He was offered to drink wine with myrrh, but they were of such a disgusting quality that the wine became vinegar, and myrrh became bile. Indeed, in the Church on Good Friday we remember this event and say: Ungrateful Jews, how did you pay God for the manna with which He fed you! You gave him vinegar mixed with bile. And now, He's hanging on the Cross.

Imagine, how huge the blood loss is. A person hangs with punctured veins in the open air, and his hand is constantly torn apart, because he has to breathe, he has to pull himself up on his arms to breathe, otherwise he will not be able to breathe, he will begin to have pulmonary edema. And behold, He said, I thirst, and they gave Him vinegar with gall. And then He said, "It is finished!" (John 19:30)

At last that for the sake of which He came into the world has come to pass. The price is paid: An innocent man died for the guilty. And the ransom was paid. And he said: "Father! into Thy hands I commend My spirit. And having said this, he gave up his spirit" (Luke 23:46). And at the same moment, a terrible earthquake occurred in that place. To this day, traces are visible in Jerusalem, as cracks pierced the mountain. And the blood of Jesus then poured out on the head of the first man who was buried under Golgotha, on the head of Adam, and washed away his sins.

And at the same moment, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the sanctuary, where the high priest entered only once a year, was torn as a sign that the Old Testament had ended. And many saints were resurrected and appeared again in Jerusalem after His Resurrection as a sign that the power of death was undermined, because the Lord died on the Cross. The ransom has been paid.

Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of people. And so, in the meantime, the priests came to Pilate, who asked that in order to shorten the time of execution, the robbers' legs be broken. Christ was pierced in the ribs, because He was already dead to make sure He was dead, and blood and water flowed from the side. So how did Adam, remember, fall asleep, and from his rib who was created? Eve, who personifies life.

So it is now, the New Adam, the Christ, who dies, falls asleep in the sleep of death, and from His side a new Eve is born. Who? The Orthodox Church, which is born in the water of Baptism. The holy water in which you will be baptized is the same water that flowed out of Christ's wounds. And in Communion the Church nourishes her children with the saving Blood of Christ. Thus, by striking the rib, the crime of the one taken from the rib was also healed.

Everything is connected: the first day of mankind and the last day of mankind, the most important days of mankind — they are interconnected; the first Adam and the last Adam, the first Eve and the last Eve, the Church. Near Christ stood the Virgin Mary and John. And even before His death, the Lord adopted John as a son to the Virgin Mary, and in the person of John He adopted the Virgin Mary and all of us, all Christians.

And since then, everyone has called the Virgin Mary their Mother. Because this is the will of Christ, which He Himself prophesied from the Cross. After this, a rich man, Joseph, a member of the council, came along with Nicodemus. They begged Pilate to give them the body of Jesus, and they took down Christ, wrapped Him in a shroud, which is now kept in the Vatican, put Him in a coffin, and surrounded Him with a multitude of incense.

In the coffin, that is, in a stone cave, there was a bench, and they covered it with a stone, so that no one would steal. And the next day the chief priests and Pharisees examined the body, sealed the tomb, and set a guard so that no one would steal the body. In this way, people thought Christ would be finished. But this was not the end. Because as soon as Christ died, His soul left the body and went to hell. Where did all the souls go? To hell. Christ also went there.

The devil was sitting, rubbing his hands, he thought that the soul of Christ would be the same as the souls of all people. But bitter disappointment awaited him. Christ came to hell, and there He revealed His Divinity. Do you remember who Christ was? He did not have a human personality, His "I" is from God, so His "I" manifested itself in hell. And hell, which was a place of eternal darkness, suddenly shone with light, imagine what a horror it was for the devil!

And Christ said to the devil: you had a right to sinners, you had honestly, they sinned, you invented sin, and they committed it. Therefore, people's souls were rightly sent to hell. And why hast thou stretched out thy hands against me? That's it, so you lose the right to everyone. And the devil was robbed. Christ committed the greatest robbery. As the prophet foretold: "Can the booty be taken from the strong, and can the captives be taken from the conqueror? Yes!

thus saith the Lord: And the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the spoils of the tyrant shall be delivered; for I will contend with thy adversaries, and I will save thy sons; and I will feed thy oppressors with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their blood as with new wine; and all flesh shall know that I am the Lord thy Saviour and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (Isaiah 49:24-26). He did it.

He robbed the robber, He justly killed the murderer, and He brought out the souls of people and brought them into Paradise. Thus, those people who hoped and sought God in the Old Testament, they were saved by the Blood of Jesus: John the Baptist, who had been executed by that time, and Simeon the God-Receiver, and Moses, and other prophets – they all entered the Kingdom of Heaven, the returned Paradise.

And, finally, at the very bottom of hell, the Lord found His old friend Adam, who ran away from Him for a long time, and He also led him into Paradise along with other righteous people. And yet death is ruinous. Why? What is death, in your opinion? Death destroys our personality. What happens to a person when he dies? His personality is destroyed. The "I" of a person acts both in the soul and in the body.