On “It Is Not Possible”

1“The Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19)—how do you understand this? You take the word “cannot” in two ways, both in common usage and in the divine Scripture. “Cannot” is said both of things that are impossible and of things that are not permitted. Not being able is one thing; not being permitted is another. About impossible things Paul speaks this way: “The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). For the blood of an irrational animal does not cleanse the passions of a rational soul. About things not permitted, the apostles say in Acts: “We cannot,” they say, “stop speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). And yet they were unable to stop speaking, for they could not bear to be silent, lest they seem to deny the grace of the one who worked wonders.

So tell me here: when you hear “The Son can do nothing of himself,” in which way do you take it? Do you condemn him as weak, or do you deny the movements of his free will, since he can do whatever he wills? But what do you say—that he does nothing of himself, but fulfills God’s command and works at whatever the nod of the one commanding directs? How is it not utter foolishness to say this? For if he does absolutely nothing of himself, then he neither fulfilled the whole plan of salvation by his own will, nor took up our flesh out of compassion for us, nor accepted death for our sake by his own free love, but endured everything by force, driven by necessity.

If it is reckless and blasphemous and beyond all impiety to say that, then tell me in what sense you understand “The Son can do nothing of himself.” For it is clear—even if you do not want it—that you are driven by the truth to say he can do whatever he wishes. But why do I spin out unnecessary words? The continuation of the saying resolves the question. For he did not say, “He can do nothing of himself unless the Father commands something,” but “unless he sees the Father doing.” And whatever he sees him doing, these things the Son also does in the same way. So he does not do what the Father commands by fulfilling a service, but as one like him, as one equal in power, as one who is of the same divine nature: whatever he sees the Father doing, these things the Son also does in the same way.

After this, he says, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem (John 5:1). And so that they would not attribute everything to the waters, the waters did not heal before an angel stood over them and stirred them, so that they might learn that the waters of baptism do not benefit the soul by themselves before the angel of great counsel, putting on a human body, comes to baptism. So while many sick people were lying there, a paralyzed man was there as well, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him, he asks him: “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:5-6).

2See his lack of arrogance. He did not say, “Do you want me to heal you?” For he did not wish to speak boastfully or to proclaim himself before the miracles. The man says, “I do want it, but I have no man.” For where there is no friend, there is no man anywhere. “This is also why I ask,” Jesus says, “not so that I may learn—for what sick person does not want to be made well?—but so that you may expose the cruelty of your good citizens, because they did not even give you a hand to throw you toward the spring, something even an enemy would have done if asked. Since until now you have had no man to put you into the pool, look: I, who for your sake became man, heal your suffering even without waters. Rise, take up your mat and go” (John 5:8).

He does not simply command him to carry the mat. What he did with the loaves, he does here as well. Just as there he commands the leftover pieces of bread to be carried, so here too, to make the miracle clear and to free the healing from Jewish suspicion, and to show that he is not some deceiver but a savior and the common physician of nature, he commands him to carry the mat. So the Jews said, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat” (John 5:10). And he answers, “The one who made me well, that one said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk’” (John 5:11). So they said to him, “And who is he?” But the healed man did not know. When they learned that it was Jesus who had made him well, they began to persecute him, wanting to kill him.

What then does Christ do? He brings forward the Father, saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17). For just as, he says, my Father is not subject to boundaries, does not serve laws, and does not wait for commands, but by his own judgment does whatever he wills, so I also work all things with authoritative authority, equally with the Father. But for this reason they sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God (John 5:18).

But while they were raging and going mad, what does Christ do? “Amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself unless he sees the Father doing it. For whatever that one does, these things the Son also does in the same way” (John 5:19). Not because he creates some things and I, by imitation, produce other things. For if that were so, there would have to be two heavens, two suns, two seas, two races of human beings, and a double world—one belonging to the Father, the other to me. For it would be necessary that, just as with painters the lines are prescribed and with teachers the letters of the alphabet, so the Father’s creation was prescribed, and I produced mine by imitation.

3“If that is not how it is, master,” someone says, “why do you say, ‘The Son cannot do anything of himself unless he sees the Father doing it’?”

Jesus answers: “To weaken the madness of the Jews who think I am legislating against the Father. Since they accuse me about the breaking of the Sabbath, I said, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working’ (John 5:17), wanting to show equal honor from both sides. But those utterly foolish people thought I was building works against works and introducing one opinion against another, and they were stirred to envy. So to correct their opinion I said, ‘The Son cannot do anything of himself unless he sees the Father doing it’ (John 5:19). What I meant was this: ‘Why are you so angry with me, you ill-timed examiners of the Sabbath, because I break the Sabbath? I am not opposing the Father. It is not that he wants to establish the Sabbath and I to dissolve it. I am not fighting against him; I am not rebelling against his will. He does not will one thing while I wish something different. What he wills, I will; what he wishes, I wish; what he does, I do.’ For in this way I do nothing and will nothing outside of him. I make the statement impossible when I say, ‘Amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of himself.’ I do not have an opinion separated and cut off from the Father. Since the nature is one and the will is one, the result must also be one. So the Son cannot do anything of himself, because he cannot do anything without the Father, having the Father whole within himself: ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’ (John 14:10). If the works of soul and body are indistinguishable because of their union—even though their nature is divided, the body being one thing, mortal, and the soul another, immortal—how can my works and the Father’s be distinguished? Where counsel and word and knowledge and wisdom and nature and divinity are one, the Son cannot do anything of himself because he is not separated from the Father, unless he sees the Father doing it—that is, unless he sees the Father willing it. Since I have a will that runs together with the Father’s one and the same nature, I accomplish what comes to be. If I were carrying out a bodily labor, the construction of what comes to be would have to be divided up. But since willing is sufficient to bring things that do not exist into being, for this reason the creation of all things knows the Father and the Son as creator, with the Spirit not excluded.”

4For whatever the Father does, the Son also does in the same way. The same things, not merely things of that kind. I do not produce other things by imitation. I work the very things the Father works. That is why I attributed my words to him and said, “The words I speak to you I do not speak of myself; the Father who remains in me does the works” (John 14:10). I attributed the works and the words to him, not to show that I fulfill a service, but to show that I have been united to the Father in nature in such a way that I have neither word nor work without him. That is why I went on to say, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if not, believe because of the works” (John 14:11; John 5:36). Just as there, when I was working, I said, “The Father who remains in me does the works,” so here too I say, “The works that he does, the Son also does in the same way. The same things, not merely things of that kind.”

Christ continues: Does the statement that the Son cannot do anything of himself not take away my freedom? Understand it this way. Whatever I wish to do, I can also do of myself, but I do not wish to. For if the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does, how could I escape the notice of the one who does all things through me? And he does them through me, but not as through an underling. I do not serve as an underling; I work together. I do not fulfill a service; I work with authority. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, having power that moves together with his will, so I raise the dead not by fulfilling a service, but by power, authority, right, and will. Those I raise, I also judge. For the Father judges no one. But he does not refrain from judging because of inability, but because he has given all judgment to the Son. Through the one by whom he worked, through him he also judges.

And he does all things for this reason: so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father (John 5:23). For the Father most of all delights in honor when he sees the Son who comes from him honored in a way worthy of God. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, for the Father does not accept honor at the cost of the Son’s dishonor.

Christ says: He sent me because of the flesh, not so that I would be insulted, but so that I would be glorified. Therefore, since you were disposed toward me without gratitude, through the very flesh that had been sent I kept saying to the Father, “Father, glorify your Son” (John 17:1). Glorify the one these people insult. Glorify also the flesh they reject, so that they may learn that, as Father, you will glorify the man from Mary without distinction, because of his communion with your only-begotten Son. You will give now to the temple assumed by me, my human body, the glory that I myself had from nature with you before the ages.