Homilies on John 35.1–35.2

“So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word; and they said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of your speaking that we believe; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.’ After the two days he went out from there.” Nothing is worse than envy and malice, nothing more grievous than vainglory; it is wont to destroy countless good things. So the Jews, who had more knowledge than the Samaritans and had been brought up with the prophets, appeared inferior to them from this cause. For these believed even on the woman's testimony, and without seeing any sign went out urging Christ to stay with them; but the Jews, even after seeing wonders, not only did not keep him with them but drove him away, and did everything to cast him even out of the country, though his coming had taken place for their sake. They drove him away, while these even begged him to stay with them. Tell me, then: ought he not to have received these when they urged and asked, rather than wait on those who plotted against and repelled him, and not give himself to those who loved him and wished to keep him? That would not have been worthy of his care. That is why he accepted, and stayed with them two days. They wished to keep him permanently (for the evangelist showed this by saying, “They asked him to stay with them”); but he did not consent, and stayed only two days; and in these many more believed in him. And yet it was not likely that these would believe, both because they had seen no sign and because they were hostile to the Jews. Nevertheless, since they judged what was said with truthfulness, this did not stand in their way; [rising above such] hindrances they formed a loftier notion and vied with one another in admiring him the more. “For they said to the woman,” it says, “It is no longer because of your speaking that we believe in him; for we ourselves have heard and know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.” The disciples outstripped their teacher. These could justly accuse the Jews too, both by believing and by receiving him. For they, for whose sake he had undertaken the whole enterprise, kept stoning him, while these drew him to themselves even when he was not making for them. The former remain uncorrected with signs; these, without signs, showed great faith in him, and pride themselves on this very thing, that they believed without signs, while the former never cease demanding signs and testing him. So everywhere there is need of a fair-minded soul. If truth takes hold of such a soul, it easily prevails; and if it does not prevail, this happens not through its own weakness but through that soul's want of candor. For the sun too, when it finds clear eyes, easily gives them light; and if it does not, the fault lies in their sickness, not in its weakness. Hear, then, what these say: “We know,” they say, “that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ.” Do you see how they understood at once that he was going to draw the world, and had come to set right the common salvation, that he was not going to shut up his providence among the Jews but to sow his word everywhere? But not so [the Jews: seeking to establish their own righteous]ness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. These, however, confess that all are under penalty, declaring that apostolic saying, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace.” For by saying that he is the Savior of the world, they showed that he is Savior of a world that was lost; and not simply a Savior, but one in very great matters. For many came to save, both prophets and angels; but this, they say, is the true Savior, who provides the true salvation, not the temporary only. This is the mark of sincere faith. And they are admirable on both counts: because they believed, and because they did so without signs—those whom Christ too calls blessed, saying, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed”—and because they did so sincerely. For though they heard the woman speaking doubtfully, “Can this be the Christ?” they did not say, “We too suspect,” nor “We think,” but “We know”; and not simply that, but “This is truly the Savior of the world.” For they confessed Christ not as one of the many, but as the real Savior. And yet whom had they seen saved? [They had heard] only words, and they said what they would have said if they had seen many great wonders. And why do the evangelists not report these words to us, and that he discoursed wonderfully? So that you may learn that they pass over many great things, while making the whole clear from the outcome. For he persuaded an entire people and a whole city by what he said. But where people are not persuaded, then they are compelled to report what was said, so that no one may condemn the speaker on account of the hearers' perversity. “And after the two days he went out from there and went away into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own native country.” Why is this added? Because he did not go to Capernaum but to Galilee, and from there to Cana. For so that you would not inquire why he did not stay among his own but stayed among the Samaritans, he gives the reason, saying that they did not heed him. That is why he did not go there, so that their condemnation might not become greater.

For I think he here calls Capernaum his native country. And that he did not enjoy honor there, hear him saying: “And you, Capernaum, who were exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.” He calls it his own country because there he set forth the word of the dispensation and spent most of his time. What then? someone says; do we not see many admired among their own people too? In the first place, one should not judge such matters from rare cases. And if some were honored in their own country, much more would they be in a foreign one; for familiarity is wont to make people easily despised. “So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all that he did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they too had gone to the feast.” Do you see that those who are reproached are the very ones found coming to him most? For one said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” and another, “Search and see that no prophet has arisen from Galilee.” They said these things insulting him too, because most thought he was from Nazareth; and they reproached him with being a Samaritan as well: “You are a Samaritan,” they say, “and have a demon.” But see, both Samaritans and Galileans believe, to the shame of the Jews. And the Samaritans are found better even than the Galileans. For the former received him from the woman's words, the latter having seen the signs he did. “So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine.” He reminds the hearer of the miracle, heightening the praise of the Samaritans. For these received him on account of the signs done in Jerusalem and those done there; but not so the Samaritans: they did so from his teaching alone. He said, then, that he came there, but did not add the reason for which he came. To Galilee he came because of the envy of the Jews; but to Cana why? At the beginning he had been invited to a wedding; but now why, and for what reason? It seems to me that he was strengthening by his presence the faith that had arisen from the miracle, and drawing them more by coming of his own accord, leaving his own country and preferring them. “And there was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come, he came to him and asked him to come down and heal his son”—either because he was of the royal family, or because he had some other dignity of office called by this name. Some think he is the same as the one in Matthew; but he is shown to be different, not only from his rank but also from his faith. For that man, when Christ was willing to come, asks him to stay; this one, though Christ promised nothing of the kind, draws him to his house. That one says, “I am not worthy that you should come under my roof”; this one even presses him, saying, “Come down before my son dies.” There he came down from the mountain and entered Capernaum; but here this man came to him when he had come from Samaria, not to Capernaum but to Cana. That man's servant was held by paralysis, this man's son by fever. “And he came and asked that he would heal his son; for he was about to die.” What then does Christ say? “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” And yet both coming and asking were marks of faith; and afterwards the evangelist bears witness to it, saying that when Jesus said, “Go, your son lives,” he believed the word and went. What then does he mean here? Either he said this admiring the Samaritans, because they believed without signs, or touching Capernaum, which was thought to be his own city, from which this man was. For another man too, in Luke, who says, “I believe, Lord,” said also, “help my unbelief.” So even if this man believed, it was not wholly nor soundly. And his inquiring at what hour the fever left him shows this; for he wished to learn whether it had happened of itself or by Christ's command. So when he learned that it was yesterday at the seventh hour, he believed, he and his household. Do you see that he believed then, when the servants told him, not when Christ spoke? He reproves, then, the frame of mind with which he came and said these things; for in this way he drew him the more to faith, since before the sign he had not believed very much. And if he came and asked, there is nothing remarkable in that. For fathers, out of great affection, are wont not only to go to physicians they trust but also to consult those they do not trust, wishing to leave nothing at all undone. For he came to him only incidentally: when Jesus came into Galilee, then he saw him; whereas if he had believed in him firmly, he would not have hesitated, when his child was about to die, to go to Judea. And if he was afraid, not even that is excusable. See, at any rate, how the very words show the man's weakness. When he ought, if not before, at least after his frame of mind had been exposed, to have imagined something great about him, hear how he still crawls on the ground: “Come down,” he says, “before my child dies,” as though he could not raise him after death, and as though he did not know how matters stood with the child. That is why he reproves him and touches his conscience, showing that the signs were done chiefly for the sake of the soul. For here he heals the father, sick in mind, no less than the child, persuading us to attend to him not from signs but from his teaching. For signs are not for believers but for unbelievers [and the duller sort].

[3] At the time, then, because of his distress, he did not pay much attention to what was said, except only to what concerned the child; but later he was going to take up what was said and gain the greatest benefits from it, as indeed happened. Why then, in the case of the centurion, did he promise of his own accord to come, but here, even when invited, does he not go? Because there the faith was complete; that is why he promised to go, so that we might learn the man's right-mindedness; but here, because this man was imperfect. Since, then, he kept pressing him, saying, “Come down,” and did not yet know clearly that he could heal even when absent, he shows that this too was possible for him, so that what the centurion had of himself this man might learn from Jesus' not coming. When he says, then, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,” he means this: You do not yet have the fitting faith, but are still disposed toward me as toward a prophet. Revealing himself, then, and showing that he ought to be believed even without signs, he said what he says to Philip too: “Do you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? If not, believe me because of the works.” “As he was already going down, his servants met him, saying, ‘Your child lives.’ So he inquired of them the hour when he began to mend; and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your child lives.’ And he believed, he and his whole household.” Do you see how the miracle became clear? For he was freed from the danger not simply nor in an ordinary way, but all at once, so that what happened appeared to be no longer the course of nature but the working of Christ. For when he had come to the very gates of death, as the father too showed by saying, “Come down before the child dies,” he was all at once freed from the disease; which roused the servants too. For they perhaps met him not only to bring good news but also thinking that Jesus' coming was now unnecessary; for they knew he had gone there, which is why they met him on the very road. But the man, released from fear, at last stooped to faith, wishing to show that the deed was the result of his journey, and anxious at last not to seem to have been roused in vain; hence he learned everything with exactness. “And he believed, he and his whole household.” For the testimony was now beyond dispute. Those who were not present, who had not heard Christ speaking nor known the time, when they learned from their master that this was the time, had an indisputable proof of his power; that is why they too believed.

What then do we learn from this? Not to wait for miracles, nor to seek pledges of God's power. For I see many even now becoming more devout when their child is ill or their wife [is sick, if they obtain relief]; but we ought, even when we do not obtain it, to remain giving thanks and glorifying him just the same. For this is the mark of grateful servants, of those who are steadfast and love the Master as they ought: to run to him not only when given relief but also when scourged. For these too are works of God's care. “For whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son,” it says, “whom he receives.” But when someone serves him only in ease, he does not show signs of great love, nor does he love Christ purely. And why do I speak of health and abundance of money, or poverty or disease? Even if you hear of Gehenna, or some other hardship, not even so ought you to withdraw from speaking well of the Master, but you should suffer and bear everything for love of him. For this is the mark of grateful servants and of an unwavering soul; and one disposed in this way will easily bear present things, will obtain the good things to come, and will enjoy great boldness with God; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory to the ages of ages. Amen.