ACC ~ Matthew 22 v9 - 10

GRACE GIVEN TO THE OUTCASTS

APOLLINARIS: This wedding pictures the marriage of the church to the Word. The donation of the gifts of the wealthy provides for the wedding’s preparation and is compared with bulls and fattened calves prepared for lavish feasting. For Paul says that “in every way” we have been “enriched” in Christ, in our “speaking and knowledge.” [1] The first and second are called servants. The first are those who run ahead in light of the coming of the Lord, fellow laborers and successors [2] of the apostles. But a failure to watch carefully prevents those who are invited from attending. For they “who live their lives according to the flesh” [3] do not follow the divine call which is according to Christ. In the case of the rest, with the calling of the nations there is no longer a separation of a people nor a special honor accorded to Israel. But grace is even [given] to the rejected and outcasts, “to the wise and to the foolish,” [4] as Paul says, to the evil and to the good, as the parable teaches … if it is that they really obey the calling to do good, “having clothed themselves with the new humanity.” [5] If this proves not to be true, though they were called, they were not chosen. Rather, their calling is even overturned. FRAGMENT 111. [6]

[1] 1 Cor 1:5.

[2] Apollinaris explains what the first servants symbolize but not the second. Given that his text has come down to us via the catenae (cf. introduction to Matthew 1-13 [ACCS], p. xxxviii), it is clear that the omission is the work of the compiler.

[3] Rom 8:4.

[4] Rom 1:14.

[5] Eph 4:24.

[6] HE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST | MATTHEW 14:1-12