Thursday,
Jesus is saying His good-bye to the disciples. He is trying to prepare them for what is about to happen. It is going to be tough for the disciples for a little while, but as he says they will be filled with joy.
So really what He is saying is not good-bye, but more like “I’ll see you again”. Which is what I like to say when I am leaving. What this says is, no matter how tough life may get, or how many hardships or failures we face, no matter how much evil exists in the world, Jesus will see us again. He is not gone. In the next few days, Jesus will be carrying a cross up Calvary’s hill, it is a journey that seems to be screaming good-bye. This appears to be a journey that in the world’s eyes seems like a sorry end to His time here with us on earth. But in reality, the cross is our way back to Him. This is not the end… not a final good-bye, we will see Him again.
And because we will see Him again, we can rejoice. Joy will come in the morning. Our relationship with Christ will continue. And will we understand what is happening because He is sending the Holy Spirit to fill us and inform us. He will guide us and direct us. We will have full understanding.
Jesus knows what torment and heartache is going to overtake the disciples, but he says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.” Jesus is giving them now, as he will later, a peace that comes from God. A peace that the world cannot give. The world wants to give us peace through drugs or alcohol. The world wants to give us peace through selfishness and greed, through conformity to its low standards, but Jesus gives us a different kind of peace, a peace that keeps us calm in the middle of trials and tragedies, in the middle of suffering and pain. A peace that transcends all understanding. A peace that says together we can endure anything, even death, because we are united in a way the world will never understand.
Jesus tells us that “in this world we will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.” Because Jesus knows the future, we have nothing to fear. Jesus sees the hardships the disciples will face, but he also sees their faith, their strength, their courage. And he knows the outcome.
He knows the outcome in our lives too. There is nothing beyond His understanding. So accept the peace he gives and the love He showers on us even in the good-byes of life, because this is not the end, let joy fill your life.
Shalom
Pastor Kathy