After Jesus commissioned the apostles, he proceeded to separate himself from them, to give them room and opportunity to do what he had called them to do. For while he was present with them and healing others, no one would be inclined to approach them.

A fuller spiritual meaning is to be found in these actions, which were being accomplished in and through John. Here we behold the efficient power of John’s embodied action and also the grace manifest in John. As announced in prophecy: the law rose up and took shape in John.^[1] For the law announced Christ, predicted the forgiveness of sins and promised the kingdom of heaven. John thoroughly accomplished all this work that belonged to the law. Therefore when the law (i.e., John) was inactive, oppressed as it was by the sins of the common people and held in chains by the vicious habits of the nation, so that Christ could not be perceived, the law (represented by John) was confined by chains and the prison. But the law (i.e., John) sent others to behold the good news. In this way unbelief would be confronted with the accomplished truth of what had been prophesied. By this means the part of the law that had been chained^[2] by the misdeeds of sinners would now be freed through the understanding of the good news freely expressed.

About this text, some will argue, When John sent his disciples, he was neither ignorant himself nor did he mean for them to learn, which seems clear to anyone who has entered to a certain extent into the meaning of the holy Scriptures. But this is foolish, because when John was about to die and join the departed, he sent them to ask whether he was the one who was to come and free those who had been vanquished by death.^[1] In this way the good news was delivered to his disciples as well.^[2] John had already said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.^[3] He already knew very well that the Messiah would offer his suffering up to God for the sake of all humanity. Certainly, if John indeed knew that Jesus was the Christ, he was not ignorant of the Christ. On the contrary, he knew exactly what benefits were to come to humanity through him. John might seem to be telling different people different things in different contexts. Isn’t it true that John had so much knowledge about Christ that he said a great deal about him to various people? Isn’t it true that in accordance with the greater part of what John had said in his own testimony, he recognized Jesus as the deliverer of good news? It is hardly conceivable that John was ignorant about the Christ but now was guessing and wanted to find out for sure from him. That would be inconsistent. And who would, in the attempt to discover something so great, send along his disciples as if they were competent in themselves to teach and witness?

There is another point being made here. The present life is the time when we must conduct ourselves responsibly. After death there is judgment and punishment. However, Christ’s death did not universally redeem the sins of all those who had already died. For when it is said that the bronze gates and iron bars were shattered, this is said because the body of Christ then appeared immortal for the first time and death was shown to be defeated. What does this mean, then? Were all people unrighteous before the coming of Christ? Not at all. Before Christ it was enough to refrain from idolatry and to worship the one true God in order to be saved. But now that alone is not enough. We must also know Christ personally. And so we must not imagine that someone will confess to Christ in hell, where even if all repent, no one is comforted.

John asks this not because he is ignorant^[1] but to guide others who are ignorant and to say to them, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!^[2] And he had heard the voice of the Father saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.^[3] Rather, it is the same sort of question as when the Savior asked where Lazarus was buried. The people only meant to show him the tomb, but he wanted them to be brought to faith and see the dead man return to life. Similarly, when John was about to be killed by Herod, he sent his disciples to Christ, intending that when they met him, the disciples would observe his appearance and powers and believe in him, and they would tell this to their teacher when he questioned them.

It seems almost as if John did not know the one he had pointed out, as if he did not know whether he was the same person he had proclaimed by prophesying, by baptizing, by pointing him out!

We can resolve this question more quickly if we reflect on the time and order of the events. For when John is standing beside the river Jordan, he declares that this is the Redeemer of the world. But when he has been thrown into jail, he asks whether they were to look for another or whether he had come. This is not because he doubts that he is the Redeemer of the world. John now wants to know whether he who had personally come into the world would also descend personally into the courts of hell. For John had preceded Christ into the world and announced him there. He was now dying and preceding him to the nether world. This is the context in which he asks, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another? But if he had spoken more fully he might have said, Since you thought it worthy of yourself to be born for humanity, say whether you will also think it worthy of yourself to die for humanity. In this way I, who have been the herald of your birth, will also be the herald of your death. I will announce your arrival in the nether world as the One who is to come, just as I have already announced it on earth.

And then consider whether their words are at one with their feelings. Now as it first appears, John asks Christ through his disciples, Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?^[1] John was actually saying to his disciples, Go, look, and believe; for this is none other than he who was to come. Similarly, as it first appears, Christ answered John by saying, Go and tell John this: the blind receive their sight and the deaf hear; and blessed is he who takes no offense at me.^[2] He was actually saying to John’s disciples, Look here, see and understand that the blind receive their sight and the deaf hear; and you will be blessed if you take no offense at me.

What then is the meaning of what you see and hear? As Luke says, the Lord knew that these disciples would come from John. And at that time, he was preparing a worthy meal for a multitude of guests, good people. In this way, even though Christ was silent, his works would tell of him,^[3] for those who had been cured were thanking him. Some said, We never saw anything like this in Israel.^[4] And others said, God has visited his people with goodness.^[5] Others said, Glory be to God, who has given such authority to humans.^[6] And so the disciples of John would feast their eyes and ears, seeing the miracles of healing and hearing the voices of those who thanked him; or at least seeing miracles done by him and hearing his teaching; or at the very least seeing the good health of those who had been sick and hearing the testimony of those from whom demons had been cast out.

And when the Lord had shown forth all of himself in miraculous works, in giving sight to the blind, the power of walking to the lame, cleansing to the lepers, hearing to the deaf, voices to the mute, life to the dead and preaching to the poor, he said, Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. Now, had anything really been done through Christ that would cause John to take offense? Not in the least. For John himself also spent his time in his own teaching and work. However, one ought to look to a higher meaning that is both powerful and fitting. What does it mean that the poor have good news preached to them? Poor people are those who have abandoned their lives, who have taken up his cross and followed, who have been made humble in spirit. For such the kingdom of heaven is prepared. Because all experiences of this kind come together in the Lord and because his cross was to be a source of offense to many, he declared that people are blessed if their faith is not threatened by a cross or death or burial.

Jesus knew the mind of John who sent them, for he knew, as God knows, our inner thoughts. There he was, actively healing the blind, lame, and many others. He healed not to teach John, who was already convinced, but those who had come to him doubting. Having healed them he said, Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And then he added pointedly, And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. By saying this Jesus implied that he knew even his questioners’ unuttered thoughts. For if he had said simply I am he, this would have fallen short of overcoming their unstated sense of being offended. And it would have given fuel to some Jews who were already saying to him, You bear record of yourself.^[1] Hence he answered nothing directly concerning his identity but left them to learn of it from the miracles, freeing what he taught from suspicion and making it plainer. Then Jesus gently chided them for being silently offended in him. He made their case for them, leaving it to their own conscience alone to judge, calling no witness of his reprimand other than they themselves who knew what they had been thinking. For it was of their own inward offense that he was thinking when he said, Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me. In this way Christ drew them all the more closely to himself.

Why as they went away? That he might not seem to be flattering John. And in correcting John’s disciples, Jesus does not broadcast their suspicion. He merely provides a remedy for the thoughts that were mentally disturbing them. This made it clear to them that he knew the secrets of all. For he did not say, as he might have to the other religious leaders, Why are you thinking evil? For if John’s disciples had doubt in their minds it was not out of wickedness but out of ignorance. So Jesus does not rebuke them but merely corrects their understanding. He then defends John, signifying that he had not fallen away from his former confidence, nor had he changed his mind. For John was not a man easily swayed and fickle but steadfast and sure. He was far from being such as to betray the things committed to him.

He did not expect assent to this but denial. As soon as a slight breeze blows on a reed it bends away. What does the reed represent if not an unspiritual soul? As soon as it is touched by praise or slander, it turns in every direction. If a slight breeze of commendation comes from someone’s mouth, it is cheerful and proud, and it bends completely, so to speak, toward being pleasant. But if a gust of slander comes from the source from which the breeze of praise was coming, it is quickly turned in the opposite direction, toward raving anger. John was no reed, shaken by the wind. No one’s pleasant attitude made him agreeable, and no one’s anger made him bitter.

If the Lord had intended a higher meaning unfavorable to John, as many imagine that he did, in saying Blessed is the one who takes no offense at me, why does he now speak about John with highest praise? Because the crowd that was present did not know the inner purpose of John’s question. They thought John doubted Christ, although he himself had prophesied about him. Now the crowd learns that John asked not on his own behalf but on that of his disciples. Why did you go out into the wilderness? To see a man like a reed who is blown about by every wind, a man so irresolute that he cannot make up his mind about what he himself previously predicted? Or else, perhaps he is pricked by the goad of his envy for me, and his preaching runs after an empty fame, and he covets the money he may get by it? But why should this man desire wealth for abundance of feasting? He feeds on locusts and wild honey. Or wealth to wear soft clothes? His clothes are made of camel’s hair. But people who are flatterers, and run after money, and covet wealth, and overflow with luxury and wear soft clothes—such people live in the palaces of kings. Thus it is shown that the austere way of life and the strict preaching must avoid the halls of kings and turn away from the palaces of the luxurious.

What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A man clothed in soft raiment? A lover of present pleasure who gladly made use of the earthly goods of the present. Didn’t you see that his garment was of camels’ hair, and he wore a leather girdle around his waist? And his food was locusts and wild honey. Thus by the testimony of his own way of life, Jesus condemned the world and its goods; yet he remained steadfastly in the world. However, he entered the world not in order to remain in it himself but to challenge the idolatry of the world’s riches. Jesus was born in the world, but he turned aside from the goods of the world. Again, although he was born in the world, he did not remain in it as a sinner; instead, in converting sinners to righteousness, he freed them from the world. For this wicked world has many pleasures with which to seduce people.

Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. Now, it is the task of a prophet to foretell Christ. But was it also the task of a prophet to recognize God while he was still implanted in the womb? It is the task of a prophet to receive prophecy in exchange for a worthy way of life and faith. But was it the task of a prophet to be made a prophet before being made a man and before receiving any reward? It is the task of a prophet to receive blessing from God. But is it the task of a prophet to confer the blessing of baptism on God? It is the task of a prophet to speak of Christ before his time. But is it the task of a prophet to stand face to face with Christ and point him out with his finger? It is the task of a prophet to give prophecies about God. But is it the task of a prophet that God should make prophecies about the prophet himself, as when he says, Behold, I send my messenger before your face?^[1]

This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face.’^[2] He now begins to tell the reasons why the blessed John was more than a prophet—from such a One John did deserve praise. Now John had borne witness to Christ, Behold, the Lamb of God.^[3] But he received more from Christ than he gave. For when John glorified Christ, he conferred human praise on him; but Christ conferred divine glory on John. For John spoke of Christ as a Lamb, but when Christ foretold John he spoke of him as an angel. And John did not praise Christ in full measure, for Christ not only took away the sin of the world but also granted eternal life to the world. But Christ exalted John higher than he appeared; John was a man, but Christ called him an angel.

John is greater than the other prophets for this reason: the other prophets predicted to John that someone was to come, but John pointed out with his finger that he had indeed come, saying, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.^[1] And he reached not only the rank of a prophet but even to that of Baptist, by baptizing his Lord. This heightened his significance. He thereby fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi in which an angel is foretold.^[2] John belonged to the order of the angels not by nature but by the importance of his task. It means he was the messenger who would announce the coming of the Lord.

But suppose someone might say, What if John had one opinion earlier but later changed his mind? This is why Jesus spoke further about his garments, his imprisonment and his role in prophecy. Having said that he is greater than a prophet, Jesus signifies also in what way he is greater. And in what is he greater? In being so very near the One who was to come. For behold, I send, he says, my messenger before your face, which means in proximity to Messiah. For as with kings, those who ride near the chariot are more illustrious than the rest, just so John also appears in his course near the advent itself.

Listen now and learn the real meaning of this. If it is not too bold to say so, I believe that insofar as John was a man and yet was called an angel because of his strength and his merit, he was more glorious than if he had been an angel both in name and nature. If an angel is called an angel, that is not so much a tribute to his merit as merely fitting to his nature. A man is miraculous, however, if with his human nature he passes into angelic holiness and attains by the grace of God what is not his by nature.

It is one thing to be generically the son of a woman, another thing to be [in Paul’s sense] a man born of woman.^[1] A man such as John who is the son of a woman was born in a woman and had his origin in the woman and did not exist prior to the woman. But the unique man born of woman is not necessarily born initially in the woman. Christ, as we know, was a man born of woman, but as to what is being said here, John—the man spoken of—is the son of a woman. Christ was born of woman and yet existed prior to the woman. Therefore every son of a woman is born of a woman, but not every man born of a woman is the son of a woman. And thus Paul did not say that Jesus was among the sons of women because that would mix him in with the generic category of all sons.

Moreover, the Scripture does not say that John was greater than the other saints but that no one greater than John has arisen. The text makes him equal to the others, not superior. However, righteousness is so deep that no one can be perfect in it except God alone. I think that in God’s own keen judgment, each of the saints may be viewed individually as greater or lesser. From this we conclude that if no one is greater than John, he is therefore greater than them all.

If John is being judged against other people according to being born from a woman, he will be found to be the greatest of them all. He alone was filled with the Holy Spirit inside his mother’s womb, so that he leaped,^[1] and his mother prophesied because she partook in this as well. But if John is judged in relation to those who are to partake of the Spirit in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, he will be found to be least. Thus Jesus says that John by no means partakes of such great grace as those who will be reborn into immortality after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and that John will experience physical death. At that time, however, the Spirit’s abundance toward people will be so great that no one who has partaken of even the least part of it can afterward fall into death.

Yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now, many would like to interpret this with reference to the Savior, as meaning that the one lesser in age is the greater in worth. However, let us interpret it simply to mean that every saint who is already with God is greater than anyone who remains expectant, as yet in the battle. For it is one thing to possess the crown of victory, another to be still fighting in the ranks. Some conclude that the very newest angel who serves God in heaven is greater than any one, even the best, who dwells on the earth still in expectation.

The kingdom of heaven is Jesus the Christ himself, who exhorts all people to repentance and draws them to himself by love.

What violence? People did not believe in John the Baptist. The works of Christ were held to be of no importance. His torment on the cross was a stumbling block. Until now prophecy has been dormant. But now the law is fulfilled. Every prediction is finished. The spirit of Elijah is sent in advance through John’s words. Christ is proclaimed to some and acknowledged by others. He is born for some and loved by others. The violent irony is that his own people rejected him, while strangers accepted him. His own people speak ill of him, while his enemies embrace him. The act of adoption offers an inheritance, while the family rejects it. Sons refuse to accept their father’s last will, while the slaves of the household receive it. This is what is meant by the phrase the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Earlier expectations are being torn apart. The glory that was pledged to Israel by the patriarchs, which was announced by the prophets and which was offered by Christ, is now being seized and carried off by the Gentiles, through their faith.

The days of John and of Jesus are understood not in reference to time but in reference to the state of the soul of the hearer of the divine Scripture. And the word now marks out clearly the days of Jesus, which the psalm points to in this way: In his days righteousness shall arise, and there will be an abundance of peace till the time when he is taken away.^[1] One who has been previously taught comes to the beginning of Jesus’ discourses and still makes progress in introductory things by way of that road that appears to be rugged and steep. One thereby takes by force the kingdom of heaven, which suffers violence. The expression suffers violence is not to be taken in an active sense but a passive, as if to say it has been taken.^[2] But if the perfect Word, when he receives someone who was awaiting freedom under the law and prophetic schoolmasters and housekeepers, bestows on such a one his father’s inheritance freely, then fittingly it is said that all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

This should not exclude the prophets who came after John the Baptist, for we read in the Acts of the Apostles that Agabus and Philip’s four young unmarried daughters uttered prophecies.^[1] But insofar as the law and prophets of the Scriptures looked toward the future, they prophesied about our Lord. So when it is written, All the prophets and the law up to the time of John have prophesied,^[2] the time of Christ is made known as those previous voices had said it would come. Then John showed he had come.

He called John Elijah because of Elijah’s power and spirit. And since this statement of Jesus was obscure, he left the understanding of it for those capable of perceiving its meaning. But the angel Gabriel also said this about John: And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah,^[1] showing that he was the same as Elijah, even if, as a visible human being, he was other than Elijah.

Jesus is in effect saying: Just as Elijah will come toward the end of this present age preaching about my imminent appearance from heaven, in the same way this one^[1] has spread the good news of my coming,^[2] bringing an end to the old things.^[3] My coming is something new, a type of the state of things that is about to occur.

So John the Baptist is called Elijah, not in accordance with foolish philosophers and certain heretics who introduce the topic of metempsychosis (transmigration of souls)^[1] but because, according to other evidence of the gospel, he came in the spirit and goodness of Elijah and had either the same grace or power of the Holy Spirit. The austerity of their life and firm resolve were equally strong in Elijah and in John. Both lived in the desert. The former girded himself with a belt of skins, and the latter had a similar belt. The former was forced to flee because he accused Ahab and Jezebel of the sin of impiety in their lives. John was beheaded because he accused Herod and Herodias of unlawful marriage. There are those who think therefore that John is called Elijah because, just as Elijah would lead the way in the second coming of our Savior (according to Malachi) and would announce that the Judge was coming, so John acted at the first coming and because each was a messenger either of the first or second coming of our Lord.

Jesus did not stop even at this praise of John but said, He is Elijah who is to come. Then he added, to underscore the need for deeper understanding, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus said this to stir them up to inquire further. By this they were awakened so that everything might be plain and clear. Thus no one could claim that Jesus was unapproachable or that they did not dare ask him questions. For they were asking all sorts of questions and testing him in many small matters. Even when their mouths were stopped a thousand times, they did not turn away from him. For if they did not hesitate to inquire of him about these common things, they surely would be inquiring about indispensable things in whatever way they wanted to learn. In this way he himself was encouraging them and drawing them on to ask such questions.

The comparison of children sitting in the marketplace, shouting and saying to their peers, We sang for you and you did not dance, we lamented and you did not mourn is made with that generation of Jews in mind. Recall the Scripture that says, To what will I compare this generation? It is like the children sitting in the marketplace, and the rest. We are not offered a complete understanding or a shared interpretation of allegory. But whatever we say about children should be related to their comparison with this generation. Those children who are sitting in the marketplace are the ones of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks: Behold, I and my children, whom God has given me.^[1] And also the psalm: The testimony of God is faithful, giving wisdom to children.^[2] And elsewhere: Out of the mouth of babies and sucklings you have achieved glory.^[3] So those children sat in the marketplace or in the agora, which is described in Greek more plainly as where there are many items for sale. Because the Jews did not want to listen, the children not only spoke but shouted to them, at the top of their voices: We sang to you, and you did not dance. We challenged you to do good deeds at the sound of our song and to dance to our flute, just as David danced before the ark of the Lord, and you did not want to. We lamented and we challenged you to seek repentance, and you did not want to do even this, rejecting both proclamations, which were an exhortation as much to goodness as to repentance after committing a sin. It is no wonder you have despised the dual path to salvation since you scorned poverty and wealth alike. If you are pleased with poverty, why did John displease you? If wealth pleases you, why did the Son of Man displease you? You called one of these a man with a demon, the other a glutton and a drunkard. Therefore, because you did not want to accept either teaching, wisdom has been vindicated by her children, that is, the direction and teaching of God. I, who am the glory of God and the wisdom of God, have been acknowledged to have acted justly by my sons, the apostles, to whom my Father unveiled what he had hidden from wise, experienced people.

When some children are dancing and others are singing a dirge, their purpose does not agree. Both sides find fault with their friends for not being in harmony with them. So the Jews underwent such an experience when they accepted neither the gloominess of John the Baptist nor the freedom of Christ. They did not receive help one way or another. It was fitting for John as a lowly servant to deaden the passions of the body through very hardy training, and for Christ by the power of his Godhead freely to mortify the sensations of the body and the innate practice of the flesh, and to do so without reliance on strenuous ascetic labors. Nevertheless John, while he was preaching the baptism of repentance,^[1] offered himself as a model for those who were obliged to lament, whereas the Lord who was preaching the kingdom of heaven^[2] similarly displayed radiant freedom in himself. In this way Jesus outlined for the faithful indescribable joy and an untroubled life. The sweetness of the kingdom of heaven is like a flute. The pain of Gehenna is like a dirge.

Wisdom has been vindicated by her children.^[1] Those who resist the kingdom of heaven tear apart heaven itself in attempting to justify themselves. The action of Wisdom is just, because she has transferred her gift from the obstinate and faithless to the faithful and obedient covenant people. However, it is useful in this place to consider carefully the virtue of the remark Wisdom has been proved right by her actions, which Jesus certainly said about himself. For Jesus is Wisdom itself not because of his acts of power but by his very nature.^[2] Everything has capability, but capability is demonstrated in actions. Thus an act of goodness is not the same as goodness itself, just as an effect is distinguishable from its cause.

Those who were looking for the truth, he says, accepted the leadership of John and of Christ. It changed their lives. They managed this wisdom for the benefit of those who were searching. He calls the things that have happened wisely, wisdom. The Jews did not believe in Christ, either through the fasting and ascetic life of John or through the submissive mode of life and providential citizenship of Christ the Lord himself. Still, he who fulfilled everything wisely by neglecting none of those things that contributed to their profit and salvation was judged harshly by them. And no longer hereafter could they accuse him, because Jesus fulfilled all his promises and did not leave behind for them a shadow either of unkindness or of ingratitude.

Christ himself was judged by those who believed in him to be the living, foundational wisdom, who managed everything justly. Although he was treated spitefully by the unbelieving Jews, he did not stop speaking kindly to the Jews and calling them to be his children.

And [Jn 1:21] they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” No one can fail to remember in this connection what Jesus says of John [Mt 11:14], “If you will receive it, this is Elijah which is to come.” Why, then, does John say to those who ask him, “Are you Elijah?” “I am not.” And how can it be also true that John is Elijah who is to come, according to the words of Malachi [Mal 4:5–6], “And behold I send unto you Elijah the Tishbite, before the great and notable day of the Lord come, who shall restore the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor, lest I come, and utterly smite the earth.” The words of the angel of the Lord, too, who appeared to Zacharias, as he stood at the right hand of the altar of incense, are similar to the prophecy of Malachi: “And [Lk 1:13] your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” And a little further on: “And he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.” [Lk 1:17] As for the first point, one might say that John did not know that he was Elijah. This will be the explanation chosen by those who find in our passage support for their doctrine of transcorporation, as if the soul clothed itself in a fresh body and did not remember its former lives. These thinkers will also point out that some of the Jews assented to this doctrine when they spoke about the Savior as if he were one of the old prophets, and had risen not from the tomb but from his birth. His mother Mary was well known, and Joseph the carpenter was supposed to be his father, and it could readily be supposed that he was one of the old prophets risen from the dead. The same person will offer the text in Genesis, “I will destroy the whole resurrection,” and will thereby reduce those who find in Scripture solutions of false probabilities a great difficulty in respect of this doctrine. Another, however, a churchman, who repudiates the doctrine of transcorporation as a false one, and does not admit that the soul of John ever was Elijah, may appeal to the words of the angel, and point out that it is not the soul of Elijah that is spoken of at John’s birth, but the spirit and power of Elijah.

Someone might say, however, that Herod and some of those of the people held the false dogma of the transmigration of souls into bodies, so that they thought that the former John had appeared again by a fresh birth, and had come from the dead into life as Jesus. But the time between the birth of John and the birth of Jesus, which was not more than six months, does not permit this false opinion to be believed. And perhaps some idea like this was in the mind of Herod, that the powers that worked in John had passed over to Jesus, in consequence of which he was thought by the people to be John the Baptist. And one might use the following argument: Just as because of the spirit and the power of Elijah, and not because of his soul, it is said about John, “This is Elijah who is to come” [Mt 11:14] . . . so Herod thought that the powers in John’s case caused in him works of baptism and teaching—for John did not do one miracle [Jn 10:41]—but in Jesus [they caused] miraculous portents.

Now the Canaanite woman, having come, worshipped Jesus as God, saying, “Lord, help me,” but he answered and said, “It is not possible to take the children’s bread and cast it to the little dogs.” . . . [O]thers, then, who are strangers to the doctrine of the Church, assume that souls pass from the bodies of men into the bodies of dogs, according to their varying degree of wickedness; but we . . . do not find this at all in the divine Scripture.

In this place [when Jesus said Elijah had come and referred to John the Baptist] it does not appear to me that by Elijah the soul is spoken of, lest I fall into the doctrine of transmigration, which is foreign to the Church of God, and not handed down by the apostles, nor anywhere set forth in the Scriptures.

Our Savior laments Chorazin and Bethsaida, cities of Galilee, because after such great miracles and acts of goodness they did not repent. Even Tyre and Sidon, cities that surrendered to idolatry and other vices, are preferred to them. Tyre and Sidon are preferred for the reason that although they trampled down the law, still Chorazin and Bethsaida, after they transgressed natural and written law, cared little for the miracles that were performed among them. If we ask where it is written that our Lord performed miracles in Chorazin and Bethsaida, we read above: And he went around to all the towns and villages, curing every infirmity and the rest. Thus among the other towns and villages it must be judged that the Lord performed miracles in Chorazin and Bethsaida as well.

This means one of two things. You will sink to hell for the reason that you most arrogantly opposed my prophecy. Or, although you have received so much privilege in being raised to heaven by my kind generosity, by my miracles and by my acts of goodness, even then you will be battered by a greater punishment because you did not care to believe them.

Many were the miracles Jesus performed in the city of Capernaum. For this reason it was all the more necessary that those who dwelled there should believe. This city was for a time lifted up unto heaven on account of the miracles. But on account of the sin and unbelief of its inhabitants, an even more dreadful fall occurred, and they were brought down to Hades. Christ was the steward. When the time was right, the Word became incarnate and performed miracles. He chastised Gentiles and Jews proportionately. Tyre and Sidon transgressed only natural law, but the Jews, who disobeyed Christ, transgressed the law of Moses and the prophets. Jesus said this even more sternly when he wished to point out that their wickedness was greater by comparison. For, if not these things, then other things might have happened in Tyre and Sidon, and even in Sodom and Gomorrah, if they had come to repentance. But, as I said, he presents this comparison in order more forcefully to demonstrate their wickedness.

The curse of disobedience is distinguished from the blessing of obedience. It was necessary for the Jews to be admonished. The ill will of their faithlessness is highlighted by the extraordinary grace of his works there. The Jews were censured by the example of the faithful, to whom salvation came entirely from faith. But these cities displayed no change whatever at Jesus’ actions.

At Bethsaida and Capernaum the mute praised the Lord with their voices, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame ran about, and the dead came alive, yet astonishment at such great miracles did not produce any disposition for faith. Hearing about the deeds alone ought to have called them to awe and to faith. Yet this unresponsiveness is found not only in the small sins of Tyre and Sidon but also with the great sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. The desire for belief would perhaps have come closer to them if these remarkable acts of virtue had really touched them.

The wise reader may inquire and say, If Tyre, Sidon and Sodom could repent at the admonishment of our Savior and at his wonderful miracles, they are not to blame because they did not at first believe. But the fault of silence rests in the one who did not want to preach even to those who were likely to repent.

To this charge the response is easy and clear: We do not fathom the decisions of God. We do not know the secrets of his singular acts of dispensation. . . . Chorazin and Bethsaida were condemned because they did not want to believe in our Lord even when he was with them in person. Meanwhile Tyre and Sidon were pardoned because they believed the apostles. So do not try to fathom the precise time or place when you may expect the salvation of the believers. It was unexpectedly in Capernaum, a very beautiful town, that unbelieving Jerusalem was condemned. To this city there was an ironic reply in Ezekiel: Sodom has been vindicated on account of you.^[1]

It is not for nothing that Jesus mentions Sodom along with the others. He does this to heighten the charge against these cities. This stood as proof of their very great recalcitrance. For they were found to be as bad not only as other cities that currently existed but also as bad as any that ever existed! Thus elsewhere Jesus also makes incriminating comparisons, censuring them by the Ninevites and the queen of the south. In those cases, however, the comparison was with those who did seek to do right, and in these cases with those who had grossly ignored God’s coming. Ezekiel anticipated this intensity of expression when he condemned Jerusalem: You have justified your sisters in all your sins.^[1] These were cities where Jesus was prone to linger as a favored place. And not even at this does he hold back his speech. He makes their dread even more intense by saying that they would suffer things more grievous than Sodom and Tyre. Jesus alarmed them when he used every possible means to reclaim them to repentance.

Jesus praises and glorifies the Father, who had foreseen the entire trajectory of the Word first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Our Lord here gives thanks to his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, for his mission in becoming incarnate in the form of a servant. He speaks about the Father’s good pleasure now to hide this mystery about himself from Israel, which might be expected to be wise, and to reveal it to the Gentiles, who were until now without understanding. It is thereby demonstrated that God did not forget to fulfill his purpose, nor did Christ’s coming fail in its appointed end. These things indeed have happened, God knowing them beforehand and having commanded beforehand the repentance of grace. The justice of God’s good pleasure is here passed over in silence, but elsewhere it is clearly displayed. God’s good will is not irrational. People do not fail to attain knowledge and wisdom about it for any reason other than their own deficiencies.

Jesus says, My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Father of him through whom all things were made. Surely all creation is embraced by these two nouns heaven and earth. Therefore the first book of God’s Scripture says, In the beginning God made heaven and earth.^[1] And my help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.^[2] By the name of heaven is understood whatever is in heaven, and by the name of earth is understood whatever is on earth. Thus, by mentioning these two parts of creation no aspect of creation is overlooked, since the created object is either here or there. Moreover, when the Son speaks to his Father his confession, Jesus admonishes us that confession is owed to God not for our sins alone. For very often when it is heard in the Scriptures, You shall confess to the Lord, many who hear this beat their breasts in remorse. They do not recall that the term confession means anything else except their accustomed use when they show repentance, confessing their sins and awaiting their just deserts from God, not because they deserve to suffer but because God deems it worthy to act mercifully. But if there were not confession in the act of praise, Jesus would not say, I confess to you, Father, since he had no sin to confess. It is said in another book of the Scripture: You shall confess to the Lord and say in your confession that all the works of the Lord are very good. This is certainly a confession of praise and not of fault.

He employs the phrase I confess you in accordance with human custom. Instead of saying I acknowledge you, he brings in the phrase I glorify you.^[1] For it is customary in the divinely inspired Scripture for the word confession to be taken in some such a sense. It is written, Let the people give thanks, Lord, to your great name, because it is formidable and holy.^[2] And again, I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart.^[3]

But those who are perverted in mind say, Look here, if he renders thanks to the Father, how then is he not less than the Father? To this objection one who knows how to guard the doctrines of truth might say, My good man, what prevents the consubstantial Son from accepting and praising his own Father, who through him saves what is under heaven? If you believe because of this confession that he is in a lesser position than the Father, look also at what comes next. Jesus acknowledges and calls his Father Lord of heaven and earth. For he confesses him as ‘Lord of heaven and earth’ and at the same time he calls upon him as ‘Father.’ But the Son of God who is ruler of all is in every way with him the Lord and Master of all, not as one worse or differing in substance, but as God from God. He is crowned with equal renown, having substantially with him equality in everything whatsoever.

Jesus called the Jews wise, either because they were entrusted with the oracles of God or because they were evildoers and wise at doing evil, but he called the apostles children. He called the scribes and Pharisees wise, though they did not really possess wisdom but only what appeared to be wisdom because of their cleverness with words. He called the fishermen, who were unskilled in evil, children. In this way, the grace of God was clearly manifested as Jesus made himself known to simple men. . . . And even if it was Christ himself who, for the most part, did these things, nevertheless, by giving thanks for them as things done by the Father, he shows that they share a common will and gives thanks for God’s love for us in the things by which we have received benefit.

And he revealed these things to children. To which children? Not those who are children in age but to those who are children in respect to sin and wickedness. To them Jesus revealed how to seek the blessings of paradise and the things to come in the kingdom of heaven, because thus it was well pleasing before God that they should come from the east and the west and that they should lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but that the sons of this worldly kingdom should be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^[1]

He does not say why it was thus pleasing to him but only gives thanks to the Father, because it was thus pleasing to him. So also you should never discuss God’s designs, what he did in his works or why he did so. But in whatever way God so wished to arrange his own creation, let thanksgiving be sufficient for you as evidence in regard to the very nature of God. God does nothing without reason and justice. He created you not for his own examination but for his own honor. God did not want you to be a judge of his own actions but a servant of his commands. It is characteristic of a good master to foresee everything that concerns the benefit of the servant. Moreover, it is characteristic of a good servant to work faithfully and not to discuss the master’s actions.

The Father entrusts. The Son receives. What is entrusted? All things have been entrusted to the Son, but this does not mean cosmically heaven and earth and the elements and the rest of nature which God himself made and established. Rather, it refers personally to the people who have access to the Father through the Son and who were formerly rebellious but afterward began to know God.

So that it might not be supposed that anything in him is less than what is in God,^[1] Jesus said that everything was entrusted to him by his Father, that he alone was known to his Father and that his Father was known to him alone or to one to whom he himself had wished to reveal his Father. By this revelation Jesus showed that the same essence of both Father and Son existed in their knowledge of each other. One who could know the Son would also know the Father in his Son, because everything was handed down to him from the Father. Moreover, nothing else was handed down than what was known to the Father in the Son alone, but the things that belonged to the Father were known to be revealed in the Son alone. Thus in this mystery of mutual knowledge it is understood that nothing else existed in the Son than what was known to be in the Father.

This may seem to the uninitiated quite disconnected with the passage that went before, but the two stand in full accord. Having said all things have been delivered to me by my Father, he adds, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. In this he is quietly signifying his great privilege of knowing the Father and being of the same substance with him, he being the only One who knows the Father so intimately. . . .

Note the timing and context in which he said this. It was just after he had worked miracles and the disciples of John had received proofs of his might by his works. He then thanks the Father that that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes.

The one who sees the Son, who has the image of the Father in himself, sees the Father himself. . . . These things are to be understood in a manner befitting to God. He said, Everything has been handed down to me so that he might not seem to be a member of a different species or inferior to the Father. Jesus added this in order to show that his nature is ineffable and inconceivable, like the Father’s. For only the divine nature of the Trinity comprehends itself. Only the Father knows his own Son, the fruit of his own substance. Only the divine Son recognizes the One by whom he has been begotten. Only the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God, the thought of the Father and the Son.

You are to take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.^[1] You are not learning from me how to refashion the fabric of the world, nor to create all things visible and invisible, nor to work miracles and raise the dead. Rather, you are simply learning of me: that I am meek and lowly in heart. If you wish to reach high, then begin at the lowest level. If you are trying to construct some mighty edifice in height, you will begin with the lowest foundation. This is humility. However great the mass of the building you may wish to design or erect, the taller the building is to be, the deeper you will dig the foundation. The building in the course of its erection rises up high, but he who digs its foundation must first go down very low. So then, you see even a building is low before it is high and the tower is raised only after humiliation.

Stand apart from the inclination to love sin and to love the flesh. Turn to deeds worthy of praise. Draw near to me, so that you may become sharers of the divine nature and partakers of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called everyone, not only the people of Israel. As the Maker and Lord of all, he spoke to the weary Jews who did not have the strength to bear the yoke of the law. He spoke to idolaters heavy laden and oppressed by the devil and weighed down by the multitude of their sins. To Jews he said, Obtain the profit of my coming to you. Bow down to the truth. Acknowledge your Advocate and Lord. I set you free from bondage under the law, bondage in which you endured a great deal of toil and hardship, unable to accomplish it easily and accumulating for yourselves a very great burden of sins.

If the yoke is easy and the burden light, why did he call the way narrow? It is narrow to the careless, for to the zealous the Lord’s tasks are light. For even if they involve bodily suffering for a little while, yet the one who is now nourished with good hopes is the devout one who easily bears these pains.

How is it then that he himself demands a high degree of strictness? He answers, You have not yet had experience of things that are mine, and for this reason you think this way. But if you would take up my yoke and would believe in those things I give, you would find the greatest difference between the things that are from me and those that are from Moses. From me there is great, patient endurance and kindness. Seeing such a weight of sins—murders and self-love and things more unnamable than these—I am longsuffering and bear with those who do these things, not despising them but waiting for them to repent. If ever they should repent and change their ways, I immediately forgive them, not remembering their former acts. But the law of Moses is not like this. When you sin, it immediately punishes the sinner. It knows no repentance. It promises no remission. When I make demands about the covenant, I am not so much preoccupied with investigating the things that happened. For me, it is enough that a soul choose what is good with a genuine resolution. But the law goes overboard, both adding more punishments to the smaller ones and cursing the transgressors. Therefore my yoke is good on account of forgiveness, and my burden is light because it is not a collection of customs and various observances but decisions of the soul.

Therefore let everyone who wants life and desires to see good days put down the yoke of iniquity and malice. The prophet says, Let us burst their bonds and thrust their yoke from us.^[1] For unless one throws behind the yoke of iniquity, that is, the spark of all vices, one cannot take up the agreeable and light yoke of Christ. But if the yoke of Christ is so agreeable and light, how is it that divine religion seems so harsh and bitter to some people? It is bitter to some because the heart that has been tainted by earthly desires cannot love heavenly things. It has not yet come to Christ, so that it can take up his yoke and learn that he is gentle and humble of heart. Hence we observe, my dearest friends, from the teaching of our Lord, that unless a person is gentle and humble of heart, he or she cannot bear the yoke of Christ.

My yoke is easy and my burden light.. . . The prophet says this about the burden of sinners: Because my iniquities lie on top of my head, so they have also placed a heavy burden on me.^[1]. . . Place my yoke upon you, and learn from me that I am gentle and humble of heart. Oh, what a very pleasing weight that strengthens even more those who carry it! For the weight of earthly masters gradually destroys the strength of their servants, but the weight of Christ rather helps the one who bears it, because we do not bear grace; grace bears us. It is not for us to help grace, but rather grace has been given to aid us.