The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Christ here sets before the unbelieving Jews His authority to judge, that through fear of it He may make them fear, may make them contrite, and convert them. He did the same at the end of His life, when, being adjured by Caiaphas, the High Priest, to say if He was the Son of God, He answered that He was, and added (Matt. xxvi. 64), “ Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
There is nothing more terrible, and at the same time more effectual for rousing the minds of men to repentance and leading a holy life than a lively representation of the last judgment. So Christ, when He ascended into heaven, commanded His apostles by the angels to preach his return to judgment (Acts i. 11). S. Paul pressed the same thing upon the Areopagites (Acts xvii. 31). For in that judgment shall the destiny of each be finally decided for everlasting happiness or everlasting woe. “ In all thy works,” therefore, “ remember thy last end, and thou wilt never sin” (Ecclus. vii. 40). In very deed that fateful day will be the last of this world, and the horizon of eternity, which shall separate the just from the unjust, and set them far apart, heaping upon the just utmost felicity, and weighing down the unjust with calamity, and that for ever and ever. Think constantly of this wonderful difference, be zealous for holiness, live for eternity.
Ver. 30. — I cannot , &c. Christ shows that His judgment, by which, as man, He will judge all men, will be a just judgment, for this reason, that He cannot either judge or will any other thing than that which the Father judges and wills. For He, in that He is God, has the very same judgment, the very self-same Divine mind and will that the Father has. But in that He is man, He is wholly governed by the Divinity and the indwelling Word, so that He can neither judge nor will anything but that which the Godhead judges and wills. So S. Augustine.
As I hear , so I judge : always, and especially in the judgment day. I hear, i.e., I know, I understand. As S. Chrysostom says, “ By hearing nothing else is meant than that nothing else is possible but the Father's judgment: I so judge as if the Father Himself were Judge.”
Because I seek not Mine own will, i.e., Mine own alone, or diverse from the Father's will, for I have no such will, but the will of Him that sent Me: for My Divine will is identical with the Father's, and My human will is wholly conformable to the Divine will. As S. Augustine says, “not that He has no will of His own in judging, but because His will is not so His own as to be diverse from the Father’s will.” He gives the reason a priori why His future judgment should be just, because, indeed, His will is altogether subject and conformed to the Divine will, because it subsists in the Divine Person of the Word, and is ruled by it. For the will bends and rules the intellect and its judgment in whatever direction it pleases.
Ver. 31 . — If I bear witness of Myself, that I am the Son of God, and therefore as man altogether conformed to the judgment and will of God, My witness is not true, that is, legitimate, judicial, worthy of credit. The word true here is not opposed to false, but to untrustworthy , uncertain. It answers to the Hebrew word neeman, faithful, worthy of credit. For it may be that a man may utter most true testimony concerning himself, and yet may fail to gain credit because of a suspicion that he has too great love of himself, as Euthymius says.
There is a prolepsis by which Christ meets a tacit objection of the scribes, to the following effect : “ Thou, O Jesus, proclaimest Thyself to be the Son of God, and so in all things to follow the judgment of God. But we will not believe Thee unless Thou shalt prove what Thou sayest by the testimony of God, or of men worthy of credit. This testimony of Thine in a matter which peculiarly concerns Thyself appears to us open to suspicion.” Jesus replies, “ I grant you that My testimony concerning Myself is not legitimate, nor worthy of credit, if I alone bear witness of Myself. I grant therefore that you need not believe Me alone; but I am not alone, but others worthy of credit bear witness of Me, as will appear by what follows.” Christ is here speaking of the common opinion of the Jews, not uttering His own sentiments, as appears from chap, viii. 13, where the Jews openly object to Christ, Thou bearest testimony of Thyself: Thy testimony is not true. Then Christ answers, My testimony is true, &c., because I am not alone , but I, and the Father who sent Me. So S. Cyril.
Ver. 32. — There is another who beareth , &c. Another, viz., God the Father, who at My baptism spoke in thunder from heaven, This is My beloved Son. So S. Cyril, Bede. Again, another, i.e., John the Baptist, testifies to Me. So S. Chrysostom and others. Another then here means, there are others who testify that I am the Son of God, namely, God the Father, John the Baptist, Moses and the Prophets, also My Divine works and miracles. For all of these Christ proceeds to adduce as witnesses to prove that He is Messiah, and the Son of God.
And I know that it is true. So far as I Myself am concerned, I do not need these witnesses, for by Divine knowledge I know that what they testify is true, that I am the Son of God. But I bring forward their testimony for your sakes, that ye may believe what is attested by so many witnesses.
Ver. 33. — Ye sent unto John , &c. Ye sent messengers to him as a man in your estimation holy, and worthy of all credit, to ask him if he were the Messias. John answered that not he, but I, am the Messias. This testimony he gave not out of friendship, or favour to Me, but to the truth. For that he would testify to nothing but the truth, ye yourselves thought, when ye were willing to receive him as the Messiah. Therefore ye cannot reject his testimony , says Euthymius.
Ver. 34. — But I receive not, &c. I do not require the witness of John, for I am God, and the Son of God, to whom John, Moses, and the Prophets ought to yield, and be taught by, and receive authority from.
But this I say that ye may be saved: meaning, as S. Chrysostom says, “ I do not need the testimony of man, for I am God. But since John, whom ye admire as a prophet, is of so great authority with you, when ye do not believe Me working miracles, I bring back to your remembrance his testimony, that I may draw you and save you.”
Ver. 35. — He was a burning and shining lamp: Greek ὁ λύχνος, the illustrious and famous lamp . John was not the light itself shining of itself (for this was what Christ Himself was), but he was the lamp or lantern which, receiving light from Christ, burnt in himself with the knowledge and love of God, and afforded light to others by the example of his sanctity, and the fervour of his preaching . For God sent John after a long silence for ages of all the prophets, as it were a heavenly prophet, to be a lamp to illuminate the dark ignorance of the Jews, and to show them the true Light, Christ the Lord, and to bear a torch before Him. So S. Cyril and others. For the Only Begotten One is light by nature, who, out of Light, that is, the Substance of the Father, hath shone forth. John indeed was a lamp, because he shone with light derived from Him. He shone through oil, i.e., with the grace of the Holy Spirit, which coming into our souls as it were lamps, nourishes and keeps them. Wherefore the type of John was the lamp of oil burning before God in the Temple in the Holy of Holies. For so did John shine before Christ. Therefore was John the Baptist always a burning and shining lamp in the tabernacle of witness, as Cyril says.
Moraliter, S. Bernard (Serm. de S. Joan. Bapt.) teaches that holy men and preachers ought first to burn with charity and zeal in themselves before they shine in preaching to others. “ John was a burning and shining lamp. It does not say, shining and burning , because the brightness of John sprang from his fervour, not his fervour from his splendour. For there are some who do not shine because they burn, but rather burn in order that they may shine. But these plainly do not burn with the spirit of charity, but with the love of vanity. Listen to Alcuin on this passage : “John was a lamp, enlightened by light from Christ, burning with faith and love, shining in word and action, who was sent before to confound the enemies of Christ, according to the words, ‘ I have prepared a lamp for My Christ, I will clothe His enemies with confusion ’ ” (Vulg.).