Homilies on John, Homily 54

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” [1.] Beloved, our condition calls for great endurance, and endurance develops when doctrines are deeply rooted. Just as no wind, however fiercely it blows, can uproot an oak whose roots reach deep into the earth and hold firmly there, so no one can overthrow a soul nailed in place by the fear of God. For being nailed in place is more than being rooted. So the Prophet prays, “Nail my flesh by Your fear” ( Ps. cxix. 120 , LXX.); “fix and fasten me as though with a nail riveted into me.” Just as people like this are hard to capture, those of the opposite kind are easy prey and are easily knocked down. This was the case with the Jews at that time: after hearing and believing, they turned away again. So Christ, wanting to deepen their faith so that it would not be merely superficial, digs into their souls with more forceful words. Believers should have endured even rebukes, but they immediately became angry. How does He do this? First He tells them, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples, and the truth will make you free.” He is almost saying, “I am about to make a deep incision, but do not be shaken.” Or rather, with these words He brought down their proud opinion of themselves. “Will make you free”: from what, tell me? From your sins. What, then, do these boastful people say? Ver. 33. “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anyone.” Immediately their thoughts sank to a lower level, because worldly things had thrown them into agitation. “If you continue in My word” was the statement of One who revealed what was in their hearts and knew that they had indeed believed but had not continued. And He promises them something great: that they will become His disciples. Since some had left Him before this, He refers to them when He says, “If you continue,” because they too had heard and believed, but left because they could not continue. “For many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked openly with Him.” ( c. vi. 66.) “You will know the truth,” that is, “you will know Me, for I am the truth. All the Jewish institutions were types, but you will know the truth from Me, and it will free you from your sins.” Just as He said to the others, “You will die in your sins,” so He says to these, “will make you free.” He did not say, “I will deliver you from slavery”; He left them to infer this. What, then, did they say? “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves to anyone.” Yet if they had to be upset, we might have expected them to be upset at the earlier part of His speech, when He said, “You will know the truth,” and to reply, “What! Don’t we know the truth already? Are the Law and our knowledge a lie, then?” But they cared about none of these things. Worldly things upset them, and this was how they understood slavery. Certainly, even now many people feel ashamed about things that do not matter morally and about this kind of slavery, but feel no shame about slavery to sin. They would rather be called slaves to the latter ten thousand times than to the former once. These men were like that. They did not even recognize any other slavery, and they say, “Do You call people of Abraham’s race slaves—people of noble birth, who therefore should not be called slaves? For we have never been slaves to anyone,” one of them says. Such are the Jews’ boasts: “We are Abraham’s descendants”; “we are Israelites.” They never mention their own righteous deeds. That is why John cried out to them, “Do not think of saying that we have Abraham as our father.” ( Matt. iii. 9.) And why did Christ not refute them, since they had often been slaves to the Egyptians, Babylonians, and many others? Because His words were meant to bring them salvation and benefit, rather than honor for Himself, and He kept pressing toward that goal. He could have mentioned the four hundred years, or the seventy, or the years of slavery during the time of the Judges—twenty at one time, two at another, seven at another. He could have said that they had never stopped being slaves. But He wanted to show that they were slaves to sin, rather than slaves to human beings. This is the most terrible slavery, from which God alone can deliver us, for forgiving sins belongs to no one else. They admitted this too. Since they acknowledged that this was God’s work, He brings them to this point and says, Ver. 34. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” He shows that the freedom He is speaking of is freedom from this slavery. Ver. 35. “The slave does not remain in the house, but the Son remains forever.” Through this He also gently undermines the institutions of the Law, referring to former times. He adds these words so that they will not run back to those institutions and say, “We have the sacrifices Moses commanded; they can deliver us.” Otherwise, what connection would this saying have? For “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace” ( Rom. iii. 23, 24 ), even the priests themselves. That is why Paul also says of the priest that “he ought to offer sacrifices for sins for himself as well as for the people, because he too is beset by weakness.” ( Heb. v. 3, 2.) This is what His saying means: “The slave does not remain in the house.” Here He also shows His equality of honor with the Father and the difference between slave and free. For the meaning of the parable is this: “the slave has no authority.” This is what “does not remain” means. [2.] But why does He mention a “house” when speaking of sins? To show that just as a master has authority over his house, He has authority over everything. “Does not remain” means “has no authority to grant favors, since he is not the master of the house.” But the Son is the master of the house. This is what “remains forever” means, using a metaphor drawn from human affairs. So that they will not say, “Who are You?” He says, “Everything is Mine, for I am the Son and live in My Father’s house,” using “house” to mean His authority. Elsewhere He also calls the Kingdom His Father’s house: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” ( c. xiv. 2.) Since He was speaking about freedom and slavery, He appropriately used this metaphor to tell them that they had no authority to set people free. Ver. 36. “So if the Son makes you free.” Do you see the Son’s consubstantiality with the Father, and how He declares that He has the same power as the Father? “If the Son makes you free, no one can dispute it afterward; your freedom is secure.” For “it is God who justifies; who is the one who condemns?” ( Rom. viii. 33, 34.) Here He shows that He Himself is free from sin, and He refers to the freedom that existed only in name. Human beings can grant that freedom, but God alone can grant the other. In this way He persuaded them to be ashamed of slavery to sin, rather than this other slavery. And wanting to show that they were not slaves except by rejecting that freedom, He shows all the more that they are slaves by saying, “You will be truly free.” These words declare that their freedom was not real. Then, so that they could not say, “We have no sin” (for they were likely to say this), notice how He brings this charge home to them. He passes over the task of exposing their whole life and brings forward what they were currently planning, what they still wanted to do, and says, Ver. 37. “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me.” Gently and little by little He excludes them from that relationship, teaching them not to be proud of it. For just as freedom and slavery depend on people’s actions, so does kinship. He did not say directly, “You are not Abraham’s descendants, you murderers of the righteous.” For a while He even agrees with them and says, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.” Yet this is not the point at issue, and throughout the rest of this speech He speaks more forcefully. We can generally observe that when He is going to do something great, He speaks more boldly after doing it, as though the testimony of His works silences people. “But you seek to kill Me.” “What of it,” someone says, “if they were right to seek His death?” But that was not the case either, so He also gives the reason: “Because My word has no place in you.” “How, then,” someone asks, “did they believe in Him?” As I said before, they changed again. That is why He rebuked them sharply. “If you boast of your relationship to Abraham, you should also display his way of life.” And He did not say, “You do not contain My words,” but “My word has no place in you,” thus showing how exalted His doctrines are. Yet this should not have led them to kill Him, but instead to honor Him and attend to Him so they could learn. “But what,” someone asks, “if You are saying these things on Your own authority?” For this reason He added, Ver. 38. “I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” “Just as I,” He says, “reveal the Father both by My words and by the truth, so you also do through your actions (declare yours). For I have not only the same Substance but also the same Truth as the Father.” Ver. 39, 40. “They said to Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus says to them, If you had Abraham as your father, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me.” Here He repeatedly addresses their murderous intention and mentions Abraham. He does this to turn their attention away from this relationship, take away their excessive boasting, and persuade them to stop resting their hopes of salvation on Abraham or on natural kinship, and instead to rest them on kinship based on the will. For what kept them from coming to Christ was their belief that this relationship was enough to save them. But what is the “truth” He speaks of? That He is equal to the Father. For this was why the Jews sought to kill Him, and He says, “You seek to kill Me because I have told you the truth, which I have heard from My Father.” To show that these things do not oppose the Father, He again appeals to Him. They say to Him, Ver. 41. “We were not born from sexual immorality; we have one Father, God Himself.” [3.] “What are you saying? You have God as your Father, and you blame Christ for claiming this?” Do you see that He spoke of God as His Father in a special sense? So when He had excluded them from their relationship to Abraham, they had no answer and dared to make a greater claim, appealing to God. But He excludes them from this honor too, saying, Ver. 42-44. “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded from God and came from Him. I did not come on My own, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and did not remain in the truth. When he tells a lie, he speaks from what is his own.” He had excluded them from their relationship to Abraham, and when they dared to make greater claims, He struck another blow, telling them that they were not only not Abraham’s children but were even children of the devil. He inflicted a wound that could match their shamelessness. And He does not leave this unsupported, but establishes it with proofs. “For,” He says, “murder belongs to the devil’s wickedness.” He did not merely say, “You do his works,” but “You carry out his desires,” showing that both he and they are intent on murder and that envy was the cause. For the devil destroyed Adam, not because he had any accusation to bring against him, but solely out of envy. He refers to this here too. “And did not remain in the truth.” That is, in a righteous life. Since they continually accused Him of not being from God, He tells them that this false claim of theirs also comes from the devil. For the devil was the first father of a lie when he said, “On the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened” ( Gen. iii. 5 ), and he was the first to use it. Human beings use a lie as something foreign to their nature, rather than something belonging to it, but he uses it as his own. Ver. 45. “And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me.” What kind of consequence is this? “You have no accusation to bring against Me, yet you want to kill Me. You persecute Me because you are enemies of the truth. If this were not the reason, you would have stated your accusation.” That is why He added, Ver. 46. “Which of you can prove Me guilty of sin?” Then they said, “We were not born from sexual immorality.” Yet in fact many of them were born from sexual immorality, for they practiced improper unions. Still, He does not expose them on this point, but turns His attention to the other issue. After proving by all these signs that they are of the devil, rather than of God (for murder is of the devil, and lying is of the devil, and you do both), He then shows that love is the sign of being of God. “Why do you not understand My speech?” Since they were always puzzled, saying, “What does He mean by saying, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” He tells them, “You do not understand My speech,” “because you do not have the word of God. This happens to you because your understanding clings to low things and because what is Mine is far too great for you.” But what if they could not understand? Here inability means unwillingness, for “you have trained yourselves to be small-minded, to conceive of nothing great.” Because they said that they persecuted Him out of zeal for God, He strives throughout to show that persecuting Him is the act of those who hate God, while loving Him is the act of those who know God. “We have one Father, God Himself.” They take pride in this—in their honor, rather than their righteous deeds. “So your refusal to believe does not prove that I am an enemy of God; your unbelief is a sign that you do not know God. The reason is your willingness to lie and do the devil’s works. This comes from a small-minded soul (as the Apostle says, ‘For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly?’) ( 1 Cor. iii. 3.) And why can you not understand? Because you want to carry out your father’s desires; you are eager, you are determined (to do them).” Do you see that “you cannot” expresses an unwillingness? For “Abraham did not do this.” “What are his works? Gentleness, meekness, obedience. But you take the opposite side, being harsh and cruel.” But how did it occur to them to appeal to God? He had shown them to be unworthy of Abraham, so, wanting to escape this charge, they reached higher. For when He reproached them for murder, they said this as a kind of excuse for themselves, claiming that they were avenging God. So He shows that this very thing is the act of people who oppose God. And “I came” shows that He was from God. He says, “I came,” referring to His arrival among us. But since they would probably say to Him, “You are saying strange and new things,” He tells them that He has come from God. “And so it makes sense that you do not hear them, because you are of the devil. For why would you kill Me? What accusation do you have to bring against Me? If there is none, why do you not believe Me?” Having thus proved that they are of the devil by their lying and murder, He also shows that they are estranged from Abraham and from God, both because they hated One who had done no wrong and because they would not hear His word. In every way He proves that He was not opposed to God, and that they refused to believe because they were estranged from God, rather than because He opposed God. For when One who had committed no sin, who said He came from God and was sent by God, who spoke the truth and spoke it in a way that challenged everyone to test it, was still not believed, it is clear that they did not believe Him because they were fleshly. For sins habitually, yes, habitually debase a soul. That is why It says, “Since you have become dull of hearing.” ( Heb. v. 11.) For when someone cannot despise earthly things, how will he ever be wise about heavenly things? [4.] So I urge you: let us do everything we can to live righteously and cleanse our minds, so that no filth holds us back. Kindle the light of knowledge for yourselves, and do not sow among thorns. For how will someone who does not know that greed is evil ever know the greater good? How will someone who does not keep away from these earthly things ever hold firmly to heavenly things? It is good to seize by violence the Kingdom of heaven, rather than things that perish. “The violent,” it says, “take it by force.” ( Matt. xi. 12.) So we cannot reach it through laziness, but through zeal. But what does “the violent” mean? Great violence is needed (for the way is narrow); a youthful and noble soul is needed. Plunderers want to outrun everyone else. They pay no attention to anything—conviction, accusation, or punishment—but give themselves entirely to one thing: getting hold of what they want to seize. They run past everyone ahead of them on the road. Let us seize the Kingdom of heaven, then, for here seizing deserves praise rather than blame, and the fault lies in failing to seize it. Here our wealth does not come from someone else’s loss. Let us hurry to seize it, then. If anger troubles us, if lust troubles us, let us do violence to our nature. Let us become gentler; let us work for a little while so that we may rest forever. Do not seize gold, but seize the wealth that shows gold to be nothing but mud. For tell me, if lead and gold were set before you, which would you take? Isn’t it clear that you would take the gold? Then do you choose what is more valuable when seizing brings punishment, but give up what is more valuable when seizing brings honor? If there were punishment in both cases, wouldn’t you still aim for the latter? But in this case there is nothing like punishment; there is even blessedness. “And how,” someone asks, “can we seize it?” Throw away what you already have in your hands, for as long as you hold on to it, you will be unable to seize the other. Consider, please, a man whose hands are full of silver. As long as he holds on to it, can he seize gold unless he first throws away the silver and frees his hands? For someone seizing something must have his clothes tucked up so that nothing holds him back. Even now hostile powers are rushing down against us to rob us. But let us flee from them, let us flee from them, trailing nothing behind us that could give them a grip. Let us cut the cords; let us strip ourselves of earthly things. Why do we need silk clothes? How long will we keep unrolling this mockery? How long will we keep burying gold? I wanted to stop saying these things all the time, but you will not let me, constantly giving me occasions and reasons to do so. But at least now let us stop, so that, having taught others by our lives, we may obtain the good things promised, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom glory be to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, to ages without end. Amen.