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A Lot of Joy from God!

Oleksandr Zhabenko

Christ Is Risen! 🌞

Dedicated to Emma Kok.

(Acts III, 19-26)

Continuation of Peter’s sermon on the healing of the crooked. About the beginning, see the work at the link:
22042023.html

Acts III, 21 – times of restoration – the time of the Second Coming of Christ in glory. Some understood the restoration (αποκαταστασις) to mean that all intelligent creation would be repented to God and eventually, even though after suffering, become good and suffer no more. But in general, the Scriptures do not confirm the end of eternal sufferings for the devil and those who are with him. On the contrary, it is always said that the sufferings will not end. Therefore, such an opinion is not accepted by the Church.

You can better understand this issue after a good work at the link:
https://oleksandr-zhabenko.github.io/en/DialogueOnWordsChristFear.html

Due to the realization of the freedom of creation, its state in eternity will be such that it does not change to the opposite – joy will be joy that grows, and sufferings will be sufferings that will not turn into joy.

Acts III, 22 – Me is ‘εμε’.

About God’s promise to Abraham, see the works by following the links:
29032023.html

28032023.html

27032023.html

Acts III, 26 – His Servant – can also be translated as His Child, in general, the humiliation of the Son of God is emphasized here.

Peter preaches about Jesus as God’s Promised Messiah.

(John II, 1-11)

The story about the participation of Jesus, the Mother of God and the apostles in the wedding in Cana of Galilee, as well as about the first miracle of Jesus – the transformation of water into the best wine (almost non-alcoholic, similar to fresh grape juice, which I wrote about earlier in other works, see, for example, link:
https://www.facebook.com/Oleksandr.S.Zhabenko/
).

John II, 4 – Me is εμοι.

A well-known place, I will draw attention to a few subtle details.

The wine quickly ran out — this means that people freely drank and ate in the presence of Jesus and Mary, the apostles, i.e. They were in no way restraints of the joyful event, the celebration. The Lord, who created people for a blissful eternity with Him, rejoiced at the wonderful event of the marriage of His friends.

The Lord’s answer to the Mother’s request is not entirely clear – but in general He fulfills Mary’s request. The somewhat mysterious words of Jesus become clearer if we look at them as the words of God the Creator, Who rejoices with people at the joyful event of their marriage. He already gifted them with marriage, already blessed them with His presence, already shared and multiplied their joy in an ordinary and even gracious way – and here a miracle is still needed… This shows that the natural joy from relationships, from association, from the joy of a special event and the like is quite enough, and suddenly — here it is needed something extraordinary and supernatural — a miracle (the sentence translation edited at 01:43 EEST 2023-04-25). The Lord teaches us to value life with this.

The second reason is mystical – in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, He transforms wine into His Blood, and here something else needs to be transformed into wine. And at the very beginning of the service, while the Eucharist was at the end. Also, from the pierced rib of Jesus, blood and water will later flow, which will be witnessed, which is also understood mysteriously through the creation of human in Paradise and the union of Christ and His Bride – the Church (Eve was created from the rib of the first Adam, and the Church is established through the Mysteries of Jesus – through water and blood — Baptism and Communion). In Cana, the water must become completely wine, while in the Sacrament of Communion, the Blood is served under the guise of wine. These are completely different states. The Lord wants to preserve the uniqueness of the Eucharist.

But both reasons are not actually an obstacle to God’s love and generosity. Therefore, the Lord fulfills the request of the Mother and creates the first miracle.

This is also instruction for us, because it means that the Lord, Who created the Sabbath for man, and not man for the Sabbath, does not act according to some literalism, which seems to be higher than the well-being of people. No, but He acts out of love for people.

This is how the Lord performed the first miracle, showed the power of the intercession of the Mother of God and His love for people.

Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!

Source:
24042023.html

List of Used Sources