Homilies on John 41.1–41.3

“Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify about me; and you are not willing to come to me so that you may have eternal life.” Let us make much account of spiritual things, beloved, and not think that it is enough for salvation to pursue them in any way at all. For if in the affairs of this life one can gain nothing great by treating them as secondary and casually, much more will this happen in spiritual things, since these need greater zeal. That is why Christ too, sending the Jews to the Scriptures, sent them not to a simple reading but to an exact and thoughtful searching. For he did not say, “Read the Scriptures,” but “Search the Scriptures.” For since what was said about him needed great diligence (for it had been veiled from of old, for the benefit of the people of that time), he now commands them to dig through it with exactness, so that they may be able to find what lies in the depth. For it had not been said on the surface, nor thrown out on top, but lay like a treasure at a great depth. And one who seeks what lies below, unless he seeks with exactness and toil, will never be able to find what he seeks. That is why, having said, “Search the Scriptures,” he added, “because you think that in them you have eternal life.” He did not say “you have,” but “you think,” showing that they reaped nothing great and noble, expecting to be saved by the reading alone while devoid of faith. What he says is this: Do you not admire the Scriptures? Do you not think them the cause of all life? From these I too now make my case. For it is they that testify about me, “and you are not willing to come to me so that you may have eternal life.” Rightly, then, he said “you think,” because they were not willing to be persuaded but only to boast of the bare reading. Then, so that because of his great care he might not incur among them the suspicion of vainglory, and might not be thought to be seeking his own interest because he wished to be believed by them (for he had reminded them of John's voice, and the testimony of God, and his own works, and said everything so as to draw them, and promised life)—since, then, many would likely suspect that he said these things out of love of glory, hear what he adds: “I do not receive glory from man,” that is, I do not need it. My nature, he says, is not such as to need glory from men. For if the sun would receive no addition from the light of a lamp, much farther am I from needing human glory. “And why then,” someone says, “do you say these things, if you do not need it?” “So that you may be saved.” This he said above; and he hinted at it here too, saying, “so that you may have life.” And he puts another reason too. What is it? “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.” For since they often persecuted him, as if forsooth they loved God, because he made himself equal to God, and he knew that they were not going to obey him—so that no one might say, “Why then do you say these things?”—he said this: so that I may expose you, that it is not out of love for God that you persecute me. For he himself testifies to me, both through the works and through the Scriptures. As, then, before this you drove me off thinking me an enemy of God, so now, since I have proved these things, you ought to run to me, if indeed you loved God; but you do not love him. That is why I said these things: to show you that you are puffed up, boasting idly, and covering up your own envy. And he establishes it not only from these things but also from what was to come: “For I have come,” he says, “in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”

[2] Do you see that he says again and again that he has been sent, and has received judgment from the Father, and can do nothing of himself, for this reason: to cut off every pretext for their unfairness? Whom does he mean will come in his own name? He hints here at the Antichrist, and puts an incontestable proof of their unfairness. For if you persecute me as lovers of God, much more ought this to happen in the case of the Antichrist. For he will say nothing of the kind—neither that he has been sent by the Father nor that he comes according to his will—but entirely the opposite, tyrannically seizing what does not belong to him at all, and saying that he himself is the God over all, as Paul too says: “[exalting himself] above every so-called god or object of worship, showing himself that he is [God].” [For this] is to come in his own name. But I have not come so, but in my Father's name. This too, then, was enough to show that they did not love God: that they did not receive the one who said he had been sent from him. But now he shows their shamelessness from the opposite as well, from their being about to receive the Antichrist. For when they do not receive the one who says he has been sent from God, but are going to worship one who does not know him, but boasts and says that he himself is the God over all, it is clear that the persecution came from envy and from hatred of God. That is why he puts two reasons for what was said: first the kinder one, saying, “so that you may be saved,” and “so that you may have life”; and since they were going to mock him, he puts the sharper one too, showing that even if the hearers are not persuaded, God is wont to do his own part everywhere.

Paul, then, speaking of the Antichrist, said prophetically, “God will send them a working of error, so that all may be judged who did not be[lieve the truth but took pleasure in] unrighteousness.” But Christ did not say that he will come, but “if he comes,” sparing his hearers. And since their unfairness was not yet complete, he himself kept silent about the cause of the Antichrist's coming, while Paul hinted at it to those able to perceive it with exactness. For he is the one who takes every defense away from them. Then he states the cause of their unbelief, adding, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”—showing again from this that they were not looking to the things of God, but wished under such a pretext to avenge their own passion. For they were so far from doing these things for his glory that they preferred human glory to his. How then were these people going to take on so much hatred for the sake of his glory, which they so despised as to prefer human glory to it? Having said that they do not have the love of God, and having proved it by both these things—by what was done to him and by what will be done toward the Antichrist—and having clearly shown that they are deprived of all pardon, he then sets Moses over them too as accuser, saying, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” What he means is this: Before me, it is he who is insulted in what you do to me; for you have disbelieved Moses rather than me. See how on every side he cut them off from every defense. You said, he says, that you love God in persecuting me; I showed that you do this hating him. You say that I break the Sabbath and undo the law; I have cast off this charge too. You maintain that you believe Moses by what you dare against me; I show again that this above all is not to believe Moses. For I am so far from coming in opposition to the law that there is no other who will accuse you but the very one who gave you the law. As, then, he said about the Scriptures, “in which you think you have eternal life,” so too he says about Moses, “on whom you have set your hope,” everywhere overcoming them with their own weapons. “And how is it clear,” someone says, “that Moses will accuse us, and that you are not boasting? What have you in common with Moses? You broke the Sabbath, which he legislated to be kept; how then would he accuse us? And how is it clear that we shall believe another, who will come in his own name? You say all these things without witness.” And yet all these things have been established above. For when it is agreed that he came from God—from the works, from John's voice, from the Father's testimony—it is clear that Moses will accuse them. For what did he say? Did he not say that if anyone comes doing signs and leading to God and foretelling the future truly, one must obey him with all readiness? Has not Christ done all these things? For he worked signs with all truth, drew all to God, and brought his predictions to fulfillment. “But how is it clear that they will believe another?” From their hating Christ. For those who turn away from the one who came by the will of God will clearly receive the enemy of God too. And if he now brings Moses forward, though he said, “I do not receive testimony from man,” do not marvel; for he sends them not to Moses but to the writings of God. Yet since the Scriptures frightened them less, he turns the discourse to the person himself, setting the lawgiver himself over them as accuser, and so making the fear much more terrible; and he exposes each of the things they said. Consider: they said they persecuted him out of love for God; he shows that they do this out of hatred of God. They said they held to Moses; he shows that they acted so because they did not believe Moses. For if they were zealous for the law, they ought to have received the one who fulfills it; if they loved God, they ought to have been persuaded by the one who draws them to him; if they believed Moses, they ought to have worshiped the one he prophesied. And if Moses is disbelieved before me, it is nothing strange that I, whom he proclaimed, am driven away by you. As, then, he showed by what they did to himself that those who admired John despised John, so he shows that those who thought they believed Moses disbelieved him, and always turns back on their own heads everything they thought was [in their favor. So far am I from wishing, he says,] to lead you away from the law, that I call the lawgiver himself as your accuser. He said, then, that the Scriptures testify, but did not add where they testify, wishing to put greater fear in them, to send them to searching, and to bring them to the necessity of asking. For if he had said it readily, without their asking, they would have rejected the testimony; but as it is, if they had paid attention to what was said, they ought to have asked this before anything else and learned it from him. That is why he is more abundant in declarations and threats, and not only in proofs, so that even in this way he might draw them by the fear of what was said. But they keep silent even so. For such is wickedness: whatever one says or does, it is not roused, but remains, keeping its own poison.

That is why we must cast all malice out of the soul and never weave any deceit. For “to the crooked,” it says, “God sends crooked ways”; and, “The holy spirit of wisdom will flee deceit.” And [nothing] makes people so foolish as wickedness. For when someone is treacherous, when unfair, when ungrateful (these are forms of wickedness), when he grieves someone without having been wronged, when he weaves deceits—how will he not show proof of the utmost folly? Nothing makes people so wise as virtue. For it makes them grateful and fair-minded, kind, gentle, meek, reasonable; virtue is wont to give birth to all the other good things. And what is more understanding than one so disposed? For virtue is truly the spring and root of prudence, just as all wickedness has its beginning from folly. For the boastful and the wrathful are caught by the passions from want of prudence. That is why the prophet too said, “There is no healing in my flesh; my wounds have grown foul and festered because of my folly,” showing that every sin has its beginning from folly; just as the virtuous man who has the fear of God is more understanding than all. That is why a wise man says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” If, then, to fear God is to have wisdom, and the wicked man does not have this, he is deprived of true wisdom; and being deprived of true wisdom, he is more senseless than all. And yet many admire the wicked as able to wrong and harm, not knowing that they ought above all to call them wretched, because thinking to harm others they thrust the sword against themselves; which is the utmost folly: striking oneself and not even knowing it, but thinking to wrong another while slaughtering oneself. That is why Paul too, knowing that in striking others we destroy ourselves, said, “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” For not being wronged lies in not doing wrong, just as not suffering evil lies in not doing evil—even if the saying seems a riddle to most people and to those unwilling to be wise. Knowing these things, then, let us call wretched and weep for not those who are wronged and abused but those who do these things. For these are the ones most wronged: they make God their enemy, open the mouths of countless accusers, acquire an evil reputation in the present life, and draw on themselves a great punishment in the age to come; whereas those who are wronged and bear everything nobly have God gracious to them, and all sympathizing with them, praising and welcoming them. Such people will enjoy great good repute in the present life, displaying the greatest proof of wisdom, and in the life to come will share in the eternal good things; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.