“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling
away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when
whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do
these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said
these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told
them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I
was with you.” (John 16:1–4, ESV)
Trails lead to question. This is the normal course of our
thinking. When difficult things come our way we frequently begin to question
the circumstances surrounding them. We can even question whether we had chosen
the right course that led us there. If only we had gone another path, maybe
this would not have happened. And sometimes this may be very true, especially
when we chose those paths apart from any consideration of the will of God in
our lives.
But there are those times when we are exactly where we are
supposed to be and things seem very bleak. The monsters on the horizon are huge
and imposing and we are tempted to falter in the face of their advancing. Jesus
knew that His disciples were going to face difficult time, and He knew that
there might be a temptation to turn and run. He knew that they would be
rejected because of their association with Him. They would be rejected by the
people of their faith. There would even be those who would be rejected by their
families. And the crazy thing is that those doing the rejecting fully believe
that they are doing the right thing. Jesus told them that the Jews who they
counted themselves among would reject them because what they proclaimed did not
line up with the system of belief that they had built. These “religious”
individuals had become so committed to their system of religious practice that
they lost sight of God who they were to worship. In that sense, their practice
had become their idol, and they were going to reject anyone who called that
practice into question. Jesus had come to set them free from the burden of the
law, but they were to reject Him because they were committed to observing a law
that they could not possibly satisfy. These people would remain hard hearted
toward God and Christ, and they would reject anyone who came in His name.
All that they had known growing up was soon to change, and
they would be religious outcasts. In the face of this it could be real easy to
question the truth and even to consider giving up. Jesus told them these things
not to discourage them, but to encourage them in those dark days to remember
that what was happening was just as He said. And in His saying this, He also
told them that He was always going to be with them. They were chosen and sent
with a purpose, and God would not abandon them in either.
It was not important for Jesus to have emphasized this
earlier, as He said, because He had been with them. But with His leaving it was
important for them to hear this and to know that what He had told them was
indeed true. And because it was true, they were to be encourage to endure the
hardship knowing this this was exactly as Jesus had said and God was going to
remain faithful. God’s plan was not going awry, and they were to have no cause
to question whether or not they understood correctly. Knowing that tough times
were to come and that they would even lay down their lives for Him, Christ
assured them that God was going to remain faithful to be with them and to bring
them through to the other side—even with that other side being eternity in His
presence. For this reason the disciples were willingly to face death—so that
others might live.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to
show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted
in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying
in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death
for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal
flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:7–12, ESV)
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