Homilies on the Gospel of John

“Verily, verily I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Do you see how He leads him up little by little from the earth, and causes him no longer to imagine Him a man merely? For One to whom Angels minister, and on whom Angels ascend and descend, how could He be man? For this reason He said, “You shall see greater things than these.” And in proof of this, He introduces the ministry of Angels. And what He means is something of this kind: “Does this, O Nathanael, seem to you a great matter, and have you for this confessed me to be King of Israel? What then will you say, when you see the Angels ascending and descending upon Me?” Persuading him by these words to own Him Lord also of the Angels. For on Him as on the King's own Son, the royal ministers ascended and descended, once at the season of the Crucifixion, again at the time of the Resurrection and the Ascension, and before this also, when they “came and ministered unto Him”, when they proclaimed the glad tidings of His birth, and cried, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace”, when they came to Mary, when they came to Joseph.

And He does now what He has done in many instances; He utters two predictions, gives present proof of the one, and confirms that which has to be accomplished by that which is so already. For of His sayings some had been proved, such as, “Before Philip called you, under the fig-tree I saw you”; others had yet to come to pass, and had partly done so, namely, the descending and ascending of the Angels, at the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension; and this He renders credible by His words even before the event. For one who had known His power by what had gone before, and heard from Him of things to come, would more readily receive this prediction too.

What then does Nathanael? To this he makes no reply. And therefore at this point Christ stopped His discourse with him, allowing him to consider in private what had been said; and not choosing to pour forth all at once, having cast seed into fertile ground, He then leaves it to shoot at leisure. And this He has shown in another place, where He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like to a man that sows good seed, but while he slept, his enemy comes, and sows tares among the wheat.”