Notes for  30 June 2026

How is God's work done? Over the two-thousand-year history of the Church, more has been said and written about this than actual works of God have been done. And with all this, no one has managed to understand it exactly to this day, much less has anyone managed to create a single general theory that would describe the algorithm of divine-human interaction in history.

Why is that? One could simply answer: because the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. And that would certainly be true: God's plans are known to no one except God Himself. But the question is how God interacts with people, and here the situation is somewhat different: insofar as God includes a person in His plan, He reveals this design to him, at least in part.

The point is perhaps something else: the very quality of the relationship between God and man. If everything had been scheduled in advance with God, the situation for His servants would, perhaps, have been simpler in some respects: then it really would be possible to try to develop some classification of possible interactions, not immediately, and over a long time, but the task would be solvable in principle. But the point is that with God, it appears, only the goals are marked out in advance, while the plan for achieving them changes continually according to the developing spiritual situation, or, more simply, according to who has once again said to God another "yes" or another "no."

In any case, classifying this mosaic of possibilities and the options for their realization is, of course, completely unrealistic. What remains is only to listen and hear God, who, having set the task, will certainly indicate the one to whom it can be entrusted. This does not mean, however, that over time a new worker will not replace the former one. And the options may be completely unexpected, at times in no way corresponding to any human ideas.

Who, indeed, could have seriously considered Paul as a preacher of Christ at the time when he appeared in Damascus? Humanly speaking, the most reasonable choice would have been to keep away from him. But Ananias makes a different choice, acting as God commands him to act. And Saul the persecutor becomes Paul, the great witness of Christ and the Kingdom.

As can be seen, the main task of many representatives of the Pharisaic brotherhood, if not all of them, became to explain the miracles and healings performed by Jesus in such a way as not to recognize Him as a true Servant of God. Everything was brought into play, including utterly absurd explanations, as though Jesus, in healing, resorted to the help of some dark powers. It was not hard for Jesus to answer such accusations by emphasizing their obvious absurdity. But the issue was, of course, not the accusations themselves. The issue was the position of the accusers, and Jesus, of course, understood this perfectly. It is no accident that He said: "Whoever does not gather with Me scatters."

The issue, in essence, was not concrete accusations but the Kingdom. Jesus says directly to His accusers: if I cast out unclean spirits by the power of the breath of God, then the Kingdom has reached you, and now your further fate depends only on you; it will not be possible to remain neutral here. The moment of choice has arrived, the one some modern philosophers call existential: there is no escaping it, and it will determine the whole further life of a person. There is one Messiah, and one Kingdom.

This is not a theological or religious question, nor even a worldview question, but a spiritual and practical one. One can accept the Kingdom and live by its life, but then one must also accept the One who brought it into the world, and not define the possibility of such acceptance or rejection by any religious or theological criteria. Everything is simple: it is enough to see whether the Kingdom is here or not. And if it is here, to accept it as a fact, without trying to force it into any existing framework. Then the lives of those who accept it become part of the Kingdom: they "gather with Jesus."

If, however, despite everything, a person rejects the Kingdom, that rejection becomes the choice that determines his life, and not simply a theological or religious position he has chosen. Then the Kingdom is not for him, and he is not for the Kingdom. And then, according to the Savior's words, "whoever does not gather with Me scatters."

The disciples were ready to follow Christ wherever He went. They got into the boat after Him in order to accompany Him. But even while following Christ, the disciples for too long did not understand Him. It is noteworthy that, describing the disciples' reaction to Jesus calming the storm, the evangelist writes: "And the men marveled, saying..." For at the moment when the disciples do not understand the Teacher, they cannot be called disciples.

Christ's sleep in the middle of the stormy sea is striking not only because He preserves astonishing self-control amid the raging elements, while all the disciples are alarmed. Another meaning can also be seen in this image: it recalls God's rest after the completion of creation, when the world was already developing according to the course appointed for it. Even while at rest, the Lord remained the Creator and Lord of the moving universe. And here one can also discern His coming Resurrection, when, rising from the repose of the tomb, He will again bring the bewildered apostles to their senses.

The enemy invasion is to become retribution for unfaithfulness. Quite recently the Lord was with His people as they fought their enemies; it was thanks to Him that the people won victories. But now He is on the side of those who are going to conquer Jerusalem. Yet it is not the Lord who betrayed the people; the people have departed from Him. This sits uneasily in minds accustomed to the logic of simple answers, but nevertheless it is so: even while fighting against the people, the Lord continues to preserve them and care for them, trying to help their ways be corrected.

For now, among this people words about peace are heard, but there is no peace either on earth or in hearts. This too is familiar to us: too often in our time words about peace become a hypocritical ritual that covers hatred and a constant readiness for enmity. And now we see that many people, having cast aside words that have lost trust, not only fail to seek genuine peace but openly sow discord. Their disgust with hypocrisy can be understood. But hypocrisy is not abolished by evil that gives birth to new hypocrisy; it is abolished by the genuine embodiment of good. If this does not happen, then the Lord not only rejects hypocritical rituals, but also does not prevent that very evil which the people chose for themselves from crashing down upon them: the one who rejected mercy will have to taste its opposite.

And yet again and again the grieving are compared to a woman in labor, and this comparison gives hope. A woman suffers during childbirth, but her pain is not meaningless: through it new life appears. And if the people are born anew through painful repentance, their sufferings will not be meaningless.

It is no wonder that Jesus' words shocked Nicodemus so much. In his view, a place in the Kingdom of the coming Messiah was guaranteed to him by the very fact of being born to Jewish parents and belonging to the chosen people. But the Lord tells him, and us, that what is born of the flesh (that is, of people, even Jewish people) is flesh, and that in order to enter the Kingdom of the Spirit one must be born of water (receive baptism) and the Spirit (receive that gift of the Spirit which, according to the word of the Lord, everyone who believes in Him receives - John 7:38).

Of course, it is easy for you and me to smile at an authoritative Jewish teacher who does not understand such simple things, since we know what the Lord Jesus is speaking about. Yes, thanks be to God, unlike Nicodemus, we understand when the Teacher speaks "of earthly things"; but does that mean we will understand when He begins to speak "of heavenly things"? If He calls birth from the Spirit "earthly," what then is "heavenly"? Perhaps we should not exalt ourselves so much over Nicodemus; beside the Lord Jesus we always remain slow-witted disciples...

This chapter gives detailed statutes about sacrifices on the feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Booths (see Lev. 23). A carefully developed calendar tied to the cycle of field work was intended, it appears, to help Israel consistently live through the most important moments of religious life. Calling upon the Lord on the feast of Trumpets, offering sacrifices for sin on the Day of Atonement, and remembering its Exodus on the feast of Booths, the people of God learn the proper worship of God, so that one day, in the persons of the apostles, they may recognize His Son in the Man from Nazareth.