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1. In this chapter of the Gospel, brethren, our Lord Jesus
Christ has most especially commended Himself to our faith in respect
of His humanity. For indeed He always keeps in view, both in His
words and deeds, that He should be believed to be God and man: God
who made us, man who sought us; with the Father, always God; with
us, man in time. For He would not have sought man whom He had made
if Himself had not become that which He had made. But remember
this, and do not let it slip from your hearts, that Christ became man
in such manner that He ceased not to be God. While remaining God,
He who made man took manhood. While, therefore, as man He
concealed Himself, He must not be thought to have lost His power,
but only to have offered an example to our infirmity. For He was
detained when He willed to be, and He was put to death when he willed
to be. But since there were to be His members, that is, His
faithful ones,who would not have that power which He, our God,
had; by His being hid, by His concealing Himself as if He would
not be put to death, He indicated that His members would do this, in
which members He Himself in fact was. For Christ is not simply in
the head and not in the body, but Christ whole is in the head and
body. What, therefore, His members are, that He is; but what He
is, it does not necessarily follow that His members are. For if His
members were not Himself, He would not have said, "Saul, why
persecutest thou me?" For Saul was not persecuting Himself on
earth, but His members, namely, His believers. He would not,
however, say, my saints, my servants, or, in short, my brethren,
which is more honorable; but, me, that is, my members, whose head
I am.
2. With these preliminary remarks, I think that we shall not have
to labor much for the meaning in this chapter; for that is often
betokened in the head which was to be in the body. "After these
things," saith he, "Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not
walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him." This is what
I have said; He offered an example to our infirmity. He had not
lost power, but He was comforting our weakness. For it would
happen, as I have said, that some believer in Him would retreat into
concealment, test he should be found by the persecutors; and lest the
concealment should be objected to him as a crime, that occurred first
in the head, which should afterwards be confirmed in the member. For
it is said, "He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought
to kill Him," just as if Christ were not able both to walk among the
Jews, and not be killed by them. For He manifested this power when
He willed; for when they would lay hold of Him, as He was now about
to suffer, "He said to them, Whom seek ye? They answered,
Jesus. Then, said He, I am He," not concealing, but
manifesting Himself. That manifestation, however, they did not
withstand, but "going backwards, they fell to the ground." And
yet, because He had come to suffer, they rose up, laid hold of
Him, led Him away to the judge, and slew Him. But what was it
they did? That which a certain scripture says: "The earth was
delivered into the hands of the ungodly." The flesh was given into
the power of the Jews; and this that thereby the bag, as it were,
might be rent asunder, whence our purchase-price might run out.
3. "Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand." What the
feast of tabernacles is. they who read the Scriptures know. They
used on the holy day to make tabernacles, in likeness of the
tabernacles in which they dwelt while they sojourned in the wilderness,
after being led out of Egypt. This was a holy day, a great
solemnity. The Jews were celebrating this, as being mindful of the
Lord's benefits they who were about to kill the Lord. On this holy
day, then (for there were several holy days; but it was called a holy
day with the Jews, though it was not one day, but several), "His
brethren" spoke to the Lord Christ. Understand the phrase, "His
brethren," as you know it must be taken, for it is not a new thing
you hear. The blood relations of the Virgin Mary used to be called
the Lord's brethren. For it was of the usage of Scripture to call
blood relations and all other near kindred by the term brethren, which
is foreign to our usage, and not within our manner of speech.
For who would call an uncle or a sister's son "brother"? Yet the
Scripture calls relatives of this kind "brothers." For Abraham and
Lot are called brothers, while Abraham was Lot's uncle. Laban and
Jacob are called brothers, while Laban was Jacob's uncle. When,
therefore, you hear of the Lord's brethren, consider them the blood
relations of Mary, who did not a second time bear children. For, as
in the sepulchre, where the Lord's body was laid, neither before nor
after did any dead lie; so, likewise, Mary's womb, neither before
nor after conceived anything mortal.
4. We have said who the brethren were, let us hear what they said:
"Pass over hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may
see thy work which thou doest." The Lord's works were not hid from
the disciples, but to these men they were not apparent. They might
have Christ for a kinsman, but through that very relationship they
disdained to believe on Him. It is told us in the Gospel; for we
dare not hold this as a mere opinion, you have just now heard it.
They go on advising Him: "For no man doeth anything in secret, and
he himself seeketh to be known openly: if thou do these things, show
thyself to the world." And directly after it says: "For neither
did His brethren believe in Him." Why did they not believe in
Him? Because they sought human glory. For as to what His brethren
appear to advise Him, they consult for His glory. Thou doest
marvellous works, make thyself known; that is, appear to all, that
thou mayest be praised by all. The flesh spoke to the flesh; but the
flesh without God, to the flesh with God. It was the wisdom of the
flesh speaking to the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us.
5. What did the Lord answer to these things? Then saith Jesus to
them: "My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready."
What is this? Had not Christ's time yet come? Why then was
Christ come, if His time had not yet come? Have we not heard the
apostle say, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent His
Son"? If, therefore, He was sent in the fullness of time, He
was sent when He ought to be sent, He came when it behoved that He
should come. What means then, "My time is not yet come"?
Understand, brethren, with what intention they spoke, when they
appeared to advise Him as their brother. They were giving Him
counsel to pursue glory; as advising in a worldly manner and with an
earthly disposition, that He should not be unknown to fame, nor hide
Himself in obscurity. This is what the Lord says in answer to those
who were giving Him counsel of glory, "My time is not yet come;"
the time of my glory is not yet come. See how profound it is: they
were advising Him as to glory; but He would have loftiness preceded
by humility, and willed to prepare the way to elevation itself through
humility. For those disciples, too, were of course seeking glory who
wished to sit, one at His right hand and the other at His left: they
thought only of the goal, and saw not by what way it must be reached;
the Lord recalled them to the way, that they might come to their
fatherland in due order. For the fatherland is on high, the way
thither lies low. That land is the life of Christ, the way is
Christ's death; that land is the habitation of Christ, the way is
Christ's suffering. He that refuses the way, why seeks he the
fatherland? In a word, to these also, while seeking elevation, He
gave this answer: "Can ye drink the cup which I am about to
drink?" Behold the way by which you must come to that height which
you desire. The cup He made mention of was indeed that of His
humility and suffering.
6. Therefore also here: "My time is not yet come; but your
time," that is the glory of the world, "is always ready." This is
the time of which Christ, that is the body of Christ, speaks in
prophecy: "When I shall have received the fit time, I will judge
righteously." For at present it is not the time of judging, but of
tolerating the wicked. Therefore, let the body of Christ bear at
present, and tolerate the wickedness of evil livers. Let it,
however, have righteousness now, for by righteousness it shall come to
judgment. And what saith the Holy Scripture in the psalm to the
members, namely, that tolerate the wickedness of this world? "The
Lord will not cast off His people." For, in fact, His people
labors among the unworthy, among the unrighteous, among blasphemers,
among murmurers, detractors, persecutors, and, if they are allowed,
destroyers. Yes, it labors; but "the Lord will not cast off His
people, and He will not forsake His inheritance until justice is
turned into judgment." "Until the justice," which is now in His
saints, "be turned into judgment;" when that shall be fulfilled
which was said to them, "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel." The apostle had righteousness, but
not yet that judgment of which he says, "Know ye not that we shall
judge angels?" Be it now, therefore, the time for living rightly;
the time for judging them that have lived ill shall be hereafter.
"Until righteousness," saith he, "is turned into judgment." The
time of judgment will be that of which the Lord has here said, "My
time is not yet come." For there will be a time of glory, when He
who came in humility will come in loftiness; He who came to be judged
will come to judge; He who came to be slain by the dead will come to
judge the quick and the dead. "God," saith the psalm, "will come
manifest, our God, and He will not be silent." What is "shall
come manifest"? Because He came concealed. Then He will not be
silent; for when He came concealed, "He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer, He opened not His
mouth." He shall come, and shall not keep silence. "I was
silent," saith He, "shall I always be silent?"
7. But what is necessary at the present time for those who have
righteousness? That which is read in that psalm: "Until
righteousness is turned into judgment, and they that have it are
upright of heart." You ask, perhaps, who are the upright in heart?
We find in Scripture those to be upright in heart who bear the evils
of the world, and do not accuse God. See, brethren, an uncommon
thing is that which I speak of. For I know not how it is that, when
any evil befalls a man, he runs to accuse God, when he ought to
accuse himself. When thou gettest any good, thou praisest thyself;
when thou sufferest any evil, thou accusest God. This is then the
crooked heart, not the upright. When thou art cured of this
distorting and perversity, what thou didst use to do will be turned
into the contrary. For what didst thou use to do before? Thou didst
praise thyself in the good things of God, and didst accuse God in
thine own evil things; with thy heart converted and made right, thou
wilt praise God in His good things, and accuse thyself in thy own
evil things. These are the upright in heart. In short, that man,
who was not yet right in heart when the success of the wicked and the
distress of the good grieved him, says, when he is corrected: "How
good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! But as for me,"
when I was not right in heart, "my feet were almost gone; my steps
had well-nigh slipped." Why?. "Because I was envious at
sinners, beholding the peace of sinners." I saw, saith he, the
wicked prosperous, and I was displeased at God; for I did wish that
God should not permit the wicked to be happy. Let man understand:
God never does permit this; but a bad man is thought to be happy, for
this reason, because men are ignorant of what happiness is. Let us
then be right in heart: the time of our glory is not yet come. Let it
be told to the lovers of this world, such as the brethren of the Lord
were, "your time is always ready;" our time "is not yet come."
For let us, too, dare to say this. And since we are the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ, since we are His members, since we joyfully
acknowledge our head, let us say it without hesitation; since, for
our sakes, He deigned also Himself to say this. And when the lovers
of this world revile us, let us say to them, "Your time is always
ready; our time is not yet come." For the apostle has said to us,
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." When
will our time come? "When Christ," saith he, "your life shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
8. What said He further? "The world cannot hate you." What is
this, but, The world cannot hate its lovers, the false witnesses?
For you call the things that are evil, good; and the things that are
good, evil. "But me it hateth, because I bear witness concerning
it, that its works are evil. Go ye up to this feast." What means
"to this"? Where ye seek human glory. What means "to this"?
Where ye wish to prolong carnal joys, not to meditate on eternal
joys. "I go not up to this feast, because my time is not vet full
come." On this feast-day you seek human glory; but my time, that
is, the time of my glory, is not yet come. That will be my
feast-day, not running before and passing over these days, but
remaining for ever; that will be festivity, joy without end, eternity
without a blot, serenity without a cloud. "When He had said these
words unto them, He abode still in Galilee. But when His brethren
were gone up, then went He also up unto tile feast, not openly, but
as it were in secret." Therefore "not to this feast-day," because
His desire was not for temporal glory, but to teach something to
profit, to correct men, to admonish them of an eternal feast-day, to
turn away their love from this world, and to turn it to God. But
what means this, "He went up as it were in secret to the feast"?
This action of the Lord also is not without meaning. It appears to
me that, even from this circumstance that He went up as it were in
secret, He had intended to signify something; for the things that
follow will show that He thus went up on the middle of the feast, that
is, when those days were half over, to teach even openly. But he
said, "As it were in secret," meaning, not to show Himself to
men. It is not without meaning that Christ went up "as it were in
secret" to that feast, because He Himself lay hid in that
feast-day.
What I have said as yet is also under cover of secrecy. Let it be
manifested then, let the veil be lifted, and let that which was secret
appear.
9. All things that were spoken to the ancient people Israel in the
manifold Scripture of the holy law, what things they did, whether in
sacrifices, or in priestly offices, or in feast-days, and, in a
word, in what things soever they worshipped God, what things soever
were spoken to and given them in precept, were shadows of things to
come. Of what things to come? Things which find their fulfillment in
Christ. Whence the apostle says, "For all the promises of God are
in Him yea;" that is, they are fulfilled in Him. Again he says in
another place, "All happened to them in a figure; but they were
written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the ages is come." And
he said elsewhere, "For Christ is the end of the law;" likewise in
another place, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holy day, or of a new moon, or of Sabbath-days, which
is a shadow of things to come." If, therefore, all these things
were shadows of things to come, also the feast of tabernacles was a
shadow of things to come. Let us examine, then, of what thing to
come was this feast-day a shadow. I have explained what this feast of
tabernacles was: it was a celebration of tabernacles, because the
people, after their deliverance from Egypt, while directing their
course through the wilderness to the land of promise, dwelt in tents.
Let us observe what it is, and we shall be that thing; we, I say,
who are members of Christ, if such we are; but we are, He having
made us worthy, not we having earned it for ourselves. Let us then
consider ourselves, brethren: we have been led out of Egypt, where
we were slaves to the devil as to Pharaoh; where we applied ourselves
to works of clay, engaged in earthly desires, and where we toiled
exceedingly. And to us, while laboring, as it were, at the bricks,
Christ cried aloud, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden." Thence we were led out by baptism as through the Red Sea.
red because consecrated by the blood of Christ. All our enemies that
pursued us being dead, that is, all our sins being blotted out, we
have been brought over to the other side. At the present time, then,
before we come to the land of promise, namely, the eternal kingdom,
we are in the wilderness in tabernacles. They who acknowledge these
things are in tabernacles; for it was to be that some would acknowledge
this. For that man, who understands that he is a sojourner in this
world, is in tabernacles. That man understands that he is travelling
in a foreign country, when he sees himself sighing for his native
land. But whilst the body of Christ is in tabernacles, Christ is in
tabernacles; but at that time He was so, not evidently but secretly.
For as yet the shadow obscured the light; when the light came, the
shadow was removed. Christ was in secret: He was in the feast of
tabernacles, but there hidden. At the present time, when these
things are already made manifest, we acknowledge that we are journeying
in the wilderness: for if we know it, we are in the wilderness. What
is it to be in the wilderness? In the desert waste. Why in the
desert waste? Because in this world, where we thirst in a way in
which is no water. But yet, let us thirst that we may be filled.
For, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled." And our thirst is quenched from the rock
in the wilderness: for "the Rock was Christ," and it was smitten
with a rod that the water might flow. But that it might flow, the
rock was smitten twice: because there are two beams of the cross. All
these things, then, which were done in a figure, are made manifest to
us. And it is not without meaning that it was said of the Lord,
"He went up to the feast-day. but not openly, but as it were in
secret." For Himself in secret was the thing prefigured, because
Christ was hid in that same festal-day; for that very festal-day
signified Christ's members that were to sojourn in a foreign land.
10. "Then the Jews sought Him on the feast-day:" before He
went up. For His brethren went up before Him, and He went not up
then when they supposed and wished: that this too might be fulfilled
which He said, "Not to this, that is, the first or second day, to
which you wish me to go. But He went up afterwards, as the Gospel
tells us, "on the middle of the feast;' that is, when as many days
of that feast had passed as there remained. For they celebrated that
same festival, so far we can understand, on several successive days.
11. "They said, therefore, Where is he? And there was much
murmuring among the people concerning Him." Whence the murmuring?
Of strife. What was the strife? "Some said, He is a good man;
but others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people." We must
understand this of all His servants: this is said now of them. For
whoever becomes eminent in some spiritual grace, of him some will
assuredly say, "He is a good man;" others, "Nay; but he
deceiveth the people." Whence is this? "Because our life is hid
with Christ in God." On this account people may say during the
winter, This tree is dead; for example, a fig tree, pear tree, or
some kind of fruit tree, it is like a withered tree, and so long as it
is winter it does not appear whether it is so or not. But the summer
proves, the judgment proves. Our summer is the appearing of Christ:
"God shall come manifest, our God, and He will not be silent;"
"fire shall go before Him:" that fire "shall burn up His
enemies:" that fire shall lay hold of the withered trees. For then
shall the dry trees be apparent, when it shall be said to them, "I
was hungry, and ye gave me not to eat;" but on the other side,
namely, on the right, will be seen abundance of fruit, and
magnificence of leaves; the green will be eternity. To those, then,
as withered trees, it shall be said, "Go into everlasting fire.
For behold," it saith, "the axe is laid to the root of the trees:
every tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut
down, and cast into the fire." Let them then say of thee, if thou
art growing in Christ, let men say of thee, "He deceiveth the
people." This is said of Christ Himself; it is said of the whole
body of Christ. Think of the body of Christ still in the world,
think of it still on the threshing-floor; see how it is blasphemed by
the chaff. The chaff and the grain are, indeed, threshed together;
but the chaff is consumed, the corn is purged. What was said of the
Lord then, avails for consolation, whenever it will be said of any
Christian.
12. "Howbeit no man spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews."
But who were they that did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews?
Undoubtedly they who said, "He is a good man:" not they who said,
"He deceiveth the people." As for them who said "He deceiveth the
people," their din was heard like the noise of dry leaves. "He
deceiveth the people, they sounded more and more loudly: "He is a
good man," the whispered more and more constrainedly. But now,
brethren, notwithstanding that glory of Christ which is to make us
immortal is not yet come, yet now, I say, His Church so
increases, He has deigned to spread it abroad through the whole
world, that it is now only whispered. "He deceiveth the people;"
and more and more loudly it sounds forth, "He is a good man."
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