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Under the maximum stress possible here is Christ speaking of peace. Not only is He speaking of peace, He is offering it to His disciples as yet another gift. A gift, not the like world gives, with preconditions, or on a temporary basis, or something that flees in the face of torture and death, but something that exists despite those realities. Peace. Peace that can keep the stress in our hearts from causing us fear. And here is the transcendent beauty of His peace, the reasons we might fear are real, but His peace is GREATER than our reality. So often when confronted with our own mortality, with health problems, or accidents, or the evil actions of others that take from us so much – our first question is to ask why “bad” things happen to “good” people? We may go so far as to blame God for permitting tragedy to come our way. But this thinking does not bring us peace, it only adds to our stress. Blaming God, and focusing on the reality of our trauma, does nothing to make us “feel” better, it can only deepen our misery. For the reality of our mortality is not in dispute – we ALL die. We ALL suffer. We ALL face a world that is not in harmony with our Lord, and will often demonstrate just how far out of harmony it is with love, by showing us the pain of its hatred.
So how is it that Christ facing just such injustice and pain and the certainty of death was not asking “why me?” but instead was focused on “peace”? Not only did He exhibit no visible signs of fear, He was actually focused on comforting His disciples, none of which was facing the real threat He was. It was Jesus who would soon feel the shards of glass embedded in the Roman whip across his back and flesh tearing bits of it away from him as the lash recoiled. It was Jesus who was to feel the incredible pain as a woven crown of thorns several inches in length and razor sharp was pushed into his head, piercing his flesh on all sides and adding to the pain of His body. It was Jesus who would be faint from the loss of blood. This level of torture was certain. The pain was real. It was nothing to look forward to, and would cause most of us to shudder in terror. Yet He was unafraid facing this reality, and instead able to discuss peace with His disciples.
Herein is the key. It is not our reality that must change in order for us to have peace. It is our connection with Christ no matter what our reality is, that can establish peace within us. We are human. We do suffer, and we do die. But the pain evil has brought with it into the universe, and into us, is not the ruler of our greater destiny. Our death will not be eternal. Our suffering will not last forever. For through the power of His so great love, His sacrifice pays the eternal penalties we should have earned, and with his stripes, we are healed. Peace is possible when seen through the eyes of the more important. The 70-90 years we spend on this earth are nothing, next to the millions of years, we will spend in a place where pain lives no more. The child of this earth who is taken too early, and misses the life he might have had here, will find growing up at the side of Christ, and in the company of generations of family he never met, a much more pleasing situation than anything he would have faced here on this sin-diseased world.
When we see our own lives through the lens of eternity, peace is able to take hold, where only pain lived before. When though we face a tragedy that will be very real to us, and likely cause our mortal death, we can look beyond it – and focus on the needs of others even while under imminent threat, we find a peace that love brings that nothing can shake. Christ was not focused on fear for the things that were to happen to Him; because He was so focused on the comfort of those who He knew would miss Him so much. His whole concern and the communion He was engaged in, was designed only to bring them peace and assuage their fears. He was not thinking of Himself, even though He was the one about to die. For Love can beat death. It is why He thought to save us, and how He thought to save us. His sacrifice was merely a love in action that would bring about the redemption of the child He had lost by the will of that child’s choice. Love would prove greater than evil. Love would prove greater than even justice. For love would offer us something that we would never deserve. And love thinks not of itself. This is why under the worst conditions we could possibly imagine, He is not focused on the fear He might feel for Himself, and is instead fully focused on the objects of His love. Jesus did not love Himself, He loved us.
That is a peace our carnal minds can hardly comprehend. A peace that comes from the complete ignoring of our own needs and realities, and maintains fully focused on the objects of our love despite what is about to happen to us. This gift is nothing like what the world is capable of giving, because the world is obsessed only with itself. When my carnal needs and perceptions of what I want become my focus, I care less about how they impact you. At some point, I lose complete interest in your needs, and pursue only what I believe I want or need; and the consequences to others becomes irrelevant. I rationalize to myself that my own need is greater, and so sin is born into the universe again within me. The world has no concept of peace under this direction. “Peace” the world offers can only be defined as not getting caught for long enough to enjoy the things I have taken at the expense of another. But there is no real peace, and no real enjoyment, and no real satisfaction, only the pursuit of even more things. It is an empty cycle that has no end until death relieves it. Whereas the peace Christ offers is not founded on what brings Him comfort, but on making us comfortable instead. His peace is not looking inwards to the reality of what He faces, but outwards to the impacts His own suffering will have on those He loves. He is ever looking away from Himself and His own suffering, and always on the needs of those He loves, even when torture and death itself are upon Him.
When you love this much, when this is “who” you are, there is nothing the world can do to take the peace of Christ from you. This is the gift He offers us through the power of His transformative love. He can change us from the creatures who focus only on the guy in the mirror, into creations that focus on reflecting His so great love to everyone we encounter. That transition takes from us our self-inflicted-stress, and replaces it with divinely-gifted-peace and a sense of fulfillment no matter what comes. Our reality will always be our reality. But our reality does not control or govern our ability to accept His peace. This was the Peace He offered to those who sat in that room. He tells them they have no need to be afraid, or to allow their hearts to be troubled (perplexed, stressed, overwhelmed, pick your synonym). His peace will be their gift.
Jesus continues in verse 28 … “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” Jesus recognizes that His departure from those He loves, will be something that in our human perspective will cause us sadness. But again He is looking at the greater good, again He is looking at the bigger picture. Yes, He will depart from them after His death, but it is because He will be ascending to His Father to see if the sacrifice He has made will be sufficient to redeem our punishment. And He has faith that it will. He continues in verse 29 … “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” Jesus is using His prophetic foretelling of these events to help build surety in the minds of the disciples, as when they occur, they could remember His words, and know that He must be speaking the truth.
Jesus closes out the dinner setting with the words of verse 30 … “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. [verse 31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.” Satan would be coming to accuse Christ of all manner of crimes but would have no basis for any of them. Time was growing even shorter now, so Christ asks His disciples to rise and leave with Him. They begin a walk towards the garden of Gethsemane. But even while they are walking there is still some important things that must be conveyed. The most important message Christ and His Father God have in mind for them to hear and understand. So on the long walk to a place of prayer and struggling, Christ would continue His communion with them, for it was not over yet …
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