Homilies on the Gospel of John

“No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”

Because they often took counsel to kill Him, He tells them, “Except I will, your labor is unavailing.” And by the first He proves the second, by the Death, the Resurrection. For this is the strange and wonderful thing. Since both took place in a new way, and beyond ordinary custom. But let us give heed exactly to what He says, “I have power to lay down My life.” And who has not “power to lay down his life”? Since it is in the power of any that will, to kill himself. But He says it not so, but how? “I have in such a way the power to lay it down, that no one can effect this against My will.” And this is a power not belonging to men; for we have no power to lay it down in any other way than by killing ourselves. And if we fall into the hands of men who plot against us, and have the power to kill us, we no longer are free to lay it down or not, but even against our will they take it from us. Now this was not the case with Christ, but even when others plotted against Him, He had power not to lay it down. Having therefore said that, “No man takes it from Me,” He adds, “I have power to lay down My life,” that is, “I alone can decide as to laying it down,” a thing which does not rest with us, for many others also are able to take it from us. Now this He said not at first, (since the assertion would not have seemed credible,) but when He had received the testimony of facts, and when, having often plotted against Him, they had been unable to lay hold on Him, (for He escaped from their hands ten thousand times,) He then says, “No man takes it from me.” But if this be true, that other point follows, that He came to death voluntarily. And if this be true, the next point is also certain, that He can “take it again” when He will. For if the dying was a greater thing than man could do, doubt no more about the other. Since the fact that He alone was able to let go His life, shows that He was able by the same power to take it again. Do you see how from the first He proved the second, and from His death showed that His Resurrection was indisputable?

“This commandment have I received of My Father.”

What commandment was this? To die for the world. Did He then wait first to hear, and then choose, and had He need of learning it? Who that had sense would assert this? But before when He said, “Therefore does My Father love Me,” He showed that the first motion was voluntary, and removed all suspicion of opposition to the Father; so here when He says that He received a commandment from the Father, He declared nothing save that, “this which I do seems good to Him,” in order that when they should slay Him, they might not think that they had slain Him as one deserted and given up by the Father, nor reproach Him with such reproaches as they did, “He saved others, himself he cannot save”; and, “If you be the Son of God, come down from the cross”; yet the very reason of His not coming down was, that He was the Son of God.

3. Then lest on hearing that, “I have received a command from the Father,” you should deem that the achievement does not belong to Him, He has said preventing the, “The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep”; showing by this that the sheep were His, and that all which took place was His achievement, and that He needed no command. For had He needed a commandment, how could He have said, “I lay it down of Myself”? For He that lays it down of Himself needs no commandment. He also assigns the cause for which He does this. And what is that? That He is the Shepherd, and the good Shepherd. Now the good Shepherd needs no one to arouse him to his duty; and if this be the case with man, much more is it so with God. Wherefore Paul said, that “He emptied Himself.” So the “commandment” put here means nothing else, but to show His unanimity with the Father; and if He speaks in so humble and human a way, the cause is the infirmity of His hearers.