Господь предсказывает ученикам о страданиях Своих для двух целей. Во-первых, чтобы показать, что Он будет распят не против воли и не как простой человек, не знающий своей смерти, но что Он знает о ней прежде и претерпит ее добровольно. Поскольку, если бы Он не желал пострадать, то, как предвидящий, уклонился бы от этого. Ибо против воли попадаться в чужие руки свойственно незнающим о том вперед. Во-вторых, чтобы убедить их легко переносить будущие обстоятельства, как известные им предварительно и случившиеся с ними не внезапно. Если же, Господи, на Тебе имеет совершиться давно предсказанное пророками, то зачем Ты восходишь в Иерусалим? За тем самым, чтобы Мне совершить спасение. Итак, Он идет добровольно. Впрочем для сего Он говорил, а ученики не понимали тогда ничего. Ибо слова сии были для них сокровенны, особенно слова о Воскресении. И прочих слов они не разумели, например, о том, что предадут Его язычникам; но слов о воскресении решительно не разумели, потому что они не были в употреблении. Да и не все иудействующие веровали даже и во всеобщее воскресение, как это видно на саддукеях (Мф. 22, 23). Быть может, ты скажешь: если ученики не разумели, то зачем же, наконец, Господь говорил им о сем вперед? Какая польза для их утешения во время крестных страданий, когда они не разумели сказанного? За то немалая польза была тогда, когда они впоследствии вспоминали, что сбылось именно то, чего они не поняли, когда предсказывал им Господь. Это видно из многого, особенно же из слов Иоанна: "Ученики Его сперва не поняли этого; но когда прославился Иисус, тогда вспомнили, что так было о Нем написано" (Ин. 12, 16; 14, 29). И Утешитель, напомнив им все, вложил им достовернейшее свидетельство о Христе. А о том, как погребение было тридневное, довольно сказано в толковании на прочих евангелистов (см. Мф, гл. 12).

     Когда же подходил Он к Иерихону, один слепой сидел у дороги, прося милостыни, и, услышав, что мимо него проходит народ, спросил: что это такое? Ему сказали, что Иисус Назорей идет. Тогда он закричал: Иисус, Сын Давидов! помилуй меня. Шедшие впереди заставляли его молчать; но он еще громче кричал: Сын Давидов! помилуй меня. Иисус, остановившись, велел привести его к Себе: и, когда тот подошел к Нему, спросил его: чего ты хочешь от Меня? Он сказал: Господи! чтобы мне прозреть. Иисус сказал ему: прозри! вера твоя спасла тебя. И он тотчас прозрел и пошел за Ним, славя Бога; и весь народ, видя это, воздал хвалу Богу. 

Во время пути Господь совершает чудо над слепым, чтобы и прохождение Его не было учением бесполезным для нас и для учеников Христовых, чтобы мы во всем, всегда и везде приносили пользу, а праздного у нас не было бы ничего. Слепец веровал, что Он (Иисус) есть ожидаемый Христос (ибо, вероятно, как воспитанный между иудеями, он знал, что Христос от семени Давидова), и кричал громким голосом: "Сын Давидов! помилуй меня". И словами "помилуй меня" выражал, что он имеет о Нем какое-то божественное понятие, а не считает просто человеком. Подивись, пожалуй, и настойчивости его исповедания, как он, несмотря на то, что многие унимали его, не молчал, а еще громче кричал; ибо горячность изнутри двигала им. Поэтому и Иисус подзывает его к Себе, как поистине достойного приблизиться к Нему, и спрашивает его: "чего ты хочешь от Меня?" Спрашивает не потому, будто бы не знает, но чтобы находящимся тут не показалось, что тот просит о том, а Он подает другое: тот, например, просит денег, а Он, желая показать Себя, исцеляет слепоту. Ибо зависть может клеветать и таким безумным образом. Поэтому Господь спросил, и когда открыл, что он желает прозреть, прозрение ему и дает. Смотри и на отсутствие гордости. "Вера твоя, - говорит, - спасла тебя", поскольку ты уверовал, что Я есмь проповедуемый оный Сын Давидов Христос, и высказал такую горячность, что не молчал, несмотря на запрещение. Из сего мы научаемся тому, что когда мы просим с верой, то не так бывает, что мы просим сего, а Господь подает иное, но именно то самое. Если же мы просим сего, а получаем иное, то явный знак, что мы просим не доброго и не с верой. "Просите, - сказано, - и не получаете, потому что просите не на добро" (Иак. 4, 3). Примечай и власть: "прозри". Кто из пророков исцелял так, то есть с такой властью? Отсюда и глас, происшедший от истинного Света (Ин. 1, 9), стал светом для больного. Заметь и благодарность исцеленного. Ибо он пошел за Иисусом, славя Бога и других располагая к прославлению Его.

Глава девятнадцатая

Потом Иисус вошел в Иерихон и проходил через него. И вот, некто, именем Закхей, начальник мытарей и человек богатый, искал видеть Иисуса, кто Он, но не мог за народом, потому что мал был ростом, и, забежав вперед, взлез на смоковницу, чтобы увидеть Его, потому что Ему надлежало проходить мимо нее. Иисус, когда пришел на это место, взглянув, увидел его и сказал ему: Закхей! сойди скорее, ибо сегодня надобно Мне быть у тебя в доме. И он поспешно сошел и принял Его с радостью. И все, видя то, начали роптать, и говорили, что Он зашел к грешному человеку; Закхей же, став, сказал Господу: Господи! половину имения моего я отдам нищим, и, если кого чем обидел, воздам вчетверо. Иисус сказал ему: ныне пришло спасение дому сему, потому что и он сын Авраама, ибо Сын Человеческий пришел взыскать и спасти погибшее.

The Lord steals the strongest vessels from the devil and destroys his cities. For see how He not only made the publicans His disciples, but also the eldest among the publicans, Zacchaeus, into salvation. And that the publican is a low creature, and that the eldest among the publicans, as a ruler in malice, is even more vile, no one doubts. For the publicans acquire the means of subsistence only from the tears of the poor. However, this eldest among the publicans is not despised, but shows hospitality and receives salvation as a reward. For when he desired to see Jesus, and for this purpose he climbed up on a fig tree, the Lord saw him before he himself saw Him. Thus, God everywhere precedes us, as soon as He sees our readiness. When Jesus saw him, he commanded him to get down quickly, since he was to be in his house. Zacchaeus did not hesitate, for one should not shrink away when Christ commands something, but he took tears and received them with joy, although many murmured. Let us see what fruits it bears on the occasion of Christ's visitation. "Half of my possessions, O Lord," he says, "I will give to the poor." Do you see the hotness? He began to sow without mercy and gave away not something small, but everything that was in life. For even that which he withheld, he withheld in order to be able to give to the offended. By this he also teaches us that it is of no use if a man, having unrighteous riches, has mercy on others, and leaves those who are offended unattended. See how he acts in this case as well. If he has offended someone in any way, he returns four times, thereby compensating for the loss caused to the offended. For true mercy not only restores the loss, but also with an addition, according to the Law. For the Law compelled him who stole to pay four times (Exodus 22:1). Even if we examine it exactly, we will see that he has absolutely nothing left of his estate. For he gives half of his possessions to the poor, and he has only half left. Of this remaining half, he again returns four times to those whom he has offended. Therefore, if the life of this elder of tax collectors consisted of iniquities, and he returns four times for everything that he has gained through unrighteousness, then see how he has lost everything. In this respect he turns out to be a wise man above the Law, a disciple of the Gospel, since he loved his neighbor more than himself, and this is not only in the promise, but in reality. For he did not say, "I will give half, I will return fourfold," but, "Behold, I give," "I return." He knows Solomon's admonition: "Do not say, 'Go and come again, and tomorrow I will give' (Prov. 3, 28). - Christ preaches salvation to him. Now," he says, "you give, now you have salvation. For by the words "this house" undoubtedly indicates Zacchaeus, who receives salvation. By the house is meant Zacchaeus, because the Lord would not have called the soulless building the son of Abraham, but obviously called it the animate owner of the house. He called him "the son of Abraham," perhaps because he believed and was justified by faith, or perhaps because he generously despised wealth and loved the poor like this patriarch. Note: The Lord called Zacchaeus the son of Abraham now that He saw in him a similarity in his way of life. He did not say, "For this son of Abraham also was," but now "is." For formerly, being an elder of publicans and a tax collector, and having no resemblance to the righteous man, he was not his son. And since some murmured that the Lord went to the house of a sinful man, in order to stop their mouths, He says: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." This is the literal meaning. "But it is convenient to explain it in another way, in favor of morality. Everyone who is older than many in wickedness is small in stature, for flesh and spirit are opposite to each other, and therefore cannot see Jesus behind the people; that is, confused by passions and worldly affairs, he cannot see Jesus acting, moving, and walking. For such a person does not feel any action befitting a Christian. And the walk of Jesus means that Christ is at work in us. Such a person, who has never seen Jesus walking and has not experienced any action befitting Christ, often comes to consciousness out of repentance and climbs the fig tree, that is, he despises and tramples on all pleasure and pleasantness, which are signified by the fig tree, and thus, having risen above himself and considering the ascent in the heart, he is seen by Jesus, and sees Him himself. Then the Lord said to him: "Come down quickly," that is, through repentance you have come to a higher life, but go down through humility, so that arrogance will not deceive you. Humble yourself quickly, for if you humble yourself, then I need to be in your house. "It is necessary for me," he says, "to be in the house of the humble. For "on whom will I look: on him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and on him who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:2). Such a person gives half of his possessions to the poor, that is, to demons. Our possessions are of two kinds, that is, bodily and mental. The righteous man yields all bodily things to demons, truly poor and devoid of all good, but he does not renounce spiritual possessions. As is known, the Lord also says of Job: "Only save his soul" (Job 2:6). If such a person has offended someone in any way, he pays four times. This hints that everyone who, through repentance, passes over to the path contrary to the former malice, heals all previous sins with the four virtues and thus receives salvation. He is called "the son of Abraham" because, like Abraham, he came out of his land and from the kinship of his former wickedness, dwelt outside his father's house, that is, outside himself, and denied himself (for he was the house of his father the devil (John 8:44), and thus, having become outside himself and alienated, he receives salvation.

     And when they heard this, he added a parable: for he was near Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was soon to be revealed. Therefore he said, "A certain man of high birth went to a far country, to obtain for himself a kingdom and to return; And he called ten of his servants, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, Use them until I return. But the citizens hated him and sent an embassy after him, saying, "We do not want him to reign over us." 

It seems to me that these people, hearing about the Kingdom of God, understood this feeling of God's alleged favor for the liberation of the Jewish people, and therefore they assumed that Jesus, ascending to Jerusalem, would accept this kingdom. But the Lord, in order to show them that they reason unreasonably, for His Kingdom is not sensual, and at the same time to express that He knows their thoughts as God, He tells a real parable, depicting Himself in the person of a man of high birth. For although He was made man, He did not depart from the height and nobility of the Godhead. Having performed the Mystery of the Economy in the flesh, he again went to a distant country, that is, in order to sit down with the flesh according to mankind "at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven" (Heb. 8:1). For as God He always sat with the Father, and as a man He sat down when He ascended, waiting until the enemies were laid under His feet (Heb. 10:12-13). And this will be at the end of the world, when all, even those who do not will, will submit to Him, believing that "the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:11). His "citizens" are the Jews, who hate Him. "And they saw," He says, "and hated Me and My Father" (John 15:24). They did not want Him to reign over them. Therefore, denying His kingdom, they said to Pilate: "We have no king," and again, "Do not write, King of the Jews" (John 19:15, 21). Yet Zechariah cries: "Rejoice with joy, O daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh unto thee, the righteous and the saver" (Zech. 9:9); and Isaiah: "Behold, the King shall reign in righteousness" (32:1); and David: "I have anointed My King over Zion" (Psalm 2:6). The Jews hated the Lord, and He gave His servants ten minutes. It is said that there are "ten" of them, because of the perfection of the church primacy. For the order in the Church has a perfect constitution of primates, and there was no need for them, neither more nor less. For example, we see in the Church the following three actions: purification, enlightenment, and accomplishment, the three degrees between which these actions are divided. Deacons purify by catechesis and teaching, presbyters enlighten by baptism, bishops ordain and perform sacred degrees, that is, ordain. Do you see that the degrees are commensurate with the actions, and the degrees of the primates are no more, no less? It is to these servants that the Lord distributes ten "minas," that is, gifts that are given to each for the benefit of each (1 Cor. 12:7). For everyone to whom the primacy has been entrusted, even if he is unworthy, has a gift from the anointing itself, and this is truly the great Mystery of God's love for mankind and the Economy of God.