Homily 51 — John 7, verses 37 to 44

“On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’” [a]

Those who come to hear the divine preaching and give their attention to the faith must show the longing that thirsty people have for water, and kindle the same desire in themselves. Then they will also be able to hold on to what is said with great care. For thirsty people, once they have taken a bowl, drain it eagerly and only then stop. In the same way, those who hear the oracles of God, if they take them in thirsting, will never tire until they have drunk them to the bottom. To show that people ought always to thirst and hunger, Scripture says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5, verse 6); and here Christ says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” What he means is something like this: “I draw no one to me by force or compulsion. But if anyone has great zeal, if anyone is on fire with desire, that is the one I call.”

But why has the evangelist noted that it was “on the last day, the great day”? Both the first day and the last were “great,” while the days in between they spent mostly in enjoying themselves. Why, then, does he say “on the last day”? Because on that day they were all gathered together. On the first day he did not come, and he told his brothers the reason. Nor does he say anything of this kind on the second or third day, so that his words would not come to nothing, since his hearers were about to give themselves over to self-indulgence. But on the last day, when they were going back home, he gives them provisions for their salvation, and he cries out aloud — partly to show us his boldness, and partly because of the size of the crowd.

And to show that he was not speaking of drink for the body, he adds, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.” By “belly” he means the heart here, as Scripture says in another place too: “And your law in the midst of my belly” (Psalm 40, verse 10, in Theodotion’s version). But where has the Scripture said that “rivers of living water will flow from his belly”? Nowhere. What, then, does “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture says” mean? Here we must put a stop, so that “rivers will flow from his belly” may be Christ’s own statement.

Many were saying, “This is the Christ,” and, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles?” So he shows that they needed an accurate knowledge, and needed to be convinced not so much by the miracles as by the Scriptures. In fact, many who even saw him working wonders did not receive him as the Christ, and were ready to say, “Do not the Scriptures say that the Christ comes from the seed of David?” They kept harping on this. So, wanting to show that he did not shrink from the proof from the Scriptures, he sends them back to the Scriptures again. He had said before, “Search the Scriptures” (John 5, verse 39); and again, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will be taught by God’” (John 6, verse 45); and, “Moses accuses you” (John 5, verse 45); and here, “As the Scripture has said, rivers will flow from his belly,” hinting at the fullness and abundance of grace.

So in another place he says, “A spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4, verse 14) — that is to say, “he will possess much grace.” Elsewhere he calls it “eternal life,” but here “living water.” He calls “living” what is always at work. For the grace of the Spirit, once it has entered the mind and been settled there, gushes up more than any spring. It does not fail, it does not run dry, it does not stand still. So to show at once its unfailing supply and its boundless working, he has called it “a spring” and “rivers” — not one river, but countless rivers. And in the first saying he pictured its abundance with the word “welling up.”

Anyone can see plainly what is meant if he considers the wisdom of Stephen, the tongue of Peter, the force of Paul: how nothing held them back and nothing stood against them — not the anger of crowds, not the uprisings of tyrants, not the plots of demons, not daily deaths — but like rivers sweeping along with a great roar, they went on their way carrying everything along with them.

Verse 39: “But he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given.”

How, then, did the prophets prophesy and work those countless wonders? The apostles did not cast out demons by the Spirit, but by power they received from him, as he himself says: “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out?” (Matthew 12, verse 27). He said this to show that before the crucifixion not all cast out demons by the Spirit, but that some did it by the power they received from him. So when he was about to send them out, he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20, verse 22); and again, “The Holy Spirit came upon them” (Acts 19, verse 6); and then they worked miracles. But when he was sending them out, Scripture did not say that “he gave them the Holy Spirit,” but that he gave them “power,” saying, “Cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, raise the dead; freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10, verses 1 and 8). [e]

In the case of the prophets, though, everyone agrees that the gift was the gift of the Holy Spirit. But this grace was cut short; it withdrew and vanished from the earth from the day it was said, “Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23, verse 38). Even before that day its scarcity had begun, for there was no longer any prophet among them, and grace no longer visited their holy things.

So the Holy Spirit had been held back, but from then on was to be poured out abundantly. And the beginning of this giving came after the crucifixion — not only in its abundance, but also in the increased greatness of the gifts. For the gift was more wonderful, as when Scripture says, “You do not know what spirit you are of” (Luke 9, verse 55); and again, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery, but the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8, verse 15). The men of old had the Spirit themselves, but did not pass it on to others, while the apostles filled tens of thousands with it. Since, then, I say, they were to receive this gift, but it had not yet been given, for this reason he adds, “The Holy Spirit was not yet.” Because the Lord had spoken of this grace, the evangelist has said, “For the Holy Spirit was not yet” — that is, “was not yet given.”

“Because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

He calls the cross “glory.” We were enemies; we had sinned and fallen short of the gift of God; we hated God. Grace was the proof of our reconciliation, and a gift is not given to people who are hated, but to friends and to those who have pleased the giver. So it was necessary that the sacrifice be offered for us first, so that the enmity against God that was in our flesh would be done away, so that we would become friends of God, and so receive the gift. If this was so with the promise made to Abraham, it is much more so with grace.

Paul has made this plain when he says, “If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void — because the law brings wrath” (Romans 4, verses 14 and 15). What he means is this. God promised to give the earth to Abraham and to his descendants. But his descendants were unworthy of the promise, and by their own deeds they could not please God. For this reason faith came in, an easy thing to do, so that it might draw grace to itself and the promise might not fail. And Scripture says, “Therefore it is of faith, so that it may be by grace, in order that the promise may be sure” (Romans 4, verse 16). So it is by grace, since by their own efforts they could not succeed.

But why, after saying “according to the Scriptures,” did he not add the testimony itself? Because their minds were corrupt. For — Verses 40 to 42: “Some said, ‘This is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘He deceives the people.’ Others said, ‘The Christ does not come from Galilee, but from the village of Bethlehem.’”

Others said, “When the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from” (verse 27). There was a division of opinion, as you would expect in a confused crowd; for they were not listening to his words attentively, or in order to learn. That is why he gives them no answer. Yet they said, “Does the Christ come out of Galilee?” And he had praised Nathanael as “a true Israelite,” though Nathanael had said something even more forceful and striking: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1, verse 46). But these men, and those who said to Nicodemus, “Search and look, for no prophet arises out of Galilee” (verse 52), did not say it because they were seeking to learn, but only to overturn people’s opinion about Christ. Nathanael said it as a lover of the truth, who knew all the ancient histories exactly. But they looked to one thing only, and that was to remove the belief that he was the Christ. That is why he revealed nothing to them.

People who even contradicted themselves — saying at one time, “No one knows where he comes from,” and at another, “From Bethlehem” — would plainly have opposed him even if they had been told. Grant that they did not know his birthplace, that he was from Bethlehem, because he lived in Nazareth — though even this cannot be allowed, for he was not born there. Were they ignorant of his family too, that he was “of the house and lineage of David”? How, then, could they say, “Does not the Christ come from the seed of David?” (verse 42). Because by that question they wanted to hide even this fact. Everything they said, they said with malice. Why did they not come to him and say, “We admire you in other respects, and you tell us to believe you on the strength of the Scriptures. So tell us: how is it that the Scriptures say the Christ must come from Bethlehem, when you have come from Galilee?” But they said nothing of the kind; everything was said in malice. And to show that they were not speaking as people who were inquiring or wanted to learn, the evangelist has added at once, Verse 44: “Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.”

This, if nothing else, might have been enough to pierce their hearts. But they felt nothing, as the prophet says: “They were torn apart, and were not pierced in heart” (Psalm 35, verse 15, in the Greek Old Testament).

Such a thing is malice! It gives way to nothing. It looks to one thing only, and that is to destroy the person it plots against. But what does Scripture say? “Whoever digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it himself” (Proverbs 26, verse 27). And that is what happened then. They wanted to kill him, to stop his preaching, as they thought; the result was the opposite. The preaching flourishes by the grace of Christ, while everything of theirs has been quenched and has perished. They have lost their country, their freedom, their safety, their worship; they have been stripped of all their prosperity, and have become slaves and captives. [k]

Knowing this, then, let us never plot against others, aware that by doing so we sharpen the sword against ourselves and deal ourselves the deeper wound. Has someone hurt you, and do you want to take revenge on him? Do not take revenge, and then you will be able to be avenged. But if you take revenge, you are not avenged. Do not think this is a riddle; it is a true saying. “How? In what way?” Because if you do not take revenge on him, you make God his enemy; but if you take revenge yourself, that is no longer so. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12, verse 19).

Suppose we have slaves, and they quarrel with one another, and instead of leaving it to us to judge and punish, they take it on themselves. Even if they come to us ten thousand times, not only will we not avenge them, we will even be angry with them and say, “You runaway! You whipping post! You ought to have brought it all to us. But since you got in ahead of us and took revenge yourself, do not trouble us any further.” Much more will God, who has told us to commit everything to him, say this. How can it be anything but absurd for us to demand so much good sense and obedience from our slaves, and yet refuse to yield to our Master in the very things in which we want our household slaves to yield to us? I say this because of how ready you are to punish one another.

The truly wise man ought not to do this, even if that great reward — being forgiven in return — were not held out to him; he ought to pardon and forgive offenses. For tell me: if you condemn someone who has sinned, why do you sin yourself and fall into the same fault? Has he insulted you? Do not insult him back, or you have insulted yourself. Has he struck you? Do not strike him back, for then there is no difference between you. Has he upset you? Do not upset him in return, for there is no gain in it, and you in your turn will be put on a level with those who have wronged you. But if you bear it with gentleness and mildness, you will be able to rebuke your enemy, to shame him, to make him weary of his anger. No one cures evil with evil, but evil with good.

Some of the pagans lay down these rules of wisdom. Now if there is such wisdom among the foolish pagans, let us be ashamed to show ourselves worse than they are. Many of them have been wronged and have borne it; many have been falsely accused and have not defended themselves; they have been plotted against and have repaid it with kindness. And there is no small fear that some of them may be found greater than we are in the way they live, and so make our punishment heavier. For we have shared in the Spirit; we look for the kingdom; we pursue wisdom for the sake of heavenly things; we fear hell; we are told to become angels; we share in the mysteries. When we do not reach the virtue they have attained, what pardon will we have? If we must go beyond the Jews — for “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5, verse 20) — much more must we go beyond the pagans; if beyond the Pharisees, much more beyond the unbelievers. If the kingdom is shut against us when we do not surpass the righteousness of the Jews, how will we be able to reach it when we prove to be worse than the pagans?

So let us cast out all bitterness, and wrath, and anger. “To say the same things is no trouble to me, and for you it is safe” (Philippians 3, verse 1). Physicians too often use the same remedy; and we will not stop sounding the same things in your ears — reminding, teaching, urging. For the uproar of worldly affairs is great; it makes us forget, and we need constant teaching. So, in order that we may not meet together in this place uselessly and in vain, let us give the proof that comes through works, so that we may obtain the good things to come, 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.