John 20:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

How then is it said that no one comes to the Son "unless it is granted him by My Father" (Jn 6:65)? Yet this same thing plainly belongs to the Son: "I am the way," He says. "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6). And see, this same thing is also ascribed to the Spirit: "No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). In the same way, the Apostles are presented as given to the Church by the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. We see that the distribution of gifts is attributed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore use every means to have the Spirit in ourselves. Let us treat with all reverence those to whom authority to act through gracious gifts has been entrusted. Great indeed is the dignity of priests. "Whose sins," it is said, "you forgive, they are forgiven." For this reason Paul says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them" (Heb 13:17), and, "Esteem them very highly in love" (1 Thess 5:13). You care only for your own affairs. If you order them well, you will not answer for other people. But a priest, even if he orders his own life well, will go to Gehenna with the wicked if he does not care with due zeal for your life and for all others entrusted to his care. Often, though innocent in his own works, he perishes for your iniquities if he does not duly fulfill all that concerns him. Therefore, knowing what great danger threatens priests, show them great love. Paul indicated this when he said, "They keep watch over your souls," and not simply this, but "as those who will give account" (Heb 13:17). For this reason they must be shown great respect. If you, together with others, insult them, your own affairs will not prosper. As long as the helmsman is cheerful, those sailing on the ship are safe. But when he is grieved by insults and hostile acts from his fellow travelers, he can no longer be vigilant as before. Nor can he act with his usual skill, and unwillingly he exposes them to countless disasters. So too priests, if they receive due honor from you, will be able to order your affairs as they should. But if you grieve them, you will weaken their hands and make them easily swept away by the waves together with you, even if they are very courageous. Consider what Christ said about the Jews: "The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do" (Mt 23:2-3). Now it cannot be said that priests have sat on Moses' seat. No, they have sat on Christ's seat, because they have received Christ's teaching. Therefore Paul says, "We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, and God as it were exhorts through us" (2 Cor 5:20). Do you not see how all submit to civil authorities? Though subjects often surpass rulers in nobility of birth, life, and wisdom, yet out of respect for the one who appointed them, they think of none of this. They honor the king's decree, whatever the man who received authority over them may be. Such is our fear when a man appoints a ruler. But when God ordains, we despise the ordained man, insult him, and assail him with countless reproaches. Although we are forbidden to judge even our brothers, we sharpen our tongues against priests. What justification shall we find, when we do not see the beam in our own eye, yet maliciously notice the speck in another's? Do you not know that when you judge others in this way, you prepare a heavier judgment for yourself? I say this not because I approve those who pass through the priestly ministry unworthily. No. I greatly pity them and weep for them. Nevertheless, I affirm that even in this case subordinates, and especially the most simple people, have no right to judge them. Let the priest's life be very corrupt. If you attend to yourself, you will suffer no harm in what has been entrusted to him by God. If the Lord made a donkey speak and through a soothsayer bestowed spiritual blessings, then He acted for the ungrateful Jews through the speechless mouth of the donkey and through Balaam's unclean tongue. How much more, if you are grateful, will He do on His part all that is needed for you and send down the Holy Spirit, even if the priests are extremely corrupt. For even a pure priest does not draw down the Holy Spirit by his own purity. Grace accomplishes everything. "For all things are yours," it says, "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas" (1 Cor 3:21-22). Everything entrusted to the priest is solely God's gift. However much human philosophy may advance, it will always be lower than that grace. I say this not so that we may arrange our life carelessly. I say it so that you who are subordinate, seeing the negligence of any among those who preside, may not multiply evil for yourselves on this account. But why do I speak of priests? Neither angel nor archangel can exert any effect upon what is given from God. Here the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit order everything, while the priest merely lends his tongue and stretches out his hand. It would be unjust for those who approach the symbols of our salvation with faith to suffer harm because of another person's corruption. Therefore, knowing all this, let us both fear God and respect His priests, showing them every honor. Thus, both for our good works and for our respect toward them, we may receive a great reward from God, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Thus our unworthiness does not hinder grace. Since grace is given through priests, they must be honored.

[...] Those who, like Peter, have been counted worthy of episcopal grace have authority to forgive and bind. Though the word was spoken to one, for it was said only to Peter, "I will give you," it was given to all the Apostles.

When? When the Lord said to them, "Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven." For "I will give" means a future time, that is, the time after the resurrection.

That is, the keys. By the keys understand the forgivenesses or prohibitions that loose or bind sins, for those [...]

Indeed, accusations of lawlessness have no place with regard to them. For this reason the wise revelation says: "It is impious to say to a king, You are acting lawlessly" (Job 34:18).

How, then, and in what sense did the Savior clothe His disciples with a dignity proper only to the divine nature? Yet the Word who is in the Father, ὁ ἐν Πατϱὶ Λόγος, could not err against the truth, and He did this in full accord with the truth.

He, the Savior, considered that those who already had within themselves the divine and Lordly Spirit should also have authority to forgive the sins of any and to retain them on whomever they wished. For the Holy Spirit had come to dwell in them.

He forgives and retains sins according to His own will, even if the act is accomplished through men.

Yet those who bear the Spirit forgive or retain sins in two ways, in my opinion. They either call to baptism those who ought already to receive it because of holiness of life and purity of faith, or they do not admit some and exclude them from divine grace as still unworthy of it.

Or else, in another way, they forgive and retain sins by punishing children of the Church who sin and forgiving those who repent. In this way Paul no doubt delivered the fornicator at Corinth "to the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved" (1 Cor 5:5).

Yet again he forgave him, lest he be "swallowed up with excessive sorrow" (2 Cor 2:7), as he himself says in the Epistle.

Therefore, if the Spirit of Christ who is in us accomplishes what belongs only to God, how will He not be God by nature? He is naturally clothed with the radiant dignity of the divine nature and rules over the sacred laws.

Therefore Jesus Christ breathed as the source of gracious gifts. He breathed so that from this we might know that He had also previously breathed into Adam the breath of life.

By "retaining" understand the same as binding, not forgiving. As a king appoints generals, so Jesus Christ, sending the disciples, clothes them with authority above all others.

Those who, out of fear of demons, have firmly fortified themselves on the height of divine contemplations and have shut their external senses like doors, receive the Word of God who comes to them imperceptibly.

He appears without striking their external senses. He communicates to them peace, that is, freedom from the passions, and breathing, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit. He manifests His invisible action in outward signs.

They become sharers in the authority of the Supreme Judge, so that, in God’s stead, they bind the sins of some and loose those of others. Truly, truly, those who resolved upon such humility for God had to be loved by God.

Behold, those who fear the righteous Judge, God, become judges of souls. Those who feared being condemned themselves condemn or justify others.

Now bishops fully occupy their place in the Church. Those who receive the rank of governance receive the authority to bind or loose. Great is the honor, but great also is the burden of this honor.

For it is without mercy that one who does not know how to govern his own life should be judge over the life of others. It often happens that one occupies the place of judge whose life does not correspond to his place.

Often he either condemns those who do not deserve condemnation, or looses others while he himself is bound. In loosing and binding those subject to him, he often follows the movements of his own will rather than sufficient causes.

From this it comes about that one loses the very authority to bind and loose when he uses it according to his own whims, and not according to the conduct of those subject to him.

Therefore it is rightly said through the Prophet: “You profane Me before My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing souls that should not die, and keeping alive souls that should not live, by lying to My people who listen to lies” (Ezek 13:19).

For he kills one who should not die when he condemns the righteous. And he strives to give life to one who has no life when he tries to free the guilty from punishment.

Therefore, faults must be examined, and only then must the authority to bind and loose be used. One must look at what fault came before, and at what repentance followed after the fault.

Then the judgment of the pastor may loose those whom Almighty God visits with the grace of contrition. For the absolution of the outward judge is true when it agrees with the mind of the inward Judge.

This is well expressed figuratively in the resurrection of the man four days dead. It shows that the Lord first called forth and gave life to the dead man, saying, “Lazarus, come forth” (Jn 11:43).

Only afterward was the man who came forth alive loosed by the disciples, as it is written: “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in Him” (Jn 11:45).

Behold, the disciples loose one already living, whom the Teacher had raised from the dead. If the disciples had loosed Lazarus while he was dead, they would have revealed more stench than power.

From this reflection it must be seen that, by pastoral authority, we ought to loose those whom we know our Author is bringing to life by raising grace. This enlivening, before the act of justification, is already known in the very confession of sin.

For this reason it is by no means said to this same dead Lazarus, “Live,” but, “Come forth.” Every sinner, when he hides his guilt within his conscience, is hidden within and concealed in his secret places.

But the dead man comes forth when the sinner willingly confesses his sins. Therefore it is said to Lazarus, “Come forth.” It is as though this were plainly said to everyone dead in sin.

“Why do you hide your guilt in your conscience? Come forth now through confession, you who hide within yourself through denial.” Therefore, “Come forth,” dead man. That is, sinner, confess your guilt.

But the disciples loose the one who comes forth. So the pastors of the Church turn aside deserved punishment from the one who was not ashamed to confess what he had done.

I have said this briefly concerning the order of absolution, so that the pastors of the Church may strive with great discernment either to loose or to bind.

Yet whether the pastor imposes a prohibition justly or unjustly, the pastor’s judgment must still be feared by the flock. Thus one who is subject, even if perhaps bound unjustly, should not deserve the very judgment of being bound because of another fault.

Therefore the pastor must fear to loose or bind without discernment. But the one subject to the pastor must fear being bound, even unjustly. He must not rashly reproach his pastor’s judgment.

Otherwise, even if he has been bound unjustly, there may be in the very pride of rash reproach the guilt that had not existed before. But since we have briefly spoken of this by way of digression, let us return to the order of exposition.

After His resurrection the Lord gave this promised grace equally to all the Apostles, saying: "Receive the Holy Spirit," and so forth. Through the Apostles, Christ gives the same grace to all who came after them as their true successors, that is, to the Orthodox hierarchs.

The divine Paul showed this twofold authority when he wrote to the Corinthians: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh" (1 Cor 5:4-5). This is the authority to bind.

"That the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 5:5). This is the authority to loose sins. How great a grace! Truly mankind has been counted worthy of a heavenly and soul-saving gift.

Why did the Giver of the gift first breathe, and then communicate the grace? By the divine inbreathing man received a soul. It is written: "He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Gen 2:7).

The human soul had been put to death by sin, according to the divine decree: "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die" (Gen 2:17).

Therefore the Giver of life breathed in order to make the slain human soul alive, to make it capable of receiving the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and to show that He Himself is the Creator who breathed into man's face and gave him the breath of life.

He also showed that the One who then created man is the same One who now renews the human soul.

For this reason Christ added, 'Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven,' thereby showing what kind of gracious power is given to them" (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 86).

Earlier, when the Apostle Peter said to Jesus on behalf of all the Apostles, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus answered him: "And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matt 16:16, 19).

Then Jesus only promised Peter that He would give him this authority. Now He gave it, and not only to Peter, but also to the other Apostles.

The Lord grants the Apostles precisely this authority because the essence of the whole apostolic ministry is contained in it. This is a ministry that assists the appropriation of Christ's work in the world.

There may be believers worthy of the forgiveness of sins according to faith, and unbelievers whose sins cannot be forgiven because of their unbelief. See the note on Matt 16:19; cf. Matt 18:18.

He never resorted to violence or weapons. Rather, by persuasion and miracles He sought to bring people to the knowledge of truth and true piety.

He Himself teaches us this, saying that He received no worldly authority from the Father. When the Jews accused Him before Pilate of calling Himself king of the Jews, Pilate asked whether He was the king of the Jews.

Christ answered in words showing that He had no worldly authority on earth: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now My kingdom is not from here” (Jn 18:36).

Pilate again says to Him: “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered: “You say that I am a King. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37).

Could He have testified more plainly that He did not come into the world in order to use worldly authority?

The passages of Holy Scripture that speak of this show best what authority Christ actually gave the Apostles. The Church has no authority other than that which Christ gave His disciples, and through them their successors.

If Holy Scripture does not show that Christ’s disciples received any authority other than spiritual authority, then the claims of certain hierarchs are vain. They try to prove that they may also perform the functions of secular authority.

The first and chief authority which Christ gave the Apostles is the authority to preach the Gospel throughout the whole earth and to baptize those who have faith (Mt 28:18). It is entirely clear that this authority is only spiritual.

Another authority given to the Apostles, and through them to the Church, is the authority to bind and loose: “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18).

Appealing to these words of Christ, some began to prove that this also applies to worldly matters. Such proofs are unfounded, because Christ Himself answers them in the following words.

“As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:21-23).

From this it is clear that the authority to bind and loose, received from Christ by the Apostles, applies only to sins. Thus it applies only to the soul, and by no means to the body, as Chrysostom wisely observes on this matter.

The third authority granted by Christ to the Apostles is the authority to celebrate the mystery of the Eucharist in remembrance of Him (Lk 22:19). This truly cannot be called worldly authority.

The Evangelist Matthew mentions the last authority, which consists in punishing offenders: “If he refuses even to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector” (Mt 18:17).

These words show that the Church cannot impose on offenders any punishments other than removal from ecclesiastical communion and exclusion from the Christian community.

How far Christ and the Apostles were from the thought of any secular authority is clear from this. They most decisively kept such authority away from the Church, preserving for her exclusively spiritual authority.

First turning away from such authority Himself, Christ then told His disciples that this authority belongs not to them, but to worldly sovereigns: “The kings of the nations rule over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But you shall not be so” (Lk 22:25; Mk 10:42-43).

By these words Christ teaches His disciples two truths. First, they and their successors must stand far apart from every worldly authority and jurisdiction.

Second, the spiritual authority they possess is not an authority of domination, but an authority of love and goodness. The task of worldly authority is to govern external affairs, while spiritual authority governs the inner movements of the heart.

Origen, among others, says that spiritual persons are not called to lordship in the Church, but to serve their Church. Jerome sets forth the distinction between the authority of a prince and that of a bishop.

The prince rules over the unwilling, while the bishop rules over the willing. The prince subjects by fear, while the bishop himself becomes a servant. The prince guards the body unto death, while the bishop preserves the soul unto salvation.

This teaching of Holy Scripture on the character of ecclesiastical authority was what the fathers of the Council of Ephesus had in mind. In this decree, they reminded all that the arrogance of worldly authority must not creep in under the guise of sacred ministry.

In their sentence against bishops striving to obtain some preeminence over others, the fathers again showed that they had in mind the Savior’s words to His disciples concerning primacy.

“But you are not to be called teachers, for One is your Teacher, Christ, and you are all brethren. Call no man your father on earth, for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Neither be called instructors, for One is your Instructor, Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:8-12).

The Ephesian fathers also had before them other words of the divine Teacher, in which He showed the equality of His disciples: “Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be slave of all” (Mk 10:43-44).