Being angry at this reproof, it says they began to urge him vehemently. This means to attack him with cunning, oppose him and show their hatred of him. They also tried, it says, to silence him about many things. What again is the meaning of their silencing him? It is that they required him to answer immediately and without consideration their wicked questions, expecting that he would fall and say something objectionable. They did not know that he was God. They despised him, were proud and disrespectful. Christ told his friends, that is, his disciples, to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and scribes, meaning by leaven their false pretense. Hypocrisy is hateful to God and humanity. It does not bring a reward, and it is utterly useless for the salvation of the soul. It is rather the cause of its damnation. Although sometimes it may escape detection for a little while, before long, it is sure to be uncovered and bring disgrace on them. It is like an unattractive woman when she is stripped of that external embellishment which she produced by artificial means.

To put it in another light, as being his friends, we should not fear death but rather imitate the faith of the holy ancestors. When he was tempted, the patriarch Abraham offered his only-begotten son Isaac, considering that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.^[1] What terror of death can assail us, now that life has abolished death?^[2] Christ is the resurrection and the life.^[3]

Notice that this commandment is not given to Jesus’ servants but to his friends.^[1] Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. The One to fear is he who can destroy both soul and body in hell.^[2] He alone, after he has killed, has power to throw into hell. He throws into hell those who fear those who kill the body and do not fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell. We may suppose that no matter who else has the hair of his head numbered, the verse is obviously true of those who are cut off for Jesus. We will confess the Son of God before people and not before gods, that he who is confessed may confess us in turn before God and his Father, and confess in heaven the one who confessed him on earth.

When our Lord said, not a hair, he was not thinking of length but of the number of hairs, as we see from these words, The hairs of your head are numbered. I still think that nothing that was a natural part of the body should be lost. Ugly outgrowths, which have the purpose of reminding us of the penal condition of mortal life, will be integrated into the substance as a whole so that no deformity will appear in any one part. After all, a human artist can make a botch of a statue and then reshape it into beauty without a loss of any of his material. It is not a matter of chiseling away some paticular part that was ugly or out of proportion. He can break down and remold the same mass of material so that nothing but the blemish disappears. Of course, the omnipotent Artist can do this even better. There is no deformity of any human body, whether normal, exceptional or even monstrous, which he cannot so eliminate as to leave the total substance intact, while the ugliness disappears. Such outgrowths are not out of place among the other miseries of temporal existence, but they are incompatible with the happiness of the saints in the life to come.

To bestow yet another means of comfort on our minds, he forcibly added that five sparrows are scarcely perhaps worth a penny, and yet God does not forget even one of them. He also said that the separate hairs of your head are all numbered. Consider how great care he takes of those that love him. The Preserver of the universe extends his aid to things so worthless and descends to the smallest animals. How can he forget those who love him, especially when he takes so great care of them? He condescends to visit them, to know exactly each particular of their state, and even how many are the hairs of their heads. . . .

Let us not doubt that with a rich hand he will give his grace to those who love him. He will not permit us to fall into temptation. If, by his wise purpose he permits us to be taken in the snare in order that we may gain glory by suffering, he will most assuredly grant us the power to bear it.

In the Gospel, the Lord speaks saying, Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me, even I will deny him. He does not deny him who denies or acknowledge him who acknowledges. The gospel cannot be firm in part and waver in part. Either both must be strong or both must lose the force of truth. If those who deny will not be guilty of a crime, those who acknowledge him will not receive the reward of virtue. If he crowns the faith that has conquered, he must punish the treachery that has been conquered. If the gospel can be broken, the martyrs can be of no benefit. If the gospel cannot be broken, they who become martyrs, according to the gospel, cannot act contrary to the gospel. Most beloved brothers and sisters, let no one defame the dignity of the martyrs. Let no one destroy their glories and crowns. The strength of an uncorrupted faith is sound. No one can say or do anything against Christ whose hope, faith, virtue and glory are entirely in Christ. They who have performed the commands of God cannot be the authors of anything done by the bishops contrary to the command of God.

He who acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my Father. This is our reward, if we acknowledge him who saves us. How do we acknowledge him? We acknowledge him by doing what he says and by obeying his commands, and by honoring him not only with our lips but with all our heart and mind.^[1] He says in Isaiah as well, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.^[2] 2

He has taught us that blasphemy is the most wicked crime for people to commit. He said that whoever speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. In what way is this to be understood? If the Savior means that if any one of us uses any scornful word toward some mere man, he will receive forgiveness if he repents, the matter is free from all difficulty. Since God is by nature good, he will free from blame all those who repent. If the declaration has reference to Christ, the Savior of all, how can he who has spoken against him be innocent or secure from condemnation? Some one who has not learned the meaning of his mystery or understood that being by nature God he humbled himself to our estate and became man may say something blasphemous to a certain extent against him. If this is not so wicked as to pass forgiveness, God will pardon those who have sinned from ignorance. . . .

On another hand, condemnation and the eternal punishment both in this world and in that which is to come is inevitable for those who have blasphemed the Godhead itself.

By the Spirit, he means not only the Holy Spirit but also the whole nature of the Godhead, as understood [to consist] in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Savior also somewhere said, God is a Spirit.^[1] Blasphemy against the Spirit is against the whole supreme substance. The nature of the Deity, as offered for our understanding in the holy and adorable Trinity, is one.

You must also know that the Holy Spirit empowers the martyrs to bear witness. . . . A person cannot testify as a martyr for Christ’s sake except through the Holy Spirit. If no man can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit,^[1] will any man give his life for Jesus’ sake except through the Holy Spirit?

The Christian should not fear or be distressed in difficult circumstances and thus be distracted from trust in God. He should take courage as if the Lord were at hand directing his affairs and strengthening him against all his adversaries. It is as if the Holy Spirit were instructing him even as to the very replies he should make to his enemies.

This whole passage is provided so that suffering may be endured for confession of the Lord. . . . Since greed is often accustomed to tempt virtue, the Lord adds the precept to remove this sin by stating the precedent, Who has appointed me judge or divider over you? He who descended for a divine purpose fittingly declines earthly tasks and does not allow himself to be a judge of lawsuits and an arbitrator of riches. He is to judge the living and the dead and apportion deserts.^[1] You must not consider what you seek but from whom you request it. You must also not think that you must shout against big or little things. This brother is fittingly rebuked. He eagerly desired to trouble the steward of the heavenly with the corruptible. Not a neutral judge but piety as mediator should divide an inheritance among brothers, although people should seek an inheritance of immortality, not of money.

He was correct when he did not listen to the man who, in disagreement with his brother, said, Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. He said, Master, tell my brother. Tell him what? He said, To divide the inheritance with me. The Lord said, Speak, man. Why do you want to divide it except because you are human? Whenever someone says, I am of Paul, but another, I am of Apollos, are you not merely human?^[1] Tell me, man, who has appointed me a judge of the inheritance among you? I have come to gather, not to scatter. He said, I say to you, guard against all greed. Greed wants to divide, just as love desires to gather. What is the significance of guard against all greed, unless it is fill yourselves with love? We, possessing love for our portion, inconvenience the Lord because of our brother just as that man did against his brother, but we do not use the same plea. He said, Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. We say, Master, tell my brother that he may have my inheritance.

Jesus does not leave us without instruction. Having found a good opportunity, he makes a profitable and saving speech. Protesting against them, he declares, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all greed. He showed us that covetousness is a pitfall of the devil and hateful to God. The wise Paul even calls it idolatry,^[1] perhaps as being suitable for only those who do not know God or as being equal in the balance with the defilement of those people who choose to serve sticks and stones. It is a snare of evil spirits, by which they drag down a person’s soul to the nets of hell. For this reason, he says very correctly, as setting them on their guard, Take heed and keep yourselves from all greed, from great and small and from defrauding anyone whoever he may be. Greed is hateful to God and humankind.

What does the rich man do, surrounded by a great supply of many blessings beyond all numbering? In distress and anxiety, he speaks the words of poverty. He says, What should I do? . . . He does not look to the future. He does not raise his eyes to God. He does not count it worth his while to gain for the mind those treasures that are above in heaven. He does not cherish love for the poor or desire the esteem it gains. He does not sympathize with suffering. It gives him no pain nor awakens his pity. Still more irrational, he settles for himself the length of his life, as if he would also reap this from the ground. He says, I will say to myself, ‘Self, you have goods laid up for many years. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’ O rich man, one may say, ‘You have storehouses for your fruits, but where will you receive your many years? By the decree of God, your life is shortened.’ God, it tells us, said to him, ‘You fool, this night they will require of you your soul. Whose will these things be that you have prepared?’

The redemption of a man’s soul is his riches.^[1] This silly fool of a man did not have that kind of riches. Obviously he was not redeeming his soul by giving relief to the poor. He was hoarding perishable crops. I repeat, he was hoarding perishable crops, while he was on the point of perishing because he had handed out nothing to the Lord before whom he was due to appear. How will he know where to look, when at that trial he starts hearing the words I was hungry and you did not give me to eat?^[2] He was planning to fill his soul with excessive and unnecessary feasting and was proudly disregarding all those empty bellies of the poor. He did not realize that the bellies of the poor were much safer storerooms than his barns. What he was stowing away in those barns was perhaps even then being stolen away by thieves. But if he stowed it away in the bellies of the poor, it would of course be digested on earth, but in heaven it would be kept all the more safely. The redemption of a man’s soul is his riches.^[3]

The devil, even in the midst of our efforts, does not relax his schemes. At certain periods of time, we must take care of the reenergizing of our strength. The mind, concerned with the goods of the present, can rejoice in the temperate weather and the fertile fields. When the fruits are gathered into great barns, it can say to its soul, You have many good things; eat. It may receive a kind of rebuke from the divine voice and may hear it saying, Fool, this very night they demand your soul from you. The things you have prepared, whose will they be?

This should be the careful consideration of wise people, that since the days of this life are short and the time uncertain, death should never be unexpected for those who are to die. Those who know that they are mortal should not come to an unprepared end.

He uselessly accumulates wealth when he does not know how he will use it. He is like him who, when his full barns were bursting from the new harvest, prepared storehouses for his abundant fruits, not knowing for whom he gathered them.^[1] The things that are of the world remain in the world, and whatever riches we gather are bequeathed to our heirs. The things that we cannot take away with us are not ours either. Only virtue is the companion of the dead. Compassion alone follows us. It is the guide to the heavens and the first of the mansions. Through the use of worthless money, it acquires eternal dwellings for the dead. The Lord’s commands testify when he says, Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.^[2]

It is true that a person’s life is not from one’s possessions or because of having an overabundance. He who is rich toward God is very blessed and has glorious hope. Who is he? Evidently, one who does not love wealth but rather loves virtue, and to whom few things are sufficient.^[1] It is one whose hand is open to the needs of the poor, comforting the sorrows of those in poverty according to his means and the utmost of his power. He gathers in the storehouses that are above and lays up treasures in heaven. Such a one shall find the interest of his virtue and the reward of his right and blameless life. ^[2]

How carefully and with what great skill he brings the lives of the holy apostles to spiritual excellence. And with them he benefits us too, because he desires all humankind to be saved and to choose the wise and more excellent life. For this reason he makes them abandon unnecessary anxiety and does not allow a careworn and frenetic diligence that would make them wish to gather what exceeds their necessities. In these matters excess adds nothing to our benefit. Do not be anxious, therefore, he says, about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. He did not simply say, Do not be anxious, but added about your life, that is, do not give much attention to these things, but devote your earnestness to things of far greater importance. For life indeed is of more importance than food, and the body is more important than clothing. Since, therefore, we are at risk concerning both life and body, and pain and punishment are decreed against those who will not live uprightly, let all anxiety be laid aside with regard to clothing and food. . . .

These things, in turn, are followed immediately by a savage crowd of other desires, the result being apostasy from God. . . . It is our duty, therefore, to stay away from all worldly desires, and rather to take delight in those things which please God.

But perhaps you will reply to this, Who then will give us the necessities of life? Our answer to this is as follows: The Lord is worthy to be trusted, and he clearly promises it to you and through little things gives you full assurance that he will be true also in that which is great. Consider, he says, the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. . . . Through the birds and the flowers of the field, he produces in you a firm and unwavering faith. Nor does he permit us at all to doubt, but rather he gives us the certainty that he will grant us his mercy and stretch out his comforting hand, that we may have sufficiency in all things. It is, moreover, a very wicked thing that while those who are placed under the yoke of bodily slavery depend on their masters as sufficient to supply them with food and clothing, we will not consent to put our trust in almighty God, when he promises us the necessities of life.

It is indeed a good and moral saying. By the comparison with flowers and grass, the Lord’s words provoke us to faith in the gift of divine mercy, either literally, because we are unable to add to our body’s stature, or spiritually, because we cannot exceed the measure of our stature without the favor of God. For what is so moral for persuasion as when you see that even the nonrational things are so clothed by God’s providence that they lack no use for grace or for ornament? Then you believe the more that rational man, if he places all his usefulness in God and does not dishonor the faith with intent to waver, can never lack, inasmuch as he has rightly trusted in the favor of God?

It is pleasing to note that lilies spring not from the barrenness of mountains and the wildness of forests but from the loveliness of gardens. These are the fruit-bearing gardens of diverse virtues, as it is written, A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed.^[1] Where there is integrity, chastity, piety, faithful silence of secrets, the radiance of angels, there are the violets of confessors, the lilies of virgins, the roses of martyrs. And let no one think it is inappropriate to compare lilies with angels, when Christ called himself a lily, saying, I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.^[2] Christ is fittingly a lily, because where there is the blood of martyrs, there is the Christ, who is a flower exalted, undefiled and blameless, in which the roughness of thorns does not offend but enveloping grace begins to shine. Roses have thorns which are the torments of the martyrs. The indivisible Godhead, which did not feel torments, has no thorns. Therefore, if lilies, like angels, are clothed beyond the glory of men,^[3] we should not despair of the mercy of God toward us—we to whom through the grace of the resurrection the Lord promises the likeness of angels.^[4] In this passage, Jesus also seems to touch on the question which the apostle did not overlook, either—the question that the nations of this world would ask, namely, how will the dead rise and with what manner of body will they come?^[5] By saying, Seek the kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well, Jesus indicates that grace will not be lacking for the faithful in the present or in the future, if only those who desire the heavenly do not seek the earthly. It is unseemly for the soldiers of the kingdom^[6] to worry about food. The King knows how to feed, cherish and clothe his household, and therefore he said, Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.^[7]

He announced as a general law, useful and necessary for salvation, not only to the holy apostles but to all living on the earth, that people must seek his kingdom. He announced this, being sure that what he gives will be sufficient for them to be in need of nothing else. What, then, does he say? Fear not, little flock. And by do not fear, he means that they must believe that certainly and without doubt their heavenly Father will give the means of life to those who love him. He will not neglect his own. Rather he will open his hand to them—the hand which ever fills the universe with goodness.^[1]

The flock is little in the eyes of the world, but great in the eyes of God. It is little—because he calls glorious those whom he has trained to the innocence of sheep and to Christian meekness. The flock is little, not as the remnant of a big one, but as one which has grown from small beginnings. This little flock denotes the infancy of his newborn church, and immediately he promises that through the blessings of heaven this church will soon have the dignity of his kingdom.

Give away these earthly things, and win that which is in heaven. Give that which you must leave, even against your will, that you may not lose things later. Lend your wealth to God, that you may be really rich.

Concerning the way in which to lend it, Jesus next teaches us saying, Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. The blessed David teaches us exactly the same in the psalms, where by inspiration he says of every merciful and good man, He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.^[1] Worldly wealth has many foes. There are numerous thieves, and this world of ours is full of oppressors. Some plunder by secret means, while others use violence and tear it away even from those who resist. But no one can do damage to the wealth that is laid up above in heaven. God is its keeper, and he does not sleep.

All this is what that treasure brings about. Either through almsgiving it raises the heart of a man into heaven, or through greed it buries it in the earth. That is why he said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. O man, send your treasure on, send it ahead into heaven, or else your God-given soul will be buried in the earth. Gold comes from the depth of the earth—the soul, from the highest heaven. Clearly it is better to carry the gold to where the soul resides than to bury the soul in the mine of the gold. That is why God orders those who will serve in his army here below to fight as men stripped of concern for riches and unencumbered by anything. To these he has granted the privilege of reigning in heaven.

If you lack earthly riches, do not seek them in the world by evil deeds. If they fall to your lot, let them be stored up in heaven by good works. A manly Christian soul should neither be overjoyed at acquiring them nor cast down when they are gone. Let us instead reflect on what the Lord says: Where thy treasure is, there your heart will be also. Surely when we hear that we should lift up our hearts, the familiar answer that we make should not be a lie.