THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
When the miracle had been accomplished, some marveled, while others went and told the Pharisees. Instead of being astonished and amazed, they took counsel to kill Him, the One who had raised the dead man.
What madness! They thought to give over to death the One who conquered death in the bodies of others.
"What are we to do? This Man performs many signs," they say. They still call Him a man, after receiving such assurance of His Godhead. "What are we to do?" They ought to have believed, served, and worshiped, and no longer considered Him a mere man.
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When the Pharisees heard all this, they formed a new council, saying among themselves, "What are we to do? This Man performs many signs." A great accusation! The dead are awakened, death is put to death, Lazarus rises from the dead, and the Jews are drawn toward spiritual death.
Therefore do not leave your council unfinished. Continue the accusation and say: What are we to do when, a few days later, the sun in heaven is darkened, the earth quakes, unable to endure what is being done upon it, the veil within the temple is torn, and a multitude of the dead returns to life?
Say again: What are we to do when the temple is destroyed, the service ceases, the city is burned, we are driven out, and others become heirs in our place?
What are we to do when everything passes to others: prophets, apostles, priesthood, fasting, feasts, and service, and God permits it? Think about this. Take counsel about this.
The words of your speeches are useless to you. The decree is unchangeable: "Speak a word, but it shall not stand" (Isa 8:10). Once for all God has granted to those to whom He granted it always to triumph.
He has granted them always to celebrate, and from year to year to renew the celebration, in Christ Jesus our Lord. To Him be glory unto ages of ages. Amen.
On Holy and Great Tuesday.
The beloved children of the Church are like infants at the breast. Every day they are fed from their mother's breast, and every day they do not cease to desire it.
We ourselves may be compared to a poor mother whose milk has dried up from the exhaustion of hunger. A loving mother, having no milk, may be moved by the crying of her child and give him her breast.
She does this not to feed the child, but only to calm him. As you see, we too experience the same thing and act in the same way.
Seeing this new assembly of the Church's children surrounding us and awaiting the pure milk of the word from us, we stretch out our word to them. We do this not to nourish them, for we are poor and unskilled in speech, but to quench their dust and thirst.
Come then, beloved, let us listen to the herald of the Sun, and see what wicked ambush the chief priests and Pharisees prepared for the Lord.
"The chief priests and Pharisees," he says, "gathered a council and said, What are we to do?" The Evangelist John has just told us this.
Though he does not now speak with us mouth to mouth, nevertheless in spirit he spoke into the ears of those standing here. "The chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council and said, What are we to do?"
"They gathered" is good, but "a council" is evil. They gathered not for love, but for strife. They did not call to peace, but stirred up enmity.
They gathered an assembly not to glorify God, but to dishonor Christ. They gathered a council not to establish the faith, but to reject the cornerstone.
They gathered a council not to gather the wandering sheep into the fold, but to strike the Shepherd and scatter the sheep of His pasture.
They gathered a council not to receive the snow-white pearl with faith, but to hide the radiant stone, as they supposed, in the darkness of their unbelief.
They gathered an assembly not wisely to draw out the treasure hidden in the field, but senselessly to destroy the temple of God.
They gathered a council not to gather sweet clusters of grapes, but to raise the True Vine upon the tree of the Cross. They prepared destruction for themselves, and salvation for us.
O council gathered by the devil against Christ! O deliberation filled with malice! O assembly more of bloodthirsty wolves than of God-bearing men!
Why do I say fierce wolves? They are worse than savage lions. The lions saw no sign from Daniel and received him as an ordinary man. Yet they honored him and closed their mouths before him.
But the chief priests and Pharisees had been eyewitnesses of such and so many signs. They were therefore driven by still greater envy toward murder and said, "What are we to do?"
O reasonings inspired by malice! O groaning and cry born of envy! O lamentation and wailing over an evil plot! Not even Rachel, weeping for her children, groaned so.
"What are we to do?" They ought to have rejoiced over the afflicted. They ought to have established a public feast because the dead are raised, life triumphs, death is destroyed, the devil is put to shame, the army of demons is scattered, mankind is set free, and the resurrection of the dead is proclaimed to all.
But, on the contrary, such blessings do not gladden them, but grieve them. They take counsel to kill the Cause of all these blessings.
And what do they say? "What are we to do?" Let us turn in repentance, fall down before Him, and believe. This is the one thing they could have said.
Indeed, what else could they have said but this? "What are we to do," after transgressing the commandment of God and not keeping the law of God given to us?
It says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brethren, like me. Him you shall hear" (Deut 18:15), in all that he commands you.
But they did not mean repentance when they said, "What are we to do?" No, they meant something altogether different. "What are we to do? How shall we kill this Righteous One?"
Your mind has been darkened, O Israel. Did you not hear the commandment, "Do not put to death the innocent and righteous" (Dan 13:53)? Or was the blood of the prophets already shed not enough for you?
Even to the present day it cries to God, awaiting recompense from Him. But to surpass all that has been done, you prepare to shed holy and innocent blood, and you say, "What are we to do?"
O mad thought and senseless counsel! The four-days-dead man was brought to life among them. The bonds of sins were torn apart, and they plot treachery against Him.
They ought to have said something altogether different: "What are we to do? We have insulted the Holy One. We did not believe the Son of God.
"What are we to do? He healed the wounds of lepers by a single word, and we did not believe in Him.
"What are we to do? He opened the eyes of those born blind, and even this did not persuade us.
"What are we to do? We knew that with five loaves He fed five thousand in the wilderness, and we did not believe in Him.
"What are we to do? By His word He set the paralytic on his feet, the man lying on his bed, held by illness for thirty-eight years of his life, and we did not believe in Him.
"What are we to do? We saw Him walking upon the sea as on dry land. We knew that with one motion of His hand He calmed the terrible swellings and blasts of untamed winds, and still we remained in our unbelief."
But they uttered these words, "What are we to do?" not with a disposition toward repentance, but while seeking a way to commit the evil deed.
The earth without labor produced their dead as living, like ripe ears of grain, and they groaned. Did you Jews not reap what you sowed? Was anyone among you burdened by receiving the Lord?
In what respect were you burdened when you were punished? What injustice did you suffer from God? Why do you remove the dead from life, troubled by envy?
Why do you strive to destroy the inexhaustible streams of the sweet spring, from which those who drink would thirst no more? Why do you kill your sick by gathering to destroy their Physician?
The cause of all this, however, was most wicked envy. O envy, mother of murder, invention of the devil, cause of death!
O envy, you do not allow those whom you attack to live, and you punish still more those whom you possess. O envy, companion of the devil!
O envy, enemy of friendship, opponent of peace, rival of love, offspring of the devil, flower of the gloomy abyss! Whoever is possessed by you comes to the murder of Christ.
From the beginning you wounded Adam in paradise. You handed over the one who had tasted sweet delights to most bitter death. For death was not in the world until you, envy, brought it forth.
This is also witnessed by the divine word, which says, "God did not create death, and He does not delight in the destruction of the living." "But through the envy of the devil death entered the world" (Wis 1:13; 2:24).
You deprived Cain of the white garment of brotherly love and armed him with the knife of treachery. You taught him murder and at once made the wretched man shake and tremble.
You dwelt in Pharaoh and destroyed the newborn children of the Hebrews by untimely death. O envy, even when you are shown kindness, you rise up still more against your benefactors.
So Saul, while benefiting from David's service, was stirred up by you and armed himself still more for murder. At your prompting, the sons of Jacob sent beautiful Joseph into dizzying Egypt and sold him, though free, as a slave.
Even his dreams did not frighten them. Yet the divine vision showed that he was a type of Christ. Eleven stars bowed before him in the vision, eleven because the betrayer Judas hanged himself, having served envy.
But let us escape envy, the ancestress of death. Having risen, we shall glorify God, worshiped in the Trinity. To Him belong dominion, honor, glory, and majesty, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.