以弗所書講道集 第 8 章 第 2/2 段

For being bound, and remaining between the two soldiers, he could not have found so much leisure as even to loose the chains, and that too while he himself was in the inner prison.

So that the punishment of the guards came about through the injustice of the judge.

For why did the Jews not do this? For I remember also another prison—that former one at Rome, and this at Caesarea, and now this at Jerusalem.

For when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard from those who had been sent by them to the prison to bring out Peter, that 'We found no one within, but also the doors shut, and the guards standing before the doors';

why did they not put the guards to death, but were perplexed concerning them, saying, 'What could this be?' But if these men, though most eager for their death, conceived no such thing, much more you who do all things for their favor.

For this reason judgment overtook him swiftly.

But if you bring this charge, bring it also concerning those who are slaughtered on the highways, and concerning the countless others who are unjustly slain, and further concerning the children who were killed in the time of Christ;

for to them also, as you say, Christ became the cause;

or rather, not Christ, but the madness and tyranny of Herod's father.

But if you say, Why did He not snatch him out of the hands of Herod? He was able to do this also, but nothing would have been gained from it.

How many times, indeed, did Christ go out from the midst of their hands? What then did this profit the thankless ones? Here, however, much benefit accrues to the faithful from what took place;

for since records were made, and their very enemies bore witness to the things that were done, the testimony was above suspicion.

As therefore in that case they were silenced from no other source, but from the fact that those who came confessed the things that had happened, so also here.

For why did the jailer do no such thing? And yet Herod's affairs were in no way less than his.

For as regards the account of astonishment, to have learned that the bound man went out while the doors were shut is no less than to have seen the doors opened;

and yet these things might rather have seemed to be an illusion, but the other no longer so, being reported with exactness.

So that if this man too had been so wicked, he would have slaughtered Paul, just as that other slaughtered the soldiers.

But if, to those who ask why God permitted even the children to be slain, we should wish to make a defense, we should perhaps fall into a longer discourse, which ought to have been spoken to you at the outset. For now, having given much thanks for the chain of Paul, let us bring the discourse to a close—since it has become to us the cause of so many good things—exhorting you not only not to be vexed if you suffer anything for Christ's sake, but even to rejoice as the apostles did, and to boast as Paul said:

'Most gladly will I boast in my weaknesses.'

For on this account also he heard, 'My grace is sufficient for you.'

Paul boasts in bonds, and do you pride yourself greatly on wealth? The apostles rejoiced because they were counted worthy to be scourged, and do you seek ease and luxury? How then do you wish to attain the same things as they, while journeying in the opposite direction to them

here? 'And now, behold,' he says, 'I go to Jerusalem bound in the spirit, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that the Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.'

Why then do you go away, if bonds and afflictions await you? For this very reason, he says, that I may be bound for Christ's sake, that I may die for Him.

'For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Nothing is more blessed than that soul.

In what does he boast? In bonds, in afflictions, in the chain, in brand-marks.

'I,' he says, 'bear in my body the brand-marks of the Lord Jesus Christ'—as though it were some great trophy; and again, 'For the sake of Israel,' he says, 'I am compassed with this chain';

and again, 'For which I am an ambassador in a chain.'

What is this? Are you not ashamed? Do you not dread going about the world as a prisoner? Are you not afraid lest anyone condemn your God for weakness? Lest anyone on this account refuse to come to Him? Not such, he says, are my bonds;

it knows how to shine even in royal palaces.

'So that my bonds,' he says, 'have become manifest in the whole praetorium, and the greater number of the brethren, being confident in the Lord through my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.' Do you see the strength of bonds—greater than the resurrection of the dead? They saw me bound, and they are the more emboldened.

For where there are bonds, there too something great must come to pass;

where there is affliction, there without fail is also salvation, there without fail is relief, there without fail are great achievements.

For the devil, when he kicks, then is he smitten;

when he binds the servants of God, then most of all does the word increase.

And behold this happening everywhere.

He was bound, and even in the prison he wrought these things.

For 'in my very bonds,' he says.

He was bound in Rome, and drew yet more to himself;

for he alone did not take courage, but many others also through him.

He was bound in Jerusalem, and bound though he was, as he pleaded his cause he confounded the king and struck the ruler with fear;

for 'having become afraid,' it says, he released him; and he who had bound him was not ashamed to learn from the one he had bound about things to come.

Bound, he sailed, and undid a shipwreck, and put the storm itself in bonds.

While he was in bonds, that beast fastened upon him, yet fell off having done no harm.

He was bound in Rome, and bound as he was, by pleading his cause he drew countless multitudes, putting forward this very thing in place of everything else, I mean the chain.

But it is not possible to be bound with a chain now.

Yet there is another chain, if we are willing.

What then is this? To master one's hand, not to be ready for greed.

With this chain let us bind ourselves.

Instead of iron, let the fear of God be to us.

Let us loose those who are bound by poverty, by affliction.

It is not the same thing to open the doors of a prison and to release a soul that is shut up;

it is not the same thing to loose the bonds of bound prisoners and to set free those who are crushed, in remission.

This is greater than that;

for on the former no reward is laid up, but on the latter countless rewards.

Long has Paul's chain been, and for long it has held us fast;

and indeed it is truly long, and more beautiful than any golden chain.

This chain draws those who are bound, as by some engine, toward heaven, and, like a golden chain let down from on high, it draws them up to heaven itself;

and what is truly wondrous, being bound below, it draws those who are bound upward.

And yet this is not the nature of things;

but when God orders it, seek not the nature of things nor their sequence, but the things that are above nature and sequence.

Let us learn neither to fall down in afflictions, nor to be vexed.

For behold this blessed man:

he had been scourged, and scourged severely;

for 'having laid many stripes upon them,' it says;

and he was bound, and this too again severely;

for he cast him into the inner prison, and with greater security.

And being in such straits, at midnight, when even those who are most wakeful are sleeping, with another and harsher bond, that of sleep, pressing upon them, they sang and praised the Lord.

What could be more adamantine than these souls? I bethought me that the youths too sang in the fire and in the furnace;

perhaps they reasoned that 'We

have not yet suffered any such thing.'

But the discourse, doing well, has carried us off again to other bonds and another prison.

What shall I do? I wish to be silent, but I cannot.

I have found another prison far more wondrous and astounding than that one.

But rouse yourselves for me, as though the discourse were only now beginning, and draw near with minds at their keenest.

I wish to break off the discourse, and it does not suffer me.

For just as one drinking in the midst could not endure to break off, however much anyone might promise him,

so I too, having laid hold of the wondrous cup of the prison of those bound for Christ's sake, cannot cease, cannot be silent.

For if he in the prison and in the night was not silent, nor amid scourgings, shall I be silent, sitting in the daytime, speaking with much ease, about those who were bound, who were scourged, who in the middle of the night did not thus suffer? The youths were not silent in the furnace and in the fire;

and shall we not be ashamed to be silent? Let us then look at this prison also.

They were bound here too, but straightway and from the very outset it was shown that they were not to be burned, but rather to enter as into a prison.

For why do you bind those who are about to be consumed by flame? They were bound, like Paul, both feet and hands;

they were bound with such great fury.

For the one cast Paul into the inner prison, and this one commanded that the furnace be heated exceedingly hot.

But let us see the things that followed.

As those men were singing hymns, the prison was shaken, and the doors were opened;

and as these were singing hymns, the bonds both of their feet and of their hands were loosed;

the prison was opened, and the doors of the furnace were opened;

for a dew of the Spirit was blowing through.

But nevertheless many things flow around me;

I do not know which to speak first, and which second.

Therefore I beseech you, let no one demand order of me;

for great is the kinship of these matters.

Those bound together with them were loosed, and yet they went on sleeping;

but here, instead of this, something else happened:

those who had cast them in were burned up.

But, as I was wishing to say, the king saw them loosed, and fell down before them;

he heard them singing hymns, and saw four walking about, and called them.

Therefore, just as Paul did not go out, though he was able, until the one who had cast him in called him and led him out, so neither did the three youths go out until the one who had cast them in commanded them to come forth.

What are we taught by this? Not to hasten amid the trials brought upon us, nor to be impatient in afflictions, nor again, when men would loose us, to remain.

But this one fell down;

for indeed he was able to enter where the saints were;

but that one, coming to the door, stood still;

for he did not dare to draw near to the prison within, which he had prepared for them by means of the fire.

This one says, 'Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?' That one, not indeed with such humility, yet sent forth a voice no less sweet: 'Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come hither.'

'Servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come hither.'

How were they to come forth, O king? You cast them bound into the fire; so long a time did they linger in the fire. For even had they been of adamant, even had they been of metallic substance, and were reciting that entire hymn, would they not have perished? For this very reason, then, they were saved—because they were singing praise.

The fire stood in awe of their zeal; it stood in awe also of that marvellous song and of the hymns.

How does he call them? Anticipating this, he said, 'The servants of the Most High God.'

For to the servants of God all things are possible.

For if there are those who are servants of men, and even in the affairs of those men they are no less strong and prevail and give commands, how much more the servants of God!

He called them by the sweetest name.

He knew that by this above all he was flattering them.

For if it was in order to remain servants of God that they entered the fire, there was for them no other utterance sweeter than this.

Not if he had called them kings, not if he had called them lords of the whole world, would he so have gladdened them as when he said, 'The servants of the Most High God.'

And why do you marvel? For to the great city, that which rules the world and prides itself on its dignities, Paul assigned this as of equal weight in worth—nay rather, as far greater,

yea, greater and incomparably greater than the consulship and the kingship and the rule of the whole world, did Paul set this, writing:

'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.'

'The servants of the Most High God.'

'For if,' he says, 'they make so great an effort to be servants, by this above all we shall persuade them.'

See then also the piety of the youths.

They were not vexed, nor angered, nor did they gainsay, but they came forth.

For if they had regarded the matter—being cast into the furnace—as a punishment, they would have felt aggrieved at the one who cast them in.

But as it was, there was nothing of the kind; rather, as though issuing forth from heaven itself, so did they come forth.

And what the prophet says concerning the sun, that 'as a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber,' one would not err in saying this also concerning them.

How so? Because they came forth then more brilliantly than this one that thus comes forth.

For this one came forth illuminating the world with perceptible light, but they, illuminating the world in another way—I mean spiritually.

For on their account the king straightway sent forth an edict containing these words:

'It seemed good before me to declare the signs and wonders which the God has wrought for us, how great and mighty they are.'

So that they went forth emitting a brighter ray, which was radiant even in those very regions, but was above all able to be extended everywhere through the royal letters, and to dispel the darkness that was spread over all.

He did not command the furnace to be quenched, but by this very thing he honoured them most—by believing that they would be able not only to walk within, but even to come out while it was still burning.

But let us look also, if you please, at the words of the jailer.

'Sirs, what must I do, that I may be saved?' What is sweeter than this utterance? This makes even angels leap for joy.

That He might hear this utterance, the Only-begotten of God even became a servant.

This utterance those who believed at the beginning spoke to Peter:

'What shall we do, that we may be saved?' And what does he say? 'Believe, and be baptized.'

Paul would gladly have fallen even into hell, in order to hear this utterance from the Jews, out of his longing for their salvation and obedience.

He commits the whole matter to them; he pries into nothing.

But let us look at what follows.

This one does not say, 'That I may be saved,' but the teaching had become for him clearer than any utterance.

For straightway he becomes a herald.

He needs not to be catechized, like the jailer, but what? He proclaims God, and confesses His power.

'Of a truth I know that your God is Himself God of gods, and Lord of lords;'

'that He sent forth His angel, and delivered you from the furnace.'

And what after this? Not one jailer, but many are catechized through the royal letters, through the sight of the events.

For that the king would not have lied is somehow plain to everyone.

For he would not have been willing to testify such things concerning captives, nor to throw down his own dignity;

he would not have been willing to incur the reputation of so great folly.

So that unless the manifestation of the truth were great, he would not have written such things, and with so many present.

Do you see how great the power of the bonds is? How great the might of hymn-singing in affliction? They did not despair nor collapse, but were then rather more vehement; then their zeal was the greater.

Why is it that in the prison those who were bound were loosed, but in the furnace those who cast them in were consumed? And yet it were fitting that the king should suffer this;

for it was not those who bound nor those who cast them in that sinned so greatly as he who commanded this to be done.

For what reason, then, did those men perish? Here there is not much need of precise reasoning.

For this reason it was so ordered, that the might of the fire might be displayed, and the miracle become greater.

For if it thus devoured those outside, how did it show unharmed those it held within? That the power of God might become evident.

And let no one marvel that I have set the king in the rank of the jailer;

for this one was in no way more illustrious than that one.

But, as I said, the righteous, when they are in afflictions, are then especially the more vehement, whenever they are in bonds.

For to suffer anything for Christ's sake is of all consolation the greatest.

Do you wish me to remind you also of another prison? It is needful to pass from this chain to another prison.

Which one do you wish? That of Jeremiah? or that of Joseph? or that of John? Thanks be to Paul's chain!

How many prisons did it open by the word? Do you wish that of John? He too was once bound for Christ's sake and for the law of God.

What then? Was he idle while he was in the prison? Did he not send from thence, out of the prison, saying to his disciples, 'Go and say to Christ, Are You He that should come, or do we look for another?' So even while there he was teaching.

But did not Jeremiah prophesy concerning the Babylonian, doing all his own work even there? And what of Joseph? Was he not bound for thirteen years? Yet even so, not even there did he forget virtue.

When we have spoken of the bonds of one more, we will bring the discourse to a close.

Our own Master also was bound—He who loosed the world from its sins;

those hands were bound that had wrought ten thousand good things;

'For having bound Him,' it says, 'they led Him to Caiaphas.'

And He was bound who had wrought so many wonders.

Considering these things, let us never be discontented, but even if we be bound, let us rejoice;

and even if we be not in bonds, let us be disposed as though bound together with them.

Do you see how great a good the bond is? Knowing all these things, let us send up thanksgiving for all things to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord.