We must seek for reasons for individual sayings and actions of the Lord. After the coin was found, after the tribute paid, what do the apostles’ sudden questions mean? Why precisely at that time did the disciples come to Jesus saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Because they had seen that the same tax had been paid for both Peter and the Lord. From the equal price they inferred that Peter may have been set over all the other apostles, since Peter had been compared with the Lord in the paying of the tax. So they ask who is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, seeing their thoughts and understanding the causes of their error, wants to heal their desire for glory with a struggle for humility.

The disciples experienced some human weakness; therefore the Evangelist also shows this, adding in that hour, when he honored Peter more than all others. For though Peter was a firstborn son along with James and John, he did nothing similar for them. Then being ashamed to admit what they felt, they did not openly say, Why have you honored Peter above us? or Surely he is not greater than us? When they became ashamed, they asked less definitely, Who then is greater? When they had seen the three honored above the rest, they had felt nothing of the kind. But when one took the highest honor, then they were hurt. Apparently it was not for this alone but piling up many feelings they became incensed. For Jesus had said to Peter, I will give you the keys,^[1] and You are blessed, Simon Bar-Jonah,^[2] and to Peter here he instructed, Give it to them for me and for yourself. And seeing the great freedom allowed him elsewhere they were upset.

He called a child to him to ask its age or to show the image of innocence. Or perhaps he actually set a child in their midst—he himself, who had not come to be served but to serve—to show them an example of humility.

Beside this obvious explanation^[1] let another be given as well. As an act of theological and ethical reflection, let us ask what sort of a child Jesus called to him and has set in the midst of the disciples. Think of it this way: The child called by Jesus is the Holy Spirit, who humbled himself. He was called by the Savior and set in the middle of the disciples of Jesus. The Lord wants us, ignoring all the rest, to turn to the examples given by the Holy Spirit, so that we become like the children—that is, the disciples—who were themselves converted and made like the Holy Spirit. God gave these children to the Savior according to what we read in Isaiah: Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me.^[2] To enter the kingdom of heaven is not possible for the person who has not turned from worldly matters and become like those children who had the Holy Spirit. Jesus called this Holy Spirit to him like a child, when he came down from his perfect completeness to people, and set it in the middle of the disciples.

The Lord teaches that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless we revert to the nature of children, that is, we must recall into the simplicity of children the vices of the body and mind. He has called children all who believe through the faith of listening. For children follow their father, love their mother, do not know how to wish ill on their neighbor, show no concern for wealth, are not proud, do not hate, do not lie, believe what has been said and hold what they hear as truth. And when we assume this habit and will in all the emotions, we are shown the passageway to the heavens. We must therefore return to the simplicity of children, because with it we shall embrace the beauty of the Lord’s humility.

Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Just as this child whose example I show you does not persist in anger, does not long remember injury suffered, is not enamored inordinately by the sight of a beautiful woman, does not think one thing and say another, so you too, unless you have similar innocence and purity of mind, will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Or it might be taken in another way: Whosoever therefore humiliates himself like this child is greater in the kingdom of heaven, so as to imply that anyone who imitates me and humiliates himself following my example, so that he abases himself as much as I abased myself in accepting the form of a servant, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Whoever lives so as to imitate Christ’s humility and innocence, in him Christ is taken up. And he is careful to add—so that when the apostles heard of it, they would not think that they had been honored—that they would not be taken up for their merit but for the honor of the master.

Here the Lord not only repressed the apostles’ thoughts but also checked the ambition of believers throughout the whole world, so that he might be great who wanted to be least. For with this purpose Jesus used the example of the child, that what he had been through his nature, we through our holy living might become—innocent, like children innocent of every sin. For a child does not know how to hold resentment or to grow angry. He does not know how to repay evil for evil. He does not think base thoughts. He does not commit adultery or arson or murder. He is utterly ignorant of theft or brawling or all the things that will draw him to sin. He does not know how to disparage, how to blaspheme, how to hurt, how to lie. He believes what he hears. What he is ordered he does not analyze. He loves his parents with full affection. Therefore what children are in their simplicity, let us become through a holy way of life, as children innocent of sin. And quite rightly, one who has become a child innocent of sin in this way is greater in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives such a person will receive Christ.

These important items of comparison are not idle. Such an offender is to be sunk in the sea with both a millstone^[1] and an asses’ pack load,^[2] and even this is better^[3] for him! What is better in the accepted sense of the word is always beneficial. What then is the utility of being sunk with an asses’ millstone hung around one’s neck? So harsh a death will profit him in terms of future punishment. In some way it will be beneficial to meet that death which is the ultimate of evils.

But how should we understand this spiritually? That is the deeper question. The millstone stands for blind toil, for pack animals are driven around in a circle with their eyes closed. And we frequently find the Gentiles referred to under the name ass. The Gentiles do not know what they do. They are in ignorance, and their life’s work is like blind labor. Not so the Jews. For them the path of knowledge has been set forth in the law. Insofar as they gave offence to Christ’s apostles, it was more just for them to be sunk in the sea with an asses’ millstone tied to their neck.

This can be viewed as a general sentence against all who raise a stumbling block. Yet according to the context of the discourse, it can also be understood as spoken against the apostles. In asking who was greater in the kingdom of heaven, they seemed to have just previously been contending among themselves for honor. If they persisted in this misbehavior they could lose those whom they were calling to the faith, if they should see the apostles fighting among themselves for honor.

But when Jesus said, It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck, he is following the rite of the province and telling how among ancient Jews this was the punishment for major crimes, that they be sunk in the deep with a rock attached to them. It is better for him, because it is much better to receive a short, quick punishment for one’s sin than to be reserved for eternal tortures. For the Lord will not punish the same fault twice.

Jesus pronounced woe for temptations to sin on people scattered throughout the whole world who are subject to temptations. But the disciples, who do not contemplate the things that are seen, are not of the world. Neither is their Master of the world. Therefore the woe for temptations to sin does not apply to Jesus’ faithful disciples. Rather, great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.^[1] But there are some who appear to be disciples yet are still of the world. They love the world, and they love inordinately what is in it. They love the life that is led in these earthly places or the money which is in them, or the possessions or any resources whatsoever. The words they are not of the world do not apply to them. But woe for temptations to sin will apply to them since they are indeed of the world.

Perhaps one of our adversaries may think, If it is necessary that temptations come, why does he call woe down on the world when he ought to help it and offer a hand? For this is the task of the physician and the protector. Cursing the world is what the man in the street does. So what are we to reply to this shameless questioner? What equal of this therapy do you seek? For though he is God, he was made man for you, took on the form of a servant, suffered all the harshest treatment and still did not fail in anything that was assigned him. But because nothing further happened among ungrateful people, for this reason he calls woe down on them, because after so much fostering care they continued in their unsoundness. It is just as if some sick man were enjoying fine care but refused to follow his physician’s regimen. Suppose someone lamented the patient, saying, Woe to that man for his sickness, which he has increased by his own laxity! But in that case no benefit comes from the lament. Here, however, there is also a kind of therapy, in that Jesus foretells what will happen and laments it.

Of what world are we speaking when we say Woe to the world for temptations to sin? We speak of that world of which it is said, And the world knew him not.^[1] We are not speaking of that world of which it is said, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.^[2] There is an evil world, and there is a good world. In the evil world are all the evil ones of this world. In the good world are all the good ones of this world. We often hear it said of a field: his field is full. Of what? Of wheat. Yet we say also, and say truly too, his field is full of chaff. So with a tree, one says that it is full of fruit while another says it is full of leaves. Both speak truly. The supply of leaves has not usurped the place of the fruit, nor has the supply of fruit driven out the mass of leaves. The tree is full of both. But one thing is plucked by the wind; the other is picked by the harvester. So therefore when you hear, Woe unto the world because of offenses, do not be afraid. Love the law of God, and you will have no temptation to sin.

He is not saying this about human limbs. Far from it. This is said about friends, about relatives, whom we regard in the rank of necessary limbs. Jesus also said this earlier,^[1] and now he says it again. For nothing is so harmful as bad company.

For what relationship cannot do, often friendship can do, both for harm and for benefit. So he orders us with great emphasis to cut off those who are harmful to us, implying that these are people who supply temptations to sin.

Do you see how he checks the future damage from temptations? First he predicts that they will happen, so that no one should be lazy, but everyone should be awake expecting them. Then he predicts that the evils will be very great. For Jesus did not simply say, Woe to the world for temptations to sin, but showed their great damage. For when he says, But woe to that man by whom temptation comes, he indicates a great punishment. He does not only mention this, but he increases the fear by adding a comparison.

And he supplies incontrovertible reasoning. If they remain your friends, you will not benefit them and you will destroy yourself. If you cut them off, at least you will preserve your own salvation.

Then, not content with this, he shows us the way by which we can escape temptations to sin. What is that? The wicked, he says, even if they are very friendly to you, cut them off from your friendship. Therefore if someone’s friendship harms you, cut him off from you. For if at times we cut off our limbs when they are incurable and are doing damage to our other members, how much more should we do this in the case of friends. If the limbs were evil by nature, all this advice and counsel would be useless; the warning of what is preached would be superfluous. If it is not superfluous, as in fact it is not, then it is clear that wickedness comes from the will.

If somebody, in the whole body of the congregations of the church, is industrious and handy for practical action and he changes and his hand causes him to sin, the eye should say to this hand, I have no need of you. And after it has said it, let him cut it off and throw it from him. All will still be well if his head is still blessed and his feet worthy of his blessed head, so that the head, doing its duty, may not be able to say to the feet, I have no need of you. But if some foot is found which is a temptation to sin for the whole body, the head should say to this foot, I have no need of you, and should cut it off and throw it away from him. It is far better for the rest of the body to go on into life lacking the foot or hand that offers temptation to sin than for the whole body to be exposed to temptation and to be sent into eternal fire with two whole feet or hands. Likewise it is good if what could be the eye of the whole body shows itself worthy of Christ and of the whole body. But if at some time it happens that this eye so changes that it becomes a temptation to sin for the whole body, it will be better for it to be ripped out and thrown from the whole body . . . than for the whole body together with the soul to be condemned.

This sentence of the Lord can faithfully be understood about any one of us. Yet in cutting off a hand or foot or in plucking out an eye, it is clear that family relations or unbelieving ministers and leaders of the church are signified.

And so by hand we understand that priests are signified; like a hand their work in every area is necessary to the body of the church, about whom we find it written in the Song of Solomon: his arms—that is, the body of the church—are rounded gold set with jewels.^[1] By foot we recognize that deacons are signified. In busying themselves with the sacred mysteries of the church they serve the body like feet, about which it is written in the same Song of Solomon: His legs are alabaster columns, set upon bases of gold.^[2] And so, if hands or feet of this sort, that is, any priest or deacon, either through heretical faith or through depraved living, has become a stumbling block to the church, the Lord orders that such a man be plucked from the body of the church and thrown out. The example of his life and heretical doctrine endangers all the body of the church, that is, the whole people, when it follows or imitates such doctrine.

But see, he says, that you do not at all despise those forced out of the church for wickedness.^[1] He does not want them to be cast out with any hatred or curse. But he spares those who are guilty of some damage or disorder and often hardened in their own depravity. It is as if it were possible to see even these change again for the better. By little ones he means those imperfect in their knowledge or those recently baptized. He does not want these to be looked down upon as ignorant in his teaching.

The bodies of people differ from each other in size, so that some are short, some are tall, and some are in between. Again the short are different in their shortness since they are more short or less short, and the same likewise of the tall, and again of those in between. So it is also in human souls, it seems to me: There is something which distinguishes their shortness, and again, so to speak, their tallness, and, again analogous to the bodily differences, their moderateness. But the bodily difference does not depend on the individuals themselves but on the nature of the seed. So this person becomes tall, that one short and another in between. But with our souls, our own agency that is our actions and our character causes one to be large or small or belonging to those in the middle. And it is in our power whether we grow in stature and receive an increase in size or do not grow and remain small. For we must believe that to attain to manhood and mature manhood at that^[1] depends on the person within: passing out of the times of childhood and advancing to manhood and putting aside the stuff of childhood and perfecting the stage of manhood. Just so we must suppose that there is still some measure of spiritual growth to which the most perfect soul can advance in glorifying the Lord and so become great.

And rightly the Lord has said, The Son of man has come to save what had perished,^[1] so that all the more he might show that not one of these little ones who believe in Christ should be despised. For their sake the Son of God came down from heaven and saved them by his Passion. It was for this that he took on the body of our human weakness, so that he might in every way save this one who had perished. For the elements of the world have kept the law given them by the Lord. Humanity alone has been found the transgressor. Alone we had fallen from immortality into death. And for this reason to save us the Son of God at a mature time descended from heaven according to the will of the Father. Hence, quite rightly Solomon speaks of a time of destroying and a time of saving.^[2] There was a time when the devil destroyed humankind. But again there came a time when the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, saved the human race for life.

Another may say that among these children little means perfect, recalling that the one who is less among you all is greater.^[1] Some may argue that the child shown by Jesus is the person who humbles himself and becomes a child among the whole mass of the faithful. This is so even if he is an apostle or bishop. He may become like a nurse taking care of her children.^[2] He is like an angel worthy of looking upon the face of God.

For just as the Lord commands that unbelieving and treacherous persons who are a stumbling block to the body of the church should be cut off or plucked out, so he also warns us not to despise any of the little children, that is, humble people in the laity who simply and faithfully believe in the Son of God. For it is not right to despise anyone who believes in Christ. A believer is called not only a servant of God but also a son though the grace of adoption, to whom the kingdom of heaven and the company of the angels is promised. And rightly the Lord adds, For I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. How much grace the Lord has toward each one believing in him he himself declares when he shows their angels always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven. Great is the grace of the angels toward all who believe in Christ. Finally, the angels carry their prayers to heaven. Hence the word of Raphael to Tobias: When you prayed along with your daughter-in-law Sara, I offered the memory of your prayer in the sight of God.^[1] Around them there is also the strong guard of the angels; they help each of us to be free from the traps of the enemy. For a human in his weakness could not be safe amid so many forceful attacks of that enemy if he were not strengthened by the help of the angels.

When he said, See that you do not despise one of these little ones, he is calling us to be merciful. Then he adds the parable of the ninety-nine sheep left in the mountains and the one stray that because of its great weakness could not walk. The good shepherd carried it on his shoulders to the rest of the flock. This, some say, is the shepherd who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.^[1] For that reason he descended to earth: to save the one sheep that had perished, that is, the human race. Others think that by the ninety-nine sheep should be understood the number of the righteous and by the one sheep the number of the sinners, according to what he said in another place: I have come not to call the righteous but the sinners; for it is not the healthy who have need of the physician but those who are ill.^[2]

Do you see in how many ways he leads us to care for our worthless brothers? Don’t therefore say, The fellow’s a smith, a cobbler, a farmer; he’s stupid, so that you despise him. In case you suffer the same, see in how many ways the Lord urges you to be moderate and enjoins you to care for these little ones. He placed a little child in the midst and said, Become like children, and, Whoever receives one such child, receives me. But whoever causes one of these to sin will suffer the worst fate. And he was not even satisfied with the example of the millstone, but he also added his curse and told us to cut off such people, even though they are like a hand or eye to us. And again, through the angels to whom these small brothers are handed over, he urges that we value them, as he has valued them through his own will and passion. When Jesus says, The Son of man came to save the lost,^[1] he points to the cross, just as Paul also says, writing about his brother for whom Christ died.^[2] It does not please the Father that anyone is lost. The shepherd leaves the ones that have been saved and seeks the one lost. And when he finds the one that has gone astray, he rejoices greatly at its discovery and at its safety.

For anyone who has sheep is a shepherd. No one is more truly a shepherd than Christ our God. One of his sheep has strayed. It is not the fault of the shepherd but of the sheep that had strayed from its flock. This one sheep is the man Adam, whom in the beginning the Lord had created in his image and likeness. This one strayed from the company of the angels by sinning, and through him the entire human race strayed from God. Our Lord seeks to recall all humanity from death to life. For it was for us that he went to death, so that he might make us alive, these who had died. For he rejoiced even more over the hundredth sheep that was lost than over the ninety and nine. The patriarch of a hundred years, Abraham, had faith in God, and from his faith was held righteous. He received back his one and only son Isaac. Thus Abraham was called, because of his faith, father of the nations. So he crossed from the left onto the right, the number one hundred being viewed as held on the right.^[1]

Therefore, beloved, the hundredth sheep is the congregation of the nations—but only those who believed and served the Lord in the same way as Abraham did, so that they merit to be placed on the right side. This is just as the Lord himself says: Then he will set up the sheep on the right but the goats on the left.^[2] The goats are in this case the unbelieving Jews or infidels and sinners. To those who will be on the left, the Lord will say, Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.^[3]

Thus God wills that not one of these little ones perish. But if your brother sins against you, rebuke him. The Lord commands us to rebuke the sinner until he is corrected. But if he cannot be corrected, he is to be considered as a heathen. For our Lord acted as he taught. In his own person he rebuked the people of the Jews straying in the desert. He rebuked them again and again through the law and the prophets. Finally, in his own person in the presence of all the congregation of the saints he chastised the Jewish people.

The sheep that became lost is the sinner lost from the flock of a hundred. This could refer to the number of the heavenly powers.^[1] These powers are capable of speech and reasoning. The one sheep is counted as being among the flock, a part of a great number, as if among a hundred sheep. His wandering is the consequence of Adam’s fall. He is searched for. He is of like nature to those who stay at God’s side. He is necessary for their full complement, so that the shepherd may not be deficient and wanting. The summing up of what Paul calls the whole in Christ^[2] involves the regaining of the deficient part, since the composition of the whole in Christ is not complete because of the deficient and absent one.