29 His disciples said, “Now you’re speaking openly, and no longer using difficult sayings. 30 Now we know that you know everything, and there’s no need for anyone to question you. For this reason we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered, “So you believe now? 32 Take note that a time is coming, indeed has come, when you will be scattered each to his own place and I will be left alone. But I won’t be alone, because my Father is with me. 33 I have told you these things so you will have peace in me. In this world you will have hardships, but take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:29-33 (my translation)
In the warm up to this passage Jesus tells his disciples that a time is coming when he will no longer speak in “dark/obscure sayings,” but will speak clearly. Jesus states this as a future state, but the disciples quickly assume that they’ve made it, that everything is now clear. One of the characteristics that Jesus points forward to is this: They will be able to approach the Father on their own. Jesus doesn’t have to pray for them. They can pray, and the Father will listen.
We often read the Bible as those looking down at the characters and judging them. We often speak negatively about the disciples. They are not ideal followers. We discuss why Jesus would have chosen such inauspicious looking people to take his message to the world.
But if we look honestly around the room when we discuss such things, or look in the mirror, we should ask why Jesus would choose such inauspicious looking and sounding people as we are to take his message now. Because in every room where followers of Jesus are having fellowship, studying, or learning, there is a group of people whom God has chosen to carry the Divine message to the world. All the weaknesses of those original disciples and more are manifest.
Yet we sometimes think, and even say, “We’ve got it.” We make the claim to such complete understanding that we don’t need to learn from anyone else. God is lucky to have such astute and able ambassadors to take the message out to the world.
All of which collapses, all too commonly, on the first contact. We discover, suddenly, that we very definitely have not got it!
Jesus knows this. Jesus is totally unsurprised. I imagine him looking at those disciples much as he looks at us. They think they’re ready, but I know they’re not. They’re in the world and they’re going to have tribulations, trials, troubles, hardships. They’re going to want to quit. They’re going to quit.
But Jesus knows the answer to this as well. He’s not surprised that they think they understand, but he knows that there is something coming that will show that they don’t understand at all.
Here’s a key: When you think you’ve totally got it, you don’t.
The very fact that you think you have everything under control is a danger sign. I don’t care how good you are at what you do, and I am certain many of my readers are much better at navigating life in this world than I am, you will have a moment, or many moments, when you know you didn’t quite have it all.
The disciples are prepared to go with Jesus the divine, Jesus the all-knowing, Jesus the conqueror, Jesus the one who will take care of everything. They are not prepared to go with Jesus the arrested, Jesus the accused, Jesus the tortured, Jesus the crucified. They really haven’t gotten the idea that any such things can happen.
They’re seeing things “in the world,” from a worldly perspective. The solution to their problems come in worldly form. Jesus knows that with that vision, that limited, world-bound vision, they will not be able to face what’s coming. There will be tribulation and they will be scattered.
“You will be scattered,” Jesus tells them, “and I will be alone.”
Terror! Unimaginable things coming and Jesus will be alone!
But no, that’s not how it is. Jesus has an answer. He will not be alone. Why? Because the Father will be with him. The Father he has just said loves these very disciples and will hear their prayers. The Father who is the ruler of the universe and knows everything.
Jesus turns the “aloneness” back on the disciples. They will scatter and leave him alone. But where do they go? “Each to his own place.” The disciples will scatter and abandon Jesus, leaving him alone. But Jesus will not be alone, because the Father is with him. But the scattered disciples will each be alone.
Isn’t it odd that Jesus tells the disciples that they will fail, and then tells them he said that so that they can have peace? How does prediction of failure point the way to peace?
And here’s the core of the passage. “I have told you these things so that you will have peace in me.” Jesus is pointing the way to peace. It comes from two concepts: 1) In the world you have trouble, 2) In me you have peace.
Our problem as Christians is that we live and think and solve (or not) problems in the world. Now there’s a sense, a very important sense in which we are in the world. A bit later (John 17:14-16), Jesus prays not that God would take his disciples out of the world, but that God would keep them from the evil one. This is where we get the saying that we are to be “in the world but not of the world.”
That “in Christ” (“in me” in our passage, spoken by Jesus), is the key to the peace. Christ has overcome the world, and our task is to be “in Christ.” More accurately, our task is to put our faith in Christ and Christ will see to keeping us in him.
This applies to all aspects of life. Whether I’m worrying about arranging an intractable schedule, paying bills, trying to work through issues of health, my peace is in Christ. That means knowing that I serve and am held by the one who has conquered the world.
But it also applies to news of the world. I am here living that life in Christ. What is it that is controlling my thinking and my actions? Is it fear? Is it a resort to the weapons and methods of the world? I am reminded that while I am still in the world, my most important location and orientation is in Christ. That is where peace comes from. That is the only peace.
I think one of the most important things we can learn from this passage is that it was spoken by Jesus with the knowledge that the disciples were going to think they got it, and that they were very definitely wrong. They were going to fail. Things were going to get very dark for them.
The message of peace is not for the powerful, the perfect, those who are going to get everything right. It’s for the people who will realize that failure has come to them, but that God’s got it. They are in Christ. They can have peace with that realization.
It may take some time as it did with the disciples. They did scatter. They did not have peace. Jesus died and was buried. Things were dark. They were alone.
But then came that moment. He is risen! We are not alone. He is alive. We have peace in the only way we can.
In Christ!
