ACC ~ John 12 v4 - 8

OVERVIEW:

Even though Jesus foreknows Judas’s treachery, he tolerates him among his company of disciples (AUGUSTINE). Under the guise of religion (GAUDENTIUS), Judas places a higher value on the perfume than he would later place on Jesus’ life when he betrayed him (AMBROSE). Judas may have been speaking for the whole company of the disciples if one compares the other Gospel accounts, but John focuses on Judas’s propensity for greed (AUGUSTINE). Jesus hoped to restrain Judas’s greedy impulses by placing him in the position of treasurer (EPHREM), which would have been one of the loftier positions among the disciples (AMBROSE). But a greedy person is always in need, and Judas’s heart was already polluted by the stain of avarice (BEDE). He seems callous to Jesus’ allusion to his impending death (CHRYSOSTOM) as Mary, in anointing his body for burial, was allowed to do at that time what she would not be able to do later (BEDE). In this anointing, the powerlessness of death and greed are exposed (EPHREM).

Mary’s act of love should be seen for what it was, an honor given to our Lord, who would not be long among them, rather than pitted against the idea of caring for the poor, which was not really Judas’s primary concern (THEODORE). Jesus wants the poor taken care of, but not at the expense of serving him (CYRIL). Ideally, both occur together since caring for the poor is a kind of anointing of Jesus’ head (ORIGEN). In speaking of his own presence with them, which was drawing to a close, Jesus is telling Judas, and all those present, that his incarnate presence would soon be withdrawn, but his divine presence would still remain with them always by faith (AUGUSTINE). Even now his presence is with us in the sacraments, but those who are wicked, whom Judas represents, will not always have him present with them (AUGUSTINE). And yet none of this, or the many acts of love Jesus did and spoke about that night, dissuaded Judas (CHRYSOSTOM).

12:4 | Judas Iscariot

JESUS’ TOLERATION OF JUDAS

AUGUSTINE Judas did not become perverted only at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and betrayed his Lord. For not a few, not paying attention to the Gospel itself, suppose that Judas perished only when he accepted money from the Jews to betray the Lord. It was not at that point that he perished. But he was already a thief, already lost, and he followed our Lord in body but not with his heart. He made up the apostolic number of twelve but had no part in the apostolic blessedness—he had been made the twelfth in semblance. On his departure and the succession of another, the apostolic reality was completed, and the completeness of the number was preserved. What lesson was our Lord Jesus Christ trying to impress on the church when he decided to have one castaway among the twelve? We are taught the duty of tolerating the wicked and to refrain from dividing the body of Christ. Here you have Judas among the saints—that Judas, mind you, who was a thief!—and do not overlook this fact, since he was no ordinary thief, but a thief who also committed sacrilege. He was a robber of money bags—not just any money bags, but those of the Lord. … The one who robs the church stands side by side with the castaway Judas. This was the kind of man Judas was, and yet he went in and out with eleven holy disciples. … Tolerate the wicked, you that are good, that you may receive the reward of the good and not fall into the punishment of the wicked. Follow our Lord’s example while he lived with humanity on earth. Why did he have bags to whom the angels ministered, except because his church should afterward have bags? [1] Why did he admit thieves but to show that his church should tolerate thieves even while it suffered from them? It is not surprising that Judas, who was accustomed to steal money from the bags, should betray our Lord for money. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 50.10-11. [2]

[1] See note on Augustine at 13:29.

[2] NPNF 1 7:281-82**; CCL 36:437.

12:5 | Judas’s Concern About the Price of the Perfume

UNDER THE GUISE OF RELIGION

GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA Judas valued cheating above everything else—except his hatred of the Savior. Nevertheless, under the pretext of piety, he brings out these deceitful words. … Impious beyond measure and filled with a savage disposition, influenced by his fraudulent greed, it is evident that he expresses this particular charge, attempting to hide it under the guise of religion. SERMON 13. [1]

[1] PL 20:935-36.

JUDAS DEVALUES FORGIVENESS AND CHRIST’S PASSION

AMBROSE O traitor Judas, you value the ointment of his passion at three hundred pence, and you sell his passion at thirty pence. Rich in valuing, cheap in wickedness! ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 3.17.128. [1]

[1] FC 44:200*; CSEL 79:205.

12:6 | Judas the Thief Did Not Care About the Poor

WHO MURMURED AGAINST THE WASTE OF PERFUME?

AUGUSTINE In the other Gospels it is the disciples who murmured at the waste of the ointment. … I think myself that Judas is put for the whole body of disciples; the plural used for the singular. [1] … But at any rate we may supply for ourselves that the other disciples said it, or thought it or were persuaded by this very speech of Judas. The only difference is that Matthew and Mark expressly mention the concurrence of the others, whereas John only mentions Judas, whose habit of thieving he takes occasion to notice. HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS 2.79.156. [2]

[1] Gaudentius makes a similar point, inferring that Jesus was trying to spare Judas from a direct accusation; see his Tractate 13 (PL 20:935), where he compares sine with sinite.

[2] CSEL 43:263; NPNF 1 6:174**.

NOT FORCED INTO BETRAYAL

AMBROSE [Judas] was chosen among the twelve apostles and had charge of the money bag, to distribute it among the poor, so that it might not seem as though he had betrayed the Lord because he was not honored or in want. And so, the Lord granted him this office so that he might also be shown to be just in his dealings with him. Judas would be guilty of a greater fault, not as one driven to it by a wrong done to him but as one misusing grace. DUTIES OF THE CLERGY 1.16.64. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:12*; CCL 15:23-24.

JESUS TRIED TO RESTRAIN JUDAS’S GREED

EPHREM THE SYRIAN Our Lord, because he saw that Judas was greedy for money, had placed him in charge of the money to satisfy him and to prevent him becoming a traitor for the sake of money. It would have been better for him, however, to have stolen the money rather than to have betrayed the Creator of money. … Should not the thief of money fear the Creator of money? Perhaps that is what he remembered when he hanged himself. [1] COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 17.13. [2]

[1] See Mt 27:5.

[2] ECTD 267-68.

A GREEDY PERSON IS ALWAYS IN NEED

BEDE Because “a greedy person always is in need,” [1] [Judas], being faithless and wicked, never remembered the trust [placed in him] but went on from the theft of the money that he had been asked to carry to betraying our Lord who showed confidence [in him]. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.4. [2]

[1] Horace Epistle 1.2.56.

[2] CS 111:39*. Ephrem makes a similar comment; see his Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 17.13.

12:7 | The Day of Jesus’ Burial

A REMINDER TO JUDAS ELICITS NO PITY

CHRYSOSTOM Again, as if to remind his betrayer, Jesus alludes to his burial. But the reproof does not reach him, nor does the expression soften him, although it should have been sufficient to inspire him with pity—almost as if Jesus had said, “I am a burden, and I know I cause a lot of trouble for you, but wait a little while, and I will leave.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:243**.

MARY ALLOWED TO ANOINT HIM

BEDE It is as though Judas were asking an innocent question, and so our Lord simply and gently explained the mystery of what Mary’s action meant, namely, that he himself was about to die and that he was to be anointed for his burial with the spices. It was being granted to Mary (to whom it would not be permitted to anoint his dead body, although she greatly desired this) to render a service [to him while he was] still alive, since she would be unable [to perform it] after his death, for she would be prevented by his swift resurrection. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.4. [1]

[1] CS 111:39*.

THE OINTMENT OF HIS BURIAL

EPHREM THE SYRIAN He restored Lazarus to life and died in his stead. For after he had drawn [Lazarus] from the tomb and had seated himself at table with him, he was himself buried by the symbol of the ointment that Mary “poured over his head.” … Thus, [the Lord] came to Bethany, raised his friend and buried himself through the symbol of the ointment. He made Mary and Martha joyful and exposed both Sheol and greed, Sheol because it would not always be holding onto him and greed because it would not always be selling him. COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 17.7-8. [1]

[1] ECTD 264-65.

12:8a | The Poor

CARE, REPROOF AND VINDICATION

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA If, he says, you are really sincere in your mercy for the poor, there is much time left for you to benefit them. There will never be a shortage of them in this world. But it will not always be easy for you to perform a service for me: I am staying with you for a short time, and then I will leave. First he purified the woman from the blame with these words by modestly saying that a greater honor had to be attributed to him than to the poor because he was staying with them for a short time. Then he reproved the intention of Judas because Judas did not care about the poor at all, nor should the woman be reproached because of the perfume she had poured. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 5.12.8. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:235-36.

CARE FOR THE POOR

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA And the Savior also brings forward an argument that convinces us that nothing is better than devotion toward him. For, he says, love for the poor is very praiseworthy, only let it be put after veneration of God. And what he says amounts to this: The time, he says, that has been appointed for my being honored, that is to say, the time of my sojourn on earth, does not require that the poor should be honored before me. And this he said with reference to the incarnation. He does not, however, in any way forbid the sympathetic person to exercise love toward the poor. Therefore, when there is need of service or of singing, these must be honored before love toward the poor. For it is possible to do good after the spiritual services are over. He says therefore that it is not necessary always without intermission to devote our time to honoring himself or to spend everything on the priestly service but to lay out the greatest part on the poor. Or think of it this way: As he asks his disciples to fast after he had ascended to the Father, [1] so also he says that then they may more freely give attention to the care of the poor and exercise their love for the poor with less disturbance and more time, which indeed was the case. For after the ascension of the Savior, when they were no longer following their Master on his journeys but had leisure, then they eagerly spent all the offerings that were brought to them on the poor. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 8. [2]

[1] See Mt 9:15.

[2] LF 48:139-40**.

ANOINT THE LORD’S HEAD BY CARING FOR THE POOR

ORIGEN So powerful is the praise of a good work of this kind that it exhorts all of us to fill the Lord’s head with fragrant and rich works so that it may be said also of us that we have done a good work on his head. Because as long as we are in this life we will always have the poor with us, and those who have advanced in word and have become rich in the wisdom of God need to care for them, but [this] cannot be equal to having always with them, by night and day, the Son of God, the Word and Wisdom of God, and whatever also the Lord our Savior is. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77. [1]

[1] AEG 4:306*; GCS 38 2 (11):184.

12:8b | Jesus’ Presence Soon Gone

JESUS’ INCARNATE PRESENCE WITHDREW

AUGUSTINE It may be also understood in this way: … The good may take it also as addressed to themselves, but not so as to be any source of anxiety. For he was speaking of his bodily presence. For in respect of his majesty, his providence, his ineffable and invisible grace, his own words are fulfilled, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” [1] But in respect of the flesh he assumed as the Word … “you will not have him always.” And why is this? Because in respect of his bodily presence he associated for forty days with his disciples, and then, having brought them forth for the purpose of beholding and not of following him, he ascended into heaven and is no longer here. He is there, indeed, sitting at the right hand of the Father. And he is here also, having never withdrawn the presence of his glory. In other words, in respect of his divine presence we always have Christ. In respect of his presence in the flesh it was rightly said to the disciples, “You will not always have me.” In this respect the church enjoyed his presence only for a few days; now it possesses him by faith without seeing him with the eyes. In whichever way, then, it was said, “But me you will not have always,” it can no longer, I suppose, after this twofold solution, remain as a subject of doubt. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 50.13. [2]

[1] Mt 28:20.

[2] NPNF 1 7:282*; CCL 36:438-39.

THE WICKED WILL NOT HAVE CHRIST ALWAYS

AUGUSTINE We can certainly understand “the poor you have always.” What he has said here is true. When were the poor ever lacking in the church? “But you will not always have me.” What does he mean by this? How are we to understand “you will not always have me”? Do not be alarmed: it was addressed to Judas. Why, then, didn’t he say, “You (sg.) will have” instead of “You (pl.) will have”? [He used the plural form] because Judas is not here just an individual. One wicked man represents the whole body of the wicked. … And so it was said [to Judas], “But you will not always have me.” But what does the “not always” and “always” mean? If you are good, if you belong to the body represented by Peter, you have Christ both now and hereafter: now by faith, by sign, by the sacrament of baptism, by the bread and wine of the altar. You have Christ now, but you will have him always. For, when you have gone from here, you will come to him who said to the robber, “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” [1] But if you live wickedly, you may seem to have Christ now, because you enter the church, sign yourself with the sign of Christ, are baptized with the baptism of Christ, mingle with the members of Christ and approach his altar: now you have Christ, but by living wickedly you will not have him always. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 50.12. [2]

[1] Lk 23:43.

[2] NPNF 1 7:282-83*; CCL 36:438.

THE MADNESS OF SIN

CHRYSOSTOM But none of these things [that he said] turned back that savage madman [i.e., Judas]. And yet, really Jesus said and did far more than this: he washed his feet that night, made him a sharer in the table and the salt, which is a thing that should restrain even the souls of robbers. He also spoke other words, enough to melt a stone, and he did this, not a long time before but on the very day in order that not even time might cause it to be forgotten. But none of this affected Judas. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 65.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:243**.