Homilies on John 31.1–31.5

“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever disbelieves the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Great is the gain of condescension, as is shown in all things. [Thus we have mastered the arts,] not learning everything from our teachers all at once; thus we have built cities, putting them together gently and little by little; thus we maintain our life. And do not marvel if this has such force in the affairs of this life, since even in spiritual things one would find the power of this wisdom great. For in this way the Jews were able to be freed from idolatry, being led on gently and little by little, and hearing nothing lofty at the beginning, either in doctrine or in way of life. In this way, after the coming of Christ, when it was the time for loftier doctrines too, the apostles brought all people over, uttering nothing lofty at first. In this way Christ too spoke to most people at the beginning; and in this way John too, here, speaking of him as of some wonderful man, [...] said things like this: “A man can receive nothing of himself.” Then, having added something lofty and said, “He who comes from heaven is above all,” he again brings his discourse down to humble things, saying among many other things, “For God does not give the Spirit by measure.” Then he adds, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” Then, knowing also the great benefit that comes from speaking of punishment, and that most people are not drawn so much by the promise of good things as by the threat of fearful ones, he closes his discourse here at last and says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; but whoever disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Here again he refers the word about punishment to the Father. For he did not say “the wrath of the Son,” though he himself is the judge; but he set the Father over them, wishing to frighten them more.

Is it enough, then, someone says, to believe in the Son in order to have eternal life? By no means. Hear Christ showing this and saying, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven”; and blasphemy against the Spirit is enough by itself [to send one] into Gehenna. And why do I speak of one part of doctrine? Even if someone believes rightly in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but does not have a right life, he gains nothing from his faith toward salvation. So when he says, “For this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God,” let us not think that what is said is enough for our salvation. For we need also a life and conduct of the greatest exactness. For here too he has said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,” but what follows he has put more forcefully; for he weaves his discourse not only from good things but also from their opposites. And see how: he added, “But whoever disobeys the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Yet not even from this do we say that faith alone is enough for salvation; and the things said about life in many places of the Gospels show it. That is why he did not say, “This alone is eternal life,” nor “Whoever only believes in the Son has eternal life,” but in both he shows this: that the thing has life; but if conduct does not follow, great punishment will ensue. And he did not say “awaits him,” but “remains on him,” showing that it will never depart from him. For so that you would not think that “shall not see life” is a temporary death, but believe that the punishment is unending, he put this word, showing that it settles on him for ever. And he did this, pushing them toward Christ by these very words. That is why he did not make his exhortation to them in particular, but general, and in the way that could best draw them on. For he did not say “if you believe” and “if you do not believe,” but carries his discourse forward in general terms, so that what was said would be free from suspicion; and he did this more forcefully than Christ. For Christ said, “Whoever does not believe is condemned already”; but he says, “shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him”—and very reasonably. For it was not the same for someone to speak about himself and for another to speak about him. They would have thought that Christ often said these things out of self-love, and was boasting; but John was free of this suspicion. And if after this Christ too used stronger language, it was when they had at last come to have a high opinion of him.

“Now when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples), he left Judea and went away into Galilee.” He himself, then, did not baptize; but those who brought the report, wishing to rouse their hearers to envy, reported it so. Why then, someone says, did he withdraw? Not out of cowardice, but to cut off their malice and soothe their envy. For he was able to restrain them even if they attacked him; but he did not wish to do this continually, so that the dispensation of the flesh would not be disbelieved. For if he were continually seized and escaped, this would have been suspected by many. That is why he managed most things in a rather human way. For as he wished it to be believed that he was God, so also that, being God, he wore flesh. That is why even after the resurrection he said to the disciple, “Touch and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones.” That is why he also rebuked Peter when he said, “Mercy on you; this shall not be.” So earnestly did he care about this matter.

For this part of the Church's doctrines is no small one; it is the chief point of our salvation, and through it all things have come about and been accomplished. For in this way death was dissolved, and sin was taken away, and the curse was abolished, and countless good things entered our life. That is why he especially wished the dispensation to be believed, since it has become for us the root and spring of countless good things. But while managing the human side, he did not allow the divine to be overshadowed. At any rate, after withdrawing, he again held to the same course as before. For he did not simply go off to Galilee, but to arrange certain great matters, those concerning the Samaritans; and not simply to arrange them, but with the wisdom that befitted him, and so as to leave the Jews not even the pretext of a shameless defense. Which the evangelist too hinted at when he added, “And he had to pass through Samaria,” showing that he did this as a byproduct of the journey. So also the apostles did. For as they, when persecuted by the Jews, then went to the Gentiles, so Christ too, when they drove him away, then turned to those others as well, as he did also in the case of the Syrophoenician woman. And this happened so that every excuse might be cut away from the Jews, and that they could not say, “He left us and went away to the uncircumcised.” That is why the disciples too said in their defense, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” And he himself again: “I was sent only to the [lost sheep of the house of Israel”; and again,] “It is not good to take the children's bread and give it to the little dogs.” But when they drove him away, they opened a door to the Gentiles. And not even so does he go to them on purpose, but in passing. In passing, then, “He came to a city of Samaria called [Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave] to his son Joseph; and Jacob's spring was there.” Why is the evangelist so precise about the place? So that when you hear the woman saying, “Jacob our father gave us the spring,” [...] you may not be surprised. For that place was where Levi and Simeon, enraged on account of Dinah, carried out that cruel slaughter.

It is worth saying also where the Samaritans came from; for this whole region is called Samaria. Where then did they get the name? The mountain was called Somor, from the man who acquired it, as Isaiah too says, “And the head of Ephraim is Somoron”; but its inhabitants were called not Samaritans but Israelites. As time went on they offended God; and when Pekah was king, Tiglath-pileser came up, took many cities, attacked Elah, killed him, and gave the kingdom to Hoshea. Against him came Shalmaneser, who took other cities and made them tributary and subject. Hoshea at first submitted, but later revolted from that rule and fled to an alliance with the Ethiopians. The Assyrian learned of it, marched against them, destroyed them, and no longer allowed the nation to remain there, because of such suspicions of revolt; but he led them away to Babylon and Media, and bringing nations from various places there, settled them in Samaria, so that his rule might be secure from then on, with his own people holding the place. When this had happened, God, wishing to show his own power, and that it was not through weakness that he had given up the Jews but because of the sins of those given up, sent lions upon the barbarians, which ravaged the whole nation. This was reported to the king, and he sends a priest to hand on to them the laws of God. Yet not even so did they depart wholly from their impiety, but only by half. As time went on, they leapt away from their idols in turn and worshiped God. Things being in this state, the Jews, when they had returned, were thereafter jealous of them as of foreigners and enemies, and called them Samaritans, after the mountain. And from this too the Jews had no small rivalry with them. For they did not use all the Scriptures, but accepted only the books of Moses and made little account of the prophets. They laid claim, however, to noble descent, [and prided themselves] on Abraham, and enrolled him as their ancestor, since he was from Chaldea; and they called Jacob father, as being his descendant. But the Jews abhorred these too, along with all the rest. Hence they also reproached Christ with this, saying, “You are a Samaritan and have a demon.” And for this reason, in the parable, Christ brings in a Samaritan as the one who showed mercy to the man—one who was cheap, easily despised, and abhorred among them; and in the case of the ten lepers he calls the one a foreigner for this reason (for he was a Samaritan); and he himself commanded his disciples, saying, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.”

Not only for the history of the place did the evangelist remind us of Jacob, but also to show that the rejection of the Jews had happened long ago. For already in the time of their forefathers those others held the places instead of them. What their forefathers had, though it was not theirs, these men lost through their sloth and lawlessness, though it was theirs. So there is no gain from good ancestors when their descendants do not turn out like them. For the barbarians, merely on getting a taste of the lions, at once came back to the Jewish worship; but these, after enduring so many punishments, were not brought to their senses even so.

To this place, then, Christ came, always driving out the vulgar and soft life and bringing in the laborious and frugal one. For he does not use beasts of burden, but walks so strenuously as even to grow tired from the journey. And this he teaches everywhere: to do one's own work, to be without excess, and not to need many things. For he so wishes us to be strangers to superfluities that he cuts away many even of the necessities. That is why he said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” That is why he spends most of his time on the mountains, not by day only but also by night, and in the deserts. David too proclaimed this when he said, “He will drink from the brook on the way,” showing the frugality of his life. This John too shows here: “Jesus, then, tired from the journey, was sitting thus by the spring. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her, ‘Give me to drink.’ For his disciples had gone off to the market to buy food.” From this we learn his vigor on journeys, his unconcern about food, and how he treats the matter as secondary. In this way, at any rate, the disciples too were trained to order their own lives; for they did not take provisions with them. Another evangelist too shows this when he says that, when he was speaking to them about the leaven of the Pharisees, they thought it was because they [had] not [brought] bread; [and when he shows them plucking] the ears of grain and eating; and when he says that he came to the fig tree because of hunger, he is teaching us by all of them nothing other than this: to despise the belly and not to think its service something to be anxious about. Look at them here too: they bring nothing with them, and though they carried nothing, they do not see to it from the very start of the day, but buy food at the hour when everyone takes the midday meal. Not so we, who as soon as we rise from bed, before [anything else, see to this], calling [cooks and stewards], giving these orders with great zeal, and only after that touching other things, treating the things of this life as more serious than the spiritual, and honoring as necessary what we ought to hold as secondary. That is why everything is turned upside down. For on the contrary we ought to make much account of all spiritual things, and when we have fulfilled them, then to touch these.

And not only his toil but also his freedom from pride is shown here—not only by his growing tired and sitting by the road, but also by his being left alone, his disciples having gone away. Yet he could have, had he wished, either not sent them all away, or, when they had gone, had other servants. But he did not wish it; for in this way he accustomed his disciples to trample on all pride. “And what great thing is it,” someone may perhaps say, “if they were modest, being fishermen and tentmakers?” [They were indeed fishermen and tentmakers,] but they had suddenly been raised to the very summit of heaven and become more august than all kings, deemed worthy to be companions of the Master of the world and to follow the one admired on every side. And you know this too, that especially those of humble origin, when they ever obtain honors, are more easily lifted up to folly, being inexperienced in bearing such honor. Keeping them, then, in the same humility, he trained them to be restrained in all things and never to need people to wait on them. “He then, tired from the journey,” it says, “was sitting thus by the spring.” Do you see that the sitting was because of weariness, because of the heat, because of waiting for the disciples? For he knew what was going to happen with the Samaritans; but it was not for this that he had come primarily. Yet, though he had not come for this, it was not right to push away the woman when she came, showing such eagerness to learn. For the Jews drove him off even when he came to them, while those from the Gentiles drew him to themselves even when he was walking elsewhere; the former envied, the latter believed; those were indignant, these marveled and worshiped. What then? Ought he to overlook the salvation of so many and dismiss such noble eagerness? That would have been unworthy of his love for humankind. That is why he manages all that was at hand with the wisdom befitting him. For he sat resting his body and cooling it by the spring; for it was the very middle of the day, which the evangelist too showed by saying, “It was about the sixth hour”; and he sat “thus.” What does “thus” mean? Not on a throne, he means, not on a cushion, but simply, as it happened, on the ground. “A woman from Samaria comes to draw water.”

[4] See how he shows that the woman too came out for another purpose, everywhere stopping the mouth of the Jews' shameless contradiction, so that no one may say that he goes against his own command, ordering the disciples not to enter a city of the Samaritans while himself conversing with Samaritans. That is why the evangelist put the words “His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food,” bringing in many reasons for his conversation with her. What then does the woman do? Hearing “Give me to drink,” she very shrewdly takes Christ's word as the occasion for a question, and says, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” And from what did she think he was a Jew? From his dress perhaps, and from his speech. But consider how circumspect the woman was. If anyone had to be on guard, it was Jesus who had to, not she. For she did not say, “Samaritans have no dealings with the Jews,” but “Jews do not admit Samaritans.” Yet though the woman was free of blame, since she thought another was falling into it, she did not keep silent even so, but corrects, as she supposes, what was being done against the law. But someone might be puzzled over this: how did Jesus ask a drink of her, when the law did not permit it? If someone says it was because he knew beforehand that she would not give it, then for that very reason he ought not even to have asked. What then can one say? That it was by now a matter of indifference to him to cast off such observances. For he who led others on to abolish them would much more pass them by himself. “For not what goes in,” he says, “defiles a person, but what comes out.” And the conversation with the woman would be no small accusation of the Jews. For they were often drawn on by him, both by words and by deeds, and would not put up with it; but this woman—see how she is held by a bare question! For he himself had not yet undertaken this work, nor that road; but if any came, he did not prevent them. And indeed he told the disciples simply not to enter a city of the Samaritans, not also to push away those who came to them; that would have been very unworthy of his love for humankind. For this very reason he also answers the woman and says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” First he shows that she is worthy to hear and not to be overlooked, and then he reveals himself. For she was going, as soon as she learned who he was, to obey and attend to him—which no one could say of the Jews. For when they learned, they asked him nothing, nor did they desire to learn anything useful, but both insulted him and drove him away. But see how mildly the woman answers on hearing this: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep; where then do you get the living water?” Already he had raised her from her low opinion, and from thinking he was one of the many. For she does not call him “Lord” here idly, but assigning him great honor. That she said this to honor him is clear from what was said next [...]. If she did not understand the whole at once, do not marvel; neither did Nicodemus. For what does he say? “How can these things be?” and again, “How can a man be born when he is old?” and again, “Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” But this woman speaks more respectfully: “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep; where then do you get the living water?” He spoke of one thing to her and she supposed another, hearing nothing more than the words and not yet able to think anything lofty. And yet she could have spoken rashly and said, “If you had the living water, you would not have asked me for it, but would have supplied yourself first; as it is, you are boasting.” But she said none of this; she answers with great gentleness, both at the beginning and afterwards. For at the beginning she says, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me?” And she did not say, as though speaking to a foreigner and an enemy, “Far be it from me to share with you, a hostile man, estranged from our nation.” And afterwards again, hearing him say great things—at which enemies are most stung—she did not laugh or mock. But what does she say? “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his livestock?” Do you see how she thrusts herself into the Jewish nobility? What she says amounts to this: He used this water and had nothing more to give. She said this showing how from his first answer she had received a great and lofty thought. For “he himself drank from it, and his sons and his livestock” hints at nothing else than that she had a notion of a greater water but did not find it, nor know it clearly. To say still more clearly what she means: You cannot say, she says, that Jacob gave us this spring but used another himself; for he and his sons drank from it, and would not have drunk from it if he had had another, better one. From this one, then, not even you will be able to give; and you cannot have another, better one, unless you admit that you are greater even than Jacob. Where then do you get the water that you promise to give us? The Jews do not converse with him so gently, though he spoke to them too on the same subject, mentioning such water; but they gained nothing. And when he mentioned Abraham, they even tried to stone him. But the woman does not behave toward him in this way; with great gentleness, in the midst of the heat, at midday, she both speaks and hears everything with great patience, and thinks nothing like what the Jews would likely have said: “This man is mad and out of his mind; he has tied me to a spring and a well, offering nothing, but puffing himself up with words.” Rather she perseveres and stays until she finds what she seeks.

[5] If a Samaritan woman shows such zeal to learn something useful, and stays with Christ though she does not know him, what pardon shall we obtain, who know him, and are not by a well, nor in a desert, nor at midday, nor under a burning sun, but in the morning and under such a roof as this, enjoying shade and coolness, and yet do not endure to hear anything of what is said, but are worn out by it? She was not like that; she is so held by what is said that she even calls others. But the Jews not only did not call others; they even hindered and obstructed those who wished to come. That is why they said, “Has any of the rulers believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Let us then imitate the Samaritan woman; let us converse with Christ. For even now he stands in our midst, speaking to us through the prophets and through the disciples. Let us then listen and obey. How long are we to live idly and in vain? For not to do what pleases God is to live idly—or rather not idly only, but to our harm. For when we spend the time given us on nothing needful, we shall depart to pay the utmost penalty for that untimely spending. For surely it cannot be that one who received money to trade with and then ate it up will be called to account by the one who entrusted it, while one who has spent such a life in vain will pay no penalty. It is not for this that God brought us into the present life and breathed a soul into us, that we should use the present only, but that we should transact everything with a view to the life to come. For only the irrational creatures are useful for the present life; but we have an immortal soul for this purpose, that we may do everything in preparation for that life. If someone asks the use of horses and asses and oxen and the other such cattle, we shall name no other than their service in the present life. But it is not possible to say this of us; rather, our better state is the one after our departure from here, and we must do everything so that we may shine there, so that we may dance with the angels, so that we may [stand before] the King [continually, through endless ages]. For this is why the soul has been made immortal, and the body too will be immortal: so that we may enjoy the never-ending good things. But if, when heavenly things are set before you, you are nailed to the earth, consider how great an insult is done to the giver. He holds out to you the things above, and you, making no great account of them, take the earth in exchange. For this reason, as one despised, he has also threatened Gehenna, so that you may learn from it how many good things you are depriving yourself of. But may it never happen that we get a taste of that punishment; rather, having pleased Christ, may we obtain the eternal good things, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.