Coptic homilies in the dialect of Upper Egypt/Sermon 5

The Discourse Which Saint Athanasius, Archbishop of Rakote, Pronounced Concerning the Passage in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, ’The Kingdom Which Is in the Heavens Is Like Unto a Rich Man, Who Came Out in the Morning To Hire Labourers for His Vineyard 

The Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew : The kingdom which is in the heavens is like unto a certain rich man, who came out in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He made an agreement with the labourers [to pay them] a stater a day, [and] he sent them into his vineyard. He came out [again] at the third hour, and he saw others standing in the market, and they were idle. He said unto these others, ' Go into my vineyard, and that which you are worthy I will give to you'; and they went in. He came out again at the sixth hour, and again at the ninth hour [and saw other labourers], and he did the same with these. When, however, he came out again at the eleventh hour, he saw others standing [in the market]. He said unto them, ' Wherefore do you stand in this place the whole day doing nothing? ' They said unto him, 'Because no man has hired us.' He said unto them, ' Go ye into my vineyard.'

Now let us enquire carefully, and let us learn what are these kinds of labourers, and what this vineyard is, and who is this master. In the first place, the Master in this vineyard is God the Father, Who has governed His creatures (or, creation) from the beginning. And moreover, He speaks with them through the prophet who has made known to us that the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah are the new and beloved plant. The labourers whom He hired in the beginning are Moses, and Aaron, and Jesus the son of Nun. He called unto Moses in the land of Midian, saying, ' Come you, get you down into Egypt, and you will bring out My people from that land [ Exod. iii. 10. ] . And you will labour in My vineyard in commandments, and decrees, and ordinances. And He covenanted with them for a stater, that is, Moses was to have the honourable rank of prophet, and Aaron was to hold the office of high priest over His people, and they were to serve [him].

Those who were hired at the third hour were the Judges, whom He appointed to be over His people ; ' him of whom you are worthy will I give unto you.' They were not prophets, and they were not apostles, but they were those who were worthy of the title of 'judge'.

Those who were hired at the sixth hour, and at the ninth hour, were Samuel, and David, and all the [other] Prophets. Samuel worked in the vineyard with a horn. [ 1 Sam. xvi. 13. ] David transplanted a slip of the vine from the land of Egypt, and he cultivated it with the psaltery. Hosea found Israel to be like a vine in the desert in some respects, for he said, ' Israel is a branch of a vine which is good, and his fruit is abundant.' [ Hos. x. 1. ]

Those who were hired at the eleventh hour were the Apostles, whom He found to be idle the whole day. And they were idle in respect of the works of iniquity of all kinds, because no one had hired them, and the Devil could not hire them for the service of idols. He could not hire John the Baptist for the peddlers in the place of eating and drinking. Peter he could not hire for the service of unbelief. Andrew he could not hire in polluted marriage, and he could

not make him to become the servant of a woman. For this reason he was called ' Boanerges ', that is to say, ' Son of the thunder of heaven.' Therefore could no one hire them on earth to make them to work for him, and to give them a wages according to what they were worth. Therefore were their wages abundant in the heavens. Therefore does the Saviour say concerning all the Apostles, ' O My Father, the men whom You have given unto Me from the world have I found to be chosen vessels. [ Compare John xvii. 6. ] And again, ' Of those whom You have given unto Me have I lost none ' ; [ John xvii. 12 ; xviii. 9. ] and, ' No man is able to come unto Me except through My Father, Who has sent Me to draw him.' [ John vi. 44. ]

Behold, these words make us to know that it is the Father Who hires the labourers for His vineyard. Who is this Governor? I say, It is the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, in Whose hand are all the possessions of God, which is a mystery. His power is in Israel and in the other nations, for He Himself said, 'The Father loves the Son, and has given everything into His hand.' [ John iii. 35. ] The Son says, ' To Him belongs the inheritance.' The Governor says, ( It is He Who gives wages to those who labour, and the whole world is under His rule.' Therefore is the key of David in His hand, and He is the vine. Therefore it is He Who rejoices in all His creatures. He is the Bread. Therefore it is He Who gives meat and drink to all His creation.

Now when the evening had come the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, ' Call the labourers, give them their wages ; begin with the last and continue until you come to the first; [ Matt. xx. 8. ] give unto each a stater.' The Father says unto the Son, 'Either at the last day or today, You know [best], call the labourers and give them their wages, all the labourers who have laboured for the race

of men, give them the wages of their work.' Paul says, ' Now certain men God placed in the Church, the first being the Apostles,' [ 1 Cor. xii. 28. ] unto whom He began to give [their] wages; and the second were the Prophets, et cetera.

The first [labourers] came, thinking that they would receive more [than the others]. Hearken unto Him, for He said, 'I say unto you, very many of the Prophets and Kings have desired eagerly to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them.' [ Matt. xiii. 17. ] The stater which He gave unto them was the honour of Apostleship, and the Holy Offering.

And, the Scripture says, when they had taken the stater, they murmured against the lord of the vineyard and said, ( Why is it? These last have only laboured for one hour, and yet you have paid them the same amount as you have paid to us.' Now, who are these who murmured and were envious of the labourers who came in last except the scribes and the Pharisees, who had themselves been sent to labour in the vineyard? It is against these that the Scripture cries out saying, 'Why have you burned up My vineyard? And why are the possessions plundered from the poor in your houses? ' [ Isa. iii. 14. ] For they themselves received the Law as the commands of angels, but they did not keep it, and they murmured against the Lord saying, ' The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast. [ Matt. ix. 14. ] Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They wash not their hands when they eat their bread, [ Matt. xv. 2. ] they eat, they drink, they make merry. Even the Apostles cut down the ears of corn [ Matt. xii. 1. ] and eat before your very face, and they wander about at large in the world.' It was these very men that murmured saying, ' Why have your disciples made the Sabbath to be of none effect?' who were envious of these last who were the labourers in truth.

And the lord [of the vineyard] made answer, and said unto one of them, ' Friend, I have done you no injustice. Did I not agree with you for one stater? Take what is your and depart.' [ Matt. xx. 13. ] And who was it who made all these complaints? I say that it was none other than he to whom it was said, ' Friend, that wherefor you have come, do,' [ John xiii. 27. ] that is to say, it was Judas, who betrayed the Saviour, and who spoke with great murmurings saying, 'Why did they not sell the unguent for three hundred staters and give them to the poor? ' [ Mark xiv. 5. ] If you care for the poor, O betrayer, why did you steal their property from the coffer of the treasury? Or was your eye evil because I am good? Now because he was a wicked man he stole the money which was cast into it (i.e., the coffer). And the Saviour Himself was good to him, and He showed Himself longsuffering in respect of him, for He said unto him, 'I have not the power to do that which I wish with the offerings which they bring?' This was God's defence of him : I, Who am God, have not the power to pay more wages than those which a man will earn, and I judge those who will work wickedness. These are the testimonies, and the murmurings of Judas; he murmured with his tongue, and he was cruel and merciless in his heart. He was a wicked man in his soul, he was a thief with his hands, and he was shameless in respect of his eyes.

And when they were eating, the Apostles watched that they might not let their hands touch those of the Saviour in the bowl, for they were afraid, and said, 'Who are we that we should eat with God? ' But Judas, the man with no right perception, did not hesitate to put his hand into the bowl with the Saviour, and he was eager to dip his piece of bread at the same time, and to eat before the Saviour. The Saviour said nothing in order that we might understand.

When the disciples had asked Him, ' Who, then, is it that will betray You?' He gave them a sign of the want of right perception in Judas saying, ' He who will dip his hand with Me into the bowl first is he who will betray Me ' ; [ Matt. xxvi. 23. ] and He said unto him, ' That which you will do, do quickly. ' For the Saviour made haste to work out the salvation of His creation on the Cross, according to the wish and commandment of His Father. You will not find that He put out of the way, or was careless about that for which He had come, or that He was afraid of death ; but He made manifest His readiness for the Cross like a valiant martyr, and like God Who is without fear.

Therefore He urged Judas onward saying, ' That which you will do, do quickly. [ John xiii. 27. ] Haste onward, for all these created beings are hindered ; they await you, and moreover, they await Me. Those beings who are in the heavens await Me, and those beings who are in the abyss and chaos await you. My Father is with Me, and He will help Me; the Devil is with you, and he stands by your side, on the right hand of you, and he will help you. Those who are in the gates which are in the heavens, that is, the holy angels, will crown Me, and the avenging powers are making Hades ready for you. And He urged him onward with these words, ' Make haste, for I am ready for the whips (or, scourgings).'

Rightly therefore did Esdras say, ' The creature may not haste more than the Creator.' [ 2 Esdras v. 44. ] Now since Judas was he who should betray Him, why did He cry out to him, 'Friend, I do you no injustice'? Though He said to him, ' Your eye is evil, but I Myself am good, the Saviour did not withhold the speech of friendship from him until the hour in which he betrayed Him. He called him ' friend ', but He thought of enmity. He gave him the bag that held the money, and he became a thief.

He chose him as a disciple, but he meditated guile. He chose him as a man, but he became a devil.

O Judas, what is it you did? And what did you gain when you betrayed the Lord? You wasted your life, and lost this great honour, the glory of Apostleship. For who is above his lot? After the appellation of ' Angel ' comes the title of ' Apostle.' Now a man hardly considers his son to be worthy to eat with him, yet it was a helpless servant who was made to eat with his God, and Jesus, our Lord, considered him to be worthy to do so. He ate with the tax-gatherers, and He drank with Judas the lawless man, and a pestilent man reached out his hand with [that of] God.

This wretched man lost his life, and accepted death for himself; he exalted himself above his worth, and he fell down to the ground according to his worth. Jesus chose him with the Apostles, and he lost his Apostleship. He was chosen to be an heir, and he himself abandoned Your inheritance. Now the Apostles were the heirs of the Saviour, and they were the light of the world, but Judas did not wish to give forth light. They were the salt of the earth, but Judas did not wish to purge away what was polluted. They were those whom God set in the Church, but Judas did not wish to continue with them. Therefore was he removed from the measure of manhood, and he became the portion of the Devil.

Woe be unto you, O Judas ! In what way did you benefit yourself? Better Cain, who killed a man, than Judas, who killed God. Better Saul, who hated a man, than Judas, who hated God. Better the hardheartedness of Pharaoh towards the people than the hardheartedness of Judas towards God. Better the deceit of Balaam than the wickedness of Judas. Better the rebellious speech of Korah in the desert than the stiff-neckedness of Judas in Jerusalem. Better Achar (Achan), who stole the accursed thing, than Judas who stole the gifts of charity. Better the arrogance of Absalom in respect of David than the contumacy of Judas in respect of God. Better the evil counsel to David of Ahitophel, who hanged himself and died, than the condemnation of Judas, who hanged himself and is in Tartaros, against the Saviour. Better, by far, the cursings by Shimei of David than the scorn of the Saviour by Judas. Of far less evil was the bloody murder by Joab, which he committed in sheer wickedness, than the murder by Judas, which he committed in pitilessness. Better the love of money by Gehazi, who became a leper, than the avariciousness of Judas who went to destruction. The sin of Jeroboam was less than the wickedness of Judas, for Jeroboam [only] made false gods, but Judas rejected the True God.

'Friend, I do you no injustice ; take that which is your [and] depart.' [ Matt. xx. 13, 14. ] O evil friend Judas, it was not the Saviour "Who did you an injustice, but you yourself; take you your curse, and depart you into Hades !" Now Judas being in this state, Matthias [ Acts i. 26. ] entered in and received the blessing, and became a disciple of the Master in his stead. He became an Apostle, he preached, and he sent forth light into the countries [round about]. He made himself salt, and purified souls ; he made himself a servant, and was in subjection unto God ; he became a beloved son of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of All, the Lord of All, the Glory of All, Who rules All, Who will judge All, Who shows compassion upon All, Who does acts of mercy to All, Who sustains All, Who destroys All, Who transforms All, Who makes All new, Who makes All glad, and through Whom All endures.

And now, O man, come and embark in the ship of salvation which is the faith of the Church. It has two steering ' oars, wherewith it is guided, and these are the Testaments, whereon if you will meditate they will bring you unto a good place for tying up your boat. It has a mast, which

is the Cross of the Lord, and a rudder ; these are your hands which are stretched out in prayer to God. It has a sail which bears it onwards, that is the Power of God, which directs you into every good course. It has a guiding pole, which is the Bishop in the Church. It has a helmsman to steer it, Who is Jesus, Who directs the course of the universe. The sailors on board are the clergy who are in the Church and who minister. There is a cargo borne upon it, and these are the Christian peoples. You will arrive in port, in a haven which is fair, that is to say, the harbour of Jesus, which is the heavenly Jerusalem. You will inherit the things promised by God, that is to say, His good things, and you will rest yourself with your fellow-citizens, who are the angels and all the saints.

And now behold, O my brethren, we have passed the whole day in exercising ourselves in the word, so that we might at length set the matter, whereto we put our hands, upon its feet. And now, let us give thanks unto God, and unto the Holy Spirit, Who has opened for us our mouth in speech, and has put into our mouth the words, in order that we may say the things which the Logos has bestowed upon us, which will benefit greatly our own souls and the souls of those who hear us. Let us ascribe blessing to the Logos, Who has blessed us with the Holy Spirit. It is He, moreover, Who spoke saying, 'When they speak with you, take no thought as to what you will say, for it will be given unto you in that hour what you will say. For it will not be you who will speak, but the Spirit of our Father Who will speak in you. [ Matt. x. 19. ] And now let us ascribe glory to God, God Almighty, Who has sent unto us the King, the Christ, through Whom we bless and praise the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial Trinity, from all ages to all ages. Amen.