March 19, 2021
John 16:29-33, “His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
It’s good for us to notice here just how little the disciples understood regarding the magnitude of who Jesus is. They say here, “we believe that you came from God.” But many prophets came “from God” in the history of Israel. They would have believed that all of the prophets were sent specifically from God, and even spoke the very words of God as his mouthpiece, which is all true. But Jesus is something far beyond that, and that is what they do not yet grasp. Their lack of understanding will be evidenced by the fact that they will abandon him at his hour of greatest need. The first large sign will be at the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is in agony. The disciples with him, Peter, James, and John are all asleep when Jesus needed their comfort. Then Peter will outwardly deny even knowing Jesus three times. At his trial, crucifixion, and after his death, they will be nowhere to be found. It’s interesting that he references that they will go each ‘to his own home,’ because he will be so far away from home. Jesus has always been an exile, separated from his rightful place at the right hand of God. While they go to their comfortable homes, Jesus will be hanging on a cross, estranged from them, from his Father, and from anything that feels like home.
It is also remarkable here how much particular information Jesus possesses about the events that are about to unfold. He was already told them how many days he would be in the tomb, he has said how he would die, and that he would be rejected by them. He knows all of this information because he is God. And he knows all of this information information in his humanity as well, which means their abandonment will be agony for Jesus. He knows he will feel intense pain, he will physically die, and be separated from his Father, from whom he had never been separated. And he’s willing to take all of that toil for your sake, because he loves you that much. And in his sacrifice, he is offering eternal peace who all that will trust in him - a peace that surpasses worldly tribulations, because as he says here, he has overcome the world.
Prayer: Jesus, as we continue in this Lenten season, though we are looking for a unifying joy in us, allow for us to enter in your pain so that we might grasp the gravity of what you have done for us. We so superficially give up things for Lent, but only those things that are very manageable. You gave up everything for us, and you did so with full knowledge of just how hard it would be. Help us to have eyes to see. Amen.
40 Days of Joy: Coffee. I mean, how long has coffee been around? It’s been around for hundreds of years, and it is delicious.
