Follow me, if ye would not stumble.
Chap. xvi. 15.
2 I Cor. iv. 7.
3 Acts i. 26.
9. "And after that He saith unto them. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." It was true what He said. To his sisters he was dead, to the Lord he was asleep. He was dead to men, who could not raise him again; but the Lord aroused him with as great ease from tlie tomb as one arouseth a sleeper from his bed. Hence it was in reference to His own power that He spoke of him as sleeping: for others also, who are dead, are frequently spoken of in Scripture as sleeping; as when the apostle says, " But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.""* Therefore he also spoke of them as sleeping, because foretelling their resurrection. And so, all tb.e dead are sleeping, both good and bad. But just as, in the case of those who sleep and waken day by day, there is a great difference as to what they severally see in their sleep: some experience pleasant dreams; others, dreams so frightful that the waking are afraid to fall asleep for fear of their recurrence: so every individual sleeps and wakens in circumstances peculiar to himself. And there is a difference as to the kind of custody one may be placed in, who is afterwards to be taken before the judge. For the kind of custody in which men are placed depends on the merits of the case: some are required to be guarded by lictors, an office humane and mild, and becoming a citizen; others are given up to subordinates; 5 some, again, are sent to prison: and in the prison itself all are not thrust together into its lowest dungeons, but dealt with in proportion to the merits and superior gravity of the charges. As, then, there are different kinds of custody among those engaged in official life, so there are different kinds of custody for the dead, and differing merits in those who rise again. The beggar was taken into custody, so was the rich man: but the one into Abraham's bosom; the other, where he thirsted, and found not a drop of water.* 10. Therefore, to make this the occasion of instructing your Charity, all souls have, when they quit this world, their dilTerent receptions. The good have joy; the evil, torments. But when the resurrection takes 4 I Thess. iv. 13.
5 (iptioiiihiix, assist.ints, iindirrlinjrs. In the Mss., it is written, but incorrectly, optioHihiis; for Varro, Isidoriis,.ind i>therS tliink \.\\<: optioncs were so t:A\\cA ah ofitaitiio, as heinj^' doubtless ihosen as assistants to the decuriones and military adjutants. They were also attached to various oflices: and hence there were artisan ofitioni-s, and those bclonxinn to olVicial or prison life, in which last sivinificatioii they are used here; as also in Ambrose's works (( 'i'/«/«««/<j»y (>« ///<• Efihcsians^ chap. 4) in these words: " Nor did I'aiil and Silas delay to baptize the jailof (optiotiitii tariu'ris)."
^ I.uke xvi. 22-24.
2 74 [Tractate XLIX.
place, both the joy of the good will be fuller, and the torments of the wicked heavier, when they shall be tormented in the body. The holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and good believers, have been received into peace; but all of them have still in the end to receive the fulfillment of the divine promises; for they have been promised also the resurrection of the flesh, the destruction of death, and eternal life with the angels. This we have all to receive together; for the rest, which is given immediately after death, every one, if worthy of it, receives when he dies. The patriarchs first received it — think only from what they rest; the prophets afterwards; more recently the apostles; still more lately the holy martyrs, and day by day the good and faithful. Thus some have now been in that rest for long, some not so long; others for fewer years, and others whose entrance therein is still less than recent. But when they shall wake from this sleep, they shall all together receive the fulfillment of the promise.
II. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples" — according to their understanding they replied — " Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well." For the sleep of the sick is usually a sign of returning health. " Howbeit Jesus spake of his deatli, but they thought that He spake of the taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,'" — for He said somewhat obscurely, " He sleepeth; " — therefore He said plainly, " Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.'' I even know that he is dead, and I was not there: for he had been reported not as dead, but sick. But what could remain hid from Him who had created it, and into whose hands the soul of the dying man had departed? This is why He said, " I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; " that they might now begin to wonder that the Lord could assert his death, which He had neither seen nor heard of. For here we ought specially to bear in mind that as yet the disciples themselves, who already believed in Him, had their faith built up by miracles: not that a faith, utterly wanting till then, might begin to exist; but that what had previously come into being might be increased; although He made use of such an expression as if only then they would begin to believe. For He said not, " I am glad for your sakes," that your faith may be increased or confirmed; but, "that ye may believe;" which is to be understood as meaning, that your faith may be fuller and more vigorous.
12. "Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, who is called Didymus, unto his fellow-disciples. Let us also go, that we may die with Him. Therefore Jesus came, and found that he had [lain] in the grave four days already." Much might be said of the four days, according to the wont of the obscure passages of Scripture, which bear as many senses as there is diversity of those who understand them. Let us express also our opinion of what is meant by one four days dead. For as in the former case of the blind man we understand in a way the human race, so in the case of this dead man many perhaps are also to be understood; for one thing may be signified by different figures. When a man is born, he is born already in a state of death; for he inherits sin from Adam. Hence the apostle says: " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so that passed upon all men, wherein all have sinned."' Here you have one day of death, because man inherits it from the seed stock of death. Thereafter he grows, and begins to approach the years of reason that he may know the law of nature, which every one has had implanted in his heart: What thou wouldst not have done to thyself, do not to another. Is this learned from the pages of a book, and not in a measure legible in our very nature? Hast thou any desire to be robbed? Certainly not. See here, then, the law in thy heart: What thou art unwilling to suffer, be unwilling to do. This law also is transgressed by men; and here, then, we have the second day of death. The law was also divinely given through Moses, the servant of God; and therein it is said," Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not bear false witness; honor thy father and mother; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's property; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife."^ Here you have the written law, and it also is despised: this is t);?^ third day of death. What remains? The gospel also comes, the kingdom of heaven is preached, Christ is everywhere published; He threatens hell, He promises eternal life; and that also is despised. Men transgress the gospel; and this is the fourth day of death. Now he deservedly stinketh. But is mercy to be denied to such? God forbid; for to raise such also from the dead, the Lord thinks it not unfitting to come.
13, "And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and I Rom. V. 12.
2 Ex XX. 12-17.
Tractate XLIX.]
/O met Him; but Mary sat [still] in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee." She did not say. But even now I ask Thee to raise my brother to life again. For how could she know if such a resurrection would be of benefit to her brother? She only said, I know that.Thou canst, and whatsoever Thou art pleased. Thou doest: for Thy doing it is dependent on Thine own judgment, not on my presumption. " But even now I know that, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee."
14 " Jesus saith unto her. Thy brother shall rise again." This was ambiguous. For He said not. Even now I will raise thy brother; but, " Thy brother shall rise again, j Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day." Of that resurrection I am sure, but uncertain about this. " Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection." Thou sayest. My brother shall rise again at the last day: true; but by Him, through whom he shall rise then, can he rise even now, for "I," He says, " am the resurrection and the life." Give ear, brethren, give ear to what He says. Certainly the universal expectation of the bystanders was that Lazarus, one who had been dead four days,' would live again; let us hear, and rise again. How many are there in this audience who are crushed down under the weighty mass of some sinful habit! Perhaps some are hearing me to whom it may be said, " Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;"- and they say. We cannot. Some others, it m.ay be, are hearing me, who are unclean, and stained with lusts and crimes, and to whom it is said, Refrain from such conduct, that ye perish not; and they reply, We cannot give up our habits. O Lord, raise them again. " I am," He says, *' the resurrection and the life." The resurrection because the life.
15. " He that believeth in me, though he v;ere dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." What meaneth this? "He that believeth in me, though he were dead," just as Lazarus is dead, "yet shall he live;" for He is not ttie God of the dead, but of the living. Such was the answer He gave the Jews concerning their fathers, long ago dead, that is, concerning Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob: I am tiie God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: He is not tiie God of tlic ■That is (AuKiistiii lu-re would sii^jj^tst tin- i-ml)lL-m) uf imt who was lyiriR under the fourth and must terrible form of spiritual death referred to before. — Tk.
= Eph. V. 18.
dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him." 3 Believe then, and though thou wert dead, yet shalt thou live: but if thou believest not, even while thou livest thou art dead. Let us prove this likewise, that if thou believest not, though thou livest thou art dead. To one who was delaying to follow Him, and saying, " Let me first go and bury my father," the Lord said, " Let the dead bury their dead; but come thou and follow me. "■» There was there a dead man requiring to be buried, there were there also dead men to bury the dead: the one was dead in the flesh, the others in soul. And how comes death on the soul? When faith is wanting. How comes death on the body? When the soul is wanting. Therefore thy soul's soul is faith. "He that believeth in me," says Christ, though he were dead in the flesh, yet shall he live in the spirit; till the flesh also rise again, never more to die. This is " he that believeth in me," though he die, " yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth" in the flesh, "and believetii in me," though he shall die in time on account of the death of the flesh, " shall never die," because of the life of the spirit, and the immortality of the resurrection. Such is the meaning of the words, "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who hast come into the world." When I believed this, I believed that Thou art the resurrection, that Thou art the life: I believed that he that believeth in Thee, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Thee, shall never die.
16. "And when she had so. said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister silently, saying. The Master is come, and calleth for thee." It is worthy of notice the way in which the whispering of her voice was denominated silence. For how could she be silent, when she said, " The Master is come, and calleth for thee"? It is also to be noticed why it is that the evangelist has not said where, or when, or how the Lord called for Mary; namely, that in order to preserve the brevity of the narrative, it may rather be understood from the words of Martha.
17. "As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was still in that place where Martha met Him. 'I"he Jews, then, who were witii her in tlie house, ;iiMl com-forted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily, and went out, followed her, saying. She goeth unto the grave, to weep there." What cause had the evangelist to 3 Matt. xxii. 32, and Luke xx. 37, 3(1. 4 Matt. viii. 21, as.
[Tractate XLIX.
tell us this? To show us what it was that occasioned the numerous concourse of people to be there when Lazarus was raised to life. For the Jews, thinking that her reason for hastening away was to seek in weeping the solace of her grief, followed her; that the great miracle of one rising again who had been four days dead, might have the presence of many witnesses.
18. ''Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping,and the Jews also weeping, who were with her, He groaned in the spirit, and troubled Himself,' and said. Where have ye laid him? " Something there is, did we but know it, that He has suggested to us by groaning in the spirit, and troubling Himself. For who could trouble Him, save He Himself? Therefore, my brethren, first give heed here to the power that did so, and then look for the meaning. Thou art troubled against thy will; Christ was troubled because He willed. Jesus hungered, it is true, but because He willed; Jesus slept, it is true, but because He willed; He was sorrowful, it is true, but because He willed; He died, it is true, but because He willed: in His own power it lay to be thus and thus affected or not. For the Word assumed soul and fiesh, fitting on Himself our whole human nature in the oneness of His person. For the soul of the apostle was illuminated by the Word; so was the soul of Peter, the soul of Paul, of the other apostles, and the holy prophets, — the souls of all were illuminated by the Word; but of none was^ it said, " The Word was made flesh;"^ of none was it said, " I and the Father are one."^ The soul and flesh of Christ is one person with the Word of God, one Christ. And by this [Word] wherein resided the supreme power, was infirmity made use of at the beck of His will; and in this way "He troubled Himself."
19. I have spoken of the power: look now to the meaning. It is a great criminal that is signified by that four days' death and burial. Why is it, then, that Christ troubleth Himself, but to intimate to thee how thou ousfhtest to be troubled, when weighed down and crushed by so great a rqass of iniquity? For here thou hast been looking to thyself, been seeing thine own guilt, been reckoning for thyself: I have done this, and God has spared me; I have committed this, and He hath borne with me; I have heard the gospel, and despised it; I have been baptized, and returned again to 1 As in martrin of English Version.
the same course: what am I doing? whither am I going? how shall I escape? When thou speakest thus, Christ is already groaning; for thy faith is groaning. Li the voice of one who groaneth thus, there comes to light the hope of his rising again. If such faith is within, there is Christ groaning; for if there is faith in us, Christ is in us. For what else says the apostle: " That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." -* Therefore thy faith, in Christ is Christ Himself in thy heart. This is why He slept in the ship; and why, when His disciples were in danger and already on the verge of shipwreck, they came to Him and awoke Him. Christ arose, laid His commands on the winds and waves, and there ensued a great calm.s So also with thee; the winds enter thy heart, that is, where thou sailest, where thou passest along this life as a stor-my and dangerous sea; the winds enter, the billows rise and toss thy vessel. What are the winds? Thou hast received some insult, and art wroth: that insult is the wind; that anger, the waves. Thou art in danger, thou preparest to reply, to render cursing for cursing, and thy vessel is already nigh to shipwreck. Awake the Christ who is sleeping. For thou art in commotion, and making ready to render evil for evil, because Christ is sleeping in thy vessel. For the sleep of Christ in thy heart is the forgetfulness of faith. But if thou arousest Christ, that is, recallest thy faith, what dost thou hear said to thee by Christ, when now awake in thy heart? I [He says] have heard it said to me, " Thou hast a devil," * and I have prayed for them. The Lord hears and suffers; the servant hears and is angry! But thou wishest to be avenged. Why so? I am already avenged. When thy faith so speaks to thee, command is exercised, as it were, over the winds and waves, and there is a great calm. As, then, to awaken Christ hi the vessel is just to awaken faith; so in tne heart of one who is pressed down by a great mass and habit of sin, in the heart of the man who has been a transgressor even of the holy gospel and a despiser of eternal punishment, let Christ groan, let such a man betake himself to self-accusation. Hear still more: Christ wept; let man bemoan himself. For why did Christ weep, but to teach man to weep?
Wherefore did He groan and trouble Himself, but to intimate that the faith of one who has just cause to be displeased with himself ought to be in a sense groaning over the accusation of wicked works, to the end that the habit of sinning may give way to the vehemence of penitential sorrow?
4 Eph. iii. 17.
5 Matt. viii. 24-26.
6 Chap. vii. 30.
Tractate XIJX.]
2/7 20. "And He said, Where have ye laid him? " Tiiou knewest that he was dead, and art Thou ignorant of the place of his burial? The meaning here is, that a man thus lost becomes, as it were, unknown to God. I have not ventured to say, Is unknown— for what is unknown to Him? — but, As it were unknown. And how do we prove this? Listen to the Lord, who will yet say in the judgment, "I know you not: depart from me."' What does that mean, " I know you not "? I see you not in that light of mine — in that righteousness which I know. So here, also, as if knowing nothing of such a sinner. He said, "Where have ye laid him?" Similar in character was God's voice in Paradise after man had sinned: "Adam, where art thou? " ^ " They say unto Him, Lord, come and see.'' What means this "see"? Have pity. For the Lord sees when He pities. Hence it is said to Him, " Look upon my humility [affliction] and my pain, and forgive all my sins.''''
21. " Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!" "Loved him," what does that mean? " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." - " But some of them said. Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not die?" But He, who would do nought to hinder his dying, had something greater in view in raising hmi from the dead.
22. "Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the tomb." May His groaning have thee also for its object, if thou wouldst re-enter into life! Every man who lies in that dire moral condition has it said to him, " He cometh to the tomb." " It was a cave, and a stone had been laid upon it.'' Dead under that stone, guilty under the law. For you know that the law, which was given to the Jews, was inscribed on stone. ^ And all the guilty are under the law: the rightliving are in harmony with the law. The law is not laid on a righteous man." What mean then the words, "Take ye away the stone"? Preach grace. For the Apostle Paul calleth liimself a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; " for tiie letter," he says, " killeth, but the spirit giveth life."" The letter that killeth is like the stone tiiat crusheth. '' Take ye away," He saith, "the stone." Take away the weight of the law; preach grace. " For if tliere liad been a law given, whicl\ could have given life, verily rigliteousness should be by the law. But the Scripture hath con- 3 Ps. XXV. iS. '' I Tim. i.;.
eluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."^ Therefore " take ye away the stone."
23. " Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been [dead] four days. 9 Jesus saith unto her. Have I not said unto thee, that, if thou believest, thou shalt see the glory of God? " What does He mean by tnis, "thou shalt see the glory of God ''? That He can raise to life even one who is putrid and hath been four days [dead]. " For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; " '° and, " Where sin abounded, grace also did superabound." " 24. "Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said. Father, I thank Thee, that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always: but because of the people tliat stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. And when He had thus spoken. He cried with a loud voice." He groaned. He wept, He cried with a loud voice. With what difficulty does one rise who lies crushed under the heavy burden of a habit of sinning! And yet he does rise: he is quickened by hidden grace within; and after that loud voice he riseth. For what followed? " He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And immediately he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with bandages;'- and his face was bound about with a napkin." Dost thou wonder how he came forth with liis feet bound, and wonderest not at this, that after four days' interment he rose from the dead? In both events it was the power of the Lord that operated, and not the strength of the dead. He came forth, and yet still was bound. Still in his burial shroud, he has already come outsitle the tomb. What does it mean? While thou despisest [Christ], thou liest in the arms of death; and if thy contempt reacheth the lengths I have mentioned, thou art buried as well: but when thou makest confession, thou comest forth. For what is this coming forth, but the open acknowledgment thou makest of thy state, in quitting, as it were, the old refuges of darkness? But the confession thou makest is effected by God, when He crieth with a loud voice, or in other words, calleth thee in abounding grace. Accordingly, when the dead man had come forth, still bound; confessing, yet guilty still; that his sins also might be taken away, the Lord said to His servants: "Loose him, and let him go." AVhat does lie mean by such words? What- 9 Qnatriduftnns rsi. '" Rom. iii. 23. '- litstitis: Or. iceipian.
2 78 [Tractate XLIX.
soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'
25. "Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done." All of the Jews who had come to Mary did not believe, but many of them did. " But some of them," whether of the Jews who had come, or of those who had believed, " went away to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done: " whether in the way of conveying intelligence, in order that they also might believe, or rather in the spirit of treachery, to arouse their anger. But whoever were the parties, and whatever their motive, intelligence of these events was carried to the Pharisees.
26. " Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said. What do we? " But they did not say. Let us believe. For these abandoned men were more occupied in considering what evil they could do to effect His ruin, than in consulting for their own preservation: and yet they were afraid, and took counsel of a kind together. For " they said. What do we? for this man doeth many miracles: if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him; and the Romans shall come, and take away both our place and nation." They were afraid of losing their temporal possessions, and thought not of life eternal; and so they lost both. For the Romans, after our Lord's passion and entrance into glory, took from them both their place and nation, when they took the one by storm and transported the other: and now that also pursues them, which is said elsewhere, " But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness. ""^ But this was what they feared, that if all believed on Christ, there would be none remaining to defend the city of God and the temple against the Romans; just because they had a feeling that Christ's teaching was directed against the temple itself and their own paternal laws.
27. "And one of them, [named] Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them. Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied." We are here taught that the Spirit of prophecy used the agency even of wicked men to foretell what was future; which, however, the evangelist attributes to