Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 135-145 (Luke 20:19-22:38) pp. 630-682.
20:19-26. And the chief priests and scribes sought that same hour to lay hands upon Him; and they feared the people: for they knew that He had spoken this parable concerning them. And having watched for an opportunity, they sent to Him spies, making pretence of being just men, to find occasion against Him in His speech, that they might deliver Him to the rule and authority of the governor. And they asked Him, saying, Teacher, we know that You speak and teach rightly, and don't discriminate in favour of important persons, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? But He perceived their wickedness, and said to them, Show me a denarius. And they showed one to Him. And He said, Whose is the image upon it and superscription? And they said, Caesar's. And He said to them, Give therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. And they could not blame the word before the people; and they wondered at His answer, and were silent.
AGAIN is the gang of the Pharisees inflamed with unbridled rage: they draw the bow of their envy; they gnash their teeth at Him Who calls them to life; they savagely attack Him Who seeks to save, and Who humbled Himself from His supreme and godlike glory to our estate; and they plot His death Who became man that He might abolish death. And the sole cause which hindered their shameless audacity, the wise Evangelist shows us by saying, that "they feared the people." He understood therefore that they were restrained by no feeling whatsoever of piety towards God; the commandment given by Moses, which plainly says, "You shall not kill the holy and the just," put no bridle |631 upon their violence: but they had regard to the fear of man far more than to the reverence due to God.
But what was the cause of their giving way to such harsh and unmitigated fury? "They knew, it says, that He had spoken this parable concerning them." And what parable? Plainly that by which He had shown that as being wicked and faithless husbandmen, they had mocked and slain the holy prophets, who had been sent to them by God, to stir them up to honour Him, by bringing forth abundant spiritual fruits: and had similarly treated even the Son Himself, the Lord of the vineyard. For they slew Him also, saying, "This is the heir: come, let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours." But they missed their mark, and provoked God to anger, or rather resisted the decrees from above, and whetted against themselves the divine wrath. For "being evil, they perished evilly;" and were rejected from being husbandmen, and the Lord of the farm gave the vineyard to others. This then was the reason for which they murmured against Christ: and yet, how was it not rather their duty, having been taught what was about to happen, to escape from the danger, and leap over its toils? And the way so to do was straightforward and easy. Let them accept Him Who calls them to salvation: let them honour by faith Him Who justifies the wicked; Who absolves from all guilt; and by His grace, that remembers not evil, saves those who are entangled in sins.
But these bold and obdurate men, being ready for evil only,. entertain no such purpose as this, but with their mind full of the craftiness of the devil, betake themselves to wicked devices. They lay snares for Christ, and contrive a trap for an accusation against Him, and gather pretexts for falsely accusing Him. Already are they meditating, and plotting in their bitterness, the lying words they uttered against Him before Pilate. They suborned men therefore who falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of goodness, like a borrowed mask; while really they were wicked in their characters, and their heart full of gall and error and all false speaking. They made pretence then of being kind and just: they imagined that they could deceive Him Who knows secrets, when having one purpose in mind and heart, they utter words altogether unlike their wicked knaveries. For they perchance |632 forgot God, Who says, "Who is this that hides from Me his purpose? and shuts up his words in his heart, and thinks that from Me he hides them? For, as Solomon says, Hell and destruction are open to the Lord: how therefore must not also the minds of men?" But you drew near to Christ the Saviour of all as to a mere man, and therefore you thought that you could deceive Him. This was the cause of your ignorant behaviour: but it had been better to have reflected, that the Word being God was made in fashion like to us; but was nevertheless proved by divine and ineffable miracles, and by His godlike glory, not to be a mere man only, such as you are, but to be God, as the splendour of His deeds proclaimed. He was in appearance a man like to us, but He gave sight to the blind; He raised the dead from their graves; He commanded those who already had seen corruption to hasten back to life; He rebuked the seas, and appeared to the disciples, walking upon the waves, as they were sailing once upon the sea of Tiberias. It was in their power therefore to have seen from actual facts that He was not a man only, but rather God also as well as man.
But this they would not even admit into their minds: how could they? but drew near, tempting Him; and hiding from Him their fraudulent purpose, they address Him with gentle words, being like savage beasts wrapped in lambs' clothing. Such were they whom the prophet David also rebuked, saying, "Their words are smoother than oil: and yet are they the points of spears." And again, "Their tongue pierces like the point of a spear: the words of their mouth are deceitful: he speaks peaceably to his neighbour: and there is enmity in his soul." But what do they say? " Teacher, we know that You speak and teach rightly, nor do You discriminate in favour of important persons, but teach the way of God in truth: Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" O what polluted knavery! For the God of all willed indeed for Israel to be exempt from human dominion: but because they trampled under foot the divine laws, and despising utterly the commandment given to them, betook themselves to their own devices, they had fallen under the hand of those who at that time held dominion over them: who also imposed upon them tribute, and tax, and the yoke of an unwonted slavery. |633 For the prophet Jeremiah also lamented over Jerusalem as though she had already suffered this fate, saying, "How has the populous city sat solitary! She that was chief of the countries has become tributary!"
Their object therefore, it says, was to deliver "Him to the authority of the governor:" for they expected that certainly and without doubt they would hear Him say, that it was not lawful to give tribute to Caesar. How therefore did Christ overcome their craftiness? "Show Me, He says, a denarius." And when it was shown Him, again He asks, "Whose is the image upon it and superscription? And they said, Caesar's." And what does Christ reply thereto? "Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's." For those whose office it is to govern impose a tribute of money upon their subjects: but God requires of us of things corruptible and transitory even nothing, but rather willing obedience and submission; faith and love; and the sweet savour of good works. These things the Israelites ought to have offered to God: but they were careless and contemptuous, and too ready to betake themselves to every thing that was base.
"They wondered therefore at His answer," and that "before all the people," that is, before many witnesses. And yet, as though they had forgotten these things, when they led Jesus to Pilate, they brought this very accusation against Him: for they said, "We found this man perverting the people, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar." You wonder at His answer; you were unable to deceive Him; you went away ashamed: and how then made you your own wickedness the point of an accusation against Him? What therefore does the Saviour say of them by the voice of the Psalmist? "That without cause have they hid for Me the destruction of their snare: without reason have they reproached My soul. Let a snare come upon them which they know not: and let the net which they hid for Me catch themselves, and let them fall into their own snare." For so verily they did fall; for because they delivered Jesus to Pilate, they were themselves given over to destruction, and the Roman host consumed them with fire and sword, and burnt up all their land, and even the glorious temple that was among them. |634
Such were the wages of their wicked behaviour against Christ: but let us, carefully avoiding these sins, and honouring by faith the Word of God, Who for our sakes and in our stead became man, be diligent in crowning Him with unceasing praises: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |635
20:27-38. And certain Sadducees drew near, who say there is no resurrection; and they asked Him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote to us, that if any man's brother die having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother shall take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother. There were therefore seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her; and in like manner also the seven: and they died, and left no children. And afterwards the woman died also. Therefore at the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus said to them, The children of this world marry, and are married: but they who have been accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are married; for neither can they die any more; for they are equal with the angels, and are the children of God, in that they are the children of the resurrection. But that the dead rise, even Moses indicated at the bush, saying, The Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: but God is not of the dead, but of the living: for all live to Him.
IGNORANCE is constantly, so to speak, accompanied by rashness, and leads men on to attach great importance to their wretched fancies; and thus those who are the victims of this malady entertain a great idea of themselves, and imagine themselves possessed of such knowledge as no man can gainsay. For they forget, as it seems, Solomon, who says, "Be not wise in your own eyes," that is, according to your own single judgment: and again, that "wisdom not put to the proof goes astray." For we do not necessarily possess true opinions upon every individual doctrine that we hold, but often |636 perhaps abandoning the right path, we err, and fall into that which is not fitting. But I think it right, that exercising an impartial and unprejudiced judgment, and not rendered rash by passion, we should love the truth, and eagerly pursue it.
But the foolish Sadducees had no great regard for such considerations. They were a sect of the Jews, and what was the nature of the opinion which they entertained concerning the resurrection of the dead, Luke has explained to us in the Acts of the Apostles, thus writing, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess all." They draw near therefore to Christ our common Saviour, Who is the Life and Resurrection, and endeavour to disprove the resurrection: and being men contemptuous and unbelieving, they invent a story replete with ignorance, and by a string of frigid suppositions wickedly endeavour violently to shake into nothingness the hope of the whole world. For we affirm, that the hope of the whole world is the resurrection from the dead, of whom Christ was the first-born and first-fruits: and therefore the wise Paul also, making our resurrection to depend upon His, says, "If the dead rise not, neither did Christ rise:" and again adds thereto, as if urging the converse thought to its conclusion, "But if Christ rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?" And those who said this were the Sadducees, of whom we are now speaking.
But let us examine, if you will, this senseless fiction of their framing. They say then that there were seven brethren, who successively became the husbands of one wife, according to the requirements of the law of Moses; and she died without children: at the resurrection therefore whose wife will she be? The enquiry however was but a senseless one, nor did the question at all accord with the inspired Scriptures: and the answer of our Saviour amply suffices to prove the folly of their narrative, and make us reject both their fiction, and the idea upon which it was founded.
Still I think it right to convict them plainly of foolishly resisting the inspired Scriptures, and to show that they completely mistook the sense of what the sacred writings teach. For come and let us see what the company of the holy prophets has spoken to us upon this point, and what are the |637 declarations which the Lord of hosts has made by their means. He said therefore of those that sleep, "I will deliver them from the hand of the grave; I will redeem them from death: Where is your condemnation, O death? O grave, where is your sting?" Now what is meant by the condemnation of death, and by its sting also, the blessed Paul has taught us, saying, "But the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law." For he compares death to a scorpion, the sting of which is sin: for by its poison it slays the soul. And the law, he says, was the strength of sin: for so he himself again elsewhere protests, saying, "I had not known sin but by the law:" "for where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law." For this reason Christ has removed those who believe in Him from the jurisdiction of the law that condemns: and has also abolished the sting of death, even sin: and sin being taken away, death, as a necessary consequence, departed with it; for it was from it, and because of it, that death came into the world.
As God therefore gives the promise, "I will deliver them from the hand of the grave, and from death I will redeem them;" so the blessed prophets also accord with the decrees from on high: for they speak to us, "not of their own heart, nor of the will of man, but from the mouth of God," as it is written; inasmuch as it is the Holy Spirit which speaking within them declares upon every matter, what is the sentence of God, and His almighty and unalterable will. The prophet Isaiah therefore has said to us, "Your dead men shall arise: and those in the graves shall be raised; and they who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from You is healing to them." And by the dew I imagine he means the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, and that influence which abolishes death, as being that of God and of life.
And the blessed David also somewhere in the Psalms says of all those upon earth, "You take away their spirit, and they die, and return to their dust: You send Your Spirit, and they are created, and You renew the face of the earth." Do you hear that the working and life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit will renew the face of the earth? And by its face is meant its beauty; and the beauty of human nature is justly understood to be incorruption. "For it is |638 sown, it says, in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." For the prophet Isaiah again assures us that death which entered in because of sin does not retain its power over the dwellers upon earth for ever, but is abolished by the resurrection from the dead of Christ, Who renews the universe, and refashions it to that which it was at the beginning----" for God created all things for incorruption," as it is written; for he says, "He has swallowed up death, having waxed mighty: and God shall again take away all weeping from every countenance; He shall remove the reproach of the people from the whole earth." Now sin is what he calls the reproach of the people, and when this has been taken away, death also is extinguished with it, and corruption departs from the midst: and by having brought it to an end, He removes every one's weeping; and lamentation also is put to silence; for henceforth there is no more cause for men to weep and lament.
And thus much for our own argument in refutation of the infidelity of the Jews: but let us see also what Christ said to them: "The children indeed of this world," He says, those, that is, who lead worldly carnal lives, full of fleshly lust, for the procreation of children "marry and are married:" but those who have maintained an honourable and elect life, full of all excellence, and have therefore been accounted worthy of attaining to a glorious and marvellous resurrection, will be necessarily raised far above the life which men lead in this world; for they will live as becomes saints, who already have been brought near to God. "For they are equal with the angels, and are the children of God." As therefore all fleshly lust is taken away, and no place whatsoever is left in them for bodily pleasure, they resemble the holy angels, fulfilling a spiritual and not a material service, such as becomes holy spirits; and are at the same time counted worthy of a glory such as that which the angels enjoy. |639
But the Saviour also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees, by bringing forward their own hierophant Moses, as well and clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. For he has set before us God, He says, as saying in the bush, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." But of whom is He God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? for He is the God of the living: and therefore certainly and altogether they will rise, when His almighty right hand brings them thereunto; and not them only, but also all who are upon the earth.
And for men not to believe that this will happen, is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees; but altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. For we believe in Him who says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." For He will raise the dead, "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For it shall resound, and the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." For Christ, our common Saviour, shall transfer us to incorruption, and to glory, and to a life incorruptible: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for over and ever. Amen. |640
20:41-47. And He said to them. How say they of Christ that He is David's Son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit You on My right hand until I place Your enemies as a footstool under Your feet. David therefore calls Him Lord; and how is He his Son? And in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in stoles, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the foremost seats in the synagogues, and the highest part of the couches at feasts: who devour widows' houses, and in pretence prolong their prayers: these shall receive more abundant condemnation.
THOSE who love instruction and are fond of hearing receive with joy the profitable word of God, and store it up in the treasure-house of their heart as the seed of life. And what is. the result of their so doing? The divine light rises upon them, and they gain a correct and unerring knowledge of the sacred doctrines. And this quickens them to life, as the Son Himself teaches us, where He says to God the Father in heaven, "And this is life eternal, to know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent."
See therefore, I say, see Him Who is the Giver to us of all wisdom and understanding, even Christ, endeavouring to implant this great and invaluable blessing in those first of all who were the chiefs of the Jews, the scribes, I mean, and Pharisees. For it was right, as they were the pastors and teachers and governors of the people, that His mystery should not he hidden from them: even that which the law of Moses had proclaimed of old, delineating it by type and shadow in manifold ways; and which the great and glorious company also of the holy prophets had preached. For it is for this reason that Christ is called "the accomplishment of the law and the prophets."
The Saviour therefore asked them, saying, "How say they of Christ that He is David's Son? For David himself says |641 in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit You on My right hand, until I place Your enemies as a footstool under Your feet. David therefore calls Him Lord: and how is He his son?" The beginning of understanding is faith: "for if, He says, you will not believe, neither can you understand:" but the examination also of important truths tends to salvation. Confessedly then Emanuel is both the Son and the Lord of David: but if any one would learn in what manner he is to understand this, he must certainly betake himself to the exact and blameless examination of His mystery, which was "kept in silence indeed from the foundation of the world, but has been revealed in the latter ages of the world."
The Pharisees however gave no answer to Christ's question: and this they did in malice, or rather against their own selves, lest being pricked by the enquiry, the word of salvation should shine forth in them. For they did not wish to know the truth, but sinfully seizing for themselves the Lord's inheritance, they denied the heir, or rather wickedly slew Him. For from love of rule, and greed of lucre, and for their base gains, they rejected the faith. For once indeed they even stoned Him with stones, and when asked the reason of their violence, they foolishly said, "For a good work we stone You not, but for blasphemy: because that You being a man make Yourself God." And on another occasion they called Him a Samaritan, a drunkard, and a winebibber, and the carpenter's son, meaning that He was an ignoble person, and born of ignoble parents. Nor verily canst you wonder at this, when they ventured even to accuse His birth in the flesh of the holy virgin, saying, darkly and bitterly, "We are not born of harlotry."
To remove therefore from them the habit of thinking and speaking of Him in a derogatory and contemptuous manner, |642 He asked them, saying, "How say they that Christ is David's Son?" But they, as I have already remarked, were silent from malicious motives, and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life, and of the knowledge of the truth.