Homily 21 — John 1, verse 49, to 2, verse 3

“Nathanael answered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’” [a]

Beloved, we need great care and much watchfulness to be able to look into the depth of the divine Scriptures. It is not possible to find their meaning carelessly, or while we are asleep. We need close searching, and we need earnest prayer, if we are to see even a little way into the secrets of the divine sayings. Today, for instance, the question set before us is no trifling one; it calls for much zeal and inquiry. For when Nathanael said, “You are the Son of God,” Christ replies, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

What, then, is the question this passage raises? It is this. When Peter, after so many miracles and such lofty teaching, confessed, “You are the Son of God” (Matthew 16, verse 16), he is called “blessed,” as one who had received the revelation from the Father. Nathanael said the very same thing before he had seen or heard either miracles or teaching, yet no such word was spoken to him; instead, as though he had not said as much as he ought, he is led on to still greater things. What can be the reason? It is this: Peter and Nathanael both spoke the same words, but not both with the same meaning. Peter confessed him to be the Son of God as being truly God; Nathanael, as being a mere man. And how does this appear? From what he said after these words. After “You are the Son of God,” he adds, “You are the King of Israel.” But the Son of God is King not of Israel only, but of the whole world.

What I say is clear not only from this, but also from what follows. To Peter, Christ added nothing more; as though his faith were complete, he said that on this confession of his he would build the church. In Nathanael’s case he did nothing of the kind, but the opposite. As though some large part of his confession, and the better part, were missing, he added what follows. For what does he say?

Verse 51: “Truly, truly, I say to you, from now on you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Do you see how he leads him up little by little from the earth, and makes him stop imagining that he is merely a man? For how could someone whom angels serve, on whom angels ascend and descend, be a man? That is why he said, “You will see greater things than these.” And to prove it he brings in the service of the angels. What he means is something like this: “Does this seem a great matter to you, Nathanael? Is it for this that you have confessed me to be King of Israel? What then will you say when you see the angels ascending and descending upon me?” By these words he was persuading him to acknowledge him as Lord of the angels too. For on him, as on the King’s own Son, the royal servants ascended and descended: once at the time of the crucifixion, again at the time of the resurrection and the ascension, and before this too, when they “came and served him” (Matthew 4, verse 11), when they announced the good news of his birth and cried, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” (Luke 2, verse 14), when they came to Mary, and when they came to Joseph.

And he does here what he has done in many other cases. He makes two predictions, gives proof of the one at once, and by what is already fulfilled confirms what is still to be accomplished. Some of his sayings had already been proved, such as, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Others had yet to come to pass, and in part they did: the descending and ascending of the angels at the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. And this he makes believable by his words even before the event. For someone who had learned his power from what had gone before, and then heard from him about things to come, would more readily accept this prediction too.

What, then, does Nathanael do? He makes no reply to this. And so at this point Christ ended his conversation with him, leaving him to think over in private what had been said. He did not choose to pour out everything at once; having cast the seed into fertile ground, he leaves it to spring up in its own time. He has shown this in another place too, where he says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sows good seed; but while he slept, his enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat.”

Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2: “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And Jesus was invited to the wedding. And the mother of Jesus was there, and his brothers.”

I said before that he was best known in Galilee. That is why they invite him to the wedding, and he comes; for he was not looking to his own honor, but to our benefit. He who did not disdain to “take the form of a servant” (Philippians 2, verse 7) would much less disdain to be present at the wedding of servants. He who sat down “with tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 9, verse 13) would much less refuse to sit down with the guests at a wedding. Certainly those who invited him had not formed a proper judgment of him. They did not invite him as someone great, but simply as an ordinary acquaintance, and the evangelist has hinted at this when he says, “The mother of Jesus was there, and his brothers.” Just as they invited her and his brothers, so they invited Jesus.

Verse 3: “And when the wine ran out, his mother said to him, ‘They have no wine.’”

Here it is worth asking how it came into his mother’s mind to imagine anything great of her Son. For he had not yet done any miracle, since the evangelist says, “Jesus did this, the beginning of his miracles, in Cana of Galilee” (John 2, verse 11).

Now suppose someone says this is not enough to prove that it was “the beginning of his miracles,” because the words “in Cana of Galilee” are added, as though it were the first done there, but not absolutely the first of all, since he may have done others elsewhere. To him we will give the answer we gave before. And what was that? The words of John the Baptist: “I did not know him; but so that he might be revealed to Israel, that is why I came baptizing with water.” Now if he had worked miracles at an early age, the Israelites would not have needed someone else to make him known. He came among men and by his miracles became so well known, not only to the people in Judea but also to those in Syria and beyond, and he did this in only three years; or rather, he did not need even these three years to make himself known (Matthew 4, verse 24), for immediately, from the very first, his fame spread everywhere. He, I say, who in a short time shone out so brightly by the multitude of his miracles that his name was known to everyone, would have been far less likely to go unnoticed for so long if he had worked miracles as a child from an early age. For what was done would have seemed all the more astonishing coming from a boy, and there would have been time for two or three times as many, and far more. But in fact he did nothing while he was a child except the one thing Luke has testified to (Luke 2, verse 46): at the age of twelve he sat listening to the teachers, and was admired for his questions. [f]

Besides, it was fitting and reasonable that he did not begin his signs right away, from an early age, for people would have thought the thing an illusion. If many suspected this even when he was a grown man, how much more, had he worked miracles while still quite young, would they have hurried him to the cross sooner and before the proper time, in the venom of their malice; and the very events of the plan of salvation would have been discredited.

“How then,” someone asks, “did it come into his mother’s mind to imagine anything great of him?” He was now beginning to reveal himself, and he had been plainly made known by John’s testimony and by what he had said to his disciples. And before all this, his conception itself and everything that went with it had given her a very high opinion of the child. For, as Luke says, “she heard all the sayings about the child, and kept them in her heart.”

“Why then,” someone says, “did she not speak of this before?” Because, as I said, it was only now at last that he was beginning to show himself. Before this he lived as one of the many, and so his mother did not have the confidence to say anything of the kind to him. But when she heard that John had come on his account, and that John had borne such testimony to him as he did, and that he had disciples, then she took confidence, called him, and said, when the wine ran out, “They have no wine.” She wanted both to do the hosts a favor and, through her Son, to make herself more prominent. Perhaps she also had some human feelings, like his brothers when they said, “Show yourself to the world” (John 7, verse 4), wanting to gain credit from his miracles. That is why he answered rather sharply, in the words of verse 4: “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come.”

To see that he greatly respected his mother, listen to Luke tell how he “was subject to” his parents (Luke 2, verse 51), and to our own evangelist declare how he provided for her at the very hour of the crucifixion. Where parents put no obstacle or hindrance in the way of the things of God, we are bound to give way to them, and there is great danger in not doing so. But when they ask for something at the wrong time and hinder us in some spiritual matter, it is not safe to obey. That is why he answered as he did here, and again elsewhere: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” (Matthew 12, verse 48), because they did not yet think rightly of him; and she, because she had given birth to him, claimed, as other mothers do, to direct him in everything, when she ought to have revered and worshiped him. This, then, was why he answered as he did on that occasion.

For consider what it was. All the people, high and low, were standing around him; the crowd was intent on hearing him; his teaching had begun to be set out. And she comes into the middle of it, takes him away from the work of exhortation, and talks with him apart; she will not even bear to come inside, but draws him outside just to herself. That is why he said, “Who is my mother, and my brothers?” He said it not to insult the woman who had borne him (far from it!), but to do her the greatest good and not let her think lowly of him. For if he cared for others and used every means to plant in them a fitting opinion of himself, much more would he do so for his mother. And since it was likely that, if these words had been spoken to her directly by her Son, she would not readily have let herself be persuaded even then, but would in every case have claimed the upper hand as his mother, he gave his reply to those who had spoken to him. Otherwise he could not have raised her thoughts from his present lowliness to his future exaltation, if she had expected always to be honored by him as by a son, and not that he would come as her Master.

It was for this reason, then, that he said here, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” and also for another reason no less pressing. What was that? That his miracles might not be suspected. The request ought to have come from those in need, not from his mother. Why so? Because what is done at the request of one’s own family, great though it may be, often offends the onlookers; but when those who have the need make the request, the miracle is free from suspicion, the praise is unmixed, and the benefit is great. Suppose an excellent physician entered a house where there were many sick, and none of the patients or their relatives spoke to him, but he was directed only by his own mother. The sufferers would suspect and dislike him, and none of the patients or those caring for them would think him able to show anything great or remarkable. [j]

So this was a reason why he rebuked her on that occasion, saying, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” He was teaching her not to do the like in the future. For though he was careful to honor his mother, he cared much more for the salvation of her soul, and for doing good to the many, for whose sake he took on flesh. These, then, were not the words of a son speaking rudely to his mother. They belonged to a wise arrangement, which brought her to a right frame of mind and made sure the miracles would be received with the honor that was fitting. And setting other things aside, the very fact that these words seem to have been spoken as a rebuke is ample proof that he held her in high honor; for by his displeasure he showed that he reverenced her greatly. In what way, we will explain in the next discourse.

Keep this in mind, then. When you hear a certain woman saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you,” and him answering, “Rather, blessed are those who do the will of my Father” (Luke 11, verse 27), suppose that those other words too were said with the same intention. The answer was not that of someone rejecting his mother, but of one who wanted to show that her having given birth to him would have done her no good if she had not been very good and faithful. Now if, apart from the excellence of her soul, it profited Mary nothing that the Christ was born of her, much less will it help us to have a father, or a brother, or a child of virtuous and noble character, if we ourselves are far removed from his virtue. “A brother does not redeem,” says David; “will a man redeem?” (Psalm 49, verse 7, in the Greek Old Testament).

We must place our hope of salvation in nothing else but only in our own righteous deeds, done after the grace of God. For if this by itself could have helped, it would have helped the Jews, for Christ was their kinsman according to the flesh; it would have helped the town in which he was born; it would have helped his brothers. But as long as his brothers took no care for themselves, the honor of being his relatives did them no good; they were condemned with the rest of the world, and were approved only when they shone by their own virtue. The city fell and was burned, having gained nothing from this; and his kinsmen according to the flesh were slaughtered and perished most miserably, having gained nothing from their relationship to him toward being saved, because they did not have the defense of virtue. The apostles, on the other hand, proved greater than anyone, because they followed the true and excellent way of gaining kinship with him: the way of obedience. From this we learn that we always need faith, and a shining, bright life, since this alone will have power to save us. For though his relatives were held in honor everywhere for a long time, being called the Lord’s kinsmen, today we do not even know their names, while the lives and names of the apostles are celebrated everywhere.

So let us not pride ourselves on noble birth according to the flesh. Even if we have ten thousand famous ancestors, let us work hard ourselves to surpass their virtues, knowing that the diligence of others will do nothing to help us at the judgment to come. No, this will make the condemnation heavier: that though we were born of righteous parents and had an example at home, even so we did not imitate our teachers. I say this now because I see many pagans, when we lead them to the faith and urge them to become Christians, take refuge in their relatives, their ancestors, and their household, and say, “All my relatives and friends and companions are faithful Christians.” What is that to you, you wretched, miserable man? This very thing will be your ruin above all: that you did not respect the number of those around you and run to the truth. Others again, who are believers but live careless lives, make the very same defense when they are urged to virtue, and say, “My father and my grandfather and my great-grandfather were very devout and good men.” But this is exactly what will condemn you most: that though descended from such men, you have acted unworthily of the root from which you sprang. Listen to what the prophet says to the Jews: “Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep” (Hosea 12, verse 12). And again Christ: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad” (John 8, verse 56). Everywhere they set before them the righteous deeds of their fathers, not only to praise the fathers, but also to make the charge against their descendants heavier.

Knowing this, then, let us use every means to be saved by our own works, so that we do not deceive ourselves by an empty trust in others and learn that we have been deceived only when the knowledge can do us no good. “In the grave,” says David, “who will give you thanks?” (Psalm 6, verse 5). So let us repent here, that we may obtain the everlasting good things. May God grant that we all do so, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.