Homily 55 — John 8, verses 48 to 59

“Then the Jews answered and said to him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father.’” [a]

Wickedness is a shameless and brazen thing, and just when it ought to hide itself, that is when it grows fiercer. So it was with the Jews. When they ought to have been pierced to the heart by what was said, and to have marveled at the boldness and the force of his words, they even insult him. They call him a Samaritan and say that he has a demon, and they ask, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” For whenever he says anything lofty, the utterly senseless take it for madness. Yet the evangelist has nowhere said before this that they called him “a Samaritan”; but from this expression it is likely that they had often said it.

“You have a demon,” someone says. Who is it that has a demon? The one who honors God, or the one who insults him who honors God? What, then, does Christ say, he who is gentleness and mildness itself? “I do not have a demon, but I honor him who sent me.” Where he needed to instruct them, to pull down their overweening arrogance, and to teach them not to be proud because of Abraham, he was forceful. But when it was right for him to bear being insulted himself, he showed great gentleness. When they said, “We have God and Abraham for our father,” he struck at them sharply; but when they called him possessed by a demon, he answered submissively. In this way he teaches us to avenge insults offered to God, but to overlook those offered to ourselves.

Verse 50: “I do not seek my own glory.”

“I have said these things,” he says, “to show that it is not fitting for you, who are murderers, to call God your Father. So I spoke them out of honor for him; and it is for his sake that I hear these insults, and for his sake that you dishonor me. Yet I pay no attention to this abuse. You owe an account of your words to him, for whose sake I now hear these things. For ‘I do not seek my own glory.’ That is why I pass over punishing you and turn instead to urging you, and I advise you to act in such a way that you will not only escape punishment, but also gain eternal life.”

Verse 51: “Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

Here he speaks not of faith only, but of a pure life. Above he said, “will have eternal life,” but here, “will not see death” (John 6, verse 40). At the same time he hints to them that they could do nothing against him; for if the one who keeps his word will not die, much less will he himself. At any rate, that is how they understood it, for they said to him:

Verse 52: “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead.”

That is, “Those who heard the word of God are dead, and will those who have heard yours not die?”

Verse 53: “Are you greater than our father Abraham?”

What empty glory! Once again they fall back on their kinship with him. Yet it would have been fitting to say, “Are you greater than God? Or are those who have heard you greater than Abraham?” But they do not say this, because they thought that he was even less than Abraham. At first, then, he showed that they were murderers, and so drew them away from their kinship with Abraham. But when they persisted, he managed it another way, by showing that they were laboring for nothing. And about the “death” he said nothing to them; he did not reveal or tell them what kind of death he meant. For the time being he wanted them to believe that he is greater than Abraham, so that even by this he might put them to shame. “Surely,” he says, “if I were an ordinary man, I ought not to die, since I have done no wrong. But when I speak the truth, and have no sin, and am sent from God, and am greater than Abraham, are you not mad, are you not laboring in vain, when you try to kill me?” What, then, is their reply?

“Now we know that you have a demon.” The Samaritan woman did not speak like this. She did not say to him, “You have a demon,” but only, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” (John 4, verse 12). For these men were insolent and accursed, while she wanted to learn. That is why she was in doubt, and answered with proper moderation, and called him “Lord.” For one who promised far greater things, and who deserved to be believed, ought not to have been insulted, but even admired; yet these men said that he had a demon. The Samaritan woman’s words were those of someone in doubt; these were the words of men unbelieving and perverse.

“Are you greater than our father Abraham?” So this saying of his makes him greater than Abraham. “When, then, you have seen him lifted up, you will confess that he is greater.” That is why he said, “When you have lifted me up, you will know that I Am” (verse 28). And notice his wisdom. Having first torn them away from their kinship with Abraham, he shows that he is greater than Abraham, so that he may be seen to be far, far greater than the prophets as well. Indeed, it was because they kept calling him a prophet that he said, “My word has no place in you” (verse 37). In that other place he declared that he raises the dead; but here he says, “Whoever believes will never see death,” which was a much greater thing than not allowing believers to be held by death. That is why the Jews were all the more enraged. What, then, do they say?

“Who do you make yourself out to be?”

This too is said insultingly. “You are claiming something for yourself,” says one of them. To this, then, Christ replies:

Verse 54: “If I honor myself, my honor is nothing.”

What do the heretics say here? That he heard the question, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” and did not dare to say to them, “Yes, I am greater,” but said it in a veiled way. What, then? Is his honor “nothing”? With regard to them, it is nothing. Just as he said, “My testimony is not true” (John 5, verse 31), with reference to the opinion they would form of it, so he speaks here too. [f]

“There is one who honors me.”

Why did he not say, “The Father who sent me,” as he did before, but, “of whom you say that he is your God”? Verse 55: “Yet you have not known him.” He spoke this way because he wanted to show that they not only did not know his Father, but did not know God.

“But I know him.”

“So to say, ‘I know him,’ is not boasting, while to say, ‘I do not know him,’ would be a lie. But you lie when you say that you know him; and just as you lie when you say that you know him, so would I, if I were to say that I do not know him.”

“If I honor myself.” Since they said, “Who do you make yourself out to be?” he replies, “If I make myself anything, my honor is nothing. Just as I know him exactly, so you do not know him.” And just as in the case of Abraham he did not strip away their whole claim, but said, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants,” so as to make the charge against them heavier, so here too he does not remove the whole of it. But what does he say? “Of whom you say.” By granting them their boast in words, he increases the force of the accusation against them. How, then, do you “not know him”? “Because you insult one who says and does everything so that he may be glorified — and that when this one has been sent by him.” This assertion has no testimony to support it, but what follows serves to establish it.

“And I keep his word.”

Here, if they had had anything at all to say, they could have refuted him; for this was the strongest proof that he had been sent by God.

Verse 56: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Again he shows that they were strangers to the race of Abraham, if they grieved at what Abraham rejoiced in. “My day” seems to me to mean the day of the crucifixion, which Abraham foreshadowed in figure when he offered the ram and Isaac. What do they reply?

Verse 57: “You are not yet forty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

So we conclude that Christ was nearly forty.

Verses 58 and 59: “Jesus said to them, ‘Before Abraham was, I Am.’ Then they picked up stones to throw at him.”

Do you see how he proved himself greater than Abraham? For the man who rejoiced to see his day, and made it the object of his earnest longing, plainly did so because it was a day that would bring benefit, and belonged to one greater than himself. They had said, “The carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13, verse 55), and imagined nothing more about him; so he leads them step by step to a lofty idea of him. That is why, when they heard the words, “You do not know God,” they were not upset; but when they heard, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” they became furious, as though the nobility of their descent were being degraded, and they would have stoned him.

“He saw my day and was glad.” He shows that he did not come to his suffering unwillingly, since he praises the one who was gladdened at the cross. For this was the salvation of the world. But they threw stones at him — so ready were they for murder — and they did this on their own, without any inquiry.

But why did he not say, “Before Abraham was, I was,” instead of “I Am”? Just as the Father uses this expression, “I Am,” so does Christ; for it signifies continuous being, apart from all time. That is why the expression seemed blasphemous to them. Now if they could not bear the comparison with Abraham, though this was a small one, would they ever have stopped stoning him if he had constantly made himself equal to the Father?

After this he again flees as a man and hides himself, having laid enough instruction before them. And having finished his work, he went out of the temple and went away to heal the blind man, proving by his actions that he is before Abraham. But perhaps someone will say: “Why did he not paralyze their strength? Then they would have believed.” He healed the paralyzed man, and they did not believe. In fact, he worked ten thousand wonders; at the very time of his suffering he threw them to the ground and darkened their eyes, and still they did not believe. How, then, would they have believed if he had paralyzed their strength?

There is nothing worse than a soul hardened in despair. Even if it sees signs and wonders, it still holds on to the same shamelessness. So Pharaoh, who received ten thousand blows, came to his senses only while he was being punished, and stayed the same kind of man until the last day of his life, pursuing the people he had let go. That is why Paul says again and again, “So that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3, verse 13). For just as calluses on the body, once they have formed, become dead and have no feeling, so the soul, when many passions have taken hold of it, becomes dead to virtue. Apply what you like to it, it perceives nothing of the matter; whether you threaten punishment or anything else, it stays without feeling.

That is why I beg you, while we have hope of salvation, while we can still turn back, to use every means to do it. For people who have become past feeling are afterward in the blind state of helmsmen who have given up hope: they abandon their ship to the wind and give it no help themselves. So the envious man looks to one thing only, to satisfy his craving. Even if he is likely to be punished, or even killed, he is still possessed by that passion alone; and so is the man without self-control, and so is the greedy man. [n]

But if the rule of the passions is so great, the rule of virtue is much greater. If we despise death for them, much more should we for this. If sinners disregard their own lives, much less ought we to spare ours in the cause of our salvation. For what will we have to say if, when those who are perishing are so busy about their own destruction, we do not show even equal energy for our own salvation, but go on wasting away with envy?

Nothing is worse than envy. To destroy another, it destroys itself as well. The eye of the envious man wastes away with grief; he lives in a continual death; he counts everyone his enemy, even those who have never wronged him. He grieves that God is honored; he rejoices in what the devil rejoices in. Is someone honored by people? That is not honor; do not envy him. But is he honored by God? Then strive to become like him. You do not want to? Then why destroy yourself as well? Why throw away what you have? You cannot become like him, or gain any good thing? Then why, besides this, take evil on yourself too, when you ought to rejoice with him — so that even if you cannot share his labors, you may profit by rejoicing with him? For often even the will alone can accomplish great good.

Ezekiel, at least, says that the Moabites were punished because they rejoiced over the Israelites, and that certain others were saved because they mourned over the misfortunes of their neighbors (Ezekiel 25, verse 8). Now if there is some comfort for those who mourn over the troubles of others, much more is there for those who rejoice at the honors of others. He charged the Moabites with having gloated over the Israelites, and yet it was God who was punishing Israel. But even when he punishes, he does not want us to rejoice over those who are punished, for it is not his wish to punish them. Now if we must grieve with those who are punished, much more must we avoid envying those who are honored.

So, for example, Korah and Dathan perished with their company: they made those they envied shine the brighter, and handed themselves over to punishment. For envy is a venomous beast, an unclean beast, a deliberate vice that admits of no pardon, a wickedness stripped of every excuse, the cause and mother of all evils. So let us pull it up by the roots, so that we may be freed from evil here and may obtain the good things hereafter, 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.