Homilies on John, Homily 21

“Nathanael answered Him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel. Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” [1.] Beloved, we need great care and watchfulness to look into the depths of the Divine Scriptures. We cannot discover their meaning carelessly or while we are asleep. We need to search closely and pray earnestly so that we may see even a little way into the secrets of the divine oracles. Today, for instance, we face a serious question that requires great dedication and careful investigation. For when Nathanael said, “You are the Son of God,” Christ replies, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” Now what question arises from this passage? This one: Peter, after so many miracles and such lofty teaching, confessed, “You are the Son of God” ( Matt. xvi. 16 ), and is called “blessed” because he received this revelation from the Father. But Nathanael, though he said exactly the same thing before seeing any miracles or hearing any teaching, received no such response. Instead, as though he had not said as much as he should, he is led on to still greater things. What can explain this? Peter and Nathanael spoke the same words, but they did not mean the same thing. Peter confessed Him to be “The Son of God” as true God; Nathanael, as a mere man. And how do we know this? From what he said next. After “You are the Son of God,” he adds, “You are the King of Israel.” But the Son of God is not “King of Israel” alone, but of the whole world. What I am saying is clear not only from this, but also from what follows. Christ added nothing more to Peter's confession, but, as though his faith were complete, said that He would build the Church on this confession of his. In Nathanael's case, however, He did nothing like this, but the opposite. As though a large part—and the better part—were missing from his confession, He added what follows. What does He say? Ver. 51. “Truly, truly I tell you, You will see heaven open in the future, and the Angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Do you see how He leads him up little by little from the earth and brings him to stop thinking of Him as merely a man? For how could One whom Angels serve, and on whom Angels ascend and descend, be a mere man? This is why He said, “You will see greater things than these.” And to prove this, He brings in the service of Angels. What He means is something like this: “Does this seem a great thing to you, Nathanael, and have you confessed Me to be King of Israel because of it? What will you say, then, when you see the Angels ascending and descending on Me?” With these words He persuades him to acknowledge Him as Lord of the Angels too. For the royal servants ascended and descended on Him as on the King's own Son: at the Crucifixion, again at the Resurrection and the Ascension, and even before this, when they “came and served Him” ( Matt. iv. 11 ), when they announced the good news of His birth and cried, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” ( Luke ii. 14 ), when they came to Mary, and when they came to Joseph. Here He does what He has done many times: He makes two predictions, gives immediate proof of one, and confirms what is still to happen through what has already happened. For some of His statements had already been proved, such as, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Others were still to come, and had partly happened already: the descending and ascending of the Angels at the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. He makes this credible by His words even before it happens. For someone who had learned His power from what had already happened, and had heard Him speak of things to come, would more readily accept this prediction too. What does Nathanael do, then? He makes no reply to this. So Christ ended His conversation with him at this point, allowing him to consider privately what had been said. He chose not to pour everything out at once. Having planted seed in fertile ground, He leaves it to sprout in its own time. He has shown this elsewhere too, where He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sows good seed, but while he sleeps, his enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat.” Chap. ii. ver. 1, 2. “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And Jesus was invited to the wedding. And the mother of Jesus was there, and His brothers.” I said before that He was best known in Galilee. So they invite Him to the wedding, and He comes, because He was concerned with our benefit, not His own honor. He who did not consider it beneath Him to “take on the form of a servant” ( Philip. ii. 7 ) would be even less likely to consider attending the wedding of servants beneath Him. He who sat down “with tax collectors and sinners” ( Matt. ix. 13 ) would be even less likely to refuse to sit with the wedding guests. Certainly those who invited Him had not formed a proper judgment of Him. They did not invite Him as someone great, but simply as an ordinary acquaintance. The Evangelist hints at this when he says, “The mother of Jesus was there, and His brothers.” They invited Jesus just as they invited her and His brothers. Ver. 3. “And when they ran out of wine, His mother says to Him, They have no wine.” Here it is worth asking what led His mother to think anything great of her Son. He had not yet performed any miracle, since the Evangelist says, “Jesus performed this first miracle in Cana of Galilee.” ( c. ii. 11.) [2.] Now someone may say that this does not adequately prove that it was the “beginning of His miracles,” because the words “in Cana of Galilee” are simply added. This could mean it was the first miracle He performed there, but not absolutely the first of all, since He might well have performed others elsewhere. We will answer him with what we said before. What was that? The words of John (the Baptist): “And I did not know Him; but so that He should be revealed to Israel, I have come baptizing with water.” Now if He had performed miracles at an early age, the Israelites would not have needed someone else to announce Him. For He came among people and became known through His miracles, not only to those in Judea, but also to those in Syria and beyond. He did this in only three years—or rather, He did not even need those three years to reveal Himself ( Matt. iv. 24 ), for His fame spread everywhere immediately, from the very beginning. He, I say, shone so brightly in a short time through His many miracles that His name became known to everyone. If He had performed miracles from early childhood, He would have been even less likely to remain unnoticed for so long. What He did would have seemed more extraordinary because a boy was doing it, and there would have been time for twice or three times as many miracles, and far more. But in fact He did nothing while He was a child except the one thing Luke records ( Luke ii. 46 ): at twelve years old He sat listening to the teachers and was admired for His questions. Besides, it was reasonable and fitting that He did not begin His signs in early childhood, because people would have considered them a deception. For if many suspected this when He was fully grown, they would have been far more likely, if He had performed miracles while very young, to rush Him to the Cross sooner, before the proper time, in their venomous malice. And the very events of the Dispensation would have been discredited. “How, then,” someone asks, “did His mother come to think anything great of Him?” He was now beginning to reveal Himself, and John's testimony and what He had said to His disciples were making Him clearly known. Even before all this, the Conception itself and all the circumstances surrounding it had given her a very high opinion of the Child. “For,” Luke said, “she heard all the sayings concerning the Child, and kept them in her heart.” “Why, then,” someone asks, “did she not say this before?” Because, as I said, only now was He beginning to reveal Himself. Before this He lived like an ordinary person, so His mother had not had the confidence to say anything like this to Him. But when she heard that John had come on His account, that he had given such testimony about Him, and that He had disciples, she gained confidence. She called Him and, when they ran out of wine, said, “They have no wine.” She wanted both to do them a favor and to draw more attention to herself through her Son. Perhaps she also had some merely human feelings, like His brothers when they said, “Show Yourself to the world” ( c. vii. 4 ), wanting to gain prestige from His miracles. So He answered somewhat sharply, saying, Ver. 4. “Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.” To see that He deeply respected His mother, listen to Luke tell how He “obeyed” His parents ( Luke ii. 51 ), and to our own Evangelist describe how He provided for her even at the Crucifixion. Where parents create no obstacle or hindrance in matters concerning God, we have a binding duty to yield to them, and there is great danger in failing to do so. But when they ask for something at the wrong time and obstruct any spiritual matter, it is unsafe to obey. This is why He answered as He did here, and elsewhere said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” ( Matt. xii. 48 ). They did not yet think rightly of Him. And because she had given birth to Him, she claimed the right, as other mothers commonly do, to direct Him in everything, when she should have revered and worshiped Him. This, then, was why He answered as He did on that occasion. Consider what it meant for her to come into the midst of everyone, high and low, standing around Him, while the crowd was listening intently and He had begun His teaching, and take Him away from urging the people to live rightly so she could speak with Him privately. She would not even come inside, but called Him outside to have Him to herself. This is why He said, “Who is My mother and My brothers?” He was not insulting the woman who had given birth to Him (put that thought away!), but seeking her greatest good and keeping her from thinking too little of Him. For if He cared for others and did everything to give them a proper understanding of Himself, He would do so all the more for His mother. And since she probably would not readily have accepted correction even then if her Son had addressed these words to her, but would always have claimed authority as His mother, He answered the people who spoke to Him as He did. Otherwise, He could not have raised her thoughts from His present lowliness to His future exaltation if she expected Him always to honor her as a son, without expecting Him to come as her Master. [3.] This, then, was His motive for saying here, “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” There was also another reason, just as pressing. What was it? To keep His miracles from falling under suspicion. The request should have come from those in need, not from His mother. Why? Because something done at a friend's request, however great it may be, often gives the spectators grounds for objection. But when those in need make the request, the miracle is free from suspicion, the praise is unqualified, and the benefit is great. Suppose an excellent physician entered a house where many people were sick, and none of the patients or their relatives spoke to him, but only his own mother directed him. The sick people would distrust and dislike him, and none of the patients or their attendants would think him capable of doing anything great or remarkable. This, then, was one reason He rebuked her on that occasion, saying, “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” He was teaching her not to do the same thing again. Although He took care to honor His mother, He cared much more about the salvation of her soul and about benefiting the many, for whose sake He took on flesh. These words, then, were not spoken rudely to His mother. They were part of a wise dispensation that put her in the right frame of mind and ensured that the miracles received their proper honor. Even leaving everything else aside, the very fact that these words sound like a rebuke is more than enough to show that He held her in high honor. Through His displeasure He showed His deep respect for her; how He did so, we will explain in the next discourse. Keep this in mind, then, when you hear a woman saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts You nursed at,” and Him answering, “Rather, blessed are those who do the will of My Father” ( Luke xi. 27–28 ). Understand that those other words were also spoken with the same intention. His answer did not reject His mother. It showed that giving birth to Him would have done her no good if she had not been very good and faithful. Now if, apart from the excellence of her soul, it did Mary no good that the Christ was born of her, it will do us even less good to have a father, brother, or child of virtuous and noble character if we ourselves are far from that person's virtue. “A brother,” David says, “does not redeem; will a man redeem?” ( Ps. xlix. 7 , LXX.) We must place our hope of salvation in nothing else but our own righteous deeds (done) after the grace of God. For if this relationship by itself could have helped, it would have helped the Jews (for Christ was their relative according to the flesh), the town where He was born, and His brothers. But as long as His brothers neglected themselves, the honor of their kinship did them no good. They were condemned with the rest of the world and were approved only when they shone through their own virtue. The city fell and was burned, having gained nothing from this relationship. His relatives according to the flesh were slaughtered and died very miserably, gaining nothing toward salvation from their relationship to Him, because they lacked the protection of virtue. The Apostles, by contrast, proved greater than all, because they followed the true and excellent way of becoming related to Him: obedience. From this we learn that we always need faith and a life shining and bright, since this alone has the power to save us. For although His relatives were long honored everywhere and called the Lord's relatives, we no longer even know their names, while the lives and names of the Apostles are celebrated everywhere. Let us not take pride, then, in noble birth according to the flesh. Even if we have ten thousand famous ancestors, let us work hard ourselves to surpass their excellence, knowing that the efforts of others will do nothing to help us at the coming judgment. Indeed, our condemnation will be all the more severe because, though born to righteous parents and given an example at home, we still fail to imitate our teachers. I say this now because I see many pagans, when we lead them toward the faith and urge them to become Christians, taking refuge in their relatives, ancestors, and household, and saying, “All my relatives and friends and companions are faithful Christians.” What does that do for you, you wretched and miserable person? This very thing will be especially ruinous for you: you did not let the sheer number of believers around you move you to respect them and run to the truth. Others, who are believers but live carelessly, offer exactly the same defense when urged to pursue virtue: “My father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather were very devout and good men.” But this will certainly condemn you all the more: descended from such men, you have acted unworthily of the root from which you sprang. Listen to what the Prophet says to the Jews: “Israel worked as a servant for a wife, and for a wife he tended (sheep)” ( Hos. xii. 12 ); and again Christ says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.” ( c. viii. 56.) Everywhere they hold up the righteous deeds of their fathers before them, not only to praise the fathers, but also to make the charge against their descendants more serious. Knowing this, let us do everything we can to be saved by our own works. Otherwise, after deceiving ourselves by trusting vainly in others, we may discover our mistake when knowing it will do us no good. “In the grave,” David says, “who will give You thanks?” ( Ps. vi. 5.) Let us repent here, then, so that we may obtain the everlasting good things. May God grant that we all obtain them through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, forever and ever. Amen.