Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom[1.] Little children who go daily to their teachers receive their lessons, and repeat 638 them, andnever cease from this kind of acquisition, but sometimes employ nights as well as days, and thisthey are compelled 639 to do for perishable and transient things. Now we do not ask of you who arecome to age such toil as you require of your children; for not every day, but two days only in theweek do we exhort you to hearken to our words, and only for a short portion of the day, that yourtask may be an easy one. For the same reason also we divide 640 to you in small portions what iswritten in Scripture, that you may be able easily to receive and lay them up in the storehouses ofyour minds, and take such pains to remember them all, as to be able exactly to repeat them to othersyourselves, unless any one be sleepy, and dull, and more idle than a little child.Let us now attend to the sequel of what has been before said. When Nicodemus fell into errorand wrested the words of Christ to the earthly birth, and said that it was not possible for an old manto be born again, observe how Christ in answer more clearly reveals the manner of the Birth, whicheven thus had difficulty for the carnal enquirer, yet still was able to raise the hearer from his lowopinion of it. What saith He? “Verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of theSpirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” What He declares is this: “Thou sayest that it isimpossible, I say that it is so absolutely possible as to be necessary, and that it is not even possibleotherwise to be saved.” For necessary things God hath made exceedingly easy also. The earthlybirth which is according to the flesh, is of the dust, and therefore heaven 641 is walled against it, forwhat hath earth in common with heaven? But that other, which is of the Spirit, easily unfolds to usthe arches 642 above. Hear, ye as many as are unilluminated, 643 shudder, groan, fearful is the threat,fearful the sentence. 644 “It is not (possible),” He saith, “for one not born of water and the Spirit, toenter into the Kingdom of heaven”; because he wears the raiment of death, of cursing, of perdition,he hath not yet received his Lord’s token, 645 he is a stranger and an alien, he hath not the royalwatchword. “Except,” He saith, “a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into theKingdom of heaven.”Yet even thus Nicodemus did not understand. Nothing is worse than to commit spiritual thingsto argument; it was this that would not suffer him to suppose anything sublime and great. This iswhy we are called faithful, that having left the weakness of human reasonings below, 646 we mayascend to the height of faith, and commit most of our blessings to her 647 teaching; 648 and ifNicodemus had done this, the thing would not have been thought by him impossible. What thendoth Christ? To lead him away from his groveling imagination, and to show that He speaks not ofthe earthly birth, He saith, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter intothe Kingdom of heaven.” This He spoke, willing to draw him to the faith by the terror of the threat,638ἀ ποδίδωσι .639 al. [by you].640διαξαίνομεν641 lit. “things in heaven.”642ἀ ψῖδας .643 i.e. unbaptized.644ἀ πόφασις .645σύμβολον .646 or, “which is below.”647 al. “this.”648 i.e. submit to the teaching of faith concerning them.134