4. These, then, were the words of praise addressed to Jesus by the multitude, "Hosanna: blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel." What a cross of mental suffering must the Jewish rulers have endured when they heard so great a multitude proclaiming Christ as their King! But what honor was it to the Lord to be King of Israel? What great thing was it to the King of eternity to become the King of men? For Christ's kingship over Israel was not for the purpose of exacting tribute, of putting swords into His soldiers' hands, of subduing His enemies by open warfare; but He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over their inward natures, in consulting for their eternal interests, in bringing into His heavenly kingdom those whose faith, and hope, and love were centred in Himself. Accordingly, for the Son of God, the Father's equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in His good pleasure to be King of Israel, was an act of condescension and not of promotion; a token of compassion, and not any increase of power. For He who was called on earth the King of the Jews, is in the heavens the Lord of angels.
5. "And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon." Here the account is briefly given: for how it all happened may be found at full length in the other evangelists.'* But there is appended to the circumstance itself a testimony from the prophets, to make it evident that He in whom was fulfilled all they read in Scripture, was entirely misunderstood by the evil-minded rulers of 4 Matt. xxi. 1-16; Mark xi. i-ii; Luke xix. 29-4S.
the Jews. Jesus, then, " found a young ass, and sat thereon; as it is written. Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." Among that people, then, was the daughter of Zion to be found; for Zion is the same as Jerusalem. Among that very people, I say, reprobate and blind as they were, was the daughter of Zion, to whom it was said, " Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." This daughter of Zion, who was thus divinely addressed, was amongst those sheep that were hearing the Shepherd's voice, and in that multitude which was celebrating the Lord's coming with such religious zeal, and accompanying Him in such warlike array. To her was it said, " Fear not:" acknowledge Him whom thou art now extolling, and give not way to fear when lie comes to suffering; for by the shedding of His blood is thy guilt to be blotted out, and thy life restored. But by the ass's colt, on which no man had ever sat (for so it is found recorded in the other evangelists), we are to understand the Gentile nations which had not received the law of the Lord; by the ass, on the other hand (for both animals were brought to the Lord), that people of His which came of the nation of Israel, and was already so far subdued as to recognize its Master's crib.
6 " These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified,'^ that is, when He had manifested the power of His resurrection, " then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and they had done these things unto Him," that is, they did nothing else but what had been written concerning Him. In short, mentally comparing with the contents of Scripture what was accomplished both prior to and in the course of our Lord's passion, they found this also therein, that it was in accordance with the utterance of the proplij^ts that He sat on an ass's colt.
7. " The people, therefore, that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the crowd also met Him, for that they heard that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves: Perceive ye that we prevail nothing? Behold, the whole world is gone after Him." Mob set mob in motion. 5 " But why art thou, blinded mob that thou art, filled with envy because the world has gone after its Maker?"
8. " And there were certain Gentiles among them that had come up to worship at the feast: 5 Turha turbavit turbain.
Tractate LI.]
the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying. Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus." Let us hearken to the Lord's reply. See how the Jews wish to kill Him, the Gentiles to see Him; and yet those, too, were of the Jews who cried, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel." Here, then, were they of the circumcision and they of the uncircumcision, like two house walls running from different directions and meeting together with the kiss of peace, in the one faith of Christ. Let us listen, then, to the voice of the Cornerstone: "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." Perhaps some one supposes here that He spake of Himself as glorified, because the Gentiles wished to see Him.
Such is not the case. But He saw the Gentiles themselves in all nations coming to tlie faith after His own passion and resurrection, because, as the apostle says, " Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should become in.^'' Taking occasion, therefore, from those Gentiles who desired to see Him, He announces the future fullness of the Gentile nations, and promises the near approach of the hour when He should be glorified Himself, and when, on its consummation in heaven, the Gentile nations should be brought to the faith. To this it is that the prediction pointed, " Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth. ""= Such is the fullness of the Gentiles, of which the apostle saith, " Blindness in part is happened to Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles come in."
9. But the height of His glorification had to be preceded by the dei^th of His passion. Accordingly, He went on to add, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." But He spake of Himself. He Himself was the grain that had to die, and be multiplied; to suffer death tlirough the unbelief of the Jews, and to be multiplied in the faith of many nations.
10. And now, by way of exhortation to follow in the path of His own passion. He acUls, " He that loveth his life shall lose it," which may be understood in two ways: " He that loveth shall lose," that is, If thou lovest, be ready to lose; if thou wouldst possess life in Christ, be not afraid of death for Christ. Or I Rom. xi. 25.
= I's. cviii. 5.
otherwise, " He that loveth his life shall lose It.'' Do not love for fear of losing; love it not here, lest thou lose it in eternity. But what I have said last seems better to correspond with the meaning of the Gospel, for there follow the words, "And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." So that when it is said in the previous clause, " He that loveth," there is to be understood in this world, he it is that shall lose it. "But he that hateth," that is, in this world; is he that shall keep it unto life eternal. Surely a profound and strange declaration as to the measure of a man's love for his own life that leads to its destruction, and of his hatred to it that secures its preservation! If in a sinful way thou lovest it, then dost thou really hate it; if in a way accordant with what is good thou hast hated it, then hast thou really loved it. Happy they who have so hated their life while keeping it, that their love shall not cause them to lose it. But beware of harboring the notion that thou mayest court self-destruction by any such understanding of thy duty to hate thy life in this world. For on such grounds it is that certain wrong-minded and perverted people, who, with regard to themselves, are murderers of a specially cruel and impious character, commit themselves to the flames, suffocate themselves in water, dash themselves against a precipice, and perish. Tliis was no teaching of Christ's, who, on the other hand, met the devil's suggestion of a precipice with the answer, "Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. "3 To Peter also He said, signifying by what death he should glorify God, "When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: butwlien thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not;"-' — where He made it sufficiently j)lain that it is not by himself but by another that one must be slain who follows in the footsteps of Christ. And so, when one's case has reached the crisis that this condition is placed before him, either that he must act contrary to the divine commantlment or quit this life, and that a man is compelled to choose one or other of the two by the persecutor who is threatening him with death, in sucli circumstances let him |)refer dying in the love of God to living under His anger, in sucli circumstances let him iiate his life in this world that he may keep it unto life eternal.
II. " If any man serve me, let iiim follow me." What is that, "let him follow me," 3 Matt. iv. 7.
[Tractate LI.
but just, let him imitate me? "Because Christ suffered for us," says the Apostle Peter, " leaving us an example that we should follow His steps."' Here you have the meaning of the words, " If any man serve me, let him follow me." But with what result? what wages? what reward? "And where I am," He says, "there shall also my servant be." Let Him be freely loved, that so the reward of the service done Him may be to be with Him. For where will one be well apart from Him, or when will one come to feel himself in an evil case in company with Him? Hear it still more plainly: " If any man serve me, him will my Father honor." And what will be the honor but to be with His Son? For of what He said before, " Where I am, there shall also my servant be," we may understand Him as giving the explanation, when He says here, "him will my Father honor." For what greater honor can await an adopted son than to be with the Only-begotten; not, indeed, as raised to the level of His Godhead, but made a partaker of His eternity? 12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if we have taken up the idea that the serving of Christ is the preparation of what is needful for the body, or the cooking and serving up of food, or the mixing of drink and handing the cup to one at the supper table; this, indeed, was done to Him by those who had the privilege of His bodily presence, as in the case of Martha and Mary, when Lazarus also was one of those who sat at the table. But in that sort of way Christ was served also by the reprobate Judas; for it was he also who had the money bag; and although he had the exceeding wickedness to steal of its contents, yet it was he also who provided what was needful for the meal.'' And so also, when our Lord said to him, "What thou doest, do quickly," there were some who thought that He only gave him orders to make some needful preparations for the feast-day, or to give something to the poor. 3 In no sense, therefore, was it of this class of servants that the Lord said, " Where I am, there shall also my servant be," and "If any man serve me, him will my Father honor;" for we see that Judas, who served in this way, became an object of reprobation rather than of honor. Why, then, go elsewhere to find out what this serving of Christ I I Pet. ii. 21.
= Chap. xii. 2-6. There is no ground in these verses for Augustin's notion that the expense of that supper was defrayed out of the funds in Judas' keeping. The whole account leaves the impression that It was provided by Lazarus and his sisters, aUhough, strictly speaking, enoirjaav (ver. 2) leaves it undetermined. — Tr.
implies, and not rather see its disclosure in the words themselves? for when He said, " If any man serve me, let him follow me," He wished it to be understood just as if He had said. If any man doth not follow me, he serveth me not. And those, therefore, are the servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things that are- Jesus Christ's." For " let him follow me" is just this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, " He that saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. "^ For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand doeth;* in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serveth in this way serveth Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of those who are mine, ye did it unto me."' And thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body, but every good work, for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth " ^), he is Christ's servant even to that work of special love, which is to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members: Inasmuch as ye did it for these, ye have done it for me. And certainly it was in reference to such a work that He was also ^.leased to make and to style Himself a servant, when He says, " Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto [served], but to minister [serve], and to lay down His life for many. "» Every one, therefore, is the servant of Christ in the same way as Christ also is a servant./ And he that serveth Christ in this way will be honored by His Father with the signal honor of being with His Son, and having nothing wanting to his happiness for ever.
13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, "Where I am, there shall also my servant be," do not think merely of good bishops and clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection he owes as a parent to his family. For Christ's sake, and for the sake of life eternal, let him be warning, and 4 Phil. ii. 21. 7 Matt. XXV. 40.
6 Matt. vi. 3. 9 Matt. XX. 28.
Tractate LI I.]
teaching, and exhorting, and correcting all his household; let him show kindliness, and exercise discipline; and so in his own house he will be filling an ecclesiastical and kind of episcopal office, and serving Christ, that he may be with Him for ever. For even that noblest service of suffering has been rendered by many of your class; for many who were neither bishops nor clergy, but young men and virgins, those advanced in years with those who were not, many married persons both male and female, many fathers and mothers of families, have served Christ even to the laying down of their lives in martyrdom for His sake, and have been honored by the Father in receiving crowns of exceeding glory.
TRACTATE LIl.
Chapter XH. 27-36.
1. After the Lord Jesus Christ, in the words of yesterday's lesson, had exhorted His servants to follow Him, and had predicted His own passion in this way, that unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; and also had stirred up those who wished to follow Him to the kingdom of heaven, to hate their life in this world if their thought was to keep it unto life eternal, — He again toned down His own feelings to our infirmity and says, where our lesson to-day commenced, "Now is my soul' troubled." Whence, Lord, was Thy soul troubled? He had, indeed, said a little before, " He that hateth his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Dost thou then love thy life in this world, and is thy soul troubled as the hour approacheth when thou shalt leave this world? Who would dare affirm this of the soul [life] of the Lord? We rather it was whom He transferred unto Himself; He took us into His own person as our Head, and assumed the feelings of His members; and so it was not by any others He was troubled, but, as was said of Him when He raised Lazarus, " He was troubled in Himself,"- For it behoved the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, just as He has lifted us up to the heights of heaven, to descend with us also into the lowest depths of suffering.
2. Lhear Him saying a little before, " The ■ 'I'he word anima used here, and frequently elsewhere, and correspondin;i{ to the Creek i/zuxij, denotes " hiim:in lift," in reference to its internal principle or substance; aiitl dilfers from " vita " (Gr. i'un)), as in the words followinj; above, " unto eternal life" (vitatn), which expresses rather the general idea of life in its existence, agKrc>jate qualities, and duration. Our Kn>;Iish word "soul," which best corresponds with aniiiui^ is, however, more restricted in the idea which it popularly su^tgests; and hence, as in our English version of the Scriptures, the apparent confusion, which is unavoidable, in translating anima sometimes by "soul" and sometimes hy " life." — Tu. • = Chap. xi. 33: literally, as in margin of English Bible, " He troubled Himself."
hour cometh that the Son of man should be glorified: if acorn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit." I hear this also, " He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Nor am I permitted merely to admire, but commanded to imitate, and so, by the words that follow, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be," I am all on fire to despise the world, and in my sight the whole of this life, however lengthened, becomes only a vapor; in comparison with my love for eternal things, all that is temporal has lost its value with me. And now, again, it is my Lord Himself, who by such words has suddenly transported me from the weakness that was mine to the strength that was His, that 1 hear saying, " Now is my soul troubled." What does it mean? How biddest Thou my soul follow Thee if I behold Thine own troubled? How shall I endure what is felt to be heavy by strength so great? What is the kind of foundation I can seek if tlie Rock is giving way? But methinks I hear in my own tlioughts the Lord giving me an answer, saying. Thou siialt follow me the better, because it is to aid thy power of endurance that I thus interpose. Thou hast heard, as addressed to thyself, the voice of my fortitude; hear in me the voice of thy infirmity: I sujiply strength for thy running, and I check not thy hastening, but I transfer to myself thy causes for trembling, and I pave the way for thy marching along. O Lord our Mediator, God above us, man for us, I own Thy mercy! For because Thou, who art so great, art troubled through the good will of Thy love. Thou preservest, by the richness of Thy comfort, the many in Thy body who are troubled by the continual experience of their own weakness, from perishing utterly in their despair.
[Tractate LII.
3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is set before thee either to do iniquity or endure suffering; the weak soul is troubled, on whose behalf the invincible soul [of Jesus] was voluntarily troubled; set then the will of God before thine own. For notice what is immediately subjoined by thy Creator and thy Master, by Him who made thee, and became Himself for thy teaching that which He made; for He who made man was made man, but He remained still the unchangeable God, and transplanted manhood into a better condition. Listen, then, to what He adds to the words, " Now is my soul troubled." "And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." He has taught thee here what to think of, what to say, on whom to call, in whom to hope, and whose will, as sure and divine, to prefer to thine own, which is human and weak. Imagine Him not, therefore, as losing aught of His own exalted position in wishing thee to rise up out of the depths of thy ruin. For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil, by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the devil are such as thou also oughtest to use in times of temptation.' And He, indeed, was tempted, but not endangered, that He might show thee, when in danger through temptation, how to answer the tempter, so as not to be carried away by the temptation, but to escape its danger. But when He here said, " Now is my soul troubled;" and also when He says, "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death;" and " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; " He assumed the infirmity of man, to teach him, when thereby saddened and troubled, to say what follows: " Nevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt."^ For thus it is that man is turned from the human to the divine, when the will of God is preferred to his own. But to what do the words " Glorify Thy name " refer, but to His own passion and resurrection? For what else can it mean, but that the Father should thus glorify the Son, who in like manner glorifieth His own name in the similar sufferings of His servants? Hence it is recorded of Peter, that for this cause He said concerning him, "Another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not," because He intended to signify " by what death he should glorify God."^ Tlierefore in him, too, did God glorify His name, because thus also does He glorify Christ in His members.
4. " Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." " I have both glorified it," before I created the world, " and I will glorify it again," when He shall rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise understood. " I have both glorified it," — when He was born of the Virgin, when He exercised miraculous powers; when the Magi, guided by a star in the heavens, bowed in adoration before Him; when He was recognized by saints filled with the Holy Spirit; when He was openly proclaimed by the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove, and pointed out by the voice that sounded from heaven; when He was transfigured on the mount; when He wrought many miracles, cured and cleansed multitudes, fed so vast a number with a very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and raised the dead; — "and I will glorify it again;" when He shall rise from the dead; when death shall have no longer dominion over Him; and when He shall be exalted over the heavens as God, and His glory over all the earth.
5. " The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said. An angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said. This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. " He thereby showed that the voice made no intimation to Him of what He already knew, but to those who needed the information. And just as that voice was uttered by God, not on His account, but on that of others, so His soul was troubled, not on His own account, but voluntarily for the sake of others.
6. Look at what follows: " Now," He says, "is the judgment of the world." What, then, are we to expect at tl>e end of time? But the judgment that is looked for in the end will be the judging of the living and the dead, the awarding of eternal rewards and punishment. Of what sort, then, is the judgment now? I have already, in former lessons, as far as I could, put you in mind, beloved, that there is a judgment spoken of, not of condemnation, but of discrimination; •• as it is written, " Judge me, O God, and plead [discern, discriminate] my cause against an unholy nation. " s And many are the judgments of God; as it is said in the psalm, " Thy judgments are a great deep." ^ I Matt. iv. i-io.
4 Or, discernment, discretlo, 5 Fs. xliii. I.
see Tract. XLTII. sec. 9. 6 Ps. xxxvi. 6.
Tractate LI I.]
And the apostle also says, "0 the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments!" ' To such judgments does that spoken of here by the Lord also belong, " Novv is the judgment of this world; " while that judgment in the end is reserved, when the living and the dead shall at last be judged. The devil, therefore, had possession of the human race, and held them by the written bond of their sins as criminals amenable to punishment; he ruled in the hearts of unbelievers, and, deceiving and enslaving them, seduced them to forsake the Creator and give worship to the creature; but by faith in Christ, which was confirmed by His death and resurrection, and, by His blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, thousands of believers are delivered from the dominion of the devil, are united to the body of Christ, and under this great head are made by His one Spirit to spring up into new life as His faithful members. This it was that He called the judgment, this righteous separation, this expulsion of the devil from His own redeemed.
7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been inquiring what He meant by saying, " Now is the judgment of the world," He proceeded to explain it when He says, " Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." What we have thus heard was the kind of judgment He meant. Not that one, therefore, which is yet to come in the end, when the living and dead shall be judged, some of them set apart on His right hand, and the others on His left; but that judgment by which " the prince of this world shall be cast out." In what sense, then, was he within, and whither did He mean that he was to be cast out? Was it this: That he was in the world, and was cast forth beyond its boundaries? For had He been speaking of that judgment which is yet to come in the end, some one's thoughts might iiave turned to that eternal fire into which the devil is to be cast with his angels, and all wlio belong to him; — that is, not naturally, but througii moral delinquency; not because he created or begat them, but because he persuaded and kept hold of them: some one, therefore, might have thought that that eternal fire was outside the world, and that tiiis was the meaning of the words, " he shall be cast out." But as He says, " Now is the judgment of this world," and in exjilanation of His meaning, adds, *' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out," we are thereby to understand » Rom.
» Rom.
what is now being done, and not what is to be, so long afterwards, at the last day. The Lord, therefore, foretold what He knew, that after His own passion and glorification, many nations throughout the whole world, in whose hearts the devil was an inmate, would become believers, and the devil, when thus renounced by faith, is cast out.
8. But some one says. Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time.'' Certainly he was. How, then, is it said, " Now he shall be cast out "? How else can we think of it, but that what was then done in the case of a very few individuals, was now foretold as speedily to take place in many and mighty nations? Just as also that other saying, "" For the Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified," - may suggest a similar inquiry, and find a similar solution. For it was not without the Holy Spirit that the prophets predicted the events of the future; nor was it so that the aged Simeon and the widowed Anna knew by the Holy Spirit the infant Lord;^ and that Zacharias and Elisabeth uttered by the Holy Spirit so many predictions concerning Him, when He was not yet born, but only conceived.-* But " the Spirit was not yet given;" that is, with that abundance of spiritual grace which enal)led those assembled together to speak in every language, ^ and thus announce beforehand in the language of every nation the Church of the future: and so by this spiritual grace it was that nations were gathered into congregations, sins were pardoned far and wide, and thousands of thousands were reconciled unto God.