Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews

“Looking” (he says), that is, that we may learn to run. For as in all arts and games, we impress the art upon our mind by looking to our masters, receiving certain rules through our sight, so here also, if we wish to run, and to learn to run well, let us look to Christ, even to Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith.” What is this? He has put the Faith within us. For He said to His disciples, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you”; and Paul too says, “But then shall I know, even as also I have been known.” He put the Beginning into us, He will also put on the End.

“Who,” he says, “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame.” That is, it was in His power not to suffer at all, if He so willed. For “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth”; as He also says in the Gospels, “The Prince of the world comes and has nothing in Me.” It lay then in His power, if so He willed, not to come to the Cross. For, “I have power,” He says, “to lay down My life; and I have power to take it again.” If then He who was under no necessity of being crucified, was crucified for our sake, how much more is it right that we should endure all things nobly!

“Who for the joy that was set before Him” (he says) “endured the cross, despising the shame.” But what is, “Despising the shame”? He chose, he means, that ignominious death. For suppose that He died. Why [should He] also [die] ignominiously? For no other reason, but to teach us to make no account of glory from men. Therefore though under no obligation He chose it, teaching us to be bold against it, and to set it at nought. Why did he say not “pain,” but “shame”? Because it was not with pain that He bore these things.

What then is the end? “He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Do you see the prize which Paul also says in an epistle, “Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow.” He speaks in respect to the flesh. Well then, even if there were no prize, the example would suffice to persuade us to accept all [such] things. But now prizes also are set before us, and these no common ones, but great and unspeakable.

5. Wherefore let us also, whenever we suffer anything of this kind, before the Apostles consider Christ. Why? His whole life was full of insults. For He continually heard Himself called mad, and a deceiver, and a sorcerer; and at one time the Jews said, “Nay,” (it says) “but He deceives the people.” And again, “That deceiver said while He was yet alive, after three days I will rise again.” As to sorcery too they calumniated Him, saying, “He casts out the devils by Beelzebub.” And that “He is mad and has a devil.” “Said we not well” (it says) “that He has a devil and is mad?”

And these things He heard from them, when doing them good, performing miracles, showing forth the works of God. For indeed, if He had been so spoken of, when He did nothing, it would not have been so wonderful: But [it is wonderful] that when He was teaching what pertained to Truth He was called “a deceiver,” and when He cast out devils, was said to “have a devil,” and when He was overthrowing all that was opposed [to God], was called a sorcerer. For these things they were continually alleging against Him.

And if you would know both the scoffs and the ironical jeerings, which they made against Him (what particularly wounds our souls), hear first those from His kindred. “Is not this” (it says) “the carpenter's son, whose father and mother we know? Are not his brethren all with us?” Also scoffing at Him from His country, they said He was “of Nazareth.” And again, “search,” it says, “and see, for out of Galilee has no prophet arisen.” And He endured being so greatly calumniated. And again they said, “Does not the Scripture say, that Christ comes from the town of Bethlehem?”

Would you see also the ironical jeerings they made? Coming, it says, to the very cross they worshipped Him; and they struck Him and buffeted Him, and said, “Tell us who it is that smote You”; and they brought vinegar to Him, and said, “If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross.” And again, the servant of the High Priest struck Him with the palm of his hand; and He says, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smites thou Me?” And in derision they put a robe about Him; and they spat in His face; and they were continually applying their tests, tempting Him.

Would you see also the accusations, some secret, some open, some from disciples? “Will ye also go away?” He says. And that saying, “You have a devil”, was uttered by those who already believed. Was He not continually a fugitive, sometimes in Galilee, and sometimes in Judea? Was not His trial great, even from the swaddling clothes? When He was yet a young child, did not His mother take Him and go down into Egypt? For all these reasons he says, “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

To Him then let us look, also to the [sufferings] of His disciples, reading the [writings] of Paul, and hearing him say, “In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments.” And again, “Even to this present hour, we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat.” Has any one [of us] suffered the smallest part of these things? For, he says, [we are] “As deceivers, as dishonored, as having nothing.” And again, “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in tribulations, in distress, in hunger.” And that these things seem good to God, hear him saying, “For this I besought the Lord thrice, and He said to me, My Grace is sufficient for you; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “Wherefore,” he says, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Moreover, hear Christ Himself saying, “In the world you shall have tribulation.”