Homilies on John, Homily 59

“And they cast him out. And Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He found him, He said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered, Who is He, Lord, so that I may believe in Him?” And the rest. [1.] Those who suffer anything terrible and are insulted for the sake of the truth and the confession of Christ are especially honored. For just as the person who loses his possessions for His sake is the one who finds them most fully, and the person who hates his own life is the one who loves it most, so too the person who is insulted is the one who is most honored. This is what happened to the blind man. The Jews cast him out of the Temple, and the Lord of the Temple found him; he was separated from that disease-ridden company and met the Fountain of salvation; he was dishonored by those who dishonored Christ and was honored by the Lord of Angels. These are the rewards of truth. And so, if we leave our possessions in this world, we find confidence in the next; if we give to the afflicted here, we will have rest in heaven; if we are insulted for God's sake, we are honored both here and there. When they had cast him out of the Temple, Jesus found him. The Evangelist shows that He came for the purpose of meeting him. And notice how He rewards him with the greatest of blessings. He made Himself known to the man who had not known Him before and enrolled him among His own disciples. Notice also how precisely the Evangelist describes the circumstances: when Christ said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” the man replied, “Lord, who is He?” He still did not know Him, although he had been healed, because he was blind before he came to his Benefactor, and after the cure those dogs were harassing him. So, like a judge at the games, He welcomes the champion who had struggled hard and won the crown. And what does He say? “Do you believe in the Son of God?” What is this? After so much argument against the Jews, after so many words, does He ask him, “Do you believe?” He did not say this out of ignorance, but because He wanted to make Himself known and show how tenderly He valued the man's faith. “This great multitude,” He says, “has insulted Me, but I pay no attention to them; I care about one thing: that you should believe. For one person who does the will of God is better than ten thousand transgressors.” “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He asks this question as One who had been present and approved of what the man had said; and first He brought him to long for Himself. He did not say directly, “Believe,” but put it as a question. What, then, did the man say? “Lord, who is He, so that I may believe in Him?” These are the words of a soul that longs and searches. He does not know the One in whose defense he had said so much; this shows you his love of truth. For he had not yet seen Him. Ver. 37. “Jesus says to him, You have both seen Him, and He is the One speaking with you.” He did not say, “I am He,” but still spoke indirectly and cautiously: “You have both seen Him.” This was still unclear, so He adds more plainly, “He is the One speaking with you.” Ver. 38. “He says, Lord, I believe; and he worshiped Him” (straightway). He did not say, “I am the One who healed you, who told you, Go, wash in Siloam.” Instead, saying nothing about any of these things, He says, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” And then the man, showing his great eagerness, immediately worshiped Him. Few of those who were healed had done this, such as the lepers and some others. By this act he declared His divine power. So that no one might think his words were merely words, he added the deed as well. When he had worshiped, Christ said, Ver. 39. “For judgment I have come into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind.” Paul says the same: “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness, even the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus; but Israel, which pursued the law of righteousness, has not attained the law of righteousness.” ( Rom. ix. 30, 31.) By saying, “For judgment I have come into this world,” He both strengthened the man's faith and stirred up those who followed Him, for the Pharisees were following Him. He spoke the words “For judgment” with reference to a greater punishment, showing that those who had passed sentence against Him had passed sentence against themselves, and that those who had condemned Him as a sinner were themselves condemned. In this passage He speaks of two recoveries of sight and two kinds of blindness: one physical, the other spiritual. Ver. 40. “Some of those who followed Him say to Him, Are we also blind?” Just as elsewhere they said, “We were never slaves to anyone,” and, “We were not born from sexual immorality” ( c. viii. 33, 41 ), so now they fix their attention on material things alone and are ashamed of this kind of blindness. Then, to show that it was better for them to be blind than to see, He says, Ver. 41. “If you were blind, you would have no sin.” Since they considered this affliction something to be ashamed of, He turns it back on their own heads, telling them, “This very thing would have made your punishment more bearable.” In every way He cuts away their merely human thinking and leads them to a lofty and wonderful understanding. “But now you say, We see.” Just as He says elsewhere, “Of whom you said that He was your God” ( c. viii. 54 ), so here too: “Now you say that you see, but you do not see.” He shows that what they considered a great reason for praise brought punishment upon them. He also comforted the man born blind about his former impairment, and then speaks about their blindness. His entire speech aims to prevent them from saying, “We did not refuse to come to you because of our blindness; we turn away and avoid you as a deceiver.” [2.] The Evangelist has a reason for mentioning that those Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said, “Are we blind too?” He wants to remind you that these were the men who first withdrew from Him and then stoned Him, for they were people who followed Him superficially and easily changed to the opposite opinion. How, then, does He prove that He is a Shepherd and not a deceiver? By setting out the distinguishing marks both of the shepherd and of the deceiver and plunderer, and through these giving them an opportunity to investigate the truth of the matter. First He shows who is a deceiver and a plunderer, identifying him from the Scriptures and saying, Chap. x. ver. 1. “Truly, truly, I say to you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber.” Notice the marks of a robber: first, he does not enter openly; second, he does not enter according to the Scriptures, for this is what “not by the door” means. Here He also refers to those who came before Him and those who would come after Him: Antichrist and the false Christs, Judas and Theudas, and all the others of the same kind. He has good reason to call the Scriptures “a door,” for they bring us to God and open the knowledge of God to us; they make us sheep, guard us, and do not allow the wolves to come in after us. Like a secure door, Scripture blocks the heretics' passage, keeps us safe in everything we desire, and does not allow us to wander. If we do not open it, our enemies will not easily defeat us. Through it we can recognize everyone, both those who are shepherds and those who are not. But what does “into the fold” mean? It refers to the sheep and their care. For anyone who does not use the Scriptures but “climbs up some other way”—that is, carves out another, unusual path for himself—“is a thief.” Do you see from this too that Christ agrees with the Father, since He appeals to the Scriptures? This is also why He said to the Jews, “Search the Scriptures” ( c. v. 39 ), and brought forward Moses and called him and all the Prophets as witnesses. For He says, “All who hear the Prophets will come to Me,” and, “If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me.” But here He has expressed the same thing through a metaphor. And by saying, “climbs up some other way,” He alluded to the Scribes, because they taught human doctrines as commandments and broke the Law ( Matt. xv. 9 ). He reproached them for this and said, “None of you keeps the Law.” ( c. vii. 19.) He rightly said “climbs up,” rather than “enters,” since climbing is what a thief does when he intends to scale a wall and does everything at his own peril. Have you seen how He has portrayed the robber? Now notice the character of the shepherd. What, then, is it? Ver. 2–4. “The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep; the doorkeeper opens to him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own by name. And when he has brought them out, he goes before them.” [3.] He has set out the marks of the shepherd and of the evildoer; now let us see how He has connected what follows with them. “The doorkeeper,” He says, “opens to him.” He continues the metaphor to give His discourse greater force. But if you want to examine the parable word by word, nothing prevents you from taking Moses to be the doorkeeper, for God's oracles were entrusted to him. “Whose voice the sheep hear, and he calls his own by name.” Because they kept saying that He was a deceiver and supported this with their own unbelief, saying, “Which of the rulers has believed in him?” ( c. vii. 48.) He shows that they should not call Him a plunderer and deceiver because of those people's unbelief. Instead, because they paid no attention to Him, they were consequently excluded even from the ranks of the sheep. For if a shepherd's role is to enter through the usual door, and He entered through it, all who followed Him could be sheep; but those who tore themselves away did no harm to the Shepherd's reputation and instead cast themselves out of the family of the sheep. And if further on He says that He is “the door,” we must not be troubled by this either, for He also calls Himself “Shepherd” and “Sheep,” and in different ways makes known His dispensations. Thus, when He brings us to the Father, He calls Himself “a Door”; when He cares for us, “a Shepherd.” He calls Himself a Shepherd so that you will not suppose that bringing us to the Father is His only role. “And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep, and leads them out, and goes before them.” Shepherds ordinarily do the opposite, following behind them; but He acts differently to show that He will lead everyone to the truth. So too, when He sent the sheep, He sent them “into the midst of wolves,” not away from wolves. ( Matt. x. 16.) For this way of tending sheep is far more wonderful than ours. He also seems to me to allude to the blind man, for after “calling” him too, He “led him out” from among the Jews, and the man heard “His voice” and “knew” it. Ver. 5. “And they will not follow a stranger, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Here He certainly speaks of Theudas and Judas (for Scripture says, “all who believed in them were scattered” [ Acts v. 36]), or of the false Christs who would deceive people afterward. So that no one might say He was one of these, He distinguishes Himself from them in many ways. The first difference He sets out is His teaching from the Scriptures: through these He led people to Himself, while the others did not use them to draw people after themselves. The second is the obedience of the sheep: they all believed in Him, not only while He lived but also after He had died, whereas they immediately abandoned the others. Along with these we may mention a third difference, no small one. They did everything as rebels and to stir up revolts, but He kept Himself so far from any such suspicion that when they wanted to make Him king, He fled; and when they asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” He told them to pay it, and Himself gave the two-drachma piece. ( Matt. xvii. 27.) Besides this, He came to save the sheep, “So that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly” ( ver. 10 ), but the others deprived them even of this present life. They betrayed those entrusted to them and fled, but He stood firm so nobly that He even gave up His life. They suffered what they suffered unwillingly, under compulsion, and wishing to escape, but He endured everything willingly and by choice. Ver. 6. “Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them.” And why did He speak in a way they could not understand? Because He wanted to make them more attentive. Once He had done this, He makes His meaning clear, saying, Ver. 9. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will go in and out and find pasture.” It is as though He had said, “He will be safe and secure” (but by “pasture” He means here His nurturing and feeding of the sheep, and His power and Lordship); that is, “He will remain inside, and no one will drive him out.” This happened in the case of the Apostles, who came in and went out securely, having become lords of the whole world, and no one could cast them out. Ver. 8. “All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” Here He is not speaking of the Prophets (as the heretics claim), for all who believed in Christ also heard them and were persuaded by them. He is speaking of Theudas and Judas and the others who stirred up rebellion. Besides, He says, “The sheep did not hear them,” in praise of the sheep. Yet nowhere do we find Him praising those who refused to listen to the Prophets; on the contrary, He reproaches and accuses them vehemently. So it is clear that “did not hear” refers to those leaders of rebellion. Ver. 10. “The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.” This happened then, when all (their followers) were killed and perished. “But I have come so that they might have life, and might have more.” And what, tell me, is “more” than life? The kingdom of heaven. But He does not say this yet; He dwells on the word “life,” which was familiar to them. Ver. 11. “I am the good Shepherd.” Here He goes on to speak about the Passion, showing that it would be for the salvation of the world and that He did not undergo it unwillingly. Then He again describes the character of the shepherd and the hired hand. “For the shepherd lays down his life.” Ver. 12. “But the hired hand, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf comes and seizes them.” Here He declares Himself to be Master just as the Father is, since He is the Shepherd and the sheep are His. Do you see how He speaks in a loftier way in His parables, where the meaning is concealed, and gives His listeners no obvious opening to attack Him? What, then, does this hired hand do? He “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep, and the wolf comes and scatters them.” This is what those false teachers did, but He did the opposite. For when He was arrested, He said, “Let these go their way, so that the saying might be fulfilled” ( c. xviii. 8, 9 ), that not one of them was lost. Here too we may suspect that He means a spiritual wolf, for Christ did not allow him to go and seize the sheep either. But he is not only a wolf; he is also a lion. “Because our adversary the devil,” Scripture says, “walks around like a roaring lion.” ( 1 Pet. v. 8.) He is also a serpent and a dragon, for Scripture says, “Step on serpents and scorpions.” ( Luke x. 19.) [4.] So I urge you, let us continue to graze under this Shepherd's care. We will remain there if we obey Him, if we hear His voice, if we do not follow a stranger. And what is His voice? “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the merciful.” ( Matt. v. 3, 8, 7.) If we act this way, we will remain under the Shepherd's care, and the wolf will not be able to enter; or if he attacks us, he will do so to his own harm. For we have a Shepherd who loves us so much that He even gave His life for us. Since He is both powerful and loves us, what can prevent us from being saved? Nothing, unless we ourselves rebel against Him. And how can we rebel? Hear Him say, “You cannot serve two masters, God and mammon.” ( Matt. vi. 24.) If, then, we serve God, we will not submit to the tyranny of mammon. The desire for riches is truly more bitter than any tyranny, for it brings no pleasure, but worries, envy, plotting, hatred, false accusations, and ten thousand obstacles to virtue, laziness, unrestrained indulgence, greed, and drunkenness. These make even free people slaves—indeed, worse than slaves bought with money, slaves not to human beings but to the most tormenting passions and diseases of the soul. Such a person dares to do many things displeasing to God and people, afraid that someone might take this power away from him. What bitter slavery and devilish tyranny! For the most terrible thing of all is that, entangled in such evils, we are pleased and embrace our chain; living in a prison full of darkness, we refuse to come out into the light, but rivet evil onto ourselves and rejoice in our disease. So we cannot be freed, and we are worse off than those who work in the mines, enduring toil and affliction without enjoying the fruit. And what is truly worst of all, if anyone wants to free us from this bitter captivity, we do not allow it, but are even annoyed and displeased. In this respect we are no better off than madmen, or rather, we are in a much more miserable condition than any of them, since we are not even willing to be freed from our madness. What? Was this why you, a human being, were brought into the world? Was this why you were made human, so that you might work in these mines and gather gold? God did not create you in His Image for this, but so that you might please Him, obtain the things to come, and join the choir of Angels. Why, then, do you banish yourself from such a family and thrust yourself into the depths of dishonor and degradation? Someone born through the same birth pangs as you (the spiritual birth pangs I mean,) is dying of hunger, while you are so full you are bursting. Your brother goes around naked, while you provide clothing even for your clothes, piling up all this clothing for the worms. How much better it would have been to put it on the bodies of the poor! Then it would have remained undamaged, freed you from all worry, and won you the life to come. If you do not want your clothes to be eaten by moths, give them to the poor: they know how to shake these clothes out well. The Body of Christ is more precious and more secure than a chest, for It not only keeps the clothes safe and preserves them from destruction, but even makes them brighter. Often, when the chest is taken along with the clothes, it causes you the greatest loss; but not even death can harm this place of safety. With It we need no doors or bolts, no watchful servants, or any other such protection, for our possessions are safe from every treacherous attack and stored under guard, as we would expect things stored in heaven to be; for no wickedness can reach that place. We never stop telling you these things, and you listen without being persuaded. The reason is that our souls are low-minded, staring at the earth and groveling on the ground. Or rather, God forbid that I should condemn you all for wickedness, as though you were all incurably diseased. For even if those drunk with riches close their ears to my words, those who live in poverty will still be able to see clearly what I mean. “But what,” someone says, “does this have to do with the poor? They have no gold or any such clothes.” No, but they have bread and cold water; they have two obols and feet to visit the sick; they have a tongue and speech to comfort the bedridden; they have a house and shelter to take in the stranger. We do not demand a particular number of talents of gold from the poor; we ask these from the rich. But if someone is poor and comes to other people's doors, our Lord is not ashamed to receive even an obol, and He will say that He has received more from this giver than from those who put in much. How many of those standing here now would wish to have been born at the time when Christ walked the earth in the flesh, to have talked and eaten with Him? Look, this can be done now: we can invite Him to a meal even more than we could then, and feast with Him to even greater benefit. For many of those who feasted with Him then perished, including Judas and others like him; but everyone who invites Him into their home now and shares their table and roof with Him will enjoy a great blessing. “Come,” it says, “you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” ( Matt. xxv. 34–36.) So that we may hear these words, let us clothe the naked, take in the stranger, feed the hungry, give the thirsty a drink, visit the sick, and visit those in prison, so that we may have boldness, receive forgiveness for our sins, and share in those good things that surpass both speech and thought. May we all obtain them through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the power forever. Amen.