Homilies on Matthew — Homily 65

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6

Matt. XX. 17-19.

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said to them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the Scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him; and the third day He shall be raised.

He goes not up at once to Jerusalem when He has come out of Galilee, but having first wrought miracles, and having stopped the mouths of Pharisees, and having discoursed with His disciples of renouncing possessions: for, if you will be perfect, says He, sell that you have: [[Matthew 19.21]] and of virginity, He that is able to receive, let him receive it: [[Matthew 19.12]] and of humility, For except ye be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven: [[Matthew 18.3]] and of a recompense of the things here, For whoever has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, shall receive an hundredfold in this world: [[Matthew 19.29]] and of rewards there, For he shall also inherit, it is said, eternal life: then He assails the city next, and being on the point of going up, discourses again of His passion. For since it was likely that they, because they were not willing this should come to pass, would forget it, He is continually putting them in remembrance, exercising their mind by the frequency with which He reminded them, and diminishing their pain.

But He speaks with them apart, necessarily; for it was not meet that His discourse about these things should be published to the many; neither that it should be spoken plainly, for no advantage arose from this. For if the disciples were confounded at hearing these things, much more the multitude of the people.

What then? Was it not told to the people? You may say. It was indeed told to the people also, but not so plainly. For, Destroy, says He, this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up; [[John 2.19]] and, This generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas; [[Matthew 12.39]] and again, Yet a little while am I with you, and you shall seek me, and shall not find me. [[John 7.33]]-34

But to the disciples not so, but as the other things He spoke unto them more plainly, so also spoke He this too. And for what purpose, if the multitude understood not the force of His sayings, were they spoken at all? That they might learn after these things, that fore- knowing it, He came to His passion, and willing it; not in ignorance, nor by constraint. But to the disciples not for this cause only did He foretell it; but, as I have said, in order that having been exercised by the expectation, they might more easily endure the passion, and that it might not confound them by coming upon them without preparation. So for this cause, while at the beginning He spoke of His death only, when they were practised and trained to hear of it, He adds the other circums