Or, Communion and Courage in Christ after the Cross
Scripture: John 16:25-33
Date: December 29, 2013
Speaker: Sean Higgins
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”In the world you will have tribulation.” These well known words from Jesus to His disciples brace the expectations of many believers. We anticipate that it will be tough to be Christians in an anti-Christ culture. It’s true. Things are bad. But the hour of overcoming has come and we have everything we need in the Overcomer: the Lord Jesus.
We’ve come to the final two paragraphs and the end of four chapters’ worth of love and instruction and preparation. It’s Maundy-Thursday, Commandment Thursday, the evening of the Passover meal and the night Jesus was betrayed. This was Jesus’ last supper and His last meeting with the disciples before the cross. There was so much to tell them and so much they couldn’t understand, not yet (16:12). Chapter 17 is Jesus’ prayer. Chapters 18-19 are His arrest and trials and murder. This is the final pre-death discourse.
Jesus returns to the topic of coming trouble (implied in 14:1) and reminds them about peace. He said before, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (14:27). Hours away from the greatest-worst event in history, Jesus tells His men to take heart. He has overcome the world.
The cross would lay sorrow on them like nothing else, but would also lift them to unstealable joy like nothing else (16:20-22). Jesus pulled off things by His death and resurrection that they could not comprehend beforehand. The cross conquered the world. That’s good news.
The application of His victory had eternal, global, and personal effects. Jesus overcame at least two problems in this passage and He gives the disciples 1) clear access to the Father and 2) enduring courage in the world.
Not only their comprehension, but their communion with the Father after the cross would be forever changed.
”I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” (John 16:25–28, ESV)
The phrase in the ESV, figures of speech (παροιμίαις), misleads. The word refers to allegories, to enigmas, to cryptic, obscure things difficult to understand. Jesus had just used an analogy about childbirth, and Jesus did use parables and proverbs often. But He usually explained the meaning to His disciples later. He means in verse 25 that by the very nature of what He was talking about, in particular, when He was talking about it, they could not appreciate it. They wouldn’t have clarity about the cross until after the cross. That’s not all.
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in [enigmas] but will tell you plainly about my Father. As the Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son brings men to the Father. Though the disciples had some idea about the Father, especially since they had seen Jesus (cf. 14:9), a veil still kept them from making sense of it all, even God Himself. No matter how plain (παρρησία) His words were, their grasp was opaque. Soon nothing would be concealed.
There’s more to this than clear thinking about the Father. There will also be clear access to the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. This does not deny that Jesus mediates or that He intercedes to the Father for His people. However, Jesus does not go between us to keep us away from the Father. Jesus is the door; we go through Him to the Father.
We go to the Father for the for Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Also, this does not mean that God loves us because we loved Him first. John would contradict that idea in his first letter (1 John 4:19). It means that we have loving communication directly with the Father. In Christ’s sacrifice He overcame the ignorance and distance between us and God. This was Jesus’ mission.
Verse 28 summarizes that mission. I came from the Father and have come into the world, He “took on flesh and dwelt among us” as we just celebrated the incarnation at Christmas. And now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. He will have finished all the work the Father sent Him to do, including give light and life and joy to His sheep. All of that would become evident in a few days and even more once the Spirit came at Pentecost. The overcoming hour was at hand. Christ overcame their ignorance about the Father and their distance from the Father and gave them clear access to Him.
Jesus affirmed that these men loved Him and that they believed He came from God. Jesus also told them that an hour was coming when they would understand even more. They jumped the gun and didn’t know how much help they still needed.
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.” (John 16:29–30, ESV)
It’s almost as if Jesus said, “You’ll know you what you need to know in just a minute” and the disciples reply, “Thanks for telling us all we needed to know.” They say true things, but they don’t really understand what they’re saying. They were impetuous, acting in haste but not with thought.
Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using [enigmas]. Except it wasn’t the hour for plain speaking yet. They thought that they knew better than they did but they were still behind the wall.
Yet they did believe Him. We know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is true. He knew so much that He answered every concern before it came up, the sign of someone who is, at the least, well-informed. This is why we believe that you came from God. Yes. Jesus already affirmed that belief (and will do so again in 17:8), and they confessed their faith. But something was still off.
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.” (John 16:31–33, ESV)
Do you now believe? Most translations take this as a ironic, if not ridiculing, question. “You say you believe, but do you really?” It’s possible to take it as another affirmation, even if not enthusiastic. They do believe, but that wasn’t strong enough to keep them from deserting Jesus.
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Jesus already told Peter that he would deny Him. Now all the other ten would abandon, too. Jesus uses the description from Zechariah 13:7, “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (quoted in Mark 14:27). They believed, but they weren’t bold. For all His talk of leaving them, the disciples would leave Him first.
For Jesus’ part, He would endure. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. There was a time on the cross when Jesus quoted Psalm 22 and cried out about being forsaken. That’s difficult enough to understand since Jesus is also God Himself. But this confidence in verse 32 refers to the rest of time. This is why the Father sent the Son anyway. He wouldn’t abandon Jesus when Jesus did what pleased Him most.
Amazingly, all this is good for the disciples. I have said these things to you, referring to all He’s said that night, that in me you may have peace. This means that Jesus overcomes even their desertion. Their peace isn’t dependent on their faithfulness. Peace depends on the Trinity’s faithfulness.
Peace comes in me, in Jesus. It’s a great concept that Paul commends in his letters. It belongs with our being united to and staying in union with Jesus. The contrast is between “in me” and “in the world.”
In the world you will have tribulation. Tribulation is a word that could be translated distress, the intense agony or pain of pressure. The world will squeeze. The world will hate; a large portion of chapters 15 and 16 talk about it. Being in the world means being in trouble. Disciples are in the throes of darkness and death.
But take heart; I have overcome the world. The encouragement is, θαρσεῖτε: Be courageous! Don’t falter or be afraid in the face of adversity. Don’t be troubled out of peace by the world. Jesus overcame the world. The word overcome is νενίκηκα (from nikao), victory, triumph, and note the past (perfect) tense. The other verbs have been present tense (translated as future in the ESV). This stands out as so secure it’s as if it was finished. There was no doubt before the cross by Jesus and there needs be no doubt by us after it.
The darkness could not overcome the light. Nothing could defeat Christ and in Christ we are more than conquerors. This surprises us, or at least it surprises the world, who would not naturally consider the crucifixion a way of conquering. But on the cross Christ overcame the disciples desertion and fear and gave them enduring courage in the world.
The overcoming was coming from the disciples’ perspective. The overcoming has come from ours. In Jesus, by faith in Him, we overcome the world. Through His sacrifice Christ overcame our ignorance and brings clarity. He overcame our hostility and brings fellowship. He overcame our anxiousness and brings peace. He overcomes our fear and brings courage.
On one hand, the fact that not even one disciple stayed true to Jesus calls their faith to question. On the other hand, it means that the church is built on Jesus, not any man. “The glue of Christianity is not the disciples; it is Jesus, who will not abandon the disciples” (Borchert).
Have you not understood? Have you felt far off from God? Have you compromised or even defected from Him in a critical hour for witness? Even then, especially then, Jesus overcomes. Trust Him, not what you know. Trust Him, not your stick-to-it-iveness. Trust Him, love Him, and know that the Father loves you also.
In C.S. Lewis’ book Perelandra the Queen of Venus named Tinidril says to Ransom:
Since our Beloved became a man, how should Reason in any world take on another form? Do you not understand? That is all over. Among times there is a time that turns a corner and everything this side of it is new. Times do not go backward.” (Lewis, 54)
Time turned a corner at the cross and the world will never be the same. Neither will we who are in Jesus.
Father, Son, and Spirit are committed to their glory and our joy in them. Jesus will pray for us in chapter 17, then He will lay down His life for us to secure the overcoming. In Him we have communion with God and courage in a defeated world. Take heart!