Homily 47 — John 6, verses 53 to 71

“Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have eternal life in yourselves. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life in himself.” [a]

When we talk of spiritual things, let there be nothing worldly in our souls, nothing earthly. Let all such thoughts withdraw and be driven out, and let us give ourselves wholly to hearing the words of God and nothing else. When a king arrives, all commotion is driven away; how much more, when the Spirit is speaking with us, do we need great stillness and great awe! And what is said today deserves awe. Listen, and you will see why. “Truly I say to you, unless a man eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he does not have eternal life in him.” The Jews had just claimed that this was impossible, so he shows not only that it is not impossible, but that it is absolutely necessary. That is why he adds, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”

“And I will raise him up at the last day.” He had said, “Whoever eats this bread will not die forever” (verse 50, not quoted word for word), and this was likely to stand in their way, just as they had said before, “Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead; how can you say that he will not taste death?” (John 8, verse 52, not quoted word for word). So he brings forward the resurrection to settle the question, and to show that the one who eats will not die in the end. He keeps returning to the subject of the mysteries, showing that the act is necessary and must by all means be done.

Verse 55: “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” What does he mean? Either he wants to declare that this is the true food, the food that saves the soul, or he wants to assure them about what he had said, so that they would not suppose his words were a mere riddle or parable, but would know that it is by all means necessary to eat the body. Then he says, in verse 56, “Whoever eats my flesh dwells in me.”

He said this to show that such a person is blended with him. Now what follows seems unconnected, unless we look into the sense. For someone says: “After saying, ‘Whoever eats my flesh dwells in me,’ what kind of sequence is it to add, in verse 57, ‘As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father’?” Yet the words fit together perfectly. He kept speaking of “eternal life,” and to prove this point he brings in the expression “dwells in me.” For “if he dwells in me, and I live, it is plain that he will live too.” Then he says, “As the living Father has sent me.” This is an expression of comparison and likeness, and its meaning is something like this: “I live in the same way as the Father lives.”

And so that you will not think he is unbegotten, he immediately adds, “by the Father.” He does not say this to show that he needs some power working in him in order to live. To remove any such suspicion he had said before, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself.” Now if he needs the working of another, it will turn out either that the Father has not given him to have life in this way, and so the statement is false; or, if he has given it, that he needs no one else to hold him up. What, then, does “by the Father” mean? Here he is simply pointing to the cause, and what he says amounts to this: “As the Father lives, so I live, and whoever eats me will live by me.”

And the “life” he speaks of is not just life, but the excellent life. That he was not speaking simply of life, but of that glorious life beyond words, is clear from this: all people “live,” even unbelievers and those not yet initiated, who do not eat of that flesh. Do you see that the words are not about this life, but about that other one? What he says amounts to this: “Whoever eats my flesh will not perish when he dies, nor suffer punishment.” He was not speaking of the general resurrection, for all alike rise again, but of the special resurrection, the glorious one, the one that brings a reward.

Verse 58: “This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate manna and are dead. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

He keeps handling the same point, to stamp it on the minds of his hearers (for teaching on these matters was a kind of final teaching), and to confirm the teaching about the resurrection and eternal life. That is why he mentions the resurrection when he promises eternal life, showing that that life is not now, but after the resurrection.

Someone says: “And how are these things made clear?” From the Scriptures. He refers the Jews to them everywhere, telling them to learn these things from them. And by saying, “which gives life to the world,” he stirs them to jealousy, so that out of sheer annoyance that others should enjoy the gift, they will not stay outside. He keeps reminding them of the manna, showing the difference between it and his bread, and guiding them toward faith. For if he could keep them alive for forty years without harvest or grain or any of the usual means, how much more will he be able to do so now, since he has come for greater purposes! Besides, if those things were only types, and yet people gathered what came down without sweat or labor, how much more will this be so here, where the difference is great: no dying, and the enjoyment of the true life.

He was right to speak often of “life,” since people long for it, and nothing pleases them so much as not dying. Even under the old covenant this was the promise: long life and many days. But now it is not length of life only, but life that has no end. At the same time he wants to show that he is now canceling the punishment that sin brought. He annuls the sentence that condemns to death and, in reverse of what went before, brings in not life only, but eternal life.

Verse 59: “These things he said in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.”

Capernaum was the place where most of his wonders had been done, so that there above all he ought to have been listened to. But why did he teach in the synagogue and in the temple? Both because he wanted to catch as many of them as he could, and because he wanted to show that he was not opposed to the Father. [e]

Verse 60: “But many of the disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying.”

What does “hard” mean? Rough, laborious, troublesome. Yet he had said nothing of that kind. He was not speaking about a way of life but about teachings, continually dwelling on faith in himself. What, then, does “This is a hard saying” mean? Is it hard because it promises life and resurrection? Because he said that he came down from heaven? Or because he said that no one could be saved who did not eat his flesh? Tell me, are these things “hard”? Who could claim they are? What, then, does “hard” mean? It means “difficult to accept,” “beyond their weakness,” “full of terror.” For they thought he was saying things too lofty for who he really was, things above himself. That is why they said, “Who can hear it?” Perhaps they were making excuses for themselves, since they were about to turn away.

Verses 61 and 62: “When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were grumbling at it” — for it is a mark of his divinity to bring hidden things to light — “he said to them, Does this make you stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?”

He does the same in the case of Nathanael, when he says, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these” (John 1, verse 50). And to Nicodemus: “No one has ascended up to heaven but the Son of Man, who is in heaven” (John 3, verse 13). What, then? Is he piling difficulties on difficulties? No — far from it! By the greatness of his teachings, and by their number, he wants to win them over. If someone had said simply, “I have come down from heaven,” and added nothing more, he would have been all the more likely to make them stumble. But he who said, “My body is the life of the world,” who said, “As the living Father has sent me, so I live by the Father,” and who said, “I have come down from heaven,” clears the difficulty away. A man who says one great thing about himself may perhaps be suspected of making it up; but one who links so many together, one after another, removes all suspicion.

Everything he does and says is meant to lead them away from the thought that Joseph was his father. So it was not to strengthen that stumbling block that he said this, but rather to remove it. Whoever thought he was Joseph’s son could not accept his sayings; but someone persuaded that he had come down from heaven, and would go back up there, could more easily pay attention to his words. At the same time he offers another explanation as well, saying, in verse 63, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” His meaning is this: “You must hear what concerns me spiritually. Whoever hears in a fleshly way gains no benefit and gets no advantage.” It was fleshly to ask how he came down from heaven, to think he was the son of Joseph, to ask, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?” All this was fleshly, when they ought to have understood the matter in a mystical and spiritual sense. “But how could they understand what ‘eating flesh’ might mean?” Then it was their duty to wait for the proper time and ask, and not to abandon him.

“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” That is, they are divine and spiritual; they have nothing fleshly about them. They are not subject to the laws of natural cause and effect, but are free from any such necessity; they stand even above the laws laid down for this world, and they carry another, different meaning. Now just as in this passage he said “spirit” instead of “spiritual,” so when he speaks of “flesh” he does not mean “fleshly things,” but “hearing in a fleshly way.” At the same time he is hinting at them, because they always longed for fleshly things when they ought to have longed for spiritual ones. For if a person takes his words in a fleshly way, he gains nothing.

“What, then? Is his flesh not flesh?” Certainly it is. “Then how does he say that the flesh profits nothing?” He is not speaking of his own flesh — far from it! — but of those who took his words in a fleshly way. But what is “understanding in a fleshly way”? It is looking only at what is before our eyes, without imagining anything beyond it. That is understanding in a fleshly way. But we must not judge like this, by sight; we must look into all the mysteries with the eyes within. That is seeing spiritually. Whoever does not eat his flesh and drink his blood has no life in him. How, then, does “the flesh profit nothing,” if without it we cannot live? Do you see that the words “the flesh profits nothing” are said not of his own flesh, but of hearing in a fleshly way?

Verse 64: “But there are some of you who do not believe.”

Again, as is his custom, he gives his words weight by foretelling what would happen, and by showing that he spoke this way not because he wanted honor from them, but because he cared for them. And when he said “some,” he was excepting the disciples. For at first he said, “You have both seen me and do not believe” (verse 36); but here, “There are some of you who do not believe.”

For he “knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.”

Verse 65: “And he said, This is why I said to you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him from above, from my Father.”

Here the evangelist shows us that the plan of salvation was freely chosen, and that he patiently bore with evil. Nor is “from the beginning” put here without reason. It is there so that you may be aware of his foreknowledge from the first: before the words were spoken — not after the men had grumbled, not after they had stumbled, but before — he knew the traitor; and that was a mark of divinity. Then he added, “unless it is given to him from above, from my Father,” persuading them in this way to think of God as his Father, not Joseph, and showing them that to believe in him is no ordinary thing. It is as though he had said: “Unbelievers do not disturb me; they do not trouble me or surprise me. I knew them long ago, before they were created; I know to whom the Father has given it to believe.” And you, when you hear “he has given,” do not imagine a merely arbitrary handing out. Understand that if anyone has made himself worthy to receive the gift, he has received it. [h]

Verse 66: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked with him no more.”

The evangelist was right to say, not that they “departed,” but that they “went back.” He shows that they cut themselves off from any growth in virtue, and that by separating themselves they lost the faith they had held before. But this was not the case with the Twelve. That is why he says to them, in verse 67, “Will you also go away?”

Again he shows that he does not need their ministry and service, and proves to them that it was not for this that he took them about with him. How could it be, when he used such words even to them? But why did he not praise them? Why did he not commend them? Both because he kept the dignity that suits a teacher, and also to show them that they ought to be drawn to him all the more by this way of dealing with them. Had he praised them, they might have supposed they were doing him a favor and given way to some merely human feeling. But by showing them that he did not need their company, he held them to himself all the more.

And see how wisely he spoke. He did not say, “Go away!” — that would have been to drive them from him — but asked them a question: “Will you also go away?” These are the words of one who wants to remove all force and compulsion, who did not want them to stay with him out of any sense of shame, but out of goodwill. By not accusing them openly, but touching on it gently, he shows the truly wise way to act in such circumstances. We feel differently — and no wonder, since we do everything clinging to our own honor, and so we think our standing is lowered when those who attend on us leave. But he neither flattered them nor pushed them away; he asked them a question. This was not the act of one who despised them, but of one who did not want them held by force and compulsion; for to stay on those terms is the same as to leave. What, then, does Peter say?

Verses 68 and 69: “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Do you see that it was not the words that made them stumble, but the carelessness, laziness and wrong thinking of the hearers? Even if he had not spoken, they would have stumbled, and would never have stopped being anxious about bodily food, always nailed to the earth. Besides, the disciples heard at the same time as the others, yet they declared an opinion opposite to theirs, saying, “To whom shall we go?” These words show great affection. They show that their Teacher was more precious to them than anything, than father or mother or any possessions, and that if they left him, they would have nowhere to take refuge. Then, so that it would not seem that he had said “To whom shall we go?” because there was no one else who would take them in, he at once added, “You have the words of eternal life.”

The Jews listened in a fleshly way, with human reasonings; the disciples listened spiritually, entrusting everything to faith. That is why Christ said, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit”; that is: “Do not suppose that the teaching of my words is subject to the rule of material cause and effect, or to the necessity that binds created things. Spiritual things are not of that nature, and they do not submit to the laws of earth.” Paul declares this too, when he says, “Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down); or, Who will descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead)” (Romans 10, verses 6 and 7).

“You have the words of eternal life.” These men already accepted the resurrection, and all the apportioning that will take place there. And see how Peter, loving his brothers and full of affection, answers for the whole band. He did not say, “I know,” but, “We know.” Or rather, see how he goes to the very words of his Teacher, and does not speak as the Jews did. They said, “This is the son of Joseph”; but he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and, “You have the words of eternal life,” having perhaps heard him say, “Whoever believes in me has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” By recalling the very words, he showed that he had kept hold of everything that had been said. What, then, did Christ do? He neither praised nor admired Peter, though he had done so elsewhere. What does he say instead?

Verse 70: “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Since Peter said, “We believe,” Jesus excepts Judas from the band. In the other place Peter made no mention of the disciples; when Christ said, “Who do you say that I am?” he replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16, verse 15). But here, since he said, “We believe,” Christ rightly does not admit Judas into that band. And he did this far in advance, long before the time, to check the traitor’s wickedness, knowing that it would do no good, yet doing his own part.

And notice his wisdom. He did not expose the traitor, yet he did not let him stay hidden: on the one hand, so that he would not lose all shame and become more defiant; on the other, so that he would not think himself unnoticed and carry out his wicked deed without fear. So by degrees he brings plainer rebukes against him. First he counted him with the others, when he said, “There are some of you who do not believe” — for the evangelist has declared that he was counting the traitor, saying, “For he knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.” But when Judas still remained what he was, he brought a sharper rebuke against him: “One of you is a devil.” Even so, he made the fear shared by them all, wanting to keep him concealed. [j]

And here it is worth asking why the disciples said nothing at this time, but later were afraid and in doubt, looking at one another and asking, “Lord, is it I?” (Matthew 26, verse 22), when Peter beckoned to John to find out who the traitor was by asking their Teacher. What is the reason? Peter had not yet heard, “Get behind me, Satan,” and so he had no fear at all. But once he had been rebuked, and though he spoke out of strong affection had even been called “Satan” instead of being commended, he had good reason to be afraid afterward when he heard, “One of you will betray me.” Besides, even now he does not say, “One of you will betray me,” but, “One of you is a devil.” So they did not understand what was said, but thought he was only rebuking their wickedness.

But why did he say, “I have chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil”? It was to show that his teaching was entirely free from flattery. They alone had stayed when all the rest had left him, and through Peter they had confessed that he was the Christ. So that they would not think he would flatter them for it, he leads them away from any such suspicion. What he says amounts to this: “Nothing makes me ashamed to rebuke the wicked. Do not think that because you have stayed I will choose to flatter you, or that because you have followed me I will not rebuke the wicked. Not even another circumstance makes me ashamed, one far more likely than this to put a teacher to shame. The man who stays gives proof of his affection; but a man whom a teacher has chosen and who is then rejected earns that teacher a name for foolishness among the thoughtless. Still, not even this makes me hold back my rebukes.” This is the very charge the pagans still bring against Christ even now, coldly and senselessly. For God does not usually make people good by compulsion and force. His choosing is not compulsory for those who are called; it persuades. And so that you may learn that the calling does not compel, consider how many of those who were called have come to destruction. So it is clear that whether we are saved or perish also lies in our own will.

So, hearing these things, let us learn always to be sober-minded and watchful. Think of the man who was counted in that holy band, who had enjoyed so great a gift, who had worked miracles — for he too was among those sent to raise the dead and to heal lepers. When he was seized by the dreadful disease of greed and betrayed his Teacher, none of it helped him: not the favors, not the gifts, not being with Christ, not attending on him, not the washing of his feet, not sharing his table, not keeping the purse. These things rather served to hasten his punishment. If so, let us too be afraid that we may ever imitate Judas through greed. [m]

You do not betray Christ. But when you neglect the poor man wasting away with hunger or perishing with cold, that man brings the same condemnation down on you. When we share in the mysteries unworthily, we perish just like those who killed Christ. When we plunder, when we oppress those weaker than ourselves, we will bring the heaviest punishment down on ourselves. And rightly so. How long will love for the things of this life take up our attention, when they are more than we need and bring no profit? For wealth consists in having more than we need, and in that there is no advantage. How long will we be nailed to empty things? How long will we fail to look through and away into heaven, fail to be sober-minded, fail to have had enough of these fleeting things of earth, and fail to learn their worthlessness by experience?

Let us think of those who were wealthy before us. Are not all those things a dream? Are they not a shadow, a flower? Are they not a stream that flows past, a story and a tale? So-and-so was rich; and where is his wealth now? It is gone, it has perished; but the sins committed for its sake stay with him, and the punishment that comes because of the sins. Yes, surely, even if there were no punishment and no kingdom set before us, it would still be our duty to show regard for those of the same race and family as ourselves, and to respect those who have the same feelings as we do. But as things are, we feed dogs, and many of us wild donkeys and bears and all sorts of beasts, while we do not care about a human being perishing with hunger. What is foreign to us is valued more than what is our own kin, and our own family is honored less than creatures that are not our family and have no relation to us.

Is it a fine thing to build oneself splendid houses, to have many servants, to lie gazing up at a gilded ceiling? Why, surely that is superfluous and unprofitable. There are other buildings, far brighter and more majestic than these, and those are the ones we should delight our eyes with, for no one stops us. Do you want to see the most beautiful of ceilings? In the evening, look up at the starry sky. “But this ceiling is not mine.” Yet in truth it is more yours than that other one. It was made for you, and it is shared by you and your brothers and sisters. The other is not yours; it belongs to those who inherit it after your death. The one can do you the greatest service, leading you by its beauty to its Creator; the other can do you the greatest harm, becoming your chief accuser on the Day of Judgment, since it is covered with gold while Christ does not have even the clothing he needs.

I beg you, let us not fall victim to such folly. Let us not chase things that run away from us, and run away from things that last. Let us not betray our own salvation, but hold fast to our hope of what is to come: the old among us, knowing for certain that only a little of life is left to us; the young, well aware that what is left is not much. For that day comes like a thief in the night. Knowing this, let wives urge their husbands on, and husbands counsel their wives; let us teach young men and young women; and let all instruct one another not to care for the things of the present, but to desire the things to come, so that we may also be able to obtain them, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.