Homily 66 — John 12, verses 8 to 24

“So a great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, and they came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” [a]

Just as wealth tends to hurl the careless into ruin, so does power: the first leads into greed, the second into pride. See, for example, how the common people of the Jews, who were under others’ rule, are sound, while their rulers are corrupt. That the people believed in Christ, the evangelists keep telling us, when they say that “many of the crowd believed in him” (John 7, verses 31 and 48); but those who belonged to the rulers did not believe. And it is the rulers themselves, not the crowd, who say, “Has any of the rulers believed in him?” And what does one of them say? “This crowd, who do not know God, are accursed” (John 7, verse 49). They call the believers accursed, and themselves, the murderers, wise. Here too, once they had seen the miracle, the many believed; but the rulers were not content with their own evil deeds — they even tried to kill Lazarus.

Grant that they did try to kill Christ because he broke the Sabbath, because he made himself equal to the Father, and because of the Romans you keep pointing to. What charge did they have against Lazarus, that they tried to kill him? Is it a crime to have received a kindness? Do you see how murderous their will is? And yet he had worked many miracles, but none enraged them as much as this one — not the paralyzed man, not the blind man. This one was more wonderful in its nature; it was done after many others; and it was a strange thing to see a man who had been dead four days walking and talking. A fine thing to do at a feast, truly — to mix murder into the sacred festival!

Besides, in the other cases they thought they could accuse him over the Sabbath and so draw the crowds away. But here, since they had no fault to find with him, they make their attempt on the man who had been healed. Here they could not even say that he was opposed to the Father, since the prayer had stopped their mouths. So, since the charge they kept bringing against him had been taken away, and the miracle was plain to see, they rush to murder. This means they would have done the same in the case of the blind man, if they had not been able to find fault over the Sabbath. Besides, that man was of no note, and they threw him out of the temple; but Lazarus was a man of standing, as is clear from the many who came to comfort his sisters. And the miracle was done in the sight of all, and in a most marvelous way. That is why everyone ran to see. This, then, is what stung them: that while the feast was going on, everyone should leave it and go to Bethany. So they set their hand to killing him, and thought they were doing nothing outrageous — that is how murderous they were. This is why the law, at its very start, opens with this: “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20, verse 13); and the prophet brings this charge against them: “Their hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1, verse 15).

But how is it that after no longer walking openly in Judea, and withdrawing into the wilderness, he now enters openly again? Having quenched their anger by withdrawing, he comes to them when they have calmed down. Besides, the crowd that went before him and followed after him was enough to throw them into agony, for no sign drew the people so much as the sign of Lazarus. Another evangelist says that they spread their garments under his feet (Matthew 21, verse 8), and that “the whole city was stirred” (Matthew 21, verse 10) — with such honor did he enter. And he did this acting out one prophecy in figure and fulfilling another, and the same act was the beginning of the one and the end of the other. The words, “Rejoice, for your King comes to you, gentle” (Zechariah 9, verse 9), belonged to him as the fulfillment of a prophecy; but his sitting on a donkey was the act of one sketching out a future event in advance: that he was going to have the unclean race of the Gentiles subject to him.

But how is it that the others say he sent disciples and said, “Untie the donkey and the colt” (Matthew 21, verse 2), while John says nothing of the kind, only that “having found a young donkey, he sat on it”? It is likely that both things happened: after the donkey had been untied, while the disciples were bringing it, he found the colt and sat on it. And they took small branches of palm trees and olive trees, and spread their garments on the road, showing that they now had a higher opinion of him than of a prophet. And they said, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (verse 13). Do you see that what choked them most was this: the conviction everyone had that he was not an enemy of God? And what divided the people most was his saying that he had come from the Father. But what does verse 15 mean: “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion”?

It is because their kings had, for the most part, been an unjust and greedy set of men. They had handed them over to their enemies, corrupted the people, and made them subject to their foes. “Take courage,” it says; “this one is not like that, but gentle and mild.” The donkey shows this, for he did not enter with an army following him, but with a donkey alone.

Verse 16: “But the disciples did not know this,” says the evangelist, “that it had been written of him.”

Do you see that they were ignorant on most points, because he did not reveal things to them? When he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2, verse 19), the disciples did not understand then either. Another evangelist says that “this saying was hidden from them” (Luke 18, verse 34), and they did not know that he would rise from the dead. Now this was concealed from them with good reason. (That is why another evangelist says that as they kept hearing it they grieved and were downcast, and this because they did not understand the saying about the resurrection.) It was concealed with good reason, because it was too high for them. But why was the matter of the donkey not revealed to them? Because this too was a great thing. But notice the evangelist’s wisdom: he is not ashamed to put their former ignorance on display. That it was written, they knew; that it was written of him, they did not know. For it would have made them stumble if he, being a King, was about to suffer such things and be betrayed like this. Besides, they could not have taken in right away the knowledge of the kingdom he spoke of, for another evangelist says that they thought the words were spoken of a kingdom of this world (Matthew 20, verse 21). [f]

Verse 17: “But the crowd bore witness that he had raised Lazarus.” So many would not have changed so suddenly unless they had believed in the miracle.

Verse 19: “So the Pharisees said among themselves, ‘Do you see that you are getting nowhere? Look, the world has gone after him.’”

Now this seems to me to have been said by those who thought rightly but did not have the courage to speak out boldly, and who then tried to restrain the others by pointing to the outcome, as though they were attempting the impossible. Here again they call the crowd “the world.” For Scripture regularly uses the name “world” both for the creation and for those who live in wickedness: the first when it says, “He who brings out his world by number” (Isaiah 40, verse 26); the other when it says, “The world does not hate you, but it hates me” (John 7, verse 7). These things must be known exactly, so that we do not give the heretics a handle through the meaning of words.

Verse 20: “And there were some of the Greeks who came up to worship at the feast.”

Being now close to becoming converts, they were at the feast. So when the report about him reached them, they say, “We want to see Jesus” (verse 21).

Philip defers to Andrew, as his senior, and tells him about it. Nor does he act on his own authority right away, for he had heard the saying, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles” (Matthew 10, verse 5). So, having consulted his fellow disciple, he refers the matter to his Teacher. For they both spoke to him. And what does he say?

Verses 23 and 24: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone.”

What does “The hour has come” mean? He had said, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles” — so cutting away from the Jews every excuse of ignorance — and he had held the disciples back. So when the Jews went on disobeying, and the others wanted to come to him, he says: “Now it is time to go on to my suffering, since all things are fulfilled. For if we were to keep on waiting for those who disobey, and not admit these who even want to come, that would not befit our tender care.” He was about to let the disciples go to the Gentiles after the crucifixion, and he saw these Gentiles running on ahead; so he said: “It is time to go on to the cross.” He would not let them go sooner, so that it might be a testimony to them. Until the Jews had rejected him by their deeds, until they had crucified him, he did not say, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28, verse 19), but, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles” (Matthew 10, verse 5), and, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15, verse 24), and, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs” (Matthew 15, verse 26). But when they hated him, and hated him so much as to kill him, it was pointless to keep persisting while they pushed him away. For they refused him, saying, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19, verse 15). So at last he left them, when they had left him. That is why he says, “How often I would have gathered your children together, and you would not?” (Matthew 23, verse 37).

What does “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies” mean? He is speaking of the cross. They might be thrown into confusion at seeing him killed just when Greeks too were coming to him; so, to prevent it, he says to them: “This very thing above all is what makes them come, and it will spread the preaching about me.” Then, since he could not persuade them so well by words, he sets out to prove it from actual experience, telling them that this is how it is with grain: it bears more fruit when it has died. He says: “Now if this is so with seeds, much more is it so with me.” But the disciples did not understand what was said. That is why the evangelist keeps putting this in, as an excuse for their running away afterward. Paul too raised this same argument when he spoke about the resurrection.

What excuse, then, will those have who do not believe in the resurrection, when the thing is acted out every day — in seeds, in plants, and in our own begetting? For first the seed must die, and then the birth takes place. But in short, when God does something, reasonings are of no use; for how did he make us out of things that did not exist? I say this to Christians, who claim to believe the Scriptures. But I will also say something else, drawn from human reasoning. Of human beings, some live in vice and others in virtue. Of those who live in vice, many have reached extreme old age in prosperity, while many of the virtuous have reached it after enduring the opposite. When, then, will each receive what he deserves? At what time? Someone says: “Yes, but there is no resurrection of the body.” Such people do not listen to Paul when he says, “This perishable must put on the imperishable” (First Corinthians 15, verse 53). He is not speaking of the soul, for the soul does not perish. Besides, “resurrection” is said of what has fallen, and what fell was the body. But why do you insist that there is no resurrection of the body? Is it not possible for God? That would be utter folly to say. Is it unfitting? Why is it unfitting that the perishable body, which shared the toil and the death, should also share the crowns? If it were unfitting, it would not have been created in the beginning, and Christ would not have taken up the flesh again. But to see that he took it up again and raised it, hear what he says: “Reach your fingers here” (John 20, verse 27); and, “See, a spirit does not have bones and sinews” (Luke 24, verse 39). But why did he raise Lazarus, if it would have been better to rise without a body? Why does he do this, counting it a miracle and a kindness? Why did he give nourishment at all? [m]

So do not be deceived by the heretics, beloved. There is a resurrection, and there is a judgment; it is those who do not want to give an account of their actions who deny these things. This resurrection must be like Christ’s, for he was the firstfruits, the firstborn from the dead. But if the resurrection is this — a purifying of the soul, a deliverance from sin — and Christ did not sin, how did he rise again? And how have we been delivered from the curse, if he too sinned? And how does he say, “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me” (John 14, verse 30)? These are the words of one declaring that he is without sin. By their reckoning, then, either he did not rise, or else, in order to rise, he sinned before his resurrection. But he both rose again and did no sin. Therefore he rose in the body, and these wicked doctrines are nothing but the offspring of empty glory.

So let us flee this disease. For it says, “Bad company corrupts good habits” (First Corinthians 15, verse 33). These are not the doctrines of the apostles; they are new inventions of Marcion and Valentinus. So let us flee them, beloved, for a pure life does no good when the doctrines are corrupt, just as sound doctrines do no good if the life is corrupt. The pagans were the parents of these notions, and those heretics brought them up, having received them from the pagan philosophers; and they assert that matter is uncreated, and many other such things. And just as they asserted that there could be no Craftsman unless there were some uncreated material for him to work on, so they also rejected the resurrection. But let us not listen to them, since we know that the power of God is fully sufficient. Let us not listen to them.

I say this to you — for we ourselves will not refuse the battle with them. But a man who is unarmed and naked, even if he falls among the weak, even if he is the stronger, will easily be defeated. If you had paid attention to the Scriptures, if you had sharpened yourselves every day, I would not have advised you to avoid combat with them; I would have urged you to come to grips with them, for truth is strong. But since you do not know how to use the Scriptures, I fear the struggle, in case they catch you unarmed and throw you down. For there is nothing, there is nothing weaker than those who are stripped of the help of the Spirit.

If these heretics use the wisdom of the pagans, we should not admire them but laugh at them, because they use foolish teachers. For those men could not discover anything sound, either about God or about the creation. Things that the widow among us knows, Pythagoras did not yet know; he said that the soul becomes a bush, or a fish, or a dog. Tell me, should you listen to such men? And how could it be reasonable to do so? They are great men in their own district; they grow beautiful curls and wrap themselves in cloaks. That is as far as their philosophy goes. But if you look inside, there is dust and ashes and nothing sound. “Their throat is an open tomb” (Psalm 5, verse 9); everything in them is full of impurity and corruption, and all their doctrines are full of worms. For example, the first of them said that water was God; his successor said fire; another said air; and so they came down to bodily things. Tell me, should we admire these men, who never even had a thought of the bodiless God? And if they ever did reach it later, it was after spending time in Egypt with our people.

But so as not to cause you much confusion, let us end the discussion here. If we were to begin setting their teaching before you — what they have said about God, about matter, about the soul, about the body — there would be a great deal of laughter. They do not even need us to accuse them, for they have attacked one another; and the man who wrote the book about matter against us killed himself. So, so as not to keep you here for nothing, or to weave a maze of words, we will leave these things aside and urge you to hold fast to hearing the Holy Scriptures, and not to fight over words to no purpose, as Paul also urges Timothy (Second Timothy 2, verse 14) — Timothy, who was filled with great wisdom and had the power of miracles. Let us obey him now. Let us leave trifles behind and hold fast to real works — I mean brotherly love and hospitality — and let us set great store by almsgiving, so that we may obtain the good things promised, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for all ages. Amen.