In the time of it, Jesus went to a city called Nain; and many of his disciples and a multitude of the people went with him. This was soon after the miraculous healing of the servant of the Roman centurion in Capernaum. Hastening to do as much good as possible and thereby show a wondrous example to all His faithful, the Lord set out from Capernaum past Mount Tabor. Here, beyond this mountain and on the slope of Hermon, even today is the village of Nain, which was once a walled city. The Lord was accompanied by a huge crowd of disciples and people. All of them had seen the many miracles of Christ in Capernaum, but all were full of desire to see and hear more. For nothing like the miracles of Christ had ever been seen or heard in Israel until then, and His words were like rivers of honey and milk.

When He approached the city gates, they were carrying out the dead, the only son of the mother, and she was a widow; and many people went with her from the city. As soon as the Lord and His companions reached the city gates, the people accompanying the dead came out of the city to meet them. And so the Lord and the slave, the Giver of Life and death met. The deceased was young, as indicated by the word of the young man with whom Christ addressed him, as well as by the fact that the Savior gave him to his mother after the resurrection. Obviously, the mother of the deceased was from a rather rich and noble house, as evidenced by the number of participants in the funeral procession: and many people went with her from the city.

Seeing her, the Lord had compassion on her and said to her, "Weep not." It was for the mother's sake that such a large crowd of attendants had gathered, firstly, because she was of a noble house, and secondly, because of the heavy blow inflicted on her by the loss of her only son. Surely all present must have felt great pity for her, which was intensified by her desperate sobs and lamentations. For, although we all expect sympathy for our sorrow, when death takes away from us the most precious thing, yet all human sympathy can hardly lessen our grief and suffering. When powerlessness consoles powerlessness, this joy is weak. There is one secret feeling that engulfs everyone around the dead body, a feeling that is rarely admitted: the human shame of death. People are not only afraid of death, they are also ashamed of it. This shame proves even more convincingly than fear that death is a consequence of human sin. Just as a sick person is ashamed to show his secret wound to the doctor, so all conscientious people are ashamed to show their mortality. The shame of death proves our immortal origin and our destiny for immortality. And animals hide when they die; As if they, too, feel ashamed of their mortality. And what a shame this is for highly enlightened spiritual people! How will all our shouting and noise, all the vanity, all the honor and glory help in the hour when we feel that the meager vessel in which our life dwelt is being broken? We are ashamed both for the fragility of this vessel and for the insane vanity with which we have filled this vessel throughout our life. Why conceal it: we are ashamed of the stench with which we have filled the vessel of our body, and which after our death will flow not only to earth, but also to heaven? For our spiritual content gives either fragrance or stench to both the soul and the human body, according to the one who filled his spirit with something during earthly life - the fragrance of heaven or the stench of sin.

Our Lord Jesus Christ took pity on the despairing people. He often felt pity for human weakness. Seeing the crowds of people, He had compassion on them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:36). When the sheep see the shepherd, they are neither exhausted nor scattered. If all people were constantly having the Living God before their eyes, they would not be exhausted or scattered. But some see God, others seek Him in order to see Him, others do not see Him at all, and still others mock those who see Him and who seek Him. That is why people are exhausted, and that is why they are scattered, that is, everyone becomes his own pastor and everyone goes his own way. If people had even half the fear of the omnipresence of God as they experience at the thought of death, they would not be afraid of death; Oh, and what's more, the world wouldn't even know about death! - In this case, the Lord took special pity on the poor mother and said to her: do not weep. He looked into her soul and read everything that was there. Her husband died, and she felt lonely; Now her only son had died, and she felt completely alone. And where is the Living God? Can anyone be alone in the presence of God? And can there be a friend closer to a true man than God? Is God not closer to us than father and mother, than brothers and sisters, than sons and daughters? He gives us relatives, and He takes them away, but He does not depart from us, nor does His eye grow old over us, nor does His love for us change. All the blows of death are calculated so that we cling as closely as possible to our God, the Living God.

Do not cry, - the Lord comforts the grieving mother. This is said by the One Who does not think, as many of us do, that the soul of a dead youth descended into the grave before the body, He Who knows where the soul of the dead is; rather, He Who holds this soul in His power. And we comfort those who mourn with the same words: "Do not weep!" - although our heart is filled with weeping. But we feel powerless to offer the mourners anything other than these words and our pity. So much has the power of death surpassed our strength that we swarm in its shadow like insects; And when we bury the dead in the ground, we always feel that we are burying a part of ourselves in the grave darkness of death. The Lord says to a woman: do not weep – not to show that one should not weep at all over the dead. Behold, and He wept over the dead Lazarus (John 11:35); and he wept beforehand over many who were to suffer later at the fall of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and, finally, he praised those who mourned, calling them blessed, for they would be comforted (Matthew 5:4)! Nothing humbles and purifies a person as much as weeping. In the Orthodox method of salvation, crying is considered one of the main means of cleansing the soul, heart and mind. We must weep not only for the dead, but also for the living, and first of all for ourselves, as the Lord advised the women of Jerusalem: "Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children" (Luke 23:28). But there is a difference between crying and crying. The Apostle Paul exhorts the Thessalonians not to grieve like others who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13), that is, like pagans or atheists, for they grieve for the dead as if they were completely lost. Christians, on the other hand, should grieve for the deceased not as lost, but as for a sinner, which is why their sorrow should always be combined with prayer to God, may God forgive the sins of the deceased and may He lead him by His mercy into the Kingdom of Heaven. Because of their sins, Christians should grieve and weep over themselves, and the more, the better; not, however, as having no faith and hope, but, on the contrary, precisely because they have faith in the Living God and hope in God's mercy and eternal life.

But if weeping is so useful, in the Christian sense, why then does the Lord say to the mother of the deceased youth: do not cry? Here again a completely different case. This woman wept as if she had no hope; And, besides, she wept not for the sins of her son, nor for her own sins, but for the bodily loss of her child, wept for his imaginary destruction and for parting with him forever. Meanwhile, the Son of God, the Lord of the living and the dead, was present. In His presence there was no need to weep, just as in His presence there was no need to fast. When the Pharisees blamed the Lord for not fasting as John's disciples did, the Lord answered: "Can you make the sons of the bridal chamber fast when the bridegroom is with them" (Luke 5:33-34)? In the same way, should anyone weep in the presence of the Giver of Life, in Whose kingdom there are no dead, but all are alive? But the contrite widow knows neither Christ nor the power of God. She grieves for her only son without any hope, as did all the rest of the Jews and Greeks at that time, who either had no faith in the resurrection of the dead, or had lost it. The merciful Lord took pity on her insane anguish from ignorance and said to her: "Do not weep." He does not say this to her in the sense in which many say today not to cry for those who mourn for their departed, that is, in the sense: "Do not cry, you will not bring him back with tears! So it is destined! Such is the disappointing consolation which we give to others, but which does not console us when we hear it from others. This is not what Christ means when He says to a woman: do not weep. He means, "Weep not, for I am here! But I am the shepherd of all sheep, and not one sheep can hide from Me, lest I know where they are. Your son did not die as you think, but only his soul was separated from his body. I have power over his soul and body alike. And because of your sorrow from ignorance and unbelief, as well as because of the ignorance and unbelief of all those around you, I will reunite the soul of the young man with his body and restore him to life again, not so much for his own sake as for the sake of you and this people. That all may believe that the Living God watches over men, and that I am He who was to come as the Messiah and Saviour of the world." This is the meaning that Christ puts into His words when He says to His mother: "Do not weep." And having spoken these words, He got down to business.

And approaching, he touched the bed; Those who carried it stopped, and He said, "Young man! I tell you, get up! Touching the dead or his belongings was considered desecration among the Jews and was forbidden. This prohibition was reasonable as long as God was honored in Israel and human life was valued above all else on earth. But when true worship of God, as well as respect for human life, decreased, then many commandments, including this one, turned into superstitions and crept into the first places, pushing aside the main commandments of God. This was the case, for example, with carnal circumcision and the keeping of the Sabbath. The spirit of these commandments was completely lost, and instead of the spirit there remained the deification of the form, or letter, of the commandments. Christ restored spirit and life to these commandments, but the hearts of the people's elders, the guardians of God's law, were so darkened and hardened that they wanted to kill Christ because He healed the sick on the Sabbath (John 5:16)! The Sabbath was more important to them than man and even more important than the Son of God Himself. But the Lord did not pay attention to the malice of the elders; He continued to emphasize at every opportunity that the life and salvation of the human soul are more important than the old mortified traditions and customs. He deliberately wanted to emphasize this in this case, contrary to the law, touching the bed on which the dead man was carried. But the miracle of the resurrection performed by the Lord on this occasion was so astounding that the powerless Jewish elders did not dare to open their mouths to pronounce their sentence.

Youth! I tell you, get up! Our Lord Jesus Christ commands the young man in His name, and not like the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who prayed to God that He would raise the dead. They were servants of the living God, and this is His Only-begotten Son. Thus, by His Divine power, the Lord commands the young man to come to life and get up. I tell you - with these words, which the Lord does not use in any other resurrection of the dead, He wants to show and emphasize that He accomplishes this work exclusively by His Divine power. He wants to show that he has power over both the living and the dead. For this miracle did not happen through the faith of the mother of this young man, as in the case of the resurrection of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue Jairus; and none of the funeral procession expected such a wondrous miracle as was the case with the resurrection of Lazarus. No; this miracle happened not by anyone's faith or by anyone's expectation, but solely by the powerful word of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The dead man got up, sat down and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. The creature heard its Creator and obeyed his commandment. The same Divine power that originally breathed the breath of life into the dust of the earth and created man from the dust, worked now, reviving the dead dust, causing the blood to flow and the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the tongue to speak, the bones and flesh to move. Wherever the soul of the deceased youth was at that time, it heard the voice of its Chief and instantly returned to the body in order to carry out His command together with the body. The subject recognized the voice of his Tsar - and responded. The young man got up and sat down on the bed, and began to speak. Why did he start talking right away? So that people do not think that this is some kind of magical mirage, so that they do not think that some spirit entered his body and raised him on his bed. Everyone had to hear the voice and words of the animated, so that there would not be the slightest doubt that it was him and not someone else in his body. For the same reason the Lord took a young man from his bed and gave him to his mother, and Jesus gave him to his mother. When the mother recognizes him, and accepts him, and embraces him, then fear and doubt will disappear in the rest of those present. And the Lord also takes it with His hands and gives it to the mother to show her that now He gives it to her as a gift - as when she gave birth to it. Life is a gift of God. The life of every person is given by the hand of God. And God does not disdain to take any created man by the hand and direct him into this earthly, temporal life. This is also why the Lord takes the resurrected young man and gives him to his mother, in order to show her that He did not tell her in vain: do not cry. When He said this to her, He already knew that He would console her not only with these words, which the unfortunate mother could hear that day from many acquaintances, but with a deed that was an unexpected and perfect consolation. And, finally, the Lord also acts in this way in order to teach us: when we do good deeds, we must do them as much as possible personally, attentively and good-naturedly; and not through others, carelessly and with vexation, if only to get rid of the one to whom we are doing the work of mercy as soon as possible. Look how much beauty and love there is in every word and every movement of our Lord and Savior! In this case, as always, both before and after, he shows that not only is every gift of God perfect, but also the way in which God bestows is perfect.

And fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people. Christ was able to remove the fear of evil spirits and sorcery by his caring behavior toward his son and mother, but that is why the fear remained. However, this was a good fear. For this was the fear of God, which evoked thanksgiving and praise to God. The people speak of Christ as a great prophet. The people were waiting for a great prophet, whom God had promised to Moses to send to the people of Israel (Deuteronomy 18:18). This people could not yet rise to the concept of Christ as the Son of God. But his spirit, a spirit so darkened and oppressed by the people's elders, could perfectly rise to the realization of our Lord Jesus Christ as a great prophet. If the elders of Jerusalem, who in the same way saw the miracles of Christ, the numerous miracles, had been able to rise even to this understanding of the common people, they would not have committed the terrible crime of condemning and killing the Son of God. But each one performed miracles of his kind, according to his spirit and heart: Christ restored life to the dead, and the elders of the Jews took it from the living. He was a lover of mankind, and they were murderers and murderers of God. He was the Wonderworker of good, and they were the wonderworkers of evil. But in the end, these evil elders couldn't take the life of anyone but themselves. And all the prophets they killed remained alive forever both with God and with men, while they themselves are hidden, like serpents, in the shadow of these prophets, so that, wandering from generation to generation, they may receive condemnation and curses from each generation. In the same way, by killing Christ, they did not kill Him, but themselves. He, who easily resurrected others, resurrected Himself, and revealed Himself on earth and in heaven as the greatest Light, which burns the more strongly and the brighter it shines, the more it is extinguished. By this Light we all live, and breathe, and rejoice. And this Light of lights will once more, and soon, appear to the earth and to all the living and the dead. This will happen when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to complete human history, to resurrect those who are in the tombs, and to judge all human beings who have lived on earth, from Adam to the end of time. Then once again - and this time in full measure - the words of the Savior will be fulfilled: Verily, verily, I say to you, the time is coming, and it has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live. The miracle of the resurrection of the widow's son from Nain was wrought both out of mercy to the grieving mother and in order to help our faith in the final and universal resurrection, the miracle of miracles, truth above all righteousness, and joy above all joy. To our Lord Jesus Christ be honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, One in Essence and Indivisible, now and ever, at all times and unto the ages of ages. Amen.k/1132/addpart

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel of the Lord the Sower

Luke, 35 rec., 8:5-15.