11. "If any man serve me, let him follow me." What is that, "let him follow me," but just, let him imitate me? "Because Christ suffered for us," says the Apostle Peter, "leaving us an example that we should follow His steps." [1041] Here you have the meaning of the words, "If any man serve me, let him follow me." But with what result? what wages? what reward? "And where I am," He says, "there shall also my servant be." Let Him be freely loved, that so the reward of the service done Him may be to be with Him. For where will one be well apart from Him, or when will one come to feel himself in an evil case in company with Him? Hear it still more plainly: "If any man serve me, him will my Father honor." And what will be the honor but to be with His Son? For of what He said before, "Where I am, there shall also my servant be," we may understand Him as giving the explanation, when He says here, "him will my Father honor." For what greater honor can await an adopted son than to be with the Only-begotten; not, indeed, as raised to the level of His Godhead, but made a partaker of His eternity?
12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if we have taken up the idea that the serving of Christ is the preparation of what is needful for the body, or the cooking and serving up of food, or the mixing of drink and handing the cup to one at the supper table; this, indeed, was done to Him by those who had the privilege of His bodily presence, as in the case of Martha and Mary, when Lazarus also was one of those who sat at the table. But in that sort of way Christ was served also by the reprobate Judas; for it was he also who had the money bag; and although he had the exceeding wickedness to steal of its contents, yet it was he also who provided what was needful for the meal. [1042] And so also, when our Lord said to him, "What thou doest, do quickly," there were some who thought that He only gave him orders to make some needful preparations for the feast-day, or to give something to the poor. [1043] In no sense, therefore, was it of this class of servants that the Lord said, "Where I am, there shall also my servant be," and "If any man serve me, him will my Father honor;" for we see that Judas, who served in this way, became an object of reprobation rather than of honor. Why, then, go elsewhere to find out what this serving of Christ implies, and not rather see its disclosure in the words themselves? for when He said, "If any man serve me, let him follow me," He wished it to be understood just as if He had said, If any man doth not follow me, he serveth me not. And those, therefore, are the servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. [1044] For "let him follow me" is just this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, "He that saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." [1045] For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand doeth; [1046] in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serveth in this way serveth Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of those who are mine, ye did it unto me." [1047] And thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body, but every good work, for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" [1048] ), he is Christ's servant even to that work of special love, which is to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members: Inasmuch as ye did it for these, ye have done it for me. And certainly it was in reference to such a work that He was also pleased to make and to style Himself a servant, when He says, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto [served], but to minister [serve], and to lay down His life for many." [1049] Every one, therefore, is the servant of Christ in the same way as Christ also is a servant. And he that serveth Christ in this way will be honored by His Father with the signal honor of being with His Son, and having nothing wanting to his happiness for ever.
13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, "Where I am, there shall also my servant be," do not think merely of good bishops and clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection he owes as a parent to his family. For Christ's sake, and for the sake of life eternal, let him be warning, and teaching, and exhorting, and correcting all his household; let him show kindliness, and exercise discipline; and so in his own house he will be filling an ecclesiastical and kind of episcopal office, and serving Christ, that he may be with Him for ever. For even that noblest service of suffering has been rendered by many of your class; for many who were neither bishops nor clergy, but young men and virgins, those advanced in years with those who were not, many married persons both male and female, many fathers and mothers of families, have served Christ even to the laying down of their lives in martyrdom for His sake, and have been honored by the Father in receiving crowns of exceeding glory.
[1027] 2 Cor. ii. 15.
[1028] Obsecrantis, literally suppliant, which is scarcely suitable to the context.
[1029] The "some" here referred to by Augustin could scarcely have had a very extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language, as the word Hosanna, though left untranslated, as a well-known exclamation of the Jews in their religious services, is part of the same quotation from Psalm cxviii. (see vers. 25, 26) with the words that follow in the text. The sacred writers gave the nearest equivalent in Greek letters (osanna, Hosanna) of the Hebrew hvsyh n' Save now!--Tr.
[1030] In text, in lingua latina.
[1031] Raca (Syriac rq', Chaldee ryq', Hebrew ryq, empty) was an insulting epithet of common use from an early period among the Babylonians, and in our Lord's day among the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine. It exactly answers to our idiot, or numskull, and is of frequent occurrence afterwards in the same sense in rabbinical writings.--Tr.
[1032] Gen. xix. 24.
[1033] Chap. v. 43.
[1034] Phil. ii. 8.
[1035] Matt. xxi. 1-16; Mark xi. 1-11; Luke xix. 29-48.
[1036] Turba turbavit turbam.
[1037] Rom. xi. 25.
[1038] Ps. cviii. 5.
[1039] Matt. iv. 7.
[1040] Chap. xxi. 18, 19.
[1041] 1 Pet. ii. 21.
[1042] Chap. xii. 2-6. There is no ground in these verses for Augustin's notion that the expense of that supper was defrayed out of the funds in Judas' keeping. The whole account leaves the impression that it was provided by Lazarus and his sisters, although strictly speaking, epoiesan (ver. 2) leaves it undetermined.--Tr.
[1043] Chap. xiii. 27, 29.
[1044] Phil. ii. 21.
[1045] 1 John ii. 6.
[1046] Matt. vi. 3.
[1047] Matt. xxv. 40.
[1048] Rom. x. 4.
[1049] Matt. xx. 28.
Tractate LII.