Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 11.1–11.6

“But seeing many of the Sadducees and Pharisees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

How then does Christ say that they did not believe John? Because it was not believing him, not to receive the one he proclaimed. For they seemed to attend to the prophets and the lawgiver too; yet he said they had not attended to them, since they did not receive the one prophesied by them. “For if you believed Moses,” he says, “you would believe me.” And afterward, when asked by Christ, “The baptism of John, where is it from?”, they said: “If we say, from men, we fear the crowd; if we say, from heaven, he will say to us, Why then did you not believe him?” So from all this it is clear that they came and were baptized, but did not remain in the faith of the preaching. For John too shows their wickedness by the people they sent to the Baptist, saying, “Are you Elijah? Are you the Christ?” That is why he added, “And those who had been sent were from the Pharisees.” “What then? Did not the crowds too think the same?” someone says. But the crowds suspected this from a guileless mind; the Pharisees, wishing to catch him. For since it was agreed that the Christ would come from the village of David, and he was of the tribe of Levi, they laid a trap by the question, so that if he said anything of the kind they might quickly attack him. This, at any rate, he showed by what follows too; for when he confessed nothing of what they expected, they attack him even so, saying, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ?” And that you may learn that the Pharisees came with one intention and the people with another, hear how the evangelist made this plain too: of the people he says that they came and were baptized by him, confessing their sins; but of the Pharisees no longer the same, but that, “seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming, he said: Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

O what greatness of mind! How he speaks to men always thirsting for the blood of the prophets and no better disposed than snakes; how he reproaches both them and their fathers with great boldness! “Yes,” someone says, “the boldness is great; but the question is whether this boldness has any reason. For he did not see them sinning, but changing; that is why he ought not to have accused them, but even to have praised and welcomed them, because, leaving city and houses, they ran to hear the preaching.” What then shall we say? That he did not attend to what was present nor to what was happening, but knew the secrets of their mind, God revealing this to him. Since, then, they were proud of their ancestors, and this became the cause of their destruction and threw them into carelessness, he cuts off the root of their arrogance. That is why Isaiah too calls them rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, and another prophet says, “Are you not like the sons of the Ethiopians?”; and all lead them away from this notion, emptying their pride, which became for them the cause of countless evils. “But the prophets did so with reason,” someone says, “for they saw them sinning; but here, why and for what reason does he do this, seeing them obeying him?” So as to make them softer. And if one attends carefully to what is said, he mixed praise with the rebuke. For he said these things marveling at them, that at long last they had been able to do what seemed almost impossible for them. So the rebuke belongs rather to one drawing them on and preparing them to come to their senses. For when he appears astonished, he shows both that their former wickedness was great and that their change was wonderful and marvelous. For what has happened, he says, that, being children of those men and so badly brought up, they repented? Where has so great a change come from? Who has softened the roughness of their mind? Who has corrected what was incurable? And see how he amazed them right from the opening, throwing in first the words about hell. For he did not say the usual things: Who warned you to flee wars, the attacks of barbarians, captivities, famines, plagues? But he struck first upon another punishment never made plain to them, saying: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

And he rightly called them a brood of vipers. For that creature is said to come into the light by destroying the one in labor and gnawing through her womb; which these men also did, becoming murderers of father and mother and destroying their teachers with their own hands. But he does not stop at the rebuke; he also brings in counsel: “Bear fruit,” he says, “worthy of repentance.” For it is not enough to flee wickedness; one must also show much virtue. Do not give me the opposite and the usual thing, that being humbled for a short time you return to the same wickedness. For we have not come on the same terms as the prophets before. For present things are changed and loftier, since the Judge himself is coming at last, the Master of the kingdom himself, leading to a greater philosophy, calling to heaven, and drawing us up to the life there. That is why I reveal the discourse about hell too; for both the good things and the painful are immortal. Do not, then, remain in the same things, nor put forward the usual excuses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the nobility of your ancestors. He said this not forbidding them to say that they were from those saints, but forbidding them to trust in this while neglecting virtue of soul; and he brought into the open what was in their mind, and prophesied what was to come. For afterward they are seen saying, “We have Abraham as our father, and have never been slaves to anyone.” Since, then, this was what above all lifted them to arrogance and destroyed them, he first humbles it. And see how he makes the correction with honor toward the patriarch. For having said, “Do not presume to say, We have Abraham as our father,” he did not say, “For the patriarch will be able to profit you nothing,” but hinted at this very thing more gently and kindly, saying: “For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”

Some say that he says this of the Gentiles, calling them stones metaphorically; but I say that what was said has another sense as well. What is it? Do not think, he says, that if you perish you will make the patriarch childless. It is not so, it is not so. For God can give him men even from stones and bring them into that kinship; since from the beginning too it happened so. For the coming of a child from that barren womb was like men coming from stones. This is what the prophet hinted at, saying: “Look to the solid rock from which you were hewn, and to the hollow of the pit from which you were dug; look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you.” He reminds them of this prophecy, then, showing that if from the beginning he made him a father so wonderfully, as if he made him one even from stones, this can happen now too. And see how he both frightens and cuts away. For he did not say that he had already raised them up, lest they despair of themselves, but that he is able to raise them up. And he did not say that he can make men from stones, but what was much greater, kinsmen and children of Abraham. Do you see how he has for the present drawn them away from the bodily notion and from taking refuge in their ancestors, so that they might have the hope of salvation in their own repentance and self-control? Do you see how, casting out kinship of the flesh, he brings in kinship from faith?

Consider, then, how by what follows he increases their fear and heightens the anxiety. For having said, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,” he added: “And already the axe is laid at the root of the trees,” making the discourse fearful through everything. For he himself had great boldness from his life, and they needed sharp rebuke, having long since become waste land. For why do I say, he says, that you are about to fall from your kinship with the patriarch and see others, from stones, brought into your precedence? Not even so far does your punishment go; the punishment will go further still. “For already,” he says, “the axe is laid at the root of the trees.” Nothing is more fearful than this figure of speech. For it is no longer a flying sickle, nor the pulling down of a fence, nor the trampling of the vineyard, but an axe sharpened to the utmost, and what is worse, that it is at the doors. For since, disbelieving the prophets continually, they said, “Where is the day of the Lord?” and, “Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel come, that we may know it,” because what was said often came to pass after many years, leading them away from this comfort too, he sets the terrors near them. And he showed this by saying “already,” and by bringing it to the root. For there is nothing between now, he says; it lies at the very root. And he did not say, at the branches, nor at the fruits, but at the root; showing them that if they were careless they would suffer incurable terrors and would not even have hope of healing. For the one who has come is not a servant as those before, but the Master of all himself, bringing a severe and most powerful punishment. Yet having frightened them again, he does not let them fall into despair; but as above he did not say that he had raised up, but that he is able to raise up children to Abraham, frightening and comforting at once, so here too he did not say that it has touched the root, but that it lies at the root and is in contact with it, and shows no delay. Yet having brought it so near, he makes you masters of the cutting. For if you change and become better, this axe will go away having done nothing; but if you remain in the same things, it will tear the tree up by the roots. For this reason it neither stands away from the root, nor, lying there, cuts: the one so that you may not grow slack, the other so that you may learn that it is possible, changing even in a short time, to be saved. That is why he increases the fear from every side, rousing them and pushing them toward repentance. For to fall from their ancestors, and others to be brought in in their place, and the terrors to be at the doors, and to suffer incurable things, which he showed by both the root and the axe, were enough to rouse even those very slack and make them anxious. This Paul too showed, saying, “For the Lord will make a short work upon the whole world.”

But do not be afraid; or rather, be afraid, but do not despair. For you have hope of change; for the sentence is not final, nor has the axe come to cut (for what prevented it from cutting, being in contact with the root?), but to make you better by this fear and prepare you to bear fruit. That is why he added: “Every tree, then, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” And when he says “every,” he casts out again the precedence from noble birth. For even if you are a descendant of Abraham himself, he says, even if you can count countless patriarchs, you will undergo a double punishment if you remain fruitless. By these words he frightened tax collectors too and shook the soldiers' minds, neither throwing them into despair, and freeing them from all carelessness. For with the fear what was said has much encouragement too. For by saying, “that does not bear good fruit,” he showed that the tree that bears fruit is freed from all punishment. “And how,” someone says, “shall we be able to bear fruit, when the cutting is near, the time so short, and the term cut short?” You will be able, he says; for this fruit is not like that of trees, which waits a long time, is a slave to the necessities of the seasons, and needs much other labor; but it is enough to will, and the tree has at once put forth shoots. For not only the nature of the root, but also the skill of the farmer contributes greatly to such fruit-bearing. For this reason, so that they might not say, “You disturb us, you hurry us, you choke us, putting the axe to us and threatening cutting, and asking for revenues in a time of punishment,” he added, showing the ease of fruit-bearing: “I baptize you with water; but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”; showing by these words that what is needed is only will and faith, not toil and sweat; and as it is easy to be baptized, so it is easy to change and become better.

Having shaken their mind, then, by the fear of the judgment, by the expectation of punishment, by the name of the axe, by the loss of their ancestors, by the bringing in of other children, and by the double punishment of cutting down and burning, and having softened their hardness on every side and set them longing to be freed from such evils, then he brings in the discourse about Christ; and not simply, but with great preeminence. Then, setting out the difference between himself and him, lest he seem to say this as a favor, he establishes it by comparing what each gives. For he did not say at once, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal,” but first set down the meanness of his own baptism, and showed that it has nothing more than to lead them to repentance (for he did not say, “with water of remission,” but “of repentance”), and then he sets down Christ's, full of the unspeakable gift. For lest, hearing, he says, that he comes after me, you despise him as having come later, learn the power of his gift, and you will know clearly that I have said nothing worthy or great in saying, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.” So when you hear, “He is mightier than I,” do not think I said this by way of comparison. For I am not worthy to be ranked even among his servants, not even among the last servants, nor to undertake the meanest part of the service. That is why he did not simply say “the sandals,” but “not even the strap,” which seemed the last of all. Then, so that you may not think what was said belongs to humility, he adds the proof from the facts too: “For he,” he says, “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Do you see how great the wisdom of the Baptist is? When he himself preaches, he says all the fearful things that cause anxiety; but when he sends them to Christ, the good things able to restore them. For he does not bring into the midst the axe, nor the tree cut down and burned and thrown into the fire, nor the wrath to come, but remission 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 by saying, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” showing by the very metaphor of the word the abundance of the grace (for he did not say, “He will give you the Holy Spirit,” but “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”); and again by the addition of “fire” showing the vehemence and irresistibility of the grace.

Consider, then, how the hearers were likely to feel, reckoning that they would suddenly become like the prophets and like those great men. For this is why he mentioned fire too, to bring them to the memory of those men. For almost all the visions that appeared to them, most appeared through fire: so God spoke to Moses in the bush; so to the whole people on Mount Sinai; so to Ezekiel on the cherubim. And consider how he rouses the hearer, setting first what was to happen after everything. For the Lamb had to be slain, sin wiped out, the enmity undone, the burial and the resurrection take place, and then the Spirit come. But for the present he says none of these, but first the last thing, for whose sake all those things happened, and which above all could proclaim his dignity; so that when the hearer hears that he will receive so great a Spirit, he may ask himself how and in what way this will be, while sin so prevails; so that, taking him thoughtful and prepared to listen, he might bring in the discourse about the passion, no one being offended any longer, in the expectation of such a gift. That is why he cried out again, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He did not say, “who forgives,” but what was of greater care, “who takes away.” For it is not the same thing simply to forgive and to take it up oneself. For the one was done without danger, the other with death. And again he said that he is the Son of God. But not even this made his dignity plain to the hearers (for they did not yet know how to think of him as the genuine Son); but from so great a giving of the Spirit this too was established. That is why the Father too, in sending John, gave him this as the first sign of the dignity of the one who was coming, saying: “On whomever you see the Spirit descending and remaining, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” That is why he himself also says, “I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God,” as though that too was clearly established from this.

Then, since he had spoken the good things, and had relaxed and loosened the hearer, he tightens him again, so that he may not become careless. For such was the Jewish race: by good things they were easily slackened and became worse. That is why he brings in the fearful things again, saying, “whose winnowing fork is in his hand.” For above he spoke of the punishment; but here he shows the judge too and brings in the immortal punishment: “For he will burn up the chaff,” he says, “with unquenchable fire.” Do you see him as the Lord of all things, and himself the farmer, even if elsewhere he says this of the Father? “For my Father,” he says, “is the farmer.” For since he had said “axe,” lest you think the matter needed toil and was hard to sort out, he brings in its ease too by another example, showing that the whole world is his; for he would not have punished those who were not his. Now, then, all things are mixed together; for even if the wheat appears shining, it lies with the chaff as on a threshing floor, not as in a granary; but then there will be a great separation.

Where now are those who disbelieve in hell? For he set down two things: that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and that he will burn up the disobedient. If, then, that is credible, this certainly is too. For this is why he set the two predictions side by side, so that from the one already fulfilled he might confirm the one not yet come to pass. For Christ too does this in many places, often about the same things and often about opposite things, setting down two prophecies, and fulfilling one here and promising the other in the future, so that from the one already fulfilled the more contentious may believe the one not yet fulfilled. For to those who strip themselves of all their possessions for him he promised to give a hundredfold in the present life and eternal life in the future, making the future things credible from what had already been given. This John too has done here, setting down two things: that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and that he will burn up with unquenchable fire.

If, then, he had not baptized the apostles with the Spirit, and every day all who wish, you might doubt those things too; but if what seems greater and harder and surpassing all reason both has happened and happens every day, how do you say that what is easy and happens according to reason is not true? For since he said that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and promised great good things from this, lest you grow slack, released from all former sins, he added the winnowing fork and the judgment shown by it. For do not think, he says, that baptism is enough, if you become wicked afterward; for we need virtue and much philosophy. That is why he pushes them toward the grace and the washing by the axe, and after the grace by the winnowing fork and the unquenchable fire. And of those before baptism he makes no distinction, but simply, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down,” he says, punishing all the unbelievers; but after baptism he makes a separation, since many of those who believed were going to show a life unworthy of the faith. Let no one, then, become chaff; let no one be easily blown about, nor lie open to wicked desires, easily fanned up by them everywhere. For if you remain wheat, even if temptation comes, you will suffer nothing terrible; for on the threshing floor the saw-toothed wheels of the cart do not cut the wheat; but if you fall into the weakness of chaff, you will both suffer incurable things here, cut by everyone, and undergo the immortal punishment there. For all such people, even before the furnace there, become food here for irrational passions, as chaff for irrational animals, and there again material and food for the fire. Now to say outright that he will judge what is done would not have made the discourse so easy to receive; but mixing in the parable and establishing the whole by it persuaded more and drew the hearer with greater comfort. That is why Christ too speaks to them mostly in this way, mixing into his words threshing floor and harvest, vineyard and winepress, field and net and fishing, and all the familiar things among which they lived. This the Baptist has done here too, and he has provided the greatest proof of what he said, the giving of the Spirit. For the one able to do such great things as to forgive sins and give the Spirit will be much more able to do these things too, he says. Do you see how he already laid down beforehand, in due order, the mystery of the resurrection and the judgment?

“And why,” someone says, “did he not speak of the signs and wonders that were soon to come from him?” Because this was greater than all, and for its sake all those things happened. For by setting down the chief point he included everything: the undoing of death, the removal of sins, the wiping out of the curse, release from the long wars, entry into paradise, ascent to heaven, citizenship with angels, sharing in the good things to come; for this is a pledge of those. Having said this, then, he spoke also of the resurrection of bodies, the display of signs here, the sharing in the kingdom, and the good things “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man”; for he provided all these to us through that gift. It was superfluous, then, to speak of the signs that were soon to come and would be judged by sight; but he had to speak of the things they doubted: that he is the Son of God, that he surpasses John beyond comparison, that he takes away the sin of the world, that he will exact a penalty for what has been done, that our affairs do not end with the present, but there each will undergo the punishment he deserves. For these things could not for the present be shown to sight.