Thursday. [II Cor. 1:1-7; Matt. 21:43-46]

   The chief priests and Pharisees perceived that the Lord was telling parables on their account, that He was opening their eyes so that they would see the truth. But what did they do with this? They thought about how to kill the Lord. If their common sense had not been distorted by their prejudice, then even if they could not believe, as the obviousness of the instruction required, they should at least have thought over carefully whether what the Savior was saying is true. Their prejudice pushed them onto a crooked path, and they then proved to be God-killers. It always has been this way, and it is this way now. The Germans, and our people who have followed after them and become Germanized in their thought, immediately cry out whenever they come across a miracle in the Gospels, “Not true, not true; this didn’t happen and couldn’t happen, this needs to be crossed out.” Is not this the same as killing? Look through all the books of these clever men; in none of them will you find any indication as to why they think this way. Not one of them can say anything against what the Gospel truth proves, and not one cares to comprehend the arguments which soberminded people use to convict their falseness; they only continue insisting that [what is written] could not be, and that is why they do not believe the Gospels. And you cannot do anything with them—they are ready to go against God Himself.

Friday. [II Cor. 1:12-20; Matt. 22:23-33]

   The Lord said of the future life that people there do not marry and are not given in marriage—that is, our everyday earthly relationships will have no place there. It would follow that none of the norms of earthly life will either. Neither science, nor art, nor governments, nor anything else will exist. What will there be? God will be all in all. And since God is spirit, He unites with the spirit and acts on what is spiritual, all life there will be a continuous flow of spiritual movements. There can be only one conclusion drawn from this: since our goal is the future life, and what is here is only a preparation for it, then to spend all the time of one’s life only on what is appropriate in this life alone and has no relevance to the future life means to go against our purpose, and to prepare ourselves for a bitter, most bitter lot. We are not absolutely required to drop everything; but while working as much as is necessary for this life, we must direct our main concern toward preparation for the future life, trying wherever possible to turn even earthly menial labour into a means for achieving this goal.