John 16:25-33, I Have Overcome the World

25 “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. 26 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; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” 29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 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.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 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. 33 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 seems as though the disciples finally understand what Jesus is saying. However, he curbs their enthusiasm because he knows a violent storm is approaching, and that like sheep without a shepherd they will scatter when he is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knows that Peter will disown him. He will not allow them to become self-confident.

Jesus is like the eye of the hurricane in which his disciples then and we today live. In the great storm the world threw at him, he defeated sin and death on the cross, our greatest enemies, so that his followers may have complete and total peace. His disciples experienced extreme tribulation as some Christians do today. Yet all is not despair because Jesus has overcome the world. So certain was he of his victory over our enemies that he said it before going to the cross.

Christianity is a religion of triumph, but that triumph is Jesus’. By grace he shares that triumph with us so that we cannot boast. In this triumph we do indeed have peace because God is always on our side, and we are located with Jesus in the eye of the hurricane where there is complete and total peace.

Father, your Son, Jesus, is our peace. Help us to see him for who he fully is and to know our location in him where we are safe and at peace.