These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
- John 16:33
This verse may be familiar to you, Dear Reader. What does it bring to mind? Do you think back to a particular saying of Jesus? Maybe consider the general way He spoke and the kinds of things He said and think those words of love and hope and healing are the words that Christ spoke so that we will have peace? Peace is important. Anxiety and worry can actually kill us. But peace doesn't come because we get to a place where there's nothing to worry about. It doesn't get made all right so that we can finally relax and let all the stress go. If we hope to find and have peace by eliminating what's currently stealing our peace we'll be in for a long wait.
You see, Jesus wasn't referring to the Sermon On The Mount or the many parables that He spoke in this verse. This is the last verse of the sixteenth chapter of John. Jesus is taking care of business and making preparations to face His execution. He starts this chapter off by telling those He's leaving behind that they will be persecuted and run out of the fellowship of the religion in which they were raised. He tells them that the people who kill them will think that they're doing a service to God by ending the lives of these followers of Christ. Jesus is about to die. He tells His followers that it's going to be just as frightening and rough for them.
He's leaving them. They're about to be on their own for the first time in three years. The Counselor is coming, but they don't understand what that means yet. The disciples are horribly confused. What does He mean we won't see Him for a while then we will? What's He talking about? Jesus tells them that the time is coming when they will desert and abandon Him and all be scattered from Him and one another. At that dark moment when they have faced the fire and failed, when they have bolted and run out of fear and left God to face the cross alone, when they have fallen short of every promise to be faithful even to death, when it looks like all their hopes for a Messiah have been killed with Jesus on that cross, they can be of good cheer. They can be courageous. Why? Because despite all appearances to what they'll perceive around them at the time, that's when Jesus will be overcoming the world. That's when the war is being won eternally!
We don't have peace because everything is right with the world. We have peace because of what Jesus did on the worst day in history. He suffered and died and won the war over sin and death to purchase our eternal freedom and bring us into the family of God. The whole ship may be falling apart around us and we have yet to learn to walk on water, but we are now God's and nothing will change that. So we have peace as the water splashes over us. We can indeed have peace that passes all understanding today and in the upcoming year. But it won't be because we're blessed with the removal of all the things that should cause worry and stress. That wouldn't pass understanding. What gives God glory and doesn't make sense to our understanding is when we have peace in the midst of the chaos, in the darkest hours, in the confusion, while being attacked by the enemy of God and facing things that bring fear.
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