John 9:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Who will still contradict, seeing that He can do the same things as the Father? He not only formed eyes and opened them, but also gave sight. This proves that He breathed in the soul also, because without the activity of the soul even the most perfect eye can never see anything. Thus He gave the power of the soul, and He gave the members with all that belongs to them: arteries, nerves, veins, blood, and all the rest of which our body is composed.

"I must work while it is day." What do these words mean, and how are they connected? Very closely. This is their meaning: "while it is day," while it is possible for men to believe in Me, while this life continues, "I must work." "The night is coming," that is. The future time, "when no one can work." He did not say, when I cannot work, but "when no one can work." That means when there will no longer be faith, labors, or repentance.

That He calls faith a work is clear from this. When they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" He answered, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (Jn 6:29). Why can no one do this work then? Because there will no longer be faith. Willingly or unwillingly, all will obey.

Therefore, lest anyone should say that He does this from vainglory, He shows that He does everything for the benefit of men. They can believe only here. There they can no longer do anything useful for themselves. For this reason He healed the blind man, even though the man did not even approach Him.

Yet that the blind man was worthy of healing, and that if he had sight he would have believed and approached Christ, is clear from what follows. Even if he had heard from someone of His presence, he would not have failed to do this. This is clear from his courage and faith.

It would have been natural for him to think and say: What is this? He made clay, anointed my eyes, and said, "Go, wash." Could He not heal me first and only afterward send me to Siloam? I have often washed there with many others and received no benefit. If He had any power, He would have healed me at once.

Naaman also spoke in this way about Elisha. When he received the command to go and wash in the Jordan, he did not believe, despite Elisha's great fame. But the blind man was free from unbelief. He did not object or reason within himself: What is this? Was it necessary to put clay on me? It is more likely to blind. Who has ever gained sight in this way? No, he thought none of these things. Do you see his firm faith and the nobility of his soul?

"The night is coming." By this He shows that even after the Cross He will care for the impious and will draw many, because it is still "day." But afterward He will finally reject them. This is what He indicates by the words, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

How then did Paul call the present life night, and the future life day? He does not contradict Christ, but says the same thing, not in words, but in meaning. "The night," he says, "is far spent, and the day is at hand" (Rom 13:12). He calls the present time night because of those who sit in darkness, or by comparison with that future day. Christ calls the future night because then they will no longer do sins. Paul calls the present life night because those who live in evil and unbelief are in darkness.

Thus, speaking with the faithful, he said, "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand," since the faithful are about to enjoy that light. He calls their former life night, and says, "Let us cast off the works of darkness." Do you see that, according to him, the night consists in these works? Therefore he adds, "Let us walk becomingly, as in the day" (Rom 13:13), so that we may be able to enjoy that light.

If this light is so beautiful, consider what that light will be. As sunlight is better than lamplight, so much, or rather much more, the future light is better than the present. Christ was indicating this when He said, "The sun will be darkened" (Mt 24:29). That means that, because of the abundance of that light, even the sun will not be seen.

If now, in order to have bright houses with healthy air, we spend much money and undergo heavy labors in building, consider whether we ought not even to sacrifice our very bodies in order to build bright dwellings for ourselves there, where that ineffable light is. Here there are disputes and quarrels about boundaries and walls. There is nothing of the kind there. There is neither envy nor slander. No one will quarrel with us over boundaries.

Moreover, this house must necessarily be left behind, but that one will remain with us forever. This one with time is inevitably subject to decay and many injuries. That one never grows old. A poor man cannot build this one. That one can be built even for two mites, like the widow's offering.

For this reason I am deeply grieved that, with so many good things set before us, we are careless and negligent. We make every effort to have splendid houses here. But we neither care nor think about preparing for ourselves even a small shelter in the heavens.

Tell me, where would you wish to have a house here? In a desert, or in one of the small towns? I do not think so. Without doubt, you would choose capitals and great cities, where there is more splendor. But I lead you to a city whose builder and maker is God. There, I implore you, arrange and build your house, with less expense and less labor. This house is built by the hands of the poor, and it is the best building. The houses now being built are works of extreme madness.

If someone led you into Persia so that you might see the country and then return, and meanwhile advised you to build houses there, would you not call him utterly mad for advising you to spend money for nothing? How then do you do the same thing on the earth, which you will soon leave afterward?

You say, I shall leave everything to my children. But they too will leave it soon after you, and often even before you. Their descendants will do the same. Thus this too becomes an occasion of grief for you, when you do not see heirs after yourself. But there is no need to fear anything of the kind there. There the possession remains permanent for you, your children, and your grandchildren, if they imitate the same virtue.

Christ Himself oversees that building. The one who builds it has no need to appoint supervisors, or to be anxious and troubled. When God takes the work upon Himself, what need is there for anxiety? He Himself gathers everything and raises the dwelling. Nor is this alone marvelous. He also builds it as you please, or rather better than you please and desire, because He is the best craftsman and cares greatly for your benefit.

Even if you are poor and wish to build such a house, this will not produce envy against you or stir up slander. None of those acquainted with envy sees it. The angels see it, and they know only how to rejoice in your prosperity. No one will seize the boundaries of your house, because there is no neighbor there who suffers from such a disease. Your neighbors there will be the saints: Peter and Paul, all the prophets, the martyrs, and the assembly of angels and archangels.

For the sake of all this, let us distribute our possessions to the poor, so that we may inherit those mansions. May we all be counted worthy of them by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him and with Him, to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

I must, He says, do the very works that He who sent Me does.

I must do them "while it is day," while the present life lasts and men can believe in Me.

Then "the night comes, when no one can work," that is, believe. For He calls faith a work.

Thus in the age to come no one can believe.

The present life is day, because during it, as during the day, we can work.

Although the Apostle Paul calls it night, he does so partly because here those who practice virtue or vice are unknown, and partly in comparison with the Light that will illumine the righteous.

The age to come is night, because there no one can work.

Although the Apostle Paul calls it day, he does so because the righteous will appear in light and each one's works will be revealed.

Thus in the age to come there is no faith, but all will obey, whether willing or unwilling.

But if the Lord numbers Himself among those sent, and places Himself among those who must work, He certainly does not say this because He is, together with us or as one of us, subject to the Master's will by a necessity proper to servants.

Rather, He follows the form of speech customary and accepted among us.

We have the habit, especially when simple speech will not impress the hearers, of joining and numbering ourselves with them.

So also the all-wise Paul, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, finally transferred the discourse to himself and Apollos.

"These things, brethren, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, that in us you may learn not to think beyond what is written" (1 Cor 4:6).

Therefore, "while it is day," He says, let us work "the works of Him who sent us," for "the night comes, when no one can work."

Here He calls the term of life in the body day, and the time in the state of death night.

Since the day is appointed for works, and the night for inactivity and sleep, He says that the time of life, when one must do good, is day.

The night is the time in the state of rest, when nothing at all can be done.

For "he who has died is justified," or freed, "from sin," according to Paul's word (Rom 6:7). By his inability to do anything, he is also outside sin.

The divine Scripture undoubtedly knows a spiritual day in another sense, as well as another night distinct from this one.

But for each of these kinds of interpretation there is its own time and place, by which the correct understanding of the interpreted sayings is obtained.

To attempt by force, where it is not fitting, to dress in spiritual interpretation what is useful in the historical sense is simply to confuse useful things indiscriminately.

It is also, through great ignorance, to soil the benefit that arises from them.

O wretched man! While you lived, it was the time for working. Now you are already in the night, when no one can work.

What follows next? "I must work the works of Him who sent Me."

See, here He is, the Sent One, that is, Siloam, in whom the blind man washed his face.

And notice what He said: "I must work the works of Him who sent Me, while it is day."

Remember how He gives all glory to Him from whom He has being.

For the Father has a Son who has being from Him, while the Father Himself has no source of His own being.

But why did You say, Lord, "while it is day"? Hear why: "The night comes, when no one can work."

Even You, Lord? Will that night be so strong that during it even You cannot work, You whose creation the night is?

For I think, Lord Jesus, and not only think, but believe and am persuaded, that You were there when God said, "Let there be light." And there was light (Gen 1:3).

For if the Word did this, then He did it through You. Therefore it is said: "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made" (cf. Jn 1:3).

God separated the light from the darkness, called the light day, and the darkness night (Gen 1:4-5).

That by working Jesus Christ here means faith is clear from what He said before: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent" (Jn 6:29).

Jesus Christ called the present age day because now one can work. He called the future age night because then one cannot work.

The Apostle Paul, conversely, called the present age night because of error, ignorance, and the darkness of the passions. He called the future age day because all this is absent from it.

He said: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Rom 13:12).

If anyone wishes to pay special attention to the members of man, he will behold especially in this small part of the body the almighty and manifold wisdom of God.

God has shown such magnificence of art in so small an outline of a part and member of the body.

First, a certain charm has been given to it. It is pleasant and not fleshy. So to speak, in its tenderness it has firmness, and in its weakness it is strong.

Then it is adorned with various colors. Its center has the contour of a black color, and not all of one uniform kind.

It consists of a union of several different circles. Its center and middle have a deeper and blacker color.

The outer circumference partly passes into a golden hue. Around it from outside lies the white, bright and transparent.

It is not merely pure white, but has a certain crystal-like and transparent appearance.

The eyeball is surrounded by a reddish color, which gives pleasantness to the white and the black.

Besides this, despite its density, it is so transparent and smooth that it reflects the images of those approaching us.

Like a faithful mirror, it impresses the features of those conversing with us. For this reason the very center of its circle is called the pupil, ϰόρη.

It is so called because it always shows a human image to the one who stands opposite and looks.

Just as one looking into a mirror cannot fail immediately to reflect his features in the material, so one standing face to face with a man cannot fail to inscribe his image in the eye.

Thus, looking at one another, men become mirrors of one another.

Therefore the eye is worthy of wonder among created things. For it also reveals God to me, accurately recognizing the whole creation and showing the Craftsman from His works.

From the visible it explains the invisible to the soul.

Through it I have knowledge of the sun, understand the structure of heaven, and know the beauty of the stars and the foundation of the earth.

I know the nature of the sea, the difference of seeds, the variety of plants, and the various kinds of flowers.

I know the darkness of night and the brilliance of light, and in general everything that God, having created, approved (Gen 1:31).

Therefore, if the eye did not exist, creation would grow old without a witness. There would be no one to contemplate the wisdom and power of God abiding in it.

Such works include the preaching of faith and beneficent miracles.

The night will come, that is, death will come. Then no one can do works of virtue.

Notice that He did not say, "when I cannot work," but "when no one can work."

For even after His bodily death and resurrection from the dead, and even until now, He offers prayers and supplications to His Father for us.

Nor does He remove either His tender compassion, or His justice, or the confirmation of the preaching of faith, or the miracles that occur.

But among men no one can work after death. Faith ceases, repentance is cut off, and efforts toward virtue remain without effect.

As we are found at the hour of death, so we remain.

Since the divine work that He then wished to perform was the enlightenment of the blind man, He therefore touched upon light, saying:

This does not mean that He ceased to act on earth from the time of His departure from it.

His actions in His Church and in the world continue and will continue until the end of the age (Mt 28:20).

Day and night here are not completely opposite concepts, but only relative ones.

And the very expression "until" does not signify a boundary of activity or state.

But His actions in the world since then are performed in another way than during His earthly life in the human body.

They are performed in a mysterious, spiritual, and invisible way, through the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13-15; 1 Cor 12:3-11).

"When no one can work" is a forceful expression of the same thought, in foreknowledge of His approaching death (cf. Lk 22:53).

We are to respect our duties, submit humbly to them, and fulfill them zealously and without delay. To feel the force of this instruction more deeply and apply it to our life, let us first note that the Lord moves Himself to action on an occasion met in passing.

“As He passed by,” the Evangelist says, “He saw a man blind from birth.” A blind beggar sat by the road. The Lord Jesus was passing by.

It is not apparent that the blind man called to Him or asked for healing. It would seem there was no reason to stop, and no need to act. But the Lord Jesus stops and says: “I must work.”

Why so? Because goodness urges Him. Because love for mankind requires it. Because there is an opportunity to do a good deed.

Because a good deed that can be done on the present day and at the present hour must not be postponed to another. Because the opportunity for good may pass, and with the lost opportunity the good to which it was favorable would also be lost.

Another noteworthy circumstance in the Lord’s saying about saving action is that by this saying He cut short an inquisitive conversation and hastened to the work of healing. Seeing the man born blind, the disciples asked the Lord: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

The question would seem worthy of a detailed resolution, since it tended toward knowledge of the ways of Providence. But the Lord rejected human conjectures in few words: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.”

With still more forceful brevity, He indicated the way of God: “that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” This answer gave occasion for a new question.

Why, then, had he endured blindness before the works of God were manifested in him? But the Lord did not allow the dispute to continue. He immediately added: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me,” and proceeded to heal the man born blind.

This swift transition from inquisitive discussion to saving work is highly noteworthy. It said to the apostles: one must not linger in the investigation of what is hidden when it is necessary to do what is useful.

The unfortunate man needs not an examination of judgments, but help. The man born blind will justify his lot himself when he receives sight. Together with this, for a brief deprivation of visible light, he will receive the blessed illumination of eternal divine light.

Christ appeared not to satisfy the curious, but to save the perishing. Let there be fewer words, but more work: “I must work.”

Still more edifying for us is the circumstance in the Lord’s saying about saving action that He moved Himself to act despite foreseeable difficulties from men.

It is known that the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, Jn 5:16, because He had performed a healing on the Sabbath, which at that time was a feast day. They regarded this as a violation of the holiness of the feast.

Yet it is not hard to understand that if a day is sanctified by the remembrance of past benefactions of God, then much more is it sanctified by a present miraculous benefaction of God.

This unfavorable consequence was, without doubt, before the eyes of Jesus’ omniscience when He proceeded to heal the man born blind. It would seem, why not postpone the work until the next day, so that no occasion might be given for contradiction and slander?

Such reasoning of prudent men would be honored among the sons of men. But the wisdom of the Son of God did not accept it.

It teaches us that works laid upon us by God cannot be postponed in order to please men. They must be fulfilled without delay and without deviation, while the favorable time remains. “I must work while it is day.”

“I must work while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work.” O Lord, is it for Thee to hasten and to guard some day? Is it for Thee, who hast made all days and hast all eternity for Thy wondrous works?

What is this day in which Thou desirest to contain Thy works? What is this night that can threaten Thy day?

The Lord explains His parable when He says: “As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” The presence of the sun determines the natural day.

The visible presence on earth of the Sun of Righteousness, God manifested in the flesh, determines the day of grace for a special work. The night after this day is the time of Christ’s suffering and death.

O night in which truly no man can work! During Christ’s earthly day, not only Christ, but also His apostles, under the direction of this Great Worker, did much. They believed in Him, followed Him, preached, and healed.

All this was cut off when the terrible night came, until the new day of Christ’s Resurrection. “The night cometh, when no man can work.”

How mightily this stormy night shook the faith planted by the Lord Jesus in the hearts of His disciples. It came so near that Satan, who had asked to sift them as wheat, might have scattered them completely.

The work of salvation being accomplished in the midst of the earth on the Cross might at that very time have been destroyed in the souls of those chosen to spread it.

To prevent this, much had to be done beforehand by our Savior. He had to lay the foundation of faith deeply in His first disciples, and strengthen it powerfully now by teaching, now by miracles, now by His almighty prayer.

Having all this before the eyes of His omniscience, He speaks as one who values time and hastens: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day.”