John 16:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They hastened to crown the most wise Moses with the highest honors, though he was a minister of the law given through angels (cf. Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2). Yet they did not hesitate to clothe our Lord Jesus Christ with the lowest dishonors. He revealed the ineffable will of the Father and spoke plainly: "I do nothing of Myself, but the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak" (Jn 8:28; 12:49). God the Father worked miracles together with Him. Through a perceptible voice from heaven He bore witness, clearly crying out and saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt 3:17). Thus there is no doubt that anyone who resolves to attack the preachers of the divine word cruelly will be found ignorant of the whole holy and consubstantial Trinity together. For he does not know the Father who, in his own imagination, sets the Logos who has appeared from Him outside the glory due to Him. Indeed, among those able to understand the nature of things most wisely, must it not be accepted without any doubt that, since He is consubstantial with the Father, He will certainly speak in agreement with the Father's will? And since He has Him as sharer of His glory, He will surely also have Him sharing grief over everything by which anyone attacks Him, the Son. Thus in these words our Lord Jesus Christ defends Himself and, as it were, accuses the audacities of the Jews. He thereby lays a heavy and destructive sentence upon those who dishonor Him by their cruelty toward the holy apostles themselves. For the sin should not be turned against them in the proper sense, but directed against Him who lays upon them the ministry of the divine apostleship. So He also once said to holy Samuel concerning the sons of Israel: "They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me" (1 Sam 8:7). Therefore it proves to be a very dangerous thing to refuse to give the saints the honor due to them. For sin against them must extend also to Him who sent them.

But since they refused, and did not allow Christ within, nothing remained for them but to expel those who had not abandoned Christ. In general, it does not seem to me that Jesus meant anything other than this. They were to understand and rejoice that in this way they could call many to Christ. This would happen when they were persecuted from the assemblies of the Jews. It would become clear that expelling them was not enough. The Jews would not allow them to live, fearing that all would be converted by their preaching in the name of Christ. Then they would cease to worship Judaism, as though the Jews themselves preached the very truth of God. Thus we should understand what was said concerning the Jews: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' For the witnesses, that is, the martyrs of Christ, were also put to death by pagans. Yet the pagans did not think that in doing this they served God, but their false gods. Every Jew, however, who killed the preachers of Christ thought that he served God. He believed that one who turned to Christ departed from the God of Israel. Then He plainly says what they will suffer: 'They will put you out of the synagogues' (Jn 16:2). But what harm was there for the apostles in being expelled from the synagogues of the Jews? It was as though they themselves were not intending to separate from them, even if no one expelled them. Certainly He wished to make known beforehand that the Jews would not receive Christ, from Whom His disciples would not separate. Thus those who cannot exist without Him would be expelled together with Him by those who did not wish to be with Him. In fact, there was no other people of God except that which came from the seed of Abraham. If they had known and received Christ, they would have remained living branches on the olive tree (cf. Rom 11:17). Then it would not have happened that the churches of Christ were one thing and the synagogues of the Jews another. They would certainly have been one whole, if the Jews had wished to be in Him. But since they did not wish this, what else remained? Those remaining outside Christ expelled from the synagogues those who had not abandoned Christ. Certainly, after receiving the Holy Spirit, they became His witnesses. Yet they were not like those of whom it is said: 'Many even of the rulers believed in Him.' But because of fear of the Jews, lest they be put out of the synagogue, they did not dare to confess Him. They 'loved the praise of men more than the praise of God' (cf. Jn 12:42-43). They believed in Him, but not as He wished them to believe when He said: 'How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?' (Jn 5:44). When the disciples believed in Him in this way, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, with the gift of God's grace. They ceased to belong to those who, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, did not submit to the righteousness of God (cf. Rom 10:3). Nor did they belong to those of whom it is said: 'They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God' (Jn 12:42). This agrees with the prophecy that seems to have been fulfilled in them: 'O Lord, they shall walk in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name they shall rejoice all the day. In Thy righteousness they shall be exalted, for Thou art the glory of their strength' (cf. Ps 88:16-18). Deservedly it was said to them: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' Those who have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, expel them. Because they are ignorant of God's righteousness and seek to establish their own (Rom 10:2-3), they expel those who are exalted not in their own righteousness, but in God's. These are not ashamed when men expel them, because the glory of their strength is He Himself. Finally, after saying this to them, He added: 'But the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me' (cf. Jn 16:2-3). That is, they have known neither God, nor the Son of Him Whom they will think they serve by killing you. The Lord joined these words to the previous ones as though He were consoling His disciples, who would be expelled from the synagogues of the Jews. For, foretelling what evil they would have to endure for their witness to Him, He said: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' Yet He did not say: 'And the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' What did He say? 'But the hour is coming.' He said this as though foretelling something good after such evil. What did He mean by saying: 'They will put you out of the synagogues, but the hour is coming'? It was as though He intended to say to them: 'They will indeed separate you, but I will gather you.' Or: 'They will indeed separate you, but the hour of your joy is coming.' What role is played here by the phrase He uttered, 'But the hour is coming'? It seems to promise them consolation after trials. Yet He might seem rather to have said, in continuation, 'And the hour is coming.' That would have continued the speech with the conjunction 'and,' et, not opposed it with the adversative 'but,' sed. But He did not say, 'and it is coming,' although He foretold that trial would follow trial, not consolation after trial. Or perhaps their separation from the synagogue would have disturbed them so greatly that they would have preferred to die rather than remain in this life outside the assemblies of the Jews. Those who sought God's glory and not men's could not have been disturbed for this reason. What then does this mean: 'They will put you out of the synagogues, but the hour is coming'? It would seem that He should rather have said: 'And the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' In any case, He did not say: 'But the hour is coming when they will kill you,' as though hinting that death would be their consolation in this separation. Rather, He said: 'But the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.' It does not seem to me at all that He wished to indicate anything else. They were to understand and rejoice at how many disciples they would gain for Christ after they were expelled from the assemblies of the Jews. The Jews would not be content with expelling them. Nor would they allow them to live, because by their preaching they were converting all to the name of Christ. They would turn men away from the worship of Judaism, so that they would not seek divine truth in it. We must understand that this was said about the Jews, concerning whom He said: 'They will put you out of the synagogues.' For if the witnesses, that is, the martyrs of Christ, were killed by pagans, still one could not think that the pagans served God in doing this. They served their false gods. But every Jew who killed a preacher of Christ thought that by this he served God. He believed that all who turned to Christ had abandoned the God of Israel. They were moved by the same reasoning when they thought to kill Christ. Indeed, their own words on this matter are written: 'Do you see that the whole world has gone after Him? If we let Him live, the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation' (cf. Jn 12:19; 11:48). It is also written what Caiaphas said: 'It is better for us that one man should die for the people, than that the whole nation should perish' (Jn 11:50). Thus, in those words He strengthened His disciples by His own example. He said to them: 'If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you' (Jn 15:20). Therefore, just as those Jews thought that by killing Him they served God, so they would think the same when killing them also. This, then, is the meaning contained in the Lord's words: 'They will put you out of the synagogues. But do not fear solitude, because, separated from their assembly, you will gather so many in My name that those Jews will fear. They will fear that the temple which belonged to them, and all the mysteries of the old Law, will be abandoned. They will kill you, and by shedding your blood they will think that they serve God.' See, this is what the Apostle said about them: 'They have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge' (Rom 10:2). They think that by killing the servants of God they serve God. O terrifying error! Must you kill one pleasing to God in order to please God? Must you destroy the living temple of God by murder, so that the stone temple of God may be preserved? O blindness worthy of curse! But this happened in Israel in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in (cf. Rom 11:25). I say that it happened in part, not in the whole. For not all the branches, but only some, were broken off, that the wild olive might be grafted in (cf. Rom 11:17). When the disciples of Christ were filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in the tongues of all nations. Through them many divine miracles were accomplished, and divine sayings spread abroad. Christ, even after being killed, proved so beloved that His disciples, expelled from the assemblies of the Jews, gathered a great multitude from among the Jews themselves. They feared no solitude.

In His death and in the Ascension to heaven that followed, His holiness was fully revealed. Finally, He will prove to the world that its prince is judged, deprived of power, and cast down from his throne. In place of his kingdom, the Kingdom of God will be established. In this lies the whole essence of Christianity: awareness of sin, recognition of the Lord Christ as Redeemer from sin, and triumph over the enemy, the source of all evil.

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.