Homily 49 — John 7, verses 9 to 24

“When he had said these words to them, he stayed on in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” [a]

The things Christ did in a human way were not done only to confirm that he had truly become man, but also to train us in virtue. For if he had done everything as God, how could we have known what we must do when we run into things we would not have chosen? For instance, when he was in this very place and the Jews wanted to kill him, he came into the middle of them and so calmed the uproar. Now if he had done this all the time, how would we have known how to deal with the matter? We cannot do that, and yet we fall into the same kind of situation. Should we perish at once, or should we even use some strategy so that the word might go forward? Since, then, we who have no such power could not have known what to do when we come into the midst of our enemies, he teaches us this very thing.

For the evangelist says that Jesus, “when he had said these words, stayed in Galilee; but when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” The words “when his brothers had gone up” are those of someone showing that he chose not to go up with them. That is why he stayed where he was and did not show himself, although they were in a way urging him to do so. But why did he, who always spoke openly, act now “as it were in secret”? The writer does not say “secretly,” but “as it were in secret.” For in this way, as I have said, he seemed to be teaching us how to manage our affairs. And besides this, it was not the same thing to come among them while they were heated and restless as to come later, when the feast was over.

Verse 11: “Then the Jews looked for him, and said, ‘Where is he?’”

Fine deeds indeed at their feasts! They are eager for murder, and want to seize him even during the feast. At any rate, in another place they speak this way: “Do you think he will not come to the feast?” (John 11, verse 56). And here they said, “Where is he?” Out of their excessive hatred and hostility they would not even call him by name. Great was their reverence for the feast, great their scruples! They wanted to use the feast itself as the occasion to trap him!

Verse 12: “And there was much murmuring among the people about him.”

I think they were exasperated by the place where the miracle had been worked, and were greatly enraged and afraid — not so much from anger at what had happened before as from fear that he might work something similar again. But everything turned out the opposite of what they wanted, and against their will they made him conspicuous.

“Some said, ‘He is a good man’; others said, ‘No, he deceives the people.’”

I think the first of these opinions belonged to the many, and the other to the rulers and priests. For slandering him suited their malice and wickedness. “He deceives the people,” they say. How, tell me? By seeming to work miracles without really working them? But experience testifies to the opposite.

Verse 13: “Yet no one spoke openly about him, for fear of the Jews.” Do you see how everywhere the ruling class is corrupt, while those they rule are sound in their judgment, but lack the courage they ought to have — the very thing a crowd most often lacks?

Verse 14: “Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up and taught.” By his delay he made them more attentive. Those who had looked for him in the first days and said, “Where is he?” — notice how, when they saw him suddenly there, they drew near and were ready to press in on him as he spoke: both those who said he was a good man and those who said he was not. The first wanted to profit from him and admire him; the others wanted to seize him and hold him. So one party said, “He deceives the people,” because of his teaching and its doctrines, since they did not understand what he meant; the other said, “He is a good man,” because of the miracles. So he came among them in this way when he had let their anger cool, so that they might hear his words at leisure, when passion no longer stopped their ears.

What he taught, the evangelist has not told us. He says only that he taught marvelously, and that he won them over and brought them round. Such was the power of his speech. And those who had said, “He deceives the people,” changed their opinion “and marveled.” That is why they also said — verse 15: “How does this man know letters, when he has never studied?”

Do you notice how the evangelist shows here too that their marveling was full of wickedness? He does not say that they admired the teaching, or that they accepted the words, but simply that they “marveled” — that is, they were thrown into astonishment and were at a loss, saying, “Where did this man get these things?” And yet from this very puzzle they ought to have learned that there was nothing merely human in him. But because they would not admit this, and stopped at wondering only, listen to what he says.

Verse 16: “My teaching is not mine.”

Again he answers their secret thoughts, referring them to the Father, and wanting in this way to stop their mouths.

Verse 17: “If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from myself.”

What he means is this: “Cast out of yourselves the malice and anger and envy, and the hatred you have conceived against me without cause, and then nothing will stop you from knowing that my words really are the words of God. As things are, these things spread darkness over you and destroy the light of right judgment; but if you remove them, this will no longer happen to you.” Yet he did not say this plainly, for that would have put them to utter shame. Instead he hinted at all of it by saying, “Whoever does his will will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from myself” — that is, “whether I say anything different, strange, and contrary to God.” For “from myself” is always used with this meaning: “I say nothing except what seems good to him; everything the Father wills, I will too.”

“If anyone does his will, he will know about the teaching.”

What does “if anyone does his will” mean? “If anyone loves the life of virtue, he will know the power of these sayings.” Or again: “If anyone will pay attention to the prophecies, to see whether I speak in keeping with them or not.”

But how is the teaching his and not his? For he did not say, “This teaching is not mine.” First he said “mine,” claiming it as his own, and then he added, “is not mine.” How, then, can the same thing be both his and not his? It is his because he spoke it not as one who had been taught; and it is not his because it was the Father’s teaching. How, then, does he say, “All that is the Father’s is mine, and mine is his” (John 17, verse 10)? [h]

“If the teaching is not yours because it is the Father’s, then that other statement is false; for by that one it ought to be yours.” But the words “is not mine” give strong proof that his teaching and the Father’s are one. It is as if he had said: “It has nothing different in it, as though it belonged to someone else. For though my person is distinct, I speak and act in such a way that no one can suppose I say or do anything contrary to the Father, but rather the very same things the Father says and does.” Then he adds another argument that cannot be answered, bringing forward something merely human and teaching them from things they were used to. And what is that?

Verse 18: “Whoever speaks from himself seeks his own glory.”

That is: “Whoever wants to establish some teaching of his own wants to do it only so that he himself may enjoy the glory. Now if I do not want to enjoy glory, why would I want to establish a teaching of my own? Whoever speaks from himself — that is, says something peculiar to himself, different from others — speaks for this reason: to establish his own glory. But if I seek the glory of the one who sent me, why would I choose to teach anything else?”

Do you see that there was a reason why he said there too that he “did nothing from himself” (John 5, verse 19, and 8, verse 28)? What was it? It was so that they would believe he did not want honor from the many. That is why, when his words are lowly, he says, “I seek the glory of the Father,” everywhere wanting to persuade them that he himself does not love glory. There are many reasons for his using lowly words: so that he would not be thought unbegotten, or opposed to God; his being clothed in flesh; the weakness of his hearers; and to teach people to think modestly of themselves and to say nothing great about themselves. But for his speaking lofty words one could find only one reason: the greatness of his nature. And if they took offense when he said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8, verse 58), what would have happened to them if they had heard lofty expressions all the time?

Verse 19: “Did not Moses give you the law? And yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

Someone says: “And what connection does this have? What does it have to do with what was said before?” The Jews brought two charges against him: one, that he broke the Sabbath; the other, that he called God his Father, making himself equal with God. And that this was no fancy of theirs, but his own declared meaning — that he did not speak as the many do, but in a special and unique sense — is clear from the following. Many often called God their Father, as in “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” (Malachi 2, verse 10). But that did not make the people equal to God, and so the hearers were not offended.

Now when the Jews said, “This man is not from God,” he often set them right, and made his defense about breaking the Sabbath. In the same way, if the sense they gave his words had come from their own imagination and not from his intention, he would have corrected them and said, “Why do you suppose I am equal to God? I am not equal.” Yet he said nothing of the kind. On the contrary, by what followed he declared that he is equal. For “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also” (John 5, verse 21); and “that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father”; and “the works he does, the Son does likewise” — all these go to establish his equality. Again, about the law he says, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets” (Matthew 5, verse 17).

In this way he knows how to remove wrong suspicions that are in their minds. But in this place he not only does not remove their suspicion that he is equal, he even confirms it. That is also why, when they said in another place, “You make yourself God,” he did not remove their suspicion but even confirmed it, saying, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the paralyzed man — “Take up your bed and walk” (Matthew 9, verse 6).

This, then, was his first aim: to set himself forth as equal with God, showing that he was not God’s adversary, but said the same things and taught the same things as he did. After that he turns to the breaking of the Sabbath, saying, “Did not Moses give you the law, and none of you keeps the law?” It is as if he had said: “The law says, ‘You shall not kill’; yet you kill, and accuse me of breaking the law.” But why does he say “none of you”? Because they were all trying to kill him. “And if I have in fact broken the law,” he says, “it was to save a man; but you break it for evil. And even if what I did was a breaking of the law, it was done to save, and I ought not to be judged by you, who break it in the greatest matters. For what you are doing overturns the whole law.”

Then he presses the point further. He had said many things to them before, but on that earlier occasion he spoke in a loftier way, more suited to his own dignity, while now he speaks more humbly. Why? Because he did not want to keep provoking them. Their anger had now become intense, and they were moving on to murder. And so he goes on checking them in these two ways: by rebuking their wicked daring, saying, “Why are you trying to kill me?”; and by modestly calling himself “a man who has told you the truth” (John 8, verse 40), and showing that those who are murderers at heart are not fit to judge others. And notice both the humility of Christ’s question and the insolence of their answer.

Verse 20: “You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”

These words come from wrath and anger, from a soul made shameless by an unexpected rebuke, and thrown into confusion before its time, as they thought. For just as some robbers hum over their schemes, and then, when they want to put the man they are plotting against off his guard, get their way by keeping silent, so these men do too. But he does not stop to rebuke them for this, so as not to make them more shameless. Instead he takes up his defense about the Sabbath again, reasoning with them from the law. And notice how wisely: [m]

“No wonder you disobey me, when you disobey the law you think you obey, the law you hold was given you by Moses. So it is nothing new if you do not listen to my words.” For since they had said, “God spoke to Moses; but as for this fellow, we do not know where he comes from” (John 9, verse 29), he shows that they were insulting Moses as well as himself; for Moses gave them the law, and they did not obey it.

Verse 21: “I did one work, and you all marvel.”

Notice how he argues where he must defend himself, and turns his defense into a charge against them. About what had been done he does not bring in the person of the Father, but his own: “I did one work.” He wants to show that not to have done it would have been to break the law; that there are many things with more authority than the law; and that “Moses” was willing to accept a command against the law, one with more authority than the law. For “circumcision” has more authority than the Sabbath, and yet circumcision is not from the law, but from “the fathers.” “But I,” he says, “have done something with more authority, and better, than circumcision.”

Then he does not mention the command of the law — for instance, that the priests profane the Sabbath (Matthew 12, verse 5), as he had said already — but speaks more broadly. “You marvel” means “You are confused, you are troubled.” For if the law had been meant to last, circumcision would not have had more authority than it. And he did not say, “I have done a thing greater than circumcision,” but refutes them fully by saying — verse 23: “If a man receives circumcision…”

“Do you see that the law is most firmly kept when a man breaks it? Do you see that breaking the Sabbath is keeping the law? That if the Sabbath were not broken, the law would have had to be broken? So I too have upheld the law.” He did not say, “You are angry with me because I have done something greater than circumcision.” He simply mentioned what had been done, and left it to them to judge whether complete health was not a more necessary thing than circumcision.

“The law,” he says, “is broken so that a man may receive a sign that does nothing for his health; and are you vexed and indignant that it was broken so that someone might be freed from so grievous a disease?”

Verse 24: “Do not judge by appearance.”

What does “by appearance” mean? “Since Moses has the greatest honor among you, do not give your verdict out of regard for persons, but according to the nature of the facts; for that is judging rightly. Why has none of you blamed Moses? Why has no one disobeyed him, when he orders the Sabbath to be broken by a command brought into the law from outside? He allows a command to have more authority than his own law — a command not brought in by the law, but from outside, which is especially remarkable. And you, who are not lawgivers, are zealous for the law beyond all measure and defend it. Yet Moses, who orders the law to be broken by a command that is not from the law, is more worthy of trust than you.” So by saying, “I have made a whole man healthy,” he shows that circumcision too was a “partial” health. And what was the health that circumcision brought? “Every soul,” it says, “that is not circumcised will be utterly destroyed” (Genesis 17, verse 14). “But I have raised up a man who was not partly afflicted, but wholly undone.” “Do not judge,” then, “by appearance.”

Let us be convinced that this was said not only to the people of that time, but to us as well: that we should twist justice in nothing, but do everything on its behalf; that whether a man is poor or rich, we should pay no attention to persons, but look into the facts. “You shall not pity the poor man in judgment,” it says (Exodus 23, verse 3). What does this mean? “Do not be broken down or bent,” it says, “if the one who does the wrong is a poor man.” Now if you may not favor a poor man, much less a rich one. And I say this not only to you who are judges, but to everyone: never twist justice anywhere, but keep it pure everywhere. “The Lord,” it says, “loves righteousness”; and “whoever loves unrighteousness hates his own soul” (Psalm 11, verses 7 and 5, as the Greek Old Testament reads them).

Let us not, I beg you, hate our own souls, or love unrighteousness. Its profit in this present world is certainly little or nothing, and for the world to come it brings great loss. Or rather, I should say, we cannot enjoy it even here. For when we live in luxury with an evil conscience, is that not vengeance and punishment? So let us love righteousness, and never turn our eyes away from that law. For what fruit will we gain from the present life if we leave it without having attained excellence? What will help us there? Friendship, or relatives, or this or that person’s favor? What am I saying — this or that person’s favor? Even if we have Noah, Job, or Daniel for a father, it will do us no good if we are betrayed by our own deeds.

We need one thing only: excellence of soul. This will be able to carry you through safely and rescue you from the everlasting fire; this will escort you to the kingdom of heaven. May we all attain it, 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.