Before us are verses 23 and 24:
“And you, Capernaum, who have been exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Saint John Chrysostom shows in his interpretation of this verse why the Lord Jesus Christ mentions Sodom. The Lord wishes to awaken people and therefore also threatens them. At the same time, this serves as an answer to an argument that can sometimes be heard within the Church, when people say that one should not speak about eternal torments, but only about a God who loves man and who was crucified out of love for the human race. Saint John speaks as follows: “The Saviour does not mention Sodom together with these cities by chance, but in order to intensify the condemnation. Indeed, the greatest proof of Jewish wickedness is that they are worse not only than their contemporaries, but than all evil people who have ever lived. In a similar way the Saviour rebukes them elsewhere as well, comparing them with the Ninevites and with the Queen of the South. However, there He condemns them by comparing them with the righteous, whereas here He compares them with sinners, which is far more severe. The prophet Ezekiel employed such a manner of condemnation as well. He said to Jerusalem: ‘Samaria did not commit half of your sins; you have committed more abominations than they, and have justified your sisters by all the abominations that you have done’ (Ezek. 16:51). Thus Jesus always appealed to the Old Testament! Yet He does not end His condemnation there, but instills fear in them, saying that they will suffer far greater calamities than the inhabitants of Sodom, in order by every means to dispose them toward faith—both by compassion and by fear.”
Saint Justin of Ćelije, in his reflection, points out the difference in the spiritual condition of people—the infamous Sodomites and the inhabitants of Capernaum, who had the privilege that the incarnate God dwelt in their city. Abba Justin writes: “Capernaum was exalted to heaven by the fact that in it lived and worked miracles the God-Man, the Lord Christ—this greatest and most philanthropic miracle on this planet. But by not accepting this all-saving miracle, Capernaum cast itself down into hell. And the inhabitants of Sodom, who by their corruption brought upon their city the dreadful punishment of God, would have been more willing to understand and accept Christ the Saviour; they would have been more perceptive and more Christ-loving than the inhabitants of Capernaum. The Lord mentions Sodom in order to show how terrible a punishment the Jews deserve.”
Blessed Theophylact adds the following words: “Capernaum means ‘place of consolation.’ From this you may see that if someone is deemed worthy to become a dwelling place of the ‘Comforter,’ that is, the Holy Spirit, and then becomes proud, exalting himself to heaven, he will in the end fall because of his pride. Therefore, O man, be afraid and tremble!”
Blessed Jerome of Stridon responds to a dilemma that many of us have long carried within ourselves: if the Lord knows that sinful cities would have repented had preaching been heard among them, why did He not arrange for this to happen? Here is the excellent explanation of Blessed Jerome: “A pious reader may perhaps ask: ‘If Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom were able to repent because of preaching and the Saviour’s miracles, then they were not guilty of unbelief; the guilt for the lack of preaching lies with those who did not wish to preach to people who could have repented.’ The answer to such reasoning is simple and clear: we do not know the judgments of God, nor are the mysteries of His actions accessible to us. The Lord chose not to go beyond the borders of Judea, so as not to give the Pharisees and priests a pretext to persecute Him. For this reason, before His Passion, Jesus also commanded the apostles: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans’ (Matt. 10:5). Thus Chorazin and Bethsaida are condemned because they did not wish to believe the Lord Himself, while Tyre and Sidon are justified because they believed His apostles. Do not ask about time when you have salvation of the faithful before your eyes.” And this final thought about the lesser importance of time speaks of the all-encompassing nature of divine providence, which we human beings are unable fully to comprehend.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers describes the spiritual condition of the people in Bethsaida and Capernaum, the cities in which the Lord spent His days here on earth: “Even in Bethsaida and Capernaum the mute praise the Lord, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and yet amazement at such great miracles did not arouse any desire to believe; whereas merely hearing about such deeds ought to have inspired fear and led to faith. However, not only the sins of Tyre and Sidon, but even the very sins of Sodom and Gomorrah will appear insignificant, since in their case there might have arisen a powerful sense of faith had they been witnesses of such miracles.” Unfortunately, we can observe this even today in Serbia: despite countless healings that are granted even at Ostrog alone, there are many people who remain absolutely indifferent towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 25:
“At that time Jesus answered and said: I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to the little ones.”
Saint John Chrysostom offers an answer to a dilemma that may arise in the minds of some people: “What then? Does Jesus rejoice over destruction and over the fact that such people have not come to know the truth? By no means. Rather, the best path of salvation consists in this: that those who despise the teaching and refuse to accept it are not compelled. If, through such summons, they do not become better but instead fall away and despise it, then by their very rejection a greater openness towars preaching should be awakened in them. And through this, those who are attentive to the preaching will become even more attentive. The revelation of the truth to some should produce joy in them; conversely, the concealment of these truths from others should not produce joy in the former, but sorrow. Thus Jesus Himself acts when He weeps over Jerusalem. Therefore, Jesus does not rejoice in anyone’s misfortune, but in the fact that what was hidden from the wise and understanding has been grasped by the simple. In the same way, when Paul wrote, But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted (Rom. 6:17), he does not rejoice because they were slaves of sin, but because, being such, they were deemed worthy of such great blessings. By ‘the wise’ the Lord here means the scribes and Pharisees, and He speaks these words in order to make His disciples more zealous, while at the same time showing these ‘wise’ ones of what great blessings fishermen were deemed worthy, blessings of which they themselves were deprived. By calling them wise, Jesus does not speak of true and praiseworthy wisdom, but of that which they attributed to themselves. Therefore He does not say ‘revealed to the foolish,’ but to the simple—that is, to the uncontrived, the plain. In this way Jesus shows that the Pharisees were deprived of these blessings not only because they were unworthy of them, but also because they were justly excluded.”
Blessed Theophylact continues this thought and adds: “God has hidden His mysteries from those who feigned wisdom, not because He envied them or wished to leave them in ignorance, but because they were unworthy, since they considered themselves wise. He who considers himself wise and relies on his own knowledge does not call upon God; and God does not help or reveal Himself to one who does not call upon Him. Moreover, out of His love for mankind, God does not reveal mysteries to many, so that they might not be tormented even more afterwards for having known them and then despised them.”
Saint Justin of Ćelije points out the essential difference between the wise and the simple in this verse: “From the proud sages God has hidden the precious mysteries of faith, the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, because they did not wish to receive them, and He revealed them to the simple because they were willing to receive them. The word hidden does not mean that God is the cause of this, but that it is spoken in the same sense in which the Apostle Paul says: God gave them up to a debased mind… What then? Does God rejoice in their destruction? By no means.”
Saint Cyril of Alexandria responds to the arguments of ancient heretics who denied Jesus’ equality with God the Father. His words today can serve as an answer to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims as well. Saint Cyril writes: “If you suppose that by this confession Jesus is lesser than the Father, then consider the following. Jesus confesses and calls the Father the Lord of heaven and earth. The Son of God, who fully reigns over all things, reigns together with the Father over all—not as one who is lesser or of a different nature, but as God from God, adorned with equal glory, as One who by nature possesses equality with the Father in all respects.”
Blessed Augustine writes about a matter of great importance in the spiritual life. We often forget to praise the Lord, reducing our relationship with Him merely to asking something of Him. The Holy Fathers teach that thanksgiving to God can strengthen our faith even further. Thus Blessed Augustine writes: “The Son says to the Father, I thank You, thereby teaching us that confession to God should not be only for sins. For usually, when in Scripture one hears, Give thanks to the Lord (1 Chr. 16:8), many who hear this beat their breasts. They do not understand that confessing God signifies something other than what they commonly resort to—repenting and confessing their sins while expecting their reward from God: not what they deserve to suffer, but what the Lord chooses to grant by His mercy. For if there were no confession of God in glorification, the Lord would not have said, I thank You, Father. Jesus had no sin to confess. Thus you too confess God: His blessing poured out like a river and watered the dry land like a flood (Sirach 39:22). And this is a confession of praise, not of guilt.”
Verse 26 reads:
“Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will.”
John Chrysostom insightfully connects this verse with an event from the Gospel according to Luke: “The Apostle Luke says that Jesus rejoiced and uttered these words at the moment when the seventy disciples, upon their return, reported that the demons were subject to them; and precisely this not only made them most zealous, but also disposed them towards greater humility. Since they could have fallen into conceit because they cast out demons, Jesus immediately directs them towards humility, indicating that their victories over the demons were not the result of their own effort, but the work of God’s revelation.” Thus we see that the Lord Jesus, as the model and ideal of a spiritual guide, constantly takes care of the spiritual condition of His disciples and continually educates them spiritually.
Adapted for the contemporary reader based on Patristic commentary by Stanoje Stanković
