thrown into the ground:

«… The kingdom of God is like if a man throws seed into the ground; and sleeps and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know. For the earth of its own accord produces first greenery, then an ear, then a full grain in the ear.

Здесь речь идёт о семени, которое внутри, в земле, набухает, наполняется водой, прорастает и затем растёт незаметно для внешнего наблюдателя. Этому семени уподобляет Иисус Царство Божие: работа Божия происходит в глубинах нашего «я», очень часто незаметно не только для стороннего наблюдателя, но и для нас самих. И эта тайна делания Божия внутри человека так ярко открыта именно в Евангелии от Марка.

Особенности Евангелия от Луки

О богатстве

Когда пытаешься выделить, что именно в Евангелии от Луки отлично от трёх других Евангелий, то прежде всего обнаруживаешь, что это тема богатства.

У Матфея (19:24) и у Марка (10:25) встречается знаменитый афоризм: «Удобнее верблюду пройти сквозь игольные уши, нежели богатому войти в Царство Божие». Есть он и у Луки (18:25). Во всех трёх Евангелиях этот афоризм завершает рассказ о богатом юноше, который пришёл к Спасителю спросить, что делать, чтобы наследовать жизнь вечную. Но только у Луки тема богатства становится одной из основных, проходит через весь текст его Евангелия. И прежде всего она выражена в четырёх больших притчах.