Homilies on the Gospel of John 67

A great multitude therefore of the Jews learned that He was there;

and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.

Just as wealth is wont to hurl headlong those who give it no heed, so also does power.

For the one leads to covetousness, the other to madness.

See, then, how the common people of the Jews at the beginning were sound, while their rulers were corrupt.

For that these believed in Him, the evangelists continually declare, saying that many of the multitude believed on Him.

But among the rulers they did not believe.

And it is they themselves who say, not the multitude: 'Have any of the rulers believed on Him?' But what does He say? 'This multitude, who know not the Law, are accursed.'

They called those who believed accursed, and themselves, who were destroying their own souls, wise.

And here too, having beheld the miracle, many believed;

but the rulers were not content with their own evils alone, but even attempted to kill Lazarus.

So be it — Christ, because He broke the Sabbath, because He made Himself equal to the Father, and because of the Romans of whom you speak;

but what charge had you against Lazarus, that you attempted to put him to death? Is it a crime, then, to have been well treated? Do you see how murderous their purpose was? And yet He had wrought many signs;

yet nothing so enraged them to savagery, neither the paralytic nor the blind man.

For this was both more marvelous in its very nature, and had come to pass after many other deeds, and it was an astounding thing to see a man four days dead walking and speaking.

Fine indeed (are they not?) the achievements of their feast — to mingle their festal assembly with murders!

In another way, too: there they seemed to bring a charge concerning the Sabbath, and by this to draw away the crowds;

but here, since they had nothing to allege, they make their attempt against the one who had been healed.

For here they could not even say that He was opposing the Father.

For the prayer had stopped their mouths.

Since, therefore, both that which they always alleged had been removed, and the sign was so illustrious, they rush headlong to murder.

So that they would have done this in the case of the blind man too, had they not been able to bring the charge concerning the Sabbath.

In another way, too: that man was obscure, and they cast him out of the temple; but this one was of note;

and this is clear from the fact that many came to console his sisters;

and the miracle took place while all were looking on, and with much of the marvelous.

For this reason all were running to see it.

This, then, stung them — that, while the feast was in progress, all forsook it and came to Bethany.

So they attempted to kill him, and not even.

And for this cause the Law, in its very beginning, begins from this;

and the prophet brings this charge:

'Their hands are full of blood.'

How is it, then, that He who did not walk openly in Judaea, and withdrew into the wilderness, again enters with boldness? Having quenched their wrath by His withdrawal, He confronts them now that they had ceased.

In another way, too: the multitude that went before and that followed after was enough to cast them into anguish.

For no sign drew them so much as that of Lazarus.

And another evangelist says that they spread their garments beneath His feet;

and that all the city was shaken;

with so great honor did He enter.

And He did this, prefiguring one prophecy and fulfilling another;

and the same act became the beginning of the one and the end of the other.

For the words, 'Rejoice, because thy King cometh unto thee, meek,' were the fulfilling of a prophecy;

but His sitting upon a donkey was the prefiguring of a thing to come, namely, that He was about to have the unclean race of the Gentiles subject beneath His hand.

But how is it that the others say that He sent disciples and said,

'Loose the donkey and the colt';

yet this one says nothing of the kind, but only that, having found a young donkey, He sat upon it? Because it was likely that both took place, and that, after the donkey had been loosed and the disciples were leading it, He Himself, having found it, sat upon it.

And they took the branches of the palms and of the olive trees, and spread their garments beneath, showing that they now held concerning Him a glory greater than that of a prophet, and they said,

'Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.'

Do you see that this above all choked them — that all were persuaded that He was not opposed to God? And that this above all divided the people — His saying that He came from the Father? But what is the meaning of, 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion'? Since nearly all their kings had for the most part been certain unjust and covetous men, and had delivered them over to their enemies, and perverted the people, and made them liable to their foes;

but this One was not such, but meek and gentle;

and this is shown from the donkey.

For He entered not dragging an army along with Him, but having only a donkey.

'But this,' He says, 'His disciples knew not, that it was written concerning Him.'

Do you see that they were ignorant of most things, because He did not reveal them to them? For even when He said,

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,' not even then did the disciples know.

And another evangelist says that the saying was hidden from them, and they knew not that He must rise from the dead.

But this indeed was reasonably concealed.

Wherefore another evangelist also says that, hearing each of these things, they grieved, and were in dejection;

and this came from their not knowing the word concerning the resurrection.

But this indeed was reasonably concealed, inasmuch as it was too great for them;

yet why was the matter of the donkey not revealed to them? Because this too was a great thing.

And observe the high-mindedness of the evangelist, how he is not ashamed to publish abroad their former ignorance.

That it was written, they knew;

but that it was written concerning Him, they knew not.

For indeed it would have offended them, if, being a king, He were to suffer such things, and thus to be given up.

And in another way, they would not straightway have received the knowledge of the kingdom of which He spoke.

For indeed another evangelist says that they supposed it was spoken concerning this kingdom.

And the multitude bore witness that He had raised Lazarus.

For so many would not suddenly have changed their minds, he says, had they not believed the sign.

But the Pharisees said to them:

Do you see that you prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after Him.

This seems to me to be the language of men who are sound in mind, yet do not dare to speak out boldly, and who then, drawing back from the outcome, restrain the others as men attempting what cannot be accomplished.

By 'the world' here again they mean the multitude.

For Scripture knows how to call both the creation 'world' and those who live in wickedness 'world.'

The former it means when it says, 'He who brings forth their host by number';

the latter, when it says, 'The world cannot hate you, but Me it hates.'

And one must know these things accurately, lest by reason of the sense of the words we give a handle to the heretics.

Now there were certain of the Greeks who had gone up to worship at the feast.

They had come to the feast to become proselytes.

When the report therefore was spread abroad, they say:

But Philip gives place to Andrew, as being before him, and communicates the matter to him.

Yet neither does this one act on his own authority;

for he had heard, 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles.'

For this reason, having consulted with his fellow disciple, he refers it to the Master;

And what does He say? 'The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.'

'Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone.'

What is the meaning of 'The hour is come'? He had said, 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles,' cutting off from the Jews every pretext of their perversity, and He kept the disciples back.

Since therefore these persisted in their disobedience, while those desired to draw near, 'It is now time,' He says, 'to come to the Passion, since all is fulfilled.'

For if We were to keep on waiting upon these, who even disobey, and were not to admit those who even desire it, this would be unworthy of Our care.

Since then He was about to leave the disciples, after the cross, to go henceforth to the Gentiles, and He saw them leaping forward, He says:

'It is time to come to the cross.'

For He did not permit them earlier, that it might be for a testimony against them.

For as long as they thrust Him away by their deeds, as long as they crucified Him, He said not, 'Go, make disciples of all nations,' but, 'Go not into the way of the Gentiles';

and, 'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel';

and, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and to give it to the dogs.'

But since they hated Him, and so hated Him as to slay Him, it was superfluous to keep waiting upon those who thrust Him away.

For indeed they refused Him, saying:

'We have no king but Caesar.'

Then at last He let them go, since they themselves had let Him go.

'How often would I have gathered your children together, and you would not!'

'The grain of wheat, except it fall and die'? He speaks concerning the cross.

For that they might not be troubled at the thought that it was when the Greeks also came near that He was slain, He says:

'This very thing above all makes them draw near, and will increase My preaching.'

Then, since He did not so persuade them by words, He deals with it by the experience of actual things, saying:

'For this happens even in the case of grain;

it bears more fruit when it dies.'

'But if this is so in seeds, much more in Me.'

But the disciples did not understand the things that were spoken.

Therefore the Evangelist continually sets it down, making apology for their flight afterwards.

This same argument Paul also employed when discoursing concerning the resurrection.

What excuse then shall they have who disbelieve the resurrection, when the matter is rehearsed day by day in seeds, and in plants, and in our own birth? For the seed must first be dissolved, and then the birth come to pass.

And, in general, when God does anything, there is no need of reasonings.

For how did He make us out of things that were not? These things I say to Christians, who profess to be persuaded by the Scriptures.

But I will also say another thing, drawn from human reasonings.

Of men, some pass their lives in wickedness, others in virtue.

But of those who spend their time in wickedness, many have come to extreme old age faring well;

while of those in virtue, the contrary; they have endured the opposite.

When then shall each receive according to his desert? At what time? 'Yes,' he says;

'but there is no resurrection of bodies.'

Do they not hear Paul saying:

'This corruptible must put on incorruption'? It is not concerning the soul (for the soul is not corrupted);

and 'resurrection' is spoken of that which has fallen;

But why will you not have there be a resurrection of the body? Is it impossible for God? But to say this is the height of folly.

But is it unfitting? Why is it unfitting that the corruptible, which has shared in toil and death, should share also in the crowns? For if it were not fitting, neither would it have come into being at the beginning, nor would He have taken flesh upon Himself.

And that He did both take flesh, and did raise it up, hear what He says:

'Handle Me and see, for a spirit has not bones and sinews.'

But why did He raise Lazarus, if it were better to rise without a body? Why does He do this in the rank of a sign and

a benefit? Why did He give food at all? Be not therefore deceived by the heretics, beloved.

For indeed there is a resurrection, and there is a judgment.

But these things they do away with, as many as are unwilling to give account of the things they have done.

For the resurrection must be such as was that of Christ.

For He is the firstfruits, and the firstborn from the dead.

But if the resurrection is this, a purification of the soul and a deliverance from sins, and yet Christ sinned not, how did He rise? And how were we delivered from the curse, if He too sinned? And how does He say:

'The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me'? For these are the words of One declaring His sinlessness.

So then, according to them, either He rose not, or, in order that He might rise, He sinned before the resurrection.

But He both rose, and did no sin.

and these wicked doctrines are nothing else but the offspring of vainglory.

Let us, therefore, flee this disease.

For, he says, 'evil communications corrupt good manners.'

These are not the teachings of the apostles.

It is Marcion and Valentinus who devised these novelties.

Let us flee them, then, beloved.

For there is no benefit in a pure life if the doctrines are corrupted;

just as, on the contrary, there is none in sound doctrines if the life be corrupted.

These things the Greeks brought forth, these things those men amplified, having taken them from the pagan philosophers—both asserting that matter is uncreated, and many such notions.

As, then, they said that there could be no Creator unless uncreated matter lay beneath him,

so also they set aside the resurrection.

But let us pay them no heed, for we know the all-sufficient power of God.

For we, on our part, shall not decline the contest against them.

But he who is unarmed and naked, even if he falls upon weak men—even were he the stronger—will easily be overpowered.

For if you gave heed to the Scriptures and sharpened yourselves each day, I would not urge you to flee the contest with those men, but would even counsel you to close with them.

But since you do not know how to wield them, I dread the encounter, lest they catch you unarmed and cast you down.

For there is nothing—nothing—weaker than those who are bereft of the help of the Spirit.

But if they make use of the wisdom from without, we ought not to marvel, but to laugh at them, because the teachers they employ are fools.

For those men were able to discover nothing sound either concerning God or concerning creation;

but the very things which the widow among us knows, these Pythagoras did not yet know;

instead they used to say that the soul becomes a bush, a fish, and a dog.

Must we, then, tell me, give heed to these men? And how could that be reasonable? 'Great' are those men in the village, they grow fine locks of hair and drape themselves in threadbare cloaks;

and that is as far as their philosophy goes.

But if you look at what is within, it is ashes and dust and nothing sound; rather, 'their throat is an open sepulchre,' full of all uncleanness and corruption, and all their doctrines are full of worms.

Their first man, at any rate, declared that water was god, the one after him fire, another the air, and all of them sank down to bodily things.

Must we, then, tell me, admire these men, who never even grasped the notion of an incorporeal God—if indeed they ever grasped it later, after associating in Egypt with our people? But that we may not stir up much commotion among you, let us here bring the discourse to a close.

For if we should begin to set forth their doctrines—what they said about God, what about matter, what about the soul, what about bodies—much laughter would ensue.

And they would not even require accusation from us,

for they attacked one another.

The very man, at least, who wrote against us his treatise concerning matter, did away with himself.

Wherefore, that we may not detain you to no purpose and unwind a labyrinth of words, let us leave these matters and say only this: that we should cling to the hearing of the divine Scriptures, and not engage in word-battles over what serves no need—

which Paul also enjoins upon Timothy, and that though he was filled with much wisdom and possessed the power that comes from signs.

Let us, then, obey him, and, laying aside idle babblings, let us hold fast to the works—I mean brotherly love and hospitality;

and let us make much account of almsgiving, that we may obtain the good things that have been promised,

by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.