Jesus himself possessed this supreme assurance: the kingdom of God was at hand, Satan was defeated; the event that took place in heaven has its manifestation on earth, for in Him, in Christ, comes the kingdom: in Him it is already among men (ἐντὸς ὑμῶν {48} Luke 17:21). God anointed him "with the Spirit and power" to preach sight to the blind, resurrection to the dead, and to set the tormented at liberty (Luke 4:18), to loose the bonds bound by Satan (Luke 13:16). He Himself is a living testimony to the approaching kingdom, which must change the image of this world with its infirmities and sicknesses. He has the power to forgive sins, and His healings are a sign of this (Mark 2:10); He defeated the "mighty man," and His power over demons is a sign of this (Matt. 12:28 ff.); He is also Lord of the Sabbath – since He heals on the Sabbath (Mk. 2:28; 3:2 ff.; John 5:17); He is, in the words of the Book of Acts, "a man testified to by the signs and wonders which God has wrought through him" (D. 2:22).

For those moralists who want to turn Christ into a moral preacher in modern taste, this aspect of His activity is alien and incomprehensible, but this does not give them the right to deny it or belittle its significance. Without it, we cannot explain the outward course of the Gospel history, as well as many of the main features in the history of the Apostolic Church. There is no doubt that the life of Christ was not only a feat of preaching, but also a feat of "doing good" (to do good, ἀγαθοποιῆσαι Mk. 3:4 – meant for Him to heal). Tradition in this

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attitude is too unanimous and complete, so that even those who are inclined to see in the legends of Christ's miracles a significant part of the legend, must admit that there was an aspect in His activity that served as the basis for such a legend. Not to mention the fact that many of Christ's words, and those whose authenticity lies beyond doubt, refer to His healings or the gift of healing, as, for example, His discourse about healings on the Sabbath or about casting out demons.

Let us take, for example, the undoubtedly authentic testimonies of the impression made by Christ on the masses of the people. We see these crowds crowding around Him, seeking to touch Him, not allowing Him to eat, forcing Him to go up the mountain or get into a boat to speak to the people; the sick are carried from everywhere, as in Capernaum in the evening, after sunset on the Sabbath day, when it was possible to carry the sick without breaking the Sabbath (Mark 1:32). They even dismantle the roof of the house, which cannot be entered from the crowd in order to lower the sick at His feet. He goes into the wilderness, and the crowd follows Him without taking bread; He hides for a time within the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and, entering the house, wants to remain unnoticed, but even there he cannot hide. Even the pagans, like the centurion of Capernaum or the Syrophoenician woman, show examples of the most ardent faith in Him. To deny the authenticity of such stories means to refuse to understand the history of the Gospel and the whole of early Christianity. This means to neglect the historical analogies of subsequent times: what happened around Christ later happened around the apostles, and then throughout the entire subsequent history of the Christian Church around the holy ascetics and healers, and what is happening to this day – with the difference that the impression made by Christ must have been as strong as He surpassed His followers and disciples in power and gifts. It is true that the gospel triumphed by its inner truth, by its word; but in this word power was felt and manifested (ἐξουσία). It is true that the gospel preached the highest truth and the highest good; but this truth was confessed as

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real judgment, and good, as real salvation, as an all-powerful good, to which even physical evil and death cannot serve as an external limit.

VI

Corresponding to the constant podvig of benevolence was unceasing prayerful podvig, a feat of spirit and vigor. The Gospels tell us how He demanded unceasing, persistent prayer from His disciples, how He Himself, after tiring days of preaching and labor, spent His nights in prayer (e.g., Mark 1:35; 6:46; Luke 3:21; 6:12; 9:18, 28; 11:1; John 18:2). Along with the outward life, Christ had His own constant prayer life, for which we find in the Gospels so many indications, brief, but profoundly significant for anyone familiar with the history of the spiritual life that Jesus began.

This is the whole world of prayer in which Jesus lived and nourished. And in his words to his disciples about the healing of a demon-possessed boy, he himself points to the relationship between faith, prayer and healing. When the disciples asked why they could not heal the boy, He answered: "Because of your lack of faith... this kind cannot come forth except from prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:20) – in which they saw not without reason Jesus' indication of His fasting and the spiritual victory won in the wilderness.