A Golden Tongue with Iron Guts
Dr. John Hill, Editor
“It is foolishness and a public madness to fill the cupboards with clothing and allow men who are created in God’s image and our likeness to stand naked and trembling with the cold so that they can hardly hold themselves upright…You are large and fat, you hold drinking parties until late at night, and sleep in a warm, soft bed. And do you not think of how you must give an account of your misuse of the gifts of God?” ~ John Chrysostom
John of Antioch lived in the middle of the fourth century in the city of Antioch; the city known to be the central missionary headquarters of Christian missionaries and believers were first called “Christians.” He was born to Anthusa, a devote Christian mother, and Secundus, a senior government official in Antioch. His father died and left the 20-year-old mother to care for John and a younger daughter alone. Anthusa devoted her life to her family and to the Christian community in Antioch.
John received the best education available in Antioch. During this period, Antioch became a leading intellectual city in the region, making access to quality education easy for the soon-to-be great preacher. John planned to study law, much like his father, but at some point in his formal education, he gave himself to the service of God.
After his mother died in 370, he began his spiritual search and development. He entered a monastery and lived as a hermit. Historians indicate that John’s seclusion was so strenuous that it damaged his health for the rest of his life. Nonetheless, while in spiritual solitude, he memorized large quantities of scripture and was able to quote many of them with such dramatic and poetic ability it would lead him to some of the greatest pulpits in the known world. John records in one of his letters that he always prized spiritual contemplation and likened it to Jesus’ retreat into the mountains or wilderness to pray.
During John’s seclusion and spiritual contemplation, he and a close friend Basil were under consideration to be ordained into the priesthood. Basil went forward with his ordination plans, unaware that John went into hiding for fear of the demands required by the priesthood. Eventually, John was ordained as a deacon (381 CE) and then as a priest (386 CE). Basil became bishop of a rural providence in modern-day Turkey, but John would become the first great orator of the early Christian Church.
John remained in Antioch for about twelve years after his ordination. Antioch was the capital of Syria, known for its Olympic games, festivals, theaters, and educational opportunities. Antioch was no small city for his first pastorate or as the seat of the Early Christian Church.
In 388 CE, the people rebelled over an announcement by the emperor of increased taxes. Statues of the Emperor and his (deceased) wife were toppled, smashed, or desecrated. The empire punished the city for their rebellion and imprisoned or executed leaders of the uprising. Archbishop Flavian left Antioch to plead with the emperor in Constantinople for pardon. While he was away, John preached to the city…
“Improve yourselves now truly, not as when during one of the numerous earthquakes or in famine or drought or in similar visitations you leave off your sinning for three or four days and then begin the old life again.… Stop evil slandering, harbor no enmities, and give up the wicked custom of frivolous cursing and swearing. If you do this, you will surely be delivered from the present distress and attain eternal happiness.”
The archbishop returned the day before Easter to proclaim the emperor’s pardon. Upon the announcement of the pardon, people remembered the hopeful messages of their preacher, and John’s popularity grew exponentially. His listeners gave him the tag line “Chrysostom,” meaning “the golden mouth.”
He once told his congregation that “preaching improves me.” “When I begin to speak, weariness disappears; when I begin to teach, fatigue too disappears thus neither sickness itself nor indeed any other obstacle is able to separate from your love…for just as you are hungry to listen to me, so too am I hunger to preach to you.”
Pope Pius X, in 1908, designated him as the “patron” of Christian preachers. Historian Hans von Campenhausen wrote that his sermons “are probably the only ones from the whole of Greek antiquity which…are still readable today as Christian sermons. They reflect something of the authentic life of the New Testament, just because they are so ethical, so simple, and so clear-headed.”
John preached every Sunday and on every saint’s day festival throughout the year while conducting several weekday services. Today, some 800 sermons are still available to us today.
Every sermon began with the same prayer, “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ, our Lord.”
It was customary for the audience to applaud after a sermon, but while studying, John realized that Christ did not contend with “ill-disciplined hearers” and would conclude his sermon with an instruction to the audience not to applaud. Instead, the congregation responded with “thunderous applause.”
He often presented longer sermons that lasted up to two hours long to gatherings of standing-room-only crowds. However, many more of his works were presented in less than 30-minutes. Historians have located several documents and letters indicating his sermons demonstrated the oratory skills he learned from his teacher Libanius, a pagan rhetorician in Antioch.
While he was a great preacher who loved his congregation, his expectations remained low, “It generally happens that the greater part of the church consists of ignorant people…scarcely one or two present have acquired real discrimination. Thus the preacher must rid himself of the desire for praise yet strive for an eloquence that will gain people’s attention. Eloquence is not given by birth, but the preacher must cultivate its force by constant application and exercise.”
His courage and sincerity earned him an excellent reputation as a phenomenal preacher and faithful Christian, but his reward was exile and death in his day. His final sermon seemed to indicate that he knew his exile was coming.
“The waters are raging, and the winds are blowing, but I have no fear for I stand firmly on a rock. What am I to fear? Is it death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Is it exile? The earth and everything it holds belongs to the Lord. Is it a loss of property? I brought nothing into this world, and I will bring nothing out of it. I have only contempt for the world and its ways, and I scorn its honors.”
While John was in Constantinople, four men reported to him how Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, managed the Church’s funds. While John was a great preacher, Theophilus was a cunning politician who orchestrated an illegitimate council to have John removed from office. When news of John’s removal reached the people, there were riots in the streets of the city. A new council was called within a few days, and John was reinstated to his post. However, John’s preaching had already irritated Empress Eudoxia with his preaching, so her husband, Emperor Arcadius, ordered John to leave his position. To prevent further unrest, John complied and left. To distract the people, he had a horse placed at the front door of the cathedral, and during prayer, snuck out the side door. The people were so angry, they burned the cathedral, the senate-house, and other public buildings. Imperial troops were sent to stop the rebellion, with several of John’s followers tortured and others executed.
John was exiled to Asia Minor but had to stop in Caesarea because of his failing health. He wrote letters to friends. In one of those letters, he said, “When you see the church scattered, suffering the most terrible trials, her most illustrious members persecuted and flogged, her leader carried away into exile, don’t only consider these events, but also the things that have resulted: the rewards, the recompense, the awards for the athlete who wins in the games and the prizes won in the contest.”
He was moved to the east side of the Black Sea, but on the way, he fell gravely ill on September 14, 407 (58 years old). He was taken to a small chapel in Comana (a city along the southern edge of the Black Sea), received the Lord’s Supper, and offered a final prayer. His last words were the conclusion to his prayer, “Glory be to God in all things. Amen.”
Thirty-four years later, after all of his political and church enemies had died, his relics were brought back to Constantinople. Emperor Theodosius II publicly asked for forgiveness for the sins of his parents who sent the beloved John Chrysostom into exile.
Bibliography
Robert Krupp. Shepherding the Flock of God: The Pastoral Theology of John Chrysostom. (Peter Lang: New York) 1991
Hans Von Campenshuasen. The Fathers of the Greek Church. (Pantheon: New York) 1955
Robert Payne. Fathers of The Western Church. (Dorset Press: Dorchester, UK) 1951
John Chrysostom. The Priesthood. Translated by WA Jurgens (Macmillan: New York) 1955
