AN HOUR IS COMING

AN HOUR IS COMING: JESUS’ WARNING

OF FUTURE PERSECUTION

By: Daniel McMillin

In John 16:1, Jesus’ opening statements issue a warning about apostasy. Jesus believed that “falling away” was in the realm of possibility. The Lord is aware of the future trials that His disciples will have to endure, so He says “these things” to keep them from “stumbling.”

The cause of Jesus’ warning is meant to prepare His disciples for what is to come, namely, the immanence of not only their persecution but death. He warns them that they will be treated poorly by their fellow Jews since they will be treated as “outcasts” by their brethren. They will be prohibited from entering the “synagogue,” the house of worship outside of Jerusalem in ancient Judaism. Here, Jesus is informing His disciples about a period of time in the future (“an hour is coming”) when His disciples (“you”) will be more than persecuted but killed. Those who “kill” them will believe that they are doing some righteous act with the right intentions, namely, “for the service of God.”

The individuals that Jesus is speaking about are His kinsmen, specifically, the Jewish people. The Jews will slaughter not only Christ but His followers because they believe they are doing a “service” to God. D.A. Carson summarizes this verse in the following way:[1]

(1) As serious as the charge is, the Evangelist, not to say Jesus himself, can be credited with assigning honest, religious motives to the persecutors. That does not make what they did right, or the suffering they inflicted less painful; it does avoid the vengeful denunciation of another’s motives. John is content to record that these people thought they were offering a service to God. Certainly that is how Paul analysed his own pre-Christian commitment to persecute the church.

(2) On the other hand, such religious motives do not ameliorate the problem, but make it worse. Whether in the first century or in the twentieth, Christians have often discovered that the most dangerous oppression comes not from careless pagans but from zealous adherents to religious faith, and from other ideologues. A sermon was preached when Cranmer was burned at the stake. Christians have faced severe persecution performed in the name of Yahweh, in the name of Allah, in the name of Marx—and in the name of Jesus.

(3) In any case, John treats the persecution with intense irony. These religious persecutors think they are offering a service (latreia, ‘worship’, ‘spiritual service’) to God. They are profoundly deluded—yet at the same time the death of Christians by persecution truly is an offering to God. Cf. the irony of 11:49–52, where the opposition spoke better than it knew.

The primary cause of Christian persecution is due to an imprecise conception of God. Jesus is saying that they do not truly know God because they do not understand the identity of Jesus because they do not grasp the Father-Son relationship— “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me” (John 16:3). Carson was right when he said, “To know the Son truly as the revelation of God is to know God (14:7), and to have such knowledge is to have eternal life (17:3). Not to know God is to spawn hostility toward those who do (15:18–21).”[2]

In verse 4, Jesus informs His disciples of this because He knows that His hour has arrived as the cross draws near. He waited for the proper time to reveal these things to His disciples because He was “with” them. However, His time on earth is limited, and so He chose to say these things to them now, even though He knew these things before He called them to follow Him.[3] Jesus is hinting at His departure while unveiling His continual protection of His disciples throughout His ministry. The “hour” that Jesus is speaking incorporates not only the hour of His death but also the hour of His disciples’ persecution. Again, Jesus says these things to warn them or give them a heads up on what they may endure in Christ’s name. Jesus’ words may appear to be very ironic in light of the conclusion of the Gospel of John. As Carson notes, “What appears to be their hour has been introduced by Jesus’ hour, but in his case, he seems to be suffering defeat in the very moment when he is winning the greatest of all victories, while at their hour they seem to be winning when they are suffering the greatest of all defeats.”[4]

ENDNOTES

[1] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, PNTC (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 531.

[2] Carson, The Gospel according to John, 532.

[3] The implication of the phrase, “these things I did not say to you at the beginning,” suggests that He could have said these things “at the beginning” but chose not to say anything until now.

[4] Carson, The Gospel according to John, 532.