Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 51.1–51.6

“Then there come to Jesus the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, saying, ‘Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.’ But he answered and said to them, ‘Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, “Honor your father and your mother,” and, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.” But you say, “Whoever says to his father or mother, ‘It is a gift, whatever you might have gained from me,’ he shall not honor his father or his mother.” And you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.’” “Then”: when? When he had worked his countless signs, when he had healed the sick by the touch of his fringe. For that is why the evangelist marks the time, to show their unspeakable wickedness, which yielded to nothing. And what does “the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem” mean? They were scattered in all the tribes and divided into twelve parts; but those who held the capital were more wicked than the others, inasmuch as they enjoyed greater honor and had acquired great arrogance. But see, I pray you, how they are caught by their very question. For they do not say, “Why do they transgress the law of Moses?” but, “the tradition of the elders.” From this it is plain that the priests were introducing many innovations, although Moses had charged them with much fear and with great threatening neither to add nor to take away. “For you shall not add,” he says, “to the word which I command you this day, and you shall not take away from it.” But they innovated none the less; such was this too, that one must not eat with unwashed hands, and the baptizing of cups and bronze vessels, and their baptizing themselves. For just when, as time went on, they ought to have been freed from such observances, then they bound them the more with more of them, fearing lest someone should take away their authority, and wishing to be more feared, as being themselves lawgivers. The thing therefore went so far in lawlessness that their own commandments were kept while God’s were transgressed; and they had such power that the matter became a ground of accusation. This was a double charge against them: both that they innovated, and that they avenged their own rules so strictly while taking no account of God’s. And passing over the rest, the pots and the bronze vessels (for they were ridiculous), they bring forward the one that seemed to have more reason than the others, wishing, as it seems to me, to provoke him to anger. That is why they mentioned the elders too, so that by seeming to despise them he might give them a hold against himself. But it is worth examining first why the disciples ate with unwashed hands. For what reason, then, did they eat so? Not making a point of it, but now disregarding superfluous things and attending to necessary ones, having no rule either about washing or not washing, but doing either as it happened. For those who despised even necessary food, how should they have made these things a matter of zeal? Since, then, it often happened that this came about by chance, as when they ate in the desert, as when they plucked the ears of grain, they bring it forward as a charge—they who always pass over great things and make much account of superfluous ones. What then does Christ do? He did not stand on this point or make a defense, but at once brings a countercharge, pulling down their boldness of speech, and showing that one who sins greatly ought not to be exact with others about small things. “You who ought to be accused,” he says, “do you accuse?” But observe how, whenever he wishes to set aside one of the legal rules, he does it in the manner of a defense; which he did on that occasion too. For he does not come at once to the transgression, nor say, “It is nothing”; for then he would have made them bolder; but first he cuts off their boldness, bringing into the midst a far greater charge and turning it upon their own head. And he neither says that the disciples do well to transgress, so as not to give them a hold; nor does he condemn what was done, so as not to confirm the rule; nor again does he accuse the elders as lawless and polluted, for then they would have turned away from him as a reviler and an insulter; but leaving all these aside he goes another way. And he seems to rebuke those who had come, but he strikes at those who made these laws; nowhere mentioning the elders, but in his accusation of these men bringing those down too, and showing that the sin is double: that they do not obey God, and that they do this for the sake of men; as if he said, “This is what has ruined you, obeying the elders in everything.” He does not say it so, but he hints at this very thing by answering them thus: “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “It is a gift, whatever you might have gained from me,” he shall not honor his father and his mother.’ And you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.”

And he did not say, “of the elders,” but “your”; and, “you say”; and he did not say, “the elders,” so as to make his word less offensive. For since they wished to show that the disciples were lawless, he shows that it is they who are doing this, while the disciples are free of the charge. For what was enjoined by men is not law (that is why he calls it tradition), and by men who were lawless above all. And since commanding men to wash their hands was not contrary to the law, he brings into the midst another tradition, one that is contrary to the law. What he says is something like this: they taught the young, under a show of piety, to despise their fathers. How, and in what way? If one of the parents said to his son, “Give me this sheep that you have, or the calf, or something else of the kind,” they would say, “This is a gift to God, whatever you wish to gain from me, and you cannot take it.” And from this a double evil arose. For they did not offer it to God, and they robbed their parents in the name of the offering, insulting their parents for God’s sake and God for their parents’ sake. But he does not say this at once; first he reads out the law, by which he shows that it wishes parents to be greatly honored. “For honor,” it says, “your father and your mother, that you may live long on the earth”; and again, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.” But he, passing over the reward set for those who honor their parents, sets down the more fearful part, I mean the punishment threatened to those who dishonor them, wishing both to strike these men with dismay and to draw those who have sense; and he shows thereby that they deserve death. For if he who dishonors with a word is punished, much more you who do it by deed, and not only dishonor but also teach others to do so. You, then, who ought not even to live, how do you accuse the disciples? And what wonder is it if you commit such insults against me, who am for the time unknown, when you are seen doing such things toward the Father too? For everywhere he both says and shows that it was with God himself that they began this madness. Some, however, interpret “It is a gift, whatever you might have gained from me” differently: that is, “I do not owe you honor, but I do you a favor if I honor you.” But Christ would not have mentioned such an insult. And Mark makes this plainer, saying, “Corban, whatever you might have gained from me,” which does not mean a gift or a dowry but is properly called an offering. Having shown, then, that those who trample on the law would not be justified in accusing others for transgressing a commandment of the elders, he shows this same thing also from the prophet. For since he had convicted them vehemently, he goes further, which he does everywhere, bringing the Scriptures into the midst, and showing by this too that he is in agreement with God. And what does the prophet say? “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” Do you see a prophecy agreeing exactly with what was said, and proclaiming their wickedness from of old? For what Christ now charged, Isaiah too said long before: that they despise the things of God (“For in vain they worship me,” he says), but make much account of their own (“teaching as commandments the doctrines of men”). Rightly then the disciples do not keep these. Having given them, then, a mortal blow, and having heightened the accusation by the facts, by their own verdict, and by the prophet, he says nothing more to them, since they were incorrigible, but turns his word to the crowds, to bring in a teaching that is lofty and great and full of much wisdom; and taking occasion from that, he now weaves in the greater thing, casting out the observance of foods. But see when. When he had cleansed the leper, when he had set aside the sabbath, when he had shown himself king of land and sea, when he had given laws, when he had forgiven sins, when he had raised the dead, when he had given them many proofs of his Godhead, then he speaks about foods.

For the whole of Judaism is held together by this; and if you take this away, you have taken away the whole. For from this he shows that circumcision too must be set aside. But he himself does not introduce this directly, since it was older than the other commandments and was held in greater esteem; but he enacts it through his disciples. For it was so great a thing that even the disciples, wishing to abolish it after so long a time, first observe it, and so put an end to it. But see how he brings in the law. “For he called the crowds and said to them, ‘Hear and understand.’” For he does not simply declare it to them, but first makes his word readily accepted by the honor and the attention he shows them (for this the evangelist made clear by saying, “having called”), and then also by the timing. For after the refutation of those men and his victory over them, and the accusation from the prophet, then he begins his lawgiving, when they would also more easily accept what was said. And he does not simply call them, but also makes them more attentive. For he says, “Understand,” that is, “Consider, rouse yourselves”; for such is the law about to be written. For if they set aside the law, and that out of season, for their own tradition, and you listened to them, much more ought you to listen to me, who at the fitting time am leading you on to a greater wisdom. And he did not say, “The observance of foods is nothing,” nor, “Moses commanded badly,” nor, “He did it by way of concession”; but in the manner of exhortation and counsel, taking his testimony from the nature of things, he says, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth,” taking refuge in nature itself, and legislating and declaring. And hearing this, those men made no reply, nor did they say, “What are you saying? When God has given countless commands about the observance of foods, do you legislate such things?” But since he had silenced them thoroughly, not only by refuting them but also by bringing their deceit into the open, and by exposing what they did in secret, and uncovering the hidden things of their mind, they went away silenced. But consider, I pray you, how he does not yet dare plainly to strike down the rule of foods. That is why he did not say, “foods,” but, “Not what goes in defiles a man,” which it was natural to suspect was said also about unwashed hands. For he was speaking about foods, but it would have been understood about these too. For so strong was the observance of foods that even after the resurrection Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” For even if he said this on account of others, and to leave himself a defense toward those who accused him, to show that he both objected and was not even so allowed, nevertheless it shows that the scruple about the matter was great. That is why he himself also did not speak openly about foods at the beginning, but said, “what goes into the mouth”; and again, when he seemed later to speak more plainly, he veiled it at the end, saying, “But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man,” so that he might seem to have taken his starting point from this, and to be speaking about it for the present. That is why he did not say, “But to eat foods does not defile a man,” but spoke as if about that matter, so that those men might have nothing to say against him. “Hearing these things, then,” it says, “the Pharisees were offended,” not the crowds. “For his disciples came,” it says, “and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard the saying?’” And yet nothing had been said to them. What then does Christ do? He did not remove the offense for them, but rebuked them, saying, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.” For he knows both how to disregard offenses and how not to disregard them. Elsewhere, at any rate, he says, “But so that we may not offend them, cast a hook into the sea”; but here he says, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Now the disciples said this not only as being grieved for those men, but also as being somewhat troubled themselves. But since they did not dare to say this in their own person, they wished to learn it under the account of others. For that this is so, hear how afterward the fervent Peter, who everywhere is beforehand, comes and says, “Explain this parable to us,” revealing the trouble in his soul, and not daring to say openly, “I am offended,” but asking to be freed from his trouble by the explanation; that is why he was also rebuked. What then does Christ say? “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.” Those who are sick with the disease of the Manichaeans say this was said about the law; but what was said before stops their mouths. For if he were speaking about the law, how did he defend it above and fight for it, saying, “Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” And how does he bring the prophet into the midst? But it is about these men themselves and their traditions that he says this. For if God said, “Honor your father and your mother,” how is what was said by God not a plant of God? And what follows also shows that it was said about them and their traditions. At any rate, he added, “They are blind guides of the blind.” But if he were saying this about the law, he would have said, “It is a blind guide of the blind.” But he did not say so; he said, “They are blind guides of the blind,” freeing the law from the charge and turning the whole upon these men. Then, also detaching the multitude from them, as being about to fall into the pit because of them, he says, “If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” It is a great evil to be blind; but being such, not to have one to lead you by the hand, and to take the place of a guide, is a double and triple charge. For if for the blind man to have no guide is dangerous, much more is it so for him to wish to be a guide to another. What then does Peter do? He does not say, “What is this that you have said?” but asks as of something full of obscurity. And he does not say, “Why have you spoken against the law?” for he was afraid of being thought to be offended; but he says it is a matter of obscurity. But that it was not a matter of obscurity, but that he was offended, is plain; for it had nothing obscure. That is why he also rebukes him, saying, “Are you also still without understanding?” For the crowds perhaps did not even understand what was said; but it was they who had been offended. That is why at the beginning, as if asking on behalf of the Pharisees, they wished to learn; but when they heard him threaten a great threat and say, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up,” and, “They are blind guides of the blind,” they were checked. But he who is everywhere fervent cannot bear to keep silent even so, but says, “Explain this parable to us.” What then does Christ do? He answers very rebukingly: “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet perceive?” And he said this and rebuked them to cast out their prejudice; yet he did not stop there, but adds other things, saying, “that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the belly and is cast out into the drain; but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and that defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, blasphemies, false witness; these are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Do you see how vehemently and rebukingly he deals with them? Then he establishes what was said from our common nature, and with a view to their healing. For when he says, “passes into the belly and is cast out into the drain,” he still answers according to Jewish lowliness of thought. For he says that it does not remain but goes out. And yet, even if it remained, it would not make one unclean. But they were not yet able to hear this. For this reason the lawgiver too allows so much time as it remains within, but when it comes out, no longer. At any rate, he commands that one bathe in the evening and be clean, measuring the time of digestion and of excretion. But the things of the heart, he says, remain within, and defile when they come out, and not only while they remain. And he puts first the evil thoughts, which was a Jewish way of putting it; and he does not yet make his refutation from the nature of the things, but from the offspring of the belly and of the heart, and from the fact that the one remains and the other does not. For the one, entering from outside, goes out again; but the other is born within, and defiles when it comes out, and then the more when it comes out. For they were not yet able, as I said, to hear these things with fitting wisdom. But Mark says that he said these things “making all foods clean.” Yet he did not declare it plainly, nor say, “But to eat such and such foods does not defile a man”; for they would not have endured to hear him so plainly. That is why he also added, “But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Let us learn, then, what the things are that defile a man; let us learn, and flee them. For in the church too we see such a custom prevailing among the many: they are zealous to come in with clean garments, and to wash their hands; but how they may present a clean soul to God they take no account. And I say this not forbidding the washing of hands or mouth, but wishing that we wash as is fitting, not with water only, but instead of water with the virtues. For the filth of the mouth is evil-speaking, blasphemy, reviling, angry words, obscene talk, laughter, coarse jesting. If, then, you are conscious that you utter none of these and are not soiled with this filth, approach with confidence; but if you have received these stains countless times, why do you labor in vain, rinsing your tongue with water while carrying about in it this deadly and harmful filth?

For tell me, if you had dung and mud on your hands, would you dare to pray? Not at all. And yet that does no harm, while this is ruin. How then are you scrupulous in indifferent things, but careless in forbidden ones? “What then,” someone says, “must one not pray?” One must, but not while defiled, nor having such mud on oneself. “What then, if I have been overtaken?” someone says. Cleanse yourself. How, and in what way? Weep, groan, give alms, make your apology to the one you have insulted, reconcile him to yourself by these means, scour your tongue, so that you may not provoke God the more. For if someone who had filled his hands with dung took hold of your feet like that in supplication, not only would you not listen to him, but you would even kick him with your foot. How then do you dare to approach God like this? For the tongue is the hand of those who pray, and by it we take hold of God’s knees. Do not, then, defile it, lest he say to you too, “Even if you multiply your supplication, I will not listen.” For “death and life are in the power of the tongue”; and, “By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Guard your tongue, then, more than the pupil of your eye. The tongue is a royal horse. If you put a bridle on it and teach it to step in good rhythm, the king will rest upon it and sit on it; but if you let it be carried along unbridled and leap about, it becomes a vehicle of the devil and the demons. You do not dare to pray when you come from intercourse with your own wife, although this is not even a fault; but when you come from reviling and insult, which brings on Gehenna, do you stretch out your hands before you have cleansed yourself well? And how do you not shudder? Tell me. Have you not heard Paul saying, “Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled”? But if, rising from the undefiled bed, you do not dare to come to prayer, how, coming from the devil’s bed, do you call on that awesome and fearful name? For it is a devilish bed to wallow in insults and revilings. And like some wicked adulterer, anger unites with us with great pleasure, casting deadly seeds into us, making us bring forth devilish enmity, and working everything contrary to marriage. For marriage makes the two become one flesh; but anger divides into many parts those who were united, and splits and cuts up the very soul. So that you may approach God with confidence, then, do not receive anger when it comes upon you and wishes to unite with you, but drive it away like a mad dog. For so Paul too commanded: “lifting up,” he says, “holy hands, without anger and disputing.” Do not put your tongue to shame; for how will it plead for you when it has lost its own confidence? But adorn it with gentleness; with humility make it worthy of the God who is entreated; fill it with blessing, with much almsgiving. For it is possible to give alms with words too: “For a word is better than a gift”; and, “Answer the poor man peaceably with meekness.” And all the rest of the time adorn it with the telling of the divine laws: “For let all your discourse be in the law of the Most High.” Having adorned ourselves thus, let us approach the King and fall on our knees, not with the body only, but also with the mind. Let us consider whom we approach, and for what, and what we wish to accomplish. We approach God, whom the seraphim, seeing, turned away their faces, not bearing his brightness; whom the earth, seeing, trembles. We approach God, “who dwells in unapproachable light.” And we approach for deliverance from Gehenna, for the forgiveness of sins, for the remission of those unbearable punishments, for the attaining of heaven and the good things there.

Let us fall down, then, both with body and with mind, that he himself may raise us up as we lie there; let us speak with all gentleness and meekness. “And who is so wretched and miserable,” someone says, “as not to be gentle in prayer?” He who prays with a curse, and fills himself with anger, and cries out against his enemies. For if you wish to accuse, accuse yourself. If you wish to whet and sharpen your tongue, do it against your own sins. And do not say what evil another has done you, but what you have done to yourself; for this above all is evil. For no one else will be able to wrong you unless you wrong yourself. So if you wish to go against those who wrong you, go first against yourself; no one prevents you. But if you go against another, you go away having suffered a greater wrong. And what wrong at all have you to speak of? That so-and-so insulted you, and robbed you, and surrounded you with dangers? But this is not to be wronged; rather, if we are sober, it is to be benefited in the greatest things. For the one who is wronged is he who has done such things, not he who suffered them. And this above all is the cause of all evils, that we do not even know who it is that is wronged and who it is that does wrong. For if we knew this well, we should never have wronged ourselves, nor prayed against another, having learned that it is impossible to suffer evil from another. For it is not being robbed but robbing that is evil. So if you have robbed, accuse yourself; but if you have been robbed, pray even for the robber, because he has benefited you in the greatest things. For even if such was not the intention of the one who did it, you were benefited in the greatest things, if you bear it nobly. For him both men and the divine laws call wretched; but you, the one wronged, they crown and proclaim victor. For if someone in a fever snatched from someone a vessel holding water, and was deprived of his harmful desire, we would not say that the one from whom it was snatched was wronged, but the one who snatched it; for he increased the fever and made the disease worse. Reckon this, then, about the covetous and money-loving man too. For he too has a fever, much worse than that man’s, and by this robbery he has kindled his own flame. And if a madman snatched a sword from anyone and killed himself, who again was the one wronged? He from whom it was snatched, or he who snatched it? It is plain that it was he who snatched it. So, then, in the robbery of money too, let us give this same verdict. For what a sword is to a madman, that wealth is to the money-lover, or rather even worse. For the madman, having taken the sword and thrust it through himself, is released from his madness and no longer receives a second blow; but the money-lover each day receives countless wounds worse than that, not releasing himself from his madness, but intensifying it more; and the more wounds he receives, the more he furnishes occasion for other, worse blows. Considering these things, then, let us flee this sword, let us flee this madness, so that, even if late, we may come to our senses. For this virtue too must be called self-control, no less than that which is so called by all. For there the wrestling is against the tyranny of one desire; but here one must overcome many and manifold desires. For nothing, nothing is more senseless than the slave of money. He thinks he rules, while he is ruled; he thinks he is master, while he is a slave; and putting chains on himself, he rejoices; making the wild beast more savage, he is glad; and being made a captive, he exults and leaps for joy; and seeing a mad dog springing upon his soul, when he ought to bind it and waste it with hunger, he even gives it abundant food, so that it may spring the more and be more fearful. Considering all these things, then, let us loose the chains, let us slay the wild beast, let us drive out the disease, let us cast out this madness, so that we may enjoy calm and pure health, and, sailing with great delight into the tranquil harbor, may attain the eternal good things; which may we all attain, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.