Commentary on Matthew 1 part 6/6

Not as though anything, whether good or evil, belonged to those not yet come into being, who are outside all perception (for to think thus is still altogether foolish), but because for those who are destined to fall into every misery, if they should be brought into existence by God, non-existence is surely far and incomparably better.

The Lord gives thanks when He takes the cup, that is, in the posture of prayer He converses with God the Father, declaring Him as it were a partner and co-approver of the life-giving blessing that is to be given to us; and at the same time giving us a pattern first to give thanks and thus to break the bread and distribute it.

Wherefore we also, setting the aforesaid things before the eyes of God, earnestly pray that they be transformed for us into a spiritual blessing, that by partaking of them we may be sanctified bodily and spiritually.

And He said demonstratively, 'This is My body' and 'This is My blood,' that thou mightest not suppose the things that appear to be a mere figure, but that by some ineffable working of God who is able to do all things the things set forth are truly changed into the body and blood of Christ, of which partaking we receive the life-giving and sanctifying power of Christ.

For it was necessary that He should be mingled in a manner befitting God with us through the Holy Spirit, as it were with our bodies, by means of His holy flesh and precious blood.

These indeed we have received as a life-giving blessing, as in bread and wine, that we might not shrink back when we behold flesh and blood set forth upon the holy tables of the churches.

For God, condescending to our weaknesses, infuses into the things set forth a power of life and transposes them to the working of His own life.

And do not doubt that this is true, since He says plainly, 'This is My body' and 'This is My blood,' but rather receive by faith the word of the Saviour;

for being Truth, He does not lie.

After Judas had gone out, the Saviour delivers to the eleven the saving mystery;

for since a little later Christ was about, having risen, to ascend with His own flesh to the Father, that we might have the presence of His body—for without the presence of Christ it is impossible for a man to be saved and delivered from death and sin, since Life is not present with us—He therefore gave us His own body and blood, that through them both the power of corruption might be dissolved, and He might dwell in our souls through the Holy Spirit, and we might become partakers of sanctification and heavenly men and be designated spiritual.

Since after the resurrection Christ was about to be taken up to the Father with His body, on this account He gave us His own body and blood, that His flesh and blood, dwelling in us, might make us holy and partakers of immortality.

'Until I drink it new in the kingdom;'

the drinking of wine not only fulfils a need, but also brings to the senses a manifold pleasure.

But after the resurrection from the dead, when the corruption of human bodies has been shaken off, the very nature of things also shall be transferred to newness, so that even our very gladness shall be new.

And the mixture from wine is a symbol of temperance, which also He says shall become new;

and He does not by any means say that the drink itself shall be new, but that which results from it, that is, the gladness;

for after the resurrection the nature of man shall withdraw from its accustomed and earthly delight, and shall pass over to a newness of the enjoyment of Him, that is, of Christ the Saviour of us all.

who infuses it into the souls of those who revere Him and distributes it in proportion to the measures of each;

'How hast Thou multiplied Thy mercy, O God;

but the sons of men shall hope in the shelter of Thy wings.

They shall be inebriated with the fatness, and Thou shalt give them to drink of the torrent of Thy delight.'

And Wisdom again, having mingled her own wine into the bowl and set forth the loaves:

'Come,' she says, 'eat of my loaves and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.'

The disciples were troubled, not as being fickle, but because the matter was full of great perplexity, and the knowledge of this mystery was hard to grasp—how He who had raised the dead and wrought countless signs beyond man was delivered up to so dishonourable a death.

This was he who had said through the prophet, 'I will smite the shepherd.'

Yet this did not altogether and in every way come to pass by the will of the Father; rather, he willed indeed that the Son should not suffer, had the Jews but received him.

But since they did not receive him, but rather willed to murder him, the Father consented that the Son, who had chosen it, should suffer this.

Wherefore it is also said that the Father smote the shepherd, inasmuch as, being able to hinder him from suffering, he permitted him to suffer.

Thus also is to be understood that which was said to Pilate by Christ, that 'You would have no power at all against me, unless it had been given you from above'—meaning that the Father would not have assented had I not chosen to suffer.

He did not leave the disciples to remain amid gloom, but foretells the resurrection, loosing their grief, and promises to go before them into Galilee; by which he signifies that he is about to depart from the Jews and pass over to the Gentiles.

He does not appear straightway from heaven—wherefore also he appeared there.

He grieves as man, and the Impassible One makes his own both the properties of the soul and those of the body.

For since the things of humanity are common to him—just as the things befitting the Godhead alone have somehow become common to the flesh through the ineffable and inexpressible union—let no one be scandalized at what befell him;

for the Word's coming together with the flesh, having suffered the things that belong to it, will rightly confirm in us the mystery of the Incarnation.

In these words he calls 'cup' the stupor that comes through death, and, as it were, the intoxication that lulls one to sleep.

But his begging to be excused from drinking it—that is, his not taking pleasure exceedingly in suffering—condemns the impiety of those who crucified him;

for they surely could not say that, inasmuch as he chose to suffer, we were rather but ministers of his will;

for his begging off will convict them of speaking falsehood.

He intensifies the prayer, and by the same words weaves for us a pattern and model, setting his own case before us;

for I think we ought to offer not one prayer merely out of eagerness, but rather to draw near frequently, and not to blush at repeating the same words, until our requests come at last to fulfillment for us;

for this reason Christ also made a third prayer concerning the same things, although he knew most clearly the will of God and the Father;

or rather, by the third prayer he confirmed that he had become man.

Perhaps Judas thought he could go undetected, holding out a kiss as a token of love, while having his heart full of unholy designs.

So then, as if from drunkenness he approaches Christ, expecting to display his surpassing virtue as an instrument of guile and love, and he added also the words, 'Hail, Rabbi.'

You say 'Hail' to him who through you has been ensnared unto death? Are you not ashamed even of the very fashion of your betrayal? But it was possible from this to see that, having the liar within himself—that is, Satan—even in saying 'Hail' he was lying.

And Christ accepted even to be kissed—yet the man became fiercer in his gentleness than any wild beast.

Saying 'instead of you' to the twelve disciples, so that 'I have no need of your assistance;'

for I do not employ my authority, but I deliver myself up to the Jews, since the Scriptures foretold that this would be, that the Jews were about to do these things.

Does Christ then blame the teachers of the Jews for not sooner contriving the snare of death for him? He does not mean to make this plain, but rather that, though it was open to you to seize me as I taught daily in the temple, you did not lay hold of me;

for I was rather reserving the necessity of suffering for the fitting time.

Christ therefore did not say these things to accuse the madness of the Jews, nor indeed to rebuke their slowness toward bloodshed, in that they had not seized him at the outset while he was present and in view;

but rather he convicts them, showing that the arrest was not the work of any strength in them, but of his own will, who in dispensation accepted the unwilled passion and made it something willed.

not because to suffer was a good thing, but because the events resulting from it were about to restore human nature to what it was from the beginning, showing that to seize him was the work of his own permission.

The God of all said somewhere through Moses:

'If a soul sin, and hear the voice of adjuration, and he be a witness whether he has seen or known it, if he do not report it,' he says, 'he shall bear his sin.'

There was, therefore, charged against some the accusation of transgression, if they made no defense when hearing the voice of adjuration.

For this reason Caiaphas craftily adjures the Lord, so that, if he should choose even after this to keep silence, he might condemn him as a transgressor, knowing that one adjured and keeping silence became liable to the punishment prescribed by the Law;

but if he should speak the truth, that they might kill him as a false Christ, as one calling himself God while having nothing more than the rest of men according to the flesh and to outward appearance.

'You have said it'—meaning, henceforth your own mouth has confessed it.

But that he might render their judgment yet more grievous—I mean the judgment consequent upon their willing not to believe in him—he again sets before them his glory conspicuously, saying:

'Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power of God.'

In appearance, he says, become as you are, though I am by nature and in truth the Son of God and the Father, you have accounted me as nothing; and since you have descended to such ignorance that you know neither his mystery nor mine, though you are learned in the Law, of necessity I say this: that a brief and limited time has been given you for your impiety against me, up to the honored Cross;

for immediately after this I shall return again to my own honor, I shall ascend to the glory that was in the beginning, I shall sit enthroned together with God and the Father, even with the flesh.

As Christ was saying these things, Caiaphas rent his garments, saying:

And this he did to make the accusation more vehement, and to magnify what was said by means of the deed.

And yet what blasphemy was this?—herein most of all did he shine forth and conquer mightily.

It would be fitting to say that which one of the holy prophets said:

'The heaven was astonished at this, and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord, the God of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords;

how, as one of us, he is dishonored, and endures being struck, and bears the mockery of the ungodly, setting before us a pattern of his supreme long-suffering;

for he who searches hearts and reins, the giver of all prophecy, how could he have been ignorant of who it was that struck him? They led Jesus to Pilate;

and they too were delivered up to the armies of the Romans.

'Evil things shall befall him according to his deeds.'

'As you have done, so shall it be to you;

your recompense shall be returned upon your own head.'

A great rebuke are these things against the Jews, who chose a robber and murderer rather than Christ;

so greatly did they care for justice, and so, for the sake of holiness, did they accuse Christ!

And when he to whom the judging fell was for setting him free, they call upon the master and teacher of all godliness to undergo the sentence of death; and, that they might endure a still more grievous chastisement, they cried out, saying:

'Away with this man, release unto us Barabbas.'

Behold, then, plainly they denied the Holy and Just One, even as the blessed Peter says, and they asked that a murderer be granted to them, that they might become partakers of his portion.

Neglecting right and just judgment, Pilate did not even reckon it wrong to deliver an innocent man to death, although he had authority to release him;

and he washes his hands, supposing himself thereby free of the sin, which is a foolish thing to imagine.

But perhaps, as a heathen, he thought that water sufficed for the removal of sins.

This unholy outcry of theirs the Lord charged against them, saying through the voice of Jeremiah:

'I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies.

My inheritance has become to me as a lion in the forest;

she has uttered her voice against me, therefore have I hated her.'

And the prophet Hosea also said somewhere concerning the unholiness of the Jews:

'Woe unto them, for they have started away from me;

wretched are they, for they have dealt impiously against me;

but I redeemed them, yet they spoke lies against me.

Their rulers shall fall by the sword because of the unruliness of their tongue.'

The Savior, then, is led away to the saving Passion.

And upon Simon of Cyrene they laid his cross.

But another of the holy evangelists said that Jesus himself bore the tree.

Yet both accounts are entirely true.

For the Saviour did indeed bear the cross; but somewhere about the middle of the way they met the man of Cyrene, laid hold of him, and transferred the cross onto him.

For it was said concerning him through the voice of Isaiah: 'A child is born to us, a son also is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder.'

For the cross became his government, through which he reigned over all that is under heaven, if indeed it be true that 'he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God also highly exalted him.'

Concerning the place of the skull there has come down to us the tradition of the Hebrews, that the body of Adam was buried there; and since in Adam all die, Adam too was raised, and in Christ all shall be made alive.

You see how the Author and Lord of all things restores his own nature;

for by referring it back to its primal state, through becoming as we are, for our sake he endured our sufferings on our behalf.

Suspended upon the cross, there were hung together with him two robbers; and this was confessedly an outrage, so far at least as concerned the intention of the Jews, yet it was also a reminder of the prophecy which says...

But through his sufferings good things flow to us;

for it is true that 'by his stripes we were healed.'

These two robbers prefigured the two peoples; of whom the one displayed his ingratitude even unto death, and did not confess that even the final captivity which he endured at the hands of the Romans was inflicted upon him in requital for his insolent outrages against Christ; while the other, at the very end, did not despair of forgiveness, but by his confession of the true God corrected the savagery of his crimes.

And that the Lord willingly endured his voluntary death in the midst of the robbers on the cross, revealed his coming to the two peoples.

To renew them; though the former, like the one of the robbers, refused, saying 'We have no king but Caesar,' and calling down the innocent blood upon his own head, and glorying in the murder as though it were just — from which things both these and that one alike fell away from the kingdom.

The one, then, of the robbers, sharing in the God-hating dispositions of the Jews, belched forth the same words as they;

for 'If you are the Christ,' he says, 'save yourself and us.'

But the other, walking the road opposite to that man, is rightly to be admired;

for he believed in him, and although so bitter a sentence hung over him, he rebuked the foul-mouthed railings of the Jews and the words of the one hanging with him, and confessed his sin, that he might appear the more righteous.

For he bore witness to Christ's complete freedom from blame, and was an accuser of the madness of those who crucified him; and by this very thing he seized the lot of the saints, the enrolment on high and in the heavens.

For seeing him crucified, he called him king;

him who was in dishonour and suffering he expected to come in glory befitting God; he seized faith, though not nobly reared, and profits us also by opening the heavens to us.

'The darkness came over the whole earth from the sixth hour until the ninth hour,' the sun being eclipsed, that they might know that this is that very one who was suspended from the tree, who took creation as a fellow-soldier on their behalf, when for their sake he warred against the Egyptians.

The sun's light failed, and darkness was poured over all their land, the sun withdrawing its beam and, as it were, not enduring to send it any longer upon those who had become murderers of the Lord.

And in another sense also we say that the land of the Jews, or rather those who dwell in it, was darkened, because it did not receive the Sun of righteousness and the true light.

The Lord uttered this cry as man, that he might set right, for our human nature, the speaking to God with boldness, 'Why have you forsaken me?'

for it is only to the pure and those who are outside of sin that it is granted to say this without fear.

But in saying 'My God' to the Father he suffers no injury concerning his own Godhead and glory, being God by nature, when as man he says these things which befit his humanity; since we also, if we call God Father, do not thereby cast off being men by nature and creatures of God, even though by grace God calls us into sonship through faith in Christ.

A great and exceptional thing was accomplished through Christ for our souls;

for since we were justified through faith in God, and in him human nature was found to have grown rich in freedom from offence, he has made a new way for us: that the souls released from bodies should no longer run to Hades as formerly, but rather be sent into the hands of the living God.

And knowing this, the holy Stephen said:

'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'

And another of the apostles also writes:

'so that those also who suffer according to the will of God should commit their souls to a faithful Creator.'

And the earth also was shaken, signifying the change for the better, or else showing forth the indignation against those who had committed outrage against him.

And the splitting of the rocks is a sign that the stony heart of the nations was to be opened for the reception of the evangelic seed.

And the saints who rose and appeared to many did not, they alone, receive prematurely the grace of the resurrection, but it came about as a sign that death had been abolished through the death of Christ.

To this, I think, the Law also had regard, when it commanded that one who had unwillingly committed a murder and had fled should again return to his native land after the death of the high priest;

for the death of Christ granted to us who were liable the ascent to the Jerusalem above.

against those who had committed outrage against him.

And the splitting of the rocks makes clear that the souls of the gentiles were opened to receive the faith of Christ.

And the saints who rose and appeared to many signify that death has been abolished through the death of Christ.

The rending of the veil was a sign not obscure that the temple too all but mourned, together with those who had been brought down to ruin and destruction, who crucified the very Lord of the temple;

and perhaps also, according to the custom that prevailed among them, what happened convicted them of the impiety against Christ;

for it was the custom among the Jews to rend the garment when God was blasphemed.

And what happened seems to hint to us also at something else, of the things needful for our profit;

for the veil that hid within it the Holy of Holies — at the arrival of the appointed time, when the shadow of the Law had to be drawn together and the worship in types had to cease, and the Holy of Holies had to be opened to those justified by faith in Christ — is rent asunder, God as it were showing those very things to the worthy, that thereafter, with nothing barring the way, those who walk in the footsteps of Christ might run into the inner tabernacle.

And the crowds too, who had come to the spectacle, beating their breasts, returned home, perhaps ridding themselves of the impiety against Christ by crying out against those who crucified him, even if not openly, on account of the unholiness of their rulers.

So great was the power of the crucified one — this centurion afterwards playing the man in the faith.

True was the Lord when he said, 'When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself';

for behold, being lifted up on the precious cross, he began to net many for the knowledge of the truth;

he drew, then, the centurion, and he drew also some of the Jews, who beat their breasts, being pierced to the heart in every way, and looking up with the eyes of the understanding to the Lord.

Since the Lord had endured for our sake the passion on the cross, and had given his own flesh as a ransom for the life of all, and was in the tomb like one helpless, free among the dead, according to that which is hymned in the Psalms, the women ran, bringing what was needed for the tending of the body, and being full of spices;

for they supposed that he would lie together with the others and remain dead in the tomb.

And do not wonder if women were ignorant that, being God and life, he would loose the might of corruption and run back to life, when even to the apostles themselves the account of his resurrection seemed to be simply some idle tale and a fabricated thing, because they too did not yet know the God-inspired Scripture.

The women therefore came to the tomb, and not finding the body of Christ, for their love toward him they behold a holy angel.

And indeed he became for them an evangelist and herald of the resurrection;

'For do not seek,' he says, 'him who ever lives and is by nature life, among the dead;

for he is not here,' that is, in death and the tomb, 'but he has risen,' having become the way of return unto incorruption, not for himself rather, but for us;

for on this account he lowered himself into self-emptying and underwent the likeness to us, that by the grace of God, as the blessed Paul says, he might taste death on behalf of all, and that this might become the death of death and the abolition of the curse once brought upon the first-formed man;

for the Lord prepared us to enter into such a hope when he said:

'He who believes in me, even though he die, shall live.'

For we must know that, as angels brought to the shepherds in Bethlehem the good tidings of the birth, so now rational powers proclaim the resurrection.

With their proclamations the hosts of the powers on high attend upon the Son as Lord and Master of all things, even when he became flesh, that is, man.

The female sex has gained both the release from reproach and the overturning of the curse;

for he who of old had said to them, 'In sorrows shall you bear children,' gave them a respite, meeting them in the garden and saying, 'Rejoice.'

With surpassing joy the women [ran] to him — and turning them to good hopes and healing what had been in travail.

And you see how some of the evangelists pass over certain things in silence;

for the 'they doubted' is clearly unfolded in John, where the one who doubted is shown to be Thomas;

so that the recollection of the appearance in Judaea, which took place a second time, shows how the matter stood.

But he said that he appeared to them in Galilee — which alone John seems to me to leave out, inasmuch as his purpose was to tell the rest, both how often and where he appeared, and moreover also plainly to expound how.

John speaks of other visions, but the one that Matthew here speaks of was seen not only by the eleven, but also, as is likely, by the many.

It was in a manner suited to the divine plan, and still more in a human way, that He said, 'It has been given to Me.'

Yet He wishes it to be understood that He holds authority over all things as God; and having laid aside the measure of His self-emptying, He ascended back to the innate glory that ever belongs to Him, being confessed, even together with the flesh, as God and Lord of all.

Accordingly, then, He says 'It has been given to Me,' not as though He first received it when He became man, but as receiving—now, as it were, in the rank of a man—that which He always possessed by reason of His being from the Father and God by nature.