Homilies on John, Homily 31

“The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. Whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life, and whoever does not believe the Son will not see life; but the anger of God remains on him.” [1.] Gently adapting to others benefits us in everything. This is how we have perfected the arts, learning them from our teachers gradually, rather than all at once; this is how we have built cities, putting them together slowly, little by little; this is how we sustain our lives. And do not be surprised that this approach has so much power in the affairs of this life, when we can find that this wisdom has great power in spiritual matters. For this was how the Jews were able to be freed from their idolatry: they were led gently, little by little, and at first heard nothing lofty about either doctrine or conduct. Likewise, after Christ came, when the time had arrived for higher doctrines, the Apostles won everyone over without saying anything lofty at first. This is also how Christ seems to have spoken to most people at the beginning, and how John spoke now, describing Him as a remarkable man while introducing higher truths indirectly. For example, he began by saying, “A man cannot receive anything on his own” ( c. iii. 27 ). Then, after adding a lofty statement and saying, “He who comes from heaven is above all,” he again brings his discussion down to a humbler level, and among many other things says that “God does not give the Spirit by measure.” Then he goes on to say, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” After that, knowing how powerful punishment is, and that most people are moved less by the promise of good things than by the threat of terrible things, he concludes his discussion with these words: “Whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life; but whoever does not believe the Son will not see life; but the anger of God remains on him.” Here again he attributes the punishment to the Father, for he does not say “the anger of the Son” (though He is the Judge), but places the Father over them, wanting to frighten them all the more. “Is believing in the Son enough, then,” someone asks, “to have eternal life?” Certainly not. Listen to Christ Himself declare this: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matt. vii. 21 ); and blasphemy against the Spirit is enough by itself to cast a person into hell. But why speak of just one point of doctrine? Even if someone believes rightly in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, if he does not live rightly, his faith will do nothing for his salvation. So when He says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God” ( c. xvii. 3 ), let us not suppose that the (knowledge) spoken of is enough for our salvation; we also need to live and conduct ourselves with the greatest care. For although he has said here, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,” and in the same passage something even stronger (for he builds his discussion around not only blessings but their opposites as well, saying, “Whoever does not believe the Son will not see life, but the anger of God remains on him”), even from this we do not claim that faith alone is enough for salvation. The instructions for living given in many places in the Gospels show this. So he did not say, “This by itself is eternal life,” or, “Whoever merely believes in the Son has eternal life.” Instead, through both expressions he declared that believing does contain life, but that if right conduct does not follow, severe punishment will follow. And he did not say, “awaits him,” but, “remains on him,” meaning, “will never leave him.” To keep you from thinking that “will not see life” means a temporary death, and to make you believe that the punishment is continual, he used this expression to show that it rests on him continually. By these very words he was pressing them toward Christ. So he did not address the warning to them personally, but made it universal, the approach most likely to win them over. He did not say, “if you believe,” and, “if you do not believe,” but spoke in general terms so that his words would arouse no suspicion. And he did this even more forcefully than Christ. For Christ says, “Whoever does not believe is condemned already,” but John says, “will not see life, but the anger of God remains on him.” And with good reason: it was different for someone to speak about himself than for another person to speak about him. They would have thought that Christ often spoke about these things out of self-love, and that He was a boaster; but John was above all suspicion. And if Christ also used stronger expressions later, it was when they had begun to form a high opinion of Him. Chap. IV. Ver. 1, 2, 3. “So when Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples did), He left Judea and went back to Galilee.” He Himself did not baptize, but those who brought the news reported it that way because they wanted to stir up envy in their hearers. “Why, then, did He ‘leave’?” Not out of fear, but to remove their malice and calm their envy. He could certainly have restrained them when they came against Him, but He would not do this continually, so that people would not disbelieve the Dispensation of the Flesh. For if He had often been seized and escaped, many would have become suspicious of it; so for the most part He instead arranges things in a human way. Just as He wanted people to believe that He was God, He also wanted them to believe that, being God, He bore the flesh. That is why, even after the Resurrection, He said to the disciple, “Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones” ( Luke xxiv. 39 ); and why He rebuked Peter when he said, “Far be it from You; this will never happen to You.” ( Matt. xvi. 22.) He took such great care over this matter. [2.] For this is no small part of the Church’s doctrines; it is the central point of the salvation accomplished for us, through which everything has been brought about and achieved its purpose. This was how the bonds of death were broken, sin was taken away, the curse was abolished, and ten thousand blessings were brought into our lives. That is why He especially wanted the Dispensation to be believed, since it was the root and fountain of countless good things for us. Yet while acting this way in regard to His Humanity, He did not allow His Divinity to be obscured. So after His departure He again used the same language as before. He did not go away to Galilee without a purpose, but to accomplish certain important things among the Samaritans. Nor did He arrange these things without a purpose, but with His own wisdom, in a way that left the Jews no pretext for even a shameless excuse. This is what the Evangelist points to when he says, Ver. 4. “And He had to pass through Samaria.” This shows that He made this a secondary part of the journey. The Apostles did the same thing: just as they came to the Gentiles when the Jews persecuted them, so Christ turned His attention to the Samaritans when the Jews drove Him out, as He also did in the case of the Syrophoenician woman. This happened to deprive the Jews of every defense, so they could not say, “He left us and went to the uncircumcised.” That is why the disciples explained their actions by saying, “The Word of God had to be spoken to you first; but since you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, look, we are turning to the Gentiles.” ( Acts xiii. 46.) And He Himself says again, “I have come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” ( Matt. xv. 24 ); and again, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to dogs.” But when they drove Him away, they opened a door to the Gentiles. Even then, He did not come to the Gentiles expressly for that purpose, but while passing through. So, while passing through, Ver. 5, 6. “He comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there.” Why does the Evangelist describe the place so precisely? So that when you hear the woman say, “Our father Jacob gave us this well,” you will not find it strange. For this was the place where Levi and Simeon, angry over Dinah, carried out that cruel slaughter. It may be worthwhile to explain where the Samaritans came from, since this whole country is called Samaria. Where, then, did they get their name? The mountain was called “Somor” after its owner ( 1 Kings xvi. 24 ), as Isaiah also says, “and the head of Ephraim is Somoron” ( Isa. vii. 9 , LXX.). But the inhabitants were called “Israelites,” not “Samaritans.” As time went on, however, they offended God, and during Pekah’s reign Tiglath-Pileser came up, captured many cities, and attacked Elah; after killing him, he gave the kingdom to Hoshea. ( 2 Kings xv. 29.) Shalmaneser came against him, captured other cities, and made them subject to him and required them to pay tribute. ( 2 Kings xvii. 3.) At first Hoshea submitted, but afterward he rebelled against Assyrian rule and sought an alliance with the Ethiopians. The Assyrian learned of this, and after waging war against them and destroying their cities, he no longer allowed the nation to remain there, because he strongly suspected they would revolt. ( 2 Kings xvii. 4.) Instead, he carried them away to Babylon and to the Medes, and brought nations from various places in those lands and settled them in Samaria, so that his rule would be secure in the future, with his own people occupying the country. After this, God, wanting to show that He had not abandoned the Jews out of weakness, but because of the sins of those He had abandoned, sent lions against the foreigners, which ravaged their entire nation. These things were reported to the king, and he sent a priest to teach them God’s laws. Even then they did not give up their impiety entirely, but only halfway. As time went on, however, they in turn abandoned their idols and worshiped God. When things had reached this point, the Jews returned, and from then on regarded them with jealousy as foreigners and enemies, calling them “Samaritans” after the mountain. This also caused considerable rivalry between them. The Samaritans did not use all the Scriptures, but accepted only the writings of Moses and gave little weight to those of the Prophets. Yet they were eager to force their way into the noble Jewish line, took pride in Abraham, and called him their forefather because he came from Chaldea; they also called Jacob their father because he was Abraham’s descendant. But the Jews detested them, as they did all (other nations). That is why they used this insult against Christ, saying, “You are a Samaritan and have a demon.” ( c. viii. 48.) For this reason, too, in the parable of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, Christ makes the man who showed him pity “a Samaritan” ( Luke x. 33 ), someone they considered low, contemptible, and detestable. And in the case of the ten lepers, He calls one a “foreigner” for this reason (for “he was a Samaritan”). He also gave His instructions to the disciples in these words: “Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans.” ( Matt. x. 5.) [3.] The Evangelist reminded us of Jacob not merely to describe the place, but also to show that the rejection of the Jews had happened long ago. For in their ancestors’ time, the Jews possessed this land, not the Samaritans. The very possessions their ancestors had acquired when they did not own them, their descendants had lost through laziness and transgressions when they did own them. Having excellent ancestors offers so little advantage if their descendants are not like them. Moreover, the foreigners returned immediately to the Jews’ right worship after only experiencing the lions, while the Jews, even after enduring such afflictions, still did not come to their senses. Christ now came to this place, always rejecting a sedentary, pampered life and displaying a hardworking, active one. He uses no animal to carry Him, but walks so far at a stretch that He even becomes tired from traveling. He always teaches this lesson: a person should do his own work, go without unnecessary things, and have few needs. Indeed, He is so eager for us to turn away from unnecessary things that He even cuts back on many necessities. That is why He said, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ( Matt. viii. 20.) So He spent most of His time in the mountains and wilderness, not only by day but also by night. David declared this when he said, “He will drink from the brook along the way” ( Ps. cx. 7 ), showing by this His frugal way of life. This is also what the Evangelist shows here. Ver. 6, 7, 8. “So Jesus, tired from His journey, sat just as He was by the well; it was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria comes to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give Me a drink. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” From this we learn how actively He traveled, how little concern He had for food, and how He treated it as a matter of minor importance. The disciples were taught to adopt the same attitude themselves, for they took no provisions for the road. Another Evangelist makes this clear when he says that, when He spoke to them about “the leaven of the Pharisees” ( Matt. xvi. 6 ), they thought it was because they had brought no bread. When he describes them picking heads of grain and eating them ( Matt. xii. 1 ), and when he says that Jesus came to the fig tree because He was hungry ( Matt. xxi. 18 ), his sole purpose in all these accounts is to teach us to disregard the belly and not think that serving it requires anxious attention. Notice them here, for example: they have brought nothing with them, yet even though they have brought nothing, they do not attend to this first thing, early in the day, but buy food when everyone else is eating their meal. We are different: the moment we get out of bed, we attend to this before anything else, calling cooks and butlers and giving our instructions with the greatest seriousness, and only afterward turning to other matters. We put temporal things ahead of spiritual things and regard as necessities things we should consider less important. That is why everything is in confusion. We should instead give great importance to all spiritual things, and only after attending to these turn to the others. This passage shows not only His willingness to work hard, but also His freedom from pride—not simply because He is tired or sitting beside the road, but because He has been left alone and His disciples have gone away from Him. Yet if He had wished, He could either have kept some of them with Him or had other attendants when they left. But He chose not to, because in this way He trained His disciples to trample all pride underfoot. “And why is it surprising,” someone asks, “that their desires were modest, since they were fishermen and tentmakers?” Yes, they were fishermen and tentmakers; but in a moment they had risen to the very height of heaven and become more honored than all earthly kings, having been considered worthy to become companions of the Lord of the world and to follow Him, whom everyone looked on with awe. You also know that people of humble origin are especially liable to become foolishly proud when they gain distinction, because they have no idea how to handle their sudden honor. So, keeping them in their present humility, He taught them always to be modest and never to require anyone to wait on them. “So He,” says the Evangelist, “tired from His journey, sat just as He was at the well.” Do you see that He sat down because He was tired? Because of the heat? Because He was waiting for His disciples? He certainly knew what would happen among the Samaritans, but this was not His main purpose in coming. Yet although He had not come for this, it would have been wrong to turn away the woman who came to Him when she showed such a desire to learn. The Jews drove Him away even when He was coming to them; the Gentiles drew Him to themselves when He was going in another direction. The former were envious; the latter believed in Him. The former were angry with Him; the latter revered and worshiped Him. What then? Should He have disregarded the salvation of so many and turned away such noble eagerness? That would have been unworthy of His lovingkindness. So He arranged the whole matter with the Wisdom proper to Him. He sat resting His body and cooling It by the spring, for it was the very middle of the day, as the Evangelist has stated when he says, “It was about the sixth hour.” He sat “just as He was.” What does “just as He was” mean? Not on a throne or a cushion, but simply on the ground, just as He was. Ver. 7. “A woman of Samaria comes to draw water.” [4.] Notice how he states that the woman had come out for another purpose, silencing the Jews’ shameless objections in every way, so that no one could say that He was acting against His own command by speaking with Samaritans after telling (His disciples) not to enter any city of the Samaritans. ( Matt. x. 5.) That is also why the Evangelist added, Ver. 8. “For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” He gives many reasons for His conversation with her. What does the woman do? When she hears, “Give Me a drink,” she very wisely uses Christ’s words as an opportunity to ask a question, and says, Ver. 9. “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” How did she suppose He was a Jew? Perhaps from His clothing and His dialect. Notice, please, how considerate the woman was. If anyone needed to be cautious, it was Jesus, not she. For she does not say, “The Samaritans have no dealings with the Jews,” but, “The Jews do not accept the Samaritans.” Yet although she herself was free from blame, when she thought someone else was incurring it, she still would not remain silent, but corrected what she thought was being done unlawfully. Someone may ask how Jesus could ask her for a drink when the law did not permit it. If the answer is that He knew beforehand she would not give it, then for that very reason He should not have asked. What, then, can we say? That by now He considered it a matter of indifference to disregard observances like these; for He who led others to do away with them would all the more pass over them Himself. “It is not what goes in,” He says, “that defiles a person, but what comes out.” ( Matt. xv. 11 .) And this conversation with the woman would form a serious charge against the Jews. For He often drew them to Himself through both words and deeds, but they would not listen; yet notice how a simple request keeps her there. He had not yet begun pursuing this work or this course, but if anyone came to Him, He did not turn them away. He also told the disciples, “Do not enter any city of the Samaritans.” He did not say, “And when they come to you, reject them”; that would have been entirely unworthy of His lovingkindness. So He answered the woman and said, Ver. 10. “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” First He shows that she is worthy to hear and should not be passed over, and then He reveals Himself. For as soon as she learned who He was, she would immediately listen and pay attention to Him. No one can say this of the Jews, for when they learned, they asked Him nothing and did not want to be taught anything beneficial, but insulted Him and drove Him away. But when the woman heard these words, notice how gently she answers: Ver. 11. “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where, then, do You get that living water?” He has already raised her above her low opinion of Him and her belief that He is an ordinary man. For she does not call Him “Lord” here without a reason, but to give Him great honor. That she spoke these words to honor Him is clear from what follows, since she did not laugh or mock, but remained uncertain for a while. And do not be surprised that she did not immediately understand everything, for neither did Nicodemus. 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 his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” But this woman speaks more reverently: “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where, then, do You get that living water?” Christ said one thing, and she imagined another, hearing only the literal words and still unable to form any higher thought. Yet if she had spoken rashly, she might have said, “If You had that living water, You would not have asked me, but would have provided for Yourself instead. You are nothing but a boaster.” But she said nothing like this; she answers very gently, both at first and afterward. At first she says, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me for a drink?” She does not say, as if speaking to a foreigner and an enemy, “I would never give anything to You, an enemy and a stranger to our nation.” And again afterward, when she heard Him make great claims, something that especially annoys enemies, she did not mock or ridicule Him. What does she say instead? Ver. 12. “Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his cattle?” Notice how she forces her way into the noble Jewish line. What she says amounts to this: “Jacob used this water and had nothing better to give us.” Her words showed that from the first answer (of Christ) she had formed a great and lofty thought. For by saying, “he drank from it himself, as did his children and his cattle,” she indicates precisely this: she had some idea of a better Water, but had never found it or clearly known it. To explain her meaning more clearly, the sense of her words is this: “You cannot claim that Jacob gave us this well but used another himself, for he and his children drank from this one, which they would not have done if they had another, better one. Now You cannot give me water from this well, and You cannot have another, better water unless You admit that You are greater than Jacob. Where, then, do You get the water You promise to give us?” The Jews did not speak with Him so gently, even though He spoke to them on the same subject and mentioned similar water; they gained nothing from it, and when He mentioned Abraham, they even tried to stone Him. This woman does not approach Him that way. Instead, with great gentleness, in the heat at noon, she speaks and listens to everything with great patience. She does not even think what the Jews would very likely have asserted: “This fellow is mad and out of his mind; he has kept me tied to this spring and well, giving me nothing, but using grand words.” No, she endures and persists until she finds what she seeks. [5.] Now if a Samaritan woman is so eager to learn something beneficial, if she stays with Christ even though she does not yet know Him, what pardon can we expect? We know Him, and we are not beside a well, or in a deserted place, or at noon beneath the scorching sun, but here in the morning, under a roof like this, enjoying shade and comfort. Yet we cannot bear to hear anything that is said, but grow tired of it. That woman was different: she was so absorbed in Jesus’ words that she even called others to hear them. The Jews, by contrast, not only failed to call others, but even obstructed and held back those who wanted to come to Him, saying, “Look, have any of the rulers believed in Him? But these people, who do not know the Law, are cursed.” So let us imitate this woman of Samaria; let us converse with Christ. Even now He stands among us, speaking to us through the Prophets and Disciples; let us listen and obey. How long will we live uselessly and to no purpose? For failing to do what pleases God is living uselessly—or rather, not merely uselessly, but to our own harm. When we have spent the time given to us to no good purpose, we will leave this life to suffer the severest punishment for squandering it so inappropriately. A person who has received money to trade with and then eaten it all up will certainly have to account for it to the one who entrusted it to him; surely, then, someone who has spent a life like ours to no purpose will not escape punishment. God did not bring us into this present life and breathe a soul into us so that we would make use of the present time alone, but so that we would conduct all our affairs with the life to come in view. Irrational creatures are useful only for this present life; but we have an immortal soul so that we may use every means to prepare ourselves for that other life. If someone asks the purpose of horses, donkeys, oxen, and other such animals, we will tell him that it is simply to serve this present life. But this cannot be said of us: our best condition comes after we leave here. We must do everything we can to shine there, to join the choir of Angels and stand before the King continually through endless ages. That is why the soul is immortal, and the body will be immortal too, so that we may enjoy never-ending blessings. But if you remain nailed to the earth when heavenly things are offered to you, consider what an insult you offer your Benefactor when He holds out things above to you and you place little value on them and choose earth instead. And so, because you have despised Him, He has threatened you with hell, so that you may learn from this how great the blessings you deprive yourself of are. May God grant that none of us experience that punishment, but that, having pleased Christ, we may obtain everlasting blessings through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and forever, to ages without end. Amen.