Homilies on the Gospel of John — Homily 64

St. John Chrysostom

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4

What I have often said, I will now say, that Christ looks not so much to His own honor as to our salvation; not how He may utter some sublime saying, but how something able to draw us to Him. On which account His sublime and mighty sayings are few, and those also hidden, but the humble and lowly are many, and abound through His discourses. For since by these men were the rather brought over, in these He continues; and He does not on the one hand utter these universally, lest the men that should come after should receive damage, nor, on the other hand, does He entirely withhold those, lest the men of that time should be offended. Since they who have passed from lowmindedness unto perfection, will be able from even a single sublime doctrine to discern the whole, but those who were ever lowminded, unless they had often heard these lowly sayings, would not have come to Him at all. In fact, even after so many such sayings they do not remain firm, but even stone and persecute Him, and try to kill Him, and call Him blasphemer. And when He makes Himself equal with God, they say, This man blasphemes [[Matthew 9.3]]; and when He says, Your sins be forgiven you [[John 10.20]], they moreover call Him a demoniac. So when He says that the man who hears His words is stronger than death, or, I am in the Father and the Father in Me [[John 8.51]], they leave Him; and again, they are offended when He says that He came down from heaven. c. vi. 33, 60 If now they could not bear these sayings, though seldom uttered, scarcely, had His discourse been always sublime, had it been of this texture, would they have given heed to Him? When therefore He says, As the Father commanded Me, so I speak [[John 14.31]]; and, I am not come of Myself [[John 7.28]], then they believe. That they did believe then is clear, from the Evangelist signifying this besides, and saying, As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. [[John 5.30]] If then lowly speaking drew men to faith, and high speaking scared them away, must it not be a mark of extreme folly not to see at a glance how to reckon the sole reason of those lowly sayings, namely, that they were uttered because of the hearers. Since in another place when He had desired to say some high thing, He withheld it, adding this reason, and saying, Lest we should offend them, cast a hook into the sea. [[Matthew 17.27]] Which also He does here; for after saying, I know that You hear Me always, He adds, but because of the multitude which stands around I said it, that they might believe. Are these words ours? Is this a human conjecture? When then a man will not endure to be persuaded by what is written, that they were offended at sublime things, how, when he hears Christ saying that He spoke in a lowly manner that they might not be offended, how, after that, shall he suspect that the mean sayings belonged to His nature, not to His condescension? So in another place, when a voice came down from heaven, He said, This voice came not because of Me,