Commentary on Luke (Greek fragments) 22.1.1–22.39

“Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover” (22:1).

See that from of old the Saviour legislated for us what is best and profitable, and through the law and the prophets became our good counsellor for salvation; but then through riddle and shadow, because of the weakness of the hearers, while now, setting before us the naked truth, he brings into the open the very image of the realities. For it was truly fitting that the types should be ministered through servants, but the truth through the Master of all, since he it was who said of himself: “I am the truth.” Since the shadow, then, has been removed, let the power of the truth at last come in for us; let the type of what was said in riddles appear more plainly. The Jews, then, go wrong and wander and fall away from the reasonings they ought to have, setting out unleavened loaves; they do not listen, it seems, to Paul, who says, “Food will not commend us to God,” and the rest; nor to the Saviour: “Do you not know that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is cast out into the drain?” But we compare spiritual things with spiritual: fleeing wickedness as leaven and practising good deeds, so that with Christ, as in an upper room, we may recline in the Jerusalem above, at which Isaiah marvelled, saying, as to us who are to be in that city: “Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a rich city, tents that will not be shaken, nor will its cords be broken.” For cheerfulness among men lasts a little while and is broken off when some small change comes between; but the dwellings in heaven and the good in them have a noble firmness, held fast by the will of God. That we may lodge, then, in such admirable dwellings and keep the feast with Christ, let us accomplish a pure fast, not measuring its power by abstinence from foods, but, as we withdraw from an elaborate table, let us withdraw also from other luxury and from the variety of evils. “He sent Peter and John, saying: Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat” (22:8).

The time of the feast was called Phasek, and it signifies passing over. As, then, Israel was freed from slavery to the Egyptians, coming into the land of promise and walking through the midst of the sea with dry foot, so we too must vigorously cross over, as over a sea, the idle distraction of the present life. And we pass over from love of the flesh to self-control, from the ignorance of old to the true knowledge of God, from death to incorruption.

Let us see the truth still honouring the types. When the day came, it says, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed, he sent two chosen ones of the holy apostles (they were Peter and John) into the city, saying to them what was written above. Yet why did he not plainly point out the man to those he sent? For he did not say, “To so-and-so,” but gave a sign: simply a man carrying an earthenware vessel. What do we say to this? The traitor had already promised the Jews to hand him over. So that he might not learn who the man was and run and report it to those who had hired him, he gives a sign; for he was still pretending to have a disciple’s goodwill while in labour with bloody murder. “For a man will meet you,” he says, “carrying a jar of water.” Or perhaps he indicates by this something mystical and necessary too: for wherever the water enters—clearly the water of holy baptism—there Christ will lodge; for he frees us from all filth, so that we become a holy temple of God and sharers of his divine nature through participation in the Holy Spirit. And one would not miss the truth in saying that the soul of every saint is an upper room of the Holy Spirit. “For let the lowly brother,” it says, “boast in his exaltation.”

“And when the hour came, he reclined, and the twelve apostles with him” (22:14). When the Passover had been prepared, Christ feasted with the disciples, and, bearing patiently with the traitor, he says: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you.” What does this show? The money-loving disciple was seeking an occasion for the betrayal; so that he might not hand him over to the murderers before the feast of the Passover, the Saviour did not point out either the house or the man with whom he kept the Passover. Giving, then, the reason why he did not wish to say clearly with whom he lodged, he says: “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you”—as if he said: I took every care to be able to elude the traitor’s impiety, so as not to undergo the passion before its time. “But I will not eat this Passover until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (22:16). It is his custom to call the kingdom of God justification in faith, cleansing through baptism, participation in the Holy Spirit, and the power of worship in spirit. “So I will not taste,” he says, “such a Passover”—clearly, the one signified typically by eating—“until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God”; that is, until the time has been revealed at which the kingdom of heaven is preached. For in us who honour the worship beyond the law the true Passover is fulfilled. And it is not a lamb from the flock that sanctifies those in Christ, but rather he himself, sacrificed in a holy manner through the mystical blessing by which we are blessed and given life. For he has become for us the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world.

In the Gospel according to Matthew it stands thus: “I will not drink from now on of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you in the kingdom of my Father.” For Christ is understood as a kind of first fruits of the ears of grain, and as a new fruit in the form of a sheaf, the firstborn from the dead, the way of resurrection for us too, who transforms all things into newness and frees them from oldness. And the sheaf was brought up before the Lord. For Emmanuel, raised from the dead, the new fruit of humanity, as it were in incorruption, ascended into heaven, so as now to appear on our behalf before the face of God the Father—not, surely, bringing himself into his sight, for he is with him eternally and could not be absent from the Father, being God; but rather bringing into his sight, as in himself, us who were outside his presence and under wrath because of the transgression in Adam and the sin that tyrannized over us. See how the law prefigured for us also the time fitting for the resurrection, that is, the third day: “On the morrow after the first day,” it says, “the priest shall offer the sheaf before the Lord.” And at once it introduced a plain prefiguring of holy Pentecost, saying that seven weeks must be counted from the offering of the sheaf. For after the day of the Saviour’s resurrection, counting seven weeks, we who have believed keep Pentecost on the day following. “And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying: This is my body,” and so on (22:19).

He gives thanks, that is, he speaks with God the Father in the form of prayer, showing him as it were a partner and co-approver of the life-giving blessing to be given us. For every grace and every perfect gift comes to us from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. What was done was a type for us of the prayer that ought to be lifted up whenever the grace of the mystical and life-giving offering is to be set forth by us; and this we are accustomed to do. For sending up thanksgivings, and glorifying the Son with the Holy Spirit together with God the Father, we so approach the holy tables, believing that we are given life and blessed both bodily and spiritually. For we receive in them the Word of God the Father who became man for us, who is life and life-giving. Next, let us inquire, as far as possible, what the rationale of the mystery concerning us is. The God of all created all things for incorruption, and the generative forces of the world are wholesome; but through the envy of the devil death entered the world; for he led the first man into transgression and disobedience, and for this reason under the divine curse. For it was said to him: “You are earth, and to earth you will return.” But the Creator’s gentleness surpassed the harm of the devil’s perversity; he helped those on earth. For God the Father is life by nature; and being alone this, he made Christ shine forth, who is himself life too; for the Word who came forth essentially from life could not be otherwise. God the Father, then, gives life to all things through the Son in the Holy Spirit. How, then, was man on earth, held by death, to run back to incorruption? The dying flesh had to come to share in the life-giving power from God. And the life-giving power of God the Father is the only-begotten Word. Him he sent to us as saviour and redeemer, and he became flesh—not undergoing change or alteration into what he was not, nor departing from being the Word; but rather being born according to the flesh from a woman and making his own the body from her, so that he might implant himself in us by an indivisible union and make us superior to death and corruption. For he put on our flesh so that, raising it from the dead, he might thereafter make a way for the flesh brought down to death to run back to incorruption, as Paul says: “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a man; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” So, having united to himself the flesh held by death, the Word, being God and life, drove away its corruption and made it life-giving. And do not disbelieve what I have said, but rather receive the word in faith, gathering assurance on this very point from small examples. When you put a little bread into wine, or into oil, or into any liquid, you will find it has become full of the quality of that liquid. When iron is joined with fire, it is filled with its energy, and, while it is iron by its own nature, it is pregnant with the power of fire. So the life-giving Word of God, having united himself to his own flesh, made it life-giving in the way he alone knows. For he himself said: “Truly I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” And again: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh.” “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.” So, eating the flesh of Christ the Saviour of us all and drinking his precious blood, we have life in ourselves, being made one, as it were, with him, and abiding in him, and having him also in ourselves.

And let none of those accustomed to disbelieve say: “Since, then, the Word of God, who is life by nature, dwells in us too, is each one’s body also life-giving?” Let him rather know that it is one thing for us to have the Son in ourselves by relational participation, and wholly another for him to have become flesh, that is, to have made his own the body taken from the holy Virgin. For he is not said to have become man and become flesh by coming to be in us; this happened once, when he came forth as man, without casting off his being God. So the body taken from the holy Virgin and united to him became the Word’s own. How, or in what way, it is not possible to say; for the manner of the union is wholly inexpressible and incomprehensible, and known to him alone. It was fitting, then, that he should come to be in us in a manner befitting God through the Holy Spirit, and be mingled, as it were, with our bodies through his holy flesh and precious blood, which we have for a life-giving blessing, as in bread and wine. For lest we should be numbed with horror, seeing flesh and blood set out on the holy tables of the churches, God, condescending to our weaknesses, puts into the things set out the power of life, and transforms them into the energy of his own flesh, so that we may have them for a life-giving participation, and the body of life may be found in us as a life-giving seed. And do not doubt that this is true, since he himself says plainly, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood”; rather receive the Saviour’s word in faith; for being the truth, he does not lie. “But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table” (22:21).

The traitor, being full of diabolical madness, thought perhaps that he could escape the notice of Christ, who is God; but he was exposed by Christ as utterly wicked, though he was counted worthy of the table and shared the meal, and had enjoyed the divine gentleness to the end—which makes his punishment all the heavier. But woe to Judas, according to the Saviour’s word! For the one, by the good pleasure of God the Father, gave himself for us, to rescue us from all evil; but the other, having handed over Christ, the Saviour and redeemer of all, into the hands of murderers, will inherit the penalty most fitting for the devil.

“A dispute also arose among them, which of them was considered to be greatest” (22:24). The disciples, suffering something human, disputed with one another which of them would be greater, those who held the second rank perhaps not bearing to yield to those who were first. This was stirred up and written for our benefit; for Christ at once rebuked such a disease—and this was foolish love of glory, rooted in arrogance. For to be exalted in virtue is worthy of all account; but those so disposed must use a modest mind and yield to their brothers out of love the appearance of being among the greater. For having a puffed-up mind makes us look like the rulers of the nations, to whom an overbearing mind is always somehow dear; for they are called benefactors, he says, that is, they are flattered by their subjects. But let them, as being outside the sacred laws, be in such ailments; among you it shall not be so, but let your height be in lowliness.

“But I am among you as one who serves” (22:27). When Christ says this, who is so harsh as not to spit out all love of glory? For he who is served by all rational and holy creation, who shares the throne and reigns with God the Father, taking the rank of a servant, washed the disciples’ feet. In another way too the manner of the economy in the flesh has the rank of service. For Paul said: “For I tell you that Christ became a servant of the circumcision to fulfil the promises made to the fathers,” and the rest. So he who is served served; and the Lord of glory humbled himself, leaving us an example. But it is likely that the disciples perhaps thought and said within themselves: “What, then, will be the reward of faithfulness? Or what profit will come of it, when temptations too will come at times?” So that, strengthened by the hope of good things to come, they might drive all sloth in good pursuits out of their minds, he necessarily says: “You are those who have continued with me in my trials,” and so on (22:28).

… he does not yet depart from the measures of the incarnation, not having yet endured the precious cross; for he speaks as one of us; but after his return to life from the dead he manifested his glory, the time calling for it; for he said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He speaks, then, in a human way, as I said. Therefore he says: “And I appoint for you, as my Father appointed for me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table.” Shall we, then, even after the return to life from the dead, when the time has come in which we shall be with Christ, who makes us conformed to the body of his glory, after we have put on incorruption, again be in need of food and a table? Not at all; but from our own affairs he indicates spiritual things. For those who hold the first honours from earthly kings share their hearth and table; and there are others too who are counted worthy of honour from those in power, yet do not share a common table. That they will be in the first honours with him, he shows, then, as by an example from our life. “And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, to sift you like wheat” (22:31).

It is necessary and profitable, I think, to learn what the occasion was that brought the Saviour’s words to this. Having corrected them by rebuking the passion of love of glory and by giving himself as an example, Christ brought the disciples a third help through the passage before us. For he teaches that we must think modestly, being nothing as regards human nature and the slipperiness of our understanding, but being made firm and being what we are through him and by him. We must therefore take pride not in ourselves but in the gifts from him. And if someone is so disposed, what place will the wish to be above others find in him? For this reason he leaves the other disciples and comes to the chief himself, and says that “Satan has often wished to sift you too like wheat,” instead of “to test and try.” For it is Satan’s custom to leap upon those who are approved; so he sought out Job, but was defeated by his endurance. Yet he gets the better of human nature, for it is weak, while he is terrible and harsh; for, as the sacred Writing says of him, his heart is fixed like a stone and stands like an anvil that cannot be beaten. Yet he has been put under the feet of the saints, Christ having accomplished this too.

“But I have prayed for you” (22:32). See, again he adapts himself to us and speaks from the measures of humanity, though he is God by nature, even if he became flesh; for he says he prayed as a man. He shows by these words that if Peter had been given over to Satan for testing, he would have become wholly unbelieving, since even without being given over he grew weak; for he denied when one servant girl unsettled him in the high priest’s courtyard. The Lord, however, having hinted at the disciple’s denial in saying, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail,” at once brings in the word of comfort, saying: “And you, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers”; that is, become a support and teacher of those who come to me through faith. Marvel again at the skill of the word and the surpassing divine gentleness: lest he lead the disciple into despair, as though he would be dismissed from the glories of the apostleship for having denied him, he fills him with good hope that he will obtain the good things promised. For he said: “And you, when you have turned, strengthen your brothers.” O unspeakable love for humankind! The sin had not yet happened, and he received forgiveness, and was placed again in the apostolic dignities.

“Before you deny three times that you know me” (22:34). You may also take the passage thus: he foretold to the admirable Peter that he would deny him three times, clearly at the time of the arrest. And since mention had once been made of his arrest, and what happened next surely follows on such a mention—I mean the sufferings on the cross—he then foretells the war that fell upon the Jews. Therefore he says: “When I sent you out without purse and bag and sandals, did you lack anything? They said: Nothing.” For the Saviour sent the holy apostles, commanding them to preach the gospel of the kingdom of heaven to those in every village and city, and to heal every disease and every sickness among the people; and he ordered them, as they went, to take no thought for any bodily things, but to go about having all their hope of living in him; and this they did. “But now,” he says, “let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag.” And what this means we shall say. The saying was shaped as to them, but in truth it looks to the person of every Jew. For it is to them rather that Christ speaks. “If anyone,” he says, “is rich in money in the land of the Jews, let him gather everything together and flee; and he who is not rich, but lives in extreme poverty and dwells in the land, let him too sell what he has,” he says, “his cloak, and buy a sword.” For from now on the question for all who dwell in the land is not about having something or not, but about existence and life itself. For war will fall upon them with unbearable onrushes, so that nothing will suffice to resist it. Then he announces the cause of such evils, saying that he must be reckoned with the lawless according to the Scriptures—clearly, hung together with the robbers crucified with him, and enduring the penalty fitting for the lawless; and the account of the economy will at last receive its end in his coming to this. “For what concerns me has an end,” he says—that is, what is written in the law and the prophets, up to his suffering death according to the flesh; and there will befall those who killed him what was foretold of old through the holy prophets. “And they said: Lord, here are two swords” (22:38).

The Lord foretold these things about what would befall the land of the Jews. But the disciples did not understand the depth of what was said; they thought rather that, because of the attack that would come on him from the traitor and those who would arrest him, he had affirmed that there was need of swords; so they say: “Here are two swords.” And what does the Saviour say to them? “It is enough”—he all but laughs at the word, knowing well that the disciples, not understanding the force of what was said, thought, as I said, that there was need of swords for the attack about to come against him. Looking, then, to what was going to befall the Jews because of their impiety toward him, the Saviour laughs at what the disciples said, “See, here are two swords,” and says: “It is enough.” “Yes,” he says, “two swords will suffice to resist the war that is going to come against them”—against which not even many thousands of swords would have helped! “And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives” (22:39).

By day the Saviour spent his time in Jerusalem, but when evening came he lodged on the Mount of Olives with the holy disciples, at a place called Gethsemane; for so Matthew, the most wise evangelist, says. Having come there, then, Christ, as Matthew again says somewhere, took the three—Peter, I mean, and the sons of Zebedee—and began to be grieved and troubled. Here, I pray, see the depth of the economy in the flesh and the height of the ineffable wisdom. For what cause, O Master, are you troubled? Do you yourself fear death, and, overcome by cowardice, do you beg off from suffering, though you said to the disciples: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul”? But if someone should say that the grace of spiritual courage is given by you to the chosen, he would not miss the truth. For all strength comes from you, and you are life by nature and life-giving. How then? You knew, being God by nature, that by enduring death according to the flesh you would free from death those in all the earth, raise the trophy of victory over every wicked and opposing power, and be worshipped as God and Creator of all. On what account, then, are you grieved and troubled even to death? “Yes,” he says, “I know the good things that will come to the world from the passion; but firstborn Israel grieves me, because it is not even among the servants; and because the Lord’s portion, the measured lot of his inheritance, will be a portion for foxes,” as it is written. That, though he knew what would be, he pitied Jerusalem as about to be in every evil because of its impiety toward him, you may learn from this too: he went up from Judea to Jerusalem, and, as the evangelist says, “seeing the city, he wept over it,” seeing Jerusalem as all but already engaged in the utmost miseries and incurable calamities. So that we might learn that he had this disposition toward it, he declared to the disciples that he was both distressed and grieved; for it was not possible to learn what was hidden in him unless he disclosed by words the state he was in. And I think it necessary to add this to what has been said. The passion of grief or of distress would not arise in the divine and pure nature of the Word itself; for that is impossible, since it is beyond all passion. But we say that the incarnate Word willed to descend to the measures of humanity by seeming to undergo what belongs to it. As he is said to have hungered, though he is life and life-giving and himself the living bread, and to have been weary from a long journey, though he is the Lord of the powers, so too he is said to have been distressed and to seem to have received grief. For it was not fitting that he who had lowered himself into emptying and entered into the measures of humanity should seem to refuse what is human.