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| On Luke XXII. 42, Etc. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
III.—On
Luke XXII.
42,
Etc.1002
1002 Another
fragment from the Vatican Codex, 1611, fol. 291. See also Mai,
Bibliotheca Nova, vi. 1. 165. This is given here in a
longer and fuller form than in the Greek of Gallandi in his
Bibliotheca, xiv., Appendix, p. 115, as we have had it presented
above, and than in the Latin of Corderius in his Catena on Luke
xxii. 42, etc. This text is taken from a complete codex. |
————————————
But let these things be enough to say on the subject of
the will. This word, however, “Let the cup pass,”
does not mean, Let it not come near me, or approach me. For what
can pass from Him must certainly first come nigh Him, and what does
thus pass from Him must be by Him. For if it does not reach Him,
it cannot pass from Him. Accordingly, as if He now felt it to be
present, He began to be in pain, and to be troubled, and to be sore
amazed, and to be in an agony. And as if it was at hand and
placed before Him, He does not merely say “the cup,” but He
indicates it by the word “this.” Therefore, as what
passes from one is something which neither has no approach nor is
permanently settled with one, so the Saviour’s first request is
that the temptation which has come softly and plainly upon Him, and
associated itself lightly with Him, may be turned aside. And this
is the first form of that freedom from falling into temptation, which
He also counsels the weaker disciples to make the subject of their
prayers; that, namely, which concerns the approach of temptation:
for it must needs be that offences come, but yet those to whom they
come ought not to fall into the temptation. But the most perfect
mode in which this freedom from entering into temptation is exhibited,
is what He expresses in His second request, when He says not merely,
“Not as I will,” but also, “but as Thou
wilt.” For with God there is no temptation in evil; but He
wills to give us good exceeding abundantly above what we ask or
think. That His will, therefore, is the perfect will, the Beloved
Himself knew; and often does He say that He has come to do that will,
and not His own will,—that is to say, the will of men. For
He takes to Himself the person of men, as having been made man.
Wherefore also on this occasion He deprecates the doing of the
inferior, which is His own, and begs that the superior should be done,
which is His Father’s, to wit, the divine will, which again,
however, in respect of the divinity, is one and the same will in
Himself and in His Father. For it was the Father’s will
that He should pass through every trial (temptation), and the Father
Himself in a marvellous manner brought Him on this course; not indeed,
with the trial itself as His goal, nor in order simply that He might
enter into that, but in order that He might prove Himself to be above
the trial, and also beyond it. And surely it is the fact that the
Saviour asks neither what is impossible, nor what is impracticable, nor
what is contrary to the will of the Father. It is something
possible, for Mark makes mention of His saying, “Abba, Father,
all things are possible unto Thee;” and they are possible if He
wills them, for Luke tells us that He said, “Father, if Thou be
willing, remove this cup from me.” The Holy Spirit
therefore, apportioned among the evangelists, makes up the full account
of our Saviour’s whole disposition by the expressions of these
several narrators together. He does not then ask of the Father
what the Father wills not. For the words, “if Thou be
willing,” were demonstrative of subjection and docility, not of
ignorance or hesitancy. And just as when we make any request that
may be accordant with his judgment, at the hand of father or ruler or
any one of those whom we respect, we are accustomed to use the address,
though not certainly as if we were in doubt about it, “if you
please;” so the Saviour also said, “if Thou be
willing:” not that He thought that He willed something
different, and thereafter learned the fact, but that He understood
exactly God’s willingness to remove the cup from Him, and as
doing so also apprehended justly that what He wills is also possible
unto Him. For this reason the other scripture says, “All things are
possible unto Thee.” And Matthew again admirably describes
the submission and the humility, when he says, “if it be
possible.” For unless we adapt the sense in this way, some
will perhaps assign an impious signification to this expression
“if it be possible,” as if there were anything impossible
for God to do, except that only which He does not will to do.
Therefore the request which He made was nothing independent, nor one
which pleased Himself only, or opposed His Father’s will, but one
also in conformity with the mind of God. And yet some one may say
that He is overborne and changes His mind, and asks presently something
different from what He asked before, and holds no longer by His own
will, but introduces His Father’s will. Well, such truly is
the case. Nevertheless He does not by any means make any change
from one side to another; but He embraces another way, and a different
method of carrying out one and the same transaction, which is also a
thing agreeable to both; choosing, to wit, in place of the mode which
is the inferior, and which appears unsatisfying also to Himself, the
superior and more admirable mode marked out by the Father. For no
doubt He did pray that the cup might pass from Him; but He says also,
“Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” He
longs painfully, on the one hand, for its passing from Him, but (He
knows that) it is better as the Father wills. For He does not
utter a petition for its not passing away now, instead of one for its
removal; but when its withdrawal is now before His view, He chooses
rather that this should be ordered as the Father wills. For there
is a twofold kind1003 of
withdrawal: there is one in the instance of an object that has
shown itself and reached another, and is gone at once on being followed
by it or on outrunning it, as is the case with racers when they graze
each other in passing; and there is another in the instance of an
object that has sojourned and tarried with another, and sat down by it,
as in the case of a marauding band or a camp, and that after a time
withdraws on being conquered, and on gaining the opposite of a
success. For if they prevail they do not retire, but carry off
with them those whom they have reduced; but if they prove unable to win
the mastery, they withdraw themselves in disgrace. Now it was
after the former similitude that He wished that the cup might come into
His hands, and promptly pass from Him again very readily and quickly;
but as soon as He spake thus, being at once strengthened in His
humanity by the Father’s divinity, He urges the safer petition,
and desires no longer that that should be the case, but that it might
be accomplished in accordance with the Father’s good pleasure, in
glory, in constancy, and in fulness. For John, who has given us
the record of the sublimest and divinest of the Saviour’s words
and deeds, heard Him speak thus: “And the cup which my
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Now, to drink
the cup was to discharge the ministry and the whole economy of trial
with fortitude, to follow and fulfil the Father’s determination,
and to surmount all apprehensions; and, indeed, in the very prayer
which He uttered He showed that He was leaving these (apprehensions)
behind Him. For of two objects, either may be said to be removed
from the other: the object that remains may be said to be removed
from the one that goes away, and the one that goes away may be said to
be removed from the one that remains. Besides, Matthew has
indicated most clearly that He did indeed pray that the cup might pass
from Him, but yet that His request was that this should take place not
as He willed, but as the Father willed it. The words given by
Mark and Luke, again, ought to be introduced in their proper
connection. For Mark says, “Nevertheless not what I will,
but what Thou wilt;” and Luke says, “Nevertheless not my
will, but Thine be done.” He did then express Himself to
that effect, and He did desire that His passion might abate and reach
its end speedily. But it was the Father’s will at the same
time that He should carry out His conflict in a manner demanding
sustained effort,1004 and in sufficient
measure. Accordingly He (the Father) adduced all that assailed
Him. But of the missiles that were hurled against Him, some were
shivered in pieces, and others were dashed back as with invulnerable
arms of steel, or rather as from the stern and immoveable rock.
Blows, spittings, scourgings, death, and the lifting up in that
death,1005
1005
τοῦ
θανάτου τὸ
ὑψωμα. | all came upon Him;
and when all these were gone through, He became silent and endured in
patience unto the end, as if He suffered nothing, or was already
dead. But when His death was being prolonged, and when it was now
overmastering Him, if we may so speak, beyond His utmost strength, He
cried out to His Father, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?”
And this exclamation was in due accordance with the requests He had
previously made: Why is it that death has been in such close
conjunction with me all along up till now, and Thou dost not yet bear
the cup past me?1006 Have I not
drank it already, and drained it? But if not, my dread is that I
may be utterly consumed by its continuous pressure;1007
1007
ει δὲ
οὐκ ἔπιον
αὐτὸ ἤδη καὶ
ἀνήλωσα·
ἀλλὰ δέος μή
ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ
πλήρης
ἐπικειμένου
καταποθείην. | and that is what would befall me, wert Thou
to forsake me: then would the fulfilment abide, but I would pass
away, and be made of
none effect.1008 Now, then, I
entreat Thee, let my baptism be finished, for indeed I have been
straitened greatly until it should be accomplished.—This I judge
to have been the Saviour’s meaning in this concise
utterance. And He certainly spake truth then. Nevertheless
He was not forsaken. Albeit He drank out the cup at once, as His
plea had implied, and then passed away. And the vinegar which was
handed to Him seems to me to have been a symbolical thing. For
the turned wine indicated very well the quick turning and change which
He sustained when He passed from His passion to impassibility, and from
death to deathlessness, and from the position of one judged to that of
one judging, and from subjection under the despot’s power to the
exercise of kingly dominion. And the sponge, as I think,
signified the complete transfusion of the Holy Spirit that was realized
in Him. And the reed symbolized the royal sceptre and the divine
law. And the hyssop expressed that quickening and saving
resurrection of His by which He has also brought health to us.1009
1009 [In these
allegorical interpretations we see the pupil of Origen.] | But we have
gone through these matters in sufficient detail on Matthew and
John. With the permission of God, we shall speak also of the
account given by Mark. But at present we shall keep to what
follows in our passage.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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