On Our Lord, Part 3

Pharisee, the very thing by which you concluded that our Lord was not a prophet proved that you did not know the prophets. When you said, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known,” you showed that in your view whoever is a prophet knows all things. But look: some matters were hidden from the prophets. How then can you credit the prophets with the revelation of every hidden thing? This unwise teacher, who twisted the writings of the prophets, did not even understand what he read in them. It was not only that the Pharisee failed to see the greatness of the Lord; he did not even see the weakness of the prophets. For our Lord, as one who knows all things, allowed that sinful woman to come in and receive his peace. But Elisha, as one who did not know, said to the Shunammite, “Peace to you, and peace to the child.” So the man who supposed that our Lord had been proved to be no prophet was himself proved not to know the prophets. When the mind holds malice and cannot hold it back, the malice within it is cunning at finding a pretext to open a door for itself. And if the pretext in which the deceiver takes refuge is refuted, he knows that inside it another lies hidden, which he can use. [a]

Now look at this son of Israel, and see how he was like Israel in stubbornness. Paganism was bound up in the mind of the people; that is why Moses was taken away from them, so that the wickedness within them might come out into the open. But so that they would not be put to shame, and so that no one would know they were looking for idols, they asked first for Moses, and then for idols: “As for this Moses, we do not know what has become of him.” And if God, who cannot die, brought you out of Egypt, why do you look for a man who must die some day? Yet they did not want Moses to become a god to them, for Moses could hear and see and rebuke; they wanted a god who could neither hear nor see nor rebuke. But whenever Moses dies, what will be left of him? Look, your God is a living God, and he has revealed himself to you by living testimonies. At that time the bright cloud was overshadowing them, and they had the pillar of light by night. Water flowed for them from the rock, and they drank its streams. Every day they delighted in the taste of that manna whose fame we have heard. How was Moses far from you? Look, the signs of Moses surround you. Or what good does the person of Moses do you, when you have such a guide as this? If your clothes do not wear out, if a mild air refreshes you, if heat and cold do not hurt you, if you have rest from war and are far removed from the fear of Egypt, what, then, was Israel lacking, that he looked for Moses? He was lacking open paganism. It was not Moses he was looking for; on the pretext that Moses was absent, he went after the calf. So we have shown briefly that when the mind is full of something, and an opposing reason meets it, the mind forces that reason by violence to open for it a door to what it desires.

You too, Pharisee, thirsting for blasphemy: what did you see in our Lord to show that he was not a prophet? Look, the things that belong to the Lord of the prophets were seen in him. The gushing tears hurried to proclaim that they were shed as before God. The grieving kisses testified that they were trying to win over the creditor to tear up the bonds of debt. The fine ointment of the sinful woman proclaimed that it was a bribe offered in penitence. These were the medicines the sinful woman brought to her Physician, so that by her tears he might wash away her stains, by her kisses he might heal her wounds, and by her sweet ointment he might make her bad name as sweet as the scent of her ointment. This is the Physician who heals people by the medicines they bring to him. These wonders were shown at that time; but instead of them, the Pharisee saw blasphemy. For what could the weeping of the sinful woman establish, except that he can count sinners righteous? Otherwise, blind teacher, judge in your own mind: why was there that mournful weeping at the joyful feast, so that while they were making merry over food, she was bitter in her tears? Because she was a sinner; her deeds were unchaste, and such deeds she was used to doing. But if at that time she was turned from the loose living of sinners to chastity, then admit, you who said he is not a prophet, that he is the one who makes chaste those who have lived loosely. You know that she is a sinner, and you see her now penitent: search out, then, where the power is that changed her. He ought to have fallen down and worshiped him who, silent, by his silence turned to chastity sinners whom the prophets with all their forceful words could not turn to chastity. A wonderful and marvelous thing was seen in the Pharisee’s house: a sinful woman sat and wept, and she who wept did not say why she was weeping; nor did he at whose feet she sat say to her, “Why are you weeping?” The sinner did not need to petition our Lord with her lips, because she believed that he, as God, knew the petitions hidden in her tears. Nor did our Lord ask her, “What have you done?” For he knew that by her pure kisses she was atoning for her transgressions. So she, because she believed that he knew hidden things, offered him her prayers in her heart; for one who knows secret things has no need of outward lips. If, then, the sinner did not try to persuade him with her lips, because she knew that our Lord was God, and our Lord did not question her, because as God he discerned her thoughts, do you not understand, you tyrannical Pharisee, from the silence of both, where each of them stood: that she was praying to him as to God in her heart, and that he as God was silently searching out her thoughts? But the Pharisee could not see and understand these things, because he was a son of Israel, who though perceiving did not see, and though he heard did not understand. Though our Lord knew that the Pharisee was thinking evil thoughts about him, he refuted him gently and not harshly. For sweetness came down from on high to break down the bitterness with which the Evil One had stamped us. So our Lord taught that Pharisee about himself and by his own example, as if to say, “Just as I knew the evil things in your heart and yet persuaded you gently, so I knew the evil things of this woman and received her with mercy.” [d]

But let us hear how patience was drawn after the hasty thought, so as to draw it from haste to understanding. “A certain creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty denarii.” (Do not grow tired, listener, of the length of the parable as it is repeated, so that you are not at odds with him who in the parable was patient for the sake of giving help.) “In the end, when neither of them had anything to pay with, he forgave them both. Which of them, do you think, would love him more?” Simon said to him, “I suppose the one to whom more was forgiven.” Our Lord said to him, “You have judged rightly.” In his justice our Lord commended the perverse Pharisee for the right judgment he had given, even though in his wickedness he had answered the good Lord about the mercy he had shown. Many things are stored up in this parable, for it is a treasury full of many helps. Why, then, did our Lord require the Pharisee to pass judgment for him between the two debtors? Was it not so that the greatness, coming after the littleness, might show itself, and show that nothing of the littleness was drawn after the greatness? For our Lord, since he knew the secret things, was patient and questioned Simon, so that those who, without knowing, were quick to blame but not to inquire might be put to shame. For if I, O man, did not judge your judgment before I heard it, why did you hastily blame, before you heard from me the case of the sinful woman? This was done for our instruction, so that we might be quick to inquire but slow to pass sentence. Had that Pharisee been patient, look, the pardon our Lord gave the sinful woman in the end would have taught him everything. Patience is accustomed to gain all things for those who gain it.

Again, through the forgiveness of the two debtors, our Lord led into forgiveness a man who needed forgiveness, yet who hated to see debts forgiven. For though the Pharisee’s own debts needed forgiving, the forgiveness of the sinful woman’s debts was hateful in his eyes. Had there been this forgiveness of debts in the Pharisee’s mind, he would not have thought it disgraceful that the sinful woman came for the forgiveness of her debts to God and not to the priests; for the priests could not forgive sins like hers. But from the glorious works our Lord did, this sinful woman believed that he could also forgive sins. She knew that whoever is able to restore the members of the body is able also to cleanse away the stains of the soul. But the Pharisee, though he was a teacher, did not know this. The teachers of Israel were often fools, put to shame by the despised and the base. They were put to shame by that blind man to whom they said, “We know that this man is a sinner.” But he said to them, “How did he open my eyes? Look, God does not listen to sinners.” These are the blind teachers who were made guides for others, and their crooked path was made straight by a blind man. [g] But hear the wonder our Lord worked. Because the Pharisee supposed that our Lord did not know that the woman who touched him was a sinner, our Lord made the Pharisee’s lips like the strings of a harp, and by his very lips he sang how she was trampling his sins underfoot, though the Pharisee did not know it. And the man who had blamed as though he knew was found to be a harp on which another could sing of what he knew. For our Lord compared the sinful woman’s sins to five hundred denarii, made them pass into the Pharisee’s hearing by the parable he heard, and brought them out again from his mouth in the judgment he gave—though Simon, while he was judging, did not know that those five hundred denarii stood for the sins of the sinful woman. And the Pharisee, who thought that our Lord had no knowledge of her sins, was himself found to have no knowledge of them, when he heard of those debts in the parable and gave judgment about them with his own voice. But when our Lord at last explained it to him, the Pharisee knew that both his ears and his lips had been, as it were, instruments for our Lord, through which he might sing the glories of his knowledge. [h]

This Pharisee was a companion of those scribes against whom our Lord brought a sentence out of their own mouths: “What, then, will the Lord of the vineyard do to those tenant farmers?” They said to him, against themselves, “He will destroy them terribly, and will lease the vineyard to tenant farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.” This is the Godhead to which all things are easy, which by the very mouths that blasphemed it pronounced the sentence of those mouths against them.

Glory, then, to him, the Invisible One, who clothed himself in visibility so that sinners might be able to draw near to him. For our Lord did not drive away the sinful woman, as the Pharisee expected; since he came down from the height that no one can reach, precisely so that lowly tax collectors like Zacchaeus might reach him. And the Nature that no one can handle clothed itself in a body, precisely so that all lips might kiss his feet, as the sinful woman did. For the holy soul was hidden within the veil of flesh, and so it touched all unclean lips and sanctified them. So he whom his appetite was supposed to invite to feasting, his feet invited to tears. He was the good Physician, who came out to go to the sinful woman who was seeking him in her soul. She, then, anointed the feet of our Lord, not his head—she who was trodden down in the dust by everyone. For those Pharisees who declared themselves in the right and despised everyone else trod her down. But he, the Merciful One, whose pure body sanctified her uncleanness, had pity on her. [j] But Mary anointed the head of our Lord’s body, as a sign of the better part she had chosen. And Christ prophesied about what her soul had chosen. While Martha was distracted with serving, Mary was hungering to be filled with spiritual things by him who also fills us with bodily things. So Mary refreshed him with precious ointment, as he had refreshed her with his exalted teaching. By the oil Mary showed forth the mystery of his mortality, the mortality of him who by his teaching put to death the cravings of her flesh. So the sinful woman, by the flood of her tears, was rewarded in full assurance with the forgiveness of sins from beside his feet; and the woman with the flow of blood stole healing from the hem of his garment. But Mary received a blessing openly from his mouth, as a reward for the service of her hands on his head. For she poured the precious ointment on his head, and received from his mouth a wonderful promise. This is the ointment that was sown above and bore fruit below. She sowed it on his head and gathered its fruit from between his lips: “She will have a name, and this memorial, in every place where my gospel is preached.” So what she received from him then, he is able to make pass on to all generations, and in no generation can anyone hinder it. Just as the ointment she poured on his head gave off its scent before all the guests and refreshed him, so the good name he gave her passes down through all generations and brings her honor. As all who were at the feast perceived her ointment, it was fitting that all who come into the world should perceive her triumph. This is a loan whose interest is collected in every generation. [k]

Now Simeon the priest, when he took him up in his arms to present him before God, understood as he looked at him that he was not presenting him, but was himself being presented. For the Son was not presented by the servant to his Father; the servant was presented by the Son to his Lord. It is not possible that he by whom every offering is presented should be presented by another. The offering does not present the one who offers it; offerings are presented by those who offer them. So he who receives offerings gave himself to be offered by another, so that those who presented him might, in offering him, themselves be presented by him. For as he gave his body to be eaten, so that, eaten, it might bring to life those who ate him, so he gave himself to be offered, so that by his cross the hands of those who offered him might be sanctified. So, though Simeon’s arms seemed to be presenting the Son, Simeon’s words testified that he was presented by the Son. We can have no dispute about this, because what was said put an end to dispute: “Now you let your servant depart in peace.” He who is let depart to go in peace to God is presented as an offering to God. And to make known by whom he was presented, he said, “For look, my eyes have seen your mercy.” If no grace had been worked on him, why did he give thanks? But he rightly gave thanks, that he was counted worthy to receive in his arms him whom angels and prophets greatly desired to see. “For look, my eyes have seen your mercy.” Let us understand, then, and see. Is mercy that which shows mercy to another, or that which receives mercy from another? If mercy is that which shows mercy to all, Simeon rightly called our Lord by the name of the mercy that showed mercy to him—him who freed him from the world, which is full of snares, so that he might go to Eden, which is full of delights. For he who was a priest said and testified that he was being offered as an offering, so that from the middle of the perishing world he might go and be stored up in the treasure-house that is kept safe. One who might lose what he has found must take care that it is kept safe. But our Lord could not be lost; by him the lost were found. So, through the Son, who could not be lost, the servant who longed not to be lost was presented. “Look, my eyes have seen your mercy.” It is clear that Simeon received grace from the Child he was carrying. Inwardly he received grace from that infant whom he openly received in his arms. For through him who was glorious even when he was carried, small and feeble, the one who carried him was made great. [m] But since Simeon could bear on his weak arms that Majesty which the creatures could not bear, it is clear that his weakness was made strong by the strength he carried. For at that time Simeon too, along with all creatures, was secretly upheld by the almighty strength of the Son. This is the marvel: outwardly it was the one who was strengthened who carried him who strengthened him, but inwardly it was the strength that bore its bearer. For the Majesty made itself small, so that those who carried it could bear it; so that as far as that Majesty stooped to our littleness, so far our love might be raised from all desires to reach that Majesty.

So it was with the ship that carried our Lord: it was he who bore it, by holding back from it the wind that would have sunk it. “Peace, for you are shut up.” While he was on the sea, his arm reached to the very source of the wind, to shut it up. The ship bore his manhood, but the power of his Godhead bore the ship and everything in it. And to show that even his manhood did not need the ship, he, like the Architect of creation, made the waters solid instead of the planks a shipwright fits together and fastens, joined them together, and laid them under his feet. So the Lord strengthened the hands of Simeon the priest, so that his arms might bear up in the temple the strength that was bearing up all things, just as he strengthened the feet of Simeon the apostle, so that they might hold themselves up on the water. And so the name that carried the firstborn in the temple was afterward carried up by the firstborn on the sea, so that he might show that, as he bore up the drowning man on the sea, he did not need to be carried by Simeon on dry ground. But our Lord bore Simeon up openly in the middle of the sea to teach that on dry land too he was secretly holding him up. [o]

So the Son came to the servant, not so that the Son might be presented by the servant, but so that through the Son the servant might present to his Lord the priesthood and the prophecy, to be stored up with him. For prophecy and priesthood, which were given through Moses, were both handed down and came to Simeon. He was a pure vessel, who sanctified himself so that he might be like Moses, able to hold them both. There are small vessels that can hold great gifts. There are gifts one is able to hold because of their grace, yet many are not able to hold them because of their greatness. So Simeon presented our Lord, and in him offered both these things, so that what was given to Moses in the wilderness was received from Simeon in the temple. And since our Lord is the vessel in which all fullness dwells, when Simeon was offering him before God, he poured over him, as a drink offering, those two gifts: priesthood from his hands and prophecy from his lips. Priesthood rested on Simeon’s hands because of his purifications, and prophecy dwelt and was at work on his lips because of revelations. When these two powers saw him who was Lord of both, the two united and poured themselves into the vessel that could hold both, which could contain priesthood and kingship and prophecy. That infant, then, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes because of his graciousness, clothed himself in priesthood and prophecy because of his majesty. For Simeon clothed him in these, and gave him to her who had wrapped him in swaddling clothes. When he gave him to his mother, he gave the priesthood along with him; and when he prophesied to her about him, “This child is set for the fall and rising again,” he gave prophecy with him too. [q] Then Mary took her firstborn and went out. Outwardly he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but secretly he was clothed with prophecy and priesthood. So whatever was handed down from Moses was received from Simeon, but it remained with and was possessed by the Lord of both. So the steward first, and the treasurer last, handed over the keys of priesthood and prophecy to him who has authority over the treasurer of them both. That is why his Father gave him the Spirit not by measure, because all measures of the Spirit are under his hand. And to show that he had received the keys from the former stewards, our Lord said to Simeon, “To you I will give the keys of the doors.” But how could he have given them to another, had he not received them from another? So the keys he had received from Simeon the priest he gave to another Simeon, the apostle, so that even though the people had not listened to the former Simeon, the Gentiles might listen to the latter Simeon. [r]

And because John too was the treasurer of baptism, the Lord of the stewardship came to him to receive from him the keys of the house of reconciliation. John used to wash away the blemishes of sins in common water, so that bodies might become fit for the garment of the Spirit, given by our Lord. So, because the Spirit was with the Son, he came to John to receive baptism from him, so that he might mingle the invisible Spirit with the visible waters: so that those whose bodies felt the wetting of the water might feel the gift of the Spirit in their souls, and that just as bodies outwardly feel the water poured on them, so souls inwardly may feel the Spirit poured on them. So, just as our Lord, when he was baptized, was clothed in baptism and carried baptism with him, so too when he was presented in the temple he put on prophecy and priesthood, and went out bearing the purity of the priesthood on his pure limbs, and the words of prophecy in his wondrous ears. For when Simeon was sanctifying the body of the Child who sanctifies all, that body received the priesthood in its sanctification. And again, when Simeon was prophesying over him, the prophecy quickly entered the Child’s hearing. For if John leaped in the womb and perceived the voice of the mother of our Lord, how much more should our Lord have heard in the temple? For look, it was because of him that John knew how to hear in the womb. [t] So each of the gifts stored up for the Son he gathered from their true tree. He received baptism from the Jordan, even though John still went on baptizing after him. He received priesthood from the temple, even though Annas the high priest exercised it. Again, he received prophecy, which had been handed down among the righteous, even though by it Caiaphas in mockery plaited a crown for our Lord. And he received the kingship from the house of David, even though Herod held the place and exercised it. [u]

This is he who flew and came down from on high; and when all those gifts he had given to those of old saw him, they came flying from every quarter and rested on him, their Giver. They gathered from every side to come and be grafted into their natural tree, for they had been grafted into bitter trees, that is, into wicked kings and priests. So they hurried to come to their sweet parent stock, that is, to the Godhead, who came down in sufficiency to the people of Israel, so that the parts of him might be gathered to him. And when he received from them what was his own, what was not his own was rejected; for the sake of his own he had also put up with what was not his own. He put up with Israel’s idolatry for the sake of his priesthood; he put up with its diviners for the sake of his prophets; and he put up with its wicked dominion for the sake of his holy crown. [v] But when our Lord took the priesthood to himself from them, he sanctified all the Gentiles by it. And again, when he took prophecy to himself, he revealed his counsels by it to all nations. And when he wove his crown, he bound the strong one who takes all people captive, and divides his spoils. These gifts were barren along with the fig tree, which, while it was barren of fruit, made such glorious powers as these barren. So, being without fruit, it was cut down, so that these gifts might pass out of it and bear fruit abundantly among all the Gentiles. [w] So he who came to make our bodies dwelling places for himself passed by all those dwelling places. Let each one of us, then, be a dwelling place for him who loves me. Let us come to him and make our home with him. This is the Godhead whom all creation cannot contain, and yet a lowly and humble soul is enough to receive him. [x]