John 8:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And yet, although He spoke this in the temple and as a teacher, “no one,” it says, “seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” That is, the favorable time had not yet arrived in which He wished to be crucified on the Cross.

Thus even then this was not a work of their power, but of His dispensation. They had desired to take Him before, but could not. So too then they could not have done so, had He Himself not consented to it.

For even then they could have done nothing against Him unless the appointed time had come, which He had set for Himself. The Crucifixion was not a work of weakness, but of permission. He allowed it when He willed. They had long desired to kill Him, but they were restrained by the invisible bonds of His power.

For He had to remain alive in the flesh longer, so that He might bring greater benefit to men through the working of greater miracles and the giving of fuller teaching.

“These words,” it says, Christ “spoke” not outside Jerusalem, nor in one of the neighboring cities, nor in an obscure village of Judea. He stood in the very “treasury,” that is, in the midst of the temple itself. He spoke about this “in” the very “temple.” Although the Pharisees were greatly indignant and deeply disturbed by His words, they did not seize Him. At that time they had every opportunity to do this easily, for He was, as I said, in their nets. What compelled them, seized with fury like savage beasts, to remain inactive even against their will? What cut short their anger? By what was the murderous heart of the Pharisees tamed? “His hour had not yet come,” it says. That is, the appointed time of death had not yet arrived for Christ the Savior. This time was not assigned by someone else, nor appointed by fate, according to the false teaching of the Greeks. Nor did it depend on an hour, as they vainly babble. It was determined by Him Himself, according to the good pleasure of God the Father. As true God by nature, He could not shrink from what had to be. Yet He knew well how long it was fitting for Him to live on earth with flesh. He also knew when He would go again to heaven, having destroyed death by the death of His flesh. For every wise person, I think, it is entirely evident that death was not inflicted by anyone’s compulsion upon Him who is Life by nature. How, indeed, could the bonds of death prevail over Life by nature? The Lord Himself testifies in one place, “No one takes My soul from Me. I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again” (Jn 10:18). If the time when He had to undergo death had been appointed as necessary for Him by someone else, how could He have authority to lay down His soul voluntarily? For He would have been taken even unwillingly, if the Passion were not in His authority. But if He lays it down of Himself, then we must see His Passion as belonging not to the authority of another, but to His will alone. This is why He allowed the mad designs of the Jews to be accomplished only when He knew that the proper time for His death had already come. Let the bold and arrogant Pharisee not think proudly. Let him not say, puffed up with pride through his great foolishness, “If Christ was God by nature, how was He not beyond my nets? How did He not escape my hands?” To this he will hear from those who love Him: “Your nets were not so strong. For Almighty God, it was not difficult to shatter your malice and escape the snares of your impiety. But the Passion was saving for the world. The suffering served as the destruction of death. The great Cross brought the overthrow of sin and corruption. Knowing this as God, He subjected Himself to your bold impiety. For tell me, what prevented you from catching Him precisely when you gnashed your teeth at Him as He taught in the treasury itself? If it was the work of your strength to take Christ, why did you not make Him a prisoner then and there? You stood then in fury, with an evident intention to kill Christ. Yet you were powerless to accomplish your desire, for He did not yet wish to suffer. Nor did He then wish to submit to the seemingly unbreakable bridle of your madness.” By setting this against the chatter of the Jews, anyone can easily expose their bold idle talk. One may rightly marvel that the holy Evangelist indicated, at the proper time and clearly, that the Savior taught this “in the temple” by the treasury. “and no one seized Him.” By these words he bore witness to the same thing the Lord Himself said to the Jews when they came to take Him: “As against a robber, you came out with swords and spears to take Me. Every day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me” (Mt 26:55). No prudent person will say that He accused the Jews because they did not inflict a premature Passion on Him. Nor did He accuse them because they missed the proper time and delayed in committing murder. Rather, He exposes their foolish opinion that they could have authority over Him against His will. He shows they could not take by force Him who could not suffer if He Himself did not will it. “I sat teaching in the temple, and you did not seize Me,” because I did not then will it. Even now you would not be able to do this, unless I voluntarily handed Myself over into your hands. Thus from every side one can see that the handing over of the Lord to death was not the work of the Jews’ strength. Only the intention to kill the Lord must be ascribed to their godless boldness. To Christ the Savior must be ascribed the will to suffer for all, in order to free all. Having redeemed them by His blood, He presents them to God the Father. For God, according to Paul’s word, “was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor 5:19). In His mercy, He restored what had fallen from friendship with Him to its original state.

How was it both made and there? Because the house that a builder raises first appeared in his design. There it was good, did not grow old, and was not destroyed. Yet to manifest his design, he built the house. In some way, a house came from a house. If the house collapses, its design remains.

So also, in the Word of God there existed everything that was made, because God made all things in Wisdom and made all things known (cf. Ps 102:24). He did not know because He made; He made because He knew what He would create.

For us all this became known because He made it. If it had not been known to Him, it would not have been made. Therefore the Word preceded. And what was before the Word of God? Nothing.

If anything had been before, it would not have been said, "In the beginning was the Word" (Jn 1:1), but, "In the beginning the Word was created." Finally, what does Moses say of the world? "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" (Gen 1:1). He created what did not exist.

If He created what did not exist, what existed before? "In the beginning was the Word" (Jn 1:1). And whence came earth and heaven? "All things were made through Him" (cf. Jn 1:3). And you place Christ under fate?

Where is fate? "In heaven," you say, "in the order and movement of the stars." How, then, does He have fate through Whom heaven and the stars were made, when, if you judge rightly, even your will surpasses the stars?

Or because you know that Christ's flesh was formed beneath the heavens, do you suppose that Christ's power is also subject to heaven? Hear, foolish man: "His hour had not yet come" (Jn 7:30). This does not mean the hour in which He had to die, but the hour in which He deemed it fitting to accept death.

For He Himself knew when He must die. He knew everything that had been foretold about Him, and He awaited the fulfillment of all that, according to the prophecies, had to happen before the Passion. When all was fulfilled, then the Passion would take place, according to an established order, not by fated necessity.

Finally, hear the proof. Among the other things foretold about Him, this also is written: "They gave Me gall for My food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink" (Ps 68:22). We learn from the Gospel how this was fulfilled.

First they gave Him gall; He received it, tasted it (cf. Mt 27:34), and spat it out. Then, when He was hanging on the cross, in order that everything foretold might be fulfilled, He said: "I thirst" (Jn 19:28).

The soldiers took a sponge soaked with vinegar, fastened it to a spear, and brought it to the mouth of Him Who hung upon the cross. He received it and said: "It is finished" (Jn 19:30).

What does "It is finished" mean? "Everything foretold to happen before My Passion has been fulfilled. What more have I to do here?" Therefore, after He had said, "It is finished," He bowed His head and gave up the spirit (cf. Jn 19:30).

Did those thieves nailed beside Him give up the spirit when they wished? They were bound by the bonds of the flesh, because they were not creators of the flesh. Nailed fast, they suffered torment for a long time, because they had no power over their weakness.

But the Lord, when He wished, received flesh in the womb of the Virgin. When He wished, He came to men. For as long as He wished, He lived among men. When He wished, He left the flesh. This belonged to His power, not to necessity.

He awaited this hour, then, not an hour belonging to fate, but an hour fitting and belonging to His will. First all had to be fulfilled that had to be fulfilled before the Passion.

For how could He be under fate, Who says elsewhere: "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down of Myself, and I take it again" (cf. Jn 10:18)?

He showed this power when the Jews sought Him. "Whom do you seek?" He asked. They said, "Jesus." He said, "I am He." Hearing this answer, they drew back and fell (cf. Jn 18:4-6).

Someone will say, "If He had power, why did He not come down when the Jews mocked Him as He hung on the cross and said, 'If He is the Son of God, let Him come down from the cross'" (cf. Mt 27:40)? "Why did He not come down and show them His power by descending?"

Because He was teaching patience, He postponed His power. If He had come down in response to their words, it could have been thought that the malice of the mockers had prevailed over Him.

He did not come down. He remained hanging, intending to depart when He wished. What great thing would it have been to come down from the cross for Him Who could rise from the tomb?

Let us, then, for whom this has served, understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, then hidden, will be revealed at the Judgment. Of this it is said: "God shall come manifestly, our God, and not in silence" (cf. Ps 49:3).

What does "He shall come manifestly" mean? It means that He came hiddenly, but our God, that is, Christ, will come manifestly. "And not in silence." What does "not in silence" mean? It means that at first He was silent.

When was He silent? When He was judged (Mt 26:63; 27:14), so that here also what the prophet foretold might be fulfilled: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth" (Isa 53:7).

Therefore, if He had not wished to suffer, He would not have suffered and would not have shed His blood. If He had not shed His blood, He would not have redeemed the world.

So let us give thanks both for His Divine power and for His compassionate weakness. Let us give thanks for the hidden power which the Jews did not see, and because of which it was then said to them: "You know neither Me nor My Father" (Jn 8:19).

Let us also give thanks for the flesh He assumed, which the Jews saw and whose homeland they knew. Because of it He said elsewhere: "You both know Me, and you know where I am from" (Jn 7:28).

We know both in Christ: where He is equal to the Father, and where the Father is greater than He. Here is the Word, and here is the flesh. Here is God, and here is man. But Christ is one: God and man.

In the hearing of all He repeated the earlier threat: Behold, I am going away. You will seek Me, but will not find Me. You will die in your sin. This is the sin of unrepentant deicide. And without Me do not hope to come where I am going, to the heavenly Father.

In both cases Jesus Christ expresses one and the same thought. Here, however, the threat is stated more strongly: His enemies will perish. “I am going away, and you will seek Me,” that is, the Messiah in general, asking Him to come to help in the calamities that will overtake you after My departure to the Father.

“But you will die in the sin of unbelief in Me, and therefore you cannot be where I am going.” The words “you will die in your sin” could not have been unclear to anyone. Through them, the words expressing the opposite in relation to Jesus Christ, “where I am going,” should also have been understood.

It was evident to everyone, at least, that here a contrast is being made between Sheol and Abraham’s bosom. This threat greatly offended the Jews. In their mocking interpretation of Jesus’ words, they send Him to Sheol, while claiming Abraham’s bosom as inalienably their own.

“If He was speaking of the latter, then of course we not only can go there, but will go. But if He is thinking of passing to the other world as a suicide, then of course we cannot be where He will be, as a suicide.”

Jesus Christ meets this mockery with a calm unfolding and explanation of what He had said. By their origin, “you are from below,” and by their moral life, “you are of this world.” They are people of this world, people of sin, who therefore cannot know Him who has heavenly origin and being. But since salvation is possible only through Christ, if they do not believe in Him, they will die in their sins.

From this circumstance one can explain the importance the Evangelist attaches to indicating the very location. Recently, in that hall, a hostile meeting of the Sanhedrin against the Lord had taken place (Jn 7:45-52). And now the Lord, so to speak before the eyes and ears of the Sanhedrin, speaks a decisive discourse concerning His messianic dignity. Yet, the Evangelist notes, no one seized Him, and so forth. Cf. the note to Jn 7:30.

By presenting Jesus as teacher and indicating the place where Jesus spoke, the Evangelist makes two things understood. On the one hand, Jesus taught about His heavenly mission not secretly, but in the hearing of a vast multitude of people. On the other hand, despite such a location, where the members of the Sanhedrin could easily have seized Jesus, “no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” He, the heavenly Teacher, was under the special providence of heaven.

For this reason the Lord said to the high priest: “I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where the Jews always gather, and in secret I have said nothing” (Jn 18:20).

From this same chamber of the Sanhedrin, Gazith, the temple officers had been sent (Jn 7:32, 44-53), yet they could not lay hands on the Lord, because “His hour had not yet come.”

But the Lord Jesus went willingly to suffering and death. This sacrifice had to be accomplished at the moment foreordained by God. Human malice imagined that it was fulfilling its own plans and desires. In its madness it took upon itself responsibility for the crime committed, yet it remained powerless until the Lord Himself said, “The ruler of this world is coming” (Jn 14:30), and, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Lk 22:53).