"And the Father who sent Me Himself bore witness of Me." "You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent."
Here one can see not merely a simple construction of thoughts placed again in the proposed saying. Rather, there is a great multitude of hidden contemplations. They very easily escape the attention of hearers who do not love learning, but are accessible to deeper investigators alone.
For example, someone might ask what moved Jesus, after speaking of His testimony through divine activity (Jn 5:36-37), to come to a discourse like the present one. It seems quite distant from what preceded. He says that the Pharisees had never heard the "voice" of God the Father, nor had they contemplated "His form." They did not even have His "word" dwelling in them.
I will agree, as I think everyone else would, that such a perplexity on someone's part would not be superfluous. Therefore, holding everywhere to the truth, I shall try to state the meaning we should attach to the proposed saying. I shall also state what contemplation we should apply to it, with the help of the power and grace of the Spirit.
It is the custom of Christ the Savior, when conducting profitable conversations, especially with the senseless Pharisees, often to turn His gaze into the depth of their heart. In a God-befitting manner He sees the thoughts that move and circulate in the soul before they have words. It is chiefly to these that He gives answers. At times He speaks of them and exposes them.
In doing this, He does not preserve an unbroken connection in His sayings. Rather, by His answer He immediately meets what they desire and ponder within themselves. Through this He also shows that He is God by nature, since He knows what is hidden in the depths and searches hearts and reins.
If anyone wishes, he can receive the clearest proof of what has been said from the other Evangelists, by which I mean Luke and the rest. It is written in the Gospels that Pharisees and teachers of the Law once gathered from all the surrounding region of Judea.
"And behold," it says, "men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before Him. When they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the house. Through the tiles they let him down with his bed into the midst before Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said to the paralytic: Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying: Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone? But Jesus, perceiving their reasonings, answered and said to them: Why do you reason in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk?" (Lk 5:17-23; cf. Mt 9:2ff.; Mk 2:3ff.).
"It happened on another Sabbath that He entered the synagogue and taught. A man was there, and his right hand was withered. The scribes and Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their reasonings," it says, "and said to the man who had the withered hand: Rise and stand in the midst. And he rose and stood. Then Jesus said to them: I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil?" (Lk 6:6-9; cf. Mt 12:9ff.; Mk 3:1ff.).
You see, here also He plainly conducted the conversation as the One who looks into the very heart of those who were madly trying to accuse Him. We suppose that the Savior also saw something of this sort in the souls of the Pharisees when He spoke the words now being interpreted.
If you are not too weary to review again all that has already been said, you will see that these words do not turn aside from the straight path or from the matter at hand. At first, there was this great and lengthy discourse against them concerning the man healed on the Sabbath.
In it Christ, by various proofs and arguments, sought to persuade those who were greatly indignant at Him. In their view, He had violated the honor of the Sabbath, or even thereby transgressed the Law itself. He sought to persuade them that even on the Sabbath it is possible to show mercy and to do good to all.
Moreover, He sought to persuade them that the Law established the Sabbath rest as a shadow of a most wondrous reality. He also affirmed most decisively that He had been sent by God the Father. At the same time, He clearly said that the Father bears witness to Him and will approve all His works.
Against this, the Pharisees were adherents of the letter of the Law. They always displayed the commandments of Moses and boasted in their knowledge of them. Most likely, they again thought within themselves: What is this speech we hear from Him? How will God the Father approve a transgressor of the Law?
When did He testify to this, or what decision did He make concerning Him? From the Law of Moses we know that God came down on Mount Sinai. His form was seen by the fathers, and His voice, it says, was heard (Ex 19:9ff.).
He spoke to the whole assembly of the people and commanded them to keep the Sabbath day. He plainly commanded the following: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the holy Lord your God. You shall do no work on it" (Ex 20:8-10).
We did not hear these words from someone else, they would say. The whole multitude of the fathers personally heard the divine voice. After them, the word of God is with us. But who is this Man?
Since He again saw such thoughts in them, He rebukes those who are bitterly astray, saying: "You have never heard His voice, nor have you contemplated His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent."
They were utterly ignorant of what happened then in type, and through which the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was represented to them. They did not take these things as images of spiritual realities. Instead, they thought that the divine nature could actually be seen with bodily eyes, and they believed that It uses a bodily voice.
The words of the Savior about them were true: they had never "heard the voice" of God the Father, nor had anyone contemplated "His form" with bodily sight. That form is the Word, like Him in all things. In my opinion, the words of Exodus can again clearly prove this, when they are spiritually explained and investigated.
It is read as follows: "And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke, because God had descended upon it in fire. The smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and all the people were greatly terrified. And the sounds of the trumpet were heard, sounding very strongly. Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice" (Ex 19:17-19).
Thus the words of wise Moses speak to us. Now, I think, we must show that the Jews fell into a ridiculous opinion about God. They thought that they had contemplated His very "form" and had heard a voice truly proper to the divine nature.
Therefore, relying on the abundant grace of the Savior, let us refine the coarseness of the legal letter into spiritual contemplation. Then what was said to the Pharisees concerning God will be shown with special clarity to be true: "You have never heard His voice, nor have you contemplated His form."
Moses' leading the people out to meet God, as it is written, could be a clear sign and a kind of enigmatic speech. It shows that no one can approach God without instruction and knowledge. Only those who are guided by the Law are taught the knowledge of what they seek. For Moses may be understood as standing for the Law, according to what is said somewhere: "They have Moses and the Prophets" (Lk 16:29).
The people's standing beneath the mountain, when God had already descended and was upon it, points to the readiness of the soul and the willingness for servitude in those who are called. With God's help, they do not in any way turn aside from striving toward what is beyond their strength and above nature.
Such, without doubt, are the companions of the Savior. Therefore, caring for courage beyond human measure, they say: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" (Rom 8:35).
The pious can endure every terror for the sake of love for Christ. If tribulation rises like a mountain, they will overcome every danger and will not turn their soul away from love for God.
It is then said that God came down not to some lowly place, but appeared again on a height and on a mountain. You should think something similar in relation to yourself. Even if the divine nature descends to our souls and brings Itself to some understanding for us, It still remains infinitely above our words and contemplations.
This height and supreme elevation of the dogmas concerning It is signified by the mountain, which, we are told, was darkened with smoke. Indeed, our words about the Godhead are dark and not very clear. Like smoke, they veil the spiritual eye.
Therefore wise Paul testified that we see in a mirror and in an enigma (1 Cor 13:12). The Psalmist also says somewhere that God made darkness His covering (Ps 17:12). By the name of darkness he signifies His unknowability. The smoke around the fire on the mountain may quite well be taken as an image of it.
The Godhead Himself descends in the form of fire, which was especially needed precisely at that time. It was required by the nature of the matter. Indeed, it was fitting that the One who, through the coming ordinance of the Law, called Israel to servitude and understanding should be shown as Enlightener and Chastiser. Both are accomplished through fire.
But "the sounds of the trumpet," it says, "were heard, sounding very strongly," so that thoughts of the same kind might arise here also. For the Law was proclaimed by God. Yet at first it was not proclaimed strongly, because of the weakness of those being trained. It was, so to speak, uttered with a quiet voice and not with the full force of the trumpet.
Therefore Moses called himself slow of speech. But with the passage of time, which raised those who believe in Christ from the shadowy letter to spiritual worship, far stronger voices of the divine trumpet sounded forth. These are the saving and evangelical preaching, which in a certain way fills the whole universe with its sound.
It was not like the Law, weak in voice and little known, heard only in the land of Judea, or even proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba. Rather, "their proclamation has gone out into all the earth," as it is written (Ps 18:5).
What else is there here? "Moses," it says, "spoke, and God answered him with a voice." Let the mind of those who love learning be keen again. Let it observe precisely the faithfulness proper to the divine revelations.
For Moses speaks, and God answers him with a voice. It is certainly not with His own voice, for this is not said. Rather, simply and without qualification, He answers "with a voice," ϑωνῇ, produced miraculously in a human manner through the utterance of words.
Indeed, can God be powerless in any matter? What will God not accomplish, and that entirely without hindrance, if He wills? Therefore Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice. In this consists the type.
Now let us look at the truth. In the holy Gospels you find the Lord saying, "Father, glorify Your Son!" and the Father answering by means of a voice: "I have both glorified Him and will glorify Him again" (Jn 12:28).
That this was not in reality the voice of God the Father, the Savior showed when He said to those present: "This voice did not come for My sake, but for yours" (Jn 12:30). As you see, He clearly expressed how the voice "came," γεγονεν.
For it is not natural to think that the divine nature Itself uses a voice by sound. Yet It accommodates Itself to our needs and speaks like us for providential purposes.
THEOSIS