Chapter IV.
On the blessing of Judah, which pertains to Christ and his incarnation, passion, resurrection, and other mysteries.
And because through the mixture of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Levi, the Twelve Tribes were joined together, therefore Matthew describes his family from the tribe of Judah (Matt. 1:3). And the Apostle says: For it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah (Heb. 7:14). So that from the tribe of Levi the inheritance may be considered as priestly and full of holiness, and from the tribe of Judah, from which David and Solomon and the other kings were, the splendor of royal succession may shine forth, so that the same person may be shown by the testimony of the Scriptures to be both king and priest. And by this merit, Jacob poured forth a holy grace saying: Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall worship you. Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples, binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine. He washed his garment in wine, and his cloak in the blood of grapes. His eyes are brighter than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
Indeed, the speech seems to be directed towards Judah the patriarch, but that later Judas is depicted as the true confessor, who was born from that Tribe, who alone praises his brothers, of whom he says: I will tell your name to my brothers (Ps. 22:23). The Lord by nature, a brother by grace, whose hands he spread out to the unbelieving people, on the backs of his enemies. For with the same hands and the same passion he covered his own, and he subdued the opposing powers, and made all those devoid of faith and piety subject to him. From which the Father says to the Son: And you will rule in the midst of your enemies (Ps. 109:2): those enemies were made by their own malice, not by the will of Christ. In this is the great grace of the Lord. For indeed, the spiritual wickednesses which used to bend before our neck under the yoke of captivity, so that David himself somewhat felt the hands of the triumphant over him and wrote, saying: Sinners have built upon my back (Ps. 128:3), are now subjected to the triumph of Christ and to certain hands of his, that is, to his actions and works, and they undergo the perpetual hardship of captivity. Indeed, he himself who is worshiped by the sons of his father, when he is worshiped by us, to whom he has allowed us to call him Father, whose servant it is to be of virtue.
The Lion's Whelp of Judah. Did he not clearly express the Father and declare the Son? What evidence is there that the Son of God is of the same nature as the Father? That lion, this lion whelp. By a simple comparison, the unity of the same nature and power is understood. A king came forth from a king, strong from strong. Because he foresaw those who would assert that the Son was of younger age, he added this in response: From the offspring, my son, you have ascended. You were lying down as a lion and as a young cub. And elsewhere you have, because the young cub is the lion from the Tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). Therefore, because he had said young cub, he immediately added lion, that is to say: Do not let your ears be deceived, because they heard young cub, I have expressed the Son, I have not said lesser. And he himself is a lion like the father. Let them hear that he has called him both lion and young cub: lion as if of perfect and full strength, young cub as if the Son; so that no one, when hearing an equal to the Father, should not consider him the Son. The Son is not praised in such a way as to be separated from the Father. He who confesses the Son approves the equal.
Moreover, he wonderfully expressed his incarnation, saying: From the shoot, my son, you have ascended; in that he sprouted as a plant of the earth in the womb of the Virgin, and as a flower of sweet fragrance, he ascended for the redemption of the whole world, emitted by the maternal womb with the splendor of new light, just as Isaiah says: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots (Isaiah 11:1). The root of the family of the Jews is Mary, the branch is Mary, Christ is the flower of Mary. The rod, which is of royal lineage, rightly comes from the house and homeland of David, whose flower is Christ, who has abolished the stench of the worldly filth and has poured out the fragrance of eternal life.
Therefore, you have the incarnation, accept the passion: 'He slept as a lion,' he said, 'When he lay in the sepulcher, like a restful sleep of his own body, as he himself said: I slept, and took rest, and rose again; for the Lord has received me' (Ps. III, 6). Hence Jacob also said: Who will raise him up? that is, whom the Lord will receive. Who else will resurrect him, if not he himself by his own power and that of the Father? I see Him born of His own authority, I see Him dead of His own will, I see Him sleeping by His own power. He who has done all things by His own choice: by whose power will He need assistance to rise again? Therefore He is the author of His own resurrection, He who is the arbiter of death, He who is awaited by the nations.
And therefore, until he comes, there will not lack a leader from Judah, so that the faithful and uncorrupted succession of the royal line is maintained until his birth. Afterward, as we have taught in a treatise on the Gospel (Book III, on Luke), through Herod, the adulterated succession lost the prerogative of dignity. Indeed, because they denied the true king, they began to have false ones. Therefore, what the Patriarch says will be preserved in the judges or kings of the Jews, the uncorrupted inheritance derived through kings: until he comes to whom it is entrusted; so that he may gather the Church of God from the assembly of all nations, and with the devotion of the Gentiles and the piety of the peoples, that is, he remains, the duty is reserved for him, the prerogative of such great grace is conferred upon him.
And he himself is the expectation of the nations. He said more than if he had said, the nations are waiting for him, because all the hope of the Church rests in him. Therefore, it is said to Moses, 'Take off your sandals from your feet' (Exod. III, 5), so that it would not be believed that he himself is the spouse of the Church, who was chosen as the leader of the people. Therefore, Joshua also took off his sandals, (Joshua V, 16) so that he may also keep the grace of such a great gift for the one who was to come. Therefore, John said: 'After me comes a man who is preferred before me, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to unloose' (John I, 27). Therefore he says: 'He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly.' (John 3:29) That is, he alone is the husband of the Church, he is the expectation of the nations, offering to him the bond of nuptial grace, the prophets have loosed their sandals in his presence. He is the bridegroom, I am the friend of the bridegroom: I rejoice because he has come, because I hear the bridal voice, because no longer do we endure the harsh punishments of sins, the severe torments of the Law, but rather the forgiveness of sins, the voice of joy, the sound of gladness, we have heard the exultation of the festive nuptials.
This is that one binding the donkey to the vine and the foal of the donkey to her halter, so that the congregation of nations may have the fervor of the Holy Spirit before forgiven and neglectful, but now devoted through Christ, and be bound to that everlasting vine, which is the Lord Jesus, who says: I am the vine, and my Father is the vinedresser (John 15:1), as fruitful branches that we may be bound by the unbreakable chains of faith. This is that mystery, which the donkey's foal was commanded to be loosed in the Gospel, and the Lord Jesus himself sat upon it, so that bound to the everlasting vine, it may rest in the sweetness of the saints.
He says that he washed his robe in wine. The good robe is the flesh of Christ, which covers the sins of all, accepts the faults of all, and covers the errors of all. The good robe, which clothes all with the garment of joy. He washed this robe in wine, when he was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, and remained upon him. By this it is signified that the fullness of the Holy Spirit was individually in him and did not depart. And the evangelist also says (Mark I, 10): For the Lord Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. Therefore, Jesus washed his robe, not his own, which he did not have; but ours, which he had, in order to wash away the dirt. And he added: And in the blood of the grape, his garment: that is, in the suffering of his body, he washed the nations with his blood. For indeed, the nations are the garment of the Word, as it is written: As I live, says the Lord, unless I clothe them all as a garment (Isaiah XLIX, 18). And elsewhere: You will change them as a garment, and they will be changed (Ps. C, 27). Therefore, he has cleansed not with his own blood, their sins which they did not have, but with our sins which we have committed. And he spoke well of the grape, because as the grape hung on the wood. He is the vine, he is the grape. The vine clinging to the wood: the grape, because the soldier's spear pierced the open side and released water and blood. For this reason, John said: because water and blood came out of him (John XIX, 34). Water for washing, blood for redemption. Water cleanses us, blood redeems us.
And therefore the prophet says: His eyes are bright from wine, and his teeth whiter than milk, signifying the prophets and apostles. For some, like the eyes of Christ, foresaw and proclaimed his coming, of whom he himself says: Abraham saw my day and rejoiced (John 8:56). And one of the prophets says: I saw the Lord of hosts (Isaiah 6:5), whom seeing, they were filled with spiritual joy. But others, that is, the apostles, whom the Lord cleansed from every stain of sin, became whiter than milk, with no spot later marring them. For milk is temporal; but the grace of the apostles remains perpetual, who, by preparing for us those spiritual and heavenly nourishments, have fed the inner depths of the mind. There are also those who consider the clear commands of the Lord, which have been spoken by divine mouth, as milk for us, by which, being nourished, we reach the sustenance of heavenly bread. Therefore, Paul also says: I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able (1 Corinthians 3:2). In the beginning of faith, the Corinthians were given milk to drink. And those saints, whose faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world, are strengthened like weaned infants with solid food.