Many Christians acknowledge that Jesus is God, but wrestle with the question, if Jesus was God, why didn’t He know when He was going to return? If Jesus really was God in the flesh and all-knowing, 1 John 3:20, then surely, He would have known when He was going to return! There are two views when it comes to answering this question.
1. Jesus didn’t know the hour because of His humanity.
It shouldn’t surprise us that the angels in heaven don’t know when Christ is to return because they are not all-knowing. They are created beings, Colossians 1:16, but not all-knowing. Remember, these created beings didn’t even understand the Gospel, 1 Peter 1:3-12, never mind knowing the date when Christ will return.
Many people make the mistake of forgetting that Jesus was also human. Throughout His life, we see glimpses of both natures. Because He was human, He got thirsty, John 19:28, but because He was God’s Son, He could turn water into wine, John 2:1-13.
Because He was human, He got hungry, Mark 11:12, but because He was God’s Son, He could feed five thousand hungry people, Mark 6:30-44. Because He was human, He became weary, John 4:6, but because He was God’s Son, He was raised from the dead, Matthew 28:1-15.
Jesus was fully God but also fully man, John 1:1-3 / John 1:14. When He came to earth as man, He voluntarily chose to restrict some of His divine attributes, Philippians 2:6-8.
Paul tells us that Jesus ‘emptied Himself and humbled Himself.’ He emptied Himself so that He could serve, ‘He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.’
When the Bible says, ‘that he emptied himself’, it doesn’t mean He became less than God; when He was on earth, it means He became more than God. He was God, but now He was also a man. He didn’t get rid of deity; He emptied deity into humanity. He could never stop being God because God is His nature.
But do you know what He did? He relinquished His glory; He concealed it in human flesh. Now and then, we get a glimpse of it. He was up on a mountain one time, with three disciples, and He was transfigured, and they saw his glory, Mark 9:2-3.
Paul saw it on the Damascus road, Acts 9:3, and John saw it in his vision, Revelation 1:12-16. And someday we’re going to see the bright, brilliant glory of Jesus. But when He was on earth as a man, He concealed that glory.
In other words, Jesus didn’t manifest His divine attributes unless the Father told Him to do so, John 4:34 / John 5:30 / John 6:38. He displayed His all-knowingness on many occasions, John 2:25 / John 3:13, but He voluntarily restricted that all-knowingness to only those things which God wanted Him to know during Jesus’ earthly life as a man, John 15:15.
This is the reason why Jesus said, only the Father knew about the date and time when Jesus would return, Matthew 24:36 / Mark 13:32. We must also remember that He voluntarily ‘humbled Himself’, Philippians 2:8. In other words, Jesus lived a life which was in complete submission to the Father, so He set us the supreme example of what sacrifice is all about.
When we read of Jesus doing things that only God can do and knowing things that only God can know, it’s because, at those moments, the Father was telling Him what to say and showing Him what to do.
He submitted to the Father but still remained One with the Father, Matthew 26:39 / Matthew 26:42 / John 5:30 / John 6:38 / John 8:28-29 / John 10:30 / John 12:49 / John 14:28 / John 14:31.
Jesus was indeed God in the flesh, but He voluntarily chose to restrict some of His divine attributes, Philippians 2:6-8, which include His all-knowingness, while He was a man.
When He declared that only the Father knew the time of His coming to His disciples, Matthew 24:36 / Mark 13:32, He didn’t know when that time was because the Father hadn’t revealed that to Him. However, after He was resurrected, He resumed His full divine status, which includes His all-knowingness, Matthew 28:18 / Acts 1:7.
Jesus didn’t know at the time He spoke to His apostles when He was going to return, but now that He has been exalted in heaven, Philippians 2:9-11, He will certainly know, He knows when He will return, Titus 2:13.
2. Jesus did know the hour.
Many people have come to the conclusion that Jesus is speaking literally in these verses, but what if He isn’t? What if He’s speaking metaphorically? The key to understanding Jesus’s words is found in the word ‘know’.
Although the word ‘know’ can mean knowledge, as in knowing something, Jesus uses the word in a different way, with a different meaning. The word ‘know’ Jesus uses is the Greek word ‘oiden’, which means to declare or to make known. Look at Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:2.
We know that Paul didn’t literally mean he forgot everything and only had knowledge of Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Paul is referring to the only thing that he taught and proclaimed among them.
The word ‘know’ which Paul uses here is the same word which we find Jesus using in Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32, which carries with it the idea of knowing and remembering.
But Paul is using it in a figurative sense to proclaim in knowing one thing, and so it’s possible that Jesus could be using the word in the same way. In that He didn’t know the hour in a literal sense. In other words, the Father will be the one who will proclaim when the ‘hour’ will be. In other words, no one has the authority to do this but the Father.
Notice the use of the word ‘know’ in Matthew 11:27. Obviously, Jesus isn’t being literal because many ‘know’ the Son, but they do not share in the intimate way the Father and the Son know each other.
Nor is He excluding the Holy Spirit; this is just an expression in saying that the Father and the Son have an intimate relationship. In other words, Jesus is saying no one knows my Father as I do.
Remember, Jesus has the power and wisdom of God, 1 Corinthians 1:24 / Acts 1:24 / Colossians 2:9, which tells us that Jesus was omniscient. And so when we read other passages like Mark 2:6-8, we read that Jesus had the ability to read hearts.
In John 2:24-25 / John 16:29-30 / John 18:4, we are told that Jesus indeed does ‘know’ all things. The reason we know these are not simply expressions is because of what the disciples said to Jesus in John 16:29-32.
The disciples came to understand that Jesus was speaking plainly, not figuratively, and they came to the conclusion that He knew all things. Notice also that Jesus predicts their future, John 16:32, implying that He does know all things.
Jesus knew the Samaritan woman’s past concerning her many husbands, John 4:17-18. He knew all about Nathaniel before they met, John 1:47-48. He knew Judas would betray him, John 6:64, and He knew His disciples’ secret thoughts, Luke 9:47.
And so when Jesus says He doesn’t ‘know’ the hour, He is using figurative language, which is clearly evident in the context of Mark 13:33-37. When we read Mark 13:33-37, notice He shares a parable about a master who went away and his servants didn’t know when he would return, Mark 13:35.
Everyone knows that the Master in the parable is a reference to Jesus and the servants are His followers. His servants don’t know when their master will return, but the question is, does the Master know when He will return? Of course, he does, hence why the servants are to keep busy and keep watching, Mark 13:37.
Jesus is saying it’s not for any humans or any angels or the Son to make known the hour; the Father makes it known, Matthew 24:36 / Mark 13:32. Jesus is aware of the hour, but only the Father will declare the hour.
Jesus is not saying that he doesn’t have cognitive knowledge of the hour, but it’s not for Him to make it known to them; that is for the Father alone. This fits in with Jesus’ answer to His disciples concerning the restoration of Israel, Acts 1:6.
For many years, I used to teach that Jesus didn’t know the hour because He suppressed His all-knowingness while He was a human. Although the first view is still good, I now, however, after digging a little deeper, believe that the second view is a stronger argument, as it doesn’t contradict other Scriptures where Jesus clearly knows all things.
Jesus is comparing His coming with a Jewish wedding, in accordance with tradition. It’s the father who announces the day of the wedding; it’s not the groom or the bride.
The groom and the bride know, but they are not the ones who declare it, Matthew 22:1-14 / John 14:1-3. The point is that Jesus isn’t speaking about ignorance; He’s speaking about declaration.