Homily on Holy Friday and the Cross
Discourse 3
By St. John of Damascus
Discourse 3
By St. John of Damascus
1. The struggle of our fasting is completed and ends at the Cross. And where ought the end of the victory to arrive, if not at the trophy of Christ? For the Cross is the trophy of Christ, which indeed happened once, but always puts the demons to flight. Truly, where are the idols and the vain slaughters of animals? where are the temples and the fire of impiety? All were extinguished by one holy blood and were cast down, and there remains the Cross — an all-powerful power, an invisible arrow, an immaterial remedy, a pain-relieving blow, a glory full of reproach.
So then, even if I recount countless other things about Christ, and if I astonish my listener by narrating countless miracles, I do not boast so much in those as in the Cross. I mean this by what I say: Jesus came forth from a Virgin; it is a great miracle for marriage to be bypassed and for nature to innovate; but, if the Cross had not existed, the first virgin of Paradise would not have been saved by her deeds.
Now, however, through the event of the Crucifixion the woman is saved first, healing the ancient evil with new gifts. The dead man was raised in Galilee, but he died again; but I, who have been raised through the Cross, can no longer fall into death. Jesus crossed the sea, God in a boat, and the wood offered a temporary benefit; but I have acquired an eternal wood, beneficent, which, using it as a rudder, I confront the spiritual waves of wickedness.
Food was given to five and again to seven thousand people by a sign of the Cross. Where then are the remnants of the food? How shall I, who was not present, receive what those present received? Twelve baskets were filled from the leftovers. The grace is proportionate. Christ was crucified and we are fed continually, and while we are filled we ask again, and while we receive again we still desire, and what remains is greater. For grace is not diminished.
Let the day be praised which gave birth to the light, by which the other days were invited to rejoice. Hear how: Today Adam was formed, on the sixth day; today he was clothed with divine form; today the small world was established in order; today man became ruler and took firmly the rudders of the inhabited world as leader of all the living; today he received commands of free will; today he fell from Paradise and today he entered again. O day manifold, full of sorrow and yet without sorrow at all, which in the morning brought grief and in the evening joy — or rather, which did not wound so much as it healed.
2. With sorrow I confess to you, bringing to mind the ancient sufferings, hearing that Adam fell from the paternal home, a man who was a citizen of Paradise, who was nourished without cultivating, who enjoyed without rain, and who had no need of sweat nor of the mattock, nor of labors and toils to live. He delighted in all flourishing trees which continually blossomed and bore fruit, which at every desire followed whatever he needed, and he did not know, because of the beauty of what he saw, to which he should first stretch out his hand.
Often tears came to me for such blessedness, seeing him deprived of it. But when I immersed myself in the Gospels and came to this day (for that day was the sixth and this one also), I was freed from sorrow and changed my mind, and I now wear the white garments of discourse and say to myself and to you: “pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled” (Isa. 51:11). “The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
For just as the assistants of physicians heal the bites of snakes by extracting from those very things and preparing antidotes, fighting the passion by the causes of the passion, so indeed the Savior used for His healing action all together the causes of the passions, making the bitter sweet, turning gall into medicine, directing against death its own sting, transforming the testing of the tree into salvation, taking the day that brought sorrow into the world and providing as an antidote the day that brought into it joy.
Do not believe me, but believe your eyes. Look at this gathering of ours and cease disputing with us. It is the day of the Crucifixion and we all rejoice, we fast from evils and are purified from all things, inwardly and outwardly. This is the reason of the feast and the manner of rejoicing. I recount to you some small wonders of the power of the Cross. Look around the whole inhabited world — how many villages there are, how many cities, how many places, how many nations, islands, rivers, shores, how many races and how many tribes and barbarian tongues: all these today, for the sake of the Cross, fast and crucify their passions by its power, and many pass the whole night without losing strength for fasting.
And now we have all gathered to hear about the Cross, and we fill the church and press against one another and sweat and are wearied. Before judges we receive permission to sit, but before Jesus we stand with pleasure, because Jesus also stood for our sake, to stop the words of wickedness. What then has happened today? Let us not let the wonders of the day pass us by so simply.
3. The day was dawning and it was very early when Jesus was being led with hands bound to the praetorium of Pilate. What hands? Those that healed the blind and cured the lame. And the fingers that created eyelids were being tightened with bonds, and the healer of men was being restrained so as not to accomplish the work of the art He knew. These are the things rendered to the Lord.
He received bonds, He who binds the waters in the clouds (Job 24:8), He who frees with courage those bound in prisons (Ps. 67:7), He who grants freedom to captives (Isa. 61:1). He received bonds, He who loosed Lazarus from the bonds of death (John 11:1). He was led to the praetorium, He who has as His escort countless angels. He stood before Pilate, He who has the heaven as His throne. The Creator endured being dragged by His creations, the Maker by His creatures, the Craftsman by the works of His hands.
4. And what happens next? “They,” it says, “did not enter into the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but so that they might eat the Passover meal” (John 18:28). O sea of lawlessness! They carry out an unjust murder and do not wish to enter the praetorium, taking care not to be defiled, though they were already defiled. They release the sheep with the sheep.*
He then waited for judgment — the Judge of all the inhabited world. He waited for witnesses — the witness of souls; the Creator is being judged. Men were sitting and judging, while God was standing; He was standing and was silent; He was standing at the door of men, the Lord of the gates of heaven. Pilate asked, as if more humane than the Jews. What am I saying? The events themselves will show the truth: “For what do you accuse this man?” (John 18:29).
Who can accuse God? I am compelled to repeat what Pilate said. Jesus is silent, not because the Word lacks words, but so that He might not dissolve by His answer the crown of the Cross. Is the one without possessions accused concerning possessions? For other people’s houses, He who has no place where to lay His head? For things, He who even had His disciples poorly clothed? He who had no beast of burden, but used a borrowed colt to bless your children? Give a pretext — fabricate it; kill, but do so justly.
“The Jews answered him: If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you” (John 18:30). This is a great proof — an indefinite statement. Tell us his wrongdoing and do not mislead the listener. “Pilate says to them: Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law” (John 18:31). A clever judge places the burden upon the head of the Jews: “Take yourselves the one who did the evil.” “The Jews say to him: It is not permitted for us to kill anyone” (John 18:32). How then did you kill Isaiah? How Zechariah? How each of the prophets? But it is not permitted — not because you do not want to, but because you cannot, since the Romans have already taken away this authority from you. Thus the law is now abolished and remains only on paper in thought, and the bound Jesus abolished it.
Then Pilate says: “I find no fault in him” (John 18:38). Not only you, Pilate, but neither do the Jews; nor the blind, nor the dead, nor the sun, nor the moon, nor the world, nor all the righteous, the prophets and the martyrs. For one of their prophets says: “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth” (Isaiah 53:9; 1 Peter 2:22). All assist Pilate, expressing a just judgment. Only the Jews struggle, judging with cries and striving to overshadow the truth with noise, confirming the judgment of Isaiah: “I expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns” (Isaiah 5:2); and it showed not righteousness, but the most empty cry. The vineyard of the Jews bears shouting as fruit.
5. While these things were happening and Pilate could neither speak nor hear because of the mixed confusion and a revolt was being prepared, his wife sends to him (she was a good helper, restraining her husband who was rushing) and says: “Have nothing to do with that righteous man” (Matthew 27:19). If you can, save him; if you cannot, save yourself. As if she were saying the words of David: “Do not destroy my soul with the souls of the ungodly, nor my life with bloodthirsty men” (Psalm 25:9). “Have nothing to do with that righteous man; for because of him I suffered many things in a dream” (Matthew 27:19).
Like another Joseph, seeing the truth through dreams, she gives testimony contrary to the cry of the Jews. For they had to be defeated by women. They were defeated by Rahab the harlot; they were defeated by the woman with the flow of blood; they were defeated by the Canaanite woman. And now again a woman receives a crown of victory against them.
“The Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to our law he must die” (John 19:7). Which law? With what words does it confirm it? With the words we read today? “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a harmless lamb silent before the one who shears it, so he does not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). “From the transgressions of my people he was led to death” (Isaiah 53:8). These are the words I find useful for them, and nowhere else do I find that Jesus is justly sacrificed.
6. Pilate entered the praetorium, yielding to the anger of the Jews, striving to extinguish an unquenchable flame. He entered and went out and kindled the fire more. He came out having crowned Jesus and having clothed him in purple — a thing which the Jews marveled at and did not want: that the one they were fighting should already appear crowned and wear royal clothing. For what was for mockery is a hint of the royal nature.
When they saw him — whom they had often seen and yet never truly seen — whom always seeing they were inflamed with passion and burned by their own fire (“they will wish to be burned by fire”) (Isaiah 9:5) — they raised the Sodom-like cry: “Away, away, crucify him!" "Shall I crucify your king?" "We have no king,” they say, “except Caesar” (John 19:15).
They deny without being persecuted — impiety after the calamities of Egypt. “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt?” (Exodus 32:4). You have no king except Caesar? Who then led you into the wilderness, or who fed you? To whom does Moses cry, saying, “The Lord reigns forever and ever” (Exodus 15:18)? Therefore, since you denied your king, remain henceforth without a king, bearing the yoke of eternal slavery. These things happened up to this hour. Let us see also the remaining part of the day, for the whole is holy.
7. They took him crowned. With what? With thorns, the gifts of the Jews. “I expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns” (Isaiah 5:2). He received blows, spittings, strikes, was scourged, yet was not ashamed of anything. Stand with Isaiah and behold God with his eyes. What does he say? “Lord, who has believed what we heard? We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; his face was disfigured, and men did not behold it” (Isaiah 53:1–3). He had no beauty nor comeliness — the craftsman of all beauty. “He was a man wounded, knowing how to suffer” (Isaiah 53:3). A man, not God — the one being struck was man.
Who then was this who endured so many pains, so many sorrows, whom all were striking? Lest he suffer justly what he suffers? “He bears our sins and suffers for us” (Isaiah 53:4). “I find no fault in this man” (John 18:38). Do not be ashamed at all of the despised good things. For although he suffered so much, he remained impassible; he received blows and spittings, suffered the most shameful things, yet remains with honor and glory as one struck. As Isaiah says: “We thought that God had made him suffer, struck and afflicted him; but he was wounded for our sins and afflicted for our lawlessness” (Isaiah 53:4–5).
And he and we lie wounded. “By his wounds we were healed” (Isaiah 53:5). A dead physician of the dead, a wounded one an antidote for suffering men. But how long, O man, have you been given leave to mock us? Speak more clearly what we seek. “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb silent before the one who shears it” (Isaiah 53:7). A good sheep delivered into the hands of evil butchers. If you slaughter him, O Jews, do not shear him; if you shear him, spare the useful sheep that bears fruit.
8. “They put with him also two criminals” (Luke 23:32). My discourse has reached the eleventh hour of the day, so that no one may exhaust his patience. I would pass over the account, since I have told it many times, but I see the thief urging me continually. And it is not strange, for he even broke open the door of Paradise, turning his craft into salvation. The Lamb stood on the Cross and two wolves; but while one remained, the other changed and said: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
O power of Jesus! The thief becomes now a prophet, proclaiming from the Cross: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). What do you see, O thief, in the king? Blows, spittings, nails, the Cross, the mockeries of the Jews and the soldiers, and the spear now being unsheathed. “I do not see the visible things,” he says; “I see the angels standing around, the sun withdrawing, the veil being torn, the earth trembling, the dead preparing to come forth.” And Jesus, who receives all — even the prophets who came at the eleventh hour as workers, giving them the same denarius — says to him: “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
“I cast you out, I will bring you in again — I who closed the doors of Paradise and sealed them with the flaming sword. If I do not bring someone in, the doors remain shut. Come, thief — you robbed the devil and received a crown of victory against him; you saw a man and worshiped him as God; you cast away your former weapons and took up the weapons of faith.”
While these things were happening and all were being sanctified — the sun from the heavens, the wood from the plants, the gall from the animals, the seamless tunic from the fabrics, the purple robe from the sea, the spear and the nails from the metals and iron, and the double stream of blood and water that gushed forth — the Savior did His own work: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). For whom does He say “forgive”? For Greeks, for Jews, for foreigners, for barbarians — for all in general. He said it once, and the act is continually at work. Did He say “forgive” only for His enemies? He says it for every people, and He says it continually, and whoever wills may receive it.
They all gathered in the praetorium and said to Pilate: “We remember that this deceiver said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise’” (Matthew 27:63). You know it well, you remember well that he will rise? Secure the tomb — for you are securing it for me. Guard the dead lest he escape. “You have a guard,” he says to them; “go, make it as secure as you can” (Matthew 27:65). Seal the tomb as you know how; take whatever measures you know; guard it as you know. If you do not guard Him, they will find a pretext against me. But now I hand Him over to you yourselves — you who, when He was alive, arrested Him, and when He was put to death, all your guard failed.
Let us therefore remain awake and watchful, so that we may behold the deep sleep of the Jews and celebrate together with the heavenly hosts, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom belong glory and power, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
Notes:
* This is a difficult line to understand, but based on the context it seems what St. John of Damascus is saying refers to the Jewish Passover custom and the irony in the Gospel scene. Therefore it could best be understood as saying: “They are occupied with the lamb while betraying the Lamb,” or “They concern themselves with the Passover sheep, while handing over the true Lamb.”
