14:15–25
CHAPTER 14
Ver. 15.Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God; i.e., in the resurrection of the just, of which Christ had made mention in the preceding verse. S. Cyril in the Catena, says, "This man was carnal, for he thought the reward of the saints was to be bodily." He must therefore have been one of the Pharisees, for they believe in the resurrection, which the Sadducces deny. Act_23:8. For in heaven God feeds, satisfies, and fills (inebriat) the blessed with all delights. So the Psalmist: "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness." Psa_17:15. And again, "They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of Thy house, and Thou shalt give them drink of Thy pleasures as out of the river." Psa_36:8. This joy S. Augustine describes at length in his Soliloquies and Meditations.
Mystically. "He was sighing for something which was afar off, and the bread itself was lying before him. For who is that Bread of the kingdom of God but He who says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven." S. Joh_5:51.
Ver. 16.Then He said unto him, A certain man made a great supper. This parable is very similar to that recorded by S. Matthew. See commentary on S. Mat_22:2.
But you will ask, What was this supper? 1.Some understand by it, the incarnation of the Word of God, the preaching of His Gospel, and the redemption wrought by Him. For this is the great supper to which Christ, when He became incarnate, invited us. S. Matthew calls it a dinner. It is a dinner as regards the Church Militant; a supper with respect to the Church Triumphant. In this sense Leonidas addressed his comrades before the battle. "Let us dine, fellow-soldiers, for we shall sup in the nether (or rather the upper) world." For the Church Militant here on earth is striving eagerly to attain the Church Triumphant in Heaven.
2. S. Cyril, in the Catena, understands the Eucharist by the supper. "The man," he says, "is God the Father, who has prepared for us a great supper in Christ, for He has given us His own body to eat. Whence the Church makes choice of this parable for the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament."
3. But in its literal sense, the supper is the happiness and glory of heaven. It is called a supper, because it will be given in the evening, i.e. at the end of the world, when life and its troubles are over: because, also, it will be our only and everlasting refreshment.
The great supper, says S. Gregory (Hom. 36), is the full enjoyment of eternal sweetness; for after it no guest is cast out.
A great. For nothing greater than it can be imagined, since God Himself will be our food and feast. Hence, Euthymius says, "Hereby is signified the unspeakable fruition of God, who will fulfil the utmost expectations of the blessed. For 'eye hath not seen, nor car heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.'" 1Co_2:9.
And bade many: e.g., the whole nation of the Jews, who were the Church and the chosen people of God, and specially their rulers, who were bidden to "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." S. Mat_3:2.
Ver. 17.And sent his servants, &c., i.e., sent the Apostles after the resurrection to say that all things were ready for the heavenly feast.
Ver. 18.And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, &c. The Scribes and Pharisees, and the chief Priests are here clearly indicated; for they, invited by Christ to the Gospel feast, made light of it, because they were so intent on their farms, i.e. their worldly possessions, that they had neither time nor inclination to think about the salvation of their souls. "God," says S. Gregory (Hom. 36 in Evang.), "offers what ought to have been asked. Unasked, He is ready to give, what we could scarcely dare hope for. He announces that the delights of the eternal feast are ready, and with one consent they make excuse." "They say, I pray thee, and then disdain to come. The word sounds of humility, but the action is pride." S. Bernard rightly calls men who seek wealth, pleasure, honour and the like, lunatics. "I once" says he, "saw five men: why should I not look on them as lunatics? For the first, with swollen cheeks, was chewing the sand of the sea-shore. The second, standing by a lake of sulphur, was endeavouring to inhale the foul and noxious vapour which arose therefrom. The third, leaning over a blazing furnace, was enjoying the burning sparks which he received within his gaping jaws. The fourth, seated on a pinnacle of a temple, was drawing in with open mouth the light breezes, and if they seemed to flow less freely he fanned himself, as if in hope of inhaling the whole atmosphere. The fifth, standing aside, was laughing at the others, although himself the most deserving of ridicule, for he was busily engaged in sucking his own flesh, applying now his hands, now his arms, now one part of his body, now another to his mouth." By these figures S. Bernard pictures the various kinds of sin. The first represents the greedy, the second the lustful, the third those prone to anger, the fourth the ambitious, and the fifth those who boast themselves over much of their possessions and are self-satisfied, who are never content, but ever thirsting for the good things of this world.
Ver. 19.And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, &c. Another kind of avarice is here described, viz, the desire of possessing oxen, and animals for tillage, or food, or some other purpose; for the riches of the patriarchs lay in their herds. So think Theophylact and Titus. S. Gregory, however (Hom. 36), says, "What are we to understand by the five yoke of oxen but the five senses? which are rightly called yokes, because they are double in the two sexes."
Ver. 20.And another said, I have married a wife, &c. What, asks S. Gregory, are we to understand by a wife but carnal gratifications? The Pharisees, like many at the present time, were ensnared by avarice and luxury. These are the thorns which choke the word of God. S. Luk_8:14.
Let us all then give heed to the warning of S. Paul, and remember that "the fashion of this world passeth away" (1Co_7:31). "For the 'res temporalis' consists in possession, and 'res eterna' in expectation," S. Gregory (Hom. 36). Not that marriage is censured here (save so far as it interferes with the work of salvation), says S. Ambrose, but purity is held up to greater honour, for "the love of the things of this world is a fetter to (viscus est) the wings of the spirit." Gloss.
In carnal things, desire begets satiety, and satiety disgust; but in spiritual things, satiety provokes desire. S. Gregory.
S. Augustine (serm. 33, De Verb. Domini) explains and applies somewhat differently the excuses of the invited guests:
"The piece of ground which was bought denotes government. Therefore pride is the first vice reproved.
"The five yoke of oxen are taken to be the five senses, by means of which earthly things are pursued. For the oxen till the ground; but men at a distance from faith, given up to earthly things, are occupied with carnal matters.
"'Love not the world, therefore, neither the things that are in the world,' for 'the world passeth away, and the lust thereof' 1Jo_2:15-17. Away then with wicked and vain excuses, and let us come to the supper wherewith we may be inwardly nourished. Let not the lifting up of pride hinder us, neither let lawless curiosity fright us, and turn us away from God. Let not the pleasures of the flesh keep us from the pleasure of the heart. Let us come and be filled."
Ver. 21.So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things, &c. We are here taught that Christ chose the outcasts and poor in place of the Priests and Pharisees who had made light of His gospel. According to that which is written, "The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." S. Matt. xxi. 31. And again, "Many that are first shall be last: and the last shall be first." S. Mat_19:30.
For albeit that Christ preached from the commencement of His ministry both to the Pharisees and to the multitude, yet the Pharisees, as of higher rank, were the first invited; to preserve the unity of the parable; and also because Christ would have the scribes first, by reason of their position, acknowledge Him, and then be His witnesses amongst the people. But the contrary came to pass. "They," says Euthymius, "who refused to acknowledge Him, were the chief Priests and rulers of the people, and these, who were chosen in their stead, were the humble and the outcasts of the nation." For of a truth "God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." 1Co_1:27.
Symbolically. S. Augustine says (serm. 34 De Verb. Dom.): Who were those that came, but the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind? Those who absented themselves were those who thought themselves rich, and robust; who, as it were, could walk well, and see clearly, the hopelessness of whose state was proportionate to their pride.
Let the beggars come to the feast at the invitation of Him who made Himself poor that we might become rich.
Let the weak come, for the physician has no need of those that are whole, but of those that are sick.
Let the lame come and say, "Order my steps in Thy word."
Let the blind come and say, "Lighten Thou mine eyes, that I sleep not in death."
These poor and miserable creatures teach us:
1. That none are to be despised, but that salvation in Christ is to be offered to all.
2. That it is easier for the poor to obey the gospel precepts, and therefore to be saved, than for the rich.
3. That we must despair of no one's salvation, however wretched, blind, or perverse he may be.
Ver. 22.And the servant said, Yet there is room. The number of the elect is not yet complete. Heaven is not yet filled with those who are to obtain salvation. Learn to imitate the zeal of this servant who rejected no one, however blind, deformed, or maimed, but busied himself in summoning and saying more and more.
Ver. 23.And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the high-ways and hedges, &c. Go forth, without the city-without Jerusalem, and beyond Judæa, and call the Gentiles to Christ.
Into the highways. "The partings of the highways" (S. Mat_22:9), i.e. into the roads which lead to all nations and to the ends of the earth.
And hedges. The hamlets and villages, which were surrounded not by walls but by hedges. Hence we are taught that the Gospel is to be preached by the Apostles and their successors, even to savage and uncivilised nations; a duty which is recognised more and more by the followers of Christ.
Hence the servant does not say, as he added of the Jews in the 22nd verse, "it is done as thou hast commanded;" because the work is not yet finished among the Gentiles; it is being done more fully from day to day, to be completed at the end or the world. "The meaning of this verse," says Titus, "is, that after the Israelites had been gathered in, the people of the Gentiles were also to be called, i.e. men who, as being born and brought up in the country, in the highways and hedges without the city, were entirely uncivilised." Or, as Theophylact interprets it, "The Israelites were within the city, having received the law, and having been granted a more civilised lot in life; but the Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, and without God in the world." (Eph_2:12.)
Compel them to come in. Many of the Gentile nations were wholly given up to idolatry and evil living. Hence they were to be compelled to salvation by the burning zeal and energy of the preacher, by miracles, even by the scourge and judgments of God sent upon them "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1Co_2:4). For "our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." 1Th_1:5.
"Therefore," says Suarez, "compel them to come in, either by afflicting them with labour and sorrows, or by converting them, as it were, miraculously, by a mighty effort and powerful call."
Ver. 24.For I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper, because they made light of my invitation. So the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews, given up to earthly enjoyments, are to be excluded from the heavenly feast because, called by Christ to accept the teaching of His gospel, they refused the invitation. "Because I have called and ye refused, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." Pro_1:24. Then shall they, too late, repent of their ingratitude and folly, and shall say, "What hath pride profited us, or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us? For those things are passed away like a shadow." Wisdom 5:8.
So far Christ had said all these things in the house of the Pharisee, whose invitation He had accepted, in order that He might instruct him and his friends. Let all those, therefore, who are followers of Christ, imitate His example, and not take part in any entertainment unless it be for the purpose of reaping spiritual fruit.
Four Greek words carry this passage, and Haydock's apparatus keeps all four in view. The first is morphē, form: in forma Dei, being in the form of God (v. 6). Witham reports that the ancient Fathers read it against the Arians as meaning truly, properly and essentially God from eternity, and Chrysostom's argument for that is a matter of symmetry — the form of a servant is the nature of a servant, and the form of God is the nature of God. Whatever weight form bears in the second half of the sentence it must bear in the first; nobody supposes Christ was a servant only in appearance. The second word is ekenōse, from kenos, empty — in the Latin exinanivit, he emptied himself out. Witham notes that Dr. Wells corrected the Protestant rendering made himself of no reputation to emptied himself, and the correction matters, because reputation is what others grant and emptying is something done from the inside.
What exactly was emptied is the question the note then answers by narrowing. Witham is precise: the Son did not divest himself of divinity, which he could not do, but of all the marks of greatness, so that in him as man no sign of divine power and majesty appeared. The next two words guard the same border from the other side. Made to the likeness of men is homoiōma, and Witham insists it is not exterior resemblance but real assumption, the divine person united to human nature — the word Paul also uses in Romans viii of the likeness of sinful flesh. In habit found as a man is schēma, and here the risk is the opposite one, that habit might suggest a costume; Witham blocks it by saying Christ was not clothed as a man is clothed with a coat, but found a man in shape and in nature both. Chrysostom then adds the detail that makes the emptying concrete rather than metaphysical: he was found in the appearance of a sinful man, if you consider him hunted by his opponents and nailed to an infamous cross. That is what the marks of greatness were exchanged for. And the exaltation of verse 9 answers it in the same terms — Witham reads the given name as carrying the dignity of the one it names, exalted even as man above every creature in heaven, on earth, and beneath it, though he distinguishes sharply between creatures who revere him willingly and those made subject against their will.
Haydock draws the practical conclusion in the form of a question about consistency. We stand, or lower our voices, when a sovereign's name is spoken; on what principle is the same courtesy withheld from the name of Jesus, and if it is granted to the name, why not to the cross as readily as to a king's throne? The objection he anticipates is the old suspicion that bodily reverence is superstition, and it survives in a milder form — an instinct that faith is more honest when it is interior and unexpressed, which usually turns out to mean unexpressed in company. Verse 5 asks for the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and that mind moved downward before it moved up, through the form of a servant and the shape of a man. The passage does not end with an idea. It ends with a knee.