Homily 68 — John 12, verses 34 to 41

“The people answered him, ‘We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can you say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up”? Who is this Son of Man?’” [a]

Deceit is easily found out, and it is weak, even if it is painted over on the outside with countless colors. People who whitewash crumbling walls cannot make them sound by plastering them; in the same way, those who lie are easily caught. That is exactly what happened here with the Jews. When Christ said to them, “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself,” one of them says, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

So even they knew that the Christ was someone immortal, who had life without end. And that is why they also knew what he meant, for Scripture often speaks of his suffering and his resurrection in the same place. Isaiah puts them together in this way when he says, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53, verse 7), and all that follows. David too, in the second psalm and in many other places, joins these two things. The patriarch too, after saying, “He lay down, he crouched like a lion,” adds, “and like a lion’s cub; who will raise him up?” (Genesis 49, verse 9). He shows the suffering and the resurrection together.

But these men, just when they thought they would silence him and show that he was not the Christ, admitted by this very thing that the Christ remains forever. And notice their bad faith. They did not say, “We have heard that the Christ does not suffer and is not crucified,” but that “he remains forever.” Yet even what they did say would have been no real objection, since his suffering was no hindrance to his being immortal. From this we can see that they understood many of the doubtful points and went wrong on purpose. He had spoken about death before, and so when they heard the words “be lifted up” here, they guessed that death was meant.

Then they said, “Who is this Son of Man?” This too they said deceitfully. It is as if one of them said: “Please do not think we are saying this about you. Do not claim that we oppose you out of hostility. Look, we do not even know whom you are talking about, and still we give our opinion.” What does Christ do, then? To silence them, and to show that his suffering is no obstacle to his remaining forever, he says:

Verse 35: “Yet a little while,” he says, “the light is with you.” By this he shows that his death was a going away. For the light of the sun is not destroyed; it withdraws for a while and appears again.

“Walk while you have the light.”

What time is he speaking of here? The whole present life, or the time before the crucifixion? For my part, I think he means both, since because of his love for humankind, which is beyond words, many believed even after the crucifixion. He says these things to urge them on to faith, as he also did before, when he said, “Yet a little while I am with you” (John 7, verse 33).

“Whoever walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.”

How many things, for instance, do the Jews do even now without knowing what they are doing, walking as though they were in darkness? They think they are going the right way when they are taking the opposite one. They keep the Sabbath, they respect the law and the rules about food, and yet they do not know where they are walking. That is why he said:

Verse 36: “Walk in the light, so that you may become children of the light” — that is, “my children.” Yet at the beginning the evangelist says, “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God” (John 1, verse 13), that is, of the Father; while here Christ himself is said to beget them. This is so that you may understand that the working of the Father and of the Son is one.

“When Jesus had spoken these things,” he went away from them and hid himself.

Why does he “hide himself” now? They had not taken up stones against him, and they had not blasphemed him in any such way as before. Why, then, did he hide himself? He walked about inside people’s hearts, and he knew that their anger was fierce even though they said nothing. He knew it was boiling and murderous. He did not wait for it to break out into action, but hid himself to calm their ill will. Notice how the evangelist has hinted at this feeling. He has immediately added:

Verse 37: “Though he had done so many miracles, they did not believe in him.”

What “so many”? As many as the evangelist has left out. And this is clear also from what follows. For when he had withdrawn and given way, and then came to them again, he speaks to them in a lowly way, saying, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me” (verse 44). Notice what he does. He begins with humble and modest words and refers himself to the Father. Then he raises his language again, and when he sees that they are angered, he withdraws. Then he comes to them again, and again begins with words of humility. [d]

And where has he done this? Rather, where has he not done it? See, for instance, what he says at the beginning: “As I hear, I judge” (John 5, verse 30). Then, in a loftier tone: “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he will” (John 5, verse 21). And again: “I do not judge you; there is another who judges.” Then he withdraws again. Then, coming to Galilee, he says, “Do not labor for the food that perishes” (John 6, verse 27); and after saying great things about himself — that he came down from heaven, that he gives eternal life — he withdraws once more. He comes at the Feast of Tabernacles too, and does the same. You can see him continually varying his teaching in this way: by being present and by being absent, by lowly words and by lofty ones. He did this here too. “Though he had done so many miracles,” it says, “they did not believe in him.”

Verse 38: “That the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’” And again, verses 39 to 41: “They could not believe,” it says, “because Isaiah said, ‘You will hear with your ears, and not understand.’ These things he said when he saw his glory, and spoke of him.”

Here again, notice that the “because” and the “said” do not refer to the cause of their unbelief, but to the outcome. It was not because Isaiah said it that they did not believe; it was because they were not going to believe that he said it. Why, then, does the evangelist not put it that way, instead of making the unbelief come from the prophecy rather than the prophecy from the unbelief? Further on he even states this very thing more strongly, saying, “Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said.” By this he wants to establish, with many proofs, the unfailing truth of Scripture: that what Isaiah foretold did not turn out otherwise, but just as he said it. Someone might say: “Why did Christ come, then? Did he not know that they would pay no attention to him?” So that no one would say this, the evangelist brings in the prophets, who knew this too. But Christ came so that they would have no excuse for their sin. What the prophet foretold, he foretold as something that would certainly happen; for if it were not certainly going to happen, he could not have foretold it. And it was certainly going to happen, because these men were incurable.

And if “they could not” is put in place of “they would not,” do not be surprised. He also says in another place, “Whoever is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19, verse 12). So in many places he is accustomed to call choice “power.” Again: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me” (John 7, verse 7). You can see this in ordinary conversation too, as when someone says, “I cannot love this person or that,” calling the strength of his will a power; and again, “This person or that cannot be a good man.” And what does the prophet say? “If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, this people also will be able to do good, having learned evil” (Jeremiah 13, verse 23, in the Greek Old Testament). He does not say that practicing virtue is impossible for them, but that because they will not, therefore they cannot.

And by what he says, the evangelist means that it was impossible for the prophet to lie; yet it was not on that account impossible for them to believe. For even if they had believed, it was possible for the prophet to remain true, since he would not have prophesied these things if they had been going to believe. Someone asks: “Why, then, did he not say so?” Because Scripture has certain idioms of its own like this, and we must make allowance for its rules.

“These things he said when he saw his glory.” Whose? The Father’s. How, then, does John speak of the Son, and Paul of the Spirit? They say it not to blur the Persons together, but to show that their dignity is one. For what is the Father’s is the Son’s also, and what is the Son’s is the Spirit’s. God has also said many things through angels, and yet no one says, “as the angel said,” but how? “As God said.” For what God has said through the service of angels would be God’s; yet it does not follow that what is God’s belongs to the angels as well. But in this place John says that the words are the Spirit’s.

“And spoke of him.” What did he say? “I saw the Lord sitting on a high throne” (Isaiah 6, verse 1), and what follows. So by “glory” he means that vision: the smoke, the hearing of mysteries beyond words, the sight of the seraphim, the lightning that flashed from the throne, which those powers could not look upon. “And spoke of him.” What did he say? That he heard a voice saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go? And I said, ‘Here I am; send me.’ And he said, ‘You will hear with your ears and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive’” (Isaiah 6, verses 8 and 10). For, verse 40: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would never see with their eyes and understand with their heart.”

Here again is another question, but it is not a question if we consider it rightly. Just as the sun dazzles the eyes of the weak, and not because of anything in its own nature, so it is with those who pay no attention to the words of God. So in the case of Pharaoh, God is said to have hardened his heart; and so it is with all who are at all contentious against the words of God. This is a way of speaking peculiar to Scripture, like “He gave them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1, verse 28), and “He divided them to the nations” — that is, he allowed them, permitted them to go. For the writer does not here bring God in as doing these things himself, but shows that they happened through the wickedness of others. When we are abandoned by God, we are handed over to the devil; and once we are handed over, we suffer countless dreadful things. So to frighten the hearer, the writer says “he hardened” and “he gave over.”

To show that he not only does not give us over, but does not even leave us unless we want him to, listen to what he says: “Do your wrongdoings not separate me from you?” (Isaiah 59, verse 2, in the Greek Old Testament). And again: “Those who go far away from you will perish” (Psalm 73, verse 27, in the Greek Old Testament). And Hosea says, “You have forgotten the law of your God, and I too will forget you” (Hosea 4, verse 6, in the Greek Old Testament). And he himself says in the Gospels, “How often I would have gathered your children — and you would not!” (Luke 13, verse 34). Isaiah again: “I came, and there was no one; I called, and there was no one to listen” (Isaiah 50, verse 2, in the Greek Old Testament). He says these things to show that we are the ones who begin the desertion and become the causes of our own destruction. For God not only does not want to leave us or punish us, but even when he punishes, he does it unwillingly. “I do not desire the death of a sinner,” he says, “so much as that he should turn and live” (Ezekiel 18, verse 32, in the Greek Old Testament). Christ also mourns over the destruction of Jerusalem, just as we do over our friends.

Knowing this, then, let us do everything we can not to go away from God. Let us hold fast to the care of our souls and to love for one another. Let us not tear at our own limbs — that is what people do who are insane and out of their minds — but the worse disposed we see anyone to be, the kinder let us be to him. We often see many people suffering in their bodies from stubborn or incurable illnesses, and we do not stop applying remedies. What is worse than gout in the foot or the hand? Are we going to cut off the limbs for that reason? Not at all. We use every means so that the sufferer may have some relief, since we cannot get rid of the disease. [j]

Let us do the same in the case of our brothers and sisters. Even if they are incurably diseased, let us keep on caring for them, and let us bear one another’s burdens. In this way we will fulfill the law of Christ and obtain the good things promised, through the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.