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1. The Gospel Lesson of today follows that of yesterday, and this
is the subject of our discourse. In this passage the meaning,
indeed, is not difficult of investigation, but worthy of preaching,
worthy of admiration and praise. Accordingly, in reciting this
passage of the Gospel, we must commend it to your attention, rather
than laboriously expound it.
Now Jesus, after His stay of two days in Samaria, "departed into
Galilee," where He was brought up. And the evangelist, as he goes
on, says, "For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no
honor in his own country." It was not because He had no honor in
Samaria that Jesus departed. thence after two days; for Samaria was
not His own country, but Galilee. Whilst, therefore, He left
Samaria so quickly, and came to Galilee, where He had been brought
up, how does He testify that "a prophet hath no honor in his own
country"? Rather does it seem that He might have testified that a
prophet has no honor in his own country, had He disdained to go into
Galilee, and had stayed in Samaria.
2. Now mark well, beloved, while the Lord suggests and bestows
what I may speak, that here is intimated to us no slight mystery.
You know the question before us; seek ye out the solution of it.
But, to make the solution desirable, let us repeat the theme. The
point that troubles us is, why the evangelist said, "For Jesus
Himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country."
Urged by this, we go back to the preceding words, to discover the
evangelist's intention in saying this; and we find him relating, in
the preceding words of the narrative, that after two days Jesus
departed from Samaria into Galilee. Was it for this, then, thou
saidst, O evangelist, that Jesus testified that a prophet hath no
honor in his own country, just because He left Samaria after two
days, and made haste to come to Galilee? On the contrary, I should
have thought it more likely, that if Jesus had no honor in His own
country, He should not have hastened to it, and left Samaria. But
if I am not mistaken, or rather, because it is true, and I am not
mistaken; for the evangelist saw what he was saying better than I can
see it, saw the truth better than I do, he who drank it in from the
Lord's bosom: for the evangelist is the same John who, among all
the disciples, reclined on the Lord's breast, and whom the Lord,
owing love to all, yet loved above the rest. Is it he, then, that
should be mistaken, and I right in my opinion? Rather, if I am
piously-minded, let me obediently hear what he said, that I may be
worthy of thinking as he thought.
3. Hear then, dearly beloved, what I think in this matter,
without prejudice to your own judgment, if you have formed a better.
For we have all one Master, and we are fellow-disciples in one
school. This, then, is my opinion, and see whether my opinion is
not true, or near the truth. In Samaria He spent two days, and the
Samaritans believed on Him; many were the days He spent in
Galilee. and yet the Galileans did not believe on Him. Look back
to the passage, or recall in memory the lesson and the discourse of
yesterday. He came into Samaria, where at first He had been
preached by that woman with whom He had spoken great mysteries at
Jacob's well. After they had seen and heard Him, the Samaritans
believed on Him because of the woman's word, and believed more firmly
because of His own word, even many more believed: thus it is
written. After passing two days there (in which number of days is
mystically indicated the number of the two precepts on which hang the
whole law and the prophets, as you remember we intimated to you
yesterday), He goes into Galilee, and comes to the city Cana of
Galilee, where He made the water wine. And there, when He turned
the water into wine, as John himself writes, His disciples believed
on Him; but, of course, the house was full with a crowd of guests.
So great a miracle was wrought, and yet only His disciples believed
on Him. He has now returned to this city of Galilee. "And,
behold, a certain ruler, whose son was sick, came to Him, and began
to beseech Him to go down" to that city or house, "and heal his
son; for he was at the point of death." Did he who besought not
believe? What dost thou expect to hear from me? Ask the Lord what
He thought of him. Having been besought, this is what He answered:
"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye believe not." He shows us a
man lukewarm, or cold in faith, or of no faith at all; but eager to
try by the healing of his son what manner of person Christ was, who
He was, what He could do. The words of the suppliant, indeed, we
have heard: we have not seen the heart of the doubter; but He who
both heard the words and saw the heart has told us this. In short,
the evangelist himself, by the testimony of his narrative, shows us
that the man who desired the Lord to come to his house to heal his
son, had not yet believed. For after he had been informed that his
son was whole, and found that he had been made whole at that hour in
which the Lord had said, "Go thy way, thy son liveth;" then he
saith, "And himself believed, and all his house." Now, if the
reason why he believed, and all his house, was that he was told that
his son was whole, and found the hour they told him agreed with the
hour of Christ's foretelling it, it follows that when he was making
the request he did not yet believe. The Samaritans had waited for no
sign, they believed simply His word; but His own fellow-citizens
deserved to hear this said to them, "Except ye see signs and
wonders, ye believe not;" and even there, notwithstanding so great a
miracle was wrought, there did not believe but "himself and his
house." At His discourse alone many of the Samaritans believed; at
that miracle, in the place where it was wrought, only that house
believed. What is it, then, brethren, that the Lord doth show us
here? Galilee of Judea was then the Lord's own country, because
He was brought up in it. But now that the circumstance portends
something, for it is not without cause that "prodigies" are so
called, but because they portend or presage something: for the word
"prodigy" is so termed as if it were porrodicium, quod porro dicat,
what betokens something to come, and portends something future, now
all those circumstances portended something, predicted something; let
us just now assume the country of our Lord Jesus Christ after the
flesh (for He had no country on earth, except after the flesh which
He took on earth); let us, I say, assume the Lord's own country
to mean the people of the Jews. Lo, in His own country He hath no
honor. Observe at this moment the multitudes of the Jews; observe
that nation now scattered over the whole world, and plucked up by the
roots; observe the broken branches, cut off, scattered, withered,
which being broken off, the wild olive has deserved to be grafted in;
look at the multitude of the Jews: what do they say to us even now?
"He whom you worship and adore was our brother." And we reply,
"A prophet hath no honor in his own country." In short, those
Jews saw the Lord as He walked on the earth and worked miracles;
they saw Him giving sight to the blind, opening the ears of the deaf,
loosing the tongues of the dumb, bracing up the limbs of the
paralytics, walking on the sea, commanding the winds and waves,
raising the dead: they saw Him working such great signs, and after
all that scarcely a few believed. I am speaking to God's people; so
many of us have believed, what signs have we seen? It is thus,
therefore, that what occurred at that time betokened what is now going
on. The Jews were, or rather are, like the Galileans; we, like
those Samaritans. We have heard the gospel, have given it our
consent, have believed on Christ through the gospel; we have seen no
signs, none do we demand.
4. For, though one of the chosen and holy twelve, yet he was an
Israelite, of the Lord's nation, that Thomas who desired to put
his fingers into the places of the wounds. The Lord censured him just
as He did this ruler. To the ruler He said, "Except ye see signs
and wonders, ye believe not;" and to Thomas He said, "Because
thou hast seen, thou hast believed."He had come to the Galileans
after the Samaritans, who had believed His word, before whom He
wrought no miracles, whom He without anxiety quickly left, strong in
faith, because by the presence of His divinity He had not left them.
Now, then, when the Lord said to Thomas, "Come, reach hither
thy hand, and be not faithless, but believing;" and he, having
touched the places of the wounds, exclaimed, and said, "My Lord,
and my God;" he is chided, and has it said to him, "Because thou
hast seen, thou hast believed." Why, but "because a prophet has no
honor in his own country?" But since this Prophet has honor among
strangers, what follows? "Blessed are they that have not seen, and
yet have believed." We are the persons here foretold; and that which
the Lord by anticipation praised, He has deigned to fulfill even in
us. They saw Him, who crucified Him, and touched Him with their
hands, and thus a few believed; we have not seen nor handled Him, we
have heard and believed. May it be our lot, that the blessedness
which He has promised may be made good in us: both here, because we
have been preferred to His own country; and in the world to come,
because we have been grafted in instead of the branches that were broken
off!
5. For He showed that He would break off these branches, and
ingraft this wild olive, when moved by the faith of the centurion, who
said to Him, "I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof; but only speak the word, and my child shall be healed: for I
also am a man put under authority, having soldiers under me; and I
say to one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he
cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. Jesus turned
to those who followed Him, and said, Verily I say unto you, I
have not found so great faith in Israel." Why not found so great
faith in Israel? "Because a prophet has no honor in his own
country." Could not the Lord have said to that centurion, what He
said to this ruler, "Go, thy child liveth?" See the distinction:
this ruler desired the Lord to come down to his house that centurion
declared himself to be unworthy. To the one it was said, "I will
come and heal him;" to the other, "Go, thy son liveth." To the
one He promised His presence; the other He healed by His word.
The ruler sought His presence by force; the centurion declared
himself unworthy of His presence. Here is a ceding to loftiness;
there, a conceding to humility. As if He said to the ruler, "Go,
thy son liveth;" do not weary me. "Except ye see signs and
wonders, ye believe not;" thou desirest my presence in thy house, I
am able to command by a word; do not wish to believe in virtue of
signs: the centurion, an alien, believed me able to work by a word,
and believed before I did it; you, "except ye see signs and
wonders, believe not." Therefore, if it be so, let them be broken
off as proud branches, and let the humble wild olive be grafted;
nevertheless let the root remain, while those are cut off and these
received in their place. Where does the root remain? In the
patriarchs. For the people Israel is Christ's own country, since
it is of them that He came according to the flesh; but the root of
this tree is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the holy patriarchs. And
where are they? In rest with God, in great honor; so that it was
into Abraham's bosom that the poor man, on being promoted, was
raised after his departure from the body, and in Abraham's bosom was
he seen from afar off by the proud rich man. Wherefore the root
remains, the root is praised; but the proud branches deserved to be
cut off, and to wither away; and by their cutting off, the humble
wild olive has found a place.
6. Hear now how the natural branches are cut off, how the wild olive
is grafted in, by means of the centurion himself, whom I have thought
proper to mention for the sake of comparison with this ruler. "Verily
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in Israel;
therefore I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and from
the west." How widely the wild olive took possession of the earth!
This world was a bitter forest; but because of the humility, because
of this "I am not worthy many shall come from the east and from the
west." And grant that they come, what shall become of them? For if
they come, they are cut off from the forest; where are they to be
ingrafted, that they may not wither? "And shall sit down," saith
He, "with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob." At what banquet,
in case thou dost not invite to ever living, but to much drinking?
Where, "shall sit down? In the kingdom of heaven." And how will
it be with them who came of the stock of Abraham? What will become of
the branches with which the tree was full? What but to be cut off,
that these may be grafted in? Show us that they shall be cut off:
"But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness."
7. Therefore let the Prophet have honor among us, because He had
no honor in His own country. He had no honor in His country,
wherein He was formed; let Him have honor in the country which He
has formed. For in that country was He, the Maker of all, made as
to the form of a servant. For that city in which He was made, that
Zion, that nation of the Jews He Himself made when He was with the
Father as the Word of God: for "all things were made by Him, and
without Him was nothing made." Of that man we have today heard it
said: "One Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
The Psalms also foretold, saying, "My mother is Sion, shall a
man say." A certain man, the Mediator man between God and men,
says, "My mother Sion." Why says, "My mother is Sion"?
Because from it He took flesh, from it was the Virgin Mary, of
whose womb He took upon Him the form of a servant; in which He
deigned to appear most humble. "My mother is Sion," saith a man;
and this man, who says, "My mother is Sion," was made in her,
became man in her. For He was God before her, and became man in
her. He who was made man in her, "Himself did found her; the Most
High was made man in her most low." Because "the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us." "He Himself, the Most High,
founded her." Now, because He founded this country, here let Him
have honor. The country in which He was born rejected Him; let that
country receive Him which He regenerated.
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