Take Heart: Finding Peace in a Troubled World
The disciples will soon face the greatest trial of their lives. In less than twenty-four hours, they will be shaken to the core. One of them will betray. One of them will deny. All of them will flee. And Jesus will be crucified, dead, and buried.
In the hours leading up to these troubling events, Jesus met with His disciples in the upper room. There He spoke to calm their anxious hearts. The last words He said to them were these: “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” (John 16:33). Here Jesus tells us not only where to find peace, but also the basis for that peace.
Peace in Jesus
As the darkness of night fell, Jesus knew that His disciples were troubled in heart. The darkness had already overcome one of them (John 13:30); it was about to take hold of another (John 13:36–38). Jesus pierced the darkness with words of light, calming their troubled hearts as He told them that they could find peace in Him alone. They would need to run to Jesus. They would need to flee to Jesus. They would need to abide with Jesus.
Jesus’ words were not only for the disciples; they are for you too. The only place you will find true and lasting peace in this troubled world is in Jesus. You must flee to Jesus for refuge.
How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?1
Victory in Jesus
You must flee to Jesus for refuge, because victory is found in Him alone. In His final words to the disciples in the upper room, Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
So certain is Jesus’ victory over the world, He proclaims it even before He has won it.
The tribulation of the disciples that night would be great: fear, failure, fleeing from Jesus. How often we do the same thing in the midst of our troubles? We too live in a troubled world—a world that is no friend to grace, a world that will not help us on our way to God.2 We live in fear. We fail often. We flee from Jesus when we should be running to Him.
Our guilt would quickly consume us as we consider our response to suffering, even as it would have the disciples. That is why Jesus spoke these words on the eve of His death, reassuring us of His victory over sin. What a comfort it must have been for the disciples to reflect back on this night only to realize that in the very same hour in which Jesus foretold their failures, He also proclaimed His victory—a victory that would give them peace. Their failures would be great, but His victory is greater still. So also, for you. Your failures may be great, but His victory is greater still. Praise God that even as you run from Jesus, Jesus runs to you.
So certain is Jesus’ victory over the world, He proclaims it even before He has won it. Jesus enters this dark night knowing what He must—and will—do. Jesus goes to the cross to win the battle. John’s gospel often contrasts light and darkness (John 1:5; 3:19; 8:12; 11:9–10; 12:35–36, 46). Strikingly, however, he makes no mention of the darkness at the very place where we would expect him to record it—at the cross. The other gospel writers record the three hours of darkness at Golgotha (Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44), but John does not. It is not because he is unaware of the darkness—he was there at the cross (John 19:26–27). He refrains from recording the darkness because he wants us to see Jesus’ victory. It is at the cross, as He is lifted up, that Jesus draws all people to Himself (John 12:32). Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
When Jesus says to His disciples “I have overcome the world,” He says it in the perfect tense in Greek, signifying a completed action with a resulting state. Jesus won the victory, and His victory endures. While the world is the place in which we have trouble, it is, and always will be, a conquered world because Jesus is, and always will be, the conqueror.3
In all of your troubles, run to Jesus. Cast your burdens upon Him. Put your faith in Him. Find peace in His victory. Take heart, because this is God’s promise to you:
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.4
