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Chapter 6IlarionZakon.1.6

Пришедъ къ своимъ, и свои его не приаша

The Stumbling Stone

Christ came to his own, but they stumbled over him as over a stone and were crushed, calling him a deceiver and one who casts out demons by Beelzebul.

And those who treated him this way stumbled over him as though he were a stone, and were crushed, just as the Lord said: "Whoever falls on this stone will be broken, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."✦ For he came to them, fulfilling the prophecies spoken about him, just as he also said: "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and again: "I did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it," and to the Canaanite foreign woman who was asking for her daughter's healing he said: "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But they called him a deceiver, one born of fornication, and one who casts out demons by Beelzebul.1

The Crucified Healer

Despite Christ's miracles of healing and mercy, Israel tortured and crucified him, sealing their own judgment as shown in the parable of the vineyard.

Christ opened the eyes of their blind, cleansed the lepers, straightened the crippled, healed those possessed by demons, strengthened the paralyzed, and raised the dead. But they tortured him as a criminal and nailed him to the cross. For that reason God's final wrath came upon them.2 For they themselves also bore witness to their own destruction. When the Savior told the parable of the vineyard and the workers, and asked what he would do to those workers, they answered: "He will destroy those wicked men with a terrible end and hand the vineyard over to other workers who will give him its fruit in their seasons"—and so they themselves became prophets of their own destruction.3

Tears Over Jerusalem

Because their deeds were dark, Israel refused the light of Christ, prompting his tearful lament over the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

For he came to earth to visit them, and they did not receive him, because their deeds were dark; they did not love the light, so that their deeds would not be shown to be dark. For this reason, as Jesus was coming to Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it, saying: "If only you had known, on this your day, the things that make for your peace. But now it is hidden from your eyes, for days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a siege-work around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side; they will dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."4 And again: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not. See, your house is left to you desolate!"

The Desolate House

The prophecy was fulfilled: Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Law ended, and the Jews were scattered among the nations.

And so it was. For the Romans came, captured Jerusalem, and razed it to the ground.5 From then on, Judaism perished, and after this, the Law, like the evening twilight, faded away, and the Jews were scattered among the nations so that evil would not remain concentrated in one place.6

The Nations Inherit the Kingdom

Since Israel rejected him, Christ was received by the Gentiles, who are now heirs of the kingdom and commissioned to spread the Gospel to all nations.

For the Savior came and wasn't received by Israel, and, as the Gospel says, "He came to his own, and his own did not receive him." But the Gentiles received him. Just as Jacob said: "And he is the hope of the nations."7 For even at his birth, Magi from the Gentiles were the first to bow down to him, while the Jews tried to kill him, and because of him they also slaughtered the infants. And the Savior's word was fulfilled: "Many will come from east and west and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness."8 And again: "The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to the nations that produce its fruit."9 He sent his disciples to them, saying, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." And: "Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep everything I have commanded you."

Read the original Church Slavonic

Си же сътворьшеи ему прѣтъкнушася о нь, акы о камень, и съкрушишася, яко же Господь глаголааше: «Падыи на камени семь съкрушится, а на немь же падеть, съкрушить и́».

Прииде бо к нимъ, исполняа пророчьства, прореченаа о немь, яко же и глаголааше: «Нѣсмь посланъ, тъкмо къ овцамъ погыбшиимъ дому Израилева», и пакы: «Не приидохъ разоритъ закона, нъ исполнитъ», и къ хананѣи иноязычници, просящи исцѣлениа дъщери своеи, глаголааше: «Нѣсть добро отъяти хлѣба чядомъ и поврещи псомъ». Они же нарекоша сего лестьцаи от блуда рождена, и о Велизѣвулѣ бѣсы изгоняща.

Христосъ слѣпыа ихъ просвѣти, прокаженыа очисти, слукыа исправи, бѣсныа исцѣли, раслабленыа укрѣпи, мертвыа въскрѣси. Они же яко злодѣа мучивше, крестѣ пригвоздиша. Сего ради прииде на ня гнѣвъ Божий конечныи.

Яко же и сами послуствоваша своеи погыбели. Рекшу Спасу притьчю о виноградѣ и о дѣлателех: что убо сътворить дѣлателемь тѣмь, отвѣщаша: «Злы злѣ погубить я и виноградъ прѣдасть инѣмь дѣлателемь, иже въздадять ему плоды въ времена своа», — и сами своей погыбели пророци быша.

Приде бо на землю, посѣтить ихъ и не приаша его, понеже дѣла ихъ темна бяаху, не възлюбиша свѣта, да не явятся дѣла ихъ яко темьна суть.

Сего ради приходя Исусъ къ Иеросалиму, видѣвъ градъ, прослезися о немъ, глаголя, яко: «Аще бы разумѣлъ ты въ день твои сь яже къ миру твоему. Нынѣ же съкрыся отъ очию твоею, яко приидуть дение на тя, и обожять врази твои острогъ о тобѣ, и обидуть тя и обоимуть тя всюду, и разбиють тя и чада твоа въ тобѣ, понеже не разумѣ врѣмене посѣщениа твоего». И пакы: «Иерусалимъ, Иерусалимъ, избивающиа пророкы и камениемь побивающи посланыа к тобѣ! Колижды въсхотѣх събьрати чяда твоа, яко же събираеть кокошь птеньцѣ под крилѣ свои, и не въсхотѣсте. Се оставляется домъ вашь пустъ»!

Яко же и бысть. Пришедъше бо римляне, плѣниша Иерусалимъ и разбиша ú до основаниа его. Иудейство оттолѣ погыбе, и законъ по семь, яко вечерьнѣи зарѣ, погасе, и расѣяни быша иудеи по странамъ, да не въкупь злое пребываеть.

Приде бо Спасъ и не приать бысть от Израиля, и, по евангельскому слову, «въ своа прииде и свои его не приаша». От языкъ же приать бысть. Яко же рече Иаковъ: «И тъ чаяние языкомъ». Ибо и въ рождении его вълсви от языкъ прѣжде поклонишася ему, а иудеи убити его искааху, его же ради и младенця избиша.

И събысться слово Спасово, яко: «Мнози ото въстокъ и западъ приидуть и възлягнуть съ Авраамомъ и Исакомъ иИаковомъ въ царствии небеснѣмь, а сынове царьствиа изгнани будуть въ тму кромѣшнюю». И пакы, яко: «Отимется от вас царство Божие и дасться странамъ, творящиимъ плоды его».

Къ ним же посла ученикы своа, глаголя: «Шедъше въ весь миръ, проповѣдите Евангелие всей твари. Да иже вѣруеть и крьститься, спасенъ будеть». И: «Шьдъше, научите вся языкы, крестяще я́ въ имя Отца и Сына и Святаго Духа, учаще я́ блюсти вся, елика заповѣдах вамъ».

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.1.11 — He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source surface 'лестьцаи' is read as 'лестьца и' (deceiver and); the run-together form is treated as ordinary orthographic joining, not a separate lexeme.
  2. 2 ↩конечныи rendered as 'final' (ultimate/decisive judgment), not merely 'extreme' intensity; fits the sermon's historical judgment-on-Israel theme.
  3. 3 ↩дѣлателех/дѣлателемь are the vineyard workers (tenants/vinedressers) of the Gospel parable, not generic day-laborers.
  4. 4 ↩острогъ: siege palisade/rampart; rendered as "siege-work" for the Roman encirclement of Jerusalem.
  5. 5 ↩Source has the corrupted form «ú» in «разбиша ú до основаниа его». Translated as the expected object pronoun referring to Jerusalem («и/ю»): 'destroyed it to its foundations.'
  6. 6 ↩«Иудейство» rendered as 'Judaism' (the covenantal order/way of life under the Law, not merely 'the Jewish people'). «законъ ... погасе» keeps the Law as extinguished light, paired with the evening-twilight simile.
  7. 7 ↩Church Slavonic чаяние can mean expectation/hope; rendered hope for natural contemporary English while keeping messianic force (cf. Gen 49:10).
  8. 8 ↩Source reads «иИаковомъ» without a word break; translated as the expected «и Иаковомъ» (and Jacob).
  9. 9 ↩«странамъ» rendered as «nations» (peoples/lands), matching the Gospel sense rather than modern «countries» alone.

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