✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

The closing words of today’s Gospel reading are certainly ones to treasure and take to heart, where Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  I love that passage because it speaks the honest, straightforward truth about the way things are, both the bad news and especially the comforting good news.  

First the bad news, “In the world you will have tribulation.”  No matter how hard you try, you can’t avoid that.  It seems that we’re always searching for some utopia in this world, some spirituality that will give us our best life now, some purchase that will finally make us content, some oasis to keep us safe from all the troubles of life.  But as soon as we think we’ve found such a place, inevitably something breaks into our refuge and messes things up.  There is a sudden illness or death.  You lose your job or there are some unexpected big bills.  A relationship is strained and at the breaking point.  A pandemic occurs and ruins all your best laid plans.  No matter where we go or what we do, tribulation is always right there nipping at our heels.

Even though that is bad news, it is liberating in a way.  Jesus’ words mean that you don’t have to fake that everything’s always wonderful and rosy, that your home life is perfect, that you’re always happy with the decisions you’ve made in life.  No, “in the world you will have tribulation.”  And when Jesus speaks about tribulation, He’s not only talking about dealing with the world that exists around you out there, but also the world that exists within you–your old Adam who rebels against God’s Word and stirs up trouble in your own heart and mind.  

So those first words of Jesus are sobering ones that call you to penitent humility.  But then comes the good news.  Jesus says, “Yes, in the world you will have tribulation.  But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  All those things that trouble you now–be it your health, your losses, your brokenness, your sinful flesh–those tribulations Jesus took into His own flesh and bones, and He crucified them at Golgotha.  Jesus knew tribulation of the worst sort, being under such duress in the Garden of Gethsemane that He sweat blood as He prayed, even before His blood was shed.  Jesus said in the days before His death, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father glorify Your name.”  And the Father’s name was glorified as Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross, like the bronze serpent in the wilderness.  It is the glory of Christ to bear your troubles and sorrows to set you free.  Truly, Jesus did overcome the world by taking away the sin of the world.  He conquered death by swallowing it up in His own death and then rising on the third day in glory.  

And all of this He did for you, so that your tribulations will only be temporary, so that they will not overwhelm you who believe.  Jesus’ victory has been given to you, the baptized, as it is written in Romans 8, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  And 1 John 4 says, “This is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith” in Christ the Conqueror.  That is how we can be of good cheer, even in the midst of tribulation.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).  In Jesus we have the sure hope of the resurrection of the body and all the gifts of the world to come.  And already now we have the comfort and the assurance that all things are in the hands of the Lord who is full of goodness and loving kindness.  Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace,” the calm assurance in your hearts that all things are made right in Christ.

And don’t forget that even tribulation itself can be God’s own instrument to work for your good.  By it He humbles you and brings you to repentance–as He did with the children of Israel, who were turned from their sinful grumbling to repent and cry out to Him for help.  He lays you low that He might lift you up in due time.

We need to remember that the ways of God are not always comfortable or safe.  Everything today seems to be about being safe and staying safe, as if that were the most important thing of all.  But safetyism is just not possible with the Lord.  I’m reminded of the scene in the C.S. Lewis book, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” where the characters are discussing Aslan the Lion, who is a symbol of Christ.  One of the children asks, “Is he–quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”  To which comes the reply, “Safe?  Who said anything about safe?  Of course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.”  Your God isn’t safe.  For He means to cut out the idols that have made their way into your heart and to fill you instead with His goodness and truth.  He means to put your old Adam to death and to give you a new life in Christ.  That’s not some walk in the park.  In that sense, it’s sort of dangerous to come to church; it always has been.  For our God is a consuming fire, Scripture says.  His Word is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, Jeremiah proclaims.  He kills and makes alive.  He’s in the business of death and resurrection, of joining you to the earth-shaking, life-saving realities of Good Friday and Easter.  He actually breaks into this world and joins heaven and earth right here at this altar to give you His divine body and blood for your forgiveness. No, the Lord isn’t safe, but He is good, and His mercy endures forever.  

So as Christians, let us learn to live with and even expect tribulation.  Let it drive you to pray in Jesus’ name.  For He is the one Mediator between God and men who gave His life as a ransom for all.  He invites you to pray using His credentials, as beloved children of the heavenly Father.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.  Call upon the Lord in your troubles; trust in Him and cling to Him in times of trial.  For He will deliver you.  The words of Jesus remain powerful and true, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠