Homilies on Luke 39

On the question of the Sadducees which they put to the Lord, about the woman who had seven husbands; and again on the denarius which the Saviour ordered to be shown to him. Chapter 20. There is a sect among the Jews called the Sadducees; it denies the resurrection of the dead and holds that the soul perishes with the body and does not breathe again after death. So, putting a question to the Lord, they made up a story of a woman with seven husbands, who after her first husband married a second to raise up seed for the former; and when he died, a third, and again a fourth; and in this way she had come to the seventh. The question is asked, then, which of the seven brothers will claim her as wife in the resurrection of the dead. They put forward this problem, laying a trap for the Saviour’s words, at the time when they had seen him teaching his disciples about the resurrection. The Saviour answered them: “You are wrong, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection of the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven.” Those who will be like angels will surely be angels. And at the same time we learn that angels do not have marriages. Here, where there is death, marriage and children are necessary; where there are immortals, there is need neither of marriage nor of children. I will put to myself a very troublesome question, not easily solved, in the person of those who are most zealous for the Scriptures and meditate day and night on the law of the Lord (Ps 1:2). Where, they say, is it written, “They neither marry nor are given in marriage”? Going over both the Old and the New Testament in memory and mind, I do not remember such a thing related anywhere. If perhaps it escapes me, let one who knows more teach me; I gladly learn what I do not know. But as far as I can judge, he will find nothing of the kind in either the Old or the New Testament. The whole error of these people arose from the prophetic readings, which they do not understand; among them is this in Isaiah: “My elect will not have children for a curse” (Isa 65:23). And in Deuteronomy, among the blessings: “Blessed are the children of your womb” (Deut 28:4). And they think these things will be in the resurrection, not understanding that spiritual blessings were foretold. For Paul, the chosen vessel, interpreting spiritually all these blessings set down in the law, and knowing that they are not fleshly, says to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing” (Eph 1:3), when, rising from the dead, we attain eternal blessedness. And finding something similar in the psalms, they slip into the same error: “Your wife,” it says, “like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your children like young olive shoots around your table,” up to the place where it says, “May the Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the good things of Jerusalem” (Ps 128:3–5). So, they say, when Jerusalem has been rebuilt and restored to its ancient state, then he will see the good things that Scripture records. Those who understand Jerusalem spiritually, and know that this is said of the Jerusalem which is heavenly, which is above, which is our mother (Gal 4:26), will see its good things, of which we have often spoken, and what we have just quoted from the psalm: “Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your children like young olive shoots around your table.” To the Sadducees, a part of the Jews, who understood all this bodily, the Saviour says: “You do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Let this be said briefly about the question the Sadducees put to the Lord. Further, on what is added about the image of Caesar we must touch on a few points too. Some think the Saviour meant simply, “Render the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar,” that is, pay the tribute you owe. But which of us objects to paying tribute to Caesar? The passage, then, has something mystical and secret. There are two images of man: one which he received from God when he was made in the beginning, as is written in Genesis, “after the image and likeness of God” (Gen 1:26); the other, that of the man of dust, that is, the earthly, which he took on after he was cast out of paradise because of disobedience and sin, persuaded by the allurements of the prince of this age. For as a coin or denarius bears the image of the emperors of the world, so he who does the works of the ruler of this darkness bears the image of him whose works he does; and Jesus commanded that this image be rendered and cast away from our face, and that we take up that image after which from the beginning we were made in the likeness of God. And so it comes about that we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. “Show me,” he says, “a coin”; for which Matthew writes “denarius.” When he had received it, he said, “Whose inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.” To them he said again, “Render, then, the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.” In agreement with this Paul too spoke, saying, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us bear also the image of the heavenly man” (1 Cor 15:49). When he says, then, “Render the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar,” he means: lay aside the person of the man of dust, cast away the earthly image, so that, putting on the person of the heavenly man, you may render to God the things that are God’s. God asks something back from us. What does he ask back? Read Moses: “And now what does the Lord ask of you?” and the rest that follows. God, then, asks of us and entreats us, not because he needs anything that we should give him; he asks so that, after we have given it to him, he may give that very thing back for our salvation. To make this clearer, I will set out the parable of the minas. He who had received one mina and made ten, and offered it to the Lord by whom the mina had been entrusted to him, received another as well, which he did not have before. For the Lord commands the mina of him who had not multiplied what he received to be taken away and given to him who has the others. “Take away,” he says, “the mina and give it to him who has ten minas” (Luke 19:24). In this way what we give to God he will restore to us, together with what we did not have before. God demands and asks of us so that he may have occasion to give, so that he may give to the very one who paid out. For by his grace the mina was multiplied, and to each who was worthy more was given than he hoped. Therefore let us rise and pray God that we may be worthy to offer him gifts which he may restore to us, and that he may grant heavenly things in place of earthly ones, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.