Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 13

Then was Jesus led up into the wilderness by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil.

When? After the descent of the Spirit, after the voice borne from above and saying,

'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'

And what is indeed marvellous is that it was by the Holy Spirit;

for this it is that he says led Him up hither.

For since He did and endured all things for our instruction, He submits also to being led up thither, and to the wrestling with the devil;

that each of those who are baptized, if after his baptism he should endure greater temptations, may not be troubled as though the thing happened contrary to expectation, but may remain nobly bearing all things, as though it came to pass in the natural sequence of this.

For indeed for this reason you received arms, not that you should be idle, but that you should wage war.

For this cause neither does God hinder the temptations as they come on;

first, that you may learn that you have become far stronger;

next, that you may remain modest, and not be lifted up by the greatness of the gifts, the temptations being able to keep you down;

besides these, that that wicked demon, who up to this time was doubtful concerning your falling away, may be assured by the trial of the temptations that you have utterly departed and forsaken him;

fourthly, that by this you may be wrought into something stronger and more vigorous than any iron;

fifthly, that you may receive a clear demonstration of the treasures entrusted to you.

For the devil would not have come upon you, unless he had seen you advanced to greater honour.

It was from this very source, indeed, that from the beginning he rose up against Adam, since he saw him enjoying so great a dignity.

For this reason he set himself in array against Job, since he beheld him being crowned and proclaimed by the God of all.

Pray that you may not enter into temptation. For this reason the Evangelist does not simply show you Jesus going up, but being led up according to the plan of the divine economy, hinting through these words that men ought not to leap forward of themselves, but, when drawn, to stand nobly.

And observe to what place the Spirit, having taken Him, led Him up:

not to a city or a marketplace, but into the wilderness.

For since He wished to draw on the devil, He gave him a handle not only through hunger but also through the place.

For then above all does the devil set upon men, when he sees them isolated and by themselves.

Thus also at the beginning he assailed the woman, catching her alone, and finding her apart from her husband.

For when he sees men in the company of others and closely knit together, he is not equally emboldened, nor does he attack.

Wherefore, for this very reason above all, we ought continually to herd together with one another, so as not to be easily overcome by the devil.

Having found Him, then, in the wilderness—and in a wilderness untrodden (for that the wilderness was such, Mark made plain when he said that He was with the wild beasts)—

observe with how great villainy and wickedness he approaches, and what sort of season he watches for.

For he approaches Him not while fasting, but while hungering;

that you may learn how great a good is fasting, and how it is a mighty weapon against the devil, and that after the washing of baptism one ought not

to give heed to luxury and drunkenness and a laden table, but to fasting.

For it was on this account that He Himself also fasted—not that He Himself had need of it, but to instruct us.

For since the sins committed before baptism had come in through slavery to the belly;

just as if one, having made a sick man well, should command him not to do those things from which the sickness had arisen;

so also here He Himself too, after the washing of baptism, introduced fasting.

For indeed it was intemperance of the belly that cast Adam out of paradise; this it was that brought about the flood in the days of Noah; this it was that brought down the thunderbolts upon the men of Sodom.

For even though the charge was one of fornication, nevertheless the root of both punishments sprang up from this source;

which also Ezekiel hinted at when he said:

But this was the iniquity of Sodom, that in pride, and in fullness of bread, and in prosperity they lived wantonly.

Thus also the Jews wrought the greatest evils, drifting from drunkenness and luxury onto the reef of lawlessness.

For this very reason, then, He Himself also fasts forty days, showing us the medicines of salvation; and He does not go further, lest again, by the excess of the marvel, the truth of the divine economy should be disbelieved.

For at present this would not have happened, since Moses and Elijah too, having in former times prevailed, were able to hold out for so great a length, being strengthened by the power of God.

But had He advanced further, the assumption of the flesh would to many, even from this, have seemed incredible.

Having fasted, therefore, forty days and as many nights, afterward He hungered;

affording him a handle for approaching, that, closing in combat, He might show how one must prevail and conquer.

For thus indeed do athletes also:

for when teaching their own pupils to prevail and to conquer, they willingly grapple with others in the wrestling schools, offering them in the bodies of the opponents an opportunity to observe and to be trained in the manner of victory.

For since he wished to draw Him on to this, He both made His hunger manifest to him, and received him when he approached, and having received him, He dashed him down once and twice and thrice with the ease that befitted Him.

But that we may not, by running past these victories, mar your profit, let us begin from the first assault and examine each one with exactness.

For since He hungered, it says, the tempter came and said to Him:

If You are the Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves.

For since he had heard a voice borne from above and saying:

This is My beloved Son;

and he had heard also John bearing so great a witness concerning Him, and then saw Him hungering;

he was thereafter at a loss, and could neither believe that He was a mere man, on account of the things spoken concerning Him;

nor again admit that He was the Son of God, because of his seeing Him hungering.

Whence, being in perplexity, he utters ambiguous words.

And just as, having approached Adam at the beginning, he fabricates things that are not, in order to learn the things that are;

so also here, not knowing clearly the ineffable mystery of the economy, and who indeed He was that was present, he attempts to weave other nets, through which he thought he would come to know what was hidden and unclear.

And what does he say? If You are the Son of God, speak, that these stones may become loaves.

He did not say, Since You are hungry, but, If You are the Son of God;

thinking to steal upon Him unawares by his flatteries.

Wherefore he was also silent about the hunger, lest he should seem to be bringing this forward against Him and reproaching Him.

For not knowing the greatness of the things being ordered in the economy, he deemed this to be shameful for Him.

Wherefore, flattering Him deceitfully, he makes mention only of the dignity.

What then does Christ do? Pulling down his conceit, and showing that what had befallen Him was neither worthy of shame nor unworthy of His wisdom—the very thing which the other, in flattering Him, had passed over in silence—this He Himself brings forward into the midst and sets forth, saying:

Man shall not live by bread alone.

Whence He begins from the necessity that pertains to the belly.

But consider for me the villainy of that wicked demon, and from what point he begins his wrestlings, and how he does not forget his own peculiar craft.

For from the very things by which he cast out the first man, and enveloped others in evils, from these here too he weaves his guile:

the intemperance pertaining to the belly, I mean.

One may, at any rate, hear even now many senseless men, ascribing countless evils to the belly.

But Christ, showing that not even this tyranny forces the virtuous man to do any of the things that are unbecoming, both hungers and does not obey the injunction, teaching us in nothing to be persuaded by the devil.

For since the first man both gave offence to God from this source and transgressed the law, He teaches you superabundantly that, even if the thing enjoined by him should not be a transgression, not even so are you to obey.

And why do I speak of transgression? For even if the demons should say something useful, He says, not even so give heed to them.

Thus indeed did He also muzzle those demons who were proclaiming Him to be the Son of God.

And Paul too, again, rebuked them when they cried out this very thing, and yet what was said was useful;

but out of superabundant caution dishonouring them, and walling off the plot against us, He drove them away even when they proclaimed saving doctrines, stopping up their mouths and commanding them to be silent.

And on this account, neither here did He assent to the things spoken;

but what does He say? Man shall not live by bread alone.

And what He says is of this sort:

namely, that God is able even by a word to nourish the one who hungers—bringing to Him a testimony from the Old Scripture, and teaching that, even if we be famished, even if we suffer anything whatever, we are never to depart from the Master.

But if someone should say that He ought nevertheless to have made a display of it, I would ask him:

For what purpose and to what end? For that other one was not saying these things in order that He might believe, but in order, as he supposed, to convict Him into unbelief.

Since the first ones too he deceived and refuted in this way, when they did not very firmly trust in God.

For, promising the contrary of what God had said, and puffing them up with empty hopes, and casting them into unbelief, thus he cast them out even of the good things which they had.

But Christ shows Himself thus, having yielded neither on that occasion nor afterward to the Jews who shared the devil's mind and demanded signs; everywhere teaching us that even when we are able to do something, we should do nothing rashly or in vain, nor yield to the devil even when necessity presses upon us.

What then does this vile one do? Being defeated, and unable to persuade Him to do what was commanded—and that too when so great a hunger pressed upon Him—he proceeds to another attempt, saying:

If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down;

for He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up. Why does he add this at each temptation—'If Thou art the Son of God'? What he did in the former case, this he does now also.

For just as then he slandered God, saying, 'In the day that ye eat, your eyes shall be opened,'

wishing thereby to show that they had been deceived and beguiled, and had received no benefit at all;

so here too he hints at this very same thing, saying, in effect, 'In vain has He called Thee Son, and deceived Thee with the gift;'

'for if this be not so, furnish us with a proof that Thou art of that power.'

Then, since He had reasoned with him from the Scriptures, he too brings forward a testimony of the prophet.

How then does Christ act? He was not indignant, He was not provoked, but with much gentleness once more reasons with him from the Scriptures, saying:

Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;

teaching us that we must overcome the devil not by signs, but by forbearance and long-suffering, and must do nothing merely for display and vainglory.

But consider his folly even from the very testimony which he brought forward.

For the testimonies adduced by the Lord were both very fittingly spoken;

but those of the other were brought forth carelessly and at random, and did not even bring against the matters at hand what was pertinent.

For surely the fact that it is written, 'He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee,' does not exhort a man to fling himself down and hurl himself from a precipice;

and besides, this was not even spoken concerning the Lord.

Yet for the present He did not reprove this, although the other had used the word insolently against Him, and quite contrary to its meaning.

For no one asks such things of the Son of God, but it belongs to the devil and to demons to cast oneself down;

whereas it belongs to God even to raise up those that are fallen.

For if it were needful to display power, it would be shown not by flinging oneself down rashly and hurling oneself from heights, but by saving others.

To hurl into ravines and down precipices belongs to his own battalion.

In this manner, at any rate, the deceiver among them acts everywhere.

But Christ, even when these things had been said, does not yet uncover Himself, but for the present converses with him as a man.

For to say, 'Man shall not live by bread alone,' and, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,' was not the mark of one who was very much revealing Himself, but rather of one presenting Himself as one among the many.

But do not marvel that, in conversing with Christ, he is often baffled and turned about.

For just as boxers, when they receive mortal blows, drenched in much blood and dizzied, reel about;

so also he himself, blinded by the first and second blow, blurts out at random whatever occurs to him;

and he proceeds to the third assault.

And having taken Him up into a high mountain, he shows Him all the kingdoms, and says:

All these will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.

For since he was now sinning against the Father, saying that all that was His belonged to himself, and was eager to declare himself God, as the Maker of the universe, then indeed He rebuked him—and not even then with vehemence, but simply;

which was rather a command than a rebuke.

For as soon as He said to him, 'Get thee hence,' He caused him to flee;

for neither did the devil bring against Him any further temptations.

And how does Luke say that he completed every temptation? It seems to me that, having named the chief heads of the temptations, he has spoken of them all, inasmuch as the others also are comprised within these.

For the evils that hold together countless others are these:

to be a slave to the belly, to do anything for vainglory, to be in bondage to the madness for money.

This very thing, accordingly, this vile one too perceived, and placed last the mightiest of all—the desire for more;

having from above and from the very beginning been in travail to come to this, but reserving it for the last, as being more powerful than the rest.

For indeed this is the very law of his wrestling: to bring on last those things which seem more capable of tripping one up.

Which very thing he did also in the case of Job.

Therefore here too, beginning from those things that seem more paltry and weaker, he advances to the stronger.

How then must one overcome him? In the way that Christ taught—by taking refuge in God, and neither being cast down in famine, trusting in Him who is able to nourish even by a word, nor, amid the good things we receive, tempting the Giver, but being content with the glory that is from above, making no account of human glory, and everywhere despising what is superfluous beyond need.

For nothing so makes one fall under the devil's power as to crave for more and to be in love with covetousness.

And this one may see even from the things that happen now.

For even now there are those who say:

All these things will we give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship;

being men indeed in nature, but having become instruments of that one.

Since even then it was not by himself alone, but also through others, that he came against Him.

Which very thing Luke also, making it plain, said: that 'he departed from Him for a season;'

showing that after these things he came against Him through his own instruments.

And behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.

For while the matters of the assault were going on, He did not suffer them to appear, lest thereby He should scare away the quarry;

but when He had convicted him in all things, and caused him to flee, then those angels appear;

that thou too mayest learn that, after thy victories over that one, angels also will receive thee, applauding and escorting thee as a bodyguard in all things.

Thus at any rate, in the case of Lazarus also, after the furnace of poverty and famine and every distress, angels took him up and departed with him.

For, as I said before, Christ now displays many things which we too are destined to enjoy.

Since, then, all these things were done for thy sake, be zealous and imitate the victory.

And should there come to thee one of the servants of that demon, and of those who share his mind, reproaching and saying:

If thou art wonderful and great, remove the mountain;

be not troubled, nor thrown into confusion;

but with gentleness answer, and say that which thou hast heard thy Master saying:

And should that one, holding forth glory and dominion and a boundless multitude of riches, command thee to worship, stand firm once again nobly.

For not against the common Master of us all alone has the devil done this, but also every single day he brings these devices to bear upon each of His servants;

not on mountains only and in deserts, nor by himself alone, but also in cities, and in market-places, and in courts of law, and through the men who are our own kinsmen.

What then must one do? Disbelieve him utterly, and stop up one's ears, and hate him when he flatters, and when he promises greater things, then all the more turn away from him.

Since it was when he had most exalted Eve with hopes that he then cast her down, and wrought the greatest evils.

For indeed he is an implacable enemy, and has taken up against us a war that knows no truce.

And we are not so zealous for our own salvation as he is for our destruction.

Let us therefore turn away from him, not with words only, but also with deeds;

not in thought only, but also in our actions;

and let us do nothing of what seems good to him;

for in this way we shall do everything that seems good to God.

For indeed he even makes many promises, not that he may give, but that he may take away.

He promises gain from plunder, that he may strip away from us the kingdom and righteousness;

and he sets treasures upon the earth, like so many snares and traps, that he may rob us both of these and of the treasures in the heavens;

and he wishes us to be rich here, that we may not be rich there.

And should he not be able through wealth to cast us out of our portion there, he comes by another road, the road of poverty;

which is what he did in the case of Job.

For when he saw that wealth had done him no harm, he wove his nets through poverty, expecting to get the better of him by that means;

than which what could be more foolish? For he who was able to bear wealth with self-control will far more nobly endure poverty;

and he who does not covet present riches will not seek after them when they are gone;

just as neither did that blessed man then, but rather from his poverty became yet more illustrious.

For that wicked demon had the power to strip away his possessions;

but his love toward God he was not only unable to take away, but actually made it stronger, and by stripping him of all things he caused him to abound in yet more blessings;

for the more blows he brought upon him, the more he saw him then becoming stronger.

Wherefore, having tried and sounded out everything, when he accomplished nothing more, he ran to his old weapon, the woman, and puts on the mask of tender concern, and dramatizes his calamities most piteously, and pretends, for the sake of deliverance from his ills, to bring in that ruinous counsel.

But not even so did he prevail;

for that admirable man perceived his bait, and with much prudence silenced the woman who spoke out of him.

This indeed is what we too ought to do;

even if it be a brother, even a genuine friend, even a wife, even any one whosoever of those most dear to us, into whom he has crept and through whom he utters something unfitting, we ought not to receive the counsel from the person who speaks it, but rather, on account of the ruinous counsel, to turn away from the one who speaks it.

For indeed even now he does many such things, and puts forward a mask of sympathy;

and he seems to be well-disposed, while injecting words that are ruinous and more grievous than poisons.

For to flatter unto harm is his part;

but to instruct unto profit is God's part.

Let us not then be deceived, nor by every means seek after the life of ease.

For 'whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth,' it says.

So that when we enjoy prosperity while living in wickedness, then most of all let us grieve.

For we ought always to be afraid when we sin;

but most of all, when we suffer nothing dreadful.

For when God exacts the penalties piecemeal, He makes the repayment for these light for us;

but when at each of our transgressions He is long-suffering, He is storing up a great punishment for us who persist in such things.

For if affliction is necessary for those who do rightly, much more is it for those who sin.

Consider then how great long-suffering Pharaoh enjoyed, yet at the last of all

he paid the uttermost penalty for all;

how many things Nebuchadnezzar transgressed in, and paid the whole at the end;

and the rich man, since he suffered nothing dreadful here, for this very reason above all became wretched, because, having lived luxuriously in the present life, he departed thither to pay the penalty for all these things, where it was not even possible to find any consolation for his misery.

But nevertheless there are some so cold and senseless as to seek always after these present things only, and to utter those ridiculous words:

'Let me first enjoy all present things, and then I will consider concerning the things that are uncertain;

I will gratify my belly, I will be a slave to pleasures, I will misuse the present life;

give me today, and take tomorrow.'

And in what do those who say such things differ from goats and swine? For if the prophet does not allow those who neigh after their neighbor's wife to be accounted men, who will find fault with us for reckoning these to be goats and swine and more senseless than asses—men who reckon these things, which are plainer than the things that are seen, to be uncertain?

For if you believe none of the rest, stand beside the demons when they are scourged—those who have made it their study to say and to do everything unto our harm.

For assuredly you will not argue against this, that they do everything so as to increase our slothfulness, and to relax the fear of hell, and to make the tribunals there be disbelieved.

But nevertheless those who desire these things, crying out and wailing, oftentimes proclaim aloud the torments there.

Whence then do they say these things, and utter what is contrary to what they wish? From no other source than from enduring the greater necessity.

For they would not willingly have consented to confess, either that they are tormented by dead men, or that they suffer anything dreadful at all.

To what purpose then have these things been said by me? Because demons confess a hell—they who wish that hell should be disbelieved;

but you, who enjoy such great honor, and have shared in ineffable mysteries, do not even imitate them, but have become more thankless than these.

'And who,' he says, 'has come from those in Hades and reported these things?' For from the heavens who has arrived and said that it is God who created all things? And that we have a soul, whence is it plain? For if indeed you are going to believe only the things that are seen, you will doubt also concerning God, and concerning angels, and concerning the mind, and concerning the soul, and thus all the doctrines of the truth will be gone from you.

And yet, if you wish to believe the things that are manifest, you ought rather to believe the things unseen than the things that are seen.

Even if what has been said is paradoxical, yet it is nevertheless true, and among those who have understanding it is very much agreed upon.

For the eyes are deceived in many things, not only in the things unseen (for those they do not even know), but even in the very things which they seem to see, being hindered in their accuracy by distance, and by the air, and by the mind being turned elsewhere, and by anger, and by anxiety, and by countless other things;

but the reasoning of the soul, if it receive the light of the divine Scriptures, will be a more accurate and undeceived criterion of the things that are.

Let us not then vainly deceive ourselves, nor, in addition to the slothfulness of life which is begotten through such doctrines, heap up for ourselves a fire even more grievous than the doctrines themselves.

For if there is no judgment, we shall neither give account of the things done, nor receive honors for the things labored at.

Consider to what your blasphemy tends, when you say that the God who is just and loving toward mankind and gentle overlooks so many toils and sweats.

And how could this stand to reason? For if from nowhere else, at least from the affairs of your own household reckon these things, and then you will see the absurdity.

For even if you yourself were a thousand times cruel and inhuman, and fiercer than the very wild beasts, you would not choose, when dying, to leave without reward the servant who had proved himself well-disposed, but you requite him both with freedom and with a gift of money;

and since henceforth, being about to depart yourself, you can no longer do him any good, you charge those who are to inherit your substance on his behalf, entreating, exhorting, doing everything, that he may not remain unrewarded.

Then you, who are wicked, become thus kind and loving toward your servant;

yet the boundless Goodness, the

God, the unspeakable love toward mankind, so great a kindness—will He overlook His own servants, those around Peter and Paul and James and John, who each day for His sake hungered, were bound, were scourged, were drowned, were given over to wild beasts, dying, having suffered so many things as are not even possible to number—will He overlook them, uncrowned? And whereas the president of the games proclaims and crowns the Olympic victor, and the master his servant, and the king his soldier, and everyone in short requites with such good things as he can the one who has served him;

shall God alone, after so many sweats and toils, render to them no good thing, neither small nor great, but those righteous and godly men, who pursued every virtue, shall lie in the same place with adulterers, and parricides, and murderers, and grave-robbers? And where could this stand to reason? For if there is nothing after our departure hence, but our affairs reach only as far as the present, then those men are in the same case with these;

or rather, they are not even in the same case.

For even if after these things they are in the same case, according to your argument, yet here the one sort have lived all their time in ease, while the other in punishment.

And what tyrant, what cruel and savage man, ever so deliberated concerning his own servants and subjects? Do you see the excess of the absurdity, and where this argument ends? Therefore, even if you will be persuaded from no other source, being instructed from these reasonings, rid yourself of this wicked suspicion, and flee vice, and hold fast to the toils undertaken for virtue's sake;

and then you will clearly know that our affairs do not stand only as far as the present life.

And if anyone should ask you, 'Who has come from there to report what is there?'—say to him:

for indeed such a report would often be disbelieved, coming as it might from one who boasts and exaggerates the matter;

but the Master of the angels reported all those things with exactness.

What need, then, have we of a man, when He who is to demand an accounting from us cries out day by day that He has prepared both a hell and a kingdom, and has furnished us with clear proofs of these things? For if He were not going to judge, neither would He have exacted punishment here.

For this very thing—how could it be reasonable, that of the wicked some should be punished and some not be punished? For if God is no respecter of persons, as indeed He is not, why then did He exact punishment from the one, yet let the other depart unpunished? This is a still greater perplexity than the former.

But if you are willing to listen with a candid mind to what is said, we will resolve this perplexity also.

What, then, is the solution? He does not exact punishment from all here, lest you should despair of the resurrection and give up hope of the judgment, as though all rendered their account here;

nor does He suffer all to depart unpunished, lest again you should think that all things are without providence;

but He both punishes and does not punish;

by those whom He punishes, showing that there also He will demand an account from those not punished here;

and by those whom He does not punish, preparing you to believe that there is, after our departure hence, a fearful tribunal.

But if He were altogether careless of things present, He would neither have punished any here, nor conferred benefits.

But as it is, you see Him for your sake stretching out the heavens, kindling the sun, laying the foundations of the earth, pouring out the sea, spreading forth the air, appointing courses for the moon, and setting immovable laws for the seasons of the year, and all other things by His nod accomplishing their own course with exactness.

For indeed our own nature, and that of the irrational creatures—those that creep, that walk, that fly, that swim, those in lakes, in springs, in rivers, on mountains, in glens, in houses, in the air, on plains—and plants and seeds and trees, both wild and cultivated, both fruit-bearing and barren, and simply all things moved by that unwearied hand, administer our life, providing us their service out of themselves not only for our need but also for our honor and delight.

Seeing, then, so great an orderliness—and we have not told even the smallest part—do you dare to say

that He who has wrought such and so great things for your sake will overlook you in the things that matter, and will let you lie dead among the asses and the swine; and that after honoring you with so great a gift, that of godliness, whereby He made you equal even to the angels, He will disregard you after your countless labors and sweat? And how could this be reasonable? For these things, even if we should keep silent, the very stones will cry out;

so plain and manifest are they, and brighter than the very sunbeam.

Reckoning up, then, all these things, and persuading our own soul that after our departure hence we shall both stand before a fearful judgment-seat, and give account of all our deeds, and undergo scrutiny, and submit to punishment if we persist in transgressing, but shall enjoy crowns and unspeakable good things if we are willing to give ourselves but a little heed—let us both stop the mouths of those who gainsay in these matters, and ourselves choose the path of virtue, that, departing with the fitting confidence to that tribunal, we may attain the good things promised to us, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the might, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.