Homilies on Matthew, Homily 43

“Then some of the Scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You. But He answered and said, An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah.” Could anyone be more foolish than these men—not just more ungodly—who, after so many miracles, speak as though none had been performed, saying, “We want to see a sign from You”? Why did they say this? To trap Him again. Since His words had silenced them once, twice, and many times, and had checked their shameless tongues, they turn again to His works. Amazed at this too, the evangelist again said, “Then some of the scribes answered Him, asking for a sign.” “Then”—when? When they should have been bowing before Him, admiring Him, standing amazed, and yielding to Him, “then” they still refuse to give up their wickedness. And look at their words, too, full of flattery and deceit. They thought they could draw Him to them that way. One moment they insult Him, and the next they flatter Him; now they call Him demon-possessed, and then again “Teacher.” Both come from an evil mind, however much their words contradict each other. That is also why He rebukes them severely. When they questioned Him harshly and insulted Him, He reasoned gently with them; when they flattered Him, He answered with rebukes and great severity. This showed that He is above either passion: insults do not move Him to anger, and flattery does not soften Him. And notice that His rebuke consists of more than harsh words: it proves their wickedness. For what does He say? “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign.” What He means is this: Why be surprised that you treat me this way, when until now you have not known me, since you have done exactly the same to the Father, whom you have known so well? You abandoned Him and ran to the demons, taking wicked lovers for yourselves. Ezekiel, too, continually rebuked them for this. By these words He showed that He is in agreement with His Father and that they were doing nothing new. He was also exposing their secrets: they were making their demand hypocritically and as enemies. That is why He called them “an evil generation”: they have always been ungrateful to their benefactors, and favors make them worse, which is a mark of extreme wickedness. He called it “adulterous” to expose both their past and their present unbelief. By this He again implies that He is equal to the Father, if refusing to believe Him makes the generation “adulterous.” 2. Then, after His rebuke, what does He say? “No sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.” Here He begins to teach about His resurrection and confirms it through the type. What, then? someone may ask. Was no sign given to it? None was given in response to its request. He did not perform His signs to win them over (for He knew they were hardened), but to reform others. Either we can say this, or we can say that they were not to receive a sign of that kind. For they did experience a sign when they learned His power through their own punishment. Here, then, He speaks a threat, conveying this meaning indirectly, as though He said: I have shown you countless benefits, and none has drawn you to me, nor were you willing to worship my power. So you will learn my might through signs of the opposite kind, when you see your city leveled to the ground, its walls torn down, and the temple reduced to ruins; when you are stripped of both your former citizenship and your freedom, and once again wander everywhere, homeless and in exile. (For all these things happened after the cross.) These things, then, will be great signs to you. And indeed, it is an extraordinarily great sign that their miseries remain unchanged: although ten thousand have tried, no one has been able to reverse the judgment once pronounced against them. He does not say all this, however, but leaves it for later events to make clear to them. For now He is introducing the teaching of His resurrection, which they would come to understand through what they would later suffer. “For as Jonah,” He says, “was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He did not openly say that He would rise again, since they would even have mocked Him. Instead, He hinted at it in a way that would let them believe He had known it beforehand. That they understood it is clear from what they say to Pilate: “That deceiver said”—these are their words—“while He was still alive, After three days I will rise again.” Yet we know that His disciples were ignorant of this, just as previously they had understood less than these men. So these men condemned themselves. But notice how precisely He expresses it, even in an obscure saying. He did not say, “In the earth,” but, “In the heart of the earth,” to identify His actual tomb and keep anyone from suspecting that it was merely an appearance. He also allowed three days for this reason, so that the reality of His death would be believed. He establishes its certainty not only through the cross and the fact that everyone saw it, but also through the length of those days. All the time that followed would bear witness to the resurrection; but the cross would have been disbelieved unless many signs had borne witness to it at the time. And disbelief in the cross would have brought complete disbelief in the resurrection as well. That is why He also calls it a sign. But if He had not been crucified, the sign would not have been given. This is also why He presents the type, so that the reality may be believed. Tell me, was Jonah’s presence in the whale’s belly merely an appearance? No, you cannot say that. Neither, then, was Christ’s presence in the heart of the earth merely an appearance. Surely the type cannot be real while the reality is merely an appearance. This is why we proclaim His death everywhere: in the mysteries, in baptism, and in everything else. That is also why Paul cries out clearly, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” From this it is clear that those who suffer from Marcion’s disease are children of the devil, erasing these truths—I mean His cross and His passion. Christ did so much to keep them from being denied, while the devil went to such great lengths in so many ways to have them denied. 3. That is why He also said elsewhere, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” and, “The days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them”; and here, “No sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.” He declares both that He would die for them and that they would gain nothing from it; for He made this last point clear afterward. Nevertheless, even knowing this, He died: so great was His tender care. To keep you from supposing that the outcome for the Jews would be the same as for the Ninevites—that they would be converted, and that just as He made that tottering city secure and converted the barbarians, so these people too would turn to Him after His resurrection—listen to how He declares the exact opposite. He went on to explain, through the parable of the evil spirit, that they would gain no good from this for their own benefit, but would instead suffer incurable miseries. For now, however, He is showing why their future sufferings are justified, making clear that they would suffer justly. He depicts their calamities and desolation through that comparison; but up to this point He is showing why it is just for them to suffer all these things. This was also His practice in the Old Testament. Thus, when He was about to destroy Sodom, He first justified Himself to Abraham by showing how virtue had died out and how rare it was: not even ten men could be found in so many cities who had made chaste living their rule. In the same way, He first makes their inhospitality and unnatural lusts clear to Lot, and then brings fire upon them. Again, with the flood He did exactly the same, justifying Himself to Noah through His actions. He did the same with Ezekiel, when He made him, while living in Babylon, see the evil deeds of the people in Jerusalem. And again with Jeremiah, when He said, "Do not pray," He added in His own defense, "Do you not see what they are doing?" Everywhere He does the same thing, as He does here too. For what does He say? "The men of Nineveh will rise up and condemn this generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and look, someone greater than Jonah is here." For he was a servant, but I am the Master; he came out of the whale, but I rose from death; he proclaimed destruction, but I have come preaching the good news of the kingdom. They believed without a sign, but I have displayed many signs. They heard nothing beyond those words, but I have inspired every kind of self-denial. He came with others attending to his needs, but I, the very Master and Lord of all, have come without threats, without demanding an account, but bringing pardon. They were barbarians, but these people have associated with countless prophets. No one had foretold him, but all foretold me, and the facts agreed with their words. When he was about to set out, he ran away to avoid being ridiculed; but I have come knowing that I am to be both crucified and mocked. While he could not bear even to be reproached on account of those who were saved, I underwent even death, and the most shameful death at that; and after this I sent others again. He was an unusual sort of person, a foreigner, and unknown; but I am their relative according to the flesh, descended from the same ancestors. Anyone who searched carefully could collect many more points as well. But He does not stop even here. He adds another example, saying, "And the queen of the south will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn them, because she came from the farthest parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, someone greater than Solomon is here." This went further than the previous example. Jonah went to them, but the queen of the south did not wait for Solomon to come to her. She went to him herself, although she was a woman, a barbarian, and so far away. No threat had been made against her, and she was not afraid of death; she went simply out of love for wise words. "But look, someone even greater than Solomon is here." In that case the woman came, but here I have come. She set out from the farthest parts of the earth, but I travel through cities and villages. His teaching concerned trees and various kinds of wood, which could do his visitor little good; mine concerns hidden things and the most awe-inspiring mysteries. 4. So, after condemning them and proving abundantly that their sins were inexcusable and that their disobedience came from their own perversity rather than their Teacher's inability, and after demonstrating this through many other arguments as well as through the Ninevites and the queen, He also speaks of the punishment that would overtake them. He speaks indirectly, but He does speak of it, weaving intense fear into His account. "For when," He says, "the unclean spirit has gone out of the man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. When he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and decorated. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and live there, and that man's last state is worse than his first. So it will also be with this generation." By this He makes clear that they would suffer terribly not only in the world to come but here too. Since He had said, "The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment and condemn this generation," He brings His terror close to them through this saying, so that the delay would not make them dismiss it and grow more careless. The prophet Hosea likewise threatened them with this when he said that they would be "like the prophet who is out of his mind, the man who is carried away by a spirit"; that is, like madmen driven out of their minds by evil spirits, namely the false prophets. For here, by "a prophet who is out of his mind," he means the false prophet, such as those who practice divination. Christ likewise tells them that they will suffer the worst evils. Do you see how He uses everything to urge them to pay attention to His words—present things and things to come; those who had proved themselves worthy (I mean the Ninevites and that queen), and the sinful Tyrians and Sodomites? The prophets did this too, bringing forward the sons of the Rechabites, the bride who does not forget her own ornaments and her sash, and "the ox that knows its owner, and the donkey that remembers its feeding trough.” So here too, after exposing their perversity through a comparison, He then speaks of their punishment. What, then, can this saying mean? Just as people who have been possessed, He says, bring their delusion back upon themselves worse than ever if they become at all careless after being freed from that affliction, so it is with you. For you were possessed by a demon before, when you worshiped idols and killed your sons as sacrifices to demons, displaying great madness. Nevertheless, I did not abandon you, but cast out that demon through the prophets; and now I have come again in my own person, wishing to cleanse you more completely. Since you will not listen, but have wrecked yourselves in greater wickedness (for killing prophets was not nearly as great and grievous a crime as killing Him), your sufferings will therefore be worse than the former ones—I mean those in Babylon, in Egypt, and under the first Antiochus. For what happened to them in the time of Vespasian and Titus was far worse than those things. That is also why He said, “There will be great tribulation, such as has never been, nor ever will be.” But the illustration reveals not only this, but also that they would be completely without any virtue and more vulnerable to the power of demons than at that earlier time. For then, although they sinned, there were still people among them who acted uprightly, and God’s providence was with them, along with the grace of the Spirit, caring for them, correcting them, and doing everything that belonged to its work. But now they will be completely deprived even of this protection, He tells them. So now there is a greater scarcity of virtue, more intense affliction, and more tyrannical activity by demons. You know, accordingly, how even in our own generation, when the man who surpassed everyone in ungodliness—I mean Julian—was carried away by his fury, they lined up with the pagans and courted their party. So even if they seem somewhat restrained now, fear of the emperors keeps them quiet. Without that, their reckless behavior would have been far worse than before. In all their other evil works they surpass their predecessors: they practice sorcery, magic arts, and impurities to an extraordinary degree. And besides everything else, despite the strong restraint holding them down, they have often stirred up rebellions and risen against kings, which has left them pierced through with the worst evils. Where now are those who seek signs? Let them hear that a thoughtful mind is needed, and without it signs are no help. See, for example, how the Ninevites believed without signs, while these people grew worse after so many miracles, made themselves a dwelling for countless demons, and brought ten thousand calamities upon themselves. This is only natural. For when someone has once been freed from his miseries but fails to reform, he will suffer far worse than before. Yes, that is why He said, “he finds no rest”: to show that such a person will certainly and inevitably be caught in the demons’ ambush. Surely two things should have brought him to his senses: his former sufferings and his deliverance. Indeed, a third is added as well: the threat of having to endure still worse. Yet none of these made them better. 5. All this could appropriately be said not only of them but of us too, when, after being enlightened and freed from our former evils, we cling again to the same wickedness. For the punishment of our later sins will then be more severe as well. That is why Christ also said to the paralyzed man, “Look, you have been made well; sin no more, so that something worse does not happen to you”—and He said this to a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. What, someone might ask, could he suffer that was worse than this? Something far worse and more unbearable. May we never endure as much as we are capable of enduring! For God has no shortage of punishments to inflict. As great as His mercy is, so great is His anger. He also brings this charge against Jerusalem through Ezekiel. “I saw you,” He says, “defiled with blood; and I washed you and anointed you; and you became famous for your beauty; and you poured out your acts of prostitution,” He says, “on those who live near you.” That is also why His threats against you are more severe when you sin. But learn from this not only about your punishment, but also about God’s boundless patience. How often have we taken up the same evil deeds, and yet He remains patient! But let us not be overconfident; let us be afraid. For if Pharaoh had learned from the first plague, he would not have experienced the later ones; he would not afterward have drowned, together with his entire army. I say this because I know many people who, like Pharaoh, are saying even now, “I do not know God,” and forcing those under their power to keep working at the clay and the bricks. How many, though God commands them to tone down their “threatening,” cannot bear even to lighten the work! “But we have no Red Sea now to pass through afterward.” But we have a sea of fire, a sea unlike that one in either kind or size, but far greater and fiercer, with waves of fire, a strange and horrible fire. There is a great abyss of utterly unbearable flame. Everywhere fire can be seen racing around like some savage wild beast. And if here this physical, material fire leaped out of the furnace like a wild beast and sprang upon those sitting outside, what will that other fire not do to those who have fallen into it? Listen to what the prophets say about that day: “The day of the Lord allows no remedy, full of anger and fury.” For there will be no one to stand beside us, no one to rescue us, and nowhere will we see the face of Christ, so gentle and calm. Just as those who work in the mines are handed over to cruel men and see none of their friends, but only those placed over them, so it will be then as well. Or rather, it will not be like that, but far worse. For here someone can go to the king, plead with him, and free the condemned person. There that is no longer possible, for He does not allow it. Instead, they remain in scorching torment and anguish too great for words to express. For if no words can describe the sharp pains of those burning here, much less can they describe the pains of those suffering in that place. Here it is all over in a brief moment; there the burning continues, but what burns is not consumed. What, then, will we do there? For I am saying these things to myself as well. 6. “But if you,” someone says, “who are our teacher, speak this way about yourself, I no longer care. Why should it be surprising if I am punished?” No, I beg you, let no one seek comfort in this; it brings no relief at all. Tell me: was the devil not an incorporeal power? Was he not superior to human beings? Yet he fell away. Will anyone take comfort in being punished along with him? Certainly not. What about all those in Egypt? Did they not see those in high positions punished too, and every household in mourning? Did that give them relief and comfort? Certainly not. What they did afterward makes this clear: like people tortured by some kind of fire, they rose together against the king and forced him to drive out the Hebrew people. Yes, it makes no sense to suppose that being punished with everyone else offers comfort, or to say, “As everyone else is punished, so am I.” Why speak of hell? Think, please, of people suffering from gout. When they are racked with sharp pain, even if you show them ten thousand people suffering worse, they do not give it a thought. The intensity of their anguish gives their minds no time to think of others and find comfort that way. So let us not sustain ourselves with these hopes that offer no warmth. People may take comfort in their neighbors’ troubles during ordinary suffering; but when the torment is extreme, when everything inside us is swept by a storm and the soul can no longer even recognize itself, where will it find comfort? So all these sayings are absurd, mere stories of foolish children. What you are talking about happens in grief, and moderate grief at that, when we are told, “The same thing happened to so-and-so.” But sometimes it does not help even in grief. Now if it has no power in that case, much less will it help in the unspeakable anguish and burden indicated by “the gnashing of teeth.” I know that these words sting and hurt you, but what can I do? I would gladly avoid speaking this way and instead be aware of virtue both in myself and in all of you. But since most of us live in sin, who will give me the power truly to pain you and reach the understanding of those who hear me? Then I could be at rest. As it is, I fear that some may dismiss my words and receive greater punishment because they listen so indifferently. When a master makes a threat, if one of the fellow servants hears it and treats it lightly, the master, already provoked, will not pass him by without punishment. Instead, this will give him grounds to increase his punishment. So I beg you, let us pierce our own hearts when we hear His words about hell. For nothing is more pleasant than this message, precisely because nothing is more bitter than the reality. But how can it be pleasant to hear about hell? someone may ask. Because falling into hell would be so far from pleasant, and these words of ours, which seem so painful, keep that outcome away. Even before that, they provide another pleasure: they strengthen our souls, make us more reverent, lift up our minds, give wings to our thoughts, and drive out the desires that beset us so harmfully. Thus the message becomes a cure. 7. So, to continue, let me speak of the shame as well as the punishment. For just as the Jews will then be condemned by the Ninevites, so we too will be condemned by many who now seem beneath us. Let us imagine, then, how great the mockery will be, how great the condemnation. Let us imagine it, and at last lay some foundation, open some door to repentance. I say these things to myself; I give this advice to myself first. Let no one be angry as though he were being condemned. Let us set out on the narrow way. How long will we live in luxury? How long in laziness? Have we not had enough idleness, merriment, and procrastination? Will it not be the same thing all over again—feasting, overeating, spending, wealth, acquisitions, and buildings? And what is the end? Death. What is the end? Ashes, dust, coffins, and worms. Let us display a new kind of life, then. Let us make earth heaven, and in this way show the Greeks what great blessings they are missing. For when they see our good conduct, they will see the very face of the kingdom of Heaven. Yes, when they see us gentle, free from anger, evil desire, envy, and greed, and properly fulfilling all our other duties, they will say, “If Christians have become angels here, what will they be after they leave this place? If they shine so brightly where they are strangers, how great will they become when they have reached their native land!” In this way they too will be reformed, and the word of godliness “will spread freely,” no less freely than in the apostles’ time. For if twelve men converted entire cities and countries, imagine how high our cause will rise if we all become teachers through our attentive conduct. For even a dead person raised to life does not attract the Greek as powerfully as someone practicing self-denial. The former will amaze him, but the latter will benefit him. The one happens and passes; the other endures and constantly cultivates his soul. So let us pay attention to ourselves, so that we may win them too. I am asking nothing burdensome. I am not saying, do not marry. I am not saying, leave the cities and withdraw from public affairs. Rather, show virtue while taking part in them. Indeed, I would like those busy in the midst of cities to prove themselves even more worthy than those who have settled in the mountains. Why? Because the benefit that comes from this is great. “For no one lights a candle and puts it under the bushel basket.” So I wish all the candles were placed on the lampstand, so that the light might grow brighter. Let us kindle His fire, then; let us bring those sitting in darkness out of their error. And do not tell me, “I have a wife and children, and I am responsible for a household, and I cannot properly practice all this.” Even if you had none of these, everything would still be lost if you were careless. And even if all these things surround you, you will attain virtue if you are earnest. Only one thing is needed: a generous mind ready to act. Neither age, poverty, wealth, a reversal of fortune, nor anything else will be able to hold you back. In fact, both old and young people, men with wives, men raising children, people working at trades, and soldiers have properly fulfilled everything commanded. Daniel was young, Joseph was a slave, Aquila worked at a trade, the woman who sold purple cloth ran a workshop, another was a jailer, another a centurion, like Cornelius; another was in poor health, like Timothy; another a runaway, like Onesimus. Yet none of these circumstances hindered any of them. All proved themselves worthy: men and women, young and old, slaves and free, soldiers and civilians. So let us not make empty excuses, but develop a thoroughly good mind. Whatever our circumstances, we will surely attain virtue and reach the good things to come, through the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, With Him, may the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, receive glory, might, and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.