5. "And greater works than these will He show Him, that ye may marvel." Here again we are embarrassed. And who is there that may worthily investigate this so great a secret? But now, in that He has deigned to speak to us, Himself opens it. For He would not speak what He would not have us understand; and as He has deigned to speak, without doubt He has excited attention: for does He forsake any whom He has roused to give attentive hearing? We have said that it is not in a temporal sense that the Son knoweth,--that the knowledge of the Son is not one thing, and the Son Himself another; nor one thing His seeing, Himself another; but that the seeing itself is the Son, and the knowledge as well as the wisdom of the Father is the Son; and that that wisdom and seeing is eternal and co-eternal with Him from whom it is; that it is not something that varies by time, nor something produced that was not in being, nor something that vanishes away which did exist. What is it, then, that time does in this case, that He should say, "Greater works than these He will show Him"? "He will show," that is, "He is about to show." Hath shown is a different thing from will show: hath shown, we say of an act past; will show, of an act future. What shall we do here, then, brethren? Behold, He whom we had declared to be co-eternal with the Father, in whom nothing is varied by time, in whom is no moving through spaces either of moments or of places, of whom we had declared that He abides ever with the Father seeing, seeing the Father, and by seeing existing; He, I say, here again mentioning times to us, saith, "He will show Him greater works than these." Is He then about to show something to the Son, which the Son doth not as yet know? What, then, do we make of it? How do we understand this? Behold, our Lord Jesus Christ was above, is beneath. When was He above? When He said, "What things soever the Father doeth, these same also the Son doeth in like manner." Whence know we that He is now beneath? Hence: "Greater works than these He will show Him." O Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Word of God, by which all things were made, what is the Father about to show Thee, that as yet Thou knowest not? What of the Father is hid from Thee? What in the Father is hid from Thee, from whom the Father is not hid? What greater works is He about to show Thee? Or greater than what works are they which He is to show Thee? For when He said, "Greater than these," we ought first to understand the works than which are they greater.
6. Let us again call to mind whence this discourse started. It was when that man who was thirty-eight years in infirmity was healed, and Jesus commanded him, now made whole, to take up his bed and to go to his house. For this cause, indeed, the Jews with whom He was speaking were enraged. He spoke in words, as to the meaning He was silent; hinted in some measure at the meaning to those who understood, and hid the matter from them that were wroth. For this cause, I say, the Jews, being enraged because the Lord did this on the Sabbath, gave occasion to this discourse. Therefore let us not hear these things in such wise as if we had forgotten what was said above, but let us look back to that impotent man languishing for thirty-eight years suddenly made whole, while the Jews marvelled and were wroth. They sought darkness from the Sabbath more than light from the miracle. Speaking then to these, while they are indignant, He saith, "Greater works than these will He show Him." "Greater than these:" than which? What ye have seen, that a man, whose infirmity had lasted thirty-eight years, was made whole; greater than these the Father is about to show to the Son. What are greater works? He goes on, saying, "For as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." Clearly these are greater. Very much greater is it that a dead man should rise, than that a sick man should recover: these are greater. But when is the Father about to show these to the Son? Does the Son not know them? And He who was speaking, did He not know how to raise the dead? Had He yet to learn how to raise the dead to life--He, I say, by whom all things were made? He who caused that we should live, when we were not in being, had He yet to learn how we might be raised to life again? What, then, do His words mean?
7. But now He condescends to us, and He who a little before was speaking as God, now begins to speak as man. Notwithstanding, the same is man who is God, for God was made man; but was made what He was not, without losing what He was. The man therefore was added to the God, that He might be man who was God, but not that He should now henceforth be man and not be God. Let us then hear Him also as our brother whom we did hear as our Maker. Our Maker, because the Word in the beginning; our Brother, because born of the Virgin Mary: Maker, before Abraham, before Adam, before earth, before heaven, before all things corporeal and spiritual; but Brother, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the Israelitish virgin. If therefore we know Him who speaks to us as both God and man, let us understand the words of God and of man; for sometimes He speaks to us such things as are applicable to the majesty, sometimes such as are applicable to the humility. For the selfsame is high who was made low, that He might make us high who are low. What, then, saith He? "The Father will show" to me "greater than these, that ye may marvel." To us, therefore, He is about to show, not to Him. And since it is to us that the Father is to show, for that reason He said, "that ye may marvel." He has, in fact, explained what He meant in saying, "The Father will show" to me. Why did He not say, The Father will show to you; but, He will show to the Son? Because also we are members of the Son; and like as what we the members learn, He Himself in a manner learns in His members. How doth He learn in us? As He suffers in us. Whence may we prove that He suffers in us? From that voice out of heaven, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" [424] Is it not Himself that will sit as Judge in the end of the world, and, setting the just on the right, and the wicked on the left, will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat"? And when they shall answer, "Lord, when saw we Thee hungry?" He will say to them, "Since ye gave to one of the least of mine, ye gave to me." [425] Let us at this time question Him, and let us say to Him, Lord, when wilt Thou be a learner, seeing Thou teachest all things? Immediately, indeed, He makes answer to us in our faith, When one of the least of mine doth learn, I learn.
8. Let us rejoice, then, and give thanks that we are made not only Christians, but Christ. Do ye understand, brethren, and apprehend the grace of God upon us? Marvel, be glad, we are made Christ. For if He is the head, we are the members: the whole man is He and we. This is what the Apostle Paul saith: "That we be no longer babes, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine." But above he had said, "Until we all come together into the unity of faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ." [426] The fullness of Christ, then, is head and members. Head and members, what is that? Christ and the Church. We should indeed be arrogating this to ourselves proudly, if He did not Himself deign to promise it, who saith by the same apostle, "But ye are the body of Christ, and members." [427]
9. Whenever, then, the Father showeth to Christ's members, He showeth to Christ. A certain great but yet real miracle happens. There is a showing to Christ of what Christ knew, and it is shown to Christ through Christ. A marvelous and great thing it is, but the Scripture so saith. Shall we contradict the divine declarations? Shall we not rather understand them, and of His own gift render thanks to Him who freely bestowed it on us? What is this that I said, "is shown to Christ through Christ"? Is shown to the members through the head. Lo, look at this in thyself. Suppose that with thine eyes shut thou wouldest take up something, thy hand knows not whither to go; and yet thy hand is at any rate thy member, for it is not separated from thy body. Open thine eyes, now the hand sees whither it may go; while the head showed, the member followed. If, then, there could be found in thyself something such, that thy body showed to thy body, and that through thy body something was shown to thy body, then do not marvel that it is said there is shown to Christ through Christ. For the head shows that the members may see, and the head teaches that the members may learn; nevertheless one man, head and members. He willed not to separate Himself, but deigned to attach Himself to us. Far was He from us, yea, very far. What so far apart as the creature and the Creator? What so far apart as God and man? What so far as justice and iniquity? What so far as eternity and mortality? Behold, so far from us was the Word in the beginning, God with God, by whom all things were made. How, then, was He made near, that He might be what we are, and we in Him? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in (among) us." [428]
10. This, then, He is about to show us; this He showed to His disciples, who saw Him in the flesh. What is this? "As the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." Is it that the Father some, the Son others? Surely all things were made by Him. What do we say, my brethren? Christ raised Lazarus; what dead man did the Father raise, that Christ might see how to raise Lazarus? When Christ raised Lazarus, did not the Father raise him? or was it the doing of the Son alone, without the Father? Read ye the passage itself, and see that He invokes the Father that Lazarus may rise again. [429] As a man, He calls on the Father; as God, He doeth with the Father. Therefore also Lazarus, who rose again, was raised both by the Father and by the Son, in the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit; and that wonderful work the Trinity performed. Let us not, therefore, understand this, "As the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will," in such wise as to suppose that some are raised and quickened by the Father, others by the Son; but that the Son raiseth and quickeneth the very same whom the Father raiseth and quickeneth; because "all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." And to show that He has, though given by the Father, equal power, therefore He saith, "So also the Son quickeneth whom He will," that He might therein show His will; and lest any should say, "The Father raiseth the dead by the Son, but the Father as being powerful, and as having power, the Son as by another's power, as a servant does something, as an angel," He indicated His power when He saith, "So also the Son quickeneth whom He will." It is not so that the Father willeth other than the Son; but as the Father and the Son have one substance, so also one will.
11. And who are these dead whom the Father and the Son quicken? Are they the same of whom we have spoken--Lazarus, or that widow's son, [430] or the ruler of the synagogue's daughter? [431] For we know that these were raised by Christ the Lord. It is some other thing that He means to signify to us,--namely, the resurrection of the dead, which we all look for; not that resurrection which certain have had, that the rest might believe. For Lazarus rose to die again; we shall rise again to live for ever. Is it the Father that effects such a resurrection, or the Son? Nay verily, the Father in the Son. Consequently the Son, and the Father in the Son. Whence do we prove that He speaks of this resurrection? When He had said, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." Lest we should understand here that resurrection which He performs for a miracle, not for eternal life, He proceeded, saying, "For the Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son." What is this? He was speaking of the resurrection of the dead, that "as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will;" and immediately thereupon added as a reason, concerning the judgment, saying, "for the Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son." Why said He this, but to indicate that He had spoken of that resurrection of the dead which will take place in the judgment?