If they hate you, remember they hated me first!

John 15:26-16:4

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them.

Food for thought!

Jesus knows life. Jesus knows man. Today, he is warning us of danger, not of animals, not of catastrophes, of man. It is true, the greatest enemy of man is man, and Jesus knew and knows it. That is why he told us: "They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God."

Jesus is talking out of experience. He was hated by men, slandered by men, tortured by men, beaten by men, crucified by men and killed by men. What Jesus is telling us today, is what happened to him. They expelled him from the synagogue, and was later killed by the religious people of the day. Things have not changed much.

Jesus warned us. "I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them." When the hour comes, many times, if not always, we don't remember Jesus' warning; we don't remember that we have to suffer just Jesus said.

Next time when the people you are trying to help turn against you, remember Jesus' warning. Or when someone turn against you for doing or being good, remember Jesus' words. Or when someone hates you out of jealousy, remember Jesus' warning. Or when people hate you for being contrary to their expectations, remember Jesus' warning.

Many of the people who give us hard time are not pagans but fellow Christians; those who worship with us. As it was with Jesus so it will be with us. Jesus was killed by fellow Jews, fellow believers. Even though the people who give us hard times do think that they are offering service to God, the truth is that they have not known the Father, nor Jesus."