Homilies on John, Homily 55

“Then the Jews answered Him, ‘Aren’t we right to say that You are a Samaritan and have a devil?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a devil, but I honor My Father.’” [1.] Wickedness is shameless and brazen, and when it should hide, it grows even fiercer. This was the case with the Jews. When His words should have cut them to the heart, and they should have admired their boldness and conclusive force, they instead insulted Him, calling Him a Samaritan and saying that He had a devil. They asked, “Aren’t we right to say that You are a Samaritan and have a devil?” For whenever He says anything exalted, the utterly senseless think it is madness. Yet the Evangelist has nowhere said before that they called Him “a Samaritan”; this expression, however, suggests that they had often said it. “You have a devil,” someone says. Who has a devil: the person who honors God, or the person who insults the One who honors Him? What, then, does Christ say, who is meekness and gentleness itself? “I do not have a devil, but I honor Him who sent Me.” When He needed to instruct them, break down their excessive insolence, and teach them not to take pride in Abraham, He spoke forcefully. But when He needed to endure insults Himself, He showed great gentleness. When they said, “We have God and Abraham for our Father,” He rebuked them sharply; but when they called Him possessed by a demon, He spoke humbly, teaching us to avenge insults against God but overlook those against ourselves. Ver. 50. “I do not seek My own glory.” “I have said these things,” He says, “to show that, as murderers, you have no right to call God your Father. So I have spoken out of honor for Him, and it is for His sake that I hear these insults, and for His sake that you dishonor Me. Yet I am not concerned about this insolence; you must give an account of your words to Him for whose sake I now hear these things. For ‘I do not seek My own glory.’ That is why I refrain from punishing you and turn to urging you instead, advising you to act in such a way that you will not only escape punishment but also gain eternal life.” Ver. 51. “Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My saying, he will never see death.” Here He speaks not only of faith but also of a pure life. Above He said, “will have everlasting life” ( c. vi. 40 ), but here, “will not see death.” ( c. viii. 51.) At the same time, He hints to them that they could do nothing against Him, for if someone who keeps His saying will not die, much less will He Himself. At any rate, they understood it this way and said to Him, Ver. 52. “Now we know that You have a devil; Abraham is dead, and the Prophets are dead.” That is, “Those who heard the word of God are dead, and will those who have heard Yours not die?” Ver. 53. “Are You greater than our father Abraham?” What empty pride! Again they fall back on their relationship to him. Yet it would have been appropriate to say, “Are You greater than God? Or are those who have heard You greater than Abraham?” But they do not say this because they thought He was even less than Abraham. At first, then, He showed that they were murderers, and so drew them away from their claim of kinship. But when they persisted, He achieved this another way, showing that their efforts were useless. He said nothing to them about the “death,” nor did He reveal or explain what kind of death He meant. Instead, for the time being, He wanted them to believe that He is greater than Abraham, so that even this might put them to shame. “Certainly,” He says, “if I were an ordinary man, I should not have to die, since I have done nothing wrong. But when I speak the truth, have no sin, am sent from God, and am greater than Abraham, aren’t you mad, and aren’t your efforts useless, when you try to kill Me?” What, then, is their reply? “Now we know that You have a devil.” The woman of Samaria did not speak this way. She did not say to Him, “You have a devil,” but only, “Are You greater than our father Jacob?” ( c. iv. 12.) These men were insolent and accursed, while she wanted to learn. That is why, despite her doubts, she answered with proper restraint and called Him “Lord.” Someone who promised far greater things and deserved to be believed should have been admired, rather than insulted; yet these men said He had a devil. The Samaritan woman’s expressions were those of someone in doubt; these were the words of unbelieving and perverse men. “Are You greater than our father Abraham?” So this (which He had said) makes Him greater than Abraham. “When, therefore, you have seen Him lifted up, you will acknowledge that He is greater.” This is why He said, “When you have lifted Me up, you will know that I Am.” ( Ver. 28.) And notice His wisdom. After first tearing them away from their claim of kinship with Abraham, He shows that He is greater than Abraham, so that He may also be seen to be far greater than the Prophets. Indeed, it was because they kept calling Him a prophet that He said, “My word has no place in you.” ( Ver. 37.) In that other passage He declared that He raises the dead, but here He says, “Whoever believes will never see death,” which was a much greater thing than keeping believers from being held by death. That is why the Jews became even angrier. What, then, do they say? “Who do You make Yourself out to be?” They say this too as an insult. “You are claiming something for Yourself,” one of them says. To this Christ replies: Ver. 54. “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing.” [2.] What do the heretics say here? That He heard the question, “Are You greater than our father Abraham?” and did not dare tell them, “Yes, I am greater,” but said it indirectly. What, then? Is His honor “nothing”? To them it is nothing. Just as He said, “My testimony is not true” ( c. v. 31 ), referring to the opinion they would form of it, so He also speaks here. “There is One who honors Me.” And why did He not say, “The Father who sent Me,” as He did before, but instead, “Of whom you say that He is your God.” Ver. 55. “Yet you have not known Him.” He said this because He wanted to show that they knew neither His Father nor God. “But I know Him.” “So saying, ‘I know Him,’ is no boast, while saying, ‘I do not know Him,’ would be a lie. But when you say that you know Him, you lie. Just as you lie when you say that you know Him, so I too would lie if I said that I do not know Him.” “If I honor Myself.” Since they said, “Who do You make Yourself out to be?” He replies, “If I make (Myself anything,) My honor is nothing. Just as I know Him fully, you do not know Him.” And as in Abraham’s case He did not reject their entire claim, but said, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants,” to make the charge against them more serious, so here He does not reject the whole claim. What does He say instead? “Whom you say.” By granting their verbal boast, He strengthens the accusation against them. How, then, do you “not know Him”? “Because you insult One who says and does everything so that He may be glorified, even when that One is sent from Him.” This claim has no supporting testimony, but what follows establishes it. “And I keep His saying.” Here they could have refuted Him, if they had anything to say, for this was the strongest proof that God had sent Him. Ver. 56. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Again, He shows that they were strangers to Abraham’s race, if they grieved over what made him rejoice. “My day” seems to me to mean the day of the Crucifixion, which Abraham foreshadowed in a type by offering the ram and Isaac. What do they reply? Ver. 57. “You are not yet forty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” From this we conclude that Christ was nearly forty. Ver. 58, 59. “Jesus says to them, ‘Before Abraham was, I Am.’ Then they picked up stones to throw at Him.” Do you see how He proved Himself greater than Abraham? For the man who rejoiced to see His day and earnestly longed for it clearly did so because it was a day that would bring a benefit and belonged to someone greater than himself. Because they had said, “The carpenter’s son” ( Matt. xiii. 55 ), and thought nothing more of Him, He gradually leads them to an exalted understanding of Him. So when they heard the words, “You do not know God,” they were not troubled. But when they heard, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” they became furious and wanted to stone Him, as though the nobility of their ancestry had been degraded. “He saw My day and was glad.” He shows that He came to His Passion willingly, since He praises the man who rejoiced at the Cross. For this was the salvation of the world. But they threw stones at Him; they were so ready to murder, and they did this on their own initiative, without investigating. But why did He not say, “Before Abraham was, I was,” instead of “I Am”? Just as the Father uses the expression “I Am,” so does Christ, for it signifies continuous Being, independent of all time. This is why the expression seemed blasphemous to them. Now if they could not bear the comparison with Abraham, although this was only a minor comparison, would they ever have stopped throwing stones at Him if He had continually made Himself equal to the Father? After this He again flees as a man and hides Himself, having given them enough instruction. Having completed His work, He left the Temple and went away to heal the blind, proving by His actions that He is before Abraham. But perhaps someone will say, “Why did He not paralyze their strength? Then they would have believed.” He healed the paralyzed man, yet they did not believe. Indeed, He performed ten thousand wonders; at the Passion itself He threw them to the ground and darkened their eyes, yet they did not believe. How, then, would they have believed if He had paralyzed their strength? Nothing is worse than a soul hardened in desperation. Though it sees signs and wonders, it still persists in the same shamelessness. So Pharaoh, who received ten thousand blows, came to his senses only while he was being punished and remained this way until the last day of his life, pursuing those he had let go. That is why Paul continually says, “So that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” ( Heb. iii. 13.) For just as calluses on the body, once formed, become dead and have no feeling, so the soul, when occupied by many passions, becomes dead to virtue. Whatever you apply to it, it has no perception of it; whether you threaten punishment or anything else, it remains unfeeling. [3.] That is why I beg you, while we have hope of salvation, while we can turn back, to use every means to do so. For people who have lost all feeling are then like despairing ship pilots who blindly surrender their ship to the wind and do nothing themselves to help. In this way, the envious person looks to only one thing: satisfying his desire. Even if he is likely to be punished or killed, that passion alone possesses him. The same is true of the person ruled by excess or greed. But if the passions have such great power, virtue has far greater power. If we despise death for their sake, much more should we despise it for virtue’s sake. If they (sinners) have no regard for their own lives, we should have even less regard for ours when our salvation is at stake. For what will we have to say if those who are perishing work so actively toward their own destruction, while we do not show even equal effort toward our own salvation, but constantly waste away with envy? Nothing is worse than envy: in destroying another, it also destroys itself. The envious person’s eye wastes away with grief; he lives in continual death; he considers everyone his enemy, even those who have never wronged him. He grieves that God is honored; he rejoices in what makes the devil rejoice. Is someone honored among people? This is not honor; do not envy him. But is he honored by God? Make the effort to become like him. You will not? Then why destroy yourself too? Why throw away what you have? Can you not become like him or gain anything good? Then why bring evil on yourself as well, when you should rejoice with him, so that even if you cannot share his labors, you may benefit by rejoicing with Him? For often even the will can accomplish great good. At any rate, Ezekiel says that the Moabites were punished because they rejoiced over the Israelites, and that certain others were saved because they mourned over their neighbors’ misfortunes. ( Ezek. xxv. 8.) Now if there is any comfort for those who mourn over others’ troubles, there is even more for those who rejoice at others’ honors. He charged the Moabites with gloating over the Israelites, yet it was God who punished them. But even when He punishes, He does not want us to rejoice over those being punished. For He does not wish to punish them. Now if we must grieve with those being punished, much more must we avoid envying those being honored. So, for example, Korah and Dathan perished with their company, making those they envied shine more brightly and handing themselves over to punishment. For envy is a venomous beast, an unclean beast, a deliberate vice that cannot be pardoned, a wickedness with no excuse, the cause and mother of all evils. So let us pull it up by the roots, so that we may be freed from evil here and receive blessings in the life to come, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom may glory be given to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, for all eternity. Amen.