Commentary on Matthew 13–14

“On that day Jesus went out and sat by the sea; and crowds gathered to him, so that he got into a boat.” That the Lord sat in a boat and the crowds stood outside has its reason in what follows. For he was going to speak in parables; and by the kind of this act he signifies that those who are placed outside the church can grasp no understanding of the divine word. For the ship bears the figure of the church: within it the word of life is placed and preached, which those who are outside, lying beside it barren and useless like sand, cannot understand. As for the parables already explained by the Lord, it is idle to speak. “For to him who has, it will be given, and he will abound; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” Faith receives the mysteries of the kingdom. In those in whom it is present it will advance and abound with the increase of its progress; but from those in whom it is not, even what they have will be taken away. He declares, that is, the loss of the law from the lack of faith: the Jews, not having this faith, also lost the law that they had had. And therefore the gospel faith has a perfect gift: because when received it enriches with new fruits, but when rejected it takes away even the wealth of the old substance. “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.” He teaches the blessedness of the apostolic time, to whose eyes and ears it was granted to see and hear God’s salvation: the prophets and the righteous desiring to see and hear in the fullness of the appointed times, and the joy of this expectation reserved for the apostles. “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed,” and the rest. The Lord compared himself to a grain of mustard seed, very sharp and the smallest of all seeds, whose force and power is kindled by tribulations and pressures. So this grain, after it has been sown in the field, that is, when, seized by the people and handed over to death, it was buried, as in a field, by a kind of sowing of his body, grows beyond the measure of all herbs and surpasses the whole glory of the prophets. For the preaching of the prophets was given to Israel as a herb is given to a sick man. But now the birds of heaven dwell in the branches of the tree raised up from the ground on high. By the branches we shall understand the apostles, stretched out by the power of Christ and overshadowing the world: to them the nations will fly in hope of life, and, harassed by the whirlwind of the winds, that is, by the spirit and blast of the devil, they will rest as in the branches of a tree. Leaven comes from flour and gives back the power it received to the heap of its own kind. The Lord compared himself to this, which a woman, namely the synagogue, took and hid by the sentence of death, claiming that the law and the prophets were dissolved by the Gospels. But this, covered by three measures of flour, that is, by the equality of the law, the prophets, and the Gospels, makes all things one: so that what the law established and the prophets announced is fulfilled by the advances of the Gospels. And all things come about through the Spirit of God, of the same power and meaning; and nothing leavened in equal measures will be found to disagree with another. Yet I remember that many have thought the three measures of flour should be referred to the mystery of faith, that is, to the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and also to the calling of the three nations from Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But I do not know whether reason allows this to be thought: since, although the calling of all nations is equal, Christ is not hidden in them but shown, and in so great a multitude of unbelievers the whole has not been leavened; but in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, without the need of any leaven mixed in from outside in Christ, all things are one. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden,” and the rest. By the likeness of a treasure in a field he shows the wealth of our hope placed within itself: because God has been found in a man, for whose price all the means of the world are to be sold, so that with the clothing, food, and drink of the needy we may buy the eternal riches of the heavenly treasure. But we must consider that the treasure was found and hidden, though one who found it could surely have carried it off both secretly and at the time when he hid it, and by carrying it off would have had no need of buying. But as with the thing, so with the saying, the reason must be explained. The treasure was hidden for this reason, that the field also had to be bought. For the treasure in the field, as we have said, is understood as Christ in the flesh, whom to find is free. For the preaching of the Gospels is open; but the power of using and possessing this treasure with the field cannot be without a price, because heavenly riches are possessed only at the cost of the world. And the reasoning about the pearl is the same. But this speech is directed to a merchant long engaged in the law, who by long and lasting labor has come to the knowledge of the pearl and leaves behind what he obtained under the burden of the law. For he has long been trading, and at last he has found such a pearl as he wished: and the price of this desired stone is to be paid for at the loss of the rest of his labor. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea,” and the rest. Rightly he compared his preaching to a net, which, coming into the world, gathered those living in the world without loss to the world, in the manner of a net, which, penetrating the sea, is drawn from the deep so that, escaping through the whole body of that element, it draws out those enclosed within its circuit, and leads us out of the world into the light of the true sun: showing the examination of the future judgment in the choosing of the good and the casting away of the bad.

“Have you understood all these things? They say to him: Yes. And he said to them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven,” and so on. He spoke not to the crowds but to the disciples; and he gives worthy testimony to those who understand the parables, comparing them to himself under the name of a householder, because they have obtained teaching from his treasure of new and old things; and he calls them scribes because of their knowledge, since they have understood the things, new and old, that he brought out, that is, in the Gospels and in the law, both from the same householder and from one treasure. “And it happened, when Jesus had finished these parables, he went from there and came into his own country,” and the rest. The Lord is dishonored by his own. Although both the wisdom of his teaching and the power of his working stirred wonder, yet their unbelief does not accept the truth of judgment. For they do not believe that God does these things in a man; rather they name his father, mother, and brothers, and taunt him with a kind of reproach about his father’s trade. But plainly he was the son of a smith, who conquers iron with fire, who melts down the whole power of the world with judgment, and shapes the mass into every work useful to man: shaping, that is, the formless matter of our bodies into the various services of the limbs and for all the works of eternal life. In these things, then, all were scandalized: and amid so many and such magnificent things that he did, they were disturbed by the sight of his body. To them the Lord answered that a prophet is without honor in his own country, because in Judea he was to be despised even to the sentence of the cross. And since the power of God is with the faithful alone, because of their unbelief he refrained from all works of divine power. “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report of Jesus, and said to his servants,” and the rest. We have often warned that all diligence must be applied to the reading of the Gospels: because in the things narrated as done there is found an underlying reason of inner understanding. For the narrative of all the works has its own order; but in the effects of the deeds an image of an underlying cause is prefigured, as is understood in Herod and John. For Herod was the ruler of the people, and by the right of power he had taken into marriage Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. And this Herodias had a daughter, who, pleasing him by dancing on his birthday, received by the oath of the swearer the power of whatever reward she wished; and at her mother’s prompting the girl asked that the head of John, long held in prison, be brought to her on a dish. And Herod, though sad, kept faith with his oath, and the girl presented the gift to her mother; and when he had been buried his disciples passed over to the Lord. And hearing these things the Lord withdrew in a boat into desert places, and he pitied the distress of the crowds following him, and the apostles advise that they be sent away into the villages to buy food. And the Lord answers that they have no need to go back there, and commands that food be given them. And they plead that they have only five loaves and two fish. And he ordered these to be brought to him, and the crowd to recline on spread grass. And he blessed what was brought, broke it for the crowd to eat, and gave it to the disciples to distribute; and when all were satisfied, twelve baskets of leftovers remained over, though the number of the men, besides women and children, was five thousand. And he orders the disciples to get into the boat and go ahead across the sea; and having sent the crowd away he goes up the mountain alone to pray: and when evening came he was alone; and the ship in the middle of the sea, with the wind against it, was tossed by the waves. And in the fourth watch the Lord came walking on the sea; and seeing him they were troubled, and, thinking the empty sight a ghost, they cried out for fear. To them the Lord at once spoke and told them to take heart. And of the many Peter answered and asked that he might come to the Lord on the waters. He, going down from the boat and going a little way, as the wind grew strong, began to fear and to sink. Taking hold of him, the Lord rebuked him for being of little faith; and, entering the ship, he restored calm as the wind and sea fell quiet. These things, then, were done as we have recounted: but in all these persons, effects, causes, and numbers there lies a manner, so that what they did, besides the mind and impulse of acting that each took from his own nature, they all did outwardly as an example: and this with all the greater reverence in so thinking, if one and the same understanding attains the efficacy of such different causes. So the speech must be referred back to the origin of the proposition. John, as we have often warned, bore the form of the law: because the law preached Christ, and John came forth from the law, foretelling Christ from the law. Herod is the ruler of the people; and the ruler of a people comprises the name and cause of the whole subject to him. So John was warning Herod not to join his brother’s wife to himself. For there are and were two peoples, of the circumcision and of the nations. But the law was warning Israel not to join to itself the works and unbelief of the nations. For unbelief is the partner of the nations, joined to them as by the bond of conjugal love. These, then, are brothers from the same parent of the human race. For the truth of this harsh warning, then, John, as the law, was held in prison. On the birthday, that is, amid the joys of bodily things, the daughter of Herodias danced: for pleasure, as if born of unbelief, was carried through all the joys of Israel with all the courses of its allurement. To it the people bound itself as wholly for sale even by an oath: for under sins and the pleasures of the world the Israelites sold the gifts of eternal life. This daughter, at the prompting of her mother, that is, of unbelief, asked that John’s head, that is, the glory of the law, be brought to her: because the law, by the authority of the divine precepts, accused incestuous Israel. But above Herod was shown wanting to kill John and delaying for fear of the people, because he was held as a prophet. But now, when his death is asked for, especially when he was held by the solemnity of his oath, how is he made sad? It is contradictory, of course, to have wanted then and not to want now; and the present distress does not fit the earlier will. But in the earlier passage is the order of the event done; in these the image of the following cause is set out. Pleasure born of unbelief seized the glory of the law. But the people, aware of the good that was in the law, connives at the conditions of pleasure not without some grief at its certain danger. And it knows that it ought not to have yielded such glory of precepts: but, compelled by sins as by an oath, and depraved and overcome by the fear and example of the rulers about it, it obeys the allurements of pleasure even while sad. So amid the other joys of a dissolute people, John’s head is brought on a dish: that is, by the loss of the law the pleasure of bodies and worldly luxury is increased: and so it is carried by the girl to her mother. And so shameful Israel handed over the glory of the law both to pleasure and to its unbelief, a family once of the nations. So when the times of the law were ended and buried with John, his disciples report what had happened to the Lord, coming, that is, from the law to the Gospels. So the Word of God, the law being ended, boarding the ship goes to the church and withdraws into the desert: leaving, that is, the way of life of Israel, to pass over into hearts empty of divine knowledge. The crowd, hearing this, follows the Lord from the city on foot into the desert: passes over, that is, from the synagogue to the church. Seeing it, he had compassion and heals all its sickness and infirmity: he cleanses, that is, the minds and bodies beset by the lethargy of unbelief for the understanding of the new preaching. And when the disciples advised that the crowds be sent away into the nearest villages to buy food, he answered: “They have no need to go”: showing that those whom he was healing had no need of the food of the law’s teaching, nor the need to go back to Judea and buy food; and he commands the apostles to give them food. Did he not know that there was nothing that could be given; and, seeing into the inner parts of human minds, did he not know the amount of food stored with the apostles? But the whole typological reason had to be unfolded. For it had not yet been granted to the apostles to make and minister the heavenly bread for the food of eternal life. Their answer tends to the order of spiritual understanding. For they answered that they had only five loaves and two fish: because they were still held under five loaves, that is, the five books of the law, and were nourished by two fish, that is, the preachings of the prophets and of John. For in the works of the law, life was as from bread; while the preaching of John and the prophets cherished the hope of human life by the power of water. These, then, the apostles offered first, because they were still in them: but from them the preaching of the Gospels is shown to have proceeded, and, drawn from these origins, it grows into a greater abundance of its power. So, having taken the loaves and fish, the Lord looked up to heaven, blessed, and broke, giving thanks to the Father that after the times of the law and the prophets he himself was turned into the food of the Gospel. After this the people are commanded to recline on the grass; no longer lying on the ground, but supported by the law: and each is spread, as on the grass of the earth, on the fruits of his own work. The loaves are also given to the apostles, because through them the gifts of divine grace were to be given back. Then the people are fed and filled with five loaves and two fish; and the fragments of bread and fish, when those reclining were satisfied, abounded to the fullness of twelve baskets: that is, the multitude is satisfied by the word of God coming from the teaching of the law and the prophets; and, the ministry of eternal food being reserved for the people of the nations, the abundance of divine power overflows into the fullness of the twelve apostles. And the number of those who ate is found to be the same as was to be the number of those who would believe. For, as is contained in the book of the Acts, out of the infinite multitude of the people of Israel five thousand men believed. For the wonder of the events extends to the measure of the underlying cause. And the loaves broken with the fish, when the people had been satisfied, are heaped up afterward to such an increase as the number of the believing people and of the apostles to be filled with heavenly grace was destined: so that both the measure obeyed the number and the number the measure; the reason, enclosed within its own bounds, was held by the very governing of divine power to the condition of the following effect. The work of the deed surpasses human understanding: and whereas often there are things that, conceived by the mind, speech does not unfold, in these the very subtlety of the mind grows heavy and is stunned at contemplating the thing because of the difficulty of so invisible a business. For having taken the five loaves, the Lord looked up to heaven, himself confessing the honor of him from whom he was: not that it was necessary to look at the Father with fleshly eyes, but so that those present might understand from whom he had received the effect of so great a power. Then he gives the loaves to the disciples. The five are not multiplied into more, but fragments succeed fragments, and always deceive those breaking them as already broken. Then the matter grows: I do not know whether in the place of the tables, or in the hands of those taking it, or in the mouth of those eating. Do not wonder that springs flow, that grapes are in vines, that wine pours from grapes, and that all the wealth of the world flows down in a kind of yearly and unwearied course: for so great an increase of loaves shows the author of this universe, through whom by such increase measure was added to the matter handled. For an invisible working is done in a visible work: and the Lord of heavenly secrets works the secret of the present business. The power of the worker surpasses all nature, and the reason of the power goes beyond the understanding of the deed, and only wonder at the might is left. The order of causes and works also follows. After this he ordered the disciples to get into the ship until he himself sent the crowds away; and having sent the crowd away he went up the mountain to pray, and when evening came he was alone. The reason of these things is to be distinguished by times. That he is alone in the evening shows his solitude at the time of the passion, the others having scattered in fear. That he commands the disciples to get into the ship and go across the sea while he himself sends away the crowds, and, the crowds sent away, goes up the mountain: he commands that they be within the church and be carried through the sea, that is, through the world, until the time when, returning at the coming of his glory, he himself gives salvation to all the people that will be left of Israel and forgives its sins; and, having sent it away, or rather admitted it into the heavenly kingdom, giving thanks to God the Father, he stands in his glory and majesty. But meanwhile the disciples are driven about by wind and sea and tossed by all the upheavals of the world, the unclean spirit opposing them. But in the fourth watch the Lord comes: for at the fourth time he will return to the wandering and shipwrecked church. For in the fourth watch of the night the number of his care is found to be as many. For the first watch was that of the law, the second of the prophets, the third of his bodily coming, and the fourth at the return of his glory. But he will find it weary and driven about by the spirit of Antichrist and by all the upheavals of the world. For he will come to those most anxious and harassed. And since from the ways of Antichrist they will be anxious about every novelty of temptations, they will be terrified even at the Lord’s coming, fearing false images of things and phantoms creeping up on their eyes. But the good Lord will at once speak, drive away their fear, and say: “It is I,” driving away the fear of imminent shipwreck by faith in his coming. That of the whole number of those in the ship Peter alone dares to answer and prays to be ordered to come to the Lord on the waters signifies the disposition of his will at the time of the passion, when alone, coming behind and keeping to the Lord’s footsteps, despising the upheavals of the world as of the sea, he accompanied him with a like courage to despise death: but his fearfulness shows the weakness of the coming temptation. For although he had dared to walk, still he began to sink: for through the weakness of the flesh and the fear of death he was driven even to the necessity of denying. But he cries out and prays the Lord for salvation. That cry is the groan of his repentance. For he returned to confession when the Lord had not yet suffered, and he had pardon for his denial in time; Christ afterward being about to suffer for the redemption of all. That the Lord did not grant him, in his trembling, the power of coming to him, but stretched out his hand and held him up when he had taken hold of him, has this reason. Peter was not unworthy of approaching his Lord, for he also tried to approach; but the typological order was also kept in him. For no one could be a sharer in the passion with the Lord who was trampling the upheavals and storms of the world: for he alone, about to suffer for all, was loosing the sins of all; nor does he admit a partner in what is provided for the whole by one. So since he himself was the redemption of all, Peter too had first to be redeemed, kept then for faith in this redemption as a martyr of Christ. And this must be considered in Peter, that he surpassed the others in faith: for while the others did not know, he first answered: “You are the Son of the living God.” He first detested the passion, while he thought it an evil. He first promised that he would die and not deny. He first forbade his feet to be washed. He also drew a sword against those who were seizing the Lord. When he got into the ship, the wind and sea were calmed: the eternal peace and tranquility of the church after the return of his glory is indicated. And since he will then come openly, rightly all, marveling, said: “Truly he is the Son of God.” For the confession of all will then be both complete and public, that the Son of God, no longer in bodily humility but in heavenly glory, has given back peace to the church. “When they had crossed over, they came into the land of Gennesaret; and when the men of that place recognized him, they worshiped him.” Many intermediate things have come up which, after the gathering and satisfying of the five thousand men, have delayed us by our zeal to give their reason: but the sense up to this place is the same. For when the times of the law had ended and the five thousand men from Israel had been placed within the church, now the people of believing Israelites comes to meet him: itself now saved from the law through faith, bringing to the Lord the rest of its own who are weak and sick; and those brought wished to touch the fringes of his garments, to be healed through faith. But as fringes come out of the whole garment, so the power of the Holy Spirit went out from our Lord Jesus Christ: which, given to the apostles, who come out as from the same body, ministers salvation to those who desire to touch them.