The accompanying discussion that immediately follows these opening remarks and speaks of our pardoning our brothers and sisters in case they ever sin against us leads us to the idea that these were the offenses meant. What are these offenses? They are, I suppose, mean and annoying actions, fits of anger whether on good grounds or without justification, insults, slander, and other stumbling blocks similar to these. He says that these temptations must come. Is this then because God, who governs all, forces people to their commission of sin? Away with the thought! Nothing that is evil comes from him. He is the fountain of all virtue. Why then must this happen? They clearly happen because of our infirmity, for all of us stumble in many things, as it is written.^[1] Nevertheless he says that there will be woe to the person who lays the stumbling blocks in the way. He does not leave indifference in these things without rebuke but restrains it by fear of punishment. He still commands us to bear with patience those who cause sins to happen.

Hear the Lord saying, Woe to the world because of scandals! A scandal tempts the saints, fatigues the cautious, throws down the incautious, disturbs all things and confuses all people. It is true that in this present passage the Lord is talking about the scandal of his passion.

It is impossible, he says, that scandals should not come. I suppose that a scandal is a sin because sin comes through scandal. In many things we all offend.^[1] Granted that I have not come to ruin, but I have certainly offended not only in one thing but also in many things.

If your brother sins against you, reprove him. After the parable of the rich man who was tortured in punishment, how fittingly he added the command of showing mercy to those indeed who repent of their error, for fear that despair might not recall someone from guilt! He is truly moderate, so that pardon is not difficult or leniency lax, fearing that harsh reproof might cast someone down or conspiracy might invite guilt! . . . He fittingly said, If your brother sins against you, for it is not an equal condition to sin against people and against God.^[1] The apostle, who is a true interpreter of the divine prophecy, says, After the first admonition, avoid a person that is a heretic,^[2] because unbelief is not on a par with minor transgression. Since error very often surprises someone through ignorance, he commands that it should be rebuked, so that stubbornness is shunned and a mistake is corrected.

He says, If he who sins against you repents and acknowledges his fault, you shall forgive him not only once, but very many times. We . . . must rather imitate those whose business it is to heal our bodily diseases and who do not care for a sick person once only or twice, but just as often as he happens to become ill. Let us remember that we also are liable to infirmities and overpowered by our passions. This being the case, we pray that those who have the duty to rebuke us and who have the authority to punish us may show themselves forgiving and kind to us. It is our duty, having a common feeling for our mutual infirmities, to bear one another’s burdens, so we will fulfill the law of Christ.^[1] Observe also that in the Gospel according to Matthew, Peter makes the inquiry, How often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?^[2] The Lord then tells the apostles, Although he sins seven times in the day, that is, frequently, and will acknowledge his fault, you shall forgive him.

They ask, Add faith to us. They do not ask simply for faith, for perhaps you might imagine them to be without faith. They rather ask Christ for an addition to their faith and to be strengthened in faith. Faith partly depends on us and partly is the gift of the divine grace. The beginning of faith depends on us and our maintaining confidence and faith in God with all our power. The confirmation and strength necessary for this comes from the divine grace. For that reason, since all things are possible with God, the Lord says that all things are possible for him who believes.^[1] The power that comes to us through faith is of God. Knowing this, blessed Paul also says in the first epistle to the Corinthians, For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, and to another faith in the same Spirit.^[2] You see that he has placed faith also in the catalogue of spiritual graces. The disciples requested that they might receive this from the Savior, contributing also what was of themselves. By the descent upon them of the Holy Spirit, he granted it to them after the fulfillment of the dispensation. Before the resurrection, their faith was so feeble that they were liable even to the charge of being little of faith.

A mustard seed looks small. Nothing is less noteworthy to the sight, but nothing is stronger to the taste. What does that signify but the very great fervor and inner strength of faith in the church?

You do not say to your servant, Sit down, but require more service from him and do not thank him. The Lord also does not allow only one work or labor for you, because so long as we live we must always work.

Know that you are a servant overwhelmed by very much obedience. You must not set yourself first, because you are called a son of God. Grace must be acknowledged, but nature not overlooked. Do not boast of yourself if you have served well, as you should have done. The sun obeys, the moon complies,^[1] and the angels serve. . . . Let us not require praise from ourselves nor prevent the judgment of God and anticipate the sentence of the Judge but reserve it for its own time and Judge.

He said, When you have done everything, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants,’ to warn them in his wish that they keep themselves at great distance from that destructive passion. Dearly beloved, see how the person with his mouth open for human glory and performing the works of virtue on that account has no benefit from it. Despite practicing every example of virtue, if he seems to give himself credit for it, he ends up empty-handed and bereaved of everything.

Why did he not say, I will, be cleansed,^[1] as he did in the case of another leper, instead of commanding them to show themselves to the priests? It was because the law gave directions to this effect to those who were delivered from leprosy.^[2] It commanded them to show themselves to the priests and to offer a sacrifice for their cleansing. He commanded them to go as being already healed so that they might bear witness to the priests, the rulers of the Jews and always envious of his glory. They testified that wonderfully and beyond their hope, they had been delivered from their misfortune by Christ’s willing that they should be healed. He did not heal them first but sent them to the priests, because the priests knew the marks of leprosy and of its healing.

Today, the Lord rebukes those who keep the Passover the way the Jews did, just as he rebuked certain lepers he had cleansed. You recall that he loved the one who was thankful, but he was angry with the ungrateful ones, because they did not acknowledge their Deliverer. They thought more highly of their cure from leprosy than of him who had healed them. . . . Actually, this one was given much more than the rest. Besides being healed of his leprosy, he was told by the Lord, Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.

You see, those who give thanks and those who glorify have the same kind of feelings. They bless their helper for the benefits they have received. That is why Paul urged everybody to glorify God with your body.^[1] Isaiah also commanded, Give glory to God.^[2]

Falling into a thankless forgetfulness, the nine lepers that were Jews did not return to give glory to God. By this, he shows that Israel was hard of heart and utterly unthankful. The stranger, a Samaritan, was of foreign race brought from Assyria. The phrase in the middle of Samaria and Galilee has meaning. He returned with a loud voice to glorify God. It shows that the Samaritans were grateful but that the Jews, even when they benefited, were ungrateful.

These miserable men ask in mockery, When will the kingdom of God come? This is like saying, Before this kingdom of which you speak comes, cross and death will seize you. What does Christ reply? He again displays his longsuffering and incomparable love to humanity. Reviled, he does not revile again. Suffering, he does not threaten.^[1] He does not harshly scold them, but because of their wickedness, he does not stoop to give them an answer to their question. He says only what is for the benefit of all people: that the kingdom of God does not come by watching. Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. He says, Do not ask about the times in which the season of the kingdom of heaven will again arise and come. Rather, be eager that you may be found worthy of it. It is within you. That is, it depends on your own wills and is in your own power, whether or not you receive it. Everyone that has attained to justification by means of faith in Christ and decorated by every virtue is counted worthyq of the kingdom of heaven.

The Kingdom of the Heavens is within you, and you should not hope to find it in a place, nor does it come in observation, according to the word of Christ.

If the devil has been driven out and sin no longer reigns, then the kingdom of God is established in us. As it is written in the Gospel, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, ‘Lo here,’ or ‘Lo, there.’ Truly I say to you that the kingdom of God is within you. The only thing that can be within us is knowledge or ignorance of the truth and the affection for righteousness or sin by which we prepare our hearts to be a kingdom of Christ or the devil. St. Paul described the nature of this kingdom in this way: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.^[1] If the kingdom of God is within us and is righteousness, peace and joy, then someone that remains in these is surely within the kingdom of God. Someone that remains in unrighteousness, conflict and the melancholy that kills the life of the spirit is already a citizen of the devil’s kingdom, of hell and of death. These are the signs whether it is God’s kingdom or the devil’s.

Asked by the disciples when the kingdom of God would come,^[1] the Lord said, The kingdom of God is within you, through the truth of grace and not through the slavery of guilt. Let those that would be free be servants in the Lord.^[2] As we share in service, we also share in the kingdom. He said, The kingdom of God is within you. He would not say when it would come. He said there would be a day of judgment, so that he instilled in all terror of the judgment to come,^[3] and he did not add the guarantee of its postponement.

He now speaks to the holy disciples as his true companions. He says, The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and will not see it. . . . He would have them prepared for all that can cause people grief. He wants them ready to endure patiently so that approved they may enter the kingdom of God. He warns them that before his coming from heaven at the consummation of the world, tribulation and persecution will precede him. They will wish to see one of the days of the Son of man, such as those when they were still going around with Christ and speaking with him.

He who knows the signs of the coming judgment also knows the end. Why would he not know? He is like flashing lightning, since as the Light, the Son of God^[1] illumines the inner part of the heavenly mystery. In that hour, it says. He also knows the hour, but he knows it for himself, he does not know it for me. He then suitably asserts that the cause of the flood, fire and of the judgment proceeded from our sins, because God did not create evil, but our actions devised it for themselves.

At the end time of the world, he will not descend from heaven obscurely or secretly, but with godlike glory and as dwelling in the light which no one can approach.^[1] He declared that his coming will be like the lightning. He was born indeed in the flesh of a woman, to fulfill the dispensation for our sakes. For this reason, he emptied himself, made himself poor, and no longer showed himself in the glory of the Godhead.^[2] The season and the necessity of the dispensation summoned him to this humiliation. After his resurrection from the dead, ascension into heaven, and enthronement with God the Father, he will descend again. He will not descend with his glory withdrawn or in the lowliness of human nature. In the majesty of the Father with the companies of the angels guarding him, he will stand before him as God and Lord of all. He will come as the lightning, and not secretly.

That they might know that he was about first to undergo his saving passion, abolish death by the death of his flesh, put away the sin of the world, destroy the ruler of this world, ascend to the Father and in due time appear to judge the world in righteousness, he says that he must first suffer many things.^[1]

To show that he will appear unexpectedly and with no one knowing it, the Lord says that the end of the world will come and be as it was in the days of Noah and Lot. He says, They were eating and drinking, and were taking wives and being made the wives of men. They were selling and buying and building, but the coming of the waters destroyed the one, while the others were the prey and food of fire and brimstone. What does this signify? It signifies that he requires us to be always watchful and ready to make our defense before the tribunal of God.

In the days of Noah this preaching to them was futile because they did not believe when the patience of God waited for them for many years in which the ark was built. Its building was in a sense a kind of preaching. In the same way today, their imitators do not believe. They are shut up in the darkness of ignorance. They are like in a prison, looking in vain on the church being built throughout the whole world. Judgment threatens them as did the flood in which all the unbelievers perished. The Lord says, As in the days of Noah, so will it be also in the days of the Son of man. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Since this signified a future event, the flood also signified baptism for believers and death for unbelievers. There is also a symbol in what was spoken and not done, where it is written about the stone that signifies Christ. Two effects were foretold. It is a stumbling block for unbelievers and a building for believers.

Regarding the saying, He that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house, and he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat, it can be suitably taken in a spiritual sense. In all our trials, each one must take care not to be overcome or to come down from a spiritual height to a carnal life. He who had progressed should not look back by turning toward the past or failing to reach out to the future. This is true of every trial. How much greater care must be prescribed in a trial such as that foretold for the city as Such as has not been from the beginning, neither will be? How much more this is true for that final tribulation which is to come on the world, that is, the church spread through the whole world?

The Savior . . . was speaking of the last day, that is, the end of this world. . . . Strengthening them to recall the last day and the end time, he commands them to disregard all earthly and temporary matters and look only to one end, the duty of everyone saving his soul. He says, He that is on the housetop, do not let him go down to the house to carry away his goods. In these words, he apparently means the one who is at ease, living in wealth and worldly glory. Those that stand on the housetops are always conspicuous in the eyes of those who are around the house.

He that will be on the housetop, do not let him go down. He that will be in the field, do not let him turn back. How may I understand what is the field unless Jesus himself teaches me? He says, No one putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.^[1] The lazy person sits in the farmhouse, but the industrious person plants in the field. The weak are at the fireplace, but the strong are at the plough. The smell of a field is good, because the smell of Jacob is the smell of a full field.^[2] A field is full of flowers. It is full of different fruits. Plough your field if you want to be sent to the kingdom of God. Let your field flower, fruitful with good rewards. Let there be a fruitful vine on the sides of your house and young olive plants around your table.^[3] Already aware of its fertility, let your soul, sown with the Word of God and tilled by spiritual farming, say to Christ, Come, my brother, let us go out into the field.^[4] Let him reply, I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my vintage of myrrh.^[5] What is better than the vintage of faith, by which the fruit of the resurrection is stored and the spring of eternal rejoicing is watered?

He says, Even if anyone is in the field, in the same way, do not let him turn back. That means if anyone is found devoted to work and occupied in labor, earnestly desiring spiritual fruitfulness and gathering the wages of virtuous toil, let him hold firmly to this diligence. Let him not turn back. As Christ himself has again said somewhere, No one that puts his hand to the plough and turns back is fit also for the kingdom of heaven.^[1] It is our duty to maintain our religious exertions without wavering and to persevere in them with undaunted wills or else we may suffer the kind of fate that befell the woman at Sodom. We take her as an example because he says, Remember Lot’s wife. For when she was rescued from Sodom, but would afterward have returned, she became a pillar of salt. That means she became foolish and stonelike.

For this reason, the Lord says, Remember Lot’s wife, who because she looked back, lost the function of her own nature.^[1] Satan^[2] and Sodom are behind. Flee excess and shun extravagance. Know that not everyone can flee to the mountain. Remember that the one who did not return to his old pursuits, as if to Sodom,^[3] escaped because he came to the mountain.^[4] She, who was weaker since she looked back, could not come to the mountain. She remained, although her husband’s help supported her.

The law is spiritual^[1] and the things that happened to the ancients happened figuratively.^[2] Let us see if perhaps Lot, who did not look back, is the rational understanding and the courageous soul. His wife here represents the flesh. The flesh always looks to vices. When the soul is going toward salvation, it looks backward and seeks pleasures. Concerning this, the Lord also said, No man putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. He adds, Remember Lot’s wife. The fact that she became a little statue of salt appears to be an open indication of her foolishness. Salt represents the wisdom that she lacked.

Whoever loses his life shall certainty save it. This is what the blessed martyrs did, enduring conflicts even to loss of blood and life and placing on their heads as their crown their true love for Christ. Those who, from weakness of resolution and mind, denied the faith and fled from the present death of the body, became their own murderers. They will go down to hell to suffer the penalties of their wicked cowardice. The judge will descend from heaven. He will call those who with all their heart have loved him and earnestly practiced a completely virtuous life, saying, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world.^[1] He will pass a severe and overwhelming sentence on those who have led careless and unrestrained lives or have not maintained the glory of faith in him, saying to them, Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire.

He fittingly said, night, because the Antichrist is the hour of darkness. The Antichrist spreads darkness in the hearts of people, when he says he is the Christ. . . . Christ, like flashing lightning,^[1] scatters the spheres of his light throughout the world. He does not wander through the desert. He is not enclosed in some other places, because the Lord says, I fill heaven and earth.^[2] He shines with the light of his splendor, so that we may see his glory in that night of the resurrection.

By the two who are in one bed, he seems to hint at those who live in rest and plenty. They are equal to one another, as far as being possessed of worldly affluence. The bed is the symbol of rest. He says, One of them will be taken, and one will be left. How is one taken? Not all those who are possessed of wealth and ease in this world are wicked and merciless.

He says, Two women will be grinding at a mill. The one will be taken, and the other left. By these he again seems to mean those who live in poverty and labor. Even in these, he says that there is a certain vast difference. Some have carried the burden of poverty courageously, honoring a serious and virtuous way of life. Others have been of a different character. They are planners for every wicked practice and all shamefulness. There will be even in their case a full and exact investigation of their manners. The good will be taken, and he that is not good will be left.

Two people in this world, which is very often compared with a field,^[1] are believers and unbelievers. One will receive the reward of their merits; therefore the faithful one is taken, but the faithless is left.^[2]

Answering, they said, ‘Where, Lord?’ The disciples asked this. The Lord predicted where they must flee, when they must stay, and of what they should be wary. He summarized everything in a general definition, saying, Wherever the body will be, the eagles will be gathered together there. Let us first speculate what the eagles are, so we may determine what the body is. The souls of the righteous are compared with eagles, because they seek the heights,^[1] leave the depths behind, and reportedly reach a great age. David also says to his soul, Your youth will be renewed like that of an eagle.^[2] If we understood the eagles, we cannot doubt concerning the body, particularly if we remember that Joseph received the body of Christ from Pilate.^[3] Does it not seem to you that the eagles around the body are Mary of Cleopas, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of the Lord,^[4] and the assembly of the apostles around the Lord’s tomb?

He says concerning this body, My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.^[1] Around this body, eagles fly on spiritual wings. Around the body, eagles believe that Jesus has come in the flesh, because every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.^[2] Where faith is, there is the sacrament and the dwelling place of holiness. The body is also the church, in which we are renewed in the spirit^[3] through the grace of baptism, and the frailties of old age are restored for ages of new life.