“Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me.”
Jesus answered, I have not a devil: but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me — Jesus denies the demon-possession charge and contrasts his honor toward the Father with the authorities' dishonor toward him. The parallel suggests that dishonoring Jesus is equivalent to dishonoring the Father (because Jesus is the Father's representative). His commitment is to honor the Father, not to defend himself against insults. The response is calm and focused on the relational truth rather than on his reputation.
Church Fathers on John 8:49
Whenever our Lord said any thing of lofty meaning, the Jews in their insensibility set it down madness: Then answered the Jews and said to Him, Say we not well that you are a Samaritan, and have a devil?
But how, we may ask, when the Samaritans denied a future life, and the immortality of the soul, could they dare to call our Savior, Who had preached so much on the resurrection and the judgment, a Samaritan? Perhaps they only mean a general rebuke to Him for teaching, what they did not approve of.
The Samaritans were hated by the Jews; they lived in the land that formerly belonged to the ten tribes, who had been carried away.
Read all 23 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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