Homilies on the Gospel of John

“Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God, and went to God.”

Here the Evangelist says, even wondering, that one so great, so very great, who came from God and went to Him, who rules over all, did this thing, and disdained not even so to undertake such an action. And by the “giving over,” methinks St. John means the salvation of the faithful. For when He says, “All things are given over to Me of My Father”, He speaks of this kind of giving over; as also in another place He says, “Yours they were, and You gave them Me”; and again, “No man can come unto Me except the Father draw him”; and, “Except it be given him from heaven.” The Evangelist then either means this, or that Christ would be nothing lessened by this action, since He came from God, and went to God, and possessed all things. But when you hear of “giving over,” understand it in no human sense, for it shows how He honors the Father, and His unanimity with Him. For as the Father gives over to Him, so He to the Father. And this Paul declares, saying, “When He shall have given over the kingdom to God, even the Father.” But St. John has said it here in a more human sense, showing His great care for them, and declaring His unutterable love, that He now cared for them as for His own; teaching them the mother of all good, even humblemindedness, which He said was both the beginning and the end of virtue. And not without a reason is added the, “He came from God and went to God”: but that we may learn that He did what was worthy of One who came thence and went there, trampling down all pride.