The disciples might have felt overwhelmed too. Jesus was under attack and would soon be taken by the authorities. He had told them this would happen, but now it finally really was unfolding right before their eyes. Surely they were afraid. He had been with them so long and protected them and guided them. In John 16 we read Jesus comforting them, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” (John 16:16)
It should have brought them peace. He would return, but instead they were fearful of His absence. We see in the next verse, “So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” (John 16:17). You can hear the confusion, the anticipation, the uncertainty in their questions.
In the same way, we await the return of Jesus and in the same way, we are in a way, experiencing His absence. Yes, He is risen! Yes, He promises us He is with us! Yes, He gives us the Comforter! But, He is not here in the same way that He was with them in His earthly ministry for years. So Jesus, knowing their hearts, wants to give them comfort and strength. This same encouragement should strengthen us: “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).
Christ has a desire that we experience peace. But in the same breath, He tells us that there will be turmoil. So, the peace in our heart is given by Christ Himself and His defeat of death and sin on the cross. But, people then and people today still live in hateful, self-serving, dishonest, and evil lives. In the previous verse, John 16:32a, Jesus says, “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.”
And so we live in the tension. The in-between time of these the last days. We have redemption in Christ, we have eternal life, but this Kingdom rule is not yet fully realized. There are still people that wrestle against the Lord in favor of sin and death. They resist the Lord and they resist His messengers.
This is why Jesus can say in John 16 and elsewhere that He will give you peace and joy, but also in John 16 and elsewhere Jesus warns of tribulation. He puts it this way in Matthew 10: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mt 10:34-36).
Jesus isn’t bringing violence but division. Hebrews 4:12 reads: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Therefore, this sword is one that separates believers and unbelievers, faithful and unfaithful, followers and wanderers.
Jesus brings peace, but that peace brings pain to those too tied to their sin to be saved.
