Homilies on the Gospel of John 38

'Will you be made whole?' The sick man answered Him,

'but I have no man, that, when the water is troubled, may put me into the pool.'

Great is the gain of the divine Scriptures, and abundant is the benefit that comes from them.

And showing this, Paul said:

'For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come;'

'that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope.'

For the divine oracles are a treasury of medicines of every kind;

so that whether one must quench pride, or lull to sleep desire, or trample down the love of money, or make light of pain, or implant good cheer and build up patience, one might find abundant means thereto.

For who, either of those wrestling with long poverty, or of those held fast by grievous disease, having read the passage before us, would not receive much comfort? For this man, remaining paralyzed thirty and eight years, and each year seeing others delivered while he himself was held by his malady, did not even so give way or despair;

and yet not only the despondency over things past, but also the hopelessness concerning things to come, was enough to break him down.

Hear then what manner of things he says, and learn the greatness of the tragedy.

For when Christ had said, 'Will you be made whole?' 'Yes, Lord,' he answered;

'but I have no man, that, when the water is troubled, may put me into the pool.'

What could be more piteous than these words? What more full of suffering than these circumstances? Did you see a heart broken by the

long sickness? Did you see all inflammation quelled? For he uttered no blasphemous word, such as we hear from the many in their calamities;

he did not curse his day, nor was he vexed at the question, nor did he say:

'Have you come to mock us and to make sport of us, that you ask whether I wish to be made whole?'

but gently and with great forbearance, 'Yes, Lord.'

And yet he did not even know who it was that questioned him, nor that He was about to heal him;

but nevertheless with forbearance he relates everything, and asks nothing further, as though speaking to a physician, and wishing only to declare his affliction.

For he expected perhaps that Christ would be of use to him for this, namely to cast him into the water, and by these words he desires to draw Him to himself.

What then does Christ do? Showing that He can do all things by a word, He says, 'Arise, take up your bed, and walk.'

Now some suppose that this is the man mentioned in Matthew.

But that this is not so is plain from many considerations.

And first from the destitution of those who might have stood by him.

For that man had many to care for him and to carry him, but this one had none;

wherefore also he said, 'I have no man.'

Next also from the answer.

For the one utters nothing;

but this one relates all his own circumstances.

And thirdly, from the occasion and the time.

For this one was healed on a feast and on a sabbath, but that one on another day.

And the place too of each was different.

For the one is healed in a house, but the other beside the pool.

And the manner of the healing too is changed.

For there He says, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you;'

but here He first binds up the body, and then cares for the soul.

'For your sins are forgiven you,' He says.

Here there is both exhortation and a warning that secures him against the future.

For 'Sin no more,' He says, 'lest something worse befall you.'

And the accusations of the Jews were varied.

For here they bring forward the working on the Sabbath, but there they charge Him with blasphemy.

But consider with me the surpassing greatness of the wisdom of God.

For He did not raise him up at once, but first draws him to Himself by the question, preparing the way for the faith that was to come.

And He not only raises him up, but also bids him take up his bed, so as both to confirm the miracle that was wrought, and that no one might suppose what had happened to be a mere appearance or a piece of pretense.

For unless the limbs had been firmly and thoroughly knit together, he could not have carried the bed.

And Christ does these things frequently, superabundantly stopping the mouths of those who wished to behave shamelessly.

For in the case of the loaves also, that no one might say that they were merely filled and that what happened was an appearance, He caused many fragments of the loaves to be left over.

And to the leper who was cleansed He says, 'Go, show yourself to the priest.'

At once both furnishing the most exact proof of the cleansing, and stopping the shameless mouths of those who said that He was legislating against God.

And in the case of the wine too He did the same.

For He did not simply display the wine, but also caused it to be carried to the ruler of the feast, so that he who knew nothing of what had been done, by confessing it, might afford Him a testimony free from all suspicion.

For this reason the Evangelist also said that the ruler of the feast did not know from where it was, making clear the incorruptness of the testimony.

And having raised a dead man in another place, He says:

'Give him something to eat,' furnishing this as a sign of the genuine resurrection.

And through all these things persuading the foolish that He was no deceiver nor a worker of illusions, but that He had come for the salvation of the common nature of mankind.

But why then does He not demand faith of him, as He did in the case of the blind men, saying:

'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' Because as yet the man did not clearly know who He was.

For it is not before the miracles, but after the miracles, that He is seen doing this.

For those who had seen His power in other cases were reasonably asked this;

but those who had not yet come to know Him, but were about to learn from the signs, are required to have faith after the miracles.

For this reason too Matthew does not, at the beginning of the signs, introduce

Christ as having said this, but when He had healed many, and to two blind men only.

But consider even so the faith of the paralytic.

For when he heard, 'Take up your bed and walk,' he did not laugh in scorn, nor did he say, 'What can this mean? An angel comes down and troubles the water, and heals but one only;

and you, being a man, do you expect by a bare command and word to be able to do more than angels? This is pride and boasting and a matter for laughter.'

But he said none of these things, nor did he even think them;

rather, as soon as he heard, he arose;

and having become whole, he did not disobey the One who commanded him:

'Rise, take up your bed, and walk.'

Now this too was marvelous;

but the things that followed were far more so.

Or rather, that at the outset, with no one troubling him, he was persuaded—this is not so marvelous;

but that afterward, when the Jews were raging and pressing upon him from every side and accusing and besieging him, and saying, 'It is not lawful for you to take up your bed,' he not only despised their madness, but also with great boldness proclaimed his Benefactor in the midst of the theater and stopped their shameless tongue—this, I for my part declare, was a matter of great courage.

For when the Jews had banded together and said to him reproachfully and with insolence:

'It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to take up your bed,'

He answered: 'The One who made me whole, that same One said to me, Take up your bed and walk.'

It is as though he said: 'You talk nonsense and are out of your senses, bidding me not to regard as a teacher Him who delivered me from so long and grievous a disease, nor to obey in all things whatever He may command.'

And yet, if he had wished to act with ill intent, he could have spoken otherwise;

such as: 'I do this not of my own will, but at another's command;

and if this be a charge, lay the blame on Him who gave the order, and I will put down the bed.'

He might also have concealed the healing.

For indeed he knew clearly that they were not so stung by the loosing of the Sabbath as by the correction of the infirmity.

But he neither concealed this, nor said that, nor asked for pardon; rather, with a clear voice he confessed and proclaimed the benefit.

And the paralytic acted thus;

but observe how maliciously they acted.

For they did not say, 'Who is it that made you whole?' but this they passed over in silence;

and up and down they kept bringing into the open the seeming transgression:

'Who is the man that said to you, Take up your bed and walk?' But the man who had been healed did not know who He was.

For Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.

And why then did Christ conceal Himself? First, that in His absence the testimony might be free from suspicion;

for the man who had gained the sense of his health was a trustworthy witness of the benefit.

Then, that He might not further provoke their fury to be kindled (for He knew that even the mere sight of one who is envied casts no small spark into those who bear malice); for this reason, having withdrawn, He lets the work itself contend on its own behalf among them, so that no longer should He say anything about Himself, but rather those who had been healed, and along with them the very ones who were accusing.

For indeed even these for the time being bear witness to the miracle.

For they did not say, 'Why did you command these things to be done on the Sabbath?' but, 'Why do you do these things on the Sabbath?'—not being displeased on account of the transgression, but envying the salvation of the paralytic.

And yet, so far as concerns human labor, this rather was work—the thing which the paralytic did.

Here then in one way He bids the Sabbath be loosed;

but in another place He works this by Himself, mixing clay and anointing the eyes.

And He does these things not transgressing, but transcending the law.

And concerning these matters, later.

For He does not everywhere make His defense in the same way when accused by them concerning the Sabbath;

and this must be observed with exactness.

But for the present let us see how great an evil is envy, and how it blinds the eyes of the soul against the salvation of the one it has caught.

For just as madmen often thrust their swords against themselves,

so also those who envy, looking to one thing only—the harm of the one they envy—make no account of their own salvation.

For those creatures, either being in need of food, or having first been provoked by us, arm themselves against us;

but these men, even when they have often been benefited, have behaved like those who wrong their benefactors.

These men, then, are fiercer than wild beasts, equal to demons, and perhaps even worse than they.

For those creatures maintain an implacable enmity toward us, yet they do not plot against their own kind.

Whence Christ also stopped the mouths of the Jews on this very point, when they said that He cast out demons by Beelzebul.

But these men neither reverenced the fellowship of a common nature, nor spared even their own selves.

For before harming those they envy, they punish their own souls, filling them with all manner of tumult and despondency, and that to no purpose and in vain.

For on what account do you grieve, O man, at your neighbor's good things? We ought indeed to grieve over the evils we ourselves suffer, not over those in whom we behold others held in good esteem.

For this reason this sin is deprived of all pardon.

For the fornicator can plead desire, the thief poverty, and the murderer wrath;

cold indeed and unreasonable, yet nonetheless they have some pretexts to offer.

But you, tell me, what cause will you allege? None whatsoever from any quarter, but only wickedness carried to its height.

For if we are commanded to love our enemies, when we hate even those who love us, what penalty shall we pay? And if he who loves those who love him is in no way better disposed than the heathen,

what pardon shall he obtain who spitefully wrongs those who have done him no injury? what consolation? Hear what Paul says:

If I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

And that where envy and malice are, there the things of love are done away, is surely plain to everyone.

This passion is worse even than fornication and adultery.

For the one stops with the man who commits it, but the tyranny of malice has overthrown whole Churches and has ravaged the entire world.

Thus Cain slew his brother, thus Esau slew Jacob, thus Joseph's brothers slew him, thus the devil slew all mankind.

But you do not now take life; yet you do many things far worse than murder, praying that your brother may be disgraced, setting snares on every side, undoing his labors for virtue, grieving because he pleases the Master of the world.

It is not against him, then, but against Him who is served through him, that you war; it is Him you insult, preferring your own honor to His.

And what is most grievous of all is that the sin seems to be a matter of indifference, though in truth it is more grievous than the rest.

For though you show mercy, though you keep vigil, though you fast, you have become more accursed than all men if you envy your brother.

A certain man once committed fornication among the Corinthians;

but he was rebuked and quickly set right.

Cain envied Abel, but he was not healed; rather, though God continually applied a charm to his sore, he was all the more in travail and tossed about, and hastened on to murder.

So much worse is this than that other passion, and it does not readily yield to treatment, unless we give heed.

Let us therefore tear it up by the roots from every side, considering this: that just as we give offense to God by pining away at others' good things,

so we win good esteem by rejoicing with them, and make ourselves partakers in the good things laid up for him who does well.

For this reason Paul also exhorts us to rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep, that from both directions we may reap great gain.

Considering, therefore, that even though we do not toil, yet by rejoicing with him who toils we become sharers in his crowns, let us cast out all malice and plant love in our own souls, so that, cheering on those of the brethren who do well, we may attain both the present and the coming good things, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.