Homily 67 — John 12, verses 25 to 33

“He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.” [a]

The present life is sweet and full of great pleasure — yet not for everyone, only for those who are riveted to it. If anyone looks up to heaven and sees the beautiful things there, he will soon despise this life and think nothing of it. It is like beauty: a beautiful object is admired as long as nothing more beautiful is in sight, but when something better appears, the first is despised. So if we were willing to look toward that beauty, and to gaze at the splendor of the kingdom there, we would soon free ourselves from our present chains. For this attachment to present things is a kind of chain.

Listen to what Christ says to lead us into this: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.” And, “Where I am, there my servant will be also.” The words seem like a riddle, but they are not; they are full of great wisdom. How will “he who loves his life lose it”? When he carries out its shameful desires, when he gratifies it where he ought not. That is why someone urges us, “Do not walk in the desires of your soul” (Sirach 18, verse 30). For that is how you will destroy it, since it leads you away from the path that leads to virtue — just as, on the other hand, “he who hates it in this world will save it.”

But what does “he who hates it” mean? The one who does not give in to it when it orders what is harmful. And he did not say, “he who does not give in to it,” but, “he who hates it.” We cannot bear even to hear the voice of those we hate, or to look at them with any pleasure; in the same way we must turn away from the soul too, with all our strength, when it orders things contrary to what pleases God.

He was now about to say a great deal to them about death — his own death — and he saw that they were dejected and downcast. So he spoke very strongly, saying: “What am I saying? That you must bear my death bravely? No — if you do not die yourselves, you will gain nothing.”

Notice, too, how he softens what he says. It was a very painful and sad thing to be told that the man who loves life will die. And why do I speak of those days? Even now we find many who gladly put up with any suffering at all in order to enjoy the present life — and this even when they are convinced about the things to come. When they look at buildings and works of art and clever inventions, they weep and reflect, “How many things man invents, and yet he becomes dust!” So great is the longing for this present life. To undo these bonds, then, Christ says, “He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” And so that you may know that he was speaking to encourage them and to scatter their fear, listen to what comes next.

“If anyone serves me, let him follow me.”

He says this speaking of death, and asking for the kind of following that is shown in deeds. For certainly the one who serves must follow the one he serves. And notice when he said these things to them: not when they were being persecuted, but when they were confident — when they thought they were safe because of the honor and attention of the many, when they could rouse themselves and hear, “Let him take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16, verse 24). That is, “Always be prepared,” he says, “for dangers, for death, for your departure from here.” Then, after saying what was hard to bear, he also sets out the prize. And what kind of prize was it? Following him, and being where he is — showing that resurrection follows death. For he says, “Where I am, there my servant will be also.”

But where is Christ? In heaven. So let us move there in soul and mind even before the resurrection.

“If anyone serves me, the Father will love him.”

Why did he not say “I”? Because they did not yet hold a right opinion about him, but held a higher opinion of the Father. How could they imagine anything great about him, when they did not even know that he was going to rise again? That is why he said to the sons of Zebedee, “It is not mine to give, but it will be given to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father” (Mark 10, verse 40) — and yet he is the one who judges. But in this passage he also establishes that he is the true-born Son. For the Father will receive them as the servants of his own Son.

Verse 27: “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.”

“But surely this is not the language of someone urging them to go even to death.” No, it is the language of someone urging them very strongly. They might have said: “He is free from the pains of mortals, so it is easy for him to talk wisely about death and to urge us on, when he himself is in no danger.” To prevent this, he shows that although he feels death’s agony, he does not refuse it, because of the good it brings.

But these things belong to the plan of salvation, not to his being God. That is why he says, “Now my soul is troubled.” If this were not so, what connection would there be between what he had just said and his words, “Father, save me from this hour”? He was so troubled that he even asked to be delivered from death, if escape were at all possible. These were the weaknesses of his human nature.

“But,” he says, “I have nothing I can say when I ask to be delivered.” [f]

“For this reason I came to this hour.”

It is as though he had said: “Though we are thrown into confusion, though we are troubled, let us not run away from death. Even now, troubled as I am, I do not speak of running away, for we must bear what is coming. I do not say, ‘Deliver me from this hour.’” But what does he say?

Verse 28: “Father, glorify your name.”

“Although my distress urges me to say this, I say the opposite: ‘Glorify your name’ — that is, lead me now to the cross.” This shows his humanity very clearly, and a nature unwilling to die, one that clings to the present life; it proves that he was not free of human feelings. It is no fault to be hungry or to sleep, and in the same way it is no fault to desire the present life. Christ had a body pure from sin, yet not free from natural needs; otherwise it would not have been a body.

By these words he also taught something else. What was it? That if we are ever in agony and dread, even then we must not shrink back from what is set before us. And by saying, “Glorify your name,” he shows that he is dying for the truth, since he calls what he does “glory to God.” And this came about after the crucifixion. The world was about to be converted, to acknowledge the name of God and to serve him — not the name of the Father only, but also that of the Son. Yet on this point he still says nothing.

“Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’”

When had he “glorified it”? By what had been done before; and “I will glorify it again” means after the cross. What, then, did Christ say?

Verse 30: “This voice did not come because of me, but for your sake.” They thought it had thundered, or that an angel had spoken to him. And why did they think this? Was the voice not clear and distinct? It was; but it quickly flew past them, because they were of the coarser sort, fleshly in their thinking and sluggish. Some of them caught only the sound; others knew that the voice spoke words, but did not know what they meant. What does Christ say?

“This voice did not come because of me, but for your sake.” Why did he say this? He said it to meet what they kept asserting, that he was not from God. For how could the one whom God glorified not be from that God whose name was glorified through him? It was for this very purpose that the voice came. That is why he himself says, “This voice did not come because of me, but for your sake” — “not so that I may learn from it something I do not know — for I know all that belongs to the Father — but for your sake.” For when they said, “An angel has spoken to him,” or, “It has thundered,” and paid no attention to him, he says: “It was for your sake, so that even this way you might be led to ask what the words meant.” But they, stirred up as they were, did not ask even then, though they heard that the matter concerned them. For to someone who did not know why it was spoken, the voice naturally seemed indistinct. “The voice came for your sake.” Do you see that these lowly things happen on their account, not because the Son needs any help?

Verse 31: “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast down.”

What connection does this have with “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again”? A great deal; the two fit closely together. When God says, “I will glorify it,” he shows the manner of the glorifying. What is it? That one should be cast down. But what is “the judgment of this world”? It is as though he said: “There will be a court, and a just penalty.” How, and in what way? “He killed the first man, having found him guilty of sin — for ‘through sin death entered’ (Romans 5, verse 12). But in me he found no such thing. Why, then, did he spring on me and hand me over to death? Why did he put it into the mind of Judas to destroy me?” (Do not tell me that it was God’s arrangement. That belongs not to the devil but to God’s wisdom. For the present, let us examine the intent of that evil one.) “How, then, is the world judged in me?” It will be said to Satan, as though a court of justice were sitting: “Well, you killed everyone, because you found them guilty of sin. But why did you kill Christ? Is it not clear that you did it wrongfully?” So in him the whole world will be avenged.

To make this still clearer, I will make it plain with an example. Suppose there is a cruel tyrant who brings countless evils on everyone who falls into his hands. If such a man takes on a king, or a king’s son, and kills him unjustly, that death will have the power to win vengeance for the others too. Or suppose there is someone who demands payment from his debtors, beats them, and throws them into prison; and then, with the same recklessness, he leads into the same dungeon someone who owes him nothing. Such a man will be punished for what he has done to the others as well, for that one will destroy him.

So it is with the Son too. For the things the devil has done against us, the penalty will be exacted from him through what he dared against Christ. And to show that this is what he means, listen to what he says: “Now the ruler of this world will be cast down” — that is, “by my death.” [h]

Verse 32: “And I, if I am lifted up, will draw all people to myself.”

That is, “even those of the Gentiles.” And so that no one would ask, “How will he be cast down, if he is stronger even than you?” he says, “He is not stronger. How can he be stronger than one who draws others to himself?” And he does not speak of the resurrection, but of something greater than the resurrection: “I will draw all people to myself.” If he had said, “I will rise again,” it would not yet have been clear that they would believe. But by saying, “They will believe,” he proves both at once: this, and also that he must rise again. For if he had stayed dead, and had been a mere man, no one would have believed.

“I will draw all people to myself.” How, then, did he say that the Father draws (John 6, verse 44)? Because when the Son draws, the Father draws too. He says, “I will draw them,” as though they were held by a tyrant and unable by themselves to come to him and escape the hands of the one holding them. In another place he calls this “plundering”: “No one can plunder a strong man’s goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his goods” (Matthew 12, verse 29). He said this to prove his strength; and what he calls “plundering” there, he has called “drawing” here.

Knowing these things, then, let us rouse ourselves. Let us glorify God, not only by our faith but also by our life; otherwise it would not be glory, but blasphemy. For God is not blasphemed so much by an impure pagan as by a corrupt Christian. So I beg you to do everything in such a way that God may be glorified. For “Woe,” it says, “to that servant through whom the name of God is blasphemed” — and wherever there is a “woe,” every punishment and vengeance follows at once — “but blessed is he through whom that name is glorified.”

So let us not live as though in darkness, but avoid all sins, and especially those that harm others, since it is by these that God is most blasphemed. What pardon will we have if, commanded to give to others, we plunder what belongs to others? What hope of salvation will we have? You are punished if you have not fed the hungry; but if you have even stripped someone who was clothed, what kind of pardon will you get?

I will never stop saying these things. Those who have not heard today will perhaps hear tomorrow, and those who pay no attention tomorrow will perhaps be persuaded the day after. And even if some are so disposed that they will not be persuaded, we at least will have no account to give for them at the judgment. We have done our part. May we never have reason to be ashamed of our words, nor you to hide your faces; but may all be able to stand with boldness before the judgment seat of Christ, so that we too may rejoice over you, and find in your being approved some amends for our own faults, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom be glory to the Father and to the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.