Homilies on Matthew, Homily 3

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Here we are at a third sermon, and we still have not finished the introductory material. So I had good reason to say that these thoughts have great depth. Come, then, let us discuss what remains today. What still needs explaining? Why Joseph’s genealogy is traced, when he had no part in the birth. We have already mentioned one reason, but we must also mention the other, which is more mystical and hidden than the first. What is it? He did not want the Jews to know at the time of the birth that Christ was born of a virgin. Do not be disturbed by how strange this statement sounds. It is not my own statement, but that of our fathers, wonderful and distinguished men. For if He concealed many things from the beginning, calling Himself Son of Man, and has not clearly revealed to us everywhere even His equality with the Father, why are you surprised that He also concealed this for a time, as He arranged things for a great and marvelous purpose? “But what marvelous purpose?” someone may ask. To protect the Virgin and keep her free from evil suspicion. For if the Jews had discovered this from the beginning, they would have stoned the Virgin, using the report as an opportunity for wrongdoing, and would have condemned her for adultery. For in other matters, for which they also had frequent precedents under the old order, they were utterly shameless in their obstinacy (because He cast out demons, they called Him possessed; and because He healed on the Sabbath, they supposed Him to be an enemy of God, even though the Sabbath had often been broken before). What would they not have said if this had been told to them? Especially since they had all previous history on their side, as it had never produced anything like this. For if, after so many miracles, they still called Him Joseph’s son, how would they have believed before the miracles that He was born of a virgin? This, then, is why Joseph’s genealogy is traced and the Virgin is betrothed to him. For if even he, a righteous and remarkable man, needed so many things to accept what had happened—an angel, a vision in dreams, and the testimony of the prophets—how could the Jews, who were dull, depraved, and so hostile toward Him, have accepted this idea? Its strangeness and novelty were sure to disturb them greatly, as was the fact that they had never even heard of anything like it happening in their ancestors’ time. For once someone was convinced that He is the Son of God, he would have no reason to doubt this either. But someone who considered Him a deceiver and an enemy of God—how could this fail to offend him still more and lead him to the opposite conclusion? This is also why the apostles do not directly say this at first. They speak often and at length about His resurrection (since there were examples of resurrection in earlier times, though none like this), but they do not always say that He was born of a virgin. Indeed, even His mother herself did not venture to say this. Notice, for instance, what the Virgin says even to Him: “Look, Your father and I have been searching for You.” For if this suspicion had arisen, He would no longer have been considered a Son of David, and without that belief, many other evils would have followed. This is why the angels also tell these things only to Mary and Joseph, rather than to everyone. When they announce the good news of what had happened to the shepherds, they do not add this. 2. But why, after mentioning Abraham and saying that “he fathered Isaac, and Isaac, Jacob,” without mentioning his brother, does he mention both “Judah and his brothers” when he comes to Jacob? Some say it was because of the wickedness of Esau and the others who came before. But I would not say this. For if that were so, why does he mention such women a little later? Here His glory is revealed through the opposite of what we might expect: through ancestors who were lowly and insignificant, rather than great. For it is a great glory for the exalted One to be able to humble Himself so deeply. Why, then, did he leave them out? Because Saracens, Ishmaelites, Arabs, and all who descend from those ancestors have nothing in common with the race of the Israelites. This is why he passes over them in silence and moves quickly to His ancestors and those of the Jewish people. So he says, “And Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.” For at this point the Jewish people begin to have their own distinctive identity. 3. “And Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” “What are you doing, man, reminding us of a story involving unlawful sexual intercourse?” But why is this, someone may ask? If we were recounting the ancestry of a mere man, it would be natural to keep silent about these things. But if we are recounting that of God Incarnate, we should take pride in them instead, displaying His tender care and His power. Indeed, this is why He came: to carry away our shame, rather than escape it. Therefore, just as He is admired all the more because He not only died but was even crucified (though it is a shameful thing, the greater its shame, the more it shows His love for humanity), so we may also speak about His birth. We rightly stand amazed at Him not only because He took flesh upon Himself and became man, but because He also willingly accepted such relatives, feeling no shame at all about our evils. From the very beginning of His birth, He was proclaiming that He is ashamed of nothing that belongs to us. Through this He also teaches us never to hide our faces in shame at our ancestors’ wickedness, but to pursue one thing alone: virtue. A person like this, even if his ancestor is a foreigner, even if his mother is a prostitute, or whatever else you may name, can suffer no harm from it. For if a man who formerly practiced sexual immorality is not disgraced at all by his former life once he has changed, much less can the wickedness of his ancestors bring shame on the child of a prostitute or an adulteress, if he is virtuous. But he did these things not only to instruct us, but also to bring down the Jews’ arrogance. For they neglected virtue in their own souls while parading Abraham’s name, thinking that their ancestors’ virtue gave them a defense. So he shows from the very beginning that people should take pride in their own good deeds, rather than in these things. Besides this, he is establishing another point: that all are under sin, even their ancestors themselves. At any rate, their patriarch, whose name they bear, is shown to have committed no small sin, for Tamar stands against him to accuse him of sexual immorality. And David, too, had Solomon by the wife he led into adultery. But if even the great figures did not fulfill the law, those of lesser standing certainly did not. And if it was not fulfilled, all have sinned, and Christ’s coming has become necessary. This is also why he mentioned the twelve patriarchs, again bringing down their pride in their ancestors’ noble birth. For many of these, too, were born to women who were slaves. Nevertheless, the difference between the parents made no difference between the children. All were equally patriarchs and heads of tribes. For this is the Church’s distinction, this the privilege of the nobility among us, foreshadowed from the beginning. So whether you are enslaved or free gives you nothing more or less. The whole question concerns just one thing: the mind and the disposition of the soul. 4. But beyond what we have said, there is another reason why he mentioned even this story. Zerah’s name was certainly not added to Perez’s at random. (Once he had mentioned Perez, through whom he would trace Christ’s genealogy, mentioning Zerah as well was indeed irrelevant and unnecessary.) Why, then, did he mention him? When Tamar was about to give birth to them and her labor pains had begun, Zerah put out his hand first. When the midwife saw this, she tied a scarlet thread around his hand so that the firstborn could be identified. But after his hand was tied, the child drew it back in. When he had drawn it in, Perez came out first, and then Zerah. Seeing this, the midwife said, “Why was the hedge broken through for you?” Do you see how mysteries are expressed in this obscure language? These things were not recorded for us without a purpose. Otherwise, what the midwife said would not have been worth our study, nor would the fact that the child born second put out his hand first have been worth recounting. What, then, is the mystical lesson? First, the child’s name gives us the answer we are seeking, for Perez means “a division” and “a breach.” Moreover, we learn from what actually happened. It was not in the order of nature that, after putting out his hand, he should draw it back in when it was tied. These things neither resulted from a movement guided by reason nor followed the natural course of events. For after the hand had found its way out, it was perhaps not unnatural for another child to be born first. But for him to draw it back and make way for another was no longer how children behave at birth. Rather, the grace of God was present with the children, arranging these things and using them to sketch a kind of image of what was to come. What, then? Some who have carefully examined these things say that these children are a type of the two nations. To teach you that the way of life of the later people shone forth before the earlier people came into being, the child with his hand stretched out does not appear in full, but draws even his hand back in. After his brother has slipped out completely, he too appears in full. This also happened with the two nations. I mean that after the Church’s way of life had been revealed in Abraham’s time and then withdrawn midway through its course, the Jewish people and the way of life under the law came, and then the new people appeared in full with their own laws. This is also why the midwife says, “Why was the hedge broken through for you?” Because the law, when it came, intruded on the freedom of that way of life. For Scripture habitually calls the law a hedge, as the prophet says: “You have broken down her hedge, so that everyone who passes along the road plucks her grapes”; and, “I have set a hedge around it”; and Paul, “Having broken down the dividing wall of the hedge.” But others say that the words “Why was the hedge broken through for you?” were spoken about the new people, because at its coming it overthrew the law. 5. Do you see that he had many substantial reasons for reminding us of the whole story about Judah? This is also why he mentioned Ruth and Rahab, one a foreigner and the other a prostitute, so that you may learn that He came to do away with all our evils. For He has come as a Physician, not as a Judge. Therefore, just as men in ancient times took prostitutes as wives, so God, too, took to Himself as His bride the nature that had acted as a prostitute. The prophets also declare that this happened from the beginning with the Synagogue. But that bride was ungrateful toward Him who had been her husband, while the Church, once delivered from the evils inherited from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom. Look, for instance, at what happened to Ruth and how closely it resembles what has happened to us. She was both a foreigner and reduced to extreme poverty. Yet when Boaz saw her, he neither despised her poverty nor recoiled from her lowly birth, just as Christ received the Church, who was both a foreigner and deeply impoverished, and made her a sharer in His great blessings. But just as Ruth would not have attained this marriage if she had not first left her father and renounced her household and race, country and relatives, so the Church, too, became lovely to the Bridegroom only after abandoning the customs people had inherited from their fathers. The prophet therefore speaks to her about this and says, “Forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will delight in your beauty.” Ruth did this too, and because of it she became a mother of kings, as the Church did as well. For David himself descended from her. So, to shame them through all these things and persuade them not to be proud, he both composed the genealogy and brought these women forward. For this last woman, through the intervening generations, was an ancestor of the great king, and David is not ashamed of them. For it cannot, indeed it cannot, be that a person is good or bad, obscure or glorious, because of his ancestors’ virtue or vice. But if we must say something that even sounds paradoxical, someone who has become excellent despite having unworthy ancestors shines all the more. 6. So let no one be proud because of these things. Instead, let him consider the Lord’s ancestors, put away all his arrogance, and take pride in good actions—or rather, not even in these. For this is how the Pharisee became inferior to the tax collector. So if you want to show that a good work is great, do not think proudly of yourself, and you have proved it all the greater. Consider that you have done nothing, and then you have done everything. For if, as sinners, we become righteous when we consider ourselves to be what we are, as the tax collector did, how much more will this happen when, though righteous, we consider ourselves sinners? For if humility makes sinners righteous (although this was really a matter of thinking rightly rather than thinking humbly), if thinking rightly does so much for sinners, consider what humility will do for the righteous. So do not spoil your labors or throw away the fruit of your hard work. Do not run in vain, undoing all your labor after running so many laps. Your Lord knows your good works better than you do. Even if you give only a cup of cold water, He does not overlook it. Even if you contribute only a tiny coin, even if you only let out a sigh, He receives it all with great favor, remembers it, and assigns great rewards for it. But why do you examine your own deeds and continually display them before us? Do you not know that if you praise yourself, God will no longer praise you? Likewise, if you grieve over yourself, He will never stop praising you before everyone. For He certainly does not want your labors to be belittled. Why do I say belittled? He is doing and arranging everything so that He may crown you for even a little. He goes about looking for reasons to deliver you from hell. This is why, even if you work only during the eleventh hour of the day, He gives you your full wages. And even if you provide no grounds for salvation, He says, “I do it for My own sake, so that My name will not be profaned.” Even if you only sigh, even if you only weep, He quickly seizes on all these things as an opportunity to save you. So let us not exalt ourselves, but declare ourselves unprofitable, so that we may become profitable. For if you call yourself approved, you have become unprofitable, even if you were approved. But if you call yourself useless, you have become profitable, even if you were rejected. 7. This is why we must forget our good actions. “But how is it possible,” someone may ask, “not to know things we know so well?” What are you saying? You constantly offend your Lord, live in luxury, laugh, and do not even recognize that you have sinned, but have forgotten it all. Yet you cannot put the memory of your good actions out of your mind? And yet fear is a stronger force. But we do exactly the opposite: on the one hand, we offend every day without even bringing it to mind; on the other, if we give a little money to a poor person, we keep turning it over in our thoughts. This kind of behavior comes from utter madness, and it brings a very great loss to anyone who keeps accounts this way. For the secure storehouse for good works is to forget our good works. Just as displaying clothing and gold in a marketplace attracts many people with bad intentions, while putting them away and hiding them at home keeps them all secure, so it is with our good deeds. If we constantly keep them in mind, we provoke the Lord, arm the enemy, and invite him to steal them away. But if no one knows about them except Him who alone ought to know, they will remain safe. So do not keep parading them, or someone may take them away. This happened to the Pharisee because he carried them around on his lips, and so the devil snatched them away. Yet he mentioned them with thanksgiving and attributed everything to God. But even this was not enough for Him. For insulting others, showing off before many people, and exalting yourself over those who have sinned is not thanksgiving. Rather, if you are thanking God, be content with Him alone. Do not announce it to other people or condemn your neighbor, for this is not thanksgiving. Would you like to learn words of thanksgiving? Listen to the Three Children saying, “We have sinned, we have transgressed. You are righteous, O Lord, in everything You have done to us, because You have brought everything upon us by a true judgment.” For confessing your own sins is giving thanks to God with confession. It means that someone guilty of countless offenses has nevertheless not been made to pay the penalty he deserves. This person, above all, gives thanks. 8. So let us be careful not to say anything about ourselves, for this makes us both hateful to people and detestable to God. For this reason, the greater the good works we do, the less we should say about ourselves. This is the way to gain the greatest glory both with people and with God. Or rather, not only glory from God, but a reward, indeed, a great reward. So do not demand a reward, so that you may receive a reward. Confess that you are saved by grace, so that He may declare Himself your debtor, not only for your good works, but also for thinking so rightly. For when we do good works, He is our debtor for our good works alone. But when we do not even think we have done any good work, He is also our debtor for this very disposition, and more for this than for the other things. So this is equal in value to our good works. For without it, they will not appear great either. In the same way, when we have servants, we approve of them most when, after willingly performing all their service, they do not think they have done anything great. So if you want to make your good deeds great, do not think they are great, and then they will be great. This is also how the centurion said, “I am not worthy for You to come under my roof.” Because of this, he became worthy and was “marveled at” above all Jews. Again, Paul says in the same way, “I am not worthy to be called an apostle.” Because of this, he became first of all. John likewise said, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal.” Because of this, he was the “friend of the Bridegroom,” and Christ drew to His own head the very hand that John had declared unworthy to touch His sandals. Peter, too, said, “Leave me, for I am a sinful man.” Because of this, he became a foundation of the Church. For nothing is so pleasing to God as to count yourself among the last. This is a first principle of all practical wisdom. For someone who is humbled and bruised in heart will not be conceited, will not be angry, will not envy his neighbor, and will not harbor any other passion. For when a hand is bruised, even if we try ten thousand times, we cannot lift it high. If, then, we were to bruise our hearts in the same way, even if ten thousand swelling passions stirred them, they could not be lifted up, even a little. For if someone drives out all the diseases of his soul by mourning over the things of this life, much more will someone who mourns over sins enjoy the blessing of self-restraint. 9. “But who,” someone may ask, “will be able to bruise his own heart like this?” Listen to David, who became distinguished chiefly because of this, and see his soul’s contrition. After ten thousand good works, when he was about to lose his country, his home, and his very life, at the very height of his calamity, he saw a vile, outcast common soldier trample on him in his misfortune and insult him. Far from insulting him in return, he strictly forbade one of his commanders, who wanted to kill the man, saying, “Leave him alone, for the Lord has told him to do it.” Again, when the priests wanted to carry the ark of God along with him, he did not allow it. What did he say? “Let me set it down in the temple, and if God delivers me from the dangers ahead, I will see its beauty. But if He says to me, I have no delight in you, here I am; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.” And his repeated treatment of Saul, time after time—what excellence of self-restraint does it not show? Indeed, he even surpassed the old law and approached the apostolic commands. This is why he contentedly bore everything that came from the Lord’s hands, without struggling against what happened to him, but aiming at one thing alone: to obey in everything and follow the laws He had established. And when, after so many noble deeds of his own, he saw the tyrant, the son who attacked his father, the murderer of his own brother, that abusive, frenzied man, occupying his own kingdom in his place, even then he took no offense. “If it pleases God,” he says, “that I should be hunted, wander, and flee, and that he should be honored, I agree and accept it, and I thank God for His many afflictions.” He was unlike many shameless and brazen people who, though they have not done even the smallest part of his good works, ruin their own souls with ten thousand blasphemies if they see anyone prospering while they suffer a little discouragement. But David was not like that; instead, he showed complete gentleness. This is also why God said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart.” Let us acquire this spirit too, and whatever we suffer, we will bear it easily. Even before the Kingdom, we will reap here the benefit of humility. Thus He says, “Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Therefore, so that we may enjoy rest both in this life and in the next, let us work diligently to plant in our souls the mother of all good things: humility. For in this way we will be able both to cross the sea of this life without waves and to finish our voyage in that calm harbor, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might forever and ever. Amen.