Homilies on John, Homily 39

“For My Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that everyone should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” [1.] Beloved, we need to be very diligent in everything, because we will give an account and face a strict examination of both our words and our actions. Our concerns do not end with this present life. Another state of life will receive us after this one, and we will be brought before a terrifying tribunal. “For we must appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive what is due for the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” ( 2 Cor. v. 10.) Let us always keep this tribunal in mind, so that we can continue in virtue at all times. Someone who has driven that day out of his soul rushes toward cliffs like a horse that has broken its bridle (for “his ways are always defiled” — Ps. x. 5 , and then, giving the reason, the Psalmist adds, “He puts Your judgments far out of his sight”); but someone who always holds on to this fear will live with self-control. “Remember,” someone says, “the end of your life, and you will never do wrong.” ( Ecclus. vii. 40.) For He who has now forgiven our sins will then sit in judgment. He who died for our sake will appear again to judge all humanity. “To those who look for Him,” the Apostle says, “He will appear a second time without sin, for salvation.” ( Heb. ix. 28.) That is why He says here too, “My Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that everyone should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” “Then should we,” someone asks, “also call Him Father?” Absolutely not. He uses the word “Son” so that we may honor Him as we honor the Father, while He remains a Son. But someone who calls Him “Father” does not honor the Son as the Father, but has confused everything. Moreover, since punishment moves people more than benefits do, He speaks in this terrifying way so that even fear may draw them to honor Him. And when He says “all,” He means that He has the power to punish and to honor, and does either as He wills. He uses the expression “has given” so that you will not suppose that He was not Begotten, and so imagine that there are two Fathers. For everything the Father is, the Son is also, Begotten and remaining a Son. And to learn that “has given” means the same as “has begotten,” hear this very thing stated in another passage. “As,” Christ says, “the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son to have life in Himself.” ( Ver. 26.) “What then? Did He first beget Him and then give Him life? For someone who gives, gives to something that exists. Was He then begotten without life?” Not even the devils could imagine this, because it is utterly foolish as well as impious. Just as “has given life” means “has begotten Him who is Life,” so “has given judgment” means “has begotten Him who will be Judge.” So that, when you hear that He has the Father as His cause, you will not imagine any difference in essence or inferiority in honor, He comes to judge you, proving His Equality by this. For He who has authority to punish and honor whomever He wills has the same Power as the Father. Otherwise, if after being begotten He later received this honor, how did He later come to be honored [thus]? By what advancement did He reach the point of receiving and being appointed to this dignity? Aren’t you ashamed to apply these fleshly, degrading ideas so shamelessly to that Pure Nature, which can receive no addition? “Why, then,” someone asks, “does Christ speak this way?” So that His words may be readily accepted, and to prepare the way for sublime statements. That is why He mixes these with those, and those with these. Notice how (He does it), for it is good to see this from the beginning. He said, “My Father works, and I work” ( c. v. 17 , &c.), declaring by this their Equality and Equal honor. But they “sought to kill Him.” What does He do then? He does speak more humbly, but expresses the same meaning when He says, “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” Then He raises His discourse again to higher things, saying, “Whatever the Father does, the Son also does in the same way.” Then He returns to something more humble: “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater things than these.” Then He rises higher: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He wills.” After this He again joins the lofty and the humble together: “For neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.” Then He rises again: “So that everyone should honor the Son just as they honor the Father.” Do you see how He varies His discourse, weaving it out of both lofty and humble words and expressions, so that the people of that time could accept it, and those who came afterward would suffer no harm, learning from the loftier statements how to understand the rest correctly? For otherwise, if these sayings were not spoken as an accommodation, why were the lofty expressions added? Someone who is entitled to say great things about himself has this reasonable excuse when he says something humble and lowly: he does it for some wise purpose. But if someone who ought to speak humbly of himself says something great, why does he say things that exceed his nature? That serves no purpose at all, but is an act of extreme impiety. [2.] We can therefore give an adequate reason, one worthy of God, for the humble expressions: His accommodation, His teaching us moderation, and the salvation He brings about for us in this way. To explain this, He Himself said elsewhere, “I say these things so that you may be saved.” For when He set aside His own testimony and turned to John’s (something beneath His greatness), He explained the reason for such humble language, saying, “I say these things so that you may be saved.” And you who claim that He does not have the same authority and power as Him who begot Him, what can you say when you hear Him speak words declaring His Authority and Power and Glory equal to the Father’s? If He is far inferior, as you claim, why does He claim the same honor? Nor does He stop even here, but goes on to say, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” Do you see how the Son’s honor is connected with the Father’s? “What does that prove?” someone says. “We see the same thing with the Apostles. ‘Whoever,’ Christ says, ‘receives you receives Me.’” ( Matt. x. 40.) But there He speaks this way because He makes His servants’ concerns His own; here, because the Essence and the Glory are One (with that of the Father). That is why He does not say of the Apostles, “so that they may honor,” but rightly says, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.” For where there are two kings, if one is insulted, the other is insulted too, especially when the one insulted is a son. A king is insulted even when one of his soldiers is mistreated, though not in the same way as here: in that case, it is, so to speak, in the person of another; here, it is in his own person. That is why He first said, “So that they should honor the Son just as they honor the Father”: so that when He said, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father,” you would understand that the honor is the same. For He does not simply mean, “whoever does not honor the Son,” but “whoever does not honor Him in the way I have said” “does not honor the Father.” “And how,” someone asks, “can the one who sends and the one who is sent be of the same essence?” Again you bring the argument down to fleshly things, and fail to see that all this was said for no other purpose than that we might know the Father to be The Cause, avoid falling into the error of Sabellius, and in this way heal the Jews’ weakness, so that He would not be considered an enemy of God. For they said, “This man is not of God” ( c. ix. 16 ), “This man has not come from God.” Now, lofty statements did less to remove this suspicion than humble ones, and that is why He continually said everywhere that He had been “sent.” He did not say this so that you would suppose the expression diminished His greatness, but to silence them. That is also why He constantly turns to the Father, also bringing in mention of His own exalted Parentage. For if He had said everything in terms worthy of His dignity, the Jews would not have accepted His words, since even for a few such expressions they persecuted Him and often stoned Him. And if, considering only them, He had used nothing but humble expressions, many people in later times might have been harmed. That is why He mixes and blends His teaching: through these humble sayings He silences the Jews, as I said, while through expressions suited to His dignity He drives from sensible people any low conception of what He has said, proving that such a conception does not apply to Him at all. The expression “having been sent” indicates a change of place—but God is present everywhere. Why, then, does He say that He was “sent”? He speaks in an earthly way, declaring His complete agreement with the Father. At any rate, He frames His next words with this purpose in view. Ver. 24. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life.” Do you see how He continually repeats the same thing to cure that feeling of suspicion, both here and in what follows, removing their jealousy of Him through fear and promises of blessings, and then again greatly accommodating His language to them? For He did not say, “whoever hears My words and believes in Me,” since they would certainly have considered that pride and needless grandiosity. For if, after a very long time and ten thousand miracles, they suspected this when He spoke this way, they would have done so all the more then. That is why, at that later time, they said to Him, “Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead. How can You say, If anyone keeps My saying, he will never taste death?” ( c. viii. 52.) So, to keep them from becoming furious here too, see what He says: “Whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life.” It did a great deal to make His discourse acceptable when they learned that those who hear Him also believe in the Father. For once they had readily accepted this, they would more easily accept the rest. Thus His very way of speaking humbly helped prepare the way for higher things. For after saying, “has everlasting life,” He adds, “And does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” He makes His discourse acceptable through these two things: first, that it is the Father in whom people believe, and then, that the believer enjoys many blessings. And “does not come into judgment” means “is not punished,” for He is not speaking of death “here,” but of eternal death, just as He speaks of the other “life,” which is deathless. Ver. 25. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have heard will live.” After speaking these words, He also speaks of proving them through deeds. For after saying, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He wills,” He supplies proof through works so that this will not seem like mere boasting and pride. He says, “The hour is coming.” Then, so that you will not think it is a long way off, He adds, “and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have heard will live.” Do you see His absolute and indescribable authority here? For just as it will be in the Resurrection, He says, so it will be “now.” Then too, when we hear His voice commanding us, we are raised. For, as the Apostle says, “at God’s command the dead will rise.” “And how,” someone may ask, “is it clear that these words are not mere boasting?” From what He has added: “and is now here.” For if His promises had referred only to some future time, they would have been suspicious of His discourse. But now He gives them proof: “While I,” He says, “am staying among you, this will happen.” And if He had not possessed the power, He would not have promised it for that time, for fear that the promise would expose Him to even greater ridicule. Then He also adds an argument proving His assertions, saying, Ver. 26. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son to have life in Himself.” [3.] Do you see that this declares a perfect likeness except in one respect: that the One is a Father, and the Other a Son? For the expression “has given” merely introduces this distinction, while declaring that everything else is equal and exactly alike. It is therefore clear that the Son does everything with as much authority and power as the Father, and that His power does not come from some other source, for He “has life” just as the Father has it. That is why the next statement is added immediately, so that through it we may understand the other one too. What is it, then? It is, Ver. 27. “Has also given Him authority to carry out judgment.” And why does He continually dwell on “resurrection” and “judgment”? For He says, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whomever He wills”; and again, “the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son”; and again, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has given the Son to have life in Himself”; and again, “Those who have heard [the Voice of the Son of God] will live”; and here again, “Has given Him authority to carry out judgment.” Why does He continually dwell on these things? I mean “judgment,” “life,” and “resurrection.” Because these subjects, more than any others, can draw even the stubborn listener. For someone convinced that he will both rise again and give Christ an account of his transgressions, even if he has seen no other sign, will surely, once he has accepted this, run to Him to appease his Judge. “Do not be surprised at this: that He is the Son of Man ( John v. 27–28 ).” Paul of Samosata does not read it this way. How does he read it? “Has given Him authority to carry out judgment ‘because’ He is the Son of Man.” Now, read this way, the passage makes no logical sense. For He did not receive judgment “because” He was man (since then what would have prevented all people from being judges?), but He is Judge because He is the Son of that Ineffable Essence. So we must read, “Do not be surprised at this: that He is the Son of Man.” For what He said seemed inconsistent to His listeners. They considered Him nothing more than a mere man, while His words were greater than would suit a man, or even an angel, and belonged to God alone. To resolve this objection, He adds, Ver. 28, 29. “Do not be surprised [that He is the Son of Man,] for the hour is coming when those in the tombs will hear His voice and come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” And why did He not say, “Do not be surprised that He is the Son of Man, for He is also the Son of God,” but instead mention the “resurrection”? He had indeed said this earlier, with the words, “will hear the Voice of the Son of God.” And if He says nothing about it here, do not be surprised. For after mentioning a work that belongs to God, He lets His listeners infer from it that He was God and the Son of God. If He had continually asserted this Himself, it would have offended them at that time. But proving it through the evidence of miracles made His teaching easier to accept. In the same way, people constructing syllogisms, once they have laid out their premises and properly proved the point at issue, often do not draw the conclusion themselves. Instead, to make their listeners more receptive and their victory more obvious, they have their opponent give the verdict himself, so that the bystanders will agree with them all the more when their opponents decide in their favor. So when He mentioned the resurrection of Lazarus, He did not speak of the Judgment (for that was not why Lazarus rose); but when He spoke in general, He also added that “those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” John too led his listeners forward in this way, speaking of the Judgment and saying that “whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the anger of God remains on him” ( c. iii. 36 ). He Himself also led Nicodemus forward this way: “Whoever believes in the Son,” He told him, “is not judged, but whoever does not believe is judged already” ( c. iii. 18 ). So here too He mentions the Judgment-seat and the punishment that will follow evil deeds. For because He had said earlier, “Whoever hears My words and believes in Him who sent Me” “is not judged,” He also adds the outcome of a person’s way of life, so that no one will imagine that this alone is enough for salvation. He declares that “those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” Since, then, He had said that the whole world would give an account to Him, and that everyone would rise again at His Voice—a new and astonishing thing, disbelieved even now by many who seem to have believed, to say nothing of the Jews at that time—hear how He proceeds to prove it, again accommodating Himself to His listeners’ weakness. Ver. 30. “I can do nothing on My own; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Yet He had just given substantial proof of the Resurrection by restoring strength to the paralyzed man. That is also why He had not spoken of the Resurrection before doing something that fell little short of resurrection. And after strengthening the body, He hinted at the Judgment by saying, “Look, you have been made well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” Still, He announced beforehand the resurrection of Lazarus and of the world. And having spoken of these two—the resurrection of Lazarus, which would happen almost immediately, and that of the inhabited world, which would be long afterward—He confirms the first through the paralyzed man and the nearness of the time, saying, “The hour is coming, and is now here”; He confirms the other through the raising of Lazarus, using what had already happened to bring before their eyes what had not yet happened. We can observe Him doing this everywhere: putting (forth) two or three predictions and always confirming the future through the past. [4.] Yet after saying and doing so much, because they were still very weak, He does not stop there. Through other expressions He calms their argumentative spirit, saying, “I can do nothing on My own; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” For He seemed to be making some strange assertions that differed from those of the Prophets (for they said that it is God who judges the whole earth, that is, the human race; and David proclaimed this truth loudly everywhere: “He will judge the people in righteousness,” and, “God is a righteous Judge, strong and patient” ( Ps. xcvi. 10, and Ps. vii. 11 , LXX.), as did all the Prophets and Moses; but Christ said, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,” an expression enough to perplex a Jew who heard it and make him, in turn, suspect Christ of being an enemy of God). So here He greatly accommodates His speech to them, as far as their weakness requires, to root out this destructive opinion. He says, “I can do nothing on My own,” meaning, “You will see Me do or hear Me say nothing strange, or different, or contrary to what the Father desires.” And having previously declared that He was “the Son of Man,” and because at that time they supposed Him to be a man, He frames [His expressions] here accordingly. Earlier, when He said, “We speak what we have heard, and testify to what we have seen,” and when John said, “He testifies to what He has seen, and no one accepts His testimony” ( c. iii. 32 ), both expressions referred to exact knowledge, not merely to hearing and seeing. In the same way, when He speaks of “hearing” here, He means nothing other than that it is impossible for Him to desire anything except what the Father desires. Still, He did not say it so plainly (for they would not yet have accepted it immediately if they had heard it asserted that way). How, then, did He say it? In a way that greatly accommodates them and suits a mere man: “As I hear, I judge.” Again, He uses these words here without referring to “instruction” (for He did not say, “as I am taught,” but “as I hear”), or suggesting that He needed to listen (for not only did He not need to be taught, He did not even need to listen). Rather, He meant to declare the Unanimity and Identity of [His and the Father’s] decision, as though He had said, “I judge just as if the Father Himself were judging.” Then He adds, “and I know that My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” What are You saying? Do You have a will different from the Father’s? Yet elsewhere He says, “As I and You are One” (speaking of will and unanimity), “grant that these too may be one in Us” ( c. xvii. 21 ; not verbally quoted), meaning, “in faith concerning Us.” Do you see that the words that seem most humble are the ones that conceal a lofty meaning? For what He means is not that the Father’s will is one thing and His own another, but that “as there is one will in one mind, so it is with My own will and My Father’s.” And do not be surprised that He has asserted so close a union, for Paul has used this illustration with reference to the Spirit too: “Who knows the things of a person except that person’s spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” So Christ’s meaning is simply this: “I do not have a will different and separate from the Father’s. If He desires anything, I do too; if I desire it, He does too. Therefore, just as no one could object to the Father’s judging, no one can object to Mine either, for Each gives His sentence from the same Mind.” And if He speaks these words more as a man, do not be surprised, since they still considered Him a mere man. So in passages like these, we must not merely examine the meaning of the words, but also take into account His listeners’ suspicion and hear what is said as addressed to that suspicion. Otherwise many difficulties will follow. Consider, for example, His words, “I do not seek My own will.” On that reading, His will is different (from the Father’s), imperfect—indeed, not merely imperfect, but even unprofitable. “For if it brings salvation, if it agrees with the Father’s will, why do You not seek it?” Mortals might reasonably speak this way, because they have many desires contrary to what seems good to the Father. But why do You say this, when You are like the Father in everything? For no one would say that this language belongs even to a “man” who has been made perfect and crucified. If Paul blended himself so completely with God’s will that he could say, “I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me” ( Gal. ii. 20 ), how can the Lord of all say, “I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me,” as though that will were different? What, then, does He mean? He frames His discourse as though He were a mere man, adapting His language to His listeners’ suspicion. For after proving His sayings through what came before, speaking partly as God and partly as a mere man, He again tries as a man to establish the same point, saying, “My judgment is just.” And how can this be seen? “Because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” “For just as, among people, someone free from selfishness cannot justly be accused of giving an unfair decision, so you will not now be able to accuse Me either. Someone who wants to advance his own interests may perhaps be suspected by many of corrupting justice for that purpose. But someone who does not look to his own interests—what reason could he have for judging unjustly? Now apply this reasoning to Me. If I had said that I was not sent by the Father, if I had not attributed to Him the glory of what was done, some of you might perhaps have suspected that I was saying something untrue because I wanted to gain honor for Myself. But if I attribute and refer what is done to another, why and on what grounds can you suspect My words?” Do you see how He confirmed His discourse and asserted that “His judgment was just” through an argument any ordinary person might have used in his own defense? Do you see how clearly this displays what I have often said? What is that? The extreme humility of His expressions is what most persuades sensible people to avoid accepting the words at first glance and then falling down [into low thoughts], and instead to take pains to reach the height of their meaning. This humility also very easily lifts up those who once groveled on the ground. Now, keeping all this in mind, I urge you not to pass carelessly over Christ’s words, but to examine them all closely, considering everywhere the reason for what He has said. And let us not think that ignorance and simplicity will be enough to excuse us, for He has commanded us to be not merely “harmless,” but “wise.” ( Matt. x. 16.) So let us practice wisdom together with simplicity, both in doctrine and in the right actions of our lives. Let us judge ourselves here, so that we will not be condemned with the world in the next life. Let us treat our fellow servants as we want our Master to treat us. For (we say), “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” ( Matt. vi. 12.) I know that a wounded soul does not bear its pain meekly. But if we consider that by doing so we show kindness to ourselves rather than to the person who hurt us, we will soon release the venom of our anger. For the man who did not forgive the hundred denarii owed by someone who had wronged him harmed himself, not his fellow servant, by making himself liable for the ten thousand talents he had previously been forgiven. ( Matt. xviii. 30-34.) So when we do not forgive others, we do not forgive ourselves. Let us therefore not merely say to God, “Do not remember our offenses,” but let each of us also say to himself, “Let us not remember our fellow servants’ offenses against us.” For you first pass judgment on your own sins, and God judges afterward. You propose the law concerning forgiveness and punishment; you declare your decision on these matters. So whether God remembers or does not remember rests with you. That is why Paul commands us to “forgive, if anyone has a complaint against anyone” ( Col. iii. 13 ), and not simply to forgive, but to leave no remnants behind. For Christ not only did not publicize our transgressions, but did not remind us, the transgressors, of them, or say, “You have offended in this way and that.” Instead, He forgave and erased the written record, not counting our offenses, as Paul has also declared. ( Col. ii. 14.) Let us do this too. Let us wipe all [trespasses against us] from our minds. And if the person who hurt us has done us any good, let us count only that. But if he has done anything painful and hard to bear, let us throw it out and erase it, so that not even a trace remains. And if he has done us no good, our reward and credit will be all the greater if we forgive. Others wipe away their sins by keeping vigils, making the earth their bed, and enduring ten thousand hardships. But you can make all your transgressions disappear by an easier way: by not remembering wrongs. Why, then, do you thrust the sword against yourself, like people who are mad and frantic, and banish yourself from the life to come, when you ought to use every means to attain it? For if this present life is so desirable, what can anyone say of that other life, from which pain, grief, and mourning have fled? There we do not need to fear death or imagine any end to those good things. Blessed, three times blessed—yes, and many times more—are those who enjoy that blessed rest, while miserable, three times miserable—yes, ten thousand times miserable—are those who have cast themselves out of that blessedness. “And what,” someone asks, “enables us to enjoy that life?” Hear the Judge Himself speaking with a certain young man about this. When the young man said, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?” ( Matt. xix. 16 ), Christ repeated the other commandments to him and ended with love of his neighbor. Perhaps some of my listeners, like that rich man, will say, “We too have kept these, for we have neither robbed, nor killed, nor committed adultery.” Yet you certainly will not be able to say that you have loved your neighbor as you should have loved him. For if someone has envied another or spoken evil of him, if he has not helped him when he was wronged or shared his possessions with him, then he has not loved him either. Now Christ has commanded not only this, but something more. What is it? “Sell,” He says, “what you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me” ( Matt. xix. 21 ), calling the imitation of Him in our actions “following” Him. What do we learn from this? First, that someone who does not have all these things cannot attain the highest places in “that” rest. For after the young man had said, “I have done all these things,” Christ replied as though he still lacked something important needed to win full approval: “If you want to be perfect, sell what you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow Me.” This, then, is the first thing we can learn. Second, Christ rebuked the man for his empty boast. For how could someone who lived in such excess and paid no attention to others living in poverty love his neighbor? So he did not speak truthfully on this point either. But let us do both of these things. Let us eagerly give away our possessions and purchase heaven. For people have often spent all their possessions for worldly honor, an honor that would remain here below, and would not remain with us long even here (for many have been stripped of their supremacy long before their deaths, and others have often lost their lives because of it; yet, although they know this, they spend everything for its sake). If they do so much for this kind of honor, what could be more wretched than we are if, for the sake of the honor that lasts and cannot be taken from us, we will not give up even a little, or supply others with things we will soon leave behind while we are still here? What madness it must be, when we can voluntarily give to others and so take with us the things we will be deprived of even against our will, to refuse to do so! Yet if a man were being led to his death and were offered the chance to surrender all his possessions and go free, we would consider that a favor to him. And shall we, who are being led along the road to the pit—shall we, when we are allowed to surrender half and go free, choose instead to be punished and uselessly hold on to what is not ours, even at the cost of losing what is? What excuse will we have, what claim to pardon, when such an easy road to life has been opened for us, yet we rush down cliffs and travel a useless path, depriving ourselves of everything both here and in the next life, when we could enjoy both securely? If we have not done so before, let us at least stop now. Let us come to our senses and use our present possessions rightly, so that we may easily receive the things to come, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him, may glory be to the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.