Tractate 12: On John 3.6–21
Therefore he accepted death and he suspended death on the cross; and from death itself he set mortals free. What was done symbolically among the ancients, the Lord recalls. He says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting." A great mystery, and they who have read it know it.
(2) Then let them hear, either who have not read it or who have forgotten what perhaps they have read or heard. The people of Israel were being struck down in the desert by the bites of serpents; there occurred a great carnage of many dead.40 For it was the stroke of God, reproaching and flailing [them], that he might instruct [them]. A great symbol of a future event has been shown there; the Lord himself attests in this reading so that no one can interpret other than what the truth itself shows about itself. For it was said to Moses by the Lord that he should make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a piece of wood in the desert, and he should ad vise the people of Israel that whoever had been bitten by a serpent should set their gaze upon that serpent lifted up on the piece of wood. It was done: men were bitten, they looked upon it, and they were healed.
(3) What are the biting serpents? Sins from the mortality of the flesh. What is the uplifted serpent? The death of the Lord on the cross. For because death was from a serpent, it was represented by the image of the serpent. The bite of the serpent was deadly, the death of the Lord was life-living. They set their gaze upon the serpent that the serpent may have no power. What does this mean? They set their gaze upon death that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life, if it can be said, the death of life. Rather, because it can be said, it is said wondrously.
(4) But will it not have to be said since it had to be done? Am I to hesitate to say what the Lord has deigned to do for me? Is not Christ life? And yet Christ [dying] on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ died. But in the death of Christ death died; for life, by having died, killed death; the fullness of life consumed death; death was swallowed up in the body of Christ. So we also shall say in the resurrection when in triumph we shall sing, "Where, death, is your con tending? Where, death, is your sting?"4 1
(5) Now, my brothers, in the meantime, that we may be healed of sin, let us look upon the crucified Christ; for hesaid, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting." As they who looked upon that serpent perished not from the bites of serpents, so they who look with faith upon the death of Christ are healed of the bites of sins. But those men were healed from death for temporal life; but here he says, "that they may have life everlasting." For this is the difference between the symbolically represented image and the thing itself: the sym bol offered temporal life; the thing itself, of which that was the symbol, offers eternal life.
- "For God has not sent his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him." There fore, as far as he can, the physician comes to heal the sick man. He kills himself who is unwilling to observe the instruc tions of the physician. The Savior came to the world. Why has he been called the Savior of the world except that he may save the world, not that he may judge the world? You do not wish to be saved by him; you will be judged of yourself. And why do I say, you will be judged? See what he said: "He who believes in him is not judged; but he who does not believe" what do you expect him to say, except, is judged?-he says, "has already been judged."
(2) Judgment has not yet appeared, but judgment has al ready been made. For the Lord knows who are his;4' he knows who are to persevere to the crown, who are to perse vere to the flame. He knows the wheat on his threshing-floor; he knows the chaff. He knows the grain; he knows the coc kles. He has already been judged who does not believe. Why has he been judged? "Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
- "Now this is the judgment: because the light has come into the world, and men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil." My brothers, whose works did the Lord find good? No one's. He found everyone's works
evil. How, then, have some done truth and come to the light? For this, too, follows: "But he who does truth comes to the light that his works may be made manifest, for they have been done in God."
(2) How have some done a good work that they might come to the light, that is, to Christ? And how have some loved dark ness? For if he finds all men sinners, and he heals all men from sin, and that serpent, in which the death of the Lord was prefigured, heals those who had been bitten, and on ac count of the serpeht's bite the serpent was erected, that is, the death of the Lord on account of mortal men whom he found unjust, how is this understood, "This is the judgment: be cause the light has come into the world, and men have loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil"?
(3) What does this mean? Whose, in fact, were the good works? Did you not come to justify the impious? But, he says, "They have loved the darkness rather than the light." He put the real import there. For many have loved their sins, many have confessed their sins. For he who confesses his sins and accuses his sins now acts with God. God accuses your sins; if you, too, accuse them, you are joined to God.
(4) [It is] as if there are two things, man and sinner. What is called man, that God has made; what is called sinner, that man himself has made. Destroy what you have made that God may save what he has made. You must hate your own work in yourself and love God's work in you. Moreover, when what you have made begins to displease you, then your good works begin because you accuse your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do truth and you come to the light. What does it mean, you do truth? You do not caress yourself, you do not flatter yourself, you do not fawn upon yourself. You do not say, "1 am just," although you are wicked, and you begin to do truth. But you come to the light that your works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God, because also this very thing which displeases you, your sin, would not displease you unless God were shedding his light upon you and his truth showing it to you. But he, who, even though admonished, loves his own sins, hates the admonishing light and flees it that his evil works which he loves may not be revealed.
(5) But he who does truth accuses his own evils in himself; he does not spare himself, he does not pardon himself that God may pardon, because he himself recognizes what he wishes God to pardon, and he comes to the light to which he gives thanks because it has shown him what he hated in him self. He says to God, "Turn away your face from my sins."43 And with what countenance does he speak unless he should say again, "For I know my offense, and my sin is before me always"?44 Let that be before you which you do not want to be before God. But if you put your sin behind you, God will wrench it back at you before your eyes, and he will wrench it back then when there will no longer be any fruit of penance.
- Hurry, my brothers, that the darkness may not envelop you. Keep watch for your salvation; keep watch while there is time. Let no one be kept back from the temple of God, let no one be kept back from the Lord's work; let no one be called away from constant prayer, let no one be beguiled from his usual devotion. Therefore keep watch while it is day; the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to forgive, but those who acknowledge [their sins]; but he is ready to punish those defending themselves, and those boasting that they are just, and those thinking themselves to be something when they are nothing.45 But he who walks in his love and in his mercy, even though delivered from those deadly and immense sins, such as are crimes, homicides, thefts, adulteries, [still] on account of those [sins] which seem to be minute, sins of the tongue, or of thoughts, or of immoderation in permissible things, he does truth of confession and comes to the light in good works because many minute sins, if they should be neglected, kill.
(2) Minute are the drops which fill rivers; minute are the grains of sand, but if much sand is placed [upon something], it presses down and crushes. Bilge-water, if ignored, does ex actly what a rushing wave does, but it enters little by little through the ship's bilge; but by entering for a long time and not being drawn out, it sinks the ship.
(3) But what is it to draw out except to exert effort by good works that sins may not overwhelm [us], by moaning, fasting, almsgiving, forgiving? Now, the journey of this world is bur densome; it is full of temptations. Let it not puff one up in prosperity; let it not break one in adversity. He who has given you the happiness of the world gave it for your comfort, not for your corruption. Again he who flails you in this world does it for your correction, not for damnation. Endure a fa ther instructing that you may not feel the judge punishing. We say these things to you daily, and they ought to be said often, because they are good and salutary.