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1. Yesterday's lesson in the holy Gospel, on which we spoke as the
Lord enabled us, is followed by today's, on which we purpose to
speak in the same spirit of dependence. Some passages in the
Scriptures are so clear as to require a hearer rather than an
expounder: over such we need not tarry, that we may have sufficient
time for those which necessarily demand a fuller consideration.
2. "And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand." The Jews wished
to have that feast-day crimsoned with the blood of the Lord. On it
that Lamb was slain, who hath consecrated it as a feast-day for us by
His own blood. There was a plot among the Jews about slaying
Jesus: and He, who had come from heaven to suffer, wished to draw
near to the place of His suffering, because the hour of His passion
was at hand. Therefore "many went out of the country up to Jerusalem
before the passover, to sanctify themselves." The Jews did so in
accordance with the command of the Lord delivered by holy Moses in the
law, that on the feast-day of the passover all should assemble from
every part of the land, and be sanctified in celebrating the services
of the day. But that celebration was a shadow of the future. And why
a shadow? It was a prophetic intimation of the Christ to come, a
prophecy of Him who on that day was to suffer for us: that so the
shadow might vanish and the light come; that the sign might pass away,
and the truth be retained. The Jews therefore held the passover in a
shadowy form, but we in the light. For what need was there that the
Lord should command them to slay a sheep on the very day of the feast,
save only because of Him it was prophesied, "He is led as a sheep to
the slaughter"? . The door-posts of the Jews were sealed with the
blood of the slaughtered animal: with the blood of Christ are our
foreheads sealed. And that sealing for it had a real significance was
said to keep away the destroyer from the houses that were sealed:
Christ's seal drives away the destroyer from us, if we receive the
Saviour into our hearts. But why have I said this? Because many
have their door-posts sealed while there is no inmate abiding within:
they find it easy to have Christ's seal in the forehead, and yet at
heart refuse admission to His word. Therefore, brethren, I have
said, and I repeat it, Christ's seal driveth from us the
destroyer, if only we have Christ as an inmate of our hearts. I have
stated these things, lest any one's thoughts should be turning on the
meaning of these festivals of the Jews. The Lord therefore came as
it were to the victim's place, that the true passover might be ours,
when we celebrated His passion as the real offering of the lamb.
3. "Then sought they for Jesus:" but with evil intent. For
happy are they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought
for Him, with the intent that neither they nor we should have Him
more: but in departing from them, He has been received by us. Some
who seek Him are blamed, others who do so are commended; for it is
the spirit animating the seeker that finds either praise or
condemnation. Thence you have it also in the psalms, "Let them be
confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul:" such are those
who sought with evil purpose. But in another place he says, "Refuge
hath failed me, and there is no one that seeketh after my soul."
Those who sought, and those who did not, are blamed alike.
Therefore let us seek for Christ, that He may be ours, that we may
keep Him, and not that we may slay Him; for these men sought to get
hold of Him, but only for the purpose of speedily getting quit of Him
for ever. "Therefore they sought for Him, and spoke among
themselves: What think ye, that He will not come to the feast?"
4. "Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a
commandment, that, if any man knew where He were, he should show
it, that they might take Him." Let us for our parts show the Jews
where Christ is. Would, indeed, that all the seed of those who had
given commandment to have it shown them where Christ was, would but
hear and apprehend! Let them come to the church and hear where Christ
is, and take Him. They may hear it from us, they may hear it from
the gospel. He was slain by their forefathers, He was buried, He
rose again, He was recognized by the disciples, He ascended before
their eyes into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of the
Father; and He who was judged is yet to come as Judge of all: let
them hear, and hold fast. Do they reply, How shall I take hold of
the absent? how shall I stretch up my hand into heaven, and take hold
of one who is sitting there? Stretch up thy faith, and thou hast got
hold. Thy forefathers held by the flesh, hold thou with the heart;
for the absent Christ is also present. But for His presence, we
ourselves were unable to hold Him.
But since His word is true, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to
the end of the world," He is away, and He is here; He has
returned, and will not forsake us; for He has carried His body into
heaven, but His majesty He has never withdrawn from the world.
5. "Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the
dead. And there they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but
Lazarus was one of them that reclined at the table." To prevent
people thinking that the man had become a phantom, because he had risen
from the dead, he was one of those who reclined at table; he was
living, speaking, feasting: the truth was made manifest, and the
unbelief of the Jews was confounded. The Lord, therefore, reclined
at table with Lazarus and the others; and they were waited on by
Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus.
6. But "Mary," the other sister of Lazarus, "took a pound of
ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of
Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled
with the odor of the ointment." Such was the incident, let us look
into the mystery it imported. Whatever soul of you wishes to be truly
faithful, anoint like Mary the feet of the Lord with precious
ointment. That ointment was righteousness, and therefore it was
[exactly] a pound weight: but it was ointment of pure nard [nardi
pistici], very precious. From his calling it "pistici," we ought
to infer that there was some locality from which it derived its
preciousness: but this does not exhaust its meaning, and it harmonizes
well with a sacramental symbol. The root of the word ["pure"] in
the Greek is by us called "faith." Thou weft seeking to work
righteousness: the just shall live by faith. Anoint the feet of
Jesus: follow by a good life the Lord's footsteps. Wipe them l
with thy hair: what thou hast of superfluity, give to the poor, and
thou hast wiped the feet of the Lord; for the hair seems to be the
superfluous part of the body. Thou hast something to spare of thy
abundance: it is superfluous to thee, but necessary for the feet of
the Lord. Perhaps on this earth the Lord's feet are still in need.
For of whom but of His members is He yet to say in the end,
"Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of mine, ye did it unto
me"? Ye spent what was superfluous for yourselves, but ye have done
what was grateful to my feet.
7. "And the house was filled with the odor." The world is filled
with the fame of a good character: for a good character is as a
pleasant odor. Those who live wickedly and bear the name of
Christians, do injury to Christ: of such it is said, that through
them "the name of the Lord is blasphemed." If through such God's
name is blasphemed, through the good the name of the Lord is honored.
Listen to the apostle, when he says, "We are a sweet savor of
Christ in every place." As it is said also in the Song of Songs,
"Thy name is as ointment poured forth." Attend again to the
apostle: "We are a sweet savor," he says, "of Christ in every
place, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the
one we are the savor of life unto life, to the other the savor of death
unto death: and who is sufficient for I these things?" The lesson
of the holy Gospel before us affords us the opportunity of so speaking
of that savor, that we on our part may give worthy utterance, and you
diligent heed, to what is thus expressed by the apostle himself,
"And who is sufficient for these things?" But have we any reason to
infer from these words that we are qualified to attempt speaking on such
a subject, or you to hear? We, indeed, are not so; but He is
sufficient, who is pleased to speak by us what it may be for your
profit to hear. The apostle, you see, is, as he calls himself, "a
sweet savor:" but that sweet savor is "to some the savor of life unto
life, and to others the savor of death unto death;" and yet all the
while "a sweet savor" in itself. For he does not say, does he, To
some we are a sweet savor unto life, to others an evil savor unto
death? He called himself a sweet savor, not an evil; and represented
himself as the same sweet savor, to some unto life, to others unto
death. Happy they who find life in this sweet savor! but what misery
can be greater than theirs, to whom the sweet savor is the messenger of
death?
8. And who is it, says some one, that is thus slain by the sweet
savor? It is to this the apostle alludes in the words, "And who is
sufficient for these things?" In what wonderful ways God brings it
about that the good savor is fraught both with life to the good, and
with death to the wicked; how it is so, so far as the Lord is pleased
to inspire my thoughts (for it may still conceal a deeper meaning
beyond my power to penetrate), yet so far, I say, as my power of
penetration has reached, you ought not to have the information
withheld. The integrity of the Apostle Paul's life and conduct,
his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in works,
his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were
everywhere noised abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others.
For he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached
Christ not sincerely, but of envy; "thinking," he says, "to add
affliction to my bonds." But what does he add? "Whether in
pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached." They preach who love
me, they preach who hate me; in that good savor the former live, in
it the others die: and yet by the preaching of both let the name of
Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let the world be
filled. Hast thou been loving one whose conduct evidenced his
goodness? then in this good savor thou hast lived. Hast thou been
envying such a one then in this same savor thou hast died. But hast
thou, pray, in thus choosing to die, converted this savor into an
evil one? Turn from thine envious feelings, and the good savor will
cease to slay thee.
9. And now, lastly, listen to what we have here, how this ointment
was to some a sweet savor unto life, and to others a sweet savor unto
death. When the pious Mary had rendered this grateful service to the
Lord, straightway one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was
yet to betray Him, said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three
hundred pence, and given to the poor?" Alas for thee, wretched
man! the sweet savor hath slain thee. For the cause that led him so
to speak is disclosed by the holy evangelist. But we, too, might
have supposed, had not the real state of his mind been revealed in the
Gospel, that the care of the poor might have induced him so to speak.
Not so. What then? Hearkeu to a true witness: "This he said,
not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had
the money bag, and bare what was put therein." Did he bear it
about, or bear it away? For the common service he bore it, as a
thief he bore it away.
10. Look now, and learn that this Judas did not become perverted
only at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and
betrayed his Lord. For not a few, inattentive to the Gospel,
suppose that Judas only perished when he accepted money from the Jews
to betray the Lord. It was not then that he perished, but he was
already a thief, and a reprobate, when following the Lord; for it
was with his body and not with his heart that he followed. He made up
the apostolic number of twelve, but had no part in the apostolic
blessedness: he had been made the twelfth in semblance, and on his
departure, and the succession of another, the apostolic reality was
completed, and the entireness of the number conserved. What lesson
then, my brethren, did our Lord Jesus Christ wish to impress on
His Church, when it pleased Him to have one castaway among the
twelve, but this, that we should bear with the wicked, and refrain
from dividing the body of Christ? Here you have Judas among the
saints, that Judas, mark you! who was a thief, yea do not overlook
it not a thief of any ordinary type, but a thief and a sacrilegist: a
robber of money bags, but of such as were the Lord's; of money
bags, but of such as were sacred. If there is a distinction made in
the public courts between such crimes as ordinary theft and peculation,
for by peculation we mean the theft of public property; and private
theft is not visited with the same sentence as public, how much more
severe ought to be the sentence on the sacrilegious thief, who has
dared to steal, not from places of any ordinary kind, but to steal
from the Church? He who thieves from the Church, stands side by
side with the castaway Judas. Such was this man Judas, and yet he
went in and out with the eleven holy disciples. With them he came even
to the table of the Lord: he was permitted to have intercourse with
them, but he could not contaminate them. Of one bread did both Peter
and Judas partake, and yet what communion had the believer with the
infidel? Peter's partaking was unto life, but that of Judas unto
death. For that good bread was just like the sweet savor. For as the
sweet savor, so also does the good bread give life to the good, and
bring death to the wicked. "For he that eateth unworthily, eateth
and drinketh judgment to himself:" "judgment to himself," not to
thee. If, then, it is judgment to himself, not to thee, bear as
one that is good with him that is evil, that thou mayest attain unto
the rewards of the good, and be not hurled into the punishment of the
wicked.
11. Lay to heart our Lord's example while living with man upon
earth. Why had He a money bag, who was ministered unto by angels,
save to intimate that His Church was destined thereafter to have her
repository for money? Why gave He admission to a thief, save to
teach His Church patiently to bear with thieves? But he who had
formed the habit of abstracting money from the bag, did not hesitate
for money received to sell the Lord Himself. But let us see what
answer our Lord gave to such words. See, brethren: He does not say
to him, Thou speakest so on account of thy thievishness. He knew him
to be a thief, yet did not betray him, but rather endured him, and
showed us an example of patience in tolerating the wicked in the
Church. "Then said Jesus to him: Let her keep it against the day
of my burial." He announced that His own death was at hand.
12. But what follows? "For the poor ye have always with you, but
me ye will not have always." We can certainly understand, "the poor
ye have always;" what He has thus said is true. When were the poor
wanting in the Church? "But me ye will not have always;" what does
He mean by this? How are we to understand, "Me ye will not have
always"? Don't be alarmed: it was addressed to Judas. Why,
then, did He not say, thou wilt have, but, ye will have? Because
Judas is not here a unit. One wicked man represents the whole body of
the wicked; in the same way as Peter, the whole body of the good,
yea, the body of the Church, but in respect to the good. For if in
Peter's case there were no sacramental symbol of the Church, the
Lord would not have said to him, "I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven." If this was said only to Peter, it gives no
ground of action to the Church. But if such is the case also in the
Church, that what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and what is
loosed on earth is loosed in heaven, for when the Church
excommunicates, the excommunicated person is bound in heaven; when one
is reconciled by the Church, the person so reconciled is loosed in
heaven: if such, then, is the case in the Church, Peter, in
receiving the keys, represented the holy Church. If, then, in the
person of Peter were represented the good in the Church, and in
Judas' person were represented the bad in the Church, then to these
latter was it said, "But me ye will not have always." But what
means the "not always;" and what, the "always"? If thou art
good, if thou belongest to the body represented by Peter, thou hast
Christ both now and hereafter: now by faith, by sign, by the
sacrament of baptism, by the bread and wine of the altar. Thou hast
Christ now, but thou wilt have Him always; for when thou hast gone
hence, thou wilt come to Him who said to the robber, "Today shall
thou be with me in paradise." But if thou livest wickedly, thou
mayest seem to have Christ now, because thou enterest the Church,
signest thyself with the sign of Christ, art baptized with the baptism
of Christ, minglest thyself with the members of Christ, and
approachest His altar: now thou hast Christ, but by living wickedly
thou wilt not have Him always.
13. It may be also understood in this way: "The poor ye will have
always with you, but me ye will not have always." The good may take
it also as addressed to themselves, but not so as to be any source of
anxiety; for He was speaking of His bodily presence. For in respect
of His majesty, His providence, His ineffable and invisible grace,
His own words are fulfilled, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to
the end of the world." But in respect of the flesh He assumed as the
Word, in respect of that which He was as the son of the Virgin, of
that wherein He was seized by the Jews, nailed to the tree, let down
from the cross, enveloped in a shroud, laid in the sepulchre, and
manifested in His resurrection, "ye will not have Him always."
And why?
Because in respect of His bodily presence He associated for forty
days with His disciples, and then, having brought them forth for the
purpose of beholding and not of following Him, He ascended into
heaven? and is no longer here. He is there, indeed, sitting at the
right hand of the Father; and He is here also, having never
withdrawn the presence of His glory. In other words, in respect of
His divine presence we always have Christ; in respect of His
presence in the flesh it was rightly said to the disciples, "Me ye
will not have always." In this respect the Church enjoyed His
presence only for a few days: now it possesses Him by faith, without
seeing Him with the eyes. In whichever way, then, it was said,
"But me ye will not have always," it can no longer, I suppose,
after this twofold solution, remain as a subject of doubt.
14. Let us listen to the other few points that remain: "Much
people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came
not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom He
had raised from the dead." They were drawn by curiosity, not by
charity: they came and saw. Hearken to the strange scheming of human
vanity. Having seen Lazarus as one raised from the dead, for the
fame of such a miracle of the Lord's had been accompanied everywhere
with so much evidence of its genuineness, and it had been so openly
performed, that they could neither conceal nor deny what had been
done, only think of the plan they hit upon. "But the chief priests
consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by
reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus."
O foolish consultation and blinded rage! Could not Christ the
Lord, who was able to raise the dead, raise also the slain? When
you were preparing a violent death for Lazarus, were you at the same
time denuding the Lord of His power? If you think a dead man one
thing, a murdered man another, look you only to this, that the Lord
made both, and raised Lazarus to life when dead, and Himself when
slain.
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