Homilies on Matthew, Homily 11

“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming anger?” How, then, does Christ say that they did not believe John? Because refusing to receive Him whom John preached was not believing. In the same way, they thought they respected their prophets and their lawgiver, yet He said they had not respected them, because they did not receive Him whom they foretold. “For if you had believed Moses,” He says, “you would have believed Me.” And later, when Christ asked them, “Where did John’s baptism come from?” they said, “If we say, From earth, we fear the people; if we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why, then, did you not believe him?” All this makes it clear that they did come and were baptized, yet they did not remain faithful to what was preached. For John also exposes their wickedness when some of them sent to the Baptist and asked, “Are you Elijah? Are you Christ?” That is why he also added, “Those who were sent were Pharisees.” “What, then? Didn’t the crowds think the same thing?” someone may ask. No, the crowds wondered about this in their innocence, but the Pharisees wanted to trap Him. Since everyone acknowledged that Christ comes from David’s village, and this man belonged to the tribe of Levi, they set a trap with their question, so that if he made any such claim, they could immediately attack him. The evangelist makes this clear in what follows: even when John did not claim to be any of the people they expected, they still challenged him, saying, “Why, then, do you baptize if you are not the Christ?” And to convince you that the Pharisees came with one intention and the people with another, listen to how the evangelist makes this clear too. He says of the people “that they came and were baptized by him, confessing their sins.” But he no longer speaks that way about the Pharisees. Instead, he says, “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he said, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming anger?” What courage! How boldly he speaks to men who are always thirsting for the prophets’ blood and whose character is no better than snakes’! How openly he condemns both them and their ancestors! 2. “Yes,” someone says, “he speaks plainly enough, but the question is whether there is any reason for this plain speaking. He did not see them sinning, but changing their ways. So they deserved praise and approval rather than blame for leaving the city and their homes and hurrying to hear him preach.” What, then, should we say? That he was not looking at their present actions, at what they were doing at that moment. He knew the secrets of their minds because God had revealed them. Since they took pride in their ancestors, and this threatened to destroy them and was making them careless, he cuts away the roots of their pride. For this reason Isaiah also calls them “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah,” and another prophet says, “Are you not like children of the Ethiopians?” All the prophets turn them away from this way of thinking, bringing down the pride that had caused them countless evils. “But the prophets,” you will say, “naturally did this, because they saw them sinning. Here, though, what is his purpose, and why does he do the same when he sees them obeying him?” To make their hearts still more responsive. But if you look closely at his words, he has also tempered his rebuke with praise. He spoke this way as though amazed that, however late, they had become able to do what had seemed almost impossible for them. His rebuke, you see, is more like that of someone winning them over and moving them to wake up. By appearing amazed, he suggests both how great their former wickedness was and how marvelous and unexpected their conversion is. “What has happened,” he says, “that, although they are children of those men and were brought up so badly, they have repented? Where has such a great change come from? Who has softened their harsh spirit? Who has cured what was incurable?” And see how he immediately alarmed them from the start, laying his words about hell as the first foundation. He did not speak about the usual subjects: “Who warned you to flee from wars, from barbarian invasions, from captivity, from famines, from plagues?” Instead, he sounded the first warning of another kind of punishment, one never before revealed to them, saying, “Who warned you to flee from the coming anger?” And he was quite right to call them a “brood of vipers.” For that animal too is said to destroy its mother while she is giving birth, eating through her belly to emerge into the light. These men did the same kind of thing, being “murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,” and killing their teachers with their own hands. 3. Still, he does not stop at rebuke, but adds advice as well. “Produce,” he says, “fruit worthy of repentance.” For fleeing from wickedness is not enough; you must also display great virtue. Do not let me see that contradictory but common pattern: you restrain yourselves for a little while, then return to the same wickedness. For we have not come with the same aims as the prophets before us. No, things have now changed and risen higher, because the Judge Himself is now coming, the very Lord of the kingdom, leading us to greater self-restraint, calling us to heaven, and drawing us up to those dwellings. This is why I also explain the teaching about hell: both the good things and the painful things last forever. So do not remain as you are, or bring forward the usual excuses: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and your ancestors’ noble lineage.” He said this not to forbid them from saying they descended from those holy men, but to forbid them from relying on this while neglecting virtue in their souls. At the same time, he publicly exposed what was in their minds and foretold what was to come. For later we find them saying, “We have Abraham as our father and have never been slaves to anyone.” Since this above all filled them with pride and ruined them, he first puts it down. And see how he combines his correction on these matters with honor for the patriarch. After saying, “Do not think of saying, We have Abraham as our father,” he did not say, “For the patriarch will not be able to help you at all.” Instead, he conveyed the very same thing in a gentler, more acceptable way, saying, “For God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.” Now some say that he is speaking here about the Gentiles, calling them stones metaphorically. But I say the expression also has another meaning. What is it? Do not think, he says, that if you perish, you will leave the patriarch childless. That is not so, not so at all. For God can both give him people out of stones and bring them into that family relationship, since this is also what happened at the beginning. It was like people being born from stones when a child came from that hardened womb. This is also what the prophet was suggesting when he said, “Look to the hard rock from which you were cut, and to the hollow of the pit from which you were dug: look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you.” You see, he reminds them of this prophecy, showing that if God made Abraham a father at the beginning as miraculously as if He had done it from stones, this could happen now as well. And see how he both alarms them and cuts off their claim: he did not say, “He has already raised them up,” which might have made them despair of themselves, but that He “is able to raise them up.” And he did not say, “He is able to make people out of stones,” but something much greater: “relatives and children of Abraham.” Do you see how, for the time being, he drew them away from their empty ideas about bodily descent and from taking refuge in their ancestors, so that they might rest their hope of salvation on their own repentance and self-restraint? Do you see how, by rejecting their relationship according to the flesh, he introduces the relationship that comes through faith? 4. Notice, then, how what follows also increases their alarm and intensifies their agonizing fear. After saying that “God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones,” he added, “And even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees,” making his speech alarming in every way. Just as his way of life gave him great freedom to speak, so they needed his severe rebuke, having remained barren for so long. “Why do I say,” as he puts it, “that you are about to lose your relationship to the patriarch and see others, even people made from stones, brought into your privileged position? Your penalty will not stop there; your punishment will go further. For even now,” he says, “the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” Nothing is more terrifying than this turn in his speech. It is no longer “a flying sickle,” or “the tearing down of a hedge,” or “the trampling of the vineyard,” but an extremely sharp axe. And worse still, it is already at the door. Because they continually disbelieved the prophets and used to say, “Where is the day of the Lord?” and “Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, so that we may know it,” since many years passed before the prophets’ words came true, he places these terrors close at hand to take away this source of reassurance too. He makes this clear by saying “now” and by placing the axe at “the root.” “There is no interval left now,” he says, “but it is laid at the very root.” And he did not say “at the branches” or “at the fruit,” but “at the root,” indicating that if they were careless, they would have to endure horrors beyond remedy, without even a hope of recovery. For the one who has now come is no servant, as those before Him were, but the very Lord of all, bringing His fierce and fully effective vengeance upon them. Yet although he has frightened them again, he does not let them fall into despair. Just as before he did not say, “He has raised up,” but “He is able to raise up children for Abraham,” both alarming and comforting them at once, so here too he did not say that “it has touched the root,” but “it is laid at the root, is now close beside it, and shows no sign of delay.” Still, even though He has brought it so close, He makes its cutting depend on you. If you change and become better people, this axe will go away without doing anything. But if you continue in the same ways, He will tear the tree up by its roots. Notice, then, that the axe is neither removed from the root nor, as it lies there, cutting at all. The first keeps you from growing careless; the second lets you know that even in a short time you can change and be saved. So he also heightens their fear from every direction, thoroughly waking them up and pressing them toward repentance. First comes the loss of their relationship to their ancestors; next, others being brought in to replace them; finally, those terrors at their doors and the certainty of suffering evils beyond remedy, both of which he indicated by the root and the axe. This was enough to wake even the most careless completely and fill them with anxiety. I would add that Paul too was expressing the same thing when he said, “The Lord will make a short word over the whole world.” But do not be afraid—or rather, be afraid, but do not despair. You still have hope of changing; the sentence does not take effect entirely on its own, nor did the axe come to cut (otherwise, what kept it from cutting, so close to the root?). It came instead to make you a better person through this fear and prepare you to bear fruit. That is why he added, “Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” By the word “every,” he again rejects the privilege they claimed from their noble descent. “Even if you are Abraham’s own descendant,” he says, “even if you can list thousands of patriarchs, you will only suffer double punishment if you remain unfruitful.” With these words he alarmed even tax collectors and startled the soldiers, without driving them to despair, yet stripping away all their sense of security. For along with the terror, his words also offer great encouragement: by saying “that does not produce good fruit,” he indicated that whatever bears fruit is delivered from all vengeance. 5. “And how,” someone asks, “will we be able to bear fruit when the blade is being applied, time is so short, and the appointed season has been cut short?” “You will be able to,” he says, “because this fruit is not like the fruit of ordinary trees, which takes a long time, is bound by the requirements of the seasons, and needs much other care. Here, being willing is enough, and the tree immediately produces its fruit. For it is not only the nature of the root, but above all the farmer’s skill, that contributes to this kind of fruitfulness.” For this reason, let me add, he has added words to show how easy it is to bear this fruit, so that they cannot say, “You frighten us, press us, and force us, applying an axe and threatening to cut us down, while demanding fruit at the very time of punishment.” He says, “I indeed baptize you with water, but He who comes after me is mightier than I, and I am not worthy to untie His sandal strap; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” This implies that only willingness and faith are needed, not labor and toil; and just as it is easy to be baptized, so it is easy to turn and become better people. So, after stirring their minds with fear of God’s judgment and expectation of His punishment, with the mention of the axe, the loss of their ancestors, the introduction of those other children, and the double vengeance of being cut down and burned, and after using every means to soften their hardness and bring them to desire deliverance from such great evils, he introduces what he has to say about Christ. And he does not introduce Him simply, but declares His great superiority. Then, in explaining the difference between himself and Him, he establishes it by comparing the gifts each bestows, so that he will not seem to be saying this out of favoritism. For he did not immediately say, “I am not worthy to untie His sandal strap.” First he explained the limited value of his own baptism and showed that it does no more than lead them to repentance (for he did not say with water for forgiveness, but for repentance). Then he describes Christ’s baptism too, which is full of the inexpressible gift. He seems to say, “So that, when you hear He comes after me, you will not despise Him for coming later, learn the power of His gift. Then you will clearly know that I said nothing worthy of Him or impressive when I said, ‘I am not worthy to untie His sandal strap.’ Likewise, when you hear, ‘He is mightier than I,’ do not think I meant to make a comparison. For I am not worthy even to be counted among His servants—not even the lowest of His servants—or to perform the least honored part of His service.” That is why He did not merely say he was unworthy to untie “His sandals,” but that he was unworthy even to untie “the strap”—a task considered the lowest of all. Then, to keep you from attributing what he said to humility, he also adds proof from the facts: “For He will baptize you,” he says, “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” 6. Do you see how wise the Baptist is? When He Himself is preaching, He says everything that will alarm them and fill them with anxiety; but when He is sending people to Him, He says whatever is gentle and suited to restore them. He does not bring up the axe, the tree cut down and burned and thrown into the fire, or the coming anger, but forgiveness of sins, removal of punishment, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, adoption, brotherhood, a share in the inheritance, and an abundant supply of the Holy Spirit. For he hinted at all these things when he said, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” By the very figure of speech he declared the abundance of grace (for he did not say, “He will give you the Holy Spirit,” but “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”), while by specifying fire he indicated the intense and uncontrollable character of His grace. Just imagine what kind of people the hearers ought to have become when they considered that they were immediately to become like the prophets and those great men. You see, this is why he mentioned fire at all: to lead them to remember those men. For I might almost say that most of the visions that appeared to them appeared in fire. This is how God spoke with Moses in the bush, with all the people on Mount Sinai, and with Ezekiel on the cherubim. And notice again how he rouses the hearer by putting first what was to happen last of all. For the Lamb had to be slain, sin blotted out, hostility destroyed, the burial and resurrection accomplished, and then the Spirit would come. But he does not yet mention any of these things. Instead, he puts first what came last, what all the earlier things were done for, and what was best suited to proclaim His dignity. In this way, when the hearer was told he would receive so great a Spirit, he might ask himself how and in what way this would happen while sin was so powerful. Then, finding him thoughtful and ready for that teaching, John could introduce what he had to say about the Passion, with no one taking offense anymore because they expected such a gift. That is why he cried out again, saying, “Look, the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world.” He did not say “who forgives it,” but something that implies greater protective care: “who bears it.” For simply forgiving it and taking it upon Himself are not the same. The one could be done without danger; the other involved death. And again, he said, “He is the Son of God.” But even this did not openly reveal His rank to the hearers (for they did not yet even know how to think of Him as a true Son). That too, however, was established by so great a gift of the Spirit. So when the Father sent John, He gave him, as you know, this as an initial sign of the dignity of the One who had come, saying, “The One on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” That is why John himself also says, “I have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God,” as though the one fact were clear evidence of the other for all time. 7. Then, after delivering the gentler part of his message and soothing and relaxing the hearer, he tightens his hold again, so that the hearer will not grow careless. For such was the character of the Jewish nation: anything encouraging easily filled them with pride and corrupted them. So he again brings forward his terrors, saying, “His winnowing fan is in His hand.” Thus, just as he spoke earlier of punishment, here he also points out the Judge and introduces eternal vengeance. “He will burn the chaff,” he says, “with unquenchable fire.” You see that He is Lord of all things and that He Himself is the Farmer, although elsewhere He calls His Father the same thing. “My Father,” He says, “is the Farmer.” Since John had spoken of an axe, he uses another comparison to suggest how easy the work is, so that you will not suppose it requires hard labor and the separation is difficult. He implies that the whole world is His, since He could not punish those who were not His own. At present, it is true, all are mixed together (for although the wheat shines through, it still lies with the chaff, as on a threshing floor rather than in a storehouse). But then the separation will be great. Where now are those who refuse to believe in hellfire? Surely two points are established here: one, that He will baptize with the Holy Spirit; the other, that He will burn up the disobedient. If the first is believable, then the second certainly is too. Yes, this is why John places the two predictions side by side: through what has already happened, he gives credibility to what has not yet happened. Christ Himself also does this in many places, setting down two prophecies, often about the same things and often about opposites. He fulfills one here and promises the other in the future, so that those who are excessively argumentative may believe what has not yet happened because of what has already come true. For example, He promised those who give up everything they have for His sake a hundred times as much in the present world and eternal life in the world to come, making the future believable through what has already been given. As we see, John has done the same here, stating two things: that He will both baptize with the Holy Spirit and burn up with unquenchable fire. Now, if He had not baptized the apostles with the Spirit, and all who are willing every day, you might have doubts about those other things too. But if what seems greater and more difficult, and goes beyond all reason, has been done and is done every day, how can you deny the truth of what is easy and accords with reason? So, after saying, “He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire,” and in doing so promising great blessings, he added the winnowing fan and the judgment it signifies, so that you would not entirely forget the earlier warnings and grow careless. “Do not think for a moment,” he says, “that your baptism is enough if you become worthless people afterward.” For we need both virtue and an abundance of that familiar self-restraint. Therefore, just as he uses the axe to urge them toward grace and the baptismal font, so after grace he frightens them with the winnowing fan and the unquenchable fire. Among the first group, those still unbaptized, he makes no distinction, but says generally, “Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down,” punishing all unbelievers. After baptism, however, He makes a division, because many who believed would live lives unworthy of their faith. So let no one become chaff; let no one be tossed back and forth or lie exposed to wicked desires, easily blown in every direction by them. For if you remain wheat, you will suffer nothing dreadful even if temptation comes upon you. Indeed, on the threshing floor, the cart’s sawlike wheels do not cut the wheat to pieces. But if you fall into the weakness of chaff, you will both suffer incurable evils here, struck by everyone, and undergo eternal punishment there. For even before that furnace, all such people become food for irrational passions here, as chaff is food for beasts; and there they become material and food for the flame. Simply saying directly that He will judge people’s actions would not have won acceptance for His teaching so effectively. Mixing it with the parable and establishing it all in this way was better suited to persuade the hearer and attract him with fuller encouragement. That is also why Christ Himself usually speaks to them in this way, weaving into His teaching the threshing floor, harvest, vineyard, winepress, field, net, fishing, and all the familiar things they worked with. The Baptist did the same here and offered an exceptionally strong proof of his words: the giving of the Spirit. “He who has such great power that He can both forgive sins and give the Spirit will much more have these things within His power too.” That is his meaning. Do you see how the mystery was now laid as a foundation in its proper order, before the resurrection and judgment? “And why,” someone may ask, “did he not mention the signs and wonders He was about to perform?” Because this was greater than all of them, and all of them were done for its sake. So by mentioning the chief thing, he included everything: the breaking of death’s power, the abolition of sins, the blotting out of the curse, the ending of those long wars, our entrance into paradise, our ascent into heaven, our citizenship with the angels, and our share in the good things to come. For this is truly the pledge of them all. So by mentioning this, he also mentioned the resurrection of our bodies, the display of His miracles here, our share in His kingdom, and the good things that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the human heart.” For He bestowed all these things on us through that gift. It was therefore unnecessary to speak of the signs that would immediately follow and could be judged by sight. Instead, he needed to speak about the things they doubted: for example, that He is the Son of God; that He surpasses John beyond comparison; that He “bears the sin of the world”; that He will demand an account of everything we do; and that what concerns us is not limited to the present, but that elsewhere everyone will undergo the penalty they deserve. For these things could not yet be proved by sight. 8. So, knowing these things, let us make every effort while we are on the threshing floor. For while we are here, it is possible to change even from chaff into wheat, just as, on the other hand, many have changed from wheat into chaff. So let us not be careless or be carried about by every wind. And let us not separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters, even if they seem insignificant and lowly, since wheat too has less bulk than chaff but is better in nature. So do not look at displays of outward splendor, for they are destined for the fire. Look instead at this godly humility, so firm and indestructible, which cannot be cut apart or burned by fire. It is for the sake of the wheat that He patiently bears even with the chaff, so that through association with the wheat the chaff may become better. This is why judgment has not yet come: so that we may all be crowned together, so that many may turn from wickedness to virtue. So let us tremble when we hear this parable. For that fire really is unquenchable. “And how,” someone may ask, “is it unquenchable?” Do you not see this sun always burning and never extinguished? Did you not see the bush burning without being consumed? If you too want to escape the flame, store up charitable gifts beforehand, and you will not even taste that fire. For if you believe what you are told while you are here, you will not so much as see this furnace after you depart for that region. But if you disbelieve it now, you will know it all too well there by experience, when no escape is possible. For truly no pleading will avert punishment from those who have not lived upright lives. Believing certainly is not enough, since even the demons tremble at God, yet they will still be punished. 9. That is why we need to take great care over our conduct. This is the very reason we continually gather you here: not simply for you to come in, but for you to gain some fruit from your time here. But if you come regularly and then leave again without gaining any fruit, you will gain no benefit from coming and attending here. For when we send children to teachers and see that they are gaining no benefit, we begin to blame the teachers severely and often transfer the children to others. What excuse, then, will we have for not giving virtue even as much attention as these earthly things, but always bringing our writing tablets home empty? And yet our teachers here are more numerous and greater. For in every Church we appoint as your teachers no less than prophets, apostles, patriarchs, and all righteous people. Even so, there is no benefit. Instead, if you join in chanting two or three Psalms, say the customary prayers carelessly and any which way, and are then dismissed, you think this is enough for your salvation. Have you not heard the prophet saying (or rather, God speaking through the prophet), “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me”? So, to keep this from happening to us too, wipe out the letters—or rather, the impressions—that the devil has engraved on your soul. Bring me a heart freed from the turmoil of worldly affairs, so that I may write on it what I wish without fear. As things stand now, there is nothing to make out except his letters: robbery, greed, envy, jealousy. Naturally, then, when I receive your tablets, I cannot even read them. For I do not find the letters we inscribe on you every Lord’s day before sending you away, but others in their place, unintelligible and misshapen. Then, after we have erased them and written the letters of the Spirit, you leave, surrender your hearts to the devil’s works, and again give him power to replace them with his own characters. Even without any words from me, each person’s own conscience knows how all this will end. For I will not stop doing my part and writing the right letters in you. But if you spoil our efforts, our reward remains unchanged, while your danger is great. Now, I would rather say nothing that displeases you. But I beg and urge you again: at least imitate young children’s diligence in these matters. First they learn the shapes of the letters; then they practice recognizing them when their shapes are distorted; and finally, in reading, they work through them in order. Let us do the same. Let us divide virtue into parts and first learn not to swear, not to swear falsely, and not to speak evil. Then let us move to another row: not to envy, not to lust, not to be gluttonous or drunk, not to be fierce or lazy. From these we can move on again to the things of the Spirit and practice self-restraint, disregard for the belly, moderation, righteousness, freedom from the desire for glory, gentleness, and a contrite mind. Let us join these together and write them on our souls. 10. Let us practice all these things at home, with our friends, our wives, and our children. For now, let us begin with the first and easier things—for instance, not swearing—and continually practice this one letter at home. In truth, there are many people at home to interfere with this practice: sometimes a servant provokes a man, sometimes his wife annoys and angers him, and sometimes a disobedient, unruly child drives him toward threats and swearing. If, while continually irritated in this way at home, you can manage not to be drawn into swearing, you will easily be able to remain undefeated in the marketplace too. Yes, and in the same way you will learn to keep from insulting anyone by not insulting your wife, your servants, or anyone else in your household. For a man’s wife also often stirs him to speak badly of someone else by praising this or that person or complaining about her own situation. But do not let yourself be pressured into speaking badly of the person being praised; bear it all nobly. And if you notice your servants praising other masters, do not get upset, but stand firm with dignity. Let your home be a kind of arena, a training ground for virtue, so that, having trained well there, you may face everyone outside with complete skill. Do this with the desire for empty glory too. For if you train yourself not to seek empty glory in the company of your wife and servants, you will not easily be caught by this passion with anyone else afterward. For although this disease is severe and tyrannical in every case, it is especially so when a woman is present. So if we break its power in that setting, we will easily master it in the others too. Let us do exactly the same with the other passions as well, training against them at home and anointing ourselves every day. And to make our training easier, let us also set a penalty for ourselves whenever we break any of our resolutions. Let the penalty itself bring a reward rather than a loss, securing some very great gain. This happens if we sentence ourselves to stricter fasting, to sleeping often on the bare ground, and to other similar austerities. In this way, great benefit will come to us from every direction: we will live the sweet life of virtue here, attain the good things to come, and be God’s friends forever. But so that the same thing does not happen again—so that, after admiring what is said here, you do not go away and carelessly cast aside the tablet of your mind wherever you happen to be, allowing the devil to erase these things—let each man, on returning home, call his wife, tell her these things, and enlist her help. From this day forward, let him enter that noble training school, using the supply of the Spirit as his oil. And even if you fall once, twice, or many times in your training, do not despair. Get up again and wrestle. Do not give up until you have bound on yourself the glorious crown of victory over the devil and stored up the riches of virtue for the future in a treasure house that cannot be violated. For if you establish yourself in the habits of this noble self-restraint, then even when you are off your guard, you will not be able to break any of the commandments, since habit takes on the firmness of nature. Yes, just as sleeping, eating, drinking, and breathing are easy, so deeds of virtue will become easy for us. We will reap that pure pleasure for ourselves, resting in a harbor without a wave and enjoying continual calm. With a great cargo we will bring our vessel into harbor, into that City, on that day, and attain the crowns that never decay. May we all attain them through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory and might, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.