Commentary on Luke (Greek fragments) 22.40–23.35.2

“Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (22:40). … the disciples what befitted the time, saying: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” But so that he might not benefit them by words alone, but a demonstration of the very deed might be found, he went a little farther, fell on his knees and prayed. And why did he not pray with the holy disciples, but alone? So that we might learn the pattern of the prayer that pleases God. For he said elsewhere: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” For everywhere we shall find him praying alone, so that you too may learn that one must converse with the God over all with a mind at leisure and a calm heart. And no one, surely, if he has any sense, would say that he made his petitions as one standing in need of another’s hand or help. For he himself is the all-powerful hand and power of the Father; but he did it so that we might learn through this not to doze in temptations but rather to strain ourselves in prayer. It is very ignorant, too, to be overbold about contests; I say that courage and endurance must be woven together with a modest mind. Let us see also the manner of the prayer. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours be done” (22:42). Do you see with what humanly fitting reverence Christ made his request to be spared the trial? “If you are willing,” he says, “remove it.” For as one of us, he assigns the outcome of what would happen to the Father’s will, so that we too may ask that those things prevail which he knows are profitable for our souls. Besides this, the matter also accuses the impiety of the Jews; for suffering was not unwilled by him, yet it was heavy in another way, because of the dishonour and the destruction of the synagogue of the Jews; for he would not have wished Israel to become a killer of the Lord, lest for this reason it should come under the extreme penalties. But since it was not possible not to undergo the passion, he chose it, God the Father approving with him; so that ease of being troubled belongs to human nature, and being unbroken in all things to the divine. For the memory of death stealing in troubles Jesus, but the power of the Godhead at once masters the passion that has been stirred and transforms it into courage. For human things were stirred in Christ too, for two reasons: for he had to appear, through these things too, as having become man from a woman not by seeming and supposition but naturally and truly, bearing all human things except sin alone. And fear and cowardice are natural passions in us, yet such as escape being ranked among sins. Again, human things were stirred in Christ not so that, once stirred, they might prevail, but so that they might be cut off by the power of the Word, nature being transformed in Christ first to a better and more divine state; for so, and not otherwise, could the manner of healing pass over to us ourselves. For even if what happened was not altogether willed by him, yet for the salvation of all he made the suffering on the cross voluntary; for he knew the achievements that would come from it—that he would renew human nature and win it with his own blood. For if he had not made it willed, though suffering was very much unwilled, what reason would there be thereafter for praying and saying: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup”? The Word of God became man for no other reason than that, mingling and blending, as it were, all that is his with our weaknesses, he might strengthen human nature and transform it into his own firmness. So when he appears to fear death and to say, “Remove the cup,” consider again that the flesh, which feared death, was being taught, carried by God the Word, no longer to suffer this; and he said to the Father: “Not as I will, but as you will.” For he did not himself fear death in so far as he is Word and God, but he hastened to carry the economy through to the end; for this was the will of the Father. And his not wishing to die is because the flesh naturally shrinks from death. Teaching humanity, then, no longer to mind its own things but to seek the will of God, he says as man: “Not as I will, but as you will.” For this reason he appears to have added in Matthew too: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” For human nature, even in Christ himself, is found weak in so far as it is itself; but it is lifted up through the Word united to it to courage befitting God. “Behold, a crowd, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve” (22:47).

Why does he say, “the one called Judas”? Did he not know that the man was numbered among the chosen? But as one who already hated even his name, he says, “the one called Judas.” And he adds to this, “one of the twelve,” to show and expose the traitor’s baseness. For he who had been honoured equally with the apostles became an occasion for those thirsting for Christ’s blood; for he had given them a sign: “The one I kiss is he.” He altogether forgot Christ’s glory; he thought perhaps he could escape notice, offering a kiss as a token of love while having a heart full of unholy designs. So he approaches Christ as if from drunkenness, expecting to make the chosen love an instrument of deceit and guile. For this reason, very fittingly, his condemnation was the heavier, because he was not ashamed even of the form and symbol—the kiss—of the betrayal. At any rate the evangelist adds: “But Jesus said to him: Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” For it is necessary to know also what John says about this. He said, then, that the servants of the Jews came forward to arrest Jesus; but he went to meet them, saying: “Whom do you seek?” When the servants said, “Jesus the Nazarene,” he presented himself to the hands of the murderers, saying: “I am he.” And they went backward, it says; and this happened three times. What, then, is the economy, and why did the Saviour present himself, while they fell down when they heard “I am he”? So that they might learn that suffering was not against his will; for the arrest of Christ and his being brought to the unholy leaders was not the result of their strength, but he gave himself up. Come, let us inquire into this too. Did the decision of God the Father, and the will of the Son himself, call him to suffering as from necessity? Then how, if this is true, was it not necessary by all means that someone should become a traitor, and that Israel should be carried to such boldness as to disobey Christ, dishonour him in many ways, and prepare for him death on the tree? Then how is he found saying, “Woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed,” and the rest? And why did Israel perish? But God weighs our affairs not unjustly but with a fitting judgement. How, then, did he make the unwilled willed? God the Father had mercy on those on earth who had fared miserably, and sent the Son from heaven as Saviour and Redeemer, who also came to be in likeness to us; and, though he foreknew what he would suffer, he chose to suffer to save the earth, God the Father approving with him, because of his great gentleness and love for humankind. So, as far as the dishonour of suffering was concerned, he would not have wished to suffer; but since it was not possible not to suffer, because of the cruelty and disobedience of the Jews toward him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.

“Touching his ear, he healed him” (22:51). For he healed in a manner befitting God the one who had suffered the blow, giving those who had come to arrest him this sign too befitting God. “When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not stretch out your hands against me” (22:53). Does Christ then blame the leaders of the Jews for not having prepared the snare of death for him before the time? He does not wish to show this, but rather: “Though you could have seized me daily as I taught in the temple, you did not take hold of me; for I was rather reserving my suffering for the fitting time; and this is the present one. Do not be ignorant,” he says, “that this is your hour and the power of darkness”—that is, a very brief time has been given you for your aggression against me, the Father approving my will. “So you have one hour against me”—that is, a very short and limited time, clearly the one between the precious cross and the resurrection from the dead; and this is also the power given to darkness. He calls Satan darkness, who rose up together with the Jews against Christ, so that he might save the world under heaven through suffering and come back to life on the third day, having trampled on the power of death, while they pay eternal penalty together with the traitor. He does not blame, then, their slowness to murder, but shows that the arrest was not a work of their strength but of his own will, since by design he made the unwilled suffering willed, and accepted it at the fitting time. For he does not blame them for not bringing suffering on him before its time, but rather convicts them for foolishly thinking they would prevail against his will. “Then, indeed, you did not take hold of me,” he says, “for I did not wish it; nor would you have prevailed even now, had I not submitted to your hands willingly.” So it was not a work of the Jews’ strength to bring the Lord to death; one would ascribe the attempt to their unholy daring, but to Christ the Saviour the willingness to suffer for all, so that he might rescue all, and, having bought them with his own blood, present them to God the Father. “But he denied him, saying: Woman, I do not know him” (22:57).

The blessed Peter grew weak, according to Christ’s prediction, and denied Christ the Saviour of all, and not once but three times, and he made the denial under oath; for Matthew said that “he began to curse and to swear, I do not know the man.” Some say that the disciple swore, “I do not know that Jesus became man”; but this is not credible. For how would he not have denied him by overturning the mystery of the economy in the flesh? For he knew that the only-begotten Word of God had become like us, that is, man; indeed he confessed plainly: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And he says such things not as affirming that he was Son of God as one of us is, but, seeing that the Word who is beyond everything that has come to be, and who shone forth from the essence of God the Father, had entered the measures of humanity, he will not cease to know and confess that he is the Son of the living God. And we do not, surely, say that the denial happened so that Christ might not be found false, but that, not being ignorant of what would be, he told the disciple beforehand. That the evil came, as I said, from human faint-heartedness, and that the disciple was condemned by the reproofs of his conscience, his lament and his tears of repentance will at once teach: “For going out,” it says, “he wept bitterly,” Christ having looked at him, and the word spoken to him having called it to his remembrance. Having turned, he did not miss his aim; for he remained what he was, a true disciple, enriched with the forgiveness of his offence. “They mocked him, beating him” (22:63).

One might fittingly say that prophetic word: “Heaven was amazed at this and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord.” The Lord of earth and heaven, the Creator and Craftsman of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is dishonoured like one of us. Alas! The Lord of earth and heaven endures being struck like one of us, and bears the mockery of the ungodly, setting before us a pattern of the utmost forbearance; for he who tests hearts, how could he have been ignorant of who struck him?

“When day came, the council of elders of the people assembled,” and so on (22:66). … as day dawned, their impious council had gathered; the Master of Moses and the prophets was brought into the midst, lawlessly insulted, and the insolent Jew inquired whether he was the Christ. But one might say to them: If you ask in ignorance, how should you not have refrained from grieving him in any way before you learned the truth, lest you somehow strike against God? But if you feign ignorance, knowing well that he is the Christ, you will hear the sacred Writing say: “God is not mocked.” Therefore Christ too says to them, “If I tell you,” and what follows; for where did you believe when you heard? And where were you not silent when asked? And why, tell me, do you busy yourself and think fit to learn from him whether he is the Christ, when it was easy to gain knowledge of him from the law and the prophets? But the leaders of the Jews, together with the peoples under their hand, are admittedly unbelieving and altogether without understanding. To those asking, then, whether he is truly the Christ, and wishing to learn this very thing, he says: “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not answer.” Where, then, did they hear and not believe? And where were they silent when asked? Christ, having gone up to Jerusalem, found in the temple those selling sheep and oxen and doves, and the money-changers sitting; and having made, it says, a kind of whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, saying: “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Since, then, he called God his Father, those who performed the sacrifices in the temple, vexed at this, leapt at him saying: “By what authority do you do these things?” And to this Christ said: “John’s baptism, where was it from?” And they said: “We do not know.” He asked also somewhere else, saying: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said: David’s. Then the Lord said to them: How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord?” And to this again they were silent. And elsewhere again, if you search, you will find similar things in the divine Gospels. Therefore he answers them nothing, but convicts them as unbelieving and disobedient; for they ought, if they wished, to have understood that he is both Lord of David as God, and consubstantial Son of the Lord, God and Father, and son of David according to the flesh, since, being God and Lord, he appeared to us and became man like us, being of the seed of David, of the tribe of Judah, according to the Scriptures.

“From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (22:69). To make heavier the Jews’ penalty for not wishing to believe, he makes his glory plain, saying: “From now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” “Me,” he says, “who came to be in your form, being by nature Son of God, you have held of no account. Since, then, you have sunk to such ignorance that you do not know his mystery and mine, though you are learned in the law, I necessarily say this: a brief time has been given you for your impiety against me, the time up to the cross; for after this I shall at once run back to my own honour, and shall sit with God the Father with the flesh.” When Christ said these things, the band of the Pharisees was kindled to unrestrained anger; they seize on the word as an occasion of blasphemy, and say they need no further testimony, having heard his words themselves. But, O wicked and foolish men! You thought fit to learn whether he is the Christ? He taught that he is by nature and truly the Son of God the Father, and has with him the thrones of the Godhead. From this above all one could learn that he is the Christ. Why did you make the way of salvation an occasion of destruction for yourselves?

“They led him to Pilate” (23:1).

They brought Jesus to Pilate; … they too were handed over to the Roman armies. And what was foretold about them through the holy prophets was fulfilled: “Woe to the lawless! Evils will befall him according to the works of his hands.” And: “As you have done, so it will be done to you; your recompense will be returned on your head.” And what do they say to Pilate? Putting together false accusations against Christ the Saviour of us all: “We found this man forbidding the payment of tribute to Caesar.” And where did he forbid paying tribute to Caesar? Yet you sent some of your own to him, with those called Herodians, testing him and saying: “Teacher, is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar or not?” Then Christ said to this: “Show me the coin of the tax,” and he asked whose image and inscription the denarius brought to him had. When they said Caesar’s, “Render,” he says, “to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Where, then, did he forbid paying tribute to Caesar? But they had one aim: to bring down to death him who leads up to life. Yet they were shown to be more impious even than an idolatrous man. For Pilate freed Jesus from every charge, and that not once but three times. But they insisted, saying: “He stirs up the people,” gathering other occasions for false accusation; and they say that he taught, but were silent about the content of the teaching, fearing lest Pilate himself should somehow be found among the believers. Yet as they said these things Pilate rebuked them, defending him and saying: “I find no fault in him,” and what follows.

“Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas” (23:18). When the one allotted to judge was freeing him from death, they beg that the guide and teacher of all piety undergo the sentence, so as to undergo a still heavier punishment themselves. For they cried out all together, saying: “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas.” See, they plainly denied the holy and righteous one, as the blessed Peter says, and asked for a murderer to be granted to them, so that they might become sharers of his portion; and this indeed happened to them; for they were given over to destruction and slaughter. For they shouted, it says, saying: “Away, away, crucify him.” The Lord blamed this unholy outcry through the voice of Jeremiah, saying: “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 like a lion in the forest; she has raised her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.”

The prophet Hosea said somewhere about the impiety of the Jews: “Woe to them, for they have leapt away from me! They are wretched, for they have been impious toward me. But I redeemed them, and they spoke lies against me.” And again: “Their rulers will fall by the sword because of the lack of discipline of their tongue.”

“And Pilate gave sentence that their demand should be granted” (23:24). Pilate, it says, decided that their demand should be granted, and they won a victory that was the mother of destruction. The Saviour carried the cross from the praetorium, because Abraham too, going up to the mountain shown to him to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command, laid the wood on the boy; and this was a type of Christ, carrying his own cross on his shoulders.

And the Saviour is led to his passion; and they laid his cross, it says, on Simon of Cyrene. But another of the holy evangelists said that Jesus himself carried the wood. Both this and that are surely true: the Saviour carried the cross, but perhaps halfway along the road they met the Cyrenian, seized him, and transferred the wood to him. It is in some way necessarily reasonable that the Saviour himself should carry the cross. For it was said of him through the voice of Isaiah: “A child has been born to us, a son has also been given to us, whose rule is on his shoulder.” For the cross became his rule, through which he has reigned over the world under heaven, if indeed it is true that “he became obedient to death, even death on a cross; therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.” “And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women” (23:27).

The Saviour, then, walked to the place of the cross; and the women followed weeping, with many others. For the female sex is always somehow given to tears and has a mind easily softened to pity. “But, O daughters of Jerusalem,” he says, “stop your tears over me; weep rather over yourselves and your children. For days are coming,” he says, “in which childlessness will be better for women.” For when the war fell on the land of the Jews, all perished utterly, small and great. Then, he says, to be under hills and mountains will be worth everything. “For if they do these things in the green wood,” he says, “what will happen in the dry?” The saying is shaped as in the manner of a parable, that is, an example, but it is pregnant with the force of a spiritual matter; for it means this, I think. He calls himself green wood, that is, fresh and fruitful and flowering; and his fruits were initiations into mysteries, and counsels, and displays of authority befitting God through divine signs beyond reason. But while he was in these, the Roman commanders—that is, Pilate who condemned him—surrounded him with such terrible dishonours. “When, then,” he says, “they have done such things to me, what will they do when they make war on Israel as on dry and fruitless wood?” For they will see in it none of the admirable things for which it would have been likely to be counted worthy of honour and sparing by them; for they will burn it, clearly exacting the penalty for its impiety toward Christ.

“There they crucified him” (23:33). But the Lord took care neither to manifest his Godhead wholly nor to hide it altogether—the one because of the people of that time, the other because of those after them—so as to show clear activities both of his Godhead and of his humanity, so that neither the divine power might be blunted nor the human nature disbelieved. For since a heresy was going to arise which says that the body was a phantom and came down from heaven—for the incorruptible nature would not have taken flesh of a corruptible body, nor accepted filth or defilement or stain—in order that God might assure the human race that he became what we are while remaining what he was, he therefore allowed the flesh to suffer what is its own. And he showed a double activity, suffering as man and acting as God, the same one; for he is not one and another, even if in one way and another …

“And the rulers also scoffed at him” (23:35). In vain, however, the leaders of the synagogue mock him, shaking their heads and pouring a bitter smile on him:

“He saved others; let him save himself,” they say. If he saved others—and you know this truly happened—how could he not have been able to rescue himself from your hands? “There was also an inscription written over him,” and so on (23:38). The inscription on the title, stating the Lord’s charge, plainly showed the crucified one to be King and Lord of practical, natural and theological philosophy; for the word says it was written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. By Latin I understand the practical, since the kingdom of the Romans was defined, according to Daniel, as more manly than the kingdoms on earth, and courage is the property of the practical, if anything is. By Greek, natural contemplation, since the nation of the Greeks devoted itself to natural philosophy more than other people. By Hebrew, theological initiation, since this nation was plainly dedicated to God from of old through the fathers. One of the robbers, it says, belched out the same things as the Jews; but the other rebuked the words of the one crucified with him; he confessed his sin, bore witness to Christ’s innocence, believed in him, and called him king even as he was crucified. For this reason he seized the lot of the saints.