Homilies on Luke

Homily 35. Luke 12.57-59

HOMILY 35 Luke I2.57-59 On the passagefrom, "When you go with your adversary, " up to the point where it says, "And you will repay the lastfarthing. " NLESS WE WERE by nature suited to judge what is just, the Savior would never have said, "Butwhy do you not judge for yourselves what is just?'" We should not digress too long on the examination ofthis sentence, since much more difficultverses follow in this chapter. Let it suffice to have said this much about it. We should rather spread out the sails ofour souls to God and prayfor the coming ofhis Word.2 Then God's Word could interpret the parable in Scripture which reads, "When you go on your way to a ruler with your adversary, make an effort to be freed from him, lest perhaps he should hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the debt collector, and you be sent to prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not get out of there until you pay back the last farthing. "3 I see four persons mentioned here: the adversary, the ruler, thejudge, and the debt collector. The evangelistMatthew seems to have said something similar when he wrote, "Be gracious to your adversarywhile you are on yourwaywith him. "1 Hence, I ask whether this passage has the same sense as Luke's or whether there is merely some similarity. In Matthew's version , one person is omitted and another is changed. 2. The "ruler" is omitted. For the "debt collector," Matthew has "servant." Both Matthew and Luke include the "adversary" 1. Lk 12.57. 2. Origen also asks for prayers to understand the Scripture elsewhere, for example in Homilies on Ezekiel 4.3 and 11.2. 3· Lk 12.58-59. 4- Mt 5.25-26. 142 HOMILY 35 143 and the 'Judge." Therefore, we go with our adversary to a ruler. While we are still on the way, we should work courageously to be freed from him. From whom? The word is ambiguous, and could refer either to the ruler or to the adversary. "Lestperhaps he"-either the adversary or the ruler-"should handyou over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the debt collector ," and "you will not get out of there until you pay back the last farthing." Matthew says for this "until you pay back the last penny."5 Each of them kept the word "last." But they seem to diverge, insofar as Matthew says "penny" whereas Luke wrote "farthing. " 3. I have to touch on some more hidden matters,6 that we might understand that the adversary is of one sort, while the three other persons-thatis, the ruler, thejudge, and the debt collector-are ofanother sort. We read that the angel ofjustice and the angel of iniquity argued about Abraham's salvation and his loss, as each of the camps wished to claim him for itself. The condition is, ofcourse, that someone should be willing to accept a writing of this kind.' But, if it displeases anyone, he should go to the book entitled The Shepherd. There he will find that two angels are present to every man: a wicked angel, who exhorts him to wrongdoing; and a good angel, who urges him to do everything good.s Elsewhere, too, it is recorded that two angels attend a man, for good and for evil. The Savior, too, mentions the good angels when he says, "Their angels always see the face of my Father, who is in heaven."9 You should also ask whether the angels of those who are little children in the Church "always see the Father's face," while others' angels do not have the liberty to behold the Father's face. For, we cannot 5. Mt 5.26. 6. On the Gnostic interpretation of Lk 12.58-59, see Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.25.4. 7. See J. T. Milik, "4 Q Visions de 'Amram et une citation d'Origene," Revue Biblique 79( 1972) 77-97, who studied an apocryphal writing from Qumran on Amram, the father ofMoses and Aaron. Milik believes that the text was translated into Greek and read by Origen, who alludes to it here. Hence "Abraham" is an incorrect reading for "Amram." 8. Cf. Hom. 12-4-6 and Hermas, Shepherd 36.2-10. 9. Mt 18.10. 144 ORIGEN hope that everyone...