Homilies on the Gospel of John

Hear the trumpet of the Gospel, the thunder of the heavens, the Word of God! What does John say? In the beginning was the Word. Not: "after a long time the Word came to be," not: "the Word was made," not: "the Word had…

Hom. 1-2 (¶1)

Why did John not write "in the beginning the Son was" or "in the beginning the Lord was" or "in the beginning the Christ was"? Why "the Word"?

Hom. 1-2 (¶2)

And the Word was with God. Not merely near God, not merely alongside God, not merely in the presence of God -- but with God in the deepest sense of the preposition: face to face, turned toward God, in the eternal…

Hom. 1-2 (¶3)

And the Word was God. This is the thunderclap. Not: the Word was divine, not: the Word was godlike, not: the Word was a god among gods.

Hom. 1-2 (¶4)

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. Why does the Evangelist call himself a man? To draw the sharpest possible contrast between himself and the eternal Word of whom he has just spoken.

Hom. 3-5 (¶5)

He was not the Light, but came to bear witness about the Light. The true Light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. The Witness is not the light; he is the lamp.

Hom. 3-5 (¶6)

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. The Creator entered His creation unrecognized. He who made the eyes came to men who could not see Him.

Hom. 3-5 (¶7)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the hinge on which the whole Gospel turns, the sentence that changes everything.

Hom. 3-5 (¶8)

Why did the Word become flesh rather than simply appearing as a man? Could He not have instructed us without taking flesh? He could have, but He did not, and the reason is the reason of love.

Hom. 11-14 (¶9)

The humanity of Christ is complete: a complete human nature, rational soul and body, with all the natural properties of the human nature, including the capacity to be hungry, thirsty, tired, sorrowful, and afraid.

Hom. 11-14 (¶10)

The two natures in Christ are related not by mixture -- as if the divine and human were blended into a third thing -- but by union in the one Person.

Hom. 11-14 (¶11)

Because it is the one Person of the eternal Son who has both natures, we can say things of Christ that, taken in isolation, seem contradictory. We can say: He who fills all things was laid in a manger.

Hom. 11-14 (¶12)

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Why by night? Perhaps from fear; perhaps from shame; perhaps because he wanted to learn without being observed by his colleagues.

Hom. 24-25 (¶13)

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. This sentence struck Nicodemus like a wall. He had come with a compliment and a question; he received in return a statement that he could not fit into any…

Hom. 24-25 (¶14)

Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The new birth has a visible and an invisible element: water and Spirit.

Hom. 24-25 (¶15)

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This is perhaps the most frequently quoted sentence in the whole of Scripture, and its…

Hom. 24-25 (¶16)

I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. The Lord says this after the feeding of the five thousand, to a crowd that has followed Him around the lake in…

Hom. 44-47 (¶17)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

Hom. 44-47 (¶18)

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Hom. 44-47 (¶19)

When Chrysostom preaches this passage to his congregation, he does not allow them to receive the Eucharist casually. Approach the sacred table, he says, not with the hands of Judas but with the hands of the disciples.

Hom. 44-47 (¶20)

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The contrast with the hireling is everything here. The hireling works for wages; the shepherd works for love.

Hom. 59-61 (¶21)

I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. The knowledge here is not the knowledge of information but the knowledge of intimacy: the face-to-face, the name-to-name, the…

Hom. 59-61 (¶22)

I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Hom. 59-61 (¶23)

I lay down my life for the sheep. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

Hom. 59-61 (¶24)

Jesus wept. Two words in Greek; two words that changed everything we know about God. The eternal Word of God, through whom all things were made, who holds the universe in being by His word, who knows the end from the…

Hom. 62-65 (¶25)

When the Jews saw Him weeping, they said: See how He loved him. And some of them said: Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

Hom. 62-65 (¶26)

Lazarus, come out. Four words in the Greek. With four words, the Lord reverses death. Not with a lengthy prayer; not with a ritual; not with conditions or qualifications.

Hom. 62-65 (¶27)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." He came…

Hom. 85-88 (¶28)

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. The wounds are not erased by the Resurrection.

Hom. 85-88 (¶29)

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." On the night before His…

Hom. 85-88 (¶30)