We should understand, I would be like you, as a reverse likeness. For they would not be lying if they said they did not know God; but they would be if they said that they did know him, since they did not know him. But if Christ said that he did not know him, he would be lying, since he did know him. So the meaning of this statement is this: If I were to say that I do not know him, then since I really do know him, I would be like you, a liar, who say that you know him, although you do not.
1064 Could not Christ have said: I do not know him? It seems he could, since he could have moved his lips and said the words. And so he could have lied. I reply that Christ did say this and still was not lying. We should explain it this way: If he were to say, I do not know him, declaratively, meaning, “I believe in my heart what I profess by my lips,” [then he would have been a liar]. Now to say as the truth what is false comes from two defects: from a defect of knowledge in the intellect; and Christ could not have this since he is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:30); or it could come from a defect of right will in the affections; and this could not be in Christ either since he is the power of God, according to the same text. Thus he could not say the words I do not know him , declaratively. Yet this entire conditional statement is not false, although both its parts are impossible.
1065 The reason for this singular and perfect knowledge of Christ is given when he says: I do know him, because I am from him, and he sent me. Now all knowledge comes about through some likeness, since nothing is known except insofar as there is a likeness of the known in the knower. But whatever proceeds from something has a likeness to that from which it proceeds; and so, all who truly know have a varied knowledge of God according to the different degrees of their procession from him. The rational soul has a knowledge of God insofar as it participates in a likeness to him in a more imperfect way than other intellectual creatures. An angel, because it has a more explicit likeness to God, being a stamp of resemblance, knows God more clearly. But the Son has the most perfect likeness to the Father, since he has the same essence and power as he does; and so he knows him most perfectly, as was said. And so he says: But I do know him, that is, to the extent that he is knowable. And the reason for this is because I am from him, having the same essence with him through consubstantiality. Thus, just as he knows himself perfectly through his essence, so I do know him perfectly through the same essence. And so that we do not understand these words as referring to his being sent into this world, he at once adds, and he sent me. Consequently, the statement, I am from him, refers to his eternal generation, through which he is consubstantial with the Father. But then when he says, and he sent me, he is saying that the Father is the author of the incarnation: “God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the law” (Gal 4:4). Now just as the Son has a perfect knowledge of the Father because he is from the Father, so because the soul of Christ is united to the Word in a unique way, it has a unique and more excellent knowledge of God than other creatures, although it does not comprehend him. And so Christ can say, according to his human nature: I know him in a more excellent way than other creatures do, but without comprehending him.
1066 Then (v 30), he considers the effect of his teaching. First (in the people; then on the Pharisees (v 32). He does two things with the first. First, he shows the effect of this teaching on those of the people who were ill-willed; secondly, on those who were favorable (v 31). He does three things concerning the first. First, he mentions the evil intention of the people; secondly, that they were hindered in carrying out their plan; and thirdly, he mentions the reason why they were hindered.
1067 He presents their evil intention when he says, They therefore wanted to seize him. Because our Lord said to them, “whom you do not know,” they became angry, feigning that they did know him. And so they formed the evil plan of seizing him, so that they could crucify and kill him: “Go after him, and seize him” (Ps 70:11). Yet there are some who have Christ within themselves, and still seek to seize him in a reverent manner: “I will go up into the palm tree and seize its fruit” (Sg 7:8). And so the Apostle says: “I will go after it to seize it” (Phil 3:12).
1068 He mentions that they were hindered in their plans when he says, but no one laid a hand on him: for their rage was invisibly checked and restrained. This shows that a person has the will to inflict injury from himself, while the power to inflict injury is from God. This is clear from the first chapters of Job, where Satan was unable to torment Job except to the extent that he was permitted to do so by God.
1069 The reason they were hindered was because his hour had not yet come. Here we should note that “There is a time and fitness for everything” (Ecc 8:6). However, the time for anything is determined by its cause. Therefore, because the heavenly bodies are the cause of physical effects, the time for those things that act in a physical way is determined by the heavenly bodies. The soul, on the other hand, since it is not subject to any heavenly body in its intellect and reason (for in this respect it transcends temporal causes) does not have times determined by the heavenly bodies; rather, its times are determined by its cause, that is, God, who decrees what is to be done and at what time: “Why is one day better than another?... They are differentiated by the knowledge of the Lord” (Sir 33:7). Much less, therefore, is Christ’s time determined by these bodies. Accordingly, his hour must be regarded as fixed not by fatal necessity, but by the entire Trinity. For as Augustine says: “You should not believe this about yourself; and how much less should you believe it about he who made you? If your hour is his will, that is, God’s, what is his hour but his own will? Therefore, he was not speaking here of the hour in which he would be forced to die, but rather of the hour in which he thought it fitting to be killed.” “My time has not yet come,” as he said before (above 2:4); “Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world for the Father” (below 13:1).
1070 Then he mentions the effect his teaching had on those who were favorable. First, he shows their faith: Many of the people, however, believed in him. He does not say, “of the leaders,” because the higher their rank, the further away they were from him. So there was no room in them for wisdom: “Where there is humility, there is wisdom” (Prv 11:2). But the people, because they were quick to see their own sickness, immediately recognized our Lord’s medicine: “You have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and have revealed them to little ones” (Mt 11:25). This is why in the beginning, it was the poor and the humble who were converted to Christ: “God chose what is lowly and despised in the world, and things that are not, to destroy those things that are” (1 Cor 1:28).
Secondly, he gives the motive for their faith when he says, When the Christ comes, will he work more wonders than this man has done? For it had been prophesied that when the Christ came, he would work many miracles: “God himself will come, and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear” (Is 35:4). And so when they saw the miracles Christ was accomplishing, they were led to believe. Yet their faith was weak, because they were led to believe him not by his teaching, but by his miracles; whereas, since they were already believers, and instructed by the law, they should have been influenced more by his teaching: “Signs were given to unbelievers; while prophecies were given to believers, not to unbelievers” (1 Cor 14:22).
Secondly, their faith was weak because they seemed to be expecting another Christ; thus they say: When the Christ comes, will he work more wonders than this man has done? From this it is obvious that they did not believe in Christ as in God, but as in some just man or prophet. Or, according to Augustine, they were reasoning this way: When the Christ comes, will he work more wonders than this man has done? As if to say: We were promised that the Christ would come. But he will not work more signs than this man is doing. Therefore, either he is the Christ, or there will be several Christs.
1071 Then when he says, The Pharisees heard the people saying these things about him, we see the effect this had on the Pharisees. And as Chrysostom says, Christ said many things, and yet the Pharisees were not aroused against him. But when they saw that the people were accepting him, they were immediately fired up against him; and in their madness they wanted to kill him. This shows that the real reason why they hated him was not that he broke the sabbath; what provoked them the most was the fact that the people were honoring Christ. And this is clear below: “Do you not see that we can do nothing? Look, the entire world has gone after him!” (12:19). Because they were afraid of the danger they did not dare to seize Christ themselves, but they sent their officers, who were used to such things.
LECTURE 4
33 Jesus then said to them: “For still a short time I am with you; then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you will not be able to come.”
35 The Jews therefore said to one another: “Where is he going that we cannot find him? Is he going to those dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me’; and ‘where I am, you will not be able to come’?”
1072 After our Lord told the principle of his origin, he then mentions his end, i.e., where he would go by dying. First, the end of Christ’s life is given; secondly, we see that the people are puzzled by what he says (v 35). As to the first he does three things. First, the end of his life is mentioned; secondly, he predicts what they will desire in the future (v 34); and thirdly, he mentions one of their deficiencies (v 34b). He does two things about the first. First, he predicts the delay of his death until later; and secondly, he states where he will go by dying (v 33b). And so, in the first, he shows his power; and in the second, his will to suffer.
1073 Our Lord shows his power by the delaying of his death until later; because, although the Jews wanted to seize him, they could not do this until Christ willed. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (below 10:18). And so Jesus said: For still a short time I am with you. As if to say: You want to kill me; but this does not depend on your will, but on my will. And I have decided that For still a short time I am with you; so wait a while. You will do what you want to do. These words of our Lord first of all satisfied those people who honored him, and made them more eager to listen to him because there was only a short time left to receive his teaching, as Chrysostom says. “While you have the light, believe in the light” (below 12:36). Secondly, he satisfied those who were persecuting him. As if to say: Your desire for my death will not be delayed long; so be patient, because it is a short time. For I must accomplish my mission: to preach, to perform miracles, and then to come to my passion. “Go and tell that fox that I will work today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my course” (Lk 13:32).
1074 There are three reasons why Christ wished to preach for only a short time. First, to show his power, by transforming the entire world in such a brief time: “One day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps 83:11). Secondly, to arouse the desire of his disciples, i.e., to desire him more (him whose physical presence they would have for only a short time): “The days will come when you will desire to see one day of the Son of Man” (Lk 17:22). Thirdly, to accelerate the spiritual progress of his disciples. For since the humanity of Christ is our way to God, as it says below, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6), we should not rest in it as a goal, but through it tend to God. And so that the hearts of his disciples, which were moved by the physical presence of Christ, would not rest in him as man, he quickly took his physical presence from them; thus he said: “It is advantageous for you that I go” (below 16:7); “If we knew Christ according to the flesh (i.e., when he was physically present to us) now we no longer know him in this way” (2 Cor 5:16).
1075 He shows his desire for his passion when he says, I am going to him who sent me, that is, willingly, by my passion: “He was offered because it was his own will” (Is 53:7); “He gave himself for us, an offering to God” (Eph 5:2). I am going, I say, to the Father, to him who sent me. And this is appropriate, for everything naturally returns to its principle: “Rivers return to the place from which they come” (Ecc 1:7); “Jesus... knowing that he came from God, and was going to God” (below 13:3). And again: “I am going to him who sent me” (below 16:5).
1076 When he says, You will look for me, and you will not find me, he is predicting what the Jews will desire in the times to Come. As if to say: You can enjoy my teaching for a short time; but this brief time, which you are now rejecting, you will look for later, and you will not find it: “Search for the Lord while he can be found” (Is 55:6); and “Seek the Lord (at the present time), and your soul will live” (Ps 68:33).
1077 This statement, You will look for me, and you will not find me, can be understood either as a physical search for Christ or as a spiritual search. If we understand it as a physical search, then, according to Chrysostom, this is the way he was sought by the daughters of Jerusalem, i.e., the women who cried for him, as Luke (23:27) mentions; and no doubt many others were affected at the same time. It is not unreasonable to think that when trouble was near, especially when their city was being captured, the Jews remembered Christ and his miracles and wished that he were there to free them. And in this way, You will look for me, i.e., for me to be physically present, and you will not find me.
If we understand this as a spiritual search for Christ, then we should say, as Augustine does, that although they refused to recognize Christ while he was among them, they later looked for him, after they had seen the people believe and had themselves been stung by the crime of his death; and they said to Peter: “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). In this way, they were looking for Christ (whom they saw die as a result of their crime) when they believed in him who forgave them.
1078 Then when he says, and where I am, you will not be able to come, he points out one of their deficiencies. He does not say, “and where I am going,” which would be more in keeping with the earlier thought, “I am going,” to the Father, “to him who sent me.” He says rather, where I am, to show that he is both God and man. He is man insofar as he is going: “I am going to him who sent me” (below 16:5). But insofar as Christ had always been where he was about to return, he shows that he is God: “No one has gone up to heaven except the One who came down from heaven” (above 3:13). And so, as Augustine says, just as Christ returned in such a way as not to leave us, so he came down to us, when he assumed visible flesh, but in such a way as still to be in heaven according to his invisible greatness.
He does not say, “You will not find,” because some were about to go; but he does say, you will not be able to come, i.e., as long as you keep your present attitude; for no one can obtain the eternal inheritance. unless he is God’s heir. And one becomes an heir of God by faith in Christ: “he gave them power to become the sons of God, to all who believe in his name” (above 1:12). But the Jews did not yet believe in him; and so he says, you will not be able to come. In the Psalm it is asked: “Who will ascend the mountain of the Lord?” And the answer given is: “Those whose hands are innocent and whose hearts are clean” (Ps 23:3). But the hearts of the Jews were not clean, nor were their hands innocent, because they wanted to kill Christ. And so he says: you are not able to ascend the mountain of the Lord.
1079 Then (v 35), we see that this was bewildering to the Jews, who, although they thought of Christ in a worldly way, still did believe to a certain extent. And three things happen here. First, they are bewildered; secondly, they form an opinion, and thirdly, they argue against their own opinion.
1080 They are perplexed when they say to each other: Where is he going that we cannot find him? For, as was said, they understood this in a physical way: “The sensual man does not perceive those things that pertain to the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:14).