ACC ~ John 17 v25

JESUS FRUSTRATED WITH THE UNBELIEF OF THE JEWS

CHRYSOSTOM: What does he mean when he says, “O righteous Father, the world has not known you”? What is the connection with what preceded? Here he shows that no one knows God except those who have come to know the Son. And what he says, then, is like this: “I wanted everyone to know you, and yet they have not known you, although they can find no fault with you.” For this is the meaning of “O righteous Father.” And here he seems to me to speak these words as one who is frustrated that they refused to know someone who is so just and good. For since the Jews had said that they knew God but that Jesus did not, he takes aim at this perception, saying, “For you [the Father] loved me before the foundation of the world.” In this way he put together a defense against the accusations of the Jews. For how could he who had received glory, who was loved before the foundation of the world, who desired to have them as witnesses of that glory—how could he be opposed to the Father? And so, he is in effect saying, “What the Jews say then is not true when they say they know you and I don’t. On the contrary, I know you, and they don’t.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.3. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:305**.

THE WORLD IGNORANT OF CHRIST’S PURPOSE TO RESTORE HUMANITY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ calls the Father righteous with good reason. For by the Father’s approval and consent the Son became man that he might endow human nature, which was created for good works, [1] with sanctification through the Spirit, and union with God and an abiding place in the mansions above where he will live and reign with him. For God did not create humanity at the beginning to do wickedness. But their nature was perverted into vice by the impious schemes of the devil, and they were led astray from the guidance of old that they had received at the hands of God. They were uprooted, as it were, from its moorings. In truth, it seemed good to the righteous Father to lift up again that human nature that had been cast down through the devil’s malice and to establish in its former position what had been unduly debased. He wanted to rid the human nature of the foulness of sin and, as it were, transform it into its original image as it had been at first created. He also sought to subject the adversary, that is, Satan, who assaulted humanity and impiously dared to make its ruin complete, to the vengeance that was fitting for him. Although I personally think any kind of chastisement was slight for someone who exhibited such madness against God. Therefore he says, “O righteous Father,” “for you are righteous and good, and your judgment is true,” [2] because you have sent me down, your own true Son, to the world to help and renew it. But the world is blind to all this! He says, For though you are exactly as I described you, “the world did not know you.” Otherwise they would have surely seen the loving-kindness of your judgment and your merciful will. In that case, they should have hurried to welcome their Savior and provided him with willing service. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12. [3]

[1] See Eph 2:10.

[2] Ps 119:137 (118:137 LXX).

[3] LF 48:561*.