And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John,
What went you out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
All Commentaries on Luke 7:24 Go To Luke 7
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
If someone plucks this reed from the nursery garden of the earth, divests it of what is unnecessary, strips off the old man with his deeds, and fits it to the hand of a swiftly writing scribe, it begins to be not a reed but a pen. This pen imprints the precepts of Holy Writ in the inner mind and inscribes them on the tables of the heart.… Imitate this pen in the moderation of your flesh. Do not dip your pen, your flesh, in ink but in the Spirit of the living God so that what you write may be eternal. Paul wrote the epistle with such a pen, of which he says, “You are the epistle of Christ, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God.” Dip your flesh in the blood of Christ, as it is written, “that your foot may be dipped in blood.” Moisten the footprint of your spirit and the steps of your mind with the sure confession of the Lord’s cross. You dip your flesh in Christ’s blood as you wash away vices, purge sins and bear the death of Christ in your flesh, as the apostle taught us, saying, “bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus Christ.” –.
