Commentary on John 1 part 63/94

But to the holy disciples, who were ever eager to be together with Him, it appeared unbearable to be separated from Christ, even though He was present with them at all times through the power and cooperation of the Spirit.

Since, then, the blessed Peter did not understand the meaning of what had been said, along with the other disciples, He allows him to remain in the same state and does not at once fix his attention upon the exact sense of the words—doing so usefully, until He should carry through to the end the discourse that was able to restore them.

This we shall see Him doing also in what follows.

For He says to them: 'It is expedient for you that I go away.'

'For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you.' Indeed He anticipates, as God, the disciple who wished to promise that he would both follow eagerly and be with Him promptly, with nothing holding back his readiness, and He says: 'Where I go you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow afterward.'

And the saying is pregnant with a twofold meaning.

Of these, the one is most obvious and quite well-worn, but the other is somewhat more obscure and couched in riddles.

For He declares that Peter could not now follow Him as He mounts on high and hastens back to heaven;

yet he shall follow afterward—that is, when the honor and glory held in hope is restored to the saints by Christ, when they come to the city above and shall reign together with Him.

But besides this He signifies also something else; and what kind of thing, I will now tell.

Not yet having been clothed with power from on high, nor having received that which strengthened them and refashioned human nature unto courage—I mean the Holy Spirit—they were not able to contend against death, nor to strip for combat against terrors so hard to face.

For it was in any case incredible that, when the power to shatter the might of death was fitting and reserved for the Savior Christ alone, others should be seen doing this before Him,

as though death had not yet been abolished through the resurrection of Christ.

And Paul, rightly understanding this, said that the Word who is from God the Father and in God laid hold of the seed of Abraham, that through the death of His holy flesh He might abolish death, and might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For the first loosing of death was the saving Passion, and the resurrection of Christ became for the saints the beginning of boldness against it.

Since, then, the life according to nature had not yet abolished death, nor indeed shattered the fear that from it falls upon our souls, the disciples were still somewhat weaker in the face of dangers.

For this reason the Lord graciously assents that Peter, since at the appointed time he shall be crucified and shall follow Him in this, and He says:

and that for the present he does not yet have a mind unshaken for so great a contest, He hints, saying: 'Where I go you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow afterward.'

For if Christ does not here hint to us at Peter's death, why then, when the other holy apostles too had in promise that they should be with Him and follow Him—clearly at the time of the resurrection, when incorruptible life and the good things held in hope are restored to them—does He confine the force of the saying to the person of Peter alone? But it is clear that, in foretelling to Peter what would befall him in later times, He indicates it in a riddling manner.

And indeed through other words He made this plainer, saying: 'When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you would;

but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and others shall gird you and carry you where you would not.'

'This He said,' it says, 'signifying by what death he should glorify God.' For even if it is sweet to the saints to suffer for Christ's sake, yet the danger is not something willed, though it is bearable nonetheless whenever it is brought upon them by some necessity.

For this reason too He commands us to pray that we may not enter into temptation.

'Peter says to Him: Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake.'

'What is it,' he says, 'that hinders or that keeps me from following—me, whose purpose it is to die before the Master, and who reckons it in the rank of a boast? For the end of every danger, and as it were the utmost limit of the untamed rapacity of the persecutors, will halt at the flesh alone;

for death is directed against it.

But he who is already ready and prepared even for this, by whom could he be hindered,' he says, 'and how could he lose the intense resolve concerning the absolute necessity of following?' For most fervent was Peter's readiness, and the measure of his promise, exceeding all bounds, would let one perceive no small power residing in him—or rather the outcome of the very events convicted it.

For when our Savior Christ was signifying His ascent into the heavens, up and down, and saying that Peter would not now follow, but would follow afterward—that is, plainly, when His apostolate should be fulfilled, when the fitting time should call the heads of the saints to the city above—Peter promises that he himself is ready and will face danger beforehand, going as it were by the other road, and not taking the sense of what was said in a straightforward way.

And I think I must say in these words: not yet having accurately fixed his mind upon what had been said, he perhaps supposes that the Lord will cross over to some of the wilder villages throughout Judea, or will depart to other peoples who, from having heard accurately, will be so ill-disposed toward what He is about to say that they will show the madness residing in the Pharisees to be exceedingly small compared with the audacities of the other Jews—indeed far gentler.

On this account he promises to follow without hindrance—not only to die, but even if it should be necessary to die, without shrinking back.

And he has something very similar to this also in what precedes, and where, I will again tell.

and He was marveled at, working wonders among those people.

But when the brother of Mary and of Martha had died—I mean Lazarus—He knew it again as God, and then says to the disciples: 'Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I go that I may awaken him.' And in answer to this the disciples, out of love, say: 'Now the Jews were seeking to stone You, and do You go there again?' But when Christ was rising up and enjoining and saying that it was altogether necessary to return to the country of the Jews:

For he perhaps supposes, as I already said before, that Jesus will run off somewhere to proclaim, and that He will be endangered among those people;

on this account he too, since out of love he is uncontrollable, promises that he will bring an irresistible and unconquerable readiness to this, saying that absolutely nothing at all remains that is strong enough to hinder—even though it was necessary to follow one who had chosen this, since it was his purpose to die before the Master.

'Jesus answers: Will you lay down your life for My sake? Truly, truly I say to you, the cock shall not crow until you have denied Me three times.'

Peter indeed promises things greater than are within his own power, even though he has praiseworthy zeal in this;

but Christ, considering the joylessness of the coming storm, and how hard to bear the temptation, and the greatness of the persecution, all but shakes His head, and having as it were spread out the whole suffering before their eyes, and seen the excess of the folly of the Jews, and scrutinized the things that would be at that time, perhaps utters something of this sort: 'You lay down your life, O Peter, for My sake, and you say that the fear in this is nothing? And do you suppose that you will be stronger than the things to come? But you do not know the weight of the temptation;

for the suffering will not be firmly set upon you, but small-mindedness will befall you exceedingly and against your will, and you shall deny Me three times, and this very thing in a single night.'

One must suppose Jesus to be saying something like this.

And here again it is right to marvel at the love for mankind that resides in Him;

for having foretold that the power of his soul would not keep pace with the intensity of the readiness in him, and that he would flag and give way so far as even to refuse from the mere fear of danger, He uttered no threat, perhaps on this account—because He says that Peter would not even be under a divine impulse.

And to one who has suffered something of what is human, He does not extend punishment.

For He knew that his nature was still weak, and unable to bear the threat of death.

For not yet, not yet having been abolished through His resurrection, death was still emboldened against the mind of all, and was still able even by mere terror to shatter even him who was exceedingly vigorous and formidable in boldness.

For nature, having suffered death contrary to nature, gives way to it as to a conqueror—or rather was then giving way;

but when our Savior burst its bonds, death appeared sweet to those who love Christ, even if it should approach bitterly;

for eternal life has entered in its stead, dissolving the might of corruption.

But let no one here again suppose that Peter denied and grew faint because of Christ's word;

for He says these things not laying necessity upon him, nor yet dragging him by force into suffering such things;

but what He knew, as God, would altogether and indisputably come to pass, He foretells to the disciple.

But since the things that befell those of former times have been written for the admonition of those after them, come now, let us say something of what is needful for profit, being moved thereto by the passage.

For I do not think that one ought to promise anything rashly to God, nor to undertake to accomplish sometimes what is beyond one's power, as though having authority over the events—and this I say with an eye to the reproaches that come from failure;

and moreover I consider that to say too boldly, 'I shall accomplish this or that particular thing,' is not free from arrogance.

For I say that the good-working readiness ought to be present in the souls of those who love God, and that one ought to strive with all one's strength to be willing to accomplish virtue, but to seek the way to these things through the good will from above, not to promise presumptuously as though one had the power.

For thus we shall keep our promise to God concerning all the best things free from falsehood, and shall have our foot outside blame, according to the saying among the Greeks.

And it is in another way also good not to vow to some, than to vow and not to pay.

'Let not your heart be troubled.'

Having said that Peter would sink to this depth of small-mindedness, so as to deny three times, and to suffer this in a single night, by the very excess of the matter He all but pointed out the sharpest fear of dangers.

Whence it was surely, and quite reasonably, that the other disciples straightway reasoned within themselves: 'What then, and how great, or of what magnitude, will be the fear of the things to come, and the temptation so hard to fight against, as to take the foremost one and to cast him down not once, but in one night many times, and in a short time? Who then among us will escape falling into things yet worse? Or how shall any other hold out, when Peter is shaken and yields as by necessity to the weight of what has befallen? In vain then have we drained our labors upon the necessity of following Him, and the undertaking ends in the loss of our sweat, even though it seemed to be the procurer of the life that is with God.'

That the disciples reasoned these things within themselves is nothing improbable;

and since it was again necessary to set upright their mind which had been bent down, He of necessity as it were applies the remedy against the reasonings and terrors arising from that quarter, and commands them to make freedom from disturbance their weapon, saying: 'Let not your heart be troubled.'

But see how in a veiled manner He promises them forgiveness for the small-mindedness that would be theirs.

For He does not say openly that 'I will pardon you even when you have grown weak,' or that 'I will be with you again no less even when you have denied or fled,' lest, by wholly removing the fear that comes from being derided, and by wholly taking away the misgiving that comes from giving offense, He should make the transgression seem smooth to them, and teach them to count as nothing the blame arising from the denial.

But by saying that they ought not to be troubled, He set them midway between hope and fear, so that, when they had grown weak and suffered what is human, the hope of gentleness might fight on their side toward their recovery;

while the fear of giving offense might permit them to stumble but seldom, since it did not yet belong to them to be wholly incapable of falling, they not yet having put on the power from above and from on high—that is, the grace through the Spirit.

He commands them, therefore, not to be troubled, at once teaching that those who are about to contend, and to enter upon the labors for the highest renown, ought altogether to be superior to cowardice;

for a mind free from disturbance is a great provision for boldness;

and at the same time again, more dimly and not very clearly, yet nonetheless sowing beneath the hope of forgiveness, in case it should somehow come to pass that they slid down into cowardice out of human small-mindedness.

For a mind not yet established by the grace from above is cowardly and easily overturned and quick to be shaken.

For this very reason the most wise Paul, praying for certain people, writes to them: 'And the peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts.' For this is what it means for the heart not to be troubled.

'Believe in God, and believe also in Me.'

He makes the man who is now timid into an armed soldier, and by very deeds He commands that the swiftness which is in faith be forged out of the fear of wounds.

unbroken and broad, and turning aside the cowardice that comes from supposing one might perhaps suffer something through affliction, rendering the darts of their wickedness entirely ineffectual and utterly useless against those who put men to the test.

Since the word concerning faith stands thus, once more that other point must be examined.

For He commanded them to believe not in God only, but also in Himself—not as though He were something other than Him who is God by nature, I mean as regards identity of essence, but because to believe in God and to suppose that the account of faith is to be bounded by this word alone is somehow proper to a Jewish notion, whereas to bring in together with faith in God the name of the Son is shown to be a precept of the evangelical proclamations.

For those who think rightly must believe in God the Father, and not simply in the Son, but in Him who also became man, and in the Holy Spirit.

For the holy and consubstantial Trinity is distinguished both by the differences of the names and by the qualities and properties of the Persons.

For the Father is Father and not Son, and again the Son is Son and not Father, and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the proper Spirit of the Godhead.

and it is summed up in one and the same account of the essence, inscribing for us not three, but one God.

Nevertheless I say that we ought to make our confession of faith with clear distinction, not simply saying 'We believe in God,' but unfolding the confession and assigning to each Person the same account of glory.

For there is no difference of faith in us; for our faith is not greater in the Father and less in the Son, or in the Holy Spirit.

but there is one and the same limit and manner of confession, passing through the three names in equal measure, so that through these too the holy Trinity may again be seen to move toward unity of nature, and the glory shining round about it, altogether beyond reproach, may be beheld in our souls as well—faith in the Father and in the Son, even when He became man, and in the Holy Spirit.

And I do not think anyone, if he be of sound mind, would separate from God the Word the temple born of the Virgin, at least as regards the matter of sonship, I mean.

For there is 'one Lord Jesus Christ,' according to the utterance of Paul.

But he who cuts the one and only into a pair of sons, let him know full well that he is denying the faith.

And indeed the divinely-inspired Paul, weaving the discourse concerning these things most excellently and altogether rightly, did not bring in the Only-begotten for our faith stripped bare, but as having also become like us—that is, as a man who died and was raised from the dead.

For what does he say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart'

that is, the word of faith which we proclaim; because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. But if we believe in the Son as one raised up, who is the one that died, that He might also rise? Yet it is clear that He is understood to have died according to the flesh.

For His own body was shut up unto death, and lived again.

For it was a body of the life that is by nature, bearing the whole property of Him who dwelt in it and was ineffably united to it—that is, the life-giving energy.

Therefore whenever anyone divides and, setting apart severally both the flesh and Him who dwelt bodily in it, dares to speak of two sons, let him know that he believes in the flesh alone.

For the divine Scriptures teach us to believe in Him who was crucified and died and was raised from the dead, not as being other than the God the Word who is in it—I mean not as regards identity of essence.

For the body is body, and not Word, even though it be the body of the Word.

but as regards the matter of true sonship.

But if we seem to anyone not to speak most rightly, let him come forward and demonstrate the Word who is of God as having died in that He is understood to be God—which is impossible, or rather, even merely to conceive of it is impious.

'In My Father's house are many dwelling places.'

'if it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.'

'And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.'

Having bidden them not to be troubled, and having commanded them rather to believe both in God the Father and in Himself, He now says openly, consoling the fainthearted, that they will not remain outside the sacred court, but will be settled in the dwellings above, and in the church of the firstborn will spend a life of long ages, and will be amid unending good things.

Moreover He says that there are many dwelling places in the Father's house, teaching that heaven is a place of great capacity, and that the creation made by Him needs no addition whatever in order to be able to receive those who love Him.

And it is likely that by saying there are many dwelling places He also wishes to indicate the difference of honor, since each one who chooses to live in virtue will receive as it were his own proper place, and the glory befitting his achievements.

If, then, the dwellings with God and the Father were not many, for this cause He would have said that He was going ahead—namely, in order to prepare beforehand the abodes of the saints.

But knowing that they are many and already prepared beforehand, awaiting the arrival of those who love God, He says that He departs not for this cause, but in order to prepare beforehand for you a pasture as it were and a place for the ascent to the region above, and to smooth out the way that was of old hard to traverse.

For heaven was utterly untrodden by men, and flesh had never before at any time trodden that pure and all-holy region of the angels; but Christ first inaugurated for us the ascent to it, and gave to the flesh a place of ascent into heaven, having as it were renewed Himself to God and the Father as a firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and lie in the dust of the earth, and having been seen as the first man among those in heaven.

For this reason too the angels in heaven, not knowing the august and great mystery of the sojourn in the flesh, were astonished as He ascended, and, all but thrown into confusion at the strange and unwonted event, they say: 'Who is this that comes from Edom?'—that is, from the earth.

For He was and is and shall be forever in the Father, and in the eyes of His own Begetter; for He it is in whom He rejoices continually.

But now He ascended as man, the Word who of old was destitute of manhood, to be made manifest in an unaccustomed and strange manner.

And this was for our sake and on our behalf, that, being found also as man, and as Son in power and with the flesh hearing universally 'Sit at My right hand,' He might transmit through Himself the glory of adoption to the whole race.

For He is one of us, inasmuch as He appeared as man, at the right hand of God and the Father, even though He is above all creation and consubstantial with His own Begetter, inasmuch as He shone forth from Him as God from God and Light from Light in truth.

He was made manifest, therefore, as man to the Father on our behalf, that us who through the ancient transgression had fallen away from His presence, He might again set as it were in the presence of the Father.

He has sat down as Son, that we too through Him might be styled as sons and children of God.

For this very reason Paul also, who strenuously affirms that he has Christ speaking within him, teaching that the things which came to pass specially with respect to Him are common to human nature, says that He 'raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ.' For the dignity of enthronement together belongs properly to Christ as Son by nature, and we shall say that the glory of sitting together with Him is fittingly and truly reserved to Him alone.

yet He somehow transmits to us also the grace that flows from that dignity.

For even if we shall not sit enthroned together with the Father Himself—

for how could the slave ever ascend to honor equal with the master?—yet nevertheless He promised to the holy disciples a sitting upon thrones.

For 'when,' He says, 'the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' Therefore, He says, I shall go up, not to prepare dwellings for you.

for they are already many, and to innovate upon the creation is superfluous;

but I shall go up to prepare beforehand a place for you, so that those who are on the earth may henceforth be able to be mingled together with the holy angels, from whom they had been separated on account of the sin that intervened;

for the holy multitude of those above would not have been mingled with such profane ones;

but having accomplished this, and having joined the lower to the higher, and having given you a place of ascent to the city above, I shall come again at the time of the regeneration and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

And Paul too, understanding this, speaks thus in his own epistles: 'For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall by no means precede those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord Himself, with a command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' And 'where I go you know, and the way you know.'

'I indeed shall go on ahead,' He says, 'to prepare for you a place of the ascent into the heavens.'

'But if you wish—and it is dear to you to lodge in those dwellings, and you make much of coming to the city above and being encamped together with the holy spirits—you know the way, that is, Me;'

'for it is altogether through Me, and through no other, that you shall win so admirable a grace;'

'for no other will open the heavens to you, nor ever render passable to those who are of the earth that region which is altogether untrodden and unaccustomed, save only I.'

For this reason too the prophet Jeremiah in the Spirit exhorted us especially to seek this way, saying: 'Stand upon the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find purification for your souls.' For the ways of the Lord and the paths, according to the prophet, are the saving writings of the holy prophets;

but if anyone fixes his mind upon them, he will find the good way, that is, Christ, through whom also the perfect purification comes to be in our souls;

for we are justified through faith, and are shown forth as partakers of the divine nature by the participation of the Holy Spirit.

But that most great-voiced prophet Isaiah himself likewise proclaimed Christ to us thus, saying: 'There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way.' And by 'there' he means, evidently, in the times of the Only-begotten's dispensation in the flesh;

for a pure and holy way has come to be for us, through which those who walk shall behold in the appointed times the resplendent fair city of the saints and the free Jerusalem.

And again that divinely-inspired psalmist himself says to us, as unto God the Father: 'Instruct me, O Lord, in Your way.' For he desires to be trained in the laws that are through Christ, not being ignorant that he too will journey to the city above, through the evangelical training, coming straight toward every good thing.

And it would not be difficult to adduce yet many other testimonies from the prophets, by which we might know that Jesus is called the holy way; but I think it in no way necessary to strive hard over things that so plainly lie at hand for our profit.

'You know, therefore, the way,' He says, 'by which you also may yourselves go to the dwellings above,' hereby already intimating this and nothing else, namely, that many indeed and very beautiful are the lodgings with God and the Father, and I shall go up beforehand to prepare for you a place of confidence for being also in those regions.

Would anyone attain to being there through any other than through Me and Me alone?

Therefore if anyone should fall away from being loved by Christ, or, giving heed to profane empty babblings and to the impurities of strange words spoken by those who have chosen to slander, ranks His ineffable and incomprehensible nature as among servants, and numbers among created things the free Word who was begotten of the essence of the Father, or should grieve Him in any other way whatever, let him know henceforth that he has lost the way of the journey to the region above, and has wandered from the furrows of his own field, according to the saying of a certain one, and shall assuredly undergo the penalty befitting those who remain below.

For this reason too the most wise Paul says that those who out of derangement of mind have denied to conduct their citizenship in Christ, and run back again to the shadows of the law, are estranged from Christ and have fallen from grace, through their love of being justified by the law.

For just as he who falls out of the well-worn and straight road will altogether incur the harm that comes from going astray,

so, I think, and not otherwise, those who have thrust aside the righteousness that is in Christ, and have reckoned as nothing the training of the evangelical citizenship, shall not see the city above, nor yet shall they dwell together with the saints.

For the way that leads to this is Christ alone.

Thomas says to Him: 'We know not where You go, and how can we know the way?' Jesus says to him: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life.'

No one comes to the Father except through Me.

When Christ was as yet unwilling to say to His own disciples in plain terms that He would go up on high and depart to the Father, but was still signifying the matter enigmatically and through many intimations, the disciple brought forward his question;