Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 71

«Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle Him in His talk.»

«Then»—when? When most of all they ought to have been pricked in heart, when they should have been amazed at His loving-kindness, when they should have feared the things to come, when from the things that were past they ought also to have believed concerning the things that were to come.

For indeed the things He had spoken cried aloud from the facts themselves.

For tax-collectors and harlots believed, while prophets and righteous men were slain; and from these things they ought not to have gainsaid concerning their own destruction, but rather to have believed and been brought to sobriety.

But nevertheless not even so does their wickedness cease, but it travails and goes yet further.

And since they could not lay hold of Him (for they feared the multitudes), they came by another road, as though about to cast Him into danger, and to make Him liable for public offenses.

«For they send unto Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying:»

«Master, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, and carest for no man;»

«for Thou regardest not the person of men.»

«Tell us therefore, What thinkest Thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?» For they were now subject to tribute, their affairs having fallen under the dominion of the Romans.

Since therefore they saw that those before Him had died for this cause—the followers of Theudas and Judas, as having practiced rebellion—they wished by these words to cast Him also into such a suspicion.

For this reason they sent both their own disciples and Herod's soldiers, digging, as they supposed, a double precipice on either side, and setting the snare on every hand, so that whatever He might say, they might lay hold of Him;

and if He should answer in favor of the Herodians, they themselves would bring a charge against Him;

but if in favor of themselves, then those others would accuse Him.

And yet He had given the two drachmas.

And though on either side they expected to take Him, they rather desired that He should say something against the Herodians.

Wherefore they also send their disciples, urging Him toward this by their presence, that they might deliver Him up to the governor as a usurper.

For this too Luke made plain, hinting at it when he said that they asked Him even before the multitudes, so that the testimony might be the greater.

But the very opposite of all this came to pass;

for in a larger theater they furnished the proof of their own folly.

And mark the flattery, and the guile concealed within it.

«We know,» he says, «that Thou art true.»

How then were you saying that He is a deceiver, and, He deceiveth the multitude, and, He hath a devil, and, He is not from God? How were you but a little before taking counsel to slay Him? But all things come to pass just as the plot dictates.

For since a little before, when they had said with insolence, «By what authority doest Thou these things?» they had obtained no answer to their question, they expect by their flattery to make Him unwary, and to persuade Him to say something against the established laws and contrary to the prevailing polity.

Whence also they bear witness to the truth concerning Him, confessing that which really is;

yet not with a right mind, nor willingly;

and they add, saying:

«Thou carest for no man.»

See how they plainly desire rather to cast Him into these words—the words that would make Him offend Herod also, and incur the suspicion of being a usurper, as one rising up against the laws—that so they might punish Him as a seditious man and a usurper.

For by the words, «Thou carest for no man,» and, «Thou regardest not the person of any man,» they were covertly hinting at Herod and Caesar when they said this;

«Tell us therefore, What thinkest Thou?» Now you honor Him, and account Him a teacher, whereas in the things wherein He discoursed concerning your salvation you often despised and insulted Him.

Whence also they have become of one vote together.

They do not say, 'Tell us what is good, what is expedient, what is lawful?' but, 'What thinkest Thou?' In this way they were looking to one thing only: to betray Him, and to set Him at war with the ruling power.

And Mark too, making this plain, and more clearly uncovering their insolence and their murderous intent, says that they spoke thus:

'Shall we give tribute to Caesar, or shall we not give?' Thus they were breathing rage and travailing to bring forth a plot, yet they feigned deference.

What then does He Himself say? 'Why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites?' Didst thou see how more cuttingly He converses with them? For since their wickedness was now complete and manifest, He gives a deeper incision, first confounding and silencing them by bringing their secret thoughts into the open, and making clear to all with what mind they approach Him.

And this He did to restrain their malice, so that they might not again attempt the same things and bring harm upon themselves.

And yet their words were laden with much deference;

for indeed they called Him teacher, and bore witness to His truthfulness and to His impartiality;

but being God, He was deceived by none of these things. Whence they too ought to have inferred that His rebuke was no mere conjecture, but a sign of His knowing their hidden thoughts.

Yet He did not stop at the rebuke;

and yet it would have sufficed merely to have convicted their purpose, so as to put their wickedness to shame;

but He does not halt even there; He also stops their mouths in yet another way.

'Show Me,' saith He, 'the tribute money.'

And when they had shown it, as He ever does, He brings forth the verdict through their own tongue, and induces them to pass the judgment themselves, that it is lawful;

which was a brilliant and manifest victory.

So that when He asks, He asks not from ignorance, but because He wishes to make them accountable by their own answers.

For when, being asked, 'Whose is this image?' they said, 'Caesar's,' He saith:

'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.'

For this is not to give, but to render back;

and this is shown both from the image and from the inscription.

Then, lest they should say, 'Thou subjectest us to men?' He added, 'And the things of God unto God.'

For it is possible both to fulfill our obligations to men and to give to God the things we owe to God.

'Render to all their dues.'

But thou, when thou hearest, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,' know that He speaks only of those things which in no way injure godliness;

for should it be anything of such a kind, then such a thing is no longer a tribute to Caesar, but a tax and toll paid to the devil.

When they heard these things they were put to silence, and marveled at His wisdom.

Therefore they ought to have believed; therefore they ought to have been utterly astounded.

For indeed He gave them a proof of His Godhead, by uncovering their secret thoughts, and with gentleness He put them to silence.

What then? Did they believe? By no means;

rather, 'leaving Him, they went their way,' and after them came the Sadducees.

When those others had been silenced, these advance to the attack, though they ought rather to have become more hesitant.

But such is boldness: shameless and reckless, and undertaking things that are impossible.

For this reason the evangelist too, astonished at their folly, marks this very point, saying that 'In that day they came.'

'In that day' — which day? In the day in which He had convicted the malice of those others, and had put them to shame.

But who are these? Another sect of the Jews besides the Pharisees, and far more contemptible than they, saying that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.

For these are somewhat grosser, and set all aflutter over things bodily.

For there were many sects even among the Jews.

'I am a Pharisee, of the strictest sect among us.'

And directly indeed these say nothing concerning the resurrection;

but they fabricate a tale and put together a case which, as I for my part suppose, never even happened, thinking to cast Him into perplexity, and wishing to overthrow both things: both that there is a resurrection, and that it is such a resurrection.

And again these too approach with a pretended fairness, saying:

'If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and shall raise up seed unto his brother.'

'Now there were with us seven brethren;'

'and the first, when he had married, deceased, and having no seed, left his wife unto his brother.'

'Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seven.'

'And last of all the woman also died.'

'In the resurrection therefore, whose wife shall she be of the seven?' Observe how He answers them in the manner of a teacher.

For even though they came forward out of malice, yet nevertheless their question was rather one of ignorance.

Then, lest He should charge them, asking why seven men had had but one wife, they bring in Moses as well;

and yet, as I said before, this was a fabrication, as I for my part suppose.

For the third would not have taken her, having seen the two bridegrooms become corpses;

and if the third would not, much less the fourth, nor the fifth;

and if not even these, much more the sixth or the seventh would not have come forward, but would have regarded the woman as an ill omen.

For if now many suffer this fear, much more did those men in that day;

seeing that even apart from this they often shunned so dwelling together, and that though the law constrained them.

Thus at any rate that Ruth the Moabitess was rolled off to one more remote in kinship;

and Tamar too was for this reason constrained to steal seed from her father-in-law.

And why did they invent not two or three, but seven? So that, out of superfluity, they might, as they thought, make a mockery of the resurrection.

Wherefore also they say, 'They all had her,' as though casting Him into some perplexity.

What then does Christ do? He answers to both points, taking His stand not upon their words but upon their intent, and everywhere laying bare their hidden purposes, at one time parading them openly, at another leaving the reproof to the conscience of the questioners.

Observe then here how He shows both things: both that there will be a resurrection, and that the resurrection will not be such as they suspect.

For what does He say? 'Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, neither the power of God.'

For since, as though they knew, they put forward Moses and the law, He shows that this very question belongs above all to men who are ignorant of the Scriptures.

For hence also came their tempting, from not knowing the Scriptures and from not knowing the power of God as they ought.

What wonder then, He says, if you tempt Me, who am still unknown to you, when you know not even the power of God, of which you have received so great a proof, and have come to know it neither from common notions nor from the Scriptures? — if indeed even common reasonings suffice to make this known, that to God all things are possible.

And first He answers to that which was asked.

For since this was the cause of their not believing in a resurrection — namely, their thinking that such would be the condition of things — He heals the cause, and then also the symptom (for from this the malady too had arisen);

and He shows the manner of the resurrection.

'For in the resurrection,' He says, 'they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.'

But Luke says, 'As the sons of God.'

If then they marry not, the question is superfluous.

Yet it is not because they marry not, that on this account they are angels;

but because they are as angels, on this account they marry not.

From this He did away with many other things also, all of which Paul hinted at in a single word, saying:

'For the fashion of this world passeth away.'

And by these words He declared how great a thing the resurrection is;

and that there is indeed a resurrection He shows. And although this too was demonstrated together with what has been said, nevertheless out of abundance He adds it again to His discourse, saying:

For He did not stop at the question only, but also at their notion.

Thus, whenever men act not out of great malice, but ask in ignorance, He teaches them even out of abundance;

but him who acts out of mere wickedness, He does not answer even to the things asked.

And again He stops their mouths from Moses, since they too had put forward Moses, and He says:

But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was said, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

He means, not the God of those who are not, and who have been utterly brought to nothing, and shall never rise again.

For He did not say, 'I was,' but 'I am.'

For just as Adam, although he lived on the very day that he ate of the tree, yet died by the sentence pronounced upon him;

so also these men, although they had died, were living by the promise of the resurrection.

How then does He say elsewhere, 'That He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living'? But this is not contrary to that.

For here He speaks of the dead, meaning those very ones who are also destined to live.

And besides, the saying, 'I am the God of Abraham,' is one thing, and the saying, 'That He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living,' is another.

But He knows also of another kind of deadness.

'Let the dead bury their own dead.'

'And when the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at His teaching.'

Not so the Sadducees, even here;

but they, being vanquished, withdrew;

while the impartial crowd reaped the benefit.

Since then the resurrection is such as this, come, let us do all things, that we may there obtain the first rank.

But if it seems good, let us even before the resurrection show you some who from this present life practise these things and reap their fruit, going forth once more to the deserts.

For I will touch again upon the same themes, since I see that you listen with greater delight.

Let us then behold today also the spiritual encampments;

let us behold the pleasure that is pure from fear.

For they are not encamped with spears, like the soldiers (for it was here that I broke off my discourse the other day), nor with shields and breastplates;

but you will see them stripped of all these things, and yet accomplishing such deeds as those men do not even with their weapons.

And if you are able to discern it, come, and reach out your hand to me, and let us both go into this warfare, and behold the battle array.

For these men too wage war each day, and slay their adversaries, and conquer all the lusts that lie in wait against us.

And you will see these lusts cast down upon the ground, and no longer even able to gasp;

but that apostolic saying shown forth through their deeds, that 'They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.'

Did you see the multitude of the dead lying slain by the sword of the Spirit? For this reason there is no drunkenness there, nor gluttony.

And the table makes it manifest, and the trophy that stands upon it.

For drunkenness and gluttony lie dead, put to flight by the drinking of water, that beast of many forms and many heads.

For just as with the fabled Scylla and Hydra, so also with drunkenness one may behold many heads;

on this side fornication springing up, on that anger, from another quarter sloth, from yet another unnatural lusts arising;

but all these have been done away with.

And yet all those earthly armies, even though they should prevail in ten thousand wars, are taken captive by these vices;

and neither weapons, nor spears, nor whatever else there may be, is able to stand against these phalanxes;

but the very giants, the champions, those who perform ten thousand deeds of valour, you may find bound without bonds by sleep and drunkenness, without slaughter and wounds laid low as though they had been wounded—nay, even in worse plight.

For those at least may still gasp for breath;

but these cannot even do this, but straightway fall down.

Do you see that this is the greater and more marvellous army? For it destroys by a mere act of will those foes who overcome the armies of those men.

For so weak do they render her, the mother of all evils, that thereafter she cannot even trouble them;

and when the commander is laid low and the head has been struck off, the rest of the body too is at rest.

And one may see each of those who dwell there working out this victory.

For it is not as in these wars of ours, where, if a man receives a blow from one adversary, he is no longer a burden to another once he has fallen; for he falls but once.

But here of necessity all must smite this beast;

and the one who has not struck it down and cast it away is utterly thrown into confusion.

Do you see how splendid the victory is? For what all the armies gathered together from every part of the world are not strong enough to accomplish—to set up a trophy—this each one of those men sets up by himself.

And all things are jumbled together, wounded: raving words of derangement, frenzied fancies, loathsome vainglory—everything that arms itself out of drunkenness.

And they imitate their own master, of whom the Scripture spoke in wonder, saying:

'He shall drink of the brook in the way.'

Would you like to behold yet another multitude of the dead? Let us look at the lusts that come from luxury, from the caterers, the cooks, the banquet-arrangers, the confectioners.

For I am indeed ashamed to recount them all;

yet nevertheless I will speak of the fowl from the Phasis, the broths mixed in profusion, the moist and the dry dishes, and the laws laid down concerning these things.

For just as men inhabiting some city and marshalling armies, so also these men legislate and arrange: this first, and that; and this second, and that.

And some first bring in fowl roasted over the coals, stuffed within with fish;

while others make the preludes of these lawless dinners from somewhere else;

and there is much rivalry over these matters—over quality, over arrangement, and over quantity;

and they pride themselves on things for which they ought to be buried in shame: some that they spent half the day, others the whole of it, and others that they added the night besides, saying:

Behold the measure of your belly, O wretched man, and be ashamed of your immoderate zeal.

But there is nothing of this sort among those angels;

rather, all these lusts too are dead.

For their food is not for surfeit and luxury, but for need.

There are no hunters of fowl there, nor of fish, but bread and water.

And this confusion, and the uproar, and the disturbances—all these are banished from thence, both from the dwelling and from the body; and great is the calm harbour;

but among these others there is much tempest.

Rip open in imagination the belly of those who feed on such things, and you will see the great heap of refuse, and the foul sewer, and the whitewashed tomb.

And the things that come after these I am even ashamed to mention—the loathsome belchings, the vomitings, the excretions below and above.

But go and behold these lusts too dead there, and the passions more violent than these;

for these too you will see all cast down together with the horses, together with the baggage-bearers.

For a baggage-bearer and a weapon and a horse of a shameful deed is a shameful word.

But there you will see horse and rider of this sort together, and weapons lying about;

yet there it is quite the contrary, and dead souls cast down.

And not only at the table is the victory splendid for those holy men, but also in all other things:

in the matter of money, of glory, of envy, of all diseases whatsoever.

Does not this then seem to you mightier than that other camp, and the table better? And who will gainsay it? No one—not even those men themselves, even were he raving mad.

For this one escorts a man up to heaven, but that one drags him down to Gehenna;

this one the devil marshals, but that one Christ;

this one luxury and licentiousness lay down as law, but that one true wisdom and sober-mindedness;

here Christ is present, but there the devil.

Where there are shameful words, where there is surfeit, there the demons dance.

Such a table had that rich man;

and for this reason he was not master even of a drop of water.

But these men have no such table; rather, they already practise the manner of the angels.

They neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor do they sleep continually, nor do they live in luxury;

but, save for a very few things, they have even become bodiless.

Who then is so easily victorious over his enemies as the man who, while taking his meal, sets up a trophy of triumph? For this reason the prophet also says:

"Thou hast prepared a table before me in the presence of them that afflict me."

For one would not err in applying this saying also to that other table.

For nothing so afflicts the soul as unseemly desire, and luxury, and drunkenness, and the evils that spring from these;

and this those know well who have had experience of it.

But if you were to learn also from what source this table is gathered, and from what source that one, then you would clearly see the difference between the two.

From what source, then, is this one gathered? From countless tears, from widows overreached, from orphans plundered;

And this table resembles a woman fair and comely, in need of nothing external, but possessing beauty by nature;

but that other resembles some foul and ill-favoured harlot, wearing much paint, yet unable to hide her deformity, but rather, the closer one comes, the more she is exposed.

For she too, when she comes nearer to the one keeping company with her, then all the more displays her shame.

Do not, I pray, look at the banqueters as they go up to the feast, but also as they come down from it, and then you will see her foulness.

For that first one, since she is free, permits those who keep company with her to say nothing base;

but this one permits nothing dignified, since she is a harlot and dishonoured.

This one seeks the profit of the one who is with her;

And the one does not permit a man to give offence to God;

but the other does not permit him not to give offence.

Let us depart, therefore, to those men.

From thence we shall learn with how many bonds we are encompassed;

from thence we shall learn to set out a table laden with countless good things, most sweet, free of cost, delivered from anxiety, free from envy and malice and every disease, laden with good hope, and possessing many trophies of victory.

There is no tumult of soul there, there is no sorrow, there is no wrath;

all is calm, all is peace.

For do not speak to me of the silence of the servants in the houses of the rich, but of the outcry of those who are feasting;

I do not mean the outcry they make to one another (for that indeed is ridiculous), but the one within, the one in the soul, which brings on much captivity, the tumults of thoughts, the storm, the gloom, the tempest;

through which all things are confounded and thrown into disorder, and it resembles a kind of battle in the night.

But it is not so in the tents of the monks; rather, there is great calm, great tranquillity.

And that table is succeeded by a sleep resembling death, but this one by watchfulness and wakefulness;

that one by punishment, this one by the kingdom of heaven and the immortal prizes.

Let us therefore pursue this one, that we may also enjoy its fruits; which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages.