Jesus Christ also spent the night of Tuesday in Bethany, and on Tuesday morning he again came to the temple in Jerusalem and taught a lot in the temple and outside the temple (Matthew 24:1). The chief priests and elders, hearing His parables and understanding what He was saying about them, tried to seize Him and kill Him. But the people were openly afraid of attacking Him, who revered Him as a prophet (Matthew 21:46), were in admiration for His teaching (Mark 11:18), and listened to Him with delight (Mark 12:37).
From the Gospel instructions delivered by Jesus Christ on Tuesday, the Church chose for the edification of believers on this day mainly the parable of the ten virgins, as especially appropriate for the times Great Week, in which we most ought to watch and pray. With the parable of the ten virgins, the Church instills constant readiness to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom through chastity, almsgiving and the immediate performance of other good deeds, depicted under the name of oil prepared by the wise virgins.
Archpriest G.S. Debolsky,
"Days of worship Orthodox Church", Vol. 2
Hymns from the service on Tuesday of Holy Week of Great Lent
Having dozed off with spiritual laziness, not having acquired any money, the Bridegroom of Christ, burning a lamp, like the virtues, and became like virgins, mocking while they were doing; Do not close the wombs of Your bounties to me, O Master, but shake off my darkened sleep, raise me up, O Merciful One, and lead the wise virgins into Your palace, where the pure voice of those celebrating and crying out incessantly: Lord, glory to You!“Led to sleep by mental laziness, I did not acquire, Christ the Bridegroom, the burning lamp that constitutes the virtues, and I became like the foolish virgins in my senseless life activities, Lord! Do not close Your loving heart for me, but, having driven away my sleepless sleep, arise and lead me with the wise virgins into Your palace, where the joyful voice of those celebrating and crying incessantly: Lord, glory to You!
Stichera
Gospel of Matthew
Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom. Of these, five were wise and five were foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps and took no oil with them. The wise, together with their lamps, took oil in their vessels. And as the groom slowed down, everyone dozed off and fell asleep. But at midnight a cry was heard: behold, the groom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all the virgins stood up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise, Give us your oil, for our lamps are going out. And the wise answered: so that there is no shortage for both us and you, you better go to the seller and buy it for yourself.When they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Then other virgins come and say: Lord! God! Open to us. He answered and said, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come.
Matt. 25, 1-13
Stay awake!
Dear brothers and sisters, approaching the days of His suffering, the Lord was especially close and frank with His disciples. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I called you friends, because I told you everything that I heard from My Father (John 15:15), the Savior said to the Apostles. Now, no longer openly, but with particular clarity, he announced to them that He needed to suffer in order to thus prepare them for His suffering: You know that in two days there will be Easter, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified (Matthew 26 , 2). Seeing the grief that gripped the Apostles, He consoles the disciples with the promise that He will not leave them.But at the same time, the Lord does not hide the fact that they, and all Christians in general, will face the same fate as Him, their Divine Teacher: Remember the word that I told you: If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too; If they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15, 20, 18 and 19).
And again, seeing them sorrowful, the Lord consoles them: In the world you will have sorrow; but take heart: I have overcome the world. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, and I myself will be with you until the end of the age. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you... Let not your heart be troubled and let it not be afraid (cf. John 16:33; 14:16; cf. Matthew 28:20; John 14:27).
The Lord asks His disciples to abide in Him and fulfill His commandments, for without Him they cannot do anything: Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And... I will come again (John 15, 4, 7; 14, 2, 3).
The Lord consoles them by revealing that sorrow will be followed by joy, that they will have a reward in the Future Kingdom. And since His disciples were interested in the question of what the Lord’s Coming to earth would be like, the Savior proclaimed to them that Divine truth that at the end of the world He would come with great glory to judge the living and the dead and would honor all those who believed in Him sincerely and with repentance until the end of their lives. His Kingdom, and those who did not believe or rejected, who remained without repentance until the end of their lives, will be condemned to eternal torment.
When it will be? (Matt. 24:3) - the disciples asked. But the Lord answered them that no one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone (Matthew 24:36). Thus, Holy Bible keeps it in deep secrecy and does not definitely reveal to us the time of the Second Coming so that we always keep ourselves pure and immaculate and are ready to meet the Lord at all times.
That is why the Lord warns the disciples: Watch therefore, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. But as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day when the Son of Man appears. So, stay awake (Matt. 24:42; cf. Luke 17:26 and 27:30; Matt. 25:13).
In our time, more than ever, we need to remember this warning, for now there are especially many who doze and sleep. Mental sleep is not a bodily sleep that strengthens the body, but on the contrary, it is an unhealthy sleep, a painful hibernation in which people chase vanity and think that they are living a real life, forgetting about the soul, about God and about the Future Eternal Life. In order to more deeply impress upon us the sense of danger, the need to be awake, and to awaken our conscience from spiritual slumber, the Lord told the parable of the ten virgins, which we heard in today’s Gospel reading.
This parable teaches us that, having accepted faith, we accompany it good deeds, which alone can support our spiritual life. The foolish virgins who came out to meet the Bridegroom did not prepare the oil of good deeds for their lamps. The wise, along with lamps, stocked up with good deeds in order to meet the Bridegroom with dignity. Likewise, our entire life should be a preparation for a meeting with the Lord, and for this, throughout it, we must constantly take care of acquiring and preserving living faith and ardent love for God, the Source of love, and for our neighbors.
The worries of this age overshadow the most essential concern and goal of our life - illumination with the light of Christ, its salvation and preparation for the Eternal Kingdom. Let us be sober in order to enter the Heavenly palace with the wise virgins and be rewarded with eternal blessings from the Lord. Amen.
Every day of Holy Week is full of deep meaning and filled with memories that are important to all Christians. These days, divine services are held in churches that help believers touch the great events of the last days of the Savior’s earthly life and prepare for the most important thing in life. Christian Church holiday - Easter. Therefore, it is very important to visit the temple these days in order to detach yourself from the pre-holiday bustle and feel the significance of the events that took place for more than two thousand years in Jerusalem and its environs.
Holy Tuesday Events
Thanks to the stories of the evangelists, we know quite a lot about the events of each day of Holy Week. The holy apostle and evangelist Matthew tells that on Tuesday night the Savior was in Bethany, in a village located near Jerusalem. In the morning, Christ returned to Jerusalem, where he taught the people in the temple, and this sermon was so strong and bright that, according to St. Theophan the Recluse, it alone was enough to believe in Divine origin Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees, who had long wanted to get rid of Him, wanted to use this sermon to rebel either the people or the Roman authorities against the Savior. Wanting to provoke Him, the teachers of the people ask a question to which, it would seem, it is impossible to give an answer that would not entail the indignation of the people. The Pharisees asked Christ: “Teacher! we know that You are just, and You teach truly the way of God, and do not care about pleasing anyone, for You do not look at any person. So, tell us: what do you think? Is it permissible to give tribute to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22, 16:17) If the answer was affirmative, one could accuse the Lord Jesus Christ of supporting the Roman invaders, which would cause rage among the people. In denying the tax, the Pharisees could say that He was a rebel protesting against the authority of Caesar. The Lord commanded to bring a denarius, a Roman coin, and pointing out that it depicted Caesar, he said: “Render therefore the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and God's God"(Matthew 22:21). The Lord’s words, in addition to a direct answer to the Pharisees’ question, contained the deep meaning that secular authorities should not interfere in the affairs of the Church, but for believers Divine teaching should be above all. Confounded by this answer, the Pharisees departed from Christ.
Having left the Jerusalem temple, the Lord predicted to His disciples the fate of this city and the temple itself. Evangelist Matthew writes: “And Jesus went out and walked from the temple; and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. Jesus said to them: Do you see all this? Truly I say to you, not one stone will be left upon another here; everything will be destroyed." (Matt. 24, 2:3). This prediction was fulfilled in the year 70 AD, when the capital Kingdom of Judah was almost completely wiped off the face of the earth by the Romans.
Next, the Lord begins to speak to the disciples about the end of the world and the Second Coming, calling on His disciples to constantly be awake and in anticipation of not only these great events, but also to be ready at every moment to appear before God.
Parables of Maundy Tuesday
At the Liturgy of the Most Blessed Gifts on this day, the parables of the ten virgins and the talents are read. The parable of the ten virgins is found in the Evangelist Matthew. In it, the Lord talks about how ten virgins prepared to meet the groom with lamps. This image was close and understandable to the Savior’s contemporaries, since at that time in the East there was a custom according to which the groom came to the bride’s house, accompanied by relatives and friends. Since this arrival often took place at night, the bride’s friends greeted the dear guest with lamps. In the parable, the five girls were wise and they prepared the oil in advance, but the five other friends did not take care of it. When they went to the merchant for oil, the groom came, and the doors to the wedding feast were closed. The Lord Himself interprets this parable to the disciples, saying that no one knows the time of the coming of the Son of Man. By oil, the Holy Fathers understand the virtues that the soul of a Christian must take care of before the coming of the Lord.
In the parable of the talents, the Lord also speaks allegorically about His Second Coming and the need for every person to be prepared for this event. In this story, the master, when leaving, gives each of his slaves one or more talents, that is, coins, so that they can use this money profitably. Having returned, the owner of the house demands an account from them, and each of the slaves tells how he usefully used what was given to him. Only one slave was unable to increase the talent entrusted to him, for which he was expelled from home in disgrace.
Troparion, tone 8:
Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant, whom the vigilant will find: but he is not worthy, but the despondent will find him. Take care, my soul, not to be burdened with sleep, so that you are not given over to death and the Kingdom is shut out, but arise, calling: Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, O God, have mercy on us through the Mother of God.
Kontakion, voice 2:
The hour, soul, having thought of the end and fearing the cutting of the fig tree, work diligently on the talent given to you, wretched one, watchful and calling: let us not remain outside the palace of Christ.
Prayer (Great Compline, Song 8):
Angels and heavens, who sit on the throne of glory and as God is constantly glorified, bless, sing and exalt him forever.
Thou hast heard in every soul how Christ was proclaimed as His Divine disciple, saying the end: having understood Thy end, prepare the rest: the time of exodus has come.
Thou hast known, barren soul, the parable of the wicked servant: fear and do not neglect the gift which thou hast received, lest thou hide it in the ground, but let me buy it.
May the light become clear, may the seed and oil abound, as the virgins then had compassion, and may my soul find the palace of Christ then open.
On Saturday, flight and in winter, as the Teacher says, the seventh storm predicts the present century, in which he will find death like winter.
As the speed of lightning is fleeting, so then will this terrible coming of your Lord be, my soul: you have heard, you are ready to endure the rest.
When the Judge comes with thousands and ten thousand angelic ranks and strength, then what fear is there in my soul, what trembling, alas for me! Naked standing everyone.
Let us bless the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord.
There is one God, for the Trinity, neither having stepped from the Father into sonship, nor from below the Son has changed into procession, but inherent, and both Light, God, the Three I glorify forever.
Through the prayers of God, Mother of God, accept our prayer, send down Thy mercy upon all things richly, and grant Thy peace to Thy people.
Watch, because you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man will come.
Matthew 25, 13
Jesus Christ also spent the night of Tuesday in Bethany, and on Tuesday morning he again came to the temple in Jerusalem and taught a lot in the temple and outside the temple (Matthew 24:1). The chief priests and elders, hearing His parables and understanding what He was saying about them, tried to seize Him and kill Him. But the people were openly afraid of attacking Him, who revered Him as a prophet (Matthew 21:46), were in admiration for His teaching (Mark 11:18), and listened to Him with delight (Mark 12:37).
From the Gospel instructions delivered by Jesus Christ on Tuesday, the Church chose for the edification of believers on this day mainly the parable of the ten virgins, as especially appropriate for the time of Great Week, during which we should most watch and pray. With the parable of the ten virgins, the Church instills constant readiness to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom through chastity, almsgiving and the immediate performance of other good deeds, depicted under the name of oil prepared by the wise virgins.
Archpriest G.S. Debolsky,
“Days of worship of the Orthodox Church”, vol. 2
Hymns from the service on Tuesday of Holy Week of Great Lent
Having dozed off with spiritual laziness, not having acquired any money, the Bridegroom of Christ, burning a lamp, like the virtues, and became like virgins, mocking while they were doing; Do not close the wombs of Your bounties to me, O Master, but shake off my darkened sleep, raise me up, O Merciful One, and lead the wise virgins into Your palace, where the pure voice of those celebrating and crying out incessantly: Lord, glory to You!
“Led to sleep by spiritual laziness, I did not acquire, Christ the Bridegroom, the burning lamp that constitutes the virtues, and I became like the foolish virgins in my senseless life activities, Lord! Do not close Your loving heart for me, but, having driven away my sleepless sleep, arise and lead me with the wise virgins into Your palace, where the joyful voice of those celebrating and crying incessantly: Lord, glory to You!
Stichera
Gospel of Matthew
Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom. Of these, five were wise and five were foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps and took no oil with them. The wise, together with their lamps, took oil in their vessels. And as the groom slowed down, everyone dozed off and fell asleep. But at midnight a cry was heard: behold, the groom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all the virgins stood up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise, Give us your oil, for our lamps are going out. And the wise answered: so that there is no shortage for both us and you, you better go to the seller and buy it for yourself.
When they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Then other virgins come and say: Lord! God! Open to us. He answered and said, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come.
Matt. 25, 1-13
Stay awake!
Dear brothers and sisters, approaching the days of His suffering, the Lord was especially close and frank with His disciples. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father(John 15:15), the Savior said to the Apostles. Now he no longer explicitly, but with particular clarity, announced to them that He needed to suffer in order to thus prepare them for His suffering: You know that in two days there will be Easter, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified(Matt. 26:2). Seeing the grief that gripped the Apostles, He consoles the disciples with the promise that He will not leave them.
But at the same time, the Lord does not hide the fact that they, and all Christians in general, face the same fate as Him, their Divine Teacher: Remember the word that I spoke to you: If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; If they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you(John 15, 20, 18 and 19).
And again, seeing them sorrowful, the Lord consoles them: In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, and I myself will be with you until the end of the age. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid(cf.: John 16, 33; 14, 16; cf.: Matthew 28, 20; John 14, 27).
The Lord asks His disciples to abide in Him and fulfill His commandments, for without Him they cannot do anything: Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And... I'll come again(John 15, 4, 7; 14, 2, 3).
The Lord consoles them by revealing that sorrow will be followed by joy, that they will have a reward in the Future Kingdom. And since His disciples were interested in the question of what the Lord’s Coming to earth would be like, the Savior proclaimed to them that Divine truth that at the end of the world He would come with great glory to judge the living and the dead and would honor all those who believed in Him sincerely and with repentance until the end of their lives. His Kingdom, and those who did not believe or rejected, who remained without repentance until the end of their lives, will be condemned to eternal torment.
When it will be?(Matt. 24:3) - the disciples asked. But the Lord answered them that about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone(Matt. 24:36). Thus, the Holy Scriptures are kept in deep secrecy and do not definitely reveal to us the time of the Second Coming so that we always keep ourselves pure and blameless and are ready to meet the Lord at all times.
That is why the Lord warns the disciples: Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. But as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day when the Son of Man appears. So stay awake(Matt. 24, 42; cf. Luke 17, 26 and 27, 30; Matt. 25, 13).
In our time, more than ever, we need to remember this warning, for now there are especially many who doze and sleep. Mental sleep is not a bodily sleep that strengthens the body, but on the contrary, it is an unhealthy sleep, a painful hibernation in which people chase vanity and think that they are living a real life, forgetting about the soul, about God and about the Future Eternal Life. In order to more deeply impress upon us the sense of danger, the need to be awake, and to awaken our conscience from spiritual slumber, the Lord told the parable of the ten virgins, which we heard in today’s Gospel reading.
This parable teaches us that, having accepted faith, we accompany it with good deeds, which alone can support our spiritual life. The foolish virgins who came out to meet the Bridegroom did not prepare the oil of good deeds for their lamps. The wise, along with lamps, stocked up with good deeds in order to meet the Bridegroom with dignity. Likewise, our entire life should be a preparation for a meeting with the Lord, and for this, throughout it, we must constantly take care of acquiring and preserving living faith and ardent love for God, the Source of love, and for our neighbors.
The worries of this age overshadow the most essential concern and goal of our life - illumination by the light of Christ, its salvation and preparation for the Eternal Kingdom. Let us be sober in order to enter the Heavenly palace with the wise virgins and be rewarded with eternal blessings from the Lord. Amen.
Tuesday of Holy Week- one of the most important days filled with deep spiritual meaning liturgical year. On this day, as many as four chapters from the Gospel are read in churches, the content of which is interpreted, first of all, in relation to the life of each person, humanity and the Church as a whole, in canons and chants, masterpieces of ancient Christian poetry.
On Great Tuesday, we remember the Lord’s denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, His conversations and parables spoken on this day in the Jerusalem Temple: the tribute of Caesar, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and the end of the world, the parables of the ten virgins and the talents. The parables depict the surprise of the Lord's coming (about the ten virgins) and the righteousness of God's judgment (about the talents).
The Son of God came down to earth and became incarnate for each of us. The Lord suffered a lot in this world; he didn’t even have a place to lay his head. And then something happened that is difficult to explain in words: the Judge himself was put on trial for the condemned, the worthy of glory suffered reproaches from the unworthy, the Immortal accepted a shameful death on the cross from mortals. And today our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can destroy all our sins, completely destroy sin, if we work on our soul, work spiritually, and bring sincere repentance.
It’s difficult, but if you want it’s possible - to whiten your heart, to cleanse yourself, to become at least a little worthy. high rank Christian. Only without God’s help we cannot cope in a difficult battle. God will not reject a single heart that calls out to Him asking for mercy and cleansing. After all, we remember how the Lord Himself taught: ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Luke 11:9).
What should we first ask God for? What do we want to receive from Him? The answers to these questions can be found in the words of our Savior: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). That turns out to be the point! God has prepared heavenly blessings for us. From the creation of the world, people will inherit a blissful eternity. But there is also a condition: our salvation is impossible without true and sincere faith, without love for the Lord and sincere repentance for our countless sins. We can become real children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven only when we are imbued with the spirit of fiery repentance and gain Divine love and the fear of God, let us learn not to doubt our pardon, trusting in the will of the Creator.
The last sermon in the Jerusalem Temple: “Unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”
Approaching the days of His suffering, the Lord was especially close and frank with His disciples. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I called you friends, because I told you everything that I heard from My Father (John 15:15), the Savior spoke to the apostles on that day.
Now He was no longer covertly, but with particular clarity, announced to them that He needed to suffer in order to thus prepare them for His suffering: You know that in two days there will be Easter, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified (Matthew 26 , 2).
At the same time, on Holy Tuesday Christ preached for the last time to the people in the Jerusalem Temple, and accordingly His sermon had special significance. Reflecting on the Gospel reading for this day, Saint Theophan the Recluse notes: “It was enough just to listen to all this with attention to be convinced that He is the true Savior of the world - Christ, and to submit to His commandments and teaching.” We can only briefly dwell on some aspects of this gospel narrative.
Jesus Christ also spent the night of Tuesday in Bethany, and on Tuesday morning he again came to the temple in Jerusalem and taught a lot in the temple and outside the temple (Matthew 24:1). The Pharisees, who had already finally decided to kill Christ, did not fail to take advantage of the moment and catch the Savior in his words, provoking Him to respond, which would inevitably either lead to the indignation of the people, or would become a reason for a political denunciation to the Roman authorities.
At the same time, their hypocrisy reached an almost cartoonish form: not only did they, zealots of the Law and nationalists, not disdain to carry out their plans by an alliance with representatives of the most odious sect of the Herodians, in fact, accomplices of the Roman occupiers, the Pharisees began their speech with surprisingly false and flattering words: Teacher! we know that You are just, and You teach truly the way of God, and do not care about pleasing anyone, for You do not look at any person (Matthew 22:16).
The same people recently spoke about Christ: He is not from God (John 9:16), He deceives the nations (John 7:12); and even: You are a Samaritan, and you have a demon (John 8:48), but now it seemed to them that they had come up with a question that, with any answer, would destroy Jesus, and with flattering words they tried to make sure that He would not evade the answer.
The Pharisees asked Christ: what do you think? Is it permissible to give tribute to Caesar or not? (John 8:49). The slyness of the question was that if the Savior had answered: yes, then the Pharisees would have accused Him before the people of supporting the Roman occupiers, and if: no, then they would have reported Him to the authorities as a rebel. Jesus answered very wisely and simply: He asked to bring a Roman coin, a denarius, on which was minted the image of the emperor, Caesar, and said his famous phrase: so Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's.(Matt. 22:21). Except deep spiritual meaning, these words also had an undeniable everyday truth: since Judea allowed Roman coins to circulate on its territory and was actually part of the Roman Empire, naturally, it had to obey Roman laws and pay taxes.
And the denarius itself, according to ancient legal consciousness, in a sense, really belonged to the emperor: the image of Caesar is a sign that the coin was minted in his name, and he, accordingly, is the supreme owner of the entire monetary supply of the empire. It would be even more strange for a Jew to strive to keep coins with a pagan image of the deified emperor. Human cunning once again failed to resist divine wisdom.
The intrigues of the Pharisees gave the Savior a reason to address the people with a very important speech. In his sermon Christ pointed out those terrible flaws in religious life Israeli people, first of all, in relation to its leaders, the same Pharisees, which will lead to the fact that the Jews will reject their true King and Savior and hand Him over to be crucified.
It should be noted that in words the Pharisees really were zealots of piety: they demanded from the people strict fulfillment of the commandments of God and they themselves claimed to be an example of following the Law. The Savior Himself called on His listeners: whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do (Matthew 23:3).
However, such jealousy was not fueled by sincere faith and love for God, but by banal lust for power, greed, vanity and hypocrisy, i.e. the desire, instead of living a genuine life in God, to put on some kind of pious mask behind which you can hide your face, distorted by all too human passions.
We see how such an internal attitude will lead to direct deicide. The temptation of Pharisees threatens every believer, which is why Christ is so harsh in His words to the Pharisees: He compares them to whitened tombs, blind leaders, brood of vipers (i.e. children of vipers, which, according to ancient beliefs, gnawed the wombs of their parents, thereby , killing them), and does not spare them other, no less cruel words.
Bread of Life - Lamb of God Unexpectedly, the Savior ends His menacing speech with surprisingly touching and bitter words: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you! how many times have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to! Behold, your house is left to you empty (Matthew 23:37-38). Christ showed that, despite all the iniquities of Israel, He still loves His people and grieves over their imminent fall, just as He loves every person and grieves over their sins.
Immediately after denouncing the Pharisees, leaving the temple, the Savior predicted to his disciples the fate of Jerusalem. Pointing to the majestic buildings of the Jerusalem Temple, Christ said: Do you see all this? Truly I say to you, not one stone will be left upon another here; everything will be destroyed (Matt. 24:2). The prophecy was exactly fulfilled in 70 A.D., when Emperor Titus stormed and destroyed the capital of the Kingdom of Judah.
The conversation about the sorrowful future of Jerusalem gradually turns to prophecies about the fate of the whole world and the coming Second Coming of the Savior. The eschatological predictions of Christ are not intended to satisfy idle curiosity about last days of the universe, so characteristic of man in all eras, but a specific moral task: to convince the disciples to always be spiritually awake and at any moment to be ready to meet God, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come (Matthew 24:42). We are talking here not only about the Second Coming of the Savior and the subsequent Last Judgment, but also about the inevitable death for every person, the day and hour of which no one except God is given to know.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week are dedicated to the recollection of the last conversations of the Savior with the disciples and people. On each of these three days, the Gospel is read at all services; all four Gospels are required to be read. But whoever can, must certainly read these passages from the Gospel at home, both for himself and for others. Instructions on what to read can be found in church calendar. When listening in church, due to the large amount of reading, much can escape attention, but reading at home allows you to follow the Lord with all your thoughts and feelings.
When you carefully read the Gospels, the suffering of Christ, coming to life, fills the soul with inexplicable tenderness... Therefore, reading the Gospel, you are involuntarily transported in your mind to the scene of events, you take part in what is happening, you follow the Savior and suffer with Him. It is also necessary reverent reflection on His suffering. Without this reflection, even being present in church, hearing, and reading the Gospel will bring little fruit.
But what does it mean to reflect on the sufferings of Christ, and how to reflect? First of all, imagine in your mind the suffering of the Savior as vividly as possible, at least in its main features, for example: how He was betrayed, judged and condemned; how He carried the cross and was lifted up to the cross; how he cried out to the Father in Gethsemane and on Golgotha and surrendered his spirit to Him: how he was taken down from the cross and buried... Then ask yourself why and for what purpose He who had no sin, and who, as the Son of God, endured so much suffering , could always abide in glory and bliss.
And also ask yourself: what is required of me so that the death of the Savior does not remain fruitless for me; What must I do to truly participate in the salvation purchased at Calvary for the whole world? The Church teaches that this requires the assimilation by mind and heart of the entire teaching of Christ, the fulfillment of the commandments of the Lord, repentance and imitation of Christ in a good life. After this, conscience itself will answer whether you are doing this... Such reflection (and who is not capable of it?) surprisingly quickly brings the sinner closer to his Savior, closely and forever in a union of love connects him with His cross, strongly and vividly introduces him into the participation of the one who what happens at Golgotha.
The path of Holy Week - the path of fasting, confession and communion, in other words - fasting, for worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries on these great days. And how can one not fast in these days, when the bridegroom of souls is weaned (Matthew 9:15), when He Himself hungers at the barren fig tree, thirsts on the cross? Where else can one lay down the burden of sins through confession, if not at the foot of the cross? What better time to receive communion from the Cup of Life than in the coming days, when it is given to us, one might say, from the hands of the Lord Himself?
Truly, whoever, having the opportunity to begin the Holy Meal these days, evades it, deviates from the Lord, runs away from his Savior. The path of Holy Week is to provide, in His name, help to the poor, sick and suffering. This path may seem distant and indirect, but in fact it is extremely close, convenient and direct.
Our Savior is so loving that everything we do in His name for the poor, sick, homeless and suffering He takes personally to Himself. On Last Judgment He will especially require from us works of mercy towards our neighbors and will base our justification or condemnation on them.
Keeping this in mind, never neglect the precious opportunity to alleviate the suffering of the Lord in His lesser brethren, and especially take advantage of it during the days of Holy Week - by dressing, for example, a needy person, you will act like Joseph, who gave the shroud. This is the main thing and accessible to everyone, with which Orthodox Christian in Holy Week he can follow the Lord who is coming to suffer.
Parables of the Unfaithful and Prudent Servant and the Ten Virgins
The master leaves his house and entrusts management to two servants. One, thinking that the owner will not return soon, begins to beat his comrades and eat and drink with drunkards (Matthew 24:49); the other one does his job properly. The master will return unexpectedly and make the prudent slave the manager of the estate, but will deal harshly with the unfaithful: he will cut him up and subject him to the same fate as the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 24:51).
In the second parable, the situation for the characters is even more tragic. Ten virgins are waiting for the groom to arrive: five of them are wise - they prepared everything in advance: they took lamps with them and stocked up on oil for them; the rest, foolish, hoped that they would not have to wait for the groom, and did not take any oil with them.
The groom delayed, the foolish virgins fell asleep, their lamps went out, and when the groom came at midnight, they rushed to look for oil, were late and found closed doors. Likewise, any person must always be awake so that the light of his faith does not go out, so that he can worthily meet the coming Savior. With all the apparent fuss, despite the fact that many people are now physically deprived of sleep, spiritual hibernation is perhaps the most distinguishing feature our time.
Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) said this wonderfully: “In our time, more than ever, we need to remember this warning, for now there are especially many dozing and sleeping. Soul sleep is not a bodily sleep that strengthens the body, but on the contrary, it is an unhealthy sleep, a painful hibernation in which people chase vanity and think that they are living a real life, forgetting about the soul, about God and about the Future Eternal Life.”
This is also sung in the troparion of the first three days of Holy Week: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He finds awake; and whoever he finds sadly sleeping is unworthy. See, my soul, do not be burdened with sleep, lest you be put to death and the doors of the Kingdom be closed before you, but arise, crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, You are the Lord. Through the prayers of the Mother of God, have mercy on us!”
Watch, because you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man will come.
Matthew 25, 13
Jesus Christ also spent the night of Tuesday in Bethany, and on Tuesday morning he again came to the temple in Jerusalem and taught a lot in the temple and outside the temple (Matthew 24:1). The chief priests and elders, hearing His parables and understanding what He was saying about them, tried to seize Him and kill Him. But the people were openly afraid of attacking Him, who revered Him as a prophet (Matthew 21:46), were in admiration for His teaching (Mark 11:18), and listened to Him with delight (Mark 12:37).
From the Gospel instructions delivered by Jesus Christ on Tuesday, the Church chose for the edification of believers on this day mainly the parable of the ten virgins, as especially appropriate for the time of Great Week, during which we should most watch and pray. With the parable of the ten virgins, the Church instills constant readiness to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom through chastity, almsgiving and the immediate performance of other good deeds, depicted under the name of oil prepared by the wise virgins.
Archpriest G.S. Debolsky,
“Days of worship of the Orthodox Church”, vol. 2
Hymns from the service on Tuesday of Lent
Having dozed off with spiritual laziness, not having acquired any money, the Bridegroom of Christ, burning a lamp, like the virtues, and became like virgins, mocking while they were doing; Do not close the wombs of Your bounties to me, O Master, but shake off my darkened sleep, raise me up, O Merciful One, and lead the wise virgins into Your palace, where the pure voice of those celebrating and crying out incessantly: Lord, glory to You!
“Led to sleep by spiritual laziness, I did not acquire, Christ the Bridegroom, the burning lamp that constitutes the virtues, and I became like the foolish virgins in my senseless life activities, Lord! Do not close Your loving heart for me, but, having driven away my sleepless sleep, arise and lead me with the wise virgins into Your palace, where the joyful voice of those celebrating and crying incessantly: Lord, glory to You!
Stichera
Gospel of Matthew
Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the bridegroom. Of these, five were wise and five were foolish. The foolish ones took their lamps and took no oil with them. The wise, together with their lamps, took oil in their vessels. And as the groom slowed down, everyone dozed off and fell asleep. But at midnight a cry was heard: behold, the groom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all the virgins stood up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise, Give us your oil, for our lamps are going out. And the wise answered: so that there is no shortage for both us and you, you better go to the seller and buy it for yourself.
When they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Then other virgins come and say: Lord! God! Open to us. He answered and said, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come.
Matt. 25, 1-13
Stay awake!
Dear brothers and sisters, approaching the days of His suffering, the Lord was especially close and frank with His disciples. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father(John 15:15), the Savior said to the Apostles. Now he no longer explicitly, but with particular clarity, announced to them that He needed to suffer in order to thus prepare them for His suffering: You know that in two days there will be Easter, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified(Matt. 26:2). Seeing the grief that gripped the Apostles, He consoles the disciples with the promise that He will not leave them.
But at the same time, the Lord does not hide the fact that they, and all Christians in general, face the same fate as Him, their Divine Teacher: Remember the word that I spoke to you: If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; If they have kept my word, they will also keep yours. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me first. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you(John 15, 20, 18 and 19).
And again, seeing them sorrowful, the Lord consoles them: In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, and I myself will be with you until the end of the age. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid(cf.: John 16, 33; 14, 16; cf.: Matthew 28, 20; John 14, 27).
The Lord asks His disciples to abide in Him and fulfill His commandments, for without Him they cannot do anything: Abide in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And... I'll come again(John 15, 4, 7; 14, 2, 3).
The Lord consoles them by revealing that sorrow will be followed by joy, that they will have a reward in the Future Kingdom. And since His disciples were interested in the question of what the Lord’s Coming to earth would be like, the Savior proclaimed to them that Divine truth that at the end of the world He would come with great glory to judge the living and the dead and would honor all those who believed in Him sincerely and with repentance until the end of their lives. His Kingdom, and those who did not believe or rejected, who remained without repentance until the end of their lives, will be condemned to eternal torment.
When it will be?(Matt. 24:3) - the disciples asked. But the Lord answered them that about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone(Matt. 24:36). Thus, the Holy Scriptures are kept in deep secrecy and do not definitely reveal to us the time of the Second Coming so that we always keep ourselves pure and blameless and are ready to meet the Lord at all times.
That is why the Lord warns the disciples: Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. But as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So it will be on the day when the Son of Man appears. So stay awake(Matt. 24, 42; cf. Luke 17, 26 and 27, 30; Matt. 25, 13).
In our time, more than ever, we need to remember this warning, for now there are especially many who doze and sleep. Mental sleep is not a bodily sleep that strengthens the body, but on the contrary, it is an unhealthy sleep, a painful hibernation in which people chase vanity and think that they are living a real life, forgetting about the soul, about God and about the Future Eternal Life. In order to more deeply impress upon us the sense of danger, the need to be awake, and to awaken our conscience from spiritual slumber, the Lord told the parable of the ten virgins, which we heard in today’s Gospel reading.
This parable teaches us that, having accepted faith, we accompany it with good deeds, which alone can support our spiritual life. The foolish virgins who came out to meet the Bridegroom did not prepare the oil of good deeds for their lamps. The wise, along with lamps, stocked up with good deeds in order to meet the Bridegroom with dignity. Likewise, our entire life should be a preparation for a meeting with the Lord, and for this, throughout it, we must constantly take care of acquiring and preserving living faith and ardent love for God, the Source of love, and for our neighbors.
The worries of this age overshadow the most essential concern and goal of our life - illumination with the light of Christ, its salvation and preparation for the Eternal Kingdom. Let us be sober in order to enter the Heavenly palace with the wise virgins and be rewarded with eternal blessings from the Lord. Amen.
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