Commentary on John 1 part 60/94

For this reason also the divine Paul, taking Him as a pattern, exhorts to this, saying: 'Let each of you have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus'; and again: 'In lowliness of mind esteeming one another better than yourselves.' For the ordinance of love and of oneness of soul comes to be in a lowly mind.

But in order that He might raise the estimation of the deed to a great height, and that we might not suppose that some ordinary thing had been done by Christ, again the divine Evangelist necessarily first sets forth in striking terms the glory and authority residing in Him, and His power over all things, in the words by which he says: 'Knowing that the Father had given into His hands'

'For although,' he says, 'He was not ignorant that He held the authority over all, and that He was come from God'—that is, was begotten out of the substance of God the Father—'and goes to God'—that is, again ascends into the heavens, sitting, that is to say, together with His own Begetter—yet He submitted to so great a humbling, as to gird Himself with a towel and to wash the feet of the disciples.

Having therefore from this an excellent pattern of reverent piety, and a most conspicuous image of love toward one another, let us think moderate things, beloved, and let us esteem our brethren to possess greater endowments than are in us, even though we be good.

For this is what this great pattern persuades us both to think and to will.

'He comes then to Simon Peter;'

'and he says to Him: Lord, do You wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him: What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter.'

'Peter says to Him: You shall never wash my feet.'

One might observe, throughout all the writings, so to speak, that Peter's impulse is somehow always more fervent, and much more vehement toward reverent piety.

And so now too, following his own habit and manner, he thrusts aside this saving lesson of the humility and love that had reached its very summit, considering who He Himself might be by nature, and again who it was that was bringing the basin to him and did not refuse to fulfil the service of a household servant.

For the matter troubled him not a little, being somehow unacceptable to belief, even if it were perchance seen by many eyes.

For who would not have shuddered to learn that He who together with the Father is Lord of all displayed toward His own disciples so pitiable a servitude, that even what seems to be the lowest rank among household servants He most eagerly willed to do—for a pattern and type of a moderate mind? The divine disciple therefore dreaded the burden of the matter, and out of his customary and habitual reverence made his refusal a fruit thereof; but not yet understanding the reason of the deed, he supposed that the Lord was doing something without purpose, and had devised for them merely a bodily rest;

for the washing of the feet does somehow contribute to this, and moderately relaxes the fatigue that comes from walking;

for this reason he most fervently urged the matter, saying: 'Lord, do You wash my feet?' For it was fitting—yes, fitting, he says—that we who are servants by nature should do this, not You who are Lord of all.

But Christ defers the explanation of the matter to its proper time; yet, since He had a weightier reason, He says that Peter will understand what was done by Him hereafter—namely, when He should make a fuller explanation concerning it.

And this too will greatly profit us again, not a little, along with the rest.

Once more, when the matter presses toward action, He withdraws it into word;

for He was one who assigned all things to the fitting and befitting occasions.

When Peter therefore drew back, and plainly declared that He would never wash his feet, the Saviour makes clear the loss that would thence result, saying:

'Jesus answered him: If I wash you not, you have no part with Me.'

Now so far as concerns the plain and obvious aim of what lies before us: 'If you do not accept,' He says, 'this strange and unwonted lesson of humility, you would find no portion and no lot with Me.'

But since often our Lord Jesus Christ, taking even small occasions from His words, makes a general explanation, and drawing out into breadth things said of one particular matter—or things spoken specifically of some part—brings rich profit to those who behold, we shall suppose that in this too He is somehow saying that unless one be washed through His grace from the defilement that comes of sin and transgression, he shall be without share in the life that is from Him, and shall remain without taste of the kingdom of heaven.

For it is not lawful for the unclean to enter into the mansions above, but only for those who through love toward Christ have a pure conscience, and have been sanctified in the Spirit through holy baptism.

'Simon Peter says to Him: Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.'

He who but now showed us so great a resistance, and plainly refused the washing of his feet, not only presents these alone, but also his hands and head.

'For if,' he says, 'I am on this account to fall away from fellowship with You, and to be set far off from the good things that are in hope, unless I assent to You, who wish and choose to do even this, and let You wash my feet, I will present the rest also, refusing so most dreadful a loss.'

The refusal at first, then, was a fruit of reverent piety, and of one who dreaded the burdensome nature of the matter—not at all of one resisting the Master's commands.

For considering, as I said, both the Saviour's dignity and the lowliness of his own nature, he refused at first;

but when he learned the harm, he straightway runs over to willing what seems good to Him who has the power.

Observe again, and receive what was done as a pattern for profit;

for although he had said, 'You shall never wash my feet,' he at once shifts from the mind that looked to this, not having chiefly considered that it was fitting for him, abiding in his own words, to appear truthful among us, but rather that he would find a greater and more grievous loss from keeping what he had said.

One must therefore guard against saying anything rashly and offhand, nor let anyone be driven by fierce and harsh vehemence.

As for what has been spat out through recklessness—but even if it happen that something be said by any, and then something good and more necessary be done away with through obstinacy—let him observe by the things set before us that it is far, far better not to speak simply and to contend in vain that he had given his word, but rather to press on to do what is profitable.

For it is better, I think—everyone will say—that we endure a charge in words, than sustain the loss of necessary deeds.

But let swearing be altogether banished from our tongue, on account of the offhand utterances that come from undiscerning thought, and the changes that sometimes come about as of necessity.

For someone will say that it is indeed worthy and truly enviable to have a tongue that is knowing, and that seldom slips into what is not fitting;

but since the divine word itself has shown us that the matter is hard to master;

for 'the tongue can no man tame,' according to what is written;

let us make the utterance of our words free from oaths.

For then, if occasion should compel one to pass over anything, the accusation will be the less, and the fault will bear a milder charge.

And I think that one will easily obtain even forgiveness from God, on account of the fickleness of reasonings that always somehow attends us.

For that which is in us is not very easy to hold in check.

'Jesus says to him: He who has been bathed has no need save to wash his feet, but is wholly clean;'

'and you are clean, but not all;'

'for He knew who would betray Him;'

'therefore He said, You are not all clean.'

For even though He does not yet nakedly expose the charges of the evil counsel that was in him, yet the word has a keen implication.

For by that whereby He bears witness to the others of their entire purity, He evidently renders suspect the one who was not such, and shows him to be defiled.

For to His other disciples both the boast of undistracted attendance, and the toil of following Him, and their steadfastness in faith, and their fulness in love toward Christ, procures purity;

but on the other, the very charge of insatiable love of money, and his weakness in disposition toward our Lord Jesus Christ, rubs in the indelible stain, and works into him the defilement of an incomparable evil counsel.

When therefore Christ says, 'You are already clean, but not all,' though it is hidden, yet He makes the reproof profitable to the betrayer.

For even though He did not say it plainly, as we said just now, yet in each one his own conscience was giving judgement, and goading the sinner, and calling the power of the words as of necessity upon the guilty one.

Consider how the whole matter was fulfilled with a certain wise dispensation and a forbearance befitting God.

Having therefore given a hint, and leaving a sharp rebuke to the traitor's own conscience, He displayed the incomparable greatness of the forbearance that was in Him.

For although He knew that this man was not good toward Him nor a right-minded disciple, but was in travail with the venom sprung from the devil's bitterness, and was casting about for a way to betray Him, yet He honoured him equally with the rest and even washed his feet, keeping to the very end the tokens of His own love, and not laying on His wrath before the accusations had come to their full term.

For you might see how this too is a property peculiar to His own divine nature, this pre-eminence.

For it is not because God knows things to come that He therefore brings punishment prematurely upon any;

but rather, having borne with them patiently as long as was needful, whenever He sees that they are in no way profited but persist all the more in the evils they have chosen, He then at last punishes, showing that the matter is the fruit of their own ill counsel, and not truly a work of His own purpose or will.

And so it is on this account that Ezekiel says: 'As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of him that dieth, but rather that he should turn from his evil way and live.' With longsuffering, then, and forbearance did our Lord Jesus Christ still mingle the traitor among His other disciples, although the devil had already put it into his heart to betray Him; for it was of necessity that the Evangelist should note this too, along with the rest, at the outset.

And He washed his feet also, rendering his impiety without excuse, so that his apostasy might appear as the fruit of the wickedness within him.

So when He had washed the disciples' feet, and had taken His garments, and had sat down again, He said to them: 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call me the Lord and the Teacher, and you say well, for so I am.'

'If then I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.'

'For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, you also should do.'

He now openly declares the cause of the deed, and says that He has given the example of an incomparable humility for the sake of our profit;

He brings forward the illustriousness of His own person.

For in such a case one might behold the incomparable greatness of humility.

For that which is of itself cast down to the ground, or reckoned as nothing, in what manner could it be further belittled, or whither shall that which already lies below descend? Consider this, even if there be nothing whose nature it is to bring down from above.

But that which is beheld on high, when it comes to be in a lowly state, is marvelled at;

for He came down to that which He was not.

Of necessity, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ also, giving to His own disciples—or rather, through them, to men throughout all the earth—the lesson of humility, does not simply say that 'as I washed your feet, so ought you also to do;'

but He first sets forth His own dignity, and by adducing the natural glory that belongs to Him, He puts the vainglorious man to shame by the very deed.

For 'you yourselves,' He says, 'call me the Lord and the Teacher, and you say well, for so I am.'

Observe how, even in the midst of His discourse, He provided beforehand for the edification of the believers, and was not ignorant of the babblings of the unholy heretics.

For since He had said to His own disciples, 'You call me the Lord and the Teacher,' lest anyone should suppose that by nature He is not Lord nor Teacher, but rather holds the title as it were in the rank of an honour bestowed by those who were to come after Him, He necessarily added, doing away with their suppositions: 'And you say well, for so I am.'

For He has not obtained the mere name of honour, 'Lord,' as we do, who remain servants in nature, though made illustrious by grace with names above our nature and worth;

but He is Lord by nature, exercising authority over all things as God, to whom it has been said somewhere through the voice of the psalmist: 'For all things are your servants.' And He is by nature also Teacher;

for 'All wisdom is from the Lord, and all understanding is through Him.'

For as Wisdom He makes wise the intelligible beings, and to all rational creation, both heavenly and earthly, He implants the understanding that befits it.

For just as, being Himself Life by nature, He quickens all things that are capable of life, so, since He Himself is the Wisdom of the Father, He implants in all the gifts of wisdom—that is to say, prudence and all knowledge of good things.

By nature, therefore, the Son is Lord and Teacher of all.

'Since, then, I who am so great in glory and so exalted plainly did not shrink from stooping to so mean-seeming a humiliation as even to wash your feet;'

'how could you any longer refuse,' He says, 'to do it for one another?' And through these things He teaches us not to love to boast ourselves over the honour of others, but rather to reckon our fellow-servant as surpassing us and set above us in every single thing whatsoever.

Exceedingly good indeed is the lesson;

for I do not think that anyone could show the equal of a disposition accustomed to be free from vaunting;

and nothing so divides both brethren and friends as the uncontrolled craving for those wretched little glories.

For somehow we always choose the greater, and the empty honours of this life persuade our slippery mind to leap after things more splendid.

In order, therefore, that we may bring this sickness to an end, and cease from so loathsome a craving;

for the passion of vainglory is nothing else but a deception;

let us receive into our own mind Christ, the King of all, who for this reason washed the disciples' feet, that we too might wash one another's.

For through this every kind of arrogance will be chastened, and every form of worldly vainglory will be done away and depart.

For if He who is Lord by nature acted as a servant, how should not the servant choose to suffer something of the things most fitting for him, and not thereafter pay the uttermost penalty of all? 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord, neither the apostle greater than he that sent him.'

'If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.'

As with necessary laws, Christ proceeds to fortify the force of what has been done, and declares the transgression of the saving commandment to be altogether most perilous.

For that which has been confirmed by an oath does not admit a blameless neglect.

He says, therefore, that there is an inexcusable charge against servants, if they should be unwilling to be minded as their own masters;

namely, to be enamoured of what is greater and beyond their worth;

and likewise He might fittingly bring the same indictment against apostles—the seeking to be among better things than those in which he that sent them abides.

For it will suffice them, as the measure of all glory, to have the mind of Him who sent them.

And this is nothing else than altogether to say that:

'You shall justly be laughed to scorn at the divine tribunal, if through disdain you yourselves refuse to do these things toward one another, though you have received in common the name of servitude—the very things which I did toward you, though I am by nature God and Lord.'

For it is truly absurd—or rather, already not free from the utmost madness—that those who are servants, in a lower place than both Master and Sender, should be improperly ashamed of servitude toward one another.

'If then you know these things,' He says—that is, if you can clearly understand what I say—'blessed are you if you do them.'

For one might say that it is not the knowing of virtue, but rather the practising of it, that is worthy of love and worthy of emulation.

And I think that perhaps in a way it is even better not to have learned at all, than, having learned, to fetter the mind with sloth and to be unwilling to accomplish the things one might know to be best and right—according to the Saviour's word: 'He who knew not his Lord's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with few stripes; but he who knew and did it not shall be beaten with many.' For to him who was wholly ignorant, even if he be somehow called to account, perhaps, for his ease, it is not very unfitting at least to ask a moderate pardon;

but to him who knows the matter, his knowledge would become a burden hard to bear, unto condemnation.

For he despised it, though nothing was lacking to him for being able to do the things most fitting for him.

It is necessary, therefore, that those who know should also work;

for then, being crowned with the perfect boast of the life in Christ, we shall in due season receive the fullest recompense.

And so the Saviour said that he who does and teaches shall be called great—and that most justly—in the kingdom of heaven;

for what does he lack unto godliness? And to him in whom there should appear the boasting in good works in full measure, how should it not come from God to glory in the most perfect gifts? When, therefore, knowledge runs together with works, then indeed in every way it profits not a little;

but if either be lacking, the other will assuredly be lame.

And it is written that faith also without works is dead. Yet to know the one God who is God by nature, and to confess Him guilelessly and truly—this is faith; but even this is dead, if the brightness that comes from works does not attend it.

How then is it not altogether unprofitable to know, perhaps, what the good is, yet no longer to be willing to pursue and practise it? For this cause, therefore, He says that His own disciples—or rather those who believe in Him—shall be blessed, not only if they have grasped the knowledge of the things spoken by Him, but also if they should do them.

'I speak not of you all;'

'for I know whom I have chosen;'

'but that the Scripture may be fulfilled: He that eateth the bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.'

The saying has no small obscurity in these words.

For while saying that those shall be blessed who have the good in knowledge and are earnest to fulfil it in deed;

He immediately added: 'I speak not of all,' hinting at the traitor—according to what seems right to many, and to me also;

for the God-hated man is not among those to be emulated, nor could he ever be numbered among the blessed, having made his soul liable to such impiety by so great an ungodliness.

And this is one meaning of the passage before us, worn familiar among the greater number;

but there is yet another besides this.

For Christ, being about to speak such things, namely, according to the perfect and most holy Scripture:

'He that eateth my bread hath magnified his supplanting against me,' that is, 'hath lifted up his heel against me' — He in a certain manner makes His defence beforehand, and shields the genuine company of the other disciples, attributing the force of the accusation to one man and one alone.

For since all of them were eating His bread — sharing His table, that is, and consuming together the provisions gathered through Him — for this reason He profitably does not permit the minds of the free-hearted to be worn down with idle terrors, and He cuts off beforehand the sharpness of suspicion, saying, 'I speak not concerning you all.'

'But,' He says, 'that the Scripture might be fulfilled: He that eateth my bread hath lifted up his heel against me,' that is, 'hath magnified his supplanting,' according to the word of the Psalmist;

I think that it hints at something of this kind.

Since, therefore, a twofold interpretation has been offered to us in these matters, let the lover of learning test which is the better and truly correct one; nevertheless, let us still speak to the literal sense, safeguarding the understanding of the simpler folk.

For one might raise a difficulty in these matters in two ways.

And first he will confront us, saying: If we believe that Christ knows all things, why did He choose Judas, and why did He mingle him with the other disciples, not being ignorant that he would be caught as a betrayer and would fall within the snares of the love of gain? And in addition to these things he will say: But if for this cause he lifted up his heel against Christ — as He Himself says, 'that the Scripture might be fulfilled' — then he himself would not be reckoned guilty of what happened, but rather the power that compelled the Scripture to be fulfilled.

And first we say this: that if we are going to abuse such arguments in regard to each of the things that have come to pass from God, we shall in no way cease from finding fault with the Maker, and reviling God who calls the things that are not into being, and ignorantly disparaging His measureless love toward mankind.

For what, tell me, prevents others perchance from bringing a charge, saying: Why didst Thou choose out Saul, and anoint him as king over Israel, knowing that he would utterly set at nought the grace? And why do I say this? For the pretext of the accusation will go back to the founder of the race, that is, to Adam.

And perhaps one of those who have examined those matters will say: Why didst Thou, who knowest all things, form the first man from the earth? For Thou wast not ignorant that he would fall by transgressing the commandment given to him.

Then what follows from this? The foreknowledge of God would not have permitted him to be seen as a creator at all; nay, neither would the rational creation have come into existence at all, so that God would be king only over the irrational and insensate nature, not even being known that He is God by nature.

Those, then, who have rightly inclined toward the better things preserve their own glory, and abide in the participation of the good things allotted to them, and find an unfaltering gladness;

but those who are corrupted by their own reasonings, and are swept away toward what is not lawful as by ungovernable streams of desires, endure the punishment befitting them, and undergoing, as is fitting, the sentence for their ingratitudes, shall suffer the harsh and endless chastisement.

By these same determinations thou wilt find that the nature of the angels also has come to be.

For those who kept their own first estate have, unforfeited, their establishment and standing firm in all good things;

but those who, by their inclinations toward the worse, slipped away from that ancient glory, having been cast down to Tartarus in chains of darkness, according to that which is written, are kept unto the judgment of the great day.

Thus in the beginning was made the first man, that is, Adam.

For he was in paradise, and in the very highest delights — spiritual ones, that is, and in the glory that is with God.

And he would have continued in the ancient good things of his nature, had he not turned aside to apostasy and disobedience, most senselessly transgressing the commandment that had been laid down from above.

Thus He anointed Saul as king;

thus He chose out Judas, and mingled him with the holy disciples, he being at the outset, clearly, well-suited for following.

But when little by little Satan, tempting him, subdued him by base love of gain — he being overcome by the passion, and through it having become a betrayer — thereupon He thrust him away.

Nothing, therefore, in any way attaches to Him who chose him.

For it lay in him not to fall away — if, that is, he had chosen the more becoming things, and transferred his whole understanding to the necessity of following Christ genuinely.

But as to the other of the two problems set before us, we say this: Let no one suppose, according to the folly of certain people, that for this reason the works foretold in oracle through the holy prophets are brought to accomplishment — namely, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.

For if this is true, nothing at all will prevent those who of necessity served the things written from having their sin without excuse — nay rather, from not having transgressed at all.

For if it was needful, one will say, that it be fulfilled, and it was being fulfilled through these men, then those through whom it has been fulfilled would be free of all accountability.

And besides, the divine Scripture would altogether appear to be a minister of sin, summoning certain men as though by force to those things which were spoken through it, in order that what was long ago uttered might come to accomplishment.

But I think that great is the impiety involved in this argument.

For who could be so deprived of sound reasoning as to suppose that the word of the Holy Spirit becomes to any the procurer of sin? Not, therefore, for this cause do we believe that the works were wrought by certain men, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled;

but rather, because the things that would come to pass were certainly to be, the Spirit, foreknowing them, spoke, so that when they should happen to come about, we, having received the prediction as a pledge of faith, might thereafter firmly recognize Him concerning whom these things were written.

And since our discussion concerning such matters has become extensive in another book, it seems somehow superfluous to linger yet longer over them with lengthy expositions.

'Now I tell you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.'

'I have made,' He says, 'a most necessary explanation, and one given beforehand, of the things that shall very soon come to pass;

for it will benefit the hearers, and will bring no small profit, if they know the aim arising from the matter.'

'For to expend the usefulness of speech upon idle narratives is both unwonted and not dear to me;

but those things in which there appears to be no small advantage present toward your knowledge — these I suppose ought to sound in your ears.'

'I say to you now, then,' He says, 'concerning the things that are already at the doors, but whose knowledge is not yet accomplished, I implant it, in order that, when it should come to pass, ye, fitting the end of the events to the things foretold by me, may believe that I am that very One concerning whom the divine Scripture has thus spoken in oracle.'

In this same discourse, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ both attempts guardedly to set the betrayer right, bringing forth the reproof veiled under slight obscurities, and He says that the outcome of the betrayal shall be for a sign and for a most manifest demonstration that He Himself is Christ.

For as we have already said before, he who compares the things proclaimed beforehand through the sacred writings with the audacious deeds of the betrayer would, I think, most readily and with no toil at all attain a most easily-surveyed and true apprehension concerning Him.

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me;

and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.'

Having profitably demonstrated beforehand, both that He Himself is Christ and by what means the betrayer was about to act insolently in Him, He again devises something useful for the overthrow of that man's evil counsel.

For the discourse now proceeds to him somewhat more dimly;

for He still tries to conceal the audacious deed, and does not yet openly say who it is that shall betray Him.

He proves, therefore, and very profitably too, with a clear example, that it is altogether necessary that the fulfilment of the love and honour rendered toward Him should be referred up to the very person of God the Father;

and it is surely not His purpose to show this to him in the strict sense, but rather perhaps the opposite according to the meaning.