Homilies on the Gospel of John

“Why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.”

When he had shaken off the dread of being the traitor, and was shown to be one of His own, he afterwards asked boldly himself, while the others held their peace. “What do you say, Peter? He said, you can not,' and you say, 'I can'? Therefore you shall know from this temptation that your love is nothing without the presence of the impulse from above.” Whence it is clear that in care for him He allowed even that fall. He desired indeed to teach him even by the first words, but when he continued in his vehemence, He did not indeed throw or force him into the denial, but left him alone, that he might learn his own weakness. Christ had said that He must be betrayed; Peter replied, “Be it far from You, Lord; this shall not happen unto You.” He was rebuked, but not instructed. On the contrary, when Christ desired to wash his feet, he said, “You shall never wash my feet.” Again, when he hears, “You can not follow Me now,” he says, “Though all deny You, I will not deny You.” Since then it was likely that he would be lifted up to folly by his practice of contradiction, Jesus next teaches him not to oppose Him. This too Luke implies, when he tells us that Christ said, “And I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not”; that is, “that thou be not finally lost.” In every way teaching him humility, and proving that human nature by itself is nothing. But, since great love made him apt for contradiction, He now sobers him, that he might not in after times be subject to this, when he should have received the stewardship of the world, but remembering what he had suffered, might know himself. And look at the violence of his fall; it did not happen to him once or twice, but he was so beside himself, that in a short time thrice did he utter the words of denial, that he might learn that he did not so love as he was loved. And yet, to one who had so fallen He says again, “Lovest thou Me more than these?” So that the denial was caused not by the cooling of his love, but from his having been stripped of aid from above. He accepts then Peter's love, but cuts off the spirit of contradiction engendered by it. “For if you love, you ought to obey Him who is beloved. I said to you and to those with you, 'You can not'; why are you contentious? Do you know what a thing it is to contradict God? But since you will not learn in this way that it is impossible that what I say should not come to pass, you shall learn it in the denial.” And yet this appeared to you to be much more incredible. For this thou did not even understand, but of that you had the knowledge in your heart. Yet still that came to pass which was not even expected.

“I will lay down my life for You.” For since he had heard, “Greater love than this has, no man,” he straightway sprang forward, insatiably eager and desirous to reach even to the highest pitch of virtue. But Christ, to show that it belonged to Himself alone to promise these things with authority, says,