In This World You Have Trouble

In our reading today, Jesus is preparing the apostles for his coming death. He tells these good men who had left their jobs and families to hitch their wagon to the star of faith in him as Messiah. They thought that this would bring power and prestige when he came into his kingdom. But now he tells them that he is going to a cross. They would suffer great pain and trouble even while the world rejoiced in his death

‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. (John 16:19–20)

He does promise that their grief would be turned to joy, but he also promises that they will experience grief. And they would experience that grief while the world rejoiced around them. He ends this section by re-stressing this dual truth that his disciples would suffer trouble and that their trouble would turn to victory—“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 16:33, NIV)

James Watkins tells about the Sunday that he preached from this verse. He encouraged his church to have faith in the victory Jesus gives but warned them that it also comes with struggles and difficulties. The next week, we promised never to preach on that verse again. Why? Because the lesson was illustrated too clearly—

Right after the closing prayer, one family went out into the sub-zero weather to find that they had left the van’s lights on and their battery was dead. Another family discovered their four-year-old had gotten into their van, turned it on, and backed over a parking bumper. The worship leader went home to find her husband gone with a note telling her he wanted a divorce. That night the church’s hot-water heating pipes froze up and the parsonage’s furnace broke down. A parishioner offered to thaw out the church’s pipes with a blowtorch and caught the building’s subflooring on fire. Then things got worse!

Many Christians today are convinced that the life of faith is a means to financial success and physical well-being. Jesus promises us just the opposite. As long as we are in the world, there will be struggles and trials and difficulties. Our faithfulness will eventually be rewarded, both in this world and the world to come. But faithfulness was not for the apostles a guarantee hat they would have no struggles. On the contrary, faith meant that they would go through more struggles—while the world rejoiced, they would mourn. Jesus promise to them and to us is one of eternity. We can face whatever it is that we face with the certainty that Jesus has overcome the world.