Tractates on the Gospel of John

² Now you need to be reminded whence this discourse arose, by reason of what precedes this passage, where the Lord had cured a certain man among those who were lying in the five porches of that pool of Solomon, and to whom He had said, “Take up your bed, and go unto your house.” But this He had done on the Sabbath; and hence the Jews, being troubled, were falsely accusing Him as a destroyer and transgressor of the law. He then said to them, “My Father works even until now, and I work.” For they, taking the observance of the Sabbath in a carnal sense, fancied that God had, as it were, slept after the labor of framing the world even to this day; and that therefore He had sanctified that day, from which He began to rest as from labor.

Now, to our fathers of old there was ordained a sacrament of the Sabbath, which we Christians observe spiritually, in abstaining from every servile work, that is, from every sin (for the Lord says, “Every one that commits sin is the servant of sin”), and in having rest in our heart, that is, spiritual tranquillity. And although in this life we strive after this rest, yet not until we have departed this life shall we attain to that perfect rest. But the reason why God is said to have rested is, that He made no creature after all was finished.

Moreover, the Scripture called it rest, to admonish us that after good works we shall rest. For thus we have it written in Genesis, “And God made all things very good, and God rested on the seventh day,” in order that you, O man, considering that God Himself is said to have rested after good works, should not expect rest for yourself, until after you have wrought good works; and even as God after He made man in His own image and likeness, and in him finished all His works very good, rested on the seventh day, so may you also not expect rest to yourself, except you return to that likeness in which you were made, which likeness you have lost by sinning.

For, in reality, God cannot be said to have toiled, who “said, and they were done.” Who is there that, after such facility of work, desires to rest as if after labor? If He commanded and some one resisted Him, if He commanded and it was not done, and labored that it might be done, then justly He should be said to have rested after labor. But when in that same book of Genesis we read, God said, Let there be light, and there was light; God said, Let there be a firmament, and the firmament was made, and all the rest were made immediately at His word: to which also the psalm testifies, saying, “He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created,” — how could He require rest after the world was made, as if to enjoy leisure after toil, He who in commanding never toiled?

Consequently these sayings are mystical, and are laid down in this wise that we may be looking for rest after this life, provided we have done good works. Accordingly, the Lord, restraining the impudence and refuting the error of the Jews, and showing them that they did not think rightly of God, says to them, when they were offended at His working men's healing on the Sabbath, “My Father works until now, and I work:” do not therefore suppose that my Father so rested on the Sabbath, that thenceforth He does not work; but even as He now works, so I also work. But as the Father without toil, so too the Son without toil. God “said, and they were done;” Christ said to the impotent man, “Take up your bed, and go unto your house,” and it was done.