These things have I spoken to you things have I spoken to you that you may not be scandalized.
ταυτα λελαληκα υμιν ινα μη σκανδαλισθητε
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
I have told you this, He says, before it comes to pass, so that you may not be scandalized later when you see that many do not believe your preaching and that you yourselves are subjected to calamities. Rather, reasoning from the fact that I told you this before it came to pass, you may also receive My consolation with faith. You will know that I will not deceive you in this matter, just as I did not lie in the prediction of calamities.
Having set forth with complete clarity the madness of the Jews to His disciples, the Savior perhaps intended to add something further to these words. He meant to say that the wretched men would reach such stubbornness, close their hearing so completely, and come, miserable as they were, to such hatred of God. They would subject the words of truth to such contempt that even if two witnesses of His glory appeared, they would still refuse to receive it. Yet the law clearly proclaims that one must believe and undoubtedly accept everything attested by the voice of two or three witnesses (Deut 19:15). But He profitably does not say this now. He would have implanted no small despondency in them and, by crushing His disciples with despair, opened unhindered access in them for cowardice.
It was very natural for them to reason within themselves in this way. If the Jewish people will obey no one at all, and will count the Paraclete Himself as nothing, even though He strikes them with miracles beyond speech, yet even after this they will still hate Christ, and with Him the Father, then what need is there to expend labor in vain? Why should they not be freed from their works and prefer silence before those disobedient to the teaching? Since He surely knew that the disciples would think this, He skillfully passes over what was too grievous to state. It could have encouraged cowardice and laziness in the work of teaching. Instead, He profitably directs the force of His word to prepare and courageously strengthen them beforehand for what was to happen to them, or what awaited them from those people. For what comes unexpectedly and suddenly can disturb even a very firm soul. But what is anticipated beforehand is easier when it arrives. It is not borne as heavily, since it has already been foreseen and tested beforehand by hope of the suffering certainly to come. I think Christ wishes to indicate something of this kind. If I have already performed such miracles, He says, and this in your presence as witnesses, and the Paraclete also will work miracles among you, while the boldness of Jewish madness does not weaken. But they remain in the same disposition, indeed in an even worse one, then “do not be scandalized” when you yourselves find yourselves in the same condition. Always remember My words: “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Mt 10:24).
In the words preceding this chapter of the Gospel, the Lord encouraged His disciples by His own example, so that they could endure hatred from their enemies. Thus He prepared them to be more steadfast by imitating Him. Moreover, He promised them that the Holy Spirit would come and bear witness of Him. He also promised that they themselves would bear witness of Him, because, of course, the Holy Spirit would be acting in them. Indeed, He said to them: "He will bear witness of Me, and you also will bear witness" (Jn 15:26-27). That is: because He will bear witness, you also will bear witness. He will bear witness in your hearts, and you by your voices. He will inspire, and you will speak.
Thus the saying of the psalm would be fulfilled: "Their sound has gone out through all the earth" (Ps 18:5). Indeed, it would not have been enough to encourage them by His example, unless He had also filled them with His Spirit. At last the Apostle Peter had already heard His words: "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (Jn 15:20). He had already seen fulfilled in Him what he was to imitate, if example alone had been enough: the patience of his Lord. Yet he did not stand firm, but denied Him. Clearly he was unable to endure what he saw the Lord endure. But when he was endowed with the Holy Spirit, he began to preach Him whom he had denied. He was not afraid to proclaim openly the One whom before he had feared to confess. By the example he had already been instructed to do what he had learned. Yet he had not yet been given the strength to do what he had learned. He had been taught to be steadfast, but he had not been strengthened so as not to fall. After this latter gift was given through the Holy Spirit, he preached the Lord even to death. At first he had denied Him from fear of death. Therefore, in the next chapter, which we must discuss with you, the Lord said: "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble." For it is sung in the psalm: "Great peace have those who love Thy law, and nothing causes them to stumble" (cf. Ps 118:165). Therefore, after promising the Holy Spirit, by whose action in them they would bear witness of Him, He rightly added: "These things I have spoken to you. That you should not be made to stumble." For when "the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom 5:5), great peace arises in those who love God's law, so that nothing causes them to stumble.
So that you may not be scandalized when you see evil men persecute and insult you. I have told you this so that you may not lose heart, but may act courageously, knowing that the Holy Spirit works together with you.
No one should wonder that we are subjected to constant persecutions and ever-increasing sorrows. The Lord had already said beforehand that all this would take place in the last times. By His teaching and support He prepared us for our warfare. Peter, His apostle, also taught that persecutions occur in order to test us. We must take as our example the righteous who came before us and entered into the love of God through death and sufferings. He wrote in his epistle: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be glad. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests upon you" (1 Pet 4:12-14). Truly, they blaspheme the name of Christ, but we glorify it.
Jesus Christ continues His prediction to the disciples of the afflictions awaiting them in the future from the world for the name of Christ. He indicates precisely what these afflictions will be and how great the blindness of the persecutors will become. By expelling Christ's followers from the synagogues (9:22) and killing them as godless, the persecutors will think that they are offering God a pleasing sacrifice (Acts 26:9). Such is the consequence of the lack of true knowledge of God. But these afflictions are foretold now to the apostles so that, when they come, they may not lose faith in Jesus Christ. Earlier, at the beginning of His association with the apostles, the Lord did not speak to them about this so directly, clearly, and definitely.
While Jesus Christ was with the disciples, He could have hindered the growth and strengthening of their faith in Him by predictions of afflictions. But now, when He is going to the Father, that very silence could have had dangerous consequences for their faith.
After this brief digression, Jesus again begins to speak of the trials awaiting the apostles. For a Jew, excommunication from Jewish society was the greatest punishment. Among other things, it was expressed in expulsion from the synagogues. Foreseeing the malicious persecution of the apostles, and of Christians generally, by Jews who by that time had settled in every country of the world, Jesus said: "They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God." They will act so because they have known neither the Father nor Me.
“These things I have spoken to you”: in the connection of the discourse, “these things” refers to everything said above about the world’s hatred of them and of Him, and about the help promised them from above. “That you may not be scandalized” (cf. Mt 5:29; Mt 13:21): that your faith may not be shaken, and that you may stand more firmly against the malice and hatred of the world. This malice and hatred will be expressed in such hostile actions toward the Apostles that they could shake an unsteady faith. In view of this struggle awaiting them, the Lord covers His disciples as if with armor. To what He has said about the world’s hatred of the Apostles, the Lord adds still more definite predictions about the world’s hostile actions toward them. These are excommunication from the synagogues and their violent death.
“These things I have spoken to you”: this refers to the prediction of the world’s hatred and to the promise of the Comforting Spirit (Jn 15:18-27). Both things had to be said as a warning to the weak disciples against scandal: “that you may not be scandalized.” The scandal for the Apostles consisted in the danger of losing faith in Jesus Christ (Mt 13:21; Mt 24:9-10). In their condition at that time, they did not think that they would have to meet the strong malice of the world. They expected something quite different from the Messiah. They expected a visible kingdom, power, glory, and rest. Since the more unexpected a calamity is, the more strongly it strikes and the more easily it places the soul near sin, the faith of the weak disciples could have been greatly shaken.
This would have happened when they met the world’s unexpected hatred, if the Lord had not shown them beforehand what awaited them from the world. Do we not see even now that those who expect from Christianity only joys and rest, and who love Christ only for His consolations, lose heart when they meet sorrows (Lk 8:13)?
One of the greatest moral dangers for the apostles lay in the doubt that could seize their souls. They would see that the assemblies of the Old Testament Church would expel them as harmful or contemptible men. They would also see that, almost everywhere, nearly everyone would seek their lives, thinking that he was doing a work pleasing to God. This undeserved contempt, and this nearly universal opinion that they were blasphemers and defiled by crimes, as Tacitus and Suetonius show, had to be foretold to these chosen moral sufferers. They had given their souls to God. It was foretold so that they would not waver or stumble. They were to believe firmly and remember that the truth-bearers were not the crowds persecuting them, but they themselves, chosen by God.
They were also to remember that this truth would conquer the world. How great the moral martyrdom of Christians was in the first two centuries after Christ we see from the Acts of the Apostles, from Church history, and from Roman writers. Here we are not speaking of the physical torments to which Christians were subjected. We are speaking of such hatred as the oath of many Jews not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul (Acts 23:14). We are also speaking of the contempt with which serious writers such as Tacitus and Suetonius branded Christians. Tacitus, Annals XV, 44; Suetonius, Nero Claudius, section 16. They expressed the view of their contemporaries. They even thought that the monster Nero acted justly when he sought to destroy the "hated sect" of Christians, upon whom he blamed the fire of Rome. In His last discourse the Lord revealed with complete clarity to His disciples the picture of their future moral sufferings. He warned them that these sufferings would be a stumbling block for them. Yet He also showed that they would overcome this temptation by remaining united with Him. Chrysostom asks why He told them this now, and not later, when they had already been counted worthy of the Spirit. He answers: so that we may know that their souls were great and honorable souls. If they had heard these words after being counted worthy to receive the Spirit and had remained steadfast, we would surely have had to ascribe their strength above all to the strengthening grace of the Holy Spirit. But they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. When they heard the Lord's words, they were struck dumb with grief (vv. 5-6). Yet despite all the sorrow that overcame them, they did not fall away from the Lord. Therefore their faithfulness to the departing Christ must be credited to them. "This is entirely the fruit of their soul," Chrysostom adds, "and a clear proof of the love for Christ that flowed from their own heart."
Passages read together with this verse.
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THEOSIS