Homilies on John, Homily 33

“Jesus says to her, Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews.” [1.] Everywhere, beloved, we need faith—faith, the mother of blessings, the medicine of salvation. Without it, we cannot grasp any of the great doctrines. Without it, people are like those who try to cross the open sea without a ship. They manage to swim a little way, using both hands and feet, but when they go farther, the waves quickly overwhelm them. In the same way, those who rely on their own reasoning suffer shipwreck before they have learned anything. As Paul also says, “Who have suffered shipwreck concerning faith.” ( 1 Tim. i. 19.) To keep this from happening to us, let us hold firmly to the sacred anchor by which Christ now brings the Samaritan woman across. For when she said, “How can you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship?” Christ replied, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain.” He revealed an exceedingly great doctrine to her, one He had not mentioned to either Nicodemus or Nathanael. She was eager to prove that her own people's privileges were more honorable than those of the Jews, and she subtly argued this from the Fathers. But Christ did not address this question. At that point, discussing the matter and explaining why the Fathers worshiped on the mountain and why the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem would have been a distraction. So He said nothing about this. After removing both places' claims to superior dignity, He stirs her soul by showing that neither Jews nor Samaritans possessed anything great compared with what was going to be given. Then He introduces the difference between them. Yet even here He declared that the Jews were more honorable, preferring no place over another but giving them precedence because of their intention. It was as though He had said, “From now on, you have no need to dispute about the ‘place’ of worship. But in the ‘manner’ of worship, the Jews have an advantage over you Samaritans, for ‘you,’ He says, ‘worship what you do not know; we know what we worship.’” How, then, did the Samaritans “not know” what they worshiped? Because they thought God was confined to a place and favored only that place. At least, that was how they served Him, and that was why they sent to the Persians and reported that “the God of this place is angry with us” ( 2 Kings xxvi.), in this respect thinking no more highly of Him than of their idols. So they continued to serve both Him and demons, joining things that should not be joined. The Jews, on the other hand, were free from this assumption, at least most of them, and knew that He was God of the world. That is why He says, “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship.” Do not be surprised that He counts Himself among the Jews. He speaks in keeping with the woman's opinion of Him, as though He were a Jewish Prophet, and so He says, “we worship.” For everyone knows that He is among those who are worshiped, because worshiping belongs to the creature, while being worshiped belongs to the Lord of the creature. But for the moment He speaks as a Jew, and “we” here means “we Jews.” Having thus praised what belonged to the Jews, He next establishes His own credibility and persuades the woman to pay closer attention to His words. He puts His teaching above suspicion and shows that He does not praise what belongs to them because of His kinship with His own tribe. For clearly, someone who had made these statements about the place in which the Jews took the greatest pride and on whose account they thought themselves superior to everyone, and who had stripped away their lofty claims, would not afterward speak to win anyone's favor, but with truth and prophetic power. So after drawing her away from such reasoning for a while by saying, “Woman, believe Me,” and what follows, He adds, “for salvation is from the Jews.” What He means is either that blessings came to the world from them (for knowing God and condemning idols began with them, and even among you the very act of worship, although you do not perform it rightly, originated with them), or else He is speaking of His own Coming. Or rather, we would not be wrong to call both these things the “salvation” that He said was “from the Jews.” Paul implied this when he said, “From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all.” ( Rom. ix. 5.) Do you see how He commends the old Covenant and shows that it is the root of blessings, and that He never opposes the Law, since He makes the foundation of all good things come from the Jews? Ver. 23. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father.” “We, woman,” He says, “surpass you in our manner of worship, but even this will now come to an end. Both the places and the manner of serving God will change. And this change is right at your doors. ‘For the hour is coming, and is now here.’” [2.] For since the Prophets spoke long before the events they foretold, He says, “And is now here,” to show that this is different. Do not think, He says, that this is the kind of prophecy that will be fulfilled after a long time. Its fulfillment is already near and right at your doors, “when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” By saying “true,” He excludes Jews as well as Samaritans. For although the Jews are better than the Samaritans, they are still far inferior to those who will come—as inferior as the type is to the reality. But He is speaking of the Church, saying that she is the “true” worship, the worship that is fitting for God. “For the Father seeks such people to worship Him.” If, then, He sought people like these in the past, He allowed those others their manner of worship, not willingly, but out of condescension, and for this reason: to bring them in as well. Who, then, are “the true worshipers”? Those who do not confine their service to a place and who serve God in spirit. As Paul says, “Whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son”; and again, “I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, your reasonable service.” ( Rom. i. 9 and xii. 1.) But when he says, Ver. 24. “God is a Spirit” [God is spirit]. He is declaring nothing other than His incorporeal Nature. Now the worship of One who is incorporeal must have the same character and must be offered by what is incorporeal in us, namely, the soul and purity of mind. That is why He says, “Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” For because both Samaritans and Jews neglected the soul but took great pains over the body, cleansing it in various ways, He says that the incorporeal One is served through what is incorporeal in us, namely the mind, rather than through purity of body. So instead of sacrificing sheep and calves, dedicate yourself to the Lord. Make yourself a whole burnt offering; this is what it means to offer a living sacrifice. You must worship “in truth”; since the former things were types, such as circumcision, whole burnt offerings, sacrificial victims, and incense, they no longer exist, but everything is now “truth.” For a person must now circumcise his evil thoughts instead of his flesh, crucify himself, and remove and kill his irrational desires. His teaching made the woman dizzy, and the loftiness of His words overwhelmed her. In her distress, listen to what she says: Ver. 25, 26. “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus says to her, I who speak to you am He.” And how did the Samaritans come to expect Christ's coming, since they accepted only Moses? From Moses' own writings. For even in the beginning He revealed the Son. “Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness” ( Gen. i. 26 ) was said to the Son. It was He who spoke with Abraham in the tent. ( Gen. xviii.) And Jacob, prophesying about Him, said, “A ruler will not cease from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until He comes for whom it is reserved, and He is the expectation of nations.” ( Gen. xviii.) And Moses himself says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brothers like me; you must listen to Him.” ( Deut. xviii. 15.) And anyone who wished could choose the events involving the serpent, Moses' staff, Isaac, the sheep, and many other things as proclamations of His coming. “And why, then,” someone says, “did Christ not lead the woman forward through these things? Why did He use the serpent as an example with Nicodemus and mention prophecy to Nathanael, but say nothing of the kind to her? For what reason, and why?” Because they were men familiar with these things, while she was a poor, ignorant woman untrained in the Scriptures. So He does not speak to her from the Scriptures but draws her on through the “water” and through prophecy, brings her to mention Christ, and then reveals Himself. If He had told the woman this at the beginning, before she had asked Him, He would have seemed to her to be joking and talking idly. As it is, by bringing her little by little to mention Him, He revealed Himself at the right time. To the Jews, who kept saying, “How long will You keep us in doubt? Tell us if You are the Christ” ( c. x. 24 ), He gave no clear answer. But He told this woman plainly that He is. For the woman was more fair-minded than the Jews. They did not ask to learn but always to mock Him. If they had wanted to learn, the teaching He gave through His words, the Scriptures, and His miracles would have been enough. The woman, on the other hand, spoke from an impartial judgment and a straightforward mind, as her later actions make clear. For she both heard and believed, and caught others in her net as well. In every detail we can see the woman's care and faith. Ver. 27. “And at this point His disciples came,” (they came at just the right time, when the teaching was finished,) “and were amazed that He was talking with the woman, yet no one said, What are You seeking? or, Why are You talking with her?” [3.] What amazed them? His lack of pride and His extraordinary humility: although He was held in such high regard, He was willing, with such humility of heart, to speak with a woman who was poor and a Samaritan. Still, in their amazement they did not ask Him why, because they had learned so well to keep their place as disciples and feared and revered Him so deeply. For although they did not yet have the right understanding of Him, they still listened to Him as someone extraordinary and treated Him with great respect. Yet we often see them acting boldly: when John reclined against His chest, when they came to Him and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” ( Matt. xviii. 1 ), and when the sons of Zebedee begged Him to seat one of them at His right hand and the other at His left. Why, then, did they not question Him here? Because all those other cases concerned themselves, so they needed to ask about them, while what happened here was of no such great importance to them. And John did that much later, near the very end, when he had greater confidence and was emboldened by Christ's love. For he was the one, he says, “whom Jesus loved.” What could equal such blessedness? But, beloved, let us go beyond calling the Apostle blessed. Let us do everything we can to be among the blessed ourselves. Let us imitate the Evangelist and see what brought about such great love. What was it, then? He left his father, his ship, and his net, and followed Jesus. Yet he did this in common with his brother, Peter, Andrew, and the rest of the Apostles. What, then, was the particular thing that brought about this great love? Can we discover it? He says nothing of this kind about himself, only that he was loved. He has modestly kept silent about the righteous acts for which he was loved. Everyone could see that Jesus loved him with a special love. Yet we do not find John speaking with Jesus or questioning Him privately, as Peter often did, and Philip, Judas, and Thomas, except when he wanted to show kindness and accommodate his fellow Apostle. For he asked only when the chief of the Apostles urged him with a gesture. These two loved each other deeply. Thus, for example, we see them going up to the Temple together and speaking jointly to the people. Yet in many places Peter is stirred to speak and speaks more passionately than John. And at the end he hears Christ say, “Peter, do you love Me more than these?” ( c. xxi. 15.) Now clearly the one who loved “more than these” was also loved. But in his case this was shown by his loving Jesus, while in the other's case it was shown by his being loved by Jesus. What, then, brought about this special love? I think it was the man's great gentleness and meekness, which is why we do not find him speaking publicly in many places. How great a thing this is can also be seen in Moses' case. It was this that made him the great man he was. Nothing equals humility of mind. That is why Jesus began the Beatitudes with it, and when He was about to lay, as it were, the foundation and base of a mighty building, He put humility of mind first. Without it, a person cannot possibly be saved. Even if he fasts, prays, and gives to the poor, if he does these things in a proud spirit and without humility, they are detestable. But if humility is present, all these things are pleasing and lovely, and can be done without danger. So let us be humble, beloved, let us be humble. Success is easy if we stay clearheaded. After all, my fellow man, what makes you proud? Do you not see the poverty of your nature, the instability of your will? Consider your end; consider the multitude of your sins. But perhaps you are proud because you do many righteous deeds. By that very pride you will undo them all. So the person who acts righteously needs to take even greater care to be humble than the person who has sinned. Why? Because the sinner is restrained by his conscience, while the other, unless he is very watchful, is quickly swept up as though by a gust of wind, lifted high, and made to vanish like the Pharisee. Do you give to the poor? What you give is not yours but your Master's, shared by you and your fellow servants. This should make you especially humble, as you foresee your own misfortunes in those of your kin and recognize your own nature in their circumstances. Perhaps we ourselves descend from ancestors like them. And if wealth has passed to you, it will probably leave you again. After all, what is wealth? An empty shadow, dissolving smoke, a flower of the grass—or rather, something worth less than a flower. Why, then, are you proud of grass? Does wealth not fall to thieves, effeminate men, prostitutes, and tomb robbers? Does it puff you up to have people like these sharing in your possession? Or do you desire honor? Nothing helps you gain honor more than giving to the poor. For the honors that come from wealth and power are forced and accompanied by hatred, while these other honors come from the free choice and sincere feeling of those who offer them; and so those who offer these honors can never cast them aside. Now if people show such reverence for the merciful and call down every blessing on them, consider what return, what reward they will receive from the merciful God. So let us seek this wealth that lasts forever and never deserts us, so that, becoming great here and glorious there, we may obtain everlasting blessings through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.