Homilies on John, Homily 58

“They say to the blind man again, What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes? He said, He is a Prophet. The Jews then did not believe.” [1.] We must read the Scriptures carefully and with complete accuracy, rather than casually or carelessly, so that we do not get caught in confusion. Even here someone could reasonably ask how, after declaring, “This man is not of God, because he does not keep the Sabbath,” they now say to the man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” instead of, “What do you say about him, since he has broken the Sabbath?” They now bring up the grounds for His defense instead of the accusation. What answer can we give? These (who speak) are not the men who said, “This man is not of God,” but those who took a different side from them and also said, “A man who is a sinner cannot do such miracles.” They want to silence their opponents more effectively, so, to avoid appearing to be partisans of Christ, they bring forward the man who had received proof of His power and question him. Now notice the poor man’s wisdom: he speaks more wisely than all of them. First he says, “He is a Prophet.” He did not shrink from the judgment of the perverse Jews who spoke against Him and said, “How can this man be of God when he does not keep the Sabbath?” Instead, he answered them, “He is a Prophet.” “And they did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they had called his parents.” Notice how many ways they try to obscure and discredit the miracle. But this is the nature of truth: the very means people seem to use to attack it make it stronger; the means used to obscure it make it shine. If these things had not happened, many people might have doubted the miracle. But now they use every means, as though they wanted to uncover the truth, and they could not have acted differently if they had done everything on Christ’s behalf. First they tried to bring Him down because of this method (of cure), saying, “How did he open your eyes?” That is, “Was it by some sorcery?” Elsewhere too, when they had no charge to bring against Him, they tried to disparage His method of healing, saying, “He does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub.” ( Matt. xii. 24.) Here again, when they have nothing to say, they turn to the time (of cure), saying, “He breaks the Sabbath,” and again, “He is a sinner.” Yet He asked you, who wanted to kill Him and were ready to seize on His actions, very plainly, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” ( c. viii. 46 ); and no one spoke or said, “You blaspheme because you make yourself sinless.” If they had been able to say that, they would not have kept silent. They wanted to stone Him because they heard that He existed before Abraham, and they said that He was not of God. Murderers though they were, they boasted that they were of God, but said that One who performed such wonders, after He had brought about a cure, was not of God because He did not keep the Sabbath. If they had had even the shadow of a charge against Him, they would never have let it pass. And if they call Him a sinner because He seemed to break the Sabbath, this charge too is shown to be unsound when people on their own side condemn their deep coldness and pettiness. Trapped on every side, they then turn to something still more shameless and brazen. What is that? They “did not believe,” it says, “that he had been blind and had received his sight.” How, then, did they accuse Christ of not keeping the Sabbath? Clearly, they had believed. But why did you pay no attention to the great number of people, to the neighbors who knew him? As I said, falsehood everywhere defeats itself through the very means by which it seems to trouble the truth, and makes the truth shine more brightly. That is what happened now. To prevent anyone from saying that his neighbors and those who had seen him were speaking imprecisely and merely guessing from a resemblance, they bring forward his parents. Through them, against their will, they succeeded in proving that what had happened was real, since the parents knew their own child best of all. When they could not frighten the man himself, but saw him boldly proclaiming his Benefactor, they thought they could undermine the miracle through his parents. Notice the malice in their questioning. What does it say? After placing them in the middle to distress them, they question them with great severity and anger: Ver. 19. “Is this your son?” (and they did not say, “who once was blind,” but) “who you say was born blind?” As though they were practicing deception and plotting on Christ’s behalf. You cursed, utterly cursed men! What father would choose to invent such lies about his child? They all but say, “The one you have represented as blind—and not only that, you have spread the report everywhere.” “How, then, does he now see?” [2.] What foolishness! “The trick and the scheme are yours,” one says. They try to lead the parents to deny it through these two expressions: “Who you say,” and, “How, then, does he now see?” Now three questions were asked: whether he was their son, whether he had been blind, and how he received his sight. The parents acknowledged only two of them and did not add the third. This happened for the sake of the truth, so that no one but the man who had been healed, who was also credible, would testify to this matter. And how could the parents have favored (Christ), when fear of the Jews kept them from saying even some of what they knew? What do they say? Ver. 20, 21. “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know; he is an adult; he will speak for himself.” By presenting him as a credible witness, they excused themselves. “He is not a child,” they say, “or unable to speak for himself; he can give his own testimony.” Ver. 22. “They said these things because they feared the Jews.” Notice how the Evangelist again brings out their opinion and thoughts. I say this because of their earlier statement, when they said, “He makes Himself equal to God.” ( c. v. 18.) If that too had been the Jews’ opinion rather than Christ’s judgment, he would have added that “it was a Jewish opinion.” So when the parents referred them to the man who had been healed, they called him back a second time. They did not say openly and shamelessly, “Deny that Christ healed you,” but wanted to accomplish this under a pretense of piety. Ver. 24. “Give,” one says, “the glory to God.” To have said to the parents, “Deny that he is your son and that he was born blind,” would have seemed utterly ridiculous. And again, saying this to the man himself would have been openly shameless. So they do not say that, but handle the matter another way, saying, “Give God the glory,” meaning, “Admit that this man has done nothing.” “We know that this man is a sinner.” “Why, then, did you not convict Him when He said, ‘Which of you convicts Me of sin?’ ( c. viii. 46.) How do you know that He is a sinner?” After they had said, “Give God the glory,” and the man had made no reply, Christ met him and praised him. He did not rebuke him or say, “Why have you not given glory to God?” What did He say instead? “Do you believe in the Son of God?” ( ver. 35 ), so that you may learn that this is “to give glory to God.” Now if He had not been equal in honor to the Father, this would not have been giving glory. But since whoever honors the Son also honors the Father, the blind man is rightly spared a rebuke. While they expected the parents to contradict and deny the miracle, the Pharisees said nothing to the man himself. But when they saw that this gained them nothing, they returned to him again, saying, “This man is a sinner.” Ver. 25. “He answered and said, Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know; one thing I know: I was blind, and now I see.” Surely the blind man was not frightened? Far from it. How, then, does the man who said, “He is a Prophet” ( ver. 17 ), now say, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know”? He did not say this because he thought that way or had persuaded himself of it. He wanted to clear Him of their charges through the evidence of the fact, rather than his own declaration, and to make the defense credible by letting the evidence of the good deed settle the matter against them. After so much discussion, when the blind man said, “Unless this were a righteous man, he could not do such miracles” ( ver. 33 ), they were so enraged that they answered, “You were born entirely in sin, and are you teaching us?” What would they not have said if he had spoken that way from the beginning? What would they not have done? “Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know”—as though he had said, “I say nothing in this man’s favor; I make no declaration for now. Yet this I certainly know and would affirm: if he were a sinner, he could not have done such things.” In this way he kept himself above suspicion and his testimony untainted, speaking without partiality and bearing witness to the fact. So when they could neither overturn nor undo what had happened, they returned to their earlier plan, asking trivial questions about the method of healing. They were like men searching on every side around prey that lay before them but could not be hurt, rushing around now in one direction, now in another. They returned to the man’s earlier statements, hoping to discredit them now through repeated questioning, and said, Ver. 26. “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” What was his reply? Having defeated and brought them down, he no longer speaks to them submissively. As long as the matter needed investigation and arguments, he spoke cautiously while supplying the proof. But once he had defeated them and won a splendid victory, he took courage and trampled on them. What does he say? Ver. 27. “I have told you once, and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again?” Do you see how boldly a beggar speaks to Scribes and Pharisees? Truth is that strong, and falsehood that weak. Truth makes even ordinary people look glorious when she takes hold of them; falsehood shows even the strong to be weak when it is with them. This is what he means: “You pay no attention to my words, so I will no longer keep speaking or answering you. You question me to no purpose and want to listen so you can ridicule my words, rather than learn.” “Do you also want to be His disciples?” [3.] Now he has placed himself among the disciples, because “Do you also want to?” is the expression of someone declaring himself a disciple. Then he mocked and irritated them thoroughly. Knowing that this hit them hard, he said it to rebuke them with the greatest severity. This was the act of a courageous soul, soaring high and despising their madness. He pointed out the greatness of this honor, in which he had complete confidence, and showed that they were insulting a man worthy of admiration. He did not take it as an insult, but embraced as an honor what they offered as a reproach. Ver. 28. “You are his disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples.” “But this cannot be. You are neither Moses’ disciples nor this Man’s. If you were Moses’ disciples, you would become this Man’s too.” That is why Christ had said to them earlier, since they constantly fell back on these statements, “If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote about Me.” ( c. v. 46.) Ver. 29. “We know that God spoke to Moses.” On whose word, whose report? “Our ancestors’,” one says. Then is He not more worthy of belief than your ancestors, when He confirms by miracles that He came from God and speaks things from above? They did not say, “We have heard that God spoke to Moses,” but, “We know.” Do you Jews claim to know what you have only heard, while considering what you have seen less certain than what you have heard? Yet the one you did not see but heard, while the other you did not hear but saw. What, then, does the blind man say? Ver. 30. “Why, here is an amazing thing: you do not know where He is from, and He does such miracles.” “A Man who is not one of the distinguished, noble, or illustrious among you can do such things. So it is clear in every way that He is God and needs no human help.” Ver. 31. “We know that God does not hear sinners.” Since they had been the first to say, “How can a man who is a sinner do such miracles?” ( ver. 16 ), he now brings forward their own judgment, reminding them of their own words. “You and I share this opinion,” he says. “Now stand by it.” And please notice his wisdom. He examines the miracle from every angle, because they could not explain it away, and draws his conclusions from it. Do you see that at first he said, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know”? He was not doubting—God forbid!—but knew that He was not a sinner. Now, at least, when he had an opportunity, see how he defended Him. “We know that God does not hear sinners”: “But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will.” Here he has not only cleared Him of sin, but declares that He is very pleasing to God and does all His will. Since they called themselves worshipers of God, he added, “and does His will.” “Knowing God is not enough,” he says. “People must also do His will.” Then he emphasizes the greatness of what had happened, saying, Ver. 32. “Since the world began, no one has heard of anyone opening the eyes of someone born blind.” “If you now acknowledge that God does not hear sinners, and this Person has performed a miracle—and a miracle no one has ever performed—it is clear that He has surpassed all things in virtue and that His power is greater than human power.” What, then, do they say? Ver. 34. “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” As long as they expected him to deny Christ, they considered him trustworthy, calling him in once and then a second time. If you did not consider him trustworthy, why did you call him in and question him a second time? But when he spoke the truth without fear, then, when they should have admired him most, they condemned him. But what does “You were born entirely in sins” mean? Here they mercilessly reproach him for his very blindness, as though saying, “You have been in sins from your earliest years,” implying that this was why he was born blind. That was unreasonable. On this very point Christ comforted him by saying, “For judgment I have come into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ( c. ix. 39.) “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” Why, what had the man said? Did he present his private opinion? Did he not present a shared judgment, saying, “We know that God does not hear sinners”? Did he not bring forward your own words? “And they threw him out.” Have you seen this herald of the truth, and how poverty did not hinder his true wisdom? Do you see the insults and sufferings he endured from the beginning, and how he testified in both word and deed? [4.] These things are recorded so that we too may imitate them. The blind man, the beggar, who had not even seen Him, immediately showed such boldness, even before Christ encouraged him. He stood against an entire people—murderous, possessed, and raving—who wanted to use his voice to condemn Christ. He neither yielded nor backed down, but boldly silenced them and chose to be thrown out rather than betray the truth. How much more should we show complete boldness in speaking to those who try to accuse us and say anything against Christians, silencing them and refusing to give in without a struggle? We have lived so long in the faith, seen ten thousand wonders worked through faith, and received greater benefits than he did. We have recovered the sight of our inner eyes, seen the Mysteries that words cannot express, and been called to such honor. We will be able to do this if we are bold, pay attention to the Scriptures, and listen to them carefully. If someone comes here regularly and pays attention to what is said here, even if he does not read at home, a single year is enough to make him well versed in them. We do not read one set of Scriptures today and another tomorrow, but always and continually the same ones. Still, most people’s attitude is so wretched that, after so much reading, they do not even know the names of the Books. They feel neither shame nor fear about entering so carelessly a place where they can hear God’s word. Yet if a harpist, dancer, or actor calls the city together, they all run eagerly, feel grateful for the invitation, and spend half an entire day paying attention to him alone. But when God speaks to us through Prophets and Apostles, we yawn, scratch ourselves, and grow drowsy. In summer the heat seems too great, and we head for the marketplace; in winter the rain and mud get in the way, and we sit at home. Yet at horse races, although there is no roof to keep off the rain, most people stand like madmen while heavy rain falls and the wind drives the water into their faces. They care nothing about cold, wet, mud, or the distance they must travel. Nothing keeps them home or prevents them from going there. But here, where there are roofs overhead and it is wonderfully warm, they hold back instead of rushing to gather, even though their own souls stand to gain. Tell me, how is this tolerable? So it happens that, while we are more skilled than anyone in those matters, we are more ignorant than children about necessary things. If someone calls you a charioteer or a dancer, you say you have been insulted and do everything possible to wipe away the insult. But if he draws you into watching the performance, you do not recoil, and you pursue, in almost every instance, the art whose name you avoid. Yet where you should have both the practice and the name, both be a Christian and be called one, you do not even know what the practice involves. What could be worse than this foolishness? I have wanted to tell you these things all along, but I fear that I may gain your hatred to no purpose and with no benefit. For I see that the old as well as the young are mad. I am especially ashamed of the old when I see a man whose white hair commands respect disgracing that white hair and bringing a child along behind him. What is worse than this mockery? What is more shameful than this conduct? The father teaches the child to behave indecently. [5.] Do these words sting? That is what I want: for you to feel the pain caused by the words so that you may be freed from the disgrace caused by the actions. Some people are far colder even than these. They feel no shame about the things mentioned, and even construct a long argument defending the practice. If you ask them who Amos or Obadiah was, or how many Prophets or Apostles there are, they cannot even open their mouths. But for horses and charioteers, they compose defenses more cleverly than sophists or rhetoricians. After all this, they say, “What is the harm? What is the loss?” This is what makes me groan: you do not even know that the practice is a loss or recognize its evils. God has given you an allotted span of life to serve Him, and while you spend it uselessly, aimlessly, and on nothing worthwhile, do you still ask, “What loss is there?” If you have spent a little money to no purpose, you call it a loss. When you spend whole days on the devil’s spectacles, do you think you are doing nothing wrong? You should spend your whole life in pleas and prayers. Instead, you carelessly waste your life and resources, to your own harm, on shouting, uproar, shameful words, fighting, ill-timed pleasure, and actions carried out by trickery. After all this you ask, “What is the loss?” You do not realize that you should spend anything more freely than time. If you spend gold, you can get it back; but if you lose time, you will hardly recover it. We are allotted little in this present life. So if we do not use it as we should, what will we say when we depart “there”? Tell me, if you had commanded one of your sons to learn a craft, and he then kept staying home or even spending his time somewhere else, would the teacher not reject him? Would he not say to you, “You made an agreement with me and set a period of time. If your son spends that time elsewhere instead of with me, how can I present him to you as a trained student?” We too must speak this way. For God will also say to us, “I gave you time to learn this art of piety. Why have you foolishly and uselessly wasted that time? Why did you neither go regularly to the teacher nor pay attention to his words?” To show that piety is an art, listen to what the Prophet says: “Come, children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” ( Ps. xxxiv. 11.) And again, “Blessed is the man whom You instruct, Lord, and teach from Your Law.” ( Ps. xciv. 12.) So when you have wasted this time, what excuse will you have? “And why,” someone says, “did He allot us so little time?” What senselessness and ingratitude! You had the greatest obligation to thank Him for cutting your labors short, reducing your toil, and making your rest long and everlasting. Is this what you find fault with and complain about? But I do not know how we have brought our discussion to this point and made it so long; we must shorten it now. This too is part of our wretchedness: here, if the sermon is long, we all grow inattentive, while there they begin at noon and leave by torchlight and lamplight. Still, so that we are not always scolding, we now earnestly beg you: grant this favor to us and to yourselves. Freeing ourselves from every other concern, let us fasten ourselves to these things. Then we will receive joy and gladness from you, honor because of you, and repayment for these labors. You, meanwhile, will reap the full reward because, although you were once so madly fastened to the stage, through fear of God and our exhortations you tore yourselves away from that sickness, broke your bonds, and hurried to God. You will receive your reward not only “there”; you will also enjoy pure pleasure “here.” That is what virtue does: besides giving us crowns in heaven, it makes life pleasant for us even here. Let us, then, be persuaded by what has been said, so that we may obtain the blessings both here and in the next life, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom, may glory be to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, for all eternity. Amen.