Lent 5
But how shall “he that loveth his life, lose it”? When he doeth its unseemly desires, when he gratifies it where he ought not. Wherefore one exhorteth us, saying, “Walk not in the desires of thy soul” (Ecclus. 18:30)
“Where I am, there is My servant also.”
But where is Christ? In heaven. Let us therefore even before the Resurrection remove thither in soul and mind.
“Where I am, there shall also my servant be,” do not think merely of good bishops and clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection he owes as a parent to his family.
Christ compares his death to sowing, which appears to tend to the destruction of the wheat, but yet is the cause of far more abundant increase.
In short, to love this life is not in itself wrong, provided that we only pass through it as pilgrims, keeping our eyes always fixed on our object.
whoever is attached to the world does, of his own accord, deprive himself of the heavenly life, of which we cannot be heirs in any other way than by being strangers and foreigners in the world. The consequence is, that the more anxious any person is about his own safety, the farther does he remove himself from the kingdom of God, that is, from the true life.
we ought to despise life, so far as it hinders us from living to God
if meditation on the heavenly life were the prevailing sentiment in our hearts, the world would have no influence in detaining us
The future tense, shall be, (ἔσται,)
many are as little affected by the doctrine, as if it only proceeded from a mortal man, and others consider the word of God to be confused and barbarous, as if it were nothing else than thunder.
Certain Greeks—A prelude of the Gentile church. That these were circumcised does not appear. But they came up on purpose to worship the God of Israel.
there is no other gentile presence in the Fourth Gospel. Most, however, suppose that John is telegraphing to the many non-Jews in his community his awareness that they simply were not a presence in Jesus’ earthly days
Preachers should preach regularly on the apparent failure the Gospel invites to, ending in death. A message of “success” has to contain large elements of a siren song of “this world.” Those who preach need to be a living gospel of self-abnegation (by dying to the world)) if they are to speak on the subject with any conviction.
Rather, they are proselytes or, perhaps, Gentile “God-fearers” (as they are known in that era) who participate in synagogue worship but do not undergo circumcision and full reception into the Jewish religion (Acts 8:27; 13:26; 17:4). Having come to “worship at the feast,” they are restricted to the temple’s outer courtyard, reserved for Gentiles, if they are uncircumcised.
Philip. Although he is Jewish like the other apostles, Philip’s name is Greek
must enter the glory of His ascension to the Father’s right hand (13:31, 32;
a voice came from heaven. In three places in the Gospels, the Father speaks directly from heaven about Jesus: at His baptism (Matt. 3:17), at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:5), and here.
The Jews had wondered if Jesus intended to go to the Diaspora of the Greeks, Hellēnes, and teach them (7:35)