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1. AFTER that His persecutors had, through the treason of
Judas, taken and bound the Lord, who loved us, and gave Himself
for us, and whom the Father spared not, but gave Him up for us all:
that we may understand that there was no praise due to Judas for the
usefulness of his treachery, but damnation for the willfulness of his
wickedness: "They led Him," as John the evangelist tells us,
"to Annas first." Nor does he withhold the reason for so doing:
"For he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest
that same year. Now Caiaphas was he," he says, "who gave counsel
to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the
people." And properly enough Matthew, when wishing to say the same
in fewer words, tells us that He was led to Caiaphas; for He was
also taken in the first place to Annas, simply because he was his
father-in-law; and where we have only to understand that such was the
very thing that Caiaphas wished to be done.
2. "But Jesus was followed," he says, "by Simon Peter, and
another disciple." Who that other disciple is, we cannot affirm with
confidence, because it is left unnoticed here. But it is in this way
that John usually refers to himself, with the addition, "whom Jesus
loved." Perhaps, therefore, it is he also in the present case; but
whoever it is, let us look at what follows. "And that disciple,"
he says, "was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus
into the palace of the high priest; but Peter stood at the door
without. Then went out that other disciple, who was known unto the
high priest, and spoke unto her that kept the door, and brought in
Peter. Then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art
thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith, I am not." Lo,
the pillar of greatest strength has at a single breath of air trembled
to its foundations. Where is now all that boldness of the promiser,
and his overweening confidence in himself beforehand? What now of
those words, when he said, "Why cannot I follow Thee now? I will
lay down my life for Thy sake." Is this the way to follow the
Master, to deny his own discipleship? is it thus that one's life is
laid down for the Lord, when one is frightened at a maid-servant's
voice, lest it should compel us to the sacrifice? But what wonder,
if God foretold what was true, and man presumptuously imagined what
was false? Assuredly in this denial of the Apostle Peter, which had
now entered on its first stage, we ought to take notice that not only
is Christ denied by one who says that He is not Christ, but by him
also who, while really a Christian, himself denies that he is so.
For the Lord said not to Peter, Thou shall deny that thou art my
disciple; but, "Thou shall deny me." Him, therefore, he
denied, when he denied that he was His disciple. And what else did
such a form of denial imply, but that of his own Christianity? For
although the disciples of Christ were not yet called by such a name,
because it was after His ascension, in Antioch, first that the
disciples began to be called Christians, yet the thing itself, that
afterwards assumed such a name, already existed, those who were
afterwards called Christians were already disciples; and this common
name, like the common faith, they transmitted to their posterity.
He, therefore, who denied that he was Christ's disciple, denied
the reality of the thing, of which the being called a Christian was
only the name. How many afterwards, not to speak of old men and
women, whose satiated feelings as regards the present life might more
easily enable them to brave death for the confession of Christ; and
not merely the youth of both sexes, when of an age at which the
exercise of fortitude seems to be fairly required; but even boys and
girls could do even as an innumerable company of holy martyrs with brave
hearts and by a violent death entered the kingdom of heaven what at that
moment he was unable to do, who received the keys of that kingdom. It
is here we see why it was said, "Let these go their way," when
He, who hath redeemed us by His own blood, gave Himself for us;
that the saying which He spoke might be fulfilled, "Of those whom
Thou hast given me I have lost none." For assuredly, had Peter
gone hence after denying the Christ, what else would have awaited him
but destruction?
3. "And the servants and officers stood beside the fire of burning
coals, for it was cold, and warmed themselves." Though it was not
winter, it was cold: which is sometimes wont to be the case even at
the vernal equinox. "And Peter was standing with them, and warming
himself. The high priest then asked Jesus of His disciples, and of
His doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world; I
always taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither all the
Jews resort, and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou
me? ask those who heard me, what I have said unto them: behold,
they know what I said." A question occurs that ought not to be
passed over, how it is that the Lord Jesus said, "I spoke openly
to the world;" and in particular that which He afterwards added,
"In secret have I said nothing." Did He not, even in that latest
discourse which He delivered to the disciples after supper, say to
them, "These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; but the
hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I
shall show you plainly of my Father?" If, then, He spoke not
openly even to the more intimate company of His disciples, but gave
the promise of a time when He would speak openly, how was it that He
spoke openly to the world? And still further, as is also testified on
the authority of the other evangelists, to those who were truly His
own, in comparison with others who were not His disciples, He
certainly spoke with much greater plainness when He was alone with them
at a distance from the multitudes; for then He unfolded to them the
parables, which He had uttered in obscure terms to others. What then
is the meaning of the words, "In secret have I said nothing"? It
is in this way we are to understand His saying, "I spoke openly to
the world;" as if He had said, There were many that heard me. And
that word "openly" was in a certain sense openly and in another sense
not openly. It was openly, because many heard Him; and again it was
not openly, because they did not understand Him. And even what He
spoke to His disciples apart, He certainly spoke not in secret. For
who speaketh in secret, that speaketh before so many persons; as it is
written, "At tim mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be
established:" especially if that be spoken to a few which he wisheth
to become known to many through them; as the Lord Himself said to the
few whom He had as yet, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak
ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the
house-tops"? And accordingly the very thing that seemed to be spoken
by Himself in secret, was in a certain sense not spoken in secret;
for it was not so spoken to remain unuttered by those to whom it was
spoken; but rather so in order to be preached in every possible
direction. A thing therefore may be uttered at once openly, and not
openly; or at the same time in secret, and yet not in secret, as it
is said, "That seeing, they may see, and not see." For how "may
they see," save only because it is openly, and not in secret; and
again, how is it that the same parties "may not see," save that it
is not openly, but in secret? Howbeit the very things which they had
heard without understanding, were such as could not with justice or
truth be turned into a criminal charge against Him: and as often as
they tried by their questions to find something whereof to accuse Him,
He gave them such replies as utterly discomfited all their plots, and
left no ground for the calumnies they devised. Therefore He said,
"Why askest thou me? ask those who heard me, what I have said unto
them: behold, they know what I said."
4. "And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers who stood by
gave Jesus a blow with his open hand, saying, Answerest thou the
high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" What could
be truer, meeker, juster, than such an answer? For it is His
[reply], from whom the prophetic voice had issued before, "Make
for thy goal (literally, take aim), and advance prosperously and
reign, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness." If we
consider who it was that received the blow, might we not well feel the
wish that he who struck it were either consumed by fire from heaven, or
swallowed up by the gaping earth, or seized and carried off by devils,
or visited with some other or still heavier punishment of this kind?
For what one of all these could not He, who made the world, have
commanded by His power, had He not wished rather to teach us the
patience that overcometh the world? Some one will say here, Why did
He not do what He Himself commanded? for to one that smote Him,
He ought not to have answered thus, but to have turned to him the
other cheek. Nay, more than this, did He not answer truthfully,
and meekly, and righteously, and at the same time not only prepare
His other cheek to him who was yet again to smite it, but His whole
body to be nailed to the tree? And hereby He rather showed, what
needed to be shown, namely, that those great precepts of His are to
be fulfilled not by bodily ostentation, but by the preparation of the
heart. For it is possible that even an angry man may visibly hold out
his other cheek. How much better, then, is it for one who is
inwardly pacified to make a truthful answer, and with tranquil mind
hold himself ready for the endurance of heavier sufferings to come?
Happy is he who, in all that he suffers unjustly for righteousness'
sake, can say with truth, "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is
ready;" for this it is that gives cause for that which follows: "I
will sing and I give praise;" which Paul and Barnabas could do even
in the cruellest of bonds.
5. But let us return to what follows in the Gospel narrative.
"And Annas sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest." To
him, according to Matthew's account, He was led at the outset,
because he was the high priest that year. For both the pontiffs are to
be understood as in the habit of acting year by year alternately, that
is, as chief priests; and these were at that time Annas and
Caiaphas, as recorded by the evangelist Luke, when telling of the
time when John, the Lord's forerunner, began to preach the kingdom
of heaven and to gather disciples. For he speaks thus: "Under the
high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the Lord came upon
John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness," etc. Accordingly
these two pontiffs fulfilled their years in turn: and it was the year
of Caiaphas when Christ suffered. And so, according to Matthew,
when He was apprehended, He was taken to him; but first, according
to John, they came with Him to Annas; not because he was his
colleague, but his father-in-law. And we must suppose that it was
by Caiaphas' wish that it was so done; or that their houses were so
situated, that Annas could not properly be overlooked by them as they
passed on their way.
6. But the evangelist, after saying that Annas sent Him bound unto
Caiaphas, returns to the place of his narrative, where he had left
Peter, in order to explain what had taken place in Annas' house in
regard to his threefold denial. "But Peter was standing," he
says, "and warming himself." He thus repeats what he had already
stated before; and then adds what follows. "They said therefore unto
him, Art thou also one of his disciples? He denied, and said, I
am not." He had already denied once; this is the second time. And
then, that the third denial might also be fulfilled, "one of the
servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut
off, saith, Did I not see thee in the garden with him? Peter then
denied again, and immediately the cock crew." Behold, the
prediction of the Physician is fulfilled, the presumption of the sick
man is brought to the light. For there is no performance of what the
latter had asserted, "I will lay down my life for Thy sake;" but a
performance of what the former had predicted, "Thou shall thrice deny
me." But with the completion of Peter's threefold denial, let the
present discourse be also now completed, that hereafter we may make a
fresh start with the consideration of what was done respecting the Lord
before Pontius Pilate the governor.
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