Part 2. How Jesus Christ Lived on Earth, and What He Suffered for Us

Every man must fulfill the law of God. This law is contained in two commandments: the first—love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; the second—love thy neighbor as thyself.

However much a man fulfills this, so much reward will he also receive. But there is not, never has been, and never will be a man who has fulfilled these two commandments in perfect exactness. Jesus Christ alone fulfilled them perfectly and without any deficiency whatsoever.

In this respect all the saints—even the great saints—are but as lamps; whereas Jesus Christ is as the sun in all its radiance and splendor.

And as it is impossible for a man to gaze upon the sun and to describe it, so is it impossible to describe all the good deeds of Jesus Christ; and therefore of His life and His virtues I shall tell you briefly, and only that which can be seen from the Gospel.

No man, nor even any angel, has loved God so much as Jesus Christ loved and loves Him.

Jesus Christ prayed always to God His Father, and especially often did He pray by night and in solitude.

Jesus Christ at every feast, and especially at Pascha, went up to the temple in Jerusalem, which was not near to His place of dwelling; and every sabbath He came to where people gathered for prayer and instruction.

Jesus Christ by all His deeds ever glorified the name of God, and both in secret and before men rendered praise to God.

Jesus Christ throughout His whole life truly respected, obeyed, honored, and loved His Mother and Joseph, His supposed father, and likewise respected the authorities and the elders, and paid tribute to the earthly king.

Jesus Christ with full willingness, without murmuring and in exactness, and with all zeal and love, fulfilled His ministry and His work, for which He came into the world.

Jesus Christ loved every man, wished good to every man, and did good deeds to all, and for the true blessedness of men did not spare His own life.

Jesus Christ with unspeakable meekness and love bore every kind of injury, did not complain of those who wronged Him, and was not even angry with His most open enemies, who reviled Him, mocked Him, and sought to kill Him. By a single word He could have destroyed and made an end of all His enemies and foes; but this He did not will; on the contrary, He wished them every good, did good to them, prayed for them, and pitied and wept over their perdition.

To put it briefly, Jesus Christ from His birth to His very death did not commit the least sin—neither in word, nor in deed, nor in thought—but did every good, at all times and to all men.

Now let us look at how Jesus Christ suffered for us here on earth.

Jesus Christ, being the Son of God and Himself God, took upon Himself the body and soul of a man and became a perfect man, save for sin; and being the Almighty, He took the form of a servant; being the King of heaven and earth, He was born in poverty and of a lowly mother, in a cave; He was laid in a manger; and His supposed father was a poor carpenter.

Jesus Christ, being the Supreme Lawgiver, in order to fulfill that which the law required, on the eighth day after His nativity shed His most precious blood in circumcision. And after that His Most Pure Mother brought Him into the temple and, for Him, the Redeemer of the world, paid the redemption price. Jesus Christ was yet in the cradle, and already Herod sought to kill Him, and on that account He withdrew into Egypt, a foreign land.

But do not think that Jesus Christ in His infancy could not understand what was being done and what was happening to Him. No! Although Jesus Christ is a perfect man, yet at the same time He is also perfect God; and therefore He saw and knew all that was being done to Him.

Jesus Christ, being God and the Almighty, whom the heavens and the earth and ten thousand times ten thousand of angels obey, Himself throughout His whole earthly life obeyed His Mother, who is His own creation.

Jesus Christ, who holds in His right hand all the treasures of the worlds, during His earthly life had no place on earth where to lay His head.

Jesus Christ, the King of all the universe, paid tribute to the earthly king.

Jesus Christ, whom all the angels and all creation serve, Himself served men and washed the feet of His disciples, chosen from among the most unlearned and simple of men.

Jesus Christ during the time of His preaching beheld a countless multitude of injuries of every kind from His enemies. They called Him a sinner and a transgressor of the law of Moses, and an empty man, a carpenter’s son, and a friend and companion of gluttons, winebibbers, and publicans. At one time the malice and fury of His enemies went so far that they wished to cast Him down from a mountain; at another time they wished to stone Him. His most holy teaching they called flattery and deceit. If He healed the sick or raised the dead, His enemies said and spread abroad that He did all this by the help of Satan, and instilled into the people that He Himself even had a demon within Him.

To put it briefly, Jesus Christ from His nativity to His very death suffered and beheld afflictions and unpleasantness on every side. He suffered both from men and for men. He grieved not only that men would not hearken to Him and insulted Him and would not turn back from their perdition. Jesus Christ suffered, so to speak, both visibly and invisibly: for He saw and endured not only the open injuries and insults from men, but at the same time He beheld the secret evil schemes and the intentions of His enemies—and He saw that even those very men who seemed to love Him and to hear Him with tenderness either did not believe Him or were cold toward their salvation.

From whom did Jesus Christ suffer most? From the Jewish high priests, from the scribes—that is, from the learned men—and from their rulers, who knew of and awaited the coming of the Saviour to them, yet would not receive Jesus Christ or hear Him, but on the contrary, as though He were some deceiver and transgressor of the laws, delivered Him to death. And whereas the Jewish people were ready to release Jesus from crucifixion, these men incited them rather to ask for Barabbas, a robber and a sower of sedition, and to deliver Jesus, the Holiest of all the Holy, to death. My God, to what a degree can the malice and envy of man reach! But what is most terrible of all, Jesus Christ was betrayed by one who was His disciple, who knew Him, who ate and drank with Him and saw with his own eyes His life, His miracles, and the power of His teaching; and how did he betray Him? by guile and a kiss; and for what price? for thirty pieces of silver.

For whom did Jesus Christ suffer? For all sinners, from Adam to the end of the ages. He suffered even for those very men who tormented Him, and for His enemies, who delivered Him to such torment, and for those who, having received from Him countless benefits, not only did not thank Him but even hated and persecuted Him. He suffered also for all of us, who insult Him every day by our iniquities, our spites, and our dreadful indifference to His sufferings for us—we who by our ingratitude and by our vile sins, as it were, nail Him to the cross a second time.

Jesus Christ in the last days of His earthly life wrought one of the greatest of miracles—that is, He raised Lazarus, who had already been four days in the tomb and had already begun to decay. Such a miracle, wrought in the presence of a multitude of people, moved many to believe in Jesus Christ and to acknowledge Him as one sent of God. But the Jewish high priests and scribes, instead of receiving Jesus Christ and believing in Him and assuring others that He is the true Saviour of the world, gathered together to Caiaphas, took counsel as to what to do with Jesus, and sought out accusations against Him; and at last they resolved: to deliver Jesus Christ, who raises the dead, to death.

But how Jesus Christ suffered on that last night—that is, after the Mystical Supper and until His betrayal into the hands of the soldiers—that we can in no way even imagine! His inward sufferings at that time were so terrible and so great that Jesus Christ alone was able to bear them. Here it was that He sweated a bloody sweat.

At this time His soul felt a cruel torment, a great sorrow, and a dreadful suffering; His soul was covered with shame and fear for our sins, which He had taken upon Himself—for all the sins committed by men, from Adam to that time, and for the sins of those men which would be committed until the ending of this world.

Then Jesus Christ sees that even among Christians themselves there will soon appear hypocritical disciples, like unto Judas, and that many of them will not only fail to imitate Him, but will give themselves over to vices and to foul and abominable sins; and that there will appear even many who will reject His very faith and teaching, or distort them with false interpretations, and who, instead of giving themselves over to the guidance of the wisdom of God, will desire of themselves to lead others according to their own conceits.

On the one hand, love for God His Father required that the human race be made an end of, as criminal and ungrateful; while on the other hand, love for fallen and perishing men moved Him to suffer for them and by His suffering to deliver them from eternal perdition.

Such sufferings were for Jesus Christ so heavy and so great that He said to His disciples: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful… even unto death” Matt 26:38.

After this they bind Jesus Christ, as though He were a malefactor, and lead Him to His enemies, who try Him and condemn Him to death. The Apostles, whom He especially and above all loved, forsake Him and flee. To Pilate’s question—whom shall I release, Barabbas or Christ? — His spiteful and envious enemies incite the senseless people to ask for Barabbas the robber and to crucify Jesus, the righteous and holy One. And so they deliver Him into the hands of the heathen, who torment Him, beat Him, spit upon Him, mock Him, set upon His head a crown of thorns, strip from Him His garments, and nail Him to the cross, and crucify Him between two robbers, and in a place of shame, as though He were a great malefactor and criminal. Embittered malice and envy do not spare Him even here, upon the cross; even here they laugh at Him as at a deceiver, and to slake His thirst give Him vinegar and gall to drink.

And at last Jesus Christ dies—and dies the death of the cross, that is, a death agonizing and shameful.

Do not think that Jesus Christ suffered because He could not be delivered or escape the torments. No! He of His own will gave and offered Himself up as a sacrifice; otherwise no one would have dared even to think of laying a hand upon Him: for you know that, when those sent for Him came to take Him, He asked them: whom do you seek? They answer Him: Jesus of Nazareth; He says to them: behold, it is I! — and at this single word they all fell to the ground.

This is all that we have been able to say of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which He endured for us out of His unspeakable love for us; but in order to understand, so far as is possible, how great is His love for us and how great is His sacrifice, we must call to mind who Jesus Christ is.

Jesus Christ is the true God, the almighty Creator of all the universe, the great King of Angels and of men, the mighty Master of all creation, the dread Judge of the living and the dead—and this same Jesus Christ deigned to suffer for the human race!