Homilies on the Gospel of John 42

'Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life;

and it is they that bear witness concerning me;

and you are not willing to come to me, that you may have eternal life.'

Let us make much account of spiritual things, beloved, and let us not think it enough for our salvation merely to go through them in any manner whatever.

For if in the affairs of this life no one can gain any great advantage by using them carelessly and haphazardly,

much more will this hold true in spiritual matters, since these require even greater diligence.

For this reason Christ also, in referring the Jews to the Scriptures, referred them not to a simple reading, but to careful and thoughtful searching.

For he did not say, 'Read the Scriptures;'

but, 'Search the Scriptures.'

For since the things said concerning him required much care (for they had been shadowed over from above, as was expedient for those of that time), for this reason he now commands them to dig into them with exactness, that they might be able to find the things that lie in the depth.

For it was not said superficially, nor was it cast out upon the surface;

but like some treasure it lay deposited in great depth.

And he who seeks the things that lie below, unless he seeks with exactness and toil, will never be able to find what is sought.

For this very reason, having said, 'Search the Scriptures,' he added,

'For in them you think you have eternal life.'

But he says, 'You think,' showing that they were reaping nothing great or noble, since they expected to be saved from the mere reading, being destitute of faith.

What he says, then, is of this sort:

Do you not marvel at the Scriptures? Do you not consider them to be the cause of all life? From these I too now draw my argument.

For these are they that bear witness concerning me; and you are not willing to come to me, that you may have eternal life.

With good reason, then, he said, 'You think,' because they were not willing to be persuaded, but prided themselves on the bare reading alone.

Then, lest from his great solicitude he should incur among them a suspicion of vainglory, and be thought to be looking to his own interest because of wishing to be believed by them (for he had reminded them of John's testimony, and of the witness of God, and of his own works, and said all things so as to draw them, and promised life);

since, then, it was likely that many suspected he said these things because he was enamored of glory, hear what he adds:

'I do not receive glory from man;'

'My nature,' he says, 'is not such as to need the glory that comes from men.'

For if the sun could receive no increase from the light of a lamp,

much more shall I be far from needing human glory.

'And why,' one may say, 'do you say these things, if you have no need of them?' 'That you may be saved.'

But this indeed he had said above;

and here too he hinted at it, saying, 'That you may have life.'

And he sets down yet another reason.

And what is this? 'But I have known you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.'

Since often, as though loving God, they persecuted him because he made himself equal to God, but he knew that they would not be persuaded by him;

lest anyone should say, 'Why then do you say these things?' he said this: 'That I may reprove you, showing that it is not for the love of God,' he says, 'that you persecute me.'

For indeed He himself also bears witness to me, both through my works and through the Scriptures.

As therefore before this, thinking me to be against God, you drove me away;

so now, since I have demonstrated these things, you ought to have run to me, if indeed you loved God.

For this very reason I said these things also, that I might show you to be possessed of excessive arrogance, and boasting to no purpose, and covering over your own malice.

And he establishes these things not only from these considerations, but also from things to come.

'For I,' he says, 'came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me;

if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.'

Do you see how he says, over and over, that for this reason he was sent, and that he received judgment from the Father, and that he can do nothing of himself, so that he may cut off every pretext of thanklessness? And whom does he say will come in his own name? Here he is hinting at the Antichrist, and he sets down an irrefutable proof of their thanklessness.

For if you persecute me on the ground of loving God, much more ought this to have happened in the case of the Antichrist.

For that one will say no such thing—neither that he was sent by the Father, nor that he came according to His will;

but the very opposite of all this, tyrannically snatching at what in no way belongs to him, and declaring himself to be the God who is over all, even as Paul also says:

'exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, showing himself that he is God.'

For this is what it means to come in one's own name.

But I have not come thus; rather, I have come in the name of my Father.

Now it would indeed have been enough even by this to prove that they did not love God, namely, that they would not receive the one who declared himself to have been sent by Him.

But now He proves their shamelessness even from the opposite side as well, from the fact that they were destined to receive the Antichrist.

For when they will not receive the one who says he has been sent from Him, yet are about to worship the one who does not know Him, but boasts and declares himself to be the God over all,

it is quite clear that their persecution sprang from malice and from hatred of God.

For this reason, then, He sets down two grounds for the things He has said; and first the kindlier one, saying, 'That you might be saved,' and, 'That you might have life.'

But since they were about to mock Him, He adds also the more piercing one, showing that even if the hearers are not persuaded, God is accustomed everywhere to accomplish His own works.

Paul, then, in discoursing about the Antichrist, said prophetically that 'God will send them a working of error, that all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.'

But Christ did not say that he will come;

rather, 'If he comes,' sparing His hearers.

And since their perversity was not yet altogether brought to completion, for this reason He Himself kept silence concerning the cause of his coming;

but Paul, for those able to perceive it with exactness, hinted at it.

it is He who takes away from them every defense.

Then He also sets down the cause of their unbelief, adding:

'How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?' And from this He again shows that they were not looking to the things of God, but under such a pretext they wished to avenge their own passion.

For they were so far from doing these things for the sake of His glory, that they themselves chose human glory rather than that which comes from Him.

How then were these men about to take upon themselves so great enmity for its sake, when they so despised it as even to prefer human glory above it? And having said that they do not have the love of God, and having demonstrated this by means of both these things—both by what was being done toward Him and by what would be done toward the Antichrist—and having clearly convicted them that they are deprived of all pardon, He thus presses upon them, bringing forward Moses also as accuser, and saying:

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father;

there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you have set your hope.

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me;

for it was concerning me that he wrote.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? And what He means is something like this:

Before me, it is he who has been insulted in the things done against me.

For you have disbelieved Moses more than me.

See how from every side He cast them out of all defense.

You used to say that you love God in persecuting me, He says;

I have shown that you do this out of hatred toward Him.

You say that I break the Sabbath and dissolve the law;

I have stripped off this accusation as well.

You strongly maintain that you believe Moses, by means of the very things you dare to do against me;

I show, on the contrary, that this very thing is above all a disbelieving of Moses.

For so far am I from coming in opposition to the law, that there is not even any other who will accuse you, but only he who gave you the law.

Just as, then, He spoke concerning the Scriptures:

'In which you think you have eternal life;'

so also He says concerning Moses, 'In whom you have set your hope,' everywhere overcoming them by their own resources.

And from where is it evident, He says, that Moses will accuse you, and that you are not boasting? For what have you in common with Moses? You broke the Sabbath, which he legislated should be kept;

how then would he accuse us? And from where is it evident that we will also believe in another who comes in his own name? For all these things you say without witness.

And yet all these things have their confirmation from above.

For when it is confessed, from the works, from the voice of John, from the witness of the Father, that I came from God, it is quite clear that Moses will accuse them.

For what did he say? Was it not that if anyone should come working signs, and leading toward God, and foretelling the things to come with truth, one must obey him with all persuasion? Has not Christ, then, done all these things? For indeed He worked signs with all truth, and drew all men toward God, and brought His predictions to their fulfillment.

But from where is it evident that they will believe in another? From their hating Christ.

For those who turn away from the one who comes with the mind of God, it is quite clear will also receive the one who is against God. And if He now brings forward Moses, even though He had said, 'I do not receive testimony from man,' do not wonder;

for He does not send them to Moses, but to the writings of God.

Nevertheless, since the Scriptures frightened them less, He turns the discourse to the person himself, setting the lawgiver himself over them as accuser, and thus making the fear far more dreadful, and refuting each of the things said by them.

They used to say that they persecuted Him out of love toward God;

He shows that they do this out of hatred toward God.

They used to say that they held fast to Moses;

He shows that they did these things out of not believing Moses.

For if they were zealous for the law, they ought to have received the one who fulfilled it;

if they loved God, they ought to have been persuaded by the one who drew them toward Him;

if they believed Moses, they ought to have worshiped the one prophesied by him.

But if he is disbelieved before me, it is nothing unlikely that I too, who am proclaimed by him, should be driven out by you.

Just as, then, though they admired John,

He showed them despising John by means of the things done toward Him;

so likewise He shows those who suppose they believe Moses to be disbelieving him, and He always turns back upon their own head all the things which they thought to bring forward on their own behalf.

For so far am I, He says, from leading you away from the law, that I even call the lawgiver himself your accuser.

That the Scriptures bear witness, then, He said;

but where they bear witness He no longer added, wishing to instill in them a greater fear, and to send them off to search, and to place them under the necessity of inquiry.

For if He had said it offhand, and to men who were not even inquiring, they would have rejected the testimony;

but as it is, if they attended to the things spoken, they ought before all else to have inquired about this and learned it from Him.

For this reason He abounds the more both in declarations and in threats, not in proofs alone, that in this way at least He might win them over by the fear of the things spoken.

whatever anyone says and does, it does not rouse itself up, but remains preserving its own venom.

Therefore we must cast out all wickedness from the soul, and never weave any guile against anyone.

For God, it says, sends crooked ways to the crooked.

And, 'A holy spirit of wisdom will flee from deceit, and will withdraw itself from thoughts without understanding.'

For nothing makes men so foolish as wickedness.

For when one is treacherous, when perverse, when ungrateful—and these are the forms of wickedness—when one grieves another though having suffered no wrong, when one weaves deceits, how will he not display a proof of the utmost folly? Nothing makes men so prudent as virtue.

For it makes men thankful and reasonable, kind, gentle, meek, and forbearing;

and all the other good things this virtue is accustomed to bring forth.

And what could be more prudent than the man so disposed? For virtue is truly the fountain and root of understanding, just as, on the contrary, all wickedness takes its beginning from folly.

For both the boastful man and the wrathful man are, through their want of prudence, taken captive by the passions.

Wherefore also the prophet said:

There is no soundness in my flesh.

My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness;

showing that every sin takes its beginning from foolishness;

just as the virtuous man, who has the fear of God, is more prudent than all.

Therefore also a certain wise man says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

If then to fear God is to have wisdom, and the wicked man has not this, he is deprived of true wisdom;

and being deprived of the wisdom which is true, he is more senseless than all.

And yet many admire the wicked, as being able to do wrong and to injure, not knowing that of all men these most of all ought to be counted wretched, because, while they think to injure others, they thrust the sword against themselves;

which is the extremity of folly, that a man should smite himself and not even know this very thing, but should think that he is wronging another, while he is slaughtering himself.

For this reason also Paul, knowing that in smiting others we destroy ourselves, said:

Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? Why do ye not rather allow yourselves to be defrauded? For the not being wronged lies in the not wronging;

just as the not suffering evil lies in the not doing evil;

even though what is said may seem a riddle to the many, and to those who are unwilling to pursue true wisdom.

Knowing these things then, let us count wretched and weep, not for those who are wronged nor for those who are insulted, but for those who do these things.

For these are they who have been most of all wronged, they who make war against God for themselves, and open the mouths of ten thousand accusers, and gain for themselves an evil suspicion in the present life, and draw upon themselves great punishment in the age to come;

whereas they who are wronged and bear all things nobly both have God gracious to them, and have all men sympathizing with them, and praising, and welcoming them.

Such men both in the present life shall enjoy much good repute, affording the greatest proof of true wisdom, and in the life to come shall partake of the eternal good things;

which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.