Homilies on John 55.1–55.3

“The Jews answered and said to him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon, but I honor the Father.’” Wickedness is shameless and reckless, and when it ought to be hidden, then it grows more savage; which is what happened with the Jews. For when they ought to have been pricked to the heart by what was said, admiring his boldness and the consistency of his words, they even insult him, calling him a Samaritan and saying he is possessed, and they say, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” For whenever he says something lofty, it seems madness to those who are utterly without perception. And yet the evangelist nowhere said earlier that they called him a Samaritan; but from this saying it is likely that this had often been said by them. “You have a demon,” they say. And yet who is the one who has a demon: the one who honors God, or the one who insults him who honors God? What then does Christ say, he who is meekness and gentleness itself? “I do not have a demon, but I honor the Father who sent me.” Where he had to teach them and pull down their great pride, and train them not to think highly of themselves because of Abraham, he was severe; but where he had to bear being insulted, he uses great meekness. For when they said, “We have God as Father, and Abraham,” he took hold of them sharply; but when they called him possessed, he uses mild language, teaching us to avenge what is done against God, but to overlook what is done against ourselves. “I do not seek my own glory.” “I said these things,” he says, “to show that it was not fitting for you to call God Father, being murderers. So I spoke these words out of honor for him, and for his sake I hear these things, and for his sake you dishonor me. But I care nothing for this insult; for you owe him an account of what has been said, since it is for his sake that I now hear these things. ‘I do not seek my own glory.’ For this reason I have left off punishing you and turn to exhortation, and I counsel you to do the things by which you will not only escape punishment but also attain eternal life.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Here he speaks not only of faith but also of a pure life. And above he said, “He will have eternal life,” but here he says, “He will never see death.” And at the same time he hints that they can do nothing to him; for if one who keeps his word will not die, much more he himself. They too understood this, at any rate, and they say, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets died”; that is, those who heard the word of God died, and will those who hear yours not die? “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” O vainglory! Again they take refuge in kinship with him. And yet it would have been consistent to say, “Are you greater than God? Or are those who hear you greater than Abraham?” But they do not say this, because they thought him even less than Abraham. First, then, he showed them to be murderers, and in this way led them away from the kinship; but when they persisted, he deals with it again in another way, showing that they labor in vain. About death he did not discuss anything with them, nor did he reveal or say what kind of death he means; but for the present he persuades them that he is greater than Abraham, so as to shame them by this too. “Especially if I were any ordinary man,” he says, “it would not be right for me to die when I had done no wrong; but when I speak the truth, and have no sin at all, and have been sent from God, and am greater than Abraham, how are you not laboring in vain in trying to kill me?” What then do they say? “Now we know that you have a demon.” But the Samaritan woman did not speak so; she did not say to him, “You have a demon,” but only this: “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” For these men [were insulting him, but she wished to learn]; that is why she was at a loss, and answered with fitting moderation, and calls him “Sir.” For one who promised much greater things and was worthy of belief ought not to be insulted, but even admired; but these men say he is possessed. For her words were those of a woman at a loss, but these are the words of unbelieving and perverted men. “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” So this makes him greater than Abraham. “When, then, you see him lifted up, you will confess that he is greater.” That is why he said, “When you have lifted me up, then you will know that I am he.” And observe the wisdom. Having first cut them off from the kinship, he shows himself greater than Abraham, so that by his great superiority he may be seen to be greater than the prophets too. For since they always called him a prophet, for this reason he said, “My word finds no place in you.” There, then, he said that he raises the dead; but here, “Whoever believes will never see death,” which was much greater than not allowing one to be held fast by death; and so they grew more savage. What then do they say? “Who do you make yourself out to be?” And this insultingly: “You,” they say, “are flattering yourself.” To this, then, Christ says, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.”

What do the heretics say here? He heard, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” and did not dare to say to them, “Yes,” but does it in a veiled way. What then? Is his glory nothing? In relation to them it is nothing. For just as he says, “My testimony is not true,” with reference to their supposition, so here too he says, “It is the Father who glorifies me.” And why did he not say, “The Father who sent me,” as he said above, but “of whom you say that he is your God, and you do not know him”? Because he wished to show that they know him not only not as Father, but not even as God. “But I know him.” So to say “I know him” is not boasting, but to say that I do not know him would be a lie. “But you, when you say that you know him, lie. So as you lie when you say that you know him, so would I if I said that I do not know him.” “If I glorify myself.” Since they said, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” he says, “If I do so, my glory is nothing. As, then, I know him exactly, so you are ignorant of him.” And just as with Abraham he did not take away everything, but says, “I know that you are the seed of Abraham,” so as to make the accusation greater, so here he did not take away everything, but said, “of whom you say.” Granting them their boast in words, he made the charge greater. And how do you not know him? Because you insult the one who says and does everything for his sake, so that he may be glorified, and that though he was sent by him. “But this is without proof”; but what follows establishes it: “And I keep his word.” Here, if they had anything, they could have refuted him; for his having been sent by him was the greatest proof. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” Again he shows them to be strangers to him, since they are pained at the very things at which he rejoiced. By “the day” here he seems to me to mean the day of the cross, which he foreshadowed in the offering of the ram and of Isaac. What then do they say? “You are not yet forty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” As though Christ were already near forty years. He says to them, “Before Abraham was, I am.” “And they took up stones to throw at him.” Do you see how he established that he was greater than Abraham? For one who rejoiced that he would see the day, and made it an object of eager longing, clearly regarded it as a day brought about for his benefit, and as the day of one greater. For since they said, “The carpenter’s son,” and imagined nothing more, he leads them little by little to a lofty conception. When, then, they heard, “You do not know God,” they were not pained; but when they heard, “Before Abraham was, I am,” [they cast stones,] as though their noble descent were being humbled. [“He rejoiced that he would see] my day, and he was glad.” He shows that he does not come to the passion unwillingly, since he praises the one who rejoiced at the cross; for this was the salvation of the world. But they threw stones; so ready were they for murder, and they did these things by themselves, inquiring into nothing. And why did he not say, “Before Abraham was, I was,” but “I am”? As his Father uses this expression “I am,” so does he too. For it signifies perpetual being, free from all time; that is why the saying seems to them blasphemous. And if they could not bear the comparison with Abraham, though it was a small one, if he had constantly made himself equal to the Father, would they ever have stopped stoning him? Then he flees again in a human way and hides himself, having set before them sufficient teaching and fulfilled his part; he went out of the temple and withdrew to the healing of the blind man, confirming by his works that he was before Abraham. But perhaps someone will say, “Why did he not paralyze their strength? For so they would have believed.” He healed a paralytic, and they did not believe; he worked countless other things, and in the very passion he threw them on their backs and darkened their eyes, and they did not believe; and how would they have believed if he had paralyzed their strength? For nothing is worse than a soul that has despaired; even if it sees signs, even if wonders, it remains with the same shamelessness. For Pharaoh too, receiving countless blows, came to his senses only while he was being punished, and remained such until the last day, pursuing those whom he had released. That is why Paul says again and again, “That none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” For as the calluses of the body become dead and have no feeling, so too the soul, when it is held fast by many passions, becomes dead to the perception of the matter; but even if punishment, even if anything whatever [comes upon it, it does not feel it].

So I beg you, while we have hopes of salvation, while we are able to turn back, to do everything. For those who have become callous, like helmsmen who have grown weary and hand the vessel over to the wind and contribute nothing of their own, so these too are [disabled] from then on. For the envious man looks to one thing only, to fulfil his own desire; even if he is going to be punished, even if he is going to be killed, he belongs to his passion alone; and so do the licentious and the lover of money. And if the tyranny of the passions is so great, much more that of virtue. If for the sake of those things we despise death, much more for the sake of this. If those men despise their own lives, much more should we do this for our salvation. For what defense shall we have, when those who are perishing are so eager for their own destruction, and we do not show even so much eagerness for our own salvation, but always remain wasting away with envy? For nothing is worse than envy. To destroy another, the envious man destroys himself too. [He lives a] continual [death]; he counts as enemies all who have done him no wrong. He is pained that God is honored; he rejoices at the things in which the devil rejoices. Is so-and-so honored among men? But this is no honor; do not envy. But is he honored by God? Emulate him and become like him. But you will not? Why then do you destroy yourself as well, and throw away even what you have? You cannot become equal to him nor gain anything good; why do you take on evil as well? You ought to rejoice with him, so that, even if you cannot share in his labors, you may gain from rejoicing with him. For in many cases even the will is enough to do great good. Ezekiel, at any rate, says that the Moabites were punished for this, for rejoicing over the Israelites; and that certain others were saved because they groaned over the evils of others. And if there is some comfort for those who groan at the evils of others, much more for those who are glad at the honors of others. He accused the Moabites because they rejoiced over the Israelites; and yet it was God who was punishing them. But even when he himself punishes, he does not wish us [to exult over] those who are punished; for he does not even wish to punish them himself. And if we ought to grieve with those who are punished, much more ought we not to envy those who are honored. So, at any rate, the followers of Korah and Dathan perished, making those whom they envied more illustrious, and handing themselves over to punishment. For envy is a venomous beast, an unclean beast, a vice of the will that admits no excuse, a wickedness deprived of any defense, the cause and mother of all evils. So let us tear it out by the roots, so that we may be freed from present evils and attain the good things to come, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages.