{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-7653","native_reference":{"book_number":290,"chapter_from":53,"chapter_to":53,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":7,"verse_to":7},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: For this is the price of our liberty, as Peter says, ye were redeemed with the precious Blood, not indeed of a lamb, but of Him Who came as a lamb, in meekness and humility, and redeemed the whole world with the one offering of His Body, as He himself says, I was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Wherefore John also says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.<br/><i>— Letter 75, 6</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: [Christ] kept silent while he was concealed, because \"in humility his judgment was taken away.\" He kept silent while he was concealed, because he was thought to be only human. But as God he will come openly; and as our God, he will not keep silent. So what about you? You were saying, \"I want him to come.\"<br/><i>— SERMON 299:4</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Because he has come hidden, our God, that is, Christ, will come manifest. \"And he will not keep silence.\" What does it mean, \"will not keep silence\"? Because he had first kept silence. When did he keep silence? He was judged in order that there might be fulfilled that which the prophet had also predicted: \"As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer, without voice, so he opened not his mouth.\" Therefore, if he were unwilling to suffer, he would not suffer. If he did not suffer, his blood would not be poured forth. If his blood would not be poured forth, the world would not be redeemed.<br/><i>— TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 37:10.1</i></p><p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: Though he was guilty of not even a slight sin, for no serpent could make a mark on this rock, he was condemned. He suffered with patience the insults, blows, crown of thorns, scarlet robe, and the other mockeries enumerated in the Gospel. Although guiltless, he endured it in order that filled with patience he might come to the cross \"as a sheep for sacrifice.\" Although he could have returned the injury to his adversaries, he bore it all with kindness.<br/><i>— SERMON 11:4</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer, so was he dumb. The Ethiopian eunuch on reading this passage asked Philip to interpret it to him, and he at once explained that it was spoken by the Prophet with reference to the Lord Christ.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 5</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: For the spiritually dead and unholy Caiaphas asked him, \"I put you under oath to the living God to tell us if you are the Chist, the Son of God.\" And he answered him right away, saying, \"From now on you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.\" And then Pilate asked him whether he was king of Israel, and Christ replied, \"You say so.\" Pilate was complacent with the madness of the Jews and had Jesus beaten, and he ordered his soldiers to put him between two thieves in his suffering of death on the cross. So what the prophet said was true: \"Because of his affliction he did not open his mouth.\" But he suffered a myriad of afflictions from the time of his arrest onwards, suffered insolence and spitting and the beatings of mindless underlings and other things beside these that could be wickedly arranged, before he was brought to Pilate.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 5:1.53:7-8</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nazianzus</b>: He prays, but he hears prayer. He weeps, but he causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for he was man; but he raises Lazarus, for he was God. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver, but he redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the price was his own blood. As a sheep he is led to the slaughter, but he is the shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also. As a lamb he is silent, yet he is the Word and is proclaimed by the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He is bruised and wounded, but he heals every disease and every infirmity. He is lifted up and nailed to the tree, but by the tree of life he restores us, yes, he saves even the robber crucified with him. … He dies, but he gives life, and by his death, he destroys death. He is buried, but he rises again; he goes down into hell, but he brings up the souls; he ascends to heaven and shall come again to judge the living and the dead.<br/><i>— ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 3(29).20</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. For He endured the cross not out of necessity, but out of His own will, saying in the Gospel: 'The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?' (John XVIII, 11). And to Peter, who was scandalized by the name of the cross because he did not know the mystery and was trembling with human fear, He said: 'Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men' (Matthew XVI, 23). Otherwise, if He had not been willingly offered, He who could indicate and foretell the traitor and was speaking to the Apostles, 'You will all fall away because of Me this night,' could have caused those who were sent to him to turn away, but he boldly came to meet them and offered Himself saying, 'Whom do you seek?' (John XVIII, 4, 6). Those who immediately fell backward; for they could not bear the voice of the present God. And beautifully he added: And he did not open his mouth. When Pilate said to him: Don't you speak to me? he refused to answer. Or according to the Septuagint: He did not open his mouth in affliction. Or according to Symmachus and Theodotion, he did not open his mouth when he heard.<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. This testimony is about the Ethiopian eunuch, who was riding in a chariot of Queen Candace while reading the book of Acts (Chapter 8 and following). He did not understand what he was reading, but with the help of Philip, he came to understand the passion and the name of the Savior. He was immediately baptized in the blood of the Lamb that he had been reading about and deserved to be called a man. The apostle was then sent to preach to the Ethiopian people. Just as Jesus was offered to Pontius Pilate, because he himself wanted it, and did not respond when asked to climb the Cross for our sake, he was led like a sheep to slaughter and remained silent like a lamb before the shearer. Indeed, our Passover lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5), whom John the Baptist pointed out, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). He is also often mentioned as the slain lamb in the Apocalypse of the Evangelist John (Apocalypse 5). He speaks of Himself in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 11). But I, like an innocent lamb, being led to the victim, did not know. For when He did not know sin, He became sin for us (II Cor. 5). And just as a lamb, when led to the slaughter, does not resist, so He suffered willingly to destroy him who had the power of death (Heb. 2), humbling Himself unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2). This is the lamb, in whose type the lamb was sacrificed, whose blood, when smeared on the doorposts, drove away the destroyer from the Egyptians (Exod. 22); who not only redeemed us with His own blood, but also covered us with His wool, so that, shivering in disbelief, He might warm us with His garment, and we might hear the Apostle speaking to us: As many as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). And in another place: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. XIII, 14).<br/><i>— Commentary on Isaiah</i></p><p><b>Melito of Sardis</b>: When this one came from heaven to earth for the sake of the one who suffers, and had clothed himself with that very one through the womb of a virgin, and having come forth as man, he accepted the sufferings of the sufferer through his body which was capable of suffering. And he destroyed those human sufferings by his spirit which was incapable of dying. He killed death which had put man to death.</p><p>For this one, who was led away as a lamb, and who was sacrificed as a sheep, by himself delivered us from servitude to the world as from the land of Egypt, and released us from bondage to the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls by his own spirit and the members of our bodies by his own blood.</p><p>This is the one who covered death with shame and who plunged the devil into mourning as Moses did Pharaoh. This is the one who smote lawlessness and deprived injustice of its offspring, as Moses deprived Egypt. This is the one who delivered us from slavery into freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal kingdom, and who made us a new priesthood, and a special people forever.</p><p>This one is the passover of our salvation. This is the one who patiently endured many things in many people: This is the one who was murdered in Abel, and bound as a sacrifice in Isaac, and exiled in Jacob, and sold in Joseph, and exposed in Moses, and sacrificed in the lamb, and hunted down in David, and dishonored in the prophets.</p><p>This is the one who became human in a virgin, who was hanged on the tree, who was buried in the earth, who was resurrected from among the dead, and who raised mankind up out of the grave below to the heights of heaven.</p><p>This is the lamb that was slain. This is the lamb that was silent. This is the one who was born of Mary, that beautiful ewe-lamb. This is the one who was taken from the flock, and was dragged to sacrifice, and was killed in the evening, and was buried at night; the one who was not broken while on the tree, who did not see dissolution while in the earth, who rose up from the dead, and who raised up mankind from the grave below.<br/><i>— On the Passover 66-71</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Now those who are saved are called sheep because of their meekness, which they learned from him who says: \"learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart,\" and because \"even unto slaughter\" they were ready to come, imitating Christ, who \"was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the one shearing it, without voice\" — and not simply \"without voice,\" but \"before the one shearing it, without voice,\" that is, before the one taking away what is his own and plundering it.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Matthew 70</i></p><p><b>Philoxenus of Mabbug</b>: And hearken unto the prophet who also proclaimed our Lord with his simple teaching, and who likened Him unto a lamb and a sheep, the most innocent of all animals: \"Like a lamb was He led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before the shearer He was silent.\" The lion and the wolf and bear are crafty, together with the other wild beasts, because craftiness was mingled with their evil nature when they were made; but sheep and lambs and ewes are simple and innocent in their ways and movements, and to them was our Lord likened, and by their name are believers called. Our Lord did not liken Himself unto a lion, which bringeth suffering and death, and He did not call His flocks by the names of wild animals, which by the nature in which they were created are cunning in respect of evil things, but He was called \"lamb\" and \"sheep\", and being meek like unto them He was led to suffering and to death, for \"like a sheep before his shearer He was silent\", and thus He in His humility opened not His mouth. And we may be sure that the word of the prophecy is true in fact, for when they took Him, He was quiet; and when they judged Him, He was silent; and when they smote Him, He complained not; and when they condemned Him, He disputed not their judgment; and when they bound Him, He moved not; and when they smote Him on His cheeks, He murmured not; and when He was stripped of His garments as a sheep at its shearing, He cried not out; and when they gave Him gall and vinegar, He cursed them not; and when they fastened Him to the wood, He raged not at them; and when Simon wished to throw off the simpleness of the sheep, and took a sword to avenge the insult of his Master, He rebuked him, and commanded him to carry it in its sheath, saying, \"Put back thy sword into its place\", for I have no need of thy help. The doctor and teacher of all wisdom stood before the judge, and He refrained and answered not a word. He kept the command of simplicity that He might confirm the prophecy, \"He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.\" They led Him as One who was speechless, and they took Him round about from one place to another, and they drove Him from place to place, and they dragged Him from one judge to another. He stood before Annas and was silent, and until he adjured Him He spake not; He was questioned by Pilate and was silent, and until He heard from him the words, \"Art thou the king of the Jews?\" which made known to Him that he suspected Him of being a rebel against Caesar, He answered them not a word. They carried Him to Herod, who wishing to see and hear from Him great things asked Him questions temptingly; and there also He stood silent and spake not, and He returned no answer to His questioner. He was esteemed a contemptible man who knew nothing, and a fool who had no answer to give. The Jews and priests thought this because they wished it; but He forsook not the simpleness of a lamb, and the law of simplicity He left not.<br/><i>— 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 5 -- Second Discourse on Simplicity</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: It was fitting for him to heal like by like and to recall the other wandering sheep by becoming a sheep himself. He became a sheep, without being changed into one, or without being altered or without quitting his own essence.… For, according to Isaiah, he was sheared as well as slaughtered. For he endured death in his humanity. But as God he remained alive and impassible and gave the fleece of his body to the shearers.<br/><i>— ON DIVINE PROVIDENCE 10:29-30</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"f7242578f3aa518a8f8ed74ac1f5858cae42a1245b569c645891cd5125a922cd","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":7653,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b527f0d33efdc868919fa5096cd95610358f16e0cd9ab1acbbd7d3b70fa901ed","translator":null,"work":null}