Commentary on Luke (Greek fragments) 3.4–4.2

“As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet” (3:4). The blessed Isaiah was not ignorant of the aim of John’s preaching; bearing witness from above and long beforehand, he called Christ Lord and God, and named John his minister and servant; and he showed that John was a lamp going before the true light, a morning star heralding the sun and signalling the coming of the day that was to dawn upon us; and that he was a voice, not a word, running before Jesus, as a voice before the Word: “Prepare the ways of the Lord, make his paths straight.” … John was … for the mission and the end of the holy prophets. Hence, as though the Lord were not yet present, he says, “Prepare the way of the Lord”; that is, Make yourselves ready to receive whatever laws Christ may wish to lay down; withdraw your hearts from the shadow of the law; cease from the types; stop thinking perverse thoughts. But he also pointed him out as present, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” — What is meant by “Make straight the paths of our God”? Every path that leads to the good is straight, smooth and easy; but the other is crooked, namely the one that drags down to wickedness those who travel by it. For it is written of such people: “Whose paths are crooked and their tracks bent.” So straightness of mind is like a right road with nothing crooked in it. Such was the divine Psalmist, singing and saying: “A crooked heart did not cleave to me.” And Joshua the son of Nun charged the people, saying: “Make your hearts straight toward the God of Israel”; and John: “Make your paths straight.” To be straight in soul is this: to display the rational nature of the soul as it was created. And it was created good and very straight; but when it turns aside and comes into a distortion of what is natural, this is called vice and distortion of soul. So the thing is not difficult; for if we remain as we were made, we are in virtue. As though someone answered back and said: “How shall we prepare the way of the Lord, or how shall we make his paths straight? For many things stand in the way of those who wish to live well: Satan the hater of good; the unholy multitude of evil spirits; the very law of sin in the members of the flesh, arming itself against the mind’s inclinations toward the good; and many other passions besides overpower the mind of man. What then shall we do, when such difficulty lies before us?”—to this the word of the prophecy responds, saying: “Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places smooth roads; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” For there are some highways or paths that are hardly passable, so rough that at one point they climb toward mountains and hills and at another slope down and run off into precipices; and such roads, with their heights and depths, are very hard to travel. But if somehow the high and steep places should settle and the hollow and deep places be filled up, then the crooked will become straight, and what was once rough and full of ravines will become bare plains with, as it were, a level road. This took place spiritually through the strength of our Saviour. For of old the ways of the evangelical life and conduct were hard to travel, because the minds of all were held fast by worldly desires; but since the God of all, having become man, abolished sin in the flesh, all has become smooth and easy going. Neither height nor depth meets those who wish to live well; all the crooked places have been changed into a straight path. For he made the road to godliness smooth and very easy to run for us, with nothing steep or hollow and low, by which it was once rough and hard to travel. For all the crooked things have become straight, as the prophet Isaiah himself says again somewhere: “The way of the godly has become straight, and the way of the righteous prepared.” For the multitude of demons was driven out of the way, and the devil himself was abolished along with them; the law of sin too has been put to death, and the Saviour heals all our diseases.

“And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:6). All flesh has seen the Salvation of God, that is, of the Father; for he has sent us the Son as Saviour. By “flesh” here we must understand the whole human being, and take it as the whole human race. All flesh shall see the salvation of God: no longer Israel alone, but all flesh. For the Saviour and Lord of all does not have a narrow kindness, nor did he save one nation; rather, he has caught the whole world under heaven in his net and enlightened those in darkness. And this, then, was what was sung on the Psalmist’s lyre: “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord.” The remnant of those of Israel has been saved along with them, as the great Moses also foretold long ago, saying: “Rejoice with his people.”

“He said therefore to the crowds that came out,” the Baptist, and so on (3:7). … now the blessed Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit, was not ignorant of the bold deeds that the perversity of the Jews would dare against Christ. For he foreknew that they would disbelieve him and, setting their venomous tongue in motion, would hurl abuse at him. Looking ahead to that, then, he rebukes them because, though they had a law that spoke of the mystery of Christ and the predictions of the prophets that led to it, they had become dull of hearing and slow to believe in Christ the Saviour of all: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Does not the divinely inspired Scripture say that those who believed in Christ are blessed, while announcing beforehand that the unbelieving and ignorant will fall under harsh and inescapable penalties?

“Bear fruits worthy of repentance” (3:8). The fruit of repentance is first of all faith in Christ; besides that, the evangelical way of life; and in short the works of righteousness opposed to sin, which the penitent ought to bear as fruits worthy of repentance. He added: “Do not begin to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father’; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” — You see how very skilfully he brings down their senseless pride and shows that being descended from Abraham according to the flesh contributes nothing to their benefit? For what does nobility of flesh profit those who have it, unless they walk in like endeavours and follow in the virtue of their parents? “For if you were children of Abraham,” the Saviour says to them, “you would do the works of Abraham.” God seeks kinship in character and conduct. It is vain, then, to boast of holy and good ancestors while falling far short of their virtue. — “But if this is so,” says the Jew, “how is the seed of Abraham still multiplied, and how will God’s promise to him be kept, which says that he will multiply his seed like the stars of heaven?” Through the calling of the nations, O Jew. For it was said to Abraham himself, “In Isaac shall your seed be called,” and, “I have made you a father of many nations”; and “in Isaac” signifies what is according to promise. So he has been made father of many nations, that is, of those who are his through faith in Christ; and of them God also said somewhere, through the voice of Ezekiel: “I will pluck out their heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may know me, that I am the Lord.” And so that the blessed Baptist might benefit his hearers still more, he adds something further: “Already the axe is laid at the root of the trees” (3:9).

By the axe here he means the most cutting wrath which God the Father brought upon the Jews because of their impiety toward Christ; for the wrath was brought upon them like an axe. The prophet Zechariah too made this plain to us, saying: “The mourning of Jerusalem will be like the mourning for a pomegranate grove cut down in the plain.” And Jeremiah also said, as though to her: “A fair olive tree, well shaded in appearance, the Lord called your name; at the sound of her circumcision a fire was kindled against her; great is the affliction upon her, her branches have become useless; and the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you.” To this you will also refer the parable of the fig tree in the Gospels. So, as a fruitless plant no longer of good stock, she was cut down by God. Yet he does not say that the axe has been laid into the root, but at the root, that is, near the root. For the branches were cut off, but the plant was not dug up from its root; for the remnant of Israel has been saved, and it has not perished root and all.

“And the crowds asked him” (3:10). The blessed Luke has brought in three classes questioning John: crowds, tax collectors, and third, soldiers. And as a skilled physician applies to each ailment the suitable and fitting remedy, so the Baptist gave to each occupation the beneficial and fitting word: to the crowds coming to repentance he commanded that they show a mind of mutual love; to the tax collectors he shut the road to unrestrained greed; and to the soldiers he very wisely declared that they should extort from no one, but be content with their wages. “As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John,” and so on (3:15). So admirable and great was the son of Zechariah that the crowds of the Jews came to suspect that he might perhaps himself be the Christ, who was described through the shadow of the law and proclaimed beforehand by the holy prophets. But since some had once come to this suspicion, he cuts it off, yielding the dignities of the Master as a servant; for the distance between God and men is immeasurable. And we shall find the holy Baptist saying this somewhere in the Gospel written by John; for he spoke thus: “You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I have been sent before him.” “John answered, saying to them all: I baptize you with water,” and so on (3:16). Having shown, then, that he is not the Christ, he goes on to bring proofs from which one can learn that an immeasurable difference appears between God and men, between servant and Master, between him who goes before as a servant and him who shines forth as befits God; since the blessed Baptist, great as he was in virtue, says that he is not worthy even, so to speak, to touch his sandals. Then he at once adds another proof to these: “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” For it is the work solely and peculiarly of the essence that is above all to be able to put the Holy Spirit into some, and to make those who approach it partakers of the divine nature; and this belongs to Christ not by receiving and sharing it from someone else, but from himself and essentially; for he baptizes with the Holy Spirit. The Word made man, then, is God and the fruit of the essence of God the Father; and he did this also when he had become man, being one Son with the flesh united to him ineffably and beyond understanding. And indeed the blessed Baptist, having first said, “I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandals” (so they are accustomed to call the tip of the sandal, which ends in a point; for barbarians use such sandals), at once added: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”—clearly as one who has feet and sandals. For no one, if he had any sense, would say that the Word, while without flesh and not yet become as we are, had feet and sandals; but when he became man, since he did not lose his being God, he again acted, even so, in a manner befitting God, giving the Spirit to those who believe in him; for one and the same was at once God and man. “But yes,” says someone, “the Word did the works befitting God through the one from the seed of David.” Then to you who say this we shall answer with the words of John; for he said somewhere to the Jews: “After me comes a man who has become before me, for he was before me; and I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit; and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” See, he plainly says “a man,” and says that he came to be before him and was before him, clearly as pre-existing in the manner of God, according to what he himself plainly said to the crowds of the Jews: “Truly I tell you, before Abraham came to be, I am.” Then besides this he says that the Spirit came down upon him from heaven. Do they say that the Holy Spirit came down upon the Word of God bare and still without flesh, and make the giver of the Spirit a sharer in his own Spirit? Or rather do they say this: that having received the Spirit humanly, he baptizes divinely with the Holy Spirit, and is himself the one and only and true Son of God the Father, as the blessed Baptist himself bore witness? We must also say this: perhaps the blessed Baptist joined the meaning of fire to that of the Spirit, not saying that we shall all be baptized in fire through Christ, but signifying the life-giving working of the Spirit by the meaning of fire; for from its different working on its object the one Spirit receives different names.

“He will thoroughly clear his threshing floor” (3:17). The blessed Baptist says that the threshing floor belongs to Christ as Master; for this is what “his” means. For he clears it by separating and distinguishing the chaff from the wheat. He says that he will be seen as the distributor and, as it were, the one who marks out what befits each: the righteous and good man he gathers like wheat into the heavenly courts, while the unrighteous, shaken off like chaff, he makes food for fire. For the wheat, he says, is gathered into the barn, that is, it is counted worthy of the safety that comes from God, of his sparing, protection and love; but the chaff, as useless matter, is consumed by fire. … God says something also through Jeremiah, making a comparison of prophets and false prophets: “What is the chaff to the wheat?” that is, idle talk to the truth. For the word from God has a most nourishing power, but the word of the unholy false teachers, being very easily crumbled and like chaff, brings no benefit to its hearers. “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened” (3:21). Jesus is baptized, blessing the waters and cleansing them for our sake. For the only-begotten Word of God is Holy of holies, and he himself would not have needed holy baptism, nor to obtain forgiveness of sins, as we gain it through him; for “from his fullness we have all received.” The Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father, but it is also the Son’s own. And indeed the Spirit that proceeds from God the Father is very often called the Spirit of Christ; and Paul will bear witness, saying at one time: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Christ dwells in you; and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” And again: “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of the Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” The Holy Spirit, then, proceeds, as I said, from God the Father; but his only-begotten Word, as Son by nature and in truth and distinguished by the dignities of the Father, supplies it to the creation and gives it to the worthy. And indeed he said: — [The blessed] Cyril did not mention Herod in his interpretation. And I too think that it stands here superfluously. For if John had been shut up in prison, how was he baptizing? For we do not know of his being shut up and released, and shut up again and put to death. — “All that the Father has is mine.” “How then,” someone says, “was he baptized, and how did he receive the Spirit?” And we say that the Lord had no need of holy baptism, but in his love for humankind he devised for us a way of salvation. For believing in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and making this excellent confession before many witnesses, we wash away all the filth that comes from sin, are enriched with participation in the Holy Spirit, are made partakers of the divine nature, and gain the grace of adoption. It was necessary, then, that the Word of the Father, having lowered himself to self-emptying and not having disdained to come into likeness with us, should become the pattern and way of every good thing. So that we might learn the very power of holy baptism and how much we gain by coming to such grace, he himself begins the matter; and having been baptized he prays, so that you may learn, beloved, that for those once counted worthy of holy baptism unceasing prayer is a most fitting thing. The evangelist says that the heaven was opened, as having long been shut. For Christ said: “From now on you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” For since one flock had now been formed of those above and those below, and one chief shepherd had been shown to all, the heaven was opened, and man on earth was joined to the holy angels. And the Spirit came down again, as upon a second firstfruits of our race, and upon Christ as the first, who received it by the economy not so much for himself as for us; for in him and through him we have been enriched with all things. Most fittingly, then, he undergoes human things together with us. For where shall we see him emptied, though as God he has the fullness? Where did he share our poverty, if he is not fashioned into our poverty? And the voice of God the Father spoke over Christ at the time of holy baptism, as having received the man on earth through him and in him: “This is my beloved Son.” For he who is Son by nature and in truth and Only-begotten, when he became as we are, is declared Son of God—not receiving this for himself (for he was and is, as I said, true God), but so that he might pass the glory on to us. For he has become our firstfruits, and firstborn, and second Adam; therefore in him all things are said to have become new. And having put off the oldness that is in Adam, we have been enriched with the newness that is in Christ.

“The Holy Spirit descended” (3:22). If at the time of baptism he receives the Holy Spirit, this too, with the rest, would belong to the measures of his humanity. For he is not sanctified by receiving the Spirit insofar as he is God (for he himself is the one who sanctifies), but insofar as he became man. “And Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began” (3:23). This is the raving of the Samosatene, who wrongly takes the Gospel saying “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began,” and does not understand that he both was and began, but not in the same respect. For he always was, as God, but he began as man, when he became poor with what is ours; and he begins so that you may abolish your former birth and take up a second through regeneration. … great and unexpected harm results from keeping back the grace of baptism to a long and untimely delay. Above all, the hope is not secure, even if one should achieve one’s own plans; and if one’s aim does come about at the end, one is sanctified, but one has only the forgiveness of offences, and carries back the talent to the Master barren, having had no time to work with it.

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan” (4:1). Here, I pray you, see human nature anointed in Christ as in its firstfruits with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and crowned with the highest honours. For of old the God of all promised, saying: “It shall be in those days that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.” And the promise has been fulfilled for us, as in Christ first. Of the men of old, who had turned without restraint to love of the flesh, God said somewhere: “My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh.” But since all things have become new in Christ, and we have been enriched with the new birth through Spirit and water, and are no longer called children of flesh and blood but rather call God Father, for this reason and most fittingly, as now honoured and having the splendid boast of adoption, we have become partakers of the divine nature through participation in the Holy Spirit. And the firstborn among us, when he came to be among many brothers, having lowered himself to self-emptying, receives the Spirit first, though he himself is the giver of the Spirit, so that through him the dignity, and the grace of communion with the Holy Spirit, might come to us too. Paul too teaches us something of this kind, saying of him and of us: “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one; for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will declare your name to my brothers.” For since he is not at all ashamed to call us brothers, because he came into likeness with us, for this reason, transferring our poverty to himself, he is sanctified with us, though he himself sanctifies all creation, so that he might not seem to refuse the measure of humanity—he who did not shun becoming man for the salvation and life of all, and became like us in every respect whatever, sin alone excepted. “And he was led in the Spirit into the wilderness” (4:1).

For “he was led” means not that he was carried off, but rather that he lived and conducted himself there. For we ourselves are accustomed to say of anyone living with moderation, “So-and-so conducts himself well.” The Lord, then, lived in the wilderness “in the Spirit,” that is, spiritually.

“And he ate nothing in those days” (4:2). The Lord fasted, then, giving nothing at all to the body’s need for food; not that he himself needed fasting, but he set forth his own conduct as a type and pattern for us, and made an image of the exceptional and admired life among us. For how were those on earth to know that dwelling in deserts is useful to them and necessary for salvation? For those who do so withdraw as from a storm of waves and from the idle distractions of the present life, and, like the blessed Joseph, all but strip off and leave to the world all that is its own. He shows, then, to those who have chosen to live so that self-control is necessary, and its fruit is fasting; for so Satan, when he tempts, will be defeated. You too, then, must first put on the power from on high, that is, be made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, and then choose to achieve the life that is lovely and honoured by God. Then you will occupy the deserts with spiritual courage; then you will fast in holiness, put pleasures to death, and be stronger than Satan the tempter. See, the president of the games, as God, has come to be among the contestants; he who crowns the heads of the saints, among those who are crowned. Let us see, then, the skill of the wrestling and the overthrow of the devil’s perversity. When the fortieth day had been spent in fasting, he was afterward hungry—though he himself gives food to the hungry, and is the bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world, the sustainer of all things. But since, not disdaining our poverty, he ought not to withdraw altogether from the measures of humanity, he allowed the nature of the flesh to seek what was its own; in this sense we say that he was hungry. — Having fasted sufficiently, and by a power befitting God having kept his flesh uncorrupted without drink and food, he only then lets it suffer what is its own; for it says he was hungry. And for what reason? So that through both, skilfully, he might be recognized as at once God and man, clearly one and the same, both divinely above us and humanly like us.