Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John: Tractate XXI
13. By all means there is a sense, a true and strong sense, if somehow we can grasp it, in which “the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.” For this is said because none will appear to men in the judgment but the Son. The Father will be hidden, the Son will be manifest. In what will the Son be manifest? In the form in which He ascended. For in the form of God He was hidden with the Father; in the form of a servant, manifest to men. Not therefore “the Father judgeth any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son:” only the manifest judgment, in which manifest judgment the Son will judge, since the same will appear to them that are to be judged. The Scripture shows us more clearly that it is the Son that will appear. On the fortieth day after His resurrection He ascended into heaven, while His disciples were looking on; and they hear the angelic voice: “Men of Galilee,” saith it, “why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same that is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him going into heaven.” In what manner did they see Him go? In the flesh, which they touched, which they handled, the wounds even of which they proved by touching; in that body in which He went in and out with them for forty days, manifesting Himself to them in truth, not in falsity; not a phantom, or shadow, or ghost, but, as Himself said, not deceiving them, “Handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” That body is now indeed worthy of a heavenly habitation, not being subject to death, nor mutable by the lapse of ages. It is not as it had grown to that age from infancy, so from the age of manhood declines to old age: He remains as He ascended, to come to those to whom He willed His word to be preached before He comes. Thus will He come in human form, and this form the wicked will see; both they on the right shall see it, and they that are separated to the left shall see it: as it is written, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” If they shall look on Him whom they pierced, they shall look on that same body which they struck through with the spear; for a spear does not pierce the Word. This body, therefore, will the wicked be able to look on which they were able to wound. God hidden in the body they will not see: after the judgment He will be seen by those who will be on the right hand. This, then, is what He means when He saith, “The Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son,”—that the Son will come to judgment manifest, apparent to men in human body; saying to those on the right, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;” and to those on the left, “Go into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.”
14. Behold, that form of man will be seen by the godly and by the wicked, by the just and the unjust, by the believers and unbelievers, by those that rejoice and by those that mourn, by them that trusted and by them that are confounded: lo, seen it will be. When that form shall have appeared in the judgment, and the judgment shall have been finished, where it is said that the Father judgeth not any, but hath given all judgment to the Son, for this reason, that the Son will appear in the judgment in that form which He took from us. What shall be after this? When shall be seen the form of God, which all the faithful are thirsting to see? When shall be seen that Word which was in the beginning, God with God, by which all things were made? When shall be seen that form of God, of which the apostle saith, “Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God”? For great is that form, in which, moreover, the quality of the Father and Son is recognized; ineffable, incomprehensible, most of all to little ones. When shall this form be seen? Behold, on the right are the just, on the left are the unjust; all alike see the man, they see the Son of man, they see Him who was pierced, Him who was crucified they see: they see Him that was made low, Him who was born of the Virgin, the Lamb of the tribe of Judah they see. But when will they see the Word, God with God? He will be the very same even then, but the form of a servant will appear. The form of a servant will be shown to servants: the form of God will be reserved for sons. Wherefore let the servants be made sons: let them who are on the right hand go into the eternal inheritance promised of old, which the martyrs, though not seeing, believed, for the promise of which they poured out their blood without hesitation; let them go thither and see there. When shall they go thither? Let the Lord Himself say: “So those shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal.”
15. Behold, He has named eternal life. Has He told us that we shall there see and know the Father and Son? What if we shall live for ever, yet not see that Father and Son? Hear, in another place, where He has named eternal life, and expressed what eternal life is: “Be not afraid; I do not deceive thee; not without cause have I promised to them that love me, saying, ‘He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him.’” Let us answer the Lord, and say, What great thing is this, O Lord our God? What great thing is it? Wilt Thou show Thyself to us? What, then, didst Thou not show Thyself to the Jews also? Did not they see Thee who crucified Thee? But Thou wilt show Thyself in the judgment, when we shall stand at Thy right hand; will not also they who will stand on Thy left see Thee? What is it that Thou wilt show Thyself to us? Do we, indeed, not see Thee now when Thou art speaking? He makes answer: I will show myself in the form of God; just now you see the form of a servant. I will not deceive thee, O faithful man; believe that thou shalt see. Thou lovest, and yet thou dost not see: shall not love itself lead thee to see? Love, persevere in loving; I will not disappoint thy love, saith He, I who have purified thy heart. For why have I purified thy heart, but to the end that God may be seen by thee? For “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
“But this,” saith the servant, as if disputing with the Lord, “Thou didst not express, when Thou didst say, ‘The righteous shall go into life eternal;’ Thou didst not say, They shall go to see me in the form of God, and to see the Father, with whom I am equal.” Observe what He said elsewhere: “This is life eternal, that they may know Thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
16. And immediately, then, after the judgment mentioned, all which the Father, not judging any man, hath given to the Son, what shall be? What follows? “That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” The Jews honor the Father, despise the Son. For the Son was seen as a servant, the Father was honored as God. But the Son will appear equal with the Father, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. This we have, therefore, now in faith. Let not the Jew say, “I honor the Father; what have I to do with the Son?” Let him be answered, “He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father. Thou liest every way; thou blasphemest the Son, and dost wrong to the Father. For the Father sent the Son, and thou despisest Him whom the Father sent. How canst thou honor the sender, who blasphemest the sent?”
17. Behold, says some one, the Son has been sent; and the Father is greater, because He sent. Withdraw from the flesh; the old man suggests oldness in time. Let the ancient, the perpetual, the eternal, to thee the new, call off thy understanding from time to this. Is the Son less because He is said to have been sent? I hear of a sending, not a separation. But yet, saith he, among men we see that he who sends is greater than he who is sent. Be it so; but human affairs deceive a man; divine things purge him. Do not regard things human, in which the sender appears greater, the sent less; notwithstanding, things human themselves bear testimony against thee. Just as, for example, if a man wishes to ask a woman to wife, and, not being able to do this in person, sends a friend to ask for him. And there are many cases in which the greater is chosen to be sent by the less. Why, then, wouldst thou now raise a captious objection, because the one has sent, the other is sent? The sun sends out a ray, but does not separate it; the moon sends out her sheen, but does not separate it; a lamp sheds light, but does not separate it: I see there a sending forth, not a separation. For if thou seekest examples from human things, O heretical vanity, although, as I have said, even human things in some instances refute thee, and convict of error; yet consider how different it is in the case of things human, from which you wish to deduce examples for things divine. A man that sends remains himself behind, while only the man that is sent goes forward. Does the man who sends go with him whom he sends? Yet the Father, who sent the Son, has not departed from the Son. Hear the Lord Himself saying, “Behold, the hour is coming, when every one shall depart to his own, and ye will leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” How has He, with whom He came, sent Him? How has He, from whom He has not departed, sent Him? In another place He said, “The Father abiding in me doeth the works.” Behold, the Father is in Him, works in Him. The Father sending has not departed from the Son sent, because the sent and the sender are one.