Homily 23 — John 2, verses 11 to 22

“This beginning of miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.” [a]

The devil is frequent and fierce in his attacks, besieging our salvation from every side. So we must keep watch and stay sober, and fortify ourselves everywhere against his assault. For if he gains even a slight foothold, he goes on to make himself a broad passage, and little by little brings in all his forces. If, then, we care at all for our salvation, let us not allow him to make his approach even in small things, so that in this way we may check him beforehand in the important ones. It would be the height of folly if, while he shows such eagerness to destroy our souls, we did not bring even as much eagerness to the defense of our own salvation.

I do not say this without reason. I say it because I am afraid that the wolf may be standing even now in the middle of the fold without our seeing him, and that some sheep may fall prey to him, straying from the flock and from listening through its own carelessness and his cunning. If the wounds could be perceived by the senses, or if it were the body that received the blows, there would be no difficulty in detecting his plots. But the soul is invisible, and it is the soul that receives the wounds. So we need great watchfulness, so that each of us may examine himself; for “no one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him” (First Corinthians 2, verse 11).

The word is spoken to everyone, and it is offered as a common remedy to all who need it; but it is the business of each individual hearer to take what suits his own complaint. I do not know who is sick; I do not know who is well. That is why I use every kind of argument and bring in remedies suited to every illness: at one time condemning greed, after that touching on luxury, and again on impurity, then composing something in praise of love and urging you to it, and each of the other virtues in turn. For I am afraid that if all my arguments were spent on one subject, I might, without knowing it, be treating you for one disease while you are sick with others. If this congregation were only one person, I would not have thought it so absolutely necessary to vary what I say. But in such a crowd there are probably many illnesses as well, so it is not without reason that I vary my teaching, for my words will be sure to reach their goal when they are made to take in all of you. That is also why Scripture is many-sided and speaks of ten thousand matters: it addresses itself to human nature as a whole, and in such a multitude all the passions of the soul are bound to be present, even though not all are in each person.

Let us, then, cleanse ourselves of these, and so listen to the words of God, and hear with bruised hearts what has been read to us today. And what is that? “This beginning of miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.” I told you the other day that there are some who say that this is not the beginning. One of them says: “What of it, if ‘Cana of Galilee’ is added? That shows that this was ‘the beginning’ he made ‘in Cana.’” But on these points I would not venture to state anything precisely. I have shown before that he began his miracles after his baptism and did no miracle before it. But whether, of the miracles done after his baptism, this one or some other was the first, I think it unnecessary to state positively.

“And he revealed his glory.”

Someone asks: “How? In what way? Only the servants, the steward of the feast, and the bridegroom took notice of what was done, not most of those present.” How, then, did he “reveal his glory”? He revealed it, at any rate, as far as he himself was concerned. And if not everyone present heard of the miracle at the time, they would hear of it afterward; for it is celebrated to this very day and has not gone unnoticed. That not everyone knew of it on the same day is clear from what follows. After saying that he “revealed his glory,” the evangelist adds, “And his disciples believed in him.”

His disciples — who even before this had regarded him with wonder. Do you see that it was especially necessary to work the miracles at times when people of honest mind were present, people who would pay careful attention to what was done? These would believe more readily and attend more precisely to the circumstances. “And how could he have become known without miracles?” Because his teaching and his prophetic powers were enough to stir wonder in the souls of his hearers, so that they paid attention to what he did with a right disposition, their minds already being well inclined toward him. That is why in many other places the evangelists say that he did no miracle because of the perversity of the people who lived there (Matthew 12, verse 38; Matthew 13, verse 58; and elsewhere).

Verse 12: “After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there not many days.”

Why does he come “with his mother to Capernaum”? He had done no miracle there, and the people of that city were not among those who were well disposed toward him, but among the utterly corrupt. Christ made this plain when he said, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be thrust down to hell” (Luke 10, verse 15). Why, then, does he go? I think that it was because he intended a little later to go up to Jerusalem that he went to Capernaum at this point, to avoid taking his mother and his brothers about with him everywhere. So, having gone there and stayed a little while to honor his mother, he begins his miracles again after taking her who bore him back to her home. That is why the evangelist says, after “not many days”:

Verse 13: “He went up to Jerusalem.”

He had received baptism, then, a few days before the Passover. And when he went up to Jerusalem, what did he do? A deed full of high authority. He drove out of the temple those dealers and money changers, and those who sold doves, and oxen, and sheep, and who spent their time there for this purpose.

Another evangelist writes that as he drove them out he said, Do not make my Father’s house “a den of thieves”; but this one says (verse 16), “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” They do not contradict each other in this. They show that he did this a second time, and that the two expressions were not used on the same occasion: he acted in this way once at the beginning of his ministry, and again when he had come to the very time of his suffering. That is why on the later occasion he used stronger language and spoke of the temple as made “a den of thieves,” while here, at the start of his miracles, he does not do so, but uses a gentler rebuke. From this it is probable that this happened a second time. [f]

Someone says: “And why did Christ do this very thing, and use such severity against these men? He is never seen doing this anywhere else, not even when they insulted him and abused him and called him ‘Samaritan’ and ‘demon-possessed.’ He was not even content with words alone, but took a whip and so drove them out.” Yes; but it was when others were receiving some benefit that the Jews accused him and raged against him. Here, when one would have expected his rebukes to make them savage, they showed no such attitude toward him; they neither accused nor abused him. What do they say?

Verse 18: “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?”

Do you see their extreme malice, and how the benefits done to others enraged them more than rebukes did?

At one time, then, he said that the temple had been made by them “a den of thieves,” showing that what they sold had been gotten by theft, plunder and greed, and that they had grown rich through other people’s misfortunes; at another, “a house of trade,” pointing to their shameless dealing.

“But why did he do this?” He was about to heal on the Sabbath day and to do many things of that kind which they thought were breaches of the law. So that he would not seem to be doing them as though he had come as some rival god and opponent of his Father, he takes this occasion to correct any such suspicion of theirs. For one who had shown so much zeal for the house was not likely to oppose him who was Lord of the house and was worshiped in it. No doubt even the earlier years, during which he lived according to the law, were enough to show his reverence for the Lawgiver, and that he had not come to give contrary laws. Yet since it was likely that those years had been forgotten with the passing of time, not having been known to everyone because he was brought up in a poor and humble home, he now does this in the presence of all — for many were present, because the feast was close at hand — and at great risk.

For he did not merely “drive them out”; he also “overturned the tables” and “poured out the money,” giving them to understand by this that he who threw himself into danger for the good order of the house could never despise its Master. If he had acted as he did out of hypocrisy, he would only have given them advice; but to put himself in danger was very daring. It was no light thing to expose himself to the anger of so many market people, and to stir up against himself a most brutal mob of petty dealers by his reproaches and his blows. This was not the act of a pretender, but of one who chose to suffer everything for the order of the house.

That is why he shows his agreement with the Father not by his actions only but by his words. He does not say “the holy house,” but “my Father’s house.” See, he even calls him “Father,” and they are not angry; they thought he was speaking in a general way. But when he went further and spoke more plainly, so as to set before them the idea of his equality, then they became angry.

And what do they say? “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?” Oh, their utter madness! Was a sign needed before they would stop their evil doings and free the house of God from such dishonor? And was it not the greatest sign of his excellence that he had such zeal for that house? In fact, the well-disposed were marked out by this very thing. For his disciples, it says (verse 17), “remembered that it is written, The zeal of your house has eaten me up” (Psalm 69, verse 9).

But the Jews did not remember the prophecy, and said, “What sign do you show us?” They were grieved that their shameful trade had been cut off; they expected to stop him by these means; and they also wanted to challenge him to a miracle and to find fault with what he was doing. That is why he will not give them a sign. Before, too, when they came and asked him, he gave them the same answer: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 16, verse 4). Only then the answer was clear; now it is more obscure.

He does this because of their extreme dullness. For he who came to them first, without their asking, and gave them signs would never have turned away from them when they asked, had he not seen that their minds were wicked and false and their intention treacherous. Think how full of wickedness the question itself was from the start. When they ought to have praised him for his earnestness and zeal, when they ought to have been astonished that he cared so greatly for the house, they reproach him, claiming that it was lawful to trade, and unlawful for anyone to stop their trading unless he showed them a sign. What does Christ say?

Verse 19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

He speaks many sayings like this which his immediate hearers could not understand, but which those who came after would. And why does he do this? So that when what he foretold had come to pass, he might be seen to have known from the beginning what was to follow. And that is exactly what happened with this prophecy. For the evangelist says (verse 22), “When he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.”

But at the time it was spoken, the Jews were perplexed about what it might mean and tried to work it out, saying (verse 20), “Forty-six years this temple was being built, and will you raise it up in three days?”

“Forty-six years,” they said, referring to the later building; for the earlier one was finished in twenty years’ time (Ezra 6, verse 15).

Why, then, did he not clear up the difficulty and say, “I am not speaking of that temple, but of my flesh”? Why does the evangelist, writing the Gospel at a later time, interpret the saying, while Jesus kept silent at the time? Why did he keep silent like this? Because they would not have accepted his word. If not even the disciples were able to understand the saying, much less could the crowds. “When he had risen from the dead,” the evangelist says, “then they remembered, and believed the Scripture and his word.” [j]

Two things stood in their way for the time being: one, the fact of the resurrection; the other, the greater question, whether it was God who dwelt within. He spoke of both of these in a veiled way when he said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” And Paul declares this to be no small proof that he is God, when he writes, “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1, verse 4).

But why does he give this as a sign both there, and here, and everywhere? At one time he says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am” (John 8, verse 28); at another, “No sign will be given you but the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12, verse 39); and again in this place, “In three days I will raise it up.” Because what showed most of all that he was not a mere man was his being able to set up a trophy of victory over death, to put an end so quickly to its long tyranny, and to bring that hard war to a close. That is why he says, “Then you will know.” “Then” — when? “When, after my resurrection, I draw the whole world to myself, then you will know that I did these things as God, and as the true Son of God, avenging the insult offered to my Father.”

“Why, then, instead of saying, ‘What need is there of signs to check evil deeds?’ did he promise that he would give them a sign?” Because by saying that he would have exasperated them all the more, while in this way he astonished them instead. Still, they made no answer to this, for he seemed to them to be saying something incredible, so they did not even stop to question him about it, but passed it by as impossible. Yet if they had been wise, then even though it seemed incredible to them at the time, they would have come afterward, when he worked his many miracles, and questioned him, and begged to have the difficulty cleared up for them. But because they were foolish, they paid no attention at all to part of what was said, and part they heard in an evil frame of mind. That is why Christ spoke to them in riddles.

The question still remains: “How was it that the disciples did not know that he must rise from the dead?” It was because they had not yet been given the gift of the Spirit. So, although they constantly heard his words about the resurrection, they did not understand them, but reasoned among themselves what this might mean. For it was a very strange and startling claim, that someone could raise himself, and would raise himself in such a way. That is why Peter was rebuked when, knowing nothing about the resurrection, he said, “Far be it from you” (Matthew 16, verse 22).

And Christ did not reveal it to them clearly before the event, so that they would not stumble at the very outset, led to distrust his words by the great improbability of the thing, and because they did not yet clearly know him, who he was. For no one could help believing what the facts proclaimed aloud, while some would probably disbelieve what was told them in words. So at first he let the meaning of his words stay hidden; but when he had proved his sayings true by their own experience, he afterward gave them understanding of his words, and such gifts of the Spirit that they received them all at once.

“He,” says Jesus, “will bring all things to your remembrance” (John 14, verse 26). For those who in a single night threw off all respect for him, and fled, and denied that they even knew him, would hardly have remembered what he had done and said during the whole time, unless they had enjoyed much grace of the Spirit.

Someone says: “But if they were to hear it from the Spirit, why did they need to keep company with Christ, when they would not retain his words?” Because the Spirit did not teach them; he called to their minds what Christ had said before. And it adds no little to Christ’s glory that they were sent back to the memory of the words he had spoken to them. At first, then, it was by God’s gift that the grace of the Spirit came upon them so largely and abundantly; but after that, it was by their own virtue that they kept the gift. For they showed a shining life, and much wisdom, and great labors. They despised this present life and thought nothing of earthly things, but were above them all. Like light-winged eagles, soaring high by their works, they reached heaven itself, and by these works they possessed the grace of the Spirit, which is beyond words.

Let us, then, imitate them. Let us not let our lamps go out, but keep them bright by almsgiving, for that is how the light of this fire is kept alive. Let us gather the oil into our vessels while we are here, for we cannot buy it once we have gone to that other place, nor can we get it anywhere else except from the hands of the poor. So let us gather it from there very abundantly, if we really want to go in with the Bridegroom. But if we do not do this, we must stay outside the wedding hall. For it is impossible — it is impossible — even if we do ten thousand other good deeds, to enter the gates of the Kingdom without almsgiving.

So let us show it very abundantly, so that we may enjoy those blessings beyond words. May we all attain them, by 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.