Homily 54 — John 8, verses 31 to 47

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’” [a]

Beloved, our condition calls for great endurance, and endurance is produced when teachings are deeply rooted. No wind, however it batters it, can tear up the oak that sends its root down into the depths of the earth and is firmly clamped there. In the same way, no one will be able to overturn the soul that is nailed fast by the fear of God. For to be nailed is more than to be rooted. That is why the prophet prays, saying, “Nail my flesh with your fear” (Psalm 119, verse 120, in the Greek Old Testament) — that is, “Fix me and fasten me as though with a nail driven into me.”

People of this kind are hard to capture, while those of the opposite sort are an easy prey and are easily thrown down. That is what happened with the Jews at that time: after they had heard and believed, they turned aside again. So Christ, wanting to deepen their faith so that it would not be merely on the surface, digs into their souls with more piercing words. It was fitting for believers to bear even rebukes, but they grew angry at once. And how does he do this? First he tells them, “If you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed; and the truth will make you free.” It is almost as if he were saying, “I am about to cut deep, but do not be shaken.” Or rather, by these words he brought down the pride of their thinking. “Will make you free” — from what, tell me? From your sins. And what do those boasters say?

Verse 33: “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been slaves to anyone.”

At once their thoughts sank low, and this happened because they were all aflutter over worldly things. “If you continue in my word” was the saying of one who was declaring what was in their hearts: he knew that they had indeed believed, but had not continued. And he promises a great thing: that they would become his disciples. Some had already gone away from him before this, and it is to them he alludes when he says, “If you continue.” They too had heard and believed, and had left because they could not continue. “For many of his disciples went back, and no longer walked openly with him” (John 6, verse 66).

“You will know the truth” means “You will know me, for I am the truth. All the things of the Jews were types, but you will know the truth from me, and it will free you from your sins.” To those others he said, “You will die in your sins”; so to these he says, “It will make you free.” He did not say, “I will deliver you from slavery”; he left them to infer this. What did they say, then?

“We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been slaves to anyone.” And yet, if they had to be annoyed, you would have expected them to be annoyed at the first part of what he said, at his saying, “You will know the truth,” and to reply, “What! Do we not know the truth now? Is the law, then, and our knowledge a lie?” But they cared nothing about any of this. They are hurt about worldly things, and this was their idea of slavery. And certainly even now there are many who are ashamed of things that make no real difference, and of this kind of slavery, but feel no shame at all at the slavery of sin. They would rather be called slaves of that second kind ten thousand times than once of the first. These men were like that. They did not even know of any other slavery, and they say, “Do you call slaves those who are of the race of Abraham, the nobly born, who for that very reason ought not to be called slaves?” And one of them says, “For we have never been slaves to anyone.” Such are the boasts of the Jews: “We are the seed of Abraham,” “We are Israelites.” They never mention their own righteous deeds. That is why John cried out to them, saying, “Do not think to say, ‘We have Abraham as our father’” (Matthew 3, verse 9).

And why did Christ not refute them? They had often been slaves — to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and many others. Because his words were not spoken to win honor for himself, but for their salvation and their benefit, and that was the goal he was pressing toward. He might have spoken of the four hundred years; he might have spoken of the seventy; he might have spoken of the years of slavery in the time of the Judges, twenty at one time, two at another, seven at another; he might have said that they had never stopped being slaves. But he did not want to show that they were slaves of men. He wanted to show that they were slaves of sin, which is the most grievous slavery, and from which God alone can set a person free, for forgiving sins belongs to no one else. And this too they admitted. Since, then, they confessed that this was the work of God, he brings them to this point and says,

Verse 34: “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.”

He shows that this is the freedom he is speaking of: freedom from this slavery.

Verse 35: “The slave does not remain in the house, but the Son remains forever.”

Here too he gently overturns the things of the law, alluding to former times. He adds these words so that they would not run back to those things and say, “We have the sacrifices Moses commanded; they are able to set us free.” Otherwise, what connection would the saying have? For “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being counted righteous freely by his grace” (Romans 3, verses 23 and 24) — even the priests themselves. That is why Paul too says of the priest that “he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins, since he himself is surrounded by weakness” (Hebrews 5, verses 3 and 2). And this is what he means by saying, “The slave does not remain in the house.” Here he also shows his equal honor with the Father, and the difference between slave and free. For this is the meaning of the parable: “the slave has no power.” That is what “does not remain” means.

But why does he mention a “house” when he is speaking about sins? To show that, just as a master has power over his house, so he has power over all things. And “does not remain” means this: “has no power to grant favors, since he is not master of the house.” But the Son is master of the house; that is what “remains forever” means, a figure taken from human life. And so that they would not say, “Who are you?”, he says, “Everything is mine, for I am the Son, and I live in my Father’s house” — calling his power a “house.” So in another place he calls the kingdom his Father’s house: “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places” (John 14, verse 2). Since the discussion was about freedom and slavery, he had good reason to use this figure, telling them that they had no power to set anyone free. [f]

Verse 36: “If the Son, therefore, makes you free.”

Do you see that the Son is of the same essence as the Father, and how he declares that he has the same power as the Father? “If the Son makes you free, no one contradicts it afterward; you have a secure freedom.” For “it is God who counts people righteous; who is the one who condemns?” (Romans 8, verses 33 and 34). Here he shows that he himself is pure from sin, and he alludes to the freedom that is freedom in name only. Even people can give that kind; the other kind God alone gives. And so he persuaded them not to be ashamed of the one slavery, but of the slavery of sin. And wishing to show that they were not slaves except in so far as they rejected that freedom, he shows them all the more to be slaves by saying, “You will be free indeed.”

These are the words of one declaring that the freedom they had was not real. Then, so that they would not say, “We have no sin” — for it was likely they would say so — notice how he brings them under this charge. Leaving aside any proof from the whole of their lives, he brings forward what they had in hand, what they were still wanting to do, and says,

Verse 37: “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill me.”

Gently and little by little he drives them out of that kinship, teaching them not to be proud of it. For just as freedom and slavery depend on people’s actions, so does kinship. He did not say outright, “You are not Abraham’s descendants, you murderers of the righteous.” For a while he even goes along with them and says, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.” Yet this is not the point at issue, and in the rest of this speech he uses greater force. For we may observe that, as a rule, whenever he is about to do some great work, once he has done it he speaks with greater boldness, as though the testimony of his works shut people’s mouths. “But you seek to kill me.”

“What of it, if they wanted to do so justly?” But that was not the case either. That is why he gives the reason too:

“Because my word has no place in you.”

“How was it, then, that they believed in him?” As I said before, they changed again. That is why he touched them to the quick: “If you boast of kinship with Abraham, you ought also to show his way of life.” And he did not say, “You do not hold my words,” but, “My word has no place in you,” declaring the loftiness of his teachings. Yet even so, this was no reason for them to kill him; they should rather have honored him and waited on him in order to learn. “But what if you are saying these things on your own authority?” That is why he added,

Verse 38: “I speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

“Just as I declare the Father both by my words and by the truth, so you declare yours by your actions. For I have not only the same essence as the Father, but the same truth as well.”

Verses 39 and 40: “They said to him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus says to them, ‘If you had Abraham as your father, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me.’”

Here he keeps coming back to their intent to murder, and keeps mentioning Abraham. He does this because he wants to draw them away from this kinship and take away their excessive boasting, and also to persuade them no longer to rest their hopes of salvation on Abraham, or on the kinship that comes by nature, but on the kinship that comes by choice. For what kept them from coming to Christ was this: they thought that kinship was enough for their salvation. But what is the “truth” he speaks of? That he is equal with the Father. It was on this account that the Jews were trying to kill him; and he says, “You seek to kill me because I have told you the truth, which I heard from my Father.”

To show that these things are not opposed to the Father, he turns to him again. They say to him,

Verse 41: “We were not born of sexual immorality; we have one Father, God.”

“What are you saying? You have God for your Father, and you blame Christ for claiming this?” Do you see that he had said God was his Father in a special way? When he had cast them out of their kinship with Abraham, they had no answer, so they dare something greater and take refuge in God. But he drives them out of this honor too, saying, [j]

Verses 42 to 44: “If God were your Father, you would love me; for I came forth and have come from God. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do your father’s cravings. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not remain in the truth. When he tells a lie, he speaks from what is his own.”

He had driven them out of their kinship with Abraham, and when they dared greater things, he then adds a blow. He tells them that they are not only not Abraham’s children, but are even children of the devil, and he inflicts a wound to match their shamelessness. Nor does he leave it unsupported; he establishes it by proofs. “For murder belongs to the wickedness of the devil.” And he did not merely say, “You do his works,” but, “You do his cravings,” showing that both he and they are set on murder, and that envy was the cause. For the devil destroyed Adam, not because he had any charge against him, but out of envy alone. He is alluding to this here too.

“And did not remain in the truth” — that is, in the right way of life. Since they kept accusing him of not being from God, he tells them that this too comes from that source. For the devil was the first father of a lie, when he said, “On the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened” (Genesis 3, verse 5); he was the first to use it. People use a lie not as something that belongs to them, but as foreign to their nature; but he uses it as his own.

Verse 45: “And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.”

What kind of reasoning is this? “Having no charge against me, you want to kill me. You persecute me because you are enemies of the truth. If this were not the reason, you would have named your charge.” That is why he added,

Verse 46: “Which of you convicts me of sin?”

Then they said, “We were not born of sexual immorality.” Yet in fact many of them had been born of sexual immorality, for they entered into unions that were not fitting. Still, he does not convict them of this, but applies himself to the other point. When he has proved by all these signs that they are not of God but of the devil — for murder is of the devil, and lying is of the devil, and you do both — then he shows that love is the sign of being of God.

“Why do you not understand my speech?” They were always in doubt, saying, “What is this he is saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” So he tells them, “You do not understand my speech because you do not have the word of God. And this happens to you because your understanding crawls along the ground, and what is mine is far too great for you.” But what if they were unable to understand? “Not able” here means “not willing.” “For you have trained yourselves to be small-minded, to imagine nothing great.” Because they said that they persecuted him out of zeal for God, he works hard everywhere to show that persecuting him is the act of those who hate God, and that, on the contrary, loving him is the act of those who know God.

“We have one Father, God.” On this they pride themselves: on their honor, not on their righteous deeds. “So your not believing is no proof that I am an enemy of God; your unbelief is a sign that you do not know God. And the reason is that you are willing to lie and to do the works of the devil. But this comes from smallness of soul” — as the apostle says, “For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh?” (First Corinthians 3, verse 3) — “And why is it that you cannot? Because you want to do the cravings of your father; you are eager, you are ambitious to do them.” Do you see that “you cannot” expresses unwillingness? For “Abraham did not do this.” “What are his works? Mildness, gentleness, obedience. But you take the opposite side, being hard and cruel.”

But how did it enter their minds to take refuge in God? He had shown them unworthy of Abraham, so to escape this charge they climbed higher. When he reproached them with murder, they said this, making it a kind of excuse for themselves, as if they were avenging God. So he shows that this very thing is the act of people who oppose God. And “I came forth” shows that he was from there. He says, “I came forth,” alluding to his coming among us. But since they would probably say to him, “You are saying strange and new things,” he tells them that he had come from God. “It is no wonder, then, that you do not hear them, because you are of the devil. For why would you kill me? What charge do you have to bring against me? If there is none, why do you not believe me?”

So then, having proved them to be of the devil by their lying and their murder, he shows them to be strangers to Abraham and to God as well, both because they hated one who had done no wrong, and because they would not hear his word. And in every way he proves that he was not opposed to God, and that this was not why they refused to believe; it was because they were strangers to God. For when one who had done no sin, who said that he came from God and was sent by God, who spoke the truth, and spoke it in a way that challenged everyone to test it, was still not believed after all this, it is clear that he was not believed because they were people of the flesh. For sins are apt, yes, very apt, to debase a soul. That is why Scripture says, “Since you have become dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5, verse 11). For when a person cannot despise earthly things, how will he ever be wise about heavenly things?

So I urge you: let us use every means to make our lives righteous and to cleanse our minds, so that no filth may stand in our way. Kindle for yourselves the light of knowledge, and do not sow among thorns. For how will someone who does not know that greed is an evil ever know the greater good? How will someone who does not keep away from these earthly things ever hold fast to those heavenly ones? [l]

It is good to seize by force — not the things that perish, but the kingdom of heaven. “The violent,” it says, “take it by force” (Matthew 11, verse 12). So it cannot be won by laziness, but by zeal. But what does “the violent” mean? Great force is needed, for the way is narrow and hard; a young and noble soul is needed. Plunderers want to outrun everyone else. They look to nothing — not to conviction, not to accusation, not to punishment — but are given over to one thing only, getting hold of what they want to seize, and they run past everyone ahead of them on the road.

Let us seize the kingdom of heaven, then. Here seizing is no fault but rather a matter for praise, and the fault is in not seizing. Here our wealth does not come from someone else’s loss. So let us hurry to seize it. If passion troubles us, if craving troubles us, let us do violence to our nature; let us become gentler; let us labor a little, so that we may rest forever.

Do not seize gold; seize that wealth which shows gold to be nothing but mud. Tell me: if lead and gold were set before you, which would you take? Is it not clear that you would take the gold? Where the one who seizes is punished, then, do you choose the more valuable thing, but where the one who seizes is honored, do you give up the more valuable? If there were punishment in both cases, would you not rather aim at this second one? But in this case, far from punishment, there is even blessedness. “And how can one seize it?” Throw away the things you already have in your hands, for as long as you grip them, you will not be able to seize the other. Consider, please, a man with his hands full of silver. As long as he keeps hold of it, will he be able to seize gold, unless he first throws away the silver and has his hands free? For the one who seizes a thing must have his clothes belted up, so that nothing holds him back.

Even now there are hostile powers running at us to rob us. But let us flee them, let us flee them, dragging nothing behind us that could give them a handhold. Let us cut the cords; let us strip off the things of earth. What need is there of silk garments? How long will we go on unrolling this farce? How long will we go on burying gold? I wanted to stop saying these things all the time, but you will not let me, for you keep giving me occasions and arguments. But now at least let us stop, so that, having taught others by our lives, we may obtain the good things promised, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.