John 16:32-33 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Some things just don’t fit together. Oil and water don’t mix. A square peg doesn’t fit in a round hole. Bad news delivered with a smiling face.
And some things you just don’t expect really do fit together. Chocolate and peanut butter, as the Reece commercial states! Pancakes, peanut butter and maple syrup.
Jesus puts two things together that just don’t seem to fit. He is having His final words with His disciples and tells them about His departure from them. This is not good news from their perspective.
Jesus then tells them that they will all leave Him alone in the very hour of His greatest need. They will run for the hills right when Jesus needs connection more than at any other time in his earthly life. This is really bad news!
Jesus has foretold that Peter would betray Him three times. And now He tells all the disciples that they too will leave Him alone. So how can this be good news? How can their failure at this critical moment be a helpful thing?
The change happens when Jesus rises from the dead and appears to them. What they thought was the end, Jesus’ death, has really turned out to be the beginning of something even greater. That is good news! What we think is the end is not the end.
Jesus knows that after He rises, they will remember their abandoning of Jesus and know that their last act of betrayal was not their last act. They had more chapters to write, more obedience in the right direction. Even their mistakes could be redeemed by Jesus.
In fact, Jesus says that they will experience peace. But peace doesn’t go together with betrayal, does it? That is what is so marvelous about the LORD. He is able to buy back our mistakes and turn them around for good.
The disciples, when the resurrection is in their past, will be able to see even their betrayal in light of the LORD’s grace. God’s grace is so great that peace can be the result of His action, even when betrayal has happened. What sin could be greater than the betrayal of a friend?
So when you betray someone, remember that Jesus can even redeem you. He is able to restore and bring peace. But it might cost the death of something you love. But the death will be worth it in the end.
The Arnold Journey 