Homilies on the Gospel of John

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I Am, and that I speak not of Myself, and that He that sent Me is with Me. And the Father has not left Me alone.”

2. He shows that He rightly said, “the same that I said unto you from the beginning.” So little heed they gave to His words. “When you have lifted up the Son of Man.” “Do ye not expect that you then shall certainly rid yourselves of Me, and slay Me? But I tell you that then you shall most know that I Am, by reason of the miracles, the resurrection, and the destruction (of Jerusalem).” For all these things were sufficient to manifest His power. He said not, “Then you shall know who I am”; for, “when you shall see,” He says, “that I suffer nothing from death, then you shall know that I Am, that is, the Christ, the Son of God, who govern all things, and am not opposed to Him.” For which cause He adds, “and of Myself I speak nothing.” For you shall know both My power and My unanimity with the Father. Because the, “of Myself I speak nothing,” shows that His Substance differs not (from that of the Father), and that He utters nothing save that which is in the mind of the Father. “For when you have been driven away from your place of worship, and it is not allowed you even to serve Him as hitherto, then you shall know that He does this to avenge Me, and because He is angry with those who would not hear Me.” As though He had said, “Had I been an enemy and a stranger to God, He would not have stirred up such wrath against you.” This also Esaias declares, “He shall give the wicked in return for His burial”; and David, “Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath”; and Christ Himself, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” And His parables declare the same thing when He says, “What shall the Lord of that vineyard do to those husbandmen? He shall miserably destroy those wicked men.” Do you see that everywhere He speaks thus, because He is not yet believed? But if He will destroy them, as He will, (for, “Bring hither,” It says, “those which would not that I should reign over them, and slay them,”) wherefore says He that the deed is not His, but His Father's? He addresses Himself to their weakness, and at the same time honors Him that begot Him. Wherefore He said not, “I leave your house desolate,” but, it “is left”; He has put it impersonally. But by saying, “How often would I have gathered your children together— and you would not,” and then adding, “is left,” He shows that He wrought the desolation. “For since,” He tells them, “when you were benefited and healed of your infirmities, you would not know Me, you shall know by being punished who I am.”

“And the Father is with Me.” That they may not deem the “who sent Me” to be a mark of inferiority, He says, “is with Me”; the first belongs to the Dispensation, the second to the Godhead.

“And He has not left Me alone,” for I do always those things that please Him.

Again He has brought down His discourse to a humbler strain, continually setting Himself against that which they asserted, that He was not of God, and that He kept not the Sabbath. To this He replies, “I do always those things that are pleasing unto Him”; showing that it was pleasing unto Him even that the Sabbath should be broken. So, for instance, just before the Crucifixion He said, “Think ye that I cannot call upon My Father?” And yet by merely saying, “Whom do you seek?” He cast them down backwards. Why then says He not, “Think ye that I cannot destroy you,” when He had proved this by deed? He condescends to their infirmity. For He took great pains to show that He did nothing contrary to the Father. Thus He speaks rather after the manner of a man; and as “He has not left Me alone,” was spoken, so also was the, “I do always those things that are pleasing unto Him.”