"the Much Needed Promise Of Peace"

INTRODUCTION

At least once a season we get into the car and work our way over to Seaway Drive to head downtown to the arena for a Muskegon Lumberjacks game. Hockey begins with a faceoff – all eyes of the roaring crowd are on the two hockey players facing each other from the opposing teams. Then the referee standing in between them drops the puck – and from the start of the quick reflexes and swing of the hockey sticks whoever gains control of the puck gains the advantage for their entire team. That one player overcoming the other in that one moment can make or break the outcome of the game.

Trouble in the Text

As Jesus is preparing not for his arrival, but his exit from the world – Jesus, the center of his disciple’s world tells them, in John 16:33 “I have told you these things (about my exit and my return), so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!.”

To overcome – to get the better in a conflict, to prevail over surmounting challenges, to gain the victory, to win against an opponent. To overcome requires a minimum of two parties like the hockey faceoff. based on these definitions.

Christ versus the world. But what world is Christ talking about? It’s not the John 3:16 world where Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The overcoming Christ speaks to is the world of sin and pain an inferior creation blueprint of evil that seeks victory over Jesus and his disciples.

But then notice how amazing it is as to the verbal tense Christ uses. I have overcome the world. It is not a past tense – but at the same time the perfect tense used here is equivalent to the outcome being already in effect in present time. Christ doesn’t speak in a future tense in spite of the fact that his arrest, the crucifixion, the grave, the resurrection, the appearances, the ascension – none of that has taken place yet. It’s as if Christ senses his disciples encouragement can’t wait – they need it right now given their whole picture of the future has changed because to their eyes it will seem for a time that the world has won the faceoff against Christ.

But that word overcome is at the same time not to be underestimated. Christ doesn’t use a future tense that one day, he will overcome the world. Nor does Jesus speak tentatively to his disciples – confiding in them that he hopes he has the ability to overcome the world. Christ speaks definitively that he has overcome the world! And in turn, Christ’s overcoming the world was the good news – to soothe their anxieties in advance when their eyes would deceive them as it would seem for a time that the world had won the faceoff against Christ with the suffering death on the cross though that was God’s plan for bringing him here to earth in the first place. Jesus in turn tells his disciples this to replace their anxieties with a much-needed spiritual peace.

Meanwhile, we stand on the other side of time – Christ’s birth, his ministry, the arrest, the crucifixion, the grave, his glorious resurrection and his ascension -and we are in the midst of the Second Advent awaiting Christ’s return. His words spoken in John 16:33 still echo from when they were first spoken – I have overcome the world. Yet where we stand now it seems that our faceoff with the world is perpetually ongoing. More and more it feels like we are the underdog as immorality gets the upperhand with legislation that makes evil in God’s eyes appear to look good and even essential – and our defense of what is good under opposition. Michigan voters sadly accepted proposal 3 to codify the right to an abortion. Depending on interpretation to be determined, it has wide ranging impact on parental rights. Then another faceoff in the making with The Respect for Marriage Act – offering protections to marriage outside of God’s blueprint between one man and woman – And then the stakes on our anxieties are raised exponentially when we know someone personally who is same sex attracted or gender challenged. We struggle to hold up what is right while still embracing those we love so dearly. Against the outside critics and advisors as to what we should or shouldn’t do, this is where it is intensely personal – It feels like faceoff after faceoff the puck is dropping and caught in the chaos of it all.