Commentary on Luke 1 part 1/2

The noble among generals whet those skilled in tactics to daring, promising them not only the honours that come from victory, but declaring that the very act of suffering is glorious and the occasion of every good report for them.

For it is not among the possibilities that those who wish to win renown in battles should not sometimes also endure the blows dealt by their adversaries.

Yet the suffering will not be without reward for them.

For they shall be praised as having leapt upon the enemy, and the very suffering will altogether bear witness for them that they have used a most youthful and valiant spirit.

We see our Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaching such things.

The occasion for such a discourse arose for Him from His having foretold to the disciples that He must by all means endure the assaults of the Jews, be mocked by them, be spat upon, be killed, and rise again on the third day.

Therefore, lest they should suppose that He indeed would suffer for the life of the world the outrages of those thirsting for blood, while it was permitted to them to live at ease, He of necessity shows that those who desire to attain the glory that comes from Him must proceed through the same deeds of valour; and, all but adjuring them, He says what follows.

For it was needful, indeed needful, that those appointed to such a ministry should be most stalwart and valiant, so as to look with dread upon none of the terrors.

Such a one will deny himself, all but renouncing the present life for the sake of the good and of love toward Christ.

Thus will one follow Christ, all but crying aloud and saying to Christ the Saviour of all: 'For Your sake we are killed all the day long; we were counted as sheep for the slaughter.' Such was the blessed Paul, saying:

'I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.'

'And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.'

Excellently then does He command them to rise superior to every trial and persecution, knowing well that those who wish to be zealous for His cause will be fellows and partakers of His glory.

For not if anyone should become a despiser of the bonds of death, has that one perished.

For in losing his own soul he will rather find it, even as in finding it he will incur its loss.

That it is incomparably better than the splendour and luxury in the world to win renown in the love that is according to Christ, He plainly shows, saying:

For whenever anyone, looking rather to the immediate pleasant than to the profitable, declines to suffer and chooses to live splendidly, even though he should have wealth and abundance of goods, what profit is there thence to him who has lost his soul? For the fashion of this world passes away, and like shadows the delightful things shift and the wealth flies away from those who possess it.

For treasures shall not profit the lawless, but righteousness delivers from death.

And that He might also set forth clearly the reward of being willing to labour, He adds to these words and says:

By these words He at the same time accomplishes many things both profitable and necessary.

For first He shows that in every way and altogether there shall follow, for those who are ashamed of Him and of His words, the receiving of the like.

having obtained such splendid good things? Then, besides these, He implants fear in them, saying that He will descend from heaven, not in the first lowliness and in the abasement that was ours, but in the glory of the Father, with angels attending Him as a bodyguard.

It is therefore utterly grievous and full of ruin to be condemned for lovelessness and for shrinking from labour, when the Judge comes down from on high and the ranks of angels stand round about; but great and worthy of all wonder, and the occasion of prosperity in the end, is it that they should rejoice over the toils already borne beforehand and look for the recompense of their sweat.

For such shall be praised, since Christ says:

The disciples, not yet having received the power from on high, were likely perhaps to fall into human weaknesses and, having conceived some such thing within themselves, to say:

How shall anyone deny himself? Or how, having lost his own soul, shall he find it again? And what prize equal in worth shall there be for those who suffer this? Or of what gifts of grace shall they be partakers? Therefore, that He might turn them away from such reasonings and, as it were, forge them anew unto manliness, implanting a longing for the glory that should be theirs, He says:

There are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God.

And by the kingdom of God He means the very vision of the glory in which He Himself will also be seen at that time, when He shall shine forth upon those on earth.

For He will come in the glory of God the Father, and not rather in the lowliness that was ours.

How then did He make spectators of the wonder those who received the promise? He goes up onto the mountain, taking with Him three chosen ones from among them.

Then He is transformed into an extraordinary and God-befitting splendour, so that even His raiment, at the impact of the light, shone through and seemed as it were to flash like lightning.

But Moses and Elijah, standing round about Jesus, were conversing with one another, it says, about His departure which He was about to fulfil in Jerusalem — that is, the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh and the saving Passion, I mean that upon the precious Cross.

For they always call this His 'glory.'

For it is indeed true that the Law given through Moses and the word of the holy prophets foreshowed the mystery of Christ — the one in types and shadows, all but painting it as upon a tablet; the others having in manifold ways proclaimed beforehand both that He would be seen in due seasons in a form like ours, and that for the sake of the salvation and life of all He would not decline to suffer the death upon the tree.

Therefore the presence of Moses and Elijah and their conversing with one another was a certain dispensation, most excellently displaying our Lord Jesus Christ as attended like a sovereign by the Law and the prophets, inasmuch as He is the Master of both Law and prophets, and as having been foreshown beforehand by them through the things wherein they proclaimed beforehand in harmony with one another.

We say that the transfiguration took place, not indeed by the body changing its human form, but by a certain light-shaped glory enveloping it and re-colouring the most dishonoured character of the flesh, as it were into a more glorious appearance, according to the words 'It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory,' well and rightly spoken by the blessed Paul.

For now this very thing is naked flesh, not tinged with any glory, not adorned with any natural splendour, but having only the sheer inglory and weakness that is from nature; whereas at the time of the resurrection there shall be a certain God-befitting alteration, a change of glory, not of form.

For henceforth it will shine round about with the investiture of divine glory,

in the kingdom of the Father, according to the voice of the Saviour.

The blessed disciples for a little while dozed off, as Christ was occupied in prayer;

for He was fulfilling the things of human nature according to the dispensation.

Then, being fully awakened, they became spectators of the change so august and marvellous.

And the divine Peter, supposing perhaps that the time of the kingdom of God had somehow come, welcomes the sojourns on the mountain, and says that three tabernacles ought to be made:

one for Christ, and the others for Moses and Elijah.

But he knew not, it says, what he was saying.

For it was not the time of the consummation of the age, nor indeed of the saints needing to receive the participation in the hope promised them.

For as Paul says, He will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory — Christ's, that is.

Since therefore the dispensation was still in its beginnings and not yet completed, how was it likely that Christ should cease from His love toward the world and refrain from willing to suffer for it? For He saved all beneath heaven by enduring even the death according to the flesh, and by the resurrection from the dead abolished it.

Therefore, in addition to the ineffable and marvellous vision of the glory of Christ, yet another thing was accomplished, both profitable and necessary for the confirmation of the faith in Him — and not for the disciples only, but also for us ourselves.

For from a cloud above, as from God the Father, a voice was sent down, saying:

This is My beloved Son, the Chosen One.

And when the voice came, it says, Jesus was found alone.

Though Moses and Elijah were standing there, He commands them rather to hear Him.

But lest the truth be slandered by some who say that the Father commanded them to hear Moses rather, and not Christ the Saviour of us all, the evangelist of necessity noted, saying that when the voice came, Jesus was found alone.

Him therefore He commanded them to hear;

for He Himself is the end of the Law and the prophets.

For this reason also He addressed the multitudes of the Jews, saying:

If you believed Moses, you would believe Me;

for he wrote concerning Me.

We have heard that one from among the multitude ran to Christ, relating an unbearable sickness of his child;

for he said that the boy was savagely torn by an evil spirit, and endured a most grievous convulsion.

Yet he did not make his approach blameless;

for he cried out against the choir of the holy apostles, saying that they had not been able to rebuke the demon.

But it would have been better, while rather honouring Jesus, to ask His aid and to seek the grace that comes from Him.

For He assents when He is honoured and believed in by us, that He is able to do all things and is in nothing at all weak; for He Himself is the Lord of the powers, and everything, if it be at all capable of power, has this — its being what it is — wholly from Him; but when we are unbelieving, we insult His glory, and we shall receive from Him nothing at all.

For I brought him, he says, to Your disciples, and they were not able to cast it out.

And yet it was because of your unbelief that the grace did not operate.

For that one must approach Christ with faith, and those who have been enriched by Him with the grace of being able to heal, He Himself taught us, everywhere asking faith of those who came to Him.

For this cause Christ justly cried out against him.

And, if you will, hear the evangelist saying:

It was surely with good reason that He called that man, and those of like mind with him, a faithless generation, and perverse, and in no way knowing how to walk uprightly.

Concerning such persons the sacred Scripture says:

Whose paths are crooked, and their tracks are bent aside.

To such people the blessed Baptist proclaimed, saying:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.

The faithless man, then, will surely be also perverse.

With those who are so disposed in mind, and who have fallen into such impiety, Christ does not deign to associate; but, if one may speak in human terms, He grows weary and dispirited, as though burdened by their wickedness at spending time in their company.

How long shall I be with you and bear with you? For he who says that they were too weak to act against the wicked spirits—they who through His own nods had received authority to cast them out—rather brings accusation against the grace, and not against those who had received it.

For that it was Christ who was working in them is nothing hard for those willing to see.

And indeed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate was healed, yet Peter ascribed the marvel to Christ when he addressed the Jews, as is written in the Acts.

And again somewhere he proclaimed to one of those who had been healed by him:

Aeneas, Christ heals you.

From every side, therefore, it is manifest that the man who said of the holy apostles that they were unable to cast it out did impiously accuse His power.

And in yet another way Christ is indignant when the saints are slandered—those who were entrusted with the word of the sacred proclamations and were appointed as mystagogues of all that is under heaven, being attested by His grace both that they are His disciples and that they cause the light of the true knowledge of God to shine forth upon all men everywhere, while the marvellous working of great deeds usefully accompanies their teachings.

But I think it better, according to the first interpretation, to understand the father of the demoniac as the faithless one.

Wherefore also he had to depart in grief.

But lest anyone should suppose that Christ Himself was too feeble for the accomplishment of the wonder, He rebuked the unclean spirit, and immediately the young man was set free from his sickness.

Well has he said that He gave him back to his father;

for the boy was no longer his father's, but belonged to the spirit that held him fast; but once the tyranny was shaken off, he became again his own father's.

And this is the gift of Christ, who also gave to the holy apostles authority to be able to accomplish the divine signs and to rebuke the unclean spirits.

And the blessed evangelist says that the crowds were astonished at the majesty of God.

For all that Jesus did was worthy of wonder in the eyes of all.

For something exceptional and divine shone forth in all His activity, so that the Scripture which says the following proved true:

Yet even though indeed all men marvelled at all that Jesus did, He did not speak the things that followed upon these to all, but to His own disciples, saying: Even though the things I do are all such that all men marvel at them, yet consider to what depth of humiliation I am about to bring Myself, being delivered up on behalf of all, that I may take away the sin of the world.

In order, therefore, that the mystagogues of the world might know accurately the mystery concerning Him, He usefully and necessarily makes the foretelling and says:

Do you lay up these words in your hearts;

for the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.

And what the occasion was that prompted Christ to say these things, it is necessary, as I think, to state.

Now He took up into the mountain Peter and James and John, and was transfigured before them;

His face shone as the sun.

He showed them the glory with which He will shine upon the world in due seasons; then, coming down from the mountain, He set free a certain man from a wicked and cruel spirit.

But it was altogether necessary that He should endure the saving passion on our behalf and bear with the crookedness of the Jews.

And perhaps they were somehow pondering and saying within themselves:

He who is so great in glory, who raised the dead with an authority befitting God, who rebukes seas and winds, who by a word crushes Satan—how has He now been caught and fallen into the snares of the murderers? Have we then been deceived in supposing Him to be God? Therefore, that they might know what would altogether and by all means come to pass, He bids them make the mystery, as it were, a thing laid up in their mind:

For lay up, He says, these things in your hearts;

and the word 'You' in this passage marks them off from the others;

for He wished them to know what was to happen, but not yet also to speak of it to others.

For it was not enough that the common multitude should merely learn that He would suffer, but it was better, in addition to this, that they should be fully assured that He also rose again in a manner befitting God, having abolished death, so as readily to escape the harm that comes from being made to stumble.

Whenever, therefore, the time of suffering is at hand, He says, do not say:

How is it that One so great in glory and the performer of so many signs did not, like any one of us, perceive that He was falling into the hands of enemies? Rather, know, considering the divine plan, that I have not been forced by anyone, but have come to this willingly.

For what was there to hinder Him who foreknew and clearly announced beforehand what was to be, from being unwilling to suffer, had He so chosen? But that I might save all that is under heaven, I gave Myself over to suffering.

This He will teach clearly, saying elsewhere:

No one takes My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.

And how did the disciples fail to understand the mystery of Christ? For they were indeed from the flock of the Jews, yet not slothful, nor unversed in the writings of Moses;

and indeed for this reason they had been chosen out by Christ.

How then did they fail to understand the mystery of Christ, though it was written in very many places through the shadow of the Law? But, as the blessed Paul writes:

A hardening in part has come upon Israel; and:

Until this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies upon their heart, unremoved, because in Christ it is done away.

It behooves us, therefore, when drawing near to Christ, to say:

Open my eyes, and I shall behold the wondrous things out of Your Law.

Let him learn once more, who supposes Jesus to be a mere man, that he has gone astray and has wandered far from the truth.

For let him know that, even though the Word, being God, became flesh, yet He keeps inalienably the being of what He was, and has remained God.

For it belongs to God alone, who is over all, to be able to search hearts and reins and to know the hidden things, but to no other whatsoever besides Him.

But behold, Christ searches out the reasonings of the holy apostles and casts the eye of the Godhead into the hidden things.

God, therefore, is He who is fittingly clothed with dignities so great and so utterly befitting God.

Nevertheless, let us examine this matter:

did then all the blessed disciples share in common this kind of sickness? But I think it holds much that is improbable to suppose that they all at once contracted a common and single disease.

But rather, as I think, when one of them had suffered it, in order that the most wise evangelist might not be found weaving some accusation against any one of the fellow disciples, he declares it without distinction, saying: A reasoning entered among them as to which of them might be the greater.

But that Satan is exceedingly clever at working mischief, one may again see from these very things:

for he plots in manifold ways against those who have loved the all-beautiful life.

And if he is able through the pleasures of the flesh to lay siege to a man's mind, he leaps upon it savagely and sharpens the goad of love of pleasure.

But if there be one who is manly and is borne beyond such snares, he readily assails him with maladies of the soul, dressing up his plots against them:

for he sows in something of the things discordant with God, and rouses the passion of love of glory, little by little shaking a man down into accursed haughtiness.

So then the passion of vainglory had rushed in upon one of the holy apostles;

for the question 'which of them might be the greater' belongs to one who is contentious and desirous of taking precedence over the others.

But He who knows how to save, namely Christ, clearly did not slumber;

He saw in the disciple's mind the reasoning about this very thing, like some root of bitterness springing up, according to what is written, and before it was raised on high, before it was grown strong, He digs out the evil from its very root:

for passions in their beginning are easily overcome in us, but once grown strong they are hard to cast off and are shameless in no small measure.

How then does the physician of spirits shear off the passion of love of glory? He took a child, He says, and set it beside Himself.

And this vice made a pretext of usefulness even to the holy apostles themselves, and to us who come after them.

For such a disease commonly feeds upon those men who happen to hold some position of superiority over others.

Of what, then, was the little child that was brought forward made a type and image? Of a life free from wickedness and free from love of vainglory.

For it has a mind that is unadulterated, a heart that is unsophisticated, and it lives in simplicity of thoughts.

It does not crave for vainglory, it knows nothing of the manner of superiority over anyone whatsoever; nor yet does it shun to seem to be at a disadvantage.

It has great tranquillity in mind and heart, as coming from simplicity and guilelessness.

And indeed the Saviour himself once said to the holy apostles, or rather to all who love him:

'Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become as these little children, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'

But what it is to turn and to be made like the little children, the blessed Paul makes clear when he writes:

'Do not be children in your understanding, but in malice be as babes, and in your understanding be mature.'

And again, on another occasion, when women were bringing infants to him and the disciples were hindering them, he said:

'Let the little children come to me;'

for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Those who are such he welcomes and loves, and deems worthy, as it were, to hold near himself, since they have chosen to be minded as he is.

For he said, 'Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.'

'Whoever receives this little child in my name, receives me;'

and whoever receives me, receives him who sent me.

Since, therefore, for those who honour the saints the reward is one and the same—whether that one be perhaps small, or set in surpassing honour and glory—for such a one receives Christ, and through him and in him the Father: how is it not utterly stale to contend with one another and to seek to surpass others? And he makes the aim of this discourse still more plain, and says:

'For he who is least among you all, this one shall be great,'—meaning the one who is modest in mind and thinks nothing lofty concerning himself, out of reverent humility.

For it is written that 'Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.'

Well then—did the sting of envy smite the holy disciples? Do they begrudge those who are held in good repute? You forbid, tell me, the one who in the name of Christ crushes wicked demons? And yet, how was it not rather fitting to consider that it was not that man himself who was the worker of the marvels, but the grace within him accomplishing the marvel, plainly in the power of Christ? How then do you forbid the one who is distinguished in Christ? 'Yes,' he says;

for he does not follow along with us.

For what then—if he who is crowned with the grace that comes from Christ has not been numbered among the holy apostles? Very many are the varieties of the gifts that come from Christ.

And this the blessed Paul will teach us, saying that 'To one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, to another faith, and to yet another gifts of healings.'

What then is 'He does not walk with us'? The Saviour had given to the holy apostles authority over unclean spirits, so as to cast them out and to heal every disease and every sickness among the people;

so they returned rejoicing and saying:

They supposed, then, that to no one else, but to themselves alone, was it permitted to bear the dignity that had been given.

For this reason they come forward, desiring to learn whether it is permitted for another also to do this.

We have something of this kind also in the more ancient writings.

For God once said somewhere to Moses:

'Choose out for yourself seventy men from the elders of Israel, and I will take of the spirit that is upon you and will give it to them.'

And those who had been chosen were gathered into that ancient tabernacle, except two of them;

for they remained behind in the encampment.

And when the spirit of prophecy fell upon them, not only did those who had run together in the holy tabernacle prophesy, but also those who had remained behind in the camp.

And Joshua, who stood by Moses, said, it says:

'Eldad and Modad are prophesying in the camp, my lord Moses.'

And Moses, it says, said to Joshua:

'Are you jealous for my sake? Who would grant that all the Lord's people were prophets, when the Lord gives his Spirit upon them!'

But even then it was Christ who, in the Holy Spirit, persuaded the hierophant Moses to speak these things.

And so to the holy apostles he himself, through his own person, says:

'Do not forbid the one who crushes Satan in his name;'

for he is not against you, he says.

For whoever is not against you is for you;

for they are on behalf of you who love Christ, since they desire to fulfil the things that make for his glory, being crowned with the grace that comes from him.

That is to say, when the time was at hand in which he must henceforth, having endured the saving Passion, ascend into heaven and sit enthroned with God the Father, he resolved to go up to Jerusalem.

For this, I think, is what 'He set his face' makes plain.

He sent messengers to prepare a lodging for himself and for those with him.

But when they came into a village of the Samaritans, they were not received.

At this the blessed disciples were indignant—and not so much on their own account, but because they had not honoured the Saviour and Lord of all.

Then, not being ignorant of the greatness of the authority that was in him, they said:

'Lord, do you wish that we bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them?'

But this they said, not having yet laid hold of the new grace, but still holding to the former custom, looking to Elijah, who twice consumed with fire the fifties and their captains.

But when they said this, Christ rebuked them.

Now the sense of what has been read has this general scope.

But let us investigate each point minutely.

'Milk out milk, and it shall become butter.'

Now, was the Saviour ignorant of what was to happen? Is it not true to say that, knowing all things, he assuredly knew somehow that those who were sent would not be received by the Samaritans? Then how is this a matter of doubt? Why, then, did he command them to go ahead? It was his custom to be eager in every way to benefit the holy apostles, and sometimes to make the testing of them, as it were, an incidental part of the journey.

For he permitted, in his wise dispensation, the storm to rise up against the boat, in order both to exercise the faith of the disciples and to render manifest the surpassing greatness of his own power.

For they, being of little faith, said:

'Master, save us, we are perishing!' But he, having arisen, straightway showed clearly that he is Master even of the elements;

for he rebuked the sea and the storm, and there came an exceedingly great calm.

So then, likewise also in this matter;

for he knew that those who announced beforehand that he would lodge among them would not be received by the Samaritans; but in order that this too might again become an occasion of benefit to the holy disciples, he allowed them to go.

Having the time of the Passion already close at hand, he was about to endure the drunken insolence of the Jews.

In order, therefore, that when they saw him suffering they might not be scandalized, considering that he wills them also to be forbearing of evil even when some men insult them, he made the insult from the Samaritans, who did not receive the messengers, into a kind of preliminary exercise for the matter.

The disciples, following in the Master's footsteps, ought rather to have persevered in a manner befitting saints, and to have said nothing against them out of anger.

But being mastered by a hotter zeal, they wished, so far as it lay with them, to bring down fire upon them from heaven.

The Master of all, therefore, speaks truly when he says thus:

'For my counsels are not as your counsels, nor are my ways as your ways;

but as the heaven is distant from the earth, so are my ways distant from your ways, and your thoughts from my thoughts.'

He therefore rebuked His own disciples in a profitable manner, gracefully restraining their quickness to anger and persuading them to bear wrongs patiently.

And He benefited them also in another way.

They were destined to be the initiators into the mysteries for all under heaven, going about through cities and countries, proclaiming everywhere the evangelical and saving message.

But it was necessary that those willing to do this should also fall in with certain unholy men who would not endure the divine proclamation, nor even permit Jesus, as it were, to lodge among them.