Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

⁴ When therefore they had heard these things, “the Pharisees,” it is said, “were offended,” not the multitudes. For “His disciples,” so it is said, “came and said unto Him, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard the saying?” Yet surely nothing had been said unto them.

What then says Christ? He did not remove the offense in respect of them, but reproved them, saying, “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up.” For He is wont both to despise offenses, and not to despise them. Elsewhere, for example, He says, “But lest we should offend them, cast an hook into the sea:” but here He says, “Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind: and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

But these things His disciples said, not as grieving for those men only, but as being themselves also slightly perplexed. But because they dared not say so in their own person, they would fain learn it by their telling Him of others. And as to its being so, hear how after this the ardent and ever-forward Peter came to Him, and says, “Declare unto us this parable,” discovering the trouble in his soul, and not indeed venturing to say openly, “I am offended,” but requiring that by His interpretation he should be freed from his perplexity; wherefore also he was reproved.

What then says Christ? “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up.”

This, they that are diseased with the Manichæan pest affirm to be spoken of the law; but their months are stopped by what had been said before. For if He was speaking of the law, how does He further back defend it, and fight for it, saying, “Why do ye transgress the commandments of God for your tradition?” And how does He bring for ward the prophet? But of themselves and of their traditions He so speaks. For if God said, “Honor your father and your mother,” how is not that of God's planting, which was spoken by God?

And what follows also indicates, that of themselves it was said, and of their traditions. Thus He added, “They are blind leaders of the blind.” Whereas, had He spoken it of the law, He would have said, “It is a blind leader of the blind.” But not so did He speak, but, “They are blind leaders of the blind:” freeing it from the blame, and bringing it all round upon them.

Then to sever the people also from them, as being on the point of falling into a pit by their means, He says, “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”

It is a great evil merely to be blind, but to be in such a case and have none to lead him, nay, to occupy the place of a guide, is a double and triple ground of censure. For if it be a dangerous thing for the blind man not to have a guide, much more so that he should even desire to be guide to another.

What then says Peter? He says not, “What can this be which You have said?” but as though it were full of obscurity, he puts his question. And he says not, “Why have you spoken contrary to the law?” for he was afraid, lest he should be thought to have taken offense, but asserts it to be obscure. However, that it was not obscure, but that he was offended, is manifest, for it had nothing of obscurity.

Wherefore also He rebukes him, saying, “Are ye also yet without understanding?” For as to the multitude, they did not perhaps so much as understand the saying; but themselves were the persons offended. Wherefore, whereas at first, as though asking in behalf of the Pharisees, they were desirous to be told; when they heard Him denouncing a great threat, and saying, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up,” and, “They are blind leaders of the blind,” they were silenced. But he, always ardent, not even so endures to hold his peace, but says, “Declare unto us this parable.”

What then says Christ? With a sharp rebuke He answers, “Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not yet understand?”

But these things He said, and reproved them, in order to cast out their prejudice; He stopped not however at this, but adds other things also, saying, “That whatsoever enters in at the mouth goes into the belly, and is cast out into the draught; but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, blasphemies, false-witnessings: and these are the things that defile the man: but to eat with unwashen hands defiles not the man.”

Do you see how sharply He deals with them, and in the way of rebuke?

Then He establishes His saying by our common nature, and with a view to their cure. For when He says, “It goes into the belly, and is cast out into the draught,” he is still answering according to the low views of the Jews. For He says, “it abides not, but goes out:” and what if it abode? It would not make one unclean. But not yet were they able to hear this.

And one may remark, that because of this the lawgiver allows just so much time, as it may be remaining within one, but when it is gone forth, no longer. For instance, at evening He bids you wash yourself, and so be clean; measuring the time of the digestion, and of the excretion. But the things of the heart, He says, abide within, and when they are gone forth they defile, and not when abiding only. And first He puts our evil thoughts, a kind of thing which belonged to the Jews; and not as yet does He make His refutation from the nature of the things, but from the manner of production from the belly and the heart respectively, and from the fact that the one sort remains, the other not; the one entering in from without, and departing again outwards, while the others are bred within, and having gone forth they defile, and then more so, when they are gone forth. Because they were not yet able, as I said, to be taught these things with all due strictness.

But Mark says, that “cleansing the meats,” He spoke this. He did not however express it, nor at all say, “but to eat such and such meats defiles not the man,” for neither could they endure to be told it by Him thus distinctly. And accordingly His conclusion was, “But to eat with unwashen hands defiles not the man.”