The Harmony of the Gospels 4.7–4.20

Mark continues and says: “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ's, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than having two hands to go into Gehenna, the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched,” and so on, up to where he says, “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” These things Mark records in sequence that the Lord said after he forbade the man who cast out demons in his name and did not follow him with the disciples to be prevented, putting some things that none of the other evangelists put, some that Matthew too put, and some likewise that both Matthew and Luke put, but they from other occasions and in another order of events, not in this place where the suggestion was made about the man who did not follow him with Christ's disciples and cast out demons in his name. Hence it seems to me that here too, on Mark's credit, the Lord said things he said in other places as well, because they bore well enough on this very saying of his by which he forbade that mighty works done in his name should be prevented, even by one who did not follow him with the disciples. For Mark joins it thus: “For whoever is not against you is for you. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ's, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.” By this he shows that the man about whom John had made the suggestion, and from whom this discourse of his arose, was not so separated from the fellowship of the disciples as to reject it like a heretic, but was like those who do not yet dare to receive the sacraments of Christ and yet favor the Christian name, so that they even receive Christians and serve them for no other reason than that they are Christians. Of such he says that they do not lose their reward; not that they should consider themselves already safe and secure because of this goodwill they have toward Christians, even if they are not washed in Christ's baptism nor incorporated into his unity, but that they are already so governed by God's mercy that they come to these things too and so depart this world secure. Such people, certainly, even before they are joined to the number of Christians, are more useful than those who, though already called Christians and steeped in the Christian sacraments, persuade others to such things that they drag those whom they persuade with them into eternal punishment. These he commands to be torn out of the body, that is, from the very fellowship of unity, under the name of bodily members, like a hand or an eye causing stumbling, so that one may come to life without them rather than go with them into Gehenna. And they are separated from those from whom they are separated by this very thing, that those people do not consent to them when they persuade to evil, that is, cause stumbling. And if indeed their perversity becomes known to all the good with whom they have acquaintance, they are separated entirely from the fellowship of all and from participation in the divine sacraments themselves; but if they are known to some in this way, while to most their perversity is unknown, they must be tolerated, as chaff is tolerated on the threshing floor before winnowing, so that neither is consent given to them for fellowship in iniquity, nor is the fellowship of the good deserted because of them. This is what those do who have salt in themselves and have peace with one another.

Mark continues: “And rising from there, he came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again, and, as was his custom, he taught them again,” and so on, up to where he says, “For they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole living.” In this whole section everything before has been considered, so that nothing would seem to contain anything contradictory, when we were comparing the others with Matthew's order; but this about the poor widow who put two mites into the treasury only two tell, Mark and Luke, and they agree without any question. From here up to the Lord's supper, from which point we have treated all things of all of them, Mark says nothing that compels comparison with anyone to inquire whether something seems contradictory.

Now, then, let us next treat Luke's Gospel in order, except for the things it has in common with Matthew and Mark, since all those have already been treated. Luke, then, begins thus: “Since many have attempted to set in order a narrative of the things that have been fulfilled among us, as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word handed them down to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things carefully from the beginning, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth of the words in which you have been instructed.” This beginning does not yet belong to the gospel narrative. But it reminds us to know that the same Luke also wrote that book which is called the Acts of the Apostles: not only because the name of Theophilus is in it too (for it could be that there was some other Theophilus, and, if it were the same, something could be written to him by someone else, as the gospel by Luke), but because there too he began by saying, “The first account I made, O Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he chose the apostles, commanding them through the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel”; he gave us to understand that he had already written a book of the gospel, one of the four which have sublime authority in the church. Nor, because he said that he made an account of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he gave command to the apostles, should it be thought that he wrote in his Gospel everything that Jesus did and said while he lived on earth with the apostles; lest it be contrary to John, who says that Jesus did many other things which, if they were written, the whole world could not contain the books; since it is also clear that not a few things were narrated by the other evangelists which Luke himself did not touch in his narrative. He made an account of all things, then, by choosing from all things those from which to make his account that he judged apt and fitting and sufficient for the duty of his stewardship. And when he says that many attempted to set in order a narrative of the things fulfilled among us, he seems to signify some who were not able to fulfill this task they had undertaken; and that is why he says it seemed good to him to write carefully in order, since many had attempted it. But by these we ought to understand those who have no authority in the church, because they were not at all able to fulfill what they attempted. This man, however, not only brought his narrative as far as the Lord's resurrection and ascension, so as to deserve by his labor a place among the four authors of the gospel Scripture, but also wrote what was afterward done through the apostles, as much as he believed sufficient to build up the faith of readers or hearers, so that his book alone narrating the acts of the apostles is held worthy of belief in the church, all those being rejected who dared to write the deeds and sayings of the apostles without the trustworthiness they ought to have had. For Mark and Luke wrote at a time when they could be approved not only by Christ's church but also by the apostles themselves, who were still living in the flesh.

Luke, then, begins to narrate the gospel thus: “There was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth,” and so on, up to the place where he says, “When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’” All this contains no question of conflict. John indeed seems to say something similar, but that is something far different, which happened after the Lord's resurrection at the sea of Tiberias. For there not only is the time itself very different, but the event itself differs greatly. For there the nets cast on the right side caught a hundred and fifty-three fish, large ones indeed; but it fell to the evangelist to say that, though they were so large, the nets were not torn, with an eye, namely, to this event which Luke records, where the nets were tearing because of the multitude of fish. Other things similar to John Luke did not say except around the Lord's passion and resurrection; and that whole passage, from his supper to the end, has been treated by us in such a way as to show, by comparing the testimonies of all, that they in no way disagree.

John remains, and there is now no one left with whom to compare him. For whatever individual writers said that was not said by others can hardly raise any question of conflict. And so it is quite clear that these three, namely Matthew, Mark, and Luke, were chiefly occupied with the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to which he is both king and priest. And therefore Mark, who in that mystery of the four living creatures seems to represent the figure of the man, either seems rather the companion of Matthew, since he says more things with him because of the royal character, which is not usually unaccompanied, as I mentioned in the first book; or, as is more probably understood, he walks with both. For although he agrees with Matthew in more things, yet in some others he agrees more with Luke; so that by this very fact it is shown that what Christ is as man belongs both to the lion and to the calf, that is, both to the royal character which Matthew conveys and to the priestly character which Luke conveys; and Mark bears this figure, belonging to both. But the divinity of Christ, in which he is equal to the Father, according to which he is the Word and God with God, and the Word was made flesh to dwell among us, according to which he and the Father are one, John undertook above all to commend, who like an eagle lingers among the more sublime things Christ spoke, and in a way descends to earth only rarely. Indeed, although he plainly testifies that he knew Christ's mother, yet he says nothing with Matthew and Luke about his birth, nor records his baptism with the three, but only, commending there the testimony of John loftily and sublimely, he leaves them and goes on with him to the wedding at Cana of Galilee; where, although the evangelist himself records that she was his mother, Christ says, “What is there between me and you, woman?” not repelling her from whom he took flesh, but above all conveying his divinity at that moment, as he was about to turn water into wine, a divinity that had also made that woman, not been made in her.

From there, after a few days spent in Capernaum, he returns to the temple, where John records that he spoke of the temple of his body: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Here he conveys above all not only that God, the Word made flesh, was in the temple, but also that he himself raised that same flesh, certainly only according to that in which he is one with the Father and does not work separately; whereas in perhaps all other places Scripture says only that God raised him, and nowhere is it so expressed that, while God raised Christ, he also raised himself, because he is one God with the Father, as in this place where he says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

From there, what great, what divine things he spoke with that Nicodemus! From there he goes on again to the testimony of John and commends the friend of the bridegroom, who rejoices only because of the bridegroom's voice; where he reminds us that the human soul does not shine for itself from itself nor become blessed except by participation in unchangeable wisdom. From there to the Samaritan woman, where the water is mentioned, of which whoever drinks will not thirst forever. From there again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made wine from water; where he records that he said to the official whose son was sick, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe,” wishing so far to lift the believer's mind above all changeable things that he would not have believers seek even miracles, which, though done divinely, are done from the changeableness of bodies.

From there he returns to Jerusalem; the man who had been ill thirty-eight years is made whole. What things are said on this occasion! At what length they are said! There it is said, “The Jews sought to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God.” Here it is shown clearly enough that he did not call God his Father in the usual way, as holy men are accustomed to say, but conveyed that he was equal to him; for a little before he had said to them as they slandered him about the Sabbath, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” There they were inflamed, not because he called God his Father, but because he wanted to be understood as equal to him by saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working,” showing that it follows that, since the Father works, the Son works also, because the Father does not work without the Son. For there too, a little later, he says to them as they were already angry at this, “For whatever he does, the Son also does likewise.”

From there at last John comes down to those three, walking on earth with the same Lord, so that five thousand are fed with five loaves; where, however, he alone records that, when they wanted to make him king, he fled alone to the mountain. In this matter it seems to me he wished to remind the rational soul of nothing else than that he reigns in our mind and reason in so far as he is on high, alone, with no sharing of nature with human beings, because he is the Father's only Son. But this mystery escapes carnal people creeping below, because it is very lofty; hence he himself also fled to the mountain from those who sought his kingdom with an earthly mind; hence he also says elsewhere, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This too John alone records, rising above the earth as it were in an ethereal flight and rejoicing in the light of the sun of righteousness. From that mountain likewise, after the miracle of the five loaves, having lingered a little with the same three until they crossed the sea, when he walked on the waters, he immediately rises again to the Lord's word, so great, so long, so long sustained on high and lofty, arising from the occasion of the bread, when he had said to the crowds, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled; work not for the food that perishes but for that which endures to eternal life,” and from there such things at great length and most loftily. Then from this height of the word fell away those who no longer walked after him; but those clung to him who could understand, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing,” because certainly the Spirit profits even through the flesh, and the Spirit alone profits, but the flesh without the Spirit profits nothing.

Then, when his brothers, that is, his relatives according to the flesh, suggested that he go up to the feast so as to become known to the multitude, with what depth he answered: “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but it hates me, because I testify of it that its works are evil”! This, then, is “your time is always ready”: because you desire that day of which the prophet says, “But I have not labored following you, O Lord, and I have not desired the day of men; you know.” This is to fly to the light of the Word and to desire that day which Abraham desired to see, and saw and was glad. Then, when he had gone up to the feast into the temple, what things John records that he said, how wonderful, how divine, how lofty! That they could not come where he was going; that they both knew him and knew where he was from; and that he who sent him was true, whom they did not know; as if he said, “You both know where I am from and do not know where I am from.” What else did he want understood by this but that according to the flesh he could be known to them both by nation and country, but according to his divinity he was unknown? There too, speaking of the gift of the Holy Spirit, he showed who he was, since he could give the highest gift.

Again, returning there from the Mount of Olives, what great things he narrates that he spoke after pardon was given to that adulteress, who had been brought to him by tempters as if to be stoned, when he wrote with his finger on the ground, as if signifying that such people were to be written on the earth and not in heaven, where he admonished the disciples to rejoice that they were written; or because, humbling himself, which he showed by bowing his head, he was making signs on the ground; or because it was now time for his law to be written on earth that would bear fruit, not on barren stone, as before! So after these things he said that he was the light of the world, and that whoever followed him would not walk in darkness but would have the light of life. He also said that he was the beginning, who was also speaking to them; by which name he certainly distinguished himself from that light which he made, as the light through which all things were made; so that what he said, that he was the light of the world, would not be taken in the way he said to the disciples, “You are the light of the world,” like a lamp not to be put under a bushel but on a lampstand, as also of John the Baptist, “He was,” he says, “a burning and shining lamp”; but he himself as the beginning, of whom it was said, “We have all received from his fullness.” There he said that he, the Son, was the truth, and that unless the truth sets free, no one will be free.

From there, after he enlightened the man blind from birth, John lingers, on that very occasion, in his long discourse about the sheep and the shepherd and the door, and about the power of laying down his life and taking it again, in which he showed the most excellent power of his divinity. Then, when the feast of Dedication was being held in Jerusalem, he records that the Jews said to him, “How long will you take away our life? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” And from there, taking the opportunity of the discourse, he narrates what sublime things he said. There he said, “I and the Father are one.” Then he proclaims Lazarus raised by him, where he said, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live; and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” In these words, what do we recognize but the height of his divinity, by participation in which we shall live forever? From there John again meets Matthew and Mark at Bethany, where that took place with the precious ointment, with which his feet and head were anointed by Mary; and from there on to the Lord's passion and resurrection John walks with the three evangelists, but with his narrative dwelling on the same places.

But as regards the Lord's discourses, he does not cease to rise to the things that the Lord spoke from then on, sublimely and at length. For when the Gentiles wanted to see him through Philip and Andrew, he gave a lofty discourse which none of the other evangelists inserted; there again he records splendid things about the light that enlightens and makes children of light. Then at the supper itself, about which none of the evangelists was silent, how many and how lofty words of his John records which the others passed over! Not only about the commendation of humility, when he washed the disciples' feet, but, when his betrayer, pointed out by the morsel, had gone out, the eleven remaining with him, the same John dwelt on his discourse, wonderfully astonishing and very long, where he said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”; where he spoke much about the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom he was going to send them, and about his glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and that he would make us one in himself, as he and the Father are one; not that he and the Father and we are one, but that we are one as they are one; and many other wonderfully sublime things, to discuss which as is fitting, even if we were capable, who does not see that we have not undertaken it in this work? That must perhaps be rendered elsewhere; here it certainly is not to be sought. For we wanted to commend this to lovers of the word of God and students of holy truth: that although John in his Gospel was the herald and preacher of the same Christ, who is true and truthful, of whom the other three who wrote the gospel were also heralds, as well as the other apostles, who did not undertake to write the narrative itself but fulfilled the duty of their office in preaching it; yet John, carried up far higher into the loftier things of Christ, was from the very beginning of his book rarely with the others: that is, first around the Jordan, because of the testimony of John the Baptist; then across the sea of Tiberias, when he fed the crowds with the five loaves and walked on the waters; third at Bethany, where he was anointed with precious ointment by the devotion of a faithful woman; until from there he met them at the time of the passion, which he necessarily had to narrate with them; where, however, he presented the Lord's supper itself, about which none of them was silent, much more richly, as from the storehouse of the Lord's breast, on which he used to recline. Then he strikes Pilate himself with loftier words, saying that his kingdom is not of this world and that he was born a king and came into this world for this, to bear witness to the truth. Mary too, after the resurrection, he visits with mystic depth: “Do not touch me,” he says, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” To the disciples also, by breathing on them, he gave the Holy Spirit, lest that Spirit, who is consubstantial and coeternal with the Trinity, should be thought to be the Spirit of the Father only and not also of the Son.

Finally, entrusting his sheep to Peter, who loved him and confessed that love three times, he says that he wants this same John to remain thus until he comes. Here too he seems to me to have taught by a deep mystery that this very gospel dispensation of John, by which he is borne sublimely into the clearest light of the Word, where the equality and unchangeableness of the Trinity can be seen, and by what special property the man, by whose assumption the Word became flesh, differs from others, cannot be clearly discerned and known until the Lord himself comes. So it will remain thus until he comes. It will remain now in the faith of believers, but then it will be contemplated face to face, when our life appears and we appear with him in glory. But whoever thinks that it can happen to a human being still living this mortal life that, with every cloud of bodily and carnal imaginings removed and scattered, he enjoys the most serene light of unchangeable truth and, with his mind wholly estranged from the habits of this life, cleaves to it constantly and unswervingly, understands neither what he seeks nor who seeks it. Let him rather believe the sublime and most unerring authority, that while we are in the body we are away from the Lord and walk by faith, not yet by sight; and so, persistently holding and guarding faith, hope, and love, let him strain toward sight from the pledge we have received of the Holy Spirit, who will teach us all truth, when God, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, will also give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit dwelling in us. But before what is dead because of sin is given life, it is without doubt corruptible and weighs down the soul; and if ever, helped, the soul goes beyond this cloud by which the whole earth is covered, that is, this carnal darkness by which all earthly life is covered, it is grazed as by a swift flash of lightning and returns to its weakness, with the desire living on by which it may be raised again, but without the purity sufficient to be fixed there. And the more anyone can do this, the greater he is; the less, the lesser. But if the human mind, in which Christ nevertheless dwells by faith, has as yet experienced nothing of the kind, it ought to press on in lessening and ending the desires of this world by the practice of moral virtue, walking as it were in the company of those three evangelists with Christ the mediator; let it hold faithfully, with the joy of great hope, him who, always the Son of God, was made for our sake the Son of Man, so that his everlasting power and divinity, tempered to our weakness and mortality, might make for us from what is ours a way in himself and to himself. That it may not sin, let it be ruled by Christ the king; if perhaps it sins, let it be expiated by the same Christ the priest; and so, in the practice of good conduct and life, its wings of twofold love being nourished, as if lifted from the earth on two strong wings, let it be enlightened by the same Christ the Word, the Word that was in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, even if through a mirror and in an enigma, yet far more sublimely than through any bodily likeness. Therefore, although in those three the gifts of the active virtue, and in John's Gospel those of the contemplative, shine out for those capable of discerning them, yet this of John too, since it is in part, will remain so until what is perfect comes. And to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; one regards the day for the Lord, another drinks something more clearly from the Lord's breast, another, caught up to the third heaven, hears inexpressible words; yet all, as long as they are in the body, are away from the Lord, and for all the faithful of good hope, written in the book of life, what was said is reserved: “And I will love him and will show myself to him.” Yet in this pilgrimage, the more anyone has advanced in the understanding or knowledge of this matter, the more let him beware of the devilish vices of pride and envy. Let him remember here how much more this very Gospel of John, as it raises us to the contemplation of truth, teaches about the sweetness of love. And because that precept is most true and wholesome, “The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things,” the evangelist who commends Christ far more loftily than the others is the one in whom he washes the disciples' feet.