ACC ~ John 10 v18c

CHRIST’S WILLING ACCEPTANCE OF THE COMMAND TO DIE

CHRYSOSTOM: What commandment was this? It was the commandment to die for the world. Did Jesus then wait first to hear and then choose, and did he need to learn the commandment? Who (if he had any sense at all) would say something like this? But before, when he said, “Therefore my Father loves me,” he showed that the first motion was voluntary and removed all suspicion of opposition to the Father. And so here when he says that he received a commandment from the Father, he declared nothing except that “what I do seems good to him.”… For if he had needed a commandment, how could he have said, “the good Shepherd lays down his life” on his own? For he that lays his life down on his own needs no commandment. He also assigns the cause for which he does this. And what is that? That he is the shepherd, and the good Shepherd. Now the good Shepherd needs no one to arouse him to his duty. If this is the case with people, it is even more so with God. This is why Paul said that “he emptied himself.” [1] So the “commandment” put here means nothing else but to show his unanimity with the Father. And, if he speaks in such a humble and human way, the cause is the infirmity of his hearers. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 60.2-3. [2]

[1] Phil 2:7.

[2] NPNF 1 14:218**.

Jn