THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
These words mean this: Do not marvel that I must be lifted up for your salvation. This is pleasing also to the Father. He so loved you that, for servants, and ungrateful servants, He gave His Son. No one would do this even for a friend.
Paul also expresses this when he says, "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die" (Rom 5:7). The Apostle spoke of this more fully, because he was addressing believers. Christ speaks briefly, because His word was addressed to Nicodemus. Yet His word is more powerful.
Each of His sayings contains great force. In the words, "God so loved the world," He shows the great power of love. There is a great and boundless distance between God and the world.
Read more (1090 words)
Immortal, without beginning, majesty without limit, He loved those who are of earth and dust. He loved those filled with countless sins, who offend Him at all times, and who are ungrateful.
The words that follow are also powerful: "that He gave His Only-begotten Son." He did not give a servant, He says, nor an angel, nor an archangel. No one would show for his own son such care as God showed for ungrateful servants.
Thus He describes His Passion not with full clarity, but in a veiled manner. Yet He states the saving fruits of the Passion clearly and openly, saying, "that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Since He had said that He must be lifted up, and thereby had indicated His death, the hearer might have been troubled by these words. He might have supposed something merely human about Him and considered His death the end of His existence.
See, then, how He corrects this. He says that the One whom the Father gives is the Son of God, the Author of life, and of eternal life.
He who by His own death could impart life to others could not remain forever in the power of death. If those who believe in the Crucified One do not perish, much less can the Crucified One Himself perish.
He who delivers others from perdition is Himself far more free from it. He who imparts life to others pours forth life still more for Himself.
Do you see that faith is needed everywhere? He says that the Cross is the source of life. Reason could not easily receive this. The Gentiles bear witness to it, for even now they mock it.
But faith, surpassing the weakness of human reasonings, both receives and holds this very thing with ease. Why, then, did God so love the world? For no other reason than His goodness alone.
Let us be ashamed before His love. Let us be ashamed before His immeasurable love for mankind. For our sake He did not spare even His Only-begotten Son, yet we spare our money, to our own harm.
He delivered up His true Son for us. Yet for His sake, and not even for our own sake, we are unwilling to give silver. How can we receive forgiveness for this?
If we see a man exposed to dangers and death for our sake, we prefer him to all others. We count him among our first friends and give him all that is ours.
We say that what we have belongs to him more than to us. Even after all this, we do not think we have repaid him worthily. Yet toward Christ we do not show even this measure of gratitude.
He laid down His soul for us. He poured out His precious Blood for us, for us who are ungrateful and wicked. Yet we do not spend even money for our own benefit.
We despise Him in nakedness and as a stranger, Him who died for us. Who, then, will rescue us from the punishment to come?
If it were not God, but we ourselves, who punished ourselves, would we not pronounce sentence against ourselves? Would we not condemn ourselves to the fire of Gehenna?
For we despise Him who laid down His soul for us, while He wastes away from hunger. And what do I say about money?
If we had a thousand souls within us, should we not lay them all down for Him? Yet even in this way we would still do nothing worthy of His benefits.
He who first confers a benefit reveals manifest goodness in himself. But he who has received a benefit, whatever he gives in return, gives only what is owed and deserves no thanks.
This is especially so when the One who began to show kindness bestowed His benefit on enemies. The one who repays Him repays a Benefactor with what he received from that same Benefactor, and again benefits from it himself.
Yet even this does not move us. No, we are so ungrateful that we clothe slaves, mules, and horses in golden ornaments.
But the Lord, wandering naked, going from door to door, standing at the crossroads, and stretching out His hands to us, we despise. Often we look upon Him with stern eyes. Yet even this He endures for our sake.
He willingly hungers in order to feed you. He wanders naked to give you the opportunity to receive the garment of incorruption. Yet even after this, you share nothing from your possessions.
Your garments are either eaten by moths, or they burden chests and bring needless care to their owners. But He who gave both these and all the rest wanders naked.
But you say that you do not store your garments in chests, but wear them yourselves and adorn yourselves with them. Tell me, then, what profit do you gain from this?
Is it that a crowd will see you in the marketplace? What then? There they will not admire the one clothed in such garments, but the one who gives to those in need.
Therefore, if you want to be admired, clothe others, and you will receive thousands of praises. Then, together with men, God also will praise you.
But now no one will praise you. Rather, all hate you when they see that you adorn the body and neglect the soul.
Bodily adornment belongs also to prostitutes. They often dress in the most costly and splendid garments. But the adornment of the soul belongs only to virtuous people.
I speak of this often, and I will not cease speaking of it. I care not so much for the poor as for your souls.
They will have consolation, if not from us, then from some other source. Even if they had no consolation, and perished from hunger, even then they would suffer no greater harm.
Did poverty and wasting from hunger harm Lazarus in any way? But no one will rescue you from Gehenna if you do not receive help from the poor.
No, we shall say the same as the rich man who was handed over to eternal torments and deprived of every consolation. But may God grant that none of us ever hear such words.
May we depart into the bosom of Abraham, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him and with Him be glory to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.