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This is what the Savior said in the Gospel: But of that day and hour knoweth no man (Mt. 24:36). And when the disciples asked Him, saying: Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? He told them: It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:6–8).
He was speaking to them about another kingdom, the spiritual one, in parables. But even after His Resurrection, the disciples were not convinced that He was both God and a Man. Therefore, He had to speak to them leniently and eat with them. So Christ told them: All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth (Mt. 28:18). For Sts. John and James, and other disciples closest to Him, believed that Christ would establish an earthly kingdom and place the twelve apostles on twelve thrones to be ministers and rule the world. But that’s not what Christ came to do. Standing in front of Pilate, He said: My Kingdom is not of this world (Jn. 18:36). That is, “I am the King, the Highest above the highest kingdom, above heaven, and above hell. So My Kingdom is not from here.”
Christ came to establish the spiritual kingdom that the Archangel Gabriel had foretold in the Annunciation to the Most Holy Theotokos, saying: He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of his father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end (Lk. 1:32–33).
The Kingdom of the Savior, as stated in the Creed, shall have no end—either in this world or forever and ever. He told them this about His Kingdom: Ye be endued with power from on high (Lk. 24:49). That is, you will be clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit. You will speak in all languages under heaven and preach the Gospel to the whole world. I am sending you without staves, but you will shepherd the whole world; I am sending you without a bag, but you will inherit all the riches,” writes St. Ephraim the Syrian. “You will receive power from above, you will preach in My name throughout the earth and lay the foundation of My spiritual Kingdom, which will have no end—neither in this age nor in the next.”
This is what Christ told them. And another time He said: But of that day and hour [when the end comes] knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only (Mt. 24:36).
But how is it possible that the Son did not know something if He is consubstantial with the Father? True, Christ also had a human soul, and His soul was united with His body like fire with iron. But if the prophets had so much spiritual wisdom that they knew the future in the flesh, then how could Christ not know when the end of the world would be? Here is what Sts. Andrew and Maximus the Confessor say about this: “For even the Son Who took on human nature—that is, the simple nature that we bear—does not know.” Just as we don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so Christ did not know it as a Man.
And the other reason why Christ said that even the Son did not know this was the following. When the antichrist comes, he will pose as the Son of God, and people will start saying, “This is the end, because there is no rain, and there’s nothing but trouble and suffering.” And let the faithful not be deceived by the antichrist who will declare that he is the Son of God and knows when there the end of the world will come, but let them say: “We know from the Divine Scriptures that even the Son does not know when the end of the world comes, so how do you know this?” (according to St. Andrew). That’s why the Son said He didn’t know—not because He didn’t know, since that was impossible, as He is the Wisdom and Word of God.
However, my brethren, reflecting on the end of the world, let us reflect on our own end. We shouldn’t care when the world ends. Maybe in 100 years, or maybe in a thousand—whenever God wills. We’d better think about our own end. For me my end is the end of the world. If I die in an hour, why should I care that people will live after me? If I am buried tomorrow, the world will end for me, and I will go to eternity. What will I be left with? With what I have put into my “bag”!
When you go hiking, you take provisions with you: you put onions, a round loaf, a bottle of wine, shoes, a belt, a hat, and a sheepskin coat to protect you from cold. You put all this into your bag. And when you stop to rest, what do you take out of your bag? What you put there before, right? That’s what you’ll find in it. And we will find a cup of water that we gave to someone in the name of the Lord, a kind word, alms given to someone, etc. If we helped our brother; if we prayed for those who upset us that God would have mercy on them instead of punishing them; if we did not mention the name of the devil; if we prayed, fasted, kept watch and read the Holy Scriptures; if we helped the suffering and indigent; if we clothed the naked and sheltered a stranger, then we will find all this on the eternal journey, because we put it into our “bag”.
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As some Greek philosopher said, the time from birth to the grave is a brief moment. He who saw the birth will inevitably see the grave. Once we are born, we must surely die. We start our journey from birth and only reach the grave. We are sure of that. The sun appears at dawn, rises by noon, and sets by sunset—our life is the same. We “rise” at birth, move forward without any delays, and enter death. Let us always keep it in mind!
We all die (Sir. 25:27), says Jesus, son of Sirach. We all die, but we just don’t know what path is in store for us. That is why Christ said, Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is (Mk. 13:33; cf. Mt. 24:42). I know I’m going to die, but I don’t know when. This is a great and dreadful question. Maybe now, maybe in an hour… What am I going to take with me? My guardian angel who has exhorted me to do good, and my deeds, good and bad—this is what will go with me through the aerial “toll-houses,” to Christ, and to the Last Judgment.
So, my brethren, there is a whole group of you here, and I don’t know where you come from, but I’m certain your guardian angels have brought you here. You’ve listened to this sermon; I wanted to tell you something you could share with others. Blessed and thrice blessed is the Christian who every hour and every day puts something into his “bag” for the age to come! What he puts there is his good deeds. So that when we go through the aerial “toll-houses” and when the demons come to show our words, deeds, and thoughts, we can answer: “Yes, I did evil, but I confessed to my father-confessor.”
If someone confesses to a priest, the Holy Spirit erases everything bad he has done. And we will say at the Last Judgment: “Yes, I have done evil, but I have also given alms, made prostrations, fasted, confessed, shown mercy to the poor, helped, spoken good of and forgiven those who sinned against me.” Let us bring this too so that both the good and the bad can be put on the scales. Blessed and thrice blessed is he who prepares for the heavenly journey.
What does Christ say about this? Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him (Mt. 5:25). Who is this “adversary”? Our conscience. If you do a bad thing, if you sin with words, your conscience reproaches you for saying bad things about another person. If you have hit someone, told a lie, stolen something, cursed someone, taken someone else’s thing, you feel guilty every time. Conscience reveals to you everything that you have done. Conscience is God’s voice in people. It is the adversary that is already accusing us, and if we make peace with it, it’s good. Because, having reconciled with this adversary, we reconcile with God, because this is His voice. And we can make peace with it if we confess, repent of what we have done wrong and resolve not to repeat it anymore, but to perform good deeds and put them together for the future—this is how we make up with the adversary.
The Lord says, Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him. The “way” is the present life, because we continually walk along it. Millions of millions of people—we all walk along it from birth to the grave. And what does the Holy Spirit say in kathisma 17? Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord (Ps. 118:1). Do you hear whom the Holy Spirit blesses? Those who walk on this way—that is, from birth to the grave, “undefiled”—that is, without sins: those who walk the way of the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in His commandments (Ps. 111:1). He who fears God on the way of this life is afraid to think, say, and do bad things. He who has the fear of God possesses all wisdom. For King Solomon says, The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom (Prov. 15:33). And King David calls it the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 110:10). And Jesus, son of Sirach, says, The fear of the Lord is a crown of wisdom (Sir. 1:18).
He who fears God is above all the sages of this age. And St. John Chrysostom says: “Go, man, to a grave, stand there for a while and think about the one buried there! Know that tomorrow you will become just like him.” You will learn more from graves than from all philosophical schools of the world. The wisest person in the world is the one who thinks about death. Why? Jesus, son of Sirach, says, In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin (Sir. 7:39).
If we keep in mind that we are going to die, then, of course, we weigh our words, thoughts and actions, and we don’t have to be afraid of people. We know that God is everywhere and knows our thoughts, and out of fear of Him we do good deeds. Thrice blessed are those who, in this short life, take care of their souls and are reconciled to God.
Adam lived for 930 years, and before his death an angel asked him: “Adam, what did life seem like to you?”
“Master, it is like I walked in one door and then walked out of another.”
Our seventy years are like a spider’s web. And is there anything weaker than a spider’s web? The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow (Ps. 89:10). You’ve heard it in the Psalter. Our life flies by very quickly—our journey is very short. Therefore, thrice blessed are those who on our short journey gather supplies for their journey to heaven. Amen!
