Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

² Why He said this, the occasion as it were out of which these words arose, is shown to us in the holy Gospel. A certain man appealed to Him against his brother, who had taken away all his patrimony, and gave not back his proper portion to his brother. You see then how good a case this appellant had. For he was not seeking to take by violence another's, but was seeking only for his own which had been left him by his parents; these was he demanding back by his appeal to the judgment of the Lord. He had an unrighteous brother; but against an unrighteous brother had he found a righteous Judge. Ought he then in so good a cause to lose that opportunity? Or who would say to his brother, “Restore to your brother his portion,” if Christ would not say it? Would that judge be likely to say it, whom perhaps his richer and extortionate brother might corrupt by a bribe? Forlorn then as he was, and despoiled of his father's goods, when he had found such and so great a Judge he goes up to Him, he appeals to, he beseeches Him, he lays his cause before Him in few words. For what occasion was there to set forth his cause at length, when he was speaking to Him who could even see the heart? “Master,” he says, “speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” The Lord did not say to him, “Let your brother come.” No, He neither sent for him to be present, nor in his presence did He say to him who had appealed to Him, “Prove what you were saying.” He asked for half an inheritance, he asked for half an inheritance on earth; the Lord offered him a whole inheritance in heaven. The Lord gave more than asked for.

3. “Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” Just case, short case. But let us hear Him who at once gives judgment and instruction. “Man,” He says. “O man;” for seeing you value this inheritance so highly, what are you but a man? He wished to make him something more than man. What more did He wish to make him, from whom He wished to take covetousness away? What more did He wish to make him? I will tell you, “I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High.” Lo, what He wished to make him, to reckon him that has no covetousness among the “gods.” “Man, who made Me a divider among you?” So the Apostle Paul His servant, when he said, “I beseech you, brethren, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you,” was unwilling to be a divider. And afterwards he thus admonished them who were running after his name, and dividing Christ: “Every one of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” Judge then, how wicked are those men, who would have Him to be divided, who would not be a divider. “Who,” says He, “has made Me a divider among you?”