ACC ~ John 11 v38

GROANING IN THE FACE OF DEATH

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS Spirit groans, so that flesh would come back to life. Life groans, so that death would be put to flight. God groans, so that humanity would rise. Pardon groans, lest the verdict be unfavorable. Christ groans as he subdues death, because one who snatches an unparalleled victory over an enemy cannot but groan. But with regard to the fact that he said that he “groaned again,” he does groan again in order to provide evidence of a twofold resurrection, since at Christ’s voice just as those dead in body are raised to life from their graves, so too those dead in faithfulness rise to a life of faith. SERMON 65.1. [1]

[1] FC 109:260*.

TWO DIFFERENT GROANINGS OF CHRIST

ORIGEN When he was far from the tomb, he groaned in spirit. But when he comes near to the tomb, he no longer groans in spirit but compresses his groaning in himself. … Again he rebukes the feeling that we may learn that he has become unchangeably human like ourselves. FRAGMENT 84 ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. [1]

[1] AEG 4:173*; GCS 10(4):549.

THE STRUGGLE WITHIN

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA Here we understand the groaning as if it were the will struggling with a sort of movement according to its power, both because he rather sternly reproved his grief and [because of] the tears that were about to be shed from his grief. For, as God he, in the way of a master, reproves his humanity, looking for it to be strong in sorrowful circumstances. … “He groaned,” which means that through the outward action of his body he indicated his inner distress. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7. [1]

[1] LF 48:124*.

CHRIST GROANS BECAUSE FAITH GROANS

AUGUSTINE Why did Christ trouble himself except to intimate to you how you should be troubled when you are weighed down and crushed by so great a mass of iniquity? For here you have been looking to yourself, seeing your own guilt, doing an accounting of yourself. I have done this, and God has spared me. I have committed this, and he has still stayed with me. I have heard the gospel and despised it. I have been baptized and returned again to my old habits. What am I doing? Where am I going? How shall I escape? When you speak in this way, Christ is already groaning, for your faith is groaning. In the voice of one who groans like this, the hope of that person’s rising again comes to light. If this kind of a faith is within, Christ is there too, groaning. For if there is faith in us, Christ is in us. … Why did he groan and trouble himself, but to intimate that the faith of one who has just cause to be displeased with himself should be, in a sense, groaning over the accusation of wicked deeds so that the habit of sinning may give way to the vehemence of penitential sorrow? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.19. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:276**.

THE CAVE AS PRISON

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS It would have sufficed for him to have said that he had come to the tomb. Why is it that the Evangelist makes special mention of the cave? Certainly it is a cave, where the devil’s thievery has lodged human beings. It is a cave where a woman’s wiles buried the man, a cave where the greediness of death imprisoned God’s handiwork. “And a stone had been placed in front of it.” The door of hard death was bolted harder still by a very hard stone. What good does weeping at a grave do since the voice of the one weeping does not penetrate such hard and thick barriers? Christians, let us weep before God for our sins, and let us not weep with the pagans before the dead who do not hear us. SERMON 65.2. [1]

[1] FC 109:260-61. Origen also compares Lazarus coming out of the cave to Joseph’s release from the well as a prefiguring of the Resurrection. See Fragment 84 on the Gospel of John.