Commentary on Luke (Greek fragments) 9.58–10.30

for so they are called in many places of the divine Scripture: “Catch us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards.” And the Lord himself called Herod a fox. And of the seeds thrown on the ground he says that the birds of the air devoured them, speaking of the evil spirits. When, then, such foxes and birds have holes and lairs in us, how will Christ come? Where will he rest? What fellowship has light with darkness? “Allow me first to go and bury my father” (9:59). This man showed an enviable and praiseworthy promise; but seeking to take leave of his household shows that he had a divided mind; for to wish at all to consult first those who will not approve belongs to an unsteady reasoning. Therefore he says to him: “No one who puts his hand” and what follows. For as the ploughman, when he grows slack at what remains, will not see the fruits multiply, so too the one who has chosen to follow Christ but does not renounce worldly affairs and his relatives according to the flesh—especially those who do not approve his purpose—will in no way achieve the good venture, nor is he fit for the kingdom of heaven. For such a man puts his hand to the plough, since he is eager to follow; but he looks back, because he makes talk and consultation with his household a pretext for delay. But we shall find that the holy apostles were by no means such; for as soon as they heard Christ saying, “Follow me,” they left the boat and their father and followed him. These those who follow Christ must imitate.

“The Lord appointed seventy others also” (10:1). Since the multitude of those who would believe in him was to be great—for not only Israel but also the flocks of the nations were being caught in the net—for this reason Christ our God appointed, besides the twelve, seventy others as well. [What follows these words, such as “The harvest is plentiful,” and what follows, and “Do not go from house to house”—which indicates restlessness and people seeking a wage, and is evidence of slander—was written earlier on the Gospel according to Matthew; and further what follows these as far as “But he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”] — … a type was also written beforehand in the words of Moses; for he too chose seventy, at God’s command, and God sent the Spirit on those chosen. And in another way too we shall find the twelve disciples and the seventy themselves signified through the shadow of the law; for it is written in Exodus of the sons of Israel: “They came,” it says, “to Elim” (which is interpreted “ascent” or “growth”), “and there were there twelve springs of water and seventy trunks of palm trees.” For as we ascend to a more perfect understanding and spiritual growth, we find the twelve holy apostles and the seventy appointed by Christ. For we draw, as from holy springs, the knowledge of every good thing from the Saviour’s disciples. And we admire the seventy too, and say that they are like palm trees; for the plant is of good heart, fruitful and well rooted, and always flourishing by the waters. “I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves” (10:3). — “Carry no purse,” and so on (10:4). He foretells the persecutions so that they may bear the trial. And how could a sheep prevail over a wolf? “I,” he says, “will be with you and shield you, changing the wolves into sheep; for nothing resists my will.” And experience showed this in the case of Paul; for the one who was harsher than any wolf toward those who believed in him he made gentler than a sheep. He does not permit them even to take thought for the body, let alone to busy themselves with things outside the body, since they were not even to take thought for provisions, nor to carry anything not already on the body, such as sandals, but to place all their care on him. Nor did he let them accept any drawing away from their zeal, not even allowing them to be drawn aside so far as to greet those they met—which Elisha too long ago told the one he sent, to go to the work with a straight course and not even return a blessing to one who blessed him. For turning aside to others is a loss to zeal. “Let not even this,” he says, “become a hindrance to the preaching, when conversation falls in the way and friendship becomes a pretext for delay.” Let no devilish malice, then, draw you away.

“They returned with joy,” and so on (10:17). “I saw Satan,” and so on (10:18). So that they might not be thought to have come to the preaching of their own accord, the grace of the Spirit given them bore witness; for when the divine sign accompanied the word, no manner of slander against them could prevail. They rejoiced at having been counted worthy to work wonders and to subject the demons. — His falling like lightning signifies that he was brought down from the height to the earth, from glory to dishonour, from strength to weakness. For before the Saviour’s economy he ruled the world under heaven, worshipped by almost all; but then he fell like lightning, he who had all who were led astray as his worshippers, and was put under the feet of those who worshipped him. For this is what is meant by “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions,” calling the demons serpents and scorpions. “In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit” (10:21).

… “and said,” and so on (10:21). Let us also look at the words that Christ spoke to his own Father for us and on our behalf: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants.” “See,” say those of perverted mind, “he gives thanks to the Father; how then is he not less than he?” And what prevents, my good sirs, one might say, the consubstantial Son from welcoming and praising his own Father, who saves the world under heaven through him? But if you think he is less because of the thanksgiving, hear what follows. He calls his own Father Lord of heaven and earth; and the Son of God who rules all things surely rules all things with him, and is above all as God from God, having essentially equality with him in every respect whatever. God the Father has revealed to us the mystery hidden and kept silent with him before the foundation of the world—clearly, the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten, which was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has been made manifest to those on earth in the last times of the age. The blessed Paul writes, then: “To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the nations the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the economy of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” So the august and great mystery of our Saviour had been hidden in the Father’s knowledge even before the foundation of the world; and so we too were foreknown and predestined to adoption. And the most wise Paul will teach us this again, writing: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, having predestined us in love to adoption through Jesus Christ for himself.” So the Father has revealed to us, the infants, the mystery hidden and kept silent from the ages. And yet before us there were very many men, beyond number, in this life, who were wise in words; but, as Paul says, “they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened; claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and reptiles; for this reason they were given up to a reprobate mind,” and he did not make known to them the mystery. And it is written for us too: “If anyone thinks he is wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” It is true to say, then, that he who has only the wisdom of the world, and nothing more, is foolish and without understanding with God; but he who seems to be a fool among the wise of this world, yet has in mind and heart the light of the true vision of God, is wise with God. So to those who seem to be fools—that is, who have a mind guileless and infantile in malice—the Father has revealed the Son, since they were foreknown and predestined to adoption. Nor is it implausible, I think, to add this. The scribes and Pharisees, and those who held the ranks of the Jews, having a reputation for knowledge of the law, were thought to be wise; but not being so in truth, they were convicted by the facts themselves. And indeed the prophet Jeremiah says somewhere to them: “How will you say, We are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? The lying measuring line of the scribes became vain; the wise were ashamed, terrified and taken; what wisdom is in them, since they rejected the word of the Lord?” And since they rejected the Saviour’s word, that is, the evangelical and saving proclamation, or rather the Word of God the Father who became man for us, they themselves became rejected. So Jeremiah said of them: “Call them rejected silver, for the Lord has rejected them.” The mystery of Christ has been hidden from these too; and indeed the Lord said somewhere to his own disciples about them: “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” To you—who? To those who have believed, clearly, who have recognized his appearing, who understand the law spiritually: to these the Father was pleased to reveal his own Son.

“All things have been delivered to me by my Father” (10:22). Our Lord Jesus Christ again shows us his own glory, the dignity of his pre-eminence befitting God, and the skill of the economy in the flesh; and he makes plain to those on earth how great a benefit has come from it: “All things,” he says, “have been delivered to me by my Father.” For though he is Lord of heaven and earth, sharing the throne of the Father and ruling all things with him, yet since, having lowered himself, he has been reckoned a man among us, he again speaks, not unfittingly, in keeping with the economy in the flesh, and does not refuse the words that befit the measures of the self-emptying, so that he may be believed to have become as we are and to have borne our poverty. He, then, who is Lord of heaven and earth, and in sum of all things, says that all things have been delivered to him by the Father; for he has become Lord of the world under heaven. But having said this, he at once rises to his own glory and pre-eminence, and shows that he is in no way inferior to his own Father. For what did he say next? “And no one knows,” he says, the nature of the Father, without being taught, “except the Son”; nor has anyone known the Son, consubstantial with him, “except the Father.” Those who have known God by revelation have known not what he is, but that he is. — … those who take the first words, which say “All things have been delivered to me by my Father,” as a lowering of the Son, let them learn from what follows that the Son is in every respect whatever without difference from the Father. For since no one, as he says, knows the Son except the Father alone, how have you dared to think and say that he is less than he, as though you knew him exactly? For he whom the Father alone knows is beyond all mind and speech, just as the Father himself, who is known only by his own Offspring. For the holy and consubstantial Trinity alone knows itself, being beyond all mind and speech; but the Son reveals it to us through the Holy Spirit, as Paul says: “For God has revealed it to us through his Spirit.”

“And turning to the disciples, he said privately: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see” (10:23). The more secret matters must be shared especially with one’s closest friends, and not simply with anyone at all. His friends are those counted worthy of discipleship, who have the eye of the heart enlightened and the ear ready for obedience. And indeed he once said to the holy apostles: “I no longer call you servants; you are my friends. The servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” To these he says what was written above, most fittingly turning to them—that is, turning away from those who wished neither to see nor to hear, but were disobedient and had a blind mind in them; he gave himself wholly to those who love him, and looking at them he called blessed the eyes that see, or will see, what they first, before the others, have beheld. The saying is framed from common usage among all; but we must understand this: “seeing” here does not convey the operation of the bodily eyes, but rather the enjoyment of what he has given to the godly; as if someone were to say, “So-and-so has seen good times,” meaning, “He has enjoyed good times.” And you will understand the words in the Psalms, “May you see the good things of Jerusalem,” in this way: “May it be yours to share the good things of Jerusalem”—the one above, that is, and in heaven. For how can one doubt that those who became spectators of Christ’s divine signs would not in every case be blessed? Very many Jews saw Christ working in a manner befitting God; but to be called blessed would not befit them all; for they did not believe at all, nor did they see his glory with the eyes of the mind. But in what way were our eyes called blessed? What did they see? We saw God the Word, who is in the form of God the Father, become man for us; the one who shares the Father’s throne, with us, that is, in our form, so that he might make us conformed to himself through holiness and righteousness, engraving in us the beauty of his own Godhead—spiritually, that is, and in the mind. And Paul is witness of this, having written thus: “For as we have borne the image of the man of dust, so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one,” saying that the man of dust is the first-formed Adam, and the heavenly one the Word who shone forth from above and from the essence of the Father. Then, having come, as I said, into likeness with us, the Son by nature took the form of a servant, so that he might make us free who were bound under the yoke of slavery—for what is made is by nature a slave—gaining what is his; for we have been named sons through him and with him. Being rich, he shared our poverty, so that he might bring human nature into his own wealth. He tasted death through the wood and the cross, so that he might take away the transgression that came through the wood, undo the charges arising from it, and remove death’s tyranny over us. We saw Satan fallen: the boaster in humiliation; the one once worshipped, dishonoured; the one reputed a god, under the feet of saints; for they received authority to rebuke unclean spirits. This dignity is very great, beyond human nature, and befits only the God who is beyond all; and its beginning for us was the Word appearing in human form. And indeed he rebuked the unclean spirits; but the wretched Jews said: “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” To these unholy words of theirs the Lord replied: “If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” “For if I,” he says, “who have become man like you, have thus the working of authority befitting God, this great and exceptional good has come down upon you; for human nature wins renown in me, trampling Satan.” So the kingdom of God has come upon us, since the Word has become as we are and works with the flesh the deeds befitting God. We have seen ourselves in these things, and our eyes have become blessed. We have heard his ineffable teaching of the mysteries; he taught us about God the Father; he showed him to us in his own nature; he made manifest the truth of the types given through Moses. These things many of the prophets desired to see, and very many kings too. And indeed we shall find them saying at one time, “Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation”—for they call the Son mercy and salvation—and at another: “Remember us, O Lord, in the favour you bear your people; visit us with your salvation, that we may see the goodness of your chosen ones, that we may rejoice in the gladness of your nation.” And what nation is chosen in Christ by God the Father the most wise Peter will explain, saying to those who have won approval through faith: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” “And behold, a lawyer stood up to test him,” and so on (10:25).

By “time” he means the time when the Saviour, who is present everywhere and never departs from his Father’s side, was spending his days on earth. — The evangelist here calls the man a lawyer, that is, one versed in the law according to the usage of the Jews—or rather one who thought he knew the law, though he did not know it in truth. This man thought he could trip Christ up; and on what grounds, I will tell. Certain storytellers, accustomed to babble without restraint, went about the whole country of the Jews, and Jerusalem itself, accusing Christ and saying that he declared the commandment given through Moses useless and brought in new teachings of his own; and there were some who had already believed, who opposed their words, receiving everywhere the evangelical and saving proclamation. The lawyer, then, wishing—or rather thinking himself able—to trap Christ into saying something against Moses, or against the commandment spoken through him, and into saying that his own teaching was better, comes to test him and says: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He comes forward with hypocrisy and feigned intention, and, pretending to honour him, calls him Teacher, so that the testing hidden in him might escape notice through his fair words. But someone who well knew the mystery of the economy in the flesh might have said to him: “If you knew the law and the power of the contemplation hidden in it, you would not have been ignorant of the one you were trying to test, who knows hidden things and is able to see the hearts of those who come to him. You call him Teacher, but do not bear to learn; you pretend to honour, expecting to trip him up.” And see again, I pray, the malice of the lawyer’s words. He could have said: “What shall I do to be saved,” or “to please God and receive the reward from him?” But he leaves those aside and uses rather the Saviour’s own words, pouring ridicule on his own head. For since it was the custom of Christ the Saviour of all to speak often of eternal life to those who came to him, the self-important lawyer, as I said, conversing with him, uses his words. But if you had truly been eager to learn, O lawyer, you would have heard from him what leads to eternal life; since you test him maliciously, you will hear nothing else but only what was decreed through Moses to the men of old—which clearly had as its reward not eternal life but the life given here: release from evils and the bestowal of better things. “For if you are willing and listen to me,” it says, “you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you are not willing and do not listen to me, the sword shall devour you.”

“And he said to him: You have answered rightly,” and so on (10:28). … from the lawyer what is set down in the law, Christ, who knows all things, punishing his wickedness and exposing his perverse mind: “You have answered rightly,” he says; “do this and you will live.” The lawyer has missed his catch; the net of deceit is torn. Let us then cry out to him the words spoken through Jeremiah: “You were caught and taken.” — Having failed in his hunt, he rolled into love of glory, from deceit into arrogance; his vices pass him, as it were, from one to another. For he asked not wishing to learn, but, as the evangelist says, “wishing to justify himself.” And see how, out of self-love and arrogance together, he cried out shamelessly, “And who is my neighbour?”—“Who is this,” he means, “that I should love him as myself? I am above all; I am a lawyer; I judge all and am judged by no one; I sit in judgment and am not judged; I surpass all; I am better than all; I command all; all need me, but I need no one. Who, then, is my neighbour, that I should love him as myself?” Is no one, then, lawyer, your equal? Do you carry yourself beyond all? Bring down your brow; remember the author of Proverbs, who says: “Those who know themselves are wise.” Truly the power of life lies in these, in loving God and neighbour—commandments not changed by us but stretched beyond the Jewish measures, the intensification being contained potentially in the commandments as stated. For to love God with the whole heart and soul and strength removes the love of money, of pleasure, of empty glory; it draws one out of worldly disposition, makes one chosen out of the world, joins one to Christ, and, to say it all, makes a Christian out of a Jew. And love of neighbour, rightly understood, when it is directed not only to those of one’s own nation but to all of one’s kind, follows upon love of God, taking on also, in imitation of Christ, not only “as oneself” but “above oneself,” so as to lay down one’s life for one’s friends—which the Lord did. Praised by the Saviour for making a good answer, the lawyer burst out in boasting, setting down that no one was his neighbour, as though no one could rival him in righteousness. He thought such things as that Pharisee who said, “I am not like the rest of men,” not knowing that this destroys righteousness: not doing what one does out of love. This man too, then, is found wanting in love—altogether in love for God, and plainly in love for his neighbour too, since he does not reckon anyone his neighbour. And it is clear that he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

“A certain man was going down,” and so on (10:30). See how the Saviour shows who the neighbour is: not defining him by race nor testing him by virtue, but joining him by nature, telling of the man who suffered terribly at the hands of robbers, to whom kindness is owed by every human being, since nature itself demands it. And the parable shows this too, that the one who is not puffed up finds his neighbour by nature more readily than the one who is puffed up; for the Samaritan did so rather than the priest and the Levite. For they passed by on the other side of one lying half-dead and in the worst of evils, feeling nothing human for him, not dropping on him the oil of love, but having an unsympathetic and harsh mind; while the foreigner, who was reckoned among the Samaritans, fulfilled the law of love. Hear, then, the parable. “Jesus answered,” and so on (10:30).