were the first to see the Lord after he had risen.
SERMON 229F 287
If you have come to believe in Christ, recognize yourself as blessed; if you have denied Christ, recognize yourself as lame
3. The Jews shouldn't pat themselves on the back, and say, "There you are, Jacob all the same is our father; he prevailed over the angel and was blessed by the angel."
We, though, reply, "People of Israel, look at yourself there. Israel isn't what you are, it s what you're called, but aren't; the name's all wrong in you, the crime remains in you."11
But he says to me, "Look, my father is Jacob, my father is Israel. There's the name; where's the crime?"
"Read the story, discover yourself in it there. You see, it's written there, And he touched Jacob on the breadth of his thigh, and it withered, and he began to limp (Gn 32:26). Jacob, one man, both blessed and lame. Blessed in whom, and lame in whom? If you have come to believe in Christ, recognize yourself as blessed. If you have denied Christ, recognize yourself as lame; it means, you see, that you are one of those about whom the prophet says, They have limped off from their paths (Ps 18:45).
Where were the holy women from, to whom the Lord first showed himself as he rose again? From the Jews, weren't they? Where were the apostles from, who even if they didn't believe the women when they first brought them the news, nonetheless heard Jesus himself later on, and acknowledged his rebuke, and adhered to his teaching? From the Jews, weren't they? There's Israel for you, blessed. But limping in many, blessed only in few; that, you see, is the breadth of the thigh—the majority of his race. It didn't simply say, "He touched his thigh," but the breadth of his thigh. Where you have the breadth of the thigh, you undoubtedly have the majority of the race.12 And what's so surprising about that? I acknowledge the few grains, and I'm astonished at the heap of chaff? But I see what is due for the granary, and what for the flames. And now, let them listen; they're still alive; let them correct their limping, let them come to the blessing.
NOTES
1. This is the date suggested by Fischer; Kunzelmann and Poque suggest any time from 412 to 418. It is instructive to compare this sermon with Sermon 229 C, also "aimed" at the Jews. But this one is much more generous in spirit.
2. If he means, "saw the Lord rising," he is clearly mistaken. The women did not see that; they were the first to see the Lord after he had risen.
3. See Lk 24:4-27.
4. The reference seems primarily to be to the conversion of Cornelius and his household, Acts 10:44.
5. See 2 Thes 3:2.