Be At Peace

“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:31-33

Notes

Imagine the apostle John, years after Jesus had been resurrected, reflecting back on the words Jesus spoke as his death approached. Even though Jesus had told his disciples what was coming, there was so much they didn’t understand at the time.

John describes the last hours he and the disciples spent with Jesus before his death in John 13-17. He records these memories for us with the same knowledge we read it with: Jesus would be betrayed and die but would come back to life. In these few chapters, we learn what was etched into John’s memory as the final words of Jesus before this crucial historical event. One theme that stands out is Jesus’ promise of peace to his followers, even as he was facing immense suffering beyond what most of us can even imagine. We know, based on the prayers and pleas of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, that what he was facing was not without much pain and sorrow for him. He was fully human and experienced the suffering with the same intensity any of us would if we were beaten, pierced, and hung on a cross to die. Yet he chose a peaceful resolve to face the torture and death before him in order to achieve the greater joy of our salvation (Heb. 12:2).

The peace Jesus promised his disciples and that he himself displayed is not an exemption from suffering. Rather, both times he promises his disciples peace in his final conversations with them before his death, the context is very clearly peace during times of suffering (Jn 14:27; 16:33).

How can Jesus make such a radical promise of peace in suffering? He personally experienced affliction, so it wasn’t out of ignorance. The peace Jesus promised his disciples and that he promised us is peace that comes from him. It is not worldly peace and it is not dependent on anything within this world. In John 14:27, he says, “My peace I give to you.” In John 16:33, he says, “In me, you may have peace.” In the world, we will have trouble, but Jesus has conquered the world, and in his victory, he has won the peace that he now gives to us even in the trouble we face in this world.

Jesus says the reason he has told them all the things he did, as recorded by John in chapters 13-16, is so that in him they will have peace. What are “these things” that Jesus is referring to that he has told them? He has told them some hard truths about what was about to happen. He is preparing them that one of them is going to betray him, and he is going to be put to death. He says that the world will hate them just as it has hated him. He has told them that they are all going to scatter and run for their own safety, leaving him all alone to face beating, ridicule, and death. He tells them they will deny they even know him. He prepares them for the deep sorrow they are about to experience at his death.

Whew! Those are some really hard things! But he also promises them some incredible blessings. He promises that even though he will leave them, he will come back for them. In fact, he says, he is preparing a place for them. He promises that they will do even greater work than he has done. He says he is sending them the Holy Spirit who will teach them, encourage them, and whose power will be manifested in them. He tells them if they abide in him, they will bear much fruit and love one another with the same love he has shown them in dying for them. He tells them that the rulers of this world have no power over him and he will conquer this world. He promises that their sorrow will turn to joy, and in him, their joy will be made complete. And he promises them that in the face of trouble and suffering in this world, he will give them his peace. It is because of this peace that he promises them that he can also tell them not to let their hearts be distressed and to take courage.

I think of John years after Jesus had died, resurrected, and then ascended to heaven, thinking back to the words of Jesus in these last moments with the disciples before he was arrested. I picture him smiling as he pens the words of his savior and friend, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world” (John 16:33).

John would have remembered many times he or his friends were persecuted, put in jail, or even killed because of proclaiming the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. As he thought of all the hard things, I imagined him remembering the peace that Jesus gave them during their suffering. It was this peace that gave him and his friends the courage to remain faithful to Jesus in the face of persecution and death. This is the same peace the apostle Paul describes as surpassing all understanding and guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7).

You and I may not face persecution for our faith in the same way the disciples did, but we do know what it is like to live in a world full of trouble and suffering. Whether it is the loss of a child, the unfaithfulness of a spouse, or the pain of a mental or physical illness, we have all experienced grief and sorrow in this life. Perhaps, like me, you have wondered how a loving God could allow such horrible things to happen. I don’t think the promise of peace means we don’t feel anguish or anger. We experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding when we have hope and peace and joy in who Jesus is, what he has done for us and the promise of his return to make all things right.

Jesus has overcome the world, and in him, we overcome as well. Jesus is coming back and he is preparing a place for us where there will be no more tears or pain or grief. This peace doesn’t negate the hard things we go through, but it is available to us even during times of deep suffering when we fix our hearts and minds on him. We take courage because Jesus has overcome the world, and he gives us his peace based on who he is, not our present circumstances.

By Vanessa Vannoy