約翰福音講道集 第 23 章

'This beginning of the signs Jesus made in Cana of Galilee.'

The devil presses hard and violently, besieging our salvation on every side.

We must therefore be watchful and sober, and on every side fortify ourselves against his assault.

For if he lays hold of even some small occasion, he thereafter prepares for himself a wide entrance, and little by little brings in his whole power.

If, then, we have any concern for our own salvation, let us not permit him to advance upon us even in small matters, that from these we may repel the great ones beforehand.

For it would be the utmost folly that he should display such zeal to destroy our soul,

while we, on behalf of our own salvation, do not maintain even an equal measure of effort—this would be the height of madness.

These things I have not said idly, but because I fear lest even now this wolf may be standing in the midst of the fold, unseen by us, and lest thereby a sheep become the prey of the beast, lured away from the flock and from the hearing of the word through sloth and evil intrigue.

For if the wounds were perceptible to sense, or if the body received the blows, it would be no hard task to discern such intrigues.

But since the soul is invisible, and it is she that receives the wounds, we have need of much vigilance, so that each may put himself to the test.

For no one knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him.

For the word addresses all alike, and it is set forth as a common remedy for those in need;

yet each one of those who listen is able to take up what is suited to his own malady.

I do not know who among you are sick, I do not know who are well.

For this reason I set every kind of discourse in motion, one suited to every ailment: now denouncing covetousness, again luxury, then assailing wantonness, and after that composing a word of praise and encouragement for almsgiving;

and after that, praise for each of the other virtuous deeds.

For I am afraid lest, while we are occupied with one part of the discourse, I unwittingly heal one passion while you are suffering from others.

So that, if there were but one person gathered here, I should not have thought it so very necessary to make the discourse manifold.

But since in so great a multitude it is likely that there are also many passions, not without reason do we vary the teaching;

for the word, being spread out to reach all, will in every case find its own use.

It is for this very reason that the Scripture too is of a manifold kind, discoursing to us concerning countless matters, since it discourses to the common nature of mankind.

And in so great a multitude all the passions of the soul must needs be present, even if not all in all.

Having therefore cleansed ourselves of these things, let us thus listen to the divine words, and with a concentrated mind let us listen also to what has been read to us today.

And what are these things? 'This,' it says, 'Jesus did as the beginning of signs in Cana of Galilee.'

I said before too that some assert that this was not the beginning.

'For what does it matter,' one says, 'if there is added, in Cana of Galilee? For it says, He did this beginning in Cana.'

But for my part I would make no exact contention concerning these matters;

yet that after His baptism He began His signs, and that before His baptism He worked no miracle, we have shown above as well.

But whether this, or some other, was the first sign of those that took place after the baptism, it does not seem to me very necessary to insist strongly.

'And He manifested His glory.'

How, and in what manner? For not even many gave heed to what was done, but only the servants, and the

ruler of the feast, and the bridegroom.

How then did He manifest His glory? At least so far as His own part was concerned.

And even if not then, yet afterwards all were to hear of the miracle;

for even to the present day it is sung, and has not passed into oblivion.

For that on that day not all knew of it, is plain from what follows.

For having said, 'He manifested His glory,' he added:

'And His disciples believed on Him' — they who even before this admired Him.

Do you see that it was then most of all necessary to work the signs, when the well-disposed and those attending to what was being done were clearly present? For these were both more readily to believe, and to give heed with exactness to what was done.

And how could He have become known apart from the signs? Because both teaching was sufficient, and prophecy, and the miracle, to implant conviction in the souls of the hearers, so that they attended to what was done with a right disposition, the soul being already prepared beforehand.

For this very reason the evangelists say in many places and elsewhere that He did no sign, on account of the perversity of the men who dwelt in those places.

'And after these things He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples;

and they abode there not many days.'

For what reason then does He come to Capernaum with His mother? For neither did He work any miracle there, nor were those who inhabited that city among those rightly disposed toward Him, but rather among the utterly corrupt.

And this Christ made plain when He said:

'And you, Capernaum, which have been exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down unto hades.'

For what reason then does He come? It seems to me that, since a little later He was about to go up to Jerusalem, for this cause He then departed thither, so as not everywhere to drag His brethren and His mother about with Him.

Having therefore departed and spent a little time there out of honor to His mother, He thus again takes up His miracles, having settled her who bore Him.

For this reason he says that not many days afterward He went up to Jerusalem.

It was therefore a few days before the Passover that He was baptized.

And having gone up to Jerusalem, what does He do? A deed full of great authority.

For those hucksters, the money-changers, those who sold the doves and oxen and sheep, and who for this cause tarried there, He cast out.

And one evangelist says that in casting them out He said:

'Do not make My Father's house a den of robbers;'

but this one says, 'A house of merchandise' — they are not speaking contrary to one another, but showing that He did this a second time, and that both did not happen at the same season, but the one now in the beginning, and the other when He was come to the very Passion, He does this.

Wherefore also, using more vehement words, He called it here a den;

but at the beginning of the signs it was not so, but He used a rather milder rebuke;

whence it is likely that He did this a second time.

And for what reason, one asks, did Christ do this very thing, and use such vehemence against them, which He nowhere else appears to do, and that too though He was outraged, reviled, and called a Samaritan and one possessed by a demon by them? For He was not content with words alone, but even taking a scourge, thus cast them out.

Now the Jews, when others were being benefited, brought accusations and grew savage;

yet when it were likely they would be made wild at being rebuked, they did not use such a manner toward Him.

For they neither rebuked nor reviled Him;

but what do they say? 'What sign do you show us, that you do these things?' Do you see the excess of their envy, and how the benefits done to others rather provoked them? At one time then He said the temple had been made a den of robbers by them, showing that the things being sold were from theft and rapine and covetousness, and that they grew rich from others' misfortunes;

and at another time a house of merchandise, pointing out their shameless huckstering.

But for what reason did He do this? Because He was about to heal on the Sabbath, and to do many such things which among them seemed to be a transgression of the Law;

in order that He might not seem to do these things as one opposed to God and coming in opposition to the Father, He from this point works the correction of such a suspicion of theirs.

For He who displayed so great a zeal on behalf of the house

would not be about to oppose the Lord of the house who was worshiped in it.

Now the former years also, in which He lived according to the Law, were sufficient to show His reverence toward the Lawgiver, and that He came not to legislate contrary to Him;

but since those things were likely to be delivered to oblivion by time, inasmuch as they were not known to all, because He was reared in a poor and humble house, now, with all present (for many were present, since the feast was near), He does this, and at great risk.

For He did not simply cast them out, but also overturned the tables, and poured out the money, giving them from these things to reckon that He who cast Himself into dangers for the good order of the house would not have despised the Lord of the house;

for if He were doing these things in pretense, it would have been enough merely to admonish;

but to put oneself even into dangers is very daring.

For it was no ordinary thing, both to give oneself over with such wrath to men of the marketplace, and to provoke against oneself a mob teeming with great unreasonableness — men who were hucksters — while treating them with insult and inflicting loss upon them;

this was not the act of one dissembling, but of one who chose to endure all sufferings for the good order of the house.

For this reason not only by what He does, but also by what He says, He shows His agreement with Him;

for He did not say, 'The holy house,' but, 'The house of My Father.'

Behold, He even calls Him Father, and they are not angered;

for they thought He spoke simply.

But when, proceeding further, He spoke more plainly, so as to present that notion of equality, then they grow savage.

What, then, of those men? 'What sign do you show us,' he says, 'that you do these things?' Oh, the utmost madness!

Was there any need of a sign to put a stop to what was being done so wickedly, and to rid the house of such disgrace? And to conceive such zeal on behalf of the house of God—was that not itself the greatest sign of virtue? At any rate, the well-disposed showed themselves to be such from this very thing.

For his disciples then remembered, it says, that it is written:

The zeal of your house has consumed me.

But those men did not remember the prophecy; rather they said, 'What sign do you show us?'—at once grieved that their own shameful profit was being cut off, and expecting by this to hinder him, wishing to provoke him to work a wonder and to lay a charge against what was being done.

For this reason he does not even give them a sign.

Since even earlier, when they came and asked, he made the same answer:

An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

But then he spoke more plainly, whereas now more enigmatically.

And he does this because of their extreme insensibility.

For he who anticipates those who do not even ask and gives them signs would not have turned away those who did ask, unless he had seen that their mind was wicked and deceitful, and their purpose full of guile.

For consider the very question itself, of how much malice it was full.

For whereas they ought to have welcomed his diligence and zeal, and ought to have been astonished that he took such great care for the house, instead they accuse him, saying that trafficking is permitted but that it is not permitted to break up the trafficking unless he displays some sign.

What, then, does Christ say? 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

He utters many such things, which are not clear to those hearing at the time, but to those coming afterward will become clear.

And for what reason does he do this? So that he may be shown to have foreknown from above the things that would come afterward, when the fulfillment of the prediction should come to pass;

which is indeed just what happened in the case of this very prophecy.

For when, it says, he was raised from the dead, then his disciples remembered that he had said this;

and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken.

But when it was being spoken, some were at a loss as to what on earth the saying might be, while others were in doubt, saying:

'This temple was built in forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?' And they said forty-six years, indicating the later building;

for the former one was completed within a period of twenty years.

For what reason, then, did he not resolve the riddle and say, 'I do not speak concerning this temple, but concerning my own flesh'? Rather, the evangelist, writing the Gospel later, interprets what was said, while he himself kept silent at the time. For what reason, then, did he keep silent? Because it would not have been believed.

For if not even the disciples were somehow able to understand what was said, much less the crowds.

For when, it says, Jesus rose from the dead, then they remembered and believed the word and the Scripture.

For there were two things that stood in their way for the present:

one, that of the resurrection; the other, greater than this, whether he who dwelt within was God.

Both of these he hinted at when he said:

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;

which very thing Paul also says is no small sign of Godhead, speaking thus:

Of Jesus Christ, who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

But why does he give this sign both there and here, and everywhere—now saying, 'When I am lifted up,' and, 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he';

and now, 'No sign shall be given to you except the sign of Jonah';

'In three days I will raise it up'? Because this above all was what showed him to be no mere man—that he was able to set up a trophy over death, to dissolve so quickly its long-standing tyranny and the grievous war.

For this reason he says, 'Then you will know.'

When? When, having risen, I draw the whole world to myself, then you will know that I did these things too as God and as the true Son of God, avenging the outrage done against the Father.

But why did he not also say what sort of signs were needed to put a stop to the wickedness being done, but instead promised that he would give a sign? Because by the former he would have provoked them all the more, whereas by this he rather struck them with astonishment.

Yet even so they said nothing to this;

for it seemed to them that he was saying something incredible, and they could not even bear to ask, but passed it by as though it were impossible.

But if they had had understanding, then—even if at the time it seemed to them to be incredible, when he had worked his many signs—they would have come and asked, they would have requested that their perplexity be resolved for them;

but being senseless, to some of the things spoken they paid no heed at all, while others they heard with a wicked mind.

For this reason Christ too spoke to them enigmatically.

But that which is inquired into is this:

How was it that the disciples did not know that he must rise from the dead? Because they had not yet been counted worthy of the grace of the Spirit.

Therefore, though they continually heard the words concerning the resurrection, they understood nothing, but reasoned among themselves what this might be.

For what was said was very strange and paradoxical—that one should be able to raise himself, and to raise himself in such a manner.

For this reason Peter too was rebuked, since, knowing nothing about the resurrection, he said:

And Christ did not even reveal this clearly to them before the event, lest they be offended at the beginning, disbelieving what was said because of its exceeding paradox, and because they did not yet clearly know who he was.

For the things proclaimed aloud by the facts no one would disbelieve;

but the things spoken merely by words, it was likely that some would disbelieve.

For this reason he allowed the saying to remain veiled from the outset.

But when he had brought what had been said to the truth through experience, then at last he gave both the understanding of the words and so great a grace of the Spirit that they took in everything all at once.

For 'He,' it says, 'will bring all things to your remembrance.'

For those who, in one single evening, cast off even their reverence toward him and fled, and denied that they had ever even seen him—they would scarcely have remembered the things done and said throughout all that time, had they not enjoyed the abundant grace of the Spirit.

'And if,' one says, 'they were going to hear from the Spirit, what need was there for them to be with Christ, seeing they were not going to retain what was said?' Because the Spirit did not teach, but reminded them of the things which Christ had already spoken beforehand.

And it contributes no little to the glory of Christ that they should be referred back to the remembrance of the things spoken to them.

In the beginning, then, it was of the grace of God that the grace of the Spirit alighted upon them so lavishly and abundantly;

but afterward it was of their own virtue that they held fast the gift.

For they displayed a shining life, and much wisdom, and great labors, and they laughed to scorn the present life, and counted human things as nothing, but

became superior to all things, and like certain light eagles flying on high, through their works they were drawn up to heaven itself, and through these they obtained the unspeakable grace of the Spirit.

These men, then, let us too imitate, and let us not quench our lamps, but keep them bright through almsgiving.

The radiance of this fire is thus maintained.

Let us therefore gather the oil into our vessels while we are here.

For it is not possible to buy this when we have departed thither, nor to obtain it from any other source, save only through the hand of the poor.

Let us therefore gather it from here already with great abundance, if indeed we wish to enter in with the bridegroom;

but if not, we must of necessity remain outside the bridal chamber.

For it is impossible, impossible—even if we accomplish countless good things—without almsgiving to set foot within the vestibules of the kingdom.

Therefore let us display this with much abundance, so as to enjoy those ineffable good things, which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.