Sermon 218C
SERMON 218/C
ON THE PASSION OF THE LORD
Admirable exchange in the passion of Christ.
The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the confidence of glory and the doctrine of patience. For what could the hearts of the faithful not promise themselves from the grace of God, for whom it was not sufficient that the only-begotten Son of God, co-eternal with the Father, should be born as a man from a man, unless He also should die at the hands of men whom He created? Great is that which is promised to us by the Lord in the future: but much greater is that which we recall has already been done for us. Where were they, or what were they, when Christ died for the ungodly? Who would doubt that He will grant His life to the saints, He who granted His death to the same? Why does human frailty hesitate to believe that it will happen that men will live with God some day? Much more unbelievable has already happened, that God died for men. For who is Christ, except that which was in the beginning, the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? This Word of God was made flesh, and dwelt among us. For He did not have in Himself the means to die for us, unless He had taken mortal flesh from us. Thus the immortal was able to die, thus He wished to give life to mortals; later He would make them partakers of Himself, of whom He had first made Himself a partaker. For we did not have of our own means whereby we might live, nor did He of His own have the means whereby He might die. Therefore, in mutual sharing with us, He worked a wondrous exchange; it was ours, whereby He died; it will be His, whereby we shall live. Nevertheless, the flesh, which He took from us in order to die, He also gave, because He is the Creator; but the life by which we shall live in Him and with Him, He did not receive from us. Therefore, as pertains to our nature, whereby we are humans, He did not die of His own, but of ours; yet, insofar as it pertains to His creation, which He made as God, He also died of His own; for He also made the flesh in which He died.
One should not be ashamed of the death of the Lord; rather, one should greatly glory in it.
Therefore, we not only ought not to be ashamed of the death of our Lord God, but also must place our utmost trust in it and glory in it; by taking upon Himself the death that He discovered in us, He most faithfully promised to give us life in Himself, which we cannot have from ourselves. For He who loved us so much that He suffered without sin for sinners what we deserved for sin, how will He not give us what justice, He who justifies? How will He not render the rewards of the saints, who endured the punishment of the wicked without iniquity, as He promises in truth? Let us therefore, brothers, confess or even profess without fear that Christ was crucified for us; not fearing, but rejoicing: not being ashamed, but glorying, let us say. The Apostle Paul saw this and commended the title of glory. Although he had many great and divine things to recount about Christ, he did not say he gloried in the wonders of Christ, because, being God with the Father, He created the world, and being also a man like us, He ruled the world; but rather, he said, “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He saw for whom, by whom, and where He hung; and from such great humility of God and divine loftiness, the Apostle presumed.
In what sense it is affirmed that God is dead.
But those who insult us because we venerate the crucified Lord, the more they seem wise to themselves, the more incurably and desperately they are foolish, and they do not understand at all what we believe or say; for we do not say that what was dead in Christ was what was God, but what was human. For if, when any human being dies, that which is most truly human, that is, that by which one is distinguished from a beast, which has intellect, which discerns the human and the divine, the temporal and the eternal, the false and the true, that is, the rational soul, does not undergo death with the body, but departs alive as the body dies, and yet it is said: "The man is dead"; why should it not be similarly said: "God is dead," so that it is understood not that what is God could die, but what was mortal that God took on for the sake of mortals? For just as, when a human dies, the soul does not die in the flesh, so also when Christ died, His divinity did not die in the man. But they say, God could not mix with a man and be made one with him in Christ. According to this carnal and vain sentiment and human opinions, it would be much harder to believe that a spirit could mix with flesh than that God could mix with man; and yet no man would be human unless a human spirit were mixed with a human body. Therefore, when the mixture of spirit and body is more difficult and more wonderful than the mixture of spirit and Spirit; if the human spirit, which is not a body, and the human body, which is not a spirit, yet are mixed in order to make a man, how much more, to make one Christ from both, could God, who is spirit, mix not with a body without a spirit, but with a man having a spirit in a spiritual participation.
The cross of Christ is the doctrine of patience and humility.
Therefore, let us also glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to us and we to the world; of which cross, so that we would not be ashamed, we placed it on our very forehead, that is, in the dwelling of modesty. But now, if we attempt to explain how beneficial the doctrine of patience in that cross is, what words, what times would suffice for the matters? For which man, who truly and earnestly believes in Christ, would dare to be proud, with God teaching humility not only by word but also by His own example? Truly the usefulness of this doctrine is briefly reminded by that saying of the Holy Scripture: Before destruction the heart is exalted, and before glory it is humbled; which aligns with: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble; and this: Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Therefore, when the Apostle admonishes us not to be wise in our own eyes, but to associate with the lowly, let him consider, if he can, to what precipice of pride a man is brought if he does not consent to the humble God; and how dangerous it is for a man to impatiently bear what the just God has willed if God patiently endured what the unjust enemy willed.